| 5.0 classic |
| 10,000 Maniacs The Wishing Chair |
| Belle and Sebastian The Boy With the Arab Strap |
| Fairport Convention Full House |
| This is such an incredibly powerful instrumental lineup that it seems impossible to top. All the material is top-notch and the vocals aren't as bad as the band worried they would be, they just seem a little hesitant. This is probably the best Fairport album. |
| Fleetwood Mac Bare Trees |
| Beautiful, beautiful album. Very much Danny Kirwan's album, and his last one with Fleetwood Mac, so sad. |
| Mellow Candle Swaddling Songs |
| Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells |
| Mike Oldfield Amarok |
| Very much a musician's album, might be too trying on the patience of people looking for a hooky pop song, but so fascinating as it doesn't stay in any one place for very long. Perfect for people with low attention spans. My favourite of his - just perfect. |
| Pentangle Basket of Light |
| This is Pentangle at their best. They are at their most haunting when they work with traditional British material and early music. Their Lyke-Wake Dirge is the best version out there! |
| Prolapse The Italian Flag |
| Attempts so much and delivers everything it promises. Aggressive moments (Slash/Oblique) punctuated by great pop ones (Autocade) and even pretty ones (Bruxelles) it's a shame they didn't last longer. Everyone should hear this album. They could have been the next Pixies. |
| Queen Queen II |
| R.E.M. Out of Time |
| R.E.M. Fables of the Reconstruction |
| Renaissance Turn of the Cards |
| Renaissance Scheherazade and Other Stories |
| Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline |
| Steeleye Span Commoners Crown |
| Probably the best Steeleye album. Solid, well thought out, adventurous and fun (despite a lot of really dark material!) |
| Steeleye Span Rocket Cottage |
| The band fires on all cylinders here, it is improvement over All Around My Hat and Mike Batt's production shines. |
| Steeleye Span Storm Force Ten |
| Shows how seamlessly Martin Carthy fits back into the band and how effectively John Kirkpatrick's accordion replaces the sound of the violin, great trad. fare and a couple surprises (like the Brecht tracks). |
| Steeleye Span Hark! The Village Wait |
| The one line-up that never lasted but they sound so fresh and exciting on this album. Would have been great to hear what else they would have come up with. |
| Stereolab Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements |
| Tirelessly experimental. A noisy album that moves in many directions often sounding like different bands. |
| Stereolab Refried Ectoplasm |
| Contains many of the great early Stereolab singles many of which are experimental in style and branch out from the early sound, such as Lo Boob Oscillator which is a bubblegum track. |
| Strawbs Grave New World |
| The Beatles The Beatles |
| The Church Heyday |
| Perfect Church album. Psychedelic but summery and fun. |
| The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed |
| The Moody Blues In Search of the Lost Chord |
| No one sounds like the Moody Blues. Whether it's the mellotron, Justin's voice, the harmonies, or the cosmic appeal, they end up sounding utterly unique. This album is beautiful from start to finish - Ride My See Saw is a perfect pop song. |
| The Moody Blues On the Threshold of a Dream |
| A little more expansive in sound than In Search of the Lost Chord, a surefire classic - incorporates some instrumental material too which is very good and welcome. |
| The Pogues Hell's Ditch |
| The Primitives Lovely |
| Absolute classic from start to finish, establishes the Primitives sound - noisy guitars and beautiful voices. A triumph. |
| The Stone Roses The Stone Roses |
| 4.5 superb |
| 10cc Sheet Music |
| Great album, great songs, great sense of humour. Gotta love 10cc. |
| 10cc How Dare You! |
| Barclay James Harvest XII |
| Fairport Convention Liege and Lief |
| Absolute classic. Only minor complaints: too short! Would have liked a couple additional voices to complement Sandy's. Violin sounds a bit shrill, soundwise the album seems a little "cramped". Otherwise perfect. |
| Fleetwood Mac Future Games |
| Beautiful shimmering album with amazing guitar work. Another treat to listen to for Danny Kirwan's input alone. |
| Mike Oldfield Ommadawn |
| Renaissance Azure D'Or |
| Wonderful album, not deserving of its negative reviews simply because they turned towards more keyboards and ditched the symphony. The shorter song format works well and there are many classics on this album. |
| Renaissance Illusion |
| So great...the sound of a band in transition obviously but on the track "Mr. Pine" you see what an interesting direction they were headed. "Face of Yesterday", "Love is All" and "Love Goes On" are all highlights. |
| Stereolab Peng! |
| PENG! is pretty terrific! Stomach Worm, The Seeming and the Meaning and Orgiastic are some of the best examples of the early sound and were all highlights of their live act in the early days. |
| The Moody Blues Every Good Boy Deserves Favour |
| Ends with one of the worst Moody Blues songs (My Song) but apart from that it's a masterpiece. |
| The Nice The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack |
| Great album of psychedelia! Keith Emerson's keyboards obviously dominate but there's nice diversity in the songs and the singing is good (which it wouldn't be on subsequent albums) |
