Ranking Alkaline Trio’s 10 Albums
Alkaline Trio emerged from the vibrant punk scene of Chicago in 1996, carving out a distinctive niche with their raw energy and emotionally charged lyrics. Formed by vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba, bassist Rob Doran (who was quickly replaced by Dan Andriano), and drummer Glenn Porter, the band rapidly gained attention for their intense live performances and catchy, yet dark, melodies. With influences ranging from classic punk to gothic rock, Alkaline Trio developed a unique sound that resonated with audiences.
Their songwriting often explores themes of love, loss, addiction, and existential angst, striking a chord with fans worldwide. With their relentless touring schedule and unwavering commitment to their craft, Alkaline Trio has solidified their status as one of the most influential punk bands of the modern era.
Despite a few drummer changes over the years (Glenn Porter > Mike Felumlee > Derek Grant > Atom Willard), Alkaline Trio have maintained their signature sound and passionate following, continuing to release new music and thrill audiences.
10. This Addiction (2010)
In an attempt to course correct from their ill-received, one-off major label release, the Trio signed with Epitaph Records and returned to Matt Allison to try to rediscover the magic of their first 3 albums.
Unfortunately, due to no fault of Allison, This Addiction fails to capture the same passion that their earlier records had brought and is honestly their only album that doesn’t really strike any excitement in me when I listen to it.
On the surface, it’s in every way an Alkaline Trio record. There’s a lot of snarky death-related lyricism, and it’s overall melodic, but there’s just something missing. It’s almost as if the songs are just the shells of Trio songs but with very little at their core.
The title track does provide the record with a bit of energy, particularly in the chorus and “Dine, Dine My Darling” has kind of fun, upbeat verses that are easy to listen to. “Lead Poisoning” also has a similar fun feel to it and even tries to mix things up by adding a short horn section (that ultimately sounds very out of place).
This isn’t a bad album by any means, but it is rather bland and forgettable (especially the second half after “The American Scream”). It’s nice if you need some more Trio material in your life, but it doesn’t offer much more than that.
Recommended Tracks: This Addiction / Dine, Dine My Darling / Lead Poisoning
9. Agony & Irony (2008)
This album gets much more hate than it actually deserves. Sure, it has its flaws, and it was a bit of an unexpected musical shift for the band, but there are some genuinely excellent tracks on Agony & Irony, and I appreciate that the band tried to grow and experiment with their sound a little.
As their only album on a major label, the record is noticeably more poppy (you hear it immediately with the catchy hand claps of opening track “Calling All Skeletons”), and the overall production is a little glossy for my taste — taking away from the band’s earlier rawness that defined their sound.
When you get over the change, there are some gems to be uncovered like the passionate vocals delivered by Dan on “In Vein” or Skiba’s quick lyricism on “I Found Away” — both tracks that have aged fantastically.
Admittedly, the album does stumble a little after the first half with a few throwaway tracks — “Do You Wanna Know” doesn’t really offer much and the falsetto chorus just doesn’t hit right. “Live Young, Die Fast” is a slow ballad that attempts to sound triumphant, but falls flat, and “Love, Love, Kiss, Kiss” is just too over-the-top corny (even if it’s intentionally meant to be tongue-in-cheek).
Luckily, after these 3 tracks, the band comes back strong with “Lost and Rendered”. This song has my favorite production on the record, really getting the most out of the use of some effects (sounding a bit like it would fit well on Crimson). “Ruin It” is a nice heavier song from Dan and a good divergence from some of his weaker songs on the album.
It’s not a perfect album, but it’s still pretty good and definitely has some high points. I don’t know why they didn’t include “Fire Down Below” in the main tracklisting, that song is one of the best of the recording session, and deserves more than just being a bonus track.
Recommended Tracks: In Vein / I Found Away / Lost and Rendered
8. My Shame Is True (2013)
For the band’s eighth album, they decided to try their luck at the trusty Blasting Room Studios and the result is what I consider their most rock-centric release yet. A very consistent record with few lows, but not the highest of highs either.
Beginning with the fun “She Lied To The FBI” (inspired by the movie The Town), the album sets the tone early and maintains it more-or-less throughout with the assistance of Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore. The production is good overall, but it doesn’t often blow you away except for on a nice little breakdown on “The Temptation of St. Anthony.”
Lyrically, the album is quite personal from Skiba, who was coming off a recent(ish) divorce and breakup. As such, many of his songs are written as an apology letter — “Kiss You To Death”, “One Last Dance”, and “Until Death Do Us Part” for example. While these songs are lyrically strong, it doesn’t seem like quite as much work was put into the musical part of the songwriting (except for “Kiss You To Death”).
