A Collection of Rankings

By Ryan O'Connell on 12/08/2020 • ( 0 )

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most over the past year or so is ranking things for BroBible. I’ve ranked albums, songs, and TV shows, among other things. Most recently I ranked the best Kanye West songs because Kanye the musician is still good, even though Kanye the person is a train wreck that I’m sick of.

I decided to create a landing spot for these rankings and if you guessed that the landing spot would be this page, you are correct. Congratulations. I’ll be adding to this periodically.

Let’s go.

The 70 Best Tom Petty Songs

To celebrate what would have been Petty’s 70th birthday as well as the deluxe reissue of Wildflowers AND the anniversary of the release of Damn the Torpedoes, I went deep and ranked Petty’s 70 best songs. This includes Petty solo songs, Heartbreakers’ songs, Mudcrutch songs, and songs he wrote with The Traveling Wilburys.

Here’s the playlist:

The 25 Best Foo Fighters’ Songs

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Foo Fighters and that’s great minus the fact that it makes me feel old. Ah, whatever. I went ahead and ranked the 25 best Foo Fighters’ songs. A fun fact about this one is that I wrote most of it sitting in a rental car while posted up in a Florida parking garage. It’s a long story.

Here’s the playlist:

Which ‘SNL’ President Is The Best?

Thankfully Donald Trump’s presidency is coming to an end. This is actually a bonus because it also means that Alec Baldwin’s time playing Trump on Saturday Night Live is also coming to an end. Baldwin has been fine but it got old, especially because the subject matter got so depressing it wasn’t even fun to laugh at. Jim Carrey stepped in this fall to play President-elect Joe Biden but it remains to be seen if he’ll continue with the gig next year. Either way, the whole thing felt like a good time to look back at all the Saturday Night Live presidents and determine which one was the best. Spoiler: it was not one of the early Ronald Reagans.

The 30 Best Jason Isbell Songs

Sometime this spring, one of the editors at BroBible asked me to take a look at Jason Isbell and see if I could do something. I was an Isbell fan but quickly found that I had quite a few blind spots when it came to his catalog. I was going to do the 20 best songs but then that became 25 before I settled on the 30 best Jason Isbell songs. It was probably one of the most enjoyable things I worked on because of how it opened my eyes to the man’s greatness.

Here’s the playlist:

The Ten Best Series Finales Of The Last Decade

Coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Game Of Thrones’ finale, unfortunately, got me thinking about how bad it was. The sour taste returned to my mouth pretty quickly. Not one to dwell on negatives though, I decided to focus on the ten series finales that actually did work. It helped. Although I’ll still never get over how the last half of the Thrones‘ finale played out.

Where Does Run the Jewels Rank Among The Best Hip Hop Duos Ever?

This one isn’t a traditional ranking but instead, more of a narrative ranking as I tried to figure out where Run the Jewels ranks among the best Hip Hop duos in the genre’s history. I ended up coming with tiers and also rediscovered how much I love Gang Starr. Kind of a win/win there.

Here’s the playlist:

Phish Studio Albums, Ranked

In April, Phish surprised folks with the release of Sigma Oasis, a new studio album. Talk about a good time to rank their other studio albums, huh? Predictably I got some push back with this, especially from hard-core fans. I was even persuaded to do some shuffling by one of my friends and I try never to do that. In hindsight though, it made sense. You win this one, Kenny.

Here’s a playlist of my favorite studio tracks from Phish:

The 20 Most Re-Watchable Episodes of ‘The Office’

Almost all of the Michael Scott-episodes of The Office are rewatchable but I narrowed it down to the top 20. Outside of the Michael Scott ones, I’d look at the series finale, but that’s about it. I really wish the show would have just stopped when Steve Carrell left.

The Definitive Ben Affleck Rankings

I think it was Ben Affleck’s birthday or something but whatever it was, I decided to do an all-consuming Affeck ranking, ranking everything from his movies to interviews. I even included his back tattoo. And no, it was not that high on the list.

Dave Matthews Band Albums, Ranked

Back at the start of 2020, Dave Matthews Band was in the running to be nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Again, timing. It felt like a good opportunity to rank the band’s studio albums, of which there aren’t as many as you’d think there are. DMB did not get nominated and I still don’t understand why we’ve all turned on them like we have.

Here’s the playlist:

The 50 Best Kanye West Songs

In my opinion, Kanye’s best album is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In November, the album celebrated its tenth anniversary. Now, I’m pretty much done with Kanye the person but I still respect Kanye the artist, and ranking his 50 best songs only made that respect run even deeper. Although just to be clear, I’m out on Kanye the person. Like way out.

Here’s the playlist: