After compiling my top 25 best games of all time list, I started drafting a list of my 25 best albums of all time, which after several revisions, I still have conflicted feelings about. It somehow was much harder for me to come up with 25 musical entries compared to the video game one, in part because I'm not a big music nut and in part because I wanted the list to showcase a bit of variety. Simply dumping 25 hip-hop albums in there---my favorite genre according to the 2022 in music post---would not suffice.

Anyway. Here goes. Caveat Lector. Here be dragons. And so forth.

Again, bear in mind that it's unsorted. Contrary to the top 25 game list, I wouldn't know where to start when trying to pick a single favorite: it's much more dependent on my mood than anything else. A first glance immediately reveals my preference for (1) eighties alt pop/rock, (2) game soundtracks and chiptunes, and (3) hip-hop.

Row 1:

1. Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here. This one has been burned into my brain by endless sessions on repeat. When we were little, my dad copied the CD to a cassette to listen to on my Sony Walkman while we drove to our yearly holiday destination in Spain. Needless to say, I know about every position of about every ploing by heart.
2. Genesis: Invisible Touch. It has Land of Confusion on it. Nuff said.
3. Michael Jackson: Thriller. I had difficulties choosing between Thriller and Bad, both are superb. Gotta pay respects to the King Of Pop, deservedly so.
4. Cory & The Wongnotes. A recent entry thanks to Ruben Schade's Music Mondays. The up-beat cheerfulness always puts me in a good mood. Even the full recording session on video radiates happiness.
5. Duran Duran: Decade. Okay, I admit, I cheated by picking a compilation album, but I wanted to get a James Bond song on here as well, and all others are scattered throughout their impressive discography.

Row 2:

1. Ratatat: Classics. It was either this or St Germain's Tourist as the perfect ambient music to facilitate focus.
2. Boss Fight: Caps On, Hats Off. It was either this or one of Dubmood's Lost Floppies as the perfect modern chiptune mixture.
3. Pizza Tower the soundtrack. As I said before, I can't get enough of this soundtrack, it has no business being this good for a small indie game release.
4. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia the soundtrack. Any Castlevania game comes with an amazing soundtrack, of which the three Nintendo DS incarnations---Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia---are my favorites.
5. Mega Ran: Castlevania: The Nocturnal Cantata. I only recently discovered the concept of nerdcore, the phenomena where video games and rap, two very Brain Bakey things, meet. Mega Ran portrays this perfectly by leaning on the Castlevania tunes: a triple win!

Row 3:

1. GTA Vice City: Wave 103 FM. A second nod to (British) new wave music, but really, any of the Vice City radio stations are brilliant. The ones I listen to mostly are: V-Rock, Wave 103, Radio Espantoso, Flash FM, and Wildstyle. Is this
2. Ancient Astronauts: Into Bass And Time. German band Ancient Astronauts successfully revived classic west-coast beats in Into Bass And Time. Its simplicity and consistent pace makes me even prefer it over its progenitors.
3. Wu-Tang Clan: Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Probably the best thing ever to come out of Brooklyn, and despite the huge Wu-Tang discography, the first is still the one I go back to the most, thanks to RZA's masterful sampling skills.
4. GZA: Liquid Swords. Selecting a single best Wu-Tang solo album is no simple task, so I cheated yet again and included a GZA and Ghostface instead.
5. MF DOOM: MM... Food. After making this pick, I realized I should have picked MF DOOM's collaboration with Madlib instead, Madvillainy.

Row 4:

1. Deltron 3030: Deltron 3030. In case that wasn't clear, I love the Dan The Automator and Del the Funky Homosapien (who's also a Hieroglyphics member) duo: they reappear in the next choice and in the virtual group Gorillaz. Deltron 3030 was one of the first prophetic space tales spiced up by Kid Koala. Perhaps I should have picked one of Kid's mixtapes instead.
2. Handsome Boy Modeling School: So... How's Your Girl?. This is so very much strange, I love it. Their second album, White People, is less stellar but still wonderfully weird.
3. Hieroglyphics: Full Circle. Another super group that drops less harsh beats than Wu-Tang does, something I prefer as I get older.
4. Swollen Members: Bad Dreams. Canadian horrorcore that successfully crawled out of the underground scene. Their latest albums seemed to have lost their roots which is a shame.
5. RJD2: Dead Ringer. Either a RJD2 album as a DJ or in the form of Soul Position could be slotted in here. Perhaps also Kid Koala? By this point, I was having a lot of trouble selecting the "best of all time" ones.

Row 5:

1. Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele. After realizing I needed one more Wu solo album, I included Ghostface, as he's the most compelling to listen to. I still need to listen to Fishscale, but it probably won't be as good as this.
2. Sonic Mania the soundtrack. When it comes to video game soundtracks, oldie Sonics just beat the crap out of Mario. Sonic Mania offers stellar remixes of Hydro City tracks, making me pick this one instead of Sonic 3.
3. Age of Mythology the soundtrack. This or the Sim City 4 soundtrack is the perfect background music when I'm getting bored of Ratatat, but in practice, the Diablo II ambient music also frequently makes an appearance.
4. Gorillaz: Demon Dayz. Perhaps the original album is the better one? I don't know, again, it depends on the day of the week and the position of the moon.
5. Jurassic 5: Power In Numbers. Another super group, but at this point, I only had one slot left, and just picked the CD I had lying around.

I'm upset the following albums didn't make it: IAM: L'école Du Micro D'argent, Jedi Mind Tricks: "The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological, And Electro-Magnetic Manipulation Of Human Consciousness, anything from Gravediggaz, the soundtrack of The Messenger, Wax Tailor: Hope & Sorrow, ...

What was the point of this exercise again?