According to the Rock Czar...

..the following are the greatest albums of the past 20 years.

No.	Album	Artist	Best Song	Year
1	Blue Album	Weezer	Say it ain't so	1994
2	Antics	Interpol	NARC	2004
3	Jar of Flies	Alice in Chains	No Excuses	1994
4	Nevermind	Nirvana	Smells like Teen Spirit	1991
5	Hot Fuss	The Killers	Smile like you Mean it	2004
6	Dirt	Alice in Chains	Down in a Hole	1992
7	OK Computer	Radiohead	Karma Police	1997
8	Our Love to Admire	Interpol	Pace is the Trick	2007
9	Siamese Dream	Smashing Pumpkins	Soma	1993
10	Purple	Stone Temple Pilots	Interstate Love Song	1994
11	Twin Cinema	The New Pornographers	Use it	2005
12	Bossanova	Pixies	Rock Music	1990
13	Turn on the Bright Lights	Interpol	Untitled	2002
14	Funeral	The Arcade Fire	Neighborhood #1	2004
15	Once upon a Time in the West	Hard-Fi	Little Angel	2007
16	Perfect from Now on	Built to Spill	Velvet Waltz	1997
17	Core	Stone Temple Pilots	Creep	1992
18	Doolittle	Pixies	Gouge away	1989
19	Automatic for the People	REM	Find the River	1992
20	The Bends	Radiohead	Fake Plastic Trees	1995
21	Superunknown	Soundgarden	Fell on Black Days	1994
22	Keep it like a Secret	Built to Spill	Else	1999
23	Music has the Right to Children	Boards of Canada	Roygbiv	1998
24	Too Far to Care	Old 97's	Just like California	1997
25	In Utero	Nirvana	Heart Shaped Box	1993
26	Origin of Symmetry	Muse	Hyper Music	2001
27	Loveless	My Bloody Valentine	Only Shallow	1991
28	In Rainbows	Radiohead	Videotape	2007
29	Good News for People who Love Bad News	Modest Mouse	Float on	2004
30	Badmotorfinger	Soundgarden	Jesus Christ Pose	1991
31	(What's the Story) Morning Glory?	Oasis	Wonderwall	1995
32	Absolution	Muse	Blackout	2003
33	Scissor Sisters	Scissor Sisters	It can't come Quickly Enough	2004
34	MTV Unplugged in New York	Nirvana	The Man who Sold the World (Cover)	1994
35	The Meadowlands	The Wrens	Boys, you Won't Remember	2003
36	Third Eye Blind	Third Eye Blind	Semi Charmed Life	1997
37	The Bravery	The Bravery	Honest Mistake	2005
38	The Eminem Show	Eminem	Hailie's Song	2002
39	Brighten the Corners	Pavement	Stereo	1997
40	The Lonesome Crowded West	Modest Mouse	Trucker Atlas	1997
41	Urban Hymns	The Verve	Bittersweet Symphony	1997
42	Franz Ferdinand	Franz Ferdinand	Take me out	2004
43	Warning	Green Day	Blood Sex and Booze	2000
44	Yankee Hotel Foxtrot	Wilco	Jesus, etc.	2002
45	The Days of our Nights	Luna	Superfreaky Memories	1999
46	Jagged Little Pill	Alanis Morissette	You Ought to Know	1995
47	Bringing Down the Horse	The Wallflowers	One Headlight	1996
48	Exile in Guyville	Liz Phair	Divorce Song	1993
49	69 Love Songs	The Magnetic Fields	Papa was a Rodeo	1999
50	Green Album	Weezer	Island in the Sun	2001

There's a small problem with this list, but it's one that I can't expect to make much hay out of. That's that all of this music is perfect for iPods. Which is what most of the time I'd want to listen to. But since I 've been thinking about my audiophile past, I've been considering my audiophile future. And so in my spare time today I recalled promises made to a future self from the late 70s that along with my Rolex, I would be listening to Magnaplanar speakers. And then I remember how that dream changed when I moved to NYC in 1991 to Breitling and McIntosh.

It was about two years ago when I visited the last audiophile store. I sat six feet from speakers whose shape I cannot describe, powered by tube amps. It was a human voice. A singer. A woman. I cannot recall the last time I heard anything so extraordinary as that. It took me 10 minutes to get used to hearing, and listening to recorded music of that quality.

I read about Doug Sax today, and recalled that there are musical artists who would only bother to record in the best studios, and in those days when I was 20 and there was no such thing as a software industry, I headed towards the second best thing which was the recording industry. So I understand some of what he's saying about the uglies between analog and digital even though digital should be so much better.

So in the back of my head there's more than just a little resistance to the fact that there's no jazz or orchestras in that list. It's about the fact that there are a select group of people with good ears on this planet, and I think that I'm one of them. And I've been satisfying them at a low level. Not junk, but not gourmet. And if there are monoblock amplifiers to be had in my future, if I begin once again to recall and look out for technical aspects of a recording - the difference that Telarc or Deutsche Grammophone would make, then I'm going to have to respect myself a little more.

I enjoy grunge and modern rock. I really thoroughly do, and I am enthused to have found through Rockband, Foo Fighters and Alice In Chains. But I do know better.