40 for 40
An annual celebration of favorites old and new.
It has become an annual practice to share a list of all-time favorite albums on my birthday each year. Today I am 40; here are albums to match.
Joe Henry, Tiny Voices
Bob Dylan, Love & Theft
Alvvays, Blue Rev
Allen Toussaint, The Bright Mississippi
The Beatles, Revolver
Miranda Lambert, The Weight of These Wings
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
The Innocence Mission, Birds of My Neighborhood
Peter Gabriel, So
Erykah Badu, Mama’s Gun
Duke Ellington, The Popular Duke Ellington
A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory
Over the Rhine, Good Dog Bad Dog
Taylor Swift, Reputation
Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Monk Trio
Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime
The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
Rosanne Cash, King’s Record Shop
Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark
D’Angelo, Black Messiah
Aretha Franklin, Spirit in the Dark
Prince, Sign O’ the Times
Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
Otis Redding, Otis Blue
Rod Stewart, Every Picture Tells a Story
Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique
Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires in the City
Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)
Willie Nelson, Shotgun Willie
Bobby Charles, Bobby Charles
Jessie Ware, What’s Your Pleasure?
Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA
Olivia Rodrigo, Guts
Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
Charles Mingus, Ah Um
Run the Jewels, RTJ4
Television, Marquee Moon
Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach, Painted from Memory
Julian Lage, Speak to Me