falloutbradreviews

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Matty Mullins - S/T

Earlier this year, I talked about the newest album from metalcore turned Octanecore band Memphis May Fire. I believe it was called Shapeshifter, but truth be told, I’ve almost completely forgotten about it. It’s one of those albums that sounds good when you hear it, but as soon as it’s done, you forget everything about it. The album isn’t bad, and it’s well-executed Octanecore, but I don’t care to ever hear it again. What I was interested in hearing was the debut self-titled album from frontman Matty Mullins, at least when I found it at a random flea mall near me for a $1.50. For that price, I had to check it out, and boy, am I glad I did. I’ve been listening to a lot of blues music, and I’ve also been stewing in my thoughts about the movie Sinners that I finally watched the other day, but I’ve been meaning to check out this album, too. I remember when this album came out in 2014, and it was only about five years after their debut album, but I never listened to it.

Truth be told, I was already getting sick of MMF. I liked their debut from 2009, but they turned into generic Risecore afterwards, and ultimately became an Octanecore band. Mullins is a good frontman, but his lyrics aren’t all that good. Back in that time, he was kind of in his religious era, and this solo album has Christian written all over it. I hate to break it to you, folks, but this album just isn’t good. I only picked it up, because it was $1.50, and because I tend to grab any alternative albums I find at places like that, regardless of what it is. There’s only one saving grace to this album, and it’s his vocals. Mullins is a solid vocalist, but that’s it. The songwriting is bad, the hooks are bad, the lyrics are bad, and the sound is bad. It’s just a bad album. Is this the worst thing ever? No, but this also isn’t the funny kind of bad or the “so bad, it’s good” kind of bad. This is just bad, and it’s kind of easy to see why, so I think we need to briefly break it all down.

I truthfully don’t know what’s worse, the lyrics or the sound, but I think the lyrics might get a slight edge. Let me ask you all a question: do you like lyrics that are admittedly inoffensive but so painfully generic, boring, and lifeless that it sounds like a robot wrote them? If you said yes, you’ll have a field day here, because Mullins makes a cringy high schooler’s poetry sound more interesting by default (and I say that as someone that wrote cringy poetry in high school). These lyrics are so boring, paint by numbers, and generic, it kind of hurts, whether it’s about Jesus (we’ll get to that, don’t worry) or his girlfriend. Those are the two topics he talks about here and it’s so boring. Hearing generic relationship songs is pretty bad, but hearing generic Christian worship songs about how cool Jesus is makes me want to throw myself off a bridge. They’re inoffensive, sure, but there were plenty of Christcore bands from back then that were way more interesting. The religious songs here just amount to being about how Jesus is awesome, and if that’s what you want, that’s fine, but it’s so boring.

The overall sound here is just as boring, but it goes from pop-rock to electronically-tinged pop. I wouldn’t have a problem with it normally, but the hooks are almost nonexistent, and the album runs together, so it all just sounds the same. I just have nothing to say about the sound, because it’s super boring and generic, but this sound isn’t the worst thing ever. Hell, if the lyrics were decent, I could give the sound a pass. The lyrics are pretty bad, so the sound is more noticeable, but it isn’t the worst thing ever. I wish I liked it way more, but the only thing that’s remotely good is the vocals. Mullins is a solid vocalist, and despite the hooks not being good, the vocals are great. That isn’t enough to save the album, though, and the album is pretty weak. Not a horrible album, but in terms of solo debuts by frontmen in the scene, it could be better. I’m happy I heard it, but I’ll never want to hear this again.

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time, Pt. 9: 20 – 11

20: Chet Baker – Chet Baker Sings (1954)

Talk about a tonal shift, because the last album I talked about was Guns ‘N Roses’ 1987 debut album, Appetite For Destruction, but now let’s go to jazz! Chet Baker’s seminal album, 1954’s Chet Baker Sings, is the first album where the influential trumpeter sang, and I love it. Songs like “My Funny Valentine” and “ I Fall In Love So Easily” are a couple of my favorite vocal jazz songs, but this is a great little vocal jazz album. It’s a bit on the mellower and quieter side, but it’s a solid album, nonetheless.

19: The Muppets – The Muppet Movie OST (1979)

The only soundtrack I have on my list is from what I think might be my favorite movie of all time, and the reason why I love this movie is partially for the music. That would be The Muppet Movie from 1979! Songs like “Rainbow Connection” and “Can You Picture That” are two classics among the movie soundtrack canon, but I just love the Muppets. I’m a huge Muppets fan, and the movie itself is fantastic, but I also really love the music here. The music here really stands on its own, as well as in context with the movie, and I love when soundtracks can do that. This is the only album that feature non-humans singing, but I just love this album.

18: James Brown – 20 All Time Greatest Hits (1991)

The Godfather of Soul is one of my all time favorite artists, and the best collection of his work is 1991’s 20 All Time Greatest Hits. This album is why greatest hits albums exist. It’s the perfect distillation of his best songs, but that’s what they’re for. By the time you’re done listening to this album in the next hour or so, you’ll have a good idea of what they’re all about. That’s how it is, but this is one of those greatest hits albums where every song is a hit, even if t’s not a hit in the literal sense.

17: Van Halen – 1984 (1984)

One of my favorite albums from the 1980s, and another example of a band or artist modernizing their sound by adding synths but not doing it in a way that’s really cheesy or immediately dated. Van Halen’s charm and expertise in hard-rock / heavy metal is still there, but I would argue that this album is influential to the emergence of hair-metal in the late 1980s. This album added a pop flair that their other albums kind of had, but it wasn’t totally there. Songs like “Panama,” “Hot For Teacher,” and “Jump” are three of their most iconic songs. It’s a shame that this would be the last album with first vocalist David Lee Roth for quite a while, but it’s easily their best.

16: Frank Sinatra – Come Fly With Me (1958)

Ah, yes, Frank Sinatra. I haven’t talked about him yet, but I’ve become a huge fan of Frank Sinatra over the last couple of years. I was always a fan, but something about his smooth croon really won me over within the last couple of years, and I went on a deep dive into a ton of his albums. I’ve got two on this list, and they’re my two favorites, but the first one is 1958’s Come Fly With Me. This album is a fun little concept album about traveling, and that’s it, but it’s so wonderful. The songs are just about traveling, especially the title track, or about being in different places. A lot of the arrangements that Sinatra chose suit his voice so well, but this album is mainly an upbeat affair, so the songs are jaunty, energetic, and fun. If it weren’t for one more album here, I’d say this was my favorite of his work, but that’s only because there is one more album that I hold dear.

15: The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club (1967)

I used to be a huge Beatles guy back in 2014 / 2015, but what changed? Well, a couple of things – I fell out of favor with 1960s psychedelic music (although I still enjoy a lot of it today, my taste has just changed a lot), but I also listened to their discography so much that I could go the rest of my life without hearing it. I’m not really sick of them, but at the same time, I’ve listened to those albums to death. With that said, I still love The Beatles, and I love their discography, namely a couple of albums, but the one that I wanted to include here is 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. This used to be my favorite album, and it’s still very high up there. This album really changed the way I look at music, especially classic rock and older music, but a lot of these songs are still unique, timeless, and fun all of these years later.

14: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle (1976)

We’re getting to some greatest hits albums now, and be warned: a good chunk of my top ten are greatest hits, but there’s a reason for that. Greatest hits albums can be very vital to getting into an artist or band. Some artists are better off as “greatest hits bands,” as I call them, because their best songs are condensed to their big singles. That isn’t always the case, as even bands on this list are going to be more than that, but their best album is a greatest hits. For instance, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s best album is their 1976 greatest hits album called Chronicle. They had just broken up, and their label put out that record to take advantage of that, but it’s got all of their best songs, plus some deep cuts. It’s missing a few of my favorite songs, too, but it’s got pretty much everything you need to check these guys out. My parents had this album in their CD collection, so that’s how I got into it, and I remember listening to it all the time in 8th grade. I love their brand of swamp-rock, country-rock, and southern-rock (despite them being from California), and these guys are one of my all time favorite bands.

13: Fall Out Boy – Folie A Deux (2008)

This isn’t the last Fall Out Boy album that we’ll talk about, but 2008’s Folie A Deux is a great album that is finally getting its flowers. The band was a full-fledged pop-rock band by this point, and their commercial peak was at their highest. This album has a lot of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs, especially the singles, but this album shows the band at their creative peak, but you can tell that the threads are unraveling within the band. They were tired, and they needed a break, because they had been touring and recording for the past five years with no break. This album is one of my favorites from them, but it’s definitely an album marked with some strife and exhaustion.

12: Judas Priest – Painkiller (1990)

My favorite Judas Priest album is 1990’s Painkiller, which is their last album with original vocalist Rob Halford until 2004, I believe, but this is an album where they move to a speed and almost thrashy sound. This album is insanely heavy, fun, and energetic, but this is the album that brought them kind of a second wind. Their star power was fading by the 1980s, and their last couple of albums from the 1980s, 1986’s Turbo and 1988’s Ram, are pretty fun, but they’re borderline cheesy hard-rock / glam-metal albums. They wanted to join in on that trend, and it’s not bad, but they weren’t as well-received as their early 1980s albums, but with Painkiller, they took a hard left turn into thrash and speed metal. This album is incredible, and it’s the one album from these guys that I always come back to, no matter what, despite how there are a few others that I really love.

11: Metallica – The Black Album (1991)

When I last wrote my top 50 albums list, I put 1991’s The Black Album pretty high, and it’s still very high here, but I also said it was my favorite Metallica album. It’s tough, though, because there are a few of their albums that could take that spot. Well, I decided to dethrone The Black Album with another one, and if you’ve been paying attention, you know what it is, but The Black Album is a great album, nonetheless. It has “Enter Sandman” on it, but it was also the album where they went into a more accessible and traditional heavy metal route, all the while being quite heavy at the same time. People forget that there are some heavy riffs here, but it was really between this and another album for my favorite Metallica album. Hell, it kind of flip flops between which one I like more, so maybe it’ll switch again by the time I do this sometime down the line, but The Black Album is still a fantastic album.

