Tuesday Top Ten: Self-Titled Albums

Rock and roll bands like to talk about themselves, as they should.  After all, they play music for a living, which is more interesting and more awesome than anything the rest of us do with our pathetic, meaningless lives.  Many bands go so far as to title an album after their band name.  The ego!

Some bands eponymously name their debut album, perhaps to announce their arrival and say, "Hey music world, in case you didn't know the name of our band, we also named our album the same name, so as to avoid any possibility that you will confuse the band name with the album name."  Others use the self-titled album later in their careers, perhaps in an effort to reestablish themselves and their sound.  Some self-titled albums are so good that they have taken on the alternate title of the color of the album (i.e., the White Album, the Black Album, and the Blue Album).

This list contains what I consider to the ten best self-titled albums.  In making this list, I am including only true self-titled albums.  Thus, Led Zeppelin II, Toto IV, The Who Sell Out, Otis Blue, Dusty in Memphis, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Fresh Cream, and the like were not considered.  Limiting this list to ten was really tough, as was trying to put numbers 2-7 in order.  Rather than be redundant, I will just be listing the name of the band.  Or is it the name of the album?

Honorable mention (in no particular order): Elvis Presley (1956); Bad Company (1974); Rage Against the Machine (1992); The White Stripes (1999); Iron Maiden (1980); Skid Row (1989); Kiss (1974); Aerosmith (1973); Eric Clapton (1970); The Clash (1977); The Velvet Underground (1969); The Band (1969); Santana (1971); Fleetwood Mac (1975); The Stooges (1969); Run DMC (1984); The Cars (1978); The Pretenders (1980); Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969); The Eagles (1972)

10.  Foo Fighters (1995)

This may seem like an out-of-the-box choice, but it is one of the best hard rock albums of the last 20 years.  Of course, it was Dave Grohl's reintroduction to the world after Nirvana split up due to heroin and shotguns, showing that Kurt Cobain was not the only member of Nirvana with ridiculous talent.  This album rocks from the beginning track, "This is a Call," which is a great hard rock song.  Other hits included "I'll Stick Around" and "Big Me," which, as you may recall, had an awesome video parodying Mentos commercials. What makes this album even that much more impressive is that Grohl played all the instruments on all the tracks except for the guitar on one song.  Not too shabby.

Favorite song on the album:  "Good Grief"

9.  Santana (1969)

Santana actually had two self-titled albums:  this one (their debut) and their third album (which was released in 1971 and is also a very good album).  Their debut album, released the same month as their fantastic performance at Woodstock, is an energetic, mostly instrumental, Latin-infused rock and roll jam.  You can't listen to this album without tapping your feet or bobbing your head.

Favorite song on the album:  "Soul Sacrifice"

8.  Black Sabbath (1970)

World, I'd like you to meet heavy metal.  From its macabre subject matter to its creepy album cover, this album said goodbye to the '60s and hello to the future of hard rock music.  The title track is the perfect introduction to heavy metal.  It's about a dream about a figure in black at the end of your bed, it mentions Satan, it uses the devil's triad, and it has badass guitars, a driving bass line, thunderous drums, and eerie vocals.  The rest of the album follows suit.

Favorite song on the album:  "The Wizard"

7.  Van Halen (1978)

On the second track of the album, "Eruption," Eddie Van Halen established himself as the new guitar god.  With the rest of the album, the entire band established themselves as the new force to be reckoned with in rock and roll.  The guitar work is obviously phenomenal, but this album also introduced us to the screaming, tongue-in-cheek vocals of David Lee Roth, the wicked bass and harmonies of Michael Anthony, and the pounding drums of Alex Van Halen.  This album is frantic, catchy, and so fucking good.  "Runnin' With the Devil," "Jamie's Cryin'," "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love," and their cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" give the album its hits, songs like "I'm the One," "Atomic Punk," and "On Fire" add some gusto, and "Ice Cream Man" lets you know that these guys don't take themselves too seriously.

Favorite song on the album:  "I'm the One"

6.  Metallica (aka, the Black Album) (1991)

Before 1991, Metallica was well-known and highly regarded in metal circles, but relatively unknown in the mainstream.  Maybe you saw a couple guys with long hair at school wearing a Ride the Lightning shirt or, if they were outside of school, a Metal Up Your Ass shirt, but you probably hadn't heard a Metallica song.  That all changed with the Black Album, and that monster riff from "Enter Sandman."  Metallica earned its rightful place as one of the top bands in the world, bringing metal to the masses.  In addition to "Enter Sandman," the album had other Top 100 hits with "Nothing Else Matters," "Wherever I May Roam," "The Unforgiven," and "Sad But True."

Favorite song on the album:  "Through the Never"

5.  Weezer (aka, the Blue Album) (1994)

What can I say about the Blue Album?  It is one of my favorite albums, and probably the best power pop album ever made (apologies to Cheap Trick). The album just kicks ass.  It's catchy, fuzzy, sincere, and fun.  There is not a bad song on the album.  "Buddy Holly," "Say It Ain't So," and "Undone (The Sweater Song)" were radio hits, and "No One Else," "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here," "My Name Is Jonas," "Surf Wax America," and "Holiday" give the album its glorious backbone.  I can't say enough good things about this album.

Favorite song on the album:  "No One Else"

4.  Ramones (1976)

"Hey ho, let's go!" announced the Ramones, as they took the listener on a no-frills, mile-a-minute journey, revolutionizing music on the way.  Many people think of punk as this angry, unintelligible music, and that may be true for some bands, but definitely not for the Ramones.  Their whole point was to bring rock music back to its roots.  The songs are short, fast, and catchy, drawing influence from '50s and '60s pop and injecting '70s cynicism and realism (and, of course, male prostitution and glue sniffing).

Favorite song on the album:  "Judy Is a Punk"

3.  The Doors (1967)

The Doors brought darkness and mysteriousness to rock and roll with their masterful debut album.  "Break on Through" kicks off the album, and the Oedipal masterpiece "The End" ends it, appropriately.  In between is a journey into the blues, mescaline, German beer halls, lighting fires, and awesomeness.

Favorite song on the album:  "Soul Kitchen"

2.  Led Zeppelin (1969)

Led Zeppelin is so ubiquitous that it's hard to imagine a time when they weren't around, especially for someone like me, who was born nearly a decade after this album came out.  This album ushered in the era of hard rock with bombastic, blues-based thunder, influencing countless bands since then and changing the face of rock and roll in the process.

Favorite song on the album:  "Your Time Is Gonna Come"

1.  The Beatles (aka, the White Album) (1968)

This is my favorite Beatles album, and obviously one of the best albums of all-time.  The range of musical styles on this album is amazing.  It has my favorite Beatles song ("Happiness is a Warm Gun"), arguably George's best Beatles song ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps"), solid rockers ("Back in the USSR," "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey"), acoustic ballads ("I Will," "Blackbird," "Julia"), proto-metal ("Helter Skelter"), blues ("Yer Blues"), lullabies ("Good Night"), birthday songs ("Birthday"), schmaltzy old-time pop ("Honey Pie"), raunchy garage rock ("Why Don't We Do It In the Road?"), what could be confused for children's songs ("The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill," "Rocky Raccoon"), and super weird experimental nonsense ("Revolution 9"), not to mention three great John songs, "Revolution 1," "Sexy Sadie," and "I'm So Tired."

Favorite song on the album:  "Happiness is a Warm Gun"

Any albums I left off that you think should be on the list?

FYI, according to Rolling Stone's Greatest 500 albums of all-time from a couple years ago, the following are the top ten self-titled albums (with their overall rank):  (1) The Beatles (1968) (10); (2) Led Zeppelin (1969) (29); (3) Ramones (1976) (33); (4) The Doors (1967) (42); (5) The Band (1969) (45); (6) Elvis Presley (1956) (55); (7) The Clash (1977) (77); (8) Moby Grape (1967) (121); (9) Santana (1969) (150); (10) The B-52's (1979) (152)

I'd also like to do a list of top ten self-titled songs, although I'm not sure there are ten of them.  "Black Sabbath," "Iron Maiden," "Bad Company," and "Louis XIV" would definitely be on that list.

By the way, here is a playlist with my favorite songs from these albums, or at least the songs that were on Playlist.com: