We are now the equivalent of one Advent calendar away from the list's completion. This post will take us up to the top twenty. We still have to get to albums from numerous well known bands and solo artists. This section of the list was the hardest to sort for rankings, probably because there are so many high quality albums here. That includes number thirty....
#30
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Coldplay
Runner-Up: A Rush of Blood To The Head
Bronze Medal: X&Y
Honorable Mention: Mylo Xyloto
The mark of a good album is when it achieves a sound that's greater than the sum of its parts (or sum of its songs in this case). There are few albums on this list that epitomize that concept more Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. The most recognizable singles on the album are "Viva La Vida" and, to a lesser extent, "Violet Hill". If I were to rank my favorite songs from Coldplay, "Viva La Vida" might crack the top ten but it would be buried below the mountain of other hits like "Clocks", "Fix You", "Talk", "Paradise", "Yellow", "Speed of Sound", or "The Scientist". For that reason, I could easily and justifiably have placed A Rush Of Blood To The Head in this slot and moved on. And, to be fair, I almost did. Rush of Blood was the first full album I purchased from the band and it's solid from start to finish. There are numerous hits to be found including "Clocks" which will go down as an all-time great song.
*Brief tangent: In December 2009, ESPN's Sportscenter compiled the greatest sports images of the past decade (2000-2009) and set it to "Clocks". What made it interesting was that they timed the images up with lyrics of the song that fit together. For example, "A tiger's waiting to be tamed" coincided with images of Tiger Woods decked in red at the Masters or "curse missed opportunities" coincided with the Bartman foul ball at Wrigley Field (Alou probably wasn't catching that ball). It was a great six minute highlight and I included it here if you haven't seen it. Tangent over.*
So why include Viva La Vida on the list? To me, the album achieves a different sound than any other Coldplay album. The arrangements feel more like an orchestra set that the band is playing around. The sound is richer and grander but not overwhelming. It's beautiful. One tracks melts into another to the point where three songs have passed by and it still feels like one piece of music. When I purchased the album on iTunes it included 12 tracks but Spotify only lists 10. That's because "Lovers in Japan" and "Reign of Love" were combined into one track as were "Yes" and "Chinese Sleep Chant".
The album is less about favorite tracks and more about listening to it in its complete form but if I had to pick favorites, "Viva La Vida" is still the best. When I lived in Jacksonville and was training for a marathon (if you haven't heard of one, it's a long race which I'm sure literally any of its prior participants will tell you about in great detail), I listened to "Viva La Vida" and Dropkick Murphy's "State of Massachusetts" on a loop. More evidence for the court that I'm just a weird guy.
"Death and All His Friends" is a haunting finale, "Violet Hill" will get your head nodding, and "Cemeteries of London" / "Lost!" provides an incredibly strong start to the album. But skipping any tracks on this album number 30 is not only unnecessary, it takes away from the experience. And life is all about experiences. Like this time I ran a marathon....wait where are you going?
#29
FutureSex/LoveSounds
Justin Timberlake
When the boy band craze of the late 1990s hit, I was in late middle school / early high school, an environment for which it was a social death sentence to your red blooded male machismo to express anything but contempt or, at most, apathy for their albums. At the peak of the boy band boom were *NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys. The rivalry between the fan bases reached a fever pitch that would not be seen again until the great Team Jacob vs Team Edward battle of 2008. The popularity of each band was judged by the decibel level of the shrieks of fans and by the number of votes tallied that day on TRL. 98 Degrees was mixed in there too as a third party candidate but they were the Ross Perot to the main Bush/Clinton face-off. It's impossible to say who really "won" between *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys but it's undisputed that Justin Timberlake emerged as the biggest success story of any member of either group. Whether there was a master plan all along for his career progression or he just happened to luck into it, his path should be the blueprint for any teen idol looking to stay relevant into adulthood.