My Shame Is True changes things up a little by featuring a couple of guest vocalists. The Lawrence Arms’ Brendan Kelly provides backup vocals on “I Wanna Be A Warhol” (honestly, as one of my favorite singers, he’s pretty much wasted on this track). The other is Tim McIlrath of Rise Against, who trades verses with Andriano on the energetic “I, Pessimist”. The two work together really well, and I’d love to hear more of them collaborating.
Andriano provides one of the best tracks on the album with “I’m Only Here To Disappoint” which comes with a truly excellent chorus. Unfortunately, he also has a couple of the album’s weaker tracks, “Young Lovers” and “Only Love” — the former being a bit too Americana for Alkaline Trio (although it would’ve worked well for his solo stuff).
This is an undeniably good record, but one that never quite reaches being great. It just seems to be missing that “it” factor that usually makes AK3 such an excellent listen.
Recommended Tracks: I’m Only Here To Disappoint / I, Pessimist / She Lied To The FBI
7. Crimson (2005)
Crimson is an album with so much potential that it’s a shame it couldn’t pull off being a better overall album. It manages to capture the band’s sonic aesthetic better than any of their other albums and with Jerry Finn at the helm (one of the last records he ever produced), it has amazing production.
Beginning slow and haunting with a lone piano that suddenly bursts into a wall of sound, “Time To Waste” is one of the band’s best openers and does an excellent job setting the general tone.
Following “Time To Waste” is one of Andriano’s heaviest songs “The Poison”, featuring an in-your-face guitar line from Skiba that immediately sets it apart from many of the Trio’s other material. From there, the album moves on to “Burn,” which carries a slow but heavy atmospheric presence that makes the song very hard-hitting.
Alkaline Trio have a lot of excellent songs in their catalog, but “Mercy Me” may just be my all-time favorite (I know, I know, not a very original take). It’s one of the few songs that gives me goosebumps on every listen — it’s a track I can easily listen to on repeat for hours. There’s truly something innately magical and personal about that song.
Honestly, the first half of this album is pretty much perfection (even if “Sadie” was an odd choice of songs to re-record from their One Man Army split). In fact, the A-side of Crimson is so great that it makes the back half sound kind of boring.
There’s still good material to be found in the second half, like “Your Neck”, but there are other songs such as closer “Smoke”, which is arguably one of the band’s weakest tracks.
I think it all comes down to 2 sides of a coin. Had they brought to the table 6 more songs of the same caliber as the first half — this would be one of the best Trio albums.
Recommended Tracks: Mercy Me / The Poison / Time To Waste
6. Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs (2024)
After six long years and a bit of drama (cough Blink-182 cough), the Trio have finally returned, and I gotta say, the wait was worth it because this album doesn’t disappoint.
“Hot For Preacher”, the album’s opener, is a top 3 intro track for the band and the most energetic they’ve ever sounded at the beginning of an album. That opening riff is undeniably one of the best Skiba has written and a great addition to their building repertoire.
Following the intro is “Meet Me”, where Matt sings in a somewhat stutter style throughout the verses, immediately making the song catchy and memorable. The “I-E-I-E-I” in the chorus may take a little while to get used to, but once you do, you’re hooked.
Next up is Dan’s first song for the record, “Versions of You”. This song starts with a very off-melody vocal style before getting into more familiar rhythm. The whole song nimbly avoids falling into any set direction, managing to meander around styles beautifully while providing some of the best lyrics on the record.
These first 3 tracks clearly show off a different, more loose and free approach to writing compared to their previous material. On many of their recent releases, it seemed like every song had been finely tuned, but on this record, the tracks are given room to breathe and flow naturally.
In addition to those tracks, you’ve got “Bad Time,” which coincidentally provides the listener with quite a good time through some surprisingly funny lyrics. The title track is immediately catchy (and makes memorable use of the word “motherfucker”).
Webb continues to be a solid producer for the band, highlighting the best parts of the band without taking away the trio’s lovable rawness.
Sadly, this is (assumedly) Grant’s last record with the band, but his work behind the kit is just as awe-inspiring as ever. He has a magical ability to play with incredible technicality while never throwing it into your face. This album may just be his finest example of this skill.
My only criticism of the album is I find the closing track “Teenage Heart” doesn’t do anything for me (either musically or lyrically) and a few of the songs seem to run 20–30 seconds longer than they naturally should.
I keep waiting to get tired of this record, but it isn’t happening. This is an early contender for album of the year.
