So Long, Nintendo Power; Let's Pick Apart Your Top 25 List

Well it has been awhile, but I had to comment on Nintendo Power's list of the top twenty-five video games of all time (actually, I already did in response to an email, making this an easy post to write...).  Also, you just watch - blogging is going to become cool again as social media sites chase people away with increasing ads and constantly changing privacy settings, only now people are used to being able to make inane observations about everything publicly!

There actually could be a bit of a comeback in store - I won't promise anything, but you could see three, maybe even four, new posts on this site in 2013!

Anyway, my friend and frequent commenter Rob Malas emailed me the top-25 as well as a list of his most notable omissions.  I'll give y'all the list, then my comments on the ones that I have played.  Not surprisingly, this only includes games released on Ninetendo consoles:

Nintendo Power's Top 25:
25 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
24 - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
23 - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
22 - Super Mario Bros. 2
21 - Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting
20 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
19 - Chrono Trigger
18 - Super Mario 3D Land
17 - Metroid Prime
16 - Super Mario Bros.
15 - Super Mario Galaxy 2
14 - Super Mario 64
13 - Elite Beats Agents
12 - The Legend of Zelda
11 - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
10 - Resident Evil 4
9 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
8 - Super Metroid
7 - Super Mario Bros. 3
6 - Mega Man 2
5 - Super Mario World
4 - Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan)
3 - Super Mario Galaxy
2 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
1 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Notable titles missing from the top 25:
27 - SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV
33 - THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS
39 - MEGA MAN X
79 - GOLDENEYE 007 (N64 - ONLY 79?)
128 - SUPER MARIO RPG
141 - ANIMAL CROSSING
161 - SUPER MARIO KART
212 - STAR FOX
213 - TMNT II: THE ARCADE GAME
256 - F-ZERO
261 - SUPER MARIO LAND 2: 6 GOLDEN COINS
272 - DONKEY KONG COUNTRY
285 - SUPER STAR WARS

 Here's my take, first for the top 25:
25 - Link's Awakening:
 I only played the GameBoy version, but even squinting at that dim, black-and-white screen, this was a good one.  #25 sounds about right.

22 - SMB2: 
Underappreciated game, but I think 22 is a little too high for what was essentially an experiment in changing SMB that didn't work.  Even Nintendo agrees with me as I think the Bob-omb was the only thing from SMB2 that shows up later in the series (although since it is a dream, that may be for continuity reasons?).  Laid the groundwork for Halo 2 as a video game sequel that had some cool ideas but tried to change too much about a great original game.  If Mario 2 is on this list, Zelda 2 should be also.  One thing I take away from this list is that Nintendo Power loves them some Mario series.

21 - SF2 Turbo Whatever it Was:
I have to admit, I was more of a Mortal Combat fan.  Top-fifty for sure, top twenty-five is questionable.  Started an amusing trend of arcade games and their console versions keeping the same number and adding some adjectives when they made a sequel.

19 - Chrono Trigger:
Chrono Trigger is a GREAT game, and kind of makes me want to figure out how to set up an emulator.  I replayed this game at least three times, and it was a pretty long one (you had to play it at least twice so you could have Magnus on your side once and kill him once).  Other than the "combo" attacks, I'm not sure that it changed RPG gameplay all that much, but the plot was terrific - complex enough to be interesting, simple enough that you could follow it even if you weren't a D&D nerd, and in one game it showed you the whole history of an interesting fictional world.  (SPOILER: also, even though you go back and avert it, the main character dies, and the first time, he usually does so with all of your sweetest gear!  I can't think of many video games with legitimate jaw-dropping plot moments like that one END SPOILER).

16 - SMB1:
Tough to rank since video games have gone way beyond it since, but it is actually still semi-playable even now and it might be the most influential video game ever.  When you think about it, probably about 80% of the games released for the 8-bit Nintendo, and a lot of SNES and Sega Games too, used the side-scroller format established by this game.  Somehow, Duck Hunt did not have nearly the same influence.  16 is a little low for for my taste, but they're right not to have it in the top ten.

