[Mag]

    Think back over the Years, what 20 albums are 'Must Have' for You?
Not so easy is it, like pulling teeth? Myself I have made many Compilation albums from various Artists, but to narrow it down to just 20!!
 You can replace these Albums with Newer Releases that essentially contain songs from past albums, just that the newer version is a better recording, performance, etc..

My list:
1. Supertramp - Paris, dvd
2. David Arkenstone- Native Spirit
3. Rush - All the World's Stage
4. Garbage - G- One Mile High, dvd
5. Iron Maiden- Powerslave
6. Porcupine Tree- Arriving Somewhere, dvd
7. Deep Purple - Made in Japan
8. Golden Earring- Moontan
9. Judas Priest- Metal Meltdown
10. Jean Michel Jarre- Equinox
11. Joe Satriani- Live in San Francisco, dvd
12. Led Zeppelin- Song Remains the Same, cd version
13. Emerson, Lake & Palmer- Show That Never Ends
14. Grand Funk- Caught in the Act
15. Thin Lizzy- Renegade
16. Black Sabbath- The End
17. Tangerine Dream- Live in Lisbon, dvd
18. Kitaro- Enchanted Evening
19. Redshift- Ether
20. Allman Bros.- Fillmore East

[Jeff_From_Michigan]

No way possible without many hours of deep thought and scouring the memory banks, but some that come to mind:

Already mentioned: Fillmore East, All the World's a Stage and Made in Japan. (3 of my favorite live albums for sure.)

Beatles - Revolver
Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
Pretenders - Pretenders
Springsteen - Born to Run
J. Geils Band - Full House
Santana - Abraxas
Heart - Dreamboat Annie
Pink Floyd - DSOTM
Buddy Guy - Stone Crazy
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather
Ramones - It's Alive
John Mayall - Bluesbreakers
Muddy Waters - Folk Singer
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Blind Faith - Blind Faith
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedos


But this list could change in a split second as soon as I think of a classic that I left off....

[Mariusz Uszynski]

Deep Purple - "Deep Purple In Rock"
Led Zeppelin - "Led Zeppelin II"
Rainbow - "Rising"
Budgie - "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend"
Pink Floyd - "Dark Side Of The Moon"
Van Halen - "Van Halen"
Motörhead - "Ace Of Spades"
Thin Lizzy - "Black Rose: The Rock Legend"
Black Sabbath - "The Mob Rules"
Iron Maiden - "Seventh Son Of The Seventh Son"
Judas Priest - "Sad Wings Of Destiny"
Rush - "Moving Pictures"
Metallica - "Kill 'Em All"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Diary Of A Madman"
Helloween - "Walls Of Jericho"
Dissection - "Storm Of The Light's Bane"
Cradle Of Filth - "Vempire Or Dark Faerytales In Phallustein"
Hypocrisy - "Abducted"
Immortal - "Sons Of Northern Darkness"
Whitesnake - "Good To Be Bad"

[Mariusz Uszynski]

I count 23, three have to go. 
That's what makes it difficult narrowing it down to 20.

Guilty as charge, going to fix it now.Good thing, we don't have Audio Circle prison, lol.

[Zuman]

Alphabetical, (kind of) by album title. I took the "if you were stranded on a desert island" approach. Many of these are a bit of a cliche, but I think that's because so many people agree with me!

A Momentary Lapse of Reason - Pink Floyd
Bach Remastered Hits - Jacques Loussier (for those who don't know this, it's a jazz record...)
Closer to Home - Grand Funk Railroad
Couldn't Stand the Weather - Stevie Ray Vaughan
For One To Love - Cecile McLorin Salvant
Horowitz - Vladimir Horowitz
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
Live at Leeds - The Who
Mahler Sympony No.2 (Resurrection) -   Slatkin/St. Louis
Messiah - Sargent/Liverpool/Huddersfield
Mingus Ah Um - Charles Mingus
Pearl - Janis Joplin
Sailing to Philadelphia - Mark Knopfler
Songs You Know By Heart - Jimmy Buffet
Tchaikovski Violin Concerto in D Major - David Oistrakh
The Koln Concert - Keith Jarrett
The Neil Diamond Collection - Neil Diamond
The Seeds of Love - Tears for Fears
These Songs for You, Live! - Donny Hathaway
Time Out - Dave Brubeck

[Letitroll98]

It's a lot of work going thru all of my albums and CDs trying to pick 20 favorites.  A few I think will be in the top five, but even those could be overruled if I dig through everything.  I'm doing a general cleaning, rearranging this week, maybe I'll get something together.