*NSYNC disbanded in 2002 and Timberlake released his first solo album Justified later that year. The boy band stigma was still heavily attached to him which put the full album off my radar but the catchiness of "Cry Me A River" and "Rock Your Body" were hard to ignore. He somehow managed to dodge the bulk of the media scrutiny following the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident. Jackson too most of the flak which I don't think would be the case today. Tiimberlake would have (justifiably) shared much more of the blame and public ire. What I wouldn't give to have a story like that be the main topic of controversy and news coverage. Take me back to 2004.
Following that album's release, he walked the tightrope perfectly to ingratiate himself to a broader audience. He started acting and chose to work with well-respected and successful directors like Nick Cassavettes in Alpha Dog. He was clearly targeting roles that were a little darker so people would take him seriously. That's not a new strategy but finding the right role is key. Zac Efron went too dark with The Paperboy and the entire cast of Spring Breakers made the same mistake. When audiences can sense that the actor is trying that hard, it can feel a little manipulating.
Timberlake happened to find exactly the right role for him as Frankie in Alpha Dog. He could play serious but the role also required someone who had a charming personality, which Timberlake naturally possesses. He'd capitalize on this trait to a much larger degree of success and acclaim years later in The Social Network. The rest of the Alpha Dog cast was so strong with Anton Yelich, Olivia Wilde, Ben Foster (another child actor who has transitioned very well into niche roles) and Emile Hirsch that Timberlake wasn't asked to carry too much of the load especially with Cassavettes directing He attempted more of an artsy "out there" role in the head-scratcher Southland Tales (so did The Rock and Sarah Michelle Gellar who were both trying to chart their own paths to bona fide adulthood movie stardom) but I have yet to talk to anyone who understands what that movie was trying to say or can even chart its plot.
To further distance himself from the boy band version of himself, Timberlake cut his hair and replaced his boy band curls with an almost shaved head. He started dressing in suits which was a not so subtle move to project a more grown up image. That move could have backfired on him if the public perceived it as snobbery or elitism. But he proactively countered that by using humor (some of it self-depracating) on Saturday Night Live where he proved to be one of those hosts who just clicked with the cast and showed a natural ability to comfortably host (e.g. John Goodman, Jon Hamm, Alec Baldwin, Steven Segal). Anyway, we're talking about music right?
Most importantly, in the same way that he aligned himself as an actor with talented directors to enhance his acting career, Timberlake surrounded himself musically with very talented producers. Timbaland, who worked with Timberlake on some tracks of his first solo album (including the very successful "Cry Me A River"), took center stage on Timberlake's next album FutureSex/LoveSounds. The result is an album that rewards consuming it in full album form rather than piece by piece via radio singles. Timberlake, Timbaland and everyone on the album are in no hurry and take their time exploring the space of each song. That struck me as a sign of confidence from Timberlake as an artist who was really intent on putting out a quality and complete piece of work. Sure "Sexyback" dominated the radio but it's more the anomaly on the album than the norm. He could have tried to make 12 tracks that were irresistible bait to Top 40 radio but instead he made something that you can feel he's enthusiastic about. Many of these songs found their way onto the radio anyway but in edited form. The media had to bend to make his songs fit their format rather than the other way around.
If I associated one album from college, this would be it. From standing against a wall at house parties to standing against a wall at bars and even the rare Broad Ripple club (R.I.P. Seven and Vogue), this album was everywhere. Taking a fresh look back at the pop music scene then, Timbaland was a dominant force ranging from this Timberlake album, to the Nelly Furtado album, to his own release ("The Way I Am" and "Apologize" were inescapable), the man's fingerprints were everywhere on the most popular and most requested songs. But this album seems to have stayed the most relevant. Looking back on it, the only song that doesn't fit is the second to last track "Losing My Way" which deals with battling addiction. It's a legitimate problem that he's addressing but tonally it doesn't really fit with the rest of the album. But it's a minor nit and it's a decent song; just seems out of left field.
