Jams and Tea

For this week's episode of Jams & Tea NOW, Jake and Ryley are discussing their favorite songs on the shorter side, with five picks each that run under two minutes long - how can such a brief track deliver so much power, and what did they choose? Also up for discussion today is Jack Harlow's reinvention with the brief but pointed JACKMAN, plus new singles from PJ Harvey and Say Anything, the debut song of the brand new band fronted by XTC's Andy Partridge, Jake's metal recommendations, plus classic album discussions of Sufjan Stevens' The Age of Adz and Wilco's Summerteeth!

Let us know your favorite songs under two minutes long in the comments over on YouTube!

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:46 New Singles: PJ Harvey, Andy Partridge, Say Anything, Home Is Where

12:47 Twenty One Pilots Reimagine Their Songs for MTV Unplugged

19:11 Great New EPs from Beach House and sonhos tomam conta

27:37 Jake's Metal Recs: Bell Witch & TDK

37:19 Jack Harlow Is Back: Jackman Review

53:11 Jake Listens to Sufjan Stevens' The Age of Adz

1:04:47 Jake Listens to Wilco's Summerteeth

1:10:30 The Drones Are Ryley's New Obsession

1:16:27 Our Favorite Songs Under 2 Minutes

This week we're excited to bring fresh and comprehensive reviews of two records you should hear - first up is the long-awaited and re-invigorated comeback of techno pop legends Everything But the Girl with the striking FUSE, and following that is a deep-dive into perhaps the best debut of 2023 so far, US Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson's stunning and enveloping WHY DOES THE EARTH GIVE US PEOPLE TO LOVE? Join us as we break down these records, and let us know what you thought in the comments over on YouTube!

For this week's NOW episode, in lieu of a new release reviews video this week, Ryley, Jake, and Morgan are talking all things Metallica, particularly as it pertains to their new double album 72 Seasons, and how Metallica have attempted to age gracefully even as their career navigates staggering highs and lows. Plus, we also talk at length about Frank Ocean's disastrous Coachella performance, the return of indie legends 12 Rods, the potential of a post-Taylor Hawkins era of Foo Fighters, and Ryley reviews the divisive new film from Ari Aster, BEAU IS AFRAID - plus a few more exciting things...

For this week's Record Club, Jake and Ryley are celebrating one of the finest piano rock and singer-songwriter records of the 2000s, Ben Folds' solo debut Rockin' the Suburbs. Aside from its tongue-in-cheek gentle parody of nu-metal machismo in its famous title track, the album is stacked with surprisingly emotional and cleverly characterized stories of pain, connection, and understanding, and we think it's a classic.

For this week's NOW episode, Jake and Ryley are discussing albums they love that are kept from perfection by one inexcusable dud track. How much can one bad song detract from a great album experience, and what are the examples that are hardest to forgive? Let us know what you'd choose in the comments on YouTube!

0:00 Intro

3:16 Album Anniversaries: Murmur, Wakin on a Pretty Daze, True Romance

9:13 The Best Year for Music in the 2010s?

15:05 Tim Hecker - No Highs

24:24 Liturgy - 93696

31:37 Jake's Metal Recs: The HIRS Collective, Telos

37:18 The Innovative Canadian Punk of NoMeansNo

45:06 RIP Ryuichi Sakamoto

48:05 Ryley's Recs: David Sylvian, Masakatsu Tagaki

56:25 New Albums from Daughter & HMTLD

1:00:47 Great Albums With One Bad Song

"Americana" and "indie rock" as music descriptors are as widespread as they are near-meaningless in the proliferation of genre-bending artists in the 2020s, but Wednesday with their stellar breakthrough RAT SAW GOD, and Ruston Kelly with his melancholic and pristine THE WEAKNESS, fuse the two together in very distinct but effective ways, resulting in a highlight of the year for Ryley and Jake. Join them as they go deep into these masterful and personal records, loaded with tales of unreconciled heartbreak, traumatic histories, and deep emotional ties, and let us know what you think in the comments on YouTube!

It's been seven months since our last full discography breakdown video, and we're back with a vengeance storming our way through all eight major-label studio albums from one of the most inescapable artists of the last decade, Lana Del Rey. Joined by first-time guest Coffee, we dive into Lana's artistic identity and the various stages in the development of her sound, style, and themes from record to record, as well as outlining where the music most resonates with each of us, and where it sometimes doesn't. We want to hear from you, though: what does Lana's music mean to you? What is each record about, from your perspective? What do you think of our takes on Lana's progression and her imposing but impressive discography across just 11 years? Let us know in the comments on YouTube!

It's finally here - the first full-length LP from legendary indie supergroup Boygenius, THE RECORD, and today we're digging in to see how it holds up, and to try and reconcile the divisive response between critics versus casual listeners as to whether it holds up to the solo work of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus. Let us know what you think of The Record in the comments on YouTube!

For this week's Record Club, Ryley is joined by Zach of the First Watch podcast to discuss one of the most innovative and important bands of the century so far, THE KNIFE, and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their climactic double-album magnum opus SHAKING THE HABITUAL. Join us as we break down and discuss everything the album does sonically, thematically, and conceptually, and why it remains one of the most uncompromising and brilliant works of art from the last decade. Let us know what you think of the album in the comments on YouTube!

JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown teamed up recently for the much-hyped (and widely beloved) new collaborative record SCARING THE HOES, and while it captures some of the fundamentals of what make them captivating presences in their own right, the album itself leaves something to be desired for us. On the other hand, the new record from Depeche Mode, MEMENTO MORI (their first since the death of founding member Andy Fletcher) is the band's strongest in nearly two decades, and gives us a welcome opportunity to celebrate the longevity of one of the finest pop bands of all time.