Kate Miller-Heidke – Nightflight: In the darkness, I can feel my heart. (Gap Year, Pt. 8)

Artist: Kate Miller-Heidke
Album: Nightflight
Year: 2012
Grade: A

In Brief: This classically trained, yet unconventionally clever singer/songwriter from Australia first got her big break in the late 2000s, thought for my money, the early 2010s were when she really hit her stride. Equal parts bouncy, mischievous, dark, and profoundly wise, Nightflight is a difficult album to do justice without it sounding like I’m lumping Kate in with a bevy of other piano-based female artists from around that same time frame. Just trust me on this one – her music is worth seeking out on its own terms.

Green Day – Saviors: Hit me with power chords before you lay me dead.

Artist: Green Day
Album: Saviors
Year: 2024
Grade: B

In Brief: On the one hand, Saviors is a sonic walk down memory lane – what many might consider a “return to form” after its thoroughly forgettable predecessor. On the other hand, it’s not written with the intent of reliving the glory days. Sure, their inner teenagers might come out here and there for a bit of irreverent humor, but it’s the frustrated commentary on the turmoil of American life in the 2020s and the honest confessions of what it means to be an aging rock star still fighting off old demons that keep me coming back. I won’t pretend that I’m the biggest Green Day fan out there – not by a long shot. But it’s nice to have a version of Green Day back that seems to truly give a damn.

Peter Gabriel – i/o: How Much Is Real?

Artist: Peter Gabriel
Album: i/o
Year: 2023
Grade: B

In Brief: The long-gestating Peter Gabriel album that we’ve had over twenty years to speculate about delivers on its promises… mostly. It’s full of downbeat, classy reflections and upbeat, celebratory ones. Sometimes it’s ominous and gloomy about the state of contemporary society, sometimes it’s happy just to be alive. At times it’s bloated – Gabriel’s tendency to let songs unspool slowly can be a bit of an albatross at times – but the record hangs together better than anything he’s done since So, and considering that was over thirty years ago, that makes i/o a pretty big frickin’ deal.

Suzi Quatro & KT Tunstall – Face to Face: That sacred mirror where your reflection is true.

Artist: Suzi Quatro & KT Tunstall
Album: Face to Face
Year: 2023
Grade: B

In Brief: These two women, who came up during very different eras of rock & roll, join forces on a fun collaborative project that I very nearly missed out on due to not knowing who one of them was. Mostly a pop/rock project with bits of blues, folk, and country mixed in, this ought to be an easy record for longtime fans of KT Tunstall to settle into… and for those like me who needed a history lesson, it’s a timely reminder of how long Suzi Quatro has been doing her thing, since the days when women had to fight to be the main attraction in a rock band and not just a pretty accessory.

Ben Folds – Rockin’ the Suburbs: Everything Here is FIRE. (Gap Year, Pt. 1)

Artist: Ben Folds
Album: Rockin’ the Suburbs
Year: 2001
Grade: A

In Brief: This sharp-witted piano rock masterpiece must have seemed out of place in the musical landscape of the early 2000s, but then I’m not sure Folds would’ve had it any other way. If all you know from this one is the tongue-in-cheek title track (and it’s a good one to know!), then sit back and be prepared to be blown away, because this is one of those albums that exudes so much musical talent and is so well put together that picking a favorite song is an extremely difficult task.

Durry – Suburban Legend: These Losers Made a Winner of an Album. It’s All Covid’s Fault.

Artist: Durry
Album: Suburban Legend
Year: 2023
Grade: B+

In Brief: Rising from the ashes of Coyote Kid – a band that I will miss dearly – comes a much more power pop-leaning project from their frontman Austin Durry and his sister Taryn. You won’t need any character sheets or backstory to understand what’s going on here – these are timely, relatable, and sometimes darkly funny songs about economic and familial woes in suburban America, set to straight-ahead power pop hooks that you can’t help but sing along with.

Sparks – The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte: Because crying in your beer is for country songs.

Artist: Sparks
Album: The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte
Year: 2023
Grade: B-

In Brief: Sparks continues to cross-pollinate genres as it pleases them on this record – the synthesizers glow and crackle, the power chords are as chunky and perky as ever, and the baroque elements add a touch of class and ironic detachment all at once. They don’t care if any of this is trendy, and in that sense it’s classic Sparks. The only problem is that (as is often the case for these guys) the lyrics hover somewhere in the uncanny valley between witty social commentary, biting satire, avant-garde surrealism, and mind-numbing repetition, to the point where it’s often hard to tell if they’re trying to be funny on purpose, or when the heck they’ll get around to delivering some semblance of a punchline if they are.

Ben Folds – What Matters Most: Do you still believe in the good of humankind?

Artist: Ben Folds
Album: What Matters Most
Year: 2023
Grade: B+

In Brief: On his first proper solo album in 15 years, Ben Folds makes a bit of a course correction, finding a delicate balance between cynical social/political commentary and genuine observations about the things that make life worth the effort, all couched in his often playful, sometimes irreverent, and occasionally strikingly beautiful style of piano-based pop/rock. It’s one of the better singer/songwriter efforts to come out so far this year.

Tears for Fears – Songs from the Big Chair: These are the songs I can’t do without.

Artist: Tears for Fears
Album: Songs from the Big Chair
Year: 1985
Grade: A+

In Brief: The realization that Songs from the Big Chair was my favorite album of the entire 1980s honestly took me by surprise. It may only have eight songs, but each of them are distinctive, and each one seems to contain multitudes of information and emotion within itself. Tears for Fears hit the sweet spot here, coming up with synthetic pop music that was groundbreaking for its time and now seen as some of the most emblematic of its era, but pushing the boundaries of the genre in every way they could think of, to make sure each track made a powerful statement. Come for the nostalgia, stay for the jaw-dropping musical versatility and the soul-cleansing therapy session.

Dave Matthews Band – Walk Around the Moon: Take a Walk on the Mild Side

Artist: Dave Matthews Band
Album: Walk Around the Moon
Year: 2023
Grade: C+

In Brief: Love ’em or hate ’em, the DMB used to be a big deal. Their sound was huge, sprawling out across multiple genres, the songs left a fair amount of open space for playful improvisation, and the hooks were just slick enough to earn them a decent about of radio play. But in recent years, their ambitions seem to have shrunk to the point where they’re now a merely passable adult contemporary band with the occasional flash of instrumental inspiration. It just doesn’t really seem worth the effort to love or hate ’em any more. They’re just average.