Before we dive into our picks, it should be clear that neither of us had any interest in including the Beatles or Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, or whatever sacred cow that is consistently talked about for their amazing discographies. Of course, Pink Floyd had an incredible run of albums in the ‘70s and the Beatles have plenty of records that I would consider to be 10-out-of-10 masterpieces, which is precisely why it’s unnecessary to pump out another article singing their praises. Getting the plainly obvious out of the way, my picks focused on album runs within the past 25 years, while spans a wider timeline.
I’m not sure if my selections are necessarily my favorite or what I think are the best, but they are ones I felt like spotlighting at this particular moment.
Here are a dozen or so close calls:
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Deerhunter: Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. / Halcyon Digest
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Joanna Newsom: Ys / Have One on Me / Divers
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Kanye West: College Dropout / Late Registration / Graduation
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LCD Soundsystem: LCD Soundsystem / Sound of Silver / This is Happening
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MF DOOM: (Any combo of) Take Me to Your Leader / Vaudeville Villain / Mm..Food / Madvillainy
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Run the Jewels: Run the Jewels / Run the Jewels 2 / Run the Jewels 3
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St. Vincent: Actor / Strange Mercy / St. Vincent
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Sufjan Stevens: Illinois / The Age of Adz / Carrie & Lowell
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Tame Impala: Innerspeaker / Lonerism / Currents
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Tyler, the Creator: Flower Boy / IGOR / Call Me If You Get Lost
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Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend / Contra / Modern Vampires of the City
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Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot / A Ghost is Born / Sky Blue Sky
HERE ARE KEVIN’S SELECTIONS/RESPONSES AND CHECK OUT ON REPEAT!!
MY PICK: Animal Collective – Feels / Strawberry Jam / Merriweather Post Pavilion
How very millennial hipster of me to go with Animal Collective. Sometimes this band is so pretentious and they’ll give forest children vibes, and other times they just write the best fucking songs. Feels is full of expansive joy and childlike wonder and marshmallowy bliss, capturing the quintessence of human existence. Strawberry Jam blends bubbling sunshine pop with fairground keyboards, and cut-and-paste aural collage; it’s all but buried under junk shop Dadist clatter, a sense of alienation and estrangement from the human body and human relationships. Then, there is Merriweather Post Pavilion, the high-water mark of 2000s indie, injecting the avant-grade with the right amount of accessibility, a dense listen of intricate and layered synth and sampler work mixed with cascading vocals and psychedelic harmonies. This band is certainly not for the faint-hearted. But if you have the will to give them a spin, your eyeballs will bleed apple sauce and your fingernails will turn into halved grapes while your feet melt into the concrete and your mouth drools ginger honey.
KEVIN’S PICK: Yo La Tengo: Painful / Electr-O-Pura / I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
My Response:
A month ago, I stumbled upon a limited edition vinyl of This Stupid World on the “For Sale” bin at a local record store, which inspired me to go on a Yo La Tengo binge. I’m already acquainted with the brilliance of Painful and I Can Feel the Heart Beating as One, but I’ve never listened to Electr-o-Pura… until now. Yo La Tendo sounds like they’ve embraced their Sonic Youth tendencies on this one, mixing their scrappier, noisier experiments with the dreamy elevator music they’d later focus on. I’m not sure if I like it quite as much as the other two inclusions (mostly because they’ve set a lofty standard), but there’s still lots of good stuff here, like “False Alarm,” the epic “Blue Line Swinger,” and “Tom Courtenay.”
MY PICK: Kendrick Lamar – Section.80 / good kid, m.A.A.d city / To Pimp a Butterfly
Anyone who has read my Greatest 100 Albums list knows how highly I regard good kid, m.A.A.d city and To Pimp a Butterfly—in fact, if I were making a list of my top 10 favorite hip-hop albums, they’d both be included. The strength of those two LPs alone would cement Kenny’s inclusion on a list like this, so the real question is whether the third album is Section.80 or DAMN.? The latter is his most straightforward and commercial project, but still a very enjoyable listen about sins and vices. The former is where his potential starts bubbling, with spacey beats and an undercurrent of a dark, anhedonic nihilism.
