Dave Sandell and Caleb Gardner choose the best album for highly relatable, real-life situations — like decompressing after a long day, elevating a backyard party, impressing the car next to you at a stop light, missing someone you love, or running from zombies.
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Dave and Caleb have a close encounter of the third kind as they choose the best album for seeing aliens. Is music a universal enough language to avoid world domination? Do aliens even exist? Is it better to give them the best music the world has to offer, or the music that most stirs your soul?
Caleb presents our unidentified anomalous phenomena friends with Marvin Gaye's classic What's Going On?, and confesses something that leaves Dave stunned. And Dave finally presents DJ Koze and attempts to find words to explain why he is so spellbound. Plus, what song nearly ruined the total solar eclipse?
Discussed today:
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On?
DJ Koze - Amygdala
Bad Bad Hats - Bad Bad Hats
Nia Arhives - Silence is Loud
Hosts: Dave Sandell & Caleb Gardner
A High Speed Chase (00:39:28)
What's the right soundtrack for barreling down a highway in pursuit -- or being pursued -- in your very own General Lee? Dave & Caleb lay out the criteria, buckle in, and gun it to 95 with The Prodigy's Fat of the Land and The Reverend Horton Heat's It's Martini Time! Two albums from a golden era of the 90s when, for one shining moment, electronica and swing music improbably had its grips around our collective imagination. Plus, the single scariest moment of young Dave's life. Also, what we're listening to this week, including a band we love with the most unfortunate name.
Discussed today:
The Prodigy - Fat of the Land
Reverend Horton Heat - It's Martini Time
The 90s swing era (including Brian Setzer Orchestra, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Royal Crown Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy)
DMX
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood
Alice Coltrane - The Carnegie Hall Concert
Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda
Check out our new playlist on Apple Music, Best Music For 2024. (Spotify coming soon.)
Not Selling Out (With Vince Brackett!) (01:07:47)
Special guest co-host Vince Brackett joins the podcast this week to discuss what it means to “sell out” for a variety of musicians, and the template for popular and highly successful musicians to “reverse sell out” with an album cycle (or more) marked by attempts to be taken more seriously as an artist. Along the way, they unpack the careers of the strangest bands to have ever momentarily hit it big (Primus, Butthole Surfers), artists who made giant left turns to restart their career (Rebecca Black!), aging rock stars who pump out albums that seem wholly disconnected from their vital days (The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder), bands that “real” fans never forgive (Green Day) and bands that everyone embraced despite doing all the things that sell-out bands do (Blink 182). Plus, Vince looks at a band who could have sold out but chose to forget their own path, The Roots, and their 1996 opus, Illadelph Halflife. And Dave unpacks Rihanna’s seminal Anti, and how she seemingly threw hit making to the wind and bet on her own taste.
Discussed today:
The Roots
Rihanna
Butthole Surfers
Primus
Rebecca Black
Coldplay
Green Day
Lorde
The Black Keys
Blink 182
Stevie Wonder
The Rolling Stones
David Bowie
David Byrne
The Wailin’ Jennys
The Smile
Introducing Your Kids to Hip Hop (00:53:37)
We go deep on a roadmap for getting your kids to rap music, from Sugarhill Gang to whatever is happening in the genre right now. How do you approach conversations about lyrical content, specific life experiences that aren’t our own, and answer questions you never thought you’d have to answer (yikes.) Along the way we talk about A Tribe Called Quest’s timeless masterpiece, The Low End Theory, and Jurassic 5’s rap primer for white people, Quality Control. Plus, we build our rap album and artist hall of fame. Plus, what are we listening to this week?
