This month’s list is large because time kind of dragged on and on. Probably because I’m counting down the days until I move to Nashville. But hey, a lot of good music came out this month, so that is cause for celebration! If anything on here isn’t due to a new release, it’s due to me just now getting back to a release or two that I’ve been meaning to enjoy more (like Local Natives, Freelance Whales and Surfer Blood).

1. Four Tet – “Love Cry” (There Is Love In You)
2. Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man” (Sigh No More)
3. Frightened Rabbit – “The Loneliness and the Scream” (The Winter of Mixed Drinks)
4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Red House” (Are You Experienced?)
5. Anais Mitchell – “Wedding Song (feat. Justin Vernon)” (Hadestown)
6. Broken Bells – “The High Road” (Broken Bells)
7. The Chieftains – “La Iguana (feat. Lila Downs)” (San Patricio)
8. Titus Andronicus – “A More Perfect Union” (The Monitor)
9. First Aid Kid – “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” (Drunken Trees EP)
10. Local Natives – “Airplanes” (Gorilla Manor)
11. Liars – “Scissor” (Sisterworld)
12. The White Stripes – “Icky Thump” (Under Great White Northern Lights)
13. Freelance Whales – “Generator ^ Second Floor” (Weathervanes)
14. Surfer Blood – “Swim” (Astro Coast)
15. Surfer Blood – “Take It Easy” (Astro Coast)
16. Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses – “Bluebird” (Roadhouse Sun)
17. Manchester Orchestra – “100 Dollars” (Mean Everything to Nothing)
18. Manchester Orchestra – “I Can Feel a Hot One” (Mean Everything to Nothing)
19. Deftones – “Diamond Eyes” (Diamond Eyes single)
20. The Dillinger Escape Plan – “Farewell, Mona Lisa” (Option Paralysis)
21. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
22. The Boxer Rebellion – “Soviets” (Union)

And, as always, here is your mix:

Oh no! A meme on my blog? It’s all downhill from here. But really, did you expect me to pass up a music-themed post, especially when I’m not feeling my best and have a hard time finding inspiration?

Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.

I couldn’t even begin to put these in order of preference. They’ve all been number one in my heart at some point or another. So, in true Rob Gordon fashion, I put them in autobiographical order, all the way from high school up to now.

I won’t even begin to try and explain each album or even the general progression of my music habits. If you are curious, that’s kind of what comments are for.

1. Jimi Hendrix – Woodstock
2. Project 86 – Drawing Black Lines
3. Incubus – Make Yourself
4. Radiohead – OK Computer
5. Tool – Aenema
6. A Perfect Circle – Thirteenth Step
7. Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun
8. Extol – Undeceived
9. Sufjan Stevens – Michigan
10. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine
11. The Mars Volta – De-loused in the Comatorium
12. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
13. Radiohead – Amnesiac
14. He Is Legend – I Am Hollywood
15. Killswitch Engage – The End of Heartache
16. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Irony is a Dead Scene
17. Explosions in the Sky – The Earth is Not a Cold, Dead Place
18. mewithoutYou – Catch for Us the Foxes
19. The Appleseed Cast – Low Level Owl: Volume 1
20. mewithoutYou – Brother, Sister
21. This Will Destroy You – Young Mountain
22. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
23. Sigur Rós – Takk
24. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
25. This Will Destroy You – This Will Destroy You