Top Rock Albums of All Time - 70-61
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.
Let's continue on with the next 10 in the list and discover what's my 70-61 favorite albums of all time!
70 - Room On Fire - So, I will say that I love all things by The Strokes. This album isn’t going to be the highest rated one on the list, and I am not sure how to rank some of their albums, because I could listen to every album by The Strokes back to back, and I would be happy with every song. What I will say about this album is it is often overlooked for its commercial success (or maybe lack thereof?), but every song on this album just keeps a great tone and feel going. The switching of uptempo to laid back grooving is a staple of The Strokes, and I think that some of the best songs are on this album. Songs like “What Ever Happened?,” “12:51,” and “You Talk Way Too Much” are songs I have probably heard 500 times each. I like every song on here, but I also really like “The End Has No End.”
69 - Sailing the Seas of Cheese - Primus is definitely one of the weirdest bands to ever play music, but they are so insanely talented, and they rock so hard that they have to be on this list at least once. This is probably the album that had more of the fan favorite songs on it like “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” and “Tommy The Cat” as well as a few others, and I would put it up there as some of Les Claypool’s finest bass performances. That’s hard to really say though, because the man is incomparable to any human…including himself.
68 - Diary - For many people Sunny Day Real Estate is not a band name that has ever come across their ears. However, they were one of the more influential bands in the Seattle grunge/emo scene back in the mid-90’s. So much so that when Dave Grohl decided to make the Foo Fighters a full band, he enlisted the help of two of the former members of SDRE (Nate Mendel who is still the bassist of the band, and William Goldsmith who was there for only a short while). Lead singer Jerermy Enigk has one of the most unique voices in all of rock, and the mixture of angst and melody make for a bittersweet sound that is hard to shake. Honestly, every song and every album they made were really good, in my opinion. Go listen to this album.
67 - Borders & Boundaries - Less Than Jake put out a slew of great albums, and then at some point shortly after this album came out, the punk/ska craze of the 90’s sort of bottomed out, and while LTJ still made some decent albums, nothing was as clean and fun as B&B again, in my opinion. Great songs like “Hell Looks A Lot Like L.A.”, “Is This Thing On?”, and “Last Hour of the Last Day” are just a few of the songs I have memorized from burning this CD out. Every song is a banger.
66 - Why Do They Rock So Hard? - I absolutely loved this more power pop-rock album from Reel Big Fish. It definitely went all over the place in parts as well, and when I was in high school I probably played this thing like 1000 times in 3 months. It was a great summer album too. I heard years later that this was a trilogy arc for RBF as lead singer Aaron Barrett said it was meant to be the actual “big rock star album” that followed the fast rise to fame of their album Turn The Radio Off and the final “trilogy” album was We’re Not Happy Until You’re Not Happy which was meant to explain what happens when they get chewed up and spit out by the music industry. The album Cheer Up! is skipped as Barrett says “we made it because we had to make it.” Great songs on this album are “Somebody Hates Me”, “The Set Up (You Need This)”, and “I Want Your Girlfriend to Be My Girlfriend Too.”
65 - Pennybridge Pioneers - This album is so effing good it is scary. This is the absolutely most famous album that Millencolin put out, but it wasn’t as if it was by far the best one. They made great music all the time, but this album is an absolutely perfect album in every way. Starting with a speed drum roll at the beginning of the album for the song “No Cigar” and pumping through a total of 14 crazy good punk songs ending with “The Ballad” is why this album is easily in the top 100. My favorite song on the album is “Fox” which from what I can tell is definitely about buying a prostitute. I am guessing it is meant to be ironic. These Swedes are equally talented as they are tongue in cheek.
64 - And Out Come the Wolves… - Well, since we are on a punk and ska streak here, this one makes absolute sense. Rancid is a powerhouse of punk rock anthems, and their history from Operation Ivy to Rancid fame makes them one of the most credible punk bands of all time as well. This album was the best one they ever put out in my opinion. Probably just because it had NO bad songs on the whole album. This was Rancid at their best. “Roots Radicals”, “Time Bomb”, “Ruby Soho”, and “She’s Automatic” are just incredibly succinct pop-punk songs that are as good today as when they were released in 1995.
63 - From Here to Infirmary - Alkaline Trio has put out tons of great material, but this album is my favorite and another example of a perfect pop-punk album. The lead single “Stupid Kid” was the song that drew me into their music, but I think I like every other song on this album even more. The dark, brooding lyrics are so damn good that it makes you a bit uneasy half the time. Songs like, “I’m Dying Tomorrow”, “Steamer Trunk” and “Private Eye” are perfect examples of the distinct writing ability of lead singer Matt Skiba.
62 - Lechuza - Fenix TX had two incredible albums before the band dissolved, and this one was probably the more “rocking” of the two. There is a distinct addition of more heavy metal chord progressions and effects pedals that makes this an album that just thumps in so many places. It’s hard not to get a ton of energy while listening to this album. My favorite songs are probably “Phoebe Kates”, “Threesome” and “Katie W.” which just happen to be the first three songs on the album. Not sure why it turned out that way, but those songs kick ass.
61 - Cheshire Cat - Blink-182’s first (but not final) appearance on this list, and this one is a pretty good example of how Mark Hoppus could write some really good songs with more depth than what Blink was typically known for. It really started the growth of his writing, in my opinion. Sure there are joke songs on there, and some pretty absurd skits, but songs like “Cacophony”, “M+M’s”, and “Wasting Time” are some of my favorite songs on the album and hold up incredibly well over time. “Carousel” is probably the most famous off this album, and it is another great song too. Tom DeLonge was no slouch at writing good songs either.
If you haven't checked out the rest of the list to this point, go to these links: