I wrote this last year around August or September, and I’m not quite sure why I never hit “Publish”… but here it finally is!

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Recently, Laura decided to attack me with one of those torturous challenges she either finds or thinks of for our social media channels. She texted me one day and asked me to send her the top 10 albums I can’t live without… and I was like “wow, I thought we were friends.”

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Not to be consistent with my branding as a drama queen, but I genuinely need music to live. I listen to music all day, every day. As a writer, I go to classical or lo-fi when I need to focus and can’t have lyrics distracting me, but the rest of the time I’m usually singing along to something that I feel on a spiritual level. What I listen to is all phase and mood-driven. Currently I’m listening to pH-1 on repeat because his newest album, But For Now Leave Me Alone, dropped recently and I’m a huge fan of his work – and because his song Dead Girl has me in a chokehold. But when I get in different moods, I need diversity.

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Since I got into K-Pop, K-HipHop and K-R&B in late 2020, 95% of what I listen to falls under that umbrella. There’s just so much new content constantly, I don’t really have the desire to look elsewhere. I’ll maybe listen to Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti once in a while because it slaps, but other than that, I’m content in my K-music bubble.

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With that said, the question of which 10 albums I couldn’t live without became very philosophical for me. I had to really think about a situation where I only had 10 albums to choose from. And what would be a broad enough selection that could fill ALL my needs… impossible. But in that search, I realized a few albums had gotten a perfect score of green hearts all around in my Spotify account, and maybe those could be my selection to listen to forever.

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With all that unnecessary context that characterizes me to a T, here’s the list of albums that I can’t live without and are getting a slot in “Kathy’s Ark,” all with perfect scores. Literal no-skips albums (in chronological order of when they came into my life).

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Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (2006)

Amy Winehouse was my favorite artist in the late 2000s. When she dropped Back to Black, everyone loved Rehab. But my cousin always had Stronger Than Me on his playlist at the time and that made me look into the rest of her discography. To be honest, I struggled on whether I should pick Back to Black or Frank, because Frank has TIMELESS gems and also earned a perfect score for me. But I don’t think I can live without the tracks on Back to Black just *slightly* more than Frank’s. Her sound had evolved and she had honed in her powerful songwriting even more for that last album, and so it’s staying with me forever. Also, it’s one of maybe five vinyls I own.

PS – Shout out to Fuck Me Pumps and In My Bed because SAVAGE.

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Frank Ocean – Channel Orange (2012)

This guy I was seeing in college had a really strong conviction about his taste in music and loved to show me new things that were flying under the radar and just about to blow up. Two of the artists he put me onto are on this list. The night he introduced me to Frank Ocean’s Nostalgia, Ultra he said he was giving me a gift, and it’s funny to think back to that time, because things between us ended right after that. I graduated, started my first job, and then Frank came out with Channel Orange. Having the Frank Ocean Pandora station on all the time helped me heal in some odd way and gave me closure. Although neither of us knew the nature of the gift at the time, it really was one.

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Ed Sheeran – X (Deluxe Edition 2014)

Picking an Ed Sheeran album was even more difficult than Amy, only because he’s obviously gotten to make more music and he literally OWNED my ear from 2011 until 2018. I’m pretty sure most of his albums are all green-hearted out for me and he was indisputably my absolute favorite singer for those years. His lyricism is impossibly deep and relatable and light and dark all at once, and the fact that he can go in and out of genres as he pleases will forever be his biggest flex. His vocal talent is so raw and masterfully conveys his feelings, but the way he can play arenas and stadiums with just a guitar and a loop pedal is even more awe-striking. Also he can rap pretty well and can sit at the table with the likes of Stormzy or really anyone he wishes. He has Ghanian music in his album ÷ (Divide) and he even sang in Spanish with J Balvin earlier this year. So how did I settle on x (Multiply) as THE Ed Sheeran album to enter my ark? Although all of his songs in all of his albums are a hit for me, it wasn’t until I saw him performing Bloodstream with the loop pedal that I was ready to dedicate my life to making people fall in love with him as an artist. It was impossible to pick a truly favorite album as all of his have 1-2 songs I genuinely can’t live without, but until he makes a greatest hits compilation (where I hope he takes my input), X will have to do.

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Adele – 25 (2015)

Remember the college guy who put me onto Frank Ocean? I also have him to thank for my love of Adele. I will never forget the first time I watched the Chasing Pavements, Hometown Glory, and Rolling in the Deep music videos in his dorm. I was bewitched. After Amy died, I hadn’t really connected with anyone’s music in that level of depth, and this was before Ed or Frank came into the picture. And this guy – who was the last person you could imagine enjoying Adele’s music – came at the right time with the perfect solution to fill that void. Although 19 and 21 are both incredible albums and also probably close to having perfect scores for me, 25 was the one. It just hit. Whatever I was going through at that time, that album captured it. When We Were Young gives me chills to this day, but All I Ask is the most beautiful song. The injustice of it not having a music video?! I actually found 2 ballet dancers doing the most stunning dance to it, and it’s so perfect that in my head, that’s the official MV.

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Billie Eilish – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (2019)

After Ed Sheeran and Adele took turns writing the original soundtrack to my life, I found Billie Eilish. I don’t remember how exactly, but my brother swears he’s the one who showed her to me. In any case, I moved from Miami to London in 2019, and WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? was my go-to in that transition. I listened to Ed a lot too, especially because 1. he’s a Brit and 2. he dropped a collab album called No. 6 in that time that had a song called Take Me Back to London, so between that one and The City, he was my personal welcoming committee. But since Billie had been so present in my playlist as I prepared to move, she was my ultimate comfort. She got me through that fall, and she was in fact my top Spotify artist for 2019 and 2020.

