I don’t know about you guys, but I love a good album collage. One of the first things I do every Friday is head over to tapmusic.net and render a 4x4 chart of the albums I listened to most over the past week. At the end of each month, I do the same thing with a 5x5 that recaps my previous 30 days of listening. By the time December rolls around, I look forward to recapping the last twelve months with a gigantic 10x10 grid in an unwieldy encapsulation of the 100 albums that defined my year.

Is it a little self-aggrandizing? Sure, but it’s also a fun way to see a quick snapshot of what my last week, month, or year has sounded like. At its best, this practice has led to fun conversations and solid recommendations going back and forth with friends as we bond over specific albums. Sometimes it’s that shared love over a deep pull from years gone by, other times it’s just noticing trends with a recent fave that seems like an unshakable presence week in and week out. At the very least, I suppose it’s satisfying to see a bunch of records that I feel an affinity toward lined up and embodying a specific stretch of my life.

At some point near the tail end of last year, I conceived of a more communal way to bring this love of album collage to life. Because, sure, getting a live readout of your listening history is cool, but this is also about album art, an essential part of the experience and something us nerds can fixate on just as much as the songs that sit beneath the cover. As such, I’m excited to welcome you to the third edition of Cover Collector: a monthly installation where the Swim Team discusses some of our favorite albums based on album color. For March, we’re writing about yell-worthy yellows.

Marietta – As It Were

Look, I’m not gonna pretend As It Were is better than Summer Death, I’m just saying one could make the argument. There’s a reason that Marietta’s debut is as revered and lauded as it is; songs like “Cinco De Mayo Shit Show” have become scene staples for a reason. Summer Death is evocative of a very specific period of concentrated Emo Revivalism that was overflowing from Philly in the early 2010s, but how does one follow that up? As It Were posits an artistically fulfilling path forward, chartered by these four individuals we see on this cover set against a modest mellow yellow wall. Songs like “Pony Up!!” and “United Away” still explode with anxious, youthful emo energy, while others like “Ilai, Eli, A Lie” and “Brains” articulate a clear desire to be making a different style of music entirely.

For years and years, Summer Death was all I listened to when it came to Marietta. That record soundtracked entire seasons of my life, and I kinda figured that nothing else could stack up. At some point in the last handful of years, a friend recommended that I wait until the first really warm day of spring, then go for a walk and listen to As It Were, and that’s exactly what I did. Blue sky above, sun on my skin, I went on a jubilant stroll around the park near my Denver apartment and let the energy of this record carry me forward. As we emerge from the great thaw of winter, I’d like to pass that same suggestion forward to you, the reader. If you’re only familiar with Summer Death, you’ll hear lots of comforting sounds in this record, but you’ll also hear a band evolving and stretching to be something even more fulfilling and complex.

– Taylor Grimes

Pile – A Hairshirt of Purpose

Anyone who knows me in even the vaguest capacity knows that Pile is my favorite band. It’s only because I’m exercising self-control that I haven’t submitted a Pile album for every iteration of Color Collector (yet). But I couldn’t say no to writing about this wonderful yellow album: A Hairshirt of Purpose is special, from the beautifully melancholic cover art – a simple marker illustration of a figure in a bathtub – to the vast emotional depths plumbed by Rick Maguire’s haunting voice.

The mood of the album fits the title perfectly, as a hairshirt was traditionally used as a means of religious penance. The discomfort caused by the coarse, uncomfortable garment was a way to “mortify,” or purify, the person of their shortcomings. This release is a meandering, soggy, melancholic walk through a swamp of emotions that range from morose to frenetic, suggesting that feeling of self-purification. The delicate “Making Eyes” is subdued and weary, while “Texas” is a galvanized, heady track that is a clear nod to noise-rock legends The Jesus Lizard. My favorite of the album, “Milkshake,” falls somewhere in between these two songs. It’s a gorgeous track with a sinister undercurrent: repetitive piano and guitar lend an eerie drive that could soundtrack a thriller. “You lay down and try to rest / Try to breathe deep with that foot on your chest,” Rick hums, before delivering my favorite line of the album. “An old light threatens through the blinds.”

– Britta Joseph

Modern Baseball – Sports

Listening to Modern Baseball always felt like the music equivalent of watching films like Napoleon Dynamite or Juno. This is especially true for their debut album, Sports, where, after several smaller releases, the band rolled up their sleeves and rocked out a full-length at the recording studio in Drexel University. Sports encapsulate the awkward, quirky transitional years from high school to college in the best way possible. The band, fresh out of high school and onto the rugged Philly streets, was still green enough to sing largely about girls and the emotional tumult that ensues with them at that age.