Recommended Tracks: Bad Time / Hot For Preacher / Versions of You
5. Maybe I’ll Catch Fire (2000)
Admittedly, it took me a while to appreciate Alkaline Trio’s sophomore release. As the band’s slowest album, the plodding and unrushed approach was something I found to be a bit of a bore.
Luckily, over the past couple of decades, I’ve come to value the paced deliberation that is applied to Maybe I’ll Catch Fire as it really allows the lyricism and overall tone and message to come through. This album is a clear stepping stone into a band building a legacy.
Compared to their debut, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire does a better job of capturing that dark and gloomy depressive nature that would become the band’s calling card and songs like “Tuck Me In” and “5–3–10–4” prove that the band can still bring a quick tempo.
“Sleepyhead” has such a heavy, focused bleakness that it’s easy to get lost in, while the title track, with its terrifically catchy chorus, proves that Dan can keep up with Matt lyrically and melodically.
For most fans, the album’s highlight is the closer, “Radio,” a song that is pretty hard not to love, containing instantly memorable lyrics and this calm-to-angry aggression that solidifies Skiba as one of the best frontmen in the genre.
Maybe I’ll Catch Fire walks a close line between songs that sound similar yet remain uniquely different, while the production really allows the lyricism to shine, allowing both Andriano and Skiba to express raw and earnest emotions.
Even if musically, this is probably their most simplistic release, all 10 tracks still hold up terrifically well.
Recommended Tracks: Sleepyhead / Radio / Maybe I’ll Catch Fire
4. Is This Thing Cursed? (2018)
What an absolute blast of a comeback this record is. It’s a breath of fresh air and when I first heard it, I was instantly reminded why I fell in love with the band in the first place. Finely crafted songs that lyrically touch on the collective human experience while also managing to intertwine personal stories.
What stands out immediately is how unabashedly fun and joyous the overall vibe is. Sure, the words are mostly still the gloomy, bummer lyricism we’re familiar with, but it’s just so evident the band is in high spirits while playing these songs — especially some of Andriano’s songs like “Little Help?” and “Pale Blue Ribbon”. I can see this lightheartedness turning some fans off, but as a one-off, I love having a “fun” Alkaline Trio record.
A lot of what works on this album is a credit to Cameron Webb. He really managed to rediscover what works best for the band’s style. Webb’s production holds this rougher, raw delivery while still maintaining a clearly professional production — it brings out the best in the band.
Even though Skiba sings most of the songs (like on all of the albums), Is This Thing Cursed? has a very Dan vibe throughout. He starts the album off with the opening title track and adds some of the record’s most fun and energetic tracks. I often feel like Dan isn’t appreciated as much overall for the band, but he really shines here.
The second half of the album begins with the darkly humorous “Goodbye Fire Island” and it really makes you appreciate how great of a writer Skiba is and how he can so effortlessly add a little wink and nod into otherwise serious subject matter.
The band is somewhat hit-or-miss when it comes to closing tracks, but it seems like ending on an acoustic number is always a sure bet. For this album, the chose the short, beautiful, acoustic tune “Krystalline” and Skiba really pours his heart into it, selling the authenticity.
Is This Thing Cursed? is a rediscovery of what works for the band and a testament to why, at the end of the day, making music should mostly be about having fun with your friends and maybe finding a bit of a therapeutic outlet.
Recommended Tracks: Little Help? / Pale Blue Ribbon / Throw Me To The Lions
3. Goddamnit (1998)
Like any great debut, Goddamnit is a perfectly imperfect record. It was an album that faced no real expectations while it was being recorded, and the band members certainly couldn’t have grasped how big the band would eventually become. As such, it’s also the band’s least fine-tuned album, particularly noticeable in Dan’s vocal harmonies (his backup vocals was recorded before Matt’s leads as he had to leave for tour with another band).
Whereas most of the band’s later albums have a sleek and polished sound that most of us have come to appreciate, the inexperienced innocence of opening the album with some studio noise on “Cringe” comes across as purely authentic and genuinely earnest in delivery. Porter’s jazzy, improv-esque drumming also helps keep the band from blending in with other contemporaries.
The album’s second song, “Cop” gives a small glimpse into what could’ve been a different, more straightforward “punk” version of Alkaline Trio. I like to think that in an alternate timeline, Alkaline Trio became a feisty, politically driven band with heavy, pissed-off songs.
“San Francisco”, the record’s third song, perfectly captures the feelings of a long-distance relationship by framing the whole experience directly in that of air travel. Even if you’ve never personally experienced this type of relationship, you’ll feel like you have through Skiba’s delivery.
