Look out! He's got a knife!

The greatest album of all time is Dragon's Greatest Hits.

James: Is that a Pink Floyd album?

Um, no. If it was, it would be crap.

OK. Who's it by?

Well it's by Dragon, and it's their greatest hits. I really thought that was kind of obvious.

Ooh, this is fun.
No 1 - Exile on Main Street, by the Rolling Stones (1972). If I'm going out to a party, then this goes on at eleven while I'm getting ready. 70 minutes of groupies, smack, and Jack Daniels. A raucous, loose and chaotic album, this was the true Stones final fling before they began their long metamorphosis into the vaudeville act they are now. Favourite lyric - "Don't bring vaseline / You gave me disease / I lost a lot of girls over you..." It just kicks arse.
Let it Bleed, by The Rolling Stones (1969). The year of Altamont. Also the year I was born. Country Blues with a nasty streak. Rape, murder, and devil worship. "The Midnight Rambler" remains one of the creepiest songs ever written, and "Let it Bleed", the song, probably my favourite of all time.
Whitechocolatespaceegg, by Liz Phair. Daft title, but Liz Phair is (was) brilliant. Great lyrics, great song structure, great melodies - an album I never get tired of.
Blood on the Tracks, by Bob Dylan (1974). The influences of my upbringing coming out here. I grew up on this album. "Tangled up in Blue" is a song of genius, and "Idiot Wind" hears Bob at his snarling, sarky best. Favourite lyric - "They say I shot a man named Greg / and took his wife to Italy / She'd inherited a million bucks / and when she died it came to me / I can't help it if I'm lucky..."
Workers Playtime Forthcoming, by Billy Bragg (1989). Apart from one fantastically awful acapella tribute to the WW2 soldiers of the Soviet Union, this is a rock-solid album. Politics and relationships. Melodies, even. And song after song of superbly witty writing and phrasing - I could quote the entire album. Even when he misses, he hits. How many people could sing the lines "If you wanted to be a farmer's wife / I would endure that muddy life / I would dig for victory..." and make it sound sincere and moving?
Nebraska, by Bruce Springsteen (1982). It's the Boss, but not as we know him. Just Bruce, a guitar, an 8-track, and a badly-lit little room... Not so much songs as short stories. Dark, bitter, and committed. The soundtrack to Reagan's America if ever there was one...
Bitches Brew, by Miles Davis (1969). Spooky voo-doo shit. The first time I heard this it actually scared me. Incredible musicianship tho.
OK. Stop, Scott, stop.

Hmm, sorry, I got a bit carried away there...

Scott: have you heard Liz Phair's new album? Not the one with the April Lavergne producers, the one she did after that.

I'm curious to see what it's like, but I notice she's sexed herself up even more on the cover. She's about 40 now, so it's starting to look a little desperate.

(I'm not saying that middle-aged women shouldn't be sexually active, just that middle-aged people shouldn't pretend they're still 20.)

Pointlessly subjective answer:

How To Measure a Planet by The Gathering

another shoutout to Exile on Main St, my standard answer also. Objectively my other faves Revolver(Beatles) or Kind of Blue (Miles D) may be better, but its the one album I just never get tired of listening to. (I'd put Sticky Fingers ahead of Let it Bleed though, Moonlight Mile gets me every time).

'k, I'll bite...

My favourite album *right now* is "Ohio" by Over The Rhine, in particular disc 1 of this 2 disc set.

Why? From the liner notes: "The songs on OHIO connect us to the piece of earth we call home. We grew up in small coal mining towns in the Ohio Valley, listening to music that could have only been unearthed in America: Southern Gospel, Country Western and Rock 'n' Roll. This music fertilized the soil of our early lives. We sit down at the upright piano these days with dirt under our fingernails ... In small town America, many of us do grow up in a surreal musical world where Elvis is King, Jesus is Lord."

It's a beautifully diverse album coloured with the faith, hope and sadness of Americana.

My favourite of all time, I trot out (with a tinge of guilty pleasure) REM's "Out of Time."

Why? Like "Ohio," this is REM exploring the music of their childhood (as opposed to the music of their teenage years). Country tinged, melancholic, tender, yet filled with moments of the most sublime beauty. And it has a narrative flow as an album, from high to low and back again, from despair to hope. It's superbly crafted and, for me, sums up why I'm such an 'alt-country' fan now, sixteen or so years later.

Sign O The Times by Prince

Half of it's shit, too.

That's OK coz it's a double.

It's the law: at least half of every double album is shit.

Except for Exile On Main Street. This conundrum vexed people for years, until they realised that while it was a double LP, it was a single CD.