27 albums to be thankful for from the A Song A Day community
Note: Huge credit for this idea and pulling this together goes to the amazing Maria Bhim. Without her hype woman abilities, A Song A Day would have faded into the abyss long ago.
I promised myself and our curators that I would stop writing diatribes about how thankful I am for our community, so I’ll leave it at this: it goes without saying how grateful I am to have a such a strong and supportive community behind A Song A Day.
The music community has seen an unfortunate number of strange and devastating events recently: misogyny (intentional or unintentional), beloved platforms shutting down, and of course, the unfortunate and tragic loss of 120+ lives in Paris. But amidst all of the tragedy and loss, the community has come together to remind the world that music heals (as All Songs Considered reminds us) and brings the world joy.
Music bears much responsibility. It drives cultural movements. It expresses emotion. It sends messages of love, frustration, and confusion. It serves as a vehicle for expressing political standing, religious views, and gratitude. It taps into nostalgia and often causes us to reflect on the most important moments of our lives. Music is a powerful force.
In the spirit of giving thanks and Record Store Day tomorrow, some of our curators wanted to express their gratitude to not only our listeners, but some of the artists who have touched our lives in meaningful ways. With that, we put together a list of the albums we’re most grateful for.
If you’re grateful for our incredible community of curators and the music they share, I ask that you make a donation to our Indiegogo campaign or share A Song A Day with a friend who loves music as much as you do! We’re incredibly grateful for your support. There’s only 36 hours left to donate!❤
Listen to our favorite tracks from each in this Spotify playlist and see the full list below.
Maria Bhim, Curator of Eclectic Indie
Album she’s grateful for: “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” by Pavement
Why: This album was an education for me. My first gateway to indie music. And I’m not alone here, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is a base line for so many indie artists that followed. The best albums are the ones that grow with you, as you evolve, they do too. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is no exception.
Favorite track: “Gold Soundz”
Laura Gluhanich, Curator of World Music
Album she’s grateful for: EP by Anna B Savage
Why: I erroneously was describing ABS as the lyrical genius of Courtney Barnett combined with the vocal talents of Florence Welch or Neko Case. Someone presented the more accurate: the female Jeff Buckley. She’s that damn good. Especially on stage, just Anna and her guitar.
Favorite track: “1”
Adam Hurly, Curator of Dance Pop
Favorite album: Jagged Edge — Greatest Hits
Why: Very rarely do I find an album that A) gives me so much nostalgia and B) is entirely terrific all the way through. I re-found this compilation after searching for the “Let’s Get Married” remix, and ended up playing the whole thing on repeat multiple times. A great R&B re-discovery!
Favorite track: “Let’s Get Married (remix)”
Paul Adler, Curator of Emo Rock
Album he’s grateful for: “The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me” by Brand New
Why: This album, as far as rock goes, has a little bit of everything. It’s jam-packed with evocative, emotive lyricism and adventurous, unusual production techniques. I can listen to it when I’m elated; I can listen to it when I’m miserable; it’s the perfect record for me at all times, in all places. Nearly a decade on, I still listen through the album at least once a week.
Favorite track: “The Archers’ Bows are Broken”
Bryan Strang, Curator for Alternative Rock
Album he’s grateful for: “Free-For-All” by Michael Penn
Why: This isn’t my favorite album (that’s Queen II) nor even my favorite Michael Penn album (that’s Resigned), but it’s the one that came about at just the right time. For me. Not for the world. Quite the opposite on that, apparently, because this failed so miserably it basically derailed his career for the better part of a decade. I mean, the YouTube link to the songs from it don’t even have the right artwork (it’s from his first album, the one from which you’ve actually heard something.) And all this can only make me more thankful it exists and that I came across it when I did because obviously the odds were against it ever happening to me or to anyone.
Favorite track: “Strange Season”
Becky Welch, Curator of Indie Rock
Album she’s grateful for: “Left & Leaving” by The Weakerthans
Why: When I talk about the seminal albums of my youth, I talk about this one. It is one of the few albums I listened to in high school that I still love today. I discovered this band accidentally through a random person’s blog, and it started my obsession with discovering and sharing indie music.
Favorite track: “Aside”
Alex Manthei, Curator of Electro Instrumental
Album he’s grateful for: “Cicada” by Cicada
Why: This 2006 album knocked me off my feet the first time I heard it. It was a complete impulse buy (on CD no less; hey, it was 2006!) from a record store I don’t even remember where exactly in London. But it’s gone on to be a big influence on my musical taste. It’s one of those (rare) albums where every track is equally fantastic. And I love that all the songs are over 4 minutes long. The lead vocals are stunning — great voice, especially in “You Got Me Feeling,” which is crazy catchy. Lot’s of 80s electro nostalgia here, but the amazing thing is that these tracks sound just as fresh today as they did when Cicada came out.
Favorite track: “You Got Me Feeling”
Matthew Ström, Curator of Nugaze
Album he’s grateful for: “Pinkerton” by Weezer
Why: It’s a record full of catchy songs about heartbreak. It’s grimy and murky, but every single song is an earworm. With Pinkerton, Weezer put on a straight face and utterly torched the image of four DnD-playing super-nerds on the cover of their 1994 debut. It was a risky move, and it didn’t seem to pay off at the time — but it stands out and stands up 20 years later. Blue and Green will belong to the 90s, Make Believe and Maladroit to the 00s, but I think Pinkerton is timeless.
Favorite Track: “El Scorcho”
Priti Trivedi, Curator of Pop Rock
Album she’s grateful for: “Thriller” by Michael Jackson
Why: This is both a sentimental choice and an acknowledgement of one man’s vast contributions to both pop and rock music.
The sentimental side is this: I visited India, the birthplace of my parents, several times as a child. Our visits were punctuated by years of no contact with dozens of cousins and family friends, so every time my sister and I would arrive, it would be … awkward. What did we have in common with people four to ten years older than us, who lived ten thousand miles away? Answer: Michael Jackson. Three of my cousins in India were completely obsessed with MJ, and since my sister and I knew the music (and the dance moves), this album brought us together and is the soundtrack of some of my favorite memories of childhood visits to Mumbai. It brought our family together, and helped me forge bonds that last to this day. The acknowledgement side is: “Billie Jean” was the first music video by a black artist ever shown on MTV. The entire world loved Michael Jackson’s music, and let’s face it — every current major pop artist (I’m looking at you, Justin Timberlake) owes a debt to this album. You love this album! A side note: The documentary “This Is It” moved me tears. It was released months after his death, and in one scene MJ sings “I’ll Be There” for a group of studio musicians. The musicians stopped playing, and just let Michael sing, “Just call my name, and I’ll be there.” I CRIED, OKAY. MJ transformed the pain of his childhood into a genuine desire to entertain and enlighten the world, and he never stopped giving all of himself to the world, even when it just caused more pain. That commitment and vulnerability inspires me to be a better artist myself.
Favorite track: “Billie Jean”
Danielle Fleischman, Curator of Nugaze
Album she’s grateful for: “Have You In My Wilderness” by Julia Holter
Why: Julia Holter has really grown into herself as a songwriter with this latest album.
Favorite track: “Sea Calls Me Home”
Kyle Unzicker, Curator of Metal
Album he’s grateful for: “The Deal: by Sumac
Why: This is my favorite metal album of 2015. Sumac was born out of a years long desire by Aaron Turner to make heavy music with a certain kind of sound — he just never had the right people at the right time to do it. This sounds almost impossible — after all, this is the same Aaron Turner from Isis and Old Man Gloom. This is the same Aaron Turner who owned and operated Hydra Head Records. You’d think he’d have people lining around the block to work with him. In any case, it was worth the wait as this is some of the heaviest material he’s ever put out.
The track ‘Thorn In the Lion’s Paw’ is one of those songs that makes my whole body hurt from how well it’s put together. It is also the first song I ever selected for A Song A Day.
Favorite track: “Thorn In the Lion’s Paw”
Hugo Fauquenoi, Curator of Neo Soul & French Touch
Album he’s grateful for: “Flume” by Flume
Why: Thankful for the eponym album Flume as it made me discover a whole new world of electronic music. The atmospheric beat music produced by Harley Streten is a tracklist you can live by at any time of the day: on the way to work, chilling on the beach (I was in Australia back then), warming up a party, looking at the stars… Well, thanks Flume for disrupting the electronic music scene. Shall the beat goes on!
Favorite track: “Sleepless”
Janet Choi, Curator of Indie Pop
Album she’s grateful for: “11:11: by Regina Spektor
Why: Regina Spektor is 1 of the first openers for a band that I completely fell head over heels in obsession with. I remember ordering 11:11 off of cdbaby in college, remember cdbaby? This album mixed everything up for me — quirk without irony, fun, play, beauty — and even though it’s not a super heavy album or anything, that lightness and sense of possibility (what is this whole indie music thing!) helped me through some darker mental times and find something to connect with.
Favorite track: “Braille”
Mari Gunn, Curator of Funk
Genre she’s grateful for: “The Milk-Eyed Mender” by Joanna Newsom
Why: Joanna Newsom’s debut album opened my mind to the infinite possibilities of what beauty means in music. This is an album that made me.
Favorite track: “Peach, Plum, Pear”
Armaan Brar, Curator of Jazz
Album he’s grateful for: “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock
Why: Herbie Hancock came to prominence in the early 1960’s with his composition ‘Watermelon Man’. ‘Cantaloupe Island’ was recorded with a quartet consisting of Freddie Hubbard (tpt), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums). This slim and sparse melody has a soothing atmosphere and conjures up a Caribbean past of steamy islands and mystery. Note the insistent bass line and the melody that repeats over the unusual chord change of 4 bars F minor to 4 bars of C sharp 7th, and then on to D minor before returning to F minor. At this point in his career Hancock was a very original and outstanding composer. Enjoy!
Favorite track: “Watermelon Man”
Rebecca Fainberg, Curator for Instrumental Pop
Album she’s grateful for: “Bringing It All Back Home” by Bob Dylan
Why: This was the first album that Bob Dylan put out with his electric music. One side of the album was electric and the other side was acoustic. After ‘plugging in’ at the Newport Folk Festival fans weren’t happy and they thought Bob Dylan was selling out. Rock and Roll music was seen as selling out, the people who listened to it were seen in a bad light, the music and lyrics were seen as vulgar and inappropriate. Bob Dylan changed the way people saw rock music. He showed them that not only can rock and roll lyrics be poetic but that rock and roll lyrics can be anything anyone wanted.
Favorite track: “Maggie’s Farm”
Julia Maehner, Curator of Eclectic Folk
Album she’s grateful for: “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac
Why: One word: perfection.
Favorite track: “Dreams”
Brian Cervino, Curator of Shoegaze
Album he’s grateful for: “Loveless” by My Bloody Valentine
Why: I first heard this album freshman year of high school back in 1994. Up until that time I had been listening to the standard things a kid would listen to back then: pop punk, classic rock and grunge. Hearing the guitars and production mixed with those soft lush vocals forever changed how I thought about playing the guitar, writing songs, and recording. From that first listen my life branched out into shoegaze, industrial, ambient, and more and has never been the same.
Favorite track: “When You Sleep”
Caroline Fay, Curator of Indie Pop
Album she’s grateful for: The Big Chill Soundtrack (Deluxe)
Why: So the Big Chill is this fantastic movie from the ’80s about a group of friends reuniting after many years, and it’s got just about the best soundtrack around. Srsly come at me (via Twitter preferably) if you disagree. This baby’s got hit after hit, from Motown to classic rock to ’60s pop, and it has essentially become the soundtrack for my own high school friends and I. None of us live in the same city these days, but when we reunite — whether we’re camping in Joshua Tree National Park, boiling Dungeness crabs in WA State, or pregaming for shitty Brooklyn dive bars — y’all better believe The Big Chill soundtrack will be blasting.
Favorite track: “The Tracks of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson
Jesse Madsen, Curator of Punk
Album he’s grateful for: “Yes Darling, But Is It Art?” by Television Personalities
Why: I first heard Television Personalities in 96. It was pretty jaded times. My aunt was in college at the time. Her boyfriend seemed like the coolest person on the planet. He had a car and seemed to be genuinely ok carting around his girlfriend’s poseur nephew (me) to do cool things. Amongst the usual stacks of Nirvana, Fugazi, and Ramones was ‘Yes Darling…’
The accents seemed exotic (at the time). The lyrical references can lead you to other pretty great music if you let it. It’s subversive, funny, lo-fi and punk that lacks seriousness but isn’t naive or overtly pop. It’s music that makes you wonder what else you’re missing which is always a good thing. Their catalog can be daunting but ‘Yes Darling…’ was their first compilation and I’m thankful this poseur-ific skate punk from South Florida found it.
Favorite track: “Part Time Punks”
Kat Loughrey, Curator of Modern Jazz
Album she’s grateful for: “Black Radio” by Robert Glasper & Lalah Hathaway
Why: This amazing album was my introduction to discovering the cool modern jazz being created that I didn’t even know existed. I just fell down the rabbit hole from here… ! :)
Favorite track: “Cherish The Day”
Alex Yamamoto, Curator of Neo Soul
Album he’s grateful for: “Time for a Change” by French Kiwi Juice
Why: Just took a look at my SoundCloud profile today and realize that I’ve liked over 3000 tracks and follow almost 1000 artists, which is a metric fuck ton of music (apologies for the language). It wasn’t that long ago that I relied on multiple blogs and platforms like Groooveshark and 8tracks to find my music. So really I’m most thankful to Soundcloud for introducing me to all the music that I find today. It really is a goldmine of delicious sounds and nothing satisfies me more than the feeling of discovering something you’ve never heard before. One of my first and most vivid experiences of this on Soundcloud was when listening to French Kiwi Juice for the first time. He brings the funk like no other producer I’d heard before. But not only that, he also plays piano, bass, and guitar throughout the “Time for a Change” EP. That killer combination of live instrumentation with electronic production is where I believe the future of music lies and leads to the blending of genres which I think Soundcloud has played a huge role in fostering.
Favorite track: “Unchained”
Joanna K. Sobieski, Curator of Modern & Blues Folk
Album she’s grateful for: “The Day is Brave” by Brendan James
Why: The Day is Brave is the debut album of one of my all time favorite singer-songwriters Brendan James. It was difficult to choose just one of his albums to share, but I chose the Day is Brave because this is the album that contains one of a small handful songs that truly speaks to my soul. The first time I ever listened to this song, I felt a kind of spiritual awakening that I haven’t experienced listening to any other music. I am thankful for his lyrics which articulating the search for connection and inner meaning we seek by venturing out into the world. “I want to walk from this doorway, I want to open my mind, I want to pledge my allegiance to all I can find…” For those who share my deep need for exploration, this song is for you.
Favorite track: “All I Can See”
Matt Ciel, Curator of Post Hardcore
Album he’s grateful for: “Beggars” by Thrice
Why: Top to bottom great song after great song. This album really showcases Thrice’s growth as a band and how their sound changes and matures with the members. High recommend to all music genres, my favorite album!
Favorite track: “The Weight”
Mallory Johns, Curator of Ambient
Album she’s grateful for: “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck
Why: Dave Brubeck was my first introduction to jazz (and ambient music) in general, and initially was how my dad and I formed a lifelong bond over music. On Sundays was I was younger, my dad would throw Take Five on vinyl and we’d sit down and chat about the geniuses we were listening to on the record. In short, this album is one of the reasons why I decided to pursue an education in music and songwriting.
Favorite track: “Strange Meadowlark”
Diana Altieri Puglio, Curator of Indie Rock
Album she’s grateful for: “Come Around Sundown” by Kings of Leon
Why: So hard to choose, but this is one of those albums I can have on repeat for days, no problem. Highly recommend it for people who only know the Kings of Leon songs they hear on the radio. So thankful for this album…always gets me up on my feet to rock out ;)!
Favorite track: “Mary”
Shannon Byrne, Curator of Lo-Fi / Garage Punk
Album I’m grateful for: “Turn On The Bright Lights” by Interpol
Why: I went with the album that has had the biggest impact on me since moving to New York. I first listened to this album non-stop as an angsty teenager obsessed with The OC, morphing from the young punk kid I was in my pre-teens into a preppy high schooler trying way too hard to make people like me. It wasn’t until I became an angsty female in my mid-twenties that I revisited this album on repeat. I no longer cared what people thought of me, but I was struggling to find a foothold in a brand new city — Brooklyn to be exact — and this album helped me get through that.
You may have expected me to say that “NYC” is my favorite track, but it‘s “PDA” that has had the biggest impact on me, and is the song I fall asleep to often. It’s also almost the sole cause of me adopting the term “dear” into my vocabulary. The hook at 3:45 is still my everything. ❤
Favorite track: “PDA”
Your turn! What album or song are you most grateful for?
Happy Thanksgiving! ❤