I refuse to believe that anything called "Elite Beats Agents" deserves to be ranked that high (then again, "Animal Crossing" is an equally uninspiring title and one of Rob's friends swears it is the best game ever).

12 - The Legend of Zelda:
Great game, could be higher, plus, they invented the "open world" game twenty years before it became a trend (In my opinion, an annoying trend.  I can see how kids may like them because they live a fairly linear life, but once you get done with college, if you want to not know what you are supposed to do next, you have real life.  You don't need that from your entertainment.)  Anyway, past dungeon 3, they do not give you a road map for this one at all, plus the dungeons are tough once you finally find them.  Beating this game is one of kid me's more impressive achievements (seriously); I don't know how I did it.  Actually the fact that I'd never try to play through this again probably means the ranking is about right.

10 - Resident Evil 4:
Yes, yes, yes.  Manages the horror atmosphere so well that I was terrified WATCHING one of my friends play this game.  Salazar and his vaguely napoleon-ish henchmen might be my two favorite "one episode" villains in video games.  My one complaint is that the controls on the Gamecube version were horrid (not really that game's fault; that controller just wasn't designed for shooters), but it played beautifully on the Wii and I'd be fine with that version being in the top five.  I guess the Gamecube version fans could argue that it adds to the horror when you need to look down at the controller to figure out how to reload while a guy with a chainsaw and a bag over his head is bearing down on you.

9 - Zelda Windwaker: 
 I didn't play this but watched Mac play through at least 75% of it in college and I was kind of unimpressed.  Nothing ever looked that challenging (then again, Mac was, at the time, one of America's foremost experts on the Legend of Zelda), and it seemed like you spent more time going across the open ocean with nothing happening than doing anything else.  It did have a unique feel that worked, but that alone doesn't put it in the top ten for me.  I could be being harsh on a game that I never played myself though.  I'd be interested to see Lew's rankings for which video games are the most fun to watch other people play.

7 - SMB3:
#1 for me at least among Nintendo games.  It's mind-blowing given the graphics and complexity that this came out for the regular old 8-bit Nintendo.  The most common way to play through it now is to use the Warp Whistles and only play Worlds 1, a little bit of 2 and 5, and 8, but if you play through the whole thing, it's both really challenging (ok, it kind of needed a save mode or at least some kind of password system), and each world has a totally unique feel.  A mind-blowing game at the time (Mario World was also mind-blowing, but it was a console launch game and therefore it was expected to be).  Plus, think of the stakes: coming off a sequel a lot of people didn't like, had this game bob-ombed, the Mario series might have been done!  Pulls off what Metallica's "Death Magnetic" album in that it was both a return to Mario's roots and more complex than anything they'd ever done (SMB3 was better though).

6 - Mega Man 2:
There should be a Mega Man game near the top, but honestly every Mega Man game I played felt totally indistinguishable from all of the other Mega Man games, even across console generations.  Maybe they could just treat the "Mega Man Series" as a fifteen-parter and give it spot #5?

5 - Mario World:
This is about right.  SMB3 deserves to be above it because really, other than Yoshi, what else new did this game bring to the series?  (The cape was the same as the leaf; you're not fooling me Nintendo!)  That said, the hidden world and the ability to change the look of every normal level by playing through it was, well, "tubular" and "gnarly."

2 - A Link to the Past:
This would be my #2 after SMB3.  What a great game.  Like SMB3, every dungeon and even every region of both outerworlds had a different feel, and like SMB3 it redeemed an iffy experimental sequel by returning to, and improving on, its roots.  Probably the first video game that really felt like an epic adventure.  Also, it introduced BOING! the best ranged weapon BOING! in the Zelda series (and one of the best in any game), the hookshot!

1 - Ocarina of Time:
Personally I thought a Link to the Past was a little more fun, and I thought the Dark World/Light World concept was more interesting than time travel over such a brief period.  Actually, if you consider Navi as Al, maybe this game was loosely based on Quantum Leap?  Ok, probably not.  Still, this passes the "mind blowing when it came out" test more easily than anything on the list, and while I haven't played it recently, I'd bet it holds up pretty well now.  Also, it influenced pretty much every third person adventure game that was made after it, even up to the present day, so there's that.  While I would probably have it merely in the top five, this is definitely a defensible #1 pick.

And now, to the omissions:

27: Super Castlevania IV
I absolutely loved this game and I think the ranking is about right.  It seems like an obvious move now, but being able to whip things diagonally was huge at the time.  This is another game that I replayed multiple times.  I always get charged up at the beginning of the last level when it brings back the Castlevania I music.

39 - Mega Man X:
This is actually my favorite of all of the Mega Man games that I can't tell apart.

79 - Goldeneye:
Had this been ranked a year after it came out I think it makes the top twenty.  It really suffers from the fact that it was the last big console shooter prior to Halo, which totally altered the standards for video game shooters.  I went back to Goldeneye once after college, and after being used to smooth-handling shooters with multiple vehicles and dozens of weapons to choose from it felt like an unplayable mess.  Which is sad, because other than Halo and Madden I'm not sure if there was ever a game that was so universally played and liked by everyone for a few years.  There was no point to have an N64 if you didn't have Goldeneye.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there's a game that was enjoyable at the time that has held up worse over the years.

128 - Super Mario RPG:
I actually think this was a Mario experiment that worked.  I was going to express surprise given the franchises' track record that this didn't spawn a huge Mario RPG series, but a quick Wikipedia search reveals that, oops, it did!  Maybe I should try to play those other ones...

161 - Mario Kart:
"Double Dash" is the best version of Mario Kart and should be in the top 25.  For that matter, Mario Kart should be in the top 100.

212 - Star Fox:
Way too low.  Quick, name another airplane/spaceship fighting game that was actually fun to play.

213 - TMNT II:
I played this a lot but it was a little too simple to deserve to be ranked that much higher (it shouldn't be ahead of Star Fox, anyway, although I'm sure it should be ahead of "Luigi's Cookbook" or whatever else is stuck in the top 200).  I'm curious about how the first TMNT game is ranked.  Did they penalize it based on the fact that nobody has ever beaten that game?

256 - F-Zero:
 I'm fine with the low ranking if only because making a racing game without any multiplayer mode is just unconscionable.

272 - DK Country:
Way too low; this should be in the top fifty.  This was the Super Nintendo's version of SMB3, you look at it and think "isn't that an N64 game?"  Plus, unlike Mario and Luigi, Donkey and Diddy required totally different playing styles.

285 - Super Star Wars:
Consensus among my friends seems to that this was an incredibly difficult game; if it actually is the one I'm thinking of, I honestly didn't think it was that tough.  I guess I'm some kind of Super Star Wars Savant.  Before y'all think I'm not humble or something, I will point out that as life skills go, that isn't very useful; it isn't even a game that you can beat your friends at or anything.

Ok, that's it for now.  This did get me thinking that it would be fun to put my own top-25 list of video games together, especially to see where non-Nintendo games like Diablo II and Halo would fit in.  Perhaps that will be one of my next posts here.  Look for it coming soon, in early 2014!

Ek's Top 100 Albums of the '10s: #50-26

Well, it is time to move a little further down the list of my favorite albums this decade. We're through the bottom half of the top 100, but now we're going to slow down a bit to give the top half the attention it deserves.

I've realized, however, that the worst part of lists like these are all of the glaring omissions, so before I go any further, I'm going to give a bonus mini-list of the Top 5 Bands That I Probably Should Have Gotten Into But Didn't This Decade:

1. Radiohead: Not only are they on the top of this list; they're definitely on the top of my personal "Oh my God, I can't believe you aren't into them" list from any decade. Time and priorities were definitely a factor in my not following all bands on these lists, but I'll try to give some other rationales as well. In this case, I got turned off by the overwhelming consensus among their fans that they (1) would always be an indie band at heart (which was obviously not true) and (2) were one of the greatest and most influential rock bands ever (even when their more groundbreaking work was too new to have influenced anyone). The band didn't help by having the highest degree of British self-importance and refusal to accept criticism since Led Zeppelin. On the other hand, I realized when I went through my Pandora phase that they were coming up with a lot of bands I do like, and a lot of their music was actually good. Maybe not good enough to justify their off-putting arrogance, but then again, they aren't really any worse than Zeppelin in that respect. Or Axl Rose. Or Dave Mustaine. Or John Fogerty. Maybe I should give them a shot.

