Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don and Dude.
But here we are again on the Album Nerds podcast.
Hi, I'm Dude.
I got Andy and Don with me.
Andy, how the hell are you feeling?
You ready for some podcast goodness today?
Wouldn't have it any other way, buddy.
I was up late last night crunching the numbers on Q2 here, guys.
And I gotta tell you, the prospectus is looking rosy for the second half of 2023.
Well, now that we know the ABCs of podcasting, always be casting.
All right, Don, how you doing?
Well, it's nice to see you guys.
It feels like it's been a while.
It's been ever long.
Oh my gosh.
That was terrible.
I feel like packing this thing up.
I was already having a rough morning.
You're not supporting me very well, Don.
Chokes like that.
Oh boy.
It needs enemies.
I'm just warming up.
Oh wow.
Warm up faster.
All right, so this is the Album Nerds podcast.
I'll be frank with you all.
We talk about albums here, music albums.
Today we've got a great show for you.
We're going to do that.
We're going to talk about three albums.
We're going to answer a question, talk about what we learned, spin the wheel of musical
destiny at the end of the show to find out what kind of albums we'll talk about on the
next show.
But this week it's all about them, new releases.
That's what I'm talking about.
Well here on the show, every few months we like to check in on what is new out there.
In episode 195 we reviewed some releases from the first quarter of 2023.
We did a record with a long album title by Yves Tumor called Praise a Lord Who Chews
But Which Does Not Consume or Simply Hot Between Worlds.
We did Depeche Mode, Momento Mori and Iggy Pop, Every Loser.
So today we're going to check in again with new releases and pick three more records from
the year 2023.
Just with the long titles this year, man.
Yeah, we got a couple book titles here going on.
Well and then we have things like, was the Jonas Brothers one called like album or something?
Yes.
And then there's a record we're going to talk about today that's just called The Record.
The Record, yeah.
So there's some of that going on too.
Yeah, people are either trying too hard or not hard enough.
Sounds kind of like this show.
Let's just call it podcast.
This episode is called podcast.
Yeah, right.
There you go.
New releases are challenging, especially for older fellas like myself because I tend to
gravitate toward existing artists that I'm already familiar with, which I will prove
out when we get to my pick for the week.
But I listened to the new Rival Sons album.
It is supposedly part of a two part series, which is the second one coming out later this
year so I figure maybe I won't even talk about that until a future new release show.
Squeeze in two albums for the price of one.
The Culture Wall album came out this month.
A Greta Van Fleet album came out.
The band that I just keep hoping is going to turn that corner and become great because
they've got it in them and that one's produced by Dave Cobb.
Oh boy.
So those are the things I would, you know, I listened to a bunch of different stuff,
but only one of them was really speaking to me this time around and we'll get to that
later.
How'd you guys do?
I did great, man.
I love these new release weeks.
Chance to catch up on what's been going on.
I'll mention a couple things that were towards the top of my list.
Pretty interesting like hip hop influenced jazz record by an artist by the name of Alpha
Mist.
Great, great name by the way.
It's called Variables.
Enjoyed that quite a bit.
Pretty interesting experimental rock country record by an artist by the name of Geese.
First I've heard of him.
His album was entitled 3D Country.
Geese, that's just...
It's just a person?
That's just one guy.
It should probably be Goose, right?
I mean...
I guess.
Maybe he was afraid of the Top Gun reference.
Yeah, probably.
And then speaking of long album titles, King Gizzard.
This was on my list too, but I wanted you to have to read it.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, they are outdoing themselves here.
Good record.
Do you want me to read the whole title?
It's like a...
It's more than a sentence.
Yeah, well first of all, the band name, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
We're already a mouthful of marbles here.
The line's mostly full just with that.
Continued.
All right.
Patriot Dragonic Apocalypse or Dawn of Eternal Night, Annihilation of Planet Earth and the
Beginning of Merciless Damnation.
Jeez, it's a great metal tinged album.
It's a good record, yeah.
That was one I would have liked to talk about, but I have a feeling I'm saving it for the
end of the year.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm wondering that.
Well, I turned to Tidal for its recommendations for me.
Apparently it thinks I'm into singer-songwriters.
I believe he was a Scottish guy named Hamish Hawk, an album called Angel Numbers, which
was pretty good.
