My favorite albums of all time

A record I loved so much I named my daughter after it. This album marked a significant shift in my taste in music and my world view overall. My eyes were opened to a whole new genre and scene of music, which led me to discovering countless other amazing bands for years to come.

If you know me, you know how much I love this band and this album. TMBTE rocketed this band to popularity in 2023. I love the way they blend and shift from genre to genre beautifully and effortlessly. Combine that with expert musicianship and wonderfully creative and cathartic songwriting and delivery, you've got my number 2 favorite album of all time.

Everyone knows this album, thanks to The Middle, but I think the rest of the album is greatly underappreciated. The opening title track is a classic punk-spirited fist-pumping pop-rock anthem that's immediately followed by A Praise Chorus, which is a love letter to the emo-punk music scene that shaped the band in their youth. The rest of the album features perfectly crafted, heartfelt emo pop-punk that has been an influence by every band in the genre since its release.

A lot of Thrice fans will say their favorite record is Vheissu. That's a great record, but The Artist In The Ambulance dropped at a very pivotal point in my life. Dustin's lyrics full of literary and mythological references wrapped in sociopolitical metaphor fascinated me. I'm adding the Revisited version of the album that came out last year because this is how it always should have sounded.

I was a huge fan of Toad the Wet Sprocket when I was growing up in the 90s. They had several great albums and so many amazing songs, but this album just hit me in a way that the previous ones didn't. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was their last album before their hiatus, but Coil is one of my all time favorites.