Colors by Beck
Colors
Beck
2017
Find someone who looks at you like I look at this album!
Colors has to be one of my favorite albums of all time because I’ve gone whole weeks with it on repeat. Beck truly found magic here with every track enkindling a fun and energetic world I want to live in. My only problem is picking just one track to recommend because I love them all.
Recommended Track: Dreams
Pasadena Garden by Kenny Ueda
Pasadena Garden
Kenny Ueda
2024
This album feels like quality time alone, just realizing an exciting thought that you didn’t expect your brain to have. Some undramatic, but joyful, little ideas just came together and you should probably jot them down so you don’t forget. The sky sure is pretty today, isn’t it? It sure is nice to have a day like this where nobody is expecting you to do anything.
Recommended Track: Pensive Marimba
On by Echobelly
On
Echobelly
1994
This album is so utterly and thoroughly 1990’s rock that I was surprised I didn’t get bored with it after a couple of songs. Instead, it reminded me of what I loved about 90’s rock in the first place: short pop songs that never overstay their welcome, a wall of guitar sounds, and a fresh vocalist that makes you want to listen again so you can sing along.
Recommended Track: Great Things
Submarine by The Marias
Submarine
The Marías
2024
The cover artwork perfectly visualizes the swirling feelings that Maria Zardoya invites us to swim through in this album. Some tracks have you bopping happily through little currents while other tracks pull you into longer waves of emotions. The musical momentum never approaches anything close to an inescapable riptide which makes it great for repeated listening.
Recommended Track: Run Your Mouth
Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
Punisher
Phoebe Bridgers
2020
This is a special album. It’s somebody’s deep favorite that they discovered at just the right moment in their confusing youth. Phoebe expressing complex emotions they could not otherwise recognize or understand within themselves. Maybe their friends love it too and they share their love together on a car trip. Or, maybe their friends don’t get it so they play it loud in the cocoon of their headphones. They cry to it and hug their pillow to it and they fall asleep with it playing on repeat. This is a special album.
Recommended Track: ICU
Singles by Future Islands
Singles
Future Islands
2014
I won’t lie. Like a lot of people, I came to this album because of their song, Seasons, which is an achingly beautiful growl of raw emotions. If you’re able to make it past that opening track, you’ll find the album full of folk-synth sounds that take you to other enjoyable moods and places.
Recommended Track: Seasons (Waiting On You)
Do It Again by Röyksopp and Robyn
Do It Again
Röyksopp, Robyn
2014
Hey, somebody got their chocolate in my peanut butter! As a fan of their prior collaboration in “The Girl and the Robot," hearing them together again really showcases how strong they sound together. This collaboration limits both acts tendency to produce navel-gaze tracks and more confidently express the best parts of themselves. I can only hope they meet up in this way again.
Recommended Track: Do It Again
Bodyparts by Dragonette
Bodyparts
Dragonette
2012
The exuberance, passions, and myopia of youth. Finally being out in the world, making your own decisions. Your body is new and yearning for you to get out there and use it. You will always have things this together. This can’t possibly end. None of this will end.
Recommended Track: Giddy Up
Limits of Desire by Small Black
Limits of Desire
Small Black
2013
This album feels like the quiet, internal rush of discovering a new love. Even though your head is swirling, your senses are heightened and you can’t keep them out of your thoughts. Have you hit the relationship jackpot? When can you see them next? Have you finally found someone thinking the same about you?
Recommended Track: Free at Dawn
Evergreen by BROODS
Evergreen
BROODS
2014
When the outside world is frozen over with winter, it’s comforting to have music that matches. Evergreen’s icy pop pairs perfectly with long walks through the snow, alone with the difficult thoughts you meant to explore once you had the time.
Recommended Track: L.A.F.
After Laughter by Paramore
After Laughter
Paramore
2017
Never have sad lyrics sounded so peppy and exciting. Like Neko Case and Rachael Price, Hayley Williams has a super-powered voice that transforms and elevates even the most middling of tracks into something special. I couldn’t care less about the drama around Paramore and just enjoy their musical experimentation.
Recommended Track: Rose Colored Boy
Hallucinating Love by Maribou State
Hallucinating Love
Maribou State
2005
I bask in the heartfelt joy radiating from this album. It is a sunset walk through the neighborhood, cars and pedestrians zipping by, as you enjoy the sun playing off of the trees as you walk under them. As its moods swing from shuffling dance rhythms to slower introspections, the vibe insists that everything is gonna be alright.
Recommended Track: Otherside
A La Sala by Khruangbin
A La Sala
Khruangbin
2024
This album is contemplation in the half-light between moments of the day. The sounds of your mind facing inward as your eyes look out to something beautiful that stopped you in your tracks and caused you to reflect for a time. As someone who doesn’t really care about lyrics, Khruangbin is a band I wish I had discovered sooner.
Recommended Track: May Ninth
EUSEXUA by FKA twigs
EUSEXUA
FKA twigs
2025
Apparently conceived during her exploration of Prague’s nightclubs, Twigs has created an album that is creative and fresh. The production work is where this album really soars, reaching back farther than her contemporaries for pop and electronic influences and weaving each track into surprisingly different directions. The best compliment I can give this album is that, whenever I dip back in to listen to a track, I always end up listening to the whole album from wherever I started.
Recommended Track: Girl Feels Good
Aja by Steely Dan
Aja
Steely Dan
1976
There comes a time in every middle-aged, music loving, dad’s life where he has to admit, even if begrudgingly, that Steely Dan made some pretty great music. Their new affection might stop at one or two tracks but, if they are like me, they will find this entire album to be a tight seven-track masterpiece. Each track is pop enough to keep them accessible but jazz enough to reward deeper listenings.
Recommended Track: Peg
Antisocialites by Alvvays
Antisocialites
Alvvays
2017
This sophomore album is a continuation of the same propulsive energy that drew me into their sound. The shoegaze-like distortion from their first album has been pulled back to reveal more of Molly Rankin’s beautiful vocals and the album is all the better for it. I will always make time for earnest pop like this.
Recommended Track: Hey
Flying Away by Smoke City
Flying Away
Smoke City
1997
I somehow missed this excellent bossa-nova and trip-hop mashup that was released when I was graduating high school. This album is a classic for many great reasons and listening I can hear the origin of many other bands. I’m sad that it’s only one of two they released before disbanding.
Recommended Track: Jamie Pan
Now More Than Ever by Logistics
Now More Than Ever
Logistics
2006
Like his contemporaries High Contrast and London Electricity, Logistics helped evolve the drum and bass scene out of an era of technical exercises by adding melody and playfulness to the sound. With 24 tracks spread across two albums, they can’t all be bangers. However, when his tracks do hit, they sure are enjoyable!
Recommended Track: Winter Blues
Beasts of Burgundy by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Beasts of Burgundy
Squirrel Nut Zippers
2018
This album is a joyous celebration of New Orleans and the musical stew that formed the backbone of America’s homegrown musical cultures. Like a Mardi Gras night, high and low share dances through the dangerous strangeness that comes when nobody present is actually from here.
Recommended Track: Karnival Joe (From Kokomo)
Lost Songs of Doc Souchon by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Lost Songs of Doc Souchon
Squirrel Nut Zippers
2020
This album is proof that Jimbo Mathus still has the essential contrarian fire of a real artist blazing deep down in his belly. You can almost feel him resisting a peer pressure to backslide into rockabilly commercialism and it saves this album. The grit is essential and his refusal to polish it off infuses the tracks with a humanity that keeps me listening again and again.
Recommended Track: Purim Nigun