This will be a running catalog of albums that have been really important or impactful for me, god I love these albums. I didn’t used to be the kind of person to ever listen through a whole record, and some good friends of mine talked me out of that. Thanks, friends.
Here’s a playlist with my favorite tracks on all albums here/that i plan to add:
For the first time – Black Country, New Road (2021)
This album I associate most strongly with my friend Jack, and though I technically introduced him to BC,NR (and I will take credit for that forever), I really grew to love this album with and through him. In a lot of ways I associate it with the trajectory and really tragedy of our first few years knowing each other, and it’s always a cathartic listen. Love you Jack, if you’re reading this.
This is Black Country, New Road’s first full album and is still my favorite to this day. Though they shifted to a more orchestral sound, and have now reorganized greatly after Isaac Wood left the band, this album is a math-infused noise rock masterpiece and is both viscerally, gut-wrenchingly emotive and super technically interesting. This is my single favorite record of all time and probably will be forever I guess.
The first track, Instrumental, introduces some of the sounds and themes that carry through the album, with lots of dissonance, droning refrains, and super interesting use of violin and saxophone instrumentation. I never thought I would catch myself longing for more violin on a noise rock album, yet here I am. I eat that shit up.
Athens, France. To me this song is an extremely dynamic ode to ego and reckoning with the realities of connection and longing. “It’s a great wide gulf between intentions and what ground met me.” “I have learned so little from all I lost in 2018, I think she’s still waiting there for us, somewhere, Underneath what we built to keep the waters clean.” “She’s recently enlightened and for some reason, that fazes me. It won’t give up, too soft to touch and how hard could it really be?” I can not say anything more profound than what this particular song says about itself.
Science fair is my personal favorite. It’s rich with imagery, clashing instrumentation, and evokes a physical reaction from me I can only describe as convulsion. It feels haunted, or possessive, or both. It deals with themes of deception and performance and the swells in the instrumental make you feel like the song’s stripping you naked and not in a sexy way.
Sunglasses was BC,NR’s first single, and I’m really glad they redid it for this album. It fits beautifully and makes me think of youth, strangely impacts me the same way a coming of age novel might. The absolute pinnacle of British engineering indeed.
I don’t know that Track X is really a love song, yet still it wraps me in a warm blanket and also makes me want to ugly cry. It’s simple and perfect.
Finally, Opus. The build on this one is crazy, and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. This song has almost gotten me into a car accident, as it should. “What we built to keep ourselves warm, Burnt your hand and charmed the locals, All those mistakes laid out plainly. Anyone could see that the clamp was breaking me!” It’s a perfect ending to a perfect album, ties everything together with a prickly little bow and I couldn’t ask for more.
I won’t go into this much depth on every song in every album I gush over but for this one, it’s just necessary.
Chamber Music Society – Esperanza Spalding (2010)
This is the first of two Esperanza Spalding albums on this list. This one came after the one that will follow but I discovered this one first. It’s insanely artistic, experimental, and feels like it could be religious. Much of this album’s greatness is just in Esperanza’s natural vocalization, and because she has such a unique style, hearing Little Fly (which is adapted from an English poem and is far better than the original medium) send me down a rabbit hole of researching this woman and lord if she ever wanted me, she could have me.
Esperanza Spalding is from Portland OR, and was regarded as a child prodigy before studying music at Berklee and going on to win 5 Grammys, the first of which was a result of this album. She’s a demon on the upright bass and her vocals are technically flawless but also insanely expressive. When I think of parasocial relationships, I think of Esperanza. I have never even seen an interview of hers, yet I feel like I know her (I most certainly do not). That’s the power of music I guess?
The first track, Little Fly, is still my favorite even after listening to most of her discography. The orchestration is crazy, and the swells give me the chills every time. I’ll also specifically point out Really Very Small for its crazy time signature and resolve that makes my skin crawl (in a good way). There’s a lot of scatting on this album, and she does it in such an almost choral way? In a word, insane.
esperanza – Esperanza Spalding (2008)
I’ve already gushed over Esperanza once, but I must point out that she was 24 when she released this album and as someone who is currently 21, I hope to god I find whatever joy lived in her heart when she recorded I Know You Know. This is one of those songs that can put me in a good mood any day, and when combined with Fall In, this album makes me believe in love. Fall In is one of the most beautiful piano ballads ever and I’d die on that hill.
On the flip side of that, She Got To You is fast paced and angry but still makes me want to dance like an idiot. Precious, which immediately succeeds this track, feels like an internal resolution. Some of these songs are a little camp, but this also came out in 2008 so I’m willing to forgive the “precious divine energy” phrasing. In my head she did it first. I can not say enough positive things about this album, both technically and artistically. I wouldn’t even really consider myself an avid jazz listener but… this album man.
Rat Saw God – Wednesday (2023)
Last weekend I had the opportunity to see Wednesday live at Black Cat in D.C. and it was an earth-shattering experience. I was probably standing there with my mouth hanging open drooling on the floor and I pray nobody saw me trying not to cry during Cody’s Only. I’d prepared for that show by listening exclusively to this new release on repeat, and I think it’s a really rare treat when you’re able to kind of grow up with a band. I first started listening to their first album I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone (which is also great) just after I started college, and their succeeding albums have continued to emotionally demolish me with such personal relevance it’s scary. This is an Asheville NC band so I’m sure there are some cultural parallels with my experiences in Richmond VA, it’s not like we’re telepathically connected (or are we?).
Wednesday simply never misses, and paired with the excellence of MJ Lenderman’s musicality on guitar, they continue to cement themselves as one of my favorite groups of all time. The fusion of country, punk, and noise rock fills a void I didn’t know I had.
Before this whole album dropped, they released Bull Believer, Bath County, and Chosen to Deserve as singles, and the crazy thing is I wasn’t even that excited about them. But when combined with everything else on the album I suddenly felt like I kinda got it. This is one of those records I would listen to from start to finish any day of the week and despite me abusing it in the rotation, it still hasn’t gotten old.
Twin Plagues – Wednesday (2021)
I conveniently left this album out of my previous Wednesday gush because it really deserves its own breakdown. This album is full of bangers, but I’d really like to point out that while I feel like the first album got me on the lyrics and the most recent album’s defining characteristic was the storytelling, this album has that rare quality where the instrumentation alone would be enough to make me lose my damn mind.
The title track is a great example of this. It’s lyrically sparse, but it’s so musically expressive that it doesn’t even need it. Handsome Man keeps this quality but almost feels like a preview of Rat Saw God in its storytelling and lean-in to those southern sensibilities. How Can You Can’t Love How Can You If You Do also pulled me right into that old country sound, which admittedly I’ve previously been quoted as not being a fan of (I’ve changed! I swear!).
Cody’s Only, to me, is the song from this album. It has moved me to tears more than once and it swells like a fucking symphony. The lyrics are honest and poetic but also to-the-point where it counts. “I woke up feeling so bored. I’ve had all of these dreams before. I’ve had the good things and woken up sore; Your warm breath on the mirror.”
One More Last One is also crazy and way underrated.
Am – Ovlov (2013)
The first song I found on this album was Where’s My Dini, and I listened to it on repeat for a while before investigating further, and I’m so glad I did. Ovlov is one of those bands that I can’t really describe why I like their sound so much, it just itches a little spot in the back of my brain. It’s muddy and silly and loud and just makes me happy. There is not one bad song on this album.
Cherry Peel – Of Montreal (1997)
This is one of those albums that I feel has kind of grown with me over the last few years. Like a few albums on this list, this one was introduced to me by my friend Jack, who holds a very special place in my life for a number of reasons, only one of which being our extended period of sharing unethical volumes of music with each other. I don’t even really like any of Of Montreal’s other records, but this one is never too far from my mind.
Despite its chipper folky sound, this album has some of the most brilliant lyrics ever written. This is a case of an artist capturing the essence of joy and love and loss exactly how one might feel those things internally. It’s one of those foot-tapping albums that you feel inside and out. Every track has also had personal ties to my life at one point or another, and listening to it feels like what I imagine it’s like for your whole life to flash before your eyes when you die.
Special accolades to I Can’t Stop Your Memory, When You’re Loved Like You Are, Don’t Ask Me to Explain, In Dreams I Dance With You, and Tim I Wish You Were Born a Girl.
“I can’t gather all the love I need when I need it. I’m not mad I understand that that’s the price. All is forgiven in the end if your heart was in the right place, if you lived an honest life, if you tried.”
Either/Or – Elliot Smith (1997)
I’m almost certain that this album would be on every annoying person’s list if they have one, and I certainly won’t claim to like it for different or novel reasons, but I stand by the idea that some things are popular because they’re just that good. In a way, it gives me hope for humanity that so many people feel so connected to this album. What wonderful eyes to see the world through.
A Song For Every Moon – Bruno Major (2017)
This one I haven’t revisited between High School and now, but it was wildly important to me at the time and I think that’s worth investigating. This is like a lo-fi pop album and I think this guy is the first person I ever saw live by myself when I was 16. The production is clean and gorgeous, and it has heavily influenced my own guitar-playing style.
Terror Twilight – Pavement (1999)
I literally have a tattoo for this album. I love everything about this album.
The first track, Spit on a Stranger is also the first one I was introduced to, and I still maintain it as my favorite. It’s a beautiful song about loss and acceptance and while I find it has some personal relevance, I think it encapsulates some very universal human experiences in a gorgeous way.
You Are a Light is a comfort song for me in a lot of ways (though I don’t know what that says about me) and I couldn’t even really tell you what it’s supposed to be about, but it makes me want to love flawed people and look at the world through kinder eyes.
The Hexx is also great, but I’m mostly mentioning it to point you specifically towards And Then (The Hexx) from an old BBC session, released on the Nicene Creedence Edition of Brighten the Corners. It’s a crazy extension of this track and I listened to it basically on a loop for a month straight last year. Kind of better than the original The Hexx. Overall, this album is largely silly and goofy but also contains some absolutely decimating shit. This is also a strong contender for favorite album of all time, and I feel like I can’t even really articulate why I love it outside of a little pang in my heart and an itch in my brain.
Mind Palace Music – @ (2023)
This one my Spotify recommended to me shortly after its release and I thank the algorithm every day for this revelation. Really it doesn’t have nearly as much traction as it should, and while I feel the selfish urge to gate keep and continue pretending it was made just for me, it demands to be shared, and deserves infinite praise and success.
This post will be added to indefinitely…