LPFTW Turns 5 Years Old
Yup. My 5th Sputversary has now arrived. The list is essentially a redux of my top 50 from last year's top 100 list. However, I chose a top 50 as opposed to top 100 because I wanted to repeat no artists more than once which forced me to greatly reconsider many of my 5s which then also caused me to purge a great many of them. On top of that, many albums after my top 65 feel wrong to me... Like I really love them (A LOT) but it made me question whether I think them to be worthy of a top 100 label. So this is top 50. Time fucking flies man, can't believe I've been in this shithole for 5 years (and my brain hurts a lot). |
| 1 |  | Manic Street Preachers
The Holy Bible
What even is there to say? I think everyone pretty much knows this is my all time favorite album and the quality of the music speaks for itself, really. I wish I could find the review where I first became aware of this album’s existence. It was the opening paragraph and it was listing off some of the best, but also darkest, alternative albums of the 90s which included In Utero, a few others, and then an album I had never heard of called The Holy Bible. It wasn’t love at first listen, surprisingly, but I grew to appreciate it much more as I grew older. |
| 2 |  | Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Mmmmm second year high school. Found out about this one while looking at a list titled to the effect of “albums my girlfriend and I like.” Now this one was love at first listen. The sheer emotion, the unorthodox instrumentation, and songs like King of Carrot Flowers and Holland, 1945… It was a headtrip for me and soundtracked what would be a very transitional phase in my life. |
| 3 |  | Refused
The Shape of Punk to Come
Honestly, I don’t recall much of how my relationship with this album grew. It sounded cool and all that stuff but it wasn’t till maybe a year and a half ago that this finally clicked with me… And it felt like a landslide of bricks hitting me. The passion, the politics, the anger, Dennis’ vocals, and those riffs. People who shit on this album saying “it isn’t the shape of punk to come, this or that band did it first, etc”, I think, sort of miss the point of why it’s such a legendary album. Regardless of its actual influence on the punk genre, the musical content combined with the band’s passion pack the power of a fucking bomb, or, a chimerical bombination in 12 bursts. |
| 4 |  | Jane's Addiction
Nothing's Shocking
My finest memories with this album will always be during the summer of 2016 when I finally got a hold of this CD and I finally got my driving licence… Strange feeling realizing how many things can change in a person’s life within the span of 12 months. |
| 5 |  | Mayhem
Live in Leipzig
Ferocious, depraved, and freezing fucking cold (I mean, goddam). An album that blew my mind when I first heard it (no pun intended at all) with how powerful the performances are. One of my favorites to listen to while driving when it’s winter season. |
| 6 |  | Linkin Park
A Thousand Suns
*Inserts review here* |
| 7 |  | Spiritualized
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Ah one of the first albums I’ve bought on iTunes when I first got my iPhone second year of high school. Another one of those albums I’ve first discovered thru YouTube. Have some nice memories listening to this while on long drives or just vibing to how immense the album’s atmosphere and heartbreak is. |
| 8 |  | Today Is the Day
Sadness Will Prevail
I am eternally grateful for Artuma for reccing this album in my list asking for recs for disturbing albums. While I’ve refrained from adding albums to this list that have been rated in a more recent time frame, I really can’t deny how much I’ve fallen in love with this album. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of one of my favorite films, Requiem for a Dream: cinematic, bleak, harrowing, soulcrushing, and flat out fucking incredible. The first CD that I’ve ordered online as well. |
| 9 |  | Prurient
Frozen Niagara Falls
Another album where my earliest memories consist of long drives. Over time, as I had grown to appreciate experimental music more, the more I have also come to appreciate this masterpiece. A long winded exercise in Mr. Fernow taking his entire career and packing it all into 90 minutes of industrial/ambient hell with a chilling atmosphere to boot. Highly recommend the vinyl for this, gorgeous packaging and sound and the re-ordered tracklist is a very interesting alternate take. |
| 10 |  | Fleetwood Mac
Rumours
Not gonna lie, I only really had interest in checking out this album when my guitar teacher about a year ago was talking about this album and its background had greatly interested me. Turmoil while recording albums usually lead to interesting results, but the turmoil that fueled this album is legendary and it’s easy to hear from Lindsey, Stevie, and Christina just how much an emotional toll the recording was having on them (or maybe it was the crazy partying they participated in every night before they started recording the songs?). Stevie’s songwriting on this album is utterly flawless, tho it’s still bullshit Silver Springs didn’t make it on the final tracklist. |
| 11 |  | Boris
Pink
I once fell asleep to this album (somehow) and had a dream that I had gotten into a car crash while the flames of the car melted and I fused with the hot metal, all while the hellish feedback outro of Just Abandoned My-Self soundtracked it. 10/10 recommend this experience. |
| 12 |  | Marilyn Manson
Holy Wood
I’ll always be grateful for my eldest cousin for letting me dig into his CD collection a few Christmases ago and letting me keep whatever I wanted to take home. Holy Wood was one of those CDs. Calling this album “powerful” is really an understatement and seeing how its narrative and political anger has become even more relevant now than when it was released is just a testament to the genius that went into recording this album. And for being a borderline 80 minute, 19 track long concept album, the complete lack of filler is arguably the most impressive aspect of it along with how gracefully it has aged. |
| 13 |  | Tears for Fears
The Seeds of Love
I first became acquainted with Tears for Fears around the same time my dad had bought that A Thousand Suns CD. I remember first hearing Songs from the Big Chair and thinking it was the band’s greatest hits album because of how instantly I recognized like half of the album and how goddamed good it was. In time, The Seeds of Love had equalled Songs in terms of enjoyment factor. The band’s goal to utilize more “organic” instrumentation was quite bold and the balance of these live instruments with their slick pop songwriting topped with the impeccable production job makes this such a beauty to behold. This and Songs nearly on par with each other but what has made me appreciate this album more in the long run is just its sheer beauty and how it’s balanced with that infectious pop sensibility that they’re known for. Famous Last Words is such a breathtaking album closer. |
| 14 |  | Pulp
Different Class
On some list SandwhichBubble had made, he rec’d this album to me and goddammit I’m so thankful he made me listen to it. Like with Sadness Will Prevail, this is also one of my more recent 5s, but already I’ve made a lot of memories with this album while driving to school and the hooks on every song is just pop perfection. I’ve mentioned to some users in the past how amazing it would be to see or hear this adapted into a broadway musical and its theatrical edge is probably what makes these songs. Jarvis’ narrative and driving vocal delivery with the catchy, organic instrumentation makes each song such an earworm but also implant such vivid imagery in my head with the stories that each song tells. Having seen every musical production in my high school, I always imagine Bar Italia as this glorious ensemble curtain closing song and that’s what it is, really, a fucking beautiful album closer. Also, Common People has dethroned Life on Mars? for my all time favorite song which was a task that |
| 15 |  | Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
BBF3. Nuff said. |
| 16 |  | Wendy Carlos
Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange
Moog synthesizer = best synthesizer. That adaptation of Old Ludwig’s 9th symphony is amazing. |
| 17 |  | Unwound
Leaves Turn Inside You
Ily all you guys who made the collab review of this a possibility and a landmark in Sput history. |
| 18 |  | Marina and The Diamonds
Electra Heart
By accident, I made it a tradition to listen to this album every Christmas. Twice in a row I was listening to this album on Christmas day and I thought fuck, let’s make it a tradition for myself. I remember quite well stumbling upon the music video for her song The State of Dreaming and immediately fell in love with its, yes, dreamy atmosphere and beautiful chorus. This convinced my 13 year old brain that pop music was actually good and not like objectively and all that edgy born in le wrong generation stuff. But outside of that nostalgia, I truly and deeply love every song on this album and all the extra stuff that was left off but given those music videos in this era of her career. The concept is cool, the hooks are infectious, and Marina is bae. |
| 19 |  | Pink Floyd
Is There Anybody Out There?
Everyone who complains about The Wall being all Roger Waters needs to listen to this. Besides the fact that the atmosphere of a live performance really adds to the experience, the songs are longer, and it’s more apparent how much of a group effort the songs are. Longer Gilmour solos, tighter performances, everyone is just on their A-game and the band is able to get away with all the ideas they had for the album without the constraints of vinyl. I’ve always loved The Wall but this album really brings a whole other experience. |
| 20 |  | Nine Inch Nails
The Fragile: Deviations 1
My first listen of this album was one of the most serious love at first listen experiences I’ve ever had. Then one day I stumbled upon this fan remake where he added these songs that were left off and long, alternate versions of songs on the album. Unfortunately, that fan remake was a YouTube video and some time last year, it got taken down (however, if you shoutbox me, I’ll see to sending you the files to that version of the album). Anyway, I say all this because the fan remake was eerily similar to the songs that appear here even tho the promotion claimed everything that appears here is entirely new and never heard before. I initially feared that I wouldn’t like this very much cos of the absence of Trent’s vocals but I was floored by how engaged I was by the songs, the flow, and how splendidly the songs operated without Trent’s vocals (although part of me still wishes that Trent’s vox be at least buried in the mix). |
| 21 |  | Against Me!
