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Ladytron’s ‘604’ vs. My Morning Jacket’s ‘At Dawn’

May 27, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 48

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a quick look at Ladytron’s 604 as it faces off against At Dawn by My Morning Jacket.

There was a time when I would buy records based solely on the label. Dischord never missed. 4AD? Odds were high you’d love what they were issuing. K Records? Whether or not it matched my tastes was up for grabs, but you could bank on it being something quirky, and that screamed “Olympia.” Wax Trax! was the gift that kept on giving for a kid who was both into hardcore and synth pop. The late ’80s and early ’90s were wildly dissonant for me musically. Nettwerk was right there too, with offerings sometimes less for the dance floor, more toward the after-after-after party. I was always happy to take a flyer on these types of records, even if I didn’t bat 1.000.

Seeing Ladytron’s 604 was on Nettwerk, I was surprised I’d missed them. Turns out that just the reissue was on the label, but that doesn’t explain how I’d missed the band entirely. I guess by ’01 I’d tuned everything out, even stalwart genres like synthpop.

Reading up a bit, I kept seeing “electroclash” tossed around, and maybe it’s just me, but I’m not seeing it. What I am seeing is a band whose members 110% have a Kraftwerk record or two in their collection. Stereolab as well, right down to the dueling female vocalists—and stylings—in Mira Aroyo and Helen Marnie. They’re cooler than you, but don’t flaunt it. The sort of icy personality that would also definitely let you bum a dart. Tracks like “CSKA Sofia” are a bit of spacy noodling, but “Paco!” is pure uncut new wave, and I’m here for it. You could’ve told me this was released in ’89, and I would’ve believed you. It’s the sort of thing I spent a lot of time listening to while riding the bus downtown to places like Dudley’s (RIP) to pick up some import or another. Same story with Playgirl and Discotraxx.

In fact, I could swear I’ve heard these all before. They’re just vaguely familiar enough to convince me I have, even though I know otherwise.

At 16 tracks, it’s a bit too long. There’s an incredible 10–11 track record in here. Some of the padding feels like a mandate to flesh out the song count to “fill” the CD (were we still doing this in ’01? I can’t see any other reason why “Laughing Cavalier” made the cut.), but the good far outweighs the bad.

I’m bummed I missed this before, but I’m happy to have found it as part of this challenge. This is one I’ll definitely be returning to.

I can tell you that had I heard My Morning Jacket’s At Dawn in 2001, I would’ve had no time for it. I had no taste for this sort of woozy Americana jam-band stuff. Times change. It’s not bad! “Lowdown” reminded me of those slow summer mornings where it’s already humid, but the searing heat hasn’t yet kicked in. If I had a front porch, I’d sit out there and listen to this sort of thing while watching the world go by. “Xmas Curtain” has a nice slide guitar (or steel pedal, who knows?) that, in ’01, would’ve had me spraining my finger by smashing the fast-forward button. 25 years on, and I find that sort of thing endearing… in limited doses. It works here.

Similar to 604, there is a 10-track “10” in here somewhere. A couple of tracks went straight onto my playlists, a few were objectively pleasant— if not for me—and a couple left me shaking my head. Put your lighters down, this is not a ballad band. I will be fine never hearing “If It Smashes Down” or “I Needed It Most” again. I would’ve scotched this in a hot second 25 years ago, and almost did just now. Sorry, not sorry. Tracks like the aforementioned “Lowdown” and “Just Because I Do” are what they do best.

Bottom Line: So! We’ve got two wildly different new-to-me records whose only common ground was the year of release. On paper, this should be a lock for Ladytron. Once a synth kid, always a synth kid. But My Morning Jacket was better than I was expecting. If I’m honest, I’d be okay with either of these going through to Round 2. We could do worse.

Looking at my bracket, I have Ladytron pegged as winning Round 1. Apparently, I’d already taken a flyer on 604. Hopefully it pays off.

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my take? Sound off in the comments!

A Quick Look at Drive By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera at 25

May 26, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 47

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a quick look at Drive By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera.

