This was such a fun project. The list isn't even three months old and there are already changes I would make to rankings or which albums/artists are included. I published one entry per day from the end of September to the beginning of January and have consolidated those entries into this post. Now that the list has concluded, I took a look at how the 100 albums broke down by year.
There's not really a miss on the album with "World in My Eyes" and "Waiting for the Night" as the other highlights. Spotify's version lists the remastered 2006 release which includes an additional six tracks, the best of which is "Dangerous". But that extends the run time to about 75 minutes which I think dilutes the impact. I'd stick to the original nine track version that ends with "Clean" and revel in the 1990 album that kicked off the decade. The number 55 album turned thirty years old this year but it's still culturally relevant and keeps popping up in other forms of media even as recently as a stripped down version of "Policy of Truth" being used for the Death On The Nile trailer.
The below chart shows the number of albums by year. The orange dots are the average list ranking of that year's albums.
The years with the most albums are 1995, 1999 and 2011 with seven each but it's 1994 that seems to be the strongest year. That year holds five albums in the top 100 with three in the top ten and an average ranking per album of 19.
Brief reminder on the rules that only one album per band or artist was allowed, no greatest hits albums and only one soundtrack. Also, these are personal selections that have a heavy dose of nostalgia as a key contributor. There are many renowned artists and bands who aren't on this list. I'm not downplaying their greatness or importance; I just don't have as much of a connection with those albums.
Music can be enjoyed individually but how many of these albums would I have never known about if it weren't for friends and family? I was struck by how many of these albums, while containing music I love, are more tied to memories and people than to the music themselves. That's not a novel concept but it was reinforced through this whole selection process.
Embrace debate! I did this as a fun way to engage about whether or not you agree with my picks or what you think I glaringly overlooked. The best part about music, and especially Spotify, is that no matter how much I listen, there's always something new to discover either from an emerging band or a band that I overlooked for years with multiple albums of material.
Honorable Mentions: Albums 120-101
There are always going to be albums that just miss the cut when a list like this is compiled. This list was no exception and, if I were to create the list again in six months, many of these would probably replace albums that I currently hold in the top 100. Musical taste, like so many opinions, is malleable which is what makes discussing album preferences so fun. There is no right answer. So here are twenty albums that you could easily convince me were incorrect to leave out of the top 100.
120. Synchronicity - The Police
119. Traveller- Chris Stapleton
118. Night Visions - Imagine Dragons
117. 2001 - Dr. Dre
116. Lunatic - Kongos
115. The Desired Effect - Brandon Flowers
114. Scarecrow - John Mellencamp
113. Bringing Down The Horse - The Wallflowers
112. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
111. The Lumineers - The Lumineers
110. A Brief Inquiry of Online Relationships - The 1975
109. Smash - The Offspring
108. This Is Acting - Sia
107. Stankonia - Outkast
106. The Stranger - Billy Joel
105. Country Grammar - Nelly
104. Superunknown - Soundgarden
103. The Eminem Show - Eminem
102. Plans - Death Cab For Cutie
101. Ceremonials - Florence + The Machine
There's probably enough fuel there for you to start firing angry messages my way but let's get to the main list....right about now ("Rockefeller Skank" voice)
#100
You've Come a Long Way, Baby
Fatboy Slim
If hearing "Rockefeller Skank" takes you back to watching She's All That in your formative teenage years then you've come to the right place. Also, hello Freddie Prinze Jr. who is now reading this after his daily google search of She's All That. Aside from Rockefeller, this album is anchored by tracks like "Right Here Right Now", "Gangster Trippin'" and the massively overplayed "Praise You". Again, I can't overstate how overplayed "Praise You" was on the rural Indiana airwaves. But as a musician in 1997 there was no better way to get your music discovered, unless of course the music gods smiled on you and your song was included in the latest iteration of the Now That's What I Call Music... compilations. There are some tracks that are still a little too out there for me (e.g. "In Heaven") but overall You've Come a Long Way, Baby is still a really fun listen and as good an album as any to kick off the list.
#99
Lost and Gone Forever
Guster
The first and last band on the list to use bongos as the weapon of percussion choice. Bad news if you were expecting your college drum circle's demo to make it on here. 1999 provided this little 11 track gem. I still don't know what Guster means. It could reference some kind of wind or could be your lazy nickname for your plumber Gus. Doesn't matter. I can thank my sister for introducing me to this band and it won't be the last time I throw credit (or blame) her way. I heard this album play consistently from her room for a few weeks, maybe months, straight. At 12 years old, I was all about "Fa Fa" but going back for the re-listen has made me appreciate the other tracks more like "What You Wish For", "Two Points for Honesty" and "Either Way". No complaints on their follow-up album, which included what might be my favorite Guster song in "Amsterdam", but no other offering from the band topped Lost and Gone Forever.
#98
Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)
Duran Duran
Another album entry drafted on the back of Holly Brooks's personal 1993 cassette collection that would be the target of multiple little brother raids. When I grew tired of stealing MC Hammer and Mariah Carey (spoiler that Daydream isn't on this list but you could argue that's a huge mistake), I reached for Duran Duran's self-titled album. It's their second self-titled album because they're artists! So this particular self-titled album has been commonly referred to in the way that people refer to Friends episodes, "The One with the Wedding on the Cover".
"Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" are the two big hits on the album, they're what grabbed me back at my first listen, and they're still what I revisit most of the time. But the beauty of cassettes was that you were more or less forced into listening to the entire album unless you were a master at fast forward. Since 9 year old me was not, I consumed more of the album than I would in CD format. So I would have missed songs like "Too Much Information" and "Shelter" which wouldn't have been a musical tragedy but still a wasted opportunity. Also, listening to the lyrics in "Too Much Information" in 2020 is almost laughable. Le Bon sings about being overwhelmed with information but, given that the song was firmly set in the pre-internet era of 1993, was there really "too much" information? Was the group feeling overwhelmed with the four options for television news and the daily arrival of the morning newspaper? But I'm sure they're not the first group to write song lyrics that don't translate almost thirty years later.
Diehard Duran Duran fans (I don't know what they call themselves...Dur-Durs?) would be appalled that I'm picking an album that's more on the tail end of the band's career but, nostalgia aside, the sound on this album is more appealing to me than their more classic albums like Rio. The band has enjoyed some form of relevance since 1981, which is a notable achievement and this album settles in at number 98.
Side note: In the same way that I can't hear "Hungry Like the Wolf" without thinking of Andy Dick's scene in Old School (way to give 110%!), I can't hear "Ordinary World" without at least thinking briefly of the diner scene in Layer Cake, during which James Bond and Harry Potter's Kingsley Shacklebolt beat a man using tea. Hollywood really did a number on the band's discography.
#97
The House That Dirt Built
The Heavy
The English rock band's second album has an extremely strong first half starting with the opening track "Oh No Not You Again" through "No Time". Included in that stretch are "How You Like Me Now", "Short Change Hero", and "Sixteen", which are probably three of the best songs the band has put out. The second half is understandably weaker than the first but there are still solid contributions from songs like "Love Like That" and the slowed down finale "Stuck". The sound gets a little tighter and more produced on the next album The Glorious Dead but it's the slightly out of control sound on this Dirt album that makes the band more appealing to me. Plus it's such a satisfying feeling when the bass and guitar riff kick in on "Short Change Hero" after the minute and twenty western-themed intro. The number 97 album is well worth the 38 minutes.
#96
Godzilla: The Album
Various Artists (The Movie Soundtrack Selection)
Honorable mentions: Top Gun, Cruel Intentions, Varsity Blues, Space Jam, Guardians of the Galaxy, Garden State, Streets of Fire, Orange County, Forrest Gump and Into the Spider-verse.
I can already hear the outcry of the four people who are still reading this list when it concludes in January: "The soundtrack to this 1998 box office bomb made it but (insert deserving album) didn't?!?" Correct. That's the fun of these lists. So now, ladies and gentlemen of the musical jury, hear me out.
Godzilla: The Album was released in 1998 in the heyday of when every major summer movie release was accompanied by a soundtrack that were really just a compilation of popular bands/artists of the day. Sometimes the song wasn't even in the movie. But in the pre-Spotify or even Napster days, this was essentially a mix tape with your favorite bands and maybe the chance to discover a new band along the way. This album is not only an encapsulation the movie machine product but also a great look into the rock music landscape at the time of the movie's release in 1998.
The bands on the album included The Wallflowers who were still riding high off the smash “One Headlight”, Rage Against The Machine in its prime, Ben Folds Five, Foo Fighters, Fuel, Green Day, Jamiroqui, Days of the New, Silverchair, and, of course, Puff Daddy in all his sampling glory taking on one of the holy grails of guitar riffs from Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” with Jimmy Page supplying the actual guitar work.
To a 13-year-old perusing the CD section of Best Buy, that’s a who’s who list of 1998's bands. The Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page collaboration “Come With Me” was the touted crown jewel and easily the most popular song on the album. How could it not be with that guitar work supplying the foundation? I didn’t know what they were doing was sacrilege to rock and roll history as some critics were writing. And The Wallflowers covered Bowie’s “Heroes” which many kids (self included) didn’t even know was a cover. Rage Against the Machine was doing Rage Against the Machine things like writing in the "No Shelter" lyrics the line "Godzilla pure motherf*ckin' filler, get your minds off the real killer" thus insinuating that we're all sheep for buying this album and watching this movie. Throw in a passable Foo Fighters song and Green Day lending “Brain Stew” with some Godzilla sounds mixed in and you have the gist of the album.
Many of the songs aren't available on Spotify and that's probably for the best as this album is best left as a 1998 memory. The movie soundtrack is still used (Bright, Into the Spider-verse) but it's less prevalent now, much like the movie-going experience itself.
I'm certainly not advocating that this album be placed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but to put together a personal list while leaving out an album that was so important to me growing up felt wrong. Almost as wrong as studios choosing to continue to remake Godzilla movies.
It may be one of the only times that a movie’s soundtrack has more ongoing discussion about it than the movie itself. I listened to this album so many times. It had to be a part of the list. Much like the Aeropostale shirts I brought along to college freshman year, it’s not a good look but it’s part of my past and I have to acknowledge its impact.
As a closing note, “Come With Me” may not be on Spotify but the music video lives on. It’s fantastic. It might as well be called “This is the 1990s”.
#95
So Much For The Afterglow
Everclear
I'm a simple man. Vanilla wafers are my go-to dessert most nights. There's nothing complicated about them but they taste good and they're a pleasure. That is this album. The guitar work isn't a high wire act but the chords are catchy and it's a fun album to turn up in the car. There's nothing lost in the messaging of the lyrics; it's incredibly straightforward as the band sings about absent fathers and pill addiction (doesn't sound fun now that I type that out). Tracks "So Much For the Afterglow", "Everything to Everyone", "I Will Buy You a New Life", and "Father of Mine" are the singles from the album but from start to finish it's a more complete album than their debut Sparkle and Fade. Eat your dessert and turn up album number 95.
#94
My Head Is An Animal
Of Monsters and Men
When Of Monsters and Men started getting airplay, I thought the band was a derivative of Florence + The Machine. Fun fact: If you combine the two bands you get Florence + The Men, which is kind of what her band is anyway. While it's true that a song like "Dirty Paws" could be mistaken for a Florence song like "What the Water Gave Me", it would be selling Of Monsters and Men short to simply make that comparison and move on. There won't be a Florence + The Machine album on my list and that was tough because I really do enjoy that band. My issue is that six songs into most Florence albums and, as impressive as her voice is, the sound starts to feel very repetitive. Of Monsters and Men, and in particular My Head Is An Animal has a more folksy sound that's more diverse and accented by the use of duets ("Little Talks" and "Mountain Sound") and voice layering that's able to provide the same vaguely haunting sound that Florence tries so hard to achieve. "Lakehouse" does nothing for me but, other than that, there isn't really a miss on the album. Their follow-up album Beneath the Skin was largely forgettable but their latest album Fever Dream was much stronger with songs like "Alligator" driving more of a rock vibe. This number 94 album put them on the radar of many listeners and it's still their current apex.
#93
The Foundation
Zac Brown Band
Music isn't hard to decipher sometimes. It's true that sometimes people want to listen to albums to be profoundly moved or to hold deep reflection on their place in the universe. But sometimes people just want something audibly pleasing in the background while they relax and drink and talk. Neither approach is incorrect, but Zac Brown Band's album The Foundation falls on the latter end of that spectrum. That's not to dismiss or belittle the album, far from it. Putting together an album like this takes a lot of talent. The most well known song on the album is "Chicken Fried" which has lyrics that read like a checklist to a parody of a country song: fried chicken, cold beer on Friday night, jeans, radio up. In lesser hands, this song would be mocked on the level of "It's Friday". But it's played so earnestly that you can't help singing along and, as the lyrics suggest, turning your radio up. The rest of the album is just as pleasing whether it's the slowed down anthem "Free", the infectious "Mary", or the beach staple "Toes" which will make all listeners look back with rose colored glasses on every trip to the beach they've ever taken. Twelve years after its release, it's still a go-to album for vacation and relaxation. Turn up this number 93 album and head into Monday.
Side note: My brother-in-law got engaged this weekend (shout out Joey and Kim) so it's fitting that this vacation/beach album lands here since I'd say 65% of my time spent with Joey has been at the shore.
#92
Torches
Foster The People
I heard "Pumped Up Kicks" on my morning drive to work in 2011, and downloaded the full album when I got home that night. If I had any doubts about the purchase, they evaporated by the first minute of "Helena Beat". Foster The People's debut ten track album rolls from start to finish and doesn't overstay its welcome clocking in at 38 minutes. Pick any one of the ten songs and it could be a highlight, including "Call It What You Want", "Don't Stop", and "Houdini". Subsequent albums would get a little more experimental and I'm looking forward to how the band progresses over time. But if Torches represents its best work, they have already left their mark with the number 92 album.
#91
Signals
Rush
Music tastes seem to change as we age. That's definitely a good thing otherwise we'd all still be attending Raffi concerts as grown adults and I would be staring down the barrel of my daughter listening to High School Musical for the next 15 years. I'm not sure if our tastes change because of something biological or if our life experiences start to dictate what we appreciate in music. All I know is that looking through my CD wallet in high school would almost be on par with revealing my internet search history.
I've been aware of the band Rush since I was in high school. They weren't for me. Even when the comedy I Love You, Man made the band an integral part of the plot, I gave them another shot, but they still didn't strike a chord. Six years later, I was driving to lunch and Philadelphia's rock station WMMR played a six song block of the band starting with "Subdivisions", only I tuned in late and didn't know the band they were playing was Rush. I loved it. I went home and listened to more.
I'm still not a diehard fan of the band but there are three or four albums that I can easily put on and go about my day including Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures and Signals. Since Signals was the album that moved me across the line into Rush fandom, I'm listing it here even though earlier albums include classics like "Tom Sawyer" and "Spirit of Radio". The eight song album Signals starts with the very strong "Subdivisions" and moves to other highlights like "Chemistry", "The Weapon" and the finale "Countdown". The main difference in sound between Signals and earlier albums is the band's prevalent use of a synthesizer. That can be a turn-off to some but it's appealing to me (not a surprise given my love of the Beverly Hills Cop theme). Like my first beer or bourbon, listening to Rush was an acquired taste and they land here at number 91.
#90
Deluxe
Better Than Ezra
This is a band that doesn't get enough credit for both the amount of songs/albums created over the years and the influence they had on many bands that followed. Like most bands on this list, I discovered Better than Ezra in college and about 6 years after everyone else. Deluxe was my first full album exposure and it's still my favorite album despite my favorite song, "A Lifetime", residing on the Before the Robots album. Deluxe boasts strong tracks like "Good", "In the Blood", "Rosealia", and "Teenager" but it's the relaxed rock vibe of the whole album from the New Orleans trio that puts this album at number 90.
#89
Sleepwalkers
Brian Fallon
A familiar path in the music industry for an artist seems to be to first establish yourself as part of a successful band, and then branch out on your own for a solo album. Sometimes the move to a solo career means the end has come for the band (e.g. Don Henley and The Eagles) and sometimes you can have it both ways (e.g. Brandon Flowers and The Killers). So when The Gaslight Anthem went on hiatus and Brian Fallon put out a solo album, it was hard to tell whether this was the start of a solely solo career or just a musical pit stop until the band got back together.
His first offering, Painkillers, was good enough but still below the bar of even the weakest of Gaslight's albums. By the time his second solo album came out two years later, fans of the band were forced to come to terms with the fact that the band was likely kaput, other than playing the occasional live show. Maybe it was my acceptance of the band's demise that made me listen to Fallon's second album Sleepwalkers with more of an open mind, or maybe Fallon just put more energy into it for that same reason. Whatever the reason, Sleepwalkers stands head and shoulders above his first solo album.
Fallon's lyrics have never shied away from getting a little dark even when the music is more upbeat. It's probably a testament to how dense I can be about an album's theme but it took me multiple listens before I realized how much the lyrics deal with loss. "Forget Me Not" is the best song on the album and it covers how we remember the one(s) we love. "See You On The Other Side" and "Proof of Life" don't require a lot of imagination to know what he's talking about. While the lyrics may not be something that puts you at ease (unless you like confronting the finite nature of life), the music is so strong that it really doesn't matter. "Come Wander With Me", "Etta James" and "If Your Prayers Don't Get to Heaven" are the other highlights here.
I maintain hope that one day The Gaslight Anthem will reunite but, until then, I'm happy to continue listening to whatever product Brian Fallon provides, including this album which comes in at number 89.
#88
No. 10, Upping St.
Big Audio Dynamite
They're here to rock...and then paint your dining room
When an entertainer dies young, it's hard for the public, especially the fans, to truly accept that the body of work has concluded. When a sports figure like Jose Fernandez or Len Bias pass, it's more finite; there's no chance that more feats of athletics can be performed and you're just left with the sadness of "what could have been". But when musicians or writers are gone, there's always a chance of a piece of work in the vault, even if it's incomplete or subpar, that could be released posthumously. It's why years after the passing of Kurt Cobain or 2Pac, fans will still shell out money for the tiniest of scraps of some unfinished product.
Joe Strummer, lead singer of The Clash died somewhat young, but at 50 it wasn't tragically young. His band, The Clash, had already broken up and he'd put out a couple albums as side projects. He did pass before what seemed like an inevitable reunion with the rest of his band The Clash could happen. After five albums together, The Clash broke up over what largely seemed to be ego and drugs (first time that's happened to a successful band before). Lead guitarist and one of the creative driving forces of the band, Mick Jones, left to start his own group Big Audio Dynamite, a band that achieved some level of success with the biggest hit coming in the form of "Rush".
In listening to Spotify's five part podcast on The Clash (highly recommend if you are interested in the band), I was surprised to learn that Strummer did reunite with Jones as a producer for Big Audio Dynamite's second album No. 10 Upping St.. I was surprised because The Clash was an immensely popular band, and I would have thought that the fact that Strummer reunited with Jones to write half the album would be widely publicized to boost sales. And maybe it was, but that narrative cooled off since the album's release in 1987. To be honest, I wasn't attune to the music industry in 1987. I was more dialed into topics like not soiling myself or when Zoobilee Zoo would be on PBS next.
The album was originally nine songs but on Spotify you'll see 12. I'd ignore the last three since they're just bonus tracks and they weren't included on the original album for a reason. Strummer's writing credits on the five songs he wrote aren't just lip service either. It's very easy to hear which songs Strummer had his hand in For the record it's "Beyond the Pale", "Limbo the Law", "V. Thirteen", "Ticket", and "Sightsee M.C.". Those songs feel like more of a closing note for The Clash than their actual last album Cut the Crap did. Throw in the leadoff track "C'mon Every Beatbox" and No. 10, Upping St. is a pretty complete album.
Strummer's heart attack ensured that we'll never see a true reunion of The Clash but the number 88 album on the list still feels like a pretty satisfying conclusion.
#87
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
If the horn section from your high school band had a baby with Zac Brown Band and they raised it in the deep South, the output would be Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. Their self-titled debut is such a fun album, even if the subject matter of the most popular track "S.O.B." is about the struggles of alcoholism. I had heard "S.O.B." many times before my friends and I traveled to San Antonio for one of our best friend's wedding. But it was driving in the perfect setting back country of Texas in a rented Tahoe that exposed me to the full album.
"Wasting Time" and "Thank You" are great tracks for relaxing which is a nice change of pace after the upbeat set of "I Need Never Get Old", "Trying So Hard Not to Know", and "S.O.B.". The band's follow-up was equally good (as far as singles go "You Worry Me" might be their best one) but it was the novelty of their new sound and a more concise track listing that lands this album at number 87.
#86
Clumsy
Our Lady Peace
Our Lady Peace lead singer Raine Maida could have the saddest and most tortured (in a weird, good way) voice in all of rock. He and the rest of his Canadian bandmates put together a solid couple of albums in the late nineties before fading. I preferred Clumsy to the follow-up Happiness Is Not a Fish You Can Catch but I have a soft spot for both of them.
"Superman's Dead", the lead-off track on the album, is my favorite song from the band even though lyrically I'm still not 100% clear on how "the world's a subway". Does he mean an actual subway? Or the restaurant Subway? And if the world is the restaurant Subway, what kind of sandwich am I? I'm probably over-thinking it. Best to just enjoy the song for what it is...maybe while enjoying a sandwich. After the opening song, contributions like the title track "Clumsy", "Automatic Flowers", "Carnival", and "4am" keep the album moving briskly. It will be interesting to see how this band is remembered as time goes on but I'm happy to acknowledge Clumsy here at number 86.
#85
The Bends
Radiohead
If I were making this list ten years ago, it would look very differently. Part of that reason is that many albums on the list hadn't been released yet, but the bigger reason is that as I've grown older I'm more comfortable in unabashedly supporting the music that I enjoy. In college and my younger twenties, I would play music publicly that I didn't even really enjoy that much just because I thought it was the cool band at the time.
There's no doubt that the 2010 version of this list would have included a Radiohead entry that was either OK Computer or, if I was really going for the "wow, he's pretty cool" ego boost, Kid A. I'm not downplaying either of those albums. There's been enough written about both of them by critics and music industry experts to confirm to me that what the band accomplished was unique and exemplary. That said, I don't enjoy listening to either album, especially Kid A. I don't get it. I tried listening to both albums again during quarantine. There are brief glimpses of an enjoyable melody or excerpt in some songs but those moments are vastly overshadowed by instrument sounds that just sound like jumbled noise.
The album turned 25 years old this year and it's aged well. The opening five songs starting from "Planet Telex" to "Bones" is such a strong stretch and it's aided in no small part by "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" where Yorke's voice can really ebb and flow. "Just" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" are other high notes for the remainder of the album.
I respect that the band has wanted to keep experimenting and I'll always keep an ear open for what they put out next (I can't abandon a band that guest starred on the classic episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die" of South Park). But I like what I like and I like The Bends at number 85.
#84
Demon Days
Gorillaz
Heading into my first semester junior year at Butler, I was accepted into an internship program with Johnson & Johnson. It was a great opportunity but it meant I would be spending July to December of 2005 living and working in Somerville, New Jersey. For a twenty year old who grew up on a small town farm and was attending college less than two hours away, this was essentially going to be my study-abroad experience.
The first couple months were rough. Everything was foreign to me from fully grocery shopping for myself (what do you mean there's no meal plan in this apartment building?!), to navigating a work place, to even driving. Oh, the driving. I'm sure I'm not the first one to make the joke but the whole state relies on a Derek Zoolander driving style that prohibits you from turning left. Also, I don't know how many laps I did around my first round-about before I had the courage to switch lanes and get off at my exit. Despite my epic struggle to exist as an independent adult, the job went really well, largely because I had a supervisor and manager who were invested in putting me in a position to succeed.
That internship got me a precious job after college which became a hot commodity since the housing financial crisis was right around the corner. I was moved back to New Jersey, then Florida, and finally Philadelphia, which put me in my life now with which I cannot be happier. So the internship was 100% worth it. But holy hell, was it lonely in New Jersey at times.
My friends were all back at Butler and, while we had cell phones, texting was not nearly as prevalent and FaceTime wasn't a thing so I was essentially cut off aside from the occasional email. My girlfriend had broken up with me. My family would call but I wouldn't really have much to say other than how the job was going along with general commentary on how the Cubs were playing. And I was twenty so I couldn't even go sit at a bar and watch sports just to be around people. So during the first couple months, I would spend weeknights bouncing between playing pick-up basketball at a nearby park and walking around the local mall and Best Buy. I bought a lot of DVDs and CDs, sometimes out of boredom. I'd download the CDs onto my Zune mp3 player and then spend Saturdays walking around New York just listening to music, seeing the city and enjoying the feeling of being around people.
I took a lot of chances on some of those CD purchases. Sometimes that resulted in just throwing money away but it exposed me to new and different bands like the Gorillaz. I had heard of Gorillaz but their big hit "Clint Eastwood" was released while I was in high school four years earlier and I hadn't heard anything from the band since then. I didn't know any of the back story. I didn't know that there was no "band" really and that the music was written, performed and produced by Damon Albam, best known as the lead singer of Blur. I only knew that I enjoyed their big hit "Feel Good Inc." and I was willing to give the rest of the album a shot.
I listened to it on repeat for the next few weeks in my car, around the apartment, and just walking around. And I loved it. Around that time I started to make some friends, I turned 21, and some of my Butler friends came out to visit me. So it's hard for me to truly separate how much I enjoyed the album for the musical content or if I just associate it with turning a happier corner of that New Jersey life experience. Regardless, listening to the album fifteen years later still feels crisp and fresh. From the simplistic drum beat of the opening track "Last Living Souls" to the beautiful strings of the finale "Demon Days", the whole album mixes things up from song to song and you're never bored. Other than "Feel Good Inc." there wasn't really another big single from the album other than maybe "Dare". There are a couple songs that still don't do much for me ("Fire Coming Out of The Monkey's Head", "El Manana") but, more than maybe any of the other albums on this list, this deserves to be heard from start to finish to get the full sense of what Albarn can do creatively.
The debut Gorillaz self-titled album would have been acceptable for the list due to some strong tracks like "M1 A1" and "19-2000", and the follow-up album Plastic Beach has my favorite Gorillaz song "On Melancholy Hill". But Demon Days is by far the most complete album. I'll always associate it with a big "growing up" portion of my life. I definitely went back to Butler that winter ready to truly enjoy being around my friends for another three semesters while it lasted, but I'm better for it to have gone through that largely solo experience and this album number 84 was the soundtrack.
#83
Brothers In Arms
Dire Straits
I spent my sophomore year on our high school baseball team just trying to keep my head down and not screw anything up. That strategy imploded four days into practice when I gave our starting left fielder a concussion after I kneed him in the forehead when I didn't call him off a fly ball. Turns out concussing one of the most popular kids on the team isn't a great way for an underclassman to endear himself to the rest of the team. Thankfully from that point on I was able to settle more into the background.
Our team followed the normal high school hierarchy by following the lead of the seniors. That applied both on the field where they took the team to the state finals, and off the field where they called the shots of our pre-game and "locker room" music selections. If you're wondering why locker room is in quotation marks, it's because our home field was about five miles from the school. It was a beautiful field, but there were no locker rooms, so we changed in the parking lot utilizing the trunks of our cars were our proverbial lockers. You can imagine the smell inside some of those cars. The front half of this album was played many times and it makes this pick heavy on the nostalgia side for me. I associate it with a really fun season and one during which I started to play a lot better.
I view Brothers in Arms as a classic rock albums of the mid-80s. It boasts one of the all-time guitar riffs in "Money For Nothing"; it's such a phenomenal track that the album would warrant consideration even if the rest of the songs were just two sticks banging together. I actually may prefer that sound over the fourth track "Your Latest Trick" which makes elevator music sound nuanced and edgy, but that's the only real miss here. Thankfully the rest of the album is much better than that with "Walk of Life", "So Far Away", and "Brothers in Arms" the strongest of the remaining songs. And considering the whole album is only nine songs, four hits gives the band an over .400 average. If this were baseball, that kind of average would make the band first ballot Hall of Famers, but for today they'll have to settle for the number 83 spot on my list.
#82
From Under the Cork Tree
Fall Out Boy
I wanted to avoid putting this band on the list but here we are with a Fall Out Boy entry. The vocals can be a little cloying and the constant winking in the song lyrics and titles wears out its welcome quickly, but there's no question that Pete Wentz and his band can write catchy rock songs. From Under the Cork Tree boasts two highly popular singles in "Dance, Dance" and "Sugar, We're Going Down" despite very few listeners able to make out the lyrics to the latter. My go-to songs on the album are "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me", "Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year" and, my favorite, "Of All the Gin Joints In All The World".
The band has had staying power and have continued to put out popular songs and albums for the last 15 years which is a commendable achievement in today's music industry. But their sophomore album is still my high water mark and it comes in at number 82 here.
#81
Ghost Note Symphonies, Volume 1
Rise Against
For a band that can rain down the sounds of heavy rock like Rise Against, choosing this album felt at first like selling them short. But Ghost Note Symphonies is less of a stripped-down acoustic album and more of a re-imagining of ten of their songs with orchestration and acoustic accompaniment. That's not to say that the band isn't familiar with songs of lesser intensity. One of their biggest songs from the band's early days, "Swing Life Away" feels similar in tone. But the band has predominantly used a much larger sound to convey its messages of political sentiment, environmental concern and a call to activism to its listeners. Albums like Appeal to Reason and The Sufferer and the Witness are the two best examples of this and either album could have been the representative album on this list.
Bands whose lyrics constantly stress some kind of activism or call to change can wear out their welcome quickly by either being too preachy or by just becoming redundant. There are examples of bands pulling it off (e.g. Rage Against the Machine), and there are examples of bands that 100% did not pull it off (remember when The Flobots were a thing?). Rise Against is a band that seems to have found a way to make it work for the most part. The band has been known in the past to go for the Sunday sermon lecture song with a heavier hand than Andre the Giant (see 2008's "Hero Of War"). But by and large, the sincerity and earnestness in lead singer Tim McIlrath's voice carries them through and it's one of the main draws for listeners to the band.
Similar to what the classic Nirvana Unplugged album did for Cobain's voice, it's the removal of the larger, louder sound that provides clarity and depth of the lyrics in McIlrath's voice on the Ghost Note Symphonies album. "Audience of One", my favorite Rise Against song already, is one of the songs that benefits the most from the acoustic shift. Other highlights are "The Violence", "House on Fire", "Far From Perfect", and "Wait For Me" but I just listed half the album so you might as well give the whole 37 minutes a shot. The background orchestra and strings are beautiful and this album number 80 is a nice change of pace for the Chicago based band. The album has a Volume 1 added to it so hopefully there's more of this in store. Regardless, I'll look forward to the next album they release, whatever tone they choose.
#80
Blurryface
Twenty One Pilots
I listened to this band's breakout album Vessel and thought the band wouldn't have legs. I thought that the lack of a guitar and the rapid-fire lyrics would become tiresome or repetitive. The next two albums, Blurryface and Trench, proved that I was wrong and hammered down yet another nail in the coffin of my fantasy job as a music critic, which was right next to "golf course rater" and "steakhouse critic".
While it's true that during the course of a Twenty One Pilots album, or even song, I experience peaks and valleys of enjoyment, I find myself coming back to this album. Sometimes the spoken lyrics can go on a little too long, but then the hook will kick in and I'm right back in on what the band's selling. Blurryface gets the nod over Trench with "Tear In My Heart", "Ride", "Lane Boy", "Stressed Out" and "Heavydirtysoul" leading the way. Enjoy your Saturday night and enjoy album number 80. We're now over 20% through the list!
#79
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Modest Mouse
I saw this band in concert when I was living in Jacksonville, Florida along with some friends who worked for the same company. We ducked out early since the concert was a couple hours away and two of them chose to sneak out through the manufacturing facility. More accurately, they snuck out through an emergency exit-only side door of the manufacturing facility. My friend and I waited in the car and watched the two of them do the "walk casual but much faster than normal and pretend nothing is wrong" walk across the parking lot as the muffled sound of sirens filled the air. When they got in the car, everyone's attitude was "we're not missing this show; let's go". It's not an edge of your seat story but it is something I think about every so often when I listen to this band and definitely this album.
The band has put out a number of good albums over the years. If I wanted to make the "I'm a real fan of the band" choice, I would have selected Moon & Antarctica, if I wanted my nostalgic choice it would have been Good News for People Who Love Bad News, but, if I'm honest with myself, this is my favorite offering from the Pacific Northwest band. Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr lends his talents for the full album and, while I can't call myself a Smiths fan, his influence here is noticeable versus the band's other albums.
Modest Mouse has always made its calling card crafting unique lyrics and that's still on display here. Front man Isaac Brock has plenty of hardship, intelligence and life experience on which to draw on for writing. He grew up dirt poor and started working jobs when he was 11. Despite the difficult circumstances and home schooling, or maybe because of it, the lyrics can be so intellectually referential that it can feel like he's just showing off. Case in point, the name of the band comes from Virginia Woolf's description of ordinary, plain people - "modest mouse-colored people".
You can choose to consume this album looking deeper into the lyrics (almost every song was apparently written about a boat crew that sinks at sea in some way) or do what I did, and take it at face value for a well made album. Anchored (no boat pun intended) by "Dashboard", "Missed the Boat", "We've Got Everything", "Spitting Venom", and my personal favorite "People as Places as People", this follow-up may not have been as commercially successful as their previous release Good News for People Who Love Bad News but it's a superior album to me. Their follow-up Strangers to Ourselves felt like more of the same and it will be interesting see if the band has any further creative tricks up its sleeve or if albums like the number 79 album on the list are what we should expect.
#78
Yourself or Someone Like You
Matchbox Twenty
When our first daughter was born, and I was experiencing fatherhood in the form of walking and bouncing a screaming infant in the pure dead of night, I found myself thinking of the "and the clock on the wall has been stuck at three for days and days" line from the Matchbox Twenty song "3 AM" over and over. Sleeping habits eventually improved but the same can't be said of album quality for this nineties band.
Subsequent albums weren't bad, and my favorite single from them actually wouldn't come until 2006 with "How Far We've Come", but Yourself or Someone Like You was undoubtedly the band's peak with driven by the aforementioned "3 AM", "Real World", "Push", "Long Day" and "Back 2 Good" providing the base of one of the best selling albums of 1996.
It will be interesting how this band is remembered as the years progress. There doesn't seem to be the retroactive backlash to them in the same way as some other 90s bands like Creed, Nickelback or Limp Bizkit (just writing that band name makes me feel ridiculous) but no one has ever told me this is one of their favorite bands. They're living in that middle ground area with 3 Doors Down as their next door neighbors.
Regardless of how time remembers them, 25 years later, the success of this album number 78 endures and the hour of 3 AM will forever be associated with this band for anyone who lived through 1996 with access to a radio. I wonder if they would change the album cover if they knew this album would be their calling card. Fun fact, the man on the cover was a stranger they found on the street who later sued the band. Happy Monday!
#77
Back to Bedlam
James Blunt
We didn’t have many big parties at our off-campus house during my junior year of college. But one Saturday night, the stars aligned and we became the popular destination, which led to a packed house and a basement that was well beyond a fire hazard (number of occupants plus I'm assuming wood paneling burns rapidly). My roommate, and now fellow blog owner (what a title), had put the playlist together and the crowd was loving it. But sometime after midnight, the opening notes to James Blunt's "Goodbye My Lover" started blasting from the speakers. Said roommate, who had unintentionally included the song in the playlist, frantically tried to make his way across the packed basement but the damage was done. Everyone who knew the song was transported to the most brutal separation they'd endured in their 18-22 years of life.
That song, like other parts of this album Back to Bedlam, is overly dramatic and it's why The Office used it for Michael Scott's break-up with Carol (he refuses to spend the dollar on iTunes to buy the full song so he just listens to the same 30 seconds on repeat). Blunt has continued putting out albums of similar tone over the years and that seems to have worked well for him. I can't say I really followed his career much after Back to Bedlam but I still consider this a great album from start to finish, especially if you want to indulge in the feeling of just being a little sad. Plus, if anyone accuses you of being soft for listening, you can counter with the fact that Blunt was a soldier for six years.
"High", "You're Beautiful", "Wisemen", "Tears and Rain", they're all great. Enjoy the listen of number 77...just not at a party. Or who knows? Maybe you're into sad parties. Live your truth.
