Timeless Albums

What makes a "Timeless" album? When you play it, you enjoy it, it speaks to you, and there's no nostalgia involved. It seems it could have been made today. The rules are: one album per artist, except Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, because respect for the Greats. John Mayall is there twice because The Beano Album is there for Eric Clapton. Picking a timeless Beatles album is arbitrary, as is picking one by Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, John Martin, Van Morrison, and probably others.

I wavered over Cream / Traffic / Eric Clapton. The Bind Faith album is an All-Time Favourite, but it is of its time, as are the Cream albums. The Beano Album is the Blues, so it's Timeless. There are many fine albums from the 80's, but many of them sound like 80's albums, and while that puts them on the All-Time Favs list, it disqualifies them from the Timeless list. Except the Loose Ends and Level 42 albums, which get by somehow. I had The Crusaders' Chain Reaction on the list for a while, until I accepted that, ATF it may be, it has that 70's sound to it. Saraya's self-titled first album was there, until, let's face it, for all it's an ATF, it's as big-hair 90's as a band can get. Thriller is a Classic, but it is of the time. Some Classics are Timeless, and some are not.

I get that a Gen Z hearing ABC's The Lexicon of Love might be blown away by it, and hear it as a contemporary album, in the same way that we now hear the Beatles as the best indie band in the world, but this is about how I hear it.

Kinda by definition of what the list is, the majority are going to be from decades very past. I have Park Hye Jin, Charli XCX, Keep Shelly In Athens, and DJ Seinfeld from the last two decades, just to convince you that I am listening to new stuff. Just be thankful I haven't put Jason Aldean's Highway Desparado on the list.

Anyway, here's the list...

Abandoned Luncheonette - Hall & Oates 70's 

After Bathing At Baxters - Jefferson Airplane 60's 

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison 60's 

Band of Gypsies - Jimi Hendrix 70's 

Bare Wires - John Mayall 60's 

Bedrock - John Digweed 90's 

Before I Die - Park Hye Jin 10's 

Bless The Weather - John Martyn 70's 

Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan 70's 

Greatest Hits Vol 2 - Bob Dylan 60's 

Blues Breakers (Beano Album) - John Mayall 60's 

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene 90's 

Blue - Joni Mitchell 70's 

Can't Buy A Thrill - Steely Dan 70's 

Crash - Charlie XCX 20's

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd 70's 

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young 70's

Genie - The B. B. & Q. Band 80's 

Getz Giberto - Stan Getz 60's 

Goats Head Soup - The Rolling Stones 70's 

Hot Rats - Frank Zappa 70's 

In A Silent Way - Miles Davis 60's 

In Love With Dusk - Keep Shelly In Athens 10's 

Kind of Blue - Miles Davis 50's 

King of the Delta Blues - Robert Johnson 40's 

Level 42 - Level 42 80's 

Live at the Village Vanguard - John Coltrane 60's 

Mirrors (Remixed) - DJ Sienfeld 20's 

Rubber Soul - The Beatles 60's 

Solid Air - John Martyn 70's 

Second Toughest In the Infants - Underworld 90's 

So Where Are You? - Loose Ends 80's 

St Dominics Preview - Van Morrison 70's 

Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughn 80's 

Timeless - Goldie 90's 

Zodiac Variations - John Dankworth 60's