My Top 250 Albums (121-130)

121. FENIX-TX – LECHUZA
(2001 – T11 G10 B4 UB0)

Fenix-TX were a pop punk band who were originally called Riverfenix but were forced to change their name by the family of, the film, Stand By Me’s very own River Pheonix. They did one album under that name and 2 under Fenix TX. This is the 2nd one of those and is pop-punk but with an occasionally harder edge and riff such as in “Pasture of Muppets”. The stand out tracks are all in the first half of the album with opener “Phoebe Cates” named after the famous in the 80s actress, “Katie W” plodding riff, “threesome” with its time change and “Tearjerker” which is a ballad which is surprisingly effective for what on the outside is your standard pop punk band. Checking back on my gig list (yes i have a list for them too, just the dates though not ranked, not that nerdy) I’ve apparently seen then 4 times, but never as the headliner. Once was at the colly supporting “A” and at Reading 2002. I saw them supporting 2 of their peers Blink-182 and New Found Glory, neither of whom come anywhere near the list. sorry fans of them. In fact there are only maybe 3 or 4 albums left that you’d class as straight up pop punk, so this is one is very highly ranked for me in that genre.

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122. TINY MOVING PARTS – CELEBRATE
(2016 – T10 G9 B4 UB0)

Next up are a band I have got into over the past 18 months or so and can see that their albums are probably likely to advance up the list as I get used to the twists and turns in each song. Tiny Moving Parts are an emo math rock trio made up of 2 brothers and a cousin. They have 6 albums apparently, but I’ve only heard the 4 on Spotify so far and the latter 2 (being the most accessible in sound I assume) are the ones that make my list (for now). There’s barely a chord used in most of their songs but the 2 albums that make my list are definitly more conventionally structured and for a band of 3 with the only guitar doing a lot of noodling they make a great noise. The vocals sound a bit like a gaggle of bands I’ve got into recently in The Front Bottoms and McCafferty with that slightly nasally, unhinged sound and it works great with the jagged music they make. My favourites on the album are all generally toward the start of the album, with “Headache” probably being my favourite. To show off the guitar skills they do the now more and more common thing of guitar playthroughs of which i will share one. How they come up with the melodies and remember them in this kind of stuff I have no idea.

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123. OZMA – THE DOUBBLE DONKEY DISC
(2001 – T9 G8 B4 UB0)

Weezer-lite band, Ozma are back with their 2nd album on the list and also the 2nd of their career. As mentioned before these were the band that filled the gap after Weezer’s Pinkerton album before their eventual and somewhat initially disappointing return. The album is split into 2 halves the first being “Russian Coldfusion” and mainly being songs with a russian/soviet sorta feel to them, especially “Korobeiniki (Traditional Russian Folk Song)” which was originally made famous by the Tetris computer game and is expertly turned into a moog / guitar solo filled song. The 2nd half is from their Bootytraps EP and is the better half of the album. “Maybe In An Alternate Dimension” is a geek love song where perhaps in Legoland the geek gets the girl. “Immigration Song” and “Continental Drift” are slow builders and the latter includes a flute solo before ending in Weezer sounding guitars and solos. Its a shame this band gradually drifted away from this sound as they were experts at it. Their debut album is still to come and features a long way up the list.

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124. BEN FOLDS – SONGS FOR SILVERMAN
(2005 – T11 G8 B4 UB1)

This was Ben Folds’ 5th album but 2nd as a solo artist. This album was a much more chilled affair compared to his first solo effort (which is much higher on the list). The Rock-Piano outing begins in not great fashion with 3 of the weakest songs on the album in my opinion, so we’ll move swiftly onto “Landed” which was the main single from the album and is my Ultimate Banger (probably a bad term for the style of song). “Landed” is classic Ben Folds and includes a nice crescendo of “Ba ba”‘s. A lot of this album took me a while to fully appreciate but one night when stacking shelves on a Sunday night shift listening too it, its beauties started to grow on me. “Gracie” is a delicate little song about his daughter. “Late” is a tribute to fellow singer songwriter Elliot Smith, who was stabbed to death at 34 a couple years before this album was released. (I don’t know any songs by him though). “Time” has some of the best vocal harmonies on the album and its feature which lifts many of the songs, but on the 2nd half of “Time” its glorious. Even the country-tinged “Give Judy My Notice” has gradually grown into a favourite. 3 more Ben Folds (Five) albums to come.

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125. THE VANDALS – LOOK WHAT I ALMOST STEPPED IN…
(2000 – T14 G10 B5 UB0)

So to kick off the top half of my list we find comedy punk gang the Vandals. The Vandals have knocked around since 1980 in various forms but the bulk of their work was in the 90s, with albums such as “Live Fast, Diarrhea!” with the glorious anti-authoritarian “Change My Pants (I Don’t Wanna)” on and “Hitler Bad, Vandals Good” with gang vocal sing along “I’ve Got an Ape Drape” about mullets. They also did a Christmas themed album where in one song the letters making the word Christmas were turned into a tale about rotting cocks. But their most consistent album for me is 2000s “Look What i Almost Stepped In..”. It kicks off with “Behind the Music” which convinces them this is the one to help them into the big time, followed by the apologetic punk anthem “Sorry, Mon And Dad”. “GO” is a call for an uprising….. at some stage, but not quite now. “Jackass” and “The New You” are pop-punk glories and “I’m The Boss Of Me” rips through it rebellious 2 mins at dangerous speeds. It all winds up with a song about being “Crippled and Blind” and about wanting to bang a girl but she’s 14 so obv can’t in “Fourteen”. It’s all handled with the classy delicacy you’d expect from the Vandals… a band which sang a song in which screaming “Allah!!!” was the main chorus. At least this list is going to be on a government watch-list now wit the last 2 topics mentioned…. give it a like Theresa!

