Music Notes

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
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
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
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
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
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
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

Celebrate
Halo Maud
2024

Adventerous and difficult to pin down by genre, Halo Maud feels like somebody who grew up listening to some of my favorite artists. The French sensibility she brings to familiar sounds and structures is refreshing and something I want more of.

Recommended Track: Last Day Song

playpen
Juliet Ivy
2023

A surprising new find from my wife. It would be easy to blow it off as playful and short but the unapologetically fun and feminine-forward emotions Juliet Ivy has packed into those five tracks makes me want to hear more.

Recommended Track: boytoy

99 Cents
Santigold
2016

Santigold is a pop genius who is somehow able to add substance to normally temporal music and give it staying power. 99 Cents continues to outlast the twenty-teen trends it plays with.

Recommended Track: Rendezvous Girl