Reinventing Axl Rose
So one day I was just discovering the feature on a band’s/or album’s page where you can scroll thru all the lists that included said album. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what list that was but this album immediately caught my attention cos I was heavy into Guns N’ Roses at the time and the title and album cover intrigued me. Rest was history, really… Also, I scrolled thru the different lists that included Reinventing Axl Rose and I stumbled upon that one list called Albums My Girlfriend and I Like which happened to also have In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Good times. |
| 22 |  | Depeche Mode
Black Celebration
Around the same time I had been digging Tears for Fears, I discovered the CD for this album in my dad’s CD collection. Some of my dad’s CDs and cassettes have some pen scrawls in the lyric sheet where my dad was figuring out guitar chords for songs so he could play them; the CD booklet has my dad’s scrawls on the title track, A Question of Lust, and Stripped. Indeed, those songs make up my top 5 on the album (with New Dress and This is the House being the other two songs) but, really, the entire album is just top tier new wave. The heavy reverb actually complements the music nicely and the dark atmosphere can even be claustrophobic at times, turning up the band’s doom and gloom up to 11. Title track is probably one of my favorite songs ever. |
| 23 |  | United Nations
United Nations
Pretty sure it was YouTube that also introduced me to this album. Don’t understand at all the hate this initially got (or at least, all the hate it gets on RYM). Absolutely killer vocals, crazy great riffs and the way it balances the more melodic sections with those intense screamo sections… FUCK. Love how the vinyl ends on a locked groove of the cash register going cha-ching! which is preceded by 12 full minutes of dead silence. |
| 24 |  | Iggy Pop
The Idiot
Used to think Lust for Life was the superior album and this was an unfair balance of Bowie’s and Iggy’s ideas… But I’ve come to switch this opinion with time. Also, Mass Production is one of the greatest album closers ever. |
| 25 |  | David Bowie
Young Americans
Hmmmmm…. I’m slowly beginning to favor Station to Station over this but I’m gonna still rank this above it for the list. Yeah I know, it’s a strange opinion to think Bowie’s worst 70s album that isn’t Pin Ups is the Thin White Duke’s best album but idgaf. That smooth as hell crooning of Bowie and those dank background vocals is soul food. I quite remember watching the 5 years Bowie documentary and used it as a template for what my next albums after Earthling (my first Bowie album) would be. Young Americans was actually the most immediate of the bunch and it still sticks out to me as an underrated gem of his. Right is top 5 Bowie. |
| 26 |  | The Beatles
The Beatles
Wasn’t one of my favorite Beatles albums at first. The scatterbrain nature was too much for my young brain to comprehend and I liked about half of the album at first. I’ve come to appreciate this quite a lot with time, tho. It’s everything an album (and double album, for that matter) should not be and yet it’s practically perfect for those reasons. |
| 27 |  | Ulver
Nattens Madrigal
Ah man… When I still thought Blurryface was some game changing, brilliant album, I commented on Fantano’s review that I appreciate his review but felt he was trying to hate on the album. Then some dude said in a smug manner that he listens to better and actually experimental music. I decided to not start beef with him and give me some albums of his he could rec me. This is a list of what he rec’d me:
The Rita - Thousands of Dead Gods
Einsturzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch
Ulver - Nattens Madrigal
Nurse With Wound - Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table…
My comment and the ensuing thread still exists on the video but, unfortunately, his comment with his recs and comments after appear to have been deleted.
Anyway, rest is history, etc etc. Hymn I still melts my face off. |
| 28 |  | Prince
Purple Rain
I don’t trust you if that spoken word intro to Let’s Go Crazy doesn’t get you hyped. |
| 29 |  | Grouper
A I A
Hmm don’t remember how I first encountered this album but goddammit it still wows me. So damn beautiful and ethereal... |
| 30 |  | John Coltrane
A Love Supreme
Soul food m/ |
| 31 |  | The Stooges
Fun House
*Animalistic barking and coughing* |
| 32 |  | Joy Division
Les Bains Douches 18 December 1979
I can understand how people can prefer the less aggressive post punk sound of their studio albums, but the band is so raw live it’s like listening to an entirely different band. So combine that raw energy with a tracklist consisting of like all the best Joy Division songs and we got a treasure right here. |
| 33 |  | Mr. Bungle
California
SWEET CHARITY - BA BA BUM, HUUUUH, BA BA BUM, DA DA DADADA DUM.
