Top 25 Albums Of All Time.

So I've been working on this for a while. Here is my criteria for this list: One band, one album. I absolutely fucking hate it when I see, for instance, top whatever lists that have all five Radiohead albums on them. I mean come on, we get it, you like radiohead. Everybody fucking loves Radiohead. (You will notice, no Radiohead in my top 25. Maybe The Bends would be #26...) Also, I didn't put any band on here for cool points. I actually listen to and love these artists. Anyways, the top 25 are albums that I seriously think I will be listening to ten years from now, and probably till I'm old. All of the bands I listed are absolutely amazing and it was very hard to pick my personal favorite album of theirs. And I know I forgot some band out there that I love and will probably have to revise this very list..., but I digress. Here it is. I hope you have enough fun reading this as I did making it. FYI, lots of 90's here.

25. Lambchop - How I Quit Smoking
24. Ben Folds Five- Whatever And Ever, Amen
23. Built to Spill - Keep It Like A Secret
22. Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
21. Pedro the Lion - It's Hard To Find A Friend
20. GodSpeed! You Black Emporer - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennae To The Heavens
19. Modest Mouse - The Moon And Anarctica
18. Karate - The Bed Is In The Ocean
17. Cap'n Jazz - Analphabetapolothology
16. Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
15. cLOUDDEAD - S/T
14. Chavez - Ride The Fader
13. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
12. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
11. Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
10. Bedhead - What Fun Life Was
9. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
8. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
7. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
6. Tortoise - TNT
5. Mineral - Endserenading
4. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
3. The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
2. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
1. Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary

1. Girls - Album

So here it is. Finally, my absolute favorite album of the year. And it's funny, I think I knew this was going to be my number one, like thirty seconds into "Lust For Life", the album opener. All of the music on this stupid blog is good music that i genuinely enjoy listening to. However, Girls;Album became something special. It has somehow seeped its way into my personal favorite albums that i have ever heard. I'm talking about the albums that kill your soul when you hear them, that remind you of great times and bad times, that are there for you when it seems no one else is. Even now as i am listening to it while typing, I am amazed at how good this album is. Girls are a San Fransisco band that came out of the Children of God cult and got into drugs (the abridged story) and started to write music. They released their debut album Album in September and the rest is history I think. The reason Album works is because it sounds like a collection of singles. I don't know if it was meant to be presented like that, but every song could be a single. It's that fucking good. There are classic pop gems like "Lust For Life", "Laura" and "Darling" and then there are downers like "Ghost Mouth" and "Lauren Marie" and there is the fucking anthem of "Hellhole Ratrace." And that's just the first half of the album. Chris Owens has this kind of Randy Newman croon that fits every song and he sings with such heartache. On top of that, he has a way of making simple lyrics mean so much more. "GhostMouth" is my favorite song for this reason, because every line is a killer. And on "Darling" he sings "Man, i felt like i could lay down and die/then I found my life in the song that I'm singing..." and it never comes off as cheesy or whiny, but rather uplifting. To close, there hasn't been an album that I've related to as much as Album in a long time. I absolutely love Girls;Album from start to finish. There are no track skippers. It's an album I listen to start to finish and then hit play again. I have since tracked down most of their other singles like "Substance" and "Solitude" and have grown to love them as well. Of all the lo-fi, chillwave, pop, rock, punk and whatever else bullshit music came out in 2009 popular or indie or whatever, Girls were the best.

Here is the like for the "Lust For Life" video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuoTjYYqe4c

2. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest is fantastic. I mean it probably would have taken my number one spot had it not been for this goddamn band that i cannot get over, cannot shut up about... but I'm getting ahead of myself. I can imagine that creating an album after Yellow House would be no easy task, but i can assure you that not only did GB rise to the challenge, they got even better. I was lucky enough to see Grizzly Bear a few years back at The Social. I remember I hadn't even heard of Grizzly Bear; I was there for The Books (sidenote: one of the best shows I've ever been to.) Anyways, it was when they were touring for Horn of Plenty and I think recording Yellow House. They were nice guys, had a great show, but i remember thinking that they were still looking for a sound. There were lots of great ideas, they just weren't grounded. If Yellow House was a step in the right direction, Veckatimest is a fucking leap. Songs are warmer; you can actually sing along if you want. (Try not doing the OHH-OO-OHH-OO-WHOA-OOS! on "Two Weeks." Impossible.) Now you can not like this about them. You can not like that they are more accessible, or that they have number one songs on Billboard. But I don't think Grizzly Bear is destined to be some indie jewel. I think they're gonna be huge. And I hope they do. If you're making music like this, everyone should hear it. The album kind of drags at the end but those first eight or nine tracks deliver. I have to say they made my favorite song of the year with "Cheerleader." It alone is worth the purchase of the album. The lala player doesn't have their album up which is weird, so sorry you will have to listen elsewhere.