A few guidelines and points of clarification on this list before I kick it off.
1) One album per band. This made the selection process tougher but if I didn't set this limit, I would just flood the list with three or four albums of my favorite bands. The rule made for a more diverse list but that may mean that some of my favorite albums were left off.
2) This is not meant to be a list of the most important or influential albums. I don't have the educational or musical prowess to pull that off. You don't want to be reading about the historical relevance of an album from a guy who barely mastered the recorder in elementary school. Instead, this is a list of the albums that were important to me or that I still turn to when I want a full album played instead of a mixed playlist.
3) Some bands I have only really heard as greatest hit compilations rather than giving their full body of work a chance (e.g. Rolling Stones). Shame on me but that may mean that some classic or well known bands may not make it onto this list. But do you really need me to tell you that Elton John or the Beatles have put out some great albums?
4) One slot for a movie soundtrack.
5) I tried to rank the albums based on how complete the album is. One or two great singles isn't enough to qualify as an elite album which means that some of my favorite songs from a particular band may not be included here.
6) No greatest hits albums either. That's too easy.
Embrace debate! I'm doing 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.
Enjoy the next 100 days. Full list below updated daily with an album per day. Let's start things off with number 100....("Rockefeller Skank" voice) right about now....
#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.