It might have actually been, I wonder if it was because I was listening to the Proclaimers
a bit last week that thought I was into Scottish stuff.
I liked it too.
I checked that out.
I thought I'd...
Yeah, I enjoyed that too.
Another singer-songwriter, Steve Salit, I think, or Salé, album called First Landing
was decent.
The vocals reminded me a bit of the guy from The National.
And then kind of a Susie and the Banshee sounding group, Current Affairs, a record called Off
the Tongue.
Cool.
I got the same vibe from that.
I listened to it as well.
Okay, well, there's just so much to digest, but we boiled it down to three, so let's get
going on.
You choo-choo-choose me?
Hello.
Hi.
Where home is where?
Hi.
I have to poop.
Again?
Yeah, it's Gabagoo.
Gabagoo don't pay the bills out here.
Gotta love that.
All right, for my new release selection here, we're talking about home is where and pooping.
No.
The album is entitled The Weller.
We are going to play a little bit from the lead single.
This is Yes, Yes, A Thousand Times Yes.
This is the debut full length for the four piece emo group from Palm Coast, Florida.
What to say about this record?
So about three words I used to describe it are dinner with Jonah, little well joke there.
Thank you.
Well made in Calder.
Nice.
Is that from Star Trek IV?
Don't.
Sorry.
All right, so this is a pretty intriguing record.
I guess you would say it mainly lives in that sort of indie emo rock space, I guess.
There's some screamo in there too.
Yeah, there's some screaming in there.
Surprising actually, kind of the first time I was listening to it, it made me jump because
I wasn't expecting it.
Yeah, they definitely play into that big sort of dynamic shift between loud and quiet moments
on here.
A lot of similarities too, especially on that track we played there, it sounds a lot like
Modest Mouse to me, which popular indie rock group in the early 2000s there.
I also saw some similarities to Fungazi.
I hear some swans in there from time to time.
A lot of interesting influences for sure that they wear on their sleeves here.
Then they throw in this sort of like wailing, fishing side to the music, which I think is
a little bit confusing of a message.
I don't know if I really got exactly what the metaphor was.
Did you guys make any progress with that?
Talking about whales here, Moby fucking dicks.
I think I read somewhere that the whales were kind of just launching themselves to the whalers
or something.
Kamikaze whales, sort of?
Yeah, they're just kind of giving themselves up or something to be harpooned.
It seems like it.
Yeah, there's a lot of like dismembering of whales, I guess.
It's a very visceral album, I guess is how I would describe it lyrically.
It sounds like there's things very sharp and inviting and has kind of a crazy apocalyptic
energy to it, I would say.
I wonder, I suppose if the whales are kind of killing themselves, like if they're giving
up, then that's like the sign that it's the end, right?
Because sometimes we look to the clues in the sea.
When the animals start acting weird or whatever, then we know there's trouble.
So if the whales are just giving themselves up, then we're basically done at that point.
Right, right.
Have you guys heard these new stories about like whales attacking ships lately?
Like these reports of like different large ships being attacked?
They're taking back the ocean.
That's what I was thinking.
Maybe it's a whale takeover.
Yeah, it could be.
The dolphins are next.
That's right.
Watch out when the dolphins get on board.
Anyway, let's play another clip.
This is the closing track, Floral Organs.
Stories of the sea.
Yes.
Yeah, I guess what I enjoy about this album was like I kept wanting to figure it out.
So I turned to the lyrics.
On this track here, it goes at the end, climbing trees older than anyone alive, we braid our
intestines together, spitting teeth into each other's mouths back and forth until we make
a smile.
All right.
I think that was in my wedding vows, if I remember correctly.
So the three words I chose to describe the album are bored and afraid.
So that's actually part of a quote from the lyricist and front woman, Brandon McDonald.
She said the whaler was built around the idea of simultaneously being bored and afraid.
That reflects the pacing of the music and the loud and the quiet, I think.
But yeah, I guess I spent most of the time this week just trying to figure out what this
album is.
So there was an interview in the publication Consequence of Sound.
It says the album as a whole tells the story of the whole world being stuck in a time loop
on 9-11.
And like with tape loops, the more it plays out, the more it degrades.
People grow older and things change, but the collapse of the world trade center happens
every morning.
So the worst day in memorable history is every day.