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J Balvin, Bad Bunny – Oasis (2019)

With me being born in Venezuela to a Colombian mom and living in Miami mostly surrounded by other Latin people… this list having almost no Latin music is crazy. Especially because I did listen to a lot of reggaeton all those years, and I did Zumba regularly since about 2016. But the truth is those albums rarely have a perfect score for me as reggaeton can get quite repetitive. I considered using Bad Bunny’s X 100pre because that album is flawless, but then I remembered Oasis and I knew this was the one. J Balvin and Bad Bunny BOTH put amazing solo music around this time, but then they also managed to find the time to do eight GREAT and diverse songs together that just slapped? Iconic. This album is the perfect representative of my Latina/Miami side.

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Stormzy – Heavy Is The Head (2019)

I heard about Stormzy from Ed in some interview years before, but it wasn’t until I heard their collabs that I got more into his music. Then my first fall in London I remember getting off the tube some random day and there being a big sign that Stormzy was about to drop Heavy Is The Head in December. It felt like a great Christmas gift for me, as I was trying to take in the city and country through the music as much as I could. I listened to that album front to back A LOT, and Own It STILL has me in a chokehold. I took a quickie weekend trip to Edinburgh for the 2019 holidays where it felt like Stormzy walked me through all those stone streets, because he was always in my headphones. This album was the only one I questioned adding here, because if I’m honest, I probably listened to Sam Smith’s The Thrill of it All a smidge more. But this album is the one I feel encapsulates my time in London the best, and this list already seems like a cry for help, so Stormzy’s Vossi Bop is here to save the day and reassure you all that I’m totally fine…

[Minor side note: wow 3 albums in 2019?! What was in the water?]

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BTS – Love Yourself 轉, ‘Tear’ (2018)

I didn’t get into K-Pop or BTS until 2020 which I will forever regret, but when I arrived, I caught up QUICKLY. I have listened to their discography several times over at this point, and though I completely refuse to pick a favorite BTS album, let alone a song, I will not get on my apocalyptic ark without their music. The competition was stiff between all the albums from Wings up until BE. At some point I was actually down to MOTS7 and YNWA. And of course, PROOF has their top discography, but that seemed like a copout. Anyway, again, I refuse to pick a favorite BTS song; however, there *is* a song I really have the deepest respect for that people rarely talk about, and that’s 134043. The metaphorical references in that song together with the production is simply unparalleled. And for that song alone, Love Yourself 轉, ‘Tear’ is the one joining me forever. I feel like I’m going to regret not bringing UGH! or Mic Drop or Baepsae or the Cyphers with me but I do get to keep Outro: Tear, and that’s a great one any day of the week. I’ll just have to hope my other friends bring more BTS discography with them.

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pH-1 – X, The Worst Mixtape (2020)

Discovering Harry’s music in late 2020 is another life regret I have, but when they say music finds you at the right time, it can’t be more true in this case. 2020 was a whirlwind of a year for the planet as a whole, but 2021 was very hard on a personal level. And Harry’s music was there for me to an unhealthy extent, to the point where my Receiptify shows that my ALL TIME top 10 songs are Harry’s. Like he deleted everyone else’s presence in my Spotify history. He’s the only one. And I think 8/10 spots are from his EP X. I don’t know what it is about it – other than it’s amazing – but it really has a song for every mood, and I went through A LOT of moods in 2021. Even though he’s a rapper, he has this really calm way about him when he talks and when he raps, it just feels soothing in a way. Like being assertive without being aggressive? I listened to that album in the car, in the shower, going to sleep, working, etc. There wasn’t one activity where I thought “hm, this album is out of place here.” It’s literally perfect.

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Kai – Peaches (2021)

I found Kai via Mmmh in late 2020, which was actually rather timely in my K-Pop journey. I wasn’t sure what to make of him but I was hooked. I got into more of his personality through his variety show appearances, then I learned about EXO, and by the time Kai announced his second mini album Peaches my body was ripe and ready for what he was bringing. After Adele got Spotify to un-default the shuffle function for albums, I got to understand the why with Peaches. I’ve never been able to see a story so clearly from beginning to end in an album without having to try. I was in the shower and I just got it. The whole thing in one go. I was so impressed by it all that I went and did my first album review on our Instagram. Who do I think I am? Jeff Benjamin?! (Jeff! If you ever read this, big fan!). Anyway. Kai doesn’t know how to make bad music. And if there’s an ark committee, I’m here to plea the case that since Peaches is only 6 songs, maybe just maybe I could also bring the Kai first mini-album (which also has a perfect score) along and make it one full album? I’ll patiently await your verdict.

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I have one regret and it’s to not have included J.Cole on this list, because he’s been a constant for me from around 2010 until now. And Drake (Take Care would’ve probably been the chosen album) also played a huge part in those very formative years for me. But I guess the bottom line is that there is no actual ark and I get to listen to all their music whenever I want to or need to, and I don’t need to continue being anxious about who did or didn’t make the cut – phew.

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I’m intrigued to think of how I’ll feel about these albums in 10 years. Will I want to relive this decade over and over, or will some new album sweep me off my feet and earn its place on this list and my apocalyptic ark?

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P.S. I made a playlist with all of these albums and a few others that have perfect scores for me, in case anyone wants to go be “fine” with me. : ) :