Indiecast - The Best Albums Of 2021

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

It feels like just yesterday that we were looking ahead to what we could expect in 2021, and now we're here in December. Before breaking for the holidays, Steve and Ian wanted to come together to list thier favorite albums of the year. Some albums, like Wild Pink's A Billion Little Lights and Low's Hey What, made both of their lists. For his list, Ian paid tribute to the latest works from The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Home Is Where, and Dltzk. Steve, on the other hand, has I Don't Live Here Anymore by The War On Drugs topping his list, followed closely by Tonstartssbandht and Rosali.Breaking from tradition, Steve and Ian decided not to do a Recommendation Corner this week, instead recommending that listeners check out any of the albums discussed that they haven't yet heard.You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [e-mail], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indycast is presented by Uprox's Indy Mix tape. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Indycast. On the show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week. We review albums and we hash out trends. In this episode, we discuss our favorite albums of 2021. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host, a man who believes that maybe this year will be better than the last. Ian Cohen, Ian, how are you?

Yeah, I think this is an allusion to how the Hold Steady covered along November last night. to chill out. Along November? Fuck, man. Did you screw this up? See, this is what happens because we haven't recorded, we haven't recorded two weeks

because we banked our Thanksgiving week episode. Oh, God. So, you know, we're not as well-oiled as we normally are. So instead of a long December, you just called it a long November. You know what? It was a really long November.

Can we just like acknowledge that? Like, I feel like, you know, this is like after the NBA All-Star game when the players come back and they're still like kind of hung over in the first half and they just kind of have to work out the kinks but we'll get the IV during the second half of the show. We'll be back to

normal but yeah that they covered a long December Adam Durrance if you're listening and there's a possibility you are I apologize profusely and they also did chill out tent with Michael Imperioly who's become not like

an Eve 6 type guy but he's become like kind of an indie rock he's kind of become like an indie cast core uh supporting character right yeah i mean he's done interviews where he'll say oh i like my my bloody valentine or you know like where's where does he get such obscure taste like i think we have like such low i think we have like such low expectations for actors well i think and you know i think people think he's also christopher maltacante in real life so yeah it's nice to think that you know while christopher was murdering people He was also, you know, digging into like built a spill deep cuts or something. I mean, I think people like that idea.

He was also doing a lot of heroin on that show as well. So it's not, it is not completely unbelievable that he was like listening to Loveless on repeat. That's true. You know, I was trying to think of if we missed any big music news because we banked our Thanksgiving week episode. And, I mean, was the only significant thing that we missed? the, is that like the Grammy nominations? I think, which in our world isn't a huge deal, it would have been something just good for jokes. Yeah.

But, I mean, do we want to talk about the Grammys? But that's really important in our world. Like, we, you know, the Grammys, I think this, the Grammy nominations are just one of my favorite days to experience on Twitter because it's kind of like, you know, the play stupid games get stupid prizes, sort of idiom playing out because this is like maybe the one time where people, I guess, like, treat the pop game like, you know, sports or politics coverage where they have to like take a step back and wonder, it's like, fuck, man. Like, this is, this is really what I'm like giving, this is what I'm giving my time and energy to

and just recognizing the Grammys have little to no relation to any, like, what's going on 99% of the time. But I think the Grammys are important for us to talk about solely because the, I mean, we talk about rock music on this podcast a little bit. And the best rock album announcements are, I would just love for more than anything to be on the selection process to like be around these guys listening to a new ACDC album and thinking, you know what? Like this is the pinnacle of rock music in 2021.

Future generations are going to look at power up and think, you know, this is where this is where the action was. also Chris Cornell like I mean do you want to just like say what the I just love to read them we need to run down case the best rock album nominations which is always a like when you read the nominations every year for Best Rock album from the Grammys and you feel like

I'm someone like I'm having a psychedelic experience like seeing this it just doesn't seem tethered to any kind of reality because as you mentioned power up I eat ACDC was nominated. An album called Capital Cuts, live from Studio A by Black Pumas, was nominated. That sounds like an album you would get for free from Target if you spend more than $25, you know, for your Christmas shopping. I mean, is that like a real album? It just sounds like an, it sounds like an EP or something, or like a, you know, like one of those iTunes.

Yeah, live digital albums, you know, that they did in the odds. Grammys love Black Pumas. They love Black Pumas, man. I want to see like a reaction video of a Grammy not like voter listening to a Black Puma song. Like they just like wild out like those like 12 year old kids hearing like Phil Collins in the air tonight for the first time. I get, you know, because didn't last year wasn't a Black Puma's album that was like a special edition re-release of an album get nominated? I think there was some weird thing like that. Yes.

I think it was a deluxe reissue of a Black Puma's album. And this one just, now, I just got to, like, tell our listeners, like, we are going to go into this episode picking our best albums of the year, having not heard Black Puma's Capital Cuts live from Studio A. If we have to recut this episode after we listen to a Grammy. This appears to be a live album. Yeah, right. And it might not have come out this year. I mean, we could easily find out if it came out this year by Googling it, but I don't even want to do that. Yeah, what fun is in that?

Some of these albums just seem so old. Like, the next nominated album is No One Sings Like You Anymore, Volume 1 by Chris Cornell. This implies the second volume coming. Exactly. And, of course, the great Chris Cornell tragically passed away more than four years ago. Yeah, 2017. So I don't, obviously, this was a posthumous release for Chris Cornell. I assume a live record or maybe a collection of demos.

something like that or covers. I'm not sure. I was trying to see if, did Chris Cornell win any Grammys when he was alive? We got to get our intern on that, I suppose. You know, I would put even money on Audio Slave winning a Grammy at some point. Yeah, I think Soundgarden definitely did not.