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Jurassic 5 - Quality Control
Outkast - ATLiens, Aquemini, Stankonia
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly, Good Kid MAAD City
Jay-Z - The Blueprint, Reasonable Doubt, In My Lifetime Vol 2 (Hard Knock Life), The Black Album
Tupac - All Eyez on Me
Notorious BIG - Ready to Die
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Madvillain - Madvillainy
Nas - Illmatic
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, College Dropout, Yeezus
Kali Uchis - ORQUIDEAS
Sampha - Lahai
A New Year (01:00:23)
Dave and Caleb welcome in 2024 by naming the best albums for starting a new year. What albums best capture that fine line between eternal optimism and existential dread about what could come? Dave suggests Prince’s 1999, a party album preoccupied with nuclear proliferation in the early 80s, and Caleb brings Jamie xx’s dance party in a jewel case, In Colour. Along the way, they unpack what it was like to first be exposed to Prince as kids in largely conservative environments, and the daunting task that is working through Prince’s catalog. Before that, they talk through the things from 2023 that consistently brought them joy, and cap everything off with what they’re listening to this week.
Albums discussed at length this week:
Prince - 1999
Jamie xx - In Colour
2023 (Our Top Tens Episode!) (01:12:23)
Dave and Caleb are wrapping up 2023 with our inaugural top tens of the year, plus loads of honorable mentions and singles. We count it down 10-1 and hopefully introduce you to some of your new favorite music!
Our favorite albums of 2023:
Alex Lahey - The Answer is Always Yes
Boygenius - the record
Bully - Lucky for You
Danny Brown - Quaranta
Jamie Branch - Fly of Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))
Jamila Woods - Water Made Us
Militarie Gun - Life Under the Gun
Noname - Sundial
Roisin Murphy - Hit Parade
Sampha - Lahai
Slowdive - Everything is Alive
Slow Pulp - Yard
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
There Will Be Fireworks - Summer Moon
Wednesday - Rat Saw God
Yazmin Lacey - Voice Notes
Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard
Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume
Let's Make a Christmas Mixtape! (01:02:02)
This week we're doing something different, a game we call Let's Make a Mixtape. Our friend Hana Kim joins us as we draft 18 Christmas songs that we're publishing as a playlist you can listen to on Spotify or Apple Music. But there's a twist -- when it's someone's turn, they get to not only draft a song and performer, but also they get to draft where on the mixtape it goes. Merry Christmas!
Hosts: Dave Sandell & Caleb Gardner
Spotify playlist
Apple playlist
Christmastime (00:42:25)
December is here and we’re ready to get in the Christmas spirit! Or Dave is at least. Dave brings Caleb on a magical journey through a season of lights and traditions and a spiritually moving season, while Caleb keeps us grounded in the stress and consumerism of the holiday. But, one thing they can both agree on is that the nostalgia of 1987’s A Very Special Christmas with artists like Run DMC, Whitney Houston, Madonna and U2 can immediately get you in the spirit of the season. Meanwhile, Dave suggests an album that may be new to many listeners, the Will Scruggs Jazz Orchestra’s Song of Simeon: A Christmas Journey, which tries to bridge the gap between religious sentimentality and holiday pop that most Christmas music falls into. Grab some egg nog and a candy cane and join us for our first Christmas episode.
Discussed today:
A Very Special Christmas, Volume One (Various Artists)
Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You
Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas
Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship - Song of Simeon: A Christmas Journey
The Sufjan Stevens Christmas EPs
Danny Brown - Quaranta
Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions
The Smile - “Wall of Eyes”
Getting into Caleb & Dave's Favorite Band (01:09:18)
Dave and Caleb celebrate their November birthdays by introducing you to one of their favorite bands, the Scottish indie rock legends Frightened Rabbit, and their seminal break-up album, The Midnight Organ Fight.
Discussed today:
Frightened Rabbit’s catalog
Spiritual Cramp - Spiritual Cramp
Jamie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))
Sweater Weather (00:55:28)
The leaves are changing, the hot apple cider is brewing, the bonfires and bonfiring, and Dave and Caleb are ready to crown the best album for autumn. What are the albums that we pull out for just a few months each year that are elevated by the invigoratingly crisp air and the cozy trappings of fall? Throw on your favorite cardigan and re-discover Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago and Yo La Tengo's I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One, plus many, many more recommendations (but no Nick Drake, apparently. How did we forget about Nick Drake?)
Music discussed today:
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
Big Thief - UFOF
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
James Blake - Overgrown
The Cure - Disintegration
Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
Slowdive - Slowdive
Feist - Metals
O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack
Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
Slow Pulp - Yard
Thanks For Coming - What Is My Capacity to Love
Cleo Sol - Gold
Cleo Sol - Heaven
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
2:00 AM Becoming 1:00 (00:41:13)
Daylight Savings Time is upon us, and Dave and Caleb are celebrating by choosing albums that sound great at one in the morning. What makes an album sound best in the dark, wee hours of the morning? Dave gets into one of his all-time favorites, Portishead’s trip-hop classic Dummy, and Caleb goes all catharsis with M83’s Hurry Up We’re Dreaming.
Music discussed this week:
Portishead - Dummy
M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Young Thug - Jeffrey
Jamie XX - In Colour
Nine Inch Nails
Radiohead - Kid A / Amnesiac
DJ Koze - Amygdala
Frank Ocean - Blonde
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
Big Head - The Worst Is Yet to Come
Sun June - Jaguar
Spooky Season (00:47:07)
Halloween is upon us, and after a quick stroll through all things traditions and family policies, Dave and Caleb unpack what makes a song spooky? Is it the song itself, or are the images we associate with it doing half the work? Along the way, they give picks for music that is genuinely terrifying and music that hits the more playful side of the season.
Music discussed today:
John Carpenter's Halloween Soundtrack (1978)
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Nine Inch Nails
Fever Ray & The Knife (song featured from Fever Ray's self-titled)
The Misfits
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
L'Rain - I Killed Your Dog
And then a bunch of stuff that we don't necessarily recommend you listen to. Happy Halloween!
Becoming a Swiftie (with Sydney Bauer!) (01:06:40)
Taylor Swift is a global sensation with legions of devoted fans who call themselves "Swifties." Surprisingly, your hosts Dave and Caleb -- a.k.a. two dads in their 40s -- aren't among them. But in the midst of the year of Taylor, we wanted to find our way in. So we enlisted our friend Sydney Bauer, a self-professed Swiftie to give us three records and three weeks to fully take them in, and then guided us through a proverbial walking tour of what makes Taylor so singular and beloved. We did our homework, and now we're ready to name the best album for becoming a Swiftie!
Hosts: Dave Sandell and Caleb Gardner
Guest: Sydney Bauer
Music discussed in depth today:
Taylor Swift - Red
Taylor Swift - 1989
Taylor Swift - Folklore
Taylor Swift - Evermore
Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps
Miss Americana documentary
Every Single Album podcast from The Ringer
Starting a Bar Fight (01:00:46)
If movies like Roadhouse and Fight Club taught us anything, it’s that every bar fight is accompanied by a catalyzing track. Today, two pacifists take another trip into their imaginations to determine the album that could come on that would make you want to defend someone’s honor (or at least buy groceries a little harder.) Dave takes us to punk’s roots with Iggy & the Stooges’ Raw Power and Caleb dips into 90s angst with The Offspring’s Smash.
Music featured today:
Iggy & the Stooges - Raw Power (Iggy Pop mix)
The Offspring - Smash
McClusky - new songs
McClusky - McClusky Do Dallas
Death Grips - The Money Store
The Stooges - “I Wanna Be Your Dog”
The Pixies - Doolittle / “Gouge Away”
Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
Rage Against the Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles
Slowdive - everything is alive
The Chemical Brothers - For That Beautiful Feeling
Disclosure - Alchemy
Taking a Time Warp to 1966 (01:13:40)
Dave and Caleb hop in their DeLorean to travel back to the year 1966 and decide which album they most want to experience in the time of its release. They talk about the frenzy that surrounded every Beatles release and what it must have felt like to experience your favorite band going in new directions like the Beatles' Revolver. And they imagine being in the audience to experience the power and magnitude of Nina Simone in the year she released Wild is the Wind.