Just stuck on it.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's a section of the album where the track five is Every Day Feels Like 9-11
and the next track is 9-12.
And I get into that being sort of apocalyptic end times loop thing that she's living out.
It's interesting.
I don't know how that fits in with the wows at all.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
That's where I was a little confused.
Yeah, me too.
But I find it interesting.
And like Don was saying, it feels like a puzzle to unravel.
And I thought it was pretty engaging.
Yeah, it's either a brilliant puzzle to unravel or it's nonsense.
And that's kind of the issue with records like this.
You have to decide early, which it is, so you don't waste too much time.
Kind of Frank Zappa-ish like that.
But musically, I appreciated it.
I'm going to quote another journalist here, sorry.
Ian Cohen from Stereogum said, a whimsy that turns both surly and surreal.
Wish I could write like that.
Surly and surreal.
But yeah, overall, I enjoyed the album a lot.
The problem with albums like these is they're kind of relegated to just me listening alone.
So it's not something I can really play in the house and have it appreciated by other
members of the household.
It's like reading a book, you have to sit down and pay attention.
Yeah, that's true.
Interesting.
So why is it that it wouldn't be just the style of music?
Isn't it enjoyed in your house style?
Yeah, I think just the abrasiveness and the crass stuff.
The screaming, definitely.
The screaming.
Screaming is, if an album is screaming, great.
People know what to expect.
But if it's, I am and then it kind of got a little weezer deal going on and then all
of a sudden it's ripping screaming and then you catch something about braiding intestines
and it's like, the hell are you making me listen to, man?
That could background music, I suppose, is accurate.
Why don't we play another cut from the record?
This is Every Day Feels Like 9-11.
I like the vocalist within songs, like a line being clean and then the next line is scream.
It's a gutsy approach.
So yeah, I mean, I was reading that the concept is that whole time loops and infinite possibilities
through repetition and that the world is stuck in that 9-11 time loop.
But I just couldn't, other than those two songs, the 9-11 and 9-12, I couldn't find
those threads.
I was having a hard time because maybe I just, there's not enough history with new releases
where it's been percolated through a lot of minds.
So all you have is a few reviews and what you hear and then it's challenging to make
sense of all of it.
The three words I used to describe the album were emo, folky, darkness.
Concepts were not super obvious to me.
I like the ideas, the disassociation, disillusionment.
I mean, obviously that's there.
I'll make attempts to continue to listen, but like we said earlier, I'm not sure that
it's really all there.
I'm not sure that I can put that broken piggy bank back together.
You know what I'm saying?
Can I find the glue to put the pieces together?
I mean, it's all very fascinating, but I can't see it.
Yeah.
I'm not sure there is a piggy bank there.
There might be pieces of one.
This is their debut full length record.
They're a fairly recently put together group, pretty young people.
It feels like a hodgepodge of interesting ideas.
I'm not sure it's a fully fleshed out concept and maybe won't be held up against the white
album in 50 years, but I think they have a promising start and some interesting ideas
here.
I like their sound a lot.
I think genre fans definitely would appreciate this record and maybe it's a little bit harder
to get into, but I think I found it pretty cool.
I would recommend it to most people who enjoy rock adjacent genres.
Once again, the album is The Whale by Home Is Where.
Yeah, it's available on all the usual streaming platforms.
Check it out if you haven't heard these guys.
I'm good enough.
I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me.
If you're enjoying the show and we sincerely hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review
on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app.
Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy, leaving a review keeps
the show going and helps other music fans find us.
That's why you're the boy genius.
So the new release I chose is from a group called Boy Genius.
Real boy of genius.
So in the album is called The Record.
Let's hear the kind of the big song right now.
Apparently it's on the AAA charts.
This is a song called Not Strong Enough.
For those of you who didn't work in radio, AAA refers to Adult Alternative Airplay.
So yeah, I see that it's just a really a perfect pop song and I like it not just because it
mentions boys don't cry in it.
She says something about drag racing around the canyon or something, listening to boys
don't cry.
Yes, we've all done that.
So Boy Genius is actually a super group made up of three solo artists, Julian Baker, Phoebe
Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus.
Three people I had not heard of before.
I heard of Phoebe.
Yeah, I think she's she found her way onto like the Taylor Swift tour and stuff as a
support act.
