I’m always on the search for new music, but sometimes, the well of new tracks dries up. After I’ve exhausted my monthly subscription of music newsletters, listened to every track of my Spotify Discover Weekly, and dug through the CD rack at the local library (yes, I still check out CDs) where am I to turn to? Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about what albums have made the biggest impact on my life. This on-going internal conversation, combined with the eternal quest for new music, sparked the idea for a new series: Album Suggestions. And who better to start with than my peers who have chosen to study music here at Kenyon?
My plan was simple: ask music majors and minors what their top five favorite albums were or what albums they thought had most impacted their life. It seemed to me that the two questions overlapped significantly for most people. The participants could choose whether or not to say why they chose the albums. The results were a beautiful, eclectic, mixed bag of musical wonderfulness. Enjoy this incredible selection of music:
Emma Brown, 2017, Music Minor
Tame Impala — Currents. Just my current favorite. [It] is possible to both study and dance to.
The Fleet Foxes — Helplessness Blues. F*** the haters. This album has kept coming back to me since high school.
Kimya Dawson —Remember That I Love You. Good to listen to at the end of your bad days.
The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Just the non sequitur sound of my childhood.
Joni Mitchell — Blue. In Love Actually, Emma Thompson’s character says, ‘Joni Mitchell taught me how to love’ and, well.
Katherine Connolly, 2017, Music Major
First Aid Kit — Stay Gold. FAK is a band my friend in high school introduced me to, and they were my segway into the indie/folk music world, which I now listen to pretty exclusively. This album in particular is just my favorite of theirs. Every song is a hit, and the whole thing is so cohesive. It’s also really evocative of vast deserts and strange mountains and has such a mysterious western aesthetic that I never get tired of.
Keaton Henson — Dear. This album features the saddest song known to man, “You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are.” Whenever I am sad, I listen to this album of extremely sad music, and I’m like, ‘Yes. Look at all that sad. Yes.’ And it’s like Keaton Henson channels the sadness out of me, and I feel better.
Koji Kondo — The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Soundtrack. Literally just the most beautiful instrumental music I’ve ever heard. I imagine heaven looks the way this sounds.
Tom Rosenthal – Bolu. I’m convinced Tom Rosenthal is the last great musical artist we have on earth. These songs (and their music videos) are so amazingly honest, transcendent, silly, deep, moving—all at once. No other album I can think of has such an amazing range of emotion and yet is so simple.
The Revival Cast — Into the Woods. I first listened to this album my freshman year of high school. I sat next to someone I didn’t know on the marching band bus, and she offered to share her iPod. She was listening to this because it was going to be the spring musical. As we went through each song, she explained what was happening plot-wise, and that’s how I met my best friend. I still listen to it at night when I’m trying to fall asleep because it makes me feel calm, and I know it all by heart. I’ve listened to it the most of anything on my iPod ever.
Sam Larson, 2017, Music Major
The Decemberists — The Hazards of Love. My favorite album. Colin Meloy’s wordsmithing reaches its pinnacle here, in my opinion. So many of their songs tell stories and to have access to that over a full album (it’s a rock opera) is something special.
Gregory Porter — Liquid Spirit. I didn’t listen to jazz when I first came to Kenyon, AT ALL. This was the album that I first went to for exposure. It’s some slick, soulful, contemporary jazz.
Coldplay —Viva La Vida. Man, I remember listening to this album over and over my freshman year. Truly, prior to this, I did not listen to music. At all. But I was hooked on this thing. I owe it a lot.
Counting Crows — August & Everything After. Need I say more?
Eddie Vedder — Into the Wild. Wow. Just incredible stuff. Check out “The Wolf.” It’s crazy. Wow.
Lily McBride, 2017, Music Major
Justin Timberlake — 20/20 Experience
Henry Quillian, 2017, Music Major
The Beatles — The Beatles (The White Album). This was the first album that taught me to listen to music for the sake of listening to music as well as really introducing me to The Beatles (I had a GIANT obsession with them in the few years after). In sixth grade, I found my dad’s old vinyl copy of it in our basement and would just sit down there listening to it while working or just to relax for hours.