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time, Pt. 8: 30 – 21

30: Beastie Boys – Licensed To Ill (1986)

Licensed To Ill, the 1986 debut LP from the Beastie Boys, is one of the first albums I credit with getting me into hip-hop. I talked about Childish Gambino’s Camp earlier, and that was the album that opened the floodgates, but Licensed To Ill showed me that hip-hop from the 80s and 90s was really cool, too. I was only 18 or 19 when I heard that album, so I was still pretty young, but that album helped to open my mind up. Truthfully, Licensed To Ill isn’t their best album (that would go to one of their next few from the late 80s and early 90s), but it’s my favorite because it’s really fun and dumb. In the process, though, it’s catchy and really memorable, so I don’t know.

29: Earth, Wind & Fire – Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (1978)

There have been a few mentions of funk on the list so far, but there are two bands I credit with getting me into funk music, and one of them is Earth, Wind & Fire. I’ve heard a good chunk of their 1970s material, but it all culminates with their 1978 greatest hits album. This album features all of their biggest hits up to that point, including “September,” which was unreleased until that point. When you have a song as ubiquitous and awesome as that, I don’t think you can argue the fact that this album should be here somewhere. I just love a lot of these songs, though, because Earth, Wind & Fire weren’t just a funk band, but they loved jazz, disco, R&B, and soul, and rock, so their sound was truly a melting pot.

28: Elvis Presley – Elvis’ Golden Records (1958)

Elvis Presley is considered the man who made rock and roll famous, but he isn’t the inventor of it. Many Black musicians before him, mainly in terms of the blues, are where rock music comes from, but leave it to a white man to make it popular. Even with the uneasiness I get these days when discussing his music, Elvis did make a huge impact. His voice was great and he was a solid performer, but this greatest hits collection (arguably the first of its kind) from 1958 showcases that. This album has almost all of his big hits, and for being a half hour, it’s a very concise version of it. I’m mixed when it comes to Elvis being a very influential figure these days, but you can’t deny he was a good performer, and these songs are great.

27: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (1977)

There’s no album like Rumours, the 1977 magnum opus from Fleetwood Mac. After two musicians named Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined in the early 1970s, this is only their second album with the band, but this album could never be replicated. Created through band turmoil and lots of drugs, this album is truly lightning in a bottle. Some of the most influential and important songs of the 20th century are here, but despite the band drama, the music they made together was truly something special. This might be the best pop album ever made, if not one of the best, but it’s truly something special. This is one of those albums that every music fans need to hear at least once.

26: Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA (1984)

I’m sure some of you are wondering where Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 breakthrough Born To Run is, and as much as I like that album, I don’t go back to it much. Hell, I don’t even have it in the collection right now, because it’s not one of my all time favorite albums. You know what is, though? 1984’s Born In The USA. While Springsteen was popular in the 1970s, I consider him to be an 80s artist, because this was the album that exploded him into the stratosphere, and whether it’s the title track, “Dancing In The Dark,” “I’m On Fire,” or many more, it’s clear to see why. This album is also a great example of an artist catching up with the times, but not feeling gimmicky about it. I’m specifically talking about the use of synth here, but it doesn’t make the album dated or pandering. It just sounds like Springsteen’s catching up with the times in a subtle way, and I loveit.

25: Patrick Stump – Soul Punk (2011)

When Fall Out Boy went on hiatus, frontman and songwriter Patrick Stump wanted to make solo music, and while we didn’t get much, what we did get was great. He released an EP to test the waters, but it was the debut solo album, 2011’s Soul Punk, that really cemented his status as a solo artist to watch out for. This thing exudes pop and soul swagger, evoking Michael Jackson and Prince at every chance, but adding his own flair to it. It’s a shame we didn’t get more solo music, because fans would cause Stump to disappear from music for a couple of years until Fall Out Boy reunited, but for the one album that we got, it’s seriously one of the best pop and soul albums ever made.

24: The Beach Boys – Endless Summer (1974)

I’m only a recent devotee of The Beach Boys, despite knowing a ton of their songs, but I scored a copy of their 1974 compilation album, Endless Summer, a couple months back and I’ve been playing it a lot. It’s got some of the catchiest, breeziest, and most fun stuff I’ve heard in a long time. This album looks at The Beach Boys’ initial wave of popularity from 1962 to 1965, so really anything before Pet Sounds, but these songs are iconic. The Beach Boys are one of the most important bands of all time, regardless of what kinds of music you like, but this is a great compilation album that brings a lot of their best songs into one place.

23: Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance (1982)

Ah, yes, Judas Priest – I’ve talked about them earlier, specifically with 1980’s British Steel, but 1982’s Screaming For Vengeance is the one that solidified them as metal royalty (despite how they’d already been around since the late 1960s), because it’s a lean, mean, and speedy metal machine. They went into a more speed-metal direction for this one, as well as what would become known as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (bands like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard would also play that specific style of metal and help to bring it to the masses). This was my first Priest album, and it’s one of my favorites today, but there is one album I like more. We’ll get to that one, but this is still one of my favorite heavy metal albums of all time.

22: AC/DC – Back In Black (1980)

You know Back In Black had to be here. This isn’t just one of the most iconic albums of all time, but it’s an album that’s iconic to me, because this was the first “classic rock” album I ever got into. I remember having an AC/DC shirt in 8th grade, and it was one of the first band shirts I ever had. This is one of those albums that’s an obvious pick for a list like this, but it’s warranted. I mentioned Highway To Hell earlier, and that was the last album for Bon Scott, but the first album for second and current vocalist Brian Johnson, Back In Black, is one of the highest selling albums of all time. I just love this album, because it’s a great rock album, plain and simple.

21: Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction (1987)

One could debate on whether or not Guns ‘N Roses is a heavy metal band, and I used to be of the mind that they weren’t, but I’m leaning towards that they are. Like Van Halen, they’re in a weird gray area where their sound is heavy enough to be considered metal, but they don’t dabble in that sound too often. They really tread the line between heavy metal and hard-rock, but I wouldn’t be mad if someone called them metal. Their debut album, 1987’s Appetite For Destruction, is one of my favorite albums of the 1980s, because of its heavy, energetic, fun, and raucous sound. These guys also tread the line between hair-metal and heavy metal, so I don’t know if this is my favorite hair-metal album (that would still be Dr. Feelgood), but it’s a great hard-rock and heavy metal album.

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time, Pt. 7: 40 - 31

40: Foreigner – 4 (1981)

My favorite album from hard-rock band Foreigner is 1981’s 4, and this album is a great example of a hard-rock album that does what it does well. These days, I like a lot of albums in that vein, because they’re albums that are just fun and done really well, despite not being anything unique or worthwhile. This album, however, has some great hooks, vocals, lyrics, and riffs that I just love. I could listen to this album over and over, but it has some of their best songs here, and it’s also one of my favorite albums from the 1980s period. I need to make a list of my favorite albums from the 1980s, but this album would be pretty high on it, because I love it.

39: Paramore – Riot (2007)

One of the last nostalgic albums that I have on the list (there are a few more, though) is the second album from Paramore, 2007’s Riot. I got this album when it came out, because I was just getting into Paramore at the time, and it came out in the summer between eighth grade and freshman year, but this album is so good. This has a lot of their best songs, and it still holds up today. It’s also a great example of 00s pop-punk that wasn’t done by the “bros,” either; the scene was pretty misogynistic at the time (and it was for a long time afterwards, frankly), but it was refreshing to see a woman fronting a pop-punk band.

38: Motley Crue – Dr. Feelgood (1989)

Motley Crue’s 1989 magnum opus, Dr. Feelgood, is my favorite 80s hair-metal album, and what’s funny about this album is that they made it when they were sober. They forced themselves to get completely sober, because they were going off the deep end by the late 80s (their sales were high but the quality of the music was not, unfortunately), so they secluded themselves and got the help they needed. They also wrote this record completely sober, and even when they were sober, they proved they could make great music. This has some of my favorite songs from the band, but it shows they were at their A game.

37: Seth MacFarlane – Blue Skies (2022)

Another one of the more recent albums on the list, but 2022’s Blue Skies from Seth MacFarlane is one of my favorite albums. I bet you also didn’t know that the creator Family Guy (and voice of Peter, Stewie, Brian, and Quagmire, among others) is a jazz singer, but he’s a deadringer for the late Frank Sinatra. He even just put out an album of lost Sinatra arrangements that he got approved from his estate, but this record is such a fun, upbeat, and swinging vocal jazz album. It really helped me get into that style, but the covers that MacFarlane picks here are so good, and he pulls them off with ease.

36: Fall Out Boy – From Under The Cork Tree (2005)

Fall Out Boy’s second album, 2005’s From Under The Cork Tree, marked a significant shift for the band, whether it was them moving to Island Records or their sound becoming more pop-friendly and including more pop hooks, versus being influenced by hardcore like their debut LP was. This album features some of their most successful singles, such as “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down,” or “Dance, Dance,” but it’s truly a great album. A lot of the deep cuts are classics, too. This album took more of the pop experimentation that they sort of had on their debut, and makes it more obvious, but their next album would be the one that really showcases it.

35: The Blow Monkeys – Animal Magic (1986)

One of my favorite obscure 1980s bands that I’ve found is recently is The Blow Monkeys, and their sophomore album, 1986’s Animal Magic. These guys are from London, go figure, but they’ve been around since the early 1980s. This album had their biggest single, as well as their breakthrough single in the US. “Digging Your Scene” is the big single from that, being in the top 20 of the Hot 100, but it’s a great sophisti-pop album that has elements of R&B, soul, and jazz. These guys aren’t more well known, and like I said about another album here, I’ll be making a list of the best obscure 80s bands soon, so these guys will certainly be on there.

34: Sonny Clark – Cool Struttin’ (1958)

Hard bop jazz pianist Sonny Clark is an artist that died way too young, only 31-years-old, but my favorite album of his is 1958’s Cool Struttin’. When I was getting into jazz a handful of years ago, that album really captured my interest by being catchy, energetic, and intense, and off the wall. The album is also super short, clocking in at a bit over half an hour. A lot of jazz albums I’ve heard are way too long, and that’s partially why the genre never captured my attention (that, and the lack of vocals, but that’s something I’ve really grown on and appreciate now), but I love how short this record is.

33: INXS – Kick (1987)

INXS is one of the most iconic bands of the 1980s, especially with songs like “New Sensation,” and “Never Tear Us Apart,” but the entirety of 1987’s Kick is the crux of their creative peak and fame. This record takes funk, soul, R&B, and rock to make for a fantastic and unique album. There wasn’t anyone like them, and that’s something you could say for a lot of bands of the 1980s. There were so many weird, unique, and interesting ideas being thrown about, so more bands stuck out. Despite that, a lot of bands fell to the wayside, whether it was due to the bands themselves not being super unique, or the bands in question being overshadowed by other bands. INXS was a band that thankfully didn’t get forgotten about, and Kick is easily their best album.

32: The Academy Is – Almost Here (2005)

Despite my first album from The Academy Is being 2007’s Santi, my favorite has always been their debut, 2005’s Almost Here. That isn’t to say the rest of their discography isn’t great, since it’s all here, but Almost Here is a lightning in a bottle type of album. Almost Here is a half hour emo / pop-punk album that doesn’t really do anything that other bands hadn’t done already, but it’s a perfection of that sound. William Beckett is one of my favorite vocalists in the scene, and his lyricism on Almost Here was absolutely impeccable, but the sound is so catchy and infectious.

31: Metallica – Ride The Lightning (1984)

My next Metallica album on the list is one of their heavy hitters, and it’s 1984’s Ride The Lightning. Just coming a year later after Kill ‘Em All, you’d be hardpressed to think it was the same band. Gone are the punky influences and this thing is a straight course of speed and thrash metal, but it’s awesome. It’s a no-frills thrash record that brought thrash to the masses, and for good reason. This is one of the best thrash albums ever made, as well as one of the best metal and rock albums. A lot of people wondered how they could top it, but believe me, folks, they did. That’s not to say this album isn’t great, because this thing is an absolute monster of an album.

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time, Pt. 6: 50 – 41

50: Metallica – Kill ‘Em All (1983)

The next Metallica album I have on my list is their debut, 1983’s Kill ‘Em All, and this is a great album, make no mistake. This album is an early thrash record, and it has a punkier sound to it than even their next album, but that’s one thing I love about it. This album has fingerprints from future Megadeth frontman and songwriter Dave Mustaine, because he was in the band for a brief time, only to be kicked out before Kill ‘Em All was released (and swapped out with Kirk Hammett), but it’s a great album. This album is a bit rough around the edges, but that’s kind of why I really love it.

49: Sade – Diamond Life (1984)

You’re lying if you say that Sade’s “Smooth Operator” from their 1984 debut album, Diamond Life, isn't one of the best songs of the 1980s, or even all time. That song rules, and so does this album. It’s a great jazz, soul, sophisti-pop, and R&B album that works because of their eponymous singer. Sade is such a wonderful vocalist, and instead of them being influenced by a lot of bands, a lot of bands ended up being influenced by them.

48: The Beatles – Let It Be (1970)

One of my favorite Beatles’ albums is their last album, 1970’s Let It Be. It’s their “back to basics” album, but that’s why I love it. It’s a basic rock album, and they went back to their roots for this one. They wrote it before they wrote Abbey Road, but they finished it after Abbey Road, because they decided to come back to it and put some finishing touches on it. It has a bunch of my favorite songs from the band, but it’s also one of their shortest albums. While this isn’t my favorite Beatles album, it’s still a great album.

47: AC/DC – Highway To Hell (1979)

AC/DC is one of those bands that you know what you’re getting into with each album, but there are two albums from the band that are worth hearing (unless you’re a diehard fan and want to hear everything), one of which being 1979’s Highway To Hell. This is the last album with Bon Scott, who unfortunately passed away after the release of this album, but it’s a damn great album. It’s the album that made people in the United States start to pay attention to them, anyway, and for good reason. The title track is one of the most popular songs of all time, and the rest of the album is a fun foray into hard-rock and blues-rock. The album doesn’t really do anything diverse or off the wall, but this is one of those bands that makes that work.

46: U2 – The Joshua Tree (1987)

U2 is a band that a lot of people either love or hate, and I finally got really into them a couple of years back. I listened to a greatest hits album from the late 90s, and it made me realize how great they were. I had never gotten fully into them before, but they’re one of those bands that have much better singles albums, although if there’s one album from them worth hearing, it’s 1987’s The Joshua Tree. This is a fantastic rock album, because it feels so over the top and larger than life, but in all the best ways.

45: Go West – Indian Summer (1992)

Go West is back, and this time, it’s seven years later! 1992’s Indian Summer is only their third album (they’ve only put out five albums in the last 40 years, and this was their last album until 2008), but it sheds the new wave and synth-pop of their debut album that I talked about earlier and it’s a full blown pop-rock and blue-eyed soul album. It’s got hooks for days, and their vocalist is seriously one of the best I’ve ever heard. He’s right up there with Daryl Hall from Hall & Oates, but these guys never got the same level of exposure that Hall & Oates did.

44: Panic At The Disco – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (2005)

Despite Panic At The Disco (more specifically, vocalist and songwriter Brendon Urie) going out on a whimper with their last album in 2022, and how the band had been going downhill for years, but their debut, 2005’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, is their best album. It’s a very unique, fun, and catchy pop-punk meets baroque-pop album that surprisingly did huge numbers. This was such a nostalgic album for myself, as well as many others, and for the longest time, they were considered kings of the emo scene, right up there with My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. Regardless of the legacy of Panic being tarnished in recent years, this album is a great snapshot into the early 00s pop-punk scene.

43: Robert Johnson – King Of The Delta Blues Singers (1961)

Robert Johnson’s claim to fame is supposedly selling his soul to the Devil to play the blues in the early 1930s, but he’s also known as being the first member of the “27 club,” where musicians pass away at 27-years-old. Johnson wasn’t always a name that people knew, because his recordings were almost lost to time, at least until a lot of bluesmen from the early 1960s discovered his 1961 compilation entitled King Of The Delta Blues Singers, where most of his recorded music was put to record. The production on this album isn’t anything great, but it was also recorded in the late 1930s, and rock and roll was still 25 years away. This is a fantastic blues album that’s worth checking out if you want to get into the genre.

42: Billy Ocean – Tear Down These Walls (1988)

Billy Ocean isn’t a household name these days, but back in the early to mid-80s, he was all over the place. 1988’s Tear Down These Walls, which is his last high selling album, is a great slice of 80s pop, R&B, and soul (with a bit of jazz thrown into the mix). Ocean has a fantastic voice, and this album features one of his biggest hits, “Get Outta My Dreams And Into My Car,” which can be misconstrued as a creepy song title. Thankfully, the song isn’t as weird as the title makes it out to be, but the album is incredibly catchy, smooth, and a lot of fun, but it’s one of the best 80s pop and R&B albums.

41: Fall Out Boy – Take This To Your Grave (2003)

There are a lot of people that consider Fall Out Boy’s debut album, 2003’s Take This To Your Grave, to be their best album, and the only album that’s worth caring about, but that isn’t true. I’ve had a complicated relationship with this album over the years, but I went from really loving it to not caring much for it to absolutely loving it again. This album is pretty rough around the edges, but like with Kill ‘Em All, that’s why I love it. I consider this album to be a hardcore album in a pop-punk album’s body, but it makes sense, because Fall Out Boy came from the Chicago hardcore scene. I love this album for how scrappy and rough it is, but it’s got some catchy, fun, and energetic stuff, especially from vocalist Patrick Stump (who’s gone onto be my favorite vocalist of the pop-punk scene).

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time, Pt. 5: 60 - 51

60: Michael Jackson – Off The Wall (1979)

Michael Jackson’s proper debut, 1979’s Off The Wall, is important for two reasons: it introduced the world to the solo material of the future King of Pop, despite how he was well known as part of the Jackson 5 and he had some solo material out already, but it also marked the beginning of a fruitful partnership with famed producer and bandleader Quincy Jones. This album is a fantastic slice of pop, R&B, soul, and disco, and while it’s not his best album, it’s my second favorite Michael Jackson album.

59: Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory (2000)

I mentioned how I decided I liked Hybrid Theory a bit more, and that might still be true tomorrow, but both Linkin Park’s 2000 debut and their 2003 follow-up are two peas in a pod. They complement one another, so it depends on how you feel in regards to which one you like better, but Hybrid Theory is the one that I go back to just a bit more. “In The End” is such an iconic song, and despite being a bit rougher around the edges than the follow-up, it’s a lot of fun and showcased a relatively new sound that would become known as “nu-metal.” Linkin Park weren’t the first band to make nu-metal, but they were one of the first bands to make it popular.

58: The Cab – Whisper War (2008)

Remember when I talked about The Higher, I mentioned the sub-set of 00s neon pop-punk bands that had an R&B and soul edge to their sound. The Higher was one of them, but my favorite out of these bands were The Cab. These guys also got onto my radar through Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, because he co-wrote, produced, and appeared on their debut album, Whisper War. They were also signed to Fueled By Ramen, too, but they didn’t get as big as some of their labelmates, unfortunately. I wish they did, because they had the sound for it, but I think the scene was so saturated at the time that people passed them on by, unfortunately. This album is absolutely fantastic, though, and one of the best albums of the 00s.

57: Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977)

My favorite Billy Joel album is 1977’s The Stranger, and while it’s less jazz-rock than 52nd Street was, it’s got some of his most iconic songs, such as “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” “Vienna,” and “Only The Good Die Young,” but it’s still got a bit of a jazzy sound to it that I keep coming back to. Billy Joel’s one of those artists that I like a lot of stuff from, but only a few of his albums really resonate with me, including this one.

56: Go West – Self-Titled (1985)

Among the more recent additions to my CD and vinyl collections, British blue-eyed soul band Go West has become one of my all time favorites, whether it’s their 1984 self-titled debut or 1992’s Indian Summer. I’ll be talking about the former now, but it’s a fantastic slice of early 80s new wave with some blue-eyed soul, synth-pop, and R&B into the mix. If you love bands like Wham or Hall & Oates, there’s no way you wouldn’t like these guys.

55: Hall & Oates – Abandoned Luncheonette (1973)

Speaking of Hall & Oates, I wanted to include one of their albums here, but these guys are an interesting case for me. I love Hall & Oates, but I mainly love the singles. I didn’t want to include the greatest hits album I have, because it’s one of those career retrospectives, not one of those greatest hits that came out while the band was in their prime, but there is one album of theirs I love, and it’s their second album, 1973’s Abandoned Luncheonette. This was when the band were still on Atlantic, and before they moved over to RCA, so the only downside is that their greatest hits albums are incomplete on streaming, since they omit material from the first two albums. It’s a shame, because this album has some of their best stuff, namely “She’s Gone.” The band weren’t the new wave and blue-eyed soul hitmakers that they would be in the 1980s, but this album is a smooth little dose of 1970s Philly soul with some Simon & Garfunkel-ish folk-rock.

54: Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw And The Cooked (1989)

The second album from English pop-rock band Fine Young Cannibals, 1989’s The Raw And The Cooked, is a really fun exploration into new wave, pop, soul, and R&B, among other things, but it’s such a wonderful album. It’s also incredibly short, only clocking in a little over a half hour. When the decade was about opulence and being over-indulgent, this album kept things short and sweet.

53: Issues – Headspace (2016)

While their last album, 2019’s Beautiful Oblivion, might be Issues’ best album, I had the epiphany that my favorite is 2016’s Headspace, especially after picking it up recently and spending some time with it. This is the album where their sound became fully realized, and if you’re unfamiliar with them, that sound sits somewhere between metalcore, post-hardcore, pop, soul, and R&B. Their self-titled debut was more of a metalcore album that dabbled in these other sounds, but this is the album where they really went headfirst into all of that, and it’s such a fun and catchy album.

52: Al Jarreau – Breakin’ Away (1981)

Al Jarreau is a name that you might not recognize if you’re not into music from the 1980s, especially pop, R&B, and jazz, but I recently got into his music, and it’s great. His most popular album is 1981’s Breakin’ Away, and tell me that album cover doesn’t go hard with how well he’s dressed. In all seriousness, the album is a great journey through pop, R&B, soul, jazz, and adult contemporary. There were a handful of artists in the 1980s that made “quiet storm” music that intersected between those styles, but it was all smooth, quiet, and mellow, but still catchy. This record is a great example of that, and it’s one of my favorite albums that I’ve found recently.

51: Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder (1963)

I’ve still got some jazz albums on the list, and we’ll hit some more later on, but one of my favorite jazz albums is Lee Morgan’s 1959 magnum opus The Sidewinder. Morgan was a trumpeter and that’s the instrument he specializes here, but this is a fantastic slice of hard-bop jazz that’s really energetic, in your face, and a lot of fun. This album also ended up being the best selling album from Blue Note (the label he was on), so that says something about it, I’m sure.

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time, Pt. 4: 70 - 61

70: Childish Gambino – Camp (2011)

I don’t have any rap albums on my all time favorites list, which bummed me out after I realized it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like any hip-hop, although it’s just not a lot of it has resonated me in the way that all of these other albums have. There is one rap album I wanted to talk about, and it’s the debut album from Childish Gambino, entitled Camp. Released in 2011, I got this when it came out, and I was a big Donald Glover fan (after watching him on Community), but this album is pretty nostalgic for me. It’s aged pretty well, minus some cringy references and language that I’m not crazy about, but this is a solid 2010s backpack rap, punchline rap, and blog era rap. There are a lot of songs I really like here, and Glover comes off pretty likeable and funny a lot of the time, but I credit this album with getting me into rap and hip-hop at the time, because I wasn’t familiar with those genres at all.

69: Van Halen – Self-Titled (1978)

I’m a big Van Halen fan, but there are mainly two albums I like from them (most of their stuff sounds the same, but there are a couple of albums that rule among the rest), and one of them is 1978’s self-titled. This is their debut album, and it’s a bit rough around the edges, but it’s got some of their best songs, such as their cover of “You Really Got Me,” “Runnin’ With The Devil,” and “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” among others. This album was essentially the introduction of David Lee Roth and the late Eddie Van Halen, so it’s cool hearing the album that introduced them to the world. It’s a short and sweet record that toes the line between hard-rock and heavy metal. I always used to think that Van Halen wasn’t really a metal band, but they kind of are, especially on albums like 1984 and some of their later material, but this album hints at that, ultimately having more of a hard-rock sound.

68: The Academy Is – Santi (2007)

The Academy Is’ second album 2007’s Santi was the first album I got into from the band, because I remember picking it up when it came out (and then picking up their debut the following week because I loved Santi so much), and it’s an album that I have a lot of nostalgia for. I love this band, and they’re still one of the most underrated bands I’ve ever heard. I don’t know why these guys never got their flowers, but I can kind of understand it with Santi. This album is weird, but I mean that in a literal sense, because this album is very ambitious in its sound. It’s not an experimental record, but the band abandoned their sound on the debut and went for a more ambitious sound taking on a bunch of different genres and styles. They threw a bunch at the wall and tried to see what stuck, and fortunately, it’s a great album, but it’s a very messy album that I don’t go back to as much as their debut. It still has some of my favorite songs from them, and the record is still extremely catchy, but it’s a very ambitious album.

67: Metallica – And Justice For All (1988)

Metallica is one of my favorite bands, but they have their fair share of stinkers when it comes to albums. Their first five albums are fantastic, however, but my least favorite of their first five albums is 1988’s And Justice For All. It used to be my favorite, but over time, my opinion has merely changed on it. It’s got a really cool progressive undercurrent going through it, but it doesn’t have any audible bass, and it’s a bit too ambitious for its own good. It's got some of their best songs, but when it comes to some of their other albums, this isn’t the one I go back to as much as others.

66: Hue And Cry – Seduced And Abandoned (1987)

One of the more recent additions to my collection (well, music that’s new to me, anyway) is the debut album from Scottish sibling duo Hue And Cry, entitled Seduced And Abandoned, but this is a great slice of sophsti-pop that leans heavily into R&B and soul. Their vocalist is one of the best I’ve heard in that vein, but they have such a groovy and fun sound that I’m really enjoying. It’s a shame that these guys aren’t that well known, minus a minor hit from the late 1980s, but I really enjoy this LP. It’s one of the best hidden gems I’ve found in awhile.

65: Fall Out Boy – So (Much) For Stardust (2023)

Another one of the more recent additions to this list, but the latest Fall Out Boy album, So (Much) For Stardust, is an album that I had to include here. Fall Out Boy is my favorite band, and their comeback album (they didn’t really disappear, but they were gone for about five years) is one that I had a lot riding on, but it’s easily their best since the late 00s, and it’s a culmination of everything they’ve done since their debut. Gone are the sports arena songs (which were fine enough) from their first couple of post-hiatus albums or the pop experimentation that plagued MANIA (an album I really liked but it does have issues), and instead it’s more or less a continuation of 2008’s Folie A Deux with some new elements, but it’s more or less a return to form that reflects where the band was at in 2023. It’s one of my favorite albums from the band, because it picks up where one of my favorite albums left off with their sound.

64: Yellowcard – Southern Air (2012)

This may be another blasphemous pick, because if I were to include any Yellowcard album, it should be Ocean Avenue, right? That’s a great album, too, but my favorite Yellowcard album is 2012’s Southern Air. It was the first album of theirs I heard all the way through, and it's a great example of a band with nothing to prove other than that they can make some of their best music that late in their career. The album reminds me of their earlier material, having a very catchy and energetic pop-punk sound, but imbued with the wisdom and maturity that they’d gotten over the past decade or so.

63: Judas Priest – British Steel (1980)

Judas Priest is one of my favorite heavy metal bands, and they arguably became the band that we know and love with 1980’s British Steel. This is often considered their breakthrough album, and where they went more into a heavy metal sound, versus a hard-rock / blues-rock sound. The album is still a relatively straightforward affair, but songs like “Breaking The Law,” and “Living After Midnight” are a couple of classics in their discography. It’s just a short and sweet heavy metal album that showcases the band moving into the style that we know them for today.

62: The Beatles – Abbey Road (1969)

About a decade ago, I was a huge Beatles fan. I listened to almost every solo album from each member, as well as each album from the Fab Four. For about a year straight, they were all I talked about and listened to, so what changed? Nothing, really, I just heard those songs and albums so many times, I got sick of them. Not that I’m sick of the band, but I don’t go back to The Beatles much anymore. I still love a majority of their music, one of which being 1969’s Abbey Road. Technically their last album, because Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road was written, but this record is very ambitious, fun, and adventurous, especially for them. It has some of their best tracks on it, such as “Come Together,” but it’s also one of their longest albums.

61: The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten (2012)

The Gaslight Anthem is one of those bands that could have a few albums here, and either one wouldn’t be a “bad” pick, such as 2008’s The ’59 Sound or 2010’s American Slang, but my favorite is 2012’s Handwritten. It’s not the first album I heard from them, which would be American Slang (but I did hear a song from The ’59 Sound back in 2008 from a 2008 Warped Tour compilation), but it’s my favorite. It’s the culmination of their classic rock influence and penchant for catchy hooks and a sense of nostalgia for a time they weren’t even alive in. This album is just a great rock that feels like a “classic rock” album, even though it actually isn’t.

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time, Pt. 3: 80 – 71

80: My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade (2006)

I could have put 2004’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, but I’m going to be honest – I don’t love that album. I like it, and it’s got some iconic songs on it, but as a whole, it’s nothing special. I can see the appeal, but it doesn’t do much for me. The Black Parade, however, is a massive, over the top, and ambitious concept album about death that is the emo version of Queen. Yeah, that’s immediately way better, and this album is a very nostalgic one for me, because I got into these guys when I was just getting into emo and alternative music. I don’t listen to this album as much anymore, kind of because I listened to it to death growing up, but I still love this album. It’s got some iconic songs, and it’s one of the most ambitious albums of the 00s.

79: Johnny Hates Jazz – Turn Back The Clock (1988)

I’ve been getting into what’s called “sophisti-pop” lately, which is a sub-genre of new wave and synth-pop from the 1980s that got coined in retrospect (because no one could figure out what to call it) that combined new wave, synth-pop, R&B, soul, and jazz to make for a catchy, groovy, and smooth sound that kind of predates smooth jazz from the 1990s. Some bands in that vein also coincide with that, but there are a lot of lesser known bands from that style that I’ve found. British band Johnny Hates Jazz is one of those bands, but they had a hit from the late 80s that I didn’t know I knew until I heard it. Their debut LP, Turn Back The Clock, is a great exercise in that style. It’s nothing super unique, but it’s catchy, smooth, groovy, and really fun. I love a lot of 80s music, but this type of 80s music, specifically, is what I really like, and we’ll see more of them later.

78: Billy Joel – 52nd Street (1978)

I like quite a bit of Billy Joel’s music, but there are two albums that I really love by him, and it’s surprisingly not the ones you think. I love 1980’s Glass Houses, especially when it’s his foray into new wave and pop music, and 1973’s Piano Man is an iconic album, but those are my favorites. One of them is 1978’s 52nd Street. It’s not my favorite, but it’s pretty damn close. This is a jazz-rock album, and that’s all I need to say. I’m a big jazz fan, and I love music with horns and brass sections these days, so anything like jazz-rock, soul, funk, and anything like that, but this is a fun jazz-rock album. It’s got a couple of his biggest hits here, such as “Big Shot” and “My Life,” but it’s not quite my favorite, although I still really love this record, nonetheless.

77: Four Year Strong – Enemy Of The World (2010)

It must have really sucked to be Four Year Strong in 2010, but not really, because they were on top of the world. That was a song title from Enemy Of The World, which in itself was based on an Alternative Press review of their last album, but Four Year Strong is one of my favorite bands from the 00s. They’re still around today, and their last album was fine, but they have a solid run for a bit in the late 00s and early 2010s. Enemy Of The World is easily their best album, because it combined pop-punk, metalcore, and alternative to make for a catchy yet heavy listen that would eventually be known as “easycore.” The genre was just gaining its footing at the time, and the only bands that were really making that kind of music were New Found Glory, Set Your Goals, and you could argue A Day To Remember. This is just a great easycore record all around, and easily their best album, even 15 years later. Hell, they put out a re-recorded version of this album a few years back, and while that version isn’t as good, it was cool to hear them revisit their most iconic album.

76: Steve Miller Band – Greatest Hits 1974-78 (1978)

Steve Miller Band is one of those bands that you probably know a bunch of their songs, but you wouldn’t know who sings them. “The Joker,” “Take The Money And Run,” and “Fly Like An Eagle” are iconic songs, but that’s why I love their 1978 greatest hits album. This is the first greatest hits album on the list, but it’s not the last. I never liked greatest hits albums, because I wanted actual albums to speak for themselves, but a lot of bands put out greatest hits throughout their careers when they were in their prime, and they’re great collections for longtime fans and newcomers. There’s some satisfaction in the best greatest hits album, because if they’re done right, they have the best songs from the artist in question, and this one does.

75: Lionel Richie – Can’t Slow Down (1983)

I love The Commodores, and I just picked up their 1977 self-titled magnum opus that features “Brick House” and “Easy,” but I love Lionel Richie’s solo material more. I listened to 1986’s Dancing On The Ceiling recently, and it’s got some great stuff on it, but I really love his second solo album, 1983’s Can’t Slow Down. This album features both “Hello,” and “All Night Long (All Night),” and the latter is one of my favorite soul and R&B cuts of all time. It’s such a fun song, but so is the album. It’s a great R&B, solo, and quiet storm record from the early 1980s that’s a fun time, especially if you enjoy The Commodores.

74: Linkin Park – Meteora (2003)

I was debating on which Linkin Park album I like more, whether it’s their debut or the follow-up, Meteora, and I decided on their debut, kind of because I go back to that one more. That might change, because I like both albums pretty equally, but I have to give the edge to their debut, just because that album has a bit more I like on it. Meteora is a great album, too, and it’s a more or less a refinement of what their debut was doing. The band sounds great here, including vocalists Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, and this album has one of their biggest hits. It doesn’t sound too much different from their debut, so it all depends on which one you go back to more, but Meteora is truly a great album. I’m glad that I’m finally a big fan of these guys, even if it took the band releasing a new album with a new singer to inspire me to go back to these iconic albums, but that’s neither here nor there.

73: Attack Attack – Self-Titled (Deluxe) [2011]

I think my favorite late 00s and early 2010s metalcore album is Attack Attack’s self-titled album, but not the regular edition. I love the 2011 deluxe edition, which features eight new songs, but four of those are remixes and acoustic songs. I love the four actual new songs that show up, and while I’m not one for deluxe editions (they were weirdly very common back then, but they’re just as common now, even more so, because artists are releasing deluxe editions a few months later to game the streaming services), there are a few that I really like. Back in the 00s and early 2010s, I loved deluxe editions that metalcore bands put out, because they often put out a bonus DVD and some bonus tracks, but they were good. That’s how I feel here, and while I was a big fan of Attack Attack’s debut, 2008’s Someday Came Suddenly, their self-titled is a better written and produced album. The hooks are stronger, the breakdowns are better, and the production is a lot clearer, but the four new songs that are on the deluxe edition are just as great as the actual tracklisting, and they add something to the album, versus make it bloated and boring.

72: Erasure – The Innocents (1988)

I absolutely love 1980s synth-pop / new wave, and a band that I’ve been into pretty recently is the duo Erasure, especially their third album, 1988’s The Innocents. This is a very catchy, fun, and energetic synth-pop, new wave, and disco album that was a bit of a departure from other bands at the time. They were more electronic and dance-based, versus new wave and post-punky, but I really love this album. It’s got a couple of hits on it, but it’s a pretty short and sweet synth-pop album that’s really catchy. I need to listen to this thing a bit more, but I’m really loving it.

71: The Killers – Hot Fuss (2004)

I talked about this album in the beginning, but The Killers’ debut album, 2004’s Hot Fuss, is a fantastic album and the best of the 00s post-punk revival albums. You know “Mr. Brightside,” but the rest of the album is great, too. Songs like “Somebody Told Me,” “Smile Like You Mean It,” “On Top,” and “Midnight Show” are all wonderful tracks, but I love the sound of this thing. They would go the heartland rock route after this one, because I guess they loved Bruce Springsteen, and a lot of their later stuff would sound like that, which is fine, but their debut had this spark that they haven’t been able to achieve since. It’s an album that everyone’s talked about a million times, so if you haven’t heard it by now, the only explanation is that you’re really young, really old, or that that you’ve been living under a rock, because almost everyone knows something from this album, even if it’s “Mr. Brightside,” and nothing else.

[falloutbradreviews]

Top 100 Albums, Pt. 2: 90 - 81

90: The All-American Rejects – Move Along (2005)

The All-American Rejects’ second album, Move Along, is the first album I ever bought myself, and it’s aged a lot better than I expected it to. At its core, Move Along is a catchy, fun, and over the top pop-rock / power-pop album. I like their 2002 debut, but it’s nothing special, so Move Along is where they really updated their sound and grew into it. This album is slick, catchy, and really hooky, but it’s got some lyrical depth and cheekiness that rock bands at the time did. As a little emo kid, I really liked this album, and I love it today, because it has a bit of a dated sound to it, but in a way that I really like.

89: Of Mice & Men – The Flood (2011)

I don’t think this is blasphemy, but the best album by Of Mice & Men is their second album, 2011’s The Flood. This was the last album with their classic lineup, and as good as their 2010 self-titled debut was, this album felt like it upped the ante a bit. The riffs were meaner and thrashier, the vocals were a lot better and more refined, but the songwriting was more interesting, including some thrash into the mix. They weren’t a thrash band, by any means, but some of the riffs give me that impression. This was one of the last great albums of the Risecore era. While bands like Sleeping With Sirens, Memphis May Fire, Bring Me The Horizon, and Asking Alexandria were still popular, a lot of the bigger bands of the genre would break up, fade into obscurity, or change their sound. Of Mice & Men was one of them, as they would go into a nu-metalcore sound after this album, only for them to come back to their roots for their last couple of albums now. The Flood is the album that you should absolutely listen to if you want a great album from these guys.

88: Dio – Holy Diver (1983)

Ronnie James Dio is one of my favorite vocalists, especially as the second singer of Black Sabbath in the 1980s (RIP Ozzy, by the way; as influential as the first couple of Black Sabbath albums are, you won’t see them here, mainly because I’m not a fan of Ozzy as a vocalist), he left the band by 1983 and started his own eponymous band. Their debut album, Holy Diver, is a great heavy metal record, and that’s about it. This is another album where I only really like this album, as the rest of his stuff is either decent or not that good, but this album is where he got it right. The title track is ne of my favorite metal songs, period, but this is a great heavy metal album of the 1980s.

87: Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus (1956)

I’ve gotten heavily into jazz over the past three or four years, and there are a handful of jazz albums I found that I come back to a lot. One of them is Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus from 1956. Namely a sax player, this record is a masterclass on the saxophone, but it’s a pretty fun, energetic, and unique. This album helped to bring him to a wider audience, and is considered to be his breakthrough record, but it’s a fantastic jazz record that I’d recommend if you want to get into the genre, especially 1950s and 1960s jazz.

86: Bayside – The Walking Wounded (2007)

One of my favorite pop-punk bands is Bayside, but a lot of their albums sound the same, for better or worse. My first album from them was 2007’s The Walking Wounded, and I still think it’s their best album, whether it’s for the heavier guitar riffs with the pop-punk hooks and songwriting, or for vocalist Anthony Raneri. They’ve got a lot of other great albums, such as 2016’s Vacancy, but The Walking Wounded is an album that really blew my mind back in the day. I still love it today, too, but this is the album where their combination of hard-rock riffs and pop-punk songwriting really worked for me. It could be that this album is very nostalgic, but I haven’t heard another album that I love just as much. Their last album, 2024’s There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive, comes very close, but The Walking Wounded will always be my favorite.

85: Slayer – South Of Heaven (1988)

I know what you’re thinking – Slayer’s 1986 breakthrough Reign In Blood isn’t here instead, but getting older is realizing that the follow-up, South Of Heaven, is a bit better. Reign In Blood is cool, too, but it’s a bit too fast-paced and frantic for my liking, whereas South Of Heaven shows the band experimenting with tone and tempo. The album is a bit slower and more melodic at times, but it’s still heavy and intense, just like Reign In Blood. I’m not a diehard Slayer fan, but I don’t know, I’ve grown to really like South Of Heaven over the years, versus Reign In Blood. It’s the album that I’d go to instead, which is crazy, because I used to love that album.

