My Top 250 Albums (71-80)

71. MOOSE BLOOD – I’LL KEEP YOU IN MIND FROM TIME TO TIME
(2014 – T11 G10 B6 UB1)

All 3 Moose Blood albums are squeezed into a tight area on my chart, so I rate them all pretty much the same. This was their debut and is the 2nd highest of theirs. The style is pretty much the same as the others, maybe a bit rougher recorded. That style is a combination of maybe Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World and early Brand New, but they are English. A few of the songs allude to a high intake of fags and booze and reasons for splits etc, all classic emo stuff, but maybe a bit less dramatic. The songs can merge and are all a tad samey, which possibly holds it back from being higher up. The album starts with the slow acoustic and introspective “Cherry” which sounds more like it should be fitted in at track 8 or a closer before the optimistic sounding guitar of “Anyway” kicks in. The album is another of those which is kinda a summer windows down cruise along job, that I like, (except on a high pollen day). Favouite tracks include “Gun” and “Pups” which is about the death of one of the bands fathers. Another fave is the track “Kelly Kapowski” which appears to be a song dedicated to the, every teenage 90s boy dream girl, from Saved By The Bell.

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72. THE MENZINGERS – AFTER THE PARTY
(2017 – T13 G11 B6 UB1)

This is The Menzingers 2nd and highest appearance on the chart. This is their most recent and is the album I first heard of them on before inspecting their back catalog which is pretty decent, but as this was my entry album, they are not on the same level as this… for me anyway. The album is a love letter to their 20s as they move into their 30s (a decade I am desperately clinging onto still). This is most evident on the opening track “Tellin’ Lies” which is my favourite on the album. To be honest I thought they would be much older, they certainly sound it, as a kinda throwback almost Irish Boston punk type thing. They are in fact from Scranton, Pennsylvania, a place we went through on our honeymoon, so feel some loose connection to that. They also sing a lot about Philadelphia which was my favourite place on the honeymoon. Compared to their earlier albums this is definitely a more mellow, dare i say, mature effort and it cruises along throughout its 13 tracks in a comfy 4th gear. Another favourite is “Your Wild Years” with is chorus of “A little Irish in your blood, A little Polish in your name, A little Boston in your attitude, Just the way you were raised” which obv adds to the Irish Boston feel is a great little song, as is the title track which was the first song I heard by them.

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73. DON BROCO – PRIORITIES
(2012 – T11 G11 B5 UB2)

This is the 2nd appearance from Don Broco on my list and is their debut album. As mentioned on their sophomore album review back at 213, each of their 3 albums has a pretty different sound and feel. This one is probably what can be best described as “lad-core”, mainly due to its lyrics and occasional singing style. plus their videos are possibly sometimes not favourable with the feminist community. These are songs about bros before hos and your mate cheating and being back in school and “chasing skirt”. There are elements of the more hardcore origin of the band (see “Thug Workout”) with some occasional riffage, in particular on my favourite track “Fancy Dress”, which also has more prominent vocals from the drummer. They are primarily a live band who appear to write songs that have more impact live with big choruses etc and having seen them twice now they are definitely a great live watch. Other favourites include “Whole Truth” which a slice of pop done right and “You Got It Girl” which is one of the slower tracks and is more like their 80s inspired 2nd album. The appeal of the album has waned a little over time so I’m not sure it will be this high in a few years but its still a great debut, though probably not to everyones taste.

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74. WE ARE THE OCEAN – GO NOW AND LIVE
(2011 – T10 G10 B5 UB2)

3 days after their last appearance comes their last appearance…. on the chart with their 4th album on it. This was their 2nd album and the last one with the gruff voice / screamer co-vocalist. And for most of the album you can see why it lead to him leaving. He doesn’t play an instrument and his vocals appeared much less, though he still had more impact than the dancing monkey Bez in Happy Mondays. The album pips “Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow” on the basis of all of the 10 tracks qualifying for the good playlist rather than 9. The opening track is unlike the rest on the album and is more rock n roll ish rather than the emo post hardcore-ish stylings of the rest. Then follows 4 of the 5 bangers, the first 2 being UBer’s. “What It Feels Like” its slowed down chorus and then vocal only section towards the end push it up the quality rankings. “The Waiting Room” is the highlight of the album with its swapping vocals through the song. the bridge where every sentence is swapped between the pair like a conversation is proper bo. “Runaway” and “Trials and Tribulations” are nice driving flowing songs and finish off a strong first half. The 2nd is less great but still solid stuff, the quieter “Now & Then” being the best song of it, esp with its ultra deep voice singing bit, showing off the clean singers range. In someways some of the songs on this album remind me of a more rockier Embrace, especially with the last song “Before I Die”. In all their albums they seemed on the edge of true greatness but never quite hit it consistently enough. Still they are one of my favourite British bands of the 2010’s.