“Clavicle” and “Trouble Breathing” arguably display the most apparent example of the lyrical and tonal direction the band would later take — mixing together love with dark, macabre, and often detailed imagery. A trait that still makes the band stand out to this day.
The unique cherry on top of this excellent album is closing on acoustic number “Sorry About That.” This song alone perfectly encapsulates how brilliant Skiba is as a writer while also accenting his uniquely indefinable skills as a singer.
Unfortunately, the album still isn’t quite perfect. While Andriano would later shine, his songs are noticeably lacking compared to that of Matt’s — particularly on the weirdly placed acoustic song “Enjoy Your Day”. Apart from Dan’s lead vocal contributions, there’s really nothing to find issue in.
Goddamnit is a brilliant debut that not only exposed Alkaline Trio to the world, but also put helped put Matt Allison on the map as a notable punk producer.
Recommended Tracks: Trouble Breathing / San Francisco / Sorry About That
2. Good Mourning (2003)
As great as their first 3 albums are, Good Mourning was the record where everything seemed to fall into place. Drummer extraordinaire Derek Grant joined the band and helped usher in a tighter sound, while Jerry Finn (and Joe McGrath) brought a production to the record that was big and vibrant without sounding to glossy.
There are a lot of things to praise about this record, but perhaps my favorite is Skiba’s vocals. While Skiba’s voice almost always sounds excellent, on Good Mourning he has this slight rasp that the studio captures brilliantly and it really makes his songs stand out from the rest of their material.
For fans of equal representation, Good Mourning is the closest the band has come to comparable vocal representation of both singers, as Andriano sings lead on 5 songs to Skiba’s 7. Like Matt, Dan also sounds excellent here, the producers really put in work to make this record sound sonically astounding. Case in point, the little guitar effects done on “Blue Carolina” that give it that extra burst of energy.
While both Porter and Felumlee are creatively excellent drummers in their own right, Grant was able to bring a level of precision to the songs that weren’t there before. While doing so, you may notice that his contributions are much more subtle in their creativity, but even on a track like “We’ve Had Enough,” it’s pretty much impossible not to notice his immense skill behind the kit.
Lyrically, the songs aren’t quite as personal as previous records; instead, they rely more on storytelling and embracing the gothic imagery they had already been toying around with. I’m a bit mixed on this because although the lyrics are undoubtedly fantastic, I do miss that raw passion that was embedded in their early personal material.
At the end of the day, this is essentially a perfect record with really nothing to criticize and no filler (if I absolutely HAD to boot a song , I’d pick “Every Thug Needs A Lady”). It’s no surprise why this record took off the way it did.
Recommended Tracks: We’ve Had Enough / Blue Carolina / This Could Be Love
1. From Here To Infirmary (2001)
Man, what an album, right? I appreciate it a little more every time I listen to it. It’s a record that really has no right to be as great as it is, but it’s one of those rare no-skip, “perfect” albums. Every second of this album can be cherished.
From Here To Infirmary marked the end of the early era for Alkaline Trio as it was the last (until This Addiction) with producer Matt Allison. Sonically, Allison was able to capture a rawness from the band that perfectly fit their darker songwriting. That said, I could see some people not loving the guitar on this album, as it has a weird, low-bitrate sort of sound to it. Personally, I think it works.
Possibly the band’s best opener, “Private Eye” exemplifies the reason why Matt is so appreciated as a lyricist. The song excellently creates a character-driven story through its use of detailed imagery. If I were teaching a course on writing compelling lyricism, this song would absolutely be included.
From Here To Infirmary seems to be the last record to have some of that angsty youth the band was so great at. You can clearly find this in the humorous and dark “Stupid Kid” or the blatantly direct “Mr. Chainsaw” which contains the line “In case you’re wondering, I’m singing about growing up and giving in”.
This is far from a Skiba show as Andriano also provides some of his best work in “Take Lots with Alcohol” and “I’m Dying Tomorrow”, the latter being so over-the-top dramatic that it can’t help but bleed authenticity.
The song “You’re Dead,” which I’ve always loved, hits particularly hard now since my friend who introduced me to Alkaline Trio unexpectedly passed away at the end of 2023, making a line like “but without you around, I feel nothing but cold,” hit especially hard.
Mike Felumlee, in his one record with the band, turns in an excellent performance. Applying creative drum beats similar to Porter, but with a bit more of a direct approach. While Grant is still the band’s most skilled drummer, Felumlee was no slouch either.
This is a perfect record, one of my all-time favorites, and an album that manages to age like a fine wine. There’s just something special that they were able to capture here that I don’t think they could ever quite replicate.
Recommended Tracks: Private Eye / Take Lots with Alcohol / You’re Dead