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126. GHOULS – RUN
(2017 – T12 G10 B4 UB0)

So the final band in the lower half of the 250 is Ghouls. (Not Ghoul or The Ghouls, which the internet seems to prefer finding). They were originally a ska punk band but by the time they reached my awareness a year or so ago they had become a kinda ska-ish indie band, ie there arent many who sound like them. The vocal style may be a blocker to some as it’s that kinda lad cockney thing and usually that’s not something I enjoy but theres something about this album that hooks me in. The ska influence has diminished thankfully but the saxophone is still there but toned back except notably on the insanely catchy “Facebook Friend”. The whole album is full of catchy hooks that get stuck in your brain and the kind if confident simplicity of it all is possibly its strength “Hard Days” being a good example of that. The album starts a lot better than it finishes with tracks 2-4 being favourites. The last 2 of the 12 didn’t make the good list cut but overall… I really, somewhat surprisingly, like this.

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127. BASEMENT – BESIDE MYSELF
(2018 – T12 G10 B4 UB0)

I’m new to the world of brit rockers Basement and only heard of them when this album came out last year but apparently they have done 3 prior to this. Though they are from Ipswich they have a very American sound, their previous records had a more grunge sound but I’m yet to check these out properly. This one however is much more along the lines of Jimmy Eat World or Mae than Nirvana but without going full emo. For the most part it’s all mid paced songs best demonstrated by the single and opener “Disconnect”, “Be Here Now” which is not an Oasis cover, follows it in similar flowing melodic rock style. Some songs have an almost shoegazing vibe to them along the lines of Hundreth’s latest album. I like this but I’m not sure whether it’s going to grow on me much further or may go the other way. Anyway this is Basement, a band named in such a way as they didnt want the name to have much meaning and to be one word. Doesnt exactly inspire though does it.

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128. SAY ANYTHING – IN DEFENSE OF THE GENRE
(2007 – T27 G19 B5 UB0)

The 2nd Say Anything album to make the list is their 3rd career one and is a double album (though I wish it wasn’t as it leads to a lot of filler). Their are 27 songs all pretty varied so its hard to say which genre they are in defence (defense) of. This for me was a proper disappointment after their “.. Is A Real Boy” album, but it has enough on there to make near half way up my list. The album features a guest vocalist on most of the songs on the album (see list below) but the better tracks tend to be the ones without outside influence. The 1st CD has more peaks and troughs, and has 4 of the 5 bangers but only 7 of the 19 tracks to at least make the good list. The album contains songs that could almost be classed as dance tracks in “Baby Girl, I’m A Blur” to pure punk tracks with “People Like You Are Why People Like Me Exist”. Theres the traditional Say Anything songs about Judaism with “Died A Jew” and plenty of the usual bile spitting lyrics. Its a mixed bag but thats the type of music a bi-polar person in Max Bemis is going to make. Contributing artists are from the following bands: Taking Back Sunday, Bayside, Paramore, Madison, Dashboard Confessional, Face To Face, Saves The Day, My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, New Found Glory, Underoath, Hot Rod Circuit, Pete Yorn, That Dog, The Starting Line and Saosin.

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129. RISE AGAINST – WOLVES
(2017 – T11 G9 B4 UB0)

Rise Against have returned with their 2nd album of 6 that make the list. This is their most recent one released in 2017 after the mild disappointment that was “Black Market”. While this is still nowhere near their best stuff, they crank out great songs with clockwork reliability. Yes they haven’t varied the style up much over their time but it works for me. This album is probably the most accessible and pop-melody laden that they have done and there isn’t much in terms of a breakdown or scream until nearly at the end of the album. As I say though Rise Against can’t half generate great choruses such as in “Far From Perfect” and “Mourning In Amerika” (see what they did there?). Obviously the whole album is tinged with political messages, but as I’m not so much of a lyric person I tend not to take them in too much. “Bullshit” though is perhaps a bit too Green Day simple politics in style, I also don’t appreciate wanton graffiti-ing, no matter how much effort they went through to do it (see video) “Careful now, down with this sort of thing!”. Another minor problem is the artwork for the album, all I see is Godzilla rather than a Wolf’s head, or is that more a problem with my psyche.

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130. JIMMY EAT WORLD – INTEGRITY BLUES
(2016 – T11 G9 B4 UB0)

Blimey nearly half way through and this is the first Jimmy Eat World album we come across. They’ve done 8 albums (ignoring the debut, which is out of print and the band consider it not much more than a demo) and 5 make the list, those missing are Static Prevails, Invented and Damage (just at 264). 3 of them feature dangerously high on the chart. JEW are the kings of emo-pop-rock and with their latest album they re-captured the feel of their core albums from the early-mid 00s after a slight drop off on the 2 before this. It has a strong start with “You With Me” and “Sure And Certain” with their constant pace gliding you through the melodies. The middle of the album has 3 darker sounding songs, in particular “Pass The Baby” which ends in an awesome big riff from nowhere. “The End Is Beautiful” sounds like its straight off Clarity or Bleed American. The last 2 songs I can do without but it was a pleasing return to form for the Arizona crew.

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