The Albums That Always Bring Me Back For More, Part 2

In part one, I listed ten of my favourite albums that I can't get enough of. If you haven't read part one yet, you should obviously start there.

Before I get into the top ten, what about those albums that didn't quite crack the top twenty but were damn close and are at least worthy of a brief mention?

Honourable Mentions

The following albums are presented in alphabetical order by band name.

Collective Soul - Collective Soul (1995)
Essential Tracks: "Untitled," "The World I Know," "Where the River Flows," "Gel"
Filler Track: "Bleed"

Copeland - You Are My Sunshine (2008)
Essential Tracks: "Should You Return," "The Grey Man," "On the Safest Ledge," "What Do I Know?"
Filler Track: "Strange and Unprepared"

Extreme - III Sides to Every Story (1992)
Essential Tracks: "Warheads," "Stop the World," "Rise 'N Shine," "Who Cares?"
Filler Track: "Seven Sundays"

Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (1997)
Essential Tracks: "Monkey Wrench," "Hey, Johnny Park!" "My Hero," "Everlong"
Filler Track: "See You"

Galactic Cowboys - Space In Your Face (1993)
Essential Tracks: "You Make Me Smile, " I Do What I Do," "Blind," "About Mrs. Leslie"
Filler Track: "Space in Your Face"

Incubus - A Crow Left of the Murder... (2004)
Essential Tracks: "Agoraphobia," "Talk Shows on Mute," "Southern Girl," "Here in My Room"
Filler Track: "Priceless"

Mae - The Everglow (2005)
Essential Tracks: "We're So Far Away," "Someone Else's Arms," "The Ocean," "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making"
Filler Track: "Anything"

Pixies - Doolittle (1989)
Essential Tracks: "Wave of Mutilation," "Here Comes Your Man," "Monkey Gone to Heaven," "La La Love You"
Filler Track: "Crackity Jones"

Radiohead - The Bends (1995)
Essential Tracks: "Fake Plastic Trees," "Just," "My Iron Lung," "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
Filler Track: "Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was"

The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993)
Essential Tracks: "Cherub Rock," "Today," "Disarm," "Mayonaise"
Filler Track: "Sweet Sweet"

Without Further Ado: The Top Ten

10. Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)

Dream Theater is composed of some of the best musicians on the planet, so impressive musicianship is expected. But their song writing is hit and miss, so this can lead to excessive noodling and showing off, and songs that are three times longer than they need to be. James LaBrie's vocals are sometimes thin and he is easily the band's weakest element. All of these issues arguably apply to Scenes from a Memory, but it is still 77 minutes of pure heavy metal magic and Dream Theater's best album by a wide margin.

Scenes from a Memory is an elaborate concept album about past lives, illicit love, and murder, opening with a session of hypno-regression and ending with an unexpected jolt. There is no album that I've listened to from start to finish in my car more times than this one. It's an awesome album for a long drive.

Essential Tracks: "Overture 1928," "Strange Deja Vu," "Home," "Finally Free"
Filler Track: "Through Her Eyes"

9. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (2002)

I remember the first time I heard Porcupine Tree's "Blackest Eyes," album opener to In Absentia. It was a bizarre blend of heavy metal with REM/U2-style pop rock, and I wasn't sure if I liked it. This was another Amazon.com recommendation, and I had purchased it entirely unheard on the strength of the rave reviews. Fortunately, second song "Trains" was an instant classic, soon becoming one of my favourite songs of all time. And I now love "Blackest Eyes," too.

In Absentia is a diverse progressive rock album, with no two songs sounding alike. It is arguably a concept album about social deviants, but that's not a major factor in my enjoyment of it. It is musically adventurous, unendingly interesting, and, like all Porcupine Tree albums, even better in DVD Audio surround sound. I'm also a big fan of Steven Wilson's atmospheric, layered vocals.

Essential Tracks: "Trains," "The Sound of Muzak," "Gravity Eyelids," "Heartattack in a Lay By"
Filler Track: "Wedding Nails"
Runner-Up: The Incident (2009) - "The Incident"

8. Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance (2000)

What is amazing about The Swiss Army Romance is that it is only Chris Carrabba and his acoustic guitar (plus awesome use of female backing vocals), but it never feels like anything is missing. His guitar playing is brilliantly rhythmic and almost percussive, providing a surprisingly complete soundscape for his passionate vocals to soar over top of. I was doing similar things with my acoustic guitar before I knew Dashboard Confessional even existed, but I was never even close to this successful at it.

Most importantly, every song on The Swiss Army Romance is something special. There are few albums that are this emotional, this powerful, while being so deceptively simple.

Essential Tracks: "The Sharp Hint of New Tears," "Turpentine Chaser," "A Plain Morning," "Age Six Racer"
Filler Track: "Living in Your Letters"
Runner-Up: So Impossible (2001) - "Hands Down"

7. Alice in Chains - Dirt (1992)

Alice in Chains was the best thing to come out of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 90s (even though it is tough to compare their distinctive sound to other great Seattle bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana), and Dirt is their undisputed masterpiece. Lyrically dark and honest, musically eerie and unique. Years before I was doing the Dashboard Confessional thing with my music, I was trying to do something more like this, but with none of the life experience and absolutely no understanding of real pain. (And no guitar skills anywhere near Jerry Cantrell, who was my guitar hero until Ty Tabor came along.)

Essential Tracks: "Them Bones," "Rooster," "Angry Chair," "Would?"
Filler Track: "Hate To Feel"
Runner-Up: Jar of Flies (1994) - "Nutshell"

6. Green Day - American Idiot (2004)

I was a pretty big fan of Green Day during the Dookie era, but they dropped off my radar in a big way in the mid-90s. When American Idiot was released, it received mostly rave reviews, but I was skeptical and held off checking it out until the release of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" as a single. When I finally listened to it, I was definitely impressed. Green Day had come a long way from Dookie. "Jesus of Suburbia" was an amazing achievement for the band. But I still didn't really care. I didn't give the album the time it deserved.

Fast forward to 2009 and the release of 21st Century Breakdown. Impressed again by Green Day's growth, I gave American Idiot another listen. And, holy shit, this whole album is fantastic! Where previously I had fixated on "Jesus of Suburbia" and the singles, and hadn't really paid attention to the through story, I was now recognizing the album's depth. Every song adds to the whole. It is not only one of the best concept albums in my collection, it has become one of my favourite albums period. I don't even really consider myself to be a Green Day fan, but... probably I should.

Essential Tracks: "Jesus of Suburbia," "Give Me Novocaine," "Wake Me Up When September Ends," "Homecoming"
Filler Track: "She's a Rebel"

To be continued... again... sigh.

Sorry, due to time constraints, I am saving the top five for part three, hopefully going live later this week.

Three of the top five have already been sussed out by my brother in the comments to part one, if you are curious. My brother isn't really familiar with 5 and 3, so it's not a big surprise that he didn't figure those out.

Edited to add: part three is here.