I can totally see why people wouldn't like that Mayday genre - and honestly the band and this album in particular are the only ones I have a particular affinity for. I don't know man, not only does it have huge melodies and harmonies for days, it just reminds me of late nights with old friends, being dumb, summer time. Nostalgic shit.
1. Minus The Bear - Planet Of Ice 2. Radiohead - In Rainbows 3. Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin -------------------------------------------- 4. Thrice - The Alchemy Index, Vols. 1 & 2: Fire & Water 5. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace 6. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light 7. Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times 8. The National - Boxer 9. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 10. Every Time I Die - The Big Dirty 11. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 12. Kanye West - Graduation 13. Fountains Of Wayne - Traffic And Weather 14. Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me 15. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank 16. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky 17. Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris 18. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away 19. Portugal. The Man - Church Mouth 20. The White Stripes - Icky Thump 21. Dustin Kensrue - Please Come Home 22. Mae - Singularity 23. Clutch - From Beale Street To Oblivion 24. Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild Soundtrack 25. Anberlin - Cities 26. Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long. 27. Envy On The Coast - Lucy Gray 28. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero 29. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular 30. Say Anything - In Defense Of The Genre Honorable Mention: Against Me! - New Wave Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam Arcade Fire - Neon Bible Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare The Ataris - Welcome The Night Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold Baroness - The Red Album Beastie Boys - The Mix-Up Beirut - The Flying Club Cup Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81 Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City The Bravery - The Sun And The Moon Bright Eyes - Cassadaga Cartel - Cartel Chevelle - Vena Sera Circa Survive - On Letting Go Coheed and Cambria - No World For Tomorrow Common - Finding Forever A Day To Remember - For Those Who Have Heart Deerhunter - Cryptograms The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works Dr. Dog - We All Belong Editors - An End Has A Start Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High Fu Manchu - We Must Obey The Gaslight Anthem - Sink Or Swim Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - The Good, The Bad, & The Queen The Hives - The Black And White Album Interpol - Our Love To Admire Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog Jay-Z - American Gangster Kaddisfly - Set Sail The Prairie Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob The Killers - Sawdust Korn - Untitled LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver Linkin Park - Minutes To Midnight Lovedrug - Everything Starts Where It Ends Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's The Cool Matchbox Twenty - Exile On Mainstream (EP) Michael Buble - Call Me Irresponsible Paramore - Riot! Pinback - Autumn Of The Seraphs Poison The Well - Versions Rogue Wave - Asleep At Heaven's Gate Rooney - Calling The World Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger Silverchair - Young Modern The Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist The Spill Canvas - No Really, I'm Fine Sum 41 - Underclass Hero The Used - Lies For The Liars Velvet Revolver - Libertad Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals Yellowcard - Paper Walls Checking Out in Full First Time: (artist name, 2007 album) 65daysofstatic The Academy Is... Air Architects Ash Between The Buried And Me Biffy Clyro Bomb the Music Industry! Bruce Springsteen The Chariot City And Colour City Sleeps Cobra Starship The Cribs The Dear Hunter Deer Tick Dinosaur Jr. Dropkick Murphys Emarosa The Fall Of Troy Feist Fightstar Four Year Strong Frank Turner The Horrors Jason Isbell John Butler Trio Matthew Good Mayday Parade Metric Moving Mountains Okkervil River Panda Bear Paul McCartney Relient K Rilo Kiley The Sea And Cake Silverstein Stars Steel Train Stereophonics Strata Straylight Run St. Vincent Tegan and Sara Tiger Army The Weakerthans The Wombats
I completely fucking forgot about Zeitgeist until clicking Post Reply. Leaving it out of my Top 30 because fuck Billy for not keeping it on streaming so I can revisit and properly rate it. Honorable mention only lol
Zeitgeist is overall mediocre at best, but Tarantula was underrated in how perfect a comeback single it was. Legitimately love that song. My first realization of omission is Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust. Another year where they beat a very good Explosions album in my book.
I'm gonna have to type up my list tonight. This has been the craziest Monday at work ever. ugh. End of month bullllshit!
