My Favourite Albums

My Instagram story feed has turned into a slideshow of pints being downed or sweaty runners, just a couple of the challenges that have come about to cleanse our boredom. However, one supposed ‘challenge’ seemed more interesting to me than the others, the album challenge (???). If nominated, you are meant to post the album covers of your favourite pieces — a difficult challenge! As well as posting on Instagram I thought I’d use it as an excuse to right my first piece and breakdown why each album is on my list.

Side note: you’re supposed to pick four, but the lowest I managed was ten, plus all these honourable mentions that could probably have pretty strong cases as well.

Honourable Mentions

Recent albums

(All are great but are too recent to move up into my all-time list)

• The Weeknd — After Hours
• Post Malone — Hollywood’s Bleeding
• Stormzy — Heavy Is The Head
• Kid Quill — Sunset Diner
• Lewis Capaldi — Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent

Long term favourites

(These have been in my playlists for a long time but for one reason or another do not quite make the cut)

• Kanye West — 808s & Heartbreak
• The Weeknd — Starboy
• Troye Sivan — Blue Neighbourhood
• Chance the Rapper — Coloring Book
• Ed Sheeran — X
• J. Cole — 2014 Forest Hills Drive
• Travis Scott — Astroworld

Favourite songs

(These all have a few of my absolute favourite songs on but collectively do not amount to an overall favourite album)

• Dave — Psychodrama
• Kanye West — College Dropout
• Hoodie Allen — All American

My Top 10 All-time Albums

10. Kanye West — Late Registration

This 10th spot was a toss-up between three of Kanye’s albums, 808s, College Dropout and Late Registration, but I ultimately decided the latter was my favourite. While College Dropout includes two of my all-time favourite Kanye songs “Family Business” and “All Falls Down”, overall Late Registration in my opinion, is the better album. The tracks “Touch The Sky” and “Gold Digger” represent Kanye at his production best and are the two headline upbeat songs on the piece. Kanye shows his versatility with the reminiscent and emotional “Roses” and “Hey Mama” reflecting on the trauma of his upbringing while appreciating how he got to his position. Other notable tracks include the Jay-Z assisted “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” and “Heard ’Em Say” with Adam Levine. Overall Late Registration shows ‘Old’ Kanye at his absolute best, flipping samples for fun and complementing them perfectly with his range of flows.

9. Kendrick Lamar — good kid, m.A.A.d city

A common inclusion on most people’s lists is this 2012 piece by Kendrick Lamar and I could also not leave it out. Three tracks on this album stand out hugely to me and are three of my absolute all-time favourite songs. “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Money Trees” and “Swimming Pools (Drank)” are all incredible anthems that will just take you on a journey when you listen to them. Each has its own sound yet collectively show Kendrick’s greatness and ability to rap over any instrumental and tell a story. Other notable songs are of course “m.A.A.d city” and a quite unknown song from the deluxe album, “Now or Never” featuring Mary J. Blige. This song could fit on the above mentioned Late Registration due to its jazzy instrumental and is a great celebratory track to play when things are just going right for you. All in all, the album is a deserving inclusion on many people’s lists as it shows Kendrick’s unmatched ability to produce these story-telling masterpieces.

8. Kid Quill — 94.3 the Reel

If good kid, m.A.A.d city was a perennial inclusion on most people’s lists, this is definitely not the same. A small artist, Kid Quill does not make music for the numbers or charts but just makes it because that’s what he loves doing and you can hear that in this album. The king of bouncy piano beats, Quill raps about his life from keeping his new “White Shoes” clean to not wanting to stay for any “Small Talk”. However the best song is “Playlist” which has one of the catchiest chord progressions I have ever heard. While many of the songs are bops to lift your mood up, Quill shows his versatility with the more emotional “Good, Better, Best” and “The Opener” describing the tough life of an up and coming artist. Other great songs on the album include “Soapbox”, “+1” and “Left Early”. Overall, this is an album that everyone should listen to, especially if you want some upbeat rap that isn’t just artists speaking about their money and jewellery.

7. Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

MBDTF is the sum of Kanye’s evolution and journey as a rapper and producer and results in this theatrical and powerful album that cemented his place at the top of the rap game. There is no boring track on the list as each song is pumped full of incredible production and some of Kanye’s best lyricism to date. In my opinion, this could all be summed up in one song: “Runaway”. The track begins with the same piano note played fifteen times before changing and creating a fantastic instrumental. The nine minute long song speaks is almost an apology from Kanye about the flaws that he sees in himself but also knows that he works incredibly hard to be in his position. Another incredible track is the unassisted “Power”, arguably the best pump-up song of all-time with arguably one of the best instrumentals ever (IMO). “Dark Fantasy”, “All Of The Lights” and “Gorgeous” are my other favourite songs on the album. Many people see this as Kanye’s greatest ever album due to the sheer number of brilliant anthems but as you will read below there is one Kanye album that I think is overall his best.

6. The Weeknd — Beauty Behind The Madness

I am a huge fan of all of The Weeknd’s music but to me Beauty Behind The Madness is his best work. The album is an incredible mix of RnB and pop bangers while also not straying far from the Weeknd’s sound of drug-filled trippy ballads. My favourite song is probably “Often”, an ode to The Weeknd’s regular sex habits and how good he is at it, a regular topic in much of his music. Other less well known songs but as brilliant include “Real Friends” which has one of my favourite intros and initial verses ever, “Tell Your Friends” (produced by Kanye!!) which sees Abel relive his come up and brag about his successes while keeping the classic chilled out tone and “Acquainted” which is perhaps my favourite example of The Weeknd’s amazing changing flows and ability to ride a beat. Of course the album also contains the successful “The Hills”, “Can’t Feel My Face” and “Earned It”. Overall, BBTM is an great example of how versatile Abel is and the album cemented him at the top of the whole music game, not just one genre as it is impossible to label his sound.

5. Khalid — American Teen

To use a cliche, American Teen is just a vibe. There is no better album to play first track to last on a summer’s evening. Just as the title suggests this is the perfect soundtrack to what being a teenager is like. At least one of “Young Dumb & Broke”, “American Teen” or “8TEEN” should be used in every teen film for those intro high school shots, due to their reminsicent and upbeat feel. However, while the album is extremely chilled out and perfect to relax to, Khalid is still able pen some emotional modern love songs such as “Therapy”, “Saved” and “Location” which all have the signature sound of his mellow voice over a wavy beat. My personal favourite track (which could have been any of the above mentioned) is “Winter”, a song about how finding love in the “Winter” is much harder. The song combines the best elements of all the others, with the classic Khalid-sounding beat with a slight bop and bounce to it. Khalid also shows his versatility to stray slightly away from this classic sound on more emotional and slow tracks such as “Shot Down” and “Coaster”. In sum, the album is an amazing debut which has one of the best overall sounds and styles of any on this list.

4. Kanye West — The Life Of Pablo

Choosing my favourite Kanye album was extremely difficult as I have always been an advocate of his old music over his newer stuff. However, while I think Ye and Jesus Is King are both very subpar in Kanye’s standards, The Life Of Pablo is deservedly at the top of the list. This was the first Kanye album I ever listened to and I immediately became obsessed with it. No other album brings all of Kanye’s best qualities as an artist together like TLOP. You can hear similar production and rap style to hid old stuff on tracks such as “Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1” and “No More Parties In LA” featuring some incredible samples and a brilliant Kendrick Lamar feature. The tracks “Waves” and “Famous” would fit in extremely well with the other huge anthems on MBDTF. “Famous” is the epitome of modern Kanye songs with his braggadocios personality and powerful delivery (the original version of the song also features an incredible Chance the Rapper verse). Furthermore, “Feedback”, “Facts (Charlie Heat Version) and “Pt. 2” could easily be placed on the aggressive album Yeezus. However Kanye also shows a new side on tracks such as the Chance the Rapper assisted “Ultralight Beam”, probably my favourite song on the album, foreshadowing his recent gospel album. The track “FML” featuring the Weeknd, another favourite of mine, sounds fairly similar to me to some of the songs on Ye. However, Kanye shows that he can still spit straight bars on songs such as “Real Friends” and “Saint Pablo”, the latter being a fitting six minute closing to the project, with Kanye speaking about his place as a figurehead in many areas of culture. If people think he’s crazy, he reminds them he’s the ‘closest thing to Einstein’, he’s fine. Overall TLOP is Kanye’s most versatile and complex album to date and acts a bridge between the old Kanye and the new as we get a few glimpses into what his new sound will be.

3. Post Malone — beerbongs & bentleys

To me, beerbongs & bentleys has got better and better as time has gone on. I keep discovering more and more songs that are just absolute bangers. Two less well known tracks but two of my favourites are “Paranoid” and “Rich & Sad” (one of my favourite songs of all-time). Both see Posty in a much more vulnerable position as we had seen him before, speaking about how his life has changed for the worse even though he has become one of the biggest artists on the planet. The song “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign is not a complicated track but show Post’s ability to create a hit through even the simplest of melodies. But this is not to take away from the song’s brilliance as it is another one of my favourites and was one of my most played songs of 2018 (behind “Rich & Sad”). Some of the tracks with a more aggressive tone are “Takin’ Shots”, “Over Now” and “Blame It On Me” which reflect Post’s rock influences with heavy and powerful choruses. Contrasting to these are the more playful “Better Now”, “92 Explorer” and “Candy Paint” which all show his amazing ability to make no song that isn’t extremely catchy. The last two songs to mention are of course the 21 Savage assisted “Rockstar” which has become the 2nd most streamed song of all-time and the last track on the album “Sugar Wraith”. This is one of the songs that I more recently got into but is up there with my favourite Post Malone songs due to his flow and deliverance. All in all, b&b placed Posty at the peak of the music mountain, showing his versatility as an artist and insane talent to mix completely different genres and create straight hits.

2. Ed Sheeran — +

There is no way that I could not put + near the top since this was the first album I became properly obsessed with, so much so I can probably recite every lyric from every song. I will always stand by my opinion that this is and forever will be the best Ed Sheeran album as this was just him and his guitar and he didn’t make music for the charts or to fit in the pop genre. While each song is arguably of similar style, none sound the same due to Ed’s ability to create brilliant chord progressions and picking patterns to keep the album exciting. The songs “Lego House”, “Give Me Love” and “Sunburn” (from the deluxe album) each show Ed at his best. Slow and simple verses build up into powerful choruses allowing him to show the range of his voice and singing styles. “Kiss Me”, “The A Team”, “Small Bump” and “Drunk” are less extravagant but all reflect how Ed can create a hit just with a few simple chords and his voice, a talent that no one else in the world can currently match. Ed also shows he can produce more upbeat and uptempo songs with “Little Bird”, “Gold Rush” and “U.N.I”. Contrasting to all the previously mentioned songs, there are two tracks which are less known but deserve as much recognition. The song “The City” sees Ed describing his new life living in London and how he sometimes struggles to cope with its challenges over a funky and incredibly produced instrumental. However, my favourite track on the whole project is “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” which sees Ed rap about how he doesn’t need anyone else to be successful, instead other people rely on him to make a living. The track shows off Ed’s versatility as an artist and songwriter and suggests the he ‘wont be a product of [his] genre’. This line reflects the greatness of this album, how Ed was able to become so successful just from writing songs with his guitar. The album will always remain near the top of my list due to its simple nature yet un-skip-able-ness (allow me I couldn’t think of a better word).

1. Post Malone — Stoney

Hopefully people have been bothered to read this far but here we have it, my favourite album of all-time is of course Stoney by Post Malone. There is no other album that I enjoy listening to more and even though Post Malone has become massive, I still do not think Stoney as a complete album gets the recognition it deserves. The opening track “Broken Whiskey Glass” is the best intro song on any album in my opinion (and is even better opening to his live show!!). The eerie bird cry and opening instrumental below Post’s layered vocals create such an epic atmosphere to begin the album. The tracks “No Option” and “Cold” are classic Posty flex songs with bouncy beats and fire flows. Contrasting to this, Post shows his musical ability on the guitar-filled cuts “Go Flex” and “Feeling Whitney” (deluxe version) reflecting his versatility as an artist. Post shows an even more emotional side on the pain-stricken ballad “I Fall Apart” which still manages to be incredibly sad while maintaining some classic hip hop 808s and drums. A song with a slightly similar vibe is “Too Young” where Post writes about artists dying “Too Young” and his wish not to do the same. Again this very sombre topic is transformed into an immensely catchy trap song through Post’s ability to blend several genres into one. You cannot talk about Stoney without mentioning the track that brought Posty to the big league: “White Iverson”. The track is just a full on vibe (to use the cliche again). Another of my favourite songs is the underrated “Patient” which is one of the more aggressive songs on the album and shows Post’s ability to switch up his flow effortlessly between verses and choruses. However while all of these tracks make it to my all-time favourite songs list, my number one all-time song is “Congratulations” featuring Quavo. The track is just the ultimate feel good and pump up song. It has one of my favourite instrumentals ever and just has a sound to it that can never be replicated. The non-deluxe version of the album ends on a perfect note “Yours Truly, Austin Post” which sees Posty of course flexing his new found fame and wealth. Overall, the album will probably always be my favourite due to its iconic sound and seemingly endless number of hits. No other album comes close to have the same number of my favourite songs on.

Thanks for reading!