15 For Friday with Joe Compton & JD Edstrada: Today we give you 15 perfect albums PART 1

HUGE DISCLAIMER!!

We are doing something completely different on both our blogs with what we are about to jointly present to you. Does this mean we’re abandoning or changing our philosophies about supporting and talking about Indie Artists and their Art? Hell no. But JD Estrada and I like many diverse things, which amazingly, include mainstream as much as Indies. Let’s be honest, without a lot of the albums on this list, both would not be doing what we do for Indies. So with that being said and in no particular order whatsoever, here are our 15 Favorite Perfect Albums.

NOTE: keep an eye out for #15forFriday (We will probably do this with other subjects every other Friday here and on For Writing Out Loud, JD's blog) 

 

We will start with HONORABLE MENTIONS:   

I am going to start with mine first since I know some of you have already seen this in my first attempt to do this list. 

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION by Megadeth - I know a lot of people would have Rust In Peace on their list and there is no arguing that that album may have the best first 2 songs on it ever, but Countdown delivers all the way through for me. Absolute perfect tone with incredibly insightful lyrics, and Dave's growl is on point.

LETHAL INJECTION by Ice Cube - I know, again, a lot of hip hop fans, especially of Ice Cube, would choose Death Certificate or N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton (which has a smidge of irony for me) but I think track for track this is a better-produced album. The samples are more mature and Cube shows his own growth here while still maintaining that “I just don't give a __” attitude. Songs like Ghetto Bird are great examples of something that probably didn't make the cut on Death Certificate, but then you have musical step-ups like Down For Whatever and Bop Gun which features the Godfather of Funk himself, George Clinton. It also has my 2nd favorite hip-hop song of all time on it: You Know How We Do It. 

REPEATER by Fugazi- As will be the theme throughout I am going to probably have a lot of the right bands on my list but not the right album, 13 Songs or The Argument are the ones people will point to the most but honestly Repeater has the best energy for me. Ian MacKaye has the most powerful way of bringing you in and kicking at you: gentle enough to not be malicious but hard enough to serve notice. 

THE END OF SILENCE by Rollins Band - Blues Punk Rock that serves as much angst and truth as a Fugazi release. The main difference is that Henry is not gentle. He is as in your face as you can get. I defy anyone to listen to this album and not be screaming at the top of your lungs by the end of it. If the opus experimental jamming got removed from this album, it would have made the top 15. That track may be a weird choice, for sure, but that’s Henry Rollins for you. I dare you to ask him to apologize.  

YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU by Matchbox Twenty - I almost think Mad Season can be mentioned here too. What a run this band was on. Yeah, it's commercial in many ways but if you really think about it, you know it and you still can't help yourself. Real World, 3am, Push, Long Day, what a start! The problem with this album and most of Matchbox's catalog is its deep tracks. Argue is awesome but beyond that, this album has a couple I forget are even on it and the same happened with Mad Season. 

UNDERTOW by Tool - I can't tell you how many times I flip-flopped this one with my number #15. Ultimately though, it's that last weird salvo at the end which was its undoing for this list. It’s also something that has kind of become what Tool is now and they have lost me for it. That small glimpse into the future keeps it out of the top 15, but man what a kick-ass album. 4 degrees, Prison Sex, Intolerance, and Bottom. I really hope they capture this sense of rhythm. I really feel like they have lost themselves in their own malaise. This and Aenima are jam-packed with awesome. 

ME AGAINST THE WORLD by 2Pac - The lyrical maestro, the poet of the streets himself. I think few would argue this is not his best album. He may have better singles (in fact, I personally think he does), but this album is full of beats and rhymes that I have never heard before on anything, let alone for its intended purpose of making hip hop. This album transcends a legacy of a man who I think may be the greatest lyricist of all time(not just in hip-hop). This one has 2 Top 5 favorites on it and man if I tried to get it into the 15 as much as I could, it was there until the 2nd to last list for me. So Many Tears and It Ain't Easy are the songs I am referring to but Me Against the World, If I Die Tonight, and even deeper tracks like Outlaw….damn. This album deserves attention and I am happy to talk about it here and anywhere. 

OPERATION MINDCRIME by Queensrÿche - Another album I had on the Top 15 til the last few versions of that list. This to me is the greatest concept album…ever. Yes, I know The Wall exists and spoiler alert, you are going to read more about that one in a moment, but if ever a generation needed to be spoken for and represented, Mindcrime does that tenfold. This album has so many rich deep tracks in it, Speak, The Needle Lies, Suite Sister Mary, and Revolution Calling. It also has some of the best metal hits ever in I Don't Believe in Love and Eyes of A Stranger. Seriously, for all you writers reading this and especially those of you with whom I’ve discussed the 3 Act Structure, this is not the first concept album, but certainly one of the best (yeah I said it) to utilize storytelling in the history of mankind and it does so flawlessly.  