84: New Found Glory – Sticks And Stones (2002)

Out of the crop of 00s pop-punk bands, I’ve always liked New Found Glory, especially 2002’s Sticks And Stones. I was debating on putting this or 2004’s Catalyst on here, but as much as I like Catalyst, Sticks And Stones is the album that I’ve been listening to longer, and it’s also just an iconic pop-punk album. It’s catchy, fun, and energetic beyond belief, as well as being a perfect refinement to their sound. NFG has always been a hardcore band trapped in a pop-punk band’s body, and you can tell with some of the heavier riffs that pop up here, but this is a perfect pop-punk album, through and through.

83: Justin Timberlake – FutureSex / LoveSounds (2006)

I’m a big Justin Timberlake fan, but it’s weird being a fan of him in 2025. I liked his last album fine, but I went back to my favorite albums from him and had good experiences with them. I even listened to Man Of The Woods, and that album isn’t anything amazing, but it’s not half bad. The first album I heard from him, 2006’s FutureSex / LoveSounds, is one of the first pop albums I really got into, especially when I wanted to branch out into other kinds of music. It’s aged pretty well since, and it would be higher here, but it’s a bit too long and a few songs don’t do much for me. Like I said, it’s also kind of weird being a JT fan these days, because public opinion has kind of soured (kind of understandably so, though), but this album is still a great R&B, pop, and soul record that was ahead of its time for the mid-00s, and it really put both him and producer Timbaland on the map.

82: The Academy Is – Fast Times At Barrington High (2008)

The Academy Is, well, is one of my favorite bands from the 00s, but they never got their flowers, unfortunately. Their last album, 2008’s Fast Times At Barrington High, took me a long time to really appreciate, and it’s still my least favorite of theirs, but it’s a great record, because they went into a pop-rock / neon pop-punk direction with it. It’s very catchy, upbeat, and fun, but it’s also a cool homage to high school. The title is a play on Fast Times At Ridgemont High, and the lyrics have a bit of a loose concept about a guy going through it in high school. I didn’t care for how their sound went to a more neon sound (which I really liked at the time), as well as how immature the lyrics felt, but it took me a few years to really appreciate and understand what they were going for.

81: U2 – How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)

I got heavily into Irish band U2 a few years ago, and I really love their 2004 LP, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. It’s a great rock record, and it’s amazing how a band that hadn’t been relevant for the past decade or so was able to become mainstream darlings for about four years, give or take. I like their 2000 album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, but it was a bit slower, versus how energetic, raw, and fun Atomic Bomb is. It’s their last truly great album, but I still really like it. There isn’t much to it, other than that an aging classic rock band had a bit of a career renaissance.

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Top 100 Albums Of All Time

Part I: 100 - 91

Throughout my 20 years as a music fan, I’ve learned that music tastes are fluid – your tastes will always change. That comes with a caveat, however, because that implies your music taste will always change if you’re listening to new stuff. A lot of people hit a certain age and stop listening to new music, whether it’s music that’s newly released or just new to them, but I never understood that. I’ve always challenged myself when it comes to my taste in music, because I love discovering music. My tastes have changed in the last 20 years, but there are those albums that have stuck with me. I made a couple of top albums of all time lists in the past year or two, but I wanted to make another one, only this time it’s a top 100, versus a top 50. I also wanted to incorporate more styles of music, as well as incorporate more albums from the same artist / band. In the past, I didn’t want to seem like I was cheating by including multiple albums from my favorite bands, but this time I wanted to try it differently. My favorite bands have multiple albums that I love from them, but I don’t want the top 10 or 20 to be the same bands. I’m excited to talk about these albums, some of which for the first time, and some of them for the millionth time, but these are albums I really love in way or another.

As with every list, your favorite album(s) may not be here, and remember, this is my list, not yours. If you want to make your own, please do, that would be cool, but these are my personal favorites, not your favorites or what could be considered the best albums of all time. I’ll be posting this in ten parts, talking about 10 albums each, both because it’ll make it more fun and because this will be an extremely long post if I talked about 100 albums. I had quite a bit more on my initial list, so I had to narrow it down, so I’m sure I could make a top 200, but these are the albums that have impacted me in some way, shape, and form. I’m sure I also forgot a lot, so I don’t want to hear “where’s (x) album,” because the answer will be that I didn’t put it there, but there are albums I would put here if I were talking about the best albums, objectively speaking. Not every classic album is one that I personally love or resonate with, and that’s the beauty with music, so let’s get into this, shall we? I won’t be talking about the first half of this list in detail, so once we get the top 50, that’s where I’ll be talking about them in more depth, but I’ve got something to say about all of these, nonetheless, starting with... 100. Boys Like Girls – Sundays At Foxwoods (2023)

Yeah, the first album on this is a surprising one, huh? I love Boys Like Girls, and I was debating on either putting their 2006 self-titled debut, or their most recent album, 2023’s Sundays At Foxwoods. I was so excited for this album when it got announced, and it’s the most recent album on the list, but this is a great slice of 80s-influenced alternative and pop-rock. Vocalist and songwriter Martin Johnson sounds the best he ever has, and the band is running on all cylinders here. While their debut is their most iconic, I absolutely loved Sundays At Foxwoods, and it’s one of my favorite albums of the 2020s so far. 99. Mr. Big – Lean Into It (1991)

A handful of bands and artists on this list fall into the category of “right place, wrong time,” and hair-metal / glam-metal band Mr. Big is one of them. Their second album, 1991’s Lean Into It, had a big hit (that being “To Be With You”), but hair-metal was on its way out by the early 1990s. A lot of the big bands in the genre broke up, fell into obscurity, or changed their sound, and Mr. Big could have been huge if they had just come out with this album just a few years beforehand. This record is one of my favorite hair-metal albums; It won’t blow your mind, per se, but this is an album that shows that hair-metal isn’t as dumb as it looks. Their vocalist is one of my favorites in the genre, and their musicianship and songwriting is surprisingly top notch. 98. The Bravery – Self-titled (2005)

I promise that not every band will begin with “b” on the list, but let’s talk about the 00s post-punk revival, shall we? I love this time in alternative, which was happening concurrently with the rise of emo and pop-punk in the mainstream, but there were a handful of bands in this scene that represented it well, such as The Killers (we may see some of them later on, but I won’t say much else). There were also some bands that fell in their shadow, one of which being The Bravery. There was a bit of a feud between the two bands, because people accused The Bravery of ripping off The Killers when their debut albums came out at around the same time. Like Mr. Big’s Lean Into It, The Bravery’s self-titled won’t blow your mind for how innovative it is, but it’s a fun and catchy post-punk revival album that sounded like it could have come out of the 1980s (albeit if the production wasn’t as glossy as it is, and I mean that in a good way). Their first two albums are pretty good, but I’ve found myself coming back to this one way more. 97. The Devil Wears Prada – Plagues (2007)

In the mid-00s, I was a diehard metalcore fan, and I was just discovering bands like Attack Attack, Blessthefall, and The Devil Wears Prada. I found the latter band through a 2008 Warped Tour compilation, and I picked up their sophomore album, 2007’s Plagues, right before their follow-up released in 2009. I got the 2008 reissue, but nothing about the reissue is different, other than the cover (which is way better), and there’s a bonus DVD with a lot of cool stuff on it. This record is quintessential 00s metalcore, and I’ve been picking up a ton of albums from that era recently, and this is one of my favorites (a few more are going to show up throughout the list as well), so I wanted to represent a style of music that I don’t listen to as much anymore. I love metalcore still, but there aren’t a lot of bands that capture my attention the same way The Devil Wears Prada did. This album was one of a few to introduce the scene to what would become known as “Risecore,” and every band wanted to be these guys for the next few years, but it’s a fantastic slice of 00s metalcore. 96. Jesse McCartney – Beautiful Soul (2004)

Keeping it in the 00s, Jesse McCartney’s debut album, Beautiful Soul, is one of the first actual albums I ever heard. My mom got me a copy for my birthday that year, along with a CD player, and I really enjoyed it back then. I ended up putting it aside, because I discovered classic rock and alternative / pop-punk, but I’ve grown an appreciation for Beautiful Soul. Not only was it one of the first albums I ever heard, but it was the first pop record I ever heard. I enjoy pop music today, partially thanks to that record, and that’s what Beautiful Soul is: a great pop record. McCartney’s vocals are great, and the hooks are great, but I would say that a lot of the lyrics have aged well, too, because it’s got some maturity, despite being a pop record from a teen heartthrob. It’s a bit of a hidden gem, despite having “Beautiful Soul” on it, but it’s a pop record that I don’t see a lot of people talking about from that era. 95. Green Day – Dookie (1994)

Now this might be a controversial placement, because I’m sure this is in the top ten of many people, but Green Day’s Dookie is one of the only Green Day albums I love front to back. I love Nimrod, too, but that album’s quite messy, whereas Dookie is very streamlined and focused. It’s a great pop-punk record that encapsulates what it was like to be a 20-soemthing dude in the 1990s. There’s nothing more than that, but that’s what makes it great. It’s also a record that successfully combined punk and pop in a way that a lot of bands had only dreamed of doing. They weren’t the first pop-punk band, and they weren’t the last, but they were the first to make it mainstream, and that’s something there. Dookie is a record that I’ve grown on over time, and just a year ago, I still wasn’t super crazy about it, but I can admit that it’s a catchy, fun, and energetic pop-punk record that’s kind of an essential for every alternative and pop-punk fan 94. Boston – Self-Titled (1976)

Boston is one of those bands that only has one album that I really like, but everything else they’ve done is decent or not very good. Their 1976 self-titled debut album is a masterclass in 1970s hard-rock, and it’s crazy to think that this album defied expectations. Their label didn’t think a traditional rock band would still be very popular, but this record is one of the best selling albums of all time. It’s for a good reason, too, whether it’s the vocals being absolutely killer, the hooks being a lot of fun, or the instrumentation riding the line between traditional and progressive, all within the span of almost 40 minutes. This is a classic rock album in every sense of the word, both because it’s part of the classic rock canon, but it’s also literally a classic rock album 93. The Higher – On Fire (2007)

