Jams and Tea

This week’s Record Club is an impromptu episode we decided to make to honour the great Taylor Hawkins in light of his tragic and untimely passing over the weekend. Here, we discuss the album that saw his debut with Foo Fighters, and the album that to us stands as their definitive statement as a band, and a record we feel is curiously underrated even now, 23 years on. Watch the video version of thi...

In this week’s main episode of Jams & Tea, Jake, Morgan, and Ryley are joined by regular guest Jakob to discuss the explosive new albums from art-pop mastermind Charli XCX and sophisti-pop mainstay Destroyer!  With her new record CRASH, Charli attempts to weave together her various eras of friendly and esoteric pop music, but how well does she succeed? In Destroyer’s case, Dan Bejar uses...

This week on Record Club, Ryley, Connor, and first-time guest Brett discuss an emo classic from the Birmingham scene of the late 2000s, Johnny Foreigner’s Waited Up til It Was Light. Fans of Los Campesinos or Bloc Party will love this hidden gem, so join us as we discuss everything that makes it special, the lineage of music that it follows in, and why we think it’s one of the best emo records you...

In this week’s main episode of Jams & Tea, Jake and Ryley are joined by regular guest Connor and first-time guest Brett to discuss the absolutely killer new album from Ghost, IMPERA, which sees the band continuing their move away from their heavy metal roots into a goofy and glorious brand of AOR-esque hard rock that is an absolute delight to rock out to. Also on the agenda is the catchy and p...

This week on Record Club, Ryley, Connor, and Morgan celebrate the 20th anniversary of Coheed and Cambria’s landmark 2002 emo / post-hardcore classic, The Second Stage Turbine Blade! We dive into the intense, fast-paced and blistering musical style of the record, frontman Claudio Sanchez’s idiosyncratic vocals and dense storytelling lore, and how the record would set the stage for many more progres...

For episode 81 of Jams & Tea, we are taking a break from new releases for our first pure discussion format episode with all four of us, where we each put forward one of our absolute favourite EPs to discuss, break down, and rate, while discussing what makes the EP format unique and important. 0:00 Intro 2:46 FKA twigs - M3L155X 24:53 Autechre - Garbage 44:30 Saosin - Translating the Name 1:09:...

This week on Record Club, Ryley and Morgan celebrate the 30th anniversary of Faith No More’s landmark 1992 epic, Angel Dust, the moment where the alt metal band expanded the ambition of their sound under the leadership of the manic mastermind Mike Patton, fresh off the first Mr. Bungle record… Watch the video version of this episode and subscribe to the channel on YouTube.

In this week’s episode, we are thrilled to discuss the long-awaited follow-up to one of our favourite albums of all time, the bombastic, deeply emotional, and highly conceptual new third record from Gang of Youths, ANGEL IN REALTIME. Join us as we dig deep into everything that makes this album a remarkable triumph and one of the most original albums of the year, and why it deserves the biggest aud...

Today Jake and Ryley are celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of the most influential folk records ever made, Nick Drake’s final masterpiece PINK MOON. Join us as we reflect on the spare, intimate songwriting and far-reaching legacy of this wonderful album. Watch the video version on YouTube and subscribe to the channel.

This week on Record Club, Jake and Ryley celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first of many masterpieces from legendary singer-songwriter John Darnielle’s The Mountain Goats, All Hail West Texas. Together we break down everything that makes Darnielle such a great and moving storyteller, how he paints such vivid characters that have lived on in the minds of listeners across two decades, and the un...

In this week’s main episode, we are joined by special guest Mica to discuss two heavily hyped double albums from indie rock prodigies Big Thief & dream pop gods Beach House. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You and Once Twice Melody are both 80 minutes, but how do these bands’ sounds hold up at such extreme and sprawling runtimes? Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube and sub...

This week on Record Club, Jake and Ryley celebrate the 20th anniversary of a landmark IDM release, Boards of Canada’s eerie and disturbing Geogaddi. Together the two dive deep into the lore, hidden messages, dense soundscapes, and unique percussion of this multifaceted and remarkable masterpiece, to try and uncover what makes it so affecting and resonant two decades on. Watch the video on YouTube...

