2012 Top Albums (The Black Keys, Rihanna, Adele)

Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude. Hello, hello, hello. Hey, it's the Album Nerds podcast. I'm Dude. Got Andy and Don with me. Time to chat about 2012. How are you guys feeling about that? Yikes. I'm ready to take a roll in the deep, I guess. Nice. Don, you could have had it all. How do you feel about that? I mean, I can't even remember anything about 2012 to be able to make a joke or a reference. That's depressing.

Only 12 years ago, but it feels like a lifetime. Just a very nondescript year, I think. I guess it depends on who you are, because I'm sure there are people out there being like, 2012 rocked. These old bastards don't understand. All right, so this is indeed the Album Nerds podcast. We love albums, the album format, discussing them, spending very special time together between the three of us and with y'all listening. So we've got a great show for you this week.

We're going to be talking about albums that were in the top 10 of 2012. So we're each bringing one record to discuss. Don's going to be asking us a deep question. We're going to get some shout outs to some album related items that we're digging. And then at the end, we'll spin the wheel of musical discovery to find out what we'll talk about next time. With this week, let's head to 2012. That's what I'm talking about.

2012 featured mass shootings and hurricanes, the reelection of a US president, the diamond jubilee of a queen, Olympic Games in London, and the passing of one of the greatest female singers. Who's the female singer? Are you going to imagine that? Who was the greatest female singer? Whitney Houston. Oh, come on, man. There you go. I wanted you to ask me. Well, I guess that worked. The top grossing films were The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games.

And the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVII. Oh, that was a good one. Today we revisit the music of 2012. Each of us will present one of the 10 highest selling albums of the year. Yeah, so this week was a little bit different in terms of searching for albums because we had a very defined list. Should we just go through the top 10? Ignore the albums that we're talking about? Sure. Let's count them. So at number nine was Lionel Richie, Tuskegee.

That was like Lionel with a bunch of country artists doing Lionel Richie songs. Yeah. You guys enjoy that? I tried it. No. I wanted to. Yeah, I wanted to. I love Lionel. I do. He's sounding good, but some of those songs just aren't duets. Yeah. They sound very neutered, in my opinion. Then at number seven, Mumford and Sons with Babel or Babel or Babel. I think it's Babel.

I think it's that folk, the sort of Irish-y folk run there around that time when there were a lot of those bands, kind of adult contemporary audience. Yeah, it was the working man's folk music, I would say. Blue collar folk music or something. I just felt like it got whipped up too quickly and it didn't have a chance to develop into anything more. I know those bands are still around, but I think it just kind of burned itself out really quick, which is too bad. I prefer the Decemberists.

Yes, yes. I remember them. Number six, Luke Bryan, Tailgates and Tanlines. Country girl, shake it for me, girl, shake it for me. I'm sorry, it's just like the science teacher telling young ladies to shake it for him. He just doesn't, the swagger just doesn't click for me. I don't dislike Luke Bryan, but- They shake it for him, though. I've been to the shows. Yes, I'm sure they do. Lucky you. Do you shake it for him? No comment. Any thoughts on this one?

He's one of my least favorite characters in country music, so I'm just trying to be quiet and nice. Enough said. Number five, One Direction, Up All Night. Never listened to One Direction. I did listen to this record. It's surprisingly good. It doesn't sound like boy band as much as featured vocalists doing songs. It's not as corny as some of the other boy band stuff from decades before. Yeah, I would agree. I thought it was an overly long record, but the ballads I thought were pretty enjoyable.

It wasn't so bad. It was all right. Number four, Taylor Swift with Red. I think probably every year from 2008 or nine or whatever till today, she's probably on this list for one of her records. I did not listen to it, to be honest, you guys. I was swifted out. You didn't listen. I listened to it. It's not a bad record.

It's a little bit more into the teenage romance kind of side of things, which she always has at least one foot planted in, but not nearly as mature as the stuff she's doing nowadays. Yeah, I prefer the one we did recently. Me too. Midnights? Midnights, yeah. Yeah. At number three, Drake, Take Care. Never listened to Drake. It was a mistake to listen to Drake after doing the Yo MTV Raps episode where we were listening to some of the finest rhymes you've ever heard.

