Here's a fun fact: I sometimes get anxiety at the thought of discussing my favorite albums. It's just hard to convey the effect they have had on me. With that being said, I'm going to talk a little bit about the new Taking Back Sunday album. Their last album was powerful. The energy was electric and palpable, and I was nervous that it was a product of their reunion. Fortunately, this new album is no different. It pulses with loud guitars and heavy drums, but it leaves room for soft reflection.

It is odd to compare it to an album that came out over a decade ago, but "Tell All Your Friends" is undeniably influential. TBS maintains the TAYF energy on Happiness Is... but the themes have changed. This album is filled with a lot more nostalgia and an acceptance of oft-unfortunate events. Don't worry-- TBS has not gone soft. They still do angry really well. Also, the back and forth singing of Adam Lazzarra and John Nolan will always warm my heart in a way that no other pair of singers could. They have a give-and-take that is often only possible between siblings.

I love this album. I shared the videos for "Flicker Fade" and "Stood a Chance" but every song is great. A couple of my favorites include "It Takes More" and "Better Homes and Gardens." "Beat Up Car" calls to mind the Used, which makes sense since they are pretty close with that band.
This album really solidifies the new generation of the band as a music staple. Enjoy.

If you don't already know, I am the president of the St. Vincent fan club. I'm really not, but I love Annie Clark (a.k.a. St. Vincent). She is one of the most talented musicians making music right now, and her new self-titled album is a testament to her tremendous talent.

St. Vincent comes right after her project with David Byrne, Love This Giant, and its influence on her solo work is obvious, especially in the song "Digital Witness." You still get a taste of classic St. Vincent with the gnarly guitar parts and hauntingly angelic vocals; in fact, both aspects are only amplified. But Clark is much more experimental on this album, and that's what is going to make this album one I go back to in one, five, ten years from now.

Listen to "Rattlesnake," "Birth in Reverse," "Prince Johnny," and "Digital Witness" for four songs that highlight the various sounds on the album. Listen to it all, though. "I Prefer Your Love" is incredible, as is "Bring Me Your Loves."

I usually listen to NPR on the way to and from school to catch up on world events so I can sound smart to my preschool kids. However, I am tired of hearing about the incompetent government. Also, I bought Into It. Over It.'s Intersections, and I cannot stop listening to it.

This album filled a void in me. I still listen to a good majority of the music I listened to ten years ago, and not just for nostalgic purposes. I really love emotional alternative music (I am trying really hard to avoid the term "emo" here). So, when I heard a magazine article describe Evan Weiss and Into It. Over It. as the "fourth wave" of emo, I had to find out for myself.

I love this album. It is very, very reminiscent of Bayside. In fact, I listened to a Bayside song followed by an IIOI song, and the familiarity was almost uncanny, particularly with the vocals. It is different, though. It draws a lot of influences from bands like the Promise Ring, Jets to Brazil, and Jawbreaker, as well as Armor for Sleep and Further Seems Forever.

This album also reminds me of winter. It feels comforting and familiar and a little bit heavy (not the metal kind of heavy). This album feels like an angry drive home. Maybe you're only getting Weiss' side of the story, but who cares? It feels good to be a little angry and a little sad and also a little bit hopeful.

Some standout tracks include "New North-Side Air," "Spinning Thread, "A Curse Worth Believing" and "Obsessive Compulsive Distraction" (I nearly listed every song, but that would have been excessive. Seriously, though.)

Ten years ago, I bought Saves the Day's In Reverie and told myself that I wasn't going to over-listen to it because I didn't want to get tired of it. I did over-listen, but it remains one of my favorite albums. Saves the Day was my first real concert (after N SYNC and Avril Lavigne, of course). I sat up in the balcony next to my dad at the Warfield and then I went to school the next day. I was thirteen. I am twenty-four now, and Saves the Day still makes me feel they way they did eleven years ago. When I first heard a Saves the Day song, I knew that I could never, ever feel alone. The little holes that might show up in my heart from time to time could always be filled just by pressing play on a stereo or an mp3 player. So many of their songs have acted as anthems for me in different stages of my life. I have seen Saves the Day many, many times, and one time Chris Conley even came up to me after the show and told me I was amazing. Crazy, you guys.

Chris Conley is one of my biggest inspirations as a writer. His ability to express anguish and to juxtapose that  anguish with saccharine sweetness is unparalleled. Saves the Day lost a lot of fans when Chris Conley found his voice with In Reverie, but I wasn't one of those. I love the first three albums more than any other albums in this universe, but my love for them then doesn't overshadow my love for later albums. In fact, I believe that In Reverie is one of the best albums of all time, and some of my favorite Saves the Day songs come from the trilogy.

Last Tuesday, Saves the Day released their eighth studio album. The self-titled album (which fans have nicknamed Grapefruit came out last Tuesday), and it is a breath of fresh air. The last three Saves the Day albums (Sound the Alarm, Under the Boards, and Daybreak) comprised a trilogy of extreme emotional anguish that culminated in the narrator accepting defeat and attempting to rebuild. You can tell that the band was ready to move on and write new material.

