My top three albums happen to be from the Beatles, but if I have to do the definitive albums (not necessarily my favorite LPs for some) for five groups/artists, I'll go with...

The Beatles- Rubber Soul (the UK version)
REM-Reckoning
David Bowie- Hunky Dory
The Kinks- Face To Face
Velvet Underground- Velvet Underground and Nico

^ I used to have Face-To-Face Kinks but haven't thought about it in years! I'm off to check the tracklist; is it still good?!

^ Well, yours is a strange collection, MicShazam! So many unknowns for me, I can hardly tell which is the artist and which is the album title.

As everyone mentions, it's pretty impossible to choose. In fact, this is the method I used:
i) scan my cd titles
ii) identify some faves
iii) ask myself, "Which fave would you actually like to hear right now?"

That's how I came up with:-

1. Astral Weeks by Van Morrison
2. Church of Anthrax by John Cale and Terry Riley
3. From Spain to Spain by Vox
4. Toumastin by Tamikrest
5. Strictly Personal by Captain Beefheart

EDIT: Of course, if I'd done the same exercise in my car instead of my house, I'd have five different albums!

Dir En Grey is a Japanese metal/rock band that seems to annoy a lot of people. Their music can be sort of weird, but also very beautiful. The vocalist is amazing, but also the very definition of an acquired taste. I actually very much would NOT recommend that you check them out :laughing:
I think you'd be wasting your time.

Stam1na is finnish thrash/progressive-metal or something. I love their use of melody and harmony.

Arkona is russian folk/pagan/progressive metal.

You probably know Tori Amos at least somewhat, as she's had some occasional radio play over the past two decades.

Madredeus is Portugese folk music that often comes quite close to the traditional fado style of music.

I don't think my top 5 would consistently contain so many metal bands if I did a new attempt every month.

Not too familiar with these either. I know Beefheart and Van Morrison somewhat. No idea about the rest. Never even heard Tamikrest mentioned anywhere - and I go through a LOT of music websites!

I'll have to come up with one next time I'm shopping for groceries and see what happens. Right now I'm listening to Judie Tzuke and feel like she ought to have a spot in the top 5. A mere top 5 means excluding so many great things.

Strictly vinyl:
1. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica
2. Boom Bip & Doseone - Circle
3. Cromagnon - Cave Rock (it'd be cooler if I had the original Orgasm version though)
4. Renaldo & the Loaf - Songs for Swinging Larvae
5. Throbbing Gristle - Second Annual Report

Honourable mention: Angus Maclise - New York Electronic, 1965

Didn't know you would put that album this high. I'll have to give it another spin.

Just off the top of my head without looking through my drives, and thinking about all the actual full albums that have gotten the most plays over the recent years, here's what I come up with:

1. Clutch - Earth Rocker
2. Billy Cobham - Spectrum
3. Steve Stevens - Flamenco A Go-Go
4. Steve Hackett - Bay Of Kings
5. Dwight Yoakam - This Time

You're surprised that I'd dig a weird album? :D

It was pretty instrumental in getting me into hip hop and shaking my pretty surface level view of the genre. The strangeness of it made it alluring and showed me what hip hop is capable of while the hip hop roots that hold the album together helped me learn how to appreciate the genre more appropriately. It's also an album that I can return to and still uncover new things about, which is always good in my book.

It's almost not weird enough, being that it's placed right under Trout Mask :laughing:

I think it might be a surprisingly good gateway album for people who think of hip hop as being boring. So, people like me, basically. It's definitely one of the hip hop albums that's come the closest to grabbing my full attention.

I have Bay of KIngs, and while I love Steve Hackett and like the album very much, especially Horizon, Black Light, and Skye Boat Song. I thought the recording sounded too thin. I thought it had a sound of being recorded in large hall that left the guitar sounding distant and faint. That is just my two cents about the quality of the audio, it's not meant to reflect negatively on the music on the album or Steve Hackett's talent.

He did record most of it by himself, so the sound quality might have been a little sub-par, but most reviews tend to overlook those facts. The guitar sounds like it was recorded in a large hall because it was. Natural acoustics are what drives the tone of most of the tunes. I love it for it's simplistic pureness in that effect. I once played the title track on a guitar I was thinking about purchasing, and it impressed the store owner enough to make him come over and ask what it was. I bought that guitar and still play it. It always reminds me of that day.