I've wanted to create a thread on this for a while! I decided to wait until we passed the first anniversary of Cass County's release, as I think opinions on very new releases are more likely to fluctuate, but I've finally got round to it.

Hopefully the title is clear enough as to the purpose of the thread. I really want to keep this to his five regular studio albums, excluding the compilations. I think this will make it more interesting as I have a feeling there's no consensus as to which is his best release. I love to hear people share their views on which ones they like best, although this isn't necessary.

I'll start by briefly posting my order of preference - I'll write more detailed write ups at some point, but for now I think I'll just give my list:

1. The End Of The Innocence
2. Cass County
3. I Can't Stand Still
4. Building The Perfect Beast

In summary, TEOTI is definitely my favourite. It has two of my top three Don songs (the title track and The Heart of the Matter) and several others that I rate very highly. There's only one, maybe two tracks that I don't rate all that highly. Cass County takes second - I like most of it, there's a decent number of strong tracks and a couple that I feel rank amongst his best (The Cost of Living, Train In The Distance), although I think there is some weaker material, mostly the extra tracks on the deluxe edition I'm afraid to say. The toughest decision for me was whether to give third to ICSS or BTPB. I think the latter probably has stronger highlights, and more of them, but the former is less consistent. I think The Boys Of Summer and A Month Of Sundays are as good as the best from ICSS (Dirty Laundry), but nothing on that album has aged quite as badly as BTPB's title track! I've not really heard Inside Job, (I've honestly only heard a couple of tracks from it - the ones on the Very Best Of compilation) so I've not included that.