I think "Suicide Invoice" is the most representative of what they're about, but I probably listen to "Audit in Progress" more. I'll vote Audit.

Suicide Invoice is a perfect Hot Snakes album and takes it. If Auto Midnight didn't have that one song that sounds like RFTC, it would be tougher to choose between the two.

Suicide Invoice
Automatic Midnight
Audit in Progress
Jericho Sirens

My disappointment with the Jericho Sirens cover is well-documented at this point. Still not over it.

Automatic Midnight
Audit in Progress
Suicide Invoice
Jericho Sirens

Audit in Progress is way more raw feeling than Suicide Invoice.

Suicide Invoice also has Paid in Cigarettes, which may be my least favorite HS song.

Honestly, I've probably only listened to Jericho SIrens about a half dozen times. It just never grabbed me.

tallchris wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:22 pm Suicide Invoice
Automatic Midnight
Jericho Sirens
Audit in Progress

Pretty certain I agree with this ranking! I co-sign what everyone else has said; it's like ranking Fugazi albums. All four are stellar. Listened to Jericho Sirens on a loop when it came out.

The yellow one
The red one
The orange one

I confess I can't rank the silver one because it's still sitting shrinkwrapped on my "inbox" shelf, three years later. Based on the cover art alone, though, I'd rank it last.

For some reason that no longer makes sense to me, I thought of Audit in Progress at the time as being somehow "lighter" or less intense than its predecessors, but I really love almost all of those songs ('This Mystic Decade' and 'Plenty for All' are standouts) and it works as an album almost as well as Suicide Invoice. I would rate Automatic Midnight higher if all (or some) of the other songs were as good as 'Let It Come'; as it is, I think I might prefer the second and best Obits album to it by a hair.

I haven't been in the mood for this band in ages, but I thought about 'Ben Gurion' an awful lot last month. Might should go listen to it now, finally.