Notes This is a purely subjective and somewhat goofy list of the albums that, in my humble opinion, rock. (All right, maybe James Taylor and Neil Diamond and Gordon Lightfoot don't exactly rock, and Frank Sinatra certainly doesn't, but you know what I mean.) I'm not saying, for instance, that the Phantom Limbs were more important or more talented or better in any sense than, for instance, the Beatles; I'm just saying that while the Beatles are important to me, the Limbs are more important to me. The Rolling Stones and the Who and U2 and countless other acts were great but have just never been personal favorites of mine. I feel I owe a specific apology to Elvis Costello, whom I'm hoping to get more acquainted with someday. Unlike Rolling Stone, I limited myself to one entry per artist, aside from the Simon and Garfunkel/Paul Simon and Blake Babies/Juliana Hatfield overlaps. In cases where I thought designating a single album would be arbitrary and unfair, I listed two or three. Like Rolling Stone, I'm all over the map on whether to include greatest-hits collections. Further explanations can be found in the footnotes: 1 Although the listed album(s) was a clear choice, the artist has at least one other album that ranks among my favorites. 2 It's strange, I know, but I didn't get to know Dylan through albums. 3 I definitely got to know Simon and Garfunkel through albums, so I'm staying away from Greatest Hits. 4 An arbitrary choice. Bow Wow Wow songs were repackaged every which way. 5 Some say Afoot was more demo than album. It was certainly more EP than LP. I don't care. 6 It's a sentimental choice, all right?