Timberlake has faded a bit. After some tepidly reviewed movies like Runner, Runner and Trouble With the Curve he's not acting as much except for some animated work, where my oldest daughter knows his voice from the Trolls franchise. He's had some quality music since then, most notably "Mirrors" from The 20/20 Experience. But there has also been the poorly received Man Of The Woods and even his collaboration with Jay-Z "Magna Carta" felt underwhelming given the talent involved. But I believe he still has more quality work to offer in both music and film but, even if that's not true, leaving your mark in films like The Social Network and in albums like number 28 FutureSex/LoveSounds isn't a bad legacy for a former boy band teen idol.
#28
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
The Smashing Pumpkins
Runner-Up: Siamese Dream
In 1991, the game Action 52 was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was unique in that it packaged 52 games into one cartridge. Obtaining video game reviews in the pre-internet age of the early nineties was almost impossible. Word of mouth was your best bet, otherwise you were buying the game blindly and hoping that the gaming experience justified the price tag. That could be nerve-wracking enough when you were paying $30-$40 for a game but Action 52 was selling for $199 ( ~$350 in 2020 dollars). I'm sure for a lot of kids, the large price tag meant that this could be the only game they received for a full year so fingers were doubly crossed that the game would turn out to be a winner.
My parents didn't allow us to have a Nintendo until 1993 so I wasn't even given the opportunity to ask my parents for this game. But it's doubtful I would have anyway. Even at 7 years old I would have known that the price tag was too steep. I dodged a major bullet because this game was a complete disaster. It has gone down as one of the worst games ever put out for the original NES. Many of the games were repetitive with poor controls or, in a few cases, didn't even work at all. There's an entertaining video review of the game here. The lesson learned here is that an increase in quantity is no guarantee of quality.
Enter Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, the fourth album from The Smashing Pumpkins (cue one of my favorite jokes as an eleven year old). Released in 1995, the album was a double disc that contained 28 tracks. The question was whether this album was using the same gimmick as Action 52 in that a large quantity was masking subpar quality. That was question would be answered with an emphatic "no" as the album generated overwhelmingly positive critical reviews and massive commercial success.
While it was easier to dissect Action 52 by singling out the games that weren't completely terrible, it's easier to dissect Mellon Collie by singling out the few songs that aren't as appealing and there are truly only a few. Both discs of the album are strong but you lose the double disc effect with Spotify as both discs merge into one 28 track album. The run time of the full album is a little over two hours but the Spotify deluxe album, complete with new versions, demos and outtakes, clocks in at five hours and fifty-two minutes. I'm a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins but I don't need close to six hours of them in my life for one sitting.
The whole album is big and over-the-top in an intentional way from the number of tracks to the grandiose sound that ranges from orchestration to heavy grunge to alternative rock. After the beautiful instrumental opening, the rest of the 27 tracks are full of classics like "Tonight, Tonight", "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", "Zero", "1979" and "Thirty-Three". But there are lesser known songs here that make the whole album worth the listen. For me that's "Here Is No Why", "Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans" and "Beautiful" to name a few. But with a track listing this vast and diverse, it's worth hearing the whole album to discern your own personal favorites. It's amazing how much the band can aptly toggle between beautiful string-heavy orchestral pieces like "Tonight, Tonight" and "Galapogos" to the heavy, hard rocking guitar of "Jellybelly" and "Tales Of A Scorched Earth".
Billy Corgen and his bandmates' second album Siamese Dream will always be a classic rock album to me that houses my two favorite songs from the group ("Disarm" and "Today"). But it's impossible to leave Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness off the list for its ambition, its high quality and its lasting legacy as one of the top albums of the nineties. And, unlike some notoriously bad video games, the number 29 album didn't cost $199.
#27
Folklore
Taylor Swift
Runner-Up: 1989
My Taylor Swift entry was set in stone. It was 1989, case closed, on to the next one. I really didn't think twice about it. I'm not the biggest Taylor Swift fan but it was impossible to deny the sledgehammer of pop music that 1989 represented. It was radio hit after radio hit that you could play at a party or in the car. It inspired a Ryan Adams cover album (guy sounds a little scummy but worth it to check out his take on "All You Had To Do Was Stay").
