No Cigar

I think the one thing we can all agree on, with regards to the list of my favorite 100 albums (excluding jazz and classical), is that the entire enterprise has gone on far too long. Well, tomorrow I’m sharing my top three, all at once, and that will be that. For now, a quick rundown of 25 honorable mentions (from an original list of about 70). Any or all of these could have made the cut (and not just near the bottom) if I had made it on a different day:

I Break Chairs -- Damien Jurado
Hotel Lights -- Hotel Lights
Sebastopol -- Jay Farrar
Hollywood Town Hall -- The Jayhawks
Under Cold Blue Stars -- Josh Rouse
What I Deserve -- Kelly Willis
Soma City -- Kevin Salem
Not the Tremblin’ Kind -- Laura Cantrell
What’s Going On -- Marvin Gaye
One Moment More -- Mindy Smith
Excuses for Travellers -- Mojave 3
Down the River of Golden Dreams -- Okkervil River
Slush -- OP8
Otis Blue -- Otis Redding
Hearts and Bones -- Paul Simon
Fables of the Reconstruction -- R.E.M.
Pablo Honey -- Radiohead
Look Now Look Again -- Rainer Maria
Ocean Beach -- Red House Painters
Are You Driving Me Crazy? -- Seam
Ágætis byrjun -- Sigur Ros
Innervisions -- Stevie Wonder
Copper Blue -- Sugar
Anodyne -- Uncle Tupelo
Summerteeth -- Wilco