100. The Great Depression - Defiance Ohio



This is simply a fantastic album. It's acoustic punk at its finest, with a feel to it that makes it sound like punk fused with the great depression of the US. The songs, in lyrical terms, go from historical to political to depressing songs about growing up to songs about childhood. Violin abounds alongside upbeat acoustic guitar and simple drum beats, creating some heavy sounding music. The male and female singers work together perfectly, with both having a somewhat harsh sounding punk voice.

Best Songs: Petty Problems, Calling Old Friends, Lambs at the Slaughter

99. The Other Side of the Looking Glass - Alias



Some marvelous underground hip hop nothing like anything else I've ever heard. This album is an introspective journey into the life of Brendon Whitney and what made him who he is today. He raps over some gloomy ambient soundscapes all about himself and his experiences, and the album also includes a few instrumentals. This is a very dark album; not your typical hip hop by any means. Definitely something to check out if you're interested in underground hip hop.

Best Songs: Jovial Costume, Angel of Solitude, Watching Water

98. Amateur Girlfriends Go Proskirt Agents - Xploding Plastix



A perfect blend of jazz and electronica. Amateur Girlfriends has songs that are reminiscent of jazz classics with very little extras included, especially in the sense of drums and bass, but most songs add very interesting electronic synthesizer sounds overtop. An album for jazz, electronica, and experimental music alike.

Best Songs: Behind the Eightball; Happy **** Girls; Treat Me Mean, I need the Reputation

97. Blackwater Park - Opeth



This album is Opeth at it's absolute best. It combines their beautiful, dark, bittersweet non distorted, and sometimes even acoustic, songs with heavy, brutal metal. With songs that change from lonely, slow, sad dirges to massively distorted complicated guitar with the singers deep heavy growls, the album has a constant sense of foreboding and gloom leaving the listener absolutely unsure of what to expect. A very diverse album, and certainly not your typical death metal by any means. Reminiscent of their earlier work, but much better; clearly the whole band has improved immensely, taking the sound in a more dark jazzy direction.

Best Songs: Leper Affinity, Harvest, The Funeral Portrait

99. The Other Side of the Looking Glass - Alias Some marvelous underground hip hop nothing like anything else I've ever heard. This album is an introspective journey into the life of Brendon Whitney and what made him who he is today. He raps over some gloomy ambient soundscapes all about himself and his experiences, and the album also includes a few instrumentals. This is a very dark album; not your typical hip hop by any means. Definitely something to check out if you're interested in underground hip hop. 97. Opeth - Blackwater Park This album is Opeth at it's absolute best. It combines their beautiful, dark, bittersweet non distorted, and sometimes even acoustic, songs with heavy, brutal metal. With songs that change from lonely, slow, sad dirges to massively distorted complicated guitar with the singers deep heavy growls, the album has a constant sense of foreboding and gloom leaving the listener absolutely unsure of what to expect. A very diverse album, and certainly not your typical death metal by any means. Reminiscent of their earlier work, but much better; clearly the whole band has improved immensely, taking the sound in a more dark jazzy direction. Best Songs: Leper Affinity, Harvest, The Funeral Portrait

Originally Posted by crazymenrunningback Holy crap I didnt know about either of these Bands, I love them!! Im deffinitly gona own those albums some day. Alias sounded like a better cLOUDDEAD that was more intresting. Opeth Sounded like some of the best black metal since i Heard At The Gates. Ill Keep a eye one this thread

Originally Posted by sidewinder The Alias is pretty good...though I prefer his instrumental stuff. Muted is a fantastic album.

Originally Posted by music_phantom13 Yep I agree about the Alias thing. They both come from the anticon. label, which is a label owned by a collaboration of 7 bands that describes it's musical style as the hip-hop equivalent of post rock. If you haven't heard of it before, you should definitely check it out. cLOUDDEAD is a collaboration of Why?, Doseone, and Odd Nosdam, three of the seven artists on there. Opeth is one of the few surviving bands of my metal phase where I listened to a lot of metal. There really unique; I love how they add in a dark jazz sound with a lot of their death metal songs. If you want either of these, let me know and I'll get it done after work. Especially Blackwater Park, cuz I'm already uploading that one.

96. Energy - Operation Ivy



Operation Ivy... it's such a shame this was the only album they ever released. But for a single full length, they still secure a spot as one of my favorite punk bands. Energy is a raw, intense, energetic masterpiece of hardcore punk and ska. It combines some amazing lyrics and group punk vocals with upbeat guitars distorted in a hardcore punk way strumming on the upbeat with a nice running ska bass line and drumming that's definitely above your average punk or hardcore band. This album is pretty much the conception and the epitome of ska punk; they founded the genre and managed to do it better than anyone else ever has yet. There's not a single track of filler on here. And it has some great pure hardcore gems as well; the opening song Knowledge is more or less straight punk. Pretty much the Sex Pistols or the Clash of 90's youth.

Best Songs: Bad Town, Sound System, Unity, Bombshell

95. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Pink Floyd



Yes, I know this is probably a rather unusual choice for a favorite Floyd album. But there's just something about it that appeals to me more than any of the others that I could have chosen. It doesn't have the same nostalgic, psychedelic feel that I find in their other albums, but seems to better resemble Syd's psyche: a fractured, spacey sounding album with songs that often start out sounding very upbeat, but break down into something that is almost scary, with bizarre, clashing, messes of sound. And the lyrics... truly straight from the mind of a crazy man. Written as he was quickly spiraling into a pit of insanity from which he would never return, I feel that this is exactly what Pink Floyd was supposed to be; they continued to make music that was often bizarre or that played off the psychotic side of Syd that came through in this debut album, but no one sane could match this music and these lyrics.

Favorite Songs: Lucifer Sam, Pow R. Toc H., Interstellar Overdrive, Bike

94. It's the Ones Who've Cracked That the Light Shines Through - Jeffrey Lewis



Jeffrey Lewis is, simply put, a brilliant songwriter. This is a great... I'm really not sure of the genre, but I would guess anti-folk and sort of lo-fi album. Jeffrey Lewis' sweeping acoustic guitar playing on the album has a strangely soft yet energetic feel to it, and his lyrics are absolutely genius, as he tells stories by singing/talking over top of his albums in a slightly out of tone, cracking voice. The album is pretty much split with about half of the songs being more abrasive, raw, and heavy and half being laid back and softer but still energetic. I feel that this review really doesn't do the album justice; just check this out if you've never heard it. You're missing out.

Best Songs: Back When I Was 4, Don't Let the Record Label Take You Out to Lunch, Graveyard

93. The Misfits - Static Age



A marvellous hardcore/horror punk album, this is the best thing that the Misfits ever recorded. Again, not a single song I would consider filler in this album, and it really sounds to me like a combination of hardcore punk and rockabilly/surf music like the Cramps for most of the songs, and has a perfect low quality production that gives it a static sound running through the whole album (just what you'd expect from the title, right?). This is punk done right. The lyrics match with the angry, brutal feel of the album - "I got something to say/ I killed a baby today/ and it doesn't matter much to me/ as long as it's dead". Very simple songs, but done so marvelously that this album is an absolute classic, even though it wasn't fully released until 1997.

Best Songs: Last Caress, Angel****, Some Kinda Hate, She