Favorite Albums

I particularly enjoy mixes (see my birthday playlists), but also have favorite albums I like listening to as a whole. These are twenty favorites, not in any order. For each album I’ve chosen a “key track,” which is a favorite or meaningful song (like the first track I heard from it).

Album title and track title link to Bandcamp. Artist name links to website.

Album release dates:

Electronic

Pretty Hate Machine
Nine Inch Nails
1989
Key track: Something I Can Never Have

OutRun
Kavinsky
2013
Key track: Nightcall

Silent Shout
The Knife
2006
Key track: We Share Our Mother’s Health

Fever Ray
Fever Ray
2009
Key track: If I Had a Heart

Velocifero
Ladytron
2008
Key track: Predict the Day

Gravity the Seducer
Ladytron
2011
Key track: Ace of Hz

Indie

Vapours
Islands
2009
Key track: Shining

Taste
Islands
2016
Key track: Outspoken Dirtbiker

Ski Mask
Islands
2013
Key track: Shotgun Vision

The Slow Rush
Tame Impala
2020
Key track: Borderline

Jimmy’s Show
Jim Noir
2012
Key track: JJC Sports

Helplessness Blues
Fleet Foxes
2011
Key track: The Shrine / An Argument

Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
2008
Key track: White Winter Hymnal

Late Checkout
Dent May
2020
Key track: Sea Salt and Caramel

LIFTED or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Bright Eyes
2002
Key track: Lover I Don’t Have to Love

The Lonesome Crowded West
Modest Mouse
1997
Key track: Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine

Alternative

Isles
Wild Belle
2013
Key track: Keep You

Tonight
Franz Ferdinand
2009
Key track: What She Came For

Hungry Ghosts
OK Go
2014
Key track: I Won’t Let You Down

Kill the Moonlight
Spoon
2002
Key track: Stay Don’t Go