My Top 100 Albums (40-31)

The countdown continues as we reach the top 40.  The selections have gotten even harder from here but we're now waist deep in bands and albums that I absolutely love.  Just a reminder that there's only one album per band/singer allowed on the list.  On to number 40!

#40

Black Holes and Revelations

Muse

In prior entries I've talked about the six months I spent in New Jersey during college for an internship and how I was more or less solo for the majority of that time.  A couple months into the job, I decided that I would grow a goatee.  The problem with that is that I can't grow facial hair.  So, after two weeks, the goatee looked like a three year old's drawing of a house; you can tell what it's supposed to be but it doesn't look anything like what it's supposed to.  My boss's boss stopped me in the hallway after those two weeks and advised me that I should remove it for the sake of my workplace image.  Even worse, he suggested that I not even wait until the end of the day and I should take care of this during my lunch break.  I went back to my apartment, shaved and for a few minutes sat on the futon mattress on the floor that was serving as my makeshift bed and thought "this is really not going well at all".  Looking back, the whole experience was, in fact, going well and this higher-up had given me a valuable piece of advice.  It's beneficial to have people in your life to tell you when something is a bad idea or just to provide honest feedback.  Past success can be an impediment to finding this advice because either people will be less likely to question you or, even if they do, you may ignore them because you've been successful in the past so what do they know?

Muse is a band that has continually tried new things over the course of their career that has spanned eight albums over 21 years.  They started as a pure rock band and gradually experimented more and more with electronic instrumentation to varying degrees of success.  As the band grew more successful, some of the sound on the subsequent albums got larger and larger to the point where it felt like they were trying to fit an elephant into a port-o-potty.  Some of this newer sound doesn't connect with me but I applaud their initiative to try something new and inventive rather than just trying to repeat the sounds of prior albums.  It's also incredible to me that a band of three primary members can make a collective sound so loud that it borders on a full orchestra.

Following the solid rock album of Absolution, their third album which was propelled by hits like "Time Is Running Out" and "Hysteria", Muse released Black Holes and Revelations which ratcheted up the scale of the album aided by adding more synthesizers.  The synthesizer experiment continued further and further on the next two albums, The Resistance and The 2nd Law, the latter of which, in my opinion, took the electronic sound too far.  They started to sound less like a rock band and more like a synth show even though there were hits I liked including "Madness", "Undisclosed Desires" and "Panic Station".  Like a misguided twenty year old mistakenly trying to grow facial hair, the band needed someone to tell them to give them honest feedback.  Either no one was brave enough to provide the feedback or their past success closed their ears off to those kinds of suggestions.  

Muse attempted to get back to more of their rock roots with Drones which I thought was a middle of the road, perfectly serviceable rock album (lead singer Matt Bellamy's fresh divorce from Kate Hudson could have played a factor in the album's production).  Their latest release, Simulation Theory, is actually an album that I enjoyed the most since Black Holes, even though the synthesizer influence returned in full.  I just spent the last two paragraphs saying how they shouldn't lean into the synth sound too much but now I'm praising the synth-heavy Simulation Theory.  One more brick in the 7 foot wall of evidence that I shouldn't be a music critic.  

Black Holes and Revelations was a Goldilocks moment for the band to my listening preference.  The songs were more operatic than those on a standard rock album and there was just enough electronic influence to make the sound interesting without overwhelming the album.  "Starlight", "Map Of The Problematique", "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Knights of Cydonia" are some of the highlights.  I'm really looking forward to what the trio has in store in future albums but they've already built a very successful catalog highlighted by album number 40. 

#39

Only By The Night

Kings of Leon

In my only major traffic accident, I rear-ended another car at a stop light in late 2008.  I had never been in a car when the airbags deployed.  No one warned me how dusty that experience is.  I was convinced that the car was on fire.  I'm sure my girlfriend at the time enjoyed not only being in an unnecessary traffic accident but also talking me off the ledge that the car was not on fire (shades of Ricky Bobby).  

Despite this accident that occurred around 4 PM, I was still determined that we make the 8 PM Kings of Leon show at The Electric Factory, a relatively small venue in Philadelphia.  I'm glad I did because, as the band announced at that show much to the chagrin of the crowd, it would be the last time the band would play a venue that small.  The crowd was actually so angry at the decision that most of those in the front row turned their backs on the band when they played "Sex On Fire".  That was hard for me to understand since I had just started listening to the band seven months earlier.  

Similar to many others, my first real exposure to Kings of Leon was through the album Only By The Night which included the hits "Sex On Fire", "Crawl", "Closer" and "Use Somebody", a song that was driven into the ground so hard that it resurfaced on the other side of the planet.  After wearing out that album in 2008, I made my way to their previous three albums and I particularly enjoyed Aha Shake Heartbreak ("King Of The Rodeo", "The Bucket") and Because of the Times ("On Call", "Knocked Up" but really the whole album is great). 

As much as I enjoyed the earlier work and even the later albums, especially the latest album WALLS, the decision for the list came down to Because of the Times or Only By The Night.  The knock against Night would be that the hits have been overplayed but that's by no fault of the band.  Going back to how I felt hearing each album the first time, Only By The Night takes today's spot on the list.  

12 years later and the album still holds up.  I would be tempted to say that the number 39 album is "on fire" but I don't want to give myself a panic attack.  *checks self to see if on fire*

#38

August and Everything After

Counting Crows

"Mr. Jones" was one of the first songs I remember hearing on the radio and wanting to own.  Purchasing a CD was a big endeavor that involved parental consent and a monetary loan so it was much easier to just record the song off the radio onto a cassette even if the sound quality was akin to listening to the song inside a tin can.  Plus you could never be sure when the song would even play on the radio.  The safest bet was during the weekly Top 40 Countdown but that presented its own problems.  The Casey Kasem hosted countdown aired on our local radio station on Sunday mornings from 8 AM to noon which meant that it overlapped considerably with Sunday Catholic mass and, on some Sundays, catechism.  Sometimes I would miss the song that I wanted completely or, even worse, the song would come on when we were two minutes away from the house which meant that I would just miss being able to run inside and press record.  On those days I would carry resentment toward my parents for a couple hours at their dilly-dallying after mass ("just haaaad to talk to the LeBeau family for those five minutes huh?").  
 
