365 Albums in 365 Days
I had a realization driving to Baltimore this weekend. I miss albums. Like, I reallllly miss albums. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good playlist as much as the next millennial, but I remember listening to vinyl with my dad and great grandfather end to end, or buying tapes and CDs are playing them through until they wouldn’t play anymore.
It’s also getting close to the end of the year…and you know what that means. We’ll all “commit” to resolutions rooted in “self-improvement” that will be abandoned by february. (Because late stage capitalism is hard enough as it is, and we 1000% do not need more on our plates.)
But, what if our new year commitments to ourselves were purely for enjoyment, or what if we didn’t make a new year goal at all? So, this year, I’m doing something a little different. My commitment to myself is to listen to an album a day, everyday for 2023. Some of them I love, some I’ve never heard (but have come highly recommended). The point is to enjoy an album, in its completeness, every single day of the year. Below is the full list of what I’ll be listening to, in no particular order. I’m just gonna choose what “sings” to me (pun intended) each day.
This will be a “living” blog of sorts. Every day in 2023, I’ll go in and add the date I listened as well as any thoughts I had.
(Late 2022 Listens - bc I got a head start)
Balance and Composure - the things we think we’re missing
Listened: 12/20/2022, thoughts: This album is one of my faves to put on in the background when I’m drawing on my ipad. It has a great flow. Whoever arranged the track order gets an A++
Burna Boy - Twice as tall
Listened 12/20/2022, thoughts: It reminds me of a lot of the hip hop that was popular in the UK when I was there in 2014-2015, sort of a south African vibe to some of the Tracks. It made great background music for the shop.
La Dispute - SOmewhere at the bottom of the river between vega and altair
Listened 12/21/2022, Thoughts: I’m always a sucker for this kind of Takling/screaming over music a la early mewithoutyou. It won’t be for everyone, but I sure like it. Reminds me of being in college.
2023 Albums to listen to….
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Listened 2/1 - This record has always given me the warm fuzzies. My great grandfather listened to it a lot, and I should probably listen to it more.
Nirvana - Nevermind
Listened 1/25 - The album is iconic, but if I’m being honest, it’s kind of halfway there for me. I love Nirvana, and Kurt Cobain and I have some similar Pisces placements in our charts, so lots of his work really resonates with me. But this album really only shines in the songs that are already popular. If I had to recommend a Nirvana album to someone, it would always be the unplugged album over this one.
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
Listened 1/1 - I figure I had to start 2023 with this one. It’s consistently listed everywhere as one of the greatest albums of all time. For me, it’s a mixed bag. It has some of the absolute best and absolute worst fleetwood songs. It feels like high highs and low lows. I think the album really shines in the songs that feel heavy like ‘Oh Daddy’, ‘The Chain’ (My FAVE Fleetwood song!), and ‘Gold Dust Woman.’ But, if I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never really been here for “happy” fleetwood. Like, I despise the song ‘Go Your Own Way.’ The lore behind the album is that it was a clusterfuck of cocaine use, hookups, and breakups within the band while the album was being written/recorded. So, I guess in my mind, the heavier songs feel more honest to the real life experience the band describes while making the album. I guess it all comes down to personal preference.
Bob Dylan - Blood on the tracks
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Listened 2/2 - This album is impeccably put together. It bounces from hip hop to R&B to Soul and covers subject matter that actually matters with no filler.
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited
Radiohead - Kid A
Listened 2/3 - Ok, I LOVED this album in high school/college, and I still do. IMO - this is Radiohead's best work. But also, I hate to say that it's not as good as I remember it. Still a solid album.
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
Carole King - Tapestry
Patti Smith - Horses
Wu-Tang Clan - ENter The Wu-Tang Clan
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?
Listened 1/15: This is one of those albums that you can’t die without hearing. The sheer number of hits that are still referenced and in regular radio rotation on classic rock stations today is astounding. This is on of those albums that’s absolutely a piece of rock history. I do find it interesting that ‘Hey Joe’ is my fave track on the album, and it’s actually a cover of an old blues song. But, there’s no denying Jimi’s guitar skills - period.
Beyonce - Lemonade
Listened - 2/4 - When this visual album dropped, it was incredible. However, I don't think the album is as strong without the visuals. Her self-titled album is a 5/5, without question. This one is good, but not my fave of her body of work.
