Prestige Format Picks 🌊 23 May 2025

field recordings + electronics, a good remix album and a good Weezer album from 2014?

Author

Ryan Ruppe
May 23, 2025 • Read this in about: 4 minutes

Happy Friday, let’s get those jams

read to the end for a good 2010s Weezer album

look at that paint splattered custom tape sleeve

I’m absolutely a sucker for an album that starts with some field recording (some outside noise) and then makes its way into music. I also love propulsive synth jams with occasionally live drums. This album has all three, and sounds fantastic on tape.

you should get that looked at

PCA has been making spooky, liminal ambient drenched on hauntology for years, but I was surprised to get a beautiful album from them. This one also starts with some field recording, and it just envelops you like a perfect spring day.

genius album cover too

Vegyn and Air - Blue Moon Safari

French band Air’s debut album came out in the late 90s and bridged a lot of genres, like downbeat, chill, trip-hop, and jazz and it’s rightfully considered a classic. As they reissued it for the 2020s, they slid the stems over to Vegyn and let him do what he wanted to it. The result is respectful of the classics while not precious with them. These songs still sound like late 90s jams but they also sound completely fresh. Love this one.

I know

Weezer - Everything Will Be All Right In the End

I got my kids into Weezer. It wasn’t hard, I just played the blue album and they were hooked. Then we started working through their catalog. Pinkerton has not aged well lyrically, and Green is still a lot of fun. But I was so surprised to find a back-to-the-basics, classic rocking Weezer album in 2014. The lyrical content is a mix of songs Weezer would write for a tweens-n-teens history show (one chorus talks about “punk-ass redcoats”) with songs about being a rock band and rocking. It’s a joy and a fun listen.

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