Daryl Hall and John Oates released their first album in 1972 which was ultimately a failure and was recorded in their beloved city of Philadelphia. They ultimately blamed the city for the failure of the album and decided to move to New York to record their sophomore album, Abandoned Luncheonette in 1973. Unlike their albums in the late 70s and 80s, both Daryl Hall and John Oates contributed to the actual singing in the tracks rather than Hall being predominately the lead and Oates being a backup singer which makes their first few albums unique. Abandoned Luncheonette wasn’t necessarily a huge commercial success either compared to their pop rock albums of the 1980s. The album had one song, She’s Gone, that entered the Billboard charts and peaked around spot number 7 in 1976, three years after the initial release of the album. Overall, the album still wasn’t as successful as Hall and Oates would have wished for, but now people acclaim this album to be an essential for any Hall and Oates fan along with the biggest album of their career Voices which was released in 1980.

Bruce Springsteen’s 4th installment came on ​​the 2nd of June in 1978. Springsteen was coming off his first commercially successful album, Born to Run, and released Darkness on the Edge of Town, a little less than 3 years after. Springsteen initially wanted the album to come out a lot sooner but a dispute with his manger delayed the production of the album. Springsteen ended up suing his former manager, Mike Appel, for fraud and breach of trust. The issue all began when Springsteen signed his initial record deal back in 1972, which gave a large sum of the profits of his music to his former manager Mike Appel. Springsteen and his band mates didn’t realize that they had signed away a large sum of their profits until the release of his third album, Born to Run. The three years of writing and recording gave Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band plenty of time to record not ten but seventy plus possible songs for the upcoming album. Through countless name changes and countless lyric changes, Springsteen reduced it down to ten songs, but no need to fear; the twenty of the additional seventy songs were compiled into an album of their own, The Promise, which was released in 2010. This may be one of the hardest rankings I have done to this date, every one of these songs is amazing.

Fall Out Boy is an American rock band who was formed in Wilmette, Illinois just outside of Chicago, in 2001. Fall Out Boy is led by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump with Pete Wentz on bass, Joe Trohman as the lead guitarist, and Andy Hurley on drums. The band initially came on as an early 2000s punk rock band which was common for the era of music. In the early 2000s Fall Out Boy as well as other punk bands such as blink-182, Green Day, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, and My Chemical Romance found their sound and soon gained a large fan base. Fall Out Boy’s debut album, Take This to Your Grave, was released in 2003 and with the heavy touring that was done after the release made the album an underground success spawning the first of Fall Out Boy’s fan base.
 MXLLS

*Songs contain explicit content listen at your own risk

B.o.B’s second studio album was released on April 27,2012. The album itself didn’t gain much publicity and is somewhat undiscovered. Even though the album contains several guest artists which include: Morgan Freeman (yes, I typed that in correctly),Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, T.I., Nicki Minaj, Ryan Tedder, Lauriana Mae, Playboy Tre, and Trey Songz. The album had the talent to preform. The album had three Billboard Hot 100 placements and they all appeared in the top 20. The highest peaking song was the title track, Strange Clouds, which finished at #7. The other two songs that placed in the chart included So Good peaking at #11 and Both Of Us peaked at #18 with the help of Taylor Swift. On Billboard 200 the album finished at spot #5 which was slightly worse than his debut album, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, that peaked at the top spot. After the success of his first album (including hit singles Airplanes, Magic and Nothin’ On You) he had to come back with even more. He included even more stars in his songs and after just two albums he had worked with the likes of Eminem, Lupe Fiasco, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Janelle Monay, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, T.I., and more. Strange Clouds has an interesting group of songs which fits its name of “strange” and even before writing my final thoughts on the album I can say I love it.

Ed Sheeran’s sophomore album was released on June 21, 2014 and didn’t disappoint. He followed his album + that had a hit single, The A Team, with x. The album peaked at number 1 on The Billboard 200 albums. Also, the album had a #2 hit in Thinking Out Loud, Don’t peaked at #9, Photograph peaked at #10, Sing at #13, Afire Love at #37, and One at #87. Ed Sheeran surprisingly did not have a #1 hit until his most recent album which had two #1 hits in Shape of You and Perfect. Below I will rank the songs from worst to best.

Bon Jovi’s third album titled Slippery When Wet was released on January 1, 1986 and was the breakout album that the band needed. After two albums prior to Slippery When Wet got no traction and were pretty much failures despite the song Runaway that got a little bit of radio play but were ultimately unsuccessful. Slippery When Wet had two number one hits, You Give Love A Bad Name and Livin’ On A Prayer; also Wanted Dead or Alive peaked at #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100. After this album Bon Jovi was an instant rock success, churning out hit after hit and making Slippery When Wet an essential rock album.

Huey Lewis & The News 3rd studio album was released on September 15, 1983. ​​The album was finished and supposed to be released earlier in 1983 but Huey’s manager feared that their record label, Chrysalis, was about to go under and he withheld the release of Sports.  Once the album was released it went worldwide fast.  Though the album didn’t have a single number 1 hit, it spawned many great songs including The Heart Of Rock & Roll which peaked at #6, I Want A New Drug peaking at #6,  If This Is It also peaking at #6, Heart And Soul peaking at #8, and Walking On A Thin Line peaking at #18.  Over half of the album placed in the top 20 in the Billboard Hot 100 charts.  I enjoyed this album so much that I had to go pick it up on vinyl because what people say are true, everything sounds better on vinyl!  Below I will be ranking the somewhat perfect album from Huey Lewis & The News.

The River was released on October 17, 1980, by Columbia Records. The album did not have a number 1 hit.  The album’s songs did hold other spots on the Billboard Hot 100,  Hungry Heart peaked at #5 and Fade Away at #20. The River didn’t have many Billboard hits but the album itself peaked at #1 and stayed there for 4 weeks, which was Bruce Springsteen’s first ever #1 hit album.  The album has an overall good sound and is very enjoyable to listen to. Below I will be ranking the album from 20th (worst) to the 1st (best) and just as a reminder this is solely my opinion and it is okay to disagree with me.