#76
Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers
At the outset of creating this list, I made the rule of no compilation albums, and this is one of the artists who will suffer the most from that very arbitrary rule. I don't know of anyone who doesn't find Marley's voice relaxing, other than if your college roommate or dorm neighbor was overzealous with playing his work to let evvvveryone know that they were cool.
The Legend greatest hits album from Marley is just a murderer's row of great song after great song and it's never a bad choice to have on for a low key night at home, but I could say the same of the Exodus album. I listened to it extensively when I lived in Jacksonville and spent extensive time on the beach, because that was really all there was to do during weekend daylight hours. It made for a relaxing time at the beach, which was to my detriment one Sunday night when I fell asleep on the beach listening to Legend on headphones only to wake up around 1 AM in a confusion as to why my feet and chair were getting wet. Can't blame alcohol on that one, rather just the relaxing sound of Bob Marley's voice coupled with the Sunday scaries that kept me at the beach longer than I should have been. Proud day and what a way to start the week.
"Natural Mystic", "Jamming", "Three Little Birds", and "Turn Your Lights Down Low" are the highlight tracks but, let's be honest, you're just letting this #76 album play through from start to finish while you unwind with a drink or make dinner. Or your dinner is the drinks. No judgment here.
#75
Enema Of The State
Blink-182
In the song "What's My Age Again", Blink-182 boldly proclaims that the twenty-something year old rockers still act like they're in freshman year. For me, I was about to enter my freshman year when this album was released. What a surprise that the simple song with sophomoric lyrics would resonate with the 14 year old me. Side note: When I saw the title of the album, Enema of the State, I just thought they had misspelled "enemy" as some kind of slang or just to be wacky. It didn't take long for my friends to correct me and inform me what an enema was. (sigh) Growing up.
Given the album cover, there was zero chance that my mom would have signed off on this purchase (our family had a firm anti-latex glove stance). Luckily for me, Napster came into existence that summer so it wasn't long before I was utilizing our family phone line and 50 pound desktop computer to download a song at a two song per hour clip. However frustrated my parents were about how much I was using dial-up internet, that problem would only grow when I would discover AOL and MSN messenger one year later. But those were 2000 problems. This was 1999 when Y2K was looming, cell phones were as big as a Kindle, and TRL was a thing.
I bring up TRL because Blink-182 was featured prominently there and that's important because this band became as much a pop music sensation as they were a rock band. That's particularly ironic given that the "All the Small Things" video was a send-up of a lot of pop music videos of the day (e.g. Backstreet Boys at an airport, "Genie In A Bottle" at the beach). The band was huge and this album was their zenith. The vocals are distinctive but in the same vein of other pop punk rock acts like Sum-41, but what distinguished Blink's sound was Travis Barker's drumming. It's the driving force behind each song, and even in more mellow tracks like "Adam's Song" Barker still injects a rising drum solo toward the end. That sound has helped the album age well as opposed to some of the lyrics which just seem overly dumb now or just outdated. I haven't had the courage to play "Dumpweed" in our house for fear of the chorus line "I need a girl that I can train".
Enema Of The State is an album that we can look back on fondly but makes us feel just a little bit uncomfortable. Not unlike freshman year of high school. "Adam's Song", "What's My Age Again", "All the Small Things", and "Mutt" are the highlights of album number 75 and, at only 35 minutes, the album breezes by and does not overstay its welcome.
#74
End Of The Innocence
Don Henley
Don Henley in all his long-haired, cigarette-smoking glory (seriously, look at this album cover) put out this gem of an album in 1989. It's true that his best known songs are probably "Boys of Summer" or "Dirty Laundry", but The End Of The Innocence is the peak of his solo career. Fun fact: I covered the end of my innocence in the album #75 write-up when I found out what an enema was!
There's so much melodrama in these songs; you can wallow in it if that's the mood you're feeling. "The End of the Innocence", "The Last Worthless Evening", "New York Minute", and, my favorite, "The Heart Of The Matter" carry the 10-track album and its relatively long run time of 53 minutes. Listen for Guns 'N Roses front man Axl Rose as the background vocals in "I Will Not Go Quietly". Henley by far had the best post-Eagles career of any of his former bandmates, save for Glenn Frey's "The Heat Is On" being immortalized as the opening title song of Beverly Hills Cop.
Relax, listen to Henley's voice and enjoy album number 74 while wondering if Henley's inclusion on the list counts as the Eagles entry.
#73
Flood
They Might Be Giants
What a difference in lyrics between earlier list entries like Rise Against and today's band They Might Be Giants. One tries to spur social change and activism and the other literally sings about "Whistling In The Dark". Formed in the early eighties, They Might Be Giants uses lyrics that aim for absurdity or humor written over the top of very unconventional but very catchy melodies.
When I was in seventh grade, I took a typing class, which sounds like something Peggy Olson from the first season of Mad Men would enroll in, but at least my school had the foresight that these fancy computers would probably be pretty vital to work and life in the future. The computer lab shared the space with a high school Excel course and I was seated next to a sophomore. I remember this kid as a computer whiz but in actuality, it was probably just because he knew how to use copy/paste using Alt+E+S+V (Excel jokes!).
Whatever his computer proficiency, he had a lot of free time on his hands and would spend a lot of that time listening to music at a very low volume but still audible to me. If you're young or have forgotten, let me remind you that desktop computers had CD-ROMs which allowed for playing CDs. He listened to the They Might Be Giants album Flood for a few days straight. After a few days, I finally had the courage to ask him who the band was. He seemed thrilled that someone was actually expressing interest in this band and immediately let me borrow it to listen to at home.
I made a physical copy that night which was significantly easier than if I had tried to download the album over Kazaa. Again, in case you've forgotten, trying to download a 19 song album (plus the seventeen viruses that Kazaa threw in for free) would take all night via the dial-up connection most of us were still using in 1997. I've been hooked on the album since then and it's something that's so simple that even my daughters enjoy it in the car.
I think that may have been the only thing that the upperclassman and I had in common other than a random seat assignment, but just shows that music is a great way to find common ground. The 1990 platinum album Flood is the band's best work. Once you get past the fact that the lyrics don't really mean anything deeper and shouldn't be dwelled on, the songs are so catchy (musical term). And if you don't like a particular song, it's usually over in a couple minutes as evidenced by the album length of 43 minutes despite being comprised of 19 songs. Highlights are "Birdhouse In Your Soul", "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", "Particle Man", "Women and Men" and, my favorite, "Whistling In the Dark". At the number 73 spot, don't judge and enjoy an album that doesn't take itself seriously.
#72
Cosmo's Factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival
I remember sitting in the back seat on the way home from Catholic Mass when I was eight or nine years old and my dad played Creedence Clearwater Revival's greatest hits album Chronicle, starting with "Lookin' Out My Back Door". That was around the time it was dawning on me that there was all this music from older generations that might be worth listening to.
John Fogerty's voice is so distinctive and, to my knowledge, he's the only singer to be sued for plagiarizing himself so there's that. CCR's sound was described by Fogerty as "swamp rock" and you can argue that many of the songs sound the same. Mumford and Sons seemed to model their music as a modern day cousin of this, and it's funny that they also seem to experience some of the same criticism of repetition. CCR put out some great tracks in the classic rock pantheon and their label sure hasn't been shy about loaning out their music for movie soundtracks (Forrest Gump, Remember the Titans, The Longest Yard) or even commercials ("Fortunate Son" for Levi's).
The Chronicle greatest hits compilation is still the album I use to listen to the band more often than not, but Cosmo's Factory is my favorite of their standalone albums. There are short, well known tracks like "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Run Through the Jungle", "Up Around the Bend", and "Who'll Stop the Rain" and there are long musical marathons like "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". Embrace your inner bayou and enjoy album number 72.
#71
After The Party
The Menzingers
While After the Party is the official album entry to the list, I treat this album as the second half of a two-part album with the first half coming in the form of 2011's On The Impossible Past.
It's rewarding when a band's members are the same age as you, the listener, because it usually means that the lyrical content matches the trajectory of your own life's progression. In the On The Impossible Past album, the Philadelphia-based group touches on friends, bars, anger at materialism ("Nice Things"), recklessness and the invincibility of youth ("On The Impossible Past"), pursuing relationships ("Casey"), insecurity (very clear during the chorus on "The Obituaries"), or, said differently, all the beats of someone in their early to mid-twenties.
My wife (then fiancee) and I saw them at The Electric Factory when they opened for The Gaslight Anthem in late November 2012. I hadn't heard of the band prior to the concert announcement but when I found out they were the opener I listened to the Past album and was interested in how they would be live. During the opening song, "The Obituaries", vocalist Tom May spit on the stage floor in front of him a few times. As a result, if there was ever a chance I could get Katie into the band, they were now gone.
I casually followed the band after that, but thought their next release Rented World was average. But their follow-up, After The Party, seemed like a big step forward in both the sound and how much they were able to tap into the insecurity and restlessness that can come after your twenties fade and your thirties set in. The chorus of the opening track "Tellin' Lies" very explicitly lays this out. The line "where we gonna go now that our twenties are over?" can be taken a multitude of ways. In terms of relationships it can mean, "Are we good for each other long-term or is this just something for fun?". It can be taken as more metaphorical as "where is my life going now that my twenties are over"? Or it can be taken literally, as I think of that line every time my friends and I are in a bar (remember pre-Covid bars?), the younger twenty-somethings gradually take over as the night progresses, and we have to make the decision of where to go because we're clearly too old to stay here.
"Lookers" confronts the reality of physical aging. They write about the danger of holding on too long to the days of care-free drinking with your friends as it bleeds into lonely alcohol dependence ("The Bars"). There's some pretty bleak existentialism in "House on Fire" with the heavy line of "Yeah, does it make you nervous? / Have you fulfilled your purpose". Those kinds of just-before-falling asleep anxiety thoughts are second only to wondering about the after-life.
Based on the lyrics, I know this sounds like an album meticulously created to provoke an anxiety attack, but the music is so upbeat and strong that it serves as a good balance to the lyrics. Oddly enough, the title track "After The Party" is my favorite and, whether it was the intent or not, it gives me the most comfort of any song on the album. The line that's repeated over and over is "After the party, it's me and you" and that's how I feel about my wife. After the "party" and really good times in our twenties, in the end all that really matters is me and her. And as we move on from milestone to milestone in life (kids, retirement, finally finishing The Americans) all that will really matter is it's me and her. For whatever reason I love the analogy of metaphorically wrapping your arm around your partner's shoulder and walking out of the "party" and into the next phase of life. Might be deeper than what the band originally intended but art is all about how you choose to interpret it, right? But, full disclosure, I thought "Tub Thumping" was an in depth exploration of the dangers of alcoholism and "Macarena" was a study on the struggles of dating culture in Latin America.
However much you read into After the Party, I suggest you pair it by first listening to On The Impossible Past before diving into album #71.
#70
Collective Soul
Collective Soul
A band that can get lost in the shuffle of modern rock band history, Collective Soul put out its share of hits in the mid to late nineties starting with "Shine" in 1994. But it was this album that was the much heavier hitter and is the most complete album.
The song order follows an unconventional path compared to other albums on this list. Most albums start strong and then fade completely or start strong, lag in the middle and finish strong. I find the beginning of the album to be the weakest with "Simple" and "Untitled" more experimental than the sharper songs as the album progresses, with the middle tracks "The World I Know", "Gel", "December" and "Where The River Flows" (a song that's going for the record of the grungiest guitar work that has ever grunge-d) serving as the core of the album before "Bleed" and "Reunion" close the 46 minute album down on a calmer note.
The band would put out another notable album in 1999, Dosage, boasting the tracks "Heavy", which was a high school weight room staple, and "Run" which was immortalized in the Varsity Blues soundtrack (cue me saying out loud "I don't want yer life" while typing this). But the band's self-titled 1995 album, coming in at number 70 on the list, would be the peak of a solid career.
#69
Stuck On Nothing
Free Energy
Thirty-one albums in and I have not deviated from my original list. That will change with album number 69. This spot was originally intended for the Guns N Roses album Appetite For Destruction. It's an incredibly successful album that includes three all-time great rock songs in "Paradise City", "Sweet Child Of Mine", and "Welcome To The Jungle". But in listening to it again, I felt a twinge of annoyance at listening to Axl Rose's voice for that extended period of time. And, while the rest of the album is good, I don't have a real favorite track other than those incredibly well known songs. I acknowledge its rightful place in rock history but it won't be included here...other than what I just wrote about it.
In its place is a local Philly band who put out their debut album Stuck on Nothing in 2010 to acclaim from Rolling Stone and Spin, released one more album three years later, and then faded from view. While the band's run was shorter than a presidential term, this gem of an album remains. The first four songs are strongest stretch including "Free Energy", "Dream City", "Bang Pop", and "All I Know" but the whole album is strong with a consistent, laid back feel. Album number 69 didn't break the mold of rock and roll but I come back to it every few months or so. And I feel better about including it here rather than throwing more accolades toward egomaniac Axl Rose.
#68
TRUE
Avicii
I used to volunteer (not court ordered) as a counselor at a four-day summer camp for high schoolers. On the last night there would be a dance and, in an effort to save money and pad my ego, I was asked for a few years to "DJ". I am using quotation marks because I was DJ-ing in the same way that I drive a car while on the interstate under cruise control. I would simply plug in an iPod (younger readers, it was a phone without the annoying texting, phone calls and social media interaction) and let the kids enjoy themselves.
High school dances are stereotypically filled with a lot of awkward, unsure shifting of weight, avoidance of eye contact, and leaning on walls. Guilty as charged there for me too back when I was a sixteen year old on or, more accurately, within the vicinity of a dance floor. So getting these kids to dance was a challenge, even if I was a world class DJ, which, again, I am not. In 2011 the vibe in the room was particularly rough since the dance floor provided to us was in a room that was 90% windows and the dance started at 7 o'clock in July. These kids didn't even have the cover of darkness to mask their insecurity, arm pit stains (again, July) and boredom (that last one's on me). So I reached for the panic button only twenty minutes into the dance. And that "break in case of emergency" song was "Levels" by Avicii. Kids went nuts. Ice was broken. It was a fun night for everyone after that.
Some people are just born with incredible innate abilities that, if they're lucky, they discover early in life and then nurture. For me, it's the amazing ability to compile arbitrary lists to feed my narcissism (if you're reading this, thank for you indulging me). For Tim Bergling, aka Avicii, it was the ability to not only create EDM tracks that were incredibly uplifting and infectious as evidenced by the reactions of those kids on the dance floor. But there were plenty of great DJs before Avicii and there will be more that come after. What separated him into an all-time echelon was his ear and foresight to incorporate what was happening in other parts of the musical world into his own music. In the mid-2010s he must have known that bands with a certain folksy or country sound (Mumford and Sons, Lumineers) were rising in popularity. Instead of judging it, he used it in his own songs like "Hey Brother" as a way to draw even more listeners into his orbit. He even used folk singer Audra Mae for the track "Addicted To You".
TRUE is a phenomenal album with hit after hit coming on all ten tracks. Some songs are a fusion of folk and EDM like "Hey Brother" or the song-so-big-you-can't-escape-it "Wake Me Up". Others are more straightforward EDM songs that should have some part of your body tapping or nodding like "You Make Me" or "Heart Upon My Sleeve". It's a shame that he's gone and it sounds like he had his share of problems, which is hardly surprising when you make it that big, that fast, in that industry, in that lifestyle when you're a teenager. He left an indelible mark on the music world though. "Levels" might be played at my daughters' prom if that's even still a thing in 2033 and what greater accomplishment is there than creating something that gives people confidence and enables their ability to have a good time? Actually, I think I may have just described amphetamines but you get what I mean.
TRUE still makes me happy in the car, in the gym or in the office and it's the number 68 album on the list.
#67
Bad Blood
Bastille
Nothing like the first song off your first album becoming arguably your biggest hit. That's what I can write about Bastille after three albums to date. With "Pompeii", the lead single off their debut album Bad Blood, they were able to tap into something special by blending big drums, some tribal chanting, and lead singer Dan Smith's ranging falsetto, slightly haunting British voice into a massive hit.
But that doesn't mean the rest of the album is a throwaway or even much of a decline. "Things We Lost In The Fire" and "Bad Blood" finish off the strong, upbeat start before "Overjoyed" slows things down. Highlights the rest of the way include "Icarus", "Laura Palmer", "Flaws", "Daniel In the Den" and, my favorite, "Laughter Lines" which somehow didn't make the initial album cut, and is only available as a bonus track.
The band continued the momentum from their debut with two solid subsequent albums. Particular kudos to their most recent album, Doom Days, which tells the story of a night out in London during the apocalypse starting from midnight ("Quarter Past Midnight") all the way to waking up on the kitchen floor the next morning ("Joy"). That album was close to getting the nod for this list but the songs from Bad Blood are just too strong. The middle album, Wild World, has some bright spots like "Blame", "Send Them Off" and "Good Grief" but it's the weakest of the three albums. But when the bar was set as high as the number 67 album, Bad Blood, it will be hard for any future album to top. Still, I look forward to listening to them try.
#66
Morning View
Incubus
As a teenager, I wanted the music I bought to be edgy and cool. I don't think I was alone in that given that marketing to teens is centered around a "buy this and you'll be cool" theme. Listening to Incubus made me feel that way. Lead singer Brandon Boyd seemed to exude "cool". They had a DJ! The sound could be loud at times but then heartfelt and sincere. I caught on to the band when everyone else did with their third album Make Yourself which boasted the hits of "Pardon Me", "Stellar", "I Miss You" (love to know how many long distance couples used that on-the-nose track as "their song"), and the band's biggest hit "Drive".
As much as that album grabbed me, their next album Morning View is what makes it onto the list. There are a couple tracks I could still do without but "Nice To Know You", "11 AM", "Warning", "Are You In", the hard rocking "Under My Umbrella", and my favorite "Wish You Were Here" are more than enough to compensate for that weakness. Following the release in 2001, the band started to lose me with their next album A Crow Left of the Murder... (I can't type that without either a slight head shake or mild eye roll) which was good, not great as the band got more experimental. By the time Light Grenades came out I was only following the band passively at best.
