When do bands release their best albums?

I was in a discussion about the best albums released by various bands and it got me thinking how there is probably a numerical sequence of "best" albums depending how long it took for bands to reach their peak. This musing also gave me a reason to fish out some CDs...

There's a sequence here

Often a band's first album becomes the high bar all their other music gets measured against. There are good reasons for this - those albums are usually developed over a length of time, forged in difficult circumstances and without too much input from commercial interests. But for other bands it takes a while...

In terms of first albums, it might not objectively be their "best" album musically, but I personally don't think the Killers have bettered Hot Fuss in their subsequent output.

Similarly, the only Oasis album I can be bothered listening to is Definitely Maybe. Garbage's eponymous first album is their best, with their attempt to copy it (Version 2.0) and try to do something different (subsequent albums) never reaching the same heights.

However, some bands only break through with their second album.

How to Make Friends and Influence People is Terrovision's best album in my opinion and it was their second album. It is a lot more polished than their debut. The same could be said for Nirvana's Nevermind, if grunge could ever be called polished. That's the album that helped Nirvana break through into popular consciousness and it became the seminal grunge album as a result.

Parklife was Blur's third album. It wasn't just their defining album, but also became the album that defined Britpop. As a band they tried to move away from it and from Britpop in subsequent albums, but never quite managed it. 

Fully Completely was The Tragically Hip's fourth album. It's widely regarded as their pinnacle and was a lot heavier than the preceding three albums. The Hip then went in a radical new direction for their next album, Day for Night, trying to find a new distinctive sound.

The Joshua Tree was U2's fifth album released as they became the ultimate 80s stadium band creating the ultimate stadium anthems. My favourite U2 album is actually their eighth one, Zooropa. (People go on about Achtung Baby as well and that was their seventh album but I think the hype about that album marking a 'new sound' for the band is over-rated. Zooropa was the step beyond that a lot of fans didn't really engage with.)

Metallica's "black album" was also their fifth album. Purist fans might disagree but this is the album with mainstream appeal and meant Metallica became more than just another metal band.

The cover wasn't all black!

Diesel and Dust was Midnight Oil's sixth album. Beds Are Burning was the international hit, which is strange because the pure Australian-ness that came through that song and the album should have made it less accessible than their previous records. 

American Idiot was Green Day's seventh album and relaunched the band. I think its their best, and I say that as someone who bought Dookie back when it was new. The individual members of Green Day had been through a lot of problems and in some ways this album was a hard reset. It gained them a huge new audience of young fans and even inspired a musical.

Automatic for the People was REM's eighth album. The debate over which album is their best album could last all night, but this is the album with several singles that remain their most played songs. 

So those are some best albums numbered one through eight. Does anyone want to nominate a band's ninth album as their best?

Bonus picture - getting out my CDs I discovered a relic sticker of a shop that doesn't exist any more!

Continuing the theme of the best bits of 2009, I now turn to music releases

Bit of a tough one this. On the one hand The Tragically Hip released a new album, 'We Are The Same', which would ordinarily be a shoe-in for my favourite album of the year, by virtue of being an album from the Hip, whatever it sounded like. And as it's probably the third of fourth best album they've ever released, that's got to be a pretty strong contender. A couple of the tracks in particular nearly instantly made it onto my ever-changing 'Hip faves' playlist.

But then, you see, the All American Rejects released 'When the World Comes Down' and that's a truly awesome album. As a band they keep getting better and better (as I've said before), and I really like WtWCD. So, there's a conundrum.

And there's the outsiders. At the moment an album I just love and can't seem to grow tired of is 'Lungs' by Florence and the Machine. I was saying to Cathy earlier, I just don't know what it is I love so much about that album, but you know how somehow you really like something and you're not sure why? That's how I feel about Florence and the Machine.

Other bands? Although I haven't listened to it as much as other albums '21st Century Breakdown' by Green Day continues in the vein of 'American Idiot', even if it doesn't quite match it. Plus, The Killers released a live album, but I don't know whether to count that or not.

So, I think I'm going to stick with the Hip and the All American Rejects for my albums of 2009, with Florence and the Machine running them a (very) close third.

My top 5 bands I want to see live

There’s always time to kill at gigs while you wait for bands, so on Saturday night, as we sat in the floor of the CIA and waited for Counting Crows to come out, Cath and I discussed the best gigs we’ve been to, and then our ‘ultimate gigs’ – the bands we want to see one day.

So, here’s my top-5 wishlist of bands I want to see.

1) The Tragically Hip. They’ve got a new album out – woohoo! I’m so excited. I’ve ordered mine to be flown over from the States. (You too can share the experience – as you can listen to three tracks from it on the website.) The album tour incidentally is only in the US and Canada. Boo.
2) The Killers – as a headline act. I saw them support U2 on the Vertigo tour when they only had songs off Hot Fuss to play. And they were hampered by the fact they were the support act and support acts have to put up with a confined space and a second rate light show.
3) All American Rejects. Because they’re awe-some!
4) The Dixie Chicks. Bit of an odd choice this one, but I kinda like them and I do have a thang for country music.
5) Green Day. I still maintain that American Idiot is a contender for Best Album of the 21st Century (so far). I would love to see them live, although I don’t really fancy the mega-rock arena experience.

