Had I thought today, there's a few albums that I've always tried to keep, and I buy it again when I move formats. Stuff that I know all the words to, that I've listened to so much that when I hear one song end, I hear the next track beginning in my head.
I'm curious what you guys always keep on hand. Whether it's your CD case, vynil crate or iTunes playlist.
Vegas by Crystal Method. Over 20 years old and still infinitely listenable. It's the electronic album that I judge all others against.
Dope - felons and revolutionaries
John Prine -Prime Prine
Kottonmouth Kings - hidden stash 2
Even now that I stream or YouTube everything, I would keep copies of those around.
Here are a few of the slightly less mainstream ones.
Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
The Safety Fire - Mouth of Swords
Claypool Lennon Delirium - South of Reality
Black Crowes - Amorica
Commodores 1977
Pearl Jam Ten
Prodigy Music for a guilted generation
Tripping Daisy I am an elastic firecracker
All Mastodon. Also have some Metallica, Gojira, Faith No More, Led Zeppelin andany others.
I have had at least one copy of this album since 1987
And this one will always sit next to it in my heart
Offspring- smash.
Pennywise- live at the key club.
That's it.
I haven't bought any music in the last fifteen years or so. I don't listen to music much anymore. I did put my entire CD collection on a USB stick last year to listen to but I don't have any way of listening to it besides my home theater system and at that point I'll just pop the CD in.
The only album that I can sing word for word from beginning to end is Megadeths countdown to extinction album. I would listen to that album for hours while trying to beat the original Ninja Gaiden back in the day. I probably haven't listened to that album since the mid nineties but it's still burned into my brain.
I dunno about keeping them but my copy of RTJ1 is stuck in the old CD player from the Mustang now and I'm pretty upset about it.
I've got a stack of vinyl left over from the 70s and 80s. AC/DC, Styx, ELO, Van Halen, The Doobie Brothers, the usual for that era.
I have a bunch of albums on my phone as well. Joe Bonamassa, George Thorogood, Blackberry Smoke, Zac Brown Band, Blues Traveler, The Tractors, The Robert Cray Band, Drowning Pool, Madison Rising, Train, Kenny G, Fleetwood Mac, Lorde, Pentatonix, Ewan Dobson, Steve Wingfield, Casting Crows, The Dead South, Bee Gees, Zeppelin, Lou Bega, Kreb' Mo', The Brooklyn Rhythm and Blues Project. There is a little bit of everything on there. I usually buy the albums if I'm downloading music. I don't mind paying the musician for his/her work.
Edit: I missed the Always part of the title.
Van Halen 1984
AC/DC Back in Black.
I have owned those in every available media since I was in high school.
I still have every album, tape and CD I've ever purchased. 
Tom Waits - Used Songs
The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart. I was about 9 or 10 when my friend and I got into his father’s collection of comedy records. He had dozens, Carlin, Prior Cosby, but the one I liked the most was Bob Newhart. There was something about his style of storytelling with the one sided conversation and absurd twists to ordinary situations that really struck me as funny. I asked to borrow it to copy onto a cassette and he let me keep it. I now have it on vinyl, cassette, and CD and still listen to it fairly regularly.
INXS The Swing and Listen Like Thieves
I wore out a couple cassettes of The Swing, in my younger days. Graduated to CD, and currently have digital copies of both albums {well, all of the INXS library, actually}.
RHCP- By the Way
The Cure- self titled
Metallica- St. Anger, Justice...
Mastodon- Crack the Skye, Emperor of Sand
A7X- City of Evil
Dream Theater- Systematic Chaos
Kenny Loggins- Return to Pooh Corner (an outlier, yes, but I loved this when I was little, still think it is the best single collection of lullabies and great for when I need to mellow out or put kiddos to bed)
Les Mis- original cast.
Oh yeah. This one too
Ive bought a couple of copies of Nobody's Perfect by Deep Purple over the years so i guess that qualifies.
Im stunned that it isnt considered to be a "good" live album
stuart in mn said:I still have every album, tape and CD I've ever purchased.
I'm with you. I have a hard time parting with music. I was swapping in a new(er) radio into Mrs. VCH's Camaro and she insisted on one with a tape deck, so she could listen to her Golden Earing tape. Then when i tried to put the cassette in it snapped off at the end of the tape. Now I'm contemplating prying the cassette apart to splice the end back together. I've done that with a bunch of old 8 tracks. They always break where the magnetic tape ends and the little bit of trailer tape is.
We have all the Steely Dan albums. I can also listen to pretty much everything in the Simon and Garfunkel catalogue, as well as Led Zeppelin.
Less Than Jake - Hello Rockview.
stuart in mn said:I still have every album, tape and CD I've ever purchased.
Same here. I can't imagine buying an album twice. Seems kinda wasteful. I've always gravitated toward media that were durable--vinyl and CD's.
I've never bought an album twice...most I haven't even bought once 
thus I also never need to move formats, just move files. I only buy DRM-free digital albums.
Some of the oldest (by date of addition) albums that haven't been excised from my collection are Drowning Pool's Sinner, Daft Punk's Discovery, and Yuzo Koshiro's SOR2.
I don't know how you count always "owning" it in this era of streaming music and technically it isn't a full album but I'll still turn on Alice in Chains Jar of Flies EP and listen to it end to end with some frequency.
I only have 3 albums, so I guess those are the 3 I always own?
Nightmare Revisited
Moana Soundtrack
Nativity In Black (1)
Bruce Springsteen Born To Run: have owned 2 vinyl / 1 home-recorded cassette / 1 CD / ripped to MP3
Pearl Jam Ten: 2 CD / ripped to MP3
This brought up something that should probably go in the minor confessions thread. I've never downloaded any music.
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