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Fats Domino ‘Fats Domino Swings’ (1959)
Fats Domino boogy woogie piano licks, arrangements that emphasized the upbeat, and infectious energy helped define the early sound of rock and roll. Fats was a true pioneer of the genre, with an estimated 110 million records sold over his lifetime, and has gone down in history as one of the critical pieces of bringing…
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Eric B. & Rakim ‘Paid In Full’ (1987)
Noted for its revolutionary lyrics and complex rhyming schemes, Eric B. & Rakim’s Paid In Full stands one of the most influential hip hop records of all-time. Released during the golden age of hip-hop, an era loosely defined by hip hop music released from the mid-80’s to the mid 90’s, Paid In Full and its…
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Howlin’ Wolf ‘Moanin’ In The Moonlight’ (1959)
Known for his raucous live shows and larger than life figure (it’s been said that he weighed 300 pounds during “his salad days”, which is frankly a helluva quote) 6 foot 3 Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett was an imposing presence in the early days of acoustic Delta Blues and played a pivotal role in transforming…
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Bad Religion ‘Suffer’ (1988)
It’s hard to overstate just how influential Bad Religion was on the punk rock I grew up on during the mid-2000’s. Bands like NOFX, Pennywise, Green Day, The Offspring, Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio, and Rancid all owe a debt of significant gratitude to the forebears of that distinct sound for a handful of reasons,…
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Hole ‘Live Through This’ (1994)
An album cover can be worth a thousand words, and Hole’s Live Through This certainly is one of those album covers. A manic pageant winner, mascara streaming down her face after a bout of tears, holding up a bouquet of flowers while an almost comically ostentatious tiara adorns her head. It’s a picture that evokes…
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Johnny Cash ‘At Folsom Prison’ (1968)
I’ll be in attendance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville tonight for the first time in my life and cannot wait. This is the birthplace of American country music, the Mecca where it all started, and has long been on my bucket list of places to see a live show. It’s going to be…
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Bruce Springsteen ‘The Rising’ (2002)
Bruce Springsteen’s music has always had this beautiful sense of unease around it, a struggle of finding meaning in mundane circumstances, and explored the difficulty of keeping the flame of hope alive in trying times. It’s what makes him my favorite artist of all-time and one of the definitive musical orators of American history during…
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Jamey Johnson ‘That Lonesome Song’ (2008)
Jamey Johnson is a country throwback in nearly every way– a deep voice that booms like a bass drum with a bit of a marble mouthed drawl, meandering acoustic guitars that tell a story all to themselves, and a backing band that understands when to hit their spots and when to take center stage. 2008’s…
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Waylon Jennings ‘Honky Tonk Heroes’ (1973)
Waylon Jennings is an almost mythical force in the history of outlaw country, a sub-genre that bucked the norms of the Nashville establishment in the early 70’s. Disillusioned with both the artistic and sonic constraints of producers like Chet Atkins who favored slick production over a more organic and natural sound, artists like Jennings and…
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D Smoke ‘Black Habits’ (2020)
D Smoke gets a lot of comparison to Kendrick Lamar which is probably annoying and flattering for him all at the same time. But the similarities are striking— both are from southwest LA (Inglewood and Compton respectively), heavily incorporate jazz samples into their compositions, run through bars with a frenetic flow, and are gifted storytellers…
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Stevie Wonder ‘Songs In The Key of Life’ (1976)
The word “beloved” gets tossed around too often when talking about musicians (guilty as charged on that front), but it’s the perfect word to use when describing Stevie Wonder. An American icon in every sense of the word, Wonder was born six weeks premature and developed retrolental fibroplasia which caused him to become blind shortly…
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David Allan Coe ‘Longhaired Redneck’ (1976)
David Allan Coe has always been country’s crazy old drunk uncle, a freewheeling individualist that stood out even in a genre that was filled to the brim with them. Like one of his country music icons Merle Haggard (whom he namedrops in the title track), Coe’s outlaw country bonafides were the real deal– the early…
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Nick Drake ‘Pink Moon’ (1972)