Thankfully "Mr. Jones" was one of the songs that I was able to successfully capture.  The rest of the 1993 August and Everything After album passed me by for the most part until I was a teenager with the full power of Napster at my fingertips.  "Round Here", "Omaha" and "Rain King" were my favorites and they're still the tracks for which I turn the volume up a little higher.  But I appreciate the album for being able to just hit play around the house or in the car and not worry about which song is coming up next.  
 
As much as I enjoyed "Mr. Jones" on the radio, I would learn to enjoy it in a new form when I met my friend Chris when we were both on work rotations in Jacksonville.  Chris has a good voice and once or twice would coerce his way into a stint on the microphone at a bar with a band where his go-to song was "Mr. Jones".  He saved the best version for his wedding day though.  I don't think he pulled it out in the delivery room for the birth of his son though.  I'm always impressed by his ability to actually sing in front of people and to remember the words to what is a deceptively tricky song lyrically.  
 
You'd be well within your right to have Hard Candy penciled into this list but, for me, Counting Crows never flew higher (bird pun, yay) than album number 38 August and Everything After.

#37

The King Is Dead

The Decemberists

I can almost smell the campfire on my clothes by the time this gem of an album wraps up.  The Decemberists took my favorite song "Sons and Daughters" from 2006 and expanded it into album form with the tweaks of ramping up the Americana folk influence and the guest guitar work of R.E.M.'s Peter Buck.  The result is 2011's The King Is Dead.  

Like I mentioned, I think the ideal setting for this album is around an evening campfire but it really plays anywhere as a relaxing listen.  The whole album is strong but "This Is Why We Fight" was the song that drew my attention back to The Decemberists after a couple albums that didn't connect with me.  It's probably not a coincidence that three of my favorite songs on the album are the ones for which Peter Buck lends his guitar talent ("Don't Carry It All", "Calamity Song" and "Down By The Water").

"Rox In The Box" is an upbeat workers anthem masking the absolutely brutal work performed by Montana miners at the turn of the 20th century, specifically the Speculator Mine disaster in 1917.  It's not a pleasant story but the struggle of the American blue collar worker is a running theme in the history of the early 20th century and it's this song specifically that could have been sung around a worker encampment bonfire in the 1920s.  It blends in with the album's theme perfectly.  Side note:  the Solas "Tell God and the Devil" covers this same topic with a similar folk song.

 

"January Hymn" and "June Hymn" are beautiful, slowed down tracks while the closing track "Dear Avery" has taken on a different meaning for me since our second daughter, Avery, was born in July 2019.  She seems ambivalent when I sing this to her in the car.  That's not likely to change as she gets older.  

The only songs that leave me a little cold are "Rise To Me" and "All Arise!" (too twangy and leans a little too hard into the folk sound).  But even discounting those two songs isn't enough to knock this stellar album out of the top 40 and it comes in at number 37 on the list.  

#36

21

Adele

This album might be number 36 on the list but Adele has a top ten voice that's able to pack arenas, sell millions of albums, and maybe even provide common ground for the deepest of divisions.  Through a discography that's shaping up to sound like last night's lotto winners (19, 21, 25), Adele has proven to be a staying force in the musical landscape.  

I've written before about being fortunate enough to have friends and family who were generous enough to share their good taste with me, not only in music, but also in movies, books and even plays.  Few people were more influential to me than Dan, my first manager after college.  He not only looked out for me professionally and helped me navigate the corporate world but also provided me with some entertainment recommendations that had a lasting impact well after I rotated to my next position.  

One of the downsides to my first job was that during our quarterly closings, our team would have to stay at the office until about 2 or 3 AM.  There would be lulls and waiting periods throughout the night during which our team (seven people with ages ranging from 22 to 29) could converse about topics at length other than work.  Music, movies, TV and New York plays/shows were the main points of conversation and it was great for me to hear new and different opinions.  

After a while, I knew Dan and I had similar taste (David Fincher, The Killers, Arrested Development) so when he started providing recommendations, I listened.  If not for him I would have missed out on seeing shows like Spring Awakening (pre-fame Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele) or August: Osage County as well as movies like Half Nelson.  He also put the bug in my ear early about Adele and he was the one who got me a copy of 21 before "Rolling In The Deep" overtook the airwaves and just society in general.  "Rumor Has It", "Someone Like You", "Set Fire To The Rain" and "Turning Tables" also got frequent CD play in my car during my hour-long commute.  

The older I get the more I'm able to look back on my career and see with appreciation how many people looked out for me.  Dan was one of those people both professionally and personally and for that I'm very grateful.  I should call him more often.  It would give me a reason to say "Hellooo.....it's me...."

Adele put out an equally stellar album 25 in 2016 but the album 21, coming in at number 36 today, will likely be viewed as her go-to album and for good reason.  

#35

Throwing Copper

Live

Searching for music from the band Live was a nightmare when music streaming sites launched.  You can imagine the flood of results that were returned by just typing in the word "live".  But it was worth the effort to capture their music from the 1994 triple platinum Throwing Copper.  

The album's success was built around singles "Selling The Drama", "I Alone" and "All Over You".  But it's "Lightning Crashes" that vaults this album not only above other Live albums but also into the ranks of top rock albums of the 90s.  It's a song that seems like it shouldn't work.  The subject matter is a little grisly and macabre as the first minute of the song describes a mother passing away while giving birth.  It compelled the eleven year old version of me to look up the word "placenta" in the dictionary (pre-internet!).  I found the definition, slowly closed the book, and backed away.  My take on the song is that it's meant to examine the dichotomy between death and birth and the endless cycle of human life.  But that's weighty for a rock song especially when one of the top albums released that same year, Green Day's Dookie, was a euphemism for poop.  But some mid-90s rock listeners never shied away from darker lyrics in songs (e.g. Vervepipe's "The Freshman" or Ben Folds's "Brick") so maybe it's not so much of a stretch that this song was a smash.  

What's consistent across the whole album is lead singer Ed Kowalczyk's excellent voice.  There are some songs that don't strike a chord with me ("Pillar of Davidson", "Shit Towne") but the overall album is so strong that those slight dips are rarely noticed.  

Normally I advise sticking to the original album rather the "deluxe" version that Spotify offers on some albums.  Most of the additional tracks offered in these deluxe versions are demos or extra tracks that were omitted from the original album for good reason.  But this album is the exception.  One of the three extra tracks is "Hold Me Up".  I have no idea why the band thought that this song didn't belong on the original album.  I think it's one of the best songs they've ever made and it fits tonally with the rest of the album.  

 

I'll always have a soft spot for their 1999 album The Distance To Here ("The Dolphin's Cry", "Run To The Water", "They Stood Up For Love") but it still stands a full foot shorter than the band's sophomore effort Throwing Copper.  The band would continue on for a few more years with varying success until the original band split for good in 2009.  But as Throwing Copper celebrates its twenty-five year anniversary this year, it stands as a landmark to the band's accomplishments and as the number 35 album here.

#34

There Is Nothing Left To Lose

Foo Fighters

Runner-Up:  The Colour And The Shape

Bronze Medal:  In Your Honour

Honorable Mention:  Wasting Light

The third album from Foo Fighters whose title also accurately captures how my daughters apparently feel about winter hats and gloves at schoo (dad jokes!).  If I wrote this ten years earlier that joke would have read instead as "how I feel the morning after a hard night out at the bars". 

The Colour And The Shape will likely always be the classic Foo Fighters album as it includes "Everlong", "My Hero" and "Monkey Wrench" but it's their follow-up 1999 album that takes the spot on the list today.  Over the last 25 years the band has put out nine albums and TINLTL manages to stand out as the most unique and not just because it's the shortest Grohl would ever cut his hair.  

I love a good, loud rock anthem and Foo Fighters are able to supply that with ease across multiple albums (e.g. "Walk", "Best Of You", "St. Cecilia").  But this album, while still firmly in the rock and roll genre, is a little mellower than the band's other work.  That's partly because the band consisted of three members for this album which is half the size of the band's lineup currently.  So while the sound may not reach as grandiose levels, the songs sound more intimate.  It's also the first album for which Taylor Hawkins serves as the drummer.  Hawkins has been one of the better influences musically on the band over the years and that comes through as early as this album.  

"Learn To Fly" has been, and probably always will be, my favorite Foo Fighters song and it spawned the band's best music video.  It involves an airplane, hallucinogen-spiked coffee, pre-fame Tenacious D (for whom Grohl would serve as the drummer on their next album), and the band's trio managing to save all of a plane's passengers because they were drinking scotch instead of coffee during the flight.  It's a classic early aughts video for which Grohl plays six parts and highlights the band's fun-loving nature as opposed to the self-seriousness of Grohl's prior band Nirvana.  

"Stacked Actors", "Breakout", "Generator", "MIA" are the other highlights here.  There's also what's probably one of the bands best ballads in "Next Year" which I will forever associate with the theme song to the gone-too-soon TV show Ed.  

No doubt that Foo Fighters will continue releasing solid rock albums for years to come.  Grohl stated on Bill Simmons's podcast that there's no point in Foo Fighters breaking up now.  He equated it to your grandparents getting a divorce.  "What's the point?  What the f*ck are they gonna do?"  It'll be interesting how the band progresses in the future.  Grohl has had a hand in a number of bands either getting started or furthering their success (Queens of the Stone Age, Tenacious D) so it wouldn't be surprising if there are more side projects along the way.  

But There Is Nothing Left To Lose, today's album coming in at number 34, will in all likelihood remain my favorite release from the band.

#33

Hold My Home

Cold War Kids

Runner-Up:  Robbers and Cowards

Bronze Medal:  LA Divine

Honorable Mention:  Loyalty To Loyalty

It's no secret that Joseph A. Bank runs a "sale" almost every weekend of the year.  It's a gimmick and it's meant to spur potential buyers to buy three suits to drive the price per suit lower.  But running a sale that often just becomes white noise and consumers no longer view the sale announcement as a special event.  The same can be true of bands and album releases.  Release an album too infrequently and your fan base loses its fervor for your music.  Release an album too often and the albums could suffer in quality.  

Few bands are more prolific in terms of album releases than Cold War Kids.  Over 13 years the band has released eight albums including three in the last four years.  Thus far in the band's career the frequent releases haven't resulted in a downturn in quality.  One of the benefits of such frequent album releases, other than the obvious benefit of enjoying their well made music, is that I'm able to connect each album to what was going on in my life at the time.  

I remember listening to 2007's Robbers and Cowards in the hospital when my mom was receiving chemotherapy (the song "Hospital Beds" hit a little too close to home at the time). 2013's Dear Miss Lonelyhearts was around the time of our wedding.  2017's LA Divine and 2019's New Age Norms 1 were both released around the births of both of my daughters.  I know it's common for certain songs or albums to tie the listener to a particular experience or feeling or moment but with this band, the frequency of this band's album output has made that easy.  

