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Wax Ecstatic: The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time Part #8

24 min readMar 26, 2025

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Photo courtesy of the author

Here’s an affectionate attempt at ranking their records with the understanding that placing things you love in a rigid hierarchy is objectively insane

~Elizabeth Nelson

Welcome to Part 8!

A friend I grew up with has been employed by the local school district for some time now. Recently, she switched to a substitute teacher role and was assigned to our junior high. She took some pictures of the interior halls and a few other spots and shared them with a few of us fellow survivors. Dear reader, those halls have not changed in 30+ years. I know the exterior and athletic fields have long been modernized. The mascot’s been updated, too. In our day, we were the Braves. Today’s students are now known as Mountaineers, which, I mean… that’s not bad, really.

I also expected to see those same modern touches on the inside. If nothing else, some new paneling? A little natural daylight wouldn’t have been too much to ask. When I went there, it was overheated, overcrowded, and claustrophobic. Learning? Not a chance. Expanding your mind with the walls closing in is no easy feat.

Seeing it in 2024 did nothing to change those emotions, but having halls so clogged they needed to pad the time in between…

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The Riff
The Riff
Kevin Alexander
Kevin Alexander

Written by Kevin Alexander

Hot takes on cool records | EIC The Riff Magazine | Boost nominator | Find me on Substack: https://thekevinalexander.substack.com/