The nasally delivery, the bad puns, I just, I couldn't even make it through all the way. 80 something minutes too. I know people love Drake, but I would at least like to hear some of his Canadian heritage, like how the ladies are as hot as poutine or something, but he doesn't even get into it. No, I, God, between Drake and Luke Bryan, man, whew, Son of Mars as far as I'm concerned. I feel like they collaborated at some point. Maybe there's a really good Drake album.

Someone let me know if there is and I'll go check that out too, but I was not into that one. At number two, Michael Buble, Christmas. I think we discussed this one a little bit on our holiday episode this past year, so yeah, it's Christmas. It's Buble. It's nice. I think that's about all there is to say about that. Yeah. You can both say agree instead of nodding your heads. It's an auditory medium.

And then we're going to skip number one and number eight and number 10, because that's who we'll be covering in our album picks. So once we get right to them, you choose me. It means a lot to be a drummer.

One of the things it means is that you're not a good guitar player or as good as someone else that you know who's in your band. Well, I guess that really does probably explain it most of the time. That is Patrick Carney from The Black Keys. Him and his good friend Dan Auerbach had the number 10 record in 2012. Their album El Camino, the seventh studio album for the blues rock duo from Akron, Ohio. We are going to play the lead single. This is a little bit of a track you might recognize.

Lonely Boy. That ended up in a beer commercial or something. It ended up in a lot of places, dude. One percent chance. They were very well known for, especially on their previous record, Brothers, which was a good big seller for them. They licensed the hell out of that record and a lot of the songs. Dude, when the kachings are available, take the kachings. They're not going to last forever. Take the kachings. You're right here. All right.

So they did win a Grammy for Lonely Boy for best rock performance and best rock song. And the album as a whole actually won a Grammy for best rock album. So they kind of were kicking ass at this point of their career. This album is the third collaboration with super producer Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, who I know we've mentioned a few times on the show for various projects he's been involved with.

I used to get him confused with Dead Mouse, but because of weeks ago on our electronic music, I realized that they're two different people. But I always thought Danger Mouse and Dead Mouse are the same dude. This is the Narl Sparkley guy, right? Yep. The guy with the big fro, not the big helmet. Gotcha. All right. My clickbait headline for this record, Danger Mouse gets speeding ticket, taking the boys to soccer practice.

So they've been in the record El Camino, but on the cover they have this photo of like a dodge caravan or some like family van with some wood paneling. Looks pretty awesome. Yeah. And that was their touring vehicle for many years in their early days. They didn't have a fancy bus. Few bands do. Yeah, these guys are very sort of bootstrap, or at least early in their career they were doing the Midwestern rock circuit.

But by this point of their career, they would really kind of graduate to the next level and were selling out big venues and doing more of a commercial thing. But this album really finds them, I don't know if I would say going back to the roots, but definitely this is a much quicker pace album than Brothers. It's pretty fun record, I would say, very hooky, very easy to get into. Draws a lot from 60s and 70s rock and soul, bands like The Clash, Cramps, Ramones, Cars. You can hear a lot of it here.

And the whole record is kind of just glazed with that Danger Mouse sort of glitter, sheen, glitter sort of sound. Yeah, the mutt laying of the era. Oh man, it's funny you say that, but yeah, I guess he kind of did do that. Yeah. Gave that treatment. Take the raw rock band and smooth out the edges and make it huge and palatable to all. Yeah, very commercially acceptable, I would say. All right, why don't we play another cut from the record. This is the second to last track called Nova Baby.

Yeah, so that one, that comes fairly late in a pretty short record. It was like 37, 38 minutes, which was refreshing for that time. I wondered if our choices were based on length because these were three of the shortest records I think on the list. That's part of the equation for sure. Yeah, but that song kind of has, I don't know, it kind of felt sort of post-punky to me. Maybe it was like the bass line, you could kind of tell it was with a pick and it was do, do, do, do, I don't know.

I liked it. And the lyrics are kind of sad and dark, which also I tend to like. But the song, like almost the entire album is quite upbeat and kind of fun sounding. My clickbait headline for the album is Black Keys Provide Oasis in 2012 Rock Desert. Not Oasis the band, but like a water in the desert kind of thing. So yeah, I just picture this era being kind of devoid of good rock and roll.

I know there are groups out, the Foo Fighters are still going and whatever, but yeah, this is a nice rock record that is kind of steeped in the past, but also has kind of some modern sound to it. Well, it was exciting, right? I mean, it was, this is their seventh album and the majority of us had not heard them prior to Maybe Brothers before this, but certainly this album. And it was exciting. It was like, wow, rock and roll lives.

These dudes had been doing it for a while and finding their path to the mainstream. Yeah. This was the first album I had heard from them. Yeah, I was kind of excited by it. I like how they blend some funk and almost like a disco-y dance beat. They're not dance records, but sometimes it's like that four on the floor sound, which does well. Yeah. There's like a stompiness to it. Like you would make it from the blues. Yeah, that bump, bump, bump, bump.

Yep. Yeah. It reminds me of Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, who are also kind of hitting big around this time. So yeah, I remember between these guys and Arctic Monkeys, I was like, oh, maybe there's some hope for rock and roll still. Yeah, Little Black Submarines. I remember the first time hearing it thinking it was deliberately like a Stairway to Heaven parody kind of or cover. I think it's just blues rivage just, you know.

But even as it gets louder towards the end, it kind of crescendos like Stairway to Heaven. I don't know. It just feels like it was like an ode to Stairway to Heaven, but I was looking for reference to them doing it deliberately and it doesn't seem like it was intentional. So maybe it just kind of happens accidentally, right? If you're doing the blues, you're going to end up sounding like those guys. Yeah. I didn't pick up on that.

I know that was the first song they had written for the record, the only one they had written outside the studio. Maybe they were in the zeppelin, I don't know. I read one of them saying that it was the song that sounded most like their live vibe.

Yeah, I know the intention for this record was to do songs that they could perform live and it would grab the audience in a live way and work better because the previous albums are a little bit more slowed down, spaced out, a little more in the psychedelic space. That is not this by any means. Why don't we play a cut here from the middle of the record? This is maybe the one of the more beatley sounding songs. This is Run Right Back.

You know, oddly enough, that riff is what drew me to this song and it sounds like something that Paul McCartney did. I think I can't quite figure it out, but it reminds me of Sir Paul. It was some of the stuff he was doing in Post Beetles. Yeah. But yeah, I dig that song. Maybe it was Klaatu. Sorry. Yeah, maybe it was Klaatu. It was written by Dan Patrick and Brian, Mr. Mouse there. It describes a tricky, addictive relationship where she just keeps pulling him back in.

The clickbait headline I went with is the Black Keys dads make them clean out the garage and El Camino and some effects pedals are what they find. It feels like garage rock, blues rock, spiffed up, cleaned up, edges sanded. New fuel pump. Yeah, yeah. Everything's running. It's like tuned up, clean, and it'll get dirty again. For this moment in time, this record, we define what blues rock was. The Danger Mouse gave it that polish. Slicker and chunkier than the early stuff.

The big come up sounds like 10 years after, just sort of blues barf where you're just letting whatever come out, whatever words, whatever riffs are just like, you know. Blues barf, I like that. This is more planned, thought out, and produced. But yeah, I mean, I like the record. I enjoy them in general. I'm not a super fan or anything. They've done good stuff. They've also done, the two members have gone on to produce bands like the Sheepdogs and others.

So, you know, they've tried to pass that baton and contribute to music outside of just their own band, which I really appreciate as well. Yeah, I feel like they've kind of become like the sort of like David Grohl in some way, like the elder statesman of rock or like the torchbearers of rock, I guess, to some degree are carrying this tradition on even though it's changed a little bit over the last couple of decades. All right.

Well, once again, it is a solid entry, I think, in the Black Keys discography. Maybe not their best, but certainly not their worst. Record is El Camino. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me. If you're enjoying the show and we hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy. Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us.

What was it?

What was the song? Well, the song's called Cockiness. That's all right. So far we got away with it. Yeah. So the first lyrics are, Suck my cockiness, lick my persuasion. All right. Hold on. All right. So my pick for a record from 2012 was number eight, Rihanna's Talk That Talk, actually released in November of 2011. It's the sixth studio album from Rihanna, born Robin Rihanna Fenty and St. Michael Barbados in 1988. This year, a song called We Found Love. Let's just keep repeating the chorus.

