09.30.03 - 5:17 p.m.

A certain restaurant guide has taken its branding one step further and published a music guide containing capsule revies of the top 1000 albums as chosen by their reviewers. One of the lists preceding the reviews and ratings is The 50 Most Popular Albums. How intriguing! (More so than the reviews, actually.)

The list follows; the bolded names are the albums that either Dan, or me, or both of us currently own, or once owned before the tape was lost (G n' R, sigh) or until the vinyl album became unplayable due to the fact that I no longer owned a record player (Thriller, I'm looking at you). It's slightly embarrassing that I don't own some of these albums -- but then, what is this journal if not confessional and slightly embarrassing?

Without further ado:

1. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
2. The Beatles, Abbey Road
3. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper
4. U2, The Joshua Tree
5. The Beatles, The White Album
6. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
7. Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
8. The Beatles, Revolver
9. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
10. U2, Achtung Baby
11. The Clash, London Calling
12. Madonna, Ray of Light
13. Madonna, The Immaculate Collection
14. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Legend
15. The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
16. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
17. Dave Matthews Band, Crash
18. ABBA, Gold
19. Norah Jones, Come Away with Me
20. Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
21. Radiohead, OK Computer
22. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
23. Nirvana, Nevermind
24. AC/DC, Back in Black
25. Pearl Jam, Ten
26. Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA
27. Dave Brubeck, Time Out
28. Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes
29. The Phantom of the Opera
30. The Who, Who�s Next
31. Bruce Springsteen, Live/1975-1985
32. The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
33. John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
34. Carole King, Tapestry
35. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
36. Pink Floyd, The Wall
37. Michael Jackson, Thriller
38. Counting Crows, August and Everything After
39. Grateful Dead, American Beauty
40. Paul Simon, Graceland
41. Guns n� Roses, Appetite for Destruction
42. Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Toward Ecstasy
43. Rent
44. R.E.M., Automatic for the People
45. The Beatles, Rubber Soul
46. Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
47. James Taylor, Greatest Hits
48. The Eagles, Hotel California
49. Van Morrison, Moondance
50. West Side Story