231. MILLENCOLIN – HOME FROM HOME
(2002 – T13 G8 B3 UB0)
Millencolin are a punk band who in their early days were predominantly ska based but their 3 albums that make my list are from the middle of their career when they were a bit more straight forward melodic punk rock. “Home From Home” starts off with a couple of bangers including my favourite off the album “Fingers Crossed”, it then drops off a bit before a strong end which includes “Afghan” about the war in Afghanistan. Below is “Man or Mouse” which is the albums opener and midway has a bit of a fellow Swedish band Hives feel about it.
232. DEAF HAVANA – FOOLS AND WORTHLESS LIARS
(2011 – T13 G11 B1 UB0)We have our first band to appear twice in the chart. They made up the illustrious 250th spot with “Old Souls” and are now back with the album prior to it in “Fools And Worthless Liars”. This is the first album after losing their screaming vocalist and was a bit of a jolt at first but gradually this album grew on me, and probably still has room to grow more. It has a lot of good tunes but rarely dips into banger territory.
233. EMERY – YOU WERE NEVER ALONE
(2015 – T12 G8 B2 UB0)
Emery were my favourite screamo type band at the height of that genre’s powers in the mid 00s. All 6 of their albums make the top 250 (barring their 7th one released last year which hasn’t been through “the process” yet). Their albums have gradually regressed over time and stat fans will find it interesting that their chart positions for the 6 albums, in order, almost make a straight line. This album has plenty of nice songs on but not enough strong ones to push it higher. Emery are another band with dual vocals but they both share the screams and the melodic vocals and often have overlapping melodies which is most appealing. This albums just not as good as their others.
234. YELLOWCARD – Ocean Avenue
(2003 – T13 G7 B4 UB0)
Probably the most stereotypical pop-punk band on my list and they at least have the quirk of a violin player. I can’t help but enjoy this album though. There’s some nice “middle 8’s” and changes to keep it interesting and though it might not be every discerning listeners choice, its made the list. There’s some big misses like “Life of a Salesman” which says “dad” way too much to be enjoyed, but there’s a couple of bangers to start and then later in the album the near acoustic “View From Heaven” with added female vocals is a nice song with a little beautiful section about 2 mins in. Enjoy if you want. watch out for the so-2003 hair styles too. (please note i noticed my overlord spreadsheet had gone a bit to cock and this should have been 237, but not time to fix that now… on we must plough, its all much the same anyway, as song rank change can sometimes shoot you up or down the chart by up to 20 places)
235. NEW END ORIGINAL – THRILLER
(2001 – T11 G5 B3 UB2)
New End Original are one of Jonah Matranga’s approx 132 bands he is a part of. They only did one album and half of it I adore, the rest is generally meh. The half I adore has one of my favouritst ever songs in “Hostage”. It starts with a haunting drum roll and guitar scale, and gradually builds and builds to the screaming “back off or someone will die” repetition at the end. love it. Most of the good and bangers occur early in the album, just a shame the 2nd half couldnt match the first.
236. MY AWESOME COMPILATION – FRONTIERS
(2008 – T10 G8 B1 UB0)
MAC are definitely one of the smaller bands on the list. They are a band of the mid-2000s which remind me of bands like Bennet from the late 90s. I managed to see them 3 times always inadvertently as a support act (to Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack and Hell Is For Heroes) and was always enjoyed them. I only had their debut EP though until Spotify enlightened me to the presence of 2 albums 10 years too late. Yesterday I discovered they were from Leicester which nearly booted them off this list. Anyway here’s the only video off their 2nd and final album. 1st album will appear further up the list.
237. I AM THE AVALANCHE – AVALANCHE UNITED
(2011 – T12 G7 B2 UB1)
Another classic east coast US style punk band, I Am The Avalanche were created by the singer of The Movielife after they split in 2003 (recently reunited). I quickly fell in love with “Brooklyn Dodgers” when I heard it a only a year or so ago and like the majority of this album, especially the first half. Their other 2 albums spread 9 years apart aren’t as good, so this will be their only appearance. In case your wondering “Whatever happened to the Brooklyn Dodgers?”, as mentioned in the song… they became the LA Dodgers in Baseball in 1958.
238. THE MENZINGERS – RENTED WORLD
(2014 – T12 G8 B2 UB0)
The Menzingers are a band I only stumbled upon recently, when I heard their latest album “After The Party” which will appear later in the chart. this is their prior album and 4th one. They have that east coast US punk sound to them and are based in Philadelphia with references to the area and other east coast locations just to add to it. As I’m fairly new to them I can sense their albums will eventually climb the chart, but this one for now is at 238. Opening track “I Don’t Want To Be An Asshole Anymore” sets the tone (great vid below), and in the comments another fave and softer sound on “Where Your Heartache Exists”.
239. OZMA – SPENDING TIME ON THE BORDERLINE
(2003 – T12 G8 B2 UB0)
What an appropriate title considering my initial post on this list. Geek-rock outfit Ozma were a band that filled the gap Weezer took post-Pinkerton and their first album could almost be considered as Weezer’s 3rd it was so close in style and vocal sound. By the time Ozma got to their 3rd album though with “…. Borderline”, the quality had dropped off a tad. The first half of the album is disappointing but the 2nd still had some good songs on here including the long awaited “Game Over” which was hovering around for a couple years before appearing on an album (though it wasn’t as good when recorded in the end). Ozma dropped off a cliff after this album and then reappeared even worse (IMO) in 2014. Here are 2 songs from this one though, “Turtleneck Coverup” with its over the top solo towards the end and “Utsuk… (something Japanese) which steadily builds and includes a flute solo of sorts.
240. SMASH MOUTH – FUSH YU MANG
(1997 – T12 G8 B2 UB0)
Its that band what gone did “Walkin’ on the Sun” and “All Star”, the latter isn’t on this album and both songs are nothing like the rest of the album. No other Smash Mouth album makes the list and I did have a snoop on Spotify at what they had been up to since and wasn’t interested. Fush Yu Mang is mainly a ska/punk and straight up punk album. I used to enjoy it a lot more than I do now but it still has a couple of high paced tracks which made the banger list.in “Heave-Ho” and “Pet Names”. The album also includes what I believe was the closing track to BASEketball “Why Can’t We Be Friends”
Phil's Top 250 Albums 