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75. MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK – MY DINOSAUR LIFE
(2010 – T12 G11 B5 UB2)

Now if you don’t like Motion City Soundtrack, tough tits to ya as there are 5 of their 6 albums inside the top 75!. Their nearest challenger(s) by album number in the top 100 only has 3. It is clear I love me a bit of MCS and their quirky nerdy moogy-ish melodies. This was their 4th release and has reached its position mainly due to the opening 4 banging tracks, 2 of with are ultimate bangers. The album tales off in the 2nd half but only to the level of a below average MCS song which for me is still a great song. “Killer Bee” gets us off to the traditional first MCS track quiet intro into pacey remainder. This is followed by the boppy “A Life Less Ordinary” (not an Ash cover). The 2 UBers come in the form of the “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” with is strange sorta scream thing behind its bridge section, and “Disappear” which rips along with lyrics that stumble over each other. Latter highlights include “Stand Too Close” which is a nice bob your head along mainly acoustic song. (as acoustic as MCS get anyway). “Pulp Fiction” sounds oddly like copyright infringement of an Eve 6 song and the song “@!#?@!” tells some MFers to go away. It’s not their best work with some filler in there but still good enough for 75. 

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76. ANBERLIN – NEVER TAKE FRIENDSHIP PERSONAL
(2005 – T11 G10 B5 UB2)

Anberlin’s 4th, and highest ranked, album on my list and their sophomore effort is at number 76. This for me is their most complete album and does not use too much of the old production clicks and whistles. They are there but used appropriately. The melodic emo-rock band kick the album off with 2 big songs in the title track and “Paperthin Hymn” both of which have big choruses. “A Day Late” is pure guitar pop niceness and is what the charts should be full of but it’ll half thankfully have to stay as our little secret. “The Feel Good Drag” has its first version recording on this album and is perhaps the better version though there isn’t much between them. (it also appears on “New Surrender” which was at #141). The album is full of catchy poppy songs but also the odd riff thrown in. The close out song “Dance, Dance, Christa Paffgen” is a 7 minute builder and a perfect finish. As ever for me Anberlin are held back by too much slickness and the singers slighty cher like cheesy singing, but that is also their uniqueness and the singers ability cannot be denied. Enjoy the vid and just make sure those min 00’s emo fringes don’t flick you in the eye.

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77. WE ARE THE OCEAN – MAYBE TODAY, MAYBE TOMORROW
(2012 – T10 G9 B5 UB2)

We Are The Ocean’s 3rd album to appear on the chart and their 3rd released at 77. This was their first release after the more screamy vocalist left, leaving the vocals to the much cleaner and generally impressive vocals of Liam Cromby. The album has a generally positive and defiant vibe to it and some great moments. My highlights being “Young Heart” and “Machine” with its belt it out “I don’t want to be owned by you” group vocal chorus esp at the end. Also it starts in a unique way with basically a drum roll going on in the intro and verse. nice. In the middle of the album “The Road” and “Golden Gate” are great driving along windows down type songs. Towards the end the song “Pass Me By” adds a different primary vocalist and has a generally different sound, but I love the sorta round the campfire sing-a-long chorus. Not that I’m a massive fan of campfires, not least due to the severe danger of a naked flame around alcohol, but also as my main experience of them is a Reading when you’re knackered, sun burnt and desperate for somewhere comfy to sleep rather than a tent on what usually ends up being a freezing night… then theres the fire wood smell which you smell of for weeks… anyway. the songs a gooden. We Are The Ocean lost their way after this album and although the follow up appeared on my list at #241 it was mainly there due to incredible 2 songs rather than the entire collection. They then split up after.

