1. Mountain Goats
2. Big Black
3. The Pooh Sticks
4. Radiohead
5. Fairport Convention
6. Lifter Puller
7. Yo La Tengo
8. The National
9. Leonard Cohen
10. My Bloody Valentine
11. The Feelies
12. Mirah
Shellac, The Hold Steady, and Richard & Linda Thompson are not listed because i lump them in my head with Big Black, Lifter Puller, and Fairport Convention respectively, so i listed the [slightly] better of the two.
This ranking is very approximate and in general takes into account two or more of the band's output, but ignores any albums past those that i don't like as much. so if a band was amazing for two or three albums and then changed lineups and got shitty or something i would still qualify them as amazing, but if they only made one amazing album then they are less likely to count