But my wife and friends kept talking up Folklore. I had heard snippets and was enticed but I didn't give a legit chance until recently. And now, Folklore replacing 1989 is only the second change to the list I've made since finalizing in September. It's also the only album on the list that will represent 2020. It's a beautifully made album that can sound haunting, sorrowful, nostalgic or hopeful depending on the song. Sure, if you need a party or pop album you're still reaching for 1989 but Folklore has really resonated with me and, in researching how it was made, I discovered a big reason why.
I'm a big fan of the band The National and member Aaron Dessner had a heavy hand in writing the instrumentation for many of the tracks on Folklore. There are songs in which Swift could be replaced by The National front man Matt Berninger and you wouldn't think twice. The other main contributor was Jack Antonoff from Bleachers and fun. who also helped Swift write 1989 and Lover. Justin Vernon from Bon Iver collaborated on the song "Exile" which is one of, if not the best, track on the album. But it's the totality of the album that puts it on the list here.
There are personal touches all over the album. "the last great american dynasty" details an heiress's wild lifestyle before Swift reveals at the end that she purchased said woman's home in New England. "epiphany", the song with the most fingerprints of The National on it, references both Swift's grandfather's wartime service and the trauma of front line workers as they combat COVID-19. "mad woman" is a direct shot at Scooter Braun (so awesome she's re-recording all her masters just to spite him). Despite the number of collaborators, it's consistent in theme and in tone and that's a credit to Swift allowing contributors but never losing control. Hats off to her for producing a great work during the height of the pandemic.
The National and Bon Iver received boosts to their streaming numbers over the summer after this album number 27 debuted. I wonder if the success of this album will encourage more diverse pairings in the future. Billy Corgen and Demi Lovato album forthcoming in 2021?
#26
Nevermind
Nirvana
Same kid. We're old.
Runner-Up: MTV Unplugged
Bronze Medal: In Utero
This will likely be viewed as too low on the list by some so it's worth pointing out once again that this list is my personal preference of album listening. There's no denying the influence and well deserved acclaim this band, and specifically the album Nevermind, has received since 1991. There are sadly not many Nirvana albums from which to choose so it really came down to Nevermind or the MTV Unplugged album. I love the Unplugged album but I went with Nevermind for a few reasons. One, Nevermind is the classic Nirvana album in every way from the iconic cover to the songs on the album. Two, the Unplugged album felt a little like cheating since it includes acoustic renditions of songs covering all Nirvana albums. And three, so much of Nirvana's appeal was the bombastic guitar sound and Cobain's vocals at full tilt. The Unplugged album, while highlighting a softer side of Cobain's voice and the lyrics of many songs, does not capture the loud sound that the band was known for when they jump started the national grunge movement.
I never owned Nevermind. The first and foremost reason was that I was six years out when it was released so what little teen angst I had was still years away. Also, even if I wanted to purchase the album I would have been confronted with the barrier of the album's infamous cover. Even years later after I downloaded it, I'm sure it wasn't my mother's favorite sound emanating from my room.
I'm curious how my own kids will perceive this album (and many others on this list for that matter). If my daughters are enthused about rock music, there's no doubt that they'll find their way to this album. I wonder if they'll hear it for the groundbreaking sound that it was. Or has the sound been copied and mimicked so much by now that the original will actually sound derivative?
1991 was an interesting year in music. Looking at the number one albums over the course of the year shows the diversifying nature of the music landscape. There are pop mainstays like Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson and culture snapshots like Michael Bolton and Vanilla Ice while genres like country music and rap were coming more into the mainstream via artists like Garth Brooks and N.W.A. respectively. Even the rock genre is becoming fragmented in style as the list includes a diverse list of bands from U2 to Metallica to R.E.M. to Van Halen to Guns N Roses. And into this increasingly complex musical picture came bands like Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden and Nirvana.
As diverse as the music industry was prior to the band's arrival, Nirvana provided a sound that was unlike anything else at the time and remains tempting for bands to mimic but impossible to duplicate. No album exemplified that more than Nevermind. No disrespect to In Utero but this is the definitive Nirvana album no matter how overplayed some songs have been over the years.