It's also encouraging that the albums released are consistently of high quality.  There's no one album from the band that's completely blown me away but they've been consistently solid.  So instead of one "A+" album, there are six to seven "B+" to "A-" albums.  The strength of the band has always relied on the underlying use of the piano and lead singer Nathan Willet's voice which somehow effectively achieves a mix of wounded but upbeat.  I know "true" fans of the band turn their nose up a bit at the newer releases like LA Divine but I love the sound of that album particularly songs like "Can We Hang On" and "Part Of The Night" where lead singer Nathan Willett's voice can really shine.  But I also love the band's early work like Robbers and Cowards ("We Used to Vacation", "Hang Me Out To Dry") and Loyalty to Loyalty ("Something Is Not Right With Me", "Dreams Old Men Dream").  

But it's 2014's Hold My Home that represents the band's apex to me.  The pounding piano notes of "All This Could Be Yours" grabs your attention out of the gate and that's followed by the band's biggest commercial success "First".  "Drive Desperate" (my favorite on the album), "Hold My Home", "Nights & Weekends" and the closing track "Hear My Baby Call" are the other highlights here.  

If I'm lucky, I'll be able to keep tying life events to Cold War Kids album releases like my daughter's graduation or bingo night at the nursing home.  I'll take as much good music that this band can churn out regardless of how frequent the releases occur.  But if the band decides to take an extra year or two to make a product as good as the number 33 album, Hold My Home, I'd be happy to wait patiently.  

#32

Full Moon Fever

Tom Petty

Runner-Up:  Wildflowers

Bronze Medal:  Damn The Torpedoes

Honorable Mention:  Into The Great Wide Open

A titan of rock and roll, Tom Petty makes his contribution to the list with today's entry Full Moon Fever.  I'm combining Tom Petty's solo work and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers all as one discography (same will go for Springsteen and the E Street Band).  There may not be an artist on this list who's an easier listen than Petty and it's hard to tell whether that's due to his voice or the guitar work.  It's probably unfair to place Petty this far down the list and the main reason is that I have typically always listened to his music in the form of a "best of" playlist rather than in album form.  In the case of a mega-talent like Petty, that playlist can stretch for over three hours.  

Those playlists very often served as the background music of many trips and memories with my best friends from college.  Petty's music provided the audio backdrop to eating Mexican food at 3 AM our senior year, renting a houseboat for three days in Tennessee as a one year college reunion, an impromptu road trip senior year to Winston-Salem to help one of our best friends check out Wake Forest law school and, my favorite, pulling into lake cabins in upper peninsula Michigan at 6 AM after a 13 hour drive and seeing the sun come up over the lake as "Learning To Fly" played on the radio.  Petty's music is primed to put you in a good mood already but the fact that I associate fun memories like those just adds to my preference for his songs.

Tom Petty versus Bruce Springsteen has been an informal competition to me (shades of Pearl Jam versus Nirvana) and I'm not sure if that's widespread or if it's just in my head.  They rose to prominence at roughly the same time and both went through stretches where they released solo work as well as of members of a band (Heartbreakers and E Street Band).  Petty's work is almost as voluminous as Springsteen's but it's not dissected with nearly the same minutiae.  Petty's work is the easier listen and that's not necessarily a bad thing especially depending on your mood.  There are some nights that I'd rather just have a beer and sing along to "Free Fallin'" rather than put myself in a three day funk by listening to Nebraska.  For anyone starting to get riled up that I'm attacking Springsteen, calm yourself; his entry is still coming.  They're both immensely talented and I love both of catalogs for somewhat different reasons.

Full Moon Fever takes the spot as the Petty entry by a fairly wide margin but I could have also included Wildflowers here instead.  It's just hard to compete with an album that includes "Free Fallin'", "Yer So Bad", "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin' Down A Dream" and "Love Is a Long Road".  This was Petty's first solo album, which was also about the time that Springsteen ventured out on his own with Tunnel of Love.  Petty brought in members of his side band The Traveling Wilburys (except Bob Dylan) to help record and it's easy to hear their influence on the album.  Wilburys are another band well worth the listen and aren't talked about enough as a strong rock band (self-guilt and apologies to Kingsley that they won't make it on this list).

What is on the list is Full Moon Fever, an incredibly strong album from a rock and roll legend.  We won't mention the acting career.  We'll just focus on album number 32.

#31

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire

Runner-Up:  Funeral

The band that has somehow become synonymous with hipsters, here's an Arcade Fire entry to kick off the top 40.  Their debut album Funeral was released in 2004 which somehow completely passed me by as I had more pressing matters in my life, like trying to fit in during freshman year of college while occasionally and naively wearing Aeropostale gear.  So Arcade Fire wouldn't show up on my radar for another three years when they were promoting their next album Neon Bible as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live (they actually participated in one of my favorite short sketches "Business Meeting") and their song "Wake Up" was used in the trailer for Where The Wild Things Are.

The band was large both in number of members and, as a result of that much instrumentation, in sound.  That could result in songs that sounded grand in scale like "Rebellion" or "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" but it could also result in some songs sounding too crowded or a little out of control.  That left me as a casual fan of the band up until 2010 when their next album, The Suburbs, was released.  

The Suburbs more effectively harnessed the large sound of the band by scaling down the complexity even if that meant scaling down the enormity of the sound.  That's obvious from the opening track "The Suburbs" where the gentle piano and gentle Partridge Family guitar strumming actually evokes images of a 1950s family driving through their perfect neighborhood.  But that's contrasted against lyrics of "sometimes I can't believe it / I'm moving past the feeling" which I interpret to mean moving past caring about larger issues and settling into the seclusion and insulated safety net of the suburbs.  

The last notes of "The Suburbs" bleeds right into "Ready To Start", "Modern Man" and "Rococo" which makes for a stellar start to the album.  The rest of the way is littered with solid track after solid track from "Suburban War" to "We Used to Wait" until the album's finale of "The Sprawl I & II" and a closing orchestration of the opening "The Suburbs" which leaves the album on a slight melancholy note.  

