20 Favorite Albums

The albums below are presented in order according to how much I think I loved them, when I did love them. With the exception of OK Computer , these are all albums to which I still know every word of every song (what the hell is he saying most of the time, anyway - but I do know the words to Exit Music, and yes, I had to look them up).

1. Kings of Convenience: Quiet Is the New Loud - I put in more hours listening to this album than I have any other. Without exaggeration, I had this in my six-disc CD changer for three solid years, listening to it several times through every week. The listening culminated in going to see them in Columbus, which was one of the best shows I've ever been to.

2. Radiohead: OK Computer - Who hasn't loved this album at one point?

3. Iron & Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days - Another quiet album I connect with for an unknown reason.

4. Hootie & The Blowfish: Cracked Rearview - Soundtrack to my freshman year of high school and a trip to Poland.

5. Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill - While at 14 years old, I probably wasn't the target audience for her music, this was definitely the soundtrack to my sophomore year of high school. I do find most of the songs pretty annoying now, but I like the acoustic version she released a couple of years ago; took the almost-whiny edge off and just left pretty songs sung quietly and with far less angst.

6. Elliott Smith: XO - Definitely my favorite mix of slow and fast Elliott Smith songs, and maybe his only album on which I like every song.

7. Weezer: (blue album) - Another album everyone in the world liked/likes.

8. Aqualung: (self-titled) - I'm not sure why they thought American audiences would like this cheesy cover more than this awesome one as well as liking the addition of the stupid title "Strange and Beautiful," but they were wrong. I was walking around a Virgin Records store during my semester abroad when I heard this album playing overhead. The addition of a few not-very-good songs on the American version, and his subsequent mostly-failure of a follow-up album have been extremely disappointing, but every track on this debut is worth listening to.

9. The Cranberries: No Need To Argue - I got on this train fairly late, but also loved "Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We" and "To the Faithful Departed."

10. Mariah Carey: (self-titled) - Say what you will, but she does have an incredible voice, and her debut album showcased it well (according to my nine-year-old ears).

11. Weezer: Pinkerton - I don't think there's a better summer soundtrack out there.

12. Rufus Wainwright: Poses - His only album that's pretty consistently good from beginning to end; this one almost doesn't make the list because I hate "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" which makes two appearances on the album.

13. Ben Folds: Rockin' the Suburbs - I can't stand tracks 7-11 on this album, but the rest is just so damn good I can hardly stand it.

14. Muse: Absolution - The blend of classical piano with strong melody, strong voice and heavy guitar is so great on this album, but they failed miserably with their most recent, Black Holes and Revelations.

15. Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning - With four songs I really don't like on the album (sorry, Emmylou Harris, but I don't think you really contributed anything), this one barely makes it on the strength of the four songs I love ("At the Bottom of Everything," "Lua," "First Day of My Life" and "Road to Joy").

16. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - An album put together nearly as well as "OK Computer," with the title track leading the way.

17. Band of Horses: EP - I saw these guys by chance as the opening act for Iron & Wine, and they blew me away. Their more polished album lost the intensity and sincerity of the EP.

18. Alanis Morissette: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie - As good a follow-up as I could have hoped, at the time. I really did love all 17 songs.

19. Portishead: Dummy - Love every song.

20. MxPx: all albums up to Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo; Slick Shoes: Rusty; Ninety-Pound Wuss: (self-titled); NOFX: Punk in Drublic - I have to put all of these together because they're all so ridiculous. I still feel naughty when I listen to NOFX's "Perfect Government." (And who the fuck are you, anyway? Who the fuck are they? Who the fuck am I to say? What the fuck is really going on?)