The voice of reclusive youth, Nick Drake’s music was woefully unappreciated during his short life. When he died at the age of 25 due to an overdose on antidepressants, Drake was a relatively unknown musician– just north of 50 people attended his funeral, a relatively close-knit affair. It was only after nearly a decade had…
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Smash Mouth ‘Astro Lounge’ (1999)
With the sad news that Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell is in the final days of his life due to liver failure, it only felt right to listen to their highly acclaimed 1999 album Astro Lounge this week. The lead single “All Star” has been a mainstay on any mix tape or playlist created…
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The Mamas & The Papas ‘If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears’ (1966)
Few bands can bring you back to a moment in time like The Mamas & The Papas can. Much like Credence Clearwater Revival has become synonymous with the Vietnam era, If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears sounds exactly like the late 60’s and the sunny periphery of the hippie movement– laid back carefree…
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Billy Joel ‘The Stranger’ (1977)
Leading up to The Stranger Billy Joel’s career was on the rocks. After the massive success of 1973’s Piano Man (whose title track is Joel’s most famous song, and for good reason considering it’s a brilliant piece of storytelling), he was on the verge of being dropped by his record label Columbia Records due to…
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The Teskey Brothers ‘Run Home Slow’ (2019)
If I had to use one word to describe The Teskey Brothers 2019 album Run Home Slow? Timeless. Bringing together soul, Americana, and gospel blues in the style of Otis Redding has been done once over throughout the course of music history, but rarely has it sounded so damn smooth from a contemporary band. Much…
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Midland ‘Let It Roll’ (2019)
There are few country artists today who are able to expertly walk the line between contemporary appeal and old-school roots. It’s a delicate balance to strike between popularity and parody. Midland is one of those bands, the best at playing that game in 2023, and maybe the only country music act who makes me feel…
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Marvin Gaye ‘What’s Going On’ (1971)
Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On stands today as one of the most important records in the history of recorded music in the United States. This is due to a variety of reasons, the primary one being it’s statements and reflections on American society during the 60’s and 70’s, which was fraught with social upheaval that…
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Brian Eno ‘Another Green World’ (1975)
Another Green World by Brian Eno is an eclectic collection of avant-garde pop vignettes. Calling them songs doesn’t really do the whole thing justice— these are emotions in audio form, a collection of feelings that were somehow transposed into music through the filter of Brian Eno’s astounding production capabilities. It’s often hard to listen to…
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Aerosmith ‘Toys in the Attic’ (1975)
Toys in the Attic features Aerosmith at their absolute best, a stellar album that takes you on a ride through the dirtiest and raunchiest of what rock and roll can offer. It’s raw as hell and features the band firing on all cylinders in a way they never really captured throughout the rest of their…
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Fievel Is Glauque ‘God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess’ (2021)
Fievel Is Glaque’s 2021 album God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess is a collection of live mono cassette recordings that were cut in Brussels during the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the world in 2020. The ensemble includes American keyboardist Zach Philips and French singer Ma Clément as well as a collection of nearly 30…
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No Use For A Name ‘Hard Rock Bottom’ (2002)
During 8th grade I was just beginning to get into punk music. Bands like The Ataris, NOFX, MxPx, Blink-182, Green Day, and Pennywise were my gateway into the genre. Listening to those bands today has a way of transporting me back almost immediately– and while some albums have aged well (and others not so well)…
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Fine Young Cannibals ‘The Raw & The Cooked’ (1989)
Fine Young Cannibals 1989 release The Raw & The Cooked is a soul album in the way you’d envision an 80’s New Wave soul album to be. In other words, it’s an eclectic mix of sounds and styles that incorporates breakbeat, New Wave, dance, and rock elements filtered through the gravitational pull of Motown soul…
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Scorpions ‘Love At First Sting’ (1984)