Now, I heard that their original name was the Expressway Women.
But Expressway Women, it didn't stick.
So they they released the self titled EP back in 2018.
And this is their their first full length album.
Apparently the title or the name of the group Boy Genius kind of refers to the experiences
they've had collaborating with with men, these characters who have been identified as like
geniuses since they were children.
And so when they're working with them and when you question the ideas of these geniuses,
you know, it makes for some mansplination.
Yes.
So I kind of feel like the spirit behind this project is that this is just three women not
having their ideas stifled.
I think most of the people involved in the production of this album were women.
The three words I chose to describe the album are not just hype.
So unlike a lot of super groups, you know, where I think they often end up being underwhelming
or disappointing, ends up just sort of being contrived or sort of a novelty.
I don't see this that way at all.
I mean, this just sounds like three people that want to work together, that are feeding
off of each other's creativity.
And I think it I don't it really works.
You know, I think there's there's a lot of magic here.
It's way more interesting than I expected.
You know, it's it's catchy and hooky, but it's also sort of musically it takes some
turns that are that are unpredictable.
But I think probably what I like most is just the lyrics.
You know, I tend to think of them as kind of intelligent, also maybe a little pretentious,
but self-deprecating at the same time, which is something I've always liked, you know,
kind of that that Morrissey style or, you know, but well, why don't we let's hear a
little more.
Here's a song called Satanist.
Solomon had a point when he wrote Ecclesiastes.
If nothing can be known, then stupidity is holy.
That song just sounded so 90s alternative to me that I made an immediate connection.
I just like the vibe of it and the harmonies.
Yeah.
So that song revolves around this protagonist that is urging their partner to embrace extreme
lifestyles like Satanism, anarchy, nihilism.
Despite all of that, the challenge of breaking away from society and the fear of being overwhelmed
by the radical decisions make you end up not doing them.
You know, and I just like I like Bible references.
I think it's when they're used cleverly.
I think it's fun.
Ecclesiastes, King Colette, had experienced everything and done everything, but concludes
that nothing is ultimately reliable.
The idea of vanities all is futile and taking that idea, name dropping Solomon who wrote
the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.
It's all very smart, heady and I like that.
Yeah.
I like trying, you know, could have said the same stuff in a much more boring pedestrian
way.
So I appreciated that.
The three words I used to describe this album, rock folk realness.
It just doesn't sound contrived.
I didn't know they were a super group.
I had listened to this album when it first came out.
It was a recommendation from the streaming service.
I enjoyed it.
It's cool.
I mean, it's a cool sound.
Ups and downs, ultimately interesting.
And this is one that I will attempt to continue to listen to throughout the year and let it
steep, as it were, in my brain.
As I said, you know, I'm just a big fan of the lyrics and I tend to cringe, you know,
when people incorporate sort of like modern phrases into songs.
And then of course, it also dates them in the future.
But in the one song, True Blue, there's the line, when you don't know who you are, you
fuck around and find out.
For some reason, I like that, you know, because I think you're using the fuck around and find
out in sort of like a different way, which I thought was clever.
There's a lot of clever on this album.
Okay, well, let's hear another one.
This is $20.
I really enjoyed that track in particular.
I mean, I enjoyed a handful of tracks on here quite a bit.
I totally agree with that big like 90s alternative rock guitar sound pops up in a couple of places
here, which is just fun for me to hear, I guess.
And yeah, I mean, I was aware of these guys and they put out an EP probably like four
or five years ago when they were all still fairly, I want to say they all had their own
solo careers, but they were, I want to say unknown, but they weren't nearly as popular
as they are nowadays.
Especially Phoebe Bridgers, who I feel like is just like everywhere the last couple of
years.
Yeah, I mean, I like their sound as a whole.
I think they do play well together.
This definitely feels like something they wanted to do on that record they felt obligated
to do, which as so often, as we said in the past, these super groups is the case.
I think they all seem pretty committed here and they're all, feel like they're all contributing
towards a bigger goal and not really trying to outplay each other or be in competition
with each other.
So I think that works pretty well.
I mean, there were some, what I would say, less compelling moments, like the track, We're
in Love towards the end of the record or Revolution Zero kind of in the middle of the record.