There's the famous line from The Dark Knight of "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain". In the rock industry that line can be altered to read "You're either immortalized after a couple great albums or endure long enough for fans to call you a commercial sell-out". Doesn't roll off the tongue quite as easily. In Nirvana's case, Cobain's untimely passing ensured that the band would only produce a handful of records which actually served to lift the status of the band as they were never given the chance to decline or fail.
Cobain's passing does present an interesting sliding doors moment. Many, including myself, would have followed with great interest how Cobain's work would have progressed over the years. If he were still here, would Hole have still gone on to make Celebrity Skin? Would Dave Grohl have still gone off on his own to start Foo Fighters? I can carry that "what-if" further by asking whether Queens of the Stone Age would have achieved the same success without Grohl's clout supporting them (probably given their talent). No doubt that Cobain would have dabbled in side projects and collaborations and that's the "what if" piece that I wonder the most about.
Nevermind is a classic album but for whatever reason it's not one that I reach for frequently. There are some songs like "Lounge Act" that just don't connect with me for whatever reason. I know that's a reflection of me rather than the album's quality. I still love it. There are just other albums coming up that I can listen all the way through without skipping anything. Regardless of my ridiculous and inconsistent ranking criteria, Nevermind is a rock album that will endure for generations and it comes in at number 26 on this list.
#25
Leaving Through The Window
Something Corporate
Runner-Up: North
I covered Jack's Mannequin at album number 52 but the first band of Andrew McMahon comes in at number 25. The sound is more punk and the lyrics are brasher than his subsequent bands but, considering that McMahon was only 18 when the band rose to fame, it's understandable. The band would only last for two albums, North and Leaving Through The Window. Truth be told, two of my favorite songs from this band weren't a part of either album. "Konstantine" is only listed as part of their greatest hits compilation Played In Space while "Forget December" was part of the Santa Cause: It's a Punk Rock Christmas fundraiser album.
Both are similar in sound but Leaving Through The Window takes the spot here. Songs like "I Want To Save You" and "Punk Rock Princess" accurately capture late teenager melodrama while songs like "If You C Jordan" and "Drunk Girl" capture the immaturity without the crassness of Blink-182 (not a knock on Blink-182; little crassness never hurt anyone). But it's songs like "I Woke Up In A Car" and "The Astronaut" that provide a glimpse of McMahon's capability as a songwriter.
I was very late to the party on finding this band. In fact they had already released what would be their last album by the time my freshman year dorm room neighbor introduced me to them in fall 2003. That would be the first of many bands that he'd lead me toward. In return, I rewarded him with my smothering friendship that included finding a way to live next to or across from him in a dorm room, fraternity house and off-campus house. He compensated for those four years of close proximity by moving to Seattle, which is about as far away from me in Philadelphia as possible. But I still roped him into starting this site in 2010.
McMahon seems to have handled stardom at an early age with some maturity and perspective. His name doesn't carry as much clout as other artists who achieved fame at the same relatively early age like Taylor Swift. Some of that I attribute to the fact that McMahon has been a part of three different bands over an 18 year span. I'm sure if Something Corporate had just endured for 18 years then the following would be even larger. But it's doubtful that creatively the band could have lasted even half that long. Credit to McMahon for recognizing when things need to be shaken up creatively. Thankfully the band hadn't reached that point when they released Leaving Through The Window, the number 25 album on the list.
#24
Watch The Throne
Jay-Z / Kanye West
Runner-Up: The Blueprint
Bronze Medal: The Black Album
This album is going in as the Jay-Z entry. Let's be clear that I'm not saying this is the best Jay-Z album. That crown goes to The Blueprint and I don't think it's a particularly close race but you could maybe talk me into The Black Album. So now I'll attempt to make my case (in a meandering, rambling sort of way of course) as to why Watch The Throne, which isn't even a standalone Jay-Z album, takes this spot on the list.