2. Tool: They should be right up my alley as one of the top prog-metal bands ever, and of what I've heard, they have several good songs and at least a handful of great ones. They seem to have an overwhelming aura of negativity and anti-religiousness that has kept me from really wanting to get to them, although there are tons of bands I listen to despite the fact that I don't agree with their politics, religion, and/or philosophy. Part of the problem for me is that they actually come off as anti-God, rather than just criticizing the Church, the latter of which I don't have a problem with (Christians should constantly be thinking about how to make the institutional Church better, and part of that process is listening to and respecting valid outside criticism. Unlike Radiohead.). I haven't listened to them enough to really analyze their lyrics, so if I'm wrong about this, someone let me know.

3. AFI: They are one of those rare really nice stories of a band that paid their dues for a really long time and eventually got huge. Some of their stuff I've heard I've loved; some of it doesn't do that much for me. I don't have a real rationale for missing them this decade other than that every time I've been about to pick up Sing the Sorrow, there's some other album that I'm more interested in or is on sale.

4. Wilco: This is the only band on the list that I've actually seen live (thanks James!), and I have to say they put on a really good show. They are also established local heroes, and in some ways that fact that they haven't become national household names to the same extent as Kanye West, Rise Against, Fall Out Boy, or The Smashing Pumpkins makes them that much more beloved here. I feel like a bad Chicagoan for not listening to them often. The thing is, a lot of their studio stuff I've heard is just kind of boring. Since music is ultimately entertainment, I'd rather be scared, offended, frustrated, or depressed by something I listen to than bored.

5. Rap/Hip-Hop and Country: Look, I like rock music. I won't apologize to anyone for that. That said, on this whole list of 100, there's one country/bluegrass album and one rap album. Even though I won't promise to change my tastes, I have to acknowledge that there are those whole other genres out there, and that they include "songs about real life, with stories you can relate to and words you can understand."

Now that that is out of the way, I can continue to move on with the list:

50. The Killers - Hot Fuss ('04): I'd consider this album to be this decade's equivalent of Pearl Jam's Ten. This is high praise for an album that only came it at #50, but the similarities are there: both were debut albums from relatively unknown bands, both became overnight successes without really having time to figure out how to handle it well, and, although neither really created a new genre of music, both were able to combine an older style of music with recent developments to create a sound that blew away everything else on the radio. Both then were copied to the extent that they couldn't really maintain their sound on their next album while remaining original - Pearl Jam's Vs. and Vitalogy are textbook examples of how a band can expand their sound without abandoning it, and the next two Killers albums...well, they weren't, which is why Pearl Jam is our generation's Rolling Stones and the Killers are less than a decade away from playing County Fairs. Still, that shouldn't take away from how good this album was.

49. Saves the Day - Under the Boards ('07): Remember when I said it is better for a band to depress me than bore me? Well, this is one of the most depressing albums of the decade, and it doesn't help that the follow-up album, which was supposed to tell the redemptive portion of the trilogy, has become the Chinese Democracy of emo. So what's so great about it? Saves the Day had previously established themselves as a band capable of playing a lot of different styles well, pulling off '70s era punk on their early albums, art-pop on In Reverie, and melodic pop-rock punk on Sound the Alarm and Stay What You Are. However, this is the only time where they've managed to put so many different styles together on the same album - I had actually been under the impression that rock bands agreed to stop doing this some time in the early '80s. In fact, I'd put this in the same category as Vs. and Vitalogy were in the last entry - they really push the limits of their sound in multiple directions, but they never stop sounding like Saves the Day. Now put out another album already.

48. Dragonforce - Inhuman Rampage ('05)

47. Black Tide - Light From Above ('08): When I was a little kid in the '80s, the metal genre was dominated by spandex-wearing glam rock bands that had vocalists with immense range, guitarists who could shred, an innate sense of fun, and almost no ability to put an interesting or unpredictable song together. These bands traced their lineage back to Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden, but weren't really talented enough to write songs that enabled them to rival such giants. Then the Metallica, Megadeth, and others blew everybody away and the era of thrash metal began. Metal bands started to focus on dark, lengthy, compositional pieces and shied away from compromising for mass appeal; eventually, many bands in the genre even gave up on traditional singing for cookie monster vocals. Songs about drinking, sex, and rock and roll were out, songs about war, insanity, and conspiracy theories were in.

