I'd say that probably is a top 3 for me....along with Thrice: Artist-Vheissu-Alchemy Index and Story of the Year: Wake of Determination-Black Swan-Constant.
Love Story of the Year but The Constant isn't on the same level as the previous two for mine. Black Swan is their masterpiece in my eyes. For Rise Against I'd still have Siren Song at the top.
Incubus' Make Yourself - Morning View- A Crow Left Of The Murder though. And Third Eye Blind's Self-Titled - Blue - Out Of The Vein though.
I'm with you on Incubus if you move in SCIENCE instead of Crow. Every Incubus session I do has to include Redefine, New Skin, Certain Shad of Green and Favorite Things!
Wow I can’t believe Tim ranks Siren Song so low as well. It’s definitely my favourite from them with Sufferer close behind.
Samesies. I always appreciated how dirty the guitars sound on that one. Production wise it stands out among the other records. Unrelated, but once in a while, I look up the setlist for the Appeal To Reason era show I could've gone to but missed... and I weep Drones Give It All State of the Union Ready to Fall Injection Re-Education (Through Labor) Chamber the Cartridge Stained Glass and Marble Behind Closed Doors Life Less Frightening Like the Angel Collapse (Post-Amerika) Heaven Knows Long Forgotten Sons The Good Left Undone Encore 1: Hero of War Swing Life Away Encore 2: Survive Audience of One Prayer of the Refugee
Siren Song being at the bottom of his list does a lot to explain why so much of their music after that album decined in quality
This was pretty much the setlist when I saw them during the Appeal to Reason era. Definitely one of the best gigs I've been to! It sucks Tim sounds so flat these days live as I'd love to see them again with them still being one of my favourite bands. Okay I'll do it: Siren Song of the Counter Culture The Sufferer & the Witness Revolutions per Minute Appeal to Reason The Black Market Wolves (The production kills it for me on this album for some reason?) Endgame The Unraveling I still think Revolutions - Sufferer is one of the strongest runs of solid albums to come out of this scene.
I'm nearing the end of another discography run and I think I finally like Endgame after trashing it for so long. On the other hand, I used to defend The Black Market a lot but the attempts at branching out aside, it's just a dull and very "been there done that" record with only a few great songs. I'm nervous for Wolves as I loved it right away but haven't really revisited it since it came out. Completely forgot about the acoustic album so it'll be like a completely new album to me!
I would definitely swap Wolves and Black Market. I'm surprised Wolves is so low but honestly with a band this consistently good there's always going to be one that sticks out. I can totally sympathise with his feeling about Siren Song even if the end result is probably better than Unraveling. For whatever else you can say about Endgame it's definitely the album where they wielded their platform the best.
Welllll Tim ranking their best album as their worst kinda explains why they haven’t done anything really great in a while.
I don't love Siren Song as much as many people seem to, but that is certainly a strange ranking. I would argue the Endgame is their most bland album (still enjoy it though) and would've thought that Wolves would be higher as well.
I'm surprised to see RPM so high on his list while Siren Song and The Unraveling are at the bottom. Rise Against is an odd band for me in that I can't really listen to them anymore, even the first couple of albums. It's sort of like I outgrew their sound, but I also still can listen to lots of other stuff from that same era.
First got into them when I saw the video for "The Good Left Undone" on some music channel. So I really only followed them from Sufferer and beyond. Appeal To Reason was the first album of theirs that I got to experience as a "new" album, so I have a soft spot for it.