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78. HELL IS FOR HEROES – TRANSMIT DISRUPT
(2005 – T10 G8 B5 UB2)

This is the first of all three Hell Is For Heroes albums to appear in the chart and was their 2nd of their career (so far, if it continues, they haven’t done anything new since 2007). HIFH are probably in my top 3 bands (I say probably its all calculated init, so I know) and I began following them from the very start as they were formed from 2 members of Symposium who had a big impact on me as a late teen. Their debut was and is truely awesome and this came as a bit of a disappointment initially, as can often happen after an album you love. It has grown significantly on me over time though. The style was less riffy on this album and more about developing a single beat or riff as the song went along. The stand out song initially was “Folded Paper Figures”, but that was previously a b-side on a single for their debut album, so it wasn’t new. The singles “Models For The Programme” and “One of Us” are also great and use nice guitar melodies during the chorus to make the impact. HIFH stuff has always been the primary influence on my guitaring style (what there is of one), mainly cos it simple but the single string strumming on top layered guitar is what I used to like to do when in a band. Their riffs can sometimes just be playing one or two single chords but somehow is effective. All their songs usually build to soaring endings, my only complaint being sometimes the lyrics are clear through the vocals, but I’ve never been a lyric man so this hasn’t really bothered me (except when singling along obv), plus I don’t want to offend singer Justin Schlosberg, who accepted my accidental friend request on facebook! (not that he’ll be reading this, i assume, if he does, I’m a massive fan regardless of my last comment! as the style fits the music perfectly). Always a glorious band to see live, where often it sounds better and bigger; I miss the Heroes.

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79. SILVER SUN – SILVER SUN
(1997 – T14 G11 B5 UB2)

Right at the start of my musical awakenings Silver Sun were one of the more underground bands I got into, though I believe they got pretty big in Japan. Briefly they got on the general publics radar here with appearances on TGI Fridays and CD:UK (Cat Deeley et al). They’ve done 5 albums now with their last being in 2013 and generally not of the standard of their debut from 1997. They do power pop full of vocal harmonies in the kinda Beach Boys sound. The first song I heard by them was on a Shine CD and was “Lava” which on first listen seemed very odd, with its falsetto vocals and odd lyrics “In lava, so hard to pull out, Bull’s blood for baby Jesus for lava, for lava, I don’t think it’s what I meant, A friendly, face and I am upset yeah”, what does any of that mean?! but its such a blast of joyous guitar pop it can’t be denied. Odd lyrics definitely being a thing of theirs eg from “Bad Haircut””All the little children, can you see them? Yes, they are all sleeping, Professor Yaffle spoils your fun, Sunday’s always boring, boring, Sitting on the toilet, waiting to come”. Other singles “Golden Skin” and “Julia” followed and my favourite “Last Day”. There are a few fillers maybe in the 14 tracks but it generally a great album, fondly remembered (also some great B-sides from this era of Silver Sun) and it always reminds me of playing Tomb Raider as I must have been playing that at the time this was on my stereo a lot. Extra note: I bought this album on cassette tape, I still didn’t have a CD player by this point. feeling old?

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80. NADA SURF – HIGH / LOW
(1996 – T10 G9 B4 UB3)

Nada Surf are up again this time with their debut album “High/Low”. As mentioned only 2 weeks ago on the review for their 2nd album, the further back in Nada’s career you go, the more grungy / rocky the music gets. This album blasts off with some urgency in “Deeper Well” and I imagine it would be a great song to see live, but sadly I haven’t had the chance and it would be unlikely they would still play it 6 albums later. “The Plan” blasts along similarly until its slowed down chorus, which seems to slow down more and more as it goes along. Then comes the reason I got into Nada Surf, “Popular”, the near spoken word verse filled with bad teenage advice and massive chorus, is one of my favourite songs, well inside the top 10 (speaking of which I have an idea for an ultimate banger bracket to do after this list or maybe next year, but not sure how interesting that would be to anyone but me). I heard “Popular” on MTV back in the day but missed who it was. Obviously pre internet at home it was near impossible to find out who it was, until one day a mate turned up with this album and put it on…. i was so happy! I’d found it!! anyway, the rest of the album is all good stuff, some songs chirpy sounding like the other single off this album “Treehouse” and others a bit more brooding with “Sleep” and “Icebox”.

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