iTunes - add individual albums to ipod?

So I have an iTunes question for you all... is there a way to add only individual albums of an artist to my ipod, or can i only add the entire artist's catalog? Example - I have 50 gigs of a particular artist in my itunes but only want to have around 20 shows or albums of theirs on my ipod. Can I select those specific albums without putting them into a playlist, or is that my only option? I can't figure it out and its been bugging me...

put your ipod into manually manage mode and drag and drop whatever albums or songs you want.

its in manual mode but it doesn't let me open up an artist to access the library... i just have the option to get to the artist (not the albums).

do i fail at itunes?

??? - Just change iTunes to grid view which shows all your music by album - drag one and drop it on your ipod

i'll give that a shot... thank you sir!