I have still enjoyed listening to Make Yourself and Morning View over the years but the enjoyment now is more about the music itself rather than an image I'm trying to portraying. Knowing what I know now about the much wider scope of music that existed in 2001, the notion that a band like Incubus that was plastered all over MTV was edgy doesn't make much sense. That was more or less confirmed when I came across an interview that Spin wrote on Boyd in 2001 that Incubus's music was "kid-tested/mother approved guitar rock". It doesn't matter. If there's been one theme of this list, it's that you should listen to what makes you happy and for me, that's the number 66 album, Morning View.
#65
Hotel California
Eagles
It's inevitable that most of us follow the musical path that our parents put us on. For some, it's the Beatles. For others, it's The Temptations. For me, the two artists that I most strongly associate with my parents are Ben E. King and Eagles. There won't be a Ben E. King album on this list, or even one from The Drifters although Save The Last Dance For Me is pretty great. King is responsible for what is a top ten all time song in "Stand By Me" but I'd be lying if I said I put on a full non-compilation album from him on a consistent basis. Eagles, on the other hand, are a different story. This was one of my dad's favorite bands so I was exposed to them from an early age.
I think part of what draws us to the music of our parents' youth is that it allows us to envision them as something other than our parents - as young people who had insecurities, hopes, and flaws. And in that way, we can identify with them further because we can see them as something other than just our parents. I could picture my dad listening to albums from bands like Eagles and Mountain in his room the same way that I would listen to my favorite albums. I think about that when I play music in the house and whether my daughters will one today associate me with the "classic rock" of their youth like Green Day or Weezer.
I don't know what there is to say about Eagles that hasn't already been said. All-time rock band. Split up by ego, alcohol and exhaustion (never happened to a band before). Spawned solo careers of Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Joe Walsh. The band's music after Walsh's addition was superior to the earlier albums in my opinion and he brings a lot to the table on the Hotel California album. He supplied the opening guitar riff that became "Life In The Fast Lane" as well as the vocals for "Pretty Maids All In A Row", which are two of the strongest tracks on the album. "Hotel California" might be the band's most well-known song and it's the anchor to the number 65 album.
#64
Lights and Sounds
Yellowcard
If you're appalled that I put Yellowcard ahead of Eagles, things are only going to get worse from here.
Sure, "Ocean Avenue" is Yellowcard's biggest hit and Ocean Avenue is their most successful album (not surprising that a Jacksonville band incorporated the ocean into their work), but I would argue Ocean Avenue felt more like a collection of singles whereas 2006's Lights and Sounds was at least an attempt at making a more complete album.
I'm a sucker for a long prelude, preferably using strings or piano, with an abrupt smash to the song opening (e.g. Kanye's "All of the Lights", Muse's "Survival", even Eminem's "Lose Yourself"). So when Yellowcard starts the album off with the instrumental strings and piano track "Three Flights Up" only to cut right into "Lights and Sounds", I was immediately hooked on the album opening and it still amps me up 14 years later. That's followed up with my favorite Yellowcard song "Down on My Head".
The next nine tracks can be a little uneven but the strength of "Sure Thing Falling", "Rough Landing, Holly", "Martin Sheen or JFK", and "Words, Hands, Hearts" balance out the weaker songs. The weakest of those is "Two Weeks From Twenty" which just feels like a forced "war is bad" song because this was 2006 and most musicians hated George W. Bush (*loses train of thought imagining how great it would be to have W. over either of the 2020 candidates*). And it's not like the band is incapable of writing songs with a message as "Believe" from the Ocean Avenue album is one of the best 9/11 dedications I've heard.
The album wraps up with "How I Go" and "Holly Wood Died". "How I Go" was a song written for the Tim Burton film Big Fish which, if you haven't seen it, is two hours of a son coming to grips with his dad dying. Watch that and Field of Dreams back to back and you run the risk of moving back in with your parents and never letting them out of your sight. It's the only song on the album that feels out of place but it's still an enjoyable listen.
The finale "Holly Wood Died" really wraps things up beautifully. It's a strong rock track that, in the last minute, reverts to the piano intro from the first track "Up Three Flights". I know it's a gimmick but it bookends the album so well. It's the musical equivalent of the feather at the beginning and end of Forrest Gump.
I followed the band for the next few albums but they didn't come close to repeating the success of Ocean Avenue, Lights and Sounds, or even their second album One For The Kids. There were flashes of brilliance like the songs "Awakening", "Hang You Up", "Light Up The Sky", or the instrumental "Convocation". Most bands would kill to have one great album. This band had two with several other supplemental works so they're definitely a success; I just thought the band had more in store for them. But the #64 album is not too shabby.
#63
Coloring Book
Chance The Rapper
Big horns, gospel choirs and excellent lyrics combine to make Coloring Book a very pleasurable listening experience. In creating this list I found that some of the hip hop albums I loved when I was younger like Marshall Mathers LP or 2001 sound so angry and violent all these years later. Unlike those albums, Coloring Book's positive sentiment and even humor make it more appealing as a continued re-listen. It's election day as I post this so a little lightheartedness today never hurt anybody.
"All We Got", "No Problem", "Angels", and "All Night" are my highlights. Although the chorus of "All Night" refers to drinking all night which, at my age, now consists of staying up until 11:30 on a Saturday night with four beers. I might need more than that depending on how the election results proceed over the next day / hopefully not weeks. Relax, trust the (democratic) process and listen to album #63 for now.
#62
Heartbeat City
The Cars
We may not know the presidential results yet but one thing we should all agree on is that The Cars front man Ric Ocasek had one of the most iconic and unique voices of any rock band. His voice and the heavy use of keyboards / synthesizers as supplements to the standard guitar and drums make many songs from the band easily recognizable. The Cars put out a murderer's row of pop rock hits across six albums in the 80s. The infectious and appealing sound of many of the songs may have even worked to the detriment of the band as the years progressed as their inclusion in movies and commercials (Circuit City is gone but the commercials will live in my head forever) have a tendency to water down the true impact of hearing the band on a standalone album. There's a similar phenomenon happening right now as Pandora jewelry, Allstate insurance, and Papa Johns are all using Bill Withers's "Lovely Day". Please leave that song alone.
I really could have picked any of the albums from The Cars for this list but it really came down to their debut album, The Cars, and their fifth album, Heartbeat City. As iconic as that debut album is ("Just What I Needed", "Good Times Roll", "Best Friends Girl", "Moving In Stereo"), I gave the nod to Heartbeat City largely because the great songs on the album haven't suffered from being as overplayed. The ten track album starts and ends strong with "Hello Again" and "Heartbeat City" serving as musical bookends and in between are "Magic", "I Refuse", "Drive", and, my favorite song from the band, "You Might Think".
Do your best Ric Ocasek impression as you enjoy album number 62.
#61
Nothing Is Wrong
Dawes
"A Little Bit of Everything" from the Nothing Is Wrong album gets me wistful and even a little sad on every listen. That's probably the only time someone has written that sentence about a song that features a verse about an older gentleman selecting food at a buffet. Although when I was a kid and they were out of pepperoni in the Sunday Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat buffet, I would become pretty melancholy so maybe it's all connected. At any rate, the folk rockers from California, Dawes know how to write a rock song with a straightforward narrative and regarding topics to which almost everyone can relate, whether that's thinking of a friend from your youth that you lost touch with ("All Your Favorite Bands"), self-sabotaging a relationship out of jealousy ("Who Do You Think You're Talking To"), or contemplating what's important in life ("When My Time Comes").
Credit to Philly's best source of new music 88.5 XPN (and the best working radio host / softball player in the business, Mike Vasilikos) for playing the song "If I Wanted Someone" on a summer weekday morning. It was my first exposure to the band and I went down the rabbit hole that night finding that the rest of the Nothing is Wrong album was just as enjoyable as that single. Other highlights include "Time Spent In Los Angeles", "Moon In The Water", and "My Way Back Home" but the whole album is an enjoyable listen, especially the aforementioned finale "A Little Bit of Everything". I had just proposed around the time that I heard the full album so the line toward the end of the song of "so on that day in late September / it's not some stupid little ring / I'm getting a little bit of everything" hit me especially hard. Or, you know, it's somehow food related.
Whether it's my heart or my stomach, I'm somehow connected to the number 61 album.
#60
Jagged Little Pill
Alanis Morissette
Like a Schoolhouse Rock video that was never fact-checked, Alanis Morissette taught all of us impressionable youth the incorrect meaning of the word "irony" in the summer of 1995. Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill was a juggernaut in the mid-90s and for good reason. The 12-track album was an effective mix of her unique vocals, semi-grunge guitar and...harmonica?
Somehow it all worked as it was a big commercial success supported by the singles "Ironic", "Hand In My Pocket", "You Learn", "Head Over Feet", and "You Oughta Know" which immortalized Dave Coulier in a way other than the Full House "cut...it...out" hand motion (whether the story is real is irrelevant as it's part of the song's lore now). The album's release came four months after Jewel put out her "Pieces Of You" album. Both albums were in heavy rotation for my 16 year old sister. And if you listen to the beginning of a song like "Ironic" it could be mistaken for a Jewel song, but that's before the guitar kicks in and Alanis's voice drops an octave.
The mid-nineties were a bright spot for women in rock as No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom would be released three months after Jagged Little Pill and Hole would vault more into the mainstream a couple years later with Celebrity Skin. Alanis has stayed in the picture over the last 25 years both musically and culturally (married Ryan Reynolds for a minute there) but this album was indisputably her peak.
Jagged Little Pill has stood the test of time (there's a musical!) and it wouldn't surprise me to hear the number 60 emanating out of one or both of my daughters' rooms in about ten years. That would be ironic. Actually, it's not ironic. I'm not sure. But don't blame me, I learned the definition from a mid-90s rock song.
#59
The Sun And The Moon
The Bravery
It's unfortunate that so much of my association with this band revolves around their petty feud with The Killers. Brandon Flowers of The Killers admits that he unnecessarily started the fight by saying that The Bravery was only signed as a band because of the success of The Killers. Bravery singer Sam Endicott responded by saying Flowers had no personality and no sense of humor and that picking on him was like "picking on a kid in a wheelchair". At that point battle lines were drawn and, while I knew that The Killers had started it, no one talks about Flowers that way. I couldn't have been more in The Killers camp.
Before the feud started I had downloaded The Bravery's debut album and really enjoyed it, especially "Swollen Summer", "Unconditional" and "An Honest Mistake". Listening to the album again, I really do hear the similarity to The Killers so the accusation by Flowers did have some legitimacy. The Sun And The Moon, however, has a sound that's more its own and it suits The Bravery much better. Anchored by "Believe", "Time Won't Let Me Go", "Bad Sun", "This Is Not The End" and the downbeat "Tragedy Bound", the whole album is consistently solid throughout its 39 minute run time.
Sadly The Bravery would only put out one more album, Stir The Blood, of which I was very much not a fan. Hard to say who really won the feud. Flowers states that he wishes he had never said anything and he acted like a jerk early in the band's days in part because he admired Oasis so much. The Killers will go down as undoubtedly the better and more successful band but The Bravery did carve out their own small piece of rock history with album number 59 as their greatest work.
#58
Waking Up The Giants
Grizfolk
Grizfolk opened for Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness in Philly three years ago. I had never heard of them but I like to at least sample the opener's album(s) before the show to get a sense of what they'll play. If I'm not a fan, my wife and I can enjoy the pre-show dinner reservation a little longer or, at the very least, avoid paying the babysitter as much.
In this case, I was very impressed with what I heard from Grizfollk and their album Waking Up The Giants. There's really not a song that I don't enjoy on the album but highlights are "Into The Barrens", "Troublemaker", "Waking Up The Giants", "Waiting For You", and, my favorite, "Bounty On My Head". The musical style is in the vein of Mumford and Sons and there's not much musical variety over the course of the album. So if you enjoy one song, you'll enjoy them all. Conversely, if you're bored three tracks in, then just resign yourself to the fact that album number 59 is not for you. But at least it didn't cost you a babysitter to find out.
#57
S&M
Metallica
The gamble that a sound marriage between Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony helmed by Michael Kamen would work could have ended in musical disaster. It wasn't like Metallica's sound needed to get any bigger and the addition of that much incremental instrumentation could result in an overload on the eardrums. And I do think that happens from time to time over the course of the album. But for the majority of the album, the union between the two musical worlds works just as perfectly as the Mike and Carol Brady marriage.
My enthusiasm for Metallica has always been tepid at best. I can't deny that I enjoyed their bigger hits like "One" or "For Whom The Bell Tolls" but even when I was at my youthful angst-iest most of their music just sounded like loud noise to me and I found no real connection. Compounded by that was the band's famous anti-Napster take when I was 15 years old. As I have aged, I'm more sympathetic to the band's stance that illegal downloads rob deserving artists of money. But I maintain that the band wasn't looking out for the lesser known artists in the industry and were mainly focused on ensuring that they made as many millions as possible. To this day, it still looks more like petty complaining from millionaires rather than a noble stand for the future of the music industry. It was against the backdrop of those public comments that I first heard S&M which I'm sure biased my opinion of the album in a negative manner at the time. After a couple years I came back to the album though and was much more appreciative of what was accomplished and just how big the scale was.
It could be argued that I'm breaking my own rule of excluding compilation albums but A) it's my list and I can do what I want and B) while the majority of S&M includes previous works by Metallica, hearing those songs through the beautiful and powerful filter of the San Francisco Symphony as helmed by Michael Kamen makes many of them sound wholly new. The new songs aren't empty gestures either as "Human" and "No Leaf Clover" (arguably the best song on the album) sound like the two entities are one giant band rather than the symphony supplementing Metallica's work.
The run time is two hours and thirteen minutes which is the length of Die Hard. Any entertainment product that lasts that long is going to have moments or sections that don't enthrall you. For me, songs like "The Outlaw Torn" or "The Call of Ktulu" are the equivalent of when Holly McClane asks Hans Gruber if some hostages can go to the bathroom. But those moments are far outweighed by the grandness of "No Leaf Clover", "One", "Enter Sandman" or even the instrumental opening of "The Ecstasy of Gold".
The gamble of combining the rock band and the symphony paid off and the beautiful orchestration even acts to blunt the harshness of Metallica's sound without sacrificing the power of any of the songs on album number 57.
#56
Licensed To Ill
Beastie Boys
1986 was an interesting year. Listening to the Billboard Top 100 playlist from that year, you'd hear familiar music industry giants like Madonna ("Open Your Heart) along with the 80s classics that are stereotypically associated with that decade like "Broken Wings", "Higher Love", "Take Me Home Tonight" and "Your Love". You'd hear that Eddie Murphy's girl wanted to "Party All The Time" (actually holds up, especially contrasted with Bruce Willis's Return of Bruno) along with some all-time movie soundtrack songs ranging from Top Gun's "Danger Zone" to Rocky IV's "Burning Heart" to Pretty In Pink's "If You Leave". You'd also hear that the music landscape was beginning to broaden with more experimental songs like Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" achieving commercial success. Hip hop was fighting its way into the mainstream with albums like Run DMC's Raising Hell and of course Licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys.
I wasn't even two years old when the music that year was released but it's still odd to me to think of songs like "Your Love" and "Brass Monkey" being released in the same year. Licensed To Ill seems so far ahead of its time and I guess, for the listeners who could recognize that, it led to a lot of the appeal. The platinum album was a commercial success and, more importantly, it had a profound impact on many future artists like Eminem who modeled his 2018 album Kamikaze after the License To Ill artwork and Coldplay.
I experienced The Beastie Boys out of order by first purchasing Hello Nasty ("Intergalactic", "Body Movin'") in 1998 which led me to Ill Communication ("Sabotage", "Sure Shot") before I eventually made my way back to this original album. The band had already matured considerably over the twelve years since the Licensed To Ill release and the lyrics on the earlier albums were much more crass than what I had initially heard on Hello Nasty, but listening to the 1986 album, it's easy to see why so many teens and young twenty-somethings reacted so passionately to the music. It was light years apart from the majority of what everyone else was listening to. Bands like The Clash, who had attempted to spur political change and activism, were winding down and the youth seemed to be looking toward musical acts that more reflected the times. And those times were the economic boom of the mid-80s where there was no war and I'd guess that a lot of the youth just had pent up animosity that they wanted to let out but at no one in particular except for their parents, teachers and society in general; hence "Fight For Your Right" became a battle cry.
The album is a classic and my favorite tracks are right in line with the most popular choices: "Rhymin & Stealin", "Girls", "No Sleep Till Brooklyn", "Fight For Your Right" and "Brass Monkey". Still hard to believe that cancer took MCA eight years ago at only 47 years old but this number 56 album, along with countless others, will stand the test of time as his and the rest of the band's legacy.
#55
Violator
Depeche Mode
Some Depeche Mode songs are a little odd and, at times, can overstay their welcome (also describes my behavior at most parties) but Violator, the seventh album from the group, is undeniably their apex. "Personal Jesus". "Policy of Truth". "Enjoy The Silence". One of those songs on an album would guarantee commercial and critical success. Violator was home to all three of them and together they comprised one third of the 47 minute nine-track album.
#54
Daybreaker
Moon Taxi
I discovered this album and band within a couple weeks of purchasing Spotify premium. "Year Zero" came up on a recommended playlist and it led me to the rest of the 2015 Daybreaker album and eventually the other three Moon Taxi albums. What's interesting is that I think "Year Zero" is a different sound than the rest of the album, which isn't a bad thing; they're able to pull off both sounds equally well. Rather than list top tracks, it's easier for me to just say that "Who's To Say" and "Ready To Go" are my least favorite songs. The whole album is a top notch choice for making dinner or sitting on a porch in the summer. The band's other albums sound very much the same so if you enjoy this one, you'll enjoy the others.
Finding this album on Spotify really underscores the benefit of having thousands of hours of music on tap whenever you want. This band is just one example of music I never would have heard were it not for this streaming service. I'm not being paid by Spotify for this plug, but I'm not above taking money under the table (I'll settle for about 1/50th of what you paid Bill Simmons).
