10 awesome albums

Disclaimer: These are according to me, and me only. I've been wanting to do this post for a while, and I always love me a good music post, so here we go. Ten awesome albums. What qualified to be on this list? I needed to have the entire album, and needed to know all of the songs on the album. By those criteria alone, my list consisted of ten albums, which seemed easy enough. One honorable mention that I'll make note of at the end, and with that honorable mention, seven of my eight favorite bands have been represented in this blog post. Maybe this post was inspired by the Pandora station I created with said eight bands last night, but either way, here it is.

1. The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, Explosions In The Sky
Average Play Count per song (approx. one year in time): 128.4 (5 songs)
Favorite Song: All of them
I think it's pretty obvious that this is my favorite album of all time. I could talk about this album, and these five songs, for hours, but I'll save some space for the other albums.

2. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, Explosions In The Sky
APC: 55.7 (6 songs)
FS: "Postcard From 1952"
This was a great album to nap to over the summer, and over the time I've known EITS' latest album, each song has grown into its own meaning. Just like The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, each individual song has its own mood attached to it, but altogether creates one aura of a tone for the entire album. It's really cool, and very well done, as well.

3. Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons
APC: 30.3 (12 songs)
FS: "Awake My Soul"
This album actually has the fourth-highest APC, but I rank it ahead of what's next because of the singing-in-the-car factor. This might be the best album to sing to, ever (something instrumental albums can't have), because all of the songs have a different feel to them. There's a much wider gap of cheeriness and quiet on Sigh No More, which makes it a solid overall album.

4. Bon Iver, Bon Iver
APC: 50.9 (10 songs)
FS: "Perth"
Another album that's solid from front to back.  I really like the idea of places being really important in this album, and the concept that the music is far superior to the lyrics. I think that's different from how we think of music now. It's as though this album's story component is far more prevalent than other albums', which makes it really good.

5. In Your Honor, Foo Fighters
APC: 29.5 (10 songs)
FS: "Best Of You"
The loud, rock-heavy side of In Your Honor is exactly as Dave Grohl planned it to be. He said that it would be the "one CD that's all the really heavy rock shit" and seemed to hit the mark pretty well. I absolutely love that the first three songs are all in the same key, and some of the lyrics throughout the songs are really good as well. I think that "Best Of You" might be my favorite song of all time (remember that NewTunes project?), so this album gets a special nod.

6. Young the Giant, Young the Giant
APC: 25.9 (12 songs)
FS: "Garands"
I had heard a few of these songs at the start of summer, bought the CD only knowing said songs, and fell in love with the rest. It's a different style of music, but it's really cool, and by this point, I like all of the songs. It's their first album, I want to see them on tour, and I think that this will be a really good band for a pretty long time.

7. This Will Destroy You, This Will Destroy You
APC: 17.0 (8 songs)
FS: "Villa del Refugio"
This instrumental band has become my second favorite such band, and these guys have some really cool sounds. You'll have to check out this album to get a true sense of the kind of stuff they feature; the first three songs especially. Really good music to just have playing, even if you're not actively listening.

8. Young Mountain, This Will Destroy You
APC: 27.2 (6 songs)
FS: "The World Is Our"
The first album by TWDY is a little less "really cool sounds"-esque than their second album (see above), by which I mean that it's a pretty conventional-sounding set of sounds. But again, the first three songs have such a strong sound together that you have to give each its own credit. Another fantastic album to listen to, and a great first album by a great band who has been around for a while.

9. Wasting Light, Foo Fighters
APC: 26.8 (11 songs)
FS: "Walk"
Foo Fighters' most recent album is another one that's filled from top to bottom of hard rock songs that you can't help but nod your head along to. Well...if you enjoy this music, that is. I suppose that this is the point of our program where I say that not everyone will like this stuff. Foo Fighters being a prime example. Some people think Dave Grohl screams, some people think it's too loud, but hey, if it's not for you, that's cool. I love it, so it makes the cut.

10. Babel, Mumford & Sons
APC: 13.4 (15 songs)
FS: "Below My Feet"
This seemed like a little bit of a stretch, since this is such a recent album, but I think that this will turn out pretty well. I'm not perfectly in tune with everything, but I do know each song with a little effort. A lot of these songs sound like each other, in contrast to Sigh No More, but that doesn't mean they're not good. A solid effort by M&S, and one that's worth a listen.

Honorable Mention: Daughtry, Daughtry
APC: 9.8 (13 songs)
FS: "Home"
There's something about self-titled albums, I guess. Four of the eleven albums here are self-titled, and this is the only Daughtry album on the list. If I had to put my favorite Daughtry songs (from all three albums) onto one album, it would likely be much higher on this list. I just only like a subset of the entire album, so it gets the recognition it deserves, but not much more.

Alright, so there it is. Feels good to actually work through an entire post, much like the one I produced not too long ago today. Pretty solid couple of posts heading into spring break, and I'm sure that there could be something over break that I'll conjure up. Until then, enjoy!