3. This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About (1996)

If you found yourself in a college dorm room in the late ’90s, you were as likely to trip over a CD copy of This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About as you were a hot plate or a water bong. Such ubiquity was well earned. Vivid and peculiar, Modest Mouse’s ‘official’ debut album deals with isolation, change, and fading faith in a way that spoke to a generation of aging punk rockers being encroached upon by urban sprawl. But by chiming so harmoniously with the times, the album also brought the band to the attention of people outside of fanzine-scourers and 7″ subscription series benefactors. As for the songs, it doesn’t get better than “Dramamine,” which instantly reveals and capitalizes on Modest Mouse’s Polaroid-saturated uniqueness. From the ambitious funk-jazz of “Lounge” to the shaggy blues of the Califone-esque “Custom Concern” to the herky-jerky capriciousness of the plainly weird “The Ionizes And Atomizes,” the album plays like an advance guard of indie trends to come.