All Eyez on Me
My favorite 2Pac album. This is a double album packed with tons of great songs covering topics such as fame, money, sex, women, life and death. In addition to that, beats and production are top-notch. It also has guest appearances from Method Man, Snoop Dogg, Rappin' 4-Tay, The Outlaw Immortalz, and others.

Favorite Songs: When We Ride, No More Pain, Wonda Why They Call U Bitch, California Love, Only God Can Judge, Heaven Ain't Hard 2 Find

Don Killuminati-7 Day Theory
He actually wrote this album under the alias Makaveli. This is probably the rawest and hardest of the 2Pac (or rather Makaveli) albums and my second favorite 2Pac album. I was never interested in 2Pac until I picked up this album after being intrigued by the album cover. For the record, I am among those that feel that 2Pac is still alive.

Favorite Songs: White Man's World, Against All Odds, Blasphemy

In His Own Words
This is a spoken word album based on an interview he did for a radio station in L.A.. In it he talks about his life, his trouble with the law, his beef with Biggy Smalls among other things. This is a great album if you're a big 2Pac fan.

SuperUnknown
This is probably the most beautiful piece of hard rock I have ever listened to. From beginning to end this album rocks. Clearly their best album. The song Limo Wreck would be perfect background music for the mass destruction scenes in the movie Titanic.

Favorite Songs: Limo Wreck, 4th of July, Head Down, Fresh Tendrils

BadMotorFinger
This was the album that got me into SoundGarden.

Favorite Songs: Outshined, A Room a Thousand Years Wide, Somewhere, Drawing Flies

Down on the Upside
Their last album before they broke up.

Favorite Songs: No Attention, Zero Chance, Never Named, Tighter and Tighter, Never the Machine Forever, Overfloated, Ty Cobb

Fumbling Towards Ecstacy
By far my favorite Sarah MacLachlan album. I first fell in love with Sarah when watching the video version of this album. For a full year, I could not fall asleep in bed unless this album was playing. Ironically, the first song on the album (Possession) is about an obsessed fan of hers. Sometimes I feel she wrote it just for me.

Favorite Songs: Possession, Plenty, Elsewhere, Ice, Mary

Surfacing
Another awesome album. My only complaint is that it's too short.

Favorite Songs: Angel, Sweet Surrender, Black & White

The Freedom Sessions
This album is mostly acoustic versions of the songs on the Fumbling Towards Ecstacy album. This album has a very kick ass version of Ice on it.

Favorite Songs: Ice, Plenty, Mary

Dummy
This is Portishead's debut album that I heard in Boston. This album has some of the phattest beats I have ever heard. Mixing them in with the synths, organs, bass, record scratching, and Beth Gibbons' voice makes for a very interesting album.

Favorite songs: Pedestal, Biscuit, Numb

Portishead
On this album, the band decided to take a more live band approach using more real instruments rather than electronics. The result is a rawer sounding Portishead. At first, I didn't listen to this album that much. Then one day I was flipping through the channels and saw their live performance at Roseland on MuchMusic.

Favorite songs: Humming, Seven Months

Mama Said
THE best Lenny Kravitz album. This was the first full Lenny Kravitz album I ever listened to. I had heard the song Let Love Rule and thought that it was cool but when I heard this album, I was blown away. This was also one of the first CDs I ever bought. Anyway, Lenny wrote this album as a letter to Lisa Bonet after he broke up with her. For the most part it's a mellow album but it's not as morbid as you'd think for being a breakup letter. This album has a very quadrophenic psychadelic sound to it. It's not as retro as Let Love Rule, but you can still feel that groove.

Favorite Songs: Stop Draggin Around, More Than Anything in this World, Fields of Joy

Are You Gonna Go My Way
The psychadelia continues with this more upbeat album from Lenny. A little more guitar driven than the previous one but also more of a positive message much like Let Love Rule.

Favorite Songs: Believe, Come on Love Me, My Love, Sister

Circus
Another great album by the man. Very rock and roll and very heavily God-themed. It's not intrusive though. I have very strong agnostic tendencies and even I saw the beauty of what he was writing.

Favorite Songs: Circus, Don't Go And Put A Bullet In Your Head, The Resurrection, In My Life

Let Love Rule
This is Lenny's very excellent debut album. It's kind of dark on some parts and very uplifting on others. He talks about love, peace, war and other social issues on this one. Very good album.

