The Elms is still one of my favorite bands of all time. This rock band created great rock records championing hard-working, blue-collar Americans and celebrating both the highs and lows of life. This was their fourth and final album, released independently before deciding to call it quits a year later. Thom Daugherty's guitar work is iconic and Thom playing guitar at their reunion show in 2015 is still my phone's lock screen. This album is maybe best known in the band's home state of Indiana for the song "Back To Indiana", where lead singer Owen Thomas pines to return to his loved one as soon as possible. It's an excellent song for a road trip, and I've definitely played it on the way to Indiana a few times. "Thunderhead" and "A Place In the Sun", while not as rockin' as some other tracks, ends the album in a quieter note and are a fitting end to the band's epic 10-year, four-album run. (On some streaming services, the "Complete Edition" is available which has acoustic versions of every song on the album, but the first 12 tracks is the original album.)

Release Year: 2009
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