SNARK GRATIA SNARK: Make it an iron law of the internet: any discussion of favorite albums will reveal most people have questionable taste. The persistence of Rush and Yes is disheartening, as is the absence of the Rolling Stones.
The real problem is that tastes should be somewhat ephemeral and always changing, but most people like what they liked in high school or college. Ideally this means both change in preference with musicians one likes: I would be prepared to argue Radio Ethiopia is a better album than Horses; Something Else by the Kinks is still no Arthur, but I now consider them to be equal. It should also mean change within one's particular set of interests: I enjoy both country and lo-fi indie rock, both things I would have hated when I was younger; the Replacements, who I never much cared for when I was the proper age, are more important to me; Blur enjoyed a brief three or four years near my personal top but I never listen to them now.
The takeaway, I suppose, is De gustibus non est disputandum. That, and never post a list of your favorite albums to the internet.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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