The band's subsequent albums didn't strike a chord with me but it's impossible for  me to leave The Suburbs off any "best of" list and it comes in at number 31 here, just missing out on the top 30.

We're on to the top 30 so there will be a new post tomorrow (12/7) taking us from numbers 30 to 21.  I appreciate you sticking with it this far!

My Top 100 Albums (50-41)

Halfway to the finish line when I pull the rug out from everyone and list one of Yanni's albums as my favorite of all time!

Clearly I'm a fan of all the albums that have been listed already in slots 100-51 but now we're getting to the really good stuff.  Reminder that the rule is one album per band and only one soundtrack allowed.  The soundtrack rule came back to bite me in this portion of the list as I had Prince's Purple Rain album originally in this section before realizing that it's technically a soundtrack.  I had to throw it out since that spot already went to the Godzilla soundtrack.  I think it's obvious that culturally Purple Rain will be remembered just a little more than the soundtrack to a 1998 cash grab remake but, again, this is a personal list and not a critical list.  Also, I think enough accolades have fallen on the Purple Rain album without me regurgitating that I love "When Doves Cry" or "Let's Go Crazy".  

Keep the feedback coming.  It's nice to hear that people are at least casually following along and hopefully it's been a nice distraction from all the post-election nonsense and COVID news.  

Also, I wanted to point out that this year people will rely on food banks more than ever especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming.  If you're local to Philadelphia, you can donate at Philabundance of if you can visit Feeding America to donate nationally or find your local food bank.  Even if you're reading this post-holidays, it's a donation that's welcomed 365 days a year.

On to the next ten entries...

#50

Play

Moby

Morgan Freeman's character Red in The Shawshank Redemption states that in prison "a man will do just about anything to keep his mind occupied".  The same can be said for 14 year-olds on 13 hour family car rides.  Every year my family would travel from Indiana to our family's cabins in the upper peninsula of Michigan for camping and fishing.  It was my favorite time of the year but the car ride could be brutal for long stretches.  My entertainment consisted mainly of two forms: 

1. Watching my parents try to navigate Chicago traffic in the pre-Garmin, or even MapQuest, era ("Wait, was that was our exit?!?  You have to tell me sooner so I can merge over!!").
2. Using my fancy CD walkman with non-skip technology.  

My CD wallet back then was pretty lean so after one hour (probably of the Godzilla soundtrack) and one battery change, I was pestering my sister to let me borrow some of her collection.  What she loaned me during the summer of 1999 was Moby's album Play.  I hadn't heard much electronic music other than from a very few artists like Fatboy Slim.  The sound of Play was akin to what I had previously heard but some tracks sounded altogether different.  I listened and enjoyed the first seven tracks, then I got to "Natural Blues".  Then I listened to "Natural Blues" again.  Then again.  Then my sister asked for the disc back.  I turned the volume up and listened again.  I really had never heard anything like it.

Similar to what Avicii's TRUE album would accomplish almost 15 years later, Play was a fusion of techno sound and folk/bluegrass sound.  The main difference between TRUE and Play is that the samples Moby uses have much more of a southern feel, as many of them are taken from field recordings taken from Alan Lomax's sprawling 1993 box set Sounds of the South:  A Musical Journey From The Georgia Sea Islands to the Mississippi Delta.  The blend between these soulful, and sometimes even mournful, samples and the electronic sound was unique then and still stands on its own now, even though a few others have attempted to follow in its footsteps.  

Not every track on the album uses these southern samples and it's clear to differentiate which ones do and do not.  The tracks that use the samples are superior to the rest of the album with the most notable including "Honey", "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad", "Run On", "Natural Blues" and "Flower" (a B-side track also known as "Bring Sally Up" to anyone who has participated in the Crossfit workout).  That's not to say that the other tracks are bad.  On the contrary, there's plenty to enjoy including "Bodyrock", "Porcelain" and especially "South Side".  

The original album was 18 tracks that ended with "My Weakness".  A "B-side" supplement was also released and Spotify conveniently combines the two into one album.  The B-sides are worth the listen, most notably "Flower", a track so strong that it's hard to reason why it wasn't included on the original album.  

But even if you stick to the original 18 track album it's still worthy of the number 50 album, not to mention being the temporary salvation to a 14 year old's boredom as he rode through Wisconsin.  

#49

Forever Blue

Chris Isaak

There are some foods like oysters on which there seems to be very little middle ground in regards to taste; people either love them or hate them.  The same can be said for the voice of the artist behind the number 49 album, Chris Isaak.  You either love his voice or it's just not for you. And if you're out on it, then there's no amount of musical accompaniment that can redeem his songs.  I love his voice and I think it's a perfect pairing to the rock-a-billy guitar sound that can be heard on many of his albums.  

This selection came down to two albums.  1989's Heart Shaped World was his breakthrough album but 1995's Forever Blue was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album of 1995 before losing to Jagged Little Pill (Tom Petty's Wildflowers and Pearl Jam's Vitalogy also nominated).   Heart Shaped World's biggest song is undoubtedly "Wicked Game" which resulted in the music video that I'm convinced jump-started my puberty.  The whole album is strong with "Heart Shaped World", "Diddley Daddy" and "I'm Not Waiting" but it's still not as complete as Forever Blue.

Forever Blue's core of "Somebody's Crying", "Graduation Day", "Go Walking Down There" and "I Believe" is really hard to top and, in my opinion, he never did.  There's also the single "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing" which was used two years later in the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman/Stanley Kubrick/"what the actual hell?" movie Eyes Wide Shut. 

It's a close call and both albums are worthy of consideration but Forever Blue is a more complete album and it takes the number 49 spot.

#48

Exile on Main St.

The Rolling Stones

I was at a driving range recently trying to not focus on how much time and money I've spent on golf for such minimal improvement when I overheard the following excerpt of a conversation between two men.