Just do it a couple more times. Yeah. Now, where did they find love? I don't know. Hopeless place. I didn't catch it, did you? Oh, hopeless place. Oh yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah. It's a repetitive, dancey number written and produced by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris. It'll be great. Yeah. It's an uptempo electro house song with elements of dance pop, techno and Euro pop. 128 beats per minute. Perfect.

I don't know if you caught the depth of the lyrics, but it basically about a couple who found love where? In a hopeless place. Exactly. My clickbait headline for the album is Rihanna says, lick her vocal presence, suck her charisma. Nice, though. Thank you. Yeah. I guess what I was most impressed by from Rihanna is just her vocal presence. She's versatile. She's soulful. I don't know. She just knows what to do with a mic.

I'm not sure she's not on the same level as Beyonce and Alicia Keys as far as singing. I don't know. She can do a lot of things with her voice and I think it works particularly in a dance pop context. Yeah. It's Madonna-esque in that way. It is. Yeah. That's a good comparison. The 80s dance music sound is what Madonna took, right? We kind of forget that that's what dance music sounded like. It's like holiday and whatever, but that's what it did then. She took EDM and added some spices.

Yeah. I think she also has some more masculine qualities to her voice in the way that Madonna did, especially later in her career where she sounds like she gets a lower range in her voice too. That's true. Yeah. She explores. Yeah. Well, let's hear a little more. Here's Where Have You Been. What was she looking for? Babe?

Yeah. So what caught me on that song was it references I've Been Everywhere that Australian country singer Jeff Mack from 1959 and then popularized by Hank Snow from Canada in 1962. And then again, Johnny Cash with the Where I've Been Everywhere man across the country. And I just like that little reference there, the reuse of that line in a different way.

But what I liked most about that song was surprisingly the production, the EDM stuff, the rope, rope, rope, rope stuff I thought was really cool. And throughout the album, that's what I kind of clung to because the vocals are sparse in terms of meat. It's mostly the gravy over and over again. You were really hanging by your fingernails there, dude. The EDM was what kept you around. Yes, I was. That gets me to my clickbait headline.

Dude finds himself listening to Rihanna for the first time, miraculously survives the EDM haze. It was the beats that kept me going. Not that it, like Don said, fine vocals, like I like some of the affectation she does, the accent that appears and goes. It was very interesting vocally. I would have just liked more words, man. I would have liked to get to know her a little bit more instead of it feeling kind of surfacey. But maybe that's more part of that music world.

People don't want to be dancing and hearing someone's biography in a song. They want the lines and the moments so that they can all start freaking out. So it's a balance. If she ever comes, maybe she has an album, like more of a ballad-y album. I'd be interested to check that out because she does have an interesting voice. Well, let's hear more. Here's a cut called Cockiness. Love it. Yeah, just Greg Kinnear did it so sexy. This is like, you know. Rihanna's version. It's okay.

That was the sixth and final single off the album. More than half singles. I can't believe that was a single. It was. Yeah, I mean, this whole album is just filled with some of the most thinly possible veiled sexual interwindows that you could imagine, that track being perhaps the most on-the-nose example. I don't know. Whether or not it works, I think is debatable. I guess maybe in that club context, as you were saying, dude, it makes sense. You want things to be sexy.

That's what I kept trying to remember. This is not a staring out the window on a rainy day kind of album. This is a dance record. This is grinding against somebody. Yes. All right. My clickbait headline for this album is Rihanna talks that talk plenty, but does she say anything as the dude was alluding to? Yeah, I think this record is not really filled with a whole lot of substance. Maybe the most substantive thing is the beats. The production has varied significantly from track to track.

But there's some interesting things that happen. She shares the stage with it. It's like a partnership. I mean, there are equals. I would agree, which I think is, yeah, it works. I mean, it's important. She's very much feeds the beat as much as the beat is keeping the songs going. Yeah, no, I think the closing cut there farewell is probably the most traditional of a song we would get where we really do hear her sing a little bit more and it's less focused on production.

And she sounds good on that song. I think she did just like an acoustic Rihanna record. That would be really interesting to hear what that would sound like. It just sounded like a pink song to me, like a very that anthemic sort of girl power sort of vibe, which ran counter to a lot of I mean, it was a different kind of girl power through the other tracks. This one was more vulnerable. So it kind of was a little out of place, but I guess a nice palate cleanser at the end.

