Board 8 > Rank the Albums Vol. 3: Ranking Thread (Deadline: September 16)

(+) Yeah! (+)

1. Metallica - Master of Puppets - Quite possibly the definitive Metallica album. Certainly the one Ive gone back to the most over the years. But then again, after re-listening to this, I dove back into Ride the Lightning and And Justice for All andyeahthose are pretty damn good too! (Maybe even better???). Overall, just a juggernaut of an album.
2. Guns N Roses' - Appetite for Destruction - Tremendous from start to finish. Theres the 3 big singles but even beyond that, theres not really a bad song here.
3. Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold - Metal is such an odd bird for me with these rankings. Its seemingly either love (Master of Puppets, Powerslave) or hate (Crack the Skye, Palimpsest (spoilers for next ranking...)). This self-titled album was one of the big surprises for me of this cycle. Much like Powerslave, this was another case of why the hell didnt I know about this?!?. Its as catchy as metal can get, with fun riffs, good singing, and some sometimes goofy lyrics. Hell, even the more slow/country songs are good! Metal sometimes has a problem of songs sounding kind of same-y but thats not the case here.
4. blink-182 - Enema of the State - I was a big fan of blink during my 15-25 year old period, which also coincides with their heyday. Enema is just perfect pop-punk for me. Catchy, fun, sometimes juvenile and silly, but with enough heart that it manages to avoid being kitschy.
5. Dream Theater - Images and Words - Id listened to some random Dream Theater songs back in college but for whatever reason never really got into them, despite liking a lot of artists of a similar prog metal sound. So this one wasnt a surprise as much as it was a head slap. Dream Theaters got a great singer that really matches the big, epic, almost operatic tone of this album. And I know that this isnt even considered their best!
6. The Beatles - Rubber Soul - I mean, its The Beatles, so its hard to go wrong. Its no Abbey Road, but what is? An album of songs that have been seared into my brain. So much so that I had a hard time ranking this, as it was often hard to say really, your ranking this ABOVE the frickin Beatles?!?.
7. Sunspot - Singularity - Another of the big surprises from this cycle. Perhaps a little bit unpolished in parts but its a tiny band from the midwest that probably about 10K people have ever heard of! I enjoyed the pop-punkish bent to a lot of the songs, and yes, I do wish I had F U money. The biggest compliment I can give is if an album makes me want to listen to more from an artist, and Singularity passed that test with flying colors.
8. Opeth - Damnation - That statement earlier about metal finds the natural exception here, with this being just a like from me. I always knew Opeth as an unclean vocal death metal band, and so though Id heard a song or two, it wasnt a sound I particularly cared for. Damnation then was a real left turn, with clean vocals and a much more mellow, melodic sound. I could say its maybe a little bit one note, but when its played this well that doesnt matter. Also, its a short album that doesnt overstay its welcome.
9. Jack White - Fear of the Dawn - I was worried about this one, as I wasnt a big fan of Elephant, the White Stripes album we covered that features Jack White. Imagine my shock when this was a very different, more edgy/hard/electronic sound that really appealed to me.
10. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee - Another pleasant surprise of this cycle. I had no idea what to expect going in, and what I got was an eminently listenable piece of pop. I am to understand that the upbeat tone belies some of the more somber messages of the lyrics but Im practically lyric blind sometimes so I didnt quite catch that.
11. Miracle Musical - Hawaii Part 2 - This has to be the oddest album we covered this cycle. But because of that, it stands out and is memorable, much the same way Rain Dogs was in the last ranking cycle.
12. Mos Def - Black on Both Sides - Im not big on rap, but this was better than I expected. Theres some good lyricism and a lot of catchy beats. The sheer variety on display here also helps mask the length of the album.
13. Eagles - Hotel California - Its(more than) a bit reductive to say that its the title track and then everything else butits kind of true for me? Hotel California is a tremendous single that casts a monstrous shadow over the rest of the album, and does the bulk of the work on carrying this album up my rankings.
14. Love - Forever Changes - Its not The Beatles but its still pretty good for 60s rock. Its an easy album to forget about, but when you listen its yeah, theres some decent stuff here.
15. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory - One of the albums I loved as a late teen that I was hesitant about going back to, because its such a product of its time period. Theres a lot of angst and emotion here that doesnt really hit the way that it used to (and why would it to a 30+ year old), but at the same time, I cant pretend that theres not some good stuff here. Or maybe its just hitting those nostalgia centers and making me think its better than it is.

I talked earlier about my next choices being my top 3 from the current year - a new album cracked my top 3 this morning! And, even better, it's a rather accessible electronic album that runs at a relatively short 44 minutes!

...only problem is, someone pointed out to me that the vocalist/strings of this electronic group, Jockstrap, is also the violinist and backing vocalist for my #1 album this year by Black Country New Road. So, Georgia Ellery is having an amazing year artistically, but my own rules prevent me from nominating both despite the two works sounding nothing alike...

(all this obviously has nothing to do with this thread but better than a basic 'bump')

You're a monster.

(there's a chance I'm joking - I don't even know if I am)