On the heels of this trilogy, Saves the Day is significantly lighter. It contains catchy hooks and love songs, and it only lasts 33 minutes. Chris Conley is married with a child, so the love songs are comforting after the often devastating lyrics on the last few albums. Sometimes it's just nice to enjoy a love song, you know? Several songs on the album recall the night Conley met his wife, and it works as a kind of theme on this album. Conley said he wanted this album to act as a "sonic love letter," and I think that sums it up nicely. It is short, fast, and tight.

I first listened to Daybreak while running at the gym, so I thought it appropriate to continue that tradition with the new album. I got it on Friday after a particularly rough day. I had heard a few released songs already but not start to finish. When I heard the following lyrics from the song "Lucky Number," I knew that this album would be an important one for me.

                                         In the night when you're alone
                                         In the dark and the unknown 
                                         You can always come back here
                                         I'm home.


This is probably cheesy, but I felt like Chris Conley was making a promise to me, and that's when I knew he had met his goal of creating a "sonic love letter." 

Neko Case's The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You feels like:

A combination of loud and soft.
Like she knows life sucks but she wants to carry you through it.
Like "old" Neko Case but a little tougher. Her voice is bare, raw, and clear (so beautiful)
A mix of beautiful and ugly (but in a good way)

Apparently, she suffers from depression and experienced a lot of death while making this album. Instead of breaking her down, all of her trials toughened her up. Neko Case is someone I would want to have on my side during hard times, which I guess I kind of do. That's the good thing about music, huh?

The Worse Things Get... calls to mind Fiona Apple's last album. It is a beautiful listen, the lyrics are wonderful, but it sometimes get a little dark, but in a welcomed and humorous way.

For example, in "Night Still Comes" she sings "I revenged myself all over myself" and "Did they poison my food? It is cause I'm a girl? If I puked up some sonnets, would you call me a miracle?"

"Man" is one of my favorite songs of the year. It doesn't hold back. The music (lyrics and instruments) are very powerful. This is the perfect single; it got me pumped to hear the rest of the album. It demands attention from the get-go.

A lot of the songs discuss gender, and what it means to be a woman, a man, or just a human in a screwed-up place, I guess. In "I'm From Nowhere" she sings,  "I was surprised when you called me a lady/ 'cause I'm not so sure that's what I wanna be/ 'cause I remember the 80's/ and I remember it's puffy sleeves/ You say I'm lucky to be here/then maybe you can take this over/and I'll gladly wear the pants into the next century/Past the scanners with ease."

"Nearly Midnight, Honolulu" feels like a really great summation of the album. It discusses motherhood using dark and seemingly funny lyrics, with her voice against a blank backdrop. The story goes through a boy's life from when he was a kid and his mom told him to "get the f*ck away from me." It could have been a really good album ender; as such, "Calling Cards" creeps up pretty slowly and is kind enough to let you take in what you just heard.

"Afraid," which is a Nico cover, feels like a choir song, except she is the only one singing. "Beautiful" is kind of a cheapened term, but that's what it is. This song makes me feel like I'm in a huge chapel; I'm alone, but I'm not really alone.

I love this album, and I can't wait to buy it. I give it one billion stars.

I have a complicated relationship with John Mayer. I really liked Room for Squares when it came out because I was a twelve-year-old girl with an inclination toward anything that wasn't saccharine pop. After that album, I didn't really listen to him again. I heard rumors of douchebaggery and his music felt a little too Jack Johnson-y for me, and I am just not that into Jack Johnson (no offense, Jack Johnson. You seem like a really nice guy).

Anyway, my attitude toward John Mayer has changed in recent years. I watched him on SNL with Frank Ocean a few months ago, and he was great. My man knows how to play a guitar. I read an interview with him in Rolling Stone where the writer really gave him the benefit of the doubt. Rolling Stone knows how to make a fool out of pop stars they don't care for, so I figured I should give Mayer another chance if they did.

His new album, Paradise Valley, is really good. I don't have a lot to compare it to by way of his other songs since I haven't really listened to one of his albums in over a decade. However, I really like this one. Paradise Valley is a nickname for Montana, which is where he moved to get away from Hollywood and write this album. It feels really soulful, especially the first song "Wildfire." He was raised in Connecticut, but this song tricked me into thinking he was from New Orleans.

"Dear Marie" is a quiet singalong replete with chants, which is nice when you're just lounging around the house or taking a long drive. "Who You Love" features Katy Perry, and it's actually pretty good. I guess this is his way of marrying his two worlds, and I like it. Katy Perry's voice is nice on the song; she doesn't call unnecessary attention to it. It also features some horns and soft jazz crooning at the end but it feels more relaxing than cheesy.

Frank Ocean sings on the second "Wildfire" on the album, and I love it. I love Frank Ocean a lot, so I was happy to see his contribution. You need to close your eyes while you listen to this.

"You're no one 'til Someone lets you Down" might be one of my favorites on the album. It is pure old country.

All in all, this album is legit. I love it so much. I love it more than I thought I would.

I think that She and Him is one of those polarizing bands; you either love them or hate them. I am in the former group, but I think people sometimes hate them because they get tired of Zooey Deschanel. Homegirl is everywhere.