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Listened 1/24 - Ok - so this album is a masterpiece, and something I’m learning about myself is that I have a preference for Virgo artists. Nearly all of my faves are Virgos. I think it has to do with their ability to edit. The feedback I find myself thinking with each one is, “wow - every track is so good and needed.” Amy was a force, you could FEEL her Virgo devotion in every track, and her voice - PLEASE! Incredible. I’m also a sucker for a 60’s sound. So, this album was in heavy rotation for me in the early 2000s, and it holds up just as well today. A classic sound is a classic sound.
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
Radiohead - Ok Computer
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low end theory
Listened 1/4: this album will forever be a classic. The jazz, the rap…it’s an entire vibe. Tribe has always been one of those groups that you can just throw on any album and know it’s gonna be great end to end. This album, in particular, feels more minimal than some of their later albums. It’s very less is more, and it’s basically the perfect music to have on in the background of a bbq or summer gathering.
Nas - Illmatic
Outkast - Aquemeni
Listened 1/10: Do you ever play the “If you could only listen to one artist from each genre forever, who would it be?” game? My partner and I do, and Outkast is ALWAYS my answer for rap/hiphop. They are, hands down, my favorite, and Aquemini is my fave album. It’s honestly a toss up between this and ATLiens, but Aquemini and Slump are my two favorite Outkast songs, and they’re both on this album. I listened to this walking home from work last night, and man….it brings up memories. I lived in Georgia from 2001-2008, and hearing rosa parks takes me back to hanging out with high school friends in shitty cars on dirt roads in rural south Ga. The album just sounds like the south, and their earlier albums haven’t aged one bit. listening now, they’re just as good as they were then. I also love the interludes between nearly each track that are so quintessentially outkast - a little weird, a little fun, but always clever and Southern.
Jay-z - The Blueprint
James Brown - Star time
Outkast - Stankonia
James Brown - Live at the Apollo
Listened 1/21: Ok so - fun fact about me - I LOVE funk/soul, an this album is an essential. Brown’s voice, the band - everything is perfect. I gotta get this one on vinyl. This has got to be one of the best live albums of all time.
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Listened 1/23: Ok - so I know ‘Running Up That Hill’ had a moment with Stranger Things back in 2022, but that isn’t even the best track on this album. The entire album is so powerful - lyrically, vocally, instrumentally. It’s like listening to an intense storm of melancholia that’s also simultaneously soft. I gotta snag this one on vinyl for my collection.
Alanis Morrisette - Jagged Little Pill
Listened 1/7: This album is in my top 5 of all time for sure. Sometimes it blows my mind to think that Alanis wrote and recorded this entire album at 19. It remains so incredibly relevant to where I was as a 19 year old and where I am now in my mid-late 30’s. It’s timeless. There is not a single wasted track on the album. Everything that’s there is needed and necessary. The sheer amount of chart toppers on this album is a feat in and of itself, but weirdly…the standout tracks are the ones that didn’t get radio play - Perfect, forgiven, Mary Jane, and Not the Doctor. Relistening to this, I think I realized just how unique Alanis’ vocals are too. She’s like the perfect cross between the grit/imperfection of singers like PJ Harvey or Kathleen Hanna, but with the actual pipes and polish of power vocalists like Celine Dion. I don’t know that any other singer straddles that line in quite the same way. I was also shocked to learn that every track on this album was produced in fewer than 2 takes because Alanis didn’t want the tracks to sound “overworked.” She was somehow of her time and ahead of her time simultaneously.
N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Listened 1/5: Without a doubt, this is one of the most influential albums of the 90s. Words that come to mind are “liquid” or “Dreamy.” What’s so interesting about this album is how effortlessly timeless it is. If I played this for someone and told them it was made in 1991, 2000, 2016, or 2023…it would all be plausible.
Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
Listened 1/22: So, I’ve never actually seen the movie ‘Superfly,’ but this soundtrack is pure gold. I didn’t realize how many songs I knew from this album! I was working on some artwork for a project while I listened to it, and it’s great vibey background music that isn’t too distracting. I really enjoyed it.
Frank Ocean - Blonde
Beyonce - Beyonce
The Doors - The Doors
Listened 2/5 - The songs are undeniably catchy classics, but Jim Morrison was a tool, and the music does lack a certain amount of depth.