All of this was all well and good, except that, somewhere along the way, people gradually forgot that metal was supposed to be fun. Dragonforce's biggest achievement, apart from playing faster and more ridiculously than anyone else, and breaking Joel Zumaya's arm, was helping people remember that, and Black Tide gets bonus points for proving that you can make metal fun without trying to bring back the spotty legacy of hair metal. Oh, and more bonus points for making the best album by high school students since Frogstomp. While I'm here, I also have to mention that "Warriors of Time" has earned its place on the list of songs that frequently have their intros cut by radio and in other public settings even though the intro is one of the coolest parts of the song. I hate it when they do that.

46. Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most ('01): Yes, there is something a little bit lame and pathetic about a guy in his mid-20s writing songs about high school relationships. And yes, the over-the-top sensitive guy routine is at least as obnoxious as the over-the-top alpha male routine. But it is impossible to deny that every song on this disc is well-crafted musically and lyrically, and it is rare to find anything this personal from a band that would eventually make it big, or, for that matter, from any band (at least in 2001). You have to approach this album the same way you approach Rambo II - just enjoy it and try to bear in mind that at the time it came out, nothing in it was cliche.

45. System of a Down - Toxicity ('01): I know I just berated Heavy Metal for taking itself too seriously from the late '80s to early '00s, and this album is a prime example, but I can look past that for an album that seethes with anger without ever losing its overriding sense of melody and musicianship, and that has two or three great riffs on every song, even though I wouldn't call it a "guitar album" in the traditional sense.

44. Shai Hulud - Misanthropy Pure ('08): I don't like hardcore vocals, and I rarely like heavy metal songs that don't have significant instrumental breaks, but in this case, it doesn't matter. There are more tempo and time signature changes in all of the songs here than there are on most prog rock albums, and they somehow manage to keep it from ever becoming unlistenable.

43. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures ('09): This gets my pick for the best "disappointing but still good" album of the decade. The Queens of the Stone Age sound seemed to take over, which is unfortunate since they're my least favorite of the three big-name parent bands involved. Ultimately, they wound up somewhere between '70s guitar rock and '00s stoner rock, but I'm pretty sure aficionados of either will like this album, although people who wanted it to sound like the next Zeppelin or Foo Fighters album will be let down. On a positive note, every song on this album is different, but there's still an overall sound bringing them all together. So far I've liked it more with each listen, meaning it could probably move up a few spots if and when I ever revisit this list.

42. Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety ('04): The "Life, the Universe, and Everything" position goes to the best work from a band that managed to be both intensely brutal and easy to listen to, sometimes on the same song. Definitely a "gateway album" for hardcore.

41. Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album ('01): There hasn't been anyone else I know of since Bob Dylan that has this kind of ability to put enough emotion for a feature-length movie into less than forty minutes of music. In this case, it only took one year for the best lyricist of the decade to emerge. While musically this isn't a flat-out amazing album, it is solid, and the band manages to match the tone of the lyrics well.

40. The Get Up Kids - Guilt Show ('04): Part of me almost wishes they don't put out a post-reunion album since this one was such a great farewell. A small part of me.

39. Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs ('03): Exhibit A in the case that Pearl Jam was tanking, Vince Carter-like, due to ongoing problems with their label and/or ticketmaster. A collection of B-sides and unreleased material that ranks with their best albums will do that, as the argument that they simply lost their sound or their ability to write good songs is shot down here. This also puts Pearl Jam into the discussion when considering all-time great bands - all of the greatest bands of the classic rock era played all sorts of different styles of music, which is part of the reason I dislike the heavy specialization of bands in the current era. Even as a fan, I can't really say Pearl Jam's catalog was all that diverse prior to this album. Here, though, you get to here Pearl Jam doing things you don't expect from them, like using harmonized vocal layering, playing instrumentals, using singers other than Vedder (which is a plus since non-PJ fans can then understand the lyrics!), playing surf rock, playing soundscapes, and playing acoustic folk. They even manage to capture the sound of The Who (who they had always cited as an influence, but never sounded much like) well on "Black, Red, and Yellow." The only downside is a handful of the stronger songs on it (like "Dead Man" and "Yellow Ledbetter") had been floating around for years before this came out, but there was more than enough to like among the more obscure or totally unreleased material.

