Well, I don't think staring at this for any longer is going to make me any happier with it, so here goes: 1. Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run (“Thunder Road”) 2. Butch Walker – Letters (“Don’t Move”) 3. Jimmy Eat World – Futures (“Kill”) 4. Jack’s Mannequin – Everything in Transit (“Rescued”) 5. Counting Crows – August & Everything After (“Round Here”) 6. Matt Nathanson – Some Mad Hope (“All We Are”) 7. Green Day – American Idiot (“Whatsername”) 8. The Wallflowers – Bringing Down the Horse (“One Headlight”) 9. U2 – The Joshua Tree (“Where the Streets Have No Name”) 10. The Dangerous Summer – Reach for the Sun (“Never Feel Alone”) 11. Butch Walker – Sycamore Meadows (“Closer to the Truth and Further from the Sky”) 12. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound (“The Backseat”) 13. Taylor Swift – Red (“All Too Well”) 14. John Mayer – Continuum (“Stop This Train”) 15. U2 – Achtung Baby (“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses”) 16. Butch Walker – Stay Gold (“Spark: Lost”) 17. Jason Isbell – Southeastern (“Cover Me Up”) 18. Noah Gundersen – Ledges (“First Defeat”) 19. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (“Don’t Look Back in Anger”) 20. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (“Dreams”) 21. Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (“Badlands”) 22. The Dangerous Summer – War Paint (“No One’s Gonna Need You More”) 23. Third Eye Blind – Third Eye Blind (“Motorcycle Drive-By”) 24. Caitlyn Smith – Starfire (“Tacoma”) 25. Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days (“Fever Dream”) 26. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (“Walk On”) 27. Counting Crows – Hard Candy (“Miami”) 28. Katie Pruitt – Expectations (“Grace Has a Gun”) 29. Field Report – Marigolden (“Summons”) 30. Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour (“Love Is a Wild Thing”) 31. Bruce Springsteen – The River (“Stolen Car”) 32. Billy Joel – The Stranger (“Vienna”) 33. Chad Perrone – Release (“Under Different Circumstances”) 34. Matchbox Twenty – Yourself or Someone Like You (“Hang”) 35. Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger (“Crashin”) 36. Jimmy Eat World – Chase This Light (“Dizzy”) 37. Dashboard Confessional – A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar (“Bend and Not Break”) 38. Will Hoge – The Wreckage (“Even If It Breaks Your Heart”) 39. Cary Brothers – Who You Are (“The Last One”) 40. Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism (“A Lack of Color”) 41. Butch Walker – Afraid of Ghosts (“Father’s Day”) 42. Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA (“No Surrender”) 43. Keane – Hopes and Fears (“She Has No Time”) 44. Dashboard Confessional – Dusk and Summer (“Dusk and Summer”) 45. Jason Isbell – Reunions (“Only Children”) 46. John Mayer - Heavier Things (“Split-Screen Sadness”) 47. Safetysuit – Life Left to Go (“Someone Like You”) 48. Lori McKenna – The Tree (“People Get Old”) 49. Dawes – All Your Favorite Bands (“All Your Favorite Bands”) 50. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans (“What Sarah Said”)
Somehow on my first look at this, I didn't see Fanny Hill. Honestly, I can retire from posting now that I've seen someone else post about Fanny on here. Fucking awesome. It's ridiculous that pioneers like them are just never talked about. That said, I like Mother's Pride even more.
Thats easily the best Keane album imo, I feel like you'd love it. Suprised you haven't heard Heavier Things too.
So I put it on my "to buy" list a million years ago when I used to put an artist's whole catalog on without listening first and haven't bought it yet. It's a weird black hole in the system that young, completist Chris saddled me with. Haha And that's the only Keane album I still have to hear. I expect it's great like all theirs are.
Ha, Sycamore Meadows is the album I was thinking of when I said if you hadn’t heard my whole list it wasn’t from lack of me trying. I think there’s a decent chance that could end up your favorite Butch album. It’s his most “classic” sounding and definitely draws from influences and eras of music I know you adore. My favorite Keane album by a fair margin, and I think the peak of their ability to write just really, really great pop songs. Also some of my favorite vocals ever on that record. Tom Chaplin is a real talent. Heavier Things was the first album I ever bought with my own money, so I’ve got a soft spot for that one. It doesn’t tend to be a favorite for most of his fans, but it’s an album I listened to probably twice a day for the better part of a year. Felt wrong to leave it off.
