3000 Ratings
The tab up there says I’ve surpassed it, but it lies - you can’t putz around on Sputnik for 15 years without running into a few coding glitches - and I have in fact at 3,006 listed ratings hit 3,000 actual ratings on the dot. For the sake of taking a look back through time, I’ve chronologically separated those 3k scores into a list-maximum(?) 100 groups and chosen my favorite release from each 30-rating chunk. There are a lot of relatively recent entries, owing to my habit of predominantly checking out current records, but as of this winter I’ve begun to exercise more due diligence and peep historic, esteemed classics. Here’s an indulgent walk down memory lane; bear witness to the life of Ash if you wish. |
| 1 |  | Jimmy Eat World
Clarity
Rating 22: added January 18th, 2010. When I first joined Sputnik at the ripe, impressionable age of 13, I immediately rated the couple dozen albums comprising my CD collection to that point. Few of those entries have aged well, but it’s a tiny blessing my favorite album of all time, Clarity by Jimmy Eat World, dates back that far, even if it wouldn’t make its longevity and influence apparent to me until several years down the road. |
| 2 |  | Thrice
Beggars
Rating 46: added May 8th, 2010. Spurred by fond memories of “All That’s Left” in a Madden game from my youth, I went a Thrice binge across the spring and summer of 2010. Beggars initially struck me as one of their weaker releases to that point, but it sneakily grew into the sole 5/5 I’ve handed out to the band, superlatively showcasing their chemistry, versatility, and thoughtfulness. Every track here is an understated masterclass of modern rock. I will not entertain ridicule to the contrary. |
| 3 |  | Brand New
Daisy
Rating 64: added December 12th, 2010. Establishing the yin and yang of my middle school taste, Thrice were the divine light to Brand New’s gloomy fear and trembling. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was at one point my favorite record ever, but since the allegations against Jesse Lacey surfaced in 2017, anything in their discography dependent on empathizing with or glorifying the singer hasn’t hit the same. Daisy, on the other hand, is a horror soundtrack by design, as creepy and potent as it was before their reputation took a nosedive and about as sonically adventurous as a once-pop punk band’s ever become. |
| 4 |  | Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
Rating 117: added March 4th, 2012. In my freshman year of high school, variations of the radio rock I was raised on no longer began to cut it. I wanted to open my mind up to abstraction while still homing in on largely guitar-based music, and into that void slipped the often ill-defined forms of math rock and post-rock. GY!BE’s stark leftist leanings agreed with where my head was at, and Slow Riot wasn’t just a fitting entry point into that world, it was arguably the most rewardingly concise release in its form – an accolade I’d still bestow upon it today. |
| 5 |  | The Cabs
Recur Breath
Rating 144: added August 21st, 2012. Language barrier be damned, time signature overload notwithstanding, I may not have wrapped my head around my first or second or twenty-fifth spin of this incredibly niche EP, but I was mesmerized by it and wanted to “get” it, so I stuck it out. It sounded like intense, earnest desperation then, and hundreds of spins later, to the extent I can sing this whole package in a tongue that I do not understand, it still does. It’s a colossal shame this act broke up so quickly; prolonged exposure and they could’ve set the math rock world ablaze for the better. |
| 6 |  | Kashiwa Daisuke
Program Music I
Rating 165: added November 25th, 2012. I don’t know how I came across this and given its cult rep I’m sure I would’ve discovered it sooner or later, but the fact that I fell into its clutch on first listen despite never dabbling in modern classical, glitch electronica, or just about anything resembling jazz to that point is pretty telling of its immersive quality. If you have an hour to spare and haven’t heard this, go in blind and commit to the full journey. Oh, the things I’d do to hear this for the first time again. |
| 7 |  | Enemies
Embark Embrace
Rating 210: added June 7th, 2013. It’s really just a bonus that this album ended up soundtracking the most jubilant, carefree summer of my life: Embark, Embrace has nostalgia on its side, but it sure as hell isn’t reliant on it; the musicianship and melodicism on display here are among math rock’s finest, perfect for simply vibing to or meticulously trying to tab out by ear, both of which I did plenty of while soaking in the sun. It’s concretely earned a spot in my summer listening rotation every year since. |
| 8 |  | The World Is a Beautiful Place...