Released in 2012 – the same year as my freshman year of high school – this album holds a special place in my heart, having soundtracked many of the highs and lows of those years. Long will the memories last of many fall semesters set to the tune of “Hours Outside in the Snow,” “I Think You Were in My Profile Picture Once,” and “Coals.”

What the band created with Sports felt truly distinct within the pop-punk/emo scene in sound and lyricism, so much so that I’d go as far as to coin it “meta-emo.” Dropping references to social media like Twitter on the track “@chl03k” at that time felt mind-blowing. The owner of the aforementioned Twitter handle even appears on the album’s bright yellow cover, flexing their impressive fishing skills.

– Brandon Cortez

Hyakkei – Okurimono

Weather systems are fascinating things. They are such massive forces of nature, with orders of magnitude that range from 10 yards to entire swaths of the planet. Yet it’s the convergence of such systems that has created some of the most incredible landscapes on Earth. By water, thunder, or heat, more is hewn and born of the marriage between different systems than simply one note of an atmospheric change on its own. With Okurimono, the marriage of post-rock and math rock finds its eye of the storm, the touchdown point of emo, post-rock, and math rock all converging in a serene swirl of precision and technicality, an enduring canyon carved into the bedrock of instrumental rock music. Hyakkei sadly never quite took off while active — a storm cell broken over the Cascades of bad timing. Still, Okurimono is a near-perfect album, calming and melancholic with brilliant, impressive melodies; a true testament to what an absolute force of natural beauty the band could be.

– Elias Amini

Amanaz – Africa

Of the many micro-genre rabbit holes one can fall into, Zamrock is one of the coolest and most rewarding. Zamrock represents a brief yet powerful period in Zambia's history, with its peak lasting from 1964 to about 1978. Zambia, like almost all African countries, had been colonized by Europe in the late 1800’s—in this case, Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company (one of the most evil men in the history of the world, who is rotting in eternal torment now, god willing). In 1964, Zambia declared its independence and became a sovereign nation, led by President Kenneth Kauna (also a really bad guy, god damn these people cannot catch a break). Soon after, in an attempt to emphasize Zambian culture, Kauna decreed that 95% of all music played on the radio must be Zambian in origin. Kauna also negotiated control of the country’s copper mines, meaning Zambia would now benefit financially from its chief export. Basically, you have a nation with more time on its hands, more money, and huge record collections left behind by British Imperialists. Inspired by the music of Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, and Cream, Zamrock took hold as a potent blend of psychedelic rock and African beat music.

The liberation of music came at a time of great social and political unrest. The price of copper fell quickly after Zambian independence was achieved, causing Zambia’s economy to crash. The AIDS epidemic took hold. Zambia was in armed conflict with almost all of its neighbors. The mid-20th Century in Zambian history was a literal perfect storm for potent rock and roll music.

Many of these bands only made one or two albums, some of them only a single and a B-side. They all have a similar sound with their own individual flair, but the signature sound of Zamrock—the fuzzed-out guitars, lo-fi drums and vocals, and baselines taking a walk—is unmistakable. Bands like WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc), the Ngozi Family, Ricky Danda, The Oscillations, and Amanaz carried the mantle of Zamrock and dedicated their artistry to putting their own spin on the Western music flooding into the country from South Africa and the colonizers.

In 2019 and 2020, Now-Again Records and Vinyl Me Please began repressing and distributing eight of the most prominent Zamrock albums from the 70’s. They also produced this really cool mini-documentary, that’s worth 15 minutes of your time.

My favorite album of this batch is Africa by Amanaz. It has the flavor of Zamrock, but it’s the dreamiest of the group. There’s a weightlessness and a headiness to Amanaz. Track 4, “Khala My Friend,” is the crowning achievement of the album. It’s a song I will never, ever get tired of. It’s a slower song than most Zamrock tracks. It has one of the coolest guitar solos I’ve ever heard. I have played it for all of my friends, and everyone comments how beautiful it is. It’s about friendship! How great is that? Friendship in the face of political unrest and economic uncertainty. We could learn something from Amanaz.