But Audio Slave seems like the type of band like that, yeah, they, I'm sure them and foo fighters really duped it out back in 2000. And look, man, if Cochise won a Grammy, I'm okay with that. Like, that probably was the best, like, radio rock song of 2002. AudioSlave won three Grammys. Oh, wow. But it was probably for, like, the albums after Cochies. Like, whatever those were.

They won in 2004 for Best Hard Rock Performance. Ah. They won in, let's see, they won in 06 for Hard Rock Performance. And they won in 2004 for Rock Album. Rock and hard rock. These guys are genre alchemists. Yes, exactly. Mixing the genres of rock and hard rock.

Amazing band. The next nominee in the best rock album category, Fu Fighters, Menace at Midnight. Of course. You got to feel like they're the favorite in this category. Have Beck and the Food Fighters ever faced off in a category? Like,

I feel like that would paralyze the Grammy nominating committee. Oh, man. Yeah, I'm sure they have. I mean, it would be hard. It's like the Spider-Men meme, like two Spider-Men pointing at each other. And the final nominee in the best rock album category is Paul McCartney for McCartney 3. I would say he and Food Fighters, they seem like ahead of the pack here. One of those two are going to win Best Rock album.

Of course, Paul McCartney, like Dave Grohl, they were both in Nirvana. Yeah. So, you know, Nirvana, the Nirvana torch is being carried forward. Speaking of Paul McCartney, I was curious if you saw Get Back, the Beatles' eight-hour documentary that dropped over Thanksgiving. Because I definitely watched it, but I'm curious, because I don't know how you feel about the Beatles. Like, were you into that at all? Was I into the Beatles? I mean, I had a Beatles phase.

I did watch all eight hours of it. It was a good part. too was good for us to, you know, decorate the Christmas tree too. It was nice to have like this kind of ambient experience where you can like check in and out. I think it was one of the very few two and a half hour movies, like three of them that you kind of watch. Passively. But the thing about the Beatles, like I never listened to let it be the album because I was always under the impression like, nah, that one's not worth your time. It's kind of like the in through the outdoor of the Beatles.

And you know what? I thought it was a good film. I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to hear Get Back or I've got a feeling ever again. Oh, man. I can't, like, I am okay if I never hear those songs again. I'm hungry for more, man. I love it. I love it.

I still love those songs. I think let it be the album. You're right. I think a lot of people dismiss it because they look at it as, this is the Beatles at the end of the road. they're out of gas. I mean, they did reconvene after these sessions to make Abbey Road, which is one of the most popular Beatles albums. But I think people tend to look at Let It Be as them being a little aimless in the studio.

I actually feel like it's an underrated album. There's a lot of good songs on there. You mentioned I've got a feeling, Get Back, two of us is on that record, Dig a Pony. That's a really good song. There's across the universe. Lots of good songs that they didn't put on the album. that they released as, you know, because back then the Beatles, a lot of times that they put out a single,

they wouldn't put the single songs on the record. So like, don't let me down. Isn't I let it be? That would have helped the record. I did see one, the Beatles are overrated column that dropped this week. And I was waiting for someone to write that. Someone was required to write that. Yeah. And it was written. Did you read that column, by the way? I don't know if we should be sub- tweeting this. It was a, it was a column. Well, someone wrote a review of Get Back and they said the Beatles were overrated. And the argument against the documentary was that you shouldn't spend eight hours watching the Beatles record this record because you could be listening to new music in that time.

And you're never going to get those eight hours back, which is also a very compelling argument against sleeping. Yeah. Because why sleep when you could be listening to the new Adele album? Why eat? Why go to the bathroom? Why would me be sitting here like reviewing albums and hashing out trends when there are three ARCA albums for us to, you know, engage in it, like, right now? I mean, look, I got to, I got to hand it to get back for bridging the gap between, you know, the end of the proper release season and the year endless season. Like usually Thanksgiving, you know, we take some time off, recalibrate, but not. Music writer, Twitter was, it was really popping thanks to get back.

And, like, I just imagine this subset of music writers, like, people crouched around the foul line waiting for a free throw to happen and get the rebound. Like, we were going to get the Beatles overrated. I think people were waiting for, like, like, anti-yoko Ono articles so they could write their pro-yoko Ono article. But, like, I don't think that ever came to pass. I think people were really, people were really well behaved on that front. You got to dig deep into Twitter to find, like, a grumpy, 65-year-old man who is going to rip on Yoko Ono.

I mean, like, the least sort of self-aware, the least think-piece-oriented person. That's the only person who's going to, like, publicly rip Yoko Ono at this point. I think everyone now knows that she didn't break up the Beatles. She's not some, you know, nefarious presence. in this band. And you watch that movie, she's basically just chilling out reading magazines,

like, well, the Beatles are, you know, farting around on guitars. Yeah. Waiting for Billy Preston to show up. Oh,

man. That was amazing when Billy Preston shows up. I don't think anyone looks cooler than Billy Preston when playing an instrument. Oh, my God. Or him smoking? I love him smoking. I love the fact they're,

like, showing up to the studio for these, like, rehearsals wearing like cufflinks. Like, no one's just showing up in a t-shirt. Well, exactly.

They are, I, I tweeted this, and I meant it that if they had a fashion line of just beetle sweaters and shirts, you know, the sweaters that they were wearing in January of 1969, like, I would buy everyone. And I know, in my mind, I'd be looking like the bearded Paul McCartney, and I wouldn't look nearly as good as that. But I just, like, want to wear like a lime green turtleneck shirt, you know. I think I could pull that off, because they look amazing.

They look unbelievable. I was watching this. It's like, you're like, how, like, would the Beatles, like, have less impact if, like,

just one of them, like, was, like, bald or, like, you know, like, just kind of, kind of uglier or whatever.

Like, but no, they, they look incredible. Yeah, because I say Ringo was the sort of gawky one, but he looks super handsome. Yeah,

he looks amazing. Great mustache. Yeah. We're in cool clothes. Yeah, everyone, it's good, they're good looking in,

like, not a sort of conventional way, not in like a, you know, a teen soap opera, a hunk. Not like a Harry Styles type

good looking. They just look like real guys, but super handsome. Yeah, and they're also 28. I think that was the most amazing part of it all.

It's like, I never thought like, oh yeah, they're 28 years old. They're about as old as like, I, like, they're younger than like Joyce Manor right now.

Right. Just to choose a man. I don't know if you have this thing still with athletes where sometimes I look at athletes and I'm still a kid and I think that they're older than me. Like I look at Aaron Rogers or something and I'm like, oh, he's older than me and he's, you know, eight years younger than me. Yeah, all the time.

There's something like that with the Beatles too because, yeah, they don't, I mean, I'm now like 15 years older than they were in that movie, but they still look like my older brother. Yeah. You know, when I look at them. So, anyway. Yeah. You know, I think at the end of the day,

like, Peter Jackson actually made the Beatles look cooler than you thought they were. So I think that's it. That alone is an accomplishment. Just like unearthing eight hours of video of them wearing cool shit. Right. While making one of their least great albums. Like, you know, I think of nothing else that, like, the Beatles style icons.

That's, I can live with that. Yeah. And my hope is that a lot of bands were watching that movie and thinking, we need to grow mustaches, we need to wear colorful shirts. You know, not being inspired by the music. You know, forget about the musical part. Just wear colorful shirts, grow out your hair, grow some mustaches. Yeah.

It could really up your game. Yeah. Take up smoking. That always is super cool. I wanted to chain smoke so bad watching that movie. But I was around my family. Yeah. So much for that warning that they put at the beach.

beginning of this episode. Well, apparently Disney wanted to cut out the swearing and the smoking. Oh. And Peter Jackson put his foot down. Good for him. Yeah, good for him. Well, let's get to the meat of our episode. We're not going to do mailbag today because there's really no time for a mailbag.

There's no time for recommendation corner. Nope. We're getting into our favorite albums of 2021. And we have not seen each other's lists. Nope. We're each going to talk about five albums. our top five albums, and there might be some overlap.

There's one album on my list that might be on your list. Otherwise, I don't think we're going to have overlap, but we'll see. I don't know. It's a mystery. You will be shocked when you hear our favorite albums, and you will hear us being shocked by each other as we get into this. This is like us

formulating Get Back in its embryonic stages. We're just kind of rithing, and all of a sudden a classic episode emerges. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Or maybe not. Maybe it'll just be three hours of aimless. Yeah, three hours of like me trying to make dig a pony work. Well, why don't you go first? What is your number five album of 2021? All right. So when coming up with this one, and I think number five is the most important because it's like the cutoff point between what's included and what's not.

You made some tweet about how a year endless is oftentimes like a weighing of albums that I listen to the most first ones that I respect or feel like having importance to the narrative. And, you know, over the past couple of years, it's mostly just been albums I listen to the most, you know, ever since I've been demoted from narrative, narrative construction crew. So with this one, like, I kind of went, I'm actually really happy that I could honestly put an album like this in my top five because it's not something I just listen to a bunch at the gym. So, you know, with all due respect to the armed or turnstile or even foxing, you know, all albums which I could nitpick in some way. I'm going with Loz Hey What at the number five spot. Ah.

Yeah. So, you know, this album just reminds me of the times when I was a little more on top of things where, you know, it's not something I would listen to like every day or every week for that matter. but I could appreciate it from an outside perspective of this is doing something original, this is doing something important, and I just respect the hell out of this album. But the thing that drew me most to this, and, you know, Lowe's a band I've listened to off and on for 20 years plus

is as much as they continue to evolve, like I know double negative from 2018 was the one that brought a lot of critics back into the tent. I thought it was overrated. I thought it benefited too much from like a Trump lens. This album, it brought the songs back as well as the interesting production. I think the interesting thing for me is how it was, it had the qualities of music that I gravitate towards now, which is it's abrasive, it's heavy.

There's a lot of distortion. But it's not necessarily like hardcore or punk. It's in a way where it's almost like It's almost like an album you can put on in company In a way because it's low and the voices are traditionally pretty Pretty and they're like 50 year old people But there is also no drums on it So I think that that weighing of like something I can put on in company

But also kind of keep them at arms bay I think that was what drew me to Hey What over over the past year. Every time I keep coming back to it, I'm just kind of blown away by what they were able to accomplish in terms of pure sound. So this album is also on my list. I'm not going to say where it is yet, so we can preserve some drama here, but it's in my top five. I'm a little surprised that it's in your top five. I'm pleasantly surprised. I know you liked this record, but I wasn't sure if you would put it on your list here. I agree with everything you just said. I would also, you know,

just reiterate the point about comparing this a double negative, because I think what there's some critics I think who prefer double negative because that I think was such a shocking record in a way when it came out. That was when they really deconstructed their sound and, you know, turn it into this sort of discombobulated, ambient noise. And I think you can make the case that that was maybe a more innovative record. And this album is extending what that record did, but not radically, you know, going beyond it. But I agree with you. I prefer hey what because I feel that the prominence of the voices on this record just makes it more inviting. And there's more of a dynamic range, I think, between sort of the harsh noise on the record and just the warmth of the vocals.

And that, like you, it just brought me back to this record all the time. Also, too, you know, I can't think of another band that's had the kind of arc that Lowe has had where they're now, about 30 years into their career and they're now making I think some of their best music this to me is my favorite record that Lowe's ever made and they have a really strong catalog

but to be making a record this good that's also different from what they were known for for most of their career it's just really commendable you know this is a band this is not a band that's just resting on their laurels I mean I think they were maybe drifting toward that for a little bit

of making records that sounded like low records that were good, but they weren't really, you know, shaking up the formula. Now they come back with these two records, and they've just really kind of, you know,

exploded the, you know, the mold here. So I love this record. I'll talk about it a little bit more later on this episode when I get to it on my list, but yeah,

this is an album on both of our list. Yeah. I would say the closest comparison, and, you know, I'm going to get a little bit of trouble for this. It's like pre-cancellancell Salation, Mark Kozalik, like, had a very similar arc where they just put out amazing records, drift, and then come back with just a complete revolution of their sound.

Yeah, that's true. That's a good comparison. Yeah. It's a little obvious, and, you know, I'm hesitant to bring it up, but yeah. Well, you know, still, in a musical sense, yes, I think that totally makes sense. My number five record, and I wonder if this is on your list, is A Billion Little Lights by Wild Pink, Is this on your list? It is. Okay, so this is my number five record of the year. And, you know, we talk a lot about Wild Pink on this band.

This is, like, one of the defining ED-CAST bands, I think, in the sense that, like, you and I are two of the bigger boosters of this band. They are a band that, you know, of all the bands that I love that don't get a lot of attention, like Wild Pink to me is one of the more confounding examples of that. I don't really understand why this band hasn't had a bigger impact. I think that there's something about this band that seems kind of superficially introspective and shy. You know, people hear John Ross's voice. He's the singer-songwriter, Belle Pink. And they make a lot of assumptions about like, oh, this is just a sad guy talking

about his emotions. And it's very pretty synth rock, you know, sounds sparkly. And it might be easy to push aside. But when you dig deep into these songs, I think Ross as a lyricist is really doing a lot of interesting things. And he's contemplating really kind of fascinating subjects on this record. I mean, he's talking about the death of the American West on this record and manifest destiny and really how the country has changed over the last, say, 100 or 200 years as we've become more technological. And we've become disconnected from the land.

I mean, these are not typical subjects for an indie rock record. And I think Ross writes about them in a very insightful way while also writing really great pop rock hooks. And I just feel like that maybe this band they haven't really gotten their due from music writers who I think, again, I feel like if they dug a little bit deeper into these songs, I think they would be, they would find more to kind of sink their teeth into.

So I don't know, maybe you and I just have to keep waving the flag here. Or maybe we should be quiet. Maybe people are like, oh, these guys are talking too much about them. I'm might not even going to dig in. I don't know what it is, but at any rate, this to me is one of the best indie rock records of the year. And I just feel like if people gave this band more of a chance that they would have a bigger audience. So hopefully that can still happen with this band. Yeah, this was number four for me, so that's a good segue.

This album, I feel very confident putting it in. in my top five because it's, you know, I think it's aged well. It's stood the test of time. And I can say that because I've had this album so long. Like, I think it precedes the first Indycast episode. I think I got this originally in July of 2020. Right. A long time ago. Yeah. And I've just been through the roller coaster of getting the album and thinking, fuck, man, they've, they've leveled up. They've knocked this one out of the park. This is going to boost them to a... a new echelon and then realizing, oh, wait, this isn't out until February of next year. And then, you know, having the single come out and having it be like a five-month release time and just kind of the deflation of seeing people not really be.

I mean, this is an unfortunate byproduct of discussing the music the way that we do now is that a lot of my relationship with an album gets colored by the way people, react to it or the way critics talk about it. Critics meaning like the people I talk to the most. It's like my social group. And yeah, I mean, maybe we do need to like ease off on this because I think that there's like a sense that Wild Pink is sort of operating outside of like what's central to music in 2021. But because, you know, the music is kind of pretty. It is a little unassuming. They've never really been overly praised in the past. But I just thought it was funny that, like, I saw someone mention it's like, when are we going to talk about the fact that the killers made a better war on drugs album than the

War on Drugs, which whether or not you believe that's true. I mean, I think the, you know, the criticism that surrounded the War on Drugs album this year was that, you know, maybe, you know, Adams' lyrics don't really carry a lot of weight. But while Pink was like, what if you had a similar sound, but like the lyrics were really insightful and probed, complicated subject matter. Like you were saying, like the idea of the American West, about manifest

destiny, about like being trapped in technology, and in a very clever way. Like, I don't think anyone writes lyrics like John Ross. And, you know, in the War on Drugs comparison, I think, is apt. And that's another thing that's confounding

about the response to Wild Pink because, you know, War on Drugs are generally like a well-reviewed band. I mean, critics have generally been pretty supportive of them. And this is a band that's doing something similar musically. And as you said, there's a strong lyrical perspective. I just don't understand like why there wouldn't be more of an embrace of what they're doing. I don't know.

But at any rate, we're waving the flag. We'll continue to wave the flag. I'm psyched that you also put this in your top five. We're having a lot of overlap. Yeah. I think this is where we diverge. I think it's going to end here. I'm positive that my number four is not on your list and probably not many people's lists.

Okay. Because it's one of the sleeper records of the year, but it's one of my absolute favorites. It's called No Medium, and it's by a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia named Rosalie. And you might know Rosalie if, again, you are a War on Drugs fan. She's been in their orbit for a few years now. A few years ago, when the War on Drugs, they played some shows in Philadelphia. Rosalie sat in with them. I believe she opened in those shows.

She sang a cover of this song Birds of Paradise by The Pretenders. And her voice is similar to the voice of Chrissy Hind, the lead singer of The Pretenders. It's this very kind of low, smoky, really soulful voice. and she has the ability, I think, to write really heart-rending tear-jurkey songs that also hit really hard musically. And one of the great things about this record, no medium,

is that she's backed by David Nance Group, who, if you are a listener of the show, you know that I'm a fan of David Nance. His record from last year was in my top five in 2020. And David Nance Group, when they play live, if they have a real sort of like crazy horse type sound. And I know like a lot of people like will reference that for like a sort of a gnarly guitar sound and like a heavy stomping beat. And I think a lot of times it's it's misused like when people make that comparison.

But I think in the case of David Nance, it's very well applied. And they bring such a great musical crunch to this record where again you have these wonderful, sensitive songs, but unlike a lot of singer-songwriter records these days, which tend to be kind of slow and soft and maybe even a little bit boring musically, this album doesn't have that at all. It has, I think, to me, it sounds like a great record that you would discover, you know, from like the early 70s, you know, like something that like light in the attic would reissue because it was overlooked in its time and now people found it

and they're like, wow, this is amazing. This record has that kind of feel to me, but it's a new record. It's not some record that came out 40 years ago. So, yeah, this is an album that I've returned to continually throughout the year. I haven't seen it discuss very much.

I think that should change because I know, like, this is a record that I've recommended to a lot of people, you know, just people in my life. Because like Wild Pink, I feel like this is a record that people heard it. they would like it. So hopefully people out there, if you don't know this record, please check it out.

It's Rosalie. It's R-O-S-A-L-I. That's her name, and the record's called No Medium. That's very close to the artist Rosalia, who is very, very popular in our world. So, yeah, I got, I don't know if that. I don't know, maybe people will accidentally come upon that when they find her new song with, like, Bad Bunny or,

whatever. Right. Exactly. What's your number three? Number three, we're getting really into the part where our past diverge. This is Home is Where I became birds. If you follow me on Twitter, if you follow emo Twitter at all, I think we could consider this one to be, I guess, the, not, I mean, they've released another album before this one, but they're kind of like the emo story of 2021. They're a Florida band who, like many of the best bands from this past year, put out a 16 or I think it was 18 minutes release and called it an album. It was six songs. And it was very heartwarming to see people pick up on this. They're a band that would have been a big story if only because they created the Fifth Wave Emo meme, which laid out what they believed to be Fifth Wave.

It's, you know, bands like Glass Beach and Weather Day and them and for your health and so forth and just kind of separating themselves from like, you know, revival era, so to speak. Which was, you know, really fun to see because I think one of the big differences between fifth wave and fourth wave is that the fifth wave bands, such as them and paranormal and so forth, is that they don't really seek indie credibility in the same way that the revival era. bands do. I think they kind of saw 2011 or 2017 and realized, oh yeah, no, this is not where we're going to find our home. We're just going to keep doing our thing. And I think the

ironic thing is that Home is where became kind of the band that was embraced by critics across publications. They got compared for the most part to Neutral Milk Hotel

because there was a surrealistic sort of lyrical sense to what they were doing. There was singing saw, and there was harmonica, and a lot of acoustic guitars recorded really fuzzily. But in a way, it kind of, it does sound like neutral milk hotel, but it makes me think more of like the hotel years, home like no place is there, as far as an album that came out and just immediately, like, just grab people's attention and refuse to let go. And as far as being about mental illness and about like transition through gender and it just seemed like a complete story arc, but it did so within 18 minutes.

And I did not want this. I mean, it would be awesome if they released more music, but I did not listen to this 18 minute album and think, well, it's an EP. It's a little light. Maybe if it had two more songs, you know, it could be taken more seriously. I thought it was really cool to see people pick up on what they said. It's like, no, this is an album. And yeah, I'm very interested to see where they go from there. Yeah, I like this record a lot too.

And you mentioned the Neutral Milk Hotel comparison, which I think is apt. I know Bob Dylan has also been cited as an influence. They love Bob Dylan. They had a song on the first record called Dobb Billin. Right. Yeah. So there's that sort of outsider singer-songwriter. aspect to the band along with

some more, I guess, conventional punk and emo influences. It is interesting to me that a band like this does get classified as emo, whereas I think 25 years ago, they just would have been a straight-up indie band. Because as indie rock exists right now, that noisy

punk rock aspect, it feels like that's been pushed aside a bit, and it ends up now in the emo camp rather than where again, like Neutral Milk Hotel, like, what's a more sort of definitional indie band of the 90s is there. I mean, that's like,

that is a defining band of like that aesthetic in the 90s. And they were a noisy band. They could be a little bit abrasive. There was, you know, yelpy lyrics and, you know, fuzzy sounding guitars and all that. And Homerswear has that aspect as well. And they just push it out in a more extreme direction. But yeah, this is a great record.

I like it a lot. It didn't make my top 20, but it was close. It was knocking on the door. So I would definitely recommend it along with Ian. My next choice is definitely not on your list. I can almost guarantee it. Ice Age. No, it's not Ice Age.

It's a record called Petunia by Tone Start Band. And this is the indie jam record of the year, as far as I'm concerned. This is a band from Florida. It's two people. They've been around for a while now. They started putting out records in 2018, and they have something like 16 records. Yeah. 2018? I feel like they've been around for much longer.

Did I say 20? I meant 2008. Oh, okay. Yeah, 2008. They haven't put out 16 albums in three years. That'd be even more amazing. 16 albums over the course of 13 years, although this is their first album in four years, this record, Petunia. And, you know, I can't say I've listened to all 16 of their albums, but this album does feel to me like them honing this experimental studio. that they've been working on for a while where they're mixing elements of psychedelic rock, Crout Rock, there's some folk influences, there's some electronic influences,

and they've really shaped it, I think, into one of the strongest collections of songs that they've ever put out. In fact, this might be the strongest collection of songs. Certainly, the single from this record, which is what has happened, that might be my favorite song of the year. Like, if I were to make a list of songs,

which I normally don't like to do, because it's hard enough to pick albums. I can't make a list of my favorite songs of the year. It's too difficult. But if I were to do that, what has happened would be a strong number one contender for me. And again, when we talk about indie jam, it's talking about groups that exist in the indie sphere that aren't afraid to stretch out, aren't afraid to sort of elongate songs and take them into different directions away from the structure, but then always return.

back to that structure in having a strong sort of melodic core at the center and I think that this group does have that and I feel like I should spell this band name like I did with Rosalie I should spell this because if you want to look it up it might be hard to find it's

T-O-N-S-S-T-A-R-T-S-Band-H-T so it's like T-N-Starts band H-T it's like the like they're not doing themselves any favors by calling themselves that. I'm afraid. I feel like there should be some sort of acronym or something that they could shorten that, too,

to make it a little bit more searchable on streaming platforms. But if you look at this record, I think you'll really like it. It's one of my favorite albums of the year. It's called Petunia. It's my number three. Yeah, I actually did like, I like that one song that you mentioned from Tone Starts Band. It took a lot for me to recalibrate my vision of them as like kind of these Mac-de-Marco adjacent guys. But yeah, it's a pretty good record.

I think it gets a little too grateful dead for my taste. But that one song. No such thing as being a little too grateful dead. In my estimation, see, this is where we're diverging. We're diverging at this point as we get to the mountaintop of our list that says it should be. What's your number two? So, you know, every, there comes a time every year where I feel just kind of like burnt out by music. And it's usually like November where, you know, the release, you know, the release slate gets a little bit lighter.

And I'm just waiting for the year-end list to come out and say like, hey, what I need to listen to. And without fail, every single year, there's a record that like comes out more or less out of nowhere to ascend towards the top of my year-end list. then you know what, I might look back on this episode in a couple months and think I might have, I should have put this number one. But it is an album by, you know, another band with another artist with a tough to spell name called Delete Zeke, D-L-T-Z-K. Their album, Frailty. I've had a lot of trouble listening to anything besides this. This has been a really interesting record for me to engage with because throughout most of the,

past two years, let's say, I've come to recognize that things like hyperpop and digitcore are more, like Larry Fitzmaurice drew this out in his latest newsletter about how those two styles are pretty much the equivalent of chill wave in, say, 2009, 2010. I think these trends are indicative of where home recording and indie rock as a whole are going to be headed. And I just had so much trouble. interacting with it because I would hear these songs that they had more in common with like emo rap. You know, it's like a very kind of nasally voice rapping about like being depressed and being on Twitter and so forth. And I could recognize this stuff as not for me. It's this is if I were 18 years old, I'd be super about teen week, which was delete Zeke's first album from 2021. But you know,

I don't want to be like one of those writers who's really trying to frame myself as being, you know, on top of things. This album, however, when I first heard it, I almost had like, I'm like, am I being fooled by this? Like, am I a sucker for liking this as much as I do? But as it turns out, this is really a point where, you know, emo Twitter and rap Twitter and hyperpop Twitter have come to a line. instead of doing these like two-minute songs, these songs are five minutes long with elements of shoegays and, you know, like Alex G, singer-songwriter type styles

and a lot of like noise pop going on as well. And it's just so counterintuitive that the best digit core or hyperpop album I've heard is one that's nearly an hour long with 13 songs. It reminds me of M83 of points. It reminds me of Porter Robinson. at points. It reminds me of Alex G., who I've mentioned before. And gosh, you know, like, I just think this not only strikes me as an album that I like, but I think an album that's going to be

a touchstone for artists going forward as far as, like, how to create interesting guitar-based music on a computer. I just cannot get enough of this artist. And, you know, the fact that it's an 18-year-old person from New Jersey who considers their music. to be called something called Daria core. It's just thrilling to me in a way that some of the other albums on this list aren't. I expect to like the other four albums. This one, it's one of those things that comes out

where I'm thinking, you know what, this is why I listen to the promo pile and stay on Twitter. So I've seen you tweet about this record. A lot. I haven't listened to this album yet, but just hearing you talk about it now it makes me very excited to check it out.

So that sounds like a cool record. Now, for my number two, I have to say quick that really, like, I love the three albums I've already talked about on my list, but really this was like a two-album race for me. I feel like my top two are really one A and one B. And there's, I think, a space of separation between my top two albums and, like, everything else I heard this year. And you alluded to this earlier in the episode. I did this tweet earlier this week where I talked about how often on my lists,

there's a competition going on between one album that I play all the time and I love it because I can just listen to it constantly and never get sick of it. And then there's the album that I love because it's so overpowering emotionally that I can't play it all the time. I have to play it when I'm in a certain kind of mood, but it moves me very deeply whenever I hear it. And it's deciding, like, which album do I like more in any particular year. And the number two album on my list is in the latter category, in the emotionally overpowering category.

It's an album that we've already talked about. It's Hey, What by Lowe. And, yeah, this is a record that, again, I think musically, you know, we've talked about this already, that there's some abrasive elements on there. There's also some beautiful elements on there. I think just the vibe of the record, and this is a little bit of the record, and this is a little bit of is an overused word, and I feel stupid using it here, but it is applicable, I think, to this album. You know, apocalyptic. It does feel like a record that you would play at the end of the world,

or maybe at the end of your life. Like, when you feel the life essence escaping your body, there's songs on this record that I could imagine myself hearing at that moment of time. And, you know, one of the things that blows me away about this record, and you talked about this when you were talking, I think you had it number five on your list, is, you know, you said there's no drums on the record. Well, I mean, there are drums at the very end. And it's on the last track, and it comes at the end of the song. I think maybe about half of the song has drums. And I think it's actually a drum machine. I don't think it's a real drum kid.

I'd have to double check on that. But the impact when those drums come in is unbelievable. It's like John Bonham when the levee breaks. That's what it feels like. Just because this album is so spare that every note carries weight, every gesture, every vocal, it's meaningful, it's impactful. And I feel like we have to shout. Shout out B.J. Burton, who's the producer of this record.