A friend invited me to one of their shows back in 2008, and I agreed to go because I love M. Ward. I hadn't seen Elf, and I had no idea who Zooey Deschanel was. I listened to a couple of their songs, and bought a ticket last minute for $35. That was probably the most expensive show I had been to at the point with the exception of Warped Tour. Going to see a band you don't know usually kind of stinks, but this show was incredible. It was certainly worth $35. M. Ward is an amazing guitar player, and Zooey has a killer voice. They had 60's style backup singers, and both Ward and Deschanel played a million instruments (including the mouth trumpet).

I fell in love with them after this show. I bought the first album and listened to it non-stop. I was really excited when Volume Two came out. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed. The music was still as good as ever, but the lyrics felt kind of flat. I couldn't sense any real emotion behind them, which is what made the first album so good. Don't misunderstand me, though. The album was good, but I just didn't think it was great.

Thankfully, Volume 3 swooped in a couple months ago and saved the day. The emotion is back! After some deliberation, I can even say with confidence that this album is better than their first, and I thought it would be hard to top. The music still has the 60's pop element, but it veers off into different sounds a little bit, so it doesn't feel like the same album they've made twice before. M. Ward's Buddy Holly-influenced guitar is very distinct on this album, and I love that. Nobody else sounds like M. Ward. I kind of felt like he was missing from the last album a little bit.

Some of my favorite songs are "I've Got Your Number, Son," "Never Wanted Your Love," and "Together." Listen to it on Spotify and then go buy it.

I first found out about Waxahatchee through photographer Ryan Russell. He shot the cover of her new album Cerulean Salt and he shoots a lot of other great bands like Paramore, the Postal Service, Against Me!, and pretty much all of the bands in Alternative Press. Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee hails from Birmingham, Alabama, where she was in a bunch of bands with her twin sister Allison (of the band Swearin').

Cerulean Salt came out earlier this year, and I've been listening to it nearly non-stop since I found about it. It feels very gritty and personal, which is probably why many people have lauded it as really good angsty high school music, which I guess I agree with. Maybe they mean that the lyrics aren't shrouded with metaphors or covered up with auto-tune and electronic whatever stuff. (I don't even know about music; I just like it.) She also has a youthful voice, but I think that adds to the authenticity and grittiness of the album. Crutchfield does have a beautiful voice, though. It just isn't fancy or diva-like.

I can't really recommend one song over another. It starts off pretty soft with "Hollow Bedroom" but the electric guitar keeps the album from getting too sleepy. My favorite song might be "Dixie Cups and Jars" or "Brother Bryan," but I'm not sure. "Blue Pt. II" kind of reminds me of Kimya Dawson but more serious. Apparently she wrote this album about a really bad breakup, which explains why it hurts a little bit (in a good way, of course.) You might like it if you are fans of Best Coast, Kimya Dawson, or other stuff that's good. Also, watch the new video for her song "Coast to Coast" below.

I first found out about Adam Green through the Moldy Peaches from the movie Juno (duh). It is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I sure did love that song that cute li'l Michael Cera and Ellen Page sang. I love the way Adam Green's and Kimya Dawson's voices complement each other, and the lyrics are lighthearted and fun. I also got really into Adam Green's album Friends of Mine around the same time, but I haven't really listened to him since then. Until...

When I first heard about Vampire Weekend I wanted nothing to do with them. In fact the whole idea of  Vampire Weekend made me sick. Preppy Ivy Leaguers with sweaters draped over their shoulders singing about Cambridge, and Cape Cod. This was one 1% percent music. Music I wanted no part of . . . that is until a girl I had a crush on burnt me a copy (sorry for writing about old crushes, Christina). Nothing ever happened with the girl, but I fell in love with album. Researching oxford commas and getting the hell out of Walcott were all I could think about.

They continued to impress me with their second release, Contra. Now with their third album, Modern Vampires of The City, I'm speechless. Ezra Koenig and the gang have really outdone themselves. Modern Vampires is far different. The lyrics are more personal. The music is more refined. I find myself relating to the lyrics in ways that I haven't related to an album in a long time. Koening is 29 (same age as me) and with lyrics like "Wisdom's a gift, but you'd trade it for youth", and "Nobody knows what the future holds and it's bad enough just getting old" the album feels like an anthem for late twenty somethings transitioning into full adulthood.

MV is  more introspective than previous albums. Koening digs deep when questioning not only his place in the world, but his feelings about religion. "Unbelievers" explains itself in the title of the song.  Not only is the title of"Ya Hey"a shout out to Outkast, it's the Hebrew pronunciation of Jehovah (Yahweh). On "Hannah Hunt" he sings about not believing in a person of faith's words about  "hidden eyes" that can see what we're thinking.

We're almost half way through the year and this album stands out above anything I've heard. I feel like it's important  for everyone to listen to. Vampire Weekend have made something that will last. Not that you can compare the two albums, but I haven't been moved this much by an album since Bon Iver's For Emma was released in 2008. Making a third album can be really difficult for most bands, especially with all the hype that has surrounded Vampire Weekend since their first release, but they pull it off seemingly effortlessly.