Man 1:  How's life as a new dad?

Man 2:  It's great man.  

Man 1:  How old is he now?  Three weeks?

Man 2:  Two weeks.  But I love it.  When I come home and see him smile at me, it just puts everything in perspective.

Bullshit alarm blaring on full blast.  Zero chance his son is smiling at him.  Maybe his face muscles are coincidentally moving in a smile formation but it's either at random or that kid is relieving himself.  There's not a two week old in the world that can go through the mental checklist of "hey, there's a guy, that's my dad, I like my dad, I'll smile at him now".  Pretty harmless white lie from the new dad and I understand why he said it.  He's just trying to say what he thinks he's supposed to say.  

And that logic applies to the way that I have talked about The Rolling Stones for years.  I continually acknowledged them as a top rock band despite the fact that I felt lukewarm about them at best and really only knew their major hits.  But it felt like musical reverence was the expected treatment of the group.  So for years I blindly just counted them as a top rock band without actually doing the musical diligence of listening to most of their albums.  When COVID restrictions swapped my office for my house, I had music playing the majority of the time that I wasn't in a meeting.  I used that opportunity to finally give the full catalog of The Rolling Stones a chance.  

What's dangerous about bands like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, etc. is that they can become a security blanket for listening habits.  The songs are good, they're well known, no one will ever challenge your musical taste if you listen to them.  But giving too much reverence to these groups can throw up a roadblock to discovering and fully exploring new bands.  The mythos of those legendary bands can also challenge the ability to fairly evaluate their work versus more recent bands.  I think it's important to acknowledge the contribution that many older bands have made and to realize that their influence paved the way for generations of other bands.  But older or classic rock doesn't mean it's superior to what's been released in the last thirty years.  So I tried to listen to the albums of The Rolling Stones as impartially as I could. 

They won't go down as my favorite band but their ability to stay relevant, mostly through the sheer volume of quality work, over multiple generations is admirable.  The earlier albums didn't strike a chord with me and I doubt I revisit them any time soon and the same can be said for anything after the mid-70s.  But there's a four album stretch in the late sixties/early seventies that is clearly the height of their ability and it's easy to see how they paved the way for some subsequent rock groups.

The album that I enjoyed the most was Exile On Main St. which is interesting because it's the album that contained no familiar songs to me.  The other albums in contention, Beggar's Banquet and Let It Bleed were also solid and contained some bigger hits like "Sympathy For The Devil" or "You Can't Always Get What You Want" but there were some longer songs on each of those albums that I wanted to move past.  Exile's sound was more akin to today's rock and I've been able to just let it play in its entirety which, at 18 tracks, is a testament to its consistency.  

I'll never be a diehard fan of the group but at least I feel like I've given them a legitimate chance now.  It was important to me to evaluate their work on a level playing field and judge it the same as I would an album that was released in 2017 by a brand-new band.  The band is justified in its place in rock history and Exile On Main St. is deserving of the number 48 album on my prestigious list.  The album could have climbed a few spots higher were it not for the actions of Mick Jagger.  No one talks to John Mulaney that way.

#47

Guero

Beck

In 1996, one of my friends and I agreed to swap a few albums by recording our CDs onto cassette.  I gave him Will Smith's Big Willie Style and I think Jock Jams 2.  He gave me Everclear's So Much For The Afterglow and Beck's Odelay.  Adam, if you're reading this, I'm still so sorry.  This has been a trend in my life from a music consumption perspective. I've been lucky enough to have friends (and a sibling) who are generous enough expose me to broader and often better music.  

You can imagine the sound quality of a cassette recording of a CD played through a mid-nineties boom box but even with all those obstacles, I could still hear how amazing Odelay was from the first notes of "Devil's Haircut".  Listening to it now in superior listening conditions only reinforces that fact, especially songs like "The New Pollution" and "Where It's At". But as great as Odelay is, Guero is better.  Side note:  guero means pale-skinned or blonde person and, according to a two second Google search, can be used as a slur.  So I guess it's not surprising it never came up in my three years of high school Spanish.  

The opening track of "E-Pro" has such aggressive and driving guitar work.  That's starkly contrasted two songs later by "Girl" which sounds like it was recorded as the soundtrack to an 8-bit NES game.  They're two of his best songs and it speaks to the diversity of sound he's been able to produce over a long and prolific career.  The rest of the album is propped up by the local neighborhood sound of "Que' Onda Guero", the bass track "Black Tambourine", "Rental Car" and, toward the end, the slowed down "Go It Alone" and the cowboy-feel "Farewell Ride".

 I don't feel that Beck is underrated and the musical world definitely gives him his due but the man has been making quality work since 1994.  He's done this in a variety of musical styles but none has suited him better than the work he put out in the number 47 album Guero.  Some ears were able to pick up on how special he was back in 1996.  Others were busy gettin' jiggy with it.  Again, Adam, I'm so sorry.

#46

Megalithic Symphony

AWOLNATION

Some of my college friends discovered the band Under The Influence of Giants in 2006.  Sadly, that band's duration lasted only one album but it's still very much worth the listen, especially "In The Clouds", "Got Nothing" and "Mama's Room".  I missed the boat on that band's arrival and departure but when lead singer Aaron Bruno debuted his next band's debut album five years later in 2011, I was paying attention. 

AWOLNATION's first album Megalithic Symphony achieved commercial success thanks in large part to its popular single "Sail".  But it would be a mistake to label the rest of the album as just filler around that hit song.  It's interesting that this was the song that resonated at a mass level because I count numerous other songs as superior on the album.  

The original album is 14 tracks (11 if you don't count the three short intro or skit tracks) but the Spotify version is 32 songs.  I wouldn't recommend the extended version as the more concise original album packs more of a punch.  "People", "Kill Your Heroes", "Jump On Your Shoulders", "Not Your Fault", "Soul Wars", and "Wake Up" are the highlights but, counting "Sail", that's half the album.  

