We live in a beautiful world. Don’t panic, I am not quoting Chris Martin (see what I did there). We do in fact live in a beautiful world. I can listen to whatever music I want, pretty much whenever I want because of Youtube, Soundcloud, Google Music, and Spotify. My listening experience has been entirely curated by me (and blogs). That said, I wanted to take a quick few mins to clue the world into the albums I’ve played into the ground the last few months, weeks, and days. Most have been released in the last couple months, and all are entirely worth checking out.
This is no particular order:
1. Haim – Days Are Gone: This album is old school, Hall & Oatesy pop, and it will infect your brain.
Best Track: The Wire
2. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe: Power pop from foreigners? Eff yes.
Best Track: Recover. It was on the EP and it’s still the dopest.
3. Danny Brown – Old: You either like his voice and the way he raps, or you think it’s obnoxious and will probably never like him.
Best Track: Side B (Dope Song).
4. The Naked And Famous – In Rolling Waves: Easily in my top 5 albums of the years, cause it makes me feel epic emotions.
Best Track: (Tie) A Small Reunion, The Mess
5. Islands – Ski Mask: The fuck is this band still not popular?!?
Best Track: Here Here. It’s downbeat, but that’s my favorite type of Islands.
6. Cults – Static: I predict this will be heavily licensed, much like their last album.
Best Track: We’ve Got It
7. Pusha T – My Name Is My Name: I’m a big of a Clipse homer, but few are more consistent in rap than Push.
Best Track: King Push
Not Best Track: 40 Acres. It sucks.
8. Arcade Fire – Reflektor: I usually fawn over the more “epic-ish” Arcade, but I like that they trynna make a brother wanna party yo!
Best Track: Joan of Arc. Might be my favorite song they’ve ever made.
9. Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time: I tried real hard to like her last album, but this one is lot closer to what I’d be into.
Best Track: Heavy Metal Heart
10. Woodkid – The Golden Age: It’s basically Beirut and that’s ok.
Best Track: The Great Escape
So much other really good stuff came out in the past few months (Kurt Vile, Natalia Kills, Hyper Crush etc.) but I think these 10 summed up what’s been so great about the latter half of this year. Again, check these out. 8 out of 10 are totally work-appropriate!
About Russ Stevens
Russ Stevens is an editor and writer at Rookerville and a guidance counselor at Nyack HS. He mostly writes about either loving or hating things. In his spare time, he performs Improv comedy with his troupe Priest and The Beekeeper and is a co-producer of their monthly variety show Pig Pile. He loves all the New York sports teams that are historically bad, and he hates lateness more than anything in the world.