“Rock You Like A Hurricane” is an iconic hair metal song and Scorpions are an iconic heavy metal band, selling over 100 million records during the course of their 60-year history. It puts them at the top of best-selling lists of not only heavy metal but bands of any genre, influencing cultural powerhouses like Guns…
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Millencolin ‘Pennybridge Pioneers’ (2000)
If you played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater as a kid it’s an absolute guarantee that you’ll recognize the first song off Pennybridge Pioneers. That game was a defining part of my childhood and many of my generational peers, and “No Cigar” was a mainstay on the game’s soundtrack. It’s a perfectly put together skate punk…
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Chiodos ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ (2005)
Chiodos’ 2005 All’s Well That Ends Well is a deep cut for anyone who was a hardcore screamo fan in the mid aughts (guilty as charged!). This was one of those bands that was so damn weird and unique but it all just seemed to work. Lead vocalist Craig Owens pushed his vocal range to…
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Underoath ‘They’re Only Chasing Safety’ (2004)
Three albums into their career Underoath was at somewhat of a cross roads. Their first three records had received limited commercial success, and following the departure of then lead vocalist and band co-founder Dallas Taylor (who went on to form the excellent Southern heavy metal band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster), they had to…
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Anti-Flag ‘For Blood and Empire’ (2006)
Anti-Flag has enjoyed a 35-year extensive career in the punk rock scene, dedicating their music to activism and left-wing politics since forming in Pittsburgh during 1988. If their name didn’t give it away already, their songs are focused on political discourse and the horrors of war, governmental overreach, corporate greed, and animal cruelty (all members…
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Dokken ‘Under Lock and Key’ (1985)
Dokken comes from the iconic era of glam metal bands like Ratt and Poison, where image was nearly as important as the music. Big hair, big drums, big vocals, big guitar solos— if everything is in fact bigger in Texas, then everything was indisputably the biggest in 1985 when hair metal stood on top of…
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Stick Figure ‘Wisdom’ (2022)
Scott Woodruff is the frontman and creative center behind Stick Figure, a reggae-based outfit who has risen to prominence over the last two decades since releasing his 2007 debut The Sound of My Addiction. I’m an absolute sucker for any self-taught (and self-produced) musician, and Woodruff’s DIY approach instantly appealed to me considering the parallels…
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The Shins ‘Oh, Inverted World’ (2001)
During the indie pop folk craze that dominated the early 2000’s, The Shins were gigantic. It’s pretty much impossible for anyone in my generation to not at least be vaguely familiar with the two singles “Caring Is Creepy” and “New Slang” based off their prominence in the Garden State film featuring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman,…
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Christopher Cross ‘Christopher Cross’ (1979)
Yacht rock holds an incredibly special place in my heart. The smooth production style, the gorgeous three-part vocal harmonies, the sultry smooth rhythm sections, the saxaphones and synths– it’s all just so wonderfully easy to listen to. This is a sub-genre of music I’ve loved forever, became relatively obsessed with when I got Sirius XM…
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Pennywise ‘Land of the Free?’ (2001)
As a middle schooler Pennywise was one of my first forays into politically oriented punk rock, with Land of the Free? being one of the most prominent albums in my rotation. I spun this specific CD too many times to count on my blue Walkman, and later in high school actually covered “Fuck Authority” with…
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Carlos Paredes ‘Guitarra Portuguesa’ (1967)
Carlos Paredes was a brilliant Portugese player and composer, known as much for his studio albums as his soundtrack work for various films throughout the years. Regarded as one of the best players of the Portuguese guitar of all-time, his debut album Guitarra Portuguesa displays his mastery of the instrument in nearly every single note.…
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Tiger Army ‘Music From Regions Beyond’ (2007)
Produced by the late great Jerry Finn (whose contributions to late 90’s / early 00’s punk rock were unparalleled, as we covered relatively extensively in our writeup of Blink 182’s Enema of the State), Music From Regions Beyond is an album that draws significant inspiration from horror punk and goth rock. A great reference album…
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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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