#1,234 Albums.

Today I was listening to my iTunes and thinking of how very much I love a few specific albums in their entirety. Incidentally, today is blog number 1-2-3-4 so I would love to talk about my top 4 favorite albums of all time. I will never ever tire of hearing them all the way through. I will never skip a song on these albums.

4. The Decemberists — The King is Dead

Every single song is my favorite one on this album. Starting with Don’t Carry it All, possibly my favorite wake-up-and-have-an-awesome-day song of all time (with the exception of Under Pressure by Queen). Every song makes me long for summer and fall and spring all at once, and every song feels so familiar to me that it seems like this has been my favorite album since I was old enough to buy music. But I only heard it for the first time in 2011 when Jesse introduced me to The Decemberists. I love all of their albums, but this one. This is the one.

3. Counting Crows — Across A Wire: Live in New York (Disc 1)

I can’t begin to explain how much this album meant to me in high school. It was a live recording of their set on VH1 Storytellers and I listened to it until it wouldn’t play anymore. I learned these acoustic versions of their most loved songs from their early albums like August and Everything After and Recovering the Satellites. This one disc is a conglomeration of all their most beautiful songs played quietly and thoughtfully and I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.

2. Garden State original soundtrack

I saw this movie for the first time when my relationship with Ben was a couple weeks old. We were completely head over heels in love. We had known each other a few days and would’ve run away and gotten married if our parents would’ve given their blessing. We watched this movie on a cold and rainy February afternoon at my parents’ house. We were so affected by it. If you can listen to I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You without feeling heartsick, you’re not human! every song on that album became the soundtrack to our early relationship along with…
1. Damien Rice — O
This is it. The best album I’ve ever heard in my life. Nothing will ever root it out of the top spot. This is the album that was playing in my car the day Ben drove my car for the first time, and we were brand new friends very quickly falling in love. I’d only had the CD for a couple days. I am listening to Delicate as I write this and there are tears in my eyes. This is exactly what meeting the love of my life sounds like. I am 19, he is 21 and I loved him before he ever even spoke to me. I’m so glad he felt the same. We listened to this album and this album only day in and day out the first 2 months of our relationship. We both knew it would always be the sound of our beginning, even then. We knew it would always be the most special arrangement of melodies and instruments we’d ever hear again. We said “I love you” for the first time 6 days after meeting while Cheers Darling, track 7, was playing.
Oh reader please please please download these albums and enjoy them. They’re so beautiful all the way through. You’ll know me so well if you listen to it all. So many great bands didn’t make this list but deserve recognition—every Counting Crows album, Ben Folds, Ani DiFranco, Dave Matthews Band, Ingrid Michaelson. So many more.
What are your favorite albums?