Great albums

This week the media seems obsessed with celebrating the anniversaries of two of the biggest selling albums of the last 50 years - the Beatles Sergeant Pepper, which came out 40 years ago, and Bob Marley's Exodus, which was issued 30 years ago. I don't think anyone would deny that both of these were important albums, but whether they quite deserve the praise they constantly receive is perhaps another matter. Coming from an age when the single was what really mattered, and when LPs were more often that not just a collection of hit singles, it's difficult for me to judge what were, or were not, great albums. I can appreciate that Sgt Pepper was a concept album, and one that worked very well, but that was a concept that somehow passed me by. I would rather have an album packed with great tracks, regardless of whether they hung together or not.
Of those LPs which often make up people's greatest ever lists there are few that I like or even own. There's Pet Sounds of course, and the early Dylan LPs, but mostly the LPs or CDs that get regularly played by me are compilations by several artists, usually soul, blues or ska acts, or collections of great tracks by artists like Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Al Green and the other greats of the 50s and 60s. So whilst I have hundreds, if not thousands of LPs, and several hundred CDs, it's the 45s that really get to me - a perfect two minutes of heaven on a seven inch disc.