Top 25 Albums of All Time

Okay, so I don't claim to know everything about pop music... Actually, I'm pretty quick to say that I have never heard the music of a lot of artists out there. But I do know what I like, and I also think that I'm a pretty good judge as to what other people should like, too. Pompous? No, I don't think so. I think that I have been given the honored privilege and ability to critique music well - both on aesthetic and technical levels.

About a week ago, I watched a ten-minute clip of an interview with Josh Ritter, published by some magazine (the video was a part of a series titled something about eating with artists...). In the video, Ritter mentioned that music, like movies and other art, should be judged 15 or 20 years after it has been released (obviously, that's no help to the actual artist living it out in real-time). His point was that a good song is still a good song 20, 50, or 300 years after it is written.

The goal of music criticism is to assess a song or album in a cultural vacuum (outside of current pop trends or stylistic leanings), allowing the music to stand on its own, judging it against nothing but its ability to relate to the human experience across space and time.

I have been thinking a lot about my favorite art of all time - primarily books, movies, and music; and I think I'm going to try to compile a list of my top 25 albums of all time. The difficulty with this is that I have been told that there are some *unbelievable* records out there - ones that people can actually name by name - that I haven't even heard for myself yet, and so I'm going to be taking this slowly, making sure to leave some room in the top 25 for records that I'll have to listen to between now and before I finish my list. (If you have any suggestions, please comment on them on this post.)

So, without further delay, I would like to announce the first (not number one, but just "one of") of my top 25 picks of all time:

Collective Soul: Collective Soul

And that, of course, is what I am listening to right now.

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #3

As you know, I have gotten myself in to a little pickle. I have started a top 25 albums of all time list. The problem is that, over the years, a heck of a lot of music has been recorded and compiled as albums. Just as a bit of a reminder, and maybe even a clarification, I have a few ground rules for this list. The more music I have listened to in my quest to compile this list, the more I have seen a need to be very specific about what this list is. Here are a few guidelines I am following:

1. Pop/Rock genre only. There's way too much music out there, and way too much music that I can humbly say I know absolutely nothing about.
2. Every song on the record has to be great. Every song has to be able to stand on its own, distinctly stand as a part of the whole and compliment it. For my purposes, even a single, bad song on an album will disqualify an album from the list.
3. Popularity is not a pre-requisite. I am not using anyone else's list to make mine. I am trying very hard not to let Rolling Stone magazine tell me what to include.
4. I won't include an album without very recently listening to it all the way through. And when I say listen, I mean that the music has my full attention.
5. Your suggestions are warmly invited! I know I haven't heard everything out there in the pop/rock genre - especially when it comes to classic rock, oldies, or 80's pop. Some historical background: the album "format" didn't really become popular until the mid- to late-1950's, so just as a simple, point of fact, I probably won't have to go back any further than that.

With all of this now said - and said again, in some cases - I'd like to announce album #3 in my list: Acceptance's album Phantoms. I might take some serious criticism for this one. The album is from 2005 - right around the time when all alternative rock music started to sound the same: over-compressed, perfect vocals, unbelievably punchy drums, et al. But, at the end of the day, in my opinion, this might just be the best album you've never heard of.

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #2

Remember, these aren't ranked in any sort of order. I haven't gotten that particular about this list yet. But maybe once I get a top 25 I can move in that direction...

The second album to make my list is Sister Hazel's 2000 release, "Fortress". It's just another one of those albums that I could never put down - and still now I don't get sick of listening to it. The production on the album is some of the best that I've ever heard, and the harmonies are just tight - in an era that was only just beginning to learn what auto-tune was. The main producer, by the way, was Paul Ebersold.

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #6

Weezer: Weezer

Hands-down the most influential album of my high school years. I can put more experiences to music from this album than any other. And the stories are almost all too personal to share in a blog post.













View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #5

Death Cab for Cutie: Plans

For starters, they used amazing equipment to record it. A friend of mine, Collin Jordan, a mastering engineer in Chicago, said that the vocal mic Ben Gibbard used on this record was probably worth over $10k.  Nice.

Second, Death Cab has pioneered the pop-electronic fusion that is so common in music today.

Yes, I will follow you into the dark...

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #7

John Mayer: Continuum. Any questions? Really? Let's put aside what we think about Mr. Mayer's latest record for a minute and try to think about things objectively. This is a great album.

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #4

Coldplay's X and Y. Will anyone actually argue against this album being on my list? Highly doubtful.

View my whole list here: http://jaymathes.blogspot.com/search/label/top%2025

Signing Off...

Wiki Commons:The_End.jpg

I love writing. Maybe more specifically, I love ranting. I like creative writing, developing a blogging voice, thinking about what to post about, editing posts, forgetting to proof-read posts, finding pictures to go along with my post topics, and the like.

But blogging is not writing music. Or playing music. It's a different creative outlet - one that I think I'm not half-bad at. But not one that I feel I should be spending so much time doing. I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately.

After much deliberating, and with so many things vying for my time at this point in my life, I've decided to focus my minutes more specifically on music for a while - writing and playing it.

To all of my subscribers and followers, I would like to say thank you for keeping up with my blog... I'd also like to let you know that I'm not completely done with this sort of journaling either. I'd like you all to join me on Twitter, following me there (which is here: http://twitter.com/jaymathesmusic). Yes, it's shorter bursts of words, but words none-the-less. You can also Like me on Facebook, here: http://facebook.com/jaymathesmusic. And, you can subscribe to my Jaymathes.com news posts, here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaymathesnews. Or, of course, I have a monthly newsletter. Sign up here: http://jaymathes.com/?page_id=33. The point is, you'll still be able to read words from me - just not here.

So please come along! Hop on a different train with me and continue reading with me...

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jaymathesmusic
Facebook: http://facebook.com/jaymathesmusic
Jaymathes.com News: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaymathesnews
My Newsletter: http://jaymathes.com/?page_id=33

Also, I still have some unfinished blog business here, too. I do plan to finish up my top 25 albums of all time list, but I may not post that here... I'll make sure you're all able to see it, though.

So here's to a new year of opportunity ahead and 232 posts behind. Cheers!

Top 25 Albums of All Time - #8

Relient K - Five Score and Seven Years Ago

I just can't get enough of it. Packaged pop-punk? Yes. But is it well done? Absolutely. Maybe the best. Certainly in the best-in-class category. Lyrically, this stuff packs a serious punch, too. Don't believe me on the lyrics? Listen to the *epic* "Deathbed" and decide for yourself. It's awesome. It's a songwriter's song - a story-song. Love it.

Spotify link here: open.spotify.com/album/2i7lUD7JpgyVd2KhuzMp6O

Buy it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/five-score-and-seven-years-ago/id215485112

FYI: The album cover image I've used is from the original album release cardboard sleeve. It's fairly rare and unknown, but I prefer it to the "updated" cover.