Music discussed this week:
The Beatles - Revolver
Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep – Mountain High
The Rolling Stones - Aftermath
13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds...
Otis Redding - The Soul Album
Roisin Murphy - Hit Parade
James Blake - Playing Robots Into Heaven
Olivia Rodrigo - Guts
Going Home Again (01:16:34)
They say you can’t go home again, but this week Dave and Caleb make an attempt to as they think about hometowns. The good, the bad, the people, what it means to bring your full grown up self to a place where you are perpetually 17 years old, and importantly, the power of music to become containers for all the parts of your life; songs that mean something to you as a kid and grow and mold with you as you get older, so that they feel both present and meaningful and "like home." They dive into the Smashing Pumpkins’ seminal album, Siamese Dream, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. And then they briefly discuss country music and all of its baggage in light of the album that most sounds "like home," Garth Brooks’ 18-million-selling album, No Fences.
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness
Garth Brooks - No Fences
Noname - Sundial
New Pornographers - Continue as a Guest
Sufjan Stevens - “So You Are Tired”
Slowdive - everything is alive
Olivia Rodrigo - “Bad Idea Right?”
Starting High School (01:01:05)
Dave and Caleb go deep on how they formed their imagination for high school (spoiler alert: Saved by the Bell shows up) and what types of feelings and memories shaped their mindset as they remember entering high school, with all its misplaced promise and unearned swagger and raging hormones. They turn to two bands who uniquely understood the assignment — Blink 182 and the Beastie Boys — and dive into a classic and a little-less-classic album from each. Grab your trapper keeper and start the countdown to college as they pick the best album for starting high school!
Albums discussed today:
Blink 182 - Blink-182, Enema of the State, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, Dude Ranch
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication, Check Your Head
Ratboys - The Window
Rob Moose - Inflorescence
Retreating to the Woods (with Quentin Coaxum!) (00:58:54)
Dave is joined this week by a special guest, Quentin Coaxum (https://quentincmusic.bandcamp.com). Quentin is a professional trumpeter, composer and teacher in the Chicago area, where he’s performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Pitchfork Music Festival. Dave and Quentin go deep on two very different records they recommend for retreating to woods, including the lush “Sing to the Moon” by Laura Mvula that could accompany you on a walk in nature, and the lovely, dark and deep “No More Shall We Part” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds that is better suited to a cabin in fifteen feet of pure white snow.
Music discussed today:
Quentin Coaxum - You & I
Laura Mvula - Sing to the Moon
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Blu - Her Favorite Color
Goldman - Sometimes
Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire for No Witness
Smog - Rock Bottom Riser
Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
The Black Keys - Chulahoma
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On?
Whitney - Light Upon the Lake
Al Green - I’m Still in Love With You
Al Green - Let’s Stay Together
Wilco - Kicking Television
Jumping in a Lake With Your Friends (00:51:24)
Dave and Caleb make one last splash before summer comes to a close by determining the best album for jumping in a lake with your friends, including a surprise album that neither of them like all that much. Can an album be a 'best album for' if it has 5 killer tracks and a ton of filler? They also discuss why rock music production from the last 20+ years all kind of sounds the same, and how that affects the mood of a party as opposed to music from every decade prior to 2000 that transports us back to a specific time and place. Plus, what's the value of interludes and skits on albums and much more.
Music discussed today:
Future Islands - Singles
The Killers - Hot Fuss
Duran Duran - Rio
Taylor Swift - 1989
Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, MAAD City
Restraining Order - Locked in Time
Driving by a Group of Youths (00:57:53)
In today’s episode, Dave wants to bring you in on one of his most embarrassing behaviors that began with a brilliant attempt to be cool in high school, and Dave and Caleb attempt to determine what songs you can blast from your car that will, for a brief moment, make sure the high schoolers you are driving by know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are cool. Also, they have an episode-long conversation about 90s hip hop, Kendrick Lamar’s best album and more. Plus, they answer the age-old question: Are the Misfits a band or a very successful t-shirt company?