Yeah, it makes sense at the end of the record, I think. It's kind of funny how Rihanna and the Black Keys both have like see later songs at the end of their albums. I'm kind of not a huge fan of that personally. That's true. But yeah, I mean, I think Talk That Talk for me at least is just kind of like a time capsule of some of the sounds at the time, you know, in terms of the dance music and Rihanna obviously being a big part of that.

Nothing here is like amazing on its own, but if you want to something that represents what was happening in dance culture in 2012, I think this is a pretty good selection. Well said, Andy. So that was Talk That Talk by Rihanna, the number eight album of 2012.

Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions. Once again, it's time for Deep Questions by Don. So I kind of mentioned at the beginning of the show that I don't remember much from 2012. What do you guys remember from 2012? I mean, the most memorable things for me from that year, I mean, we had the presidential debates and election were always interesting. Mitt Romney versus Obama kind of throwback from this time period feels like those were the golden days of political discourse.

The other big things I'll mention are some films that at least for me were pretty impactful. I mean, we kind of have like in some ways the beginning of the end of popular culture in the Avengers movies. We had the first Avengers movie came out kind of amalgamation of all the Marvel stuff up to this point, kind of coalesced in this big film and it was a huge, huge deal on the box office and then spurred obviously like a decade of spin-offs and offshoots and TV shows and whatnot.

Yeah, this stuff's been going on for a long time. Yeah, so much came out of that. Also that year I mentioned too Walt Disney purchased Lucasfilms, which included Star Wars and Indiana Jones and that would lead to a whole mess of additional films in those series of varying quality. Yeah, so 2012 for me, I started like I had been carrying a small collection of vinyl records around since the 90s, but in 2012 was around the time I started really trying to build a collection again.

I have a pretty large CD collection and I made the move laterally to vinyl and started going to record stores a lot.

Again, independent stores and picking up a lot of used vinyl and getting vinyl on eBay, find someone that was selling a whole box of records, get that shipped and then find what- Just the random creative- Yeah, and there was stuff I was looking for in there, like some Led Zeppelin albums and things like that of varying quality, sometimes two copies of something, but there were weird records, many of which ended up being really interesting listens. So it's been fun all the way along.

I still, when I go to the record store, I look in the dollar bin and I pick up something that looks weird as hell just for fun and see what it is. That's cool. What about you Don, just sitting around waiting for another year to begin? Well, I was really into trail running at the time and that's when I really got into hoppy IPAs. Those are really since 2012 that's been my beer of choice. What's a go-to IPA? The Juice Bomb from, damn it, I can't think of the name of the brewery.

Snooty Douche Brewery. Yeah, exactly. What the? Sloop, is that the- Yeah, it's Sloop. The Sloop Brewing Juice Bomb. I was close. Yeah, one thing I didn't participate in, but I remember it being popular in that year was The Walking Dead. But I remember actually I went out and I saw like a Pink Floyd cover band. And so afterwards we grabbed a drink at a bar and it must've been at 10 o'clock or whenever that show would be on.

And I remember like everybody that worked at the bar was just sitting there watching the show. And I remember like feeling like I was putting them out if I ordered a drink because they were just so glued to the show that I had no idea. Yeah, that was one of those shows that definitely had those guys for a while. You should've started acting like a zombie. You would've gotten their attention there. Well what do you remember from 2012? Let us know.

Hit us up on Instagram, Facebook, or leave a comment on our website, AlbumNerds.com. Hi, I'm Adele.

I am in New York in a very hot and sweaty and dark artist's room here at Sony. Wow, she's like a wicked witch or something. Yeah. So doing research here for Adele's number one album of 2012-21, I've found I've learned a lot about her and her personality that runs a little counter to what you would expect from the super serious, heartbroken vibe of the album.

So Adele Lori Blue Atkins, born May 1988 in Tottenham, London, is an English singer-songwriter, signed a record deal with XL Recordings after graduating from the Brit School in 2006, like the Performing Arts School. Amy Winehouse was also an alum. Numerous accolades including 16 Grammy Awards, 12 Brit Awards, Academy Award, Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe. Her studio albums 21 and 25 are among the best selling albums in UK chart history and both certified diamond in the US.

