2024; Album Anniversaries

Each time we turn the calendar over to a new page, we are faced with the reality of a new future, but also the coincidence of a new set of past events circling back around. The upcoming year is one with many album anniversaries worth taking note of, because sometimes the past tells us a lot about how evolution has been occurring, and also where it has gone wrong.

Whether all of these albums get a full essay exploring their music, their impact, and my connection to them, is up in the air. What isn't is that they are albums I am taking note of as the year begins, because my orbit is passing over where these records were discovered, and measuring that distance tells me something, even if I don't know what it is.

Bloodbound - Tabula Rasa (15th)

This album was a revelation when I first heard it. Unlike anything else power metal had offered up, this was a record I thought would be a point of genesis. The fusion of huge melodic hooks with instrumentation that borrowed from Soilwork's brand of death metal, there are ways in which this record set the stage for an entire branch of power metal. There are also ways in which this record set me up for disappointment, and may have even taught me that my interpretation of a good idea is far removed from what the wider world seems to think is worthwhile.

Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache (20th)

I never got far into the metalcore world, but even as an outsider it was clear how this record defined that entire genre. While a lot of who we are in our youth becomes cringe-worthy as we age, this record is one aspect of being a certain age at a certain time that only seems to echo deeper with time. We can argue whether the band ever did better than this (And in fact their self-titled album from 2009 is also celebrating an anniversary this year), but I don't think there's any debate the impact this album had on the metal world. It even marked me, which is an achievement.

Green Day - American Idiot (20th)

Much will be made of "Dookie" being a decade older than this, but I don't find discourse over that album very interesting. "American Idiot", however, remains fascinating. It is a record that never should have been made, never should have worked, and yet became the defining record of a generation. It also sits as perhaps the last real 'political' record to break through to the masses. Despite the world still being in turmoil, there was never another record that could do what this one did. That's worth thinking about.

Jimmy Eat World - Futures (20th)

My favorite album of all time will have been out for just about half of my life, and its influence on me has only continued to grow. What I take from this album is that emo can only mine so deep before it hits a raw nerve. The genre rarely ventured so far into the dark and the shadows, and for good reason. It takes expert hands to keep from falling off the ledge, and it's the tongue-in-cheek cynicism of most of the genre that waters down the impact so we can dose ourselves more heavily. "Futures" didn't pull its punches, and it needed to be a one-off for everyone's sake.

Morrissey - You Are The Quarry (20th)

The world would have been better off if Morrissey never saw a revival of his career. I'm not sure if I would have been. Perhaps I will figure that out in writing.

Tonic - Sugar (25th)

It was this record, and not "Lemon Parade", that cemented Tonic's greatness to me. I remember getting my first burned copy of the record, and being taken aback by something my nascent ears were not expecting. If not for this, I wouldn't have gone back and found the greatness in "Lemon Parade", nor would I have had my favorite band for all these years. That's certainly worth taking note of.

Weezer - Blue (30th)

Did this record create the idea of nerd rock? I don't know, but I know it was an early inflection point where I realized how desperately uncool I was. I was not part of the group scoffing at Weezer, nor the group who clung to them as heroes. I was somewhere lost, and it was only later I figured out how much Rivers and I had in common. It would be even later how much I hated myself for that fact.

Blues Traveler - Four (30th)

It amuses me how there are still plenty of people who, all these years later, don't realize what it says about them if "Hook" and "Run Around" are the only Blues Traveler songs they know or like. It also amuses me that the band would, later on, forget their own lesson and become cynical in an entirely different way. That doesn't diminish the impact this record had on me, or how John Popper's harmonica is still utterly unique to anything else I've ever heard. This nostalgia trip will likely need to be taken.