My Favorite Albums: 75-51

Part 2 of this display of too much time:

75.) Let It Enfold You (2004)
Artist: Senses Fail
Label: Vagrant
Favorite Song: Buried a Lie

Taking its title from a poem by Charles Bukowski, Senses Fail drive home the screamo in their full length debut. I distinctly remember a friend of mine mentioning how corny the video for Buried a Lie was, but that video helped jump start their career. In fact it's a literal manifestation of the lyrics on screen, which describes a story about solving the murder of the singer's girlfriend as he suspects foul play and must prove it. Of course if Buddy Nielsen's intense description of pain, angst, and heartbreak aren't your cup of tea, then maybe skip this one.

74.)The Colour and the Shape (1997)
Artist: Foo Fighters
Label: Roswell
Favorite Song: Everlong

1997 is the year for music that changed what I listened to. Before then it was country and oldies, with a splash of pop radio because that's all my mom listened to in the car. The Summer of 97 changed all of that. With my parents off to work and my sister deemed responsible enough to keep an eye on things, we spent a lot of time watching MTV and listening to the latest alternative, rock, pop punk, ska, or hip hop we could listen to. Surprisingly there wasn't a lot of disagreement between my sister and I at that point as to what was good or not.
One of the big albums to rock in 97 was The Colour and the Shape. Up until then Dave Grohl had some success post Nirvana with the debut record in 1995, but this was one of the first CDs in my possession and it was played often. "Everlong" and "My Hero" are among my favorite songs all-time and "See You" and "Monkey Wrench" also rank highly. There's no Foo Fighters record that comes close to this one in my opinion.

73.) A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
Artist: Panic! At the Disco
Label: Fueled by Ramen
Favorite Song: Time to Dance

The gateway for kids who listen to popular music to get into scene music is right here. "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", still comes on because of its incredible popularity. It's hard to imagine that Brendon Urie would be singing songs for the Frozen soundtrack or duets with Taylor Swift way back in 2005 and honestly, I much prefer Panic with the exclamation than without. This was essential listening in late high school, early college, and it still ranks highly despite the useless intro and intermission tracks.

72.) New Found Glory (2000)
Artist: New Found Glory
Label: Drive-Thru
Favorite Song: Sincerely Me

Because of my ignorance, I initially missed this one until after Sticks and Stones came out, but I went back and was quickly hooked on the self-titled effort. The big hit from this one is "Hit or Miss", which they re-recorded off of Nothing Gold Can Stay and since poems and pop punk/emo go so well together, this is obviously a nod to Robert Frost, or The Outsiders, which is still a nod to Frost. Listening to this record makes me want to get the long cargo shorts and band t-shirts back on, but I think I wouldn't be let out of the house.

71.) A Change in Venue (2007)
Artist: The Princes of Hollywood
Label: Independent
Favorite Song: Anna Lee

Yet another band the misses is responsible for thanks to her many years at Ohio University, she was able to get a hold of this Athens duo. Hard to find and currently with every song under 1,000 listens on Spotify, this may seem like an odd choice, but these tunes are great during my favorite season of Fall. There's the anthem about being weird in "Pretty Out", there's the ballad of "Anna Lee" and of course a college town band must have songs about college life in "The Walk of Shame".

70.) What to Do When You Are Dead (2005)
Artist: Armor for Sleep
Label: Equal Vision
Favorite Song: The Truth About Heaven

Ok, I'm a sucker for concept albums. The title is likely a nod to the book from the movie Beetlejuice, Handbook for the Recently Deceased. It opens with "Car Underwater", a song about our singer's plunge into a body of water while still in his car. From there the rest of the songs are about his life on the otherside and how he's dealing with being dead. Like other bands on this list, their run was short lived as they released one more record before disbanding.

69.) Stay What You Are (2001)
Artist: Saves the Day
Label: Vagrant
Favorite Song: See You

"You wanna know who I am really am? Well so do I." I first heard these guys when they dropped the video for their lead single "At Your Funeral", and the subsequently "Freakish". Those two songs were it for a few years before I dug deeper into their catalog. This is the third LP for Saves the Day and I remember buying this at the Vagrant tent at Warped Tour, it might have also been from one of the record label's founders, but that's probably a misremembered event.

68.) The Warrior's Code (2005)
Artist: Dropkick Murphys
Label: Hellcat
Favorite Song: I'm Shipping Up to Boston

If you were like me, I totally tuned into the Dropkick Murphys live concert on St. Patrick's Day to help break the monotony of isolation and unemployment.  I remember seeing these guys at Warped Tour and they had the friendliest mosh pit ever. I had gotten knocked over by somebody and immediately, while still running around the circle, a hand reached down and pulled me right back up to get back into the show. That's what happens when you get rowdy with 40 year olds. As for the record, it seems cliche to name "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" as my favorite song, but it's also featured in one of my favorite movies of all-time, The Departed. If you want something different, "Last Letter Home", is a correspondence between family members and a guy serving in Iraq. Unfortunately he ended up dying in combat, but the Murphys' made good by honor his wish to have them play "Fields of Athenry" on the pipes at his funeral.

67.) Beggars (2009)
Artist: Thrice
Label: Vagrant
Favorite Song: In Exile

The second appearance on this list for Thrice, but certainly not their last, this is kind of a forgotten album for me. I listen to a lot of Thrice and tend to not listen as much to Beggars, but that ends up being a mistake when I find it again. "The Weight" is a driving anthem about marriage and the ability to stick together through hard times, "A ring don't mean nothing if it can't hold the weight." On any other record that might be a runaway favorite, but that's Beggars for you. That title comes to nomadic song, "In Exile". It easily features the best use of the word sojourner.

66.) Sing the Sorrow (2003)
Artist: AFI
Label: Dreamworks
Favorite Song: Dancing Through Sunday

I'm not going to pretend like I had any idea who AFI were before "Girl's Not Grey", came out, but they were a big part of my music selection for the rest of high school. For me this is their greatest effort even though some might be more inclined to enjoy Decemberunderground. I personally enjoy everything prior to Sing the Sorrow, compared to post StS, because it has more roots in punk. If that stuff sounds good might I recommend the All Hallows Eve EP.

65.) ...is a Real Boy (2004)
Artist: Say Anything
Label: Doghouse
Favorite Song: Alive with the Glory of Love

This is weird, because I'm sure like most people, I didn't hear about Say Anything until the re-released this record with a bonus disc ...Was a Real Boy. That was two years after the fact, but because of the attention the got as a support act on tours, they garnered more attention. Lead singer Max Bemis has a unique way of describing things, and his anxiety is front and center with most songs. One of the exceptions is story of two Jews in Europe who find love in their ghetto during World War II. It turns out that this concept is based loosely off the experience that his grandparents had growing up, with both surviving the Holocaust.

64.) Sticks and Stones (2002)
Artist: New Found Glory
Label: Geffen
Favorite Song: Something I Call Personality

One time a girl was annoyed by the fact that I was obnoxiously singing in her backseat and her answer would be to put in a CD that I hadn't heard and therefore couldn't sing. She incorrectly assumed that once she inserted the CD that I wouldn't being singing along with "Understatement", which opens this record. The third appearance for NFG on this list features on one of my personal favorites "Something I Call Personality" which I directly link to them opening their Warped Tour set with en route to a rawkus show. This album helped launch their career thanks to their hit "My Friends Over You".

63.) Oh! Gravity. (2006)
Artist: Oh! Gravity.
Label: Columbia
Favorite Song: Awakening

Released just a year after the more somber Nothing is Sound, Oh! Gravity. goes in a completely different direction. Some of the songs don't sound like they belong on previous records, but it works to their benefit as they continually change their sound and mostly for the better (Fading West not so much). Also check out the title track, "4:12", and "American Dream".