Along with 00s metalcore, I’ve also got a few late 00s neon pop-punk albums here, but there are two that I wanted to include. The other one will show up later on, and if you know my taste at all, you might know what it is, but the first neon album I wanted to talk about is the second album from The Higher, entitled On Fire. These guys came onto my radar through Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump remixing one of their songs, but their sound is a great mix of neon pop-punk, pop, R&B, and soul. There were a handful of bands in this vein back in the 00s, and The Higher was one of my favorites, but it’s a shame that they never got the recognition they deserved. This record has aged extremely well, despite coming out in a time where a lot of albums were instantly dated, but this weirdly works, because it combines pop, R&B, and soul with a pop-punk sound to make for something pretty unique and ahead of its time. 92. Fun – Some Nights (2012)

One of my favorite albums from the early 2010s is Fun’s second and final album, Some Nights, but this is an album that I have a lot of nostalgia for. I was getting into indie rock when this came out, and on top of indie, they incorporated bombastic and theatrical pop into their sound. This record is a bit uneven at times, but it’s got a lot of great songs here. The title track and “We Are Young” are two of the best selling songs of all time, or at least of the 2010s, but this band defined the early 2010s. For good reason, too, because this record is a rather ambitious, catchy, and fun indie-pop record with one hell of a vocalist at the helm. It’s a shame that vocalist Nate Ruess only dropped one solo album and then dipped, because I’d love to hear more of him. 91. Panic At The Disco – Pretty Odd (2008)

I’m shocking myself by having Panic’s second album so low, but at the same time, all of these albums are great. I used to love this album over their debut, but as I’ve gotten older, my opinion’s kind of switched. I loved this album because it was a homage to The Beatles and 1960s psychedelic music. While I still very much enjoy that, because I like that style, I don’t love that kind of music as much now as I did a decade ago, so this album’s not one that I revisit very much. I like this a lot, though, and I remember the backlash / controversy that this album caused because the band switched their sound on a dime. The thing is, this album is nothing more than Ryan Ross showing his love for The Beatles and/or the 1960s, and if that works for you, great, but if not, I can understand why. This album really alienated a lot of fans, but it also got some fans into The Beatles, so take that as you will.

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Born Of Osiris - Through Shadows

To end my metalcore binge, I wanted to talk about a new album that just came out, that being the new Born Of Osiris album, Through Shadows. It’s been pretty quiet the last couple of months for me, but that’s okay. I’m not complaining, because it gives me a chance to listen to whatever I want. I always could, anyway, but I feel like I need to keep up with new stuff sometimes, especially if it’s something really cool. I got a whole bunch of stuff lately, though, so I’ve got quite a bit to sink my teeth into, but I’ve still been seeing what’s new, even though not much has really come out. I did see the new Born Of Osiris album finally came out, and I didn’t even know it was coming out, but I could always use some new stuff from these guys. I never heard their last album, 2021’s Angel Or Alien, but I did like their last album, 2019’s The Simulation, but I haven’t heard it in a long time, but I was still looking forward to anything new.

They’ve never been my favorite band, but I’ve been a fan of them since about 2009 when they were a deathcore band. They’ve slowly been going into progressive metalcore / djent for a long time, and they’ve been firmly been in that camp for a long time now. I didn’t know what to expect with this album, but I was pleasantly surprised by their brand of progressive metalcore meets djent. This album is very bouncy, energetic, fun, and off the wall, as well as kinda catchy. There are some hooks here and there, but there are also some really cool riffs, solo, and guitar noodles that pop up. Hell, a saxophone randomly appears, and it’s pretty fun. The only guest spot is Spencer Chamberlain from Underoath, which is a strange guest feature, because they’ve never been in the same scene, but it wasn’t bad.

My main gripe with this album, which kind of prevents it from being a top five album of the year is that it’s way too damn long and repetitive. At 49 minutes, this thing is so long, and by the last few songs, I just feel exhausted. Even then, I still like it, and this album is pretty fun. The performances are great, and the album has a lot of energy, but it’s also got a lot of solid breakdowns, hooks, and riffs. It’s worth hearing if you like their other material, but it won’t blow you away, or make you change your mind on these guys. It’s a solid prog-metalcore album, but it’s more so on the metalcore side, as well as having riffs and breakdowns for days. It’s not super challenging or weird, so don’t think this is a Dream Theater or Periphery type of progressive album, because it’s thankfully a lot more accessible than other bands in the scene. It’s a good record, possibly even great, so check it out if you want some solid metalcore.

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Attack Attack - S/T (Deluxe Edition)

This is it, folks — this is the final boss of the 00s metalcore albums I’ve been listening to, but I would make the argument that this is one of the best albums to come out of that era, especially looking at it in retrospect. I think this album got slept on quite a bit by people, but in reality, it’s this band’s best album. What band am I talking about? Well, if you somehow didn’t see the title, it’s Attack Attack and their self-titled album. More specifically, it’s the 2011 deluxe edition of the album that features eight new songs, four of them being remixes and acoustic versions, as well as four new songs. As is the case with multiple deluxe editions from this era, the cover art of the deluxe edition is so much better than the original. I didn’t bring that up when talking about The Devil Wears Prada’s Plagues or Miss May I’s Monuments, but the cover artwork for the deluxe editions is ten times better.

Anyway, Attack Attack is a metalcore band from Ohio that is known for three things — their debut features future Of Mice & Men vocalist Austin Carlile, the band features future Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo, and they’re often the poster boys for “crabcore.” What is that, you may ask? Well, in the music video for the song “Stick Stickly,” from their 2008 debut album, Someday Came Suddenly, the band performed the breakdowns looking like crabs, and the name stuck. It also came to refer to bands that have generic metalcore sounds from that era, but I call it Risecore, as a lot of these bands were on Rise Records. Sure enough, Attack Attack were, too, but that debut album is a pretty interesting one. It featured that Risecore sound, but they had an electronic bent to them. They would go onto inspire countless “electronicore” bands that were popular for a few years, but they grew out of it themselves by their final album (well, until their new one coming out, but I’ll get to that later).

Someday Came Suddenly is an album that I love, but it’s extremely dated, both in a good and bad way. It’s one of those albums that’s dated but also kind of timeless, because it’s definitely a 2008 album, yet it also has such a timeless charm to it, like it feels like a time capsule. At the same time, the album’s production kind of sucks; the clean vocals are auto tuned beyond belief, and they’re fun but not good, the instrumentation is very compressed and hard to hear sometimes, but harsh vocalist Austin Carlile is pretty easily heard. He was the main draw of the band, but like Woe, Is Me and Issues, Attack Attack had their own beef. Carlile was kicked out of the band in 2009, and while Caleb Shomo became the band’s primary vocalist, Carlile formed Of Mice & Men, and on each of their next albums, they had songs that talked smack about each other.

Attack Attack’s self-titled wasn’t as subtle, but after going back to their first two albums over the years, the self-titled is frankly the better album. The production is insanely good, thanks to Joey Sturgis’ production work, and the songwriting is way better. The hooks are more pronounced, Shomo’s clean vocals are way clearer, and their sound is more concise and easily to get into. It’s not as messy, even though it gets pretty dated at times, but they lean more into the electronicore aspect here. A few songs are straight up pop songs, and they work insanely well, but there are some metalcore bangers here, too, and they’re among my favorites. What’s funny is that the deluxe edition is around an hour, but it’s really only 48 minutes with the four new songs, yet it doesn’t feel like it. I love every song here, even the new songs, because they’re the perfect mix between heavy and catchy.

Caleb Shomo is the real MVP here, as the songwriting is better and his vocals are insanely better, too, but you can tell that he was itching to include more hard-rock and pop elements in his own music, so Beartooth makes a lot of sense. This album isn’t anything mindblowing, but it’s honestly one of the best albums from its era, and if I had to point someone in the direction of an album in that vein to check out, it would be this one. I’ve heard their last album, too, 2012’s This Is War, and it’s not bad, but you can tell that the band was running on fumes. Johnny Franck, also know as Bilmuri, was in the band for a long as a rhythm guitarist and songwriter, but he left after the self-titled, so it was just Shomo running the show, and you can tell he was tired. I say that This Is War is their final album, despite the fact that Attack Attack randomly got back together, and the only original member is their drummer, but who cares?

The more important question is, do we even need Attack Attack back? The answer’s no, because the most successful members have been doing really cool stuff, whether it’s Beartooth or Bilmuri. Now if they were back for the reunion, that’s one thing, but why would they need to be? It’s funny, because despite this band being such a big deal, I don’t see anyone caring about their reunion, and they’ve been back for half a decade now. I barely see anyone talk about them, and they have a new album coming out in a few weeks, so I’ll check it out, but I’m not hopeful. I’ve tried to listen to their new stuff, and it’s not good, so I’m hoping this new album will prove me wrong. Nonetheless, this self-titled is always going to be their best album to me, but it’s such an iconic record, and it also came out of one of my favorite band beefs at the time.

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Miss May I - Monument (Deluxe Edition)

I have a couple more albums before my metalcore binge ends, although I wanted to save both the newest album and the best album for last, so before the two heaviest hitters, let’s talk about an unsung hero of metalcore — Miss May I. These guys are from Ohio, but they came onto my radar through seeing them in Alternative Press, most likely. I remember when they didn’t have a debut album yet, just demos on MySpace, but I loved their debut album, 2009’s Apologies Are For The Weak. They just dropped a 15th anniversary edition of the album last year, where they re-recorded the whole thing with guest vocalists, and it was a fun time. Their debut was a pretty interesting album, because they added a bit more to the metalcore formula. They added some thrashy and heavier stuff to their sound, along with riffs for days. They didn’t just limit themselves to just breakdowns and clean choruses, but there are riffs and solos for days here.

Their second album, 2010’s Monument, is more or less a continuation of that sound. I just picked up the deluxe edition of the album, because it’s one of those albums that I remember liking, but I don’t remember it too well as a whole. The deluxe edition came out in 2011, and it features four new songs, as well as a DVD with some bonus stuff. I always loved when bands did that, and I kind of miss it. The bonus tracks make the album a bit long, but at the same time, those songs are a ton of fun. This album also kind of dials back the thrashy and riff-heavy side of the band, but there are some cool riffs and breakdowns here.