1. Biffy Clyro - Puzzle 2. Tegan and Sara - The Con 3. The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters Puzzle is Biffy's big, massive radio rock album, mostly leaving behind their more aggressive or difficult earlier records, and it's just an absolute masterpiece. Opening track, "Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies" is one of the all-time great opening tracks. The Con is a brilliant record, that shows Tegan and Sara's innate knack of creating these wonderful pop songs with real emotional vulnerability and earnest. I love the little sub-two minute little "mini" tracks here too. Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is a noisy, shoegaze record and a fantastic debut album. "And She Would Darken The Memory" is an absolute perfect track. Honourable mentions; Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago: Very unlucky not to make the top three, a beautiful collection of folk songs, and an album where the story of their creation is nearly as fascinating as the record itself. Reuben - In Nothing We Trust: The final Reuben record, and a great way to go out, full of force and humour, a really unique sounding post-hardcore record that doesn't really sound like anyone else. The Ghost of a Thousand - This is Where The Fight Begins: A short-lived British band, who made really lean punk rock / hardcore music, with no fuss and no mess. Great record. Dear and the Headlights - Small Steps, Heavy Hooves: A bit like Manchester Orchestra or Brand New, this band kind of walked that line between indie rock and emo, this is a slightly forgotten, but very good album. As Cities Burn - Come Now Sleep: Also existing in that little indie rock / emo space were As Cities Burn. They seem to be a bit more popular for their earlier heavier stuff, but I love this record. Carsick Cars - Carsick Cars: Can't remember where I saw this band, but they're basically the Chinese Sonic Youth, and they have a track called Zhong Nan Hai, which I think deserves a bigger audience. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light: Jimmy Eat World at their poppiest and shiniest, and it mostly really works. The National - Boxer: Some of the most beautiful stuff on here, "Slow Show" is one of the most romantic and heartfelt pieces of music. Bjork - Volta: Bjork's last bit of purely fun pop music, collaborating with Timbaland. Some really great tracks on here, and lots of energy. Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust: Recorded with Trent Reznor, this is a pounding and tough bit of hip-hop, but when it hits, songs like "Black History Month" are some of my favourite in the genre. Fightstar - One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours: A great follow up to Grand Unification, existing in the same kind of space and sound, but just that little bit more polished. Yourcodenameis:Milo - They Came from The Sun: A fun bit of British rock music, with a bit of a proggy edge, sounding a bit like early Muse or Biffy Clyro. Twin Atlantic - A Guidance From Colour EP: Just a 4-track EP, but this is a remarkably good 15 minutes of music. This is their debut release, and it's all been downhill since then, but for your first shot, they arrived fully formed. Burial - Untrue: Atmospheric and haunting electronic / dance music. Enter Shikari - Take to the Skies: Very underrated band, and while this album isn't all that great compared with what would follow, some good stuff on here.
At the time I was over the moon at the idea of a comeback , even though it was just Billy and Jimmy, using the Pumpkins moniker. I probably forced myself to enjoy it more than I really did. I also took part in the endless debates over tracklisting and production choices on that album, continuing into 2008 with the release of the American Gothic EP. That and the outtakes, "Superchrist", "Gossamer", etc. I'm still moderately convinced there is a very good LP to be found somewhere amongst all of those songs.
1. Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High One of my favorite albums of all time and certainly one of the most influential for me. The singles were inescapable, the back half is full of great deep cuts, and the band continued creatively upward on the momentum of this album's success. 2. Alkaline Trio - Remains A grab-bag of Alk3 songs, it has some of their best and none of their worst. Queen of Pain likely is my favorite Alk3 song, with Warbrain and We Can Never Break Up in at least the top 20. A bizarrely strong collection, considering the span of years some of these songs were recorded apart from one another. 3. Bayside - The Walking Wounded The best Bayside album that I recently got way into again for some reason. The songs are catchy as hell, the guitars are the heaviest they've recorded, and I think it is likely their only album with no obvious filler. Honorable Mentions Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me This one just missed the top 3. Top to bottom excellent power pop. Relient K - Five Score & Seven Years Ago I wish every Relient K album had similar production to this one, because it sounds immaculate. A few things haven't aged great (Faking My Own Suicide), but I agree with @SpyKi that if Deathbed isn't their best song, it's pretty damn close. New Found Glory - From the Screen to Your Stereo, Pt. 2 Got this for Christmas in '07 and I still think of these versions of most of these songs before I think of the originals. One of the most successful pop punk guest vocalist integrations, imo. Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival Listened to this album SO much when I was younger. A lot of the lyrics are pretty dire, but the songs are catchy and the album pretty diverse. Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell Bad Religion goes metal to middling results. Some great great songs on here, but perhaps their most forgettable deep cuts outside of the Atlantic era. Against Me! - New Wave I like this album, sorry! It was also my first Against Me! album so, nostalgia probably colors my opinion. How could you not get Thrash Unreal stuck in your head though? The Academy Is... - Santi My favorite TAI album, I love the marriage of rock and quirky lyrics they achieved here. Also the Butch Walker production is ace. Steel Train - Trampoline This one just missed the top 3 as well. One of my favorite Jack projects, I did not like it when I was young but eventually realized that it is a pretty perfect power pop album. Sum 41 - Underclass Hero This album sounds exactly like American Idiot, has unintentionally repeating melodies within itself, has too many songs, and I LOVED it when I was young. As it stands, I think a few tracks really hold up. Walking Disaster and Speak of the Devil are both great. Cobra Starship - ¡Viva La Cobra! I was tempted to say this album hasn't aged well, but the truth is that I don't think it was ever good or current. Did I love it though? Yes. Yes I did. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace The most underrated Foo Fighters album, imo. Love the Gil Norton production, love the rockers, like most of the slower ones as well. While I love Wasting Light after this, it would not break my heart if they had gone more down the route of songs like Summer's End or Long Road to Ruin. Anberlin - Cities I know everyone loves this one, but it is not my favorite. I love a lot of the songs, but I've always appreciated their poppier work more. Dismantle. Repair. is absolutely one of my fav Anberlin tracks though. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light The inverse is true of this album. Jimmy Eat World at their poppiest and every time I rerank albums, this one slips a little for me. Love Dizzy though. Others Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris Like the singles and not much else. Say Anything - In Defense of the Genre Ashamed how much I listened to this band for a few years. This was never my favorite and further proves the "no one should do double albums" theory, but there were some enjoyable songs to me back in the day. Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing Butch Walker production again made this the album my family consensus agreed with to listen to in the car. The Starting Line - Direction An appropriate swan song with their most muscular production to date. Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight I kinda hated this album when I came it out, but it was obviously very successful and I slowly came around to it. Yellowcard - Paper Walls Didn't get into this album until they returned from their hiatus and I like it, but it strikes me a bit as a "you had to be there" album. Fountains of Wayne - Traffic & Weather The most inessential FoW album. An enjoyable listen, but sooooo breezy. Chevelle - Vena Sera Chevelle does Chevelle. The White Stripes - Icky Thump The final White Strips album benefits from some improved production imo, and it's definitely the setup for where Jack would go with his solo career.
I should listen to that stuff at some point. I've heard the same about Zwan (though I think MSotS more or less holds up as great as is).
1. Britney Spears - Blackout 2. Against Me! - New Wave 3. Tegan and Sara - The Con 4. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light 5. Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High 6. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular 7. The Spill Canvas - No Really, I'm Fine 8. Circa Survive - On Letting Go 9. Every Time I Die - The Big Dirty 10. MIA - Kala
Very happy about this list...cause...you know...FOB Also, I put "Guilty Pleasure" on my daily playlist and found myself totally rocking out to it in the car yesterday....¡Viva La Cobra! absolutely aged well
Haha, Guilty Pleasure came on shuffle while I was taking a shower the other day and it is still a banger! I'm thinking more the V.I.P. Party Boyz section of Scandalous or all of this one
1. As Cities Burn - Come Now Sleep I got to meet Cody and tell him how much this album means to me. And even then I couldn't fully articulate everything I felt. I can't think of another album that so perfectly summed up my emotions/faith/questions as this album. I know many people were upset this wasn't SILYAYD pt 2 but I'm so thankful it wasn't and that they didn't end things when TJ left. The ending trio of Wrong Body, Our World is Grey, and Timothy is perfect and wrecks me every time. 2. Anberlin - Cities I was a big fan of NTFP but this album cemented their place among my favorite bands. Everything clicked into place between the band and Stephen's vocals. Fin is just perfect. 3. Relient K - Five Score and Seven Years Ago I'll admit I wasn't a big fan of the more polished pop sound when it came out but it has grown on me since. So many standout tracks. Must Have Done Something Right shouldn't work because of the potential cheesiness but Matt pulls it off so well. I loved Mmhmm but this shift to a more piano focused sound was a great transition that carried through to FANSD and AFF
Interesting seeing some love for SP's Zeitgist. While I was happy to have them back, it's one of the most one-dimensional Smashing Pumpkins albums ever as if Billy was so focused on showcasing his guitar god skills he completely forgot about balance and melody.
2007 1. Radiohead - In Rainbows 2. Panda Bear - Person Pitch 3. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light 4. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam 5. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero 6. Yellowcard - Paper Walls 7. Thrice - The Alchemy Index, Vols. 1 & 2: Fire & Water 8. Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High 9. Linkin Park - Minutes To Midnight 10. Minus The Bear - Planet Of Ice 11. The Academy Is... - Santi 12. Nine Inch Nails - Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D 13. Anberlin - Cities 14. Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad 15. Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival 16. Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone 17. Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire Favorite Songs from other 2007 albums Paramore - "Misery Business" Across The Universe Musical Cast - "Because" Battles - "Ddiamondd" Architecture In Helsinki - "Heart It Races" Sum 41 - "Underclass Hero" Queens Of The Stone Age - "3's & 7's" M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" Bloc Party - "Flux" Chevelle - "Well Enough Alone" Avril Lavigne - "Girlfriend" The Used - "The Bird and the Worm" Britney Spears - "Piece Of Me" Madina Lake - "House Of Cards" Kind of a weird year for me musically. Best year of my life personally (Turned 21, got in my first band, lots of great memories) I spent all of fall and winter discovering The Beatles discography which opened my world up to the rest of the '60s/'70s of music I only knew in passing. In Rainbows is in my top 3 of all time, it's perfect. Person Pitch is a beautiful dreamy hazy landscape of Beach Boys pop wonder and everyone should listen to it. Chase This Light is also great though mid-tier Jimmy Eat World but still means more to me then the rest of the albums on my list.
I didn't say love! I did however mention my unabashed fanboy-ness that lasted from the breakup in 2000, through the Zwan years, and through the Zeitgeist release cycle. Ever dwindling hope that Billy would be able to recapture the magic of his 90s music, with diminishing returns each subsequent release. That hope was not FINALLY gone until Monuments to an Elegy ... 2014, I think? Then of course he teased me some more with the return of James Iha and Jimmy (again) in 2018.... it's the ebbs and flows of being a Pumpkins fan, man. I certainly don't take it as seriously as I did in 2007.
1. Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond 2. A Wilhelm Scream - Career Suicide 3. This is a Standoff - Be Excited 4. Minus the Bear - Planet of Ice 5. Mad Caddies - Keep it Going 6. Strung Out - Blackhawks Over Los Angele 7. Streetlight Manisifesto - Somewhere 8. Mustard Plug - In Black and White 9. The Flatliners - The Great Awake 10. The Ataris - Welcome the Night
2. Wale - 100 Miles & Running 3. Panda Bear - Person Pitch Blacklisted - War on Stage, Peace on Earth Bracewar - Juggernaut Municipal Waste - The Art of Partying Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam ( Reverend Green is top 5 AC songs) The National - Boxer Trapped Under Ice - Demo The Cool Kids - Totally Flossed Out