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Alice in Chains ‘Dirt’ (1992)
Alice in Chains’ Dirt is a grim and grimey trek through pain and anger, an autobiographical account of lead vocalist Layne Staley’s crippling heroin addiction that eventually killed him a decade after this release at the age of 34 years old. Listening to this record you can’t help but feel a sense of hopelessness and…
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Taylor Swift ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ (2021)
Paul Simon. Bob Dylan. Prince. Joni Mitchell. Paul McCartney. Bruce Springsteen. Taylor Swift. This collection of names? Some of the best songwriters of all-time. Swift’s 30 track epic Red (Taylor’s Version) underscores that statement with an exclamation point. I’m not usually one for extended releases and double albums as they tend to be filled with…
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Rhye ‘Woman’ (2013)
Rhye burst onto the scene in 2013 and immediately grabbed me with the airy tenderness of vocalist Mike Milosh’s vocals. At the time I was literally completely unaware the singer on Woman was, quite literally, not actually in fact a woman. Whether it was the relative secrecy behind the band at the time or the…
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Black Sabbath ‘Paranoid’ (1970)
Black Sabbath is the most important heavy metal band of all time, hard stop. It’s impossible to overstate just what they did for the genre. The fact a record as heavy as Paranoid came out in 1970 is sort of shocking. You almost don’t blame the parents of yesteryear for losing their shit over kids…
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The Clash ‘London Calling’ (1979)
There are three bands that stand alone in the Holy Trinity of punk rock. Those bands are the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and The Clash. All three have combined to inspired literally hundred of thousands of kids to pick up guitars, start their own bands, and express themselves musically. All three have had a massive…
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Whitney Houston ‘Whitney Houston’ (1985)
As I’ve mentioned before there are only two singers in the GOAT conversation for me– Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston. They are two different types of singers (you can read our recap of Aretha’s 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black to understand why her soulful delivery is so damn special) but from a technical perspective…
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Old Dominion ‘Happy Endings’ (2017)
Good country music has a tight narrative structure that tells a compelling story with a satisfying conclusion. Great country music has a tight narrative structure that tells a compelling story with a satisfying conclusion, but (and this is important) at some point the song introduces a pattern interrupt along the way. This is the bucket…
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Nathaniel Rateliff ‘And It’s Still Alright’ (2020)
Nathaniel Rateliff is one of my favorite contemporary singers. His voice has a real richness on the low end and when he decides too really let loose the power he delivers almost sounds unhinged. I also love his weird articulation of certain words– I don’t know this for sure, but I’m pretty sure Rateliff purposefully…
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Ramones ‘Ramones’ (1976)
Largely considered the first punk rock group in history, the Ramones had it all– black shirts, leather jackets, ripped jeans, and a cool backstory where each member adopted the “Ramone” surname as a pseudonym. Their 1976 self-title debut was the very definition of New York cool. It was loud and fast as hell. Unlike their…
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The Prodigy ‘The Fat of the Land’ (1997)
I remember walking into Tower Records as a kid during the late 90’s, seeing this album on the shelf, and thinking it was the coolest damn album cover I’d ever seen. Still feel that way. Much like the epic imagery of The Bronx’s 2003 debut, Prodigy’s pissed-off crab tells you all you need to know…
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Sex Pistols ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ (1977)
There is a primal energy that permeates every second of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Raw. Visceral. Impossible to deny. Formed during a period of high unemployment and working class discontent that pervaded the U.K. in the mid-70’s, the Sex Pistols were a punk rock bomb that blew up in in the…
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Oasis ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ (1995)
The 1995 release of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? transformed Oasis from a popular band in the UK into a literal worldwide phenomenon. Their ascent to superstardom checked all the boxes– punk rock attitude, Beatles-esque melodies, and a lead singer with a distinctly British accent that harkened back to the golden-age of rock. All of…
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Tracy Chapman ‘Tracy Chapman’ (1988)
Tracy Chapman began 1987 busking on the streets of Boston. She ended 1989 with three Grammy wins, a multi-platinum record, and over one million records sold in the first two weeks of this album’s release. It’s an incredible story, and one that set the stage for the singer-songwriter revolution that swarmed the United States during…
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alt-J ‘An Awesome Wave’ (2012)
I was fresh out of college and into the working world when An Awesome Wave came out in 2012 and can still vividly remember this album encapsulating my feelings at the time– wistful nostalgia for friends left behind and the hope of what life had in store. Listening ten years later, there’s still something about…
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Michael Bolton ‘Time, Love & Tenderness’ (1991)
It’s not necessarily en vogue to love the music of Michael Bolton but I seriously can’t get enough of the guy. Every other vocal line he delivers is completely over the top and it’s absolutely great. The dude has tone for days and a gritty high end to his voice that makes every song he…
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Electric Light Orchestra ‘Out of the Blue’ (1977)
When Electric Light Orchestra first formed in 1970 they stated the mission of the band was to “pick up where The Beatles left off with ‘I Am The Walrus’”. That’s an incredibly ambitious statement for more reasons than one, but it’s safe to say ELO pretty much nailed what they said they were gonna do.…
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Pat Green ‘Wave on Wave’ (2003)
It’s been nearly 20 years since I’ve listened to Pat Green (as an old friend recently reminded me, Green was the soundtrack to many late nights of debauchery during high school), which meant that during the album listen I was stuck somewhere in between the present tense and the past, filled with nostalgia for country…
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Count Basie ‘The Atomic Mr. Basie’ (1958)
This was the first time I’ve ever knowingly listened to Count Bassie, who was an incredibly influential jazz musician in the 40’s and 50’s. The Atomic Mr. Bassie is considered one of the best albums of his career (keep in mind Basie’s career apex occurred before the business of recording music professionally really took off)…
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The Ataris ‘Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits’ (1999)
In 8th grade The Ataris were my favorite band. No band was even close. They had a mainstream breakthrough moment with 2003’s So Long Astoria based off their cover of Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer”, but Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits will always and forever be my favorite record by them. It is…
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Little Richard ‘Here’s Little Richard’ (1957)
It’s been nearly 70 years since the release of Little Richard’s 1957 debut, and it’s easy in retrospect to sort of haphazardly lump this album into the category of a “classic example of American rhythm and blues”. It’s the “sound” you hear in your head when you think of the genre, especially after so much…
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Traffic ‘Traffic’ (1968)
The 1960’s were a wild time in music history. Take Traffic for example– in three short years from 1967 to 1970 founding member Dave Mason recorded the band’s first album Mr. Fantasy, subsequently left the group, decided to re-join in the middle of the recording this album, and then abruptly left the band for good…
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The Cure ‘Disintegration’ (1989)
Epic. Grandiose. Expansive. Just a handful of words to describe The Cure’s 1989 magnum opus Disintegration. This was the album that returned The Cure to their goth-rock roots, and what a gloriously incredible return it was. One of my favorite albums this year. Lead songwriter and vocalist Robert Smith is a musical and cultural icon,…
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Love ‘Forever Changes’ (1967)
Love’s 1967 album Forever Changes is a cult favorite for good reason. Disillusioned with the ignorance of the 60’s Flower Power era, Love penned a poignant criticism of the excess it saw eroding the counterculture movement at the time. This album (correctly) predicted the unrest that would soon follow in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and…
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Iron Chic ‘Not Like This’ (2010)
Some bands are so earnest and straight from the heart it makes it impossible not to pay attention to them. Iron Chic is that kind of band. Not Like This is that kind of album. Punk music does “earnesty” better than any other genre. I think that stems from the low barrier of entry, which…
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The Stone Roses ‘The Stone Roses’ (1989)
Despite their short lifespan that featured only two full album releases. The Stone Roses influenced an entire generation of Britpop artists. Their self-titled debut was not only their most commercially successful, but is also regarded as one of the greatest albums of all-time for people who get paid to write about this sort of thing.…
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The Darkness ‘Permission to Land’ (2003)
All The Darkness do is write bangers. This is one of my favorite hard rock albums of all-time for the simple reason that it is fun as hell and has no interest in pretending to be anything otherwise. Modern rock music in general has the unfortunate malaise of sometimes being a little too self-important, and…
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The xx ‘xx’ (2009)
The xx are almost as much as an aesthetic as they are a music group. Featuring guitars drenched in reverby delay, light electronic drum machines, subtle ambient synths, and thick bass lines that pulsate underneath it all, their minimalism is just as important as their message. Frankly it’s safe to say it’s more so. Softly…
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Creedence Clearwater Revival ‘Green River’ (1969)
One of the hallmarks of a great and enduring band is their signature sound. It’s that sound you immediately recognize and know who it is when the first note hits and the entire band hops in. It’s the punchy distortion of AC/DC’s guitars, the G-Funk synthesizers of Dr. Dre, and the dual guitar harmonies of…
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Solange ‘A Seat at the Table’ (2016)
Solange’s A Seat at the Table is a terrific album. Much like Thursday’s War All The Time, this is an album meant to be experienced from front to back, an art piece that is more than the sum of its parts. Throughout A Seat at the Table Solange invites us into her home to discuss…
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Thursday ‘War All The Time’ (2003)
Compared to their mid-2000’s emo contemporaries, Thursday always felt mature beyond their years. Their subject matter wasn’t about shallow yearnings of lost love or feelings of victimhood that sort of defined the genre as a whole. They focused their energy toward discussing the horrors of war, frustrations of the working class, complexities in relationships, and…
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Get Back Loretta ‘Over The Wall’ (2006)
Get Back Loretta is a deep cut. I can’t recall the first time I heard this album, who introduced it to me, or even the timespan in which I listened to it. Their Wikipedia and social media pages are quite bare. Best I can tell it looks like they were active in San Diego during…
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Peter Gabriel ‘So’ (1986)
So is a dichotomy. On one hand it is a pop record with massive hooks. On the other hand, it is a nuanced prog-pop album that features sonic choices that challenge the listener to re-imagine what a song could be. I’m not sure if there’s been album that has walked the tightrope between artistic integrity…
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The Flamingos ‘Flamingo Serenade’ (1959)
Doo-wop music always makes me incredibly nostalgic for my grandparents. There’s a charming simplicity in the a capella approach, 4-5 voices sung over a sparse arrangement of drums, guitar, bass and orchestral strings all laying a foundation for the vocals to take center stage. The Flamingos were one of the preeminent leaders in doo-wop, their…
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Cassino ‘Sounds of Salvation’ (2007)
Cassino’s lead singer Nick Torres is one of my favorite lyricists of all-time, both from his stint in pop-punk band Northstar and his subsequent folk rock project Cassino. Torres and childhood friend Tyler Odom actually formed Cassino after Northstar broke up in the mid-2000’s, putting down their overdriven guitars for a subtler indie/folk sound. And…
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Bruno Mars ’24K Magic’ (2016)
If this album doesn’t make you want to get up out of your seat, throw your hands in the air, and bust out dancing you’ve lost an appreciation for things that make life worth living. I’m serious. If you don’t smile at least once while listening to the album we can’t be friends. 24K Magic…
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He Is Legend ‘I Am Hollywood’ (2004)
I remember seeing He Is Legend live with From First To Last shortly after this album was released and being absolutely floored by the energy they brought to their live show. I’ve always been a sucker for southern rock metal and all the epic guitar-driven lead parts that come along with that genre, and this…
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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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