#MWE

28. Cal Tjader "Tjader Plays Mambo" (1956)

Easily the best album of 1956 (LOW fuckin' bar there, but still.) Marimba driven Cuban jazz remastered really well; you wouldn't suspect from the fidelity that it was 70 years old. There's a couple songs from this that have been sampled or remixed, and being there's standards, quite a few tracks will have one doing the Leo meme. Really solid jazz album from a big name in the game.

#MWE

27. Converge "Jane Doe" (2001)

The screaming is not my jam at all, so I almost launched it on song one. But by track two I'd dialed in the settings to make it sound better, and the production POPPED. I get it now. This album crushes face. And if the vocals were in a style more to my liking, I dont think it would have been any better. I couldn't understand a single word on the album (literally not a one), but it didn't matter. It was fuckin' RAW. And that's the point right there.

#MWE

26. Jar. "3 Lives" (2013)

Thank fuck for Wikipedia rabbit holes, or I never would've known the band Flybanger used a different name before and after they were on a major. Granted, this feels pretty bog standard and 4 of the 11 songs are re-dos of Flybanger stuff, but it was fun to know it didn't just stop in 2001.

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25. Deadly Earnest II (1980)

Two really good songs on here ("Oklahoma's A Big O.K. For Me" & "Blues At Midnight") but outside of that it's mostly the shit-kicker stereotypes that kept me from listening to country in the first place, done badly. (Opener's not bad, though; the outro has this haunting melody that's barely audible because of the fade). The two really good songs illustrate that Deadly Earnest were capable of a hell of a lot more, sonically and harmonically.

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24. Arctic Monkeys "Suck It And See" (2011)

Outside of tracks 5-8 and a couple of unique lyrics, this could have been any indie band, local, national or international, in 2011. The only other time I've heard a band get "just another band"-ed so hard between records was Band Of Skulls (and that album isn't on streaming anymore, so make of that what you will).

#MWE

23. R.E.M. "Murmur" (1983)

Was bobbing along to the first three or four tracks, then everything sounded like a low rent re-tread of "Radio Free Europe". Still liked "Perfect Circle" and "West Of The Fields" after that, but R.E.M. continues to be a song band for me. C'est la vie.

#MWE

22. Hawkwind "Bring Me The Head Of Yuri Gagarin" (1985)

THE worst album I've listened to for #MWE. Any year. There's several-minute long monologues that sound like acid burnouts thinking they're deep followed by music that's sub-tape recorder quality (it was bootlegged from a show in 1973). I've, no joke, made plenty of tape recordings of band practices that sound better than this album. Unlistenable.

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22. Vylet Pony “Can Opener’s Notebook: Fish Whisperer” (2022)

Kind of a middle child between Cutiemarks (2021) and Carousel (2023) (which are my two favorites from VP), but Can Opener holds its own and is a worthy bridge in its own right. If you're into bedroom hyperpop with a little bit of rock thrown in and lyrics that get kinda real, this is your jam.

#MWE

20. Death Grips “The Powers That B” (2015)

Liked it, but this double album is the absolute limit of Death Grips I could handle in one sitting. It's also...a Death Grips album? That's kinda it. The only difference I can tell is there's more of it.

#MWE

19. Janet Jackson "Damita Jo" (2004)

Not quite as good as All For You, but still pretty good. I'm now fully up to date on Janet Jackson albums, and I gotta say, she has a sneaky good discography. It feels weird to say that someone who's sold over 100 million records is underrated, but that's where I'm at.