The songs are upbeat but still carry a bit of an edge to them, like singing "Walkin' On Sunshine" at karaoke with your concealed-carry visible to the crowd.  The three follow-up albums have had their moments but the band's first full album, coming in here at number 46, is their best output so far.

#45

Sixteen Stone

Bush

The album that took my fifth grade basketball team by storm, Sixteen Stone was the debut album from English rockers Bush.  As one of our practices was getting ready to start, I overheard some of the middle schoolers who were walking off the court talking about how great this album was.  I had no idea what "sixteen stone" meant and, even after utilizing Wikipedia, I'm still not entirely sure what they're referencing other than some general English weight.  

But slight title confusion doesn't dampen the impact of how many hits were on this album.  "Comedown", "Machinehead", "Glycerine", "Everything Zen", "Little Things" and "Alien" stood head and shoulders above the rest of the other tracks but that was always my problem with albums from Bush.  I would love half of the album could be phenomenal but the other half would be largely forgettable and bland.  Normally that would mean that none of their albums would make the list but the six tracks on Sixteen Stone are so strong that it's impossible to not include it here.  The rest of the songs aren't bad, they just feel more like filler to me.  

I stuck with Bush for two more albums but after The Science of Things ("Letting the Cables Sleep", "Chemicals Between Us") they drifted off my radar until their break-up.  I haven't been overly impressed with any of their work since they've reconvened in the last few years but their 1994 album Sixteen Stone, coming in at number 45 here, will go down as a classic semi-grunge, semi-hard rock album.   

#44

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

Imagine being forced to complete a group project with your ex-significant other.  Now imagine that the content of the work revolves around each other's shortcomings and the demise of the relationship itself.  Pretty safe to say that's not a recipe for healthy a healthy working environment and the work itself will likely suffer.  That was not the case for Fleetwood Mac.  Similar to how The Bachelor uses relationship drama to generate huge ratings and ad revenue, Fleetwood Mac used that same ingredient to help generate some of the best albums of their generation.  Both the TV show and the band do however share the common output of failed relationships.

My parents would play the soothing sounds of Fleetwood Mac softly when I was little and had trouble sleeping.  But if the melody of their songs is a placid lake, the lyrics are choppy water with the occasional seven foot wave.  That's especially true for the album Rumours.  The behind-the-scenes production story of the album is so well known that by now it's more legend than fact, but to summarize the state of the band heading into writing and recording Rumours:  keyboardist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie decided to end eight years of marriage and wouldn't speak to each other except to work on the album, drummer Mick Fleetwood discovered his wife had an affair with his best friend, and guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks were having a rocky on again/off again relationship that was heading for a permanent off again status.  

Nowadays if it's rumored that Taylor Swift wrote a song that alludes to an ex-boyfriend, it breaks the internet for three days.  This was an emotional tempest that was widespread across the group that seemed so dysfunctional it's incredible that the album cover wasn't them all just giving each other the finger or lighting each other's furniture on fire.  43 years after its release and it's still incredible that the group was able to pull off the album without breaking up the band.  

There's nothing I can or will say about the music on the album that hasn't already been written or said much more eloquently.  "Second Hand News", "Dreams", "Never Going Back Again", "Don't Stop", "Go Your Own Way" and "The Chain" are just some of the classic songs found here.  "Rhiannon" will always be my favorite song from the band but it's hard to argue that this number 44 album isn't their peak.

#43

Automatic For The People

R.E.M

Similar to Alex Trebek hosting Jeopardy or Al Michaels calling football games, R.E.M. is a band that was always just "there" when I was growing up.  But, considering that the band put out 15 albums over 28 years, I took for granted what an absolute powerhouse of a group they were.  One of the benefits of creating this list is that it focused me on looking at the entire discography of a band like R.E.M.  Listening to the entirety of the catalog was time consuming but it exposed me to a lot of their outside of the well known hits.  Some of these discoveries were worthwhile ("Me In Honey" might be my favorite song from the group and I hadn't heard it until eight months ago) and some were pretty terrible ("Radio Song" is not pleasing to my ears at all).  

I won't claim to be a true R.E.M. fan but, from the outside looking in, it seems like the band went through three phases.  Phase one covered their first three or four albums as more of an underground band popular in colleges.  Phase two was when they reached a more mainstream status (or "sold out" as I'm sure a lot of their original fans would claim) including signing with a major record label.  And phase three was their last three or four albums which weren't nearly as strong as the earlier work but, after ten albums, even the best creative juices can run dry and there are still some musical nuggets to find even in this later work.  

I won't rank all fifteen albums but here are my top five albums from the group.

5.  Murmur 1983:  Debut album from the group and it's easy to hear through songs like "Radio Free Europe" why they took off at the college scene.  Stipe's voice sounds younger but it's remarkable how consistent he was able to sound for almost 30 years. 

4.  Green 1988:  First album on a major record label and the sound does seem a little more polished from the first few albums.  Hits like "Stand" and "Orange Crush" pushed the band more toward the mainstream but there wasn't a sacrifice in the quality of the music.

3.  Out of Time 1991:  I'm sure the true R.E.M. fans are rolling their eyes but songs like "Losing My Religion", "Half a World Away", "Country Feedback" and "Me In Honey" are more than enough to offset the weaker tracks like "Shiny Happy People" (sounds like a bad hippie song) and "Radio Song".  

2.  Document 1987:  I went back and forth between this album and Automatic For The People as the selection for the list.  Document would be the album I would recommend for someone who never heard R.E.M. before.  "Finest Worksong" kicks off the album on such a high note and that's buoyed by the lyrical Tazmanian Devil "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" (my favorite radio station as a kid changed formats from rock to country and, for its last weekend, played this song for three days straight), the classic "The One I Love" and other tracks like "Disturbance At The Heron House" and "Fireplace".  Just a great rock album before the age of grunge set in.