I found those to be a little bit less consequential, I guess, than some of the other songs, but
as a whole, I found it pretty enjoyable and also good hooks and good melodies and they're
all super talented.
Yeah, the three words I use to describe this record are head of the class.
I do think they are kind of upper echelon of that sort of pop folk space right now.
This is definitely the future.
I'll be super curious if these guys do anything else together as a group.
I hope they do, but it feels like they're all going to become pretty big stars on their
own.
They might really become like the highway women at some point where they're all such
big characters of their own.
It might be hard to contain them all in this small little trio.
Real boy of genius.
How did you get that in there?
I'm really excited about this album.
I'm not ready to ain't off it.
I definitely need to take some time with it, figure out if I'm just kind of infatuated
at the moment or if it's going to be like a long time love affair.
You guys can probably relate to this.
I think why I'm such a big music fan is that I'm always kind of chasing those moments where
you're listening to something and you're just like, holy fuck, that's good.
You've had those experiences.
I did have that a couple of times on this album.
Good.
That doesn't happen all the time.
That's all we hope for here, man.
Those fleeting moments of pure joy.
Few and far between usually.
Okay, well, so that is boy genius with the record.
Excuse me.
I'd like to ask you a few questions.
Well, it's that celebrated part of the show where we ask ourselves a question.
We're going to do it a little differently this time.
In fact, I'm going to turn it over to our game show host Andy, who will ask dude and
I some trivia questions.
And here's your host, Andy.
All right, boys and girls.
I hope you got your trivia hats on because it's trivia time.
This is going to be ugly.
We're going to be doing some multiple choice questions about music within the last 23 years.
So anything in the 2000s is fair game.
I picked out questions that I think I could answer and hopefully you guys can too.
We'll find out.
Feel free to play along at home if you like.
You guys ready?
Sure.
Okay.
The last 23 years is not my area of strength.
You were alive for the last 23 years.
That's true.
Okay.
All right, here's an easy one.
Softball to get you started.
Which band had the best selling album of the year 2000?
I will now provide some multiple choices.
Feel free to buzz in when you think you know the answer.
Radiohead, Kid A, Santana, Supernatural, The Beatles, one.
Oh, shit.
Nelly, Country Grammar.
One of those four is the correct answer.
Who's going to try first?
I'll say Santana.
I'll say The Beatles.
The point goes to Dude with The Beatles.
Damn it.
Yes.
I thought I remembered that that thing, that collection went to number one.
I remember it.
It did.
It was number one for eight weeks between 2000 and 2001.
Yeah.
I was just remembering working at the record store at that time and that Santana album
was so damn huge.
Oh, man.
That was huge.
Oh, yeah.
Just like the ocean.
I knew we'd find a way for you to sing.
It's tougher with the new releases.
So I'm glad you found your way in.
All right.
Question number two.
Which hit song of 2013 by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams became the subject
of a bitter legal dispute in which it was adjudicated that it was infringed upon the
copyrights of Marvin Gaye's Got to Give It Up.
I brought Marvin Gaye in there for you guys.
Straight lines.
Ah, it's not the name of the song.
Something like that.
I'm going to read some choices here.
See if you can get it here.
All right.
It's a song title.
The Monster Can't Hold Us, Thrift Shop or Blurred Lines.
It's Blurred Lines.
Blurred Lines.
Damn it.
I'm going to give you guys both half credit for that one.
One and a half for the dude, half point for Don.
Question number three.
Shallow, a pop duet by Lady Gaga and Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper.
Yes.
When the Academy won for Best Original Song in 2019, which film soundtrack did it appear?
Star is Born.
Ah.
Dude takes that one with a quick answer.
Nice.
No, I won't do it.
Thank you.
You, sir, are no Lady Gaga.
Maybe Bradley Cooper.
It's got the Bradley Cooper hair on it.
Question number four.
Get a little bit harder here, guys.
We Found Love was one of the top selling singles of the decade.
It was a hit for Rihanna and featured which artist from Scotland who also wrote the song?
It's a, God, what's that guy's name?
It's Sheenan.
Yes, that's it.
Is that Sheeran Guy Scottish or does he just look it because he has right hair?
That's the guy.
Are you guys saying Ed Sheeran?
Is your answer?
Yeah, sure.
Dude gets that.
That's incorrect.
No, it's incorrect.
No.
I didn't think he was.
Barry Styles.
He was Scottish.
It's like one of those dudes.
Give us the rest.
I'm going to eat the choices because you guys are not even in the ballpark.
Phillips Phillips.
You guys know the Rihanna song We Found Love In a Dark Place?
Oh, no, I don't.
But maybe it was, was it Fat Bastard?
Oh my gosh.
Get in my belly.
Here's the choices.
Number one, Susan Boyle.
Number two, Kelvin Harris.
Number three, Paolo Nutini.
And number four, Lulu.
Any of those ring a bell to you guys?
Susan Boyle.
Okay.
Pretend it's Kelvin Harris.
We're giving that one to nobody.
Okay, is that a wide receiver?
All right.
So what's this going on?
I think dude has two and a half.
I think it's two and nothing.
All right.
We'll give you a one and a half.
Here we go.
Winner takes all.
I have the lead.
What the hell, man?
It's the lighting around us.
All right.
Here we go.
After initially appearing on the album Red Pill Blues, the song Girl Like You was extended
on its release as a single in May 2018 to include lyrics by Cardi B. Which band did
she appear with?
Fallout Boy.
No, no.
2018.
All right.
Well, they're still around.
Are they?
Okay.
Here are the choices.
One Direction, Black Eyed Peas, The Weeknd, or Maroon 5.
Don, here's your chance to take it off.
Shoot.
I don't think it's Maroon 5.
I'll say The Weeknd.
It was Maroon 5.
You guys really are the pop.
What the hell?
Man, they're older than Fallout Boy.
Yeah, they've been around for a long time.
All right, guys.
So I win.
Bonus question.
Just lay up for you guys to go out on a 100 note here.
In 2014, Applebot beats electronics.
Who?
Dr. Dre.
Okay.
Thank you.
I got shut out.
All right, guys.
Not as pretty as last time.
Maybe just the newer stuff is a little more tricky.
Well, thanks, Andy.
That was, oh, I won.
So it doesn't matter.
Congratulations, dude.
How about you?
Are you good at trivia?
How'd you do with those questions?
Do you have any trivia questions for us?
Let us know.
Hit us up on the socials and Discord, AlbumNerds.com slash Discord.
In Saturday Night Live this week with musical guest, Foo Fighters.
I don't know why, but I assumed that you were Chinese.
All right.
So I went with a known band, a well-established band, one that I have brought up more times
than I should on this show.
It's the Foo Fighters, their June, 2023 album, But Here We Are, the 11th studio album, kind
of unexpected after the death of Taylor Hawkins, their drummer.
It was unclear what the future held for them, but it held this album.
So why don't we get started with the track Rest, which is actually the last track on
the album.
So Rest, final track on the album, But Here We Are.
It's an ode to the people that the band and its members lost over the last year, particularly
Taylor Hawkins, as I mentioned, the longtime drummer of the band, and Dave Grohl's mother,
Virginia Grohl, who he was very close to.
So the Foo Fighters were formed in 94 by Dave Grohl, former drummer of Nirvana.
That's news to you.
Congratulations.
And Dave had a lot of success.
They are the surviving big time arena rock band of that era.
Dave Grohl is a lover of rock and roll, a lover of music, a lover of his fans and having
fun.
And this album blends hurt and heartache with Foo Fighters.
I mean, it is a Foo Fighters record.
It is joyous.
It is full of great hooks and everything you'd expect.
But the lyrics have a little bit more meat to them than they typically do.
Dave leaves things very wide open for people to interpret so that everyone can have a shared
experience because they turn it into whatever the song means to them.
But there are some really nice moments on this.
One example is at the end of that song, Rest, he actually makes a specific reference to
his mother.
That's a sort of little outro where the song calms down again and he says, waking up, had
another dream of us in the warm Virginia sun, there I will meet you.
Now, her name was Virginia.
She was raised in Virginia and it was nice to have him actually be specific.
And it's kind of an emotional moment when you're listening to the record.
It can catch you.
Three words I use to describe this album are tragedy meets triumph.
The insult comic dog.
For me to poop on were the other three words.
Like that's a lot to carry.
And they managed to make probably their best record in over 10 years.
I always think that their new releases are good.
The last few have I've enjoyed, but this overshadows them.
