58. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee
Maybe this is a little predictable coming from me, but this is easily my favorite concept album. It finishes up the fascinating and devastating saga of the Alpha couple, who had appeared quite often in Darnielle's past albums. It's the first Mountain Goats record with a full band sound and it gives the instrumentation richness, it feels full and developed. Of course, as always, the stand-out here are the lyrics which are incredibly dark and bleak, but somehow manage to have just a shred of hope and light peaking through.