At First Listen

It turns out that Americans have been pretty well misinterpreting Smiths songs for quite a long time now. On this episode our guest, comedian and South London native Shem Pennant, leads a seminar on The Smiths and their iconic 1986 album, The Queen Is Dead .   Shem offers much needed context to the album, explains why the Smiths’ phenomenon was so uniquely British, and why he doesn’t let Morrissey...

We have a very serious conversation about gender conformance, surrounding a very unserious song by Detroit-based rapper Rob Apollo. Apollo's song "SHE / THEY" has been circulating on TikTok lately, mainly due to a racy lyric in the chorus that you'd think self-righteous Zoomers would hate.  Dominique and Andrew discuss what teens, tweens and queer people find so fun about the song, and why no one...

Diamond returns to  At First Listen to dig into her favorite album of 2024, Sabrina Carpenter's mega-breakthrough  Short n' Sweet .  With hits like "Espresso," "Please, Please, Please," "Taste" and "Bed Chem,"  Short n' Sweet is brimming with personality. Diamond says there are multiple hits on the album that she's yet to tire of, and she doesn't meet much resistance from Andrew and Dominique.  Su...

In this mini episode we're focusing on "The Giver," Chappell Roan's attempt at a lesbian country song that's making waves in the pop music world. Is "The Giver" a legitimate country song or is it a mere novelty — or is it branding? Is any country music legitimate? We also discuss why Chappell Roan is allowed to “go country,” but it was controversial when Beyoncé or Lil Nas X did it. We talk about...

We're sorting through Lady Gaga's seventh studio pop album  Mayhem with Gaga superfan and iHeartRadio personality Nick Gomez.  Nick is an almost lifelong Little Monster, who credits Gaga with inspiring the love of pop music that steered him towards a career in radio, where he can be heard at night on Hot 99.5FM, Washington D.C.'s #1 Hit Music Station, and in the afternoon on Pride Radio.  Andrew a...

UCBLK's Justin Catchens joins us to celebrate one of his favorite albums of the '00s,  Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor , the debut album by the Chicago-based rapper-turned-MIT-and-Johns Hopkins University professor! Food & Liquor is as dense with prose as a classic work of literature, and we do our best to wrap our heads around the storytelling and social/political messages in Lupe's lyrics. W...

In the second episode our new cohosts recorded together, Andrew gauges Dominique's taste for the hard stuff with one of his favorite metal albums from last decade, Deftones' 2010 mid-career masterpiece Diamond Eyes — by far the most extreme-sounding record we've discussed on the show. We explore why this album was a turning point for the Deftones, why it was the record that converted Andrew to a f...

New York metal singer and rapper Mizzie from the X introduces us to Doja Cat's debut album, Amala .  We explore Doja's complicated persona and reckless online presence. Mizzie explains how Doja's freewheeling art continually inspires her in hip hop, heavy metal and beyond. Mizzie has released two albums with her metal band Dishonest Escape and last year she launched her rap career with the debut s...

Talkin’ ‘Tok - For the second in our bonus series about viral songs on social media, we get into the newfound popularity of “Lockjaw,” an album cut from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s 1992  Mack Daddy album.   The song has become a favorite in social media’s ‘makeover’/‘glowup’ genre of videos, so naturally, the conversation turns to mewing, mogging, maxing out, and other Internet sad boy terms that Andrew has n...

We're taking a special look at one of the greatest singer-songwriters America ever produced: Bill Withers. With ubiquitous hits like "Lean on Me," "Ain't No Sunshine," "Just the Two of Us" and "Lovely Day," so many of Bill's songs are taken for granted because of how ingrained they are in American culture. We take a special look at Bill's second studio album,  Still Bill , explore his late start i...

Talkin’ ‘Tok - Introducing our new series looking a social media’s latest viral songs.   In this first edition, we discuss the power of short form user-created social media content and then take a look at the song “Peggy” by viral lesbian financial dominatrix Ceechynaa.  Dominique interprets some of the most perplexing British slang in Ceechynaa's lyrics and explains how users are appropriating "P...

From how he swept through the GRAMMYs to his historic performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, everything is coming up Kendrick Lamar. We dig into our favorite moments of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show and review how wrong we were about the GRAMMYs! We also answer important questions like, did the Super Bowl have to be so black ? And, is Beyoncé ranked higher in the Illuminati than...

