March Album-of-the-Day: THE RECKONING

Hey everyone! I couldn't top the list with the Beatles for the third month in a row, thus the following massive upset that has shocked the world! Read all about it in these unheard and/or classic albums that I listened to this past month:

1. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

Can you believe I've never listened to this before in its entirety? Crazy.

2. Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

3. Yes - Close to the Edge

4. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

5. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love

6. Van Morrison - Moondance

7. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

8. Soundgarden - Superunknown

9. The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin

10. Primal Scream - Screamadelica

This was a super solid top ten this month! The last the top five, as per usual, are pretty standard, but the latter half is a bit of a left-field shock. The last two I had never heard, and I was more than pleasantly surprised. Both are definite to their genre, and in two genres I am not as familiar with (country-rock and indie/alternative dance). All of these top-ten albums are top-notch, you can't go wrong with any of them.

11. Santana - Santana III

12. Supertramp - Breakfast in America

13. Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond

14. Tori Amos - Under the Pink

Of these albums almost good enough to get into the top ten, each was a great new experience for me. Santana III is almost as good as Abraxas, while Breakfast in America and Under the Pink have far more depth beyond their hit singles. As well, Captain Beyond, featuring the original vocalist of Deep Purple and two classic guitarists from Iron Butterfly, created a very unique progressive rock album with their debut, and I am shocked I'd never heard it until now. These albums are remembered so unfairly, which is sad as they are all excellent releases.

15. Muse - Black Holes & Revelations

16. The xx - The xx

17. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Great albums! I'd heard them before but not in a while, so it was a good time revisiting :)

18. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

I realized my bias was being tested when I put on Viva la Vida to listen to, and I must say I was surprised at the quality. The song "Viva la Vida" is much better in full album context, being buried by great songs like "Violet Hill" rather than the adult alternative trash it had been on the radio. In fact, there are not any songs on this album that strike me as an obvious hit single potential, and I like that fact a lot about Viva la Vida. Just goes to show, if you reach outside your invisible boundaries, you will often surprise yourself!

19. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm

20. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga

I was hugely unimpressed with what I had heard of Bright Eyes before listening to this one. I had heard the dual album of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn was Conor Oberst's best, but I could not get into it at all. This one, however, is quite well formed, and starts off especially strong with a cryptic opener leading into the album's two best songs, "Four Winds" and "If the Brakeman Turns My Way." Well produced and written, Cassadaga is an absorbing entry into Oberst's career.

21. Battles - Gloss Drop

22. Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers

23. J. Cole - Cole World: The Sideline Story

24. Toro y Moi - Underneath the Pine

Never listened to these groups! I've only been getting into J. Cole pretty much in reverse order, and only heard the original MSP albums (also, my first full jump into Toro y Moi!). Not perfect, but any of the above are worth diving into. Manic Street Preachers can be a little uneven, to say the least, but this album seems revived for the time, and they have consistently put out well-received music since (that I will also soon be exploring). The Sideline Story has a great classic-album feel despite coming out in 2011, clearly launching his career on his own merits.

25. Radiohead - The King of Limbs

26. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

27. Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

28. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

These above four albums are all clearly transitions between or to better albums, but each has a least a few moments that make the full listen worth your time. The jangly "Little by Little" hits at fusing the momentum of In Rainbows with Radiohead's ethereal side; Mother's Milk debuts the most famous lineup of RHCP, with some excellent singles "Knock Me Down" and "Taste the Pain" I had never heard; Saturday Night Wrist comes right before my favorite Deftones albums; opener "Best Night" almost shows you what's to come with The War on Drugs' follow-up Lost in the Dream. Listen with a grain of salt, each of these albums demonstrates great bands at a moment of experimentation and deviance from their established formulas.

29. The Subways - All or Nothing

30. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

A lot of people love this album, but I think it's super overrated. While it certainly is admirable for trying to expand the Bon Iver sound, this album does not achieve the quality of For Emma or push the envelope as much as 22, A Million. It just sounds sterile, and despite a few good songs, there is too much low-quality material to redeem here.

31. Toto - Fahrenheit

That is, Bon Iver would be irredeemable had it not been for this album. This ballad-saturated record had two charting singles that were sung by guitarist Steve Lukather (who is quite vocally bland), but none of the songs have a memorable or identifiable quality to them. Even with a slew of amazing guests, Toto's sixth album is a huge dud.