 | True Colours by Split Enz
Buy new: $10.98 / Used from: $3.50 Defines "catchy" in an Australian New Wave sort of way.
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 | Specials by The Specials
Buy new: $10.97 / Used from: $6.28 British ska brilliance.
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 | Lucinda Williams by Lucinda Williams
Buy used from: $22.99 She was a fantastic singer/songwriter in 1988, too.
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 | Bluebird by Emmylou Harris
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $4.95 Emmylou took a radical new direction, showed us you can get better with age, won a whole new generation of fans, and blew the socks off many of her old fans with this beautiful slow burn. Wow.
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 | Slow Turning by John Hiatt
Buy new: $9.98 / Used from: $0.49 Mr. Hiatt's brilliance as a songwriter wears well on this one.
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 | All Hail the Queen by Queen Latifah
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $1.90 The Queen introduces herself, and tears the roof off with this revolutionary genre-bending of hip-hop/rap/reggae, and set an example for women rappers of integrity.
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 | The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $1.44 A low-fidelity sonic masterpiece of country ballads. Patsy Cline would approve, but she was never this dry.
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 | Closer by Joy Division
Buy used from: $4.88 This is either the best disc to listen to when you're depressed, or the worst. Post-punk gloom in it's British extreme.
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 | The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $7.18 No matter how gloomy The Smiths got, they never lost the ability to poke fun at themselves. Classic.
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 | Generic by Flipper
Buy used from: $16.00 Set the standard for slow grinding punk. Humorous, perhaps.
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 | Warehouse: Songs and Stories by Hüsker Dü
Buy new: $15.98 / Used from: $5.00 What I consider the band's finest moment and the best broken-hearted recording ever. Highly influential on many big name bands, especially grunge.
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 | Combat Rock by The Clash
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $3.36 One of the greatest 1980's bands arose from the dead to make one last brilliant album. Priceless.
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 | Lone Rhino by Adrian Belew
Buy used from: $31.00 Too bad you will probably never own this. You are missing out. Really. Guitar master makes weird noise unlike anyone else.
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 | Mister Heartbreak by Laurie Anderson
Buy new: $11.98 / Used from: $3.19 Anderson hit her peak with her well-thought-out experimental & electronic music.
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 | Union by Toni Childs
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $0.05 A soulful voice with perfect pop arrangements.
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 | Too Much Pressure by The Selecter
Buy new: $19.98 / Used from: $19.81 More brilliant British ska. Pauline Black had to disguise herself as a man to get gigs, but there's no disguising that voice!
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 | Fifty Gates of Wisdom: Yemenite Songs by Ofra Haza
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $3.99 A world music masterpiece, without doubt.
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 | The Wishing Chair by 10,000 Maniacs
Buy used from: $0.78 An essential folk-pop recording.
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 | Word Sound 'Ave Power: Dub Poets & Dub by Various Artists
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $2.41 The reissue of this early 1980's collection of dub reggae poets includes some instrumental versions, improving on an already fantastic recording.
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 | Violent Femmes by Violent Femmes
Buy new: $6.97 / Used from: $3.29 I think the bonus tracks actually *detract* from this otherwise amazing melding of punk sensibility, rockabilly instrumentation, and bible-belt childhood.
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 | Under the Big Black Sun by X
Buy used from: $0.83 One of the best American bands of all time, at one of their finest moments.
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 | Vivid by Living Colour
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $2.87 Guys with R&B & jazz chops decide to see how hard they can rock it. Kicks ass.
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 | Yr by Steve Tibbetts
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $6.21 Indescribable world ambient jazz.
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 | Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones
Buy new: $12.98 / Used from: $4.14 For this album, Grace dumped the disco for weird pop, reggae, and soul. Strangely good!
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 | Once in a Very Blue Moon by Nanci Griffith
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $10.97 Nanci Griffith records sentimental folk/country/pop that I'm sure I wouldn't like if anyone else did it. Somehow she alone can pull it off. Hard to pick just one of her cd's.
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