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Pretty much everyone loves music in one shape or another, whether it’s attending a concert, having a favorite artist or a bevy of favorite songs compiled on a playlist. But when is the last time you listened to an album, uninterrupted, all the way through — the way the artist meant for the listener to hear it?
Even if you do play an album all the way through, it’s most likely background noise for what you are doing. In a world of hyper-connectivity — Facebook, Twitter, text messages, phone calls, endless news cycles and information all at our fingertips all the time — it’s become nearly impossible to give albums the time they deserve. We can hear pretty much any song we want, by any artist, in any order, anywhere at any time. And because of that, the world of music has come to resemble a mix tape. But maybe a tiny sliver of a silver lining during these times of social distancing and canceled everything, is it has given us a reason to sit still and listen, uninterrupted to the things we love.
The San Marcos Daily Record staff has made a list of their most loved albums to listen through uninterrupted and completely immersed.
“Take Care” - Drake
Recommended by Managing Editor Nick Castillo
Three years removed from “So Far Gone” — the mixtape that launched Drake into the purview of modern hip hop — Aubrey Drake Graham returns for his sophomore album in 2011.
Drake is on the precipice of becoming the superstar he is now in 2011 and he’s fully aware the game is his for the taking. “Take Care” is a carefully crafted 18-track album, spanning 1 hour, 23 minutes. Drake’s second studio album arguably features his best sound both sonically and lyrically in his discography.
Drake showcases his bravado, proclaiming “but if all I hear is me, then who should I be afraid of?” on “Lord Knows.” The Toronto artist also displays his vulnerability as he drunkenly calls on an old fling on “Marvins Room.” Drake makes sure to include a healthy amount of features, which includes The Weeknd, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Birdman, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, André 3000 and Lil Wayne.
Drake makes it clear on this album’s outro track “The Ride” — nothing would be the same: “My sophomore, I was all for it, they all saw it. My junior and senior will only get meaner. Take care.”
“Blonde” - Frank Ocean
Recommended by Lead Designer Colton Ashabranner
In 2016, Frank Ocean released his second studio album “Blonde” and I don’t think I’ve gone a week without listening to it in its entirety since the release. The album features guest vocals from Beyoncé, André 3000, Yung Lean, Kim Burrell and more. “Blonde” is filled with emotion, depth and experimental sound compared to his earlier release, “Channel Orange.” This is the only album that I can listen to without skipping a song, skit or reprise. Join the club, stream “Blonde” now — and wash your hands.
“Jaime” - Brittany Howard
Recommended by Sports Editor Drew King
“Jaime” isn’t about Jaime at all. It’s about Brittany Howard, the Grammy-winning Alabama Shakes frontwoman, finding her voice in her debut solo project. As Howard puts it, every song on the 35-minute, 11-song album released last year is an attempt to confront something within herself or beyond herself. It’s a hefty list that includes fears of self-sabotaging a relationship in its early stages, heartbreaking details of the racism she dealt with as a bi-racial child growing up in Alabama as well as the loss of the record’s namesake — Howard’s older sister, who died when she was 13 and Howard was eight. It’s a soundtrack of healing; every conflict Howard faces, she comes out on top, her soulful, immediately-recognizable voice powering through and hers alone.
“Disintegration” - The Cure
Recommended by Features Editor Rachel Sonnier
“Disintegration” is the eighth studio album by English rock band The Cure, released on May 2, 1989 by Fiction Records.
This record marked the band’s return to the introspective and gloomy gothic rock style it had established its career on in the early 1980s. The album also marked the return of vocalist and guitarist Robert Smith’s lapse back into the use of hallucinogenic drugs — and I swear you can hear it in the shower of slow synths and guitars. But for many — including me — this album marked the introduction to big airy noise scapes that let the music breath and envelope you.
This album reminds me of lying on my oldest sister’s bedroom floor directly in front of the speakers, eyes closed and palms flat on the floor just listening — making it my ultimate album to listen through uninterrupted and completely immersed — it’s a sensory memory.
Sure the album produced some hits like "Lovesong" that stand on their own, but the fact that it’s sandwiched between “Closedown” and “Last Dance” only makes it better. Even for 10-year-old-me, listening more than a decade after it was produced, the work felt thematic — better presented as a whole than in short pieces.
“All Right, All Night” - Garrett T. Capps
Recommended by Staff Reporter Stephanie Gates
This 2019 Texas Country album is the perfect album to play right after work to decompress, setting the mood while you are cooking or late at night while you are pondering the stars. Fair warning: it will make you want to dance.
The former rock and roll drummer’s Americana talent bleeds into his modern “cosmic country” or “NASA country” as Capps describes it. The spacey and dreamy sound will take you far away from the worries of the week and likely get you working on your Texas two step.
The album is a journey through Texas, past, present and future, in Capps’ life.
Even better, Capps is a local artist, “born in San Antone,” which you can listen to on the first album in the trilogy, who lived in San Marcos and the Hill Country for a time.
In times like these, you can’t do much better than to support local artists, lose yourself in the sounds of Texas and dance.
“OKiMONSTA”- OASIS NOCTURNO
Recommended by Production Manager Toy Mendez
Jennifer Lee. If you don’t already know this amazing woman — welcome — take a seat — or lay back, relax, chill a minute. You won’t stay that way for long.
What you should know: Ms. Lee had some real bad brain things going on at one point — she literally had to relearn how to hear sounds, beats, pretty intense for anyone let alone a dj/producer who’s livelihood is their music, and in this case extreme talent — Lee’s last album was grammy nominated.
Getting into this album is easy — “Love That Never” just brings you in real gentle like, you’ll be swaying to the beat before you know what’s happening — and that’s it — that beat — you’re in. You just try and stay still. “One Day” is an anthem, it just grows on you every time you hear it. Next up, we slide into “Renters Anthem,” I get flashbacks of dancing at Paradox back in the day. It’s smooth and jammy, at the same time, and totally danceable. Next up “Come and Go,” smooth and sultry, just let it roll over you, it’s amazing. Then, wow, “To be Remote” beautiful, ephemeral, haunting, here Lee really shows her breadth and depth in this dreamlike vision. For her last song Lee sends us off with a reflective melody — deep, contemplative, “For my Eternal, Oh My Dream My Treasure” is there, and then it’s not — it leaves you longing for something as it gently ushers you out into the world.
So here’s my hope, when we get on the other side of this pandemic, and we will, San Marcos strong y’all — you know where I’ll be on April 24 — dancing real hard at their show at Vulcan Gas Company.