Music discussed today:
Cypress Hill - Black Sunday
Missy Elliott - Under Construction
The Misfits - Static Age
The Misfits - Walk Among Us
Elijah and Jammz - Make the Ting
De La Soul - Three Feet High and Rising
Too many 90s hip hop acts to count
Burying a Body with a Friend (00:57:42)
You get a call in the middle of the night from your best pal, panicked and determined. Something unthinkable has happened. Things will never be the same. And now you have to pick the best album for burying a body with a friend. It’s a listener suggestion this week on Best Album For! Dave and Caleb are explore why people are so drawn to true crime and how they fine tuned their picks for such an unseemly topic. It’s a doozy, people. Along the way, they talk about how much screaming is too much in metal music, revisit their unfortunate brush with nu-metal and explore one of the finest musicians of their lifetime that hasn’t gotten her due.
Music discussed today:
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Deftones - White Pony
Deftones - Around the Fur
Deafheaven - Sunbather
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
PJ Harvey - Stories from he City, Stories from the Sea
Toadies - Rubberneck
Future Islands - Singles
bdrmm - I Don’t Know
Working Out When You Don't Want To (00:51:46)
Dave and Caleb lament how easy it is to lose momentum on work outs and pick their best albums for getting out of bed or out the door to get a work out in when you're really unmotivated. Caleb takes us into 1980s hardcore punk and Dave presents one of his all-time favorite albums that rarely gets its due. Plus, what we're listening to this week.
Music discussed today:
Minor Threat - Out of Step
The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
The Prodigy - Fat of the Land
Discovery - LP
REM - Monster (and other music from The Bear Season 2)
Getting Work Done at a Coffee Shop (01:04:45)
Dave and Caleb explore their ideal work settings and choose the album for the inevitable times you’re stuck in a coffee shop with bad reggae covers playing in the background. Along the way, they explore where jazz music sits for them in 2023, and Dave reveals the origin of his very confusing AOL screen name.
Music discussed today:
Mark Farina - Mushroom Jazz Vol. 4
Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
Quentin Coaxum - You & I
Nico Segal - Tell the Ghosts Welcome Home
DJ Koze - “Candidasa”
Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman…
Dave’s longlist of early 00s electronic artists you can work to:
Amon Tobin
Bonobo
Cinematic Orchestra
Kruder & Dorfmeister
Luke Vibert
Mr. Scruff
Nightmares on Wax
Peace Orchestra
Pete Rock
Telefon Tel Aviv
Tosca
Thievery Corporation
Ulrich Schnauss
Anything on Ninjatune
Solo Road Trip (01:10:31)
Dave and Caleb hit the open road and pick the best album for a road trip by yourself. Along the way, they talk about guilty pleasures, whether one can dance while driving a car, the scourge of hidden tracks on CDs, saccharine songs that haven’t aged well, and two unassailable albums for solo road trips.
Music discussed today:
Aphex Twin - “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f”
Christine and the Queens - Paranoia, Angels, True Love
Counting Crows - This Desert Life
Nico Segal / Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment - Surf
Prince - Purple Rain
Robyn - Body Talk
Roisin Murphy - “Fader”
Run the Jewels - rtj2
Slowdive - “Kisses”
The Smile - “Bending Hectic”
Tom Petty - Wildflowers
The Urge - Receiving the Gift of Flavor & Master of Styles
Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard
Listening to Music in the First Half of 2023 (Best of 2023 so far...) (01:07:17)
Dave and Caleb present a special episode entirely dedicated to new music from this year as they count down their individual top 5 lists of 2023 music so far, plus a peak at what they’re excited about for the rest of 2023.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Albums recommended in this episode (not in this order):
boygenius - the record
Brutalismus 3000 - ULTRAKUNST
Debby Friday - “So Hard to Tell”
Indigo D’Souza - All of This Will End
Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?
Lil’ Yachty - Let’s Start Here
Wednesday - Rat Saw God
Yazmin Lacey - Voice Notes
Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
