Playlists

Eight Albums for Your Winter

As winter arrives and the days get darker, melancholy music creeps its way back into that special place in our hearts. That place we’ve kept locked away during the summer season of pop anthems and EDM drops. November is well under way, and now is the time that indie-folk and alternative anthems reclaim their space, ruling our winters.

The National transitions with Sleep Well Beast

(courtesy of AmericanMary)

The National’s most recent album, Sleep Well Beast, released September 8, 2017, is characterized by a tracklist that can be compared to a morning commute. “Guilty Party” resembles the melancholy of waking before the sun has risen, a sheet of morning dew still covering the hood of your car.  But the sun does rise and the gloom quickly turns into anger and frustration. “Turtleneck” embodies the morning drive itself — the agonizing slow burn of exit after exit, when you begin to tailgate cars just to feel like you’re making progress. Unlike previous albums, where each track transitions from one to the next like the tranquil flow and ebb of a stream, Sleep Well Beast is a complete mishmash.

Five Metal Albums for People Who Don’t Like Metal

Deafheaven (Photo by Ben Stas)

Metal seems to be one of those things that most people either really love or really, really hate. While I definitely fall into the former camp, I get why it turns a lot of people off. Today, I want to provide a few possible starting points for people who, for whatever reason, don’t like metal or haven’t gotten into it yet but want to. So here are five metal albums you might like even if you don’t traditionally “like” metal.