It's really amazing.
It's some of their best stuff.
So why don't we continue with the songs and get the conversation going with.
But here we are.
Title track.
Yeah, I mean, that's pretty classic.
Classic food right there for my money.
I can't believe how good his voice sounds.
Like how close it sounds to how it did in 95 with how much he tears it up.
No, he sounds great.
My three words to describe this record are from midnight to heaven's light.
We talked about their record last year.
I just ended up at midnight, which was like a totally different sound for them.
This record is interesting because obviously they had this tragedy happen to the band last
year.
I feel like this is a very positive, almost uplifting record for me to listen to.
Obviously, I mean, obviously the lyrics deal with the loss and stuff like that, but sonically
their sound, I mean, especially on the first half of the record is like big and anthemic
and lots of like uplifting sounds and stuff here going on.
In some ways, I think this contradicts like the sound that the darkness I'm missing at
midnight, which was much more of a late night dance record sort of vibe.
And this is more of like kind of like the morning after kind of like trying to grapple
with what happened sort of thing.
I think they seem like they're in a good place.
At least Dave does in terms of like processing this grief and coming out the other side,
you know, stronger band and the stronger people.
And I was impressed.
I was kind of expecting it to be lower key.
There are some songs on the album that fit that bill, like Show Me How, where his daughter
Violet does vocals with them and it's a little more low key.
That's what I thought most of the record would be like, but they came out Fooin and it's
good because I think that is a way to, it's celebration of life and the people that you
loved is also important to the grieving and healing.
It's sweet that he brought his daughter on that track, but I felt like they were-
She's good too.
She has a good voice, yeah.
I felt like that was the biggest.
It stuck out the most in the rest of the album, I guess, in terms of the energy on there.
I mean, it feels like the album might be kind of like a reset for the band, you know, since
now they have, well, without Taylor Hawkins, you know, they have a new lineup.
So I mean, to me, this is the first time I've had the opportunity to talk about a Foo Fighters
record on the show.
This sounds like classic Foo Fighters.
You probably haven't heard some of the more recent releases where it sounds like classic
Foo Fighters, but they're trying to do different things.
Yeah.
I remember you guys talking about the last record there, which to me kind of had like
an 80s feel to it.
Yeah, it did.
I think intentionally it was supposedly kind of inspired by Let's Dance by David Bowie.
But yeah, the new drummer is Josh Fries, Friese.
He's not on this record.
This was Dave doing the drumming, which I could feel it.
I think that's part of why it felt like a classic Fooz, like the first record a little
bit.
The drumming, he definitely has his own style and it works really well here.
It leans into that reset, you know?
And the emotion, like you can really hear the emotion in his voice.
There's a lot of like little growls and gnarly sounds coming out of him and the drums sound
pretty gnarly too, I would say overall.
Probably the most surprising moment on this record for me was at the end there, the teacher,
the 10 minute.
Yes.
That's something that they've kind of hinted at on some past records doing this sort of
like, not quite like Foo Fight or Prog, I guess I would say, or like kind of like post
rock sound where they were like, you know, pulled out some different, tease out some
different ideas across a longer track.
I think it worked pretty well here in this case, especially in this point on the record,
it works nice as a kind of a crescendo.
Once there's some Pink Floyd-ish-ness here and there.
So the song kind of ebbs and flows in and out of different styles, kind of low key and
then, you know, your typical Foo Bang.
But then that drum section where it just becomes so frenetic and so loud.
It's like you hear your speakers going gung, gung, gung, gung, gung.
I felt like it's a strobe light in my face, like maybe passing on to the next world or
to the next phase or to the afterlife.
But it felt magical that moment in the song.
And yeah, I was pretty impressed.
I couldn't believe they did a 10 minute song.
All right, so let's listen to another track.
This is Hearing Voices.
I love that sound.
It's just, you know, great hooky pop rock right there.
One of my favorite moments on the record.
The three words I chose to describe the album are well-oiled rock machine.
You know, so these guys are just polished rock and roll veterans.
And it just seems like, I mean, they can just pull these melodies and hooks out of their
asses.
And it's just so good.
You know, they balance sort of the rock and soul experience with polish and, you know,
just being tight.
I didn't really say that well.