Since I don't have much to say on this album, I'm choosing here to write about the place of the music critic in 2020. After I made my list, I went back through internet archives (used this thing called Google) to look at how well received many of my top albums were when they were released. Some were received very well. Others were torched. For example, I won't reveal whether this album made the list or not, but Pitchfork wrote a particularly scathing review of Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American. The summation of the review is basically that someone would only enjoy this album if they're a simpleton high schooler. I happened to be one of those simpleton high schoolers so consider me triggered when I read that. 3.5/10? Who do they think they are?
Then I was hit with the realization that the review didn't matter. I enjoyed the album and that was all that mattered. It's a theme that I've brought up over and over again with this list. Consumption of art is such a subjective experience and that certainly applies to music. If you like a band or a song or an album, it's really irrelevant what anyone else thinks, including music critics. If a critic agrees with you, it can be enjoyable to read along with someone who shares your opinions. But if the opinion differs, then it can do nothing but potentially negatively cloud your experience listening to that album or artist going forward. You may feel inferiority or embarrassment at enjoying it. It's why people call certain artists "guilty pleasures". Music should be about relaxing you or motivating you or just as a release to have a good time (bumper sticker coming soon). Why bring all that stress and negativity into the mix?
All this made me start to wonder about the overall place or need for music critics in 2020. I would argue that movie, TV, music and book critics are meant to provide utility in the form of saving the consumer time or money. A movie critic who tells you a film is a dud is saving you from spending $15 on a movie ticket (back when we went to theaters) and throwing away over two hours of your life on something you likely won't enjoy. The same is true for book and TV critics but here the time commitment is of larger concern than the price paid.
The role of the music critic is the same except that with the rise of streaming services, the need to save the consumer time and money has dissipated significantly. I pay about $12 a month for Spotify as a flat rate and can consume as much money as I want in that month. I'm not paying $20 for a CD anymore so I don't need to be as selective about my music. So saving the consumer money doesn't matter nearly as much anymore. But what about saving time? When reading a book or watching a movie, most of the time our entire focus is centered on that activity. That's generally not the case with music. I could be working, driving, making dinner, or working out while listening to music so, even if I hated a new album, I can't call it a waste of time because I'm accomplishing other tasks. The worst case is that it was a missed opportunity in that I could have been listening to something better but I'd rather roll the dice on something new than give a Billy Joel album a spin for the 135th time.
So the music critic is no longer saving time and no longer saving money, in which case I struggle to find the societal benefit of continuing to write straightforward pieces like "that album is good" or "that album stinks". What they can do is what some critics like Cole Cuchna are doing with his Dissect podcast in which he takes an album and completely breaks it down song by song on a lyrical and musical level. This is especially interesting to me as someone with a very limited music background and it's helped me to appreciate albums like Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly or Beyonce's Lemonade. More on this podcast as we get farther down the list.
That's all. Rant over. I can't call that tangent on music critics an "old man rant" but certainly an "approaching-middle-age man rant". Thank you for indulging me. But the key takeaway here is listen to Daybreaker, album number 54 on the list.
#53
Night Moves
Bob Seger
Just an all-time album cover picture. The long hair, the leather jacket, the "what are you looking at" head tilt and mug. Just the best.
This is another artist that was swiped from my dad's collection. I borrowed Seger's greatest hits compilation so often that I'm willing to bet that he forgot he even owned it. I think it made him happy though rather than the alternative of me only knowing Seger's working via those "Like A Rock" Chevy commercials.
Seger's greatest hits is my go-to but since I have the no compilation rule, it really comes down to two albums for my selection: Night Moves or Stranger In Town. The nod goes to Night Moves, released two years before Stranger In Town. The album boasts two of Seger's biggest hits with "Night Moves" and "Mainstreet" but the album makes the cut based on the strength of the supporting tracks like "Rock And Roll Never Forgets", "The Fire Down Below", and "Ship Of Fools" (always thought Billy Cunningham's "People Are Crazy" was a rip-off of this song's sound). Seger's voice was always one of the main appeals of the band to me and that's on full display here. It somehow attains a mix of being a little gravelly but still smooth.
"Night Moves" remains my favorite song on the album, even though my current night moves consist of eating cookies at 10 PM on a Friday night after three beers. That's opposed to the night moves of my younger days which consisted on eating cookies at 1 AM on a Friday night after six beers. Self-deprecating humor about being old and lame never fails. What also never fails is the timeless sound of this rock album which comes in at number 53.
#52
Everything In Transit
Jack's Mannequin
The dissolution of the pop punk band Something Corporate produced two new projects. Josh Parington started the short-lived Firescape while Andrew McMahon moved on to the much more successful Jack's Mannequin. Jack's Mannequin put out three albums, but only two were in consideration for the list entry: Everything In Transit and The Glass Passenger.
It's not surprising that the lyrical content of Jack's Mannequin reflected more maturity and life experience than Something Corporate considering that McMahon wrote most of the Something Corporate song library as a 17-19 year old. Jack's Mannequin follows McMahon's life in a fairly open manner, first as he evaluates his life relationships in Everything In Transit and then as he deals with recovery and fall-out from his leukemia diagnosis and treatment in The Glass Passenger.
The Glass Passenger's mood is understandably a bit darker than Transit but there's a rawness and openness to McMahon's voice and lyrics that make it very appealing especially on songs like "Swim", "The Resolution" and "Crashin" where he sings "Even if your voice comes back again / Maybe there'll be no one listening" as a clear insight into his insecurity and fear. It's not as bouncy and fun as the Something Corporate albums but that's reflective of the life trajectory of most people. The carefree days of teen years are replaced by bigger life obstacles.
One of those obstacles is relationships which McMahon sings about at length in today's list entry, Everything In Transit. It's easy to hear the similarity to some Something Corporate songs but the lyrics are a bit more downbeat. The entirety of the album is more consistent than Glass Passenger with songs like "La La Lie", which stresses the importance of friends, "Bruised", which anyone who has had to travel away from loved ones can relate, "Dark Blue", "I'm Ready" and "The Mixed Tape". The second half of the album isn't as strong as the first but overall it's good enough for number 52 on the list.
#51
The Ride
Catfish and the Bottlemen
A fantastic meal is good from the first bite to the last and you walk away full but still somehow wishing that there was more. The same holds true for the second album from the North Wales rockers, Catfish and the Bottlemen. The Ride is just a solid rock and roll album from the first notes of "7" to the 40th minute when the last notes of "Outside" fade out.
I have no fancy write-up. Some albums just rock and don't need to have verbal laurels pinned on them. "7", "Twice", "Soundcheck", "Postpone" and the driving beat of "Oxygen" are the highlights here but it would be a shame to press "next" on any of the tracks. This is the perfect album to take us to the halfway point of the list.
#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:
- 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!!").
- 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.
#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.
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
Runner-Up: The Distance to Here
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!
#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!
#20
(What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Oasis
Runner-Up: Definitely Maybe
Similar to Fleetwood Mac, who found a way to put out quality work despite occasionally hating each other, we come to Oasis. The Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam, who make up the core of the band have picked fights with everyone from Blur to Jay-Z but they generally save most of their vitriol for one another. But through the internal bickering and the external rivalries, the group somehow managed to put out some great albums. The most notable to me, and probably millions of others, is 1995's (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
The twelve track album is anchored by the extremely well known tracks "Wonderwall", "Don't Look Back in Anger", "Some Might Say" and the finale "Champagne Supernova" but lesser known tracks like "Roll With It" and "She's Electric" make the whole album worth the 50 minute listen.
My sister is six years older than me which means that we only overlapped going to school in the same building for one year when I was a sixth grader and she was a senior. So for one year she had the (literally) thankless task of shuttling me to and from school. Those twenty six minutes round trip in the car kept me further acclimated to a broader mix of music. The albums that I remember hearing the most in the car were The Cranberries's Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill (covered already with album number 60), No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom and Morning Glory from Oasis. The thirteen minute drive to school meant that if we started this Oasis album from the beginning we'd be pulling into the parking lot as "Wonderwall" had faded away and "Don't Look Back in Anger" was playing. I was grateful for the distracting sounds of that album as it gave me something else to think about other than general middle school anxiety. I'm also grateful for those car rides with my sister before she moved away to college.
The album has been durable over the years and it seems like "Wonderwall" is the song that will emerge from the album as the most well known, and for good reason. Gallagher's voice is slightly pained and vulnerable and the guitar strum at the beginning is iconic as it has been replicated in countless coffee shops and bars. Any time a song reaches that level of success, it can start to dampen the impact of the song because it's been heard so many times. But I've found that even if I let it sit for only a few months and come back to it, the song feels fresh. That goes for the overall album as well.
I'm sure a lot of the fire and combativeness that caused the conflict in Oasis was also a driving force in their creativity. It's just unfortunate that the band couldn't get out of its own way and the carousel of group members coupled with the brothers' fighting was too much for the group to overcome. I'd like to think that maybe they had another masterpiece album in them but, even if they did, album number 20 was going to be hard to top.
#19
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Runner-Up: Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Bronze Medal: Stadium Arcadium
I want to lead this off by stating upfront that it will never not be weird that RHCP drummer Chad Smith is the doppelganger of Will Ferrell. It's bothered me since I saw the video for "By The Way" but at least the two acknowledge it now. Glad I got that off my chest.
On to talking about the actual album by the band that has sneakily endured for 36 years with their first album debuting the same year I was born. It's natural and expected that a band with that longevity is going to release albums that vary in quality and the Chili Peppers are no exception over their 11 album catalogue. 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik was released when I was seven but I the gargantuan success of the single "Under The Bridge" ensured that I would hear it on the radio for years to come, so I was aware of the band. I completely missed 1995's One Hot Minute which seems for the best because listening to the album today, it does nothing for me which could be attributed to the band replacing original guitarist John Frusciante with Dave Navarro. Frusciante would take his role back from Navarro for 1999's Californication album but by that point it had been eight years since the last successful album.
Whether it was Frusciante's return or just a build-up of creative material over the lay-off, Californication put the band back on the map in a big way. It's still a rock album but the sound is softer and slightly more subdued than prior albums. That's encapsulated perfectly in "Scar Tissue", which was inescapable on the radio in 1999 and 2000, in which the guitar work actually sounds like an emotion through use of the guitar slide solo. It's a perfect blend of Kieldis's voice and superb guitar work from both Flea and Frusciante. Radio hits "Otherside", "Californication" (the music video was a video game I would still play) and "Around The World" (I still don't know if he's speaking mandarin or scat at the end of the song but sounds a little problematic if it's the latter) helped to fuel the album's success. But the entirety of the album is what's impressive from "Parallel Universe" to "Emit Remmus" to "The Velvet Glove" to the closing "Road Trippin'".
I sadly was never able to purchase this album. I got ever so close but at the last minute my sister, who had long been my musical ally, took a surprise heel turn and informed my mom about the play on words in the album's title. So in return, I tied up the family's phone line using dial-up to download the full album instead.
The Chili Peppers would follow up this album with two solid releases of By The Way ("By The Way", "The Zephyr Song") and the double album Stadium Arcadium ("Tell Me Baby", "Dani California", "Snow (Hey Oh)") and they're still putting albums with the occasional great single (e.g. "Dark Necessities"). Kudos to the band for finding a way to stay relevant in the music world and even culturally where bassist Flea has put together a solid filmography over the years including Back To The Future II & III, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Big Lebowski. But all the movie bit parts in the world won't top the band's best album Californication which comes in at number 19.
#18
Promises
The Boxer Rebellion
Runner-Up: The Cold Still
Bronze Medal: Ocean By Ocean
The 2010 movie Going The Distance was a largely forgettable romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long that made an impact on me for a couple reasons. The first was that the most entertainment the movie provided was through the natural and comedic interaction of Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day as Justin Long's friends. I can't say for sure but that had to have helped to at least pave the way to both of them starring together a year later in Horrible Bosses along with the equally delightful Jason Bateman.
The second was that it was my first exposure to the band The Boxer Rebellion, who play the band that Justin Long ends the movie managing as the fulfillment of his career aspirations. I think. Again, forgettable movie. The band performs "If You Run" which isn't their best work but I did enjoy it enough to give their broader work a chance. I listened to their most recent album at the time which was 2009's Union. I mildly enjoyed it but my feeling as the album concluded was that the band wasn't for me. A little too melancholy and mellow for my liking at the time. But now the band was at least on my radar for future releases.
Their next album, The Cold Still, came out one year later and was a big step up in quality. The sound was more driven and the drums were more prevalent which helped to balance out the pained but amazing voice of Tennessee native Nathan Nicholson. The whole album impressed me but particularly "Step Out of the Car", "Organ Song" (the best individual song they've recorded in my opinion) and "Memo" as well as live versions of two of my favorite songs off the prior album, "The Gospel of Goro Adachi" and "Evacuate". Now I was really looking forward to what the band would release next and two years later, I wouldn't be disappointed.
Promises took the adjustments made on The Cold Still and carried them even further. The most noticeable change is the prominent use of pounding, almost tribal drums to great effect, most noticeably in tracks like "Fragile", "Always" or "New York" where what starts as a slow paced love letter turns into a full blown drum circle halfway through. The leadoff track "Diamonds" will also have your foot tapping which has not been a characteristic of this band's work.
The overall sound of the album is larger and part of that is a testament to a change in producers. The Cold Still was produced by Ethan Johns who was responsible for superb Kings of Leon albums Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because Of The Times. That kind of sound must appeal to Western European natives because both Kings of Leon and The Boxer Rebellion reached fame in the UK and Europe much earlier than in the US. And both are fronted by singers from Tennessee. Could just be a coincidence. Like all bad-ass secret agents have J.B. as their initials (Jason Bourne, James Bond, Jack Bauer).
For Promises, the band turned to Billy Bush (not that Billy Bush) who produced the song "Helena Beat" for Foster The People (big drums there too) and the number 58 album from Grizfolk Waking Up The Giants. The room-filling sound and oversized drum beats are clear to hear Bush's common theme in style and I think it suits The Boxer Rebellion well. The downside is, similar to Waking Up The Giants, there isn't a great deal of variance among the songs on the album but, if you enjoy the sound like I do, then that's more of a blessing than a downside. My only complaint is that Nicholson's falsetto voice can reach high levels for longer durations than I'd like (e.g. "Take Me Back") but that's a very small nit in what is overall a great album. The follow-up album Ocean by Ocean would be more of the same but to lesser effect. It will be interesting to see if the band can evolve further or if they're reached the end of the road creatively.
There's so much to like about the number 18 album especially "Diamonds", "Low", "New York" ("I don't believe the things I say about us when I'm drunk" is such a raw and effective lyric), "Safe House" and "Promises". Realistically it's the best work that the band will do and their success is an odd legacy for a middle-of-the-road romantic comedy. Other than the undeniable bromance chemistry of Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day that is.
#17
Audioslave
Audioslave
Runner-Up: Out of Exile
Given that Rage Against The Machine already has an entry on this list inside the top 50, it's clear that I already have an affinity for Tom Morello's guitar work. If I have a complaint against Rage albums it's that they don't really lend themselves to easier listening around the house. I get it that the name of the band has "rage" in it so it's just going to lean toward a harder sound and they did it superbly well. But the occasional change of pace to something a little mellower would have been interesting.
That's what made me excited when I heard that the member of Rage Against the Machine sans lead singer Zack de la Rocha would be joining up with singer Chris Cornell, formerly of Soundgarden for a project titled Audioslave. We can all acknowledge that it's a bland name for a rock band but you could call pizza "flat saucebread" and it wouldn't change how great it tastes so let's just ignore the shortcomings of the band name. Musical expectations were high when Audioslave's first album debuted in 2002. Expectations were exceeded.
The blend of the Rage members, most notably Morello, pairs well with Cornell's voice. It's true that without de la Rocha's voice, the edge is taken off a bit from many of the songs but there's still more than enough power in the band's underlaying sound as evidenced by songs like "Cochise", "Show Me How To Live", and "What You Are". But it's the slightly subdued songs that are what separates the album into rare air. Tracks like "I Am The Highway" and, my favorite from the band "Like A Stone" allow Cornell's voice and Morello's guitar, the two strengths of the band, to really stand out. That guitar work in the bridge of "Like A Stone" by Morello will never get old.
Start to finish, the self-titled debut from the group Audioslave was the best product of the three albums the band released. I enjoyed the follow-up Out of Exile especially "Be Yourself" and "Your Time Has Come" but Audioslave was always going to be difficult to top and the band never did.
It was such a shame to lose Cornell a few years ago. He had one of the best voices in rock that spanned across Soundgarden, Audioslave and some solid solo work ("Scream", "Can't Change Me", "Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart") but I really believe he had more stellar work to come. We'll never know now. At least we have these three albums from such a unique mix of talent, the best of which comes in at number 17 on the list.
#16
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Runner-Up: Zombies On Broadway
Bronze Medal: Upside Down Flowers
Following the success and dissolution of his prior bands Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, Andrew McMahon started anew with another band/project, Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness. The title was more personalized and that's appropriate. McMahon has never shied away from using his personal life as motivation for lyrics and that's led to fans feeling like they have more of an intimate relationship with him than the standard artist. And through three albums, McMahon has not deviated from using his personal life as the driving inspiration behind his music.
My wife and I both love all three of the bands with which he's been involved. His lyrics have always reflected what was going on in his personal life and, to a large extent, those personal events lined up largely with what his fans were experiencing in their own lives. With Something Corporate we were late teenagers/early twentysomethings with angst and melodramatic relationship problems. With Jack's Mannequin, we were coming into full adulthood and facing all the problems that came with it including navigating deeper relationships and dealing with real hardship as McMahon did when he faced cancer. Now with AMITW (even writing the acronym takes awhile) he's writing about marriage, parenthood, and looking back at his earlier life with some perspective. True that virtually none of his fans can relate to songs like "Teenage Rock Stars" since it recounts his life as a not yet twentysomething touring the world but it's his vulnerability and the way he makes us feel like an integral part of his career (and in a way we were) that makes us feel included and keeps us coming back.
It's funny that he and Taylor Swift reached fame at roughly the same age of 18 and have continued making music with a personal skew to the lyrics. Obviously Swift's fame has crested at a higher point and that was probably always inevitable given her status as a pop star and celebrity. But McMahon has avoided the same level of recognition and fame and I think part of that has to do with his decision to start and leave bands when he wants to move in a different direction. When Taylor Swift wants to do something different musically or even just releases an album, there are expectations about how it should sound and what it should be about. If McMahon had just been releasing albums under his own name since 2000, he would likely be more recognizable but I think those same expectations that artists like Swift face would be present too. This has allowed him more creative flexibility and he still has plenty of recognition and opportunity.