And you may know him from his association with Bonnie Bear. He was one of the architects of 22 a million, which I think we can now say, and I know you're not a fan of that record, but that seems like one of the more important records to come out in the last five to 10 years in terms of just influencing other people. And I think that for a generation of people, they're going to look at that record, like, as a Sergeant Pepper or Dark Side of the Moon type record. that just rewired people's brains. I mean, I love that record personally,

but even if you don't like that record, I think there's something about that that is inspirational, I think, for musicians over a certain age. And you can see those experiments on that record get extended on double negative the previous low record, but also on this record. And in a way, maybe this is like the ultimate form

of what B.J. Burton does. And I interviewed him this year, And I feel like he may even believe that, that this is like the sort of the best, you know, addition or combination of his aesthetic coming through here, where it's noise pushing through that, that's sort of like Yeez-Sys idea. And he worked on that record too. And then, you know, that ugliness in combining it with beauty. I just feel like that really comes across so strongly on this record. So I have it at number two. For a while it was my number one.

I kind of went back and forth with the other album, the album I did put at number one. But it's really like 1A and 1B, I think. This is, I think, one of the two great records of the year for me. You know I'm about that. So, I mean, I think what we just kind of, spoiler alert is, shit, man, where, like, which one of us is going to put

the weather station at number one? Which one of us is going to put floating points in Farrow Sanders at number one? Oh, man. I know this. the trend here. I know. Which one of us is going to pick one of the two choices for indie rock album of the year? Those are

the two, and I think I said it on the show that I think Weather Station is going to be the consensus number one. Yeah, cool. We're a little bit you know, because I mean, I like that record. It's a boring album. Yeah, I like it more than you do, but yeah, I haven't,

but I don't love it. And I don't love it as much as like a lot of critics. do, and I do tend to find I mean... That is a hide-in-core album. Like, I'm not going to front, man. Weather station stuff in general just has not

connected with me. There's just something about it that... And I feel like I should like it more than I do, and I can respect it. I appreciate what she does. Yeah. But it just doesn't hit me like it does for other people. And maybe that will happen

down the line, but I'm just not down there yet. As climate change continues to be, you know, I don't know. I just think with the other one, the floating points, when I just think back to college when I was, you know, listening to like back when electronic albums would try to be prestige and like get jazz artists and like sit like William Orbit like cinema stuff going on. It's like fuck that.

I want to listen to Chemical Brothers and Prodigy, dude. Like where are the fucking beats? Like prestige electronica like I've lived through this dude. Whatever. Oh man, that would be a good topic for an episode. the prestige electronic albums of like 90s. I want to listen to Goldie's three-hour album. Oh my God, man.

Like, whatever, man. Or tricky? Tricky. No, Goldie was the one who did Saturn Returns. By the way, we should just do an entire late 90s Electronica episode because, man, I just love going off on that stuff. Oh, yeah. When you mentioned the Chemical Brothers.

Yeah. And that has aged really well for me. Incredibly well. When I go back to those albums. And they have more good albums than they get credit for, too. They really do. I think people classify them as like a 96 to 98 band. But even into the odds, maybe even 2010s.

Yeah. There's like some good albums that come out. Yeah, they had a good album come out in 2010. I can't remember the name of it. But another world's name of that song. I think it's called Further. That was a good album. We're somehow on an electronic kick right before our number one albums of the year.

I mean, I feel like we're, are we trying to like extend the drama of this moment. Yeah, absolutely. That's what we're about. I mean, I think that it's appropriate to, you know, drag things out as far as talking about my number one album, because this album has become known for its length and the length of the band name, the length of the songs, the length it took to put it out. It is the world's a beautiful place, and I am no longer afraid to die, is illusory walls, number one album of the year for me. And, you know, like, I considered maybe doing something counterintuitive to, but when it comes right down to it,

like, I think this album is kind of counterintuitive for me to put it number one, because if I'm going to be real, like I thought this band was like done after always foreign. I thought that, you know, there was so much drama going on within the band and they've, the members that they had lost since

harmlessness, I think that they were very impactful members. Like, I would really love to live listen to a record made by X members of the World's Beautiful Place and I'm no longer afraid to die. And I was concerned that they would take entirely the interesting components of the band with them and they would just make records like always foreign, which were good, but it was kind of them going through the motions a bit. Like, you knew what you were going to get and they gave it to you. And what, and, you know, just I thought they had lost pretty much all momentum as far as like

being celebrated by their fans. and in general. And, you know, I was hesitant when I heard this record. But what surprised me is not just that they just pulled it off despite working in isolation. They recorded it separately. It's that they completely altered their sounds. And not just that, but to more like a kind of like this proggy metal tapping solos, like almost like Circus or V or Muse. or mew, maybe a little bit of muse too,

where they just sound like nothing else. Like I think before they had kind of gone more of like typical indie rock type things with, you know, we want to sound like, Godspeed you black emperor, but now it's just like, you know what, fuck that. We're progg metal people. And even as musically as exciting as it is, I think the record is lyrically their most profound, they're most resonant as well.

Like I think it doesn't get enough credit for talking about. about America, you know, not in the sense of like, oh, you know, what's up with those clowns in Congress, but, you know, they're a band from West Virginia and they talk about, you know, the mine explosions and Sago opioid stuff happening, like, you know, a lot of people they know have died from opioids. And just doing so in like a really resonant and clever and poetic way that there's a lot to dig into about this record. You know, it reads as well on the page as it sounds. And also, just the the putting the

two 15 minute songs at the end of the record I think that that infinite Josh and few were afraid if you just put those two songs on one album that would be in my top 10 but putting it together with you know this 70

minute behemoth I just think it's a monument I am a little disappointed that it didn't get as much credit as I think it deserves I also think that people, you know, critics at large, aren't about to ride for this band. I think people have moved on from Fourth Wave and just Emo in general. So I'm going to stump for it. I think that it's going to be, it's like one of those albums that in the year end list that, like, everyone who votes for it on their year end list is probably going to put it at number one, but not too many people are going to vote for it.