38. John Mayer - Room For Squares ('01): As with Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, you have to remember what this album was like when it came out, back when there was nothing obnoxious or frustrating about Mayer, and instead just a great acoustic rock album with a ton of great songs. I think half of the problem is that he's been miscast as a "guitar legend" when he really is more of a singer/songwriter who also happens to be an above-average guitar player. That's not really his fault. That said, I'm still holding out hope that he'll start his version of Derek and the Dominoes with Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

37. Further Seems Forever - How to Start a Fire ('03): This album grew on me once I got used to the fact that it wasn't The Moon Is Down. In some ways, Jason Gleason replacing Chris Carrabba was like Steve Young taking over for Joe Montana - both were perfectly capable in their own respects, and actually brought some things to the table that their predecessors didn't, but they really had no chance to ever be quite as beloved or iconic. (I should mention that, even though Hide Nothing was my lowest-rated FSF album, Jon Bunch deserves a better comparison than Elvis Grbac.) In Gleason's case, he was a hell of a vocalist (as evidenced by their cover of Bye Bye Bye in which the vocals sound as good or better than on the N'Sync version), but his lyrics rarely if ever made any sense, not to mention that he apparently didn't get along with the rest of the band at all. Still, the guitar layering on this album is great, and "The Sound," "A Blank Page Empire," and "I Am" are some of FSF's best songs. We're now well into the albums I very strongly recommend.

36. Sunny Day Real Estate - Rising Tide ('00): I know it isn't considered their best album by most, and it even got made fun of in emogame, but I get to avoid comparing it to their earlier work since it happened in a different decade. Sometimes it is nice to make the rules.

35. Stairwell - The Sounds of Change ('01): I'm not sure which is more fun: listening to the vocal harmonies and interplay or listening to the guitar harmonies and interplay. This album is so good, Girden thought it had to be their Greatest Hits album when it came out. The bad news for Stairwell's career is that it pretty much is.

34. Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me ('06): A 54-minute album that doesn't remotely feel too long. Plus, Eric once described it as the soundtrack to his life (or something like that). This album also proves that just because bands had long since stopped trying to do anything new and interesting with the grunge sound, it doesn't mean there weren't interesting possibilities still left out there.

33. The Mars Volta - Amputechture ('06): The intro and outro tracks are kind of boring, but there's such a feast of prog rock in between that I don't even care. I can't really even describe Tetragrammaton and Day of the Baphomets adequately, and Asilos Magdalena expands the acoustic side of the band beautifully, even if they can't quite resist putting weird feedback and effects in at the end of it.

32. Rise Against - The Sufferer & The Witness ('06): The punk scene was already thriving in the first half of this decade, then Rise Against gave it the one thing it was missing: a really good punk band that wasn't a holdover from the '90s and didn't need to be qualified with something like "emo punk" or "pop punk."

31. Circa Survive - On Letting Go ('07): There's definitely a shortage of vocalists that can sing in the upper register without sounding whiny, but this band has one, and in addition, they just sound better together than most other bands do.

30. Flobots - Fight With Tools ('07): This is the album that made me realized that I actually don't dislike rap at all; I dislike overproduced music. By contrast, this album has great live instrumentation, and is even an innovative lineup by featuring a cello in a rock group (it works, by the way). They might come off a little preachy with their politics, but at least it is earnest and makes you think, and frankly, rap works way better with some kind of social or political message behind it anyway.

29. U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind ('00): Spawned more legitimate radio hits than most bands have in their entire career, in fact, I'm not sure if any of the songs on this album weren't hits. It also helped to make 2001-02 the (school) Year of Bono at Wheaton College and probably many other places. Let's face it, it is impressive for a band to say they are "reapplying for the job of best band in the world" and actually back up their talk (unlike Roberto Luongo). Thanks to this album, U2 would eventually join Dethklok among bands that are also among the world's largest economies.

28. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism ('03): If The Photo Album marked Gibbard's emergence as one of rock's best lyricists, this is the album that established it fully for him, and for that matter, the band continued to develop their sound instrumentally into something that not only complemented the lyrics but would be worth listening to for its own sake. I know I've said the middle of the album drags a little bit in the past, but that's a minor flaw.

27. Rhapsody - Symphony of Enchanted Lands Vol. II: The Dark Secret ('04): I know we frequently use the term "epic" to describe a rock album, but it is pretty rare that a rock album actually also is part of an original fantasy epic. Since no musical interpretation of a fantasy epic is complete without a full orchestra, operatic vocals, choirs, lengthy guitar solos (including, but not limited to, guitar duels against orchestra instruments), and Christopher Lee, all of those are thrown in as well. At this point, you're probably already thinking "wow, that sounds awesome," or "wow, that sounds terrible," so further description from me isn't needed.

26. Margot & the Nuclear So And So's - The Dust of Retreat ('06): There are two approaches to putting a band together - one is to get a drummer, bassist, one or two guitar players, and a singer in some order and start practicing. The other is to just get everyone you'd want to be in a band with that plays something, figure out what everyone plays, and have that be your lineup. The second approach results in more creative and interesting bands, and, as you'd expect, is almost never used. Well, kudos to these guys for putting together a lineup with bass, drums, electric and acoustic guitar, but also a keyboardist, violinist, trumpet, and percussionist. To make matters better, no three of them looked like they really should have been in the same band together. While you might expect a lineup like this to come up with intricate, compositional, heavily produced work, they actually somehow managed to keep their songs simple and likable without making it feel like any of the band members weren't involved. Their disjointed look and lineup also helped them enjoy a one-year run as the most fun obscure band to see live, crushing forever the myth that bands should have a unified "look." Based on Wikipedia, they've since gone to a more stripped down, traditional lineup. In a related story, nobody I know liked their subsequent albums.

That's it for now. Later, I'll return with #25-11, then the top ten. Have a nice summer everyone.

Ek's Top 100 Albums of the '10s: #51-100

Since the Sports Guy is the spiritual father of this blog, I'll let him introduce the concept: "It's a gimmick that needs no introduction. It's a gimmick that says'I couldn't come up with a real column that has a beginning, middle and end,' as well as 'You're hopefully going to be entertained anyway.' It's a gimmick that insinuates the rankings reflect a nationwide consensus, even though it's the opinion of one person and one person only. It's a gimmick that seemingly relies on a secret statistical formula, even though one doesn't actually exist. That's right, it's a...[giant list] column!" Point taken. The only thing I'll argue with is the beginning, middle, and end thing, since nothing has a more obvious beginning, middle, and end than a giant list (although this may not apply to TSG's lists since he always jumps around so much). Anyway, the '00s were a crappy decade in a lot of ways, but it was a good decade for music, especially after a shaky last few years of the '90s (except for Journey reuniting with a new lead singer. That was a terrible idea).

I also originally intended this to just be a top 50 list, but there were too many good albums to do it. I can see now how Eric's annual "top ten" lists usually end up mentioning fifty different albums. Anyway, in the interest of this not becoming a full-length novel, I'm just going to list #51-#100 in reverse order, then over (hopefully not all of) the summer I'll release the rest in groups with some (I promise) brief comments.

Before we start, the hardest albums to leave off of my list were these:

Velvet Revolver - Contraband ('04):

Don't worry; if I ever get around to making a top-100 list for the '90s, the members of this band will get their revenge.

Alkaline Trio - Remains ('07)

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs ('08)

Dethklok - The Dethalbum ('07)

Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings ('09)

Fall of Troy - Doppelganger ('05)

Unearth - III: In the Eyes of Fire ('06):

All of these have multiple great songs on them, but I had a hard time listening to any of them all the way through after the first couple listens. We're not talking "skip a couple of tracks," either, we're talking "go to another album less than 2/3rds of the way through."

