Big Red's Ten Best Album Purchases

10. Green Day – Warning
Well this album came out when I started college. I think when people look back at Green Day they will see Warning as the bands transition from the good little trio of rockers to one of the best of its generation. It’s not as politically important or stunningly conceptual as American Idiot, but the signs of the boys growing up are there. That’s why it struck a chord with me. I started growing up a little while this one was spinning in the CD player. While the title song is very much in the vein classic Green Day with some goofy images, songs like "Macy’s Day Parade" and "Waiting" are showing signs of new complexity.
9. Snow Patrol – Eyes Open
"It’s hard to argue, when you won’t stop making sense," is the line that opens "Hands Open" the first song of this album. It’s a quick diddy, but the lyrics are powerful, which is indicative of the entire album. Everyone knows the hit "Chasing Cars" from these guys, I am glad that I decided to take a deeper look and hear what else these guys had to offer. They mix fast, toe-tapping tunes with slower melodies. Plus, the lead singer has a unique voice, which is what makes this album continually sound fresh.
8. The Eagles – Hell Freezes Over
I spent a lot of late summer nights in my bedroom as a teenager listening to this one. It’s one of the first albums I ever bought and I’ve never had one regret about it. You can put this one on and think about life or let it be background noise. Or you can listen to the storytelling in the lyrics or you can try to figure out what the "Hotel California" is really about. It has a little something of everyone. I don’t listen to this one quite as much anymore, but there’s a lot of nostalgia when I do pop it in.
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
I am not sure I ever quite so cool or with the times than when I bought this one. This album had a string of hits that most bands only dream of. It was probably the paramount effort for this band and I am not sure they’ve released anything since with quite the same level musicianship. "Scar Tissue" is a solid song with a great guitar riff. "Otherside" has a great hook. Actually the song I like the least from this effort is the title track. It gets a little long and preachy.
6. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Echo
There is probably little that separates this album for other Petty works, but for whatever reason it caught my ear. The title track is somber and I guess for some reason I like listening to sad things. "Swinging" is quicker, but not real happy. "A Room at the Top" is probably my favorite off this one. I like listening to this one in the fall when summer slowly slips away to the winter.
5. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
This is a newer one to the collection and maybe in a year or two it will fall or go up on this list, but it’s too early to tell. All I know is that I could play this one in the car every time I get in the car and not get tired of it. "I’ll follow you into the dark," is a love song with a morbid touch. Everything is delivered soft and with at times some vivid lyrics. I am interested to get a few more of there albums to see if they hold to this success.
4. Bob Dylan – Greatest Hits
This was the first CD that I ever bought, which is sort of what puts it on this list. That’s something that I’ll never forget. I also remember my teenage mind getting distracted by the not so subtle innuendo of "Rainy Day Woman" but then being blown away by the genius that followed. This particular album is actually being replaced in my collection by other Dylan CDs with more songs, but this to some degree open my mind to a lot of things going on around me.
3. Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around
This is more or less Cash performing covers, but his delivery is like no other and the first listen of this album is like a religious experience. It’s a memorial to a life really like no other. You can hear little things in track that you didn’t notice before or things that make you think about life in another way. "Hurt" is powerful. "In My Life" is the best rendition of this often reproduced songs. "Oh, Danny Boy" and "We’ll Meet Again" are homages to another time when music itself was different.
2. The Beatles – Let It Be
I bought this one on tape before I finally updated to CD awhile back. This album is so raw with the immense production and other things that played such a big part in other Beatle projects never really getting done before the band split and gave up on this one. The great flux of emotions rushing through the greatest band in the history of world and its members during its dying days drip off every song. Could you imagine the world with "Across the Universe", or "Let It Be" or "Get Back" if this one had never been released? The less popular tunes from this one are also a nice collection featuring the songwriting ability of the group and the variable kinds of songs it could craft.
1. The Wallflowers – Bringing Down the Horse
This tops the list for a few reasons. One, I am sure its probably the most played album in my collection. When I bought it, it went in the CD player non-stop for almost a year. Two, it made want to buy every CD this band made after, which I have. Finally, I can help but think of a lot of good and not so good times from the formative time of my life when I hear this. I bought this when I was a freshman in high school and it got me through that time when I think all of us sort of steer are life with only one headlight on.

Honorable mention
Buckcherry – self-titled
Boxcar Racer – Self-titled
The Beatles – Rubber Soul
Sublime – Greatest Hits
Jackson Browne – The Next Voice You Hear
Audioslave – Out of Exile
Nirvana – Unplugged
Neil Young – Harvest
The Wallflowers – Breach
Tom Petty – Wildflowers
The Dandy Warhols – 13 Tales of Urban Bohemia