His piano work has always been a foundation of whatever band he's headlined and that's no exception on the self-titled Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness. "Cecilia And The Satellite" is the most well-known single but "High Dive", "Canyon Moon", "All Our Lives", "Halls" and "Black and White Movies" could have all been standalone singles. That's not to say that the album is perfect. "See Her On The Weekend" is so lyrically simple that it feels like he was fishing desperately for literally anything to write about (he only saw his pregnant wife on weekends while writing the album).
The last time my wife and I saw him in concert was in February 2019 and, as always, it was a great show as he was able to weave the work of his three solo albums with occasional cuts from Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin. What struck us about the show was that, other than her two brothers, we didn't know anyone else going to the show. Within two minutes of arriving we met two of our friends and then ran into eight other people. Clearly McMahon has a strong pull on our generation but he's not an artist that I talk about often with others. Given the attendance of the show that night, I guess that I should.
The follow-up albums to this debut have been solid as well. I prefer Zombies On Broadway to the somewhat inconsistent Upside Down Flowers. I'll always be interested in what he's up to next but this album is one of the best works he's released. The extended version on Spotify with the piano-centric versions of "High Dive" and "Halls" are also worth the listen. Enjoy the piano and McMahon's voice on the number 16 album.
#15
Futures
Jimmy Eat World
Runner-Up: Chase This Light
Bronze Medal: Bleed American
Honorable Mention: Invented
It was a surprisingly difficult decision selecting which album to include on the list from a band whose members were so unconfident in its own talent that at one point they wouldn't even quit their day jobs even after being signed to a major label. Most listeners who are my age cut their teeth on Jimmy Eat World via their incredibly popular 2001 album Bleed American, which was supported by the smash single "The Middle" (probably the band's best known song), "A Praise Chorus", "Sweetness", "Hear You Me", "The Authority Song" and, my personal favorite, "Get It Faster" (how can you not enjoy singing along when the non-sensical chorus of "ah ah ah" crashes in halfway through the song?). The songs were a little emo, a little simplistic and incredibly appealing. Some critics seemed to focus onto only those first two points as the straightforward lyrics and song structure were derided as childish fare. I never understood that argument. If music like this was and is so simple to make then why isn't it produced ad nauseum? It still takes skill and craft to hone an album like this. And if Jimmy Eat World had disbanded after this album, then Bleed American would have taken the spot on this list.
But it's their follow-up, Futures, that comes in at the number 15 spot. The overall sound of the album is improved from Bleed American and their debut album Clarity. I don't know if that's due to enhanced production, better song structure, or just an increase in ability from the band members. The band is still putting the "emo" in emotion in many of the album's tracks but it feels more grown-up in tone and in lyrics. Grown-up is a relative description. Bleed American focused on outlooks and problems to which many high schoolers, including me, could relate. In the incredibly high school-centric Something Corporate song "Konstantine", Andrew McMahon even references the band in the line "It's to Jimmy Eat World and those night in my car". But Futures tries to tackle the problems of the young adult which is most obviously heard in the bookends of the album, "Futures" and the closing seven minute track "23".
The title track "Futures" as the lead-off song is such a strong start and it sets the tone early in terms of what the album will be covering lyrically as well as the larger sound of the songs from prior albums. "Just Tonight", "Work", "Kill", "The World You Love" and "Pain" make for a first half of the album that is hard to beat and, understandably, the band in fact that can't beat it. The second half of the album is still an enjoyable listen and the coda "23" is one of their best songs but after the scorching first half, there was really no where to go but down. "Kill" is the best song on the album in my opinion. The song is split into the gentle wave building through the pleasant guitar strumming and melodious voice of lead singer Jim Adkins before the crashing, swelling crescendo of each chorus. It's one of the best songs of all time to turn up in the car.
While I consider Futures to be the band's best album, it can sit a little heavy compared to other albums in the band's twenty year discography. When I'm looking for something lighter or more upbeat I primarily turn to Chase This Light. Through songs like "Big Casino", "Let It Happen", "Firefight", "Always Be" and "Chase This Light" the band seemed to really lock in on what made a good pop rock song. Plus I moved to New Jersey around the time that "Big Casino" was released as a single so I looked at it as good omen that the chorus included the line "I'm a New Jersey success story". Turns out I was a "did okay New Jersey success story" that turned into a "he's doing fine in the Philadelphia suburbs with a hobby blog story" but I'm perfectly happy with it. The band continued along this musical path with its next album Invented but the result isn't as strong despite three incredibly solid singles of "Heart Is Hard To Find", "My Best Theory" and "Coffee And Cigarettes".
Jimmy Eat World continues to release albums that are worthy of attention even if it's safe to say that the band's best work is likely behind them. Even their most recent album Surviving held a couple singles in the form of "555" and "Love Never" that kept them on the rock radar. As well known as the band is, I don't feel that they get the appropriate amount of recognition for the body of work that they've compiled or the influence they wielded in the music industry. Part of that may be their generally unflashy nature. They don't have an attention-grabbing front man seen in other bands like Fall Out Boy. And the earnestness of their music may not make them as "cool" of a band to follow. But I think over time their work has spoken for itself, with the loudest voice coming from the number 15 album Futures.
#14
Some Nights
fun.
On a particularly icy winter evening in the mid-2000s, a friend of mine and his girlfriend (now wife) were driving on an Indiana interstate when their car was rear-ended by a truck. This sent their car into a spin and my friend said he remembered asking his girlfriend, as the car was spinning, "are you okay?!" to which she replied "IT'S STILL HAPPENING!" meaning the answer to his question was impossible to answer because the wreck had not concluded yet. Turns out they would be okay and escaped with no major injuries.
In a much less "life and death" example, I felt the same way during a dinner date in my early twenties. My date and I had been set up by mutual friends as two people who should really hit it off and, looking back, they were probably right. But the underlying reason was probably that we were just viewed as two very nice and easygoing people. But that doesn't mean that there will be chemistry. We ate at a Mongolian Barbecue and, midway through dinner, I could just tell it wasn't working. Conversation on both sides was forced. There was little common ground on really anything despite the fact that we attended the same college. If was more honest I would have asked her halfway through dinner "are you okay?" to which she would have responded "IT'S STILL HAPPENING!".
Toward the end of dinner, we did hit some points of common ground on music (good old Yellowcard) and, for a brief moment, I thought maybe this could work out after all. This could be the rocky start that we joked about down the road. Then when the bill came I realized I had forgotten my wallet. When I ashamedly admitted that to her, the look on her face told me we wouldn't be spending any more one on one time together.
It's a funny story looking back on it now and I bring it up because during the brief lapse of time where our conversation was flowing around music, she brought up that she loved the band The Format. I had never heard of the band but I downloaded some of their music when I got home. I liked what I heard, especially "The First Single" and the voice of lead singer Nate Ruess. The band was already kaput by the time I listened to them but when I read a few years later that Nate Ruess had started a new band called fun. it caught my attention.
Some Nights, the second and last album from fun., is one of my favorite albums. It's rock in its punchy pop version at its finest. The album grabs your attention immediately with its operatic and dramatic two minute that would have made Freddie Mercury proud and could easily fit on any Queen album. That's followed by the three biggest hits on the album "Some Nights", "We Are Young" and "Carry On". "Some Nights" is such an anthem with drum work that makes you want to stand up on a table and belt the lyrics or, at the very least, bang your hand on the steering wheel of your car in time with the drums.
While those three tracks received most of the attention from radio stations and Billboard charts, the rest of the album is equally as excellent. There's optimism in "It Gets Better" and "One Foot" but that's offset by head-in-your-hands self-doubt of "Why Am I The One" and "All Alright". The 11 track album is capped off by either "Stars" or, preferably, the bonus track "Out On The Town". The album is consistent in tone from start to finish. Ruess's voice matches the theme of the album perfectly in that he's confident but still vulnerable, just like the bravado of a young twentysomething out at the bars - outspoken but scared of being alone and unsure of his place in the world.
The trio only released two albums before disbanding but their individual influence in the music world is farther reaching. Along with The Format and fun., Nate Ruess has had a solid solo career and guitarist Jack Antonoff has had a high degree of success both with his own band Bleachers as well as through collaborating with Taylor Swift for songs on her 1989, Lover and folklore albums. With that kind of talent pedigree, it's no wonder that the number 14 album Some Nights is a master class in pop rock. To that unfortunate dinner date, thanks for fronting us for dinner (I did pay her back by the way) and thanks for the solid recommendation of The Format. That date may not have been as much of a car wreck after all.
#13
El Camino
The Black Keys
Runner-Up: Brothers
Bronze Medal: "Let's Rock"
Honorable Mention: Attack & Release
There is no maximum number of people in a band, but technically the minimum is two. The Black Keys might only be a duo but they seem to have enough talent and creativity to rival any conventional four or five person band. Through nine albums across almost twenty years, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have been able to consistently put out quality work. Like many listeners, I first heard the band via their sixth album, Brothers, and I was impressed at how much I enjoyed the entirety of the album. In fact, "Tighten Up", one of their biggest singles was one of the tracks I enjoyed the least. Going back to visit their earlier albums made me more of a fan of the band, especially after hearing Attack & Release and Magic Potion.
In 2011, the band released El Camino as the follow-up to Brothers. I bought the album off iTunes on the day of the release despite only hearing the pre-released single "Lonely Boy". I listened to it three times over the course of that day and was really excited about how much I enjoyed it. The amount of times that "Lonely Boy" and "Gold On The Ceiling" have been played may have blunted their effect a bit but the rest of the album has stayed fresh over the years.
The album comes under fire from long-time fans of the band who argue that the sound on the album is too rock radio friendly. It could be my own musical naivete but I don't notice a significant difference in sound between albums like El Camino and the majority of the earlier work, especially Brothers and Attack & Release. The songs are more upbeat and the album overall feels tighter which makes it more of an appealing listen to me. If that's radio rock friendly then it seems like there's a certain line that a band isn't allowed to cross in order to not offend their core fans; make an album good but not too good.
There's really only so much musical variation that a two man band can create. And, to the duo's credit, the follow-up album Turn Blue is not a repeat of El Camino. It's more experimental and the tracks are longer, more meandering. It's good but I need to be in a certain frame of mind to put it through my speakers. But there's hardly a time or place where I'm not in the mood to hear El Camino. Their most recent album "Let's Rock" attempts to go back to more of this 2011 album's sound, and it gets 85% there but it still doesn't top El Camino.
No personal anecdote for me to share about this album or the band other than, out of boredom on a drive home from the New Jersey shore, I spent twenty minutes convincing my wife that the drummer from The Black Keys used to be Gordo in Lizzie McGuire. It was just random enough that it might be true and we were in a dead spot for cell service so she couldn't confirm that I was full of it for about fifteen minutes. It's good to keep your partner on his/her toes.
The band continues to keep the music world on its toes through quality albums like the excellent El Camino, album number 13 on the list.
#12
Sam's Town
The Killers
Runner-Up: Hot Fuss
Bronze Medal: Battle Born
Honorable Mention: Imploding The Mirage
When I started putting this list together, I knew that The Killers was going to have a high placement on the list. And the album selection seemed easy. Hot Fuss included "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine", "Mr. Brightside", "Somebody Told Me", "Smile Like You Mean It" and "All These Things That I Have Done" or, in other words, the whole first half of the album. With hits like that, how could there be another album that goes in this slot. But over the last couple months, there's been a gnawing feeling that Sam's Town is the better overall album. It doesn't boast as many hit singles but it does offer up two of the best songs the band has ever recorded in "When You Were Young" and "Read My Mind". It's a more consistent album than Hot Fuss which falls off a bit in the second half of the album. For that reason, I rarely listen to Hot Fuss all the way through. I tend to let Sam's Town play from beginning to end.
The band has stated that they wanted Sam's Town to sound more like a Springsteen album and there are similarities here. The album has a consistent theme and tone throughout. It feels like a more complete album. That's what this list has tried to capture rather than just what album had the most hits on it. And Sam's Town still has its share of bangers in its track listing. "Sam's Town", "Bling (Confession Of A King)", "For Reasons Unknown", "This River Is Wild" and "Bones" are just a few of the great songs on the album and they're some of the band's best work.
Cards on the table, I could listen to Brandon Flowers read the phone book (the yellow thing that used to appear outside our doors once a year or, as Pete Holmes said, "oh, they printed a portion of the internet"). Flowers is my favorite front man of any current band. Flowers is just effortlessly cool and does seem to at least have a vague sense of humor about the ludicrous nature of his industry. That comes through in the music video for "Read My Mind" where the band runs amok in Japan. But he can play it straight too like in the superb video for "When You Were Young".
I'm going to squeeze in a personal story here because it's my site and I can do what I want. "Somebody Told Me" was a song that grabbed my attention immediately when it was released toward the tail end of 2004. A common activity in the Greek system at Butler was for a sorority to promote an upcoming charity event by visiting the fraternity houses (there were only six) and performing a song or two that somehow incorporated their own house into the lyrics. In response, the fraternity house would often reciprocate with a song of their own that would insert the name of the visiting sorority into the song. It was essentially an exercise to find a way to make words like Alpha Chi rhyme with lyrics like "I'm your guy" or something. It's not high art. This was part of the six figures that we paid for college. In an emboldened move, I volunteered to mix things up by choosing a more modern song rather than the stand-by "classic" songs from the seventies, eighties or early nineties. I wrote out lyrics that went along with "Somebody Told Me".
I was feeling a little proud and out in front of my skis until one of the upperclassman saw it, didn't know who The Killers were and chastised me for picking this song. He called an audible and reverted to us using Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl". In the end, who gives a shit because it was a meaningless activity that was just meant to show support to the visiting sorority but, I bring it up because, to that upperclassman I say "you were wrong". Time has vindicated me that The Killers were a band you should have known and that song is one of their classics. And time has also vindicated me via Stepbrothers that eighties Billy Joel doo-wop sucks. This whole greatest albums countdown list was just a backdoor for me to share that story.
Hot Fuss is my runner-up album but I have also always been partial to their third album Battle Born. The critical knock on it is that the sound is too rich and over-produced but there are times when that's what I want to hear. The songs "The Way It Was" or "Runaways", with lyrics like "At night I come home after I go to sleep / Like a stumbling ghost I haunt these halls / There's a picture of us on our wedding day / I recognize the girl but I can't settle in these walls", would have fit right in on Springsteen's The River. And "Miss Atomic Bomb" seems like an improved version of "Paradise By The Dashboard Light". No offense to Mr. Loaf. But the highly produced sound doesn't always work well for the band and Day & Age proves that. It's one of their worst albums in my opinion, due to too much reliance on the electronic sound.
I'm supportive of Flowers's solo aspirations and albums but I think his talent is better served when he's working with the full band and I'm happy they're back to making albums again like the excellent recent release Imploding The Mirage. Albums like the number 12 album Sam's Town are proof the excellent work the group can accomplish together.
#11
London Calling
The Clash
Runner-Up: Combat Rock
Bronze Medal: The Clash
Honorable Mention: Sandanista!
They may not be "the only band that matters" anymore but the English quartet created an album that has endured since its release in 1979 as what I think is the greatest rock album from that era. The band, and this album in particular, was a key piece to the further development of rock music and punk music in particular. Bono has called them the greatest rock band ever and that they wrote the rule book for U2. Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers has stated that London Calling changed his life. Chuck D from Public Enemy, who hosted the Spotify limited podcast chronicling the history of The Clash, has stated that the band's political stance gave him confidence to write what was on his mind. You can hear the band's musical influence on bands that have already appeared on this list like Rise Against and Arctic Monkeys. And they were one of the first bands to successfully blend their rock sound with Jamaican influences, as heard on "The Guns of Brixton", that would pave the way for future artists like 311, No Doubt and Sublime.
The band was noted for pushing a political agenda and writing lyrics that were deeper than just falling in love or partying. But compelling lyrics, primarily from lead singer Joe Strummer, only go so far; the band's sound has to keep its listeners coming back for more. And on that front, The Clash could deliver. I think Mick Jones (whose follow-up project Big Audio Dynamite appeared earlier on this list) is one of the best guitarists of all time. Paul Simonon was an incredible bassist who could also contribute quality vocals on his own as evidenced by "The Guns of Brixton". The band worked through several drummers but Nicky "Topper" Headon was the most talented and fit the best with the band's desired sound. He was a creative force on his own which he proved by writing and recording all the parts for "Rock The Casbah" on the band's last real album Combat Rock.
My first exposure to London Calling, the band's third album, was when I attended a summer camp and one of the counselors requested "London Calling" at the end-of-camp dance. I don't know that any of the kids had heard of it (I certainly hadn't) but his raw enthusiasm for the song made it hard for me to not to at least look into the band. At sixteen I was too young to really get into the band full force but three years later, friend and fellow blog owner, Nick, showed a strong interest in the overall band's work while we were in college together that I dove headfirst into the band and this album. While I love other albums from The Clash like Combat Rock, The Clash and even the divisive and diverse album Sandanista!, the band will always be most associated with London Calling.
And there is a reason the album is still discussed and heard on a regular basis, not just as an important part of rock and roll history, but just as a timeless rock album to enjoy. The pounding guitar of the opening track "London Calling" sets the tone of the album and that's followed by the short burst, high energy "Brand New Cadillac" before the calming bass line and saxophone of "Jimmy Jazz" sets in. The three opening songs are all different in style but the band pulls each off equally well. That trend of diverse style carries through for the rest of the album. There are frenetic, more stereotypically "punk" songs like "Hateful", "Clampdown", "Death or Glory", "Spanish Bombs" and "The Four Horsemen". There reggae influenced tracks like "The Guns of Brixton", "Rudie Can't Fail" and "Revolution Rock". And there songs with compelling narrative whether personal in nature like "Lost In The Supermarket" or fictional like "The Card Cheat". The album is bookended by an odd-fitting but still great song "Train In Vain" as guitarist Mick Jones's break-up song to his then-girlfriend from the female group The Slits.