GET. ME. OUT. OF. THIS. AIR CONDITIONED. NIGHTMARE. |
| 34 |  | AJJ
People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People
I feel like this is the equivalent to being depressed as hell and responding very sarcastically to a close friend who’s asking if you’re alright and want an ear to listen to your problems. HERE’S TO YOU MRS. ROBINSON, YOU LIVE IN AN UNFORGIVING PLACE. |
| 35 |  | Neil Young
Live Rust
One day my dad had brought up how he used to watch this Neil Young concert when he was still in the Philippines in the theatre. He named off a bunch of songs in the setlist and Neil Young’s attire. After some Googling, I couldn’t find a concert film that fit the description, but the setlist for Live Rust and the album cover really rang some bells for my dad. So this ended up being the first CD my dad and I had bought together and the first CD we’d buy at this record shop called Rasputin my home city (shoutout to all the California users who know what I’m talking about). The almost grungey, fuzzy guitar tone Neil uses is to die for and the entire performance is just flawless. Having Crazy Horse as the backing band takes the songs to a whole other level and hearing Neil’s attempt at harsh vocals on Sedan Delivery is amusing to hear. |
| 36 |  | Alice in Chains
MTV Unplugged
The best and most raw MTV Unplugged performance that only outclasses Nirvana’s performance. I’ve listened to this so much that it’s become awkward for me to listen to the original songs and hearing how instrumentally heavy they are. |
| 37 |  | Talking Heads
Stop Making Sense
You really haven’t lived until you see David Byrne in a fat suit or in black face in the mock interview promoting the film. |
| 38 |  | Guns N' Roses
Use Your Illusion II
Another one of the CDs that was in the bunch that I got from my cousin a few Christmases ago. My dad used to have the first album on cassette and I’d play it to death when I was a little kid; so much so that the tape got fucked up and became unplayable. Some of the songs that had guitar chord scrawls from my dad in the lyric sheet were Don’t Cry, November Rain, The Garden, and Live and Let Die. I think what makes me rank this above the first Use Your Illusion rather than both being tied in quality is how much more I return to this, despite Coma being my all time favorite album closer. So many more classic songs on this imo. GET IN THE RING if you disagree. |
| 39 |  | Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
It took a while for this to become my favorite Arcade Fire album. I think as I grew older and related more to the cynicism of the lyrics and the became more interested in the darker Churchy instrumentation that this dethroned Funeral for my favorite Arcade Fire. My Body is a Cage and Intervention are probably my top two favorite songs of the band and Intervention is a top 5 all time favorite song of mine. |
| 40 |  | Pig Destroyer
Prowler in the Yard
No no no, this is beautiful. This is art. |
| 41 |  | The Who
Tommy
I like rock operas. And this is an extremely fuckin good rock opera. |
| 42 |  | The Velvet Underground
White Light/White Heat
Too busy sucking on a ding dong to write a detailed description for this one. |
| 43 |  | Eminem
The Eminem Show
While not Em’s best album MC-wise, I think it’s his most cohesive album with the least amount of filler as well. The tracklist is well ordered and, on vinyl, is even better with each side opening with a skit. The album is a great balance between the grit and seriousness of Marshall Mathers LP and the goofiness of SSLP and the theme of being a soldier carries thru the album very nicely. Considering every album is a snapshot of Em’s state of mind during all their recordings, it’s very interesting listening to the album and fully hearing all the turmoil he’s going through with on one song bragging about being the best rapper in alive on Soldier to the downright misery and wish to have never become a rapper on the following song Say Goodbye Hollywood. The beats are all fantastic and considering most of them were self-produced, it makes them even better. Through and through, Eminem’s finest hour. |
| 44 |  | Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited
While musically it may not be my favorite Bob Dylan album, it’s the way he fuses this new sound of his with probably his most engaging and most poetic storytelling that makes this my absolute favorite album of his. HOW DOES IT FEEL? |
| 45 |  | Ol' Dirty Bastard
Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version
You really gotta give respect for a dude who’s willing to get burned by gonorrhea not once but twice for good ass pussy. On a serious note, this is my favorite Wu-Tang related album by a large margin and no question about it. I WANNA SEE BLOOD. |
| 46 |  | My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade
Album is fuckin banger after banger idgaf. Dead!, Welcome to the Black Parade, Mama, Sleep, Disenchanted, fuckin Famous Last Words. Fuck. Never want the choruses on Disenchanted and Famous Last Words to end everytime I hear them. |
| 47 |  | Oasis
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
One of my favorite albums to drive to. Album is pop rock perfection, Champagne Supernova, Roll With It, and Some Might Say are a tune and several halves. |
| 48 |  | The La's
The La's
Sometimes I listen to this and surprised as hell this isn’t actually something released in the 60s. The innocent poppiness and the stupidly infectious hooks, and the quiet production gives it such a vintage sound that’s so integral to its appeal (it’s a bit too much of a coincidence that this band had also formed in Liverpool). There She Goes is just perfection and Through the Looking Glass is such a trippy, epic closer. |
| 49 |  | Jeff Rosenstock
Worry.
WE DON’T WANNA LIVE INSIDE A HELLLHOOOLE. |
| 50 |  | Muse
Black Holes & Revelations
I totally understand why people would prefer their more rock oriented opiuses Absolution and Origin of Symmetry (Absolution comes close to BH&R) but I love this is the band’s combination of all their eccentricities, influences, and their softspot for pop melodies. |
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