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Hail the Sun ‘Wake’ (2014)
If you mistake Hail the Sun for an Anthony Green project like Circa Survive or Saosin you’re not alone– upon first hearing “Rolling Out the Red Carpet” I thought I’d stumbled upon one of his many side projects. Lead singer Donovan Melero is a dead ringer for Green vocally (always a good thing) and the…
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The War On Drugs ‘A Deeper Understanding’ (2017)
A Deeper Understanding felt like a spiritual experience the first time I heard it. Principal songwriter and lead vocalist Adam Granduciel had created a world so lush and abundant it was almost disorienting at first– melodies that bloomed and transformed before your eyes, soft and sentimental, seemingly lacking a true center. It all sounded so…
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The Matches ‘E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals’ (2004)
There was a point in high school where The Matches were my favorite band in the world, hard stop, no doubt about it. I loved the fact that they were a local band (they hailed from Oakland, CA), I loved the fact that their live show was absolutely electric (I had the chance to catch…
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John Denver ‘Poems, Prayers and Promises’ (1971)
My first memory of John Denver ironically has nothing to do with his music– it was the cult classic movie Dumb and Dumber starring the iconic Jim Carrey (Lloyd Christmas) and Jeff Daniels (Harry Dunne). In the movie Lloyd and Harry are driving to Aspen, Colorado to meet a girl Lloyd has fallen head over…
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Circa Survive ‘On Letting Go’ (2007)
When former Saosin lead singer Anthony Green left Saosin to form a new project in the mid-2000’s it was soul-crushing to 15 year old me. I was an avid fan of their 2003 EP Translating The Name and couldn’t imagine a world in which they wouldn’t be making music together. It all worked out in…
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Touché Amoré ‘Stage Four’ (2016)
One thing I’ve always loved about American post-hardcore is the genre’s willingness to tackle difficult subject matter head-on. Cancer kills almost 10 million people per year worldwide, and yet it’s rare to find songs (let alone entire albums) which directly reference the disease and detail the visceral impact it has on the families and friends…
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Mother Love Bone ‘Apple’ (1990)
Mother Love Bone was the first of a litany of sad stories to emerge out of Seattle in the 1990’s as the grunge movement rose to prominence. A glam rock band with roots in rock and roll, Mother Love Bone’s highly anticipated debut album Apple was marred when tragedy when lead singer Andrew Wood was…
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Tina Turner ‘Private Dancer’ (1984)
Following a divorce from her husband Ike Turner, whom she had carved out an incredibly successful career as a husband-wife duo, Tina Turner’s career was at somewhat of a crossroads. Despite her world class vocal talent her first four solo albums were nothing short of a disappointment– Acid Queen was the only one that made…
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Peggy Lee ‘Black Coffee’ (1956)
Black Coffee was Peggy Lee’s first album but one that came well after she was already firmly established at the top of the charts. Her 1943 single “Why Don’t You Do Right?” sold over a million copies and kickstarted what would eventually become a seven-decade recording career that earned her the moniker “Queen of American…
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Dolly Parton ‘Jolene’ (1974)
Dolly Parton is an American institution whose 60-year career in country music has made her one of the best-selling artists in American history. Along with 100 million records sold, countless awards, and worldwide fame that has created its own class of Dolly Parton decor (I’ve been to the White Limozeen in Nashville and it is…
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Creedence Clearwater Revival ‘Willy And The Poor Boys’ (1969)
As I said when writing about CCR’s album Green River, one of the hallmarks of an enduring band is their signature sound. Creedence Clearwater Revival has become synonymous with so many components of traditional Americana (especially the Vietnam war) due to their tried and true approach towards traditional blue rock and their earnest adoption of…
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Tom Petty ‘Full Moon Fever’ (1989)
Full Moon Fever was Tom Petty’s debut solo album after taking a hiatus from his longtime backing band The Heartbreakers, a similar career path that Bruce Springsteen took when he released Tunnel of Love in 1987 without the official backing of the E Street Band. My love for Petty has been well chronicled (you can…
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All Time Low ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ (2020)