Whenever, If Ever
Rating 217: added June 20th, 2013. Peers who loved the same sort of music as myself weren’t abundant in the Texan suburbia where I spent my high school years, all but necessitating that I spend my summer vacations visiting my original homestead of New England – an area rife with emo acts at the height of the genre’s revival – catching up with friends, friends of friends, and attending all manner of yard, driveway, and basement shows. I look back on that era with bittersweet affection, and I don’t even have to project nostalgia onto Whenever, If Ever; those sentiments are baked into the text. |
| 9 |  | Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Rating 262: added December 4th, 2013. It was hard to separate ITAOTS’ reputation a decade ago, let alone now, when a whole second generation of internet-addicted purveyors of cult releases have browsed it and solidified its legacy as /mu/core memery, but I felt Jeff Mangum’s sincerity upon first listen and haven’t stopped. The days I revisit it are few and far between now, and I often return to it expecting it to not hold up, but it always does. None of the psych folk records scraping for crumbs in its shadow have ever surpassed it, and none likely ever will. |
| 10 |  | The Hotelier
Home, Like NoPlace Is There
Rating 293: added February 19th, 2014. I don’t remember where I was for most of my first streams of records. I do remember where I was for this one; the front room of the house, jotting down notes of history homework, just wanting some music on in the background. That plan lasted less than 5 minutes. You can’t NOT feel “An Introduction.” – even on an advance stream, no lyrics pulled up, not familiar with the band at all, I knew I’d stumbled upon a classic, and from my old neck of the woods, no less. I may not have known anyone who committed suicide firsthand growing up, but at several points, the act seemed within reach – Home expands on that unease, the danger of tantalizing release, and the remorseful fallout in unparalleled ways. I saw the band live later that year and the sigh of relief from the crowd was palpable, an “at least we’re here together now” against the confusing, oppressive grind of approaching adulthood. It was a night to cherish. |
| 11 |  | At the Drive-In
Relationship of Command
Rating 326: added June 14th, 2014. I remember thinking I had wasted so much time listening to less essential post-hardcore before getting into At The Drive In. That worry seems ridiculous in retrospect; we’re 11% of the way into this haul and Relationship of Command was as pivotal a cornerstone in that genre’s trajectory as anything ever was. It may be a near-universally appreciated classic, but that doesn’t preclude it from opening my eyes even wider than they already were. |
| 12 |  | Mono
Hymn to the Immortal Wind
Rating 343: added September 7th, 2014. It sucks that MONO get unceremoniously lumped in with the million other dime-a-dozen crescendo-core post-rock bands out there because their melodic ebb & flow and dynamic extremities blow all their competition out of the water. Hymn is narrowly my second favorite album by the group these days, but although I prefer You Are There (in part because it was my gateway to the group), this is arguably the band’s creative peak and their most uplifting release. |
| 13 |  | Astronauts
Hollow Ponds
Rating 361: added October 15, 2014. Senior year of high school. College applications. The world’s caving in a little bit, feeling smaller and more vulnerable. I don’t know where I’m going, but I do know I’ll be moving halfway across the country upon the completion of the school year one way or another. I’ll eventually make some good out of that – for now, Hollow Ponds’ foggy, dreary uncertainty has me caught up in the moment. I’d likely never have heard of this one without Sowing’s excellent review. |
| 14 |  | Cymbals Eat Guitars
LOSE
Rating 391: added December 18th, 2014. A last-minute venture for my 2014 favorites list meant I barely scratched the surface of this dense, tortured indie rock record, but within a few more months I’d unravel its storytelling enough to place Joe D’Agostino high on my list of favorite lyricists ever, and he hasn’t let me down since. |
| 15 |  | The Dismemberment Plan
Emergency & I
Rating 440: added May 24th, 2015. Emergency & I’s mania threatened to put a damper on my momentary relief one week before graduation. I loved the wacky cuts from the jump and the downcast ones would find pertinent footing sooner rather than later. Nearing the tail end of my twenties now, the album describes that era of uprooting with such blunt force it supersedes camp and cringe and circles back around to simply feeling open as can be. I’ve lifted so many notes from it in my own songwriting over the years, too – and you’ll see more of that on display before the end of 2024. |
| 16 |  | The Weakerthans
Reconstruction Site
Rating 464: added July 23rd, 2015. I didn’t dive into The Weakerthans’ discography out of any sense of literary pretense, but I might’ve gained one as a result. I don’t even care that these guys disbanded after such a brief run because that run was so stellar it still confounds me they’re relegated to indie-among-indie obscurity. John K. Samson really is one of the best writers of all time, and while major tracks on his solo albums and The Weakerthans’ other work may overshadow some of the deeper cuts here, Reconstruction Site is their most accessible, emotionally charged, and cohesive project. |
| 17 |  | Talk Talk
Laughing Stock
Rating 504: added December 8th, 2015. Look at the time, it’s vent o’clock! In my first semester of college, I contracted strep and mono at the same time, dealt with allergic reactions to three courses of antibiotics, and spent a month off campus either choking on my own saliva or being rushed to and from the emergency room. By the time I returned (not fully healthy, but as good as I was going to get for several months), finals were upon us, my then-girlfriend had cheated on me in my absence, and I was mentally spiraling without much in the way of an available support network. One saving grace: I lucked into a freshman seminar on the history of guitar, and got the freedom to write about the instrument’s use and influence in any genre. I chose post-rock, mainly as an excuse to drown my sorrows in it under the guise of “research,” and in my historical diligence, there was Laughing Stock, waiting for me to wander into its barren, windswept calm. |
| 18 |  | Number Girl
Sappukei
Rating 538: added January 24th, 2016. I scraped by academically. Winter break passed. I returned, eager to actually do something for myself this semester, only to be stymied by social anxiety. Fuck’s sake, Zack, you almost died two months ago, why get in your head about it? But I did care, and in my reclusion, I turned to Sput. Check the logs: in 2016 I went on a reviewing spree, and one of my earliest offerings was in service of this kickass, abrasive, loud as hell post-hardcore record that still retained a sense of melancholic longing. That winter, I air-drummed my way around campus in the dead of night with this blasting in my earbuds on many a chilly mind-clearing walk. |
