FKA twigs - LP1

8.5

vibrant, questioning, erotic, textured, shrine

Standouts:

"Lights On"

"Pendulum"

"Two Weeks"

St. Vincent - St. Vincent

8.7

teched-out, next age, reborn, religious unease, in command

Standouts:

"Huey Newton"

"I Prefer Your Love"

"Digital Witness"

Joni Mitchell - Blue

9.8

fondness, needing someone, traveling, melancholy, beautifully unusual

Standouts:

"My Old Man"

"This Flight Tonight"

"Carey"

Toro y Moi - Causers of This

8.8

muggy, smooth, club, skittish, suspension

Standouts:

"Thanks Vision"

"Low Shoulder"

"Causers of This"

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

8.3

long day, foolish love, brokenhearted, distrust, sucker

Standouts:

"Can't Buy Me Love"

"A Hard Day's Night"

"If I Fell"

The Breeders - Last Splash

9.1

laid-back, 90s cool, salvation, playful, unabashed womanhood

Standouts:

"I Just Wanna Get Along"

"Cannonball"

"Divine Hammer"

The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

9.4

synergy, the blues, hellraiser, matured, rollin' and shakin'

Standouts:

"Rocks Off"

"Torn and Frayed"

"Happy"

Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

8.7

warped, scanning rays, kaleidoscopic, alarms, dazed

Standouts:

"Mind, Drips"

"Psychic Chasms"

"Terminally Chill"

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

9.6

breaking, moving on, distrust, betrayal, nerves

Standouts:
"Dreams"
"Songbird"
"Go Your Own Way"

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II

8.9

spectral, frigid, paranormal, entrapped, secluded

Standouts:

"Violent Dreams"

"Celestica"

"Intimate"

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

9.4

troubled, self-conscious, dejected, glimmer in the dark, tempest

Standouts:

"I Should Live in Salt"

"Sea of Love"
"Slipped"

James Blake - James Blake

8.0

precarious love, dissolving, on the fritz, sophisticated beats, falling

Standouts:

"Unluck"

"Give Me My Month"

"I Mind"

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico

9.9

American dissidents, freak scene, street pride, indignity, migration

Standouts:

"Heroin"

"I'm Waiting for the Man"

"Femme Fatale"

Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica

8.1

cosmos, fucking people over, barren, change, existence

Standouts:

"Gravity Rides Everything"

"Lives"

"3rd Planet"

Talking Heads - Remain in Light

9.5

absurdism, nonsense, flowing, afrobeat, unconscious mind

Standouts:

"Once in a Lifetime"

"Houses in Motion"

"Born Under Punches"

Green Day - American Idiot

8.2

middle-class, conservative idiocy, Gen Y, liberating truth, decay

Standouts:

"American Idiot"

"Homecoming/The Death of St. Jimmy/East 12th St./Nobody Likes You/Rock and Roll Girlfriend/We're Coming Home Again"

"Jesus of Suburbia/City of the Damned/I Don't Care/Dearly Beloved/Tales of Another Broken Home"

The Beatles - Help!

9.4

life's troubles, difficult romance, forlorn, reflective, coming-of-age

Standouts:

"Help!"

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"

"Yesterday"

Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

8.4

radio, reminiscence, wiggly, Peter Pan syndrome, extraterrestrial

Standouts:

"Applesauce"

"New Town Burnout"

"Monkey Riches"

Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

9.5

authentic self, missed opportunities, meditations, regeneration, the wonder of the sky

Standouts:

"Fly"

"One of These Things First"

"Northern Sky"

Kanye West - Graduation

9.2

the vacuity of glamour, sky-high dreams, adages, Chicago pride, tutelage

Standouts:

"Can't Tell Me Nothing"

"Flashing Lights"

"I Wonder"

The Smiths - Meat is Murder

8.9

cruelty, abuse, hung head, macabre, dim hope

Standouts:

"That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"

"The Headmaster Ritual"

"Nowhere Fast"

U2 - The Joshua Tree

9.5

desolate, boundless, soulful, globetrotting, awaiting

Standouts:

"Where the Streets Have No Name"

"In God's Country"

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

Wavves - Wavvves

8.5

sun-drenched, demons, rowdy, off meds, no future

Standouts:

"So Bored"

"Beach Demon"

"To the Dregs"

Ramones - Ramones

9.2

NYC sleaze, goofy, youthful abandon, careless romance, peevish

Standouts:

"Blitzkrieg Bop"

"Judy Is a Punk"

"I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement"

Animal Collective - Feels

9.4

surging, nature, pulsating, ebullient, fun with words

Standouts:

"Flesh Canoe"

"Loch Raven"

