Top Rock Albums of All Time - 50-41
Last year, I released a list of my top 40 favorite rock bands/artists before I turned 40 (which happened in November), but NOW I took on an even tougher challenge of putting together my favorite 100 Rock Albums of All Time.
These are not inspired by other people’s lists or what people consider “great or influential music” - though a lot of it absolutely will be. These are just flat out my favorite 100 albums of all-time.
You are SURELY not going to agree with most of this list, and that’s okay.
We are in the top half of the countdown now.
Let's continue on with the next 10 in the list and discover what's my 50-41 favorite albums of all time!
50 - Domestica - On the opposite end of the scale, a few years after the pop-punk explosion, Cursive put out Domestica which is a incredibly raw and personal album from the Nebraska natives. Tim Kasher never puts out bad music, and this is just another one of those albums that you can’t put down. Most Cursive fans would put this as their best album or top 2, for sure. I definitely think it is up there, but I am not the typical Cursive fan either. Songs like “The Martyr” and “The Game of Who Needs Who The Most” are so damn good. It made way for even more great music from Cursive to come.
49 - No Deliverance - Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely LOVE Toadies. So, this being on here shouldn’t come as a surprise. If Rubberneck didn’t exist, this would probably be my favorite Toadies album. Songs like “Man of Stone,” “No Deliverance” and “Song I Hate” are probably 3 of the best Toadies songs ever made. This album is an absolute ripper, and I would encourage every human on planet Earth to give it 10 listens (per day for the rest of your life).
48 - Highly Refined Pirates - Minus the Bear is one of the best “not well known” bands of all time, and it was a shame that they disbanded in the last couple of years. It makes sense as it takes it toll on your normal life. These guys put out one of the absolute most rocking debut albums of all time with this one, and every song on here is a classic if you are a fan of the band. The most important song in the band’s history is likely “Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse” which is the third song on the album and has the refrain, “Let’s get a bottle and drink / alone tonight…” which is just an absolute fucking jam.
47 - Clarity - Jimmy Eat World went from a bit of an underground alt-rock band to an emo-rock legend with this album. The song “A Sunday” was played nationally across college radio stations in the U.S., and I really found this album to be super sticky with songs that could be listened to over and over. I think some of my favorite songs by the band are on this album, but it’s not even my favorite album by them. They are just that good at making music. “Your New Aesthetic” is always a good one for the whole notion of how to take back the radio by listening to good music and not just listening to what corporate a-holes want you to.
46 - Heavy Petting Zoo - This is definitely a gem of a NOFX album here. This is where I really discovered that Fat Mike could write some pretty clever lyrics for the first time. His word play in songs like “Freedom Lika Shopping Cart” & “Bleeding Heart Disease” really made me look at songwriting in the punk genre in a new way. You could use metaphors and alternate pronunciations to make a song more alliterative and also make you wonder what exactly was being said. It made me dig deeper into the lyrics, and that’s a decent 180 from Punk In Drublic where I pretty much could sing all the songs without looking at any lyrics. “August 8th” is a favorite of mine, but I like every single song on this album.
45 - Bloom - Never heard of Decent Criminal before? Well, this should be the moment you change that, because this album that came out in June of 2017 is absolutely placed properly in this top 100 list. I am obsessed with this album. It is loud, punk, rocking, and the lyrics absolutely hit with some great depth. I love all of Decent Criminals music, but this album is insane. I can’t wait for their new LP to drop in 2022. These guys are literally one of the best bands of any rock genre out right now. My favorite song on this album is “Void.” The chorus hits like a mofo, and you will absolutely want to turn up the volume to hear it properly.
44 - Happy Hollow - One of the best concept albums of all time, Cursive put together a skewering album of the Catholic religion on this one. “Happy Hollow” is the name of the town where the whole album takes place, and there are just some incredible songs on this album. It is even bookended by an intro and outro that detail how the songs are like hymns of the bible. One of the loudest and best Cursive songs is on this album with “Big Bang” and there are just so many other good songs on this album that it is almost impossible to describe just how good the album is. Cursive is also in the process of recording their next album, and it will likely be out in 2023. So, keep an eye out for that.
43 - El Camino - The Black Keys finally make an appearance on this list, and it is with their 7th album which was coincidentally the most commercially successful album and the one that featured songs like “Lonely Boy” and “Gold on the Ceiling.” Not many bands get their “big break” on their 7th album, but these guys absolutely deserved every ounce of attention and every dollar they made on this album, because it was fantastic. It did go into a more poppy sound than they had ever ventured into before, and they haven’t quite been able to harness the happy medium of rock, blues and pop like this album did again, but they make great music every time they try.
42 - Let’s Face It - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are gods among men when it comes to putting out great music. I still say that they don’t have any bad songs, and this album is filled with bangers. “Rascal King” and “Royal Oil” are two of my favorites from the album, and EVERYONE will know the song “The Impression That I Get” from just the first 3 chords on the guitar. “Another Drinking Song” is a song that I quote from time to time without even remembering that it was a song on this album. “What you call a disease, I call the remedy, and what you’re calling the cause I call the cure.” Is just a great line. The whole song and album rock through and through.
41 - Oh No - OK Go put this album out, and it pretty much changed their lives by turning them on to the power of video streams on the internet. They released the song “A Million Ways” and the video for it had 9 million downloads in 2006 - a world record at the time. This was only about a year after YouTube existed. This led to a big tour and awards shows and such. This album is a triumph of arena rock built for an intimate audience (and why it makes it even more anthemic). Songs like “Do What You Want”, “Here It Goes Again” and “Invincible” are driving songs that make you want to jump around like a maniac. My personal favorite song on the album is probably “Oh Lately It’s So Quiet” as the song is so delicate and enchanting it almost doesn’t make sense why it is good, but it is definitely good.
If you haven't checked out the rest of the list to this point, go to these links: