favourite albums

it ain't no secret that i love music! i can and often do listen to the same song on repeat if it tickles my gray matter. but enjoying an album from start to finish? a rarity! here are the few that make the cut. listed not by release date, but rather in the order i discovered and then became obsessed with them!

britney (2001)

it's too bad this isn't the album that features my absolute favourite britney song (breathe on me) but it has my favourite listening experience by miss spears. also, it holds a lot of nostalgia for me! when this album was released, my friends and i would make choreo for the songs we really liked, and seeing crossroads a few months after this albums release was the icing on the cake. this era of hers made me go batshit for big, billowy bell sleeves! if you know, you know.

favourite tracks:

- i'm a slave 4 u
- overprotected
- i'm not a girl, not yet a woman
- anticipating
- that's where you take me

hybrid theory (2000)

the album that started it all! my teenaged obsession with linkin park, that is. i stole the CD from my brothers collection, and used to blast it at full volume while playing resident evil: dead aim. god, could that sentence be any more early 2000s? anyway, something i always appreciate in an album is when the songs all flow into each other, and hybrid theory is what turned me onto that! honorable mention goes to the remix album, reanimation, which wasn't well-received by fans and critics alike... but i love it!

favourite tracks:

- papercut
- points of authority
- runaway
- by myself
- a place for my head
- cure for the itch
- my december

queen of the damned (2002)

this movie may have been a horrible adaptation, but the two things it had going for it? stuart townsend in leather pants and aaliyah's hypnotic hip swishing. throw in a fantastic soundtrack, and you have one of my most beloved bad movies! what can i say? it further reaffirmed my feelings as a baby bi, and a burgeoning lil vampire goth. it also introduced me to some of my most-played artists at the time!

favourite tracks:

- system by chester bennington
- change by deftones (the rose petal scene anyone??)
- penetrate by godhead
- slept so long by jay gordon
- excess by tricky
- before i'm dead by the kidneythieves

meteora (2003)

alongside fefe dobson's self-titled debut album, this was one of the first CDs i bought with my own money. and that's saying something, considering i was barely a pre-teen at the time! after stealing hybrid theory from my brother, i had officially declared LP as my top band so i knew i just needed their follow-up as soon as it went on sale. i didn't realize how important this particular album would be to me until a couple of years later, when i went through some of the worst years of my life as a teen. it turns out that i actually had shit in common with chester bennington, and they were sad, ugly, shameful things. i'm just so fucking sorry he wasn't able to overcome them in the end.

favourite tracks:

- don't stay
- somewhere i belong
- lying from you
- hit the floor
- easier to run
- figure.09
- breaking the habit
- session

watch out! (2004)

i gotta admit that it was the cover art that drew me in initially! it kicks absolute ass! as do all of the songs on the album. this was my go-to on all of the long car rides to visit relatives, and my parents often teased me as i used to fall asleep with their music tearing through my cheap, tinny headphones. i was never quite as into the rest of alexisonfire's music following this release, but it'd been a dream of mine as a 12 year old to see them live! and i finally did last summer, and they were incredible! it was one of the best shows i've ever been to. it felt like a religious experience. they ended their set with happiness by the kilowatt, and i swear the entire crowd could've listened to them play it forever.

favourite tracks:

- accidents
- control
- it was fear of myself that made me odd
- side walk when she walks
- no transitory
- happiness by the kilowatt

what's your pleasure? (2021)

for me, nothing beats this album. it's transcendental! jessie ware has a voice and sound that is incomparable to her contemporaries, and what's your pleasure? is her magnum opus. there's nothing else out there that sounds this sensual, luxurious, and rich. this is sexy fun music for us grown bitches! i had such a hard time picking my top tracks, which is how you know this whole album is an experience from start to finish.

favourite tracks:

- spotlight
- what's your pleasure
- save a kiss
- in your eyes
- step into my life
- mirage (don't stop)
- remember where you are
- please
- eyes closed
- hot n' heavy