"Did You See the Words"

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

8.3

wistful, hallucinatory, beatnik, sad women, mysticism

Standouts:

"Just Like a Woman"

"Visions of Johanna"

"Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"

Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE

8.2

sensational, privilege, dirty money, emptiness, white lies

Standouts:

"Pyramids"

"Forrest Gump"

"Thinkin Bout You"

The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream

8.9

otherworldly, Dylanesque, downcast, Springsteenesque, transience

Standouts:

"Red Eyes"

"Burning"

"Eyes to the Wind"

Neutral Milk Hotel - In An Aeroplane Over the Sea

10

Anne Frank, surreal, beauty vs. the grim, spiritual, brass

Standouts:

"Two-Headed Boy"

"In An Aeroplane Over the Sea"

"Ghost"

She & Him - Volume Two

9.8

sweet, sunny, addictive love, separation anxiety, forgetting

Standouts:

"Thieves"

"Home"

"Over It Over Again"

Nirvana - In Utero

9.3

self-disgust, close to death, disillusion, illness, birth

Standouts:

"Heart-Shaped Box"

"Dumb"

"tourette's"

Green Day - Dookie

9.7

boredom, stagnation, psychosis, vicarious, loneliness

Standouts:

"Longview"

"Sassafras Roots"

"She"

Purity Ring - Shrines

8.8

eerie, dark, corporal, devotion, cauldron music

Standouts:

"Belispeak"

"Ungirthed"

"Saltkin"

Animal Collective - ODDSAC

8.3

frightful, bestial, drenched, boggy, musique concrète

Standouts:

"Fried Camp"

"Tantrum Barb"

"What Happened?"

Passion Pit - Gossamer

9.5

self-loathing, distraught twentysomethings, pop parody, iridescent, resilient hope

Standouts:

"It's Not My Fault, I'm Happy"

"Cry Like a Ghost"

"Hideaway"

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

9.6

spooky, bizarre, fantastical, freak show, rejuvenating

Standouts:

"Fireworks"

"Chores"

"For Reverend Green"

Wavves - King of the Beach

9.2

dazed, depression, self-deprecating, Wall of Sound, sha la la la

Standouts:

"Mickey Mouse"

"Baseball Cards"

"Take On the World"

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

8.1

malls, American West, expansion, divinity, mediocrity

Standouts:

"Teeth Like God's Shoeshine"

"Styrofoam Boats/It's All Nice on Ice, Alright"

"Polar Opposites"

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

9.5

retrospective, powerlessness, disappointment, comfort, weather

Standouts:

"Simple Twist of Fate"

"Idiot Wind"

"Shelter from the Storm"

The Postal Service - Give Up

9.7

soulmates, bedroom, twentysomething love, being there, shimmery

Standouts:

"Such Great Heights"

"The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"

"We Will Become Silhouettes"

The Shins - Oh, Inverted World

9.9

idyllic, echoes, breezy, sentient, poetic

Standouts:
"The Past and Pending"
"New Slang"
"One by One All Day"

Panda Bear - Tomboy

9.9

taking responsibility, cumulonimbus, sea, what really matters, self-isolation

Standouts:
"Friendship Bracelet"
"Surfer's Hymn"
"Alsatian Darn"

Nirvana - Nevermind

9.9

frustration, cut-up, adrenaline, Gen X, counterculture

Standouts:
"On A Plain"
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
"Drain You"

The Smiths - The Smiths

9.4

child abuse, breakup, refusing work, malaise, jangly

Standouts:
"Hand In Glove"
"Suffer Little Children"
"The Hand That Rocks The Cradle"

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville

8.5

desperation, submission, objectification, sex abuse, salacious

Standouts:
"Canary"
"Dance of the Seven Veils"
"Girls! Girls! Girls!"

Kanye West - The College Dropout

8.4

emergence, South Side struggle, recovery, soul, the impracticality of college

Standouts:
"We Don't Care"
"Through the Wire"
"Slow Jamz"

The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die

9.3

underdog, mortality, crime, sensuality, slow jams

Standouts:
"Everyday Struggle"
"Juicy"
"Big Poppa"

The Clash - London Calling

9.5

capitalism, working-class, greed, consumerism, reggae

Standouts:
"Rudie Can't Fail"
"Revolution Rock"
"Train in Vain"

Kanye West - Yeezus

8.7

Jamaica, industrial, house, racial inequality, American Psycho

Standouts:

"I Am a God"

"Bound 2"

"Guilt Trip"

Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister

10

soul-searching, observations, school, obscurity, sorrow

Standouts:
"If You're Feeling Sinister"
"Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying"
"The Boy Done Wrong Again"