So for 2012 to have a superstar, we hadn't had one of those in a while. So why don't we jump into a little bit of 21 with the track Rumor Hazard? So this was her second studio album, released in 2011. It was top seller for 2011 and 2012. The album title is her age at the time of recording as was 19 and her subsequent albums. I wonder how far she'll make it. Make sure to have like an 89. Yeah, maybe. So Rumor Hazard was written by Adele and Ryan Tedder who also produced the track.

She stated that the song was not inspired by the media as many people think, but more about her own friends who believed the rumors they were reading about her in the tabloids. So they'd ask her like, oh, I heard you did this. And she's like, it was really pissing her off that these, the people were believing all this shit when they actually know her. So I thought that was an interesting twist to learn about. Fourth single from the album and it's catchy. It's fun.

It's, you know, throwback soul a little bit. My clickbait headline, British Invasion hits America's shores once again in the form of an emotive vocalist with a broken heart. Modern clean production, but still human, full of emotion. I don't think there's a bad song on the record. They're not all the best, but they're all enjoyable. And heartbreak introspection, breakup, forgiveness, healing, deep stuff. The worst song is actually the cure song.

So I knew, I knew we had to, I know there's no way that you thought that the cure love song cover would be adequate. Yeah. I thought it was nice. I knew you're going to hate it. It just seems like a, I don't know. It's just not like a great, I don't know. It doesn't seem like the song, the type of song that's worth covering. Although I do think like the best part of the song is the baseline and she didn't use it.

Like at least when 311 did it, they, you know, they stuck with that original baseline, but no, it's just kind of a banal song anyway, by cure standards. So it's not one that I would do. I thought that was one of their most poignant songs in their discography. But no. The true fans don't like the popular ones. I guess so. I mean, I appreciate them, but that, and I like that song, but it's just, I don't think it fits in this record very well.

Like it doesn't make sense to me with the rest of the album. I think I read that she was doing it as a tribute to family members or something who supported her. So it's not about the guy that dumped her. Okay. All right. Why don't we jump into hopefully a more enjoyable song than the terrible cure cover. Apparently here's a little bit of someone like you. That was the second single off the album, co-written by Dan Wilson of semi-sonic fame. Guys remember, remember them? Closing time.

Closing time. Yep. I think it seems like this album is largely about a breakup that she had been going through and a long-term relationship that had recently come to a close. The song definitely deals with that. It feels like a lot of the record does. 90% of it does. Yeah. The thing I read about the song was that she was imagining like at age 40 running into her ex and seeing that he's got this beautiful life with a beautiful wife and stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. I found out that he had gotten engaged after their breakup and never wanted to get married when they were together. Now this was really hitting her heavy. Yeah. I could totally sympathize. I think she beautifully captures that emotion here. I think it's a great performance. I think it's one of the best songs on the record. I think one of the best songs for this period in my opinion. I think it's just spellbinding every time I hear it.

I think this album as a whole really is impressive to me. Coming back to it after a while, I was blown away by how powerful her voice is and just the emotion on this record. My clickbait headline is, though now able to legally drink in the United States, Adele instead decides to crush the billboards. Yes. Yeah. I mean, she was just such a force at this period and I think it's deserved. I really came to appreciate this record in hindsight.

I mean, her vocals are just, she's able to stir very deep emotions. She has a real bluesy quality to her voice. We can talk about maybe she's forcing it a little bit at times, but I think that undeniable emotion there and just, I mean, her range and her control over her voice is just, it's incredible. I mean, she's definitely one of those generation type talents in my opinion. I think this is probably her strongest record. So yeah, I really, really love it. It's great. All right.

Why don't we set fire to the rain that's next song we're playing. That song was co-written and produced by a Frazier T Smith. So actually much more, I think dramatic instrumentation, the arrangement I think kind of stands out from the rest of the album, which I think is much simpler. But yeah, it seems like a pretty powerful song about the contradictory elements of a relationship and how difficult it is to let go.

At times there, like her voice has sort of almost like a evil sort of sound to it, kind of like a Sinead O'Connor kind of vibe. Evil Sinead O'Connor, yeah. Yeah, which I like. Evil Sinead O'Connor? Put your pinky up by your lip there. Yeah. So my clickbait headline for 21 is Breath of Fresh Air Leads to Critical Hot Air. So I mean, this, you know, I mean, Adele is, you know, I mean, she's just an amazing vocal talent. It's an excellent album, but it was just so big.