[Laundrew]

I thought long and hard how I would pick my 20 top albums - certainly not an easy task. Then it dawned on me to check my "Top 25 Most Played" on my Mac

Band                                                              Album

Portishead                                                       Dummy
Type O Negative                                               October Rust
Persephone                                                      Atma Gyan
Batzz In The Belfry                                           Glow In The dark
Lacrimas Profundere                                         Filthy Notes For Frozen Hearts

Rozz Williams & Gitane Demone                         Dream Home Heartache
The Last Dance                                                 Now & Forever After
Paralysed Age                                                   Empire Of The Vampire
Morendoes                                                       There Is No Salvation
Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows       Les Fleurs du Mal

Diary Of Dreams                                               End Of Flowers
Dead Can Dance                                               The Serpent's Egg
Solemn Noire Novena                                        Kiss The Girls
Poesie Noire                                                     Love Is Colder Than Death
HIM                                                                 And Love Said No - The Greatest Hits

Gothic Compilations                                          Flesh, Fangs & Filigree
Rozz Williams                                                   Sleeping Dogs
Shadow Project                                                From the Heart
Charon                                                            Songs For Sinners
The wake                                                         Masked

What's an albums list without a few honourable mentions? 

RUSH                                                              2112
Styx                                                                The Grand Illusion
Boston                                                             Boston

Enjoy.

Be well...

[simoon]

I am just going to copy and paste my overly long post from the other "Top 20 Albums" thread, minus the best song on each.

My problem with threads like these, is I could never pick out 20 albums as my favorite, that I could consider better than all the rest.

I listen to the following genres and some of their subgenres:

Prog (avant-prog, Canterbury, Zeuhl, symphonic-prog, prog-metal)
Classical (avant-garde, serial, atonal, New-Complexity, Spectralism, 12 tone)
Jazz (fusion, post-bop, avant-garde, M-Base, chamber-jazz)

I could easily pick out 20 from each genre, that I would consider as good as the top 20 from the other genres. And I could also pick out quite a few more for each of each genre that are the equal of some that are on each list.

So, I am going to cheat and create 3 lists, 1 for each genre.

Prog:

Yes - Close to the Edge
Genesis - Selling England By the Pound
King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic
PFM - Storia di un Minuto
Magma - Köhntarkösz Anteria
Area - Arbeit Macht Frei
Anglagard - Hybris
National Health - Of Queues and Cures
Gentle Giant - In a Glass House
Echolyn - Suffocating the Bloom
Univers Zero - Heresie
ELP - Tarkus
Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane
Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
Eskaton - 4 Visions
Banco - Io Sono Nato Libero
Thinking Plague - In Extremis
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Museo Rosenbach - Zarathustra
Mike Oldfied - Ommadawn

Jazz:

Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior
The Art Ensemble of Chicago Urban Bushmen
Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Mounting Flams
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Alice Coltrane - Ptah, The El Daoud
Brand X - Unorthodox Behavior
Weather Report - Black Market
Anthony Braxton - Six Compositions: Quartet
McCoy Tyner - Sahara
Iceberg - Sentiments
Keith Jarrett - Koln Concerts
John Abercrombie - Timeless
Terje Rypdal - Whenever I seem to be Far Away
Allan Holdsworth - Metal Fatigue
Bruford - One of a Kind
Miles - In a Silent Way
Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance - Synovial Joints
Jean Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean
Alex Machacek - 24 Tales
Oregon - Out of the Woods
Mary Halvorson - Amarylis

Classical:

Elliott Carter - Concerto for Orchestra (1969)
Beat Furrer - Konzert, for piano and orchestra (2007)
Anna Þorvaldsdóttir - CATAMORPHOSIS (2020)
Bruno Maderna - Concerto for oboe and orchestra No.3 (1973)
Charles Wuorinen - Fourth Piano Concerto (2003)
Magnus Lindberg - Sculpture (2005)
Joan Tower - Concert for orchestra (1991)
Milton Babbitt - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1985)
Kaija Saariaho - Laterna Magica (2009)
Bela Bartok - Music for strings, percussion, and celesta (1936)
Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (1913)
Alban Berg - Violin Concerto (1935)
Unsuk Chin - Violin Concerto  (2001)
James Dillon - Helle Nacht (1986-87)
Samuel Barber - Piano Concerto (1960)
Tōru Takemitsu - From Me, Flows What you Call Time (1990)
Olga Neuwirth - Remnants of Songs ... An Amphigony for viola and orchestra (2020)
Arnold Schoenberg - Variations for Orchestra (1926)
Augusta Read Thomas - EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), for orchestra  (2015)
Krzysztof Penderecki - Violin Concerto No. 2: Metamorphosen (1992–95)