As the years pass I'm drawn to different songs on the album depending on my mood, age or just general listening preferences at the time. But the overall album has never soured on me no matter how many times I hear it. That's the mark of a great album. The band would eventually dissolve through a mix of inflated ego and drugs, which is ironic because they touted themselves as anti-drug for a considerable time. Strummer's heart attack at a relatively early age denied the world the chance for a reunion of The Clash but Strummer did work with Jones one more time for the Big Audio Dynamite album No. 10 Upping St. (number 88 on this list) so at least there was a bit of musical closure there. The band did leave their mark and influence with one of the all-time great rock albums London Calling which comes in at number 11 on the list and takes us to the top ten of my top 100 albums.
#10
Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind
They're not even close to one of my top ten bands but they most certainly put out a top ten album. That's the fun of this list. A band can endure successfully for years but never really put it all together for a truly great album. Conversely, some bands exhaust nearly all their creative juices putting everything they have into one album. Third Eye Blind has other albums other than their self-titled debut, but no one would argue that the subsequent releases were superior. I would say they didn't even come close, and that's okay. The bar they set was high.
It's been surprising to me over the years the number of different people who can talk in depth about this album. More times than not when this album or just Third Eye Blind in general are brought up, the conversation is pushed more toward the lesser known tracks or a discussion on the totality of the album rather than just commenting on the hits like "Semi-Charmed Life", "Jumper" and "How's It Going To Be". Make no mistake, the strength of those three songs are what allowed many of us to stride to the cashier at Best Buy or Sam Goody with confidence that we were making a competent purchase. And if the rest of the album turned out to be no more than just filler around those three songs, the purchase would have been justifiable but the album would have faded over time.
Instead, my sentiment is that it has received a prominent placement in the fond memories of late nineties albums for many in my generation. Everyone has their own favorite lesser known song here. And there are many to choose from. There's the angsty "Graduate". There's the lead-off "Losing A Whole Year" that assured me that I had, in fact, made a smart buy. There's the strong guitar riffs in "London" or the smooth bass line in "Burning Man". And there are the two slowed down tracks "Motorcycle Drive By" and "God of Wine" that serve as the album's send-off.
The band is still around but the days of hoping that they will put out an album that's even in the same solar system of their debut album are gone. They've had radio hits here and there like "Never Let You Go" but their lightning won't be captured in a bottle again. It's hard not to call them a success though. Many bands who toil for years would kill to have an album that's as complete as the number ten album Third Eye Blind. And the fact that it's still remembered this fondly almost 24 years later seems to indicate that it will be an album that endures for more years to come.
#9
Cracked Rear View
Hootie & The Blowfish
Similar to Third Eye Blind, the number nine entry is from a band who also treated their music career the way that I treated a marathon - empty the tank early and worry about the repercussions later. Not a great strategy for running (but I did squeeze in the fact that I've run a marathon again) and it's not the best strategy for longevity of a music career. I know that's being too hard on these bands who really only put out one great album. I assume that when a band is writing an album, especially their first album, they just want to make it the best that it can be. They don't know if it will be a success or if there will be another chance to release a follow-up album. So best to just put the best work forward. In the case of Hootie And The Blowfish, they most definitely fully shot their shot with their debut 1994 album Cracked Rear View.
Also similar to Third Eye Blind, most people know this entire album but that's because almost literally half of the track listings here made it onto the radio at some point. The nineteenth best selling album in the United States (as in ever), this album boasted the wildly popular singles "Hold My Hand", "Let Her Cry", "Only Wanna Be With You" and "Time" but it was the consistency of the entire album that drove it into the stratosphere of sales. Led by Darius Rucker's comforting voice and smooth, easygoing guitar work albums don't get much easier to listen to regardless of setting. But no other album that they released would get anywhere close to this level of success or quality other than the song "I Go Blind" that was released as part of a Friends soundtrack. Is there a more 1990s sentence than "Hootie and the Blowfish contributed to the Friends album"?
The band faded to the background for me as they failed to produce a follow-up that grabbed my teenager attention. But five years ago, my in-laws took my wife and I to see Darius Rucker when he performed at Atlantic City. I was a little hesitant to go. I was a little mad that the biggest hit of his solo career was "Wagon Wheel". His song was a cover of the superior Old Crow Medicine Show version, which we insisted was the last song at our wedding (I know I'm one of many who can probably say that). So I went to the show with relatively low expectations and I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It shouldn't have been a shock that he largely played Hootie and the Blowfish songs and those songs were mostly from Cracked Rear View. I hadn't heard the album in years and hearing him enthusiastically sing it reinvigorated my interest in it.
It's been 26 years since its release and I'm convinced that it will endure as one of the classic albums from that era and it deserves that reputation. To my amateur ears, it's hard to place why it resonated with so many people. The guitar work isn't spectacular but it's easy listening and the choruses are heartfelt and fun to sing along with. So the number nine album sounds like a simple recipe but, given the dearth of albums who match its success, it's much harder to actually pull off.
#8
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
Runner-Up: Graduation
Bronze Medal: The College Dropout
Honorable Mention: 808s & Heartbreak
I loved this album when it was released in 2010. I thought it was genius. Then four years ago I listened to the second season of the podcast Dissect and, after spending ten hours exploring every nook and cranny lyrically and musically of this album, I know it's genius. I have plenty of problems with Kanye West's behavior and political worldview but if I'm able to separate my feelings of the artist from the art while I'm dancing to "Billie Jean" at a wedding, then I feel completely fine listening to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or any of Kanye's other stellar albums. Like him or not, it's a mistake not to view him as one of the best artists of our generation.
The stories surrounding this ten year old album are well circulated by now but if you need a crash course then I'd recommend this great summation from The Ringer. Or, if you have ten hours, then the Dissect podcast gives you the full deep dive. Whether you spend two minutes or two days diving into the minutiae of how the album was made, the quality of each track on the album speaks for itself.
Guest spots and prominent piano work is a running theme throughout the album and that's displayed right from the start as "Dark Fantasy" leads things off with Nicki Minaj reading a verse from Roald Dahl's retelling of "Cinderella" followed by Justin Vernon's backing vocals as the piano kicks in. The song's beat is infectious but there's something slightly off about it from the abrupt stops and starts to the false ending. That's not a knock on the song. It just sets the table for an album that will keep you on your toes from song to song and even verse to verse.
"Gorgeous" is a sprawling six minute follow-up that plays shorter than its actual run time thanks to some of the best lyrics on the album and the continual whine of the backing guitar riff. Kanye's everything here. He's defiantly arrogant (he still can't let go of the South Park "fishsticks" joke) but he's vulnerable as the chorus continually reminds him that if he blows this album, it's all over. He's terrified that after the Taylor Swift VMA incident and the backlash from 808s and Heartbreak that his fame will leave him or at least greatly diminish. It's a familiar formula with a Kanye song or album. Brash bravado covering up an overpowering desire to be liked and praised, all set to the tune of his genius music that makes us listen to his Jekyll and Hyde routine time and time again.
That takes us to my favorite stretch of the album starting with "Power", moving to "All Of The Lights" and finishing with "Monster". "Power" has always been, forgive the redundancy, a powerful song. Between the chants and the strong drum line, it was designed that way. But it was listening to Dissect that revealed to me what kind of a unique ear that Kanye has for sampling and producing. "Power" is comprised of samples from three songs. "21st Century Schizoid Man" by the rock band King Crimson, "Afromerica" by a French disco group, and the funk song "It's Your Thing" by The Cold Grits. If you gave me unlimited time and resources to make those three songs into one, the best I could come up with would be on par with the loud noise that hostage negotiators use to keep their targets from sleeping. Kanye makes a masterpiece and then adds in some phenomenal lyrics that include some of his standard double entendre (still don't know if he's saying "diamond" or "dying man" when describing his encrusted piece) and the way that he morphs "so excitin'" into "suicide" toward the end of the song is foretelling of the dark places the album will visit.
"Power" is followed up by my favorite song on the album "All Of The Lights". If you've been following this list then you know that I'm a sucker for a long instrumental lead-in before a song kicks in at full. This one might be the best of the best as the strings and piano perform what will be the hook for "All Of The Lights". I take the song as a metaphor for Kanye losing his fame akin to a father losing custody of his child in a split. But ignore the lyrics for all I care. The sound production is what you're here for. The guest spots on the track read like Stallone's The Expendables. Elton John is on piano. Backing vocals are provided by Kid Cudi, Rihanna, Drake, Alicia Keys, Fergie and Charlie Wilson to name a few. And they're supported by a robust section of trumpets and French horns. Writing it out sounds like it would be too much for a five minute song but it's grandiose for a purpose and the song executes that theme to perfection.
"Monster" is next, a song which could have been the lowlight of the album. It's not Kanye's best lyrics and the second verse from Jay-Z might be one of the weakest sets of lyrics he's ever contributed to an album. Luckily, he'd find his footing again more than ever a few months later with Watch The Throne. But the relatively unknown (at the time) Nicki Minaj steps in and makes the third verse, and ultimately the entire track, her own. The track is closed out with another admission of guilt from Kanye, possibly about the Taylor Swift incident as the line is repeated "I crossed the line / And I'll let God decide".
The rest of the album is just as solid including the eight minute, emotional "Runaway", the admission of a certain kind of addiction in "Hell Of a Life", and the Justin Vernon backed "Lost In The World" which I enjoyed more before I knew that the lyrics were part of an email he sent to Kim Kardashian. But that last part is indicative of following Kanye West. Whenever I get too enthusiastic about following him, he'll do something that reminds me to keep my expectations in check. The album ends perfectly with a revisit from the "Power" drum beat and "Who Will Survive In America" with a very small smattering of applause at the very end. I interpret that small applause as a subtle sign that, despite this grand, masterpiece of an album, Kanye is unsure if the public will embrace it or, ultimately, him.
This album sits at the peak for me in the Kanye West catalogue but it's impossible to deny how good The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation are. I'll cop to the fact that I don't really "get" the Yeezus album and I actually liked 808s and Heartbreak. Hard to tell what the future will hold for Kanye, other than the fact that he won't be president. He clearly has some issues and demons that he's working through. But I will continually root for him to provide the music world with more of his one-of-a-kind releases just like this album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy which comes in at number eight.
#7
The Rising
Bruce Springsteen
Runner-Up: Top Ten List Below
I think he's the greatest and most culturally reflective musical act the US has ever produced. In the "pick one artist's work to have on a desert island" game, it would be hard for me to not select The Boss. With a discography as broad and diverse as what Springsteen has put out over almost 50 years, it's impressive that I'm able to give Springsteen his own Top 10 within the number seven entry.
10) Springsteen on Broadway - If you weren't able to fork over the close to four figures for a ticket for Springsteen's run on Broadway, this is the next best thing. He opens up about the inspiration behind many of his songs. The fact that his songs were personal reflections of his life or had such a strong narrative makes this added commentary even more special. What a world where you can talk that way about your work. There will never be a time where I'm on a stage describing to an entranced audience how I wrote each of these blog posts. "So there I was. Gym shorts and coffee searching for the perfect way to describe Moby."
9) Magic - One of the most radio friendly and light albums Springsteen has released, it's impossible to not find the opening track "Radio Nowhere" insanely catchy. But it's the more somber songs here like "Devil's Arcade", "Long Walk Home", "Magic", and the tear-to-your-eye hidden track finale "Terry's Song" that makes this album worthwhile.
This was the album he was promoting when I saw him in concert at Madison Square Garden in 2007. One of my friends visited from Indiana to see the show and was currently enrolled in a musical elective for college. The class was tasked with seeing three live shows and writing a report on it along with turning in the ticket stubs. Apparently the teacher was dubious that seeing Bruce Springsteen at MSG was one of the three shows she attended but, after some convincing, the teacher, who was a huge Springsteen fan, wanted to know all about it.
8) Greetings From Asbury Park - Through tracks like "Growin' Up" and "Blinded By The Light", it's easy to hear why even Springsteen's first release caused some ears to prick up. Others like Lester Bangs (yes, the Almost Famous one) thought the band was a derivative of Van Morrison. He'd admit to being proven very wrong over the coming years.
7) We Shall Overcome: Seeger Sessions - Only seems appropriate to have an American icon like Springsteen singing early American ballads like "O Mary Don't You Weep", "Old Dan Tucker" or "Jesse James". Much of Springsteen's work lyrically has had a story-like narrative so singing folk music just seems like a good fit. And I'm sorry but if you're not humming or singing along the chorus of "Mrs. McGrath" then you and I are just very far apart.
6) The River - Everything seems bigger about this album. The track listing expands to 20 tracks versus eight on Born to Run and ten on Darkness On the Edge of Town. But the album doesn't feel bloated or superfluous. Instead Springsteen is able to craft effective lyrical narratives around some of the band's best work. Songs like "The River" and "Wreck on the Highway" (one of my dad's favorites) are both melancholy but compelling. "Hungry Heart" manages to make an upbeat rock song out of a man abandoning his family and looking for a new start. That's not to say that every song is a lyrical master class. And that's fine. There are just out and out great rock songs like "Out On The Streets" and "I'm A Rocker". Released in October of 1980, The River started the decade off strong for The Boss.
5) Tunnel of Love - Strong nostalgic ties to this one for me. This was part of the first group of CDs my dad bought with our CD player and I remember listening Springsteen's first solo album Sundays after church. Songs like "Tunnel of Love" sound dated as eighties songs but that doesn't make them any less catchy. And "Tougher Than The Rest" and "Brilliant Disguise" sound timeless. I remain convinced that they're two of the best songs Springsteen has ever recorded. There was definitely something missing without the full E Street band supporting him but this was an incredibly strong solo debut.
4) Darkness on The Edge of Town - Might be the best overall rock album that the band made. If it weren't for Born to Run that is. If "Thunder Road" was a gentle on-ramp into the Born to Run album, then "Badlands" is a jet taking off down the runway on Darkness. The few seconds of a drum solo followed by the full band kicking in gets the album off to such a strong note. It's just an overall great American rock album with tracks like "Darkness on the Edge of Town", "The Promised Land" and "Adam Raised a Cain" particularly standing out.
3) Born In The USA - The album was a victim of its own success as many songs like "Dancing In The Dark" and "Born In The USA" were so overplayed that it dampened the effect of the album and actually made it a little uncool to admit to enjoying this album. But it's a classic for a reason.
In my high school salutatorian speech (out of a class of 48, calm down) I referenced "Glory Days" by saying that I hoped that, unlike the people in the song, our glory days were not behind us but in front of us. Patted myself on the back for that one. Now I wonder how many high school speeches that has referenced that song. Side note, the whole notion of asking the valedictorian and salutatorian to give graduation speeches, many of which turn into attempts at advice, is laughable. I couldn't think of a person less equipped to tell someone how to live their life than an 18 year old me. I know the intentions are good but the thought that I should be dispensing life advice to peers because I wrote a better paper about The Grapes of Wrath has some flaws in it.
What were we talking about? Born In The USA. Right.
There are more classic hits than forgettable tracks on this album and it's such a testament to Springsteen and the entire band's ability to understand the ear of the public and what makes for a hit song. I can't imagine you haven't heard this album and if you haven't heard this one then there's zero chance you've heard any of the last 95 albums I've been writing about. It's an all-time great American rock album that's recognizable by its cover alone. And it still only comes in at number three on my Springsteen mini-list!
2) Born to Run - What can I really write about an album as unassailable as Born to Run that hasn't been said before? You know all eight songs here but especially "Thunder Road", "Born to Run", "Tenth Avenue Freezeout", "Backstreets". It's remained prominently placed in the annals of rock history for the last forty-five and it will be remembered that way for at least another forty-five. Even if we're overtaken by aliens, they may crank up Born To Run while going about their task of enslaving us. It's that good.
1) The Rising - It will never be confused as the defining album of his career but The Rising seemed to breathe new life into the band and Springsteen's career. In his early work he tapped into the hopes and frustrations of the everyman of the late seventies/early eighties as the source of inspiration for much of his work. But every artist only has so much to say before the well of inspiration has run dry. For Springsteen, the turmoil of his marriage and his band served him well lyrically for Tunnel of Love but, after that, he seemed to hit a dry spell other than the occasional one-off track like "Streets of Philadelphia". Eventually rock stars stop becoming one of the people because of their wealth and fame. So when they attempt to write music from their own life experiences, many times they're writing about the problems of the extremely wealthy or famous. That doesn't connect with people in the same way and the music tends to suffer especially for an artist like Springsteen, where extreme wealth ran counter to his early life and the lyrics of many of his fictional song characters.
I could listen to his earlier albums as I was growing up and appreciate the music for the high quality albums they were. But I didn't really connect with it because I could hear that the message was meant for another generation's set of ears even if some of the topics he covered were timeless. The albums were like a hand-me-down sweater from my dad and sister. I appreciated them and they fit great but I knew they weren't mine. Then September 11th happened.
The tragedy of 9/11 was going to have a profound impact on me regardless of what age I was but considering I was sixteen, it was a very impressionable time in life. There was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of grief but also a lot of optimistic resolve that America was going to be okay. Those were the messages that I heard when I listened to Springsteen's The Rising. For the first time I felt like there was a Springsteen album that I really connected with in real time. I wasn't listening to it as a passed down album from my dad or my sister. We were all experiencing it together firsthand. He was also speaking to something deeper than his albums from the last fifteen years. He was talking about life and death instead of a marriage failing.
While albums like Born To Run or The River will deservedly be remembered as superior rock albums, The Rising could easily be the apex album for any other artist. It's difficult to not feel uplifted listening to the title track "The Rising", "Mary's Place" or "Further On (Up the Road)". But you can also hear the ache in "Lonesome Day", "Empty Sky" or "Worlds Apart". The 2002 album will be remembered as a snapshot of the country in the aftermath of 9/11 and as we entered into a Middle East conflict that would last well over a decade. But musically, the album also proved that Springsteen both had more to say and could say it with close to the same musical prowess he'd displayed early in his career. It's very deserving of the number seven spot on the list but you could say that about any of his ten albums above.
