Tenth albums are a rare thing, most bands can barely make one album let alone have the kind of sustained success to crank out ten. So I just want to say hats off to any band that does, even if I don’t like your music.

To celebrate the rare achievement I’ve dug up some of my favorite tenth albums. They’re maybe not “The Best” but they’re the ones that click with me. Here they are, and maybe a fun little story too!

Bob Seger Stranger in Town

When I was in kindergarten, once during the morning announcements, my vice principal played “Old Time Rock & Roll” over the speaker because it was the principal’s birthday and this was her favorite song. So just picture twenty something 5 and 6-year-olds in 1990 staring straight ahead listening to Bob Seger sing about the 50s or something while you wait to draw a picture of a dog with a huge pencil. I vowed then and there to hate Bob Seger. Bob Seger is old weirdo music. Years later, at around 30-years-old (perhaps the age of a principal), I found Stranger in Town in the CD discount bin and it has been in my car’s stereo on a monthly basis ever since. Children can be so dumb. “Old Time Rock & Roll” still kinda sucks though.

Oh Sees Warm Slime

I have not heard every Oh Sees album; there are 26 according to Wikipedia. For any band that has 26 (and counting!) albums, you’d imagine they go through a lot of phases, and this record feels like a transitional one: a scrappy garage band turning into a filthy krautrock band. But to me, the most important thing about this record is that the guitars sound cool. They just do a lot of cool guitar sounds, and it sounds great loud. Pretty good exercise music too!

The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The first time I ever did mushrooms was at a Flaming Lips show and they were playing “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1” and Wayne Coyne had a bunch of fake blood coming out of his forehead and I did not know if it was real or not and the uncertainty excited me. While I don’t go back to it a ton anymore, you never forget the weird mark something like The Flaming Lips leave on you. Another band where their tenth record is arguably their best, probably their most important, and definitely the one I’ve listened to the most. They spent decades exploring every corner of psychedelic pop music and then put all the elements together here. (Shout out to my friend Lauren for assuring me it was fake blood.)

The Rolling Stones Exile on Main St.

This feels like an easy #1 for best 10th album of all time, right? It’s typically regarded as the best Stones record, if not the best classic rock record of all time. It’s one of those albums where it would be weird if you didn’t like it, like you’re trying to prove something. Anyway, I have pretty much that relationship with it, the same one that millions of other people have: I think it’s great! Not a ton of personal attachment but I have listened to it a bunch and I’ll do it a bunch more. Had to include it on those merits alone.

Ghostface Killah Twelve Reasons to Die

As a pale, short, bald, 37-year-old white guy, to me, Ghostface Killah is rap Martin Scorscese. A visionary storyteller that has a clear go-to style and subject matter. He’s got a prolific body of work, and he’s one of the best to ever do it while not pandering for the awards and acclaim his peers may have. If I’m going to keep going with the comparison, Twelve Reasons to Die is Ghost’s Shutter Island. It’s the result of a confident master of his craft who wants to explore a stylized piece that’s a bit of a departure, but executed with perfect follow through. It’s moody and dark, but in a fun popcorn way. Also, it’s a little better than Shutter Island.

The Kinks Muswell Hillbillies

To me this record is the cooler sibling to The Rolling Stones Beggar’s Banquet. The Stones rule (and Beggar’s is one of my favorites), but they always feel like they’re playing dress up when they do country accents and strum acoustic guitars. I mean, they are playing dress up, but also they feel like they are. The Kinks always felt legit in these sounds and never more so on this record. The realities of working class life get some concrete examples on Muswell Hillbillies that are only seen in second hand references on other records. Musically, it’s a perfect summertime beer on the porch record, but it will also make you sad if you sing along too much. The perfect combo.

Tom Petty Wildflowers

Honestly not a ton to say about this other than it was one of like 5 of my first CDs as a kid and it got TONS of rotation along with Adam Sandler albums and a promotional CD for C+C Music Factory that came with a 12 pack of Coca-Cola. Why was a child listening to a mid period Tom Petty sing, “You don’t know how it feels to be me?” Not sure, but it’s such a catchy record I didn’t even think about how I was bobbing my head to a guy singing about wanting to leave his wife.

R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi 

Monster was my first R.E.M. record so that’s just what I thought they sounded like, I had no idea that was them “rocking out.” That probably made me more amenable to the style of New Adventures in Hi-Fi in a way older fans might not be. If a young band had put out a song like “Leave” people would have freaked out, but it’s R.E.M. almost 20 years into their run and everyone had expectations. Sorry this record doesn’t namecheck Leonard Bernstein, Gen X nerds.

Funkadelic One Nation Under a Groove

One Nation Under a Groove is probably the best album to have a song called “Enema Squad” on it. Probably. Like all the best George Clinton records, this is loaded with some of the best musicians on earth being as indulgent as you want to them to be for better and worse, but the better is tons better than anyone else’s. I’ll probably listen to this record for the rest of my life, and I’ll probably skip “Enema Squad” most of the listens. It’s a cool groove and all, but seriously they say “bowel movement” soooooooooo many times in it.

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac

The first record featuring their classic lineup. Crazy, right? It’s very unusual that a band hits its peak phase after their tenth record, but this is it. Similarly to Exile, it’s just one of those records you have to listen to, and even if you don’t really really connect with it, you’re not going to hate it, and it will probably grow on you too. I’m still in my “growing on me” phase with it, but I’m really appreciating the journey. I think I’d appreciate it even more if I didn’t live in the future where Tusk and Rumors already exist.

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