For clarity, this is based off my top plays on last.fm, it's not a rating of 2025 releases.
1. Energy (1989) by Operation Ivy
I am not at all surprised that this one had the most play counts because whenever I have no idea what I feel like listening to, I throw it on. It kinda fits all moods for me, it's just an amazing album, and a far better thing to have come out of the year 1989 than Taylor Swift could ever dream to be. Side note, the cover image for this post is my favorite picture of them that's uploaded to last.fm.
2. The Gold Record (2006) by the Bouncing Souls
This is also not a surprise because this is my other go-to when I don't know what to put on. Track 5 is "Sarah Saturday," and that has been my top played song every year since I started my current last.fm account in 2022. There's a lot of love in that album, the songs are comforting and filled with hope. I don't know how else to explain it though I tried to here, maybe listen to it and see for yourself.
3. Just One More (2003) by Mad Caddies
I know I listen to this a lot too so it's not a shocker, I am just a tiny bit surprised it beat out some of the others on here because it feels like I listen to them more. Mad Caddies is my #2 ska punk band (Catch 22 is #1) and this album is perfection. There's acoustic mixed in too, so it's a great variety of sounds. I love the album art a lot, gotta love art deco styling.
4. Robbin' the Hood (1994) by Sublime
When I'm really busy at work and need to queue up a few hours' worth of songs, I usually do this and #5 back to back. I've talked about this album on the fedi a lot but as a refresher, this is their least popular album. People don't like that it's a DIY, not at all polished sound, nor do they (or I) like the Raleigh rambles (though for me it's about not liking using mental illness as entertainment). I do like the album overall though, I think the rawness makes it so much more real. If you listen to the acoustic version of "Pool Shark" (track 12), you'll feel the emotion behind it in your soul.
5. 40oz. to Freedom (1992) by Sublime
I actually would have expected this to be ahead of Robbin' the Hood because I try to play them chronologically most of the time. 40oz. is the best Sublime album, in my opinion. There's straight up punk songs, there's songs that lean heavily into ska, and there's acoustic stuff. I think it shows how versatile they were and why so many different people like them. When you think about what other well-known 90s rock albums came out in 1992, it's definitely got a unique sound.
6. Last Stop Suburbia (2002) by Allister
I think everybody knows I love (some) Chicago bands, and Allister has been one of my favorites since this album came out. It's pop punk royalty as far as I'm concerned and "Know-It-All" will forever be one of my theme songs.
7. The Sam Cooke compilation Portrait of a Legend: 1951–1964 (2003)
It's just shy of 80 minutes of Sam Cooke, why would I not play it a lot? I swear the man's voice was angelic, I love him so much. If you aren't familiar with his songs, start with this and thank me later. So many of his songs were covered by others so you might recognize some from those.
8. The Otis Redding compilation The Dock of the Bay: The Definitive Collection (1987)
Like with Sam, this is almost an hour of Otis Redding, so why would I not listen a lot? It is a mix of songs he wrote and covers (including a few of Sam's songs). The cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is better than the original. Listen to this one and thank me later for it too.
9. Hybrid Theory (2000) by Linkin Park
This came out at a really perfect time in my life as it coincided with abuse ramping up, being ostracized by my peers, and just really starting to hate myself. I wasn't even a teenager yet so I didn't have any frame of reference for how I felt or even what was taking me over, and this album was basically verbalizing everything I felt. It saved me and my life in a lot of ways and that's why I still cry over Chester Bennington's death.
10. Sublime (1996) by Sublime
The album that put Sublime in the mainstream - as you can see, it's not in sequence with the other 2, because I don't love it quite as much as the others. It's not bad by any means; I do like it, but all of the grit and raw feeling doesn't translate to a major label release. It just doesn't feel the same, but even still a couple of the songs make my favorites list of their stuff, so I do recommend it regardless.
I'm going to post this at the end of every post going forward since my stats suggest that AI scrapers are hitting my blog hundreds of times a day. GenAI is trash. ChatGPT is trash. Copilot is trash. Every other GenAI product is trash. You suck and you should feel bad about it and the fact that you are stealing from me. You should apologize to the world and then self-destruct for the good of humanity.