Erykah Badu - Baduizm
Listened 1/14: Okay this album is 11/10. Brilliant lyrics, chill R&B/Jazz beats, existentialism…sign me up. I bought this one in 1997-1998 on CD, and I remember playing this out until the CD was so beat up it barely played, and it still holds up. I get major Sag/Aquarius/Pisces vibes from the album, so you know I had to look up her birth chart. she’s a sag rising/jupiter/mars, an aquarius north node and mercury, and a pisces sun and moon. If astrology is fake, why is it so real? This one is well worth a re-listen all the way through, and it would be another good one to have on vinyl because it flows so seamlessly, end to end.
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
Missy Elliot - Supa Dupa Fly
De la soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Hole - Live Through This
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn
Listened 1/17: This has to be in my top 3 favorite albums of all time. It’s definitely one of the albums I’ve listened to the most over the years. It' was a masterpiece then, and it’s a masterpiece now. I never get sick of listening to it. What can I say? Fiona Apple might just be one of the best songwriters of all time. And her Virgo ability to edit…unparalleled. Every song is perfect and necessary. It’s never too much or too little. Favorite Tracks include: “Paper Bag", “Fast as you Can,” and “I Know.”
Janet Jackson - Control
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Listened 1/26: Morrissey is an asshole, but this album is just too good. If you’re a sad kid, you can’t sleep on this one.
The Strokes - Is This It
Kendrick Lamaar - Good Kid M.A.A.D. City
Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral
Portishead - Dummy
Listened 2/7 - I cannot tell you the number of times I have listened to this album end to end. This would be one of my "stuck on a deserted island" picks. If you're into trip hop, this is an absolute masterpiece of the genre.
Fugees - The Score
Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
Listened 2/6 - This album goes heavy on the 80's Madonna, which is great. But I'm more of a 90's Madonna gal, myself. Still, you can't deny the body of work. The songs are still some of the creme de la creme of pop music - even today.
Pixies - Doolittle
Listened 1/9: I hate reading critic reviews for this album that talk about how “pop and mainstream” it is. Something doesn’t need to be “underground” to be good. Straight up - this is my fave pixies album with my 3 fave pixies song on it (Hey, Debaser, and Here comes your man). It’s a weird and fun album that’s been in heavy rotation for me for years now. Not everything has to be dark. Some things should be fun, and this album is that.
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Pretenders - Pretenders
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Listened 1/6: So, I’m going to preface this by saying that I love PJ Harvey, and that I knew I wasn’t going to love every album when I went into this. I do not understand why critics love this album so much. it’s not PJ’s best work. The lyrics are great, but the drums/music are much louder than the actual vocals, so I find the whole album just triggers my sensory stuff (which is just a personal thing). Also, I find it to be much sloppier than a lot of her other work. And the weird thing is….that works for Kathleen Hanna in early Bikini Kill, but not here. You can tell this was heavily produced in a studio. It doesn’t have the earnest DIY charm of early Bikini Kill. It sounds...manufactured to be DIY - which doesn’t work. I had never listened to this whole album…and I think I know why now. ‘To Bring you my love’ will always be my #1 PJ Harvey album. Sometimes the critics are wrong…or I’m just not “cultured” enough to “get it”…either way…this one wasn’t for me.
Jay-Z- The Black Album
Oasis - (What’s the story) Morning Glory?
Listened 1/13: OK, so if you’re into Britpop - you already know that “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory” is one of the most influential albums in the genre. For me this album is 30% greatness, and 70% a Bad Beatles knock off - especially coupled with Liam and Noel Gallagher’s ever-present dramatics…it’s like, “Omg, Get over yourselves.” But - there is a part of me that will always love ‘Wonderwall,’ ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger,’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’ regardless of how “cringe” it is, and I think that’s where my love for the band ends. Wonderwall always reminds me of that college party where a mediocre white dude thinks everyone wants to hear him badly play his acoustic guitar. People are trying to talk and enjoy themselves, and he’s like, “anyway, here’s Wonderwall…”
Erykah Badu - Mama’s Gun
Depeche Mode - Violator
Listened 2/8 - Dancey goth music for sad humans. I have always and will always love this album. I need to just go ahead and scoop this one up on vinyl.
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Listened 1/27: I’m just gonna say the thing. I hate Sonic Youth. I love Kim Gordon and all of her side projects, but I HATE Sonic Youth. Maybe I’m just not “deep” enough to “get it.” But every track just sounds like dial up internet to me. People are always naming them as one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and I’m just like, “it sounds like my garbage disposal in the most literal way I can possibly mean that.” Hard pass for me.
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Water
Nirvana - In utero
Kendrick Lamar - Damn.
Listened 2/9 - This album is a masterpiece. Kendrick Lamar is one of the best rappers alive. He's up there with Killer Mike for me. This entire album just flows, and it covers real deal subject matter. It's like a perfect time capsule/portrait of 2017.
Otis Redding - Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul
Sleater-Kinney - Dig me out
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys
The B-52’s - The B-52’s
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Sade - Diamond Life
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
Listened 2/10 - So, if you can't tell by now...I LOVE A Tribe Called Quest - what's not to love? Hip Hop and Jazz perfectly blended. It creates all the vibes. They are my go to for albums to put on for a hang, and this is their best album.
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman
Listened 2/11 - I'm a sucker for this late 60's/early 70's sad folky/pop sound. You will never convince me that Cat Stevens wasn't the precursor to Father John Misty.
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Listened 1/8: Ok so this album is a little more than famous among sad kids the world over, and I’m no exception here. It is THE quintessential post-punk/gothic rock album. I don’t think Ian Curtis knew how good he really was. Like, The Smiths are good, but let’s be real…Morrissey is an asshole, and sometimes (as much as I like it) their music can be a bit up itself. Joy Division is like if The Smith’s were as good as they actually could be. It’s like a private, intimate look inside the depressed brain. The album was released in 1979 right at the beginning of the post punk era - they kind of kicked the thing off. So when you’re listening to bands like The Smith’s or The Cure or even Interpol, you’re listening to the ripple of what Joy Division put out into the world…and it’s really incredible. Joy Divsion spawned some of my favorite music of all time, and the sad part is…Ian Curtis didn’t even live long enough to see what he was the start of.
(Seriously though - listen to any Interpol song and then listen to Joy Division and tell me you can’t hear it….it’s uncanny.)
Fiona Apple - The Idler wheel
Listened 2/12 - Ok, I am a HUGE Fiona Apple fan, but I didn't love this album when it first came out. It took some time to grow on me. It's still not my fave, but The song 'Valentine'...oof. Right in the feels.
Elliott smith - Either/Or
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
TLC - Crazysexycool
Listened 1/18: Ok - so this album has zero duds on it. Seriously. And there are some early introductions to arists that would go on to be HUGE! (Yes - that IS Andre 3000 you hear in the intro to ‘Sumthin’ Wicked This Way Comes’!) This album just transports me right back to middle school. Someone get me a Fruitopia and some 3D Doritos, stat!
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Patsy Cline - The Ultimate Collection
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Daft Punk - Discovery
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Sade - Love Deluxe
Elton John - Honky Chateau
Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colors
Janis Joplin - Pearl
Listened 2/14 - Cry Baby, Mercedes Benz, Bobby McGee...what isn't to love??? I used to sing old Janis Joplin songs with my great grandfather when he watched me. There was no way this wasn't getting 5/5.
The Slits - Cut
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
Radiohead - The Bends
Nirvana - MTV Unpulgged in New york
Listened 1/12: SO, I think we all agree that Nirvana is one of the most influential bands in all of rock/grunge - but this album solidifies it. It’s messy and magical and I love all of the covers that they tackled. If you’re a vinyl person - this is one to get on vinyl. The experience of listening to the uninterrupted show (including the verbal interludes) all the way through is part of what makes it so special.
Donna Summer - Bad Girls
Destiny’s Child - The Writing’s On the Wall
The Breeders - Last Splash
Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)
Bill Withers - Just as I am
Al Green - I’m Still in Love With You
Joy Division - Closer
Listened 2/13 - It's no Unknown Pleasures, but it's certainly a solid Joy Division album. If you're into sad 80's things, it's an album you've got hear at least once.
Solange - A Seat at the Table
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
Aaliyah - One in a Million
Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope
Lana Del Ray - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Madonna - Like a Prayer
Bill Withers - Still Bill
The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Arctic Monkeys - AM
The Cars - The Cars
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Sonic Youth - Goo
My CHemical Romance - The Black Parade
Luther Vandross - Never Too Much
Mobb Deep - The Infamous
Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Listened 1/2: This album dropped my freshman year of college, and I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s such a great listen end to end. But standouts are definitely ‘Rich,’ ‘Y Control,’ ‘Date with the night,’ and ‘Poor Man.’ This album somehow evades being nailed down to one genre (there’s touches of new wave, art rock, and post punk), but it remains super cohesive. This one will never get old to me. Play it at my funeral, k?
