AFI - Decemberunderground LP (RSD Essential - Transparent Smoke Vinyl)

On their 2003 major label debut Sing the Sorrow, AFI made a seismic sonic shift, largely eschewing its punk and hardcore past for bombastic pop. For their platinum-selling follow-up Decemberunderground, they reunited with Jerry Finn, the famed producer who helped define pop-punk in the 1990s and 2000s, for what Entertainment Weekly called their "most melodically acute distillation" of "eerie, metal-edged Cure sound." The album debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 and features fan favorites "Love Like Winter," "Kill Caustic," and "Summer Shudder." Dense arrangements, arena-rock-ready songs and the critically acclaimed ("Miss Murder") have made this a perennial favorite. "Slicker, sleeker and more immaculately angst-ridden than its predecessor," Alternative Press wrote, "their conviction, perseverance and hardcore roots bring a whole other level of intensity to . songs about hormonal alienation and heartache."