20. The Rheostatics The Blue Hysteria (Cargo) 1996
Few bands have meant more to Toronto over the years than the compulsively eclectic Rheostatics — and few bands have discographies that are harder to narrow down to just one great record. The Rheos could made this list for several fine albums — their 1989 break-through Melville, their follow-up to the soundtrack of the film by the same name Whale Music, their concept-driven children's album The Story of Harmelodia — but in the end it was The Blue Hysteria that made the cut. And deservingly so. The Blue Hysteria features some of the band's best moments: the anti-Mike Harris radio-pop of "Bad Time to be Poor", the sprawling epic "A Midwinter Night's Dream", the acousto-nostalgic "My First Rock Show". What better way to start our list than with Toronto's long-time unofficial rock laureates.

 

		19. The Barenaked Ladies Gordon (Reprise) 1992
The breakout success of Toronto's own homegrown Barenaked Ladies can be marked with the 1992 release of Gordon — a phenomenal hit that extensively influenced the Canadian alternative music scene. Initially selling 800,000 copies and making it to #1 on the music charts for eight weeks, the album stormed the Canadian music scene in large part thanks to video and interview exposure on Much Music. Launching the band across the nation, Gordon, which was produced in Toronto, could be heard in high school hallways and university dorm rooms across the country thanks to such songs as the poignant "Brian Wilson," the playful "Be My Yoko Ono" and the charmingly infectious "If I Had A Million Dollars," which have had endearing success and still enjoy continued radio play today. Gordon single-handedly made The Barenaked Ladies one of Canada's biggest acts — and the pride of Toronto.

 

		18. Main Source Breaking Atoms (Wild Pitch) 1991
This is Toronto's hip-hop baby. In fact, "Breaking Atoms" is stuff of hip-hop legend, as recognized by pretty much every respected aficionado this side of the universe. See, back in the early '90s there was this mad doctor/Afro-American named Large Professor. He, and his pair of Torontonian MC friends fucked around with a machine called an SP-1200. This machine would later be known as the father of all things hip-hop production as we know it today. It did everything. Overdub, scratch, cut, filter, chop, loop, and sample. Yes, Toronto's Main Source pioneered the art of sampling. (Well, they, and a select other clan of Kid n' Play look-alikes at the time, but that's beside the point.) Essentially, Breaking Atoms is the bible of Turntablism. Everyone you bump into these days jacked this sound one way or another. "Lookin at the front door," their best known single, is an anthem of the hip-hop world, an overture in fusing the soul of jazz with the street of raw beats. And lest we forget, "Live at the Barebeque" (think Gangstaar meets De La Soul) featured a young New Yorker named Nasty Nas. Yes, even Nas once ran with T dot. We had no clue either. That's how special this record is.

 

		17. The Constantines Shine a Light (Three Gut/Subpop) 2003
Shine a Light was the release that brought The Constantines out of obscurity and into the limelight. It literally breathes rock 'n' roll. The unique melodic sounds they mustered up, combined with the hard rock of distorted crunches made this one of Toronto's most likable albums ever — and one of the hardest to put down. The record finds the Constantines tweaking and fooling around with different sounds, experimenting in order to take steps forward — an effort easily heard on the album — and it paid off. The brilliant ideas that emerged from their collective brainstorm set the platform for their future success. "Nightime/Anytime" is one of a handful of jaw dropping Constantine tracks we've come to love — and one of the reasons Shine a Light clocks in at #17.

 

		16. Glenn Gould The Goldberg Variations (Columbia) 1955
In 1955, a twenty-three year-old Torontonian pianist by the name of Glenn Gould was about to go from being a concert and radio performer known only within Canada thanks to the CBC, to one of the world's most popular pianists — and it would all start with his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations in a New York City studio. As energetic as it is inspired, as imaginative as it is technically breath-taking, Gould's Goldberg Variations was a revolutionary reinvention of Bach's work. It was one of the best selling classical albums of its day and even though he'd go on to record a more subdued take on the same piece twenty-six years later, it's the 1955 recording that is still the most respected. More than half a century after he sat down in that studio, Gould's original Goldberg Variations still hasn't been out of print for a single day.