Tame Impala - Currents
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Aretha Franklin - Young, Gifted, and Black
Pixies - Surfer Rose
Diana Ross - Diana
The Raincoats - The Raincoats
Blondie - Blondie
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Dire Straits - Brother in Arms
M.I.A. - Arular
Beck - Odelay
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of the Silver
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
2Pac - All Eyez On Me
Blur - Parklife
Loretta Lynn - Coal Miner’s Daughter
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
The White Stripes - Elephant
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
Sinead O’Connor - I Don’t Want What I Haven’t Got
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The Isley Brothers - 3+3
SZA - CTRL
Belle and Sebastian - If You’re Feeling Sinister
Aracade Fire - Funeral
Everclear - So Much For The Afterglow
Listened 2/15 - Lots of 90s alt rock reviewers highly rank this album. There are a couple of standout tracks, but the second half of the tracks are just weaker, and not super memorable.
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Listened 1/11: This is my fave Decemberists album. It’s a full rock opera/concept album about everything from a widowed rake to a witchy shapeshifter forest queen. I don’t love every track on this album, but the ones I love I reallllly love. Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond joined the project as the forest witch queen, and every track she’s on is pure gold. Her tracks explore mamma drama in a totally fresh way - it’s a controlling narc mom tale as old as time…but, done in a totally new and creative way. I will always love the Decemberists. I think I lose my millennial card otherwise. But, I mean…who doesn’t love a songwriter with a serious love for vocabulary. How often do you really get to hear the word “penitant” in a modern song? Or a super upbeat folk song about some seriously dark subject matter? (I’m not gonna give away the twist in ‘The Rake’s Song’.) The Decemberists are the ultimate storytellers. Favorite tracks include: ‘The Wanting comes in waves/repaid,’ ‘The Rake’s Song,’ ‘The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing,’ ‘The Hazards of love 4 (The Drowned).’
The Rapture - Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks
The Roots - Phrenology
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain
Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Big Thief - Two Hands
The Shins - Chutes too Narrow
Listened 2/16 - This album hasn't aged a day. Pink Bullets will get me every single time. This was in constant rotation in my college days, and I still love it. It 1000% holds up.
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
Beck - Mellow Gold
Jewel - Pieces of You
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Listened 1/25: I read a billboard article years ago that described this album as “atmospheric rock for adults who are comfortable with being adults,” and I think that’s maybe the most accurate description of The National I’ve ever heard. It’s not too loud. It’s not too quiet. It’s evenly paced. Matt Berninger’s lyrics and tone manage to capture the quiet mundane existential dread of adulthood - that feeling of taking your SSRI with coffee and realizing that you may never get truly excited about anything ever again, but also - that’s kind of ok? This is an album that will forever be in heavy rotation for me. It’s one of my fave things to listen to stoned. Standout tracks: “Humiliation," “Pink Rabbits,” and “Graceless.”
The National - Cherry Tree Volume IV.
Murder By Death - The Other Shore
Murder By Death - Red of Tooth and Claw
Listened 1/28: This is a perfect album. Dark and sinister storytelling that feels like it's set in the old-timey West or Appalachia...and above all...it just sounds so damn good.
Murder By Death - In Bocca Al Lupo
Fiona Apple - Tidal
Listened 2/17 - My fave Fiona album is When the Pawn, but this one is a close second. Every song is incredible. Every song holds up with time. I cannot fathom writing and recording something this incredible at 19, but she did it.
Nada Surf - High/Low
Tricky - MaxinQuaye
The Streets - Original Pirate Material
The Killers - Hot Fuss
Listened 2/18 - Is there a single human alive that can resist the urge to sing along with 'Jenny was a Friend of Mine'? This whole album embodies the early 2000s. It just makes me think of old episodes of Skins and the trauma of low rise jeans in the best possible way.
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Listened 1/3: This album came out around 2015. it was good then, but it hits differently now. The Entire album has an incredible sense of cohesiveness in both style and subject matter. Courtney is a Scorpio (as she lets us all know in the bridge of ‘Pedestrian at best’), and she has a photographic eye for detail. The entire album explores the expectations and disappoinment that are the hallmarks of the millennial experience, especially while transitioning into adulthood in world pillaged by capitalism. And she does this through a uniquely mundane filter. She describes the ceiling and wall stains in her modest apartment in excruciating detail and talks about about getting a percolator to save $23 a week not buying coffee at the local coffee shop….all to try and buy a home she can’t afford. She’s so good at describing the lived experience of being a working class millennial and the gaslighting we experience around problems we didn’t create but are forced to live in. It’s so brutally honest. I once had a creative writing teacher who taught me that good writing is about showing, not telling. Barnett is a master at this.