– Caleb Doyle

Le Tigre – Self-Titled

My love for Le Tigre is as bright and deep as its golden yellow cover. I’ll go to the ends of the earth to make sure everyone knows it. If Pitchfork ever decides to ask me for my Perfect 10, trust that Le Tigre’s self-titled is what I’ll be saying. The debut album from the grunge-electro-pop mega group is, to me, perfect. You can thrash and scream to “Deceptacon,” wallow and romanticize to “Eau D’ Bedroom Dancing,” and get real contemplative with it on “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” (misogynist? genius?). It’s frenetic, brash, and unapologetic; the poppy, almost airy counter to Kathleen Hanna’s thicker, darker Bikini Kill roots. The intensity is countered by the levity, making Le Tigre a celebration of what is had rather than a lament on what’s missing. On “Hot Topic,” they take the time to call out all the women who inspire them (among them: Angela Davis, Cibo Matto, Sleater-Kinney, Yoko Ono), but still make space to shit on Rudy Giuliani a few songs later with “My My Metrocard.” Hanna is not only on my musical Mount Rushmore, but also the Mount Rushmore of both grunge and riot grrrl as a whole. Revolution Girl Style Now!

– Cassidy Sollazzo

You Blew It! – Keep Doing What You’re Doing

Simply one of the best emo records of all time. Fourth wave crystallized with a punchy Florida stank on it. Sweaty, jumpy, high-energy shit you can scream along to while pressed up against at least three or four other people. Keep Doing What You’re Doing is an album with a real arc; everything ignites like a powder keg with the appropriately named “Match & Tinder,” then ends on one of the most sweeping, hopeful epics as its closer. Just a bunch of untouchable riffs and immaculate choruses stacked up one after the other. Cathartic, fun, and endlessly replayable, what more could you ask for in an album?

– Taylor Grimes

City And Colour – Sometimes

When I think back to the music of my early high school years, I can’t think of another album that washes over me like a warm wave of nostalgia quite like City and Colour’s debut album, Sometimes. Having not been an Alexisonfire fan before hearing Dallas Green's solo work, it came as a shock to me when I learned that he was formerly a hardcore frontman, as his voice just fits so perfectly with a more stripped-down atmosphere. His register-shifting, buttery vocals, along with crisp guitar production, meld gorgeously into this stunning collection of early works, where almost every track feels iconic. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone of the millennial generation unfamiliar with singles “Comin’ Home” or “Hello, I’m in Delaware,” while tracks like “Save Your Scissors” and “Day Old Hate” reward the more avid listener. I’ve remained a consistent fan of Green’s in the years since finding this album, and there may be albums of his I rank higher than Sometimes, but this album will always hold a special place in my heart.

– Ciara Rhiannon

For the previous iterations of Cover Collector, we took a break halfway through to pay respects to the color-coordinated excellence that is Weezer’s discography. Unfortunately, there is no such equivalent for yellow (unless you count the fan-made Piss mockup), so instead we’ll focus on an equivalent entity: SpongeBob.

There are a few downright excellent SpongeBob albums. First, you’ve got SpongeBob SquarePants: Original Theme Highlights, a 7-song 9-minute collection from 2001 including Pantera’s “Pre-Hibernation” instrumental and Ween’s shoe-tying instructional “Loop De Loop.” Despite its short stature, I ran this CD into the ground as a kid. A few years later, in 2005, we got The Yellow Album, a more traditional-length collection of everything from “Sweet Victory” to “Gary’s Song” and the unparalleled 30-second masterpiece “Sweater Song.” Weezer, eat your heart out.

One final shoutout must be made for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Music from the Movie and More… (official title) for bringing together Ween, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, and Motörhead all under one roof. Top that all off with “Goofy Goober Rock” and baby, you got a stew going. What a soundtrack. What a film.

Baroness – Yellow & Green

Is it yellow? Is it green? Is it both?? The answer here is an overarching yes, for Georgia metal institution Baroness’ third full-length album. After Weezer (whose only yellow-coded album, Raditude, I was lambasted from defending in this roundup), Baroness is certainly the next-most-notable band to name their albums after specific colors, beginning with Red Album in 2007. Frontman John Baizley is responsible for the gorgeous cover paintings for all of their color-coded albums, including a handful for other artists including Flight Of The Conchords and Gillian Welch. Yellow & Green is a sprawling double-disc collection that marks a stylistic shift for Baroness, with songs still rooted in their sludge and stoner metal background but now with a greater focus on hooks and melody. The “Yellow” disc features the riffy singles “Take My Bones Away” and “March To The Sea,” instant catalogue classics for the band, and its final track, “Eula,” is my favorite thing they’ve ever recorded. The “Green” disc follows with tracks like “Board Up The House” and “Stretchmarker” that help establish Baroness as one of the greatest melodic metal bands of the 2000s. Yellow & Green is not only my favorite Baroness album, but one of my favorite albums of all time since its release in 2012.