Original Cast — Ragtime – The Musical. This is the musical that got me into listening to and doing a lot of musical theater. The narrative arc and intensely emotional music grabbed my attention more than any other soundtrack had done before.
Mumford and Sons — Babel. My senior year in high school was a super rough one for me but listening to this album helped me get through it, specifically the track “Below My Feet.” I know that the album is basically the exact same banjo soaked song repeated throughout, but it still holds a very emotional connection because of the context that I listened to it in.
Various Artists — O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack. Favorite movie. Amazing soundtrack. Nothing more needs to be said.
Punch Brothers — Phosphorescent Blues. Bar none my favorite album right now. Beautiful songwriting and exceptionally technically-talented musicians.
Seth Reichert, 2017, Music Major
Anna Tivel — Before Machines. I like this album a lot partially because I think it is exceptionally well written, but I mostly enjoy listening to Anna Tivel because I really feel like I can empathize with the stories she tells. I especially like “Letter to a Mountain.” I think it is beautifully written from an aesthetic perspective, but I also just really empathize with the line “if you think that I’m a mountain, well I’m not.”
Patty Griffin — 1000 Kisses. This one is really important to me partially because I heard it a lot in the car while growing up, so it is tied to a lot of really important memories from various road trips, but it also I think conveys different emotions and stories in compelling ways. My favorite song “Making Pies” really mirrors my philosophy on how to handle life and sadness “You can cry or die, or just make the pies all day.”
Noah and the Whale — First Days of Spring (But also all of their other stuff). This mostly just came at a time in my life when I was a moody high schooler, but that is plenty valid in my opinion. I just was going through a period where I was sad for a while and the song “Blue Skies” helped me get through it. “Blue skies are calling, but I know that it’s hard.”
Tony Rice — Mar West. This is mostly just because it is fun and was my dad’s default car album for pretty much my whole life. It just reminds me of being in the car with my dad, which while not “special” for any reason, are memories that I really cherish.
The Oh Hellos — Through the Deep Dark Valley. I discovered this album last year after some prompting by friends, but my last year was relatively tumultuous in many ways. The epic journey reflected by the album was really nice, but I also have always, but especially last year, really felt the idea of “the quest” being really compelling—especially as a process of self-discovery. I thought this album really walked me through a lot of the emotions I was having as my thoughts, life, and how I interacted with people socially were changing. It helped me realize my own helplessness in moments but also helped me recognize my agency at others, and it really has had a big impact on my life. ‘And the truth became a tool that I held in my hand, I wielded it but I did not understand.’
Clara Yetter, 2018, Tentative Music Major
Fun — Aim & Ignite. Only in more recent years was I introduced to this album (about junior year of high school) by my older brother. It helped me through my tumultuous first year of college and my LDR. Not to mention it has fantastic instrumentation and each song tells a unique story with clever lyrics.
Gipsy Kings — Somos Gitanos. This one in particular is something we used to play during the summer when I was a kid, and we would have cookouts with this playing in the background. (Plus, they are a Hispanic group, and I’m Hispanic.) It’s very nostalgic to me.
Foreigner — The Definitive Collection. Growing up, my parents of course shared their generation’s music with us. So naturally, I started loving rock, beginning with groups like Foreigner, Styx, Boston, Journey, Queen, etc.
Sum41 — Underclass Hero. This actively got me through the angst of high school (and moving to a new place). It makes sense once you listen to it. And also, I just really enjoy their lyrics.
Relient K — Five Score & Seven Years Ago. Not my first Relient K album, but definitely one of my favorite albums by them. It was one of the first Christian groups that I liked because it had a different, more creative style than the “stereotypical Christian groups” you hear on the radio (another reason I liked Toby Mac as well).
A huge shout out to Emma, Katherine, Sam, Lily, Henry, Seth and Clara for participating in this article! Who should I get album suggestions from next? Let me know in the comments!
Image credits: Giphy.com