With Dance Gavin Dance dropping their latest album “Afterburner” at midnight on Thursday, I thought I would take the opportunity to cross my passions together; My love of Dance Gavin Dance and my ability of Ranking stuff. This is something I have always wanted to do and obviously there might be differentiating opinions.
I want to make it clear, I love all of these albums, but some are just better than others. On that note ladies and gentlemen, I am the RankKing and I present to you my ranking and my grading of all the Dance Gavin Dance albums.
9.) Downtown Battle Mountain II (2011)
6/10
While the first Downtown Battle Mountain gave me a great sense of the post-hardcore scene, it’s second runner was just that; a bigger runner up. This is a decent album, but it doesn’t bring me the great joy that the others do that come after it. Jonny Craig is still great on this thing though. Overall, still a great record, but it just isn’t compared to the others.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
Pounce Bounce, Thug City, Elder Goose, Blue Dream, and Purple Reign
8.) Acceptance Speech (2013)
6.5/10
Acceptance Speech is in a similar position where I like a decent amount of songs, but it is hard to put it up further than what it should be. It’s also hard because this was the first album I ever listened to them. This is also the first album that they introduced their third lead vocalist in Tilian Pearson (who has been their lead ever since). It’s good, but some were just better. There is a lot of interesting dynamics to these tracks, so still check them out because they are good.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
Jesus H. Macy, Acceptance Speech, Strawberry Swisher Pt.3, The Jiggler, and Death of the Robot With Human Hair
7.) Dance Gavin Dance (2008)
7/10
This one might put people in a sour mood of why it’s so low on the list. This is an album I enjoy for it’s heavy aspect. This one gave me those vibes of ultimate destruction. There are a lot of great tracks on here, and overall its a really good one. I just honestly enjoy other DGD projects more and it unfortunately suffers for it. Nothing personal here.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
Alex English, Me and Zoloft Get Along Just Fine, Uneasy Hearts Weigh the Most, Rock Solid, and Skyhook
6.) Happiness (2009)
7.5/10
Happiness was a really good album with what Dance Gavin Dance had. Kurt Travis is the vocalist at the time with Will Swan (the guitarist) handling a majority of the screams. Overall, this album was unique and it brought something new to the table that other albums didn’t give me. I liked Kurt’s vocals mashing with Will’s screams and the intricate way the guitars are used here. Overall, still a good album, but just not near some other ones.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
Tree Village, Carl Barker, Happiness, Strawberry Swisher Pt.1, and Strawberry Swisher Pt.2
5.) Instant Gratification (2015)
8/10
This is one that a lot of people love or hate and for me personally, it is right where it needs to be at number six. Overall, there are a lot of really great tracks on here. Tilian’s voice is also great on some of these songs. To me this album is where somebody would start off listening to DGD. Some might not agree, but if you look where their music starts developing after this you will see why.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
We Own The Night, Stroke God Millionaire, Something New, On the Run, and Death of a Strawberry
4.) Artificial Selection (2018)
8.5/10
Call me what you want, but man did I love this album more than the average person did. I thought this album was very creative and was unique to the albums that had come before it. The structure of these tracks and the instrumentals with them give off a crazy and groovy vibe to the extreme. The amount of growth and progress in this track makes me very happy that this band is going nowhere, but up in the foreseeable future.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
Son of Robot, Care, Count Bassy, Story of my Bros, and Evaporate
3.) Downtown Battle Mountain (2007)
9/10
Man this was a tough one because this album had always competed for the top position next to Mothership. Don’t let that take away from the songs on this though. This album is amazing. Jonny Craig and Jon Mess mixed amazingly on this album to bring me some of the crazy head bangers that I listen to over and over again in my post-hardcore feels. Will Swan just doesn’t do wrong here as well with his guitar work going very great with Matt Mingus’s drumming on some of these tracks. Still very good which is why it is in the top three.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman, It’s Safe to Say You Dig the Backseat, Lemon Meringue Tie, The Backwards Pumpkin Song, and Open Your Eyes and Look North
2.) Afterburner (2020)
9.5/10
My god, this album was nearly perfect. There wasn’t a single song I listened to on this track that made me question the band’s directive or their sound. This album had a little bit of everything, even going back borrowing some elements from past albums and making them even better. Overall, I am very pleased as while I am typing this article, this is about the 7th time I have gone through this album already today. The tracks were all really good and the mixing of everything was pure genius. Hats off to you boys because this album is incredible.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
Prisoner, Lyrics Lie, Parody Catharsis, Born to Fail, and Night Sway
1.) Mothership (2016)
10/10
Man did Afterburner come really close to it, but Mothership remains my favorite Dance Gavin Dance album. Even after all this time, I find absolutely nothing wrong with this album. The songs are all creative and unique, and there is just a crazy atmosphere I get into while I listen to this record. There is just something really special about this record, and honestly it will take a lot to knock it off my top spot. Like I said though, Afterburner came really close. If that has any inclination, I have a feeling if Dance Gavin Dance keeps going like this, then maybe it will be happening.
Top Five Tracks To Listen To;
Chucky vs. The Giant Tortoise, Inspire the Liars, Philosopher King, Betrayed By the Game, and Man of the Year
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