There were a lot of great album’s released this past month, with a variety that we can only hope is setting the stage for the rest of the calendar year. In addition to our five favorite February albums, we’ve also got the best from this month 5, 10, 25, 30, and 40 years ago:
February 2019
Like a Swedish Japandroids, Spielbergs crash landed with last year’s EP, Distant Star, and made their full-length debut with This Is Not The End. Though the album is less focused and a little more meandering than some of their classic rock-meets-celebration punk peers like the aforementioned Vancouver band and others like Beach Slang and Cloud Nothings, its just as loud and rollicking as those bands at their best.
The debut album from British singer-songwriter Yola is like a mix of ’60s R&B and classic country pop. Walk Through Fire was produced by Dan Auerbach and positions its creator as the UK’s own Leon Bridges, dabbling in Elvis Presley and Sam Cooke influences with a modern touch.
Embarking on a new persona, Texas singer-songwriter Robert Ellis changed things up for his fifth album, Texas Piano Man. The album transports Ellis’ country stylings to a piano-driven landscape, where he makes the most out of a lounge-ier and suaver aesthetic.
Between their first and second album, Girlpool added a lot of instrumentation and drums. Although the music and songwriting was similar between that album and the recent What Chaos is Imaginary, there was a sonic difference in the new, lower notes reached by half of Girlpool, Cleo Tucker since he came out as transgender. In addition, there are a few synth sounds and some ’80s-style production that helps make all three of the band’s albums stand out from each other.
Recently relocated to Oslo, former Delta Spirit frontman Matthew Logan Vasquez‘s third solo album is a calming reflection on his past and his new future. The album, Light’n Up mixes themes of poverty, loneliness, and fear into nine songs that may be the best collection of Vasquez’s post-Delta Spirit output.
February 2014
Before 2014, the career of Boston band Lake Street Dive was not as defined as it is now. They had met and formed at the New England Conservatory of Music, recorded an album in 2010 that essentially went no where, and had no completely committed to the band yet. In 2012, they recorded Bad Self Portraits, but because lead singer Rachel Price was under contract with another label, it wasn’t released until 2014. Not only did that album solidify their sound — soulful, jazz-tinged, Southern-style rock that never takes itself too seriously — but it set them on a path towards the success they’ve enjoyed ever since.
Angel Olsen made her major label debut, Burn Your Fire For No Witness, with searing electric guitar and her haunting voice. The album’s slow burning folk and introspection is helped brought to life by indie super-producer John Congleton.
Although all the songs on Jesca Hoop‘s Undress appeared previously, here they take on a whole new life. They’re stripped down acoustic and often accompanied by a second voice, including Guy Garvey of Elbow, Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, and Sam Beam of Iron & Wine. The duet with Beam here would set the stage for the pair’s terrific collaboration two years later, Love Letter for Fire.
St. Vincent‘s self-titled fourth studio album played into her strength as a guitar virtuoso as well as any of her solo music had up to that point. St. Vincent is a taught 40 minutes of short stories and oblique poetry that builds tension only to cathartically break it when the listener least expects it.
On his sixth album, Benji, under the moniker Sun Kil Moon, Mark Kozelek hit upon the version of pensive folk music that may be his best version. The album’s plaintive way with words should not be mistaken for simpleness, as the songs are introspective and personal in ways that are more no-bullshit blunt than they are basic, and they are given all the room they need to breathe.
February 2009
The three post-Drive By Truckers but pre-sober Jason Isbell records are somewhat spotty in quality, but they all have strong standouts that make them worth the listen. On his self-titled album with backing band The 400 Unit, songs like “Cigarettes and Wine”, “Good”, and “The Blue” hint at the strength of songwriting to come from Isbell.
Ben Kweller took a step towards alt-country with Changing Horses, his fourth album, bringing some slide guitar, a few crooner-y ballads, and a little bit of twang to his patented mid-tempo piano-driven indie pop. Standouts include “Old Hat”, “Sawdust Man”, and “Homeward Bound.”
Stepping away from The Black Keys for the first time, Dan Auerbach touched on the more down-home aspects of the bluesy American music he spent over a decade exploring with his main gig. Keep It Hid is still soggy and CCR-like, but a little softer at the same time.
Because M. Ward released his sixth studio album, Hold Time, following his very successful collaborative album with Zooey Deschanel, She & Him, it felt like a welcome to previously uninitiated fans, as if to say, here is my baseline. And his baseline is folksy alt-country that emits warmth without ever feeling too polished or comfortable.
February 1994
The second album from California indie band Pavement remains a touchstone in its genre to this day. Taking a few cues from classic rock and tossing in their own signature sardonic lyrics and melodic country-tinged rock, the band reached as far into the mainstream as they ultimately would across their five album discography with 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
Cake’s simplistic tunes full of humor and horns define the band, and the sound arrived fully formed on their debut. Lead singer John McCrea’s dry delivery, offbeat phrasings, and Vince DiFiore’s trumpet lead the way on Motorcade Of Generosity‘s 13 tracks.
Although Dookie wasn’t Green Day’s first album, it might as well have been. The punchy punk catapulted the Berkeley band into our culture’s collective consciousness and is still their best selling album, even taking home a Grammy. Hit songs like “Basket Case”, “When I Come Around”, and “Welcome to Paradise” mingle with strong album tracks like “Pulling Teeth”, “Having A Blast”, and “She.”
Although primarily a producer and composer, New Jersey’s Jon Brion has also released some music of his own, including Ro Sham Bo, the only release from The Grays, formed by Brion and Jason Falkner the year before. Along with guitarist Buddy Judge and drummer Dan McCarroll, the band split songwriting duties, leading to a decent mix of tones throughout, ranging from heavy crunches to slick melodies to chiming guitars.
February 1979
George Harrison‘s post-Beatles output was as prolific as the Liverpool band’s had been during his tenure. In the decade following the release of Abbey Road, Harrison released six albums, finishing off the ’70s with his self-titled album, which ranks among his best. As we can expect from Harrison at the top of his game, George Harrison is full of gorgeous melodies and masterful guitar work, serving as a softer, more acoustic side of the fabbest four’s solo work.
Recorded the year before in front of 12,000 of Japan’s biggest Cheap Trick fans, Cheap Trick at Budokan features songs from the band’s first four studio albums mixed in with a few as yet unrecorded songs plus a cover of the Fats Domino song “Ain’t That A Shame.”
The Allman Brothers Band broke up in 1976 and reunited for Enlightened Rogues with a slightly different lineup. In a way, the album’s eight tracks are more reminiscent of their albums from the early ’70s, with Idlewild South and Eat a Peach producer Tom Dowd back in the studio with the band.
February 1969
Gram Parsons came, recorded six albums in eight years released under four different acts, and then he was gone. Parsons’ debut recording with Chris Hillman under the name The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin, came hot on the heels of their work on Sweetheart of the Rodeo with The Byrds. Bringing a little psychedelia and a little country to their pop-rock, Parsons and Hillman helped define a genre for years to come.
The Monkees first album after the end of their two-season run on TV, Instant Replay, included both new songs and songs that had been previously recorded but as yet unreleased. The album stays true to what the band was for the six previous releases, which was slick-sounding melodic pop music, almost to the point of Beatles parody like the fictional version they were written to be, and typically succeeds, stringing together earworms one after another.
20/20 stands smack in the middle of the murky deconstruction of The Beach Boys, and though it’s mostly a little slipshod feeling, the covers are well-chosen and the songs leftover from previous album sessions stand out.
It’d be understandable if you looked at the entire discrography of British supergroup Cream and wondered what was up with their fourth and final album, Goodbye. With an album each year between 1966 and 1969, the band had a short run, but following their stellar debut, Fresh Cream, and hot off the backs of the mammoth double-LP third album, Wheels of Fire, the album feels lackluster. At just six tracks, three of which were recorded live, the album, constructed in full knowledge of the band’s imminent break-up, pales when compared with the first three.