 | Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £3.00 1983 - in retrospect we should have expected it - a shift in sound toward the chaotic, but no loss of quality from the world's most consistent genius.
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 | Pornography (Remastered) by The Cure
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £2.96 1982 - dark, chilling and paranoid, it's unbelievable to think that less than 12 months later they'd make The bloody Lovecats...
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 | Faith by The Cure
Buy new: £4.98 1981 - ah, this is the real masterpiece in the Cure back catalogue - truly the sound of despair, so distant, helpless and without hope. Flawless.
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 | Closer by Joy Division
Buy new: £6.88 / Used from: £2.99 1980 - as above, only even more so. Side 1 is the most distant, depressed, oppressive yet incredible thing you've ever heard... then you turn it over and it outdoes itself!
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 | Metal Box by Public Image Ltd.
1979 - insane dub basslines, freaky effects, paranoid ramblings... any residual hopes punks had that Lydon was still one of them were shattered by this masterpiece.
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 | Blue Valentine by Tom Waits
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £2.00 1978 - the best of Tom's early years, this is a consistently strong batch of songs, particularly the heartbreaking "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis", which steals the show.
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 | Low by David Bowie
Buy new: £5.08 / Used from: £3.20 1977 - a generic but necessary choice - after all, its reputation as a classic is thoroughly deserved. Eno's barren soundscapes are the perfect match for Bowie at this phase in his career.
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 | L'Homme a Tete de Chou by Serge Gainsbourg
Buy new: £14.49 / Used from: £9.38 1976 - Serge has more than one classic concept album, you know! This perennially underrated album is more bonkers, but contains some of his strongest ever work.
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 | Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan
Buy new: £4.48 / Used from: £4.00 1975 - Dylan's last true masterpiece, an album the prolific maestro pulled out all the stops on, from the mindblowing opener to the spiteful "Idiot Wind", a man at the top by being on the bottom...
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 | Phaedra by Tangerine Dream
Buy new: £5.88 / Used from: £4.59 1974 - one of the original krautrock masterpieces, an ever-shifting soundscape of synthesised maelstrom that rises and falls and overwhelms throughout its all-too-short duration.
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 | Berlin by Lou Reed
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £2.50 1973 - truly the greatest album ever made; an epic tale of love, loss, drugs and violence set against a backdrop of post-war Berlin. Nothing has ever been like it before or since. A masterpiece.
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 | Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie
Buy new: £5.28 / Used from: £3.65 1972 - a very rare beast indeed - a concept album where each and every song could be taken from the album and become an instant classic single. And there has never been a better album ender.
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 | L'Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg
Buy new: £9.98 / Used from: £9.20 1971a - two of the all time top 10 albums came out this year, so both will be mentioned; both this all-too-short but perfectly formed tale of Lolita-esque love set to an ever-shifting musical backdrop
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 | Songs of Love and Hate by Leonard Cohen
Buy new: £12.78 / Used from: £6.61 1971b - and this collection of misery, fear, loathing, self-pity, etc... quite simply the greatest collection of songs by the greatest poet and songwriter alive. Just amazing.
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 | Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake
Buy new: £3.98 / Used from: £2.95 1970 - the best set of Nick Drake's songs, striking a perfect balance between the lush orchestration of Bryter Later and the understated melancholy of Pink Moon. This was the first and best.
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 | In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson
Buy new: £8.38 / Used from: £5.00 1969 - what a bombshell this was! Truly the moment at which progressive rock was born, and seldom was anything better than this released. Still fresh today.
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 | The Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks
Buy new: £5.78 / Used from: £3.99 1968 - at its time ignored due to failing to observe the Zeitgeist, The Kinks' most consistently excellent, unadorned pop masterpiece has been smiled on by history.
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 | The Velvet Underground and Nico by Velvet Underground
Buy new: £6.38 / Used from: £3.25 1967 - I know the cover is what makes the album iconic, I know White Light/White Heat is superior, etc., but you just can't argue with the quality of the tunes on this record. Not at all.
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 | Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £2.47 1966 - it may sound horribly dated, but only a man with a heart of stone can fail to be grinning inanely as soon as he presses play. Pop music has never been this pure before or since.
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 | Rubber Soul by The Beatles
Buy new: £15.48 / Used from: £4.65 1965 - very much the point at which what had been merely good pop music became visionary, iconic and influential. Plus Norwegian Wood, which is good for kudos.
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 | The Olympia '61 & '64 by Jacques Brel
Buy new: £22.49 / Used from: £13.11 1964 - referring only to the 1964 performance, though both in one set is not to be argued with - simply a hugely powerful performance by one of the greatest lyricist of the modern epoch...
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