62.) Bring Me Your Love (2007)
Artist: City and Colour
Label: Dine Alone
Favorite Song: The Girl

The clean vocalist behind Canadian hardcore outfit Alexisonfire, Dallas Green, first broke away with his album Sometimes in 2005, but his follow up amps up the awesome from the first record. Green's acoustic and smooth voice glisten on tracks like "Body in a Box" and "The Girl". He brings on fellow Canadian rocker, Gord Downie, to sew together a beautiful piece titled "Sleeping Sickness". "The Girl" was nearly my first dance song at my wedding, but we decided that 5+ minutes probably wouldn't be the most enjoyable for those watching.

61.) Straylight Run (2004)
Artist: Straylight Run
Label: Victory
Favorite Song: Existentialism on Prom Night

For a long time my favorite song of all-time was "Existentialism on Prom Night", but it has since been displaced by a song in the latter part of this countdown. Featuring ex-members of Taking Back Sunday, this piano driven rock outfit includes beautiful melodies and a few up beat jams. It was the first time I heard Nate Ruess as he makes a guest vocal appearance on "It's for the Best". "Your Name Here", also ranks highly among favorite songs. The weird part about Straylight Run is that they were always paired with very upbeat or heavy openers and headliners. The first show I saw with them included Hellogoodbye and Motion City Soundtrack. Another had Four Year Strong and Bayside.

60.) Lost in the Sound of Separation (2008)
Artist: Underoath
Label: Solid State
Favorite Song: Too Bright to See, Too Loud to Hear

Ask my wife who her least favorite bands are that I listen to and Underoath will easily be in the top 5. This was the last album before drummer Aaron Gillespie left to focus solely on The Almost and for me the last really good record they did. They put one out without Gillespie and then dropped their Christian label in 2017 and reconciled to make Erase Me. Heavier in places than its predecessors, this record never quite made the rotation that the two previous albums did, but there are certainly songs that have their place in the can't skip when it comes on shuffle list.

59.) The Illusion of Safety (2002)
Artist: Thrice
Label: Sub City
Favorite Song: To Awake and Avenge the Dead

Some many great songs to choose from Thrice's only album on Sub City/Hopeless Records. "Deadbolt" is the perfect blend of fast and aggressive, and the piano at the end somehow completes it.
The opening bass line for "Betrayal is a Symptom", is killer. And I was so excited about these two songs that I nearly neglected my favorite song, which is one of the first Thrice songs I ever heard, "To Awake and Avenge the Dead". There's an instrumental part in the bridge of that song that my brain oddly pairs with the scene at the end of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie where they fight Shredder on the rooftop.

58.) Paper Walls (2007)
Artist: Yellowcard
Label: Capitol
Favorite Song: The Takedown

This is a sneaky good record right here. Ocean Avenue rightly gets its due in pop punk lore, but this one has some solid jams. From the jump "The Takedown" is a fast and fun plunge and then it doesn't let down until almost ten songs in. "The Takedown" is one of my top songs to open an album, because it just sets the tone for the rest of the record.

57.)The Room's Too Cold (2003)
Artist: The Early November
Label: Drive-Thru
Favorite Song: Baby Blue

Weirdly the album cover for this was my desktop background for a while throughout college and high school and one might point to the girl, but the color scheme also helped icons pop out, so who knows. As for the music, like all the albums, there's just so much to choose from. The fun part is that my favorite song over time has changed from "Baby Blue" to "The Mountain Range in My Living Room" and then back to "Baby Blue". "The Mountain Range in My Living Room", is one of those headphones songs that just unlocks so much more, especially the part where people are talking over guitars and it's just perfect in every way. Still, when they played "Baby Blue" at Bogarts, I was one of the many who shouted, "I don't want you to love me anymore!"