Yeah, you know, I like this record. And I remember when I came out, I was really kind of shocked at how, like you said, it is a prog metal record. It doesn't reference prog metal. It's not, you know, doing it like an ironic arm's length way. No, this is like a straight up prog metal record. Like, I wonder if there's some way that they could, you know, get some of that like co-heed Cambria audience, you know, because I think, or even people that listen to like porcupine tree or something, you know.

Yeah. They've played arc tangent. They played the Arc tangent festival before, which I don't think we'd, talked about, but that's like those bands, like it's this festival in England that has all those like kind of Prague-y, like new Praguegy metal bands. And I think they played it before. That's a loyal audience. It is. You know, if they could, I don't know, are they finished now? I mean, have they broken up? Is this like their official last record? No, they, it says in the credits, like we have never broken up and we never will. Okay. Because it seems like that could be a good

audience for them because they do get classified as emo, but to me, again, it's similar to the Homes Ware record where, yeah, you can call it emo, but to me, there's a lot of other things on the record that almost seem more apt to, you know, like in this case, to classify it as a Prague metal record. And I think people that maybe wouldn't normally listen to a band like this, like if they knew just like how proggy it was, I think they would really get into it. So I don't know get them on the Cohede and Cambria crew. Yeah, exactly. Get them into those magazines. Get them into like, you know, technical bass player magazines and all that kind of stuff.

You know, I think they could kill. So my number one record of the year will come as a surprise to nobody, because I've talked about this record for a long time. I'm a big fan of it. It's a record called Daddy's Home by St. Vincent. Just kidding. No, it's not Daddy's Home. I had to take one more shot at Daddy's Home. We'll probably take another shot at Daddy's Home before the year ends.

But, no, my number one record. of the year, of course, is I don't live here anymore by the War on Drugs. And as I was saying earlier, you know, a lot of times on these lists, it comes down to an album that I listen to all the time versus an album that kind of blows me away, but I can't listen to a whole lot because it's almost too much to take. I don't live here anymore was a record that just like lived with me for half of the year. I mean, I was lucky enough to get a promo of this record in the summertime. So, you know, the album came out in October, but I've been listening to it since probably

July or so. And really it is one of those records that I could probably listen to every day and love it. And, you know, I've talked a lot about this band. And, you know, the weird thing about the War on Drugs is that I don't know if you've had this in your life, Ian, but like this is a band that I heard and I thought, if I had a band and I had musical talent, like this is the kind of music I would make. Like this, like the aesthetic, you know, sort of circle, it's a, it's completely overlaps. with Adam Grand Ducille's circle, I think. So on some level, I almost don't have critical distance with this band

because people probably don't even want to hear me talk about this band anymore. But I will say that, you know, I mean, I think I love all the War on Drugs records, and I think you could listen to this album and say, well, it's not terribly different from, say, a deeper understanding. It doesn't have the sort of paradigm shifting quality that, like, lost The Dream has. And I think Lost in the Dream is always going to be sort of the ultimate record by this band. But I will say that I see a progression with this band in terms of just writing sharper and sharper pop songs.

You know, and to me, that is what set this record apart from the previous ones, that there are genuine, like, pop bangers on this record that I could even hear other people covering. Like, I would love to hear, like, Ariana Grande do a version of, I don't want to wait. I think she could kill that song. I think it's such a good pop song. And I'll say this in general that I think this album, it doesn't have what a lot of other war on drugs that records have, where you have, say, like a great synth rock song like Red Eyes, and then you go into a slower song like disappearing,

and then you go to a fast song and then maybe another kind of moody ballad. There's not a lot of ballads on this record. I mean, for the most part, this is like the War on Drugs at their catchiest and most accessible. And, you know, I'm curious to see how this album ends up doing versus the other records. I don't have any sense of, like, how well this album is selling. I mean, it seems like it's popular. I think people like it.

They're certainly, they're playing bigger venues. But it does seem like the album where if someone hadn't heard this band, I might play them this record even before Lost in the Dream. Because I think there's just so many grabby songs on this record. And yet, like I said, I. I can listen to it every day and not get sick of it. I just think it's such good pop rock songwriting. It's kind of exactly what I want. And you mentioned the lyrics before, and I'll push back against that a little bit.

I do think that this album, more than other Warren Drugs records, does feel like it has a stronger point of view from Adam and where he's writing in his life. And I think especially towards the end of the record, songs like rings around my father's eyes and old skin, and I don't live here anymore are, I think, really cogent lyrical statements

and I do feel like they add to the songs. And it gives this record, I think, a unifying feel in a way that, say, maybe a deeper understanding doesn't have, as much as I love that record. I think that there is a lyrical throughline on this record that separates it from some of the other War on Drugs records. At any rate, this is the least surprising choice

I could have made it, number one. It's not very interesting for me to put the war on drugs at number one on my list, but I don't care. This is the album I listened to the most this year, so that's why it's by number one. Yeah, I mean, you know, I like it. I think I do wonder if it's going to have that impact, like you said, of like maybe not being the album that is, you know, the five star, like, that's what you're going to go to. But like, the kind of crossover one, you know, the one that, like, draws people in so they rediscover, you know, the previous war on drugs records. You know, I can relate to putting a record like this, you know, at number one. Like, I've done that in, like, 2017.

I probably put, like, near to the wild heart of life at that, you know, or something like that. Just like a record where it's like, yeah, it might not be their number one, their best one, or it might not be the album that, like, tops all the year end list. But, you know, in my heart, it's like, I know deep down that, like, I like this one more than any other record. And I think that is a sign of maturity in a music writer. I appreciate that. Thank you. Well, that about does it for this episode of Indycast.

We'll be back with more news and reviews and hashing out trends next week. And if you're looking for more music recommendations, sign up for the Indie Mix tape newsletter. You can go to Uprocks.com backslash indie. And I recommend five albums per week and we'll send it directly to your email box.