– Logan Archer Mounts

The Simpsons – The Yellow Album

If you want to know how gigantic a cultural phenomenon The Simpsons was in the 90s, do yourself a favor and listen to The Yellow Album. This was the ultimate heat check, forty feet away from the basket. The Simpsons is my favorite animated show of all time. No one can touch them in my eyes, but no one in their right mind was asking for this album.

The Yellow Album was a cash grab so substantial even Krusty the Clown would blush. I imagine the corporate executives at Fox manically laughing while puffing cigars and lighting 100-dollar bills with a flamethrower when they decided to go ahead with this idea. Basically, they’re all Hank Scorpio. The Simpsons are known for their brilliant musical numbers, with standouts like “The Monorail Song” and Mr. Burns’ hilarious, non-PETA-compliant “See My Vest,” but everyone completely mailed in the ideas and performances on this record. Where were The Be Sharps? Where was Party Posse? Instead, we are left suffering with some of the worst-written songs this side of the Mississippi, coming mostly from a neutered Bart Simpson. Maybe if this were some kind of social experiment to see how far the company can thrust the Simpsons brand onto society, then I could see some method in the madness. Other than that, hunt down their best songs from the actual show on YouTube; I promise it’ll be better than the ten tracks on The Yellow Album.

– David Williams

Bomb the Music Industry! – Vacation

It’s that hazy shade you only see at sunset in the middle of the summer. You only see it when you’re alone. You don’t really pay attention to the sunset when you’re with your friends, do you? This yellow, edged with pink, is the perfect color for Vacation, the final album by Jeff Rosenstock’s esteemed collective Bomb The Music Industry!, because Vacation is an album about mourning what isn’t even lost yet. Vacation is nostalgia for an occurrent past. Listening to Vacation is to be surrounded by everyone you love, and that loves you, and to be sad that these moments can’t last forever. Those moments that feel more like being in the real world than the daily grind, or as Rosenstock laments, “this vacation feels more like home.” Pay your rent tomorrow, grab your friends, and watch the sunset tonight.

– Lillian Weber

Mil-Spec – Marathon

You spend all winter waiting for the days to get longer again, then, all of a sudden, it’s still light out past 8 p.m., and the days just don’t end. That can be miserable too. Sometimes only a guitar solo can save you, at least that’s what Mil-Spec seems to prescribe. Marathon is an album full of agony and hope, of paralyzing grief and grasping at release. Not to be too earnest, but I can’t believe this album only came out in 2023. Three years and I am still moved by the question “could you trace the arc of the universe?” Three years and the “Belle Époque,” the almost six-minute synth monologue still makes me cry. The days, the days, the days don’t end.

– Caro Alt

The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore – The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore

A fun fact about me is that I am awful at remembering the names of virtually anything or anyone, but I can probably tell you what color a given album cover is or what color shirt you were wearing that one nondescript night we spent at that shitty dive bar. So anytime a musical artist chooses to use a single color as the visual aspect of their work, it intrigues me. I’ve always thought that a pretty bold statement for an album, one that begs a very powerful question: how does this color specifically reflect the music within? The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore is a pretty good example. I, admittedly, know very little about this project. From what I can gather, The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore is not necessarily a band, in the traditional sense, but rather the project of artist Florian TM Zeisig and a whole crew of collaborators on various instruments and effects. It’s a nice little sonic-quilt of indie, jazz, ambient, Americana, shoegazey sounds, and autotuned vocals. I find myself drawn towards certain sounds depending on the context I’m listening in: the drum beats pulse with more weight in the car, the interlocking vocals and sparse guitars dance around each other more intimately on a late-night walk. Does it sound yellow? I think so. It reminds me of a hot day in the pool, sunlight bouncing off the water's surface, creating new shapes and shades as you look at it.