Section.80 is a loose concept record, narrated by a guy who seems like Laurence Fishburne in Boys n da Hood, and songs like “Tammy,” “Keisha,” “A.D.H.D.,” “Ronald Reagan Era,” and “Poe Man’s Dream” give us different perspectives of one neighborhood in Compton. Rarely do the characters in these songs have pure intentions, many of their actions are motivated by jealousy, sorrow, or anger—or, in other words, weakness. Section.80 is an album as much about America’s youth as Lamar’s fictional, probably semi-autobiographical, depiction of Compton. Anyone who’s getting into Kendrick Lamar for the first time should start here and move forward chronologically.
KEVIN’S PICK: Fleetwood Mac: Tusk / Mirage / Tango In the Night
My Response:
Picking a Fleetwood Mac three-album run that doesn’t include their self-titled and/or Rumours is bold—and dare I say, spicy—but I respect the conviction. To quote Kevin in our chat, “one of my ‘hot takes’ is that … Mirage is FM’s best record. Tusk’s up there too.” I haven’t explored much of Fleetwood Mac’s discography beyond the two LPs I mentioned, so this was a good excuse to do some much-needed belated listening to some of their more polarizing albums.
Of the three, Tusk is the strongest, the sound of a band on top of the world indulging in excess and truckloads of cocaine while nearly destroying themselves in the process. Where the sound of Rumours is defined by its smoothness, Tusk is much more abrasive, blending punk, art rock, and Brian Eno-constructed pop. This 20-song tracklist has jerky sequencing but each tune contains beauty and fragility. Mirage is a more conventional pop record, and considering the track record of ‘70s rock acts horribly transitioning into new wave and the tumultuous state of the band at the time, this could’ve been a disaster—but Fleetwood Mac delivers a good album with mellow delivery and sparkling production. Tango in the Night is full of gauzy synthesizers and sounds like it’s suspended in pink mist, but it somehow transcends its ‘80s trappings, with half the album full of pop bangers while the remaining six songs are listenable—rounding out to be a solid “final” album for the band.
MY PICK: War on Drugs: Slave Ambient / Lost in the Dream / A Deeper Understanding
The War on Drugs is pure disassociation music. It’s an excuse to lie on your bed, put on some headphones, close your eyes, and disconnect from the world. This band is the juice you put in your glass after listening to ‘80s pop, folk, Americana, heartland rock, indie pop/rock, and a good dose of psychedelia that recalls the work of Tears For Fears, Cocteau Twins, and even The Wall-era Pink Floyd. Many songwriters have tried to emulate Bruce Springsteen—Brandon Flowers of The Killers has practically made a career of it—but Adam Granduciel comes closer to capturing the spirit, moodiness, and hopeful pain of an album like Nebraska. On Lost on the Dream, songs like “Red Eyes” capture the hunger and anguish of The Boss at his finest. Some may complain that the War on Drugs is too ethereal or ambient, or sound too much like Tom Petty on acid, but I love how dreamy and drenched in reverb the sound is. It’s the perfect soundtrack to a rainy day.
KEVIN’S PICK: Peter Gabriel: Melt / Security / So
My Response:
I had actually never ventured into Peter Gabriel’s work besides the hits, so this is another blind spot that Kevin’s choice forced me to rectify. Melted is a masterful fusion of art rock sophistication and menacing new wave, as the tracks range from dark and neurotic (“I Don’t Remember,” “Intruder,” “No Self Control,” and “Family Snapshot”) to the thoughtful and allegorical (“Games Without Frontiers”) and the steadfastly political (“Biko”). There’s a clear theme of nature versus culture on Security, as the album widens the sonic palette, with sounds ranging from primal to playful to brutal to magical, and with a pair of good headphones, it’s mind-blowingly cutting edge for a 1982 output. So feels like a big motorcycle your uncle buys after his divorce, it’s cool, but some of the songs feel a little dated. It’s still a very good album. Overall, I’m glad I finally got around to checking out Peter Gabriel.
That’s it for the February 2025 edition of Jam Sesh! Let us know what you think about our picks in the comments.
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Author: Sam Colt
Karen O’Blivious – Senior political correspondent who insists she’s neutral but only interviews people who agree with her.