56.) Box Car Racer (2002)
Artist: Box Car Racer
Label: Geffen
Favorite Song: There Is

When Travis and Tom stepped aside from Blink-182 right after Take Off Your Pants and Jacket to make a Box Car Racer album, it started the decline of a pop punk super power. Still while this is arguably the weakest drumming in Travis Barker's arsenal, there's still something punk about the same repetitive chords and rhythms that worked so well for bands like the Ramones. "There Is" and "I Feel So" were great choices for singles, but the dark horse song on this record is really just a Blink-182 song as Mark Hoppus provides guest vocals. That song is called "Elevator" and is from the perspective of someone choosing to jump from one of the Twin Towers during the 9/11 attacks (Delonge) while the rest is from the perspective of a person on the streets watching it all happen (Hoppus) and for me it works, but others might certainly be put off by its subject matter.

55.) Everything in Transit (2005)
Artist: Jack's Mannequin
Label: Maverick
Favorite Song: I'm Ready

This was actually a tough one to pick a favorite song from, because there were so many that were close to one another, but "I'm Ready", edges out the likes of "The Mixed Tape", "Holiday from Real", and "Dark Blue". Piano rocker Andrew McMahon decided that his answer post Something Corporate was this vehicle though he would stop recording under this moniker and found success the following decade as Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. A fun fact about this record is that the drums on the album are played by Motley Crue drummer, Tommy Lee. Lee makes an appearance in the documentary Dear Jack which chronicles the recording of this album as well as McMahon learning that he has acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

54.) All Killer, No Filler (2001)
Artist: Sum 41
Label: Island
Favorite Song: Fat Lip

So I mistakenly bought this album thinking that "Makes No Difference" was on it, a song my friends and loved catching on Much Music. However, this CD does not have that song, but that still didn't stop my friends and I from purchasing this at a Walmart in Northwestern Pennsylvania en route to our class field trip at Niagara Falls. The title is mostly accurate as the first song is an intro and the last song is a joke song, but the rest is definitely all killer. "Fat Lip" of course has legendary status for songs from this decade and songs like "In Too Deep" and "Motivation" were also pleasers thanks to their stellar music videos. Also, who doesn't love 13 songs in 32 minutes.

53.) Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...but Three Do (2003)
Artist: Relient K
Label: Gotee
Favorite Song: Forward Motion

This was a must listen amongst the church groups that I hung out with through the early parts of high school. The first song I ever heard by Relient K was "My Girlfriend" which is about how Marilyn Manson ate his girlfriend because she likes him and is now consumed by Satan. I hated it. Fortunately that was off their self-titled debut and two albums later, nothing else comes even close to resembling that. Instead they fall nicely on the Venn Diagram of pop punk and Jesus music that was my listening habits. "Forward Motion", "From End to End", and "Jefferson Aeroplane" are all solid choices, but they will much improve on their sound in their upcoming records which will not go unnoticed by me.

52.) Abbey Road (1969)
Artist: The Beatles
Label: Apple
Favorite Song: Come Together

Ok, if you started throwing things or yelling at your computer screen, I get it. It's the only record on this list prior to 1994 because frankly I'm just not ramping up the classics like a lot of people due. I respect the quality and work of bands from the 60's and 70's, but it's not my favorite work. That being said, this album is phenomenal and would be soooooooooo much higher on this list were it not for tracks 8-10. Despite multiple tries, I cannot get into "Because", "You Never Give Me Your Money" is ok, and "Sun King" is my least favorite on this record. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", is a big hit among certain members of the household as is "Golden Slumbers". In fact if I was making my son's favorite albums, this would be number one for him, because it also has "Octopus's Garden". So I'm trying to raise my kids right, so they can be respected members of society. Unlike me.

51.) Message for the Masses (1999)
Artist: Sanctus Real
Label: Independent
Favorite Song: Coffee of Life

Ok, so if you've actually read any of these, you might have remembered that they played the only concert I've seen in Bryan and I bought this CD from that show. Unpolished sure, but I strongly support the 419 and I don't appreciate the mumbling you're doing. Some songs are re-recorded of their debut EP All This Talk of Aliens and did I mentioned that they also signed a poster for me. Nostalgia rules the day on the other side of the keyboard. If I was born in 1964 like my parents, I'd surely be speaking the same way about Dark Side of the Moon or Who's Next.