100% positive I'll like all 3 of these. Honestly tracking these ballots has really made me realize how much I need to go backwards to albums from artists I like from before I got into them. It's definitely a weak spot for me.
fine i’ll update the excel and quit being a pissbaby the president might die, only in a good mood the rest of the weekend
I have that same problem, and I think I’ve actually gotten worse about it in the past few years. Like, I still have not heard the first Donovan Woods record.
I guess the one benefit is that there's still great stuff out there to hear. Cause The Widowmaker is incredible, if that's the one you're talking about.
The Widowmaker was my intro to him (courtesy of you, I’m pretty sure!) but apparently he has one from before that.
Yep, I checked. It’s called The Hold Up and came out in 2007. I should do a discography play-through before his new album comes out and finally give that a listen.
the strategist in me wants to adjust my internal ranking of Isbell albums based on Craig's list to pump our boy up the final rankings chart, but I think I'm gonna have to refrain from indulging that urge also props to Craig for including records from this year. I think I'm too much of a coward to do so and hell I only have one from last year on my list right now
Ha, guessing you’ve got Something More Than Free? I went back and forth on the second Isbell album to pick. His last three are all super close for me, but I ultimately felt most drawn to choosing Reunions, so I just went for it. As for Expectations, that’s an album I’ve been living with now since about this time last year, so I had no hesitation about putting it on the list.
For me, a favorite takes time to establish itself. It’s hard for anything recent to get there. But if I had to listen to things as many times as Craig does to write a review, I could see being familiar enough on a quicker timetable
Okay this is probably the best I’m gonna do, ended up being way different than I thought it would be (at least beyond the top 15 or so) and I cannot believe that some of the fiftyish “honorable mention” records got left off. Ended up not doing live albums or compilations because my head hurt too much when I considered expanding the universe of possibilities to include those. Edit: And sure enough I realized I left something off soon as I posted haha, list is now final. 1. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town (“Racing in the Street”) 2. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”) 3. The Replacements - Tim (“Left of the Dial”) 4. Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day (“Outfit”) 5. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks (“Idiot Wind”) 6. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run (“Thunder Road”) 7. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America (“Stuck Between Stations”) 8. Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (“2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten”) 9. Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South (“Where the Devil Don’t Stay”) 10. Bon Iver - Bon Iver (“Holocene”) 11. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (“Steam Engine”) 12. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free (“24 Frames”) 13. R.E.M. - Automatic for the People (“Nightswimming”) 14. The Wrens - The Meadowlands (“Ex-Girl Collection”) 15. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (“Helplessness Blues”) 16. Thursday - Full Collapse (“Understanding in a Car Crash”) 17. Kanye West - The College Dropout (“Family Business”) 18. The Clash - London Calling (“Spanish Bombs”) 19. Bruce Springsteen - The River (“The River”) 20. Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (“Poison Oak”) 21. The National - Boxer (“Fake Empire”) 22. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West (“Doin’ the Cockroach”) 23. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (“Teen Age Riot”) 24. Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne (“Acuff-Rose”) 25. Jason Isbell - Southeastern (“Relatively Easy”) 26. Built to Spill - There’s Nothing Wrong with Love (“Big Dipper”) 27. Big Thief - UFOF (“Cattails”) 28. Arcade Fire - Funeral (“Rebellion (Lies)”) 29. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (“Province”) 30. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One (“Sugarcube”) 31. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (“Alright”) 32. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (“Re: Stacks”) 33. Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel (“Return of the Grievous Angel”) 34. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (“For Me This Is Heaven”) 35. Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain (“Fillmore Jive”) 36. Green Day - American Idiot (“Jesus of Suburbia”) 37. My Morning Jacket - At Dawn (“Phone Went West”) 38. The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving (“Aside”) 39. Nas - Illmatic (“Halftime”) 40. Wilco - Being There (“Misunderstood”) 41. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (“Subterranean Homesick Blues”) 42. Radiohead - Kid A (“Motion Picture Soundtrack”) 43. Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth ("Call to Arms") 44. Lucero - 1372 Overton Park (“What Are You Willing to Lose”) 45. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (“When the Sun Goes Down”) 46. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (“Jockey Full of Bourbon”) 47. Kathleen Edwards - Failer (“Mercury”) 48. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (“The Battle of Hampton Roads”) 49. Madvillian - Madvilliany (“Accordion”) 50. Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams (“Side of the Road”) Honorable Mention: American Football - American Football Baroness - Blue The Beatles - Rubber Soul The Beatles - Revolver Big Star - Radio City Boards of Canada - Music Has a Right to Children Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret Burial - Untrue Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska Bruce Springsteen - Magic Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind Counting Crows - August and Everything After Deafheaven - Sunbather The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation’s Dark The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic Foxing - Nearer My God Frank Ocean - blond Gillian Welch - Revival Grateful Dead - American Beauty Jay-Z - The Blueprint Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West - Yeezus Kendrick Lamar - DAMN Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica Motion City Soundtrack - Commit This to Memory My Morning Jacket - Z Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic Old Crow Medicine Show - OCMS Outkast - Aquemini Patti Smith - Horses Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R Radiohead - OK Computer Radiohead - In Rainbows R.E.M. - Reckoning Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come The Replacements - Let It Be Saves the Day - Stay What You Are Spoon - They Want My Soul Sleep - Dopesmoker Steve Earle - I Feel Alright Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music The Strokes - Is This It Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell System of a Down – Toxicity The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave Talking Heads - Remain in Light Tyler Childers – Purgatory Thursday - War All the Time Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City Wilco - A Ghost Is Born Weezer - Pinkerton
1. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound (The Backseat) 2. Julien Baker – Turn Out the Lights (Turn Out the Lights) 3. The National – Sleep Well Beast (I’ll Still Destroy You) 4. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher (I Know the End) 5. Foxing – Nearer My God (Nearer My God) 6. Bon Iver – 22, A Million (Creeks) 7. The Hotelier – Home, Like No Place is There (An Introduction to the Album) 8. The Antlers – Hospice (Wake) 9. Dry the River – Shallow Bed (Bible Belt) 10. Laura Stevenson – Wheel (L-Dopa) 11. Motion City Soundtrack – Commit This to Memory (Hold Me Down) 12. Spanish Love Songs – Brave Faces Everyone (Beach Front Property) 13. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks (Skip the Youth) 14. Manchester Orchestra – A Black Mile to the Surface (The Silence) 15. MewithoutYou – Ten Stories (Grist for the Malady Mill) 16. Camp Cope – Camp Cope (Stove Lighter) 17. The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving (Left and Leaving) 18. Perfume Genius – No Shape (Wreath) 19. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (Silver Springs) 20. Novo Amor – Birthplace (State Lines) 21. Earl Sweatshirt – Some Rap Songs (Cold Summers) 22. Pianos Become the Teeth – Keep You (Enamor Me) 23. Nas – Illmatic (The World is Yours) 24. Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog (How Simple) 25. Great Grandpa – Four of Arrows (Mostly Here) 26. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly 27. Young Thug – Jeffrey (Kanye West) 28. Francoise Hardy – Comment te Dire Adieu (L’Anamour) 29. The Middle East – I Want That You Are Always Happy (Land of the Bloody Unknown) 30. Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run (Backstreets) 31. The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Harmlessness (January 10th, 2014) 32. The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee (Game Shows Touch Our Lives) 33. Slow Mass – On Watch (Gray Havens) 34. Lorde – Melodrama (Writer in the Dark) 35. Counting Crows – August and Everything After (Round Here) 36. REM – Life’s Rich Pageant (Begin the Begin) 37. Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Fuckmylife666) 38. Hey Rosetta! – Plan Your Escape (Epitaph) 39. Deafheaven – New Bermuda (Luna) 40. Brandi Carlile – The Firewatcher’s Daughter (Wherever is Your Heart) 41. Billie Holiday – Lady Sings the Blues (Strange Fruit) 42. The Who – Who’s Next (Baba O’Riley) 43. Lianne La Havas – Blood (Tokyo) 44. Otis Redding – Otis Blue (A Change is Gonna Come) 45. Noname – Room 25 (Blaxploitation) 46. Dan Fogelberg – Love Songs (Leader of the Band) 47. Dilly Dally – Heaven (I Feel Free) 48. Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence (Old Money) 49. Vince Staples – Big Fish Theory (BagBak) 50. The Low Anthem – Oh My God Charlie Darwin (Charlie Darwin) - Limit one per artist