My Favorite Album with Jeremy Dylan

John Leventhal is a master of tastefulness, over decades as a producer, guitarist and songwriter with everyone from Shawn Colvin to Marc Cohn to William Bell and his wife Rosanne Cash . Today he welcomes me to his home studio in New York to talk about Ry Cooder 's 70s classic 'Paradise and Lunch'. We delve into Ry's genius as an arranger and reinterpreter of songs, his influence as a musician, how...

Today Australia's queen of the dance floor bangers Kira Puru joins me for a long-awaited discussion of Amy Winehouse 's classic neo-soul masterpiece 'Back to Black'. We dig into how this record sparked a soul revival and how the music that came in its wake measures up, how Winehouse's artistic sophistication was sometimes masked by her image, the definition of 'cool', what makes Winehouse's lyrics...

This week comedian and podcaster Tom Ballard joins me to chat about Midlake 's concept album 'The Trials of Van Occupanther'. We talk about how the album manages to be timeless but not retro, the conceptual substance behind the lyrics, the 60s and 70s rock influences on the album and we dredge up Tom's 2013 list of the best songs of the past 20 years and hold him accountable for it. We discuss the...

MFA Book Month concludes this week with journalist, author and Empire podcast geek queen Helen O'Hara joining me for a journey through the music of superhero cinema, from John Williams ' magisterial score for SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE through to Kendrick Lamar 's BLACK PANTHER soundtrack and much in between. We discuss the evolution from theme driven symphonic scores to the intense blare of Hans Zimmer...

Book month continues as I chat to superstar film critic, double bassist and friend of the pod Dr. Mark Kermode about 'How Does It Feel', his memoir of his life and musical misadventures. We chat about Mark's 'how hard can it be?' approach to potentially intimidating musical challenges, the self belief that has sustained his music career and his lifelong desire to become a pop star. We talk about t...

MFA Book Month continues as Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt joins me to talk about his exhaustive book chronicling the stories behind every single song Bruce Springsteen wrote and recorded. We delve into both the stories behind the songs and the stories behind the book, how Brian made sure it had something new both for die hard fans of the Boss and those who only knew the hits - from conflicting stori...

It's the My Favorite Album book club for the next month, trading musicians in for authors of the most exciting books about music and musicians. We kick things off with Will Birch , founding member of The Kursaal Flyers turned journalist and biographer, on his new book 'Cruel to Be Kind', the definitive look at the legendary Nick Lowe 's life and career. We talk about Nick's late career reinvention...

This week I chat to singer-songwriter and Men at Work frontman Colin Hay about Chris Whitley 's 'Dirt Floor'. We talk about the allure of the back to basics record, the appeal of living in oft-derided LA, discovering art that deeply affects you far into your career, code-switching as a Scot growing up in Australia and finding comfort in isolation. We also talk about Colin's favourite venues to pla...

This week I chat to the king of late night TV and rock n' roll legend Max Weinberg about 'Persistent Percussion' by Maxwell Davis and his All Stars (1960). Max explains how the pop exotica album taught him to take an all rounded approach to drumming, how it encouraged him to learn about the history of drumming in popular music, mono vs stereo and what it's like to hear others reinterpret his own d...

This week I talk to Australian singer/songwriter Jack River aka Holly Rankin about MGMT 's debut album 'Oracular Spectacular' (2007). We talk about the ubiquitous and inescapable singles on this era defining record and their matching video clips that envision a utopian world, the album's political message and the impact psychedelic drugs have had on music. Holly tells us about her career arc, what...

This week we finally get to a Weezer record as I chat to Australian singer-songwriter and master of a thousand instruments Dave Jenkins Jr aka Not A Boy's Name about the classic 1