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Soccer Mommy - Color Theory
The Strokes - The New Abnormal
Mac Miller - Circles
Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
PUP - PUP
Listened 1/29: This is just straight up fun punk music. I know these dudes are from Canada, but it feels so New Jersey to me. All of their albums are just such a good time.
PUP - The Dream is Over
Sally Ford and the Sound Outside - Untamed Beast
Veruca Salt - Eight Arms to Hold You
Letters to cleo - Aurora Gory Alice
Bikini Kill - Bikini Kill
Le Tigre - Le Tigre
The Julie Ruin - Run Fast
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
Listened 2/19 - I'm just gonna say the thing - Father John Misty is a fuck boy. You will never change my mind. He's totally that white guy who has a "shaman" (that is also a white guy). But damn does he make some good music...
Alica Keys - Songs in A Minor
Whitney Houston - Whitney
Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey
Father John Misty - Fear Fun
Listened 2/22 - Not every track is great - but the standouts are killer: "Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings," "I'm Writing a Novel," "Nancy From Now On," "This is Salley Hatchet."
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Kills - Ash & Ice
The Dead Weather - Horehound
Listened 2/20 - This is my fave project Jack White has ever done. He and Alison Mosshart (of The Kills) compliment each other perfectly. 60 Ft Tall and Treat Me Like Your Mother are standouts.
The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards
Broken Bells - Meyrin Fields
Broken Bells - After the Disco
Broken Bells - Broken Bells
Broken Bells - Into the Blue
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
The Shins - Port of Morrow
The Shins - The Worm’s Heart
The Shins - Heartworms
Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
Listened 2/21 - This is a high rating for what is likely not gonna be everyone's cup of tea. But, I grew up on post-hardcore/pop-punk/emo/post-punk and this album will never not feel like home to me - even if it has aged.
Weezer - Pinkerton
Thursday - Full Collapse
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Listened 1/16: Ok so, this one give me the MOST Pisces/Cancer/Virgo vibes of ever. So, you know I had to check the chart. Hope Sandoval is a Virgo Rising (like me!) and a Virgo Moon, she has a Pisces 7th House (also like me!) with a Pisces Saturn and Chiron, and she’s a Cancer Sun and Jupiter in her 10th House. This is THE 90s album for soft/sappy/sad kids everywhere. It’s just the most heartfelt acoustic vibes. I still love it, and it’s a go to album for when I’m writing. The guitar is so trance like on every track, and Hope’s vocals are so subtle. It never distracts me the way other music does. Also, every time I hear “Into Dust,” all I can think about is the stick and poke tattoo scene from Foxfire.
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Angel Olsen - All Mirrors
Kississippi - Sunset Blush
Kississippi - Mood Ring
Karen O + Danger Mouse - Lux Prima
Phantogram - Voices
Listened 2/23 - This album is def worth a listen. It embodies that 2010's sound where pop and indie were leaning into one another. It's dancey without being too pop and carries weight without going full on indie rock.
Phantogram - Eyelid Moves
Phantogram - Three
The Jesus and Mary chain - Psychocandy
Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription
Galaxie 500 - Today
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions
Heart - Dreamboat Annie
Heart - Little Queen
Air - Moon Safari
Listened 1/30: If you're into vibey French atomspheric electronic music, then just do it. You won't regret it. The whole album feels very "Neptunian" to me - perfect for Pisces Season...also - this is from 1998?! How did this age so f*cking well??
Girlpool - What Chaos is Imaginary
Listened 2/24 - A prefect album, end to end. It's so heartfelt and dreamy, yet grounded. I often put this on when I'm working on the computer or knitting or doing repetitive tasks in the shop.
Paula Cole - This Fire
Tracy Bonham - The Burdens of Being Upright
Wild Strawberries - Heroine
Pat Benetar - Live from Earth
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
Cat Power - Sun
Cat Power - Jukebox
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Burial - Untrue
The Mamas and the Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
Sigur Ros - Ágætis byrjun
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sinead O’Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
Nancy SInatra - Sugar
Nancy Sinatra - Boots
Nancy SInatra - How Does That Grab You?