#6
Babel
Mumford & Sons
Runner-Up: Sigh No More
Bronze Medal: Delta
Honorable Mention: Wilder Mind
It's hard for me to believe that, for a band I enjoy this much, I don't have a lot of things to say about them. If you've been following this list, you'll see a theme of the kind of music that I really enjoy. There has already been plenty of representation of folk or rock-a-billy music that toes the line of country western but never fully crosses over (e.g. The Decemberists, Chris Isaak). Mumford and Sons specializes in this hybrid of rock and banjo that flirts with country and flirts with folk but maintains a more unique sound. If I've heard a complaint against the band it's that their music all sounds the same. I understand where that is coming from, especially if you compare the band's first album Sigh No More with the follow-up Babel. But subsequent albums and projects like Wilder Mind and especially Johannesburg, which the group recorded with South African band Beatenberg and Senegalese singer Baaba Maal, can sound very different from the first two albums.
Even the latest album, Delta, is more akin to the first two albums but still maintains a marked difference in sound. Sure, Marcus Mumford's voice and the strong use of drums are still prevalent in almost all the band's work but a band can only deviate so much from its strong suit and natural sound. Listeners aren't clamoring for freestyle rap or death metal from this group. Besides, had Mumford and Sons continued putting out albums similar in sound and style to Babel and Sigh No More, I would have continued listening. I never complained about Michael Jordan dunking too much or sighed heavily because Tom Clancy put out another military thriller. I understand that too much of anything is a bad thing but if this band's sound isn't your thing then just move on down the road.
I enjoy all the of the band's work but Babel takes the spot here as the number six album. It just seemed like the band took the pieces of Sigh No More that worked the best and arranged an entire album that played to those strengths. There's not a miss on this album, not a track that I skip past or wish would finish faster. The deluxe version is 15 tracks and it's the version that I recommend versus the standard 12 track album. The additional three songs are worth it, especially the band's cover of "The Boxer" where Paul Simon himself even steps in to lend a hand in a version that I may like better than the original. Other favorites here are "Lover of the Light (which we used in our wedding video), "I Will Wait", "Whispers In The Dark" and "Hopeless Wanderer" (whose music video below showed that the band had a sense of humor about itself and their folks-y image)
The pounding drum and choruses that encourage sing-along make these albums excellent for road trips. I remember driving to Charlotte from Atlanta with one of my best friends listening to this album and the live show from Red Rocks in its entirety. I'm anxious to hear what the band comes up with next but, for now, Babel is the peak their releases and it comes in at number six on list.
#5
Boxer
The National
Runner-Up: Trouble Will Find Me
Bronze Medal: High Violet
Honorable Mention: Sleep Well Beast
I think it's natural that the band member who receives the most attention is the lead singer. It's the member who generally stands front and center at live shows and, given that it's usually the only voice of the band that the listeners hear, there's a more intimate relationship that's established. But as I got older and learned more about what went into making an album, I found that, in many cases, what drew me to many of my favorite bands wasn't the lead singer or the lyricist. While Joe Strummer was an undeniable talent for The Clash, the band's sound was largely driven by Mick Jones. The same could be said of Steven Van Zandt who helped Springsteen refine and enhance the sound of The E Street Band. U2 has The Edge. The Rolling Stones has Keith Richards. And Tom Morello was the engine that made Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave go.
When I first heard The National, it was in 2010 via their radio hit "Bloodbuzz Ohio" from their fifth album High Violet. The song stood out due to the pounding drum line and the unique sound and lyrics from lead singer Matt Berninger. And while some of the lyrics were unclear (I still don't know what "I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees" means), I appreciated his way of turning a phrase through lines like "I still owe money to the money, to the money I owe". I knew that I wanted to hear more from this band.
Starting with 2004's EP Cherry Tree, the band hasn't released a dud album in seven attempts. And the more I listened to the band's work, the more I realized that it wasn't really Matt Berninger's voice that was drawing me to the band's work. It's the work of the Dessner brothers, Aaron and Bryce, who, through their work on strings, keyboard, guitar and piano, provide the band with their unique sound. They somehow found a way to craft songs that can bring you on the verge of tears but also uplifting. That's not to say that those two are solely responsible for the band's success. Berninger is incredibly gifted as a singer and writer and Bryan Devendorf's drum work, more prominently featured in later albums, gives the tracks more of a kick that was lacking on early albums.
You could pick any of the band's last six albums and I could find a way to defend it as being worthy of a spot on this list. But of all their albums, Boxer is probably their most complete. From the first piano notes of "Fake Empire", the whole album was an exercise in the listener repeating "oh, I like this song too". Songs like "Squalor Victoria" perfectly exemplify the impact of both Dessners and Devendorf as the drums, strings and piano carry the song for a full minute before Berninger jumps in. "Start A War", "Green Gloves", "Slow Show", "Guest Room" and "Mistaken For Strangers" are the other highlights here.
It's hard to tell what the future holds for the band. Matt Berninger recently released a solo album along with a side project EL VY ("Return to the Moon"). More importantly, Aaron Dessner has received a lot of positive attention for his work with Taylor Swift on the folklore and evermore albums. Change is inevitable for most bands but I hope that the band still finds time to record music together. Given the high heights they're able to reach together, as evidenced by the number five album Boxer, it would be a shame if their string of releases stopped now.
#4
Weezer (The Blue Album)
Weezer
Runner-Up: Make Believe
Bronze Medal: Weezer (The Red Album)
Honorable Mention: Maladroit
Everything you need to know about Weezer fans can be covered in this SNL skit with Matt Damon and Leslie Jones going toe to toe about when the band truly peaked.
Consider me firmly in Leslie Jones's camp as I think the band's best work was in the form of their 1994 self-titled debut Weezer or as it's more commonly known The Blue Album. 13 albums have come after this ten track gem but, in my opinion, nothing has topped it. And I'm not in the camp of "all new Weezer music is terrible". I've found plenty to like on subsequent albums like Maladroit, The Red Album and especially Make Believe where I think "Perfect Situation" is one of the best songs they have made. I've kept the band in my periphery over the years and I'll still give their album a listen upon release. But clearing the high bar they set for themselves on their debut album will be almost impossible.
Produced by Ric Ocasek, formerly of The Cars, the The Blue Album sound stands out in stark contrast to other rock albums that the time who were still firmly in the grunge phase like Soundgarden or Nirvana. But it's probably the unique sound of the guitar work and that it was NOT a grunge album that made the album stand out even more at the time. The album is littered with hits but "Undone (The Sweater Song)", "Buddy Holly", and "Say It Ain't So" (a song I only recently put together is about lead singer River Cuomo's father's and stepfather's use of alcohol) are the songs that received the most radio airtime. It's hard to downplay how great the "Buddy Holly" music video is too. But the album is this high on the list for a reason. "My Name is Jonas", "The World Has Turned" and "Surf Wax America" could easily have been the three radio singles and the album still likely would have been a huge success.
I know Pinkerton has its share of defenders from "true" Weezer fans and other fans may pick Make Believe as more of a mix of what the band was going for all along. But The Blue Album is a boring pick as Weezer's best album for a reason. When there's a choice this obvious, it takes away some of the suspense and sexiness of the selection. But to take any other album from the group would just be acting contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. The album has been present in my life since I was ten years old. I listened to it when I first started driving. I heard it in bars in college and in my twenties. And I still listen to it around the house now. The number four album, Weezer (The Blue Album) may be 26 years old but its sound still sounds unique and I'm still not tired of hearing it.
#3
Dookie
Green Day
Runner-Up: American Idiot
Bronze Medal: Nimrod
Honorable Mention: Warning
Following Weezer's self-titled debut album at number four, here's another album from 1994, Green Day's Dookie. It's the third 1994 album inside the top ten and the fifth inside the top 50 (Hootie's Cracked Rear View, Live's Throwing Copper and Bush's Sixteen Stone). I know that 1994 wasn't this magical year when all the musical stars aligned and the best music ever was created. I know I'm looking back with rose colored glasses at an era during which I was starting to find my own footing in musical taste. But, on the other hand, here are some of the other albums released in 1994: Tom Petty's Wildflowers, Pearl Jam's Vitalogy, Nirvana's Unplugged, Beastie Boys's Ill Communication, R.E.M.'s Monster, The Offspring's Smash, Soundgarden's Superunknown, Nas's Illmatic, and Beck's Mellow Gold. So maybe it's not all positive bias that's leading me toward this year as the strongest on the list.
Green Day's Dookie certainly helps 1994's case as a strong album release year. The lyrics won't win a Pulitzer and they're not recreating Hendrix with the guitars but these three guys knew how to make a brisk and amazing rock album. In the early and mid-nineties, the angst, anger and emotion of grunge wasn't really connecting with me. I was too young. What did I have to be upset about? My mom forgot to buy the graham crackers? It was too windy to play basketball outside ("damn you Indiana prairie winds!")? But Dookie was fun, it was light and, even if the more adult references flew right over my head, I loved it. Between this and the Weezer debut, this kind of pop punk was a drastic rock alternative to bands like Soundgarden or Nirvana.
Chances are even if you're vaguely aware of Green Day, you know all the hits on Dookie like "Welcome to Paradise", "Basket Case", "Longview" and "When I Come Around". But it's the songs built around those hits that make the album a classic especially "Having A Blast", "Pulling Teeth", "Sassafras Roots", and "Emenius Sleepus". The 14 track album (15 on Spotify because they ruin Tre's hidden song at the end) moves along at only 38 minutes, walking that line between feeling like you got your money's worth but not overstaying its welcome.
The band would follow this up with four solid albums over the next ten years, most notably Nimrod and Warning, before releasing American Idiot in 2004. The rock opera could have easily taken the spot on this list since it was meant for consumption in full album form rather than just a collection of singles. It's more cohesive in sound, theme and thought. It's at least trying to be more mature even if it feels like our favorite immature rockers are playing dress-up in politics anger. I love that album and even have a soft spot for the follow-up 21st Century Breakdown. But Dookie is a nineties rock classic and, for people my age, it was one of the first cassettes/CDs that was purchased or that we were at least aware of as a full album. And in a musical year as strong as 1994, it still stands out for its brashness and energy, just like the many teenagers (and this eleven year old) who were listening.
By the way, I'm well aware that I missed an incredible pun opportunity to place Dookie at number two. I pushed down every dad joke impulse I had. At 36, there may be hope for me yet.
#2
The '59 Sound
The Gaslight Anthem
Runner-Up: Handwritten
Bronze Medal: Sink or Swim
Honorable Mention: American Slang
After the New Jersey-based quartet finished playing "The 59 Sound" on The Late Show With David Letterman in early 2009, Letterman came out to shake hands with the band ("What are you, the drummer? Good." is such a natural Letterman interaction) and he turns to the crowd saying "That's all you want right? Just tremendous." That's how I feel about this album. That's how I feel about this band. There's no gimmick. There's no banjo or violin or DJ or odd instrumentation. There's just Benny Horowitz on drums, Alex Levine on bass and a very strong Alex Rosamilia on lead guitar. And, perhaps most importantly, there's Fallon's guitar, voice and personal, heartfelt lyrics that, even when they cross into cliche territory, never feel maudlin or insincere).
I know that this isn't the album that many expected to be the last step before we reach the top of the mountain that it took three months to climb. But I'd be lying to myself if I put any other album here. I bought this album on a lunch break perusal of the Best Buy music section in 2009 without knowing a single song. I was just browsing in the rock section, the cover was straightforward and I had a feeling about it. Ten seconds into "Great Expectations" I started to get my hopes up about what this album can be. I had to wait until my drive home to get through the full album but after forty minutes and 12 songs, I not only knew I had made a wise use of 18 dollars but that I had found a band that I would follow for as long as they were putting out music.
What added to the experience was that I had found them. Their songs weren't on the radio yet. This wasn't one of my sister's CDs that I borrowed. It wasn't a vinyl of my dad's. I introduced the band to my friends instead of the other way around. I equated it to finally discovering gold after years of buying it in the open market from other miners.
The Gaslight Anthem is a band that has self-admittedly been influenced by so many of the bands and albums that have come before them on this list. You can hear the influences of Tom Petty and Bob Seger in their music and lyrics. They have listed The Clash as one of their primary inspirations and even recorded a song to Joe Strummer's memory on their debut album Sink or Swim called "I'da Called You Woody, Joe". Fallon has stated he loves Weezer but believes "Hash Pipe" is one of the worst songs ever written.
They were labeled by some as the next Springsteen which was aided by Bruce playing "The '59 Sound" with them at Hard Rock Calling in London in 2009. It's easy to see where the similarities come from. Lyrically Fallon, like Springsteen, likes using the name "Mary" in his lyrics and also has a propensity for name dropping their shared home state of New Jersey. For example, their song "Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts" references both Little Eden (also referenced by Springsteen in "Sandy") as well as two street locations in Rehoboth Beach. It's one of a myriad of New Jersey references the band as made over the course of its work.
More specifically, the band formed in New Brunswick, New Jersey which is also where the headquarters of my first employer Johnson & Johnson is located. I spent a few weeks in that town spread out over 2007 to 2009 visiting many of the same bars that the band spent their very early years frequenting (long live Wednesday karaoke at The Golden Rail). My familiarity with their home town illogically but acutely made me feel even more of a connection to the band.
Eleven years later, The '59 Sound still sounds fresh and I find myself coming back to it. The bookends of the album are the strongest portions with "Great Expectations" and "The '59 Sound" bringing high energy to start things off while "Here's Looking At You Kid" provides an emotional love letter to past loves before "The Backseat" closes things out with a heartfelt anthem that might be the best song on the album and was always the way the band closed out the show the four times I saw them live. That's not to say the rest of the album is worth skipping. "Meet Me By The River's Edge", "The Patient Ferris Wheel", "Miles Davis & The Cool" and "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" are some of my favorite songs the band has recorded. But it's rare that I won't just let the whole album play through.
Two more solid albums would follow with American Slang and Handwritten, which included their biggest radio hit "45". But following a fifth studio album, Get Hurt, the band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2015 as Fallon wanted to focus more on a solo career (not counting his one-off side project The Horrible Crowes). Other than the occasional live show, the band has more or less confirmed that their hiatus will be a permanent one but I still hold out hope that there's still more that the band will produce together. There didn't seem to be any bad blood behind the break-up. Fallon describes it as the band saying all it had to say musically. I can't argue with that logic. I enjoyed Get Hurt but it's definitely the weakest of the band's albums.
If it's all over after five albums and a phenomenal EP, the band will have fallen short of its label as "the next Springsteen" but to me, they'll always be one of my favorite bands. So they'll have to settle for number two on the list. Oh so close to number one. Speaking of....we have arrived at the number one spot. This is usually the spot on the list where the creator really can't win. Either the selection is safe and boring or a bolder choice is made but likely earns the ire of the reader. We'll see if I can thread the needle and land this plane.
#1
Achtung Baby
U2
Runner-Up: The Joshua Tree
Bronze Medal: War
Honorable Mention: All That You Can't Leave Behind
It's fitting that the best song on the number one album is "One". Critics and pundits will spend decades debating this list was a three month exercise to build to one dad pun joke. I'll never tell.
This whole list has been about controversy. I'm sure there have been more entries at which you've screamed "what?!" than you've said "yeah, that's a good call". That's the nature of lists. It's why we follow them. It's no fun if there is mass consensus. So it's fitting that the number one album could generate heated debate not only about a U2 album coming in at number one but also which U2 album I chose.
For me, the decision on which U2 album to select came down to two unsurprising choices: The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. It's also not surprising that I didn't select Songs of Innocence. We're told that right now we've never been more divided as a country, but we've never been more united as a country when millions joined hands and cried out that they did NOT want a free U2 album automatically downloaded to their phones. I long for the days when a free U2 album was in the top ten of our society's biggest complaints.
Picking The Joshua Tree would have been perfectly defensible and safe. It's clear that "Where The Streets Have Name", "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" will be remembered not just as some of U2's greatest hits but some of the greatest songs from that generation. Even songs like "In God's Country" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" have stood on their own legs as some of the band's best songs. "One Tree Hill" even got its own TV show (the dad jokes keep coming). But Achtung Baby turns thirty years old this year and I've listened to it on a consistent basis since I was eight years old. I'm still not tired of it. "Zoo Station", "Even Better Than The Real Thing" and "One" represent an opening that's just as strong as The Joshua Tree. More than happy to debate that. "Zoo Station" is weaker than "Where The Streets Have No Name" but "Even Better Than The Real Thing" and "One" are superior to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "With Or Without You".
Brief aside here about the phenomenal song "One". As much as I love this song, it astounds me when I hear that "One" had a stint as being used for first dances at weddings. Listening to the lyrics, it's a small step above choosing Cee Lo Green's "F*ck You" as a wedding dance. "One" is about the breakdown of a relationship. I picture couples staring into each other's eyes as Bono laments "you gave me nothing, now it's all I've got" and thinking they should have spent more time vetting songs other than just agreeing the song's melody is pretty. If this was your wedding song and this offends you, I'm glad you made it all the way to the number one entry before you felt that way.
As strong as the album's start is, things don't fall off from there. "Until The End Of The World", "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", "So Cruel", "The Fly", "Mysterious Ways", and "Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World" are waiting right around the corner. And the finale "Love Is Blindness" leaves the listener with a haunting, heartfelt send-off from Bono. Learning that the album's creation was filled with anger, turmoil and self-doubt as the band dealt with a potential break-up makes the achievement all the more impressive.
When I started compiling this list, I didn't know how many of the albums would be traced back to my youth. It makes sense and it's a comforting thought that I have so many pleasant memories of growing up in a house that really appreciated and valued music. The day my dad brought home our first CD player that was as big as our VCR rivaled the day that we got a Nintendo. And I still remember the elation when we got our first car with a CD player ("I can play the Top Gun soundtrack in the car?!?"). Achtung Baby falls in the category of albums I associate with my family and that only adds to the value I place on it as the top album on the list. It's an all-time great album and I feel confident placing it at the apex of this Top 100 list.
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So that's it. The conclusion of a list of rankings that I'm sure I'll change my mind about in two weeks. For those who followed along in real time or for those who are finding the list now, I really appreciate all the feedback you've provided. I hope this made the days of quarantine and political turmoil pass a little faster and a little easier for you. I hope you were at least able to discover or reconnect with a band or album. I don't expect a Top 100 list but I'd love to hear your top albums. It will never grow old debating movies, music or TV and that was why we started this site to begin with. And all that sweet, sweet blog money. Thank you again for indulging me. I will now start lobbying fellow creator Nick to compile his list.
For those who aren't sick of me or my opinions, stay tuned for the Never-Ending Queue podcast! Am I kidding?
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