HYSTERIA by Def Leppard - I don't care what anybody says about the commercial audacity of this band and its grip on turning metal into liquid equity, this album has some of the strongest arrangements of all time. Yeah, that's right! Come at me! Animal, the title track Hysteria, Armageddon It, and my favorite song on the album, Run Riot, are all stellar in approach, sound, and just amazing and catchy to the point that you sing the chorus well after the music stops. The second part of the album has a couple of minor hiccups, but I never skip a track on it because they are not bad songs, they just stand in front of the best songs, so I get impatient and they help me stay grounded. 

FULL MOON FEVER by Tom Petty - This was the last album I removed from my Top 15 list and one that also entered later versions of the list because how in the world are we supposed to remember every album? This album is perfect. It does everything Tom Petty wanted to be with the Heartbreakers but couldn't. I can think of another artist who I feel was kind of handcuffed like that in Mark Knopfler (his solo stuff is awesome). Petty digs in his roots and I am not going to talk about the obvious hits that are staples at every karaoke bar on planet Earth but the deeper cuts here are some of the most thoughtful and incredibly moving tracks of any album on my list maybe sans one of them and I will point that one out (even though you won't need me to).  Songs like Feel A Whole Lot Better, Alright For Now, and A Mind With A Heart of its Own are special tracks. I have to say, though, even as much as it’s been played, Yer So Bad is one of my favorite catchy songs. I also don't care who you are, if you aren't woo-hoo'ing during Runnin' Down A Dream, check your pulse. Seriously, please, check it right now. This album rules. 

And now for JD’s honorable mentions. Mr. Estrada, the blog floor is yours. 

Well, Mr. Joe Compton threw down the gauntlet of his honorable mentions for perfect albums of all time. After LOTS of thinking, and I do mean, LOTS of thinking, here’s my top 15 honorable mentions because it was SO hard to narrow down my top 15 that I have an extra 15 left over. Mind you, the criteria for this list is for it to be a NO SKIP album, meaning you put it on and leave it on and possibly hear it two or three times. This means there are better albums out there and I could probably do this with most of my favorite artists, but I pushed myself to get a proper list where not a single track on the album is a bust. By definition, this rules out amazing albums by the likes of Queen, Michael Jackson, and countless other bands and artists that always seem to be able to include a throwaway track or two, or just tracks that don’t measure up to the rest of the album. 

So in no particular order, here are my honorable mentions:

Led Zeppelin III – Is it better than 1, 2, Zoso, or Houses of the Holy? You can make a case that it isn’t and I would probably agree. What I CAN say about Led Zeppelin 3 is that in terms of variety, this is Zeppelin at their best. I mean, opening with Immigrant Song? The blues gem of Since I’ve been Loving you? And then their acoustic tracks. It’s a huge pivot from 1 and 2 and although I have more favorite tracks on both Zoso and Houses of the Holy, when it comes to leaving an album on repeat? This is my Zeppelin album of choice. 

Pink Floyd - The Wall – Choosing a Pink Floyd album for this list was bonkers, so there’s more than one and while listening to make a decision, I remembered how much of a Pink Floyd fan I am. When it comes to the Wall, this is my favorite Pink Floyd album since it’s the first one I was exposed to. But beyond that, the scale of this album, the immediacy of some tracks, and the nuanced nature of others make this my favorite. Being a double album though, The Wall is not an album I could listen to more than twice in a sitting. It’s just too dense. Still, from the visceral Another Brick in the Wall (pts. 1, 2, and 3), the creepy Hey You, having my heartstrings pulled on Vera, the theatrics of the Trial, the heartbreaking and haunting Goodbye Blue Skies, the dark lyrics of Mother, and then Comfortably Numb. This album has it all and as a concept album, it’s high up there on my list. Also, the acoustic riff on Is There Anybody Out There is one of the first things I learned on the guitar.

Pink Floyd - Wish you were here – This is my sentimental Floyd favorite because it has two of my favorite tracks of all time. Still, Wish You Were Here didn’t make the final cut because it’s very short in part, and also because you can make a case for Welcome to the Machine or Have a Cigar of not being elite Pink Floyd tracks. That said, I still love this album.

The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Commatorium – This is probably the album I found hardest to cut from my top 15. I had NEVER heard of The Mars Volta and only knew the band had members from At The Drive-In...and I went into this album blind. Phew...this album hits like a damn freight train and has some of the best drumming I’ve ever listened to. It never loses steam and the sequencing is sheer perfection. Plus, if you’re a writer and need inspiration, if not the lyrics, then read the song titles and it might cure you of any fantasy blocks you may have. 