Actually that night that I was at the bar and all eight TVs were on The Walking Dead, the lone remaining TV had the Grammys and it was just Adele winning every single one of them. Adele, Adele, Adele, yeah. Yeah, she crushed. I think sometimes when this happens, you know, things become a bit overrated, like the Alanis Morissette album and Macy Gray or whatever, you know, there's like a female artist that just gets elevated to this like an amazing status. And I think it's unfair.

It's like we elevate people and then we sort of forget about them, which is unfortunate because it's just a, it's a very good record contrasting it with other things that were going on at the time that you have your pop artists who are focusing on dance pop or incorporating elements of hip hop. You know, this one is a throwback to old sounds and R&B and soul. So it was, it was a breath of fresh air at the time. And her voice really is something special and it's unique.

I think Andy mentioned earlier, it's kind of funny, like her accent on a couple of songs, you know, where she says, take the risk. It just seems like, I think she's maybe overdoing the attempt to have that kind of Southern soulful voice, you know, when it's not natural for her. Well, Southern people are known for saying risk. So I don't know, I just think it, sometimes it comes out when you're singing. She's pushing it a little bit at times.

She's over singing, I would say at times to try to sound more soulful maybe. I mean, who are we to critique fucking Adele singing, but there's moments where I'm like, yeah, that's not quite right. A little distracting at times. I think one of the most telling pieces here is that she had multiple producers and she recorded a lot of these songs as demos. And then she recorded a lot of them with Rick Rubin, who ended up only producing three of the tracks on it because she chose the demos.

Yeah, that's cool. She decided this is her second record. She's like, this is too much. These are too full of sounds. I want it more stripped down. So to make those decisions and have it be elevated to this level, at least I feel like she deserved the accolades. She was writing on all of these songs. This was her story, her record, and she dictated what those songs were going to sound like. And that's pretty awesome. I mean, she was 21 years old.

I mean, that's so young in the music industry to do this kind of decisions. It's impressive. Yeah. For many reasons, I would like to quickly nominate Adele 21 for the Albinards Hall of Fame. Adele established herself as the diva of the decade. Could tell that she's a diva because she has had a residency in Las Vegas. Are we just going to completely overlook Celine Dion's discography here, guys? Or are we... I'm just joking. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. I'm just joking.

Yeah. I mean, I completely agree with you on this. I think this is a great record. I liked it more now than I did back then. So I will say yes. Yeah. Despite what I said, it's an excellent album. So you're willing to take the risk on this? I will. I will. Congratulations, Adele. So Adele has made it into the Albinards Hall of Fame with her album 21. I think it's held up and it's a great listen. Nice for one of those rainy day window albums. Can you dig it?

Can you dig it? Can you dig it? So fast forwarding how many years? 12 years now from 2012 to 2024. What are you guys digging lately? All right. Well, yeah, step around the corner here and I'll show you what I got in my new release bag. Yikes. Why do we have to step around a corner? Why can't you just take the bag out, man? You don't want to show everybody. Just private. Oh, geez. It gets worse and worse. So my first record you're talking about is from saxophonist Charles Lloyd.

This guy's been doing it since the mid-60s. He's got a new record out called The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow. It's a lengthy record. Kind of a challenging jazz record, I would say, but I've been enjoying it quite a bit. Not a record that's afraid to take its time and meander about that kind of good listening. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It definitely sounds like one of those introspection albums where you're rethinking everything. What am I doing with my life? Why am I so handsome? All right.

Next one up here is quite a bit different. This is from hip hop artist Tierra Whack. She has a new album called World Wide Whack. I think it's a mistake. Maybe it's making whack on whack. Whack on whack? Yeah. In the old days, bad hip hop was whack. She's taking back whack. She's taking back the whack. It's a little different. It's actually a really inventive, creative hip hop project. A little bit outside of her usual stuff.

