(A little background: I'm always looking for little music-related projects to take on. So when the now-dissolved absolutepunk.net circulated a challenge to come up with a list of your 10 favorite albums released in between 2001 and 2015, I was all for it. Because 10 seemed a little restrictive, I changed it to 15 albums in 15 years.)

The word "favorite" seems self-explanatory. When thinking about this list, though, I got a little stuck. Are my favorite albums the ones I play the most, still, years after their release? Or, instead, are they the ones that made the most impact on my life? I thought about some albums that I can trace back to the moment I first heard them. I thought about albums that were tethered to specific periods in my life, albums that changed the course of how I listen to music, albums that were among the first I ever truly cared about, albums that made me think of music as an identity when I was 13 and didn't know who I was yet. It became clear that "favorite" definitely doesn't have to mean objectively good, but at the same time, it can be an album that...

...I played on repeat in the car until the casette tape broke (sorry, Mom): Sing the Sorrow - AFI (2003)

...inspired a homemade t-shirt that the manager of my favorite record store complimented me on: The Ugly Organ - Cursive (2003)

...accompanied me on countless family walks where my quintessential teenger self put in earphones and ignored everyone: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 - Coheed and Cambria (2003)

...acted as my personal soundtrack as I discovered a new city post college graduation and turned 22 along with the song: Red - Taylor Swift (2012)

...made me a better singer because I practiced the harmonies so much: The Spirit Room - Michelle Branch (2001)

...introduced me to pop-punk when I bought it from a Walmart because the I liked the cover art: Sticks and Stones - New Found Glory (2002)

...begged me to believe in pop-punk again, when I wasn't sure the genre had anything left to offer me: The Greatest Generation - The Wonder Years (2013)

...made me feel proud (/cool) for knowing all the words: Stay What You Are - Saves the Day (2001)

...played in the background of all my early-morning, windows-down drives back to the city the summer I met Andrew: Handwritten - The Gaslight Anthem (2012)

...lead to a three-year-long period where I listented to mostly singer-songwriter and acoustic music in high school: Continuum - John Mayer (2006)

...was the reason I went to my first live show: Drunken Lullabies - Flogging Molly (2002) 

...showed me that songwriting can actually be some of the most vivid storytelling: On the Impossible Past - The Menzingers (2012)

...is the perfectly-crafted summer album: Southern Air - Yellowcard (2012)

...took approximately 3000 (and counting) plays to fully appreciate the complexity of the emotion explored within: Home, Like No Place is There - The Hotelier (2014)

...is probably the reason my Andrew and I ever became friends: Oh! Calcutta! - The Lawrence Arms (2006)