Pop
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
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
Jump Rope Gazers by The Beths
Jump Rope Gazers
The Beths
2020
Ballads may be popular but they suck the uniqueness from many bands and weigh them down. I miss the raw, youthful punch of The Beths first album. Their sophomore effort includes just enough energetic tracks to save it but the energy drain is palpable. I’m rooting for their third album to be a rediscovery.
Recommended Track: Dying to Believe
Expert In A Dying Field by The Beths
Expert In A Dying Field
The Beths
2022
This album is a breath of fresh air. The Beths have crawled their way out of the boring balladry in their sophomore album and recentered themselves into the energy that made their original so compelling. They’re not regressing either as these tracks mature their sound into more complex arrangements. More like this please!
Recommended Track: Silence Is Golden
One Second by Yello
One Second (Remastered 2005)
Yello
1987
Less wandering than their previous albums, this is where Yello truly found their focus and created a masterpiece. Entirely separate bands can trace their sounds to individual tracks from this album. (For example: KMFDM and the track Si Señor The Hairy Grill)
Recommended Track: Hawaiian Chance
Technique by New Order
Technique
New Order
1989
When the former members of Joy Division were becoming New Order, they spent significant time taking in the new sounds coming out of New York City’s club scene to transform their sound. It makes sense that, at the end of that decade, they would choose to evolve again by soaking in the Ibiza club scene to find their sound of the next decade. The result was a blend of fresh house beats and alternative rock that I repeatedly come back to.
Recommended Track: Fine Time
SVIIB by School Of Seven Bells
SVIIB
School Of Seven Bells
2016
This posthumous album wouldn’t exist without the courage of Alejandra Deheza diving back into her lost partner’s laptop to find the musical pieces he left behind and resolve them into a finished album. The process must have been healing because, even though the pain of her loss is evident, an intimate hope permeates throughout.
Recommended Track: Ablaze
Songs From The Cool World by Various Artists
Songs From The Cool World
Various Artists
1992
Easily one of the most influential albums to me ever. This has been in my yearly rotation ever since I bought it on tape back in 1992. Before this album, British meant The Beatles but after my ears were opened to the then-new electronic dance sounds coming out of the country, my tastes were forever changed.
Recommended Track: Papua New Guinea - 7" original
Hello by Poe
Hello
Poe
1996
When I bought this album in the middle of my sophomore year of high school, I had no idea that I was about to listen to a piece of art. It’s a crime that so few people know about it. This is the album that birthed Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and helped her brother, Mark Danielewski, write the novel House of Leaves. Listen past the 90’s grunge tracks and you’ll find artistic fusions of electronic, jazz, and hip-hop.
Recommended Track: Dolphin
Je Suis Une île by Halo Maud
Je Suis Une île
Halo Maud
2018
I enjoyed Halo Maude’s 2024 album, Celebrate, so I figured I needed to give her 2018 one a try and found there’s lots to like. The less “driven” rhythms of this album gives it the pacing of summer; the tracks encouraging you to slow down and bask in them without demanding you pay close attention. As the kids say, “It’s a vibe.”
Recommended track: Du pouvoir/power
Ladyhawke by Ladyhawke
Ladyhawke
Ladyhawke
2008
This whole album is filled with the driven excitement of youth that refuses to stop. You don’t fully understand yourself or others but the only way you’ll find answers is to dive in and mix it up. Bodies heal and so will your emotions.
Recommended Track: My Delirium
Get Ready by New Order
Get Ready
New Order
2001
Back in 2001, MTV only played decent music videos between midnight and 4 am and it was in that late night haze that I discovered this album. While it’s far from a perfect album, there are a significant number of tracks that hit. And when they do hit, they hit hard and prove that New Order “still got it.”
Recommended Track: Crystal
Our Time in Eden by 10,000 Maniacs
Our Time in Eden
10,000 Maniacs
1992
For at least a year of middle school, my family would put this album on during dinner and everyone would end up singing along with it. I’ve listened to this whole album so many times that I no longer have an impartial view of it.
Recommended Track: Eden