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The Lone Bellow ‘Half Moon Light’ (2020)
The Lone Bellow’s vocal melodies have never failed to delight, and their 2020 effort Half Moon Light is no exception. This album marked a turning point from a pure folk-country sound into more of a psychedelic gospel sound, doubling down on their eclectic influences that reach deep into a bag of tricks and come out with a…
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Killswitch Engage ‘The End of Heartache’ (2004)
I was a sophomore in high school when The End of Heartache first dropped. It represented my first foray into what I would call pure modern metal. I’d been listening to the forebears of metal like Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy for a minute, but hadn’t quite dabbled in the true dark arts yet. And…
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Kirk Franklin ‘The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin’ (2002)
Kirk Franklin is a modern contemporary gospel singer and this live collection of some of his most popular songs. The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin was recorded live at Lakewood Church, a non-denominational evangelical megachurch in Houston, Texas that has one of the largest congregations in the United States with about 45,000 coming through its doors…
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Khalid ‘American Teen’ (2017)
Khalid’s American Teen nestles itself comfortably into a space somewhere between modern pop and Indie shoegaze, trotting through its 51-minute runtime at a measured pace. The vocals, guitar, and 80’s influenced synths are the focus here– Khalid doesn’t take a whole lot of risks on this album, opting to churn out a cohesive auditory experience…
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The Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ (1964)
I have a running theory that no matter who you are and what music you’re into, by the time you hit your 30’s you either implicitly enjoy the sounds of Motown or you’re probably a sociopath. To be clear this isn’t even to say you actively seek out listening to Motown– it’s just to say…
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Brooks & Dunn ‘Red Dirt Road’ (2003)
Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are nothing short of icons in country music, a duo entirely synonymous with the honky tonk mainstream country sound that dominated the airwaves in the 90’s and early aughts. You know exactly what you’re getting when you throw on a Brooks & Dunn record– Telecasters with crunchy tone, drums that…
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Everclear ‘So Much For The Afterglow’ (1997)
90’s alternative rock holds a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons— it’s the almost comically distorted guitars, the undeniable influence of pop music, and the punk-like aggressiveness of the drums that make everything sound big and heavy, and lyrical themes that frankly pull no punches in the story they’re trying to…
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The Menzingers ‘After The Party’ (2017)
Beyond the east coast Bruce Springsteen storytelling chops, rollicking Les Pauls plugged into Marshall amps, and gritty vocal hooks, what I appreciate most about The Menzingers’ After The Party is how perfectly they capture the feeling of being an adult in your 30’s who has aged out of the punk scene but still appreciate the…
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The Blues Brothers ‘Original Soundtrack Recording’ (1980)
If you haven’t seen the original 1980 Blues Brothers film with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, put it to the top of your list this week. It’s an excellent film filled with excellent music, a real cult classic that has aged like a fine wine. Belushi and Aykroyd created the characters as a bit for…
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Sugar Ray ’14:59′ (1998)
Maybe it’s Mark McGrath’s frosted tips. Maybe it’s the tight and boxy drum production. Maybe it’s the smooth acoustic guitar. Hell, maybe it’s just simply the album cover art. But no matter what it is, there is no escaping that Sugar Ray’s 14:59 sounds exactly like a wet hot summer afternoon in the late 90’s.…
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Black Flag ‘Damaged’ (1981)
Damaged by Black Flag is the hardcore album that started it all. Henry Rollins’ testosterone-soaked lead vocals, Greg Ginn’s subtly attentive songwriting, Julio Roberto Valverde Valencia’s aggressive drumming, and the rhythm section of Chuck Dukowski and Dez Cadena punch you right in the gut and leave you keeled over wheezing for oxygen. It feels perfectly…
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The Hold Steady ‘Boys and Girls in America’ (2006)
Boys and Girls in America was an incredibly formative album for me. I was maybe a month in to my freshman year of college when the album dropped, and after previously falling in love with The Hold Steady’s concept album Separation Sunday, which is quite honestly a must-listen as well for any fan of rich…
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Rick Astley ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ (1987)
For people in my generation Rick Astley is pretty much exclusively known for nothing more than “Rickrolling”, which is basically the concept of providing a link to something like an article detailing the economic and industrial development of Singapore from 1950 to 1990 (a fascinating read fwiw) and via bait and switch providing a link…
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Animals As Leaders ‘Parrhesia’ (2022)
Prog metal is having its moment in the Plank household the past few weeks, with excellent albums like Colors by Between The Buried and Me and Remember That You Will Die by Polyphia being a handful of favorites. Today we take a trip to the harder side of instrumental metal with the raucous Parrhesia by…
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50 Cent ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ (2003)
Music in the early 2000’s still was largely controlled by the labels– this was the era before the proliferation of mainstream streaming services, and though Napster and other peer-to-peer networks could give artists a grassroots buzz, physical CD’s were still king. In other words, the the right marketing campaign still moved the needle for artists.…
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Justice ‘Cross’ (2007)
Three things worth saying about this album: Standout Songs: “Genesis”, “D.A.N.C.E.”, “Phantom Pt. II” LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
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Limp Bizkit ‘Significant Other’ (1999)
Limp Bizkit may be the band that best represents the culmination of the 90’s hard rock excess, the proverbial “jumping of the shark” moment for guitar-driven music that went too far and eventually pushed mainstream listeners into the arms of pop and hip hop, elevating those genres to achieve commercial domination. That’s a helluva legacy…
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Punk Goes… ‘Pop Volume 4’ (2011)
The “Punk Goes…” series has been a mainstay in punk rock since the early 2000’s and to this day I remember how impactful it was for me when I was 16 years old. I graduated HS in the class of 2006, and while original music absolutely appealed to me, hearing a punk band play a…
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Taylor McCall ‘Black Powder Soul’ (2021)
Black Powder Soul by Taylor McCall sounds like if Dustin Kensrue from Thrice and The Black Keys got together to write an outlaw country record. In other words, it sounds pretty fucking awesome. This has all the elements that check the box for what I love about outlaw country music. Acoustic guitars in minor keys,…
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Billy Idol ‘Rebel Yell’ (1983)
There’s nothing like Billy Idol’s vocals on Rebel Yell‘s title track. It’s what got me into Idol in the first place. It’s a perfect new wave punk song. Idol’s manic and uncontrolled primal energy, the undeniably hooky guitar lead line, how the overdriven guitars punch through in the chorus, the absolute shredfest of a solo.…
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Drake ‘Scorpion’ (2018)
There’s been no larger mainstream figure in hip-hop over the past decade than Drake. He almost singlehandedly dominated the commercial charts in the 2010’s, appealing to hardcore hip-hop fans, grandmothers, and everyone else in between. Time will tell how well Drake’s prolific output ages in the coming decades compared to some of his contemporaries (see:…
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Marcus King ‘El Dorado’ (2020)
Marcus King is only 27 years old but has already established himself as one of the finest guitar players of this generation. King reminds me a lot of some of my favorite guitarists from the 60’s and 70’s, like Duane Allman and Merle Haggard, guys who can rip with the best of them but also…
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Manchester Orchestra ‘A Black Mile To The Surface’ (2017)
Initially a part of the mainstream emo/alternative rock wave in the early 2000’s with bands like Brand New and Taking Back Sunday, Manchester Orchestra has hung around long enough (and been bold enough) to take on more evolved sonic stylings as their career has progressed. A Black Mile To The Surface effectively sounds like the…
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The Mighty Mighty Bosstones ‘Let’s Face It’ (1997)
When I first heard Let’s Face It I was 9 years old, living in a two-bed two-bath apartment with my brother and parents. For my birthday that year I received the first three albums I would ever own. Those albums were the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Let’s Face It, Third Eye Blind’s self-titled debut Third Eye…
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Smokey Robinson and the Miracles ‘Going to a Go-Go’ (1965)
Going to a Go-Go is The Miracles and Smokey Robinson’s masterpiece, a perfect encapsulation of the Motown sound and the only record from The Miracles that cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard charts. Their history is complicated, but here’s the headline– the band is one of the most influential R&B and soul groups of…
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Steppenwolf ‘Steppenwolf’ (1968)
Steppenwolf is one of those bands you rarely hear discussed as a major player in rock history, but man does it feel like they’re everywhere in modern roock. The psychedelic rock, fuzzy distorted guitars, and rollicking percussion section in their self-titled debut just screams 2000’s garage rock revival and probably played a larger role in…
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The Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’ (1966)
Initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial reception after it’s 1966 release, Pet Sounds had a resurgence in the mid-90’s and is now regarded as one of the most critically acclaimed and respected albums of all-time. There isn’t a serious list of all-time albums where Pet Sounds doesn’t occupy the top spot or somewhere…
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Devin Morrison ‘Dream Lobby Vol. IV’ (2022)
Dream Lobby Vol. IV is an album well-suited for hold music around something exciting (think less customer tech support, more booking a travel agency) or elevator music in the lobby at a Las Vegas casino. I’ve actually started leveraging Devin Morrison’s albums as a soundtrack for work when I’m building Powerpoint decks for an upcoming…
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Polyphia ‘Remember That You Will Die’ (2022)
Polyphia is one of the (if not the) most popular instrumental prog-rock bands operating today and their 2022 album Remember That You Will Die underscores just why– it’s filled with hooks aplenty and simply virtuosic instrumental performances. Guitarists Tim Henson and Scott LePage absolutely shred throughout the entirety of this 39-minute affair, taking their metal…
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Jerry Reed ‘East Bound and Down’ (1977)
Jerry Reed is the kind of guitarist that you listen to for the first time and it either inspires you to further dedicate yourself to the craft or causes you to give it all up and pivot your hobby to knitting quilts. The man is that good. Reed is a fingerstyle guitar player which is…
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49th & Main ‘Must Be Nice’ (2022)
If you’re looking for hooks, 49th & Main’s Must Be Nice is a convenient one-stop shop. Blending indie, disco, house, and 80’s soft rock has been done once over but there’s something especially catchy about the Irish duo’s approach. It’s been a week since I first went through this album and I don’t think there…
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The Hives ‘Veni Vidi Vicious’ (2000)
The garage rock revival in the 2000’s was a glorious time in music history and no band better captured that unhinged energy for high school me than The Hives. I remember popping this CD into my navy blue Walkman one day and literally playing this album over and over and over again everywhere I went—…
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Parliament ‘Mothership Connection’ (1975)
Welcome to the funk. With a loose and fun as hell mythology surrounding interstellar travel, spaceships, Thumpasorus people, and the ever-healing powers of the funk, 1975’s Mothership Connection is a concept album whose sole concept is to get your butt out of your seat and dance. I can sign up for that. I was first…
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Bruce Hornsby and The Range ‘The Way It Is’ (1986)
Bruce Hornsby is one of my favorite piano players of all-time. Everything he plays has this undeniable quality of sentimentality. It’s in his melancholic chord choices, his delicate phrasing, and the glistening tone of his piano. It’s perfect. Hearing Hornsby play I always get a feeling of homesick longing. It’s a feeling of missing something…
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Between The Buried And Me ‘Colors’ (2007)
When one of Dream Theater’s co-founders names your album his favorite of the year you know you’ve made it in the prog metal scene. That was the case for Between The Buried and Me and their album Colors when prog-rock legend drummer Mike Portnoy (along with numerous other publications) named this 65-minute eclectic journey the…
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The Bouncing Souls ‘Maniacal Laughter’ (1995)
The Bouncing Souls lead singer Greg Attonito has one of the most recognizable voices in the world of punk rock. On 1995’s Maniacal Laughter Attonito is the star, his vocal approach elevating the relatively straightforward punk arrangements into something more interesting than the sum of their collective parts. This 23-minute ripper, which features only a…
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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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