| 19 |  | Radiohead
OK Computer
Rating 564: added March 16th, 2016. Skipping a bit ahead here: 2015 to 2016 was the age where I decided it was time to get into Radiohead, and while Kid A and In Rainbows were relatively quick growers, OK Computer was ironically too despondent for me to want to revisit while in such a precarious mental state. My brain wouldn’t let myself “get it.” Fast forward: later that summer I’d narrowly swerve out of a fender-bender while “Airbag” was on and for the rest of that drive I was locked the fuck in. Subsequent listens helped me unpack its full lyrical baggage and history has honored its place in the rock pantheon for good reason. Its gloom hasn’t aged a day. |
| 20 |  | Coldplay
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Rating 574: added March 24th, 2016. Coldplay really released one of the best mainstream pop/rock albums of all time and instead of building on their rescinded critical skepticism decided they never had to try that much again. Ah, what could have been... |
| 21 |  | Japandroids
Celebration Rock
Rating 602: added May 7th, 2016. Some of this smells like stinky pseudo-hip doodoo in hindsight and the production is a godforsaken mess but it’s got “The House That Heaven Built” and that’s one of the best songs ever written and nothing else from this season of my life has had as much staying power, so hey, here’s Japandroids! |
| 22 |  | The Weakerthans
Left and Leaving
Rating 639: added July 18th, 2016. A year to the week after my introduction to The Weakerthans, I dove back in to find this record is just as good, and in spots even more personally potent: my maternal grandparents hail from a tiny rural Canadian village, and Samson’s talk of the great Northern loneliness, leaving home, and economic ruin harken back to reunion trips to the beautiful but impoverished wilderness my ancestors once called home. I’ll be visiting again in a couple weeks, and I’m sure to get a little teary – whether it’s over the poetry or the scenery, we needn’t say. |
| 23 |  | The Dear Hunter
Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional
Rating 683: added September 9th, 2016. My fondness for The Dear Hunter dates back to the Color Spectrum era, but each first listen of their prior output occurred in a block of this list where another album stood out more. I’ll give them their due with Act V, as fitting an end to the band’s central story arc as they could possibly achieve, and a true landmark of modern prog. As overdramatic as this tale of prostitution and political ambition gone wrong can get, it’s got more soul than just about any other prog artists would know what to do with. The execution is staggeringly good. |
| 24 |  | Alcest
Kodama
Rating 719: added September 30th, 2016. Until this past week, it seemed Kodama would go down as my favorite Alcest album, and while I’m no longer sure that’s true, it has a damp, murky quality that renders it the tonal opposite of their stellar new one despite retaining many of the same songwriting mechanisms and fundamental strengths. Most blackgaze goes in one ear and out the other for me, too focused on either the metallic roots or the noisy veneer – this band’s touch has usually been far more thorough than that, and it especially shines here. |
| 25 |  | Drive-By Truckers
American Band
Rating 729: added October 5th, 2016. In less than a month, this sober-minded, outstretched olive branch of an album, as clear cut and empathetic a statement as you could possibly release about the state of American politics ahead of the Trump-Clinton election, would get snubbed for the unflattering reality we’ve all lived through since. The songcraft holds up extremely well – it’s just gutting how much more vitriolic everything’s gotten since this already bleak snapshot in time. |
| 26 |  | The Reign of Kindo
Rhythm, Chord & Melody
Rating 775: added January 14th, 2017. Technical but hooky, suave but inviting, Rhythm, Chord, and Melody is about as Lawful Good as adult contemporary (it’s okay, guys, we can call it what it is) gets in the 21st century. I haven’t attached any deeper meaning to it than that – it’s just inviting and comfy and soothes the soul. |
| 27 |  | Cave In
Jupiter
Rating 808: added February 27th, 2017. I gotta fuck with more Cave In. This record’s gradually earned its way into my regular rotation and somehow makes the most dated aspects of 00’s radio rock feel futuristic and bold. That so many metalcore buffs scoffed at it upon release is just proof of its genre-transcending merit, and I’m way overdue to see what else the band did between this and their post-Scofield era. |
| 28 |  | mewithoutYou
Brother, Sister
Rating 822: added March 24th, 2017. It would be a few more years before I fell deep down the mwY rabbit hole, but my first listen of my favorite album of theirs, Brother, Sister, came here. I’m sad these guys are no more, but they didn’t drop a single dud album, and that’s nothing to take for granted. Glad I got to see them live before their dissolution, too. |
| 29 |  | Oceansize
Frames
Rating 847: added May 29th, 2017. I also gotta fuck with more Oceansize. This is still the only release of theirs I’ve peeped, but in all fairness, its grab bag of sweeping prog climaxes and impeccable groove-keeping checks so many boxes that I know I’m in for a treat whenever the urge to revisit it comes back. It’s exactly one too many “Sleeping Dogs and Dead Lions” away from being a perfect prog rock record. |
| 30 |  | Manchester Orchestra
A Black Mile to the Surface
Rating 888: added July 28th, 2017. I wasn’t a Manchester Orchestra devotee growing up, and A Black Mile to the Surface didn’t change that initially, but the album sank its grim claws in at some point and let me appreciate how all the minutiae snowball into a living nightmare of existential dread. I can only hope its legacy will be slow-growing and permanent; few pseudo-concept albums from this era are as ballsy or immersive; add the career re-defining production and it’s no exaggeration to say A Black Mile reignited Manchester Orchestra’s dimming career arc. |
| 31 |  | Gang of Youths
Go Farther in Lightness
Rating 905: added August 22nd, 2017. Another yin/yang moment: balancing out A Black Mile’s dour clutch on my summer, Go Farther In Lightness was overblown, tender, and just as all-encompassing a listen, albeit in the name of joy. They’d later dial back the bloat and get even more personal, but GFIL remains a formidable, life-affirming bundle of anthems born from attained delusions of grandeur. |
| 32 |  | Modest Mouse
The Lonesome Crowded West
Rating 946: added October 5th, 2017. The Moon & Antarctica may be my favorite Modest Mouse record, but I’d argue The Lonesome Crowded West is the MOST Modest Mouse record, encapsulating the band’s sneering disdain, meandering twang, and barn-burning ferocity more pointedly than their output. I may not share their upbringing – hell, I’ve never traveled further west than Texas - but their geographic Wild West angle is a serviceable backdrop to dissect over-commercialization in the modern age. It’s as relevant now as it was pre-dot com bubble crash. |
| 33 |  | Big K.R.I.T.
