Top 20 Greatest OC Albums of All Time: Nos. 10 to 1

By OC Weekly Contributor Mon., Feb. 25 2013 at 5:45 AM

6) Snoop Doggy Dogg, Doggystyle (1993)
Back in the day, when there were music stores in most neighborhoods, people would get pumped about camping out for the release of the newest cassette. Yeah, we said cassette. When Long Beach native Snoop Dogg released Doggystyle in 1993, Orange County couldn't wait. The album pumped out chart-toppers we all bumped to in our cars and in the clubs -- G-Funk classics such as "Gin and Juice," "Lodi Dodi" and "Doggy Dogg World." Snoop's flow was totally original. The beats that were delivered off this album are undeniably associated with the best of West Coast hip-hop. Doggystyle put Snoop on the map, and while we know the "LBC" isn't technically OC, fuck it, we're going straight gangsta and claiming this one. (Ali Lerman)

5) Thrice, Illusion of Safety (2002)
Identity Crisis represented an unmistakable change of the guard for the OC music scene. You couldn't call their music punk; you couldn't call it hardcore or even post-hardcore. But you could call it angry, imaginative and, at times, even meditative. Throughout the track list of their sophomore album, Thrice became one of the first modern bands to really pull off all of that in a way that didn't sound like reheated tough guy hardcore from the decade prior. And if you can manage to get through the buzz-saw guitars, throat-shredding screams and metal-inspired riffage of tracks without getting a little bit of a charge, you may wanna check your pulse. (Nate Jackson)

We Recommend

Jim_Beam

Mommys Little Monster is the better Social Distortion album; The Creeps, MLM, Anti Fashion, Moral Threat, Another State of Mind, all Orange County themed songs.

Vandals Peace Through Vandalism; All songs about OC, Wanna Be Manor, Urban Struggle, The Legend of Pat Brown, and of course Pirates Life (Seven hits of L and nobody can tell so I spent every dime just to get to Anaheim).

I would also include TSOL Weathered Statues and though not technically an album The Middle Class Out of Vouge.

TheRefriedMexican topcommenter

I'd put Offspring's Smash a little higher and I would include War's Why Can't We Be Friends in the top 20. Other than that, a solid top 20

Bobby D. Lux

Snoop Dogg? Seriously? You can at least make an argument about Sublime because of the punk/ska scene in OC, but Snoop? Nonsense. Or, maybe he was influenced by the emerging OC Gangsta Rap scene in the early 90s?

Tony Guillory

This is pathetic. By listing No Doubt as the best album to ever come out of this pathetic little suburb of Los Angeles, you have disgraced and insulted many talented musicians. Your opinion of "best" is so utterly flawed, you truly harm the reputation of the OC Weekly as a source of quality "alternative" arts.