Week of November 2 – 8, 2026
“The record you didn’t know you needed is what I am listening to in the other room.”
“The record you didn’t know you needed is what I am listening to in the other room.”
I think this was a comfort music sort of week for me, I didn’t stray too far away from what I know and love. There are always things that are your favorites, and things are your favorite for a reason. The way they make you feel, the knowing every note and every lyric and every beat. I believe I just needed some of these this past week, and like all good friends, they were there for me.
There was about a year in college where I listened to this in my headphones every night when I went to sleep. I don’t listen as often anymore but it’s still absolute perfection when I do.
Such a remarkable album, it calls to me every few weeks to listen again. It’s about to take over the top spot on my listened to albums on last.fm.
Guess this came out in 2000, I didn’t know he had released anything since Hai Hai back in 1987. Neither are as good as his post Supertramp debut In the Eye of the Storm which I really enjoy.
This is a fan club EP with some live tracks released as a precursor or introduction to his brilliant 2020 album Weltschmerz. This is good but if you haven’t heard that yet, start there first with some headphones, the lyrics to follow along with, and some time. The album itself is about an hour and a half, the time you’ll take to think about it later is potentially infinite.
Tim is one of those guys who no one I have ever met or talked to about him has ever heard of, but I must not be alone in appreciating him because he continues to release great work. This might be my favorite of his, just great tunes with great lyrics.
I don’t usually reach for this as a full album listen and I’m not sure why. The title track is spectacular and the rest is pretty great also. It’s well deserving of your time to experience the whole thing.
I’ve never understood the title of this one but Pete Townshend has always been one of my favorite songwriters and there are such great songs here I just go with it.
This is the album Gov’t Mule was touring with the first time I saw them back in 2000. They did a ton of stuff from it that night, and a few years later we were at a show where they surprisingly did the whole album start to finish. I love everything about this album.
I saw a post on Instagram about Prog albums I needed to hear and they mentioned this so I decided to give it a shot. It displays technical proficiency but the songs are neither interesting nor memorable in any way. In retrospect, I am not sure I needed to hear this.
More Gov’t Mule. This is a smoker from 1997 and it’s full of everything you would expect from a Mule show, cool covers, teases, and a Matt Abts drum solo. Give this a spin if you want to know why I have seen these guys a few dozen times.
From my very first listen to this band, I have been drawn to them for reasons I can’t really explain or describe. There is just something about Jarrod Gorbel’s songs, vocals, vocal phrasing, and lyrics that just combine in a way that is amazingly satisfying to listen to. It’s sort of a beautiful thing and I am grateful for when it happens.
More weeks, more mother fucking Kinks.
This is fun and funky, and I think this is the first time I have ever listened to anything of theirs in full album format. I want to say I remember one of my former bosses at uBid tell me that these guys played at his wedding before they were popular. Or maybe it was Guster. I don’t know, it was a long time ago…
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