4eva Is a Mighty Long Time
Rating 979: added November 21st, 2017. I haven’t bumped this in its entirety in at least 5 years, but I do recall it being a hip-hop highlight of my 2017. The “Classic Interlude” skit lives in infamy in a non-Sput music Discord server I run, where the custom emoji :issaclassic:, depicting the album’s cover, denotes all-time great status, especially for albums just heard or freshly released. |
| 34 |  | The Mountain Goats
All Hail West Texas
Rating 994: added December 4th, 2017. Sooner or later I’ll embark on a full run of The Mountain Goats’ classic output, but in the meantime, All Hail West Texas will suffice as a clear highlight, an interesting collection of character vignettes that work just as well as standalone pieces as they do a cohesive chronicle of unsuspecting underdogs the state over. Hail Satan. Hail, hail. |
| 35 |  | The Republic of Wolves
shrine
Rating 1050: added March 30th, 2018. Hard to say if this is still my favorite TRoW, but the highs are undoubtedly among the band’s best; I’d go so far as to say “The Canyon,” “Birdless Cage,” “Dialogues,” and “Worry If You Want” are all among the best modern rock has to offer. |
| 36 |  | Hop Along
Bark Your Head Off, Dog
Rating 1058: added April 6th, 2018. We’re so overdue for a new Hop Along record. Been a while since I revisited this, but I remember loving the opening run and “Prior Things” in particular. |
| 37 |  | Typhoon (USA-OR)
Offerings
Rating 1093: added April 29th, 2018. My grandfather passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2015. His decline wasn’t easy to watch. Other relatives didn’t want to talk about it – he wasn’t the greatest of role models before I was born – so I stifled a lot of the hang-ups I had about it until hearing this concept record centered on the very subject. There are certainly artsier ways to touch on memory loss, but I guess I needed to hear it verbally, poetically, empathetically; whatever blank space some of these arrangements leave, I filled it with tears. I don’t know if it did any good, but I know it didn’t hurt. |
| 38 |  | The Pillows
Runners High
Rating 1133: added July 4th, 2018. Went on a golden era Pillows binge in anticipation of seeing them live in Cambridge later that summer. Bizarre vibes at that show; go figure, a lot of weebs don’t get out enough to understand gig etiquette. Broke my glasses thanks to panicked crowdsurfer’s kick to the head. Band sounded great though. Would relive the experience. |
| 39 |  | Foxing
Nearer My God
Rating 1156: added August 11th, 2018. The summer of 2018 I worked closing shift at a supermarket and drove home through the woods in the pitch black night. When I needed to force myself to stay awake, the energetic cuts here fit the commute mighty well – by the time I got home, the softer tracks in the back end let me doze off. The whole package is too idiosyncratic to attain mainstream exposure, but I’d like to think most bands of Foxing’s ilk would be wise to take lessons from this “everything at the canvas” approach. The album still captivates me and while I think they could surpass it, it’s currently their career highlight. |
| 40 |  | IDLES
Joy as an Act of Resistance
Rating 1179: added September 1st, 2018. I haven’t turned my back on IDLES as fiercely as some of their early fans have, but I do wish they’d chill for a bit and concentrate all their most chaotic energy and quotable one-liners into a bundle as raucous as this. Too little quality control on the albums since makes Ash a nostalgic boy. |
| 41 |  | Falling Up
Falling Up
Rating 1212: added October 5th, 2018. A friend turned me onto this group who seems like they deserve at least a fraction of the limelight that Thrice and mewithoutYou and Anberlin and every other genre-transcendent Christian-influenced Sput rock act has leveraged across the site’s existence, but alas, their career capstone has barely 100 ratings despite a 4.1 average. Y’all gotta stop sleeping on this. |
| 42 |  | Julia Holter
Aviary
Rating 1238: added October 28th, 2018. Haven’t returned to this in years but I remember being absolutely blown away by it at the time. Sadly didn’t care for Holter’s new record that much, but I owe this and her back catalogue an attentive refresher marathon one of these days. |
| 43 |  | The Beatles
Abbey Road
Rating 1261: added November 19th, 2018. Obligatory rating – I’m no Beatles maniac, but I do respect groundbreaking pop when I hear it; either this or the White Album is my fave by the Fab Four. |
| 44 |  | Bruce Springsteen
Born in the U.S.A.
