1. The Velvet Underground "The Velvet Underground And Nico" (1967)
Alternative music's first iconic touchstone, if not its year zero. In the smacked-out factory haze, Lou Reed, Nico, Mo and co conjured up an opiate magic of downtowner lore, thematic weightiness, and musical sunshine. The Velvet Underground's debut gave birth to the cliche of the band that inspired more bands to form than they actually sold records.
2. Os Mutantes "Os Mutantes" (1968)
These barmy Brazilians' riotous debut album was a freakadelic fusion of Beatles-esque studio experimentation and traditional Afro-Portuguese rhythms, with exuberant vocals and squalling guitar-leads on show. Still sounding fresh 40 years on, it's a lynchpin of any alternative-minded record collection: cool, obscure, and utterly idiosyncratic.
3. Vashti Bunyan "Just Another Diamond Day" (1970)
Evoking a romanticised notion of the English idyll, this whispery, gentle, fragile folk record was lost in oblivion for nearly three decades. Since being excavated from the mists of time, Bunyan's debut album has been granted an almost holy status amongst smitten listeners.
4. The Raincoats "The Raincoats" (1979)
Though not the most famous, or most acclaimed, of London's late-'70s post-punk milieu, The Raincoats may be said scene's best band. Best known for diffusing the punk's heaving machismo, the ramshackle girl-group summon up a peculiar musical magic. Slapping together seeming instrumental incongruousness —tinny drum-machines, screechy violin, shambolic drumming, shouted vocals— with nary a hint of precision, their debut album should be a mess. Instead, it's an out-of-this realm masterwork, acclaimed by Kurt Cobain as one of the greatest records ever pressed.
5. The Smiths "The World Won't Listen" (1987)
The patron saints of indie-pop, The Smiths made their name on the back of Morrissey's lyrical witticisms and Johnny Marr's iconic guitar jangle. Never really an 'album' band, the English outfit often saved their best work for singles; or b-sides, even. The World Won't Listen collates a killer collection of mid-'80s singles all blessed with Moz's trademark sneer.
6. The Pixies "Surfer Rosa" (1988)
Like The VU, Boston's iconic indie-rock troupe The Pixies are a rockband's rockband. Their exuberant, Steve Albini-produced debut riffed mightily on Black Francis's spaced-out surf guitar, pushing college-rock into the dynamic direction —quiet/loud— that'd define indie music's next decade.
7. My Bloody Valentine "Loveless" (1991)
Kevin Shields' patented "fluff on the needle sound" —a droning, fuzzy, wall-of-noise built from guitars run through an array of effects pedals— reached such a frightening, vertiginous peak on Loveless that he never dared follow it up. The blueprint for shoegazers past and present, it could just as easily be called Timeless.
8. Neutral Milk Hotel "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" (1998)
Like Shields, Neutral Milk Hotel main-man Jeff Mangum still hasn't been able to bring himself to attempt a successor to this slice of longplaying perfection. Haunted by disturbing dreams, the specter of death, and the ghost of Anne Frank, Mangum fashioned an interior monologue that reads like the great American novel.
9. Cat Power "Moon Pix" (1998)
Chan Marshall has been one of the most singular, inspirational figures in alternative music since she arose from New York in the mid-'90s. Recorded in Melbourne with members of Dirty Three, her fourth album consists of songs that were 'beamed' to her on a single stormy night; giving it the feeling of a strange and beautiful séance.
10. Animal Collective "Sung Tongs" (2004)
Though it's mere years old, Animal Collective's most widely-praised record already has inspired a host of likeminded outfits. The fifth album by the shapeshifting Brooklyn-by-Baltimore quartet spearheaded a sweeping movement of 'new primitivism'. Their tribalist percussion, communal zone-outs, and vocal harmonies tapped into the freak-folk spirit bubbling up from America's underground, making this one of this decade's most influential discs.
