84. The Price of Existence - All Shall Perish
This is, simply put, metalcore to make your ears bleed. And damn, is it good. I'm really not a big metal fan at all these days; I was into it a lot back in the middle of high school but only a few bands have been worthy of remaining in my playlist, and this is the death/metalcore that gets to stay. With two vocalists, one that does low, demonic growls and another that does the higher grunts working in unison, they created a vocal sound that couldn't be rivaled by any of their competition in the genre. Their genre simply blows my mind; at times pumping out blast beats faster than I can comprehend and then immediately breaking down to painfully slow, intense rhythms the next second. These guys are truly technically talented, and it shows in their music. There isn't a single moment on the album where a listener has time to get bored; the band is constantly speeding up, changing tempo, and flying into breakdowns that slow down so abruptly it articulates the sound of someone slamming the brakes in their car to avoid an accident. Plus, with the heavily distorted, crunchy down tuned to b guitars, the music is 100% brutal.
Best Songs: Eradication, Wage Slaves, Prisoner of War, Promises
83. Aoxomoxoa - The Grateful Dead
All right, yes, I know a lot of people might consider this a strange choice for a Grateful Dead album, especially over American Beauty. But for me, this is the ideal Grateful Dead; a collection of their greatest hits, and the epitome of their experimental era (in case you haven't notice, I love experimental sounding stuff). This album contains several of their best known hits (St. Stephen, China Cat Sunflower) but also includes some of their songs that I think are vastly overlooked by non Deadheads (casual Dead listeners that have just Skeletons in the Closet or American Beauty), namely the acoustic marvel Mountains of the Moon and Cosmic Charlie's. What's Become of the Baby is, simply put, a song for drugs. If you listen to this song sober, it really kind of sucks. But I'm telling you - take acid or eat some shrooms and it's like you're listening to something completely different. The lyrics are simply grand, and it was just a very misunderstood song (as far as I can tell, most people don't like it). In 1996, this was re-released on cd with three over ten minute jams and a live recording of Cosmic Charlie. This simply put this album over the top for me, as it would have been my favorite before. Though Anthems of the Sun does come in at a very close second.
Best Songs: St. Stephen, Dupree's Diamond Blues, Mountains of the Moon, China Cat Sunflower, All of the jams are great too if you get the bonus songs
82. Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? - The Unicorns
Yep, it's the Unicorns! Looking at the album artwork for this gives one a pretty good idea of what to expect. It's some quirky, upbeat (usually) experimental electropop perhaps? I'm not so great on my genres but I try. This is simply some great music; it contains electronic sounds that really remind me of something I'd hear from Boards of Canada with the aged sound but more staccato, combined with high pitched, poppy male vocals, drum beats that just get your feet tapping, and great syncopated guitar lines that lead into nice heavy choruses.
Best Songs: Tuff Ghost, Jellybones, I Was Born (A Unicorn)
81. Spooky - Lush
This is one of my favorite shoegaze albums. Lush, working with Robin Guthrie, take the ethereal dream pop sound of the Cocteau Twins and put it behind even more layers of guitar, creating a rather unique sound with Miki's beautiful, lush sounding (haha) voice sounding out over top. Just slightly out of tune, she sounds perfect on
Spooky, using her voice more as an additional instrument than for lyrics. At times heavy and distorted; at times minor key and dark; sometimes just fascinating and shimmering; this is the perfect music to listen to on a grand summer day, at night in the dark with your eyes closed, or while with that special someone. It's thehe diversity of the tracks that make it the perfect soundtrack to so many things. This is a gorgeous, lush album, truly living up to the name of the band all the way through.
Best Songs: Nothing Natural, For Love, Untogether, Laura