Rating 1313: added January 12th, 2019. My dad is a huge fan of the Boss – thanks to his taste, The Rising was one of the first albums I ever enjoyed front to back – but I didn’t revisit the musician’s golden years until later in life. Born to Run is his best, but that overlapped with some other special record further back in the list, so his second best album starting with the word “Born” will have to suffice. |
| 45 |  | Shiina Ringo
Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana
Rating 1349: added March 4th, 2019. Words really don’t do this justice. Bold, bizarre, and yet improbably catchy. Maybe the best art pop of all time? It’s gotta be up there. |
| 46 |  | Periphery
Periphery IV: Hail Stan
Rating 1369: added March 31st, 2019. After a decade holding the crown as my favorite band in metal, the djentlemen finally capitalized on their refinement, turning all their strengths up to 11 and shedding the dead weight. This is effectively everything I want out of a Periphery record. Anything else they release is just icing on the cake. |
| 47 |  | Primal Scream
Screamadelica
Rating 1386: added April 17th, 2019. I didn’t fuck with this much upon discovery but recently came to adore it. Whether it’s the soulful numbers of the purely psych/electronic-driven cuts, I could get lost in these hypnotic daydreams forever. |
| 48 |  | Kishi Bashi
Omoiyari
Rating 1425: added May 24th, 2019. Anyone ever see the documentary released a few years after this one? I still gotta get around to that. This is a lovely, imaginative little piece of Kishi Bashi’s twee virtuosity, less sunny than his other stuff, but made all the more powerful for its historical inspiration. |
| 49 |  | Thank You Scientist
Terraformer
Rating 1449: added June 14th, 2019. I don’t know what TYS will realistically look like without Sal but I’m pumped to have seen what I’d call the band’s peak incarnation while they toured for this record. All great prog should allow a sense of humor, and theirs is never lacking. |
| 50 |  | Rosetta
Wake/Lift
Rating 1476: added July 3rd, 2019. Briefly had a space rock/space metal binge right before taking a vacation through the New England/Maritime wilderness. Big sky, little light pollution. This isn’t strictly confined to those genres, but it was adjacent enough to make the stargazing feel cosmically profound. The tones on here are so fuckin massive. |
| 51 |  | Jason Isbell
Southeastern
Rating 1511: added August 6th, 2019. After discovering Isbell through The Nashville Sound, I went on a kick with his back catalogue. Southeastern quickly revealed its earned reputation as his career statement; it’s as reflective, wise, and intimate as any Americana I’ve ever heard, and while nothing he’s done since has reached a high this heavy-hitting and consistent, what realistically could? It’s untouchable. |
| 52 |  | Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon
Rating 1541: added August 30th, 2019. This, on the other hand, is a grandfathered-in classic. I respect what Pink Floyd did for conceptual rock records and tours, but I haven’t personally been won over by their most esteemed output. This is mainly listed because nothing else from this snapshot in time stood out more or had me coming back to it, even if my return listens of this were treated like homework, hoping to unlock some greater reverence for an album I’m pretty sure I’ll probably only find respectable in an emotionally distant sense. |
| 53 |  | We Never Learned To Live
The Sleepwalk Transmissions
Rating 1561: added September 18th, 2019. What was I saying about space metal a couple blurbs back? If you dig those spacious, boomy tones and sci-fi-tinged lyrics and haven’t heard this post-hardcore take on the genre, get on it. Need something new from these fellas so damn bad. |
| 54 |  | Richard Dawson
2020
Rating 1593: added October 12th, 2019. “Jogging” came in out of nowhere to ascend pretty high on the shortlist of my favorite songs of the 2010s. I gotta travel back to Peasant sooner or later and give this more of a shake all the way through. |
| 55 |  | Liturgy
H.A.Q.Q.
