My 5 favorite albums of ALL TIME.

Honorable mentions:

Disintegration by The Cure

Not Animal by Margot & The Nuclear So & Sos

Give Up by The Postal Service

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Disclaimer - I'm not saying that any of these albums are better than any other albums, they just mean a lot to me.

#5 Up In Our Bedroom After The War by Stars

When I was fourteen I got really, really upset (I don't even remember what about) one night and I walked to a parking lot a few minuters away from my house and spent the entire night listening to this album on repeat.

It's not a hard album to seriously fall in love with. Listening to this album just fills me up with awkward nostalgia for my first two years of high school. If I had to pick an album to go along to a movie about my life between the ages of 14 and 16 it would be this one and the movie would be amazing.

Favorite tracks: Bitches In Tokyo, Life 2: The Unhappy Ending, The Ghost of Genova Heights, My Favorite Book, Midnight Coward (stop me before I list every single song on this album)

#4 The First Days of Spring by Noah and The Whale

Literally the perfect break up record. That is all I have to say.

Favorite tracks (in order): Slow Glass, Our Window, Blue Skies

#3 In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

After reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson (one of my least favorite books of all time) I was legitimately annoyed. The tiny little hipster named Lars that lives in my ears wanted to walk all the way to David Levithan (or John Green)'s living arangement and claw his eyes out. Why? You might ask. The answer is simple. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. Some of the sweetest tunes I had ever heard in my entire life were going to be absolutely DESTROYED by youtube comments like "OMGLMFAOAHHH! LIKE THIS IF WG,WG BROUGHT YOU HERE" and that seriously annoyed me... Then I realized that how other people percieve and react to an album has absolutely nothing to do with me. That realization made me love this album even more, which is the only think that pushed it in front of #4. Otherwise there would have been a tie.

Favorite tracks: King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1, Oh Comely, The Fool, Holland 1945, Communist Daughter

#2 Lifted or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground by Bright Eyes

"The picture's far too big to look at kid, your eyes won't open wide enough, and you're constantly surrounded by the swirling stream of what is and what was, well we all make our predictions but the truth still is enough. But if you want to see the future go stare into a cloud."

"And if I sold my soul for a bag of gold, to you, which one of us would be foolish one?"

"Well the future's got me worried such awful thoughts. My head's a carousel of pictures. The spinning never stops. I just want someone to walk in front, and I'll follow the leader"

No Lyrics have ever made me feel so PENSIVE as the words Conor Oberst sings in these 13 songs.

I fell in love with every single song on this album seperately. I never actually listened to the album in it's entirety until last year when I finally bought a physical copy of it... my relationship with Bright eyes has been so WEIRD. I discovered them literally right before I went to Europe for the first time. I heard a few FANTASTIC songs and bought their entire discography on itunes. I was putting the music on my ipod literally 5 minutes before I had to leave my house to drive to my Aunt's in Connecticut (I wasn't going with my parents that time), not realizing that I had deleted everything else on it.

The trip was honestly the worst trip of my entire life. I hated every second of it and all I had to distract me from how awful it was was Bright Eyes. Today listening to the album in it's entirety I can recall a memory from when I was there and listening to these songs. Memories like being on the Subway in Paris while listening to 'Nothing Gets Crossed Out' and having my aunt snatch the earbuds out of my ears because someone on the train obviously would have stolen my ipod. Or sitting by a window staring at the streets of Berlin while my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins climbed up some random tower not noticing that I wasn't following them while listening to "Waste of Paint" on repeat. Or crying in the bathroom of the Louvre and thinking "I HATE YOU PEOPLE SO MUCH" while listening to "Let's Not Shit Ourselves" for the very first time in my entire life. Bright Eyes (and this album) got me through that trip, and they've been my favorite band ever since.

Favorite tracks: You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will., Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and To Be Loved), Nothing Gets Crossed Out, Bowl of Oranges, Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come, From A Balance Beam, Waste of Paint (I'm aware that this is more than half of the album but it's so GOOD)

#1 Kid A by Radiohead

Kid A is a listening experience. I almost didn't want to call it my favorite album because I heard it for the first time a few months ago. I mean I'm practically still in the honeymoon phase with it. But for me it's literally a little piece of heaven that fell from the sky and into my ears. The feeling I get when I listen to Kid A is like realizing that your favorite hobby is slowly killing you, knowing that, and continuing to do it anyway.

It's deep shit, but you won't find all of that meaning in the lyrics. This album almost transcends meaning. Everyone I know that has ever heard it and liked it took away something completely different, but when Thom Yorke closes it with cries of "I think you're crazy" you believe it. and it's hard not to cry at that point.

Favorite Tracks: National Anthem, How To Disappear Completely, Idioteque, Motion Picture Soundtrack, Everything In It's Right Place, Kid A, In Limbo (See the favorite tracks of #2)

DFTBA,

Chuck