Albums That Just Missed the Cut
We've nearly crossed the finish line! 99 albums down, only one more left to go. This endeavor has been a long time coming, and I'm eager to share my favorite album of all-time with you very soon. Before number 1 is revealed, I thought it might be fun to take a look at a handful of albums that I felt deserve an honorable mention. Throughout the last year, this list has undergone multiple revisions to the point where it's unrecognizable from the draft I hammered out in late 2022. For one reason or another, these entries didn't end up cracking the top 100, but they were very close! Without further ado, why don't we start things off with a notable yet controversial omission?
I've got blisters on me fingers!
Release: November 22nd, 1968
Genre: Rock
Favorite Tracks: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter, Back In The U.S.S.R.
Why it missed the cut:
That's right, there is no Beatles album in my top 100. Listen, this was a conundrum I experienced several times when compiling this list. It's intended to be a collection of my favorite songs of all-time, not necessarily the greatest songs. Despite my own personal reservations on the music of the Beatles, even I can't ignore the generational impact this fearsome foursome accomplished during their tenure. There's a reason this band holds a majority of the all-time sales records: their music was groundbreaking for its era, truly revolutionary from the status quo. But to consider any of these legendary albums as my favorite? Well, I just couldn't end up rationalizing with myself to put them on there over so many other albums I'd rather listen to. Over the years, I've begrudgingly acquired a taste for the Beatles in order to be part of the conversation, and I have to say there's plenty out there to keep even the harshest of critics at bay. I've had stints where Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was my favorite Beatles record, similarly with Revolver, but the white album has stolen my heart in recent years for its extensive range in songwriting. There's certified classics like Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but also plenty of selections that push the limits of the band's genre like Revolution 9 and Helter Skelter. If the Beatles couldn't make the list, what hope was there for any of these other albums?
Welcome to the wild wild west
Release: February 13th, 1996
Genre: Hip-Hop
Favorite Tracks: Only God Can Judge Me, All About U, Can't C Me
Why it missed the cut:
I may have to turn in my Californian citizenship after featuring the east coast anthem Ready to Die on my top 100 in lieu of this west coast classic. Growing up in the Bay Area, 2Pac was so deeply entrenched in the culture, his music was unavoidable. Some of my earliest memories around my childhood neighborhood was walking around the streets, hearing the bombastic bass of 2Pac's beats blast from a vintage low-rider or out on the back porch. Noted for his lyrical genius, you'll be hard pressed to find anybody in the rap game who hasn't taken some influence from 2Pac. This guy was on top of the world throughout the 90's before he was violently murdered in September of 1996, robbing the world of one of its best wordsmiths. It's purely speculative what 2Pac could have accomplished had he still been here, but what's not for debate is the legacy he left behind in his music. All Eyez on Me is seen by many as the magnum opus of 2Pac's storied career, and it's definitely the album I find myself picking from most often. While I initially had this album ranked in the high 90's, I pulled a last-minute audible and decided against it. Ultimately, I just couldn't get over the exhausting run time of this album. Clocking in at over two hours, All Eyez on Me is chock full of hits like Ambitions Az A Ridah and California Love, but admittedly does end up becoming stale around halfway through the second disc. Don't hate the player, hate the game!
Nobody likes you when you're 23
Release: June 1st, 1999
Genre: Pop-Punk
Favorite Tracks: The Party Song, Aliens Exist, Mutt
Why it missed the cut:
Enema of the State was a bit of an oversight by the time I considered it for a spot in the top 100. When my initial research began in late 2022, I briefly pondered whether this album was worthy of a spot, but dismissed it early on. As my list progressed and the entries started rolling, I ended up revisiting Enema of the State as a fringe candidate, only to realize I liked this album more than I once thought. However, by the time I came to that conclusion, I couldn't convince myself to bump another entry to feature this one. blink-182 is peak juvenile debauchery, and represents an era of my life where my adolescence was the best excuse for acting up. Travis Barker was actually one of the first drummers that got me interested in picking up a pair of sticks. Enema of the State is loaded with some of the group's most recognizable songs like All The Small Things and What's My Age Again?, but I value it more for the garage band style that refines some of the muddled production of past albums, tweaking them to perfection in songs like Dumpweed and The Party Song. This album probably ranks somewhere in the low 80's for me, and it's a shame it couldn't be included in time. This was a problem I experienced quite often in the making of this list.
You don't know what you really want
Release: January 24th, 2005
Genre: Electronica
Favorite Tracks: Losing My Edge, On Repeat, Tired
Why it missed the cut:
Despite the encyclopedic knowledge of music I claim to possess, I'm still finding new music I've never heard before that blows me away. How lucky am I? LCD Soundsystem is a group I knew the name of, but couldn't tell you a single song of theirs. Actually, I don't recall hearing any song of theirs until I started working at my current job in a kitchen, where my head chef recommended me the song Losing My Edge. He doesn't listen to a ton of music, but he's incredibly informed about what he remembers from growing up. When he gives me a music recommendation, I tend to resonate with it. I couldn't have imagined the ride that this eponymous debut album would take me on as I picked through more and more of its tracklist. It was probably August of last year when I first heard LCD Soundsystem, and I was already writing entries in the 30's by that time. While this album wasn't that good enough to warrant a swap, I'd say now that this album is good enough to break the 60's, or maybe even low 50's. This album is such a unique entry among the heaping pile of content available during the mid 2000's. I've been recommending it to just about anybody who will listen these days.
I ain't no goddamn son of a bitch
Release: July 1st, 1986
Genre: Punk
Favorite Tracks: Mommy, Can I Go Out & Kill Tonight?, Where Eagles Dare, London Dungeon
Why it missed the cut:
I'm not the brightest bulb of the bunch from time to time. I was so excited to write an entry on one of my favorite punk bands ever in the Misfits, especially since Collection harbored a majority of the songs I adored by them. However, I specifically outlined in the introduction of this list that compilation and greatest-hits albums were excluded. Collection is actually an assortment of songs from the Misfits' prior three albums. I mean come on Joe, it's right there in the title. As much as I wanted to give this album its due diligence, I couldn't possibly allow such a blatant breach of the rules to rank so high on my list (or at all, evidently). Without that one glaring issue, Collection easily has a spot in the mid to high 80's on this list. The Misfits were such an integral part in developing American counterculture in the 1980's, and I fell in love with their music after attending a legendary reunion concert of theirs at Riot Fest 2016. If you're looking for a strong kick in the teeth, Collection is the album for you.
If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis
Release: March 30th, 1970
Genre: Jazz Fusion
Favorite Tracks: Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, Pharaoh's Dance, Spanish Key
Why it missed the cut:
It's a shame I wasn't able to highlight a large number of jazz albums in my top 100. I listen to jazz pretty frequently during my free time, thanks to the publicly-funded radio station 89.3 KUVO Jazz (shoutout to them, fantastic organization!). I've always had deep appreciation for the art of conversational performance that jazz displays, but my knowledge of artists tends to be isolated within the vacuum of individual songs. Miles Davis is as legendary of an act as you can ask for in the jazz sphere, responsible for some of the best pieces of contemporary music like Kind of Blue and, of course, Bitches Brew. This album was among the initial batch of entries for my list, but I regrettably chose to leave it off, as it wasn't a record I tended to revisit as often as other selections. I'm thankful I was able to squeeze in a couple jazz entries with Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters and Isaiah Collier's Return of the Black Emperor, and I really should have made an effort to fit Bitches Brew in there too. I'd estimate this album to be right at the border of top 100, a perfect 101 or 102 pick, if you will.
Birth of a Starman
Release: June 16th, 1972
Genre: Glam Rock
Favorite Tracks: Suffragette City, Ziggy Stardust, Starman
Why it missed the cut:
Much like the Beatles, David Bowie was an artist that took years to finally grow on me. This is surprising to me, as my musical upbringing completely revolved around classic rock, yet I somehow managed to avoid Bowie's music, save for Suffragette City on the original Rock Band soundtrack. I saw him as a bit overrated for the amount of fame and success he had, but I was inspired to listen to a bit of his catalog in early 2016 following his death. As it turns out, I'd heard a number of songs I liked, not knowing they were David Bowie songs: Changes, The Man Who Sold the World, Young Americans, the list goes on. It seemed colloquially agreed upon that Ziggy Stardust was by and away Bowie's finest work, but it remained an album I shelved for years before finally checking it out. For not being a huge Bowie fan, Ziggy Stardust captivated me with a well-developed narrative and theatrical voice of its decorated vocalist. I value this one for being a great concept album, but it's not necessarily one that I'm shouting from the hilltops about.
The OGs of southern hip-hop
Release: October 31st, 2000
Genre: Hip-Hop
Favorite Tracks: B.O.B., Ms. Jackson, So Fresh, So Clean
Why it missed the cut:
As one of the first hip-hop groups of the new millennium to cross over into the mainstream, I grew up listening to Outkast staples like Hey Ya! and The Way You Move on the radio. For a while, it felt like Outkast was the next big thing in hip-hop, but they seemed to fall off towards the end of the 2000s as creative differences between Big Boi and André 3000 grew. It took me well into adulthood to take a retrospective look on Outkast and truly understand the gravity of their impact during their heyday. Stankonia boasts a decent amount of the duo's best songs in their catalog, but beyond that, I feel there's a lot to be desired in an album that extends to over an hour long. The best songs on Stankonia are straight 10 out of 10 bangers, and the lesser tracks run their course on me fairly quickly to keep engaged. That said, André 3000 and especially Big Boi deserve some credit as two of the best MCs to ever spit on the mic. It's the unique and whimsical bars of Stankonia and Outkast as a whole that give them staying power, just not enough to win me over entirely.
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