She's a good rapper, but there's a lot of interesting other stuff going on around it. Kind of a good sense of humor too. I like the lullaby beat there. You don't normally hear songs about smelling shit. She's the shit that you smell, man. That's her. That's the whack she brought back. Nice. All right. Well, it certainly makes it interesting enough to go check out. Yeah. That's pretty good. All right. Let's see. Adrienne Lenker. Adrienne. From Big Thief. Singer, songwriter, folk rock vibe.

The new record is called Bright Future. I think this record is really, really good. I think it might be among my favorites of the year so far. It's a very introspective, kind of quiet record, but she is a very good songwriter. Sounds like if Stevie Nicks went country a little bit. Yeah. She reminds me a lot of Amy Leperis. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. Maybe not. She's young still, but in that vein. Nice. Would you have been digging on down?

Well, one group, I've never spent a lot of time with them, but whenever I hear something from them, I'm usually like, oh, I like that. That's nice. So the band Guster has been around since the late 90s. They have an album coming out in May called Ooh La La, and they have a song out from it called Keep Going, which sounds nice. It doesn't sound as folky as Guster used to sound.

True. I remember the fans used to make a big deal about they would like, only their drumming was something was up with their drumming, right? It was all by hand. I think they didn't use sticks or mallets. Any percussion they were using was by hand, but I think they moved on from that. I don't think that's true any longer. Got a little sore. Arthritis as you get older. Okay, so I went to a new release from a band that I've loved for a long time.

It's the Black Crows with Happiness Basterds, their ninth studio album. I think they haven't had an album since 2009 or something. It's been a long time. The Brothers Robinson have reconvened. They broke up for a while. They have had some problems with each other. They've got a guest vocal from Laney Wilson, Andy's favorite country artist. And it's good black crowsiness. I've listened to it a couple of times so far. Sounds fun. I still got the swagger.

Yeah. Country artist Cody Jenks, back with another album, Changed the Game. He's kind of an independent country artist. I've liked him for a long time. Good discography. A lot about struggling with addiction and figuring out how to live life. And I know Andy, we've talked about him before. Would you guys think about this kind of thing? Love it. Would you be interested on Yellowstone? Not yet, but you never know. I got this one. I haven't heard of it yet.

And finally, what would an Album Nerds podcast be without talking about Dave Grohl or the Foo Fighters? I recently grabbed this EP from 2015 that originally was going to be released as fan service. They did a free download of it. It's called the St. Cecilia EP. It was after their Sonic Highways project that was kind of like, eh. And this was more back to the roots of the foos. It's an enjoyable little listen. It's just a few songs and very fooey.

I guess one of the tracks was originally written for the color and the shape. Cool. Is that a 12 inch or is that a little guy? 12 inch, yeah. 13 on a good day. Jesus. Okay. So what are you doing? Let us know. Hit us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, threads. And on our website, albumnerds.com. It will be a discovery of extraordinary value. All right, guys. Well, I perused through a lot of pop culture from 2012 to find something that really summed up what the year means to me.

So with that in mind, I'm reminded of, do you guys remember the show Duck Dynasty? Yeah, I never watched it. I never saw it, but I remember it was guys with ZZ top beards. Yeah, reality show, haunting ducks, I assume. Yeah, their stuff. Well, the old dude, kind of the grandpa duck there, C. Robertson said, I quote, I own the MacGyver of cooking. If you bring me a piece of bread, cabbage, coconut, mustard greens, pig's feet and pine cones and a woodpecker, I'll make you a great chicken pot pie.

Wouldn't it be a pecker pie pie? I think it would be a pecker pie, wouldn't it? Anyway, sorry for that nonsense. Let's bring out my friend in yours, Wadbot, to see what we'll be discussing on next week's show. Your journey of musical discovery continues. Music carries with it the emotion and creativity shaped by life experiences. Sometimes music is born of family traditions and shared experience. Next week, you will explore albums created by bands that feature family members. That seems doable.

Should be fun. Okay, who are your favorite familial artists? What else are you listening to? Let us know. Leave a comment on our website or email us at podcast at albumnerds.com. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and threads at albumnerds. Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app. And if you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at albumnerds.com slash support. Thank you once again for joining us here at the Album Nerds podcast.

We look forward to having some family time. Yeah, nice listening everybody. Catch you next week. You could have had it all. Rolling in the deep. Wow. Todd is about to pass out. Fail alert there. Geez. I mean, between the three of us. Oh, you do it once again.