Rating 1645: added November 13th, 2019. https://odewilliesfunkybunch.bandcamp.com/track/transcendental-zack-metal |
| 56 |  | Fleet Foxes
Helplessness Blues
Rating 1678: added February 27th, 2020. Woah there’s some crazy respiratory illness spreading on the other side of the world? Pretty wild, but the state of medicine has never been better. I’m sure we’ll contain it soon. And besides, it’s such a beautiful day out, and Robin Pecknold could soothe any concern into submis- |
| 57 |  | Empty Country
Empty Country
Rating 1693: added April 27th, 2020. hahahaha never mind, we’re in for the long haul and everything feels broken and pointless and it’s been so obviously doomed all along here’s some broken and pointless music that makes me feel better since I’m not in the mood to party. thanks, joe |
| 58 |  | U2
PopMart: Live from Mexico City
Rating 1711: added May 5th, 2020. Except moods are also broken and pointless. The prior night, I was in the mood to party, so some friends and I bought, burned, re-burned (to fix audio drift), and groupwatched the DVD of U2’s Popmart Live From Mexico City concert, which I admittedly had seen but not rated before. Everyone else had went in pretty blind. The Discord messages live in infamy: “my man literally strutted onstage wearing sunglasses and bubble wrap and was like ‘you guys ever think about capitalism? my dead mom thought about capitalism’" “’i'm u2's bassist i slappa da lemon’" “’ARRIBA MUCHOS GRACIAS ME MUM'S DEAD’” etc. We ended the night with a renewed desire to stay alive. You just had to be there. |
| 59 |  | Jeff Rosenstock
NO DREAM
Rating 1749: added July 21st, 2020. Hadn’t cared for Jeff to this point and not sure I’ll care for much of his work after it, but NO DREAM and its ska counterpart the following year just hit. Right place, right time. |
| 60 |  | The Microphones
Microphones in 2020
Rating 1777: added August 7th, 2020. Righter place, righter time. Nothing like a Phil Elverum album-song to usher in a fall fraught with making peace with the sadness. |
| 61 |  | The Ocean
Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic
Rating 1811: added September 26th, 2020. “Hey, sadness is like, cyclical, right? On a geological scale, who hasn’t felt a bit of mortal dread? That’s just part of being alive,” I told myself, not completely buying it, but buying it more after hearing this fantastic prog metal than I would’ve otherwise. Later that week, I choked on dinner, was rushed to the hospital, and got diagnosed with a slew of issues (“so, turns out your white blood cells over-attack....everything. and your throat’s abnormally narrow. And your bowels don’t work right. These might be related, but medical literature’s still debating it” wow cool). Sadness IS cyclical, right? |
| 62 |  | Keleketla!
Keleketla!
Rating 1839: added October 13th, 2020. Doing my best to not think about the side effects from the elimination diet I was placed on, I metaphorically gorged on some Afrobeat. I don’t recall just how bad a state I was in the day I discovered this, but I do know it lifted my spirits in the weeks that followed. |
| 63 |  | Nothing
The Great Dismal
Rating 1881: added November 3rd, 2020. For everything else, there’s bleakgaze. |
| 64 |  | MF DOOM
MM.. Food
Rating 1920: added January 6th, 2021. Where were you when the capital got stormed? Apparently I was home listening to MF DOOM rap about food lmao |
| 65 |  | ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Source Tags and Codes
Rating 1927: added January 27th, 2021. All joking aside, this was not a fun month. Following the choking incident, I was placed on steroids and an antibiotic, and coming off them left an avalanche of side effects and symptoms that at times had me struggling to breathe at all. To this day, I’m not sure whether I was merely experiencing panic attacks or if there was a physical obstacle making matters worse – the docs did not seem eager to narrow the problem down. If nobody else got me, post-hardcore acts that Pitchfork rated a 10 then seemingly forgot about got me. [citation needed] |
| 66 |  | BRUIT
The Machine Is Burning...
Rating 1953: added April 27th, 2021. If I had a nickel for every time I rated my AOTY on the same day exactly one year apart, I’d have one nickel, which isn’t technically a coincidence, but it’s strange that it happened even once. This is the best post-rock record this side of the 00’s. The planet is also doomed. :) |
| 67 |  | ERRA
ERRA
Rating 1982: added June 1st, 2021. It’s impossible to describe how awestruck I was on my first spin of “Snowblood.” That was my introduction to ERRA outright, and it left one hell of an impression – to this day it’s one of my favorite metal openers. |
| 68 |  | Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
This is a Mindfulness Drill...