– Nickolas Sackett

Metallica – 72 Seasons

Coming almost 40 years to the date after their debut album, 72 Seasons showcases Metallica playing with more heart and purpose than they have in decades. Frontman James Hetfield described the concept as “The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences.” It’s this constant inward reflection that separates Hetfield from his 80s thrash metal contemporaries. Long gone are the days where the ferocious guitar riffs need to be paired with themes of despair, fear, and hopelessness. The ability to recognize this and focus on more personal, relatable themes makes 72 Seasons the band’s best effort in over 25 years.

On the final track, “Inamorata,” totaling 11 minutes and 10 seconds, Hetfield opens the first verse with an invitation, “Welcome, won’t you come inside? Meet the ghosts where I reside.” The song eventually reaches an extended bridge, with Trujillo laying down a pensive, slow-moving bass line. On top of this, Hetfield plays the only clean guitar found on the entire album. I interpret this moment as a breakthrough of clarity that comes from a person facing their traumas. Eventually, the song builds back up, and Hetfield exclaims, “Misery, she needs me. Oooh, but I need her more.” The realization that, as much as we can try to run from our woes and problems, those experiences shaped us into who we are, and that it’s best to face them all head-on.

– Ryan Morrissey

Barenaked Ladies – Stunt

The Canadian alt-rockers may be best known for the smash hit “One Week,” which opens Stunt, but I promise this band, and even this album, are better than that already admittedly incredible song. A tour-de-force of harmonies, traded vocals, little synth stings, and acoustic guitar parts that are weirdly more complex than you’d expect, Stunt feels like a vision of radio-rock optimism. A sign that BNL is better than the few songs that have surfaced to the top of the charts and are capable of songs about introspection, longing, parenthood, sleep deprivation, and even recovering from addiction. The combination of vocalists Ed Robertson and Steven Page has always resulted in fun interplay between two incredible performers, and Stunt is no exception. When you need an album that just feels like the summer of 1998, you’ll never do better than running to your local record store’s Barenaked Ladies section and grabbing the yellow one.

– Noëlle Midnight

Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold

The debut album from Parquet Courts was a way of life for me during college because, well, I was stoned… and I was starving. Light Up Gold came out during my sophomore year, and I was a slacker in need of direction. This album gave me direction, but only led me further down the path of slackerdom. Why would I give a shit about my future when I could hang out with my friends and shout the endless one-liners gifted to us by Andrew Savage and Austin Brown? It’s been thirteen years since then, and any time I listen to this album, it instantly conjures the taste of canned High Lifes and the stench of sweat that only occurs when you cram too many undergrads into a small apartment on a Saturday night. I don’t know if you know this, but SOCRATES DIED IN THE FUCKING GUTTER.

– Connor Fitzpatrick

Honorable Mentions

Hey, we can’t write about every album with this color, so here’s a list of some more that we feel like we should mention.

Palette Knife - New Game+
Hotline TNT - Cartwheel
Turnstile - Time & Space
Talking Kind - It Did Bring Me Down
Tigers Jaw - Tigers Jaw
Lower Definition - The Greatest Of All Lost Arts
Oso Oso - Basking in the Glow
Coldplay - Parachutes
Man Overboard - Real Talk
Wilco - Being There
Subsonic Eye - Singapore Dreaming
Stress Fractures - Stress Fractures
Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave
Bully - Lucky For You
Owen - No Good For No One Now
Cap’n Jazz - Analphabetapolothology
Garret T. Capps - Life Is Strange
A Day To Remember - Common Courtsey
Adrianne Lenker - Live at Revolution Hall
R.E.M. - Green
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating as One
Yeesh - Confirmation Bias
The Sidekicks - Happiness Hours
Greg Mendez - Greg Mendez
Pretty Rude - Ripe
Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong with Love
Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030

Swim Into The Sound

Swim Into The Sound

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Swim Into The Sound

Cover Collector – March Yellows

Marietta – As It Were

Pile – A Hairshirt of Purpose

Modern Baseball – Sports

Hyakkei – Okurimono

Amanaz – Africa

Le Tigre – Self-Titled

You Blew It! – Keep Doing What You’re Doing

City And Colour – Sometimes

Baroness – Yellow & Green

The Simpsons – The Yellow Album

Bomb the Music Industry! – Vacation

Mil-Spec – Marathon

The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore – The Thinking of the World Began Pounding in Our Ears the Moment We Hit Shore

Metallica – 72 Seasons

Barenaked Ladies – Stunt

Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold

Honorable Mentions