Favorite Songs: Fear, Be, Empty Hands, Flower Child

Parade
This album was very underrated but is my personal favorite Prince album.

Favorite Songs: Under the Cherry Moon, Boys and Girls, Anotherloverholenyohead, Life Can Be So Nice

Sign o the Times
This is a very close second to Parade. In fact, sometimes it competes for the number one spot. The thing I loved about this album is that it covered a wide range of his talents. He did some hard rock, soul, dance and even some gospel on this one. I always wanted Forever In My Life to be my wedding song until I heard that JFK Jr. used it at his wedding.

Favorite Songs: The Ballad of Dororthy Parker, Adore, Forever In My Life, The Cross, Hot Thing

Around the World in a Day
One of the true tests of an artist is the Fuck You Album. The Fuck You Album is when an artist releases a followup album that sounds completely different than the hugely successful album that preceded it. The purpose of the Fuck You Album is to weed out the true fans from the posers. Around the World in a Day was a classic Fuck You Album.

Favorite Songs: Tamborine, Paisley Park, Condition of the Heart, Raspberry Beret

1999
Prince is one of the first artists to bring attention to the millennium crisis. His solution? Party your ass off!

Favorite Songs: Free, D.M.S.R.

Adore
The latest and arguably the greatest Smashing Pumpkins album to date. At first I was thrown because it was alot more mellow than the others. Then as I listened to it more, I really started to appreciate the beauty of it. Billy Corgan really has a way of conveying anger and sadness in a very subtle context.

Favorite Songs: Blank Page, Once Upon a Time, Crestfallen, Appels and Oranges

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
This is the album that got me into the Smashing Pumpkins. I was curious because it was a double album. A double album to me means that the artist had alot to say. When I listened to it I was blown away. I've been a big fan ever since. The guitar work on this album is unbelievable from the layered work on Porcelina and the Seven Seas to the ripping solo on Zero.

Favorite Songs: Thru the Eyes of Ruby, In the Arms of Sleep, To Forgive, Stumbeline, Zero

Siamese Dream
When I bought this album after I bought Mellon Collie, I couldn't believe I never had interest in them before. This album is simply kick ass! This probably their hardest rocking album. Corgan's guitar wizardry is evident in songs like Quiet, Soma, and Geek U.S.A..

Favorite Songs: Soma, Disarm, Quiet, Geek U.S.A., Mayonnaise, Spaceboy

As a testament to Henry Rollins' power, let me tell you a story. I was sitting in a bar that had the television turned to Saturday Night Live. Henry Rollins was the musical guest. The bar was too loud so I couldn't even tell what song he was performing. Nonetheless, there he was barefoot with no shirt on wearing a pair of gym shorts. He was jumping around screaming like a fucking maniac and I FELT IT. Even though I could not hear what he was singing, I FELT IT. The next day, I dug up my old Weight CD and listened to it all day.

Come In and Burn
The latest Rollins album and true to form, it kicks ass.

Favorite Songs: Inhale Exhale (mp3), Thursday Afternoon (mp3), All I Want (mp3)

Weight
The song Liar from this album got me into Rollins.

Favorite Songs: Liar (mp3), Step Back (mp3), Divine Object of Hatred (mp3), Alien Blueprint (mp3) (mp3)

Rid of Me
The hardest rocking PJ Harvey to date. This one she lets it all out. Hard rocking guitars, pounding drums and cymbols, and her voice wailing away make this a PJ Harvey classic.

Favorite Songs: Man-Size (both versions), Ecstacy, 50 Foot Queenie, Rub it till it Bleeds

4-Track Demos
My personal favorite. This is an album made up of demos for Rid of Me along with other songs. On most of the songs it's just her and her guitars with some percussion and strings on occassion. This makes for a very raw and intimate musical setting. Don't let that description fool you, however, because she does rock out on quite a few of the songs.

Favorite Songs: Hardly Wait, Ecstacy, Easy, Driving, Legs

To Bring You My Love
This album has more of an acoustic sound with a couple of rockers on it. She also added things like organs and percussions to her songs to give herself a more complete sound. I like this album alot.

Favorite Songs: Send His Love, C'mon Billy, Working for the Man, Long Snake Moan, Meet Ze Monsta

Is This Desire?
This is PJ Harvey's latest album and it really shows her maturity as an artist. This one has alot less of the guitar driven rock of Rid of Me but still a very good album.

