Drive-By Truckers Album Poll

Decoration Day, then either SRO or BTCD.

SRO. Then Brighter Than Creation's Dark, then Decoration Day. Then Dirty South. Then a tie between the first two and the last two (so far). Blessing and a Curse is last.

None of them suck, all have incredible highs, should stress.

No real duds among those albums, they've had an incredible run. SRO gets my vote, Dirty South/Decoration Day not too far behind.

The bassist's 3 songs make it impossible for me to vote for BTCD. So it's gotta be Decoration Day.

But at this point, it's they've got a discography that rivals just about any American band.

would've voted alabama ass whuppin', voted pizza deliverance in its stead. sro managed to live up to the anticipation and its ambition, no small tasks.

Bulldozers and Dirt: The DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Poll

Their early streak is ever so slightly overesteemed; I skip around a lot. BTCD is my favorite.

tempted to say these guys should keep themselves to a 50m pr 10 song max per CD but when they do the hit-miss ratio is about the same. So many great songs, almost no albums I want to hear front-to-back again. since that last poll i've softened on pizza deliverance and heard BTCD which is of course 2/3rds classic. almost tempted to go with The Big To-Do despite only hearing it two or three times since the songs-to-delete didn't reach out and slap me.

"Used To Be a Cop" is so good – easily the highlight.

that's on gogo boots, which i still haven't heard

i really wish i could have voted for "alabama ass-whuppin"

The Dirty South is a sentimental favorite after many road trips to Buford Pusser's hometown

"Used to be a Cop" is one of the best things Hood ever wrote. So much story in that song.

Voting SRO on the strength of 'Women without Whiskey,' 'Let there be Rock,' and 'Angels and Fuselage,' but there's a lot of filler there, just like every other DBT album.

Second is Decoration Day because of 'My Sweet Anette,' 'Heathens' and 'Outfit.'

Have we done a POX for DBT? I'd be interested in knowing what your favorite tracks are

Drive-By Truckers POX

Voted Decoration Day last time and see no reason to change it.

Dirty South is the only DBTs album I ever feel compelled to listen to in its entirety. I kinda pick and choose from everything else (I listen to Righteous Path way more than anything else on BTCD).

Also, the album they did with Booker T. is great and they should do another one someday.

"Used to be a Cop" is one of the best things Hood ever wrote.

Yes. That's their Stairway To Heaven LOL

could use more gee-tar though

Not sure I'd put it in his top 5, but yeah it's good.

I'm thinking lyrically. Not too much going on musically.

When I last saw them here, they had a local burlesque troop come out and dance to a couple of songs - and that was one of the songs. It was ... weird.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhxlc8Uz151qakzz4o1_500.jpg

did the burlesque troop get paid y/n

When I first got my US driver's license and was trying not to be terrified of driving on the freeways with all the speeding traffic, I would play Dirty South really loud to steel my nerves. It worked like a charm!

So I have a soft spot for that album, I know it upside down. Except I really don't like Patterson's falsetto on the Sands of Iwo Jima, I always skip that one.

Southern Rock Opera has no skippable songs afaic, even though for some reason I don't listen to it nearly as much as I should. It gets my vote as a 'complete' album. Also I like that it kinda tells a story.

"YOU KNOW IT'S A VERRRY LOOOOOOOOONG SOOOOOOOOONG"

Go-Go Boots is a great album though, props to them for pulling that out after a couple of kinda-sorta-almost there-misfire albums. Lotta great songs on GGB.

Decoration Day 4eva

find it hard to imagine a record making more sense for this band to have made than sro

Patterson and Cooley both reached an insane songwriting peak on BTCD, but song 4 is the worst thing in their history.

"The Righteous Path" is my favorite post-2003 Hood song.

I'd agree with that one.

Used to be a Cop is mine

Those are 2 of them fer sure. I'd throw in That Man I Shot, too.

I like Shonna's songs on BTCD a lot, especially "The Purgatory Line," though I seem to be alone in this.

i like her stuff on the album fine, and in some ways prefer her presence on an album to isbell's. less meaty songwriter, but more genuinely a change-of-pace

Ewwww. I am not a fan. Though her songs did get progressively better as they went along.

I like her stuff just fine. Like SRO, and to an extent any long, double album, sometimes a change of pace/voice is all you need, quality be damned. And a song like "Purgatory Line" is lovely, much better than "Home Field Advantage."

I've liked all of her songs. Her voice has a nice old-timey quality to it

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I'd say those results are fairly predictable, but GGB was robbed (and who the hell voted for Gangstabilly??)

SRO was one of my absolute favorite albums at the time it came out and for a few years after. I kept going back to the well and being so disappointed by their later albums. Haven't heard anything after Brighter Than Creation's Dark. "Women Without Whiskey" for life.

Women Without Whiskey owns

Stereogum ranks'em. Pleased to see BTCD so high.

http://www.stereogum.com/1422101/drive-by-truckers-albums-from-worst-to-best/list/attachment/brighter-than-creations-dark/

I saw that, and would have reversed the order of their top 3: SRO>>BTCD>>DD. Decoration Day is obviously a good album, but it sometimes seems to me very much in line with other breakthrough albums with better distro and bigger labels/promotion that people rank high because it's the first thing they heard from the band.

How's tahe new album, "Alabama Ass Whoopin"? What're the high points?

it's actually a re-release of their 1999 live album, not technically a 'new album'

that live version of 18 Wheels of Love is pretty great

It's a great snapshot of them at their punkest and rowdiest. Definitive version of "The Living Bubba." Worth checking if you're a fan but not a great introduction. I haven't heard the remaster yet but word on the street is it sounds 100x better

Man, years ago I had some fan send me a couple of dozen CDs of early DBT shows. I should dig them out and dust them off ...

Ranking their six best.

Seeing them again this Saturday. And by again I mean again and again, because it's quite possible I've seen them more than any other act. 30 times? 40? Who can tell. The last time I saw them they were as good as I'd ever seen them. In 2002 or so I left a Bob Dylan show early to see the DBTs somewhere else. The first time I saw them was in Texas where they were on the same bill as ... Black Eyed Peas?

My tops remain Southern Rock Opera and Brighter Than Creation's Dark, but honestly there is not a single disc of theirs without its share of pleasures, passion and surprises. Maybe "A Blessing and a Curse" is the one I come back to the least? Even a lesser album like "Go Go Boots" has "Used to be a Cop," which is eerie and evil as fuck. And the early albums are remarkably assured and diverse and funny and powerful and smart.

I'm trying to remember, when was it that the band had its van stolen and solicited replacement music and mixtapes from friends and fans to make their drives more tolerable? Priorities!

Soto's ranking otm (never heard the pre-Opera albums). Creation is a marvel despite no Isbell tunes and the fact that I generally stop at "Checkout Time in Vegas"

Sime vital tracks pre-Opera, but at the least give "The Living Bubba" a listen. Incredible song, one of their best. Possible the first song Hood wrote for the DBTs? He once told me that if he was feeling off or not excited about a show he would start with that song, and by the end everyone was ready to go.