Jay-Z's early albums like Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime passed me by when they were released in the mid nineties. I was still trying to find my own way about what kind of music I liked and, other the occasional song like "Gangsta's Paradise" or "Can't Touch This", I hadn't been exposed to much rap or hip-hop. I would take baby steps more and more into that genre starting with dipping my toe in the water with Will Smith and The Beastie Boys. One afternoon on my bus ride home in seventh grade one of the high schoolers gave the bus driver a cassette of Jay-Z's Vol.2...Hard Knock Life (edited of course otherwise it would have been ejected halfway through "Intro"). Even the edited version of the album only made it about four tracks in until our 65 year-old driver had enough and jettisoned the tape for the regularly scheduled country music station. God bless our bus driver Kenny Kenoyer; he tried to appease the masses of rowdy kids he had to shuttle every day by giving their music a chance but every man has his breaking point.
Side story: When I was eight years old, I summoned the courage to ask Kenny to play the MC Hammer Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em album that I borrowed from my sister. I thought I would be cheered by everyone for having such cool taste. Instead, the tape made it about a third of the way through before the rest of the bus was literally chanting to take it out. When Kenny finally pressed ejected there were wild cheers. My little third grade ego took a beating that day and I'm not going to lie that typing this out elicited an audible groan from me 28 years later.
Over the next few years as middle school turned to high school, I would hear numerous rappers ranging in sound and ability from Ja Rule to DMX to Nas to Eminem to Nelly. But Jay-Z always sounded different, cooler, superior, effortless. In the fall of 2001, my sister emailed me from college to ask me to download and burn some songs for her on our computer. I can't remember the full list but I know that there were many tracks off The Blueprint (released on 9/11 which was a fact I had forgotten) including "The Ruler's Back". That song alone got me to listen to the whole album and what an album it was. To this day it's a classic from "Takeover" to "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" to "Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)" to the Eminem collaboration "Renegade".
It's an album that holds up to this day. Unlike other rap albums that I've tried revisiting like Marshall Mathers LP or Dr. Dre's 2001, the lyrics, while most assuredly explicit, don't venture into extreme over-the-top violence or sex. I know Slim Shady was a persona but there's a lot of lyrical content in the early Eminem albums that just makes me uncomfortable now. But Jay-Z's albums don't suffer the same fate. Jay-Z doesn't speak of women in the highest or most mature light but there's no talk of throwing them into the trunk of a car.
In 2003, Jay-Z released The Black Album and announced his retirement. That retirement would only last three years and during those three years, Kanye West, longtime Jay-Z producer and perceived protégé who worked on The Blueprint and The Black Album, rose to prominence with his own two massively successful albums The College Dropout and Late Registration for which Jay-Z even contributed verses on tracks for each album. Kanye's ability as a producer and a rapper began to be viewed as on-par with Jay-Z. This viewpoint would gain steam when Jay-Z came out of retirement with the underwhelming Kingdom Come. He would get more on track with subsequent releases American Gangster and The Blueprint 3. But in that same timeframe, Kanye released Graduation, 808s & Heartbreak and, the high mark, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (for which Jay-Z contributed an incredibly weak verse for "Monster" that stands out in inferiority even more when Nicki Minaj completely makes the track her own on the subsequent verse). Kanye's personal stock had taken a bit of a hit mainly from the Taylor Swift VMA hijacking debacle but there was little doubt as to his immense level of talent. And the talk of Kanye's superiority to Jay-Z grew.
Then came Watch The Throne, the joint album between Jay-Z and Kanye West released in 2011. The two would be collaborating but many were listening to the album as a competition between the two. To my ear, this album cemented what I had always felt was the case. Kanye was the superior producer but Jay-Z is the superior rapper. He's great at creating the coloring book but Jay-Z can make the page come to life. Kanye's lyrics are solid but there are times when you can hear him laboring to make the rhyme work. Whereas it just seems to flow out of Jay-Z completely effortlessly. On no track is that more evident than the ninth track. Before that, the time on each track had been relatively equally split between the two but two minutes and seventeen seconds into "Who Gon Stop Me" Jay-Z just can't help himself and for the next ninety seconds, he just lets loose without a word from Kanye. True to the song's title, who's going to stop him? Apparently not Kanye, who just lets him continue uninterrupted. It's not the best verses Jay-Z has put out but, again, it's the effortlessly and smoothness that his lyrics come out that is a microcosm of what makes him unique and maybe the best ever.
This album doesn't waste a track from start to finish. There are guest spots from Beyonce and Frank Ocean but Kanye and Jay-Z are what all listeners are there to hear and they don't disappoint. Kanye produces some of his best work (but not THE best work) which is admirable considering how much creative juice Twisted Fantasy must have used up. I'd go with the deluxe version of the album as the four additional tracks, while not matching in tone of the rest of the album (e.g. H.A.M.) are still worth the listen. The whole album is a highlight but "Otis", "Gotta Have It", "No Church In The Wild" and "Made In America" are the cream of the crop.
It's an understatement to say that Jay-Z has proved to have staying power. He's been a force of nature as a celebrity and in the music world since 1996 through his own albums and the artists he's influenced and supported. The man has continued putting out albums to varying degrees of critical and commercial success for almost 25 years. The high points are extremely high (The Black Album) and the lows (Magna Carta) are only low when comparing to the extremely high bar of expectations that he's set for himself through years of A plus work. Another artist for whom I'll always be interested in what the next project is. But The Blueprint and Watch The Throne, the number 26 album, will always be go-to Jay-Z albums for me.
#23
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
Runner-Up: Meteora
Bronze Medal: Reanimation
I Googled Linkin Park to find out the backstory hoping for a great backstory behind the band name. Nope. They named it after Lincoln Park in Santa Monica but they wanted the domain name for their website so they deliberately changed the spelling. Oh well. Also, the first page of Google results and Wikipedia are basically the extent of your author's research.
You'd be hard pressed to find an album that permeated the Tri-County High School male demographic at the turn of the twenty-first century than the debut album from Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory. In pre-game locker rooms, in weight rooms, in our cars, in our rooms, the album was everywhere and it stayed prominently in the spotlight for over a year.
Produced in the time when every band felt that they needed to have a DJ (Incubus, Limp Bizkit), Linkin Park's sound stood out, not from that turntable gimmick but from the dichotomy of sound between its two lead singers. Mike Shinoda's deeper voice and lyrics that skewed more toward rap were offset by the pained and powerful screams of Chester Bennington. It was a unique sound that diversified what the band offered to its listeners.
"One Step Closer", "Crawling", "Papercut" and especially "In The End" are the songs that received more than their fair share of airplay but the whole album is solid from start to finish. "My December" and "Runaway" are two of my favorites that didn't get quite as much attention. Plenty of drives in high school where this album served as the soundtrack to stressing about grades (take me back to when that was my biggest stressor), frustration with unrequited high school crushes, or riding high thinking about an upcoming weekend trip to the Tippecanoe Mall with my friends.
As time has passed, I've listened to the album, and the band, less and less. It's not an album to casually put on around the house and my teenage angst, along with the front of my hairline, has receded considerably. That's not to say that I never listen to the album. I'd be lying if I said I never put this album or the equally solid follow-up Meteora (not counting the equally good Hybrid Theory remix album Reanimation) on when I'm alone in the car while letting the Honda Pilot speakers test their limits a little.
Even if it only gets airtime in my car or in my gym, Hybrid Theory is the album that holds the most nostalgic ties to high school for me. It was always going inside the top 30. But it doesn't receive enough rotation currently to be inside the top 20. Don't try to decipher my ratings methodology; you'll just get a nose bleed. Just belt out the chorus to "In The End" and enjoy album number 23.
#22
Crash
Dave Matthews Band
Runner-Up: Before These Crowded Streets
Bronze Medal: Under The Table And Dreaming
Some people you can't help but smile when you're around them. My cousin Brandon was one of those people. He was three years older than me but he never made me feel that way. He walked the tightrope of sticking up for me but also giving me an appropriate amount of (deserved) flak to make me feel included and not coddled. I looked up to him a lot. My cousin Clint was my age so when I would go over to their house to play, Brandon's room was like a shrine to what was cool (e.g. NBA Jam on Sega, Shaq poster, etc.). After college both of us moved to different areas but I always looked forward to seeing him and, like I said, I couldn't help but smile and laugh the majority of the time.
My wedding day was a blur but some of the most vivid memories I have from that day and the night before involve Brandon and his wife Megan. His laugh and smile are what I remember the most and they're featured prominently in so many pictures and memories from that day including a couple pictures that hang on our wall. Someone advised me to enjoy our wedding day because it's the last time that all those people will be in the same room. I agreed with that in logic but it's not until years start to go by that you realize just how true that is. I didn't talk to Brandon as much as I should have or wanted to just because everyday life gets in the way. But three years later, he would be gone.
I still think about him often and one of the connectors to his memory that I'll have forever is through music, specifically through his favorite band, Dave Matthews Band. For the album selection, it came down to Under The Table and Dreaming, Crash, or Before These Crowded Streets. Streets is probably the best album to simply just let play and there are some classic songs on Under the Table but Crash takes the slot here since it was the first album that really got me into the band.
After Brandon passed, Megan has done an exemplary job of raising their daughter while dealing with her own grief. If that wasn't enough, she has productively channeled those emotions into a blog, Blonde Is The New Widow, where she can use her experience and witty writing to help those who may be going through similar experiences in life or just parenting in general. That's probably a more worthwhile endeavor than, say, operating a blog to narcissistically name one's top 100 albums.
There's not much to say about the Crash album. No one's reading this and thinking "who is this Dave Matthews guy? I should give his music a chance." DMB has been around since 1994 and this is one of their most well known and loved albums. Either you like the band, in which case you don't need me to tell you that songs like "Two Step", "Tripping Billies", "Crash Into Me", "41" and "So Much To Say" are some of the band's best work and aren't fading with age. Or this band is not for you, in which case I hope these few paragraphs were at least worthwhile in shining a light on what a great guy Brandon Federer was. He's still missed, still loved and this album number 22 will always remind me of him.
#21
Ten
Pearl Jam
Runner-Up: Vitalogy
Bronze Medal: Vs.
There are some movies or albums or books that can be so unanimously viewed as excellent that they can start to suffer from too much praise. Discussing them may be avoided because there's nothing to truly debate if all parties agree on how great the work is. There can even be a decline in how much it's consumed because, if you're anything like me, you fall in love with the work, run it into the ground to the point where you become a little sick of it, and then you develop this quasi-aversion to it. Or at the very least, the piece loses some of its luster. A good example is when TNT decided to run The Shawshank Redemption on a schedule that resembled Good Morning America. It's a phenomenal movie and I still enjoy watching it but some of the awe is taken away when you watch it that often. A similar dynamic happened to me and the Pearl Jam album Ten.
I don't think I need to sell anyone on the high quality of this near-legendary album that included the enormous hits of "Jeremy", "Even Flow", "Alive" and "Black". But to just list those songs is selling the whole album short. All eleven (always bothered me that the Ten album had eleven tracks) songs are worthy of high praise and it's what warranted listening to the album on repeat. But I went so overboard on listening that, over time, I drifted away from the album. Thinking about listening to it didn't charge me up so I really stopped giving it a chance for years.
It wasn't until I put this list together that I gave it a full listen again. If it's even possible, I forgot just how good it is. I respect how the band has tried to mix things up over the years and there are some solid albums other than this one in their discography but the Pearl Jam selection was always going to be this album. I don't think that shocked anyone. It was just a matter of where its placement on the list would be. In the weird Pearl Jam vs Nirvana rivalry, I was always firmly on the Pearl Jam side of the fence and, listening to both Ten and Nevermind in full recently, that opinion hasn't changed. Both are great but give me Vedder any day.
Now it's up to me to not ruin Ten, the number 21 album on the list, for myself again. Show some self-restraint!
Just like that, we're on to the top twenty. New post coming tomorrow. We're almost there!
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