The Top 25 Guitar Albums You Must Own!

BloodEagle

Appetite for Destruction not being on there is ludicrous 

Octahedron

Merrr who even wrote that bullshit?? A lot of those albums are so uninspiring.

thomasross20

BloodEagle said:

Appetite for Destruction not being on there is ludicrous 

100%

ICBM

thomasross20 said:

BloodEagle said:

Appetite for Destruction not being on there is ludicrous 

100%

I can’t stand Guns‘n’Roses (sorry ) but I would still agree with that. Hugely influential album.

Anyway, how else would you learn to play SCOM?

Jalapeno

No Robert Johnson, Charlie Christian, Django, Les Paul, Wes Montgomery, the Shadows (oddly), Joe Pass ...

EricTheWeary

For a list from 1998 it’s surprisingly  uncontemporary of the period. Earlier electric guitar ( Muddy Waters, Kenny Burrell, Freddie King, everyone @Jalapeno mentioned, Duane Eddy, T Bone Walker, etc) doesn’t feature either. No Bob Marley, no Black Sabbath, no country music ( could have had Sweetheart of the Rodeo rather than Tambourine Man at least), no Chic or Funkadelic, nothing with Steve Cropper on. No Metallica or Steely Dan. 

It’s a narrow band of listening. Although as this is TheFretboard our combined list would be the 2500 guitar albums you must own. 

HAL9000

Not only depends on the tastes of the compiler but also how you define the term 'guitar album'. After all a huge number of albums have guitars on them but that doesn't necessarily make them guitar albums. For instance I'd probably exclude Oasis from the list as it's more about actual songs than virtuoso guitaring. I think The Smiths are ok though since Johnny Marr is pretty handy on the instrument.

ICBM

HAL9000 said:

Not only depends on the tastes of the but also how you define the term 'guitar album'. After all a huge number of albums have guitars on them but that doesn't necessarily make them guitar albums. For instance I'd probably exclude Oasis from the list as it's more about actual songs than virtuoso guitaring. I think The Smiths are ok though since Johnny Marr is pretty handy on the instrument.

I would say it should be albums that contain some sort of either universally-regarded pinnacle of excellence, or influential originality or impact, in the guitar playing.

In that case I would include The Smiths, but not Oasis. Likewise the Beano album but not any of Clapton's solo albums, and Hotel California but not Rumours, for example... even though I think some of Clapton's later work is arguably better, and Lindsey Buckinghams's guitar playing is in many ways more interesting and original than the Eagles.

But this is getting a bit architectural-dancing now, and you know what Frank Zappa (or was it Elvis Costello?) said about that...

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

HAL9000 said:

Not only depends on the tastes of the but also how you define the term 'guitar album'. After all a huge number of albums have guitars on them but that doesn't necessarily make them guitar albums. For instance I'd probably exclude Oasis from the list as it's more about actual songs than virtuoso guitaring. I think The Smiths are ok though since Johnny Marr is pretty handy on the instrument.

I would say it should be albums that contain some sort of either universally-regarded pinnacle of excellence, or influential originality or impact, in the guitar playing.

In that case I would include The Smiths, but not Oasis. Likewise the Beano album but not any of Clapton's solo albums, and Hotel California but not Rumours, for example... even though I think some of Clapton's later work is arguably better, and Lindsey Buckinghams's guitar playing is in many ways more interesting and original than the Eagles.

But this is getting a bit architectural-dancing now, and you know what Frank Zappa (or was it Elvis Costello?) said about that...

Actor and country musician Martin Mull generally seems to be accredited as the source of the dancing quote. 

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I think whichever way you slice it for a British guitar mag not to have included anything by The Shadows for excellence ( even if just of its era), influence and impact is a bit sinful. 

If I get my time machine working again I’m going back to 1998 and tell them ( just after I’ve dropped by China and whisked the bat soup out of reach). 

boogieman

Some shocking omissions on that list. Where’s the Robert Fripp, Jeff Beck and Jan Akkerman material? All hugely influential. Missing out people like the Shads, Dick Dale, The Ventures is also poor form. But as said, these lists are always subjective. And wrong. 

axisus

It's an interesting list, although there's stuff I don't like. I think if there was a new list now you could ditch a lot of those, it would need a major freshen up.

SteveRobinson

SidNewton said:

If it was done today Oasis would not be in there. Definitely.....not maybe.

What, even though it's one of the top five studio albums of all time? 

zepp76

Surely Rory Gallagher and Johnny Winter should be on the list?

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Although as this is TheFretboard our combined list would be the 2500 guitar albums you must own. 

This.

Cols

Probably easier to pick ones which don’t belong on the list than agree deserving missing albums (although I’m shocked at no Beatles, Sabbath or Metallica).

Romain

It is a nice list but very mainstream in my opinion. They didn't take any risks with those albums.

Snap

I'd put Unknown Pleasures on it, just cos it's bleeding ace.

DarnWeight

No Marquee Moon? No thanks.

Rocker

Why limit the selection to GUITAR albums?  

monquixote

I think the list works really well if you rename it to "Albums that made you start playing guitar"

If you are an accomplished guitarist there isn't much to learn from an Oasis album, but about half the guitarists in the 90's started because of Oasis or Nirvana.

On that basis it does seem nuts that the list doesn't have Metallica or Vai on there.