Top Five Favorite "new" albums?

When you can get paid to blog about your favorite music, it's a good day. With no students to tutor in math, I find myself spending a few hours on Facebook, buzzfeed, and iTunes. Luckily Charles and I started a discussion about music. It kept the minutes from dragging on and before I knew it, my shift was over and a new idea was born. Instead of keeping the musical genius to ourselves, we thought it would be best to share.

We were discussing great albums and how the digital era can be great, it also means that artists do not have to create great albums like they did in years past. We're talking Rumours great, Damn the Torpedos great, Dark Side of the Moon great! These are the albums that you can listen to from start to finish and you wouldn't even think about hitting next. Mumford & Sons Babel is one of the few in recent years that I would consider to be on that level and I'm including the deluxe version with the cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer." Their success is no surprise. Sigh No More is a good album with many great songs, but Babel is so good that while creating playlists for the dropbox, I had to limit the Mumford or it would have ended up a Mumford playlist with a few other songs tossed in. 

Obviously, most people won't argue that  Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, and the "Classic Rock" era musicians made the best albums. This post is to start a discussion about what new albums are "I bought the whole album on iTunes and don't even think about the next button" good. 

Here are my favorites...
Mumford & Sons - Babel 
This choice is obvious. They are so talented and one of my favorite bands right now. 

Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown
I could have picked Only by the Night. It's great and has their big hits, but I think this album is even better and I listened to it from start to finish two summers ago. Quite a few songs are still in my 25 most played. 

Adele - 21
Start to finish, Adele can sing. Every song is great. Teenage girls might want Taylor Swift singing their break-up songs, but everyone else wants to hear Adele. 

The Killers - Hot Fuss
The Killers were probably the first "new" band that I really loved. These songs were so good, I thought the band was English. 

Zac Brown Band - The Foundation
I know this is country, but it's more Folksy, timeless country and less hee-haw country. If you ignore the sic 'em on a chicken song and focus on the cover of Ray LaMontagne's "Jolene", it's amazing. I like to listen to this in the spring and summer with my Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker. 

Honorable mentions include

Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out

Here's hoping this discussion might get more participation. Looking forward to reading everyone's favorite albums.