But somehow, I mean, they're just like so good at what they do, but it's not so perfect
that it takes away from the feeling.
They're good at what they foo.
Very good.
Yes.
Very good.
Yeah, we've talked a lot about the lyrics here.
It's a big contrast from the other two records we are discussing today.
Even though it's more specific than usual, it's still, I mean, the lyrics are relatively
simple.
I mean, somewhat, I guess, banal in terms of rock themes and stuff like that.
And it's dudes in their 50s.
That's a different flavor and shade than the younger artists experimenting, playing with
new sounds not set in a particular direction yet.
Yeah.
I'm just, you know, I'm so impressed with them and I don't spend enough time listening
to the Foo Fighters and I'm not sure why over the years they haven't evoked a lot of passion
from me.
But maybe just Grohl is just so accessible.
You know, I feel like he's everywhere.
I feel like every rock documentary has him in it.
I always like an aura of mystery with my like my rock and roll histories, my rock and roll
heroes and I'm not sure that there's...
It's not mysterious enough anymore.
I like the mystery in my rock and roll history.
You had it.
And then you just let it go.
I was listening to a podcast about this album.
I think it was from Pitchfork, but one of the guys said that Dave Grohl is the Ted Lasso
of rock and roll and I think that's a pretty good explanation.
Believe, you know, he's got, he believes in it.
Yeah.
He's the champion of rock and roll and we certainly need those.
These guys are on the AAA charts.
There you go.
That's something.
It is.
All right.
So AAA chart having superstars, the Foo Fighters, but here we are.
Go check it out.
You'll have fun with it and if there's someone you're missing, it will tug a couple of heartstrings,
but it'll be worth the time and investment.
Go check it out.
Okay.
So this is our second time, you know, bringing albums from 2023 to the table.
What did we learn?
Well, I mean, so, so far in 2023, about more than halfway through the year, I think it's
a fairly strong year for new music and fairly engaged with what's going on with the new
stuff.
We've got some good old stuff, but we also do have some new artists on the scene.
So yeah, I mean, I think today on the show, we brought a pretty good mix as we usually
do.
And I think it's pretty good quality.
New music is tough because you don't have the perspective of time to look back on these
things and really judge them on how they held up.
That's what I learned and I've noticed this before.
The summertime is better in terms of releases because the known established artists tend
to put their records out in the summer, not early in the year.
So I had more to play with this time around than on our last run in Q1.
Yeah.
It's kind of like movies, like the beginning of the year, pretty light and you have all
the big blockbusters in the summer and then the prestige films in October and November.
I think of the new release shows we've done, I think this is my favorite group of albums.
I mean, I had a positive experience with all three of these records.
I found interesting lately that I've been looking to women like newer releases because
I did the Ashley McBride when we did the Modern Country.
I did the High Women a while ago.
I think I apologized in the past because I think I kind of had sort of a chauvinistic
legacy with music and I was always gravitating towards male artists.
I'm starting to reverse that and for some reason, the modern female voices are what
it's calling to me.
That's awesome, man.
And that's one to grow on.
I'm your density.
I mean your destiny.
All right, boys and girls, it is that time once again to put fate in the hands of a
robot.
Let's Wadbot here and see what our musical destiny has in store for next week.
Your musical destiny will require you to explore 1990s hip hop albums.
Many consider this the golden age of hip hop, so choose wisely.
Hip hop hooray.
Ho.
Hey.
Ho.
Yeah, so some 90s hip hop.
That is a little bit different than what we did this past week, boys.
Yeah, should be fun.
Maybe the Foo Fighters had a rap record back then.
I'll check it out.
I'm sure you can put in something.
Okay, what's your favorite hip hop album from the 90s?
What's your favorite new release?
What else are you listening to?
Let us know.
Join fellow album nerds on discord at albumnerds.com slash discord.
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And if you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at albumnerds.com slash
support.
Thank you for joining us here on the podcast.
We'll catch you next week.
Hip hop hooray.
Ho.
Hey.
Ho.
Come on, guys.
Hey.
Ho.
Hey.
Ho.
Okay.
See you guys next week.
Thanks for listening.
Done, done.
On to the next one.
Done.
On to the next one.
Done.
On to the next one.
I don't know.
Is that how it goes?
Like that's for putters.
Yep.
Yeah.
It sounds just like them.