Rating 2033: added July 6th, 2021. Never would’ve expected a trio of covers from an album I hadn’t heard by an artist I hadn’t even heard of to catapult its way to a podium spot on my 2021 list, but here This is a Mindfulness Drill is, and there it went. I haven’t lost anyone in my life to COVID personally, but plenty of people I know lost loved ones during that first year and change, and in compassion as well as direct grief, sometimes you’ve just gotta exhale and eulogize. This did the trick. |
| 69 |  | Foxing
Draw Down the Moon
Rating 2044: added August 6th, 2021. I wasn’t expecting Foxing to course-correct from the lucid fever dream of Nearer My God to their most overtly poppy release to date, but even that description, however accurate, doesn’t convey the ambition of the deep cuts or the subtle success of their re-direction on DDTM. After just shy of a decade of fandom, I finally caught the band live on this tour; it was the first gig I attended since the pandemic began, and I vowed to not take live music for granted again. |
| 70 |  | Low
Hey What
Rating 2094: added September 12, 2021. My Low journey didn’t technically begin here, and it’s hardly begun at all given how many key slowcore releases they had under their belt, but this is the first one that clicked immediately. Glad I could say I was converted while they were still a group – just sad I didn’t try harder sooner. RIP Mimi. |
| 71 |  | Thrice
Horizons/East
Rating 2108: added September 17th, 2021. I think I woke up at like 4:30 AM to jam this front to back before heading to work. Nothing prepared me for how monumental a song like “The Color of the Sky” would be on first listen. Most of the other songs grew on me with subsequent spins. After Palms left me half-impressed and half-disappointed, I quietly wrote off the notion Thrice would ever make a record nearly on par with their pre-hiatus output again. I’m so glad I was proven wrong. |
| 72 |  | Every Time I Die
Radical
Rating 2141: added October 22nd, 2021. Becoming an ETID fan just in time for the group to embarrassingly splinter was pretty awkward, but what a baller record to go out on. |
| 73 |  | Kate Bush
Hounds of Love
Rating 2175: added November 16th, 2021. Got introduced to Kate Bush the way everyone ought to: by a lifelong Kate Bush fan salty about her music’s use in a smash hit television show. “You haven’t seen Stranger Things, right?” “Right.” “Okay, I’m showing you Hounds of Love right now, while I still can.” That’s friendship. |
| 74 |  | Pedro the Lion
Control
Rating 2209: added January 23rd, 2022. Control is my favorite Pedro The Lion release, but I had only just discovered it the week I posted my review of David Bazan’s then most recent album, Havasu. That review secured my status as a Sput contributor, or so I’ve been told, and while I swore I wouldn’t let anyone down and I’d do like, a review a month as my own personal quota, that hasn’t panned out. Making music’s been the primary goal lately, not writing about it, but I chime in when I have stuff to say. Thanks for putting up with my spu(r)ts of activity. |
| 75 |  | Gang of Youths
Angel in Realtime
Rating 2244: added March 1st, 2022. As bombastic as Go Farther in Lightness is, this is everything I really wanted out of a Gang of Youths follow-up. The band also held my favorite gig of 2022, sealing Angel in Realtime’s fate as my AOTY. |
| 76 |  | Massive Attack
Mezzanine
Rating 2255: added March 3rd, 2022. “Teardrop” came on and my limbs convulsed into Leonardo DiCaprio Pointing Meme position. |
| 77 |  | Marvin Gaye
What's Going On
Rating 2283: added March 22nd, 2022. It’s just so clearly and unambiguously one of the most important albums of all time, and while the historical details may feel a little hokey from a more cynical age, you can’t knock the soul in it. You just can’t. These arrangements ascend scrutiny. |
| 78 |  | Peregrine (USA-MA)
the awful things we've done
Rating 2314: added April 14th, 2022. hey it’s your pal ash. if you like nth-wave emo and have still not heard this, go listen to it right now. you’re welcome! |
| 79 |  | Vansire
The Modern Western World
Rating 2360: added May 16th, 2022. I cringe a little at generational distinctions and all but the little cymbalmonkey in my brain keeps going “you can’t like this! It’s for zoomers! It’s for zoomers!” and I ignore that because music = good. Novel concept, I know. |
| 80 |  | Nick Mulvey
New Mythology
Rating 2391: added June 15th, 2022. One of my favorite indie(?) folk records of the last few years. Nothing particularly mind-blowing or profound on it, but the songwriting just sticks with a breezy humility. Refrains from this are still popping back in my head two summers later. |
| 81 |  | Asunojokei
Island
Rating 2430: added August 2nd, 2022. If I recall correctly, this is the first time an artist retweeted my positive review of their work. They were surely just boosting their own name for PR – language barrier and all, too - but it’s still cool to get my writing spread from the source. |
| 82 |  | Drive Like Jehu
Yank Crime
Rating 2441: added August 11th, 2022. How on god’s golden brown earth did it take me nearly 26 years to check out Yank Crime jfc ash. I haven’t stopped compensating for my late arrival since. |
| 83 |  | The Afghan Whigs
How Do You Burn?