Cute Is What We Aim For - The Same Old Blood Rush With a New Touch ('06)

Damone - Out Here All Night ('06)

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open ('06):

2006 was really a great year for guilty pleasure albums that are a blast to listen to but I immediately forgot about once they fell out of my rotation. I should try to come up with a less cumbersome name for this category.

Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel the Illinoise! ('05):

This is the The Royal Tennenbaums of albums for me - underrated nationally; overrated by the people I know.

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix ('09):

Disqualified because I'm afraid they're leading us into a "prog rock to synth rock" transition, which would be fine, except that we already tried this in the early '80s with mostly awful results. Think about it - do we really want to see Herman Li or John Mayer writing songs on a keyboard? If it could happen to Eddie Van Halen or Geddy Lee, it could happen to those guys. If it is any consolation, they will be on every other "best of the decade" music list made this year (although, let's face it; there's a decent chance this is the last one since it is already May).

Mastodon - Blood Mountain ('06):

The toughest cut and the only one I feel legitimately bad about. The thing is, I didn't start to like this album that much until after hearing Crack the Skye, and I had a copy well before that. An album on a top-100 list for a whole decade needs to be capable of getting me into a band that I don't have any prior exposure to; it's part of my non-existent secret formula.

To balance that list, the easiest albums to leave off were St. Anger, Dusk and Summer, and Ultra Beatdown.

With that, we'll get started. As you might expect, this is limited to albums that I purchased or otherwise acquired and, in most cases, managed to listen to multiple times before now. For those of you that want music recommendations, I'd recommend any of these:

100. Seume - It Is What It Is ('08)

99. The Showdown - Temptation Come My Way ('07)

98. Megadeth - United Abominations ('07)

97. Coldplay - Parachutes ('00)

96. Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance ('00)

95. Portugal The Man - Waiter: You Vultures! ('06)

94. Coheed & Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV Vol. 2: The End Complete ('07)

93. Alkaline Trio - Maybe I'll Catch Fire ('00)

92. Drive-by Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark ('07)

91. Death Cab For Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes ('00)

90. Greenchoby - Big City ('00)

89. Alkaline Trio - Agony & Irony ('08)

88. Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire ('07)

87. Foo Fighters - In Your Honor ('05)

86. Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil ('05)

85. John Mayer - Continuum ('06)

84. Killswitch Engage - As Daylight Dies ('06)

83. Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King ('09)

82. Moneen - The Red Tree ('06)

81. Saves The Day - In Reverie ('03)

80. Pennywise - Land of the Free? ('01)

79. Muse - Origin of Symmetry ('01)

78. Further Seems Forever - Hide Nothing ('04)

77. The Darkness - One Way Ticket to Hell and Back ('05)

76. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam ('06)

75. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm ('05)

74. Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos ('07)

73. John Mayer - Heavier Things ('03)

72. Death Cab For Cutie - Plans ('05)

71. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand ('04)

70. Copeland - In Motion ('05)

69. Drive-by Truckers - Southern Rock Opera ('01)

68. Say Anything - ...Is a Real Boy/...Was a Real Boy ('04)

67. Alkaline Trio - Crimson ('05)

66. Green Day - American Idiot ('04)

65. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand ('07)

64. Owen - At Home With ('06)

63. Paul Simon - You're the One ('00)

62. Sleeping At Last - Ghosts ('03)

61. Hey Mercedes - Loses Control ('03)

60. Spill Canvas - One Fell Swoop ('05)

59. Jeremy Enigk - World Waits ('06)

58. the lower 48 - When I Finally Saw the Sea ('09)

57. He Is Legend - It Hates You ('09)

56. Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache ('04)

55. The Detholz - Who Are The Detholz!? ('02)

54. Alison Krauss & Union Station - Lonely Runs Both Ways ('04)

53. Jimmy Eat World - Futures ('04)

52. Copeland - Beneath Medicine Tree ('03)

51. Dave Matthews Band - Busted Stuff ('02)

Ok, that's it for this one. Check back in a week or two and I'll have #50-#26 up. If you have thoughts about any of these albums, or if you can't believe how I had one of them as high or as low as I did, leave a comment.