Monument isn’t like August Burns Red’s Messengers, where it’s a bit of a slog, because there are no hooks. There are hooks here, so it balances well with the heavier elements, but this album is pretty repetitive. That’s the main theme I have with so much of this stuff, and it was a common problem with the genre back in the day. A lot of bands sounded the same, and their albums sounded the same. It wasn’t so much a case of who did it first but rather who did it better. Monument came out at the time when Risecore was slowly on its way out, at least in terms of its peak, but this record is pretty cool. I still enjoy this one, even if a lot of the songs blend together a bit. Everyone does a great job, and vocalist Levi Benton is one of my favorite vocalists in the scene, even to this day. They may not have done this sound first, but out of everything I’ve revisited, this is one of my favorites.

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Woe, Is Me - Number[s] (Deluxe Edition)

When I was around 16, give or take, I used MySpace all the time, and I would use the platform to find new music. I would try to find up and coming metalcore bands, and there’s one that I’ll always remember finding, because I was super psyched to see they had gotten signed to Rise Records — Woe, Is Me. This band is important for a couple of reasons, but the biggest one for me is that I remember commenting on their MySpace page one day and they responded back to me. They weren’t signed yet, so it was really cool to see, but I remember downloading everything they had off bootlegs, and it wasn’t good quality, but I wanted to listen to this band everywhere. I also really liked this band for a vocalist named Tyler Carter. Pretend it’s 2010, and you’ve been a fan of metalcore for awhile, but you’re sick of hearing the same type of stuff, so you find this random band from the south. Their sound is pretty generic, but it’s their clean vocalist that sticks out, because he sounds less like a metalcore vocalist and more like a top 40 pop singer.

Tyler Carter was one of the best vocalists in the metalcore scene, and hearing a vocalist with so much range was almost unheard of at the time. A few vocalists were up to par with him, but not in the metalcore scene. Your Craig Owens, Anthony Greens, and Jonny Craigs existed in the post-hardcore world, and there were a lot of bands with killer vocalists there, but in Risecore? Not so much, so it was a breath of fresh air. They finally dropped their debut album, Number[s] in 2010, and I loved it. They dropped a reissue of the album in 2012, and I’m gonna talk about that, because some of the most interesting band beef came from them and Tyler Carter. Both he and harsh vocalist Michael Bohn left the band, and they had a bad falling out with their original band, so they formed Issues while Woe Is Me kept doing their thing.

Well, the reissue of the album includes a bunch of bonus tracks and remixes, as well as the last song that Carter recorded with the band (and it’s one of their best, which is why I really wanted it), but it also includes the debut single with their second vocalist, Hance Aligood, and tell me that isn’t messy. The band wrote songs on each of their next albums talking shit about each other, and it got intense for a bit, although the second Woe, Is Me album was pretty rough, and the debut Issues EP and album were pretty cool. Issues was the band that people remembered in the end, too, so they got the last laugh. This album, however, is the only one I canonically recognize from them, because their sophomore album is garbage, but this is basically a Risecore album with pop hooks.

Frankly, this isn’t too far off from what Issues started, but the pop sound is downplayed a lot here, probably due to the other members. It’s there within some of the hooks, and Carter is the biggest sell here, but the musicianship is fine, too, despite being a generic metalcore album. It’s got a generic Risecore sound, but it’s done well, so I can’t say it’s bad. It’s not forgettable, thanks to Tyler Carter being one of the best vocalists of the scene, so he immediately elevates the sound of this thing. Crazy to think that this band was ahead of their time, but I really like this album. I don’t listen to this all the time, but it’s an album I remember from time to time. It’s not even half an hour, either, so it’s very short and sweet, but it’s a cool stepping stone to see where Issues would eventually end up.

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Issues - Headspace / Self-Titled

Last year I talked about the band Issues, and their overall legacy in the scene, because they unexpectedly broke up a few years back after some awful allegations about frontman Tyler Carter came out, so the band fired him and broke up soon thereafter. I mainly talked about their last album, 2019’s Beautiful Oblivion, and how that album was a culmination of everything they did to that point. I sort of talked about their first two albums, but I didn’t go into detail about them. I just picked up their first two albums at a record store in Florida, so that got me wanting to get into them again and get into some metalcore from that era. I wanted to see if these albums have held up, especially as well as their last album.

In case you aren’t aware, Issues was a band out of Atlanta that played a style of metalcore that combined R&B and pop with it. They came together when former members of Woe, Is Me left to form another band. I just got Woe, Is Me’s debut album, too, and that’s the only album I canonically recognize from the band, but I digress. Issues’ sound has changed a lot throughout their three albums, and I’ll admit that it took me awhile to get into their 2014 self-titled debut. I did listen to their 2012 EP, Black Diamonds, and I thought it was fine, but pretty generic metalcore with some pop elements. Now I remember listening to their debut online and not being a huge fan of that, because their sound hadn’t really evolved from that EP. It was still generic metalcore with pop and R&B hooks, but it took some time for me to realize that it works for that exact reason: it has a sound that people are familiar with, being the metalcore sound, but they threw in some more interesting sounds on top of it while not going overboard with it.

They would utilize more of these influences on their next album, but what works about this album is that it’s more accessible but has a hint of something more unique to ease people in. Their follow-up album, 2016’s Headspace, is the album where they got a bit weird. They added more outright elements of pop, R&B, and hip-hop, along with some country. This is the first example of a “y’alternative” song I’m seeing, but they really let loose here. The grooves and breakdowns are here, and some harsh vocals, but they’re toned down in favor of Carter’s clean vocals. It’s a shame, because he’s one of the best vocalists in the scene, and these guys were destined for greatness, so to see them go out in that way is sad, but still good on the rest of the band for not putting up with any bullshit and kicking him out.

It sucks they broke up afterwards, but these albums were kind of ahead of their time. These albums seem to be pretty influential to be the Octanecore wave that’s happening now. Bands like Wage War, Rain City Drive, Beartooth, Bad Omens, and Sleep Token are bringing pop and hard-rock sounds into the genre, and they’re making it more accessible. If you want a band that keeps the torch lit for this band and this style of R&Bcore, Sleep Theory is the band to check out. Their debut, Afterglow, from earlier this year is a killer record with hooks, vocal runs, and breakdowns galore. They’re the closest band that encapsulates that sound, but I’m glad to see that bringing pop and R&B into metalcore isn’t as taboo as it once was.

I used to really love bands that did that, but it was hard to find, only just a few bands had that style, so it’s cool to see it being more accepted now. If anything, these albums are worth going back to, and I don’t really look at them with disdain, both because the band broke up, and because they’re more than just the brainchild of one person. I love these albums for the musicianship, too, because everyone is on fire here. There are some really cool guitar parts, and even bass creeps in from time to time on these albums that sounds so funky and groovy, it’s awesome. Beautiful Oblivion is their best album to me, because they fully embraced pop and R&B, all the while throwing some alt-metal, funk-metal, and metalcore into the mix, but the album also barely featured harsh vocals, instead relying solely on Carter. I wish these guys were still around, but we do have these albums to look back on, despite how there are other bands actively employing this sound.

[falloutbradreviews]

Memphis May Fire - Memphis May Fire EP

One of the biggest bands of the late 00s and early 2010s metalcore scene was Memphis May Fire, especially with their debut album, 2009’s Sleepwalking and their follow-up, 2011’s The Hollow. They’re still around today, having released Shapeshifter a few months back. That album’s okay, but if you want their quality stuff, go back in time, and you’ll find some gems. I ended up finding a copy of their debut EP, the 2007 self-titled EP, to be exact. The crazy thing is that this album doesn’t feature vocalist Matty Mullins, but it features Chase Robbins in his only appearance, as he left in 2008, but I was curious to hear this thing.

As a short little EP, it’s pretty cool, and it’s a solid precursor to their sound, but it’s not as good as Sleepwalking. The EP isn’t bad by any means, and it’s got a cool southern-rock meets metalcore sound, but Robbins is no Mullins. His screams are good, but his cleans are a bit weak, although they’re fine for what they are. I wish he sounded better, but at the same time, the EP is fine. It’s super short and sweet, but it’s nothing to write home about, either. I wanted to talk about this briefly, because it’s worth hearing, even if it’s not as good as their later material (well, their debut, because everything else they’ve put out has been generic or pretty bad).

[falloutbradreviews]

Chelsea Grin - Ashes To Ashes

I’ve talked about how I don’t really listen to deathcore all that much these days, but I used to quite a bit. I listened to bands like Veil Of Maya, Suicide Silence, Born Of Osiris, and Chelsea Grin. I’ll be talking about Chelsea Grin today, but there isn’t much to talk about with them, though. They started off as a pretty generic deathcore band, and they were fine, but they perked my interest when they got former Born Of Osiris guitarist (and current All That Remains guitarist) Jason Richardson in the mix. He has a progressive and djenty style to his playing, and that translated to his work with this band. They had an EP in 2012 that I thought that was fine, but it was 2014’s Ashes To Ashes that caught my interest. That was his debut album with the band, and it was always my favorite from them, because their sound was more evolved on that record. Bummer, because Richardson left the band soon after, and they went back to being a generic deathcore band, so this is the one album I really like.

It’s not a perfect album, as I’ll get to shortly, but it’s still a great one. It’s aged pretty well, all things considered, but I love that new drummer Pablo Viveros took on low and mid-range screams whereas Alex Koehler took on the higher pitched screams. The dual vocal dynamic is really cool, and their sound is really awesome, mixing deathcore with djent and prog-metal, so it has this interesting sound. The issue I have, however, is that it ends up blending together. A lot of the breakdowns and riffs are cool, but this album isn’t catchy, and it ends up feeling like quite a lot, especially when the album is an hour long. That’s a long time for any album, but for a deathcore album, that’s insanely long. I like a lot of this album, make no mistake, but it’s kind of a slog to get through, especially the last third. I was looking at my review from eleven years ago, and I said that very same thing. This album is impressive, especially with its sound and performances, but the length is too long, and the album isn’t catchy or accessible, so it runs together pretty hard.