Charli xcx's carefree 2024 breakthrough album, BRAT , was one of the defining cultural moments of last year and likely changed Charli's career forever. But was  BRAT 's GRAMMY-winning success ironic or the result of a genious marketing masterplan? Dominique embraced  BRAT over the summer, while Andrew only heard it for the first time in preparation of this episode. We discuss the beginning and end...

Each year the GRAMMYs sparks a wave of bewilderment when nominees are announced for the 'Album of the Year,' 'Song of the Year' and 'Record of the Year' categories. While the former two categories are self-explanatory, what does the Recording Academy mean by  record and who gets that award anyway?! On this episode, Andrew and Dominique explore all eight nominees for 'Record of the Year,' predict w...

The  At First Listen podcast returns in 2025 with a big announcement from Diamond, as she hands her cohost reigns over to Dominique Kaplowitz. We'll be putting out weekly episodes this year, launching a YouTube channel and covering tons of music, including new and classic albums, viral artists and pop culture events. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode of  At First Listen ! Follow us on Instagr...

Andrew and Diamond look back at the 10 most recent episodes of the At First Listen podcast and choose their favorite music, moments and guests.   After discussing the recent history of the show, we widen the scope and debate which episode was the best.   At First Listen will be back in 2025! Subscribe in your podcast feed and follow us on Instagram @AtFirstListenpodcast so you don’t miss an episod...

We listened to Mariah Carey's classic but infamous 1994  Merry Christmas album, so you don't have to!  Long before she assumed the Queen of Christmas Mantle, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" became nearly inescapable around the holidays. But does the album's titanic hit single overshadow an otherwise decent Gospel record? On this episode, Andrew and Diamond explore the endurance of...

Rihanna's  Good Girl Gone Bad is one of the seminal albums of the mid-2000s, spawning several gigantic hits, but more importantly, this record helped entertain Diamond while she got her wisdom teeth extracted.  On this episode, Andrew and Diamond look back on the album that made Rihanna a bonafide pop superstar with hits like "Umbrella," "Shut Up and Drive," "Don't Stop the Music," "Hate That I Lo...

Longtime radio voice of the Brooklyn Nets Chris Carrino joins the show to reveal the depths of his obsession with Pearl Jam!   Chris was fascinated by Pearl Jam's debut album, Ten , in 1991, but points to the band's second album, Vs . (1993), as what cemented his lifelong fandom.   We discuss how on Vs. Pearl Jam tried to distance itself from the riotous success of the debut album, how the band ha...

In Part 2 of our At First Listen / Ken Dashow’s Beatles Revolution crossover episodes, we dig into The Beatles Abbey Road track-by-track! We discuss how the Beatles challenged fans' expectations over the years, the band members' struggles with fame and what ultimately ended the band.    Please subscribe to  At First Listen on iHeartRadio or wherever you get podcasts, so you don't miss an episode!...

In Part 1 of our At First Listen / Ken Dashow’s Beatles Revolution crossover episode, our cohost Diamond meets the Beatles!   We explore the complicated history of the Beatles' final two albums – Abbey Road and  Let It Be — the fraught relationships within the Beatles by the late-‘60s, the extraordinary cultural impact of the band and how Abbey Road comes across in 2024 to a fan of contemporary po...

Play-by-play announcer and Action Network host Maria Marino joins the show to share one of her favorite albums by The Black Keys — the band's 2010 breakthrough Brothers . The Black Keys' rootsy, blues-influenced Americana sound made the band an indie darling in the mid-'00s, but it was 2010's Grammy-nominated Brothers  album, with hits like "Howlin' for You" and "Tighten Up," that drastically chan...

Andrew and Diamond agree that it's time to explore the blues, so they go straight to the King of the Blues himself, B.B. King, for some education with B.B.'s classic 1964 live album,  Live at the Regal . B.B. King is arguably the most famous blues musician of all-time. He began building his following in the early 1940s (!) and continued performing live for his fans for over 70 years (!!). A winner...

Andrew has never heard a Nicki Minaj album, and Diamond is pretty sure he will hate it ... nonetheless, Nicki's debut album  Pink Friday  (2010) is the topic of today's podcast! There was a time when Diamond considered herself a Barb (a Nicki Minaj fan), and while her support of Nicki has waned in recent years, she wonders if Pink Friday will hold up. We also learn that Diamond's longtime go-to ka...

One of the faces of Fender's new Player II series, bassist April Kae (Fever 333), joins the podcast to share one of her biggest musical inspirations: British rapper, singer and producer M.I.A. From her visual art to her social media creation to her music, April Kae strives to create intrigue with her own work, and she finds a wealth of inspiration from other powerful women who march to their own b...