Elbow - Cast of Thousands – Elbow is one of my favorite bands and I found them completely by accident. I was interning at an ad agency and was tasked with organizing the music room. I was also told if there were repeats of albums that I could help myself. This wasn’t a repeat album and I still took it home with me. It is a slow burn of an album and absolutely gorgeous from head to toe. I remember seeing an interview where they said they were a prog rock band without the shredding or the need for an excess of notes and that’s a perfect way to describe them. They create a wall of organic sound that envelops you more than it hits you and lyrically speaking, Guy Garvey (with collab from the band) delivers line after beautiful line. I’ve known to listen to this album 4 times in a row and again, another hard one to cut. 

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams – How the hell do you review and compare Jack Johnson's albums? “Well, this album makes me smile more often on a Sunday and this one makes me smile more on Tuesdays.” Seriously, Jack is so damn good and his first three albums have no throwaway tracks but In Between Dreams is a lovely kind of special. It is sunny Sunday smiley music at its best. And again, borderline guaranteed to make you smile. 

Jorge Drexler - Eco – One of several Spanish albums I’m including on this list is Eco. Jorge Drexler offers such rich lyrics that he’s equal parts poet and musician and this album is one of 10 Latin Rock albums I’d beg you to learn Spanish and listen to. It is beautiful musically, vocally, and lyrically and a bit of my soul is embedded in this highly listenable album. 

Robi Draco Rosa - Vagabundo – From my homeland, Draco is a fascinating guy and if you haven’t heard his English album, Mad Love, then what the hell are you doing reading this blog? Again, another hard album to cut because it brings everything. Musically speaking, I like it more than Mad Love just because it is a bit rawer. I also love that when he goes dark on this album, he goes DARK. Another album worth learning Spanish for. 

Gustavo Cerati - Bocanada – If you know someone that loves Latin Rock, they will know the name Gustavo Cerati. Frontman for Soda Stereo, he was also a brilliant musician, guitarist, and vocalist. From his solo discography, this is the album to listen to. It is such an amazing journey and really takes you to all sorts of wonderful places. To this day, the biggest loss in Latin rock for me and millions of fans. 

Weezer - Blue album – ten tracks, gloriously ’90s flavored with some throwback goodness, The Blue Album is still the album I’m amazed at because Rivers Cuomo really brought it. Sure, Say it Ain’t So, the Sweater Song, and Buddy Holly are 90s staples, but listen to My Name is Jonas or Surf wax America and you have tracks that will stand the test of time in fun and unique ways. 

Jane’s Addiction - Ritual de lo habitual – Released in 1990, this is one of the best alternative rock albums of all time and didn’t make the list because one track just didn’t hold up. I’ll let you decipher which, but I can say it isn’t Been Caught Stealing, Three Days, or one of the best album openers ever, Stop.

Pearl Jam - No Code – at the height of Pearl Jam’s Fucking TicketMaster days, they released No Code with no hubbub, no press release, and barely any labeling. My story with this album goes thusly: I’m at Spec’s at my local mall. I’m looking at albums and I start browsing the New Releases rack. I find the cover intriguing. I flip it, and don’t see a track listing, but I do see a little sticker that says "New Release from Pearl Jam" and almost lose my absolute shit. I go to the cash register, and they say they can’t sell it to me because it’s actually releasing the next day. I had to have the face of pure heartbreak rivaling and surpassing Puss in Boots from Shrek because the guy pretty soon went, “Ok, OK...just don’t say you bought it here.” To this day, my favorite Pearl Jam album and for my money, the best one to listen to back to back to back. My record is 8 or 9 times in a row. 

Blind Melon - Soup – One of my favorite bands and one of the best albums of the 90s. People were pissed that they didn’t get No Rain parts 2 and 3 and ignored this album. This just goes to show that people are stupid. This album made it all that harder to learn of Shannon’s passing though how remarkable that in only 2 albums he had such an impact. Musically, it’s a big F U to the record label that wanted to dictate what they should play and I absolutely love it more for that. 

Soda Stereo - Sueño Stereo – I mentioned Cerati, so I had to mention his original band. I actually heard Sueño Stereo before any other of Soda’s albums and I actually listened to the entire disc AT the store before buying it. What a swan song of an album. Love the electronic touches, but more than anything, the flow of this album is just spectacular. 

So those are the 15 that DIDN’T cut it...care to see the ones that did here https://freshbutteredpopcorn.blogspot.com/2022/11/15PERFECTALBUMS.html