Favorite Songs: The River, The Garden, Wind, A Perfect Day Elise

Fashion Nugget
This was my first Cake CD. I got into Cake after hearing The Distance on the radio and then seeing them perform Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive on the Chris Rock show that same night.

Favorite Songs: Sad Songs and Waltzes, I Will Survive, Open Book, Friend is a Four Letter Word

Prolonging the Magic
This is another great album following the hit, Fashion Nugget.

Favorite Songs: Never There, When You Sleep, You Turn the Screws

Sketches of Spain
This is my absolute favorite Miles Davis album. This is actually an interpretation of a spanish classical piece done by Joaquin Rodrigo called Concierto de Aranjuez.

Favorite Songs: Solea, Concierto de Aranjuez

Bitches Brew
This was my first introduction to Miles Davis. This album was recorded during the late 60s which was the period where he started getting really creative with his music.

Favorite Songs: Bitches Brew, John MacLaughlin

Low End Theory
Probably thus named because of the bass driven beats that dominate this album. This is a smooth laid back album with some of Tribe's classic rhymes.

Favorite Songs: We Got the Jazz, The Buggin' Out, The Infamous Date Rape, Skypager

Midnight Marauders
The debate still rages on which was the better album, this one or Low End Theory. Personally, I'd have to side with this one. On this album, Phife Dog really came out. This is probably his best performance.

Favorite Songs: Lyrics to Go, Steve Biko, Keep it Rollin, Electric Relaxation

The Love Movement
The latest and probably the greatest Tribe Called Quest album. Supposedly, this is their final album. They sure went out with a bang on this one.

Favorite Songs: Find a Way, Against the World

Bedtime Story by Madonna
The night I picked up my ex-girlfriend, I brought her to my apartment and played this album. I had her top off within 15 minutes.

Favorite Songs: Secret, Human Nature

Love Deluxe by Sade
One of my other ex-girlfriends would play this album whenever she wanted sex. This is a good album for robust lovemaking.

Favorite Songs: Cherish, Love Deluxe, Pearls

Crash by Dave Matthews Band
This album brings me the fondest memories. I gave another one of my ex-girlfriends a sensual cocoa butter massage to this album.

Favorite Songs: Two Step, Crash Into Me, Proudest Monkey

Barry White's Greatest Hits
There is something about Barry White that makes women want to willingly remove their panties. It's almost like hypnosis.

Favorite Songs: Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Love Serenade, Never Never Gonna Give Ya Up

Make It Last Forever by Keith Sweat
I was 19, she was 24. I still remember Keith Sweat's voice singing the lyrics "you may be young but you're ready to learn..." playing in the background as she mounted me.

Favorite Songs: Right and a Wrong Way, How Deep Is Your Love, Make It Last Forever

DogMan by King's X
This album is really a testament to the production wizardry of Brendan O'Brien (who has produced the likes of SoundGarden, Rage Against the Machine, and Stone Temple Pilots). King's X is a mediocre cheese metal band but this album really kicks ass. It's full of great melodies and harmonies over heavy bass driven, riff based metal. I tried getting into their other albums but none are as heavy and hard-hitting as this one.

Favorite Songs: Black the Sky, Human Behavior, Pillow, Pretend

And Justice for All by Metallica
I like quite a bit of what Metallica does and out of it, I think this is their best album. At least it's my favorite. Alot of people might argue that Master of Puppets is better but I like this one. I also like the Black Album. Alot of people say that is the point where they sold out. I kind of think that was the last real Metallica album before they really sold out. And yes they have sold out. It makes me cringe when I see them on MTV looking like Gap models sitting with their legs crossed sipping Evian water.

Favorite Songs: One, Harvester of Sorrow

NOLA by Down
Heavy metal how heavy metal should be done. This is big dick heavy metal. These are the meanest riffs I have heard in a long time. The combination of Corrosion of Conformity and Pantera is the definitive formula for KICK ASS! I listen to this album before almost every workout to give me the power I need. If you want metal that is all balls, BUY THIS ALBUM!

Favorite Songs: Losing All, Eyes of The South, Bury Me in Smoke

Piece of Mind by Iron Maiden
This was my first experience with heavy metal. I saw the video for Flight of Icarus on MTV and I was blown away by the concept of the song. I borrowed the tape from a friend of mine and listened to it for weeks. If I was to recommend one Iron Maiden album, I'd recommend this one. The Number of the Beast is another good Maiden album.

Favorite Songs: Flight of Icarus, The Trooper