In this week’s main episode, August is back to discuss two of the biggest metal records of the year so far: atmospheric sludge metal / post-metal / post-rock legends Cult of Luna’s latest titanic opus The Long Road North, and spiritual blues-rock / black-metal hybrid Zeal and Ardor’s invigorating, eclectic, and intense new self-titled record. Watch the video version on YouTube and subscribe to the...

This week on Record Club, Jake and Ryley are joined by friend of the podcast Jakob for a discussion of one of the most influential and important bands in rock history, The Velvet Underground. In particular, we zero in on their notorious sophomore record White Light/White Heat, how the conflicting artistic personalities of Lou Reed and John Cale affected the direction of the band on this album, how...

In this week’s main episode we have multiple guests for the first time, as we dive into the new Black Country New Road album Ants from Up There, and the new Rolo Tomassi album Where Myth Becomes Memory. Our BCNR discussion proves to be one of our most divisive and in-depth to date, as we interrogate the massive hype circle surrounding this album, how to negotiate approaching a record with this lev...

This week on Record Club, Jake and Ryley discuss one of the most exciting and enigmatic voices of the 90s, a singer-songwriter who redefined herself and paved the way for a new generation of powerful female voices in popular music: Tori Amos. As her thunderous debut Little Earthquakes recently turned 30, we take the opportunity to break down the songs, sound, and writing of this sensational debut,...

In this week’s main episode, Jake, Ryley and Morgan are joined by special guest Jen to discuss two new records in striking and starkly different variants of modern country music: first up is emo-country mainstays Pinegrove with the gentle but emotional 11:11, but the main attraction this week is bro-country poser Walker Hayes, whose new record Country Stuff The Album (yes, that is the title) bring...

This week on Record Club, Jake, Ryley, and special guest Connor break down a forgotten emo masterpiece that’s so extravagantly over the top that it proves divisive on our show. In 2004, Say Anything, the musical project spearheaded by one Max Bemis, released its theatrical opus of ridiculous self-indulgence and glorious hook-laden musical mastery, …IS A REAL BOY. Join us as we break down everythin...

In this week’s main episode, Jake, Ryley and Morgan (for a bit) are joined by regular guest Connor to discuss two intriguing new releases. First off we dive deep into a promising new project from Connecticut-based post-hardcore and screamo act Foxtails, who are roaring into 2022 with their blood-pumping fourth album Fawn. We also take the time to review the latest from Japanese drone-metal legends...

This week on Record Club, Jake, Morgan, Ryley, and special guest April break down a monolithic metal masterpiece from Maudlin of the Well, the Bath and Leaving Your Body Map duology, which recently turned 20, and which sits among the ten favorite albums of all time of Ryley and April. Join us as we dig into the lore, concept, and unique sound of this essential, one-of-a-kind record. Watch the vide...

In this week’s main episode, Jake and Ryley are joined by special guest April to discuss two of the biggest releases of the new year so far, two somewhat unconventional projects from Earl Sweatshirt and FKA Twigs. How does SICK! stack up to Earl’s impressive run of 2010s records, and what does Twigs’ new mixtape Caprisongs tell us about her artistic future in the new decade? Watch the video versio...

This week on Record Club, Jake, Morgan, Ryley, and special guest Jakob are embarking on an epic discussion of two of the most pivotal records in the history of popular music, which were both released in the summer of 1966: The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, and The Beatles’ Revolver. Join us as we trace the innovation and mastery of these two distinct but connected albums, which would prove to forever ch...

In the second main episode of 2022, Jake, Morgan, and Ryley are joined by special guest Jakob to discuss the biggest album of 2022 so far: The Weeknd’s surprise-released new nocturnal opus DAWN FM. But how does it stack up to his previous work, and particularly the weight of expectation following the triumphant After Hours? It proves to be one of the more contentious albums in some time… We also r...

In our second Record Club of 2022, Jake, Morgan, and Ryley break down a hugely important and pod-core album, Devin Townsend’s progressive metal landmark OCEAN MACHINE: BIOMECH. Join us as we dive into the background, themes, and sound of this stunning and important milestone in metal. Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

In our first main episode of 2022, Jake, Morgan, and Ryley break down two big releases from December 2021 that we didn’t have the chance to shout out then. First up is an intriguing collaboration between British singer-songwriter Richard Dawson and the Finnish progressive rock band Circle; secondly, we dive deep into the lore and songwriting of the debut solo release of Kevin Whelan of The Wrens,...