1.  Automatic For The People 1992:  Noticeably slower paced than prior albums, the album's foundation is mellow tracks like "Drive", "Everybody Hurts" (Dwight Schrute's expression of pain), "Sweetness Follows" and "Nightswimming".  That makes the faster paced songs like "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Monty Got A Raw Deal" and "Man On The Moon" stand out even more.  There's a reason this album was a smash commercially and critically.  Subsequent albums would have flashes of brilliance like "What's The Frequency Kenneth" but it's not to view this as the last truly great album the band put out.  

If you're interested in R.E.M. even on a casual level, I would recommend fully exploring the full catalog.  You might have a totally different ranking of the albums but I would be surprised if Automatic For The People, album number 43 here, didn't come in near the top of your list as well.

#42

The Battle Of Los Angeles

Rage Against The Machine

Was I an angry youth?  No.  Was I an advocate for climate change, health care reform or more equal wealth distribution?  Not a chance.  Did I pretend I was all of the above when I played this album loudly in high school?  Absolutely.  Rage Against The Machine albums were a necessity for the high schooler who wanted to show those within earshot of the school parking lot that he was more serious about musical choices and was attune to the political landscape.

This may have been the first band where I differentiated that the true talent of the group wasn't the lead singer.  That's not a knock on Zack De La Rocha's vocals.  He brought a distinctive mix of anger and passion that kept the lyrics from feeling hollow or whiny.  But it was Tom Morello's guitar work that was the signature of the group and what drew many fans, including myself, to their music.  Songs like "Bulls On Parade" or "Killing In The Name Of" don't succeed unless there's compelling guitar work and Morello provides that in surplus.  The group did increase awareness for many of its causes, but it was largely because young listeners were pulled into the band's orbit by Morello's work. 

Side note about my previous entry, R.E.M.  It's hard for me to believe that Rage Against the Machine debuted their first album in 1992, the same year as R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People.  I can't imagine two albums sounding more differently and that could be why R.E.M. was largely lost on me as I started paying attention to the music scene.  R.E.M. didn't fit in with the direction the rock scene was heading and I was too young to know their earlier albums so they more or less fell by the wayside for me until recently.  Another benefit to Spotify to be able to make up for lost time with some classic bands.  Anyway, on to more Rage talk.

I was drawn in to Rage Against The Machine by their 1996 album Evil Empire containing "Bulls On Parade" which is probably the quintessential Rage Against The Machine song and the most recognizable guitar work from Morello and bassist Tim Commerford.  But it was the 1999 album The Battle Of Los Angeles that takes the spot on the list.  "Testify", "Guerilla Radio", "Calm Like a Bomb", and "Sleep Now In The Fire" were just some of the highlights on this 12 track gem.

"Sleep Now In The Fire" deserves a brief tangent.  It's my favorite song on the album and I'm sure I'm not alone in that opinion.  It conveys frustration and anger but also a sense of fun. Who doesn't love belting out "I am the Nina...the Pinta...the Santa Maria"?  But it also spawned a legendary music video directed by Michael Moore during which the band plays outside the New York Stock Exchange as NYPD attempts to shut it down.  The incident eventually caused the NYSE to shut its doors which sounds worse than it was.  The steel riot doors closed but trading on the floor continued.  What's interesting is at the 1:04 mark of the video, there's a brief shot of someone holding a Trump for president sign which is a reminder that his decision to run in 2016 wasn't a spur of the moment thing.  He'd been lurking in the background for years waiting for an attempt to make a run at the office. 

The music video would lose to Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff" video at the MTV VMAs (remember when that was must-see TV?) causing bassist Tim Commerford to climb a structure on the stage in protest.  The video may have lost but important to note that we're discussing this music video and not anything Fred Durst directed.  Also, I'm spoiling some surprises but Limp Bizkit will not have an entry on this list although I'd be lying if I said I didn't own a copy of Chocolate Starfish And The What Are You Talking About?

It's discouraging that much of what Rage Against The Machine covered in their music during the nineties are still viable problems today (poverty, health care) but they're extremely complex problems that have no simple solution.  The band did raise awareness for their causes and they did leave behind some music that will live on far beyond their years, most notably album number 42 The Battle Of Los Angeles.  Not to be confused with the alien movie / Aaron Eckhart vehicle Battle: Los Angeles.  That one will probably not live on for generations.

#41

AM

Arctic Monkeys

The fifth album from the Arctic Monkeys, AM, is aptly named.  To be clear, the AM that's being referenced isn't the AM hours that include a healthy morning workout, a cup of coffee and perusal of work email.  Oh no no.  These are the very early AM hours after the bars have closed and you're left feeling a little sweaty and a little grimy with the first pangs of the hangover setting.  If you're with your current special someone, it can tend to be the time you have that fight you should have had two nights ago at a reasonable hour.  The lead-off tracks "Do I Wanna Know", "R U Mine", and "One For The Road" perfectly capture the uncertainty of a relationship through the dim lights of a bar, diner or impromptu 2 AM apartment party. 

But worse than the 2 AM relationship fight can be the early AM hours spent alone where the self-doubt and insecurity you've been able to be successfully suppress during the day can surface faster than Free Willy.  These moods are captured too with "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High" and "Snap Out Of It" but particularly in the finale "I Wanna Be Yours" where the snarky wordplay and cockiness from some of the earlier songs is replaced by earnest begging for some kind of connection with a special someone, or really anyone.  By the time the last notes of this twelfth track of the number 41 album fade out, you just want a shower, a couple Motrin and to tell your significant other that you appreciate them.

Taking tomorrow off.  Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!  Post for albums 40-31 will be up on Friday.