The irony of a concept album about the “duality of the Southern thing” being released in the immediate fallout of 9/11 isn’t lost on me. Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera is a concept album that kinda sorta follows the story of the fictional band Betamax Guillotine, which is loosely based on the real band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

That means it takes place in Alabama, and if you’ve ever been to Alabama, you know just how hot, humid, and angry a place can get. It’s a place where the air can kill you and, at the very least, influences every corner of your life. And in this universe, the Confederate flag, muscle cars, and Bear Bryant reign supreme.

Why bother recording a semi-fictional concept record focused on Southern identity and rock music’s place in it? For DBT, it was a way to delve into the South’s influence on American rock while at the same time reckoning with the stereotypes and skepticism that still plague this part of the country. If nothing else, using Lynyrd Skynyrd gave them a sort of scaffolding to work with. The first part starts in the late ‘80s and captures the supercharged existence of people just on the cusp of adulthood and those grappling with one that didn’t quite turn out as planned.

The Skynyrd theme is carried all the way to the final track, “Angels and Fuselage,” which takes on the plane crash the band was in and the one a bunch of them didn’t walk away from.

Or put another way, why not?

This is the band’s only double LP, and it uses all the runway to tell the story they wanted to tell—and the way they wanted to tell it. To my ear, it feels as ambitious as it does claustrophobic. A record made in a place where swamp coolers give their lives fighting a battle they were never gonna win, and where horsepower under your hood says as much about you as your family name.

Structured as a two-part story across its two discs, Southern Rock Opera is the record that put the band on the map and launched a thousand message boards. There are quotable lines around every bend and riffs that hit harder than a midsummer thunderstorm. It sounds as good on Alabama back roads as it does at a suburban barbecue, and while I’m not sure the cargo-shorts collective truly gets the message 100% of the time, it’s not for lack of trying.

Best tracks? Take your pick; there’s plenty of them. No one gets out of Zip City alive.

Bottom Line: This is up against Tricky’s Blowback LP. Shame really, as it’s a solid record that drew an awful seeding. The suburban dads are my people and bands like DBT are our totems. Southern Rock Opera for the win.

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my take? Sound off in the comments!

The Sound of Nostalgia Breaking Down

May 13, 2026May 15, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 38 | Fennesz ‘Endless Summer’

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a look at ‘Endless Summer’ by Fennesz.

Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challenge and noted that I’d be writing some of these up.

The plan is to do quick hits on each first-round matchup and post them directly to the page. Some will be longer, some won’t, and some might just be a handful of sentences. There’ll ~~probably~~ be a few typos. We’ll also have a few guest posts along the way, so make sure to stay tuned for those!

Check ’em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks always appreciated.

KA—

Somewhere deep in the pile of digital detritus otherwise known as my “photo library,” there is a great shot of one of my sons. He’s probably 6 or 7, and holding a wakeboard and jumping waves. He’s got a bucket hat on and is silhouetted against a Southern California sunset. It’s a photo I think every parent tries to take at some point. It’s not a particularly well-taken picture (me just getting him in the frame should be seen as a win), but it doesn’t really need to be. The sun and the Pacific are doing all the work here. To me, this picture is “summer,” it’s got sun, sea, and a family-sized dose of nostalgia. It’s that weird sort of frozen-in-time aspect that draws us in, and the ideas we attach to summer (no school, warmth, having fun) that keep drawing us back.

Later on, the timeline might fill with things like road trips, hot summer nights, or being out on the water. It never rains in these memories, and the music’s always good.

The Beach Boys built a whole ass career on this sort of thing.

The picture I just described matches the cover of Fennesz’ Endless Summer album. There’s silhouettes of people ostensibly on a beach. You can assume it’s warm (there’s no parkas in sight). You could, in fact, slip your own cover art in and not miss a beat. But that’s where the similarities end.

This is not a record of walls of sound or harmony. There’s barely any rhythm. In its place is a lot of cracking, bleeps, and bloops. In Fennesz’s world, the word languid doesn’t exist. Everything’s jittery, and everything skitters. Tracks have layer after layer, but the strata are fractured.

There are people who will stroke their chin and try to rationalize this sort of thing. These are the types of people who will look you dead in the eye and, with all the seriousness they can muster, tell you that there is some sort of deeper meaning here; that it’ll come to you if you just squint hard enough and lean in closer. There’ll be haughty tones galore as you’re told about “soundscapes” and creating an atmosphere.

I am not one of those people. Nor will I tell you that the music is happening in the space between the notes, or some other fakakta rationale. Sometimes people just like to play around in the studio and see what happens. There’s no need to assign a higher calling to it. Yes, music like this creates a mood; for me, that mood is usually agitation or mild annoyance. If I want to hear crackles, pops, and static, I’ll drag out an old record and play it. Calliopes belong on the deranged playgrounds in horror movies, not a record with surfers on the cover!

We tell ourselves those summers will never end, even though just the fact that we’re looking back on those days means they already have. Maybe that’s the allure of places like California, or just the beach in general.

And maybe that’s part of why this sort of record will never really resonate with me. Given a long enough timeline, everything is ephemeral. Those pictures come with their own built-in sunny soundtrack. Fennesz is showing us what happens as those pictures decay.

Bottom Line: This was up against Four Tet’s Pause album. That one didn’t exactly thrill me, either, but for my money, it’s definitely the better of the two. No pausing or second thoughts here; my bracket pick and vote are going to Four Tet.

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!

Aaliyah’s Red Album: A Break Out Record Frozen in Time.

May 12, 2026May 11, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 37

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a look at Aaliyah’s self-titled record, aka “The Red Album.”

Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challengeand noted that I’d be writing some of these up.

Check ’em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks always appreciated.

KA—

On August 25, 2001, a small plane crashed just after takeoff in the Bahamas, killing all 9 aboard. This event would likely have been lost to time had one Aaliyah Dana Haughton not been on the manifest.

In aviation, there are multiple layers of safety (the Swiss cheese approach). The idea being that if there is a hole somewhere, there’s another layer to stop things from getting through. Acting as one of those layers is a large part of my day job. It almost always works- there’s a reason we get to complain about things like bad food and long check-in lines and not planes falling out of the sky. There’s never just one single point of failure. But when the holes line up, disaster is usually inevitable. And in late August in Marsh Harbour, they did just that. I don’t want to go too inside baseball here, but almost everything that could go wrong here did. It’s maddening, tbh. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that this incident now serves as a great example of what not to do when it comes to flight safety and demonstrating preventive practices.

Just a few weeks prior, Aaliyah’s self-titled third album dropped. It was a turning point: a record poised to expand her reach beyond R&B’s borders. We didn’t know it yet, but it would also turn out to be the last we’d hear from her, the album now frozen in time as her final statement.

Working closely with Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and Static Major, Aaliyah leans into a hybrid of hip-hop, electropop, and soul. On this record, she’s cast off the New Jack Swing shackles of her previous two records (and R. Kelly, too, for that matter). “We Need a Resolution” wastes no time setting the tone—its stuttering rhythms and negative space give her voice room to glide. Elsewhere, “Rock the Boat” (they were returning from the video shoot when the crash occurred) slows things down into a lush, quiet storm anthem. It’s an all-timer, IMO. These two tracks are the album’s high points—both unmistakably “Aaliyah” and suggest an even greater artistic leap looming on the horizon. In a lot of ways, this reminds me of Janet Jackson’s “Control” album, right down to the red background on the cover.

Elsewhere, the record can feel uneven. There are stretches where the songwriting doesn’t quite match the sophisticated production (you can only pen songs about f**king so many different ways), and a few tracks blur together.

That said, it still makes for a compelling listen. Tracks like “I Can Be” experiment with distorted guitars and fragmented vocal loops, while “It’s Whatever” drifts into airy, soul. The record’s willingness to push at genre boundaries is undeniable—even when the results don’t fully land. I appreciate that she never feels like she has to oversell anything. She’s here, she’s singing, and that’s the deal.

Her death, just weeks after the album’s release, inevitably colors how it’s heard. Aaliyah captures an artist at an early peak, but I couldn’t help but think “what if?” while listening. In another universe, this would have been her breakout album- a statement record, if you will. Instead, it marks the end of life and a career cut down way too soon.

Bottom Line: This is up against Hope Sandoval. Both have incredible voices, and on paper, Sandoval would be my pick on the strength of her duet with The Jesus and Mary Chain alone. but the Red Album makes a compelling case. My bracket pick went to the late Ms. Haughton. My vote? Well, I’m not sure yet…

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!

Bright Flight Finds David Berman at His Most Spartan, and Most Vulnerable

May 11, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

On the Silver Jews’ 4th record, David Berman turns country influence into something wry, spare, and strangely intimate.

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a quick look at Silver Jews’ Bright Flight

Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challengeand noted that I’d be writing some of these up.

Check ’em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks always appreciated.

KA—

David Berman strikes me as someone who could spend a week fussing over a line or turn of phrase, the kind of writer who sets an impossibly high bar for himself and then plays it off, trying to convince the world none of it matters. That contradiction is at the fore on Bright Flight, a record made in Nashville, a city fueled today by polish and sounds ready-made for radio by people whose idea of a pickup is an $80,000 monstrosity that never leaves the pavement. This is not Berman’s Nashville, and these are not his people. He’s much more at home among the rogues’ gallery of characters in the city’s underbelly, yet his lyrical skill is as good as anyone at the song factory that dots the city.

The record is filled with stories that are relatable and ones that likely only make sense in his head. Put simply, these are some of the best words he ever put to paper. Listening to a Silver Jews record always feels a little voyeuristic, like we’ve swiped his journal and are reading by flashlight.

Musically, this is one of the most spare records he put to tape. That’s by design. In Berman’s world, “going country” isn’t about big sounds or high production. Everything has an intentionally amateur quality to it; there’s some dirt on the lens. It’s also the first Silver Jews album on which his wife, Cassie, makes an appearance.

Nashville has certainly left its mark. “Run Away with Me, Darlin’” is country 101, and “Tennessee” meets the textbook definition, but only someone like him could drop a line like “Come to Tennessee / ’Cause you’re the only 10 I see” and not have me spraining my eyes from rolling them too hard. His cover of “Friday Night Fever” is far enough removed from George Strait’s original that you’d be excused for not knowing it wasn’t an original.

We all know how this story ends, but before Berman’s mid-air breakup, Bright Flight gave us some of the finest Silver Jews songs to date.

Bottom Line: Bright Flight is up against Princess Superstar’s Is, another artist I’d never heard of, and whose record turned out to be a godamned delight. My bracket pick went to Silver Jews, but tbh, had I listened to Is ahead of time, you might’ve been reading a different sentence. Either way, either of these will be fun to talk about in Round 2.

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!

De La Soul Grow Up Gracefully on AOI: Bionix

May 10, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 35

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a look at De La Soul’s AOI: Bionix.

Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challenge and noted that I’d be writing some of these up.

Check ’em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks always appreciated.

KA—

A wise man once famously asked, “Well, how did I get here?” On AOI: Bionix De la Soul seems to be asking the same. Not in a bad, confused, old-man way, but in a bemused, slightly disoriented way. This is made by—and for—people who have graduated, moved out to the suburbs, and might have this playing while cleaning the house, instead of at a house party.

De La Soul sound older here, sure, but “older” doesn’t mean tired or reaching into a tired bag of tricks. They’re still playful, still clever, and still love a good sample. But there’s a polish on AOI: Bionix that makes the whole thing feel more measured than the chaos of 3 Feet High and Rising. Hard to put into words, but it feels like they turned the “sheen” dial up to 11.

That maturity works for me. In fact, it’s a big part of what makes the album interesting. Bionix isn’t trying to recapture youth so much as it’s trying to capture where the trio’s at. The record is uneven—feel free to skip “Pawn Star”— and tbh, it could probably lose three or four tracks and a few of the interstitial skits without sacrificing much (why are these skits a thing?!).

But even with the padding, the middle 100% holds. The production is smooth, the rhythms are locked in, and the samples are still doing that De La thing where they’re just familiar to recognize but also just far enough out of reach that you find yourself going to WhoSampled a lot.

“Baby Phat” is an obvious standout, and for good reason: it’s a banger. Or at least I think that’s still what we’re still callin’ ‘em. “Simply” and “Watch Out” also hit that sweet spot, with effortless grooves. They even took “Wonderful Christmas Time” and smoothed it out into something good. That’s a rare talent! Cee-Lo rocks up and puts in good work, as do Slick Rick and B Real. I’ve seen others comment that these two drag things down, but I didn’t see it that way. Sure, B Real is talking weed. What else did you expect? If anything needs to go, it’s the goddamned skits.

What AOI: Bionix really shows is that De La Soul could evolve without losing their personality. It’s not the wild, youthquake daisy-age energy of their debut, and it doesn’t need to be (nor should it). It’s a late-era album with some extra baggage but also a lot of charm, good taste, and enough great moments to make the uneven parts easy to forgive.

Bottom Line: This is up against Dismemberment Plan’s Change, a record that had we been doing in this in 2001 or even ‘02 or ‘03, I would’ve been lauding from the rooftops. This is very much the lane I was in at the time. And man, even now there are spots that just nail it, yaknow? If I squint hard enough, I can see mid-20s me, dart in one had, steering wheel in the other making my around town listening to this through (almost) blown speakers. They also get bonus points for helping to propagate Maritime (via bassist Eric Axelson); one of the best bands to come of Milwaukee. I dug AOI: Bionix more than I thought I might, but old habits die hard. No changing things up for me; Change it is.

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!

The Strokes vs. Ryan Adams

May 6, 2026May 15, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Two Music Nerds Revisit The Strokes’ Is This It—Does It Still Hit?

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a look at Is This It? as it faces off against Ryan Adams’ Gold.

In early fall 2024 Sam Colt and both took one look at Apple’s Best Records engagement bait and had, um, some “strong thoughts.”

We also decided that if we were gonna talk shit we should at least put our money where out months were. Distilled down, it was two avowed music nerds each making their case for a record, and the other one sharing their take. That itself was worth the price of admission, but we’re from different generations and grew up on opposite coasts. I wanted to see where our tastes would converge, and where they’d be miles apart.

The Tl; dr is each of us wound up hearing a ton of records for the first time. This was some real fish out of water type stuff for me, and I loved it.

Check ‘em out if you get some time. You can laud our great taste, or yell at us in the comments. Dealer’s choice!

At any rate, coming in as his #34 pick, Is This It was almost old enough to rent a car when I heard it for the first time. Fighting his corner, he said:

It’s hard to understand if you weren’t of age with Is This It dropped, but mainstream rock was pretty terminal with bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park dominating the airwaves. The Strokes felt like someone stuck a hot dagger in your belly. I first heard “Someday” in middle school and was immediately hooked. The music has this swagger that very few bands even attempt to have and even fewer can pull off.

And my take:

2001: I decide to take what’s supposed to be a 4-month temporary assignment back in Portland. My (now) wife decides to give corporate life the finger and come with me. I cross the country for the 4th time in 3 years. This time, I have a cool copilot and a car with working heat/AC.

It’s spring, and the world is full of promise. That’ll all change in the fall, of course.

Looking back, the whole year was kinda upside down (for a whole host of reasons). Musically, in a year when even New Order released a record, my favorite was Kylie Minogue’s “Fever.”

That’s a lot of words to tell you that I was in a musical desert. I know who The Strokes were, but outside of “Last Nite,” I knew more about Al Hammond Sr.’s music (“It Never Rains In Southern California”) than I did about his son’s band. For some reason, The Strokes, Jet, and a handful of other bands blur into one for me. That’s more of an indictment of my listening habits that year than anything else. At any rate, I was expecting 11 tracks that all more or less sounded like “Last Nite.” It was not the first time this week that I was wrong about something. “Barely Legal” is a favorite, and as I type this, has been playing on & off for a couple of days now. This record didn’t rearrange my mind, but it’s a rock-solid, straight-ahead rock record. Sometimes that’s more than enough.

Flash forward to today: I don’t know that I’d consider this an all-timer, but it was 100% a pleasant surprise. I still listen to more Al Hammond Sr. more than his son’s, but Julian Casablanca’s’ 11th Dimension is one of my more played songs over the last 12-18 months. It’s exuberance is like catnip for me.

As for Ryan Adams? I unironically and unabashedly love “New York, New York” and his cover of T Swift’s “All You Had to do Was Stay” blows the original out of the water. But that’s where it begins and ends for me, and I think that’s all I’m gonna say for now. I’m sure the discourse will be discoursin’, with people sharing their own strong thoughts on Adams, separating art from the artists, etc.

P.S. My #34 pick? Ella Fitzgerald- Ella Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook

Bottom Line: Is this It? Yes. Sometimes that’s all you need. Bracket pick and vote will both be going to The Strokes.

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros vs. The Beta Band

May 5, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 32

For a hot minute, I had a weird streak going: I’d make the drive from Portland to Seattle and tune into 107.7 The End as soon as it came in. And sure as shit, every time I did, I’d hear The Clash’s “Train in Vain.” They certainly made more tracks than that, and certainly made ones that are more resonant, but my point here (besides some musing about the universe working in mysterious ways) is that it was incredibly catchy and stuck with you long after you heard it. It felt like Mssr. Strummer, Jones, Headon, and Simonon could do no wrong. Then came the split, Cut the Crap, and the most important band in the world suddenly… wasn’t.

Flash forward a couple of years, and Strummer starts writing some songs and playing with the Mescaleros. There’s a record. Rock and the X-ray Style? Not his best work. To be fair, I think the world held him to a high- even if unfair- bar. And maybe this first one was needed to get his sea legs again.

Whatever, the second act would have to wait a bit.

So along comes Global a Go-Go, and it’s clear that Strummer has spent his time shaping the corners. This is an amorphous record that comes across like everyone brought some ideas to the garage just to see what might happen. Remember when you were a kid, and the fixins bar at Fuddruckers seemed like a dare? Yeah, like that. (Just me? Oh. Okay.)

At any rate, all of these elements make for what is often diplomatically called a ‘challenging listening.” It’s catchy in parts, and there are a few spots where I caught myself catching the groove, but it doesn’t have the cohesion of something like Train in Vain or Rock the Casbah. And that’s fine! At this point, the days of Combat Rock were firmly in the rearview mirror. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if having someone keep him in check a little bit would’ve helped. I mean, an almost 18-minute track to wind things up? C’mon. Some sort of editorial guidance (for lack of a better term) could’ve elevated this from simply interesting to really good.

You know, the kind of thing you hope is playing when you turn your radio on.

While Strummer & the Mescaleros come across as serious musicians trying not to be taken seriously, The Beta Band seems just the opposite. Hot Shots II is also a sprawling, throw-everything-in-the-mixer kind of thing. But sometimes a soufflé collapses in on itself. Every time I thought, “Ah, here we go!” something would shift… or, worse, an annoying crackle or pop that set off my misophonia. Maybe I’d like this better if I still got high? I dunno…

Bottom Line: On Bluesky, someone posted that Strummer should win everything this week, and I’m all in on that. Global a Go-Go it is…

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!

Weezer’s Green Album Is a Safe, Solid Reset

April 29, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 28

Cover art courtesy of Geffen Records

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a look at Weezer’s Green album as it takes on Melody A.M. by Röyksopp.

In my head, every Weezer fan is one of these two people. Reductive? Maybe. Accurate, probably.

At any rate…

At the risk of great bodily harm, here’s my tl;dr: Weezer didn’t follow up Pinkerton so much as they ran as fast as they could away from it. This was a good thing.

After the (at best) confused reaction to their 1996 album, Rivers Cuomo and co. went back to the drawing board and reeled things back. The Green Album plays like something of a reset button, a record built to avoid risk at all costs, and one meant to make you forget Pinkerton ever happened. No oversharing from Cuomo or blood-on-the-page type lyrics. No big swings, sound-wise. Instead, we got ten clean, efficient power pop songs that stick to the formula and rarely step outside it.

And for the most part, the plan works.

Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, the record is as streamlined as Weezer ever sounded. Crunchy mid-tempo riffs, stacked harmonies, and guitar solos that mirror the vocal melodies almost exactly. It is tight, polished, and an easy listen. You can hear the influences, too: bright 60s-style vocal hooks sitting atop thicker, fuzzed-out 70s guitar tones. Again, this is the band’s stock in trade, but they’re talented enough that it never feels derivative.

The album peaks early. “Hash Pipe,” “Island in the Sun,” and “Crab” are one of the best three-song runs in the band’s catalog. “Hash Pipe” brings a thick, sleazy riff with just enough bite to give the record some edge. “Island in the Sun” is the opposite; loose, warm, and about as effortlessly catchy as anything they have written. IOW, it’s a weapons-grade earworm. It was in ’01, and it still is in ’26, at least for me, anyway. “Crab” keeps things moving without losing momentum, sticking to the same structure and sticking the landing. I was too lazy to look, but if that was a single, I’m surprised it didn’t fare better. If it wasn’t, I’d be curious to know why.

Either way, that stretch does a lot of the heavy lifting here.

From there, the album settles in, and, well, kinda settles. Nothing falls apart, but not much pushes forward either. Cuomo had traded that raw, uncomfortable writing of Pinkerton for lighter, more surface-level lyrics. Again, that makes for an easy listen, a pleasant one, even. But it also opens the door to monotony, which the back side of the record comes perilously close to. If this is your thing, it’s a bunch of what you love. If it’s not, it can all feel like one big amorphous blob. The band deserves kudos for that consistency, but it comes with a cost. The songs start to blur together, built from the same pieces and delivered in the same way.

Still, I have to think that was the point.

The Green Album is Weezer playing it safe and doing it with discipline. Every choice feels controlled, from the short runtime to the repeated song structures. It makes for a smooth, no-frills listen that never overstays its welcome. You can throw it on, let it run, and not think too hard about it. If this had gotten stuck in my car’s CD player, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.

If viewed as a comeback record, it does the job. This course correction set Weezer back on track for the next several releases. The highs hit, and even the lows never drag things down. The whole thing moves quickly. Sure, the whole record leans heavily on those three standout tracks rather than the full tracklist, but that trio is strong enough to keep it in rotation.

This is not Weezer at their most ambitious or creative, and in the end, that was the right move. It is Weezer keeping things simple, keeping things clean, and getting back on track.

Bottom Line: Weezer’s up against Röyksopp’s Melody A.M., a pleasant enough record. There were parts that screamed “sync music” to me, but also some total delights like “Eple.” In the end, I can’t see it coming out on top here, but that’s down more to an unfair seeding/match up than anything else. Given a lower ranked/lesser-regarded opponent, it’s easy to see a scenario where this sails through. There’ll be some less deserving records that go through to round 2

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!

Garbage vs. Andrew WK

April 28, 2026April 28, 2026by KevinLeave a Comment

Best Record of 2001: Day 27

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a look at beautiful garbage as it faces off against Andrew WK’s I Get Wet.

Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challenge and noted that I’d be writing some of these up.

Check ’em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks always appreciated.

KA—

You can tell who is from Madison and who isn’t by how they describe the traffic. If they tell you it’s awful, they grew up here. If they laugh and say it’s not too bad, they’re a transplant. The only exception to this rule (IMO) is East Washington Avenue (aka East Wash). The arterial runs through the city and gets more treacherous the closer you get to the capital. While you’re fighting to stay alive, you might miss what’s left of Smart Studios.

Standing there forlorn at the intersection of East Wash and Baldwin streets, it’s easy to forget that some incredible records were made in Madison on the isthmus. Records from L7, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Young Fresh Fellows, and many, many more were all made there.

So it only stood to reason that when some of the people behind the boards on those records decided to make their own, the result would be great.

Former Angelfish frontwoman Shirley Manson joined producer Butch Vig, Duke Erikson, and Steve Marker, and together they crafted something unlike everything else we were hearing at the time. It’s safe to say that Vig was one of the architects of the grunge movement. It’s also safe to say that this record doesn’t sound anything like it. Whether it’s the woozy, buzzsaw opening guitar on the opener “Supervixen,” the creeping sound of “Queer,” or the in-your-face menace of “Vow,” it was exactly the new sound needed to fill in the void as the grunge wave began to ebb. Garbage 2.0 was more of the same, and we couldn’t get enough.

Would beautiful garbage keep the streak going?

Opener “Shut Your Mouth” sure makes it seem like it. The band–and specifically Shirley Manson— roar back with their trademark mix of snarling vocals and gritty industrial sounds. It’s all on brand and makes it easy to assume this’ll be a record stylistically similar to the two records that came before it.

Not so fast.

“Androgyny” leans a bit toward the pop light with an infectious hook and sing-along choruses. It’s catchy enough, but something feels undercooked here. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe the edges were sanded off just a bit too much? Then we get to “Can’t Cry These Tears.” This one goes all in on electro pop, right down to including some bells. I’m scribbling these notes the day we learned Nedra Talley of The Ronettes has passed, and all I keep coming back to is “this is a song they totally could’ve pulled off.”

Garbage is best when there’s some fuzzy guitar right up front, and “Til the Day I Die” has got that for days. And is it just me, or did they lift the riff from Funky Cold Medina?

“Cup of Coffee“ is the band’s stab at a ballad. Manson’s voice can carry just about anything, but I don’t think a ballad is what people are looking for from them.

“So Like a Rose” is a woozy bit of dramatic pop. Like if Kevin Shields let the fog clear a little bit.

Stylistically, this record is all over the map. There’s a fine line between “pushing creative boundaries” and “mixed bag,” and beautiful garbage isn’t quite sure which side to land on– especially when compared to the first two records. Part of me wonders if they were afraid fans would reject more of the same. I doubt it. People loved that! We wanted more of that spark; more of that techno-meets-industrial-meets chanteuse (with a little sampling thrown in for good measure).

It wasn’t exactly a world beater at the register, either. It wasn’t drawing in new fans and seemed to turn away older fans (though that seems to have changed over time). I’m sure dropping a record in the first few weeks following 9/11 didn’t help, nor did dropping “Androgyny” as the first single (one of the weaker tracks on the album, IMO). It’s not terrible, but just feels labored. Like they were meeting a contractual obligation, but were too proud (and too good) to drop an overtly shitty record.

Over time, people seem to have warmed to beautiful garbage. I wonder how much of that is down to being able to stream the good tracks whole, leaving the others behind.

The building where Smart Studios is located is now an Airbnb, and how people react to that is also a tell. Some think it’s lovely and are happy to see it invested in, while others see it as heresy. What’s not up for debate is that some world-changing sounds came from inside those walls, and Garbage’s is but one of them. And it still sounds like nothing else.

While Garbage may have worried about their record sounding like everything else they’d already done, Andrew WK bet the other way, going all in on being a one-trick pony. And taken at face value, it works. It’s a simple premise- make an over-the-top party record. Not everything has to be so serious all the time! There’s a time & place for that, and there’s a time & place to record that helps you just check out for a bit. This is the sort of thing that’s really easy to dismiss, but it takes a lot of work to make something look easy. It’s safe to say that a lot of music scolds were annoyed by this record. It’s also safe to say that’s always a good thing. Sometimes you just want a record so outlandish that it defies description. Something that sounds good cranked to 11 as you barrel down the freeway.

Bottom Line: Tough call. At first blush, I think Garbage will go through to Round 2 on reputation alone. Plus, I like that it was recorded a few miles from where I now live. OTOH, I like how forcefully I Get Wet pushes back on some of the navel-gazing styles people were embracing in ‘01. I Get Wet also doesn’t try to be anything more than what it says on the tin. My bracket pick and vote will go to Andrew WK.

Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!