The Most Petable Dogs In Music

Dogs. They’re everywhere, maybe even in your own home. You might know them as Man’s Best Friend, but I’d argue they’re even more than that–they’re art. 

I’ve always been a dog person. My family has had two dogs; Inca (rest in peace) and Miracle. They’re both Keeshonds and both very good girls. I’m just doing a ballpark estimation, but I’d guess that I’ve taken dozens of gigabytes worth of photos and videos of both of them over the last sixteen years. They’re cute, and I love them!

It only makes sense that musical artists have the same connections with their dogs, so it’s no surprise why many of them have immortalized their pets (or other people’s pets) on the covers of their albums. 

Go on, just think about it. You can probably name a few off the top of your gear right now without even trying. As far as album covers go, I’d like to make a bold and substanceless claim that no other creature within the album kingdom has been as well-represented as canines. Big guys, small guys, fluffy guys, feral guys, they’re all here in some form or another on various album covers from indie rock to experimental bullshit. 

In this article, I’d like to rank these famous pups by how much I’d like to pet them personally. I’d also like to give the clarifying asterisk that I think all of these dogs are good boys and girls. This ranking is no judgment on the dog’s looks or the artist’s music, purely how much I would personally like to curl up with the dog we see on the album art. 

Secondary asterisk: don’t you dare contact me and tell me that I “missed one.” This is all of them, every dog that’s ever existed on an album cover ever. There are no more… Just kidding, please add your favorite album cover dogs in the comments; I want to see them all.

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Machine Girl - Wlfgrl

Given the title of this album, the animal captured on Machine Girl’s breakthrough album may very well be a wolf. Regardless, it does not look friendly and is not an animal I would want anywhere near me. 0/10

21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin - Without Warning

Not a happy dog, and I wouldn’t be happy to be around him. 1/10

Blur – Parklife

Here they come, barreling towards you, driven by some unknowable primordial force and the taste for victory. I think greyhounds are pretty cool, but any time you see a muzzle on a dog, that signals at least some level of un-cuddliness. Also, minus points for being British. 2/10

Joyce Manor - Cody

I wonder what the dietary information is on a mannequin head. 2/10

Rick Springfield - Working Class Dog

A prisoner of capitalism. One album later, the same dog can be seen riding in the back of a limousine flanked by two girl dogs. He may claim, as the title reads, “success hasn’t spoiled me yet,” but the smile on his face has noticeably faded. Money won’t bring you happiness, Rick Springfield dog, I can promise you that. 2/10

Weezer - Raditude

Sometimes a boy’s just gotta fly. He probably just heard “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” and got all hyped up. We’ve all been there, right? I would like to vacation in this home, but I don’t know if I could deal with the energy level of this particular dog. 3/10

Nouns - still bummed

Something about this dog has always unsettled me. Maybe it’s the underexposed flash film photography, the modest Christmas tree in the background, or the music itself, but I’ve never been a fan. Plus, huskies always remind me of this meme dog. 3/10

Rush – Signals

Not to go all “Cruella” on you guys, but I once heard that Dalmatians are bad with kids, and that turned me off of them forever. Not even a good Rush album. 4/10

Snoop Dogg - Bush

Look, I know there’s probably a more-famous Snoop Dogg cover you were expecting to see on this list, but Bush is a fun little funk record that’s worth checking out. This is also markedly less horny album cover than Doggystyle, and this is a WHOLESOME list, so I’m opting for Bush. The ideal listening (and dog petting) scenario is nearby a BBQ on a hot summer day with some beers in hand. 5/10

Mogwai - Travel is Dangerous

This is my baby Yoda. The live version of “We’re No Here” is crushingly heavy and one of my favorite songs of all time; please go listen. 5/10

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SUB-CATEGORY: CARTOON GUYS

We’re roughly halfway through our countdown, so let’s take a break from the real dogs to look at some fake dogs. I’m putting all these illustrated guys into their own category because they’re still dogs but deserve to be analyzed with slightly different criteria. 

In terms of the physical action of petting, would I be petting a 2D approximation of these dogs? Would I myself be 2D? Would it be a Roger Rabbit-style cartoon-into-real-world logic? As you can see, we must look at these boys slightly differently and rank them accordingly. Still scored based on cuteness and overall petability. 

Mannequin Pussy - Perfect

I can see why Mannequin Pussy chose this dog as the cover for their awesome EP from last year. It’s a rager of a punk release, and this snarling German Shepard embodies the music well. This all said, cartoon or not, I’d like to keep this dog far away from me. 1/10

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

Freaky little dog with freaky little eyes. Honestly would probably put me to sleep just like this album. 2/10

Crywank - Tomorrow Is Nearly Yesterday And Everyday Is Stupid

Here we see a certified looooong boy having achieved Dog Nirvana. I’ll let him enjoy victory over his tail and not disrupt him with my pets or adoration. 3/10

Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy

Long before I knew anything about Will Toledo’s life as a furry, I thought this album cover was just a veiled homage to Daniel Johnston. I’d offer to pet these dogs, but honestly, it seems like they’re comforting each other just fine. 4/10

Hovvdy - Easy/Turns Blue

Technically a single, so technically a dog 5/10

Newgrounds Death Rugby - Pictures of Your Pets

No idea where these guys are, what they’re wearing, or why they're posing for a picture, but I can only imagine they’re a good hang. I’d let them crash on my couch while backpacking across the country. 6/10

Mo Troper - Dilettante

A vibrant and multi-colored dog. Truth be told, I don’t know quite what’s going on here, but the abstractness kinda adds to the charm. If I owned this dog, I’d name him Schlorp. 7/10

TTNG  - Animals

A landmark math rock album in which a group of five British men attempt to replicate the energy of 13 various animals across as many tracks. While the dog only may be one small piece of this album and its art, it’s hard to deny how small and cute this guy is. Plus, if he can coexist alongside an alligator, elk, baboon, and more, you just know he’s a stone-cold chiller. 8/10

Various Artists - No Earbudz Vol. 1

Look, ain't no rules says a dog can't play basketball. There also aren’t any rules that a PR company can’t put out one of the best compilations of 2021. Assisting in album campaigns for the likes of Bartees Strange, Into It Over It, Future Teens, Caracara, and more, No Earbuds is a killer organization that’s home to some of the best and brightest minds in emotional indie rock. Having all these artists cover each other was a stroke of genius. Here’s hoping we get a Vol. 2 someday. Very petable, very good. 9/10

Advance Base - Animal Companionship

Regal, majestic, pure. These are just a few of the words that come to mind when I look at the dog on the cover of Animal Companionship. He might be a little cold, but I’d gladly let him inside and allow him to warm up by the fire. Also, possibly my favorite album on this list besides TTNG. 10/10

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Okay, that about covers us for the two-dimensional dogs. Now, back to your regularly-scheduled dog ranking…

Alex G - Trick

Look at him go. He may have grown up in a religious environment, but you can just tell that this German Shepherd knows how to party. 6/10

Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger In The Alps

In Phoebe Bridgers’ first (and, in my opinion, best) album, we take in an image that, much like her music, is equal parts haunting and charming. Set on a pastoral farm scene, a scratched-out cartoon ghost obscures the humanoid figure beneath. A rainbow breaks through the sky, dog nearby, cautiously surveying the scene and looking damn cute while doing it. Phoebe has also posted a cool unedited version on Instagram, which is great for all your Deluxe Edition needs. 6/10

Hot Mulligan - you’ll be fine

Me? Depressed. Emotionless. Existing, but not feeling. My dog? Luckily my dog feels everything. We both take in the endless expanse of nature listening to the post-emo of you’ll be fine, and for 31 minutes, it seems like things might just turn out okay. 6/10

Pet Symmetry - Pets Hounds

Floppy-ass ears and big hangin’ tongues, what else could you want in an animal? I just know these dogs would be down for a couple of hours of fetch and a long rest on the front porch afterward. 7/10

Jimmy Mayo - Whoops

Boop. Oh, sorry, I didn’t see ya there. In what feels like the tonal inverse of the Nouns dog, here we have a warm but just-as-out-of-focus pic of a pup on the cover of one of the most underrated and under-the-radar emo EPs of the past few years. 7/10

See Through Person - Chariot

Another great emo dog. He’s chillin’, you’re chillin’, life is good, and the riffs are twinkly. 7/10

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

The Stranger Things lady? Cool! All kidding aside, I’m happy for Kate Bush and the legions of Gen Z fans she’s recently attained. I’m even happier to report that the titular hounds on Hounds of Love appear infinitely cuddle-able. In fact, the album cover acts as undeniable proof of that fact. 8/10

Pet Symmetry - Two Songs About Cars. Two Songs With Long Titles.

Whoa, boom, second entry from the same band on one list! Pet Symmetry is easily taking home the “most dog-friendly band” award. They must have been trying to make this a theme in the band’s early days, and how could you deny them when you look at a dog this cute? A wonderful boy that I would drive to the dog park any day of the week. 8/10

Little Big League - Tropical Jinx

Michelle Zauner, mustaches, and a singular fluffy pup snuggled in between them. What else could you possibly need? 9/10

Beck – Odelay

One of the types of dogs. I’ve always wanted to pet him. I’ve always wanted to see him on a windy day. I’ve always wanted to see him do everything. 10/10

Shelley FKA DRAM - Big Baby DRAM

Damn, look at DRAM. Look at that pup. This image radiates happiness in a way that few album covers ever do. A perfect composition. 10/10

The Best of February 2021

In writing this month’s batch of mini-reviews, I realized that the title of this series is slightly misleading. These albums aren’t necessarily the “best” of the month; that’s a bit of a misnomer. None of these albums are objectively better or worse than anything else that released this month. These are simply the albums that I’ve been listening to the most and therefore have the most thoughts on. I still recommend checking each of these releases out, it’s just that some of these albums are great, and some are only great to me. Speaking of which, this seems like a perfect segue into the first record on our roundup...

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Foo Fighters - Medicine at Midnight

Roswell Records

For better or worse, I am a Foo Fighters Fan. I spent the better part of my middle school years discovering alternative rock with the Foo Fighters discography paving the way. Even as I fell in love with new genres and more “exciting” artists throughout high school and college, Foo Fighters remained a constant companion and a reliable source of competently-made hard rock. I made a yearly tradition out of watching Back and Forth, and about once a year, I’ll have a short but torrid love affair with the band, leaning more towards their pre-Sonic Highways albums. In the lead-up to Medicine at Midnight, I devoured reviews, think pieces, interviews, and rankings, unknowingly re-igniting my love for the band just in time for the group’s newest offering. Medicine at Midnight is a step above the last two Foo Fighters albums with songs that range from drum-led choirs, hard-charging guitar licks, and even Queens of the Stone Age-esque desert rock. All of these tracks utilize the band’s standard components (an over-abundance of guitars, solid rhythm sections, and Dave Grohl’s signature snarl), but they’re also filtered through a slightly dancy lens that gives the songs a noticeable amount of bounciness and life. I can see why someone wouldn’t like Foo Fighters, especially Medicine at Midnight; this is music that would fit just as well in a Dodge commercial as it would on my high school iPod, but that’s the duality of Foo Fighters, and consequently why I love them. 

Vampire Weekend - 40:42

Spring Snow, LLC

As a longtime post-rock fan, I’ve always joked that I’m just one step away from getting into jam bands. On top of that, I’m a hardcore Ween fan (a jam-adjacent band) and have spent hours listening to a podcast about Phish. In other words, that jam-band-guy-tendency has always been there, lying in wait for the perfect moment to strike. When Vampire Weekend dropped the Grateful Dead-worshipping Father Of The Bride in 2019, my interest was peaked. I’ve always liked Vampire Weekend but never consider myself a big fan. Nevertheless, Father was one of my favorite releases of that year. As I followed the album’s release cycle and watched how the band extended the songs out into longer, more jammy live renditions, I knew it was only a matter of time until the jam band thing came full-circle. Now with 40:42, the prophecy has been fulfilled. This release sees Vampire Weekend tapping jazz musician Sam Gendel and jam band Goose to remix “2021,” both artists blowing the song out into 20-minute and 21-second pieces of their respective genres to awe-inspiring and vibe-filled effect. 

Black Country, New Road - For the first time

Ninja Tune

Somewhere between Slint, Shame, and the first album by A Lot Like Birds lies Black Country, New Road. Extremely verbose and very British, For the first time is a wonderful debut that sees a band unflinchingly committed to their post-punk aesthetic. The record kicks off with “Instrumental,” which is a borderline post-rock track centered around a needly Klezmer riff, frantic drumming, and woeful saxophone. That opening salvo paves the way for ranting tales of science fair downfalls, romantic French encounters, and escaping behind the faint veneer offered by a pair of sunglasses. The lyrics include references to six-part Danish crime dramas, matcha shots, NutriBullets, and micro-influencers, all of which are delivered in a shaky, unstable vibrato that makes it sounds as if the narrator could burst at the seams at any minute. Though the release may only contain six songs, the 40-minute running time leaves the listener emotionally winded in its wake. 

Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights

Royal Mountain Records

When I first heard Wild Pink’s breakthrough sophomore album, Yolk In The Fur,  it felt like a revelation. Heartland rock with a jangly indie rock twist and just a drop of emo? Not only did it feel tailor-made for me, but it was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. In fact, go back and read the July 2018 equivalent of this monthly roundup, and my excitement is still palpable. Three years later, A Billion Little Lights takes that sound and offers up more of the same. At first, the worst thing I could say about the new Wild Pink album is that it sounded exactly like the last Wild Pink album. That’s not a bad thing, just a little unexciting. Then I put the record on while driving, and boom, it came alive. As I flew down the highway, the album seemed to bloom around me, rising and falling with the hills off in the distance. It felt like that’s how these songs were meant to be heard. Of course listening to these songs alone in my apartment wasn’t going to hit the same. 

At times on songs like “Oversharers Anonymous,” it still sounds like I’m listening to something that could have come straight off of Yolk, but I don’t think that’s inherently bad. There are some cool, unique moments like a weird glitchy synth-based breakdown in “The Shining but Tropical” and a cathartic finish on “Die Outside,” and sometimes that’s all you need. If this is your first experience with Wild Pink, I emphatically recommend listening to this album and absorbing it fully, especially if you're moving somewhere with a purpose.

Katy Kirby - Cool Dry Place

Keeled Scales

Out of all the artists releasing warm, sunny, brightly colored albums this month, Katy Kirby might have released the most exciting and dynamic. While Wild Pink takes a more wide-open heartland rock approach and Sun June affects a more pensive, inward style, Katy Kirby uses a lush and expansive sound to examine the fragility of human relationships. Whether it’s the tasteful use of autotune on “Traffic!” or the spellbinding build on “Secret Language,” nearly every track on Cool Dry Place offers something different. The songs are all bound together by the common denominator of Kirby’s affectionate delivery and soft production. The end result is a pleasant and inoffensive album that also offers a surprisingly deep and layered reflection. As Cool Dry Place winds from light indie rock to late-afternoon piano ballads, you can’t help but be taken in by the breadth of emotions contained within the record’s mere 28 minutes. 

Mister Goblin - Four People in an Elevator and One of Them Is the Devil

Exploding In Sound Records

Do you like Pedro the Lion? Do you remember Devil, the 2010 M. Night Shyamalan movie where five people are trapped in an elevator, and one of them also happens to be the devil? If you answered ‘yes’ to both of these questions, then you are in the very specific cross-section that Mister Goblin is speaking to. Despite the overly specific target market that I just laid out, an intimate familiarity with either of these subjects is not a pre-requisite to enjoying the sophomore album from the Two Inch Astronaut frontman. Some of the tracks like “Get Gone” call to mind a particular brand of light-hearted and good-natured indie rock evocative of Brendan Benson. Aside from the aforementioned Pedro the Lion, this release also feels tonally-reminiscent of early-2000s Vagrant rockers like The Anniversary, the Get Up Kids, or the New Amsterdams. It’s an album that’s sonically unbothered but lyrically distraught, a beguiling mixture that proved to be a fantastic first listen. 

Miss Grit - Impostor

Self-Released

Easily my biggest surprise of this month, Impostor is a fantastically diverse and economical EP that manages to sound simultaneously familiar and wholly unique. After a glitchy and off-kilter electronic opener that undercuts any preconceptions, “Buy The Banter” deploys a heavily fuzzed-out bassline and hypnotic chorus for a grungy Garbage effect. “Blonde” begins with a crystal clear instrumental and Mazzy Star-esque vocals before growing into a towering Smashing Pumpkins riff and fading into a dreamy outro. There’s the dancy “Grow Up To,” the chunky “Dark Side of the Party,” and the starry-eyed title track. Despite how unique all of these songs sound, they still feel unabashedly committed to Margaret Sohn’s vision. This is a fantastic and uncompromising EP that offers comforting familiarity wrapped around sounds that feel like a breath of fresh air.

Mogwai - As The Love Continues

Rock Action Records

Mogwai have been a musical companion of mine for about a decade now. Ever since I first discovered Come On Die Young back in high school, I’ve been a diehard fan of the Scottish post-rock stalwarts. In fact, Mogwai has a special place in this blog’s history as our first ever article, though I don’t necessarily recommend you go back and read that. As The Love Continues takes the collection of sounds that Mogwai has spent 25 years cultivating and hones them to a fine point. All the usual Mogwai trappings are here: a groovy electronic cut, the uptempo dance track, unforgettable vocoder usage, the song with vocals, and, perhaps most importantly, the distorted heavy-as-shit riff. The band is able to take all of these different approaches to the genre and cram them into a one-hour thrill ride that oscillates from triumphant to despair to destructive and back again multiple times over the course of its run time. Simply put, they don’t miss.

Quick Hits

Hayley Williams - FLOWERS for VASES / descansos - A second, more subtle solo outing from the Paramore bandleader that’s a little more acoustic than last year’s Petals for Armor, but still just as deeply felt. 

Skatune Network - Ska Goes Emo, Vol. 2 - Another collection of iconic tracks spanning multiple waves of emo, all adorned with horns and upstrokes courtesy of the DIY ska mastermind Jeremy Hunter.

Cory Wong - Cory and the Wongnotes - Another funky outing from one of the highly prolific minds behind Vulfpeck.

The Obsessives - Monastery - A pleasant three-track pop-rock outing that’s capped off with a wonderful Breeders cover.

For Your Health - In Spite Of - In the same class as Portrayal of Guilt, For Your Health offer up brutal and visceral hardcore that thrives in garages, basements, and other places you might accidentally get punched in the face.

Sun June - Somewhere - Are you more of a Jackie O or a Karen O? Well, on Somewhere Sun June argues you can be both, but only if it’s in service of love. 

Another Michael - New Music and Big Pop - A blissful, colorful, and lovely collection of tracks that oscillate between unbothered and crushingly realistic. A musical Starburst. 

Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature - yet another of this month’s pleasant, naturalistic albums, this one with gorgeous sax, therapeutic exercises, and one of the best wah-wah deployments I’ve heard since Childish Gambino’s “The Night Me and Your Mama Met.”

Jetty Bones - Push Back - Somewhere between the neon fake happiness of After Laughter and the immaculate production of Lover-era Taylor Swift is the debut album of Jetty Bones, equal parts danceable and cry-able.

Danny L Harle - Harlecore - 40 minutes of high-energy, high-BPM from the hyperpop-adjacent happy hardcore electronic musician.

God Is An Astronaut - Ghost Tapes #10 - Proficient post-rock that leans toward progressive heavy metal.

Adrian Younge - The American Negro - One of the most powerful albums I’ve heard in years yet am wholly unqualified to speak on. 

Black Sheep Wall - Songs for the Enamel Queen - Incredible hardcore that winds from towering soul-destroying breakdowns, throat-shredding screams, and winding atmospheric passages.

Of Mice & Men - Timeless - Three metalcore songs that swing hard but don’t always land.

Julien Baker - Little Oblivions - The first full-band album from Julien Baker hits all the marks you would expect: religion, queerness, and crippling self-doubt. 

Nervous Dater - Call In The Mess - Poppy emo rock that stretches all the way from earthly farms to the far reaches of outer space.

The Weather Station - Ignorance - An earthy and emotional indie rock album that feels like the nighttime counterpart to Saint Cloud’s sunshine.

American Poetry Club - Do You Believe In Your Heart - A distraught emo EP that feels like it could collapse at any moment under its own emotional weight.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage - A surprise-released album from Nick Cave and a single Bad Seed.

Cloud Nothings - The Shadow I Remember - Hard-charging punk rock in the vein of Titus Andronicus or Japandroids, just with a more naturalistic bent. 

Glitterer - Life is Not A Lesson - A dozen under-two minute cuts from the Title Fight frontman.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - L.W. - The second microtonal half of a double album from the ever-prolific and ever-psychedelic Aussies.

Half Waif - Orange Blossoms / Party’s Over - Two fresh tracks from the witchy and dancy electronica queen.

An Introduction To Post-Rock

Sometime in the spring of 2011, I was assigned to read The Metamorphosis for a high school lit class. I was a little bummed that I had to spend some of my spring break doing homework, but it was a class I enjoyed, so I did it anyway. That year my family spent our spring break in a little house on the Oregon coast, and it was (unexpectedly) rainy for most of the week. Given the weather, I decided what better time to sit down and read this trippy-ass short story.

I laid down on my rented bed in my room that smelled distinctly “beachy” and listened to the raindrops patter against the window as the skies turned greyer and darker. I turned on my trusty iPod and decided that now was the time to listen to that new band I heard about called “Explosions in the Sky.” I put on The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, the album with the most striking title, and cracked open my copy of the book.

For the next 40-some-odd minutes, I became so absorbed in the reading that I completely forgot about the outside world until the album came to a close. It was a meditative and (fittingly) transformative listening experience. I’d never heard anything quite like that album, and I immediately started another one of the band’s half-dozen records I had loaded onto my iPod before leaving Portland. 

Over the course of the next year, I had an absolute love affair with post-rock. A love that was kindled by one record soon grew into a new realm of sound that I relished exploring. It wasn’t like the other rock music I was used to, it completely calmed my mind and helped me focus on my work, whatever that was at the time. 

The genre single-handedly helped me get through college, soundtracking thousands of hours of reading, studying, and writing. To this day, post-rock still offers some of the most breathtaking and timeless songs in my entire music library, and I believe it’s a genre that’s worth submerging yourself in entirely. 

What follows are nine albums intended to offer a crash course of the post-rock/instrumental genre. These are personal favorites from bands that I love, all with varying degrees of significance within the actual “scene” itself, but albums that I would recommend to anyone, regardless of background or experience with this type of music. I genuinely believe that these albums serve a dual purpose as a sort of driving but distraction-free background music while also being some of the most moving and compelling pieces of art ever created. 

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Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place (2003)

Arguably one of the few unanimous post-rock records, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place would easily be on the genre’s Mount Rushmore. While Explosion In The Sky’s debut is a wonderful bit of glittering heavy-metal post-rock, I’d argue the band has improved their sound, production, and approach to music with nearly every record. Their sophomore effort is a more mellow and moody atmospheric experience (that also happens to bear one of my favorite songs of all time), but it wasn’t until The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place that the band found themselves at the forefront of the scene with a budding new audience. Thanks in large part to their contributions to the Friday Night Lights score, but also because Cold Dead Place is a tight, economic album that showcases exactly what the genre is capable of in its purest form. 

Opening with the faint siren song of a single guitar on “First Breath After a Coma,” the record eases the listener into the band’s style like a doctor birthing a baby. The group gently layers multiple shimmering guitars over a subtle heart-beat-like floor tom keeping time. They play with adding and removing elements until a steady drumroll sweeps the listener away, and just like that, we’re off. The band crests and crescendos with masterful ease throughout the record, whether it’s the pensive “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” or the lovestruck “Your Hand In Mine.” It may only be five tracks in total, but that doesn’t make this record any less fulfilling. I literally could not imagine a better entry point into the genre for myself or anyone else. 

Mogwai - Come On Die Young (1999)

On the polar opposite end of The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, we have Mogwai’s sophomore album Come On Die Young. These two records are not connected in any way, other than the fact that I listened to them roughly around the same time and they both felt like stark counter-points to each other. While Cold Dead Place is a light, airy, and positive album Come On Die Young is a dark, confining, and foreboding piece of music. Just look at the two covers next to each other and tell me which one you think is going to be more oppressive. While I believe that the members of Mogwai are all great people, this record is simply one of the most evil things I’ve ever heard. This is darker than black metal, more unnerving than a horror movie soundtrack, and more overwhelming than anything you’ve ever heard. 

Opening with a swirling, distorted soundscape on “Punk Rock:” the band lets a soundbite from a 1977 Iggy Pop interview provide the thesis statement for the record: “Well, I'll tell you about punk rock, "punk rock" is a word used by dilettantes and, uh, and, uh heartless manipulators about music, that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it.”

After that articulate introduction from the godfather of punk, the band pulls the rug out from under the listener with “Cody,” a precious and slow-moving love song about an ever-shifting relationship existing in an ever-shifting world. While it took me entirely too long to realize that “Cody” wasn’t named after a person, but instead an initialism of the album name, it also took me entirely too long to realize that this is the only song on the record with vocals. From there, “Helps Both Ways” utilizes a sample of John Madden commentary to navigate the murky waters of a crushingly moody riff. Meanwhile, “Kappa” and “Christmas Steps” both boast lumbering instrumentals while “Ex-Cowboy” features the more searing and rapid guitar strumming pattern dripping in reverb that the genre is most known for. Come On Die Young is far from a happy album, but it possesses an emotional catharsis the likes of which few other genres can provide. This record, combined with Cold Dead Place offer an excellent overview of the range that this genre can have with Come On Die Young existing in a more rotted and sinister end without being too offputting to newcomers.

This Will Destroy You - Young Mountain (2006)

Yet another record I’d put on the post-rock Mount Rushmore, the debut album from This Will Destroy You exists somewhere on the tonal spectrum in between Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai. Blending the cinematic builds of Explosions and the more brooding pensiveness of Mogwai, Young Mountain lies at a healthy middle ground of post-rock. 

From the first majestic keystrokes and gently-falling guitar notes of “Quiet,” you can immediately tell this record is something different. There are heart-pumping builds on “There Are Some Remedies Worse Than The Disease,” there’s world-conquering uplift on “I Believe in Your Victory,” and there’s hypnotic glitchiness on “Grandfather Clock.” While the band arguably has bigger “hits” on their self-titled record with songs like “The Mighty Rio Grande,” it’s hard to argue with the punctuality of Young Mountain. This is the debut of a band who knew exactly what they were doing and exactly the kind of art they wanted to put out into the world.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)

Quite possibly the defining work of the post-rock genre, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven contains only four tracks, each clocking in at roughly twenty minutes apiece. It’s less of an album and more of an experience that the band shepherds the listener through. These songs, or acts, are each composed of different movements, all of which are depicted in the vinyl in a timestamped illustrated diagram depicting the “intensity” of each segment. While that gatefold makes this a rewarding album to sit down with, focus on, and follow along with closely, these are ultimately just ornate layers of detail on top of an already-beautiful album.

Album opener “Storm” begins with a triumphant build of guitar, bass, and drums, eventually layering on horns, a string section, and an entire orchestra as the track gains momentum. This is not the dark and grim apocalyptic band that recorded F# A# ∞, or even Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada two years prior, this is Godspeed as a blossoming flower opening up to see the world as their stage. However, by the time the first track ends (a movement called “Cancer Towers on Holy Road Hi-Way”), it’s clear that there’s something more sinister brewing just beneath the surface. 

“Static” features ominous demonic hums that build to a cataclysmic explosion. “Sleep” is at once a dreamy, floaty, and wistful bad trip. Finally, the title track brings things home with a soaring and anthemic song that mounts into a beautiful conclusion. Quite frankly, Lift Your Skinny Fists is an album that must be experienced to be understood, there’s a reason why it’s become the defacto post-rock album for millions of fans. 

Sigur Rós - ( ) (2002)

At some point near the end of my high school experience I stumbled upon Sigur Rós, and that discovery (combined with copious amounts of metalcore) helped me realize how little lyrics really matter to me. With all of their songs being either instrumental, sung in Icelandic, or “Hopelandic” (a gibberish blend of English and Icelandic that the band invented), I didn’t understand a word these guys were saying. Don’t get me wrong; a well-written song is great, but as far as I’m concerned good lyrics are just a cherry on top, not a necessity. 

While some may sing the praises of their breakthrough Ágætis byrjun or the overwhelmingly pleasant Takk..., I believe ( ) to be their most consistent album. Comprised of 8 “untitled” songs, the record is divided into two even halves separated by 36-seconds of silence and bookended by two clicks of static. The first half of the album is more bright and optimistic, while the second half is more bleak and desolate. It’s a loose concept album in that sense, but ( ) offers a beautiful depth and breathtaking range of emotions over the course of its 76-minute running time. It bears the strange, otherworldly qualities that Sigur Rós is known for while still feeling grounded enough in reality that a newcomer can wade in comfortably.

Russian Circles - Enter (2006)

Admittedly a half-step away from post-rock and toward straight-up metal, the debut album from Russian Circles is a beautiful, heavy, and riff-oriented instrumental post-metal album. Packed with precise guitar riffs, tight drumming, and world-shattering basslines, this record truly has a little bit of everything. 

From the clockwork-like build of “Carpe” to the crushing bounding riffage on “Death Rides a Horse,” the record is a showcase for the absolute breadth of music that can be created with just three instruments. There’s the deeply-feeling “You Already Did” and “Micha,” both of which are palpable with remorse and pain, all without saying a word. While later Russian Circle albums may be tighter, darker, and more cinematic, there’s something to be said for the staggering range of both emotion and tonality on display in the 44 minutes of Enter.

Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull (2008)

Yet another half-step away from post-rock, just in the opposite direction, Earth are the all-important progenitors of drone as we know it. Characterized by spaced-out repetitive riffs that roll on like long arid stretches of desert, drone is a genre all about soundtracking a time and place that exists only in your mind. The albums work like witchcraft, slowly casting a spell on the listener’s mind until it’s transported to another world far away from this one. Through this slowly-unfolding transportive property, these bands are able to unwind gorgeous riffs that establish a sense of time and place unlike any other genre.

The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull is a mythical album. Aside from its biblical title and gorgeous leather-bound vinyl, the songs here capture Earth at the absolute peak of the band’s mid-2000’s era. Unlike their early trailblazing half-hour dissonant recordings or their more recent vocal pivot, The Bees Made Honey offers (relatively) punctual tracks that swirl and cascade around the listener with unparalleled divinity. Songs like “Miami Morning Comedown II” shimmer with opulent mid-morning light while tracks like “Hung From The Moon” feel more like a desert at twilight; blue and expansive but still hot enough for heat haze to be prevalent. The entire album is like a beautiful mirage, it almost seems too good to be true, but then you reach the end and realize you’ve made it out of the desert. 

Mogwai - Mr. Beast (2006)

Mogwai’s discography is immaculate. While Young Team introduced Mogwai to the world and Come On, Die Young has a special place in my heart (literally the first thing ever posted to this site, which I do not recommend you read) I’d argue Mr. Beast is also one of the best entry points into the band’s world. Their work ranges from spacy love songs, glistening immaculate creations, pensive piano-led remixes, and glitchy electronic diversions, but Mr. Beast is a personal favorite merely because it’s wall-to-wall riffs. While Mogwai are no strangers to The Riff (just listen to “My Father My King” or “Xmas Steps”), the band’s fifth album is arguably the most consistently heavy thing that they have ever created. 

“Auto Rock” kicks things off with a piano melody that gradually mounts along with electronic elements, pounding drums, and buzzing guitar that grows into a rhythmic tribal beat that abducts you into the world of the record. “Glasgow Mega-Snake” turns the metal side of Mogwai up to ten as multiple distorted guitars and bass coalesce into one fast-paced riff that pushes the listener forward like a violent current. Other highlights include the soft and electronic “Acid Food,” the anthemic “ Travel is Dangerous,” the riff-bearing “We’re No Here,” or the penultimate credit roll of “I Chose Horses.” 

One of the things that makes Mr. Beast a fantastic entry point to post-rock is that it’s very atypical of the genre. Lots of the songs here have vocals of some sort, and the average song length is about four minutes. It’s also an extremely-varied album with different sounds and approaches that always keeps you wondering what’s next. Truly one of the band’s many masterworks. 

Slint - Spiderland (1991)

Often cited as the record that invented the post-rock genre, Slint’s Spiderland is a masterpiece. If it wasn’t evident by the cover, this is an album that was created by a bunch of teenagers. Spiderland sold fewer than 5,000 copies, and the band broke up before the record could even be considered a cult hit… but cult status it soon achieved, eventually paving the way for the entire post-rock genre in earnest.

While not as purely instrumental as some of the other records on this list, Spiderland solidified the dark, pensive moodiness that became a standard of the genre. It crystalized the dynamic builds and ever-shifting cinematic landscapes that have become a staple of post-rock. Spiderland is flat-out one of the most influential albums in all of rock music. These guys may not be The Beatles, but in the space of 40 minutes they crafted a world so dense and lived-in that we still have groups exploring its corners nearly three decades later. 

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There you have it folks,  the single best crash course for a genre I could ever create. If you’re listening to these albums and find yourself hungry for more, I wholeheartedly recommend exploring each of these artist’s discographies because they’re all rich and rewarding in their own way. Beyond that, there are numerous other legendary post-rock bands I didn’t even get into here like Caspian, God Is An Astronaut, Mono, and more. If you’d like, all nine of the albums on this list have been placed into a playlist here for easy consumption. Thank you for reading along about this genre that has meant so much to me over the last decade. I can only hope that you’ll find as much solace and beauty in these albums as I have over the years.

Mogwai – Come On Die Young | Album Review

Mogwai are not of this world; they are an entity that was created by a spiritual force and delivered to us in the form of five Scotsman. The band has undeniably evolved over the course of their 20 year career, but at the same time they fall victim to something inherent in the post-rock genre: predictability. While they’ve crafted some incredible albums in their two decades together, Mogwai also tend to “play it safe” by writing music based off a template that they created. Though their albums are never a shot-for-shot recreation of this template, the music instead borrows broad thematic elements from it in a way that allows each album to mirror the others. With the release of their second full-length album Come On Die Young, the band’s template fully-revealed itself. Once listeners connected the dots and discovered the band’s recursive nature, it begged the question: does this predictability negate the beauty of the music?

By the time that Come On Die Young was released in 1999, Mogwai had already been around for nearly half a decade. Over the course of the years since their 1995 formation, the band had been through quite a bit: after the release of two EPs, a remix album, and their critically-acclaimed Mogwai Young Team LP, the band also endured the loss of combo keyboard/guitarist Brendan O'Hare. All of this happened within the space of a few years, and this informed the band’s perspective heavily when making their follow-up. Their second album takes an even darker and more introspective view that attempts to grab listeners by the shoulders and violently shake them into paranoia.

The opening track of Come On Die Young is centered around a sample from a 1977 interview with Iggy Pop, and it accurately describes Mogwai’s views on music:

“I’ll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies, and the bodies, and the hearts, and the souls, and the time, and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it. It’s a term that’s based on contempt, it’s a term that’s based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten about rock ‘n’ roll. I don’t know Johnny Rotten but I’m sure he puts as much blood and sweat into what he does as Sigmund Freud did. You see, what sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise is in fact the brilliant music of a genius, myself. And that music is so powerful that it’s quite beyond my control and ah… when I’m in the grips of it I don’t feel pleasure and I don’t feel pain, either physically or emotionally. Do you understand what I’m talking about? Have you ever felt like that? When you just couldn’t feel anything and you didn’t want to either. You know? Do you understand what I’m saying sir?”

Though Mogwai aren’t a punk band, you don’t have to play punk to be punk. You also don’t need to be punk to appreciate what Iggy Pop is saying. The DIY punk spirit can take many forms, and it doesn’t require a battle jacket or a mohawk, just motivation and music. At the same time “punk rock” is a term used by people who don’t understand it, people who wield the word as a means of categorization. Written out it sounds far less confrontational than it comes across in the interview, but when backed by Mogwai’s subtle instrumentals, it feels like a pure wave of power. This track is letting the listener know what this album is really about.

Come On Die Young is an album that I received from a friend sandwiched between hundreds of other songs ranging from Hoodie Allen to 31Knots. It took me a while to get around to this album initially because I could tell from the cover that I’d need to be in a certain headspace to listen to it.

Immediately following the Iggy Pop-infused opening track is the lullaby-like “Cody.” This song lulls the listener into a relaxed state that the band then repeatedly disrupts over the course of the next ten tracks. This type of mellow, quietly-sung track appears on nearly every one of Mogwai’s albums. Whether it’s “R U Still In 2 It” on Young Team or “Blues Hour” on their most recent LP Rave Tapes. This is the first element of Mogwai’s “template” that reveals itself through the course of Come On Die Young. Repeating the same musical theme is something Mogwai often gets criticized for, the argument is that for a band who has been around two decades, one would hope that their style has morphed more noticeably than it has. To that I ask 'why?’ Having a track like “Cody” on most of their records gives their discography a common thread. It’s a Cloud Atlas-esque repeating of themes that gives their entire career noticeable touchstones. Aside from the fact that “Cody” is beautifully sung, I don’t think that this repetition of having a “hushed song” detracts from any one of their albums.

The song “Kappa” represents another Mogwai staple I’ll call “peaks and valleys.” The song starts with a single jangly guitar. After a few seconds of acclimating to its melody, a deep overwhelming drum beat kicks in that overwhelms the soundscape. The drum sounds like a deep, dark well, something that the girl from The Ring would crawl out of. From there a second guitar enters seemingly just to provide long stretches of distortion. By the halfway mark of the song, all of the instruments have morphed together into one massive wall of sound that come together for brief moments, then suddenly fade leaving the initial guitar and drums alone again. The song peaks for brief moments of harmony, then immediately falls apart for valleys of lonely guitar. The song eventually culminates in one final peak, then crashes into a fade of distortion. This yin and yang of chaos is something that appeals to me in nearly every genre.

“Christmas Steps” is another beautiful example of the mood that Mogwai can slowly build. The song starts out at zero and introduces a simple but towering riff that slowly builds up steam leading to a full-on explosion complete with tight drumming and a memorable guitar melody.To me, it exemplifies the band’s ability to introduce a progression then transition that into a groove in a way that comforts and then jars the listener. The track begins with a solitary guitar seemingly playing into the void of space, the band then slowly and gradually builds up to absolute chaos as they slowly fill the space with more instruments. The guitar that was playing into blackness is now surrounded by other instruments eventually that fill the world with more color. First a subtle drum tick, then another guitar, and a bass. From there the music speeds up into an oppressive riff that consumes the entire song. It’s a thing of beauty.

One of the reasons I love Mogwai so much is because it’s perfect reading music. As a college student so much of my life is spent nose-down in a textbook or knee-deep in an essay, and I’m the type of person that gets easily distracted by vocals (or even melodies.) Mogwai is perfect background music, and while that may sound like an insult, it’s actually one of the highest compliments I feel that I can give music. Come On Die Young is musical enough to stand on its own, but it’s melodic and instrumental enough to be put on in the background and fade into the environment. I listen to a lot of post-rock and instrumental music, but Mogwai is the one constant. They are the one group that I keep coming back to, and Come On Die Young is the perfect entry point to the band.

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Miscellaneous Thoughts:

-How badass is that title? Come On Die Young sounds like something you’d find in the hardcore punk section of the record store. It’s almost anthemic. It’s something you want to hear yelled from the rooftops, or get carved into your skin.

-Even without a set of traditional vocals to accompany the instruments, this album does an excellent job of depicting an extremely dark, bleak atmosphere. It’s not completely hopeless, but it feels pretty damn close.

-“Christmas Steps” is an incredible song, possibly my favorite from the band. I linked to “Xmas Steps,” an early version of the song from the band’s No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew) EP that I prefer.

-The song “Ex-Cowboy” is another great early example of the band playing a song, then taking it down to near-inaudible levels only to then bring it back up into a disruptive, volcanic eruption of noise.

-Bookend: Come On Die Young ends with a sad, moody trumpet and echo-laden guitar played over warped and reversed bits of the Iggy interview from the opening track “Punk Rock:”