Rating 2490: added September 27th, 2022. Thus far I’ve only heard The Afghan Whigs’ post-hiatus work, but I’m bound to circle back to their classic 90s material sooner rather than later. There’s no weak link on this record and some of the cuts (“Domino and Jimmy,” especially, WHEW) are among my favorite tracks of its year. Deserves a hell of a lot more than 39 Sput ratings. |
| 84 |  | Birds in Row
Gris Klein
Rating 2519: added October 26th, 2022. “I’M DROOLING I’M SWEATING I’M PISSING I’M SHITTING MY FEELINGS” damn bro, mood. pos’d. |
| 85 |  | Jambinai
Apparition
Rating 2547: added November 15th, 2022. For those yet to hear Jambinai: it’s post-rock decked out with traditional Korean instruments, offering a unique spin on the usual crescendos. Can’t go wrong starting anywhere, but this is a bite-sized dose of their charm and one of my favorite EPs of the decade thus far. |
| 86 |  | Little Simz
No Thank You
Rating 2575: added December 13th, 2022. Real shit, I only jammed this all the way through one time since it dropped super late into LIST WEEK 2022, but I remember thinking it was on par with and even more compact than Introvert. I think Simz has another classic in her, too; though I don’t play her stuff super often, she’s one of my favorite hip-hop artists and deserved a nod somewhere on here. |
| 87 |  | Television
Marquee Moon
Rating 2584: added January 29th, 2023. Sad to say I didn’t hear this until Tom Verlaine’s passing, but the record hasn’t left my rotation since. The interplay and arrangements are leagues more advanced and self-assured than much of the proto-punk that preceded it and they’re certainly more accessible than much of the (post-)punk that followed it, almost shedding each scene’s pretenses entirely in service of a new conception of rock music, not alien to the era’s chart-toppers in sound, just in social sphere. What a neat, addictive record. |
| 88 |  | The Veils
...And Out of the Void Came Love
Rating 2620: added March 14th, 2023. okay yeah chunks of this are pretty corny in retrospect but it hit at the perfect time and the gold here is glimmery and pure. Still a chamber rock highlight of the 2020s. |
| 89 |  | Foo Fighters
But Here We Are
Rating 2654: added June 7th, 2023. I’m not even a Foos superfan or anything; Dave just has that untouchable charisma, and the tribute-minded framing of this record focuses his quality control to great lengths. Play it loud, play it proud. |
| 90 |  | Geese
3D Country
Rating 2680: added June 23rd, 2023. I’m not that fond of my review for this one, but it needed SOMETHING written about it and I gave it a shot – one year later, I love the highs as much as I did on my unpredictable first listen, though the deep cuts don’t transfix me on the same level as they once did. Doesn’t change the fact this is one of the most exciting bands in rock today; I can only hope they don’t back themselves into a safe spot too early. |
| 91 |  | Lonnie Holley
Oh Me Oh My
Rating 2718: added August 31st, 2023. Once or twice a year I absorb a record I appreciate more as a historical artifact or personal diary more than a musical experience, and I’ve excluded most of those entries from this list, but Lonnie Holley’s latest might stand the test of time more poignantly than the rest; the unshakable versatility of these compositions and the spiritual center of the record verge on otherworldly. |
| 92 |  | Sufjan Stevens
Javelin
Rating 2736: added October 9th, 2023. AOTY 2023, already wrote about it plenty, get well suf |
| 93 |  | underscores
Wallsocket
Rating 2776: added November 15th, 2023. Currently sitting at a 3.4 community average, this record got elevated by a few obnoxious platforms and I fear that kinda diluted the potential hype for it here, but make no mistake, it’s a grand, immersive, fucked up world of an album that has every right to go down as one of the most genre-evasive and progressive musical statements of the 2020s. It impressed on first listen – made me a little uncomfortable even, which I think is only further proof of its trailblazing heart – and it’s only grown on me more since. |
| 94 |  | Miles Davis
Bitches Brew
Rating 2805: added February 8th, 2024. At the start of this year, I endeavored to work through a sizable backlog of key albums and artists I hadn’t thoroughly explored, primarily from the 50s through 00s. Spent most of the winter jamming jazz, a genre I’d only dipped my toes into previously. For the time being, Miles Davis really does seem to be the GOAT; love most of the stuff I’ve heard from him, but Bitches Brew is on another level entirely. |
| 95 |  | Nick Drake
Pink Moon
Rating 2822: added February 15th, 2024. honestly I think the main reason I put off checking this out for so long is how hideous the album cover looks as a tiny jpg. The music within is anything but cramped or ugly – Drake’s guitar technique is gorgeous and his voice goes down smooth as butter. |
| 96 |  | Peter Gabriel
Melt
Rating 2864: added March 18th, 2024. So swept away by this I didn’t even realize until several spins in that there weren’t like, any cymbals at all. Peter, you’re cracked, bro |
| 97 |  | The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Electric Ladyland
Rating 2904: added April 30th, 2024. I’m shocked how quickly the Jimi Hendrix Experience evolved from the conventional gold standard of 60s guitar rock to the psychedelic masterclass that is Electric Ladyland. Three LPs in two years and that much progression already? Imagine if he didn’t go so young. Fuck, man. |
| 98 |  | Simon and Garfunkel
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Rating 2919: added May 8th, 2024. I’d heard some Paul Simon previously – Graceland and various S&G singles, mainly – but I was completely swept away by this album’s opener and the rest didn’t do much to divert my attention. I was locked the fuck in. |
| 99 |  | Stevie Wonder
Songs in the Key of Life
Rating 2955: added June 6th, 2024. Normie-ass stretch of albums here, I know, but they’re all-timers for a reason. Has anyone exuded as much swag as Stevie Wonder since his creative prime? I reckon you’d be hard-pressed to say otherwise. |
| 100 |  | Alcest
Les Chants de L'Aurore
Rating 2995: added June 21st, 2024. Prioritizing the backlog has of course come at the cost of not checking out many 2024 releases, but narrowly topping Frail Body, Vampire Weekend, Knocked Loose, and Beth Gibbons’ latest LPs is this hot off the presses Alcest record, brimming with sunlit warmth and cathartic joy. I jumped in my seat and got goosebumps when the first harsh vocals came in on “L’Envol.” Even if something else surpasses it later this year, I’m confident it’ll land no lower than my year-end top 5. “Okay but what was your actual 3000th rating, Ash?” Locktender’s Sage: I EP, tonight. Not bad, but surely not as good as this, ya dig? |
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