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Spacemen 3 - Playing with fire
Tyger - Tangerine Dream
The Lilac Time - Looking for a Day in the Night
Golden Smog - Weird Tales
The Beloved - X
Warpaint - Warpaint
Warpaint - Heads Up
Slint - Spiderland
12 Rods - Gay?
12 Rods - Split Personalities
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Grandaddy - Under the Western Freeway
The Wrens - Meadowlands
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Belle and Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
Listened 2/25 - Super easy listening - 1998 Scottish Indie Pop Vibes.
Spoon - A Series of Sneaks
Wilco - Summerteeth
Clinic - Internal Wrangler
Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Sparklehorse - Good Morning, Spider
Electric 6 - Fire
Interpol - Interpol EP
Sunny Day Real Estate - How it Feels to be on Something
Built to spill - There’s Nothing Wrong with Love
The Microphones - The Glow Pt 2
Guided by Voices - Alient Lanes
No Age - Nouns
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Pretty Girls Makes Graves - Good Health
Dirty Projectors. -Bitte Orca
Deerhunter - Weird Era Cont.
Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Destroyer - Streethawk: A Seduction
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Girls - Album
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Rapture - Echoes
The Breeders - Pod
Deerhunter - Cryptograms
Bloc party - Silent Alarm
Listened 2/26 - This album feels like pressing the accelerator to the floor and holding it there for 14 tracks. It's the high energy indie rock/post-punk that had an absolute chokehold on us for all of 2005-2006, and it's still so good.
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair Out When We’re Gone
Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock and Roll
Modest Mouse - Build Nothing out of Something
TV on the Radio - Young liars
Listened 2/28 - It's doo wop, it's indie rock, it's spiritual, it's experimental, and that's what I love about it. It was like band said "the rules are, there are no rules."
Red Red Meat - Bunny Gets Paid
Band of hHrses - Everything All The Time
The National - High Violet
Constantines - Constantines
Modest Mouse - Night on the sun
Arab Strap - Monday at the Hug and Pint
Jay Som - Everybody Works
Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
Listened 1/20: This album has a little bit of everything without being too jarring. It feels like they style shifts from track to track. It has everything from 60’s inspired surf rock to new wave influence to punk, and Savage always has whip smart lyrics!
The National - Boxer
Kurt Vile - Walkin on a pretty daze
Listened 2/27 - This album is the chillest of chill. It's almost a little hypnotizing. It's sooooo grounded and earthy. So, you know I had to look up Kurt's birthday - 1/3/80...he's a Cap (bc ofc he is) - only a Cap could make this album.
The Antlers - Hospice
The Libertines - Up the Bracket
Hop Along - Get Disowned
Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana
The National - Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
Mannequin Pussy - Patience
Big Thief - Capacity
Ladytron - Light and Magic
Ladytron - Time’s Arrow
Viagra Boys - Cave World
Sneaks - The Eva EP
Winter - What Kind of Blue are You?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cool it Down
The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field
Big Joanie - Back Home
The Bobby Lees - Bellevue
Ezra Furman - All of us Flames
Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork
Julia Jacklin - Pre Pleasure
Santigold - Spirituals
Sanitgold - Master of My Make-Believe
Ibeyi - Spell 31
Bloc Party - Alpha Games
Girlpool - Forgiveness
Hatchie - Giving the World Away
Horesegirl - Versions of Modern Performance
Angel Olsen - Big Time
Orville Peck - Bronco
Orville Peck - Pony
Orville Peck - Show Pony
Sharon Van Etten - We’ve been going about this all wrong.
Kurt Vile - Watch My moves
The Linda Lindas - Growing Up
Ladytron - Witching Hour
The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
The Kills - No Wow
My Morning Jacket - It still Moves
The Julie Ruin - Hit Reset
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is
Blur - Blur
Lucy Dacus - Historian
Dilly Dally - Sore
Jenny Lewis - On The LIne
Camp Cope - Camp Cope
Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog
Sorority Noise - You’re not as ____ As You Think
Illuminati Hotties - Let Me Do One More
Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever
The Beths - Expert in a Dying field
The Strokes - Room on fire
Wye Oak - Civilian
Listened 1/31: This is one of the best albums of 2011. Seriously. It's like if folk and indie rock had an incredibly dark and melancholy child together. It's just so good.
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