Veteran pop punkers All Time Low returned to their roots on 2020’s Wake Up, Sunshine and in the process scored the biggest chart-topping song of their career with “Monsters”. Despite the fact the band has been around since the early aughts and been a mainstay in the pop punk scene for over 20 years (which…
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Title Fight ‘Shed’ (2011)
Released 8 years after their official formation, Title Fight’s debut album Shed takes all the things that made the early aughts a haven for post-hardcore bands and cranks them up to 11. Featuring heavy electric guitars that delight in dissonance, gravelly lead vocals that sit buried in the mix, and a heavy rhythm section that…
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Wire ‘Pink Flag’ (1977)
Wire’s Pink Flag is best summarized as an impressionist version of punk rock, tiny vignettes of emotional outbursts captured and distorted through the lens of a group of artists unconcerned with conventional song structures. Since its release Pink Wire has gone on to influence a myriad of art rock punk bands in the years that…
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Trisha Yearwood ‘Trisha Yearwood’ (1991)
Nowadays a lot of people who watch Trisha’s Southern Kitchen on Food Network may be relatively unfamiliar with her music career– the show features her downhome charm walking viewers through relatable and easy-to-execute Southern dishes and does an admirable job of not trying to incessantly cross-market her music career. But damn did Yearwood ever have…
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Ratatat ‘Ratatat’ (2004)
In the genre of guitar electronica (which is pretty damn niche), Ratatat ruled supreme during my high school and early college days. These guys were the epitome of Brooklyn hipsters before it was fashionable to be a Brooklyn hipster, recording their neo-psychedelic electronic rock album in their bassist’s Crown Heights apartment during the resurgence of…
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Wipers ‘Is This Real?’ (1980)
When Wipers lead singer Greg Sage was a child he grew fascinated with cutting records on his own. Since his father worked in the broadcast industry he had access to a lathe, and spent his evenings bootlegging songs off the radio and converting those to records for his friends at school. This passion pre-dated his…
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Conway the Machine ‘God Don’t Make Mistakes’ (2022)
As part of a Buffalo-based hip-hop duo alongside his paternal half-brother Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine has built up a loyal and dedicated fanbase of hardcore hip hop heads since first entering the scene during the mid-2010’s. His life story is reminiscent of 50 Cent’s in many ways– Conway was shot in the head and…
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Corelia ‘Nostalgia’ (2011)
I first stumbled on Corelia a few years after college and can’t really recall how I found them. But I purchased the album digitally in 2012 on my iTunes account (remember when people did that?!?!) and I’m constantly reminded of them every time I connect my phone to the Bluetooth speakers in my car. Nostalgia…
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Roberto Carlos ‘Un Gato En La Oscuridad’ (1963)
My dad spent a year in Brazil studying abroad during his college years (a longggg time ago– sorry pops) and has always had a love for Brazilian music as a result. Every once in awhile he’ll take the family down memory lane (like his story of Wando helping him pick up women, which is simply…
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Tim McGraw ‘A Place In The Sun’ (1999)
In many ways Tim McGraw has been a guiding force in my life in the same way Thrice has been since my middle school years. Despite the obvious dissimilarities (there’s about a mile and half between them sonically), their collective music has been through critical life moments akin to a friend who never leaves your…
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Megadeth ‘Killing Is My Business…and Business Is Good!’ (1985)
Despite Dave Mustaine incessantly whining like a petulant toddler for the better part of the last forty years about being kicked out of Metallica in 1983 (the guy seriously can’t get out of his own way), Megadeth is totally kick ass and helped to spearhead the American thrash metal movement in the 1980’s alongside their…
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Redbone ‘Wovoka’ (1973)
Redbone’s absolute smash single “Come and Get Your Love” was notable for a variety of reasons– the incredible groove, orchestral hooks, and iconic chorus that sounds like it was sung from the heavens. It also was the first Native American song to crack the Top Five of the Billboard Top 100 (peaking at #5 in…
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Ghostface Killah ‘Supreme Clientele’ (2000)
As a member of the venerable Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah’s credentials are cemented without even taking his solo career into account. But with Supreme Clientele everything that made Ghostface such a massive figure in hip hop were taken to the next level, delivering one of the best solo albums from the group that effectively invented…
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Hot Mulligan ‘Why Would I Watch’ (2023)
Hot Mulligan is the natural evolution of the mid 2000’s emo and pop punk movement, a band whose creativity and songwriting can both probably be safely described as being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, pinwheeling between chord breaks and rhythmic staccatos at a frenetic pace. As a songwriter myself it’s pretty apparent that what these…
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Elder ‘Reflections of a Floating World’ (2017)
It’s rare that I hear a band for the very first time and am immediately impressed by their ingenuity– listening to a full album every day for 450 days in a row will do that to you, especially when you supplement that already staggering habit with hits of singles throughout the day. But when I…
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Bobby Womack ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ (1969)
A prolific songwriter with writing credits that spanned numerous genres (including The Rolling Stones “It’s All Over Now”) Bobby Womack’s brand of high-powered gospel soul gave him a career that spanned 60 years and eventually culminated in an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Overcoming a brutally poor childhood (his…
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Randy Travis ‘Old 8 x 10’ (1988)
Listening to Randy Travis has always reminded me of my late grandparents. There’s a tenderness to everything that Travis sings, a no-frills baritone that sounds like a mix of George Jones and Merle Haggard and James Taylor. He exhibits a warmness that feels like a cozy blanket, smells like freshly baked peach pie, and looks…
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From First to Last ‘Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count’ (2004)
Long before Skrillex was an EDM god winning Grammy awards hand over first and playing to festivals with 100K ravers in attendance he was known as Sonny Moore, the frontman of emo rock outfit from First To Last who played to a mere 100 raving lunatics in small dingy rock clubs. I was one of…
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Foo Fighters ‘The Colour And The Shape’ (1997)
Following their self-titled debut studio album in 1995 that was really the musings of a one-man band (Dave Grohl recorded every single part on that album), Grohl entered the studio in 1997 with a new stable of musicians to aid in the recording for The Colour And The Shape. The album was somewhat of a…
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AC/DC ‘High Voltage’ (1976)
Effectively a compilation of their best songs from Australia-only releases High Voltage and T.N.T. which were released in 1975, AC/DC’s 1976 international version High Voltage was the album that introduced the world to the hard rock stylings of one of the best rock and roll bands to ever do it. Since this was obviously back…
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Mötley Crüe ‘Dr. Feelgood’ (1989)
In the history of music there’s no band that better encapsulates the hedonistic and over the top lifestyle of rock and roll than Mötley Crüe. There’s been countless bands that told tales of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll in their music, and a handful who truly lived the lifestyle. And then there’s Mötley Crüe.…
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Flogging Molly ‘Drunken Lullabies’ (2002)
It was St. Patrick’s Day yesterday so naturally I took some of my old punk classics out for a spin– Dropkick Murphys, The Pogues, and as you probably guessed, Flogging Molly and their 2002 album Drunken Lullabies. My daughter has really been getting into themed music as of late (if she’s wearing a tie-dyed shirt…
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Jaco Pastorius ‘Jaco Pastorius’ (1975)
Jaco Pastorius is the living embodiment of spontaneous combustion, an artist who rose to massive prominence in the 1970’s backed by his prodigious bass playing capabilities before flaming out spectacularly under the weight of mental issues brought on by massive drug use in the 80’s which led to homelessness and a drug-induced bar fight that…
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Saves The Day ‘Through Being Cool’ (1998)
Through Being Cool is a nostalgic reminder of simpler times. I first got into this album in middle school and re-listening to it again at the age of 36 with two young kids running around the house represented just how fast life can change and how far it can take you on this wild journey.…
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About the Author
Jason Matthew Plank listens to copious amounts of music and writes about one album each day. He is currently active in the bands Related to Strangers (post-hardcore) and Kindergarten Cartel (punk covers of children’s nursery rhymes).
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