And now for something completely different (or at least sort of different)

I’ve been making episodes of You, Me and An Album for more than four years now, and I’ve mostly stuck with a simple format. I invite a guest on to talk about a favorite album of theirs, and I offer my perspective as someone who is (usually) just getting to know the album. When I asked Mike Montgomery of R.Ring and Ampline (and now as a solo artist under the banner of Nervous Verbs) to do an episode, I figured we would make an episode that followed the same blueprint.

Then something happened that had not happened over the course of 170-plus episodes. We couldn’t narrow down the short list that Mike sent to a single album. Not only that, but Mike offered a suggestion that took the discussion in an unusual direction. Instead of picking one of the 11 albums from his list, we could talk about one of my favorite albums that he didn’t know. As Mike explains on the episode, he suggested this because he wanted to find some new music to listen to.

So, to borrow from one of my favorite memes, I thought, “Why not both?” Rather than settle on a single album, we did an episode where each of us chatted a little about several of our favorite albums. Mike zeroed in on seven of the 11 albums he suggested, while I talked about three of the eight albums from the short list I sent to Mike.

And this is how I wound up with an episode called “10 Albums You Need to Listen To with Mike Montgomery.”

I had thought that I would save the in-depth analysis of a single album for this newsletter, but I have yet to get further in my exploration of Mike’s albums than listening to a few songs from each one to find clips for the episode. Based on the samples of songs that I listened to, I’m inclined to start with one of Superchunk’s Here’s Where the Strings Come In, fIREHOSE’s Fromohio or Hayden’s The Closer I Get in my full-album explorations.

Which album do you think I should start with? Are any of these (either on Mike’s list or mine) among your favorite albums? Let us know in the comments below!

Here are the albums Mike and I recommended to each other, with the ones we discussed marked with an asterisk. I have also included four other albums that came up in the course of our conversation that are worth checking out.

Mike’s picks

*Speed Freaks by Santa Cruz Skateboards Soundtrack (1989)

Note: There is a partial list of the songs from the soundtrack available here: https://skatesonr.com/films/s/speed_freaks-270807452487680/.

*Dinosaur Jr., You’re Living All Over Me (1987)

*Dead Kennedys, Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982)

*The Weakerthans, Left and Leaving (2000)

*Superchunk, Here’s Where the Strings Come In (1995)

*fIREHOSE, Fromohio (1989)

Jets to Brazil, Orange Rhyming Dictionary (1998)

Failure, Fantastic Planet (1996)

*Hayden, The Closer I Get (1998)

Burning Airlines, Mission: Control! (1999)

Pedro the Lion, Control (2002)

My picks

*Unwound, Leaves Turn Inside You (2001)

*Deep Sea Diver, Impossible Weight (2020)

Interpol, Turn On the Bright Lights (2002)

She Makes War, Direction of Travel (2016)

Wild Flag, self-titled (2011)

Todd Rundgren, Nearly Human (1989)

*Toto, Tambu (1995)

Chairlift, Something (2012)

Yes, Drama (1980)

Other albums referenced

Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden (1988)

Unwound, Repetition (1996)

Lungfish, Artificial Horizon (1998)

Faraquet, The View From This Tower (2000)

For those who have already listened to the episode, please let me know what you think of this format. I don’t have any plans to change the show’s regular format, but if enough people like this change of pace, I may do more episodes in this vein in the future.

And while I’m writing about making occasional tweaks to the format, there’s another one I’m considering. On Ep 169, Scott Colson told me about a game he and his friends play where they pit two great albums against each other and declare a winner. I think it’s a fun concept but haven’t yet figured out how to adapt it to the show. I’d love to hear any thoughts you might have on this as well.

As always, thanks for your thoughts and thanks for listening!