One thing I've noticed is that none of them are British. For the record, I think Cath would substitute the Hip for Gin Blossoms, and possibly one of the others for Ben Folds. I may be wrong. I was too busy thinking of mine to pay much attention.

Quiz answers

To appease Ab who has been cursing me for putting on a quiz, and to illuminate everyone else, here are the answers to last week's music quiz.

"Lay back, head in the grass; chewing gum, having some laughs; yeah, we were having some laughs" Sterophonics: Dakota (specifically the live version off the Live from Dakota album. If you ever doubted the 'Phonics were Welsh, listen to the way they introduce this...]

"I'll die when I'm done..."
Gnarls Barkly: Crazy

"under your skin feels like home; electric touch on aching bone"
Snow Patrol: You're All I Have

"still care about your hair and the car you drive; doesn't matter if you're sixteen or thirty-five"
demigods of rock Bowling for Soup: High School Never Ends

"ambition got cast aside; thrown away when the batteries died"
more Welshies with The Automatic: Raoul

"don't stop and don't look back, uh huh; 'cos your love's like a heart attack, c'mon"
Supergrass: Kiss of Life

"I never really gave up on breaking out of this 2 star town"
Killers: single of the moment, Read My Mind

"I'm sick of working all week for people I cannot stand"
Even more Welshies, Lost Prophets: Everybody's Screaming!!! (possibly the only song with three exclamation marks in the title?)

"there's no profit in ever being right, we gotta fight some more"
Ocean Colour Scene: Profit in Peace

"kill all the fags who don't agree"
Green Day: Holiday, from the awesome American Idiot album

"dance if you wanna dance; please, brother, take a chance"
Oasis: The Masterplan

Jesus Songs

Occasionally I get it into my head to put together a mix-tape. Recently I’ve had an idea for a ‘concept’ album of ‘Jesus songs’ – i.e. songs which namecheck Jesus in the title. 

Having a good trawl through my music library has thrown up a few interesting songs to include. As I’m probably never going to put the tape together, I thought I’d just list them here and that would be just as good.

Jesus Christ Pose – Soundgarden
I’ve never really ‘got’ Soundgarden. I mean they’re OK, but I can’t see what the fuss was about. My sis-in-law really likes ‘Black Hole Sun’. Again, I’m not too bothered. I’ve got this on a Kerrang compilation CD, although ‘Vanilla Radio’ by The Wildhearts is a much better song off that CD.

Jesus of Suburbia – Green Day
I personally think ‘American Idiot’ is the greatest pop-punk album of the 21st century, and definitely Green Day’s best. I know for hardcore ‘Dookie’ fans that’s tantamount to blasphemy, but there’s more variety on American Idiot and musically it’s streets ahead. This song is the second one on the album and divides into five parts, each one telling another section of the story. The refrain “the land of make-believe that don’t believe in me” continues the disenchantment of the kick-off track on the album, also called American Idiot. Later on, in another song which wraps up the story, they sing “the Jesus of Suburbia is a lie”.

I Have Forgiven Jesus – Morrissey
I’m not a huge Morrissey fan, although the first gig Cathy and I ever went to as a couple was Morrissey at St David's Hall. This one is off a recent album. I like it in a way, as Morrissey magnanimously forgives Jesus for screwing him over by giving him the potential to love, but nobody worthy of loving. Typical Morrissey ego, really.

Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode
Only one thing to say about this: Marilyn who? It’s got to be the original Dave Gahan snarl for me. Everything about this song is perfect – driving rhythm, slightly sinister vocals, edgy chords. 

Hard on for Jesus – The Dandy Warhols
I’m not sure about The Dandy Warhols. I really liked ‘Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth’, and the cover of ‘Hells Bells’ on the ‘Bohemian Like You’ single is quite probably the best cover ever, but I’ve just never got round to buying any of their albums. I’ve got this song on a free CD that came with a music magazine. It’s OK. Interestingly, I’ve heard the phrase ‘Jesus is my girlfriend’ used by some Christians to derogatorily describe sickly lovey-dovey Christian worship songs. This is just the next step on, really.

American Jesus – Bad Religion
I’ve got this as a live version on a cassette single called ‘21st Century Digital Boy’. It’s an attack on fundamentalist American Christianity. So, naturally, I like it.

Jesus is Just Alright – The Doobie Brothers
While not one of the Doobies’ better songs, this still sounds pretty cool. DC Talk covered it – perhaps the first time a Christian band has covered a song about Jesus that was made popular by a non-Christian band. “We just liked the tune” is apparently the Doobies’ take on it. I think the Doobies are onto something here. Most people don’t have an issue with Jesus; he’s alright, it’s his followers who give him a bad name.

I think that’s about it. Obviously there are other songs out there, but I don’t think I own them (‘Jesus Christ’ by the Longpigs springs to mind – ‘Who?’ I hear you ask). Matt the designer suggested the country song ‘Drop Kick me Jesus(Through the Goal Posts of Life)’, but we don’t know who that’s by and we only ever had a dodgy copy that we found on some random website. Of course, I could use songs that namecheck Jesus in the song (‘Oblivion’ by Terrorvision, ‘Rewind’ by Stereophonics, too many U2 songs to list), but that would mean the track listing wouldn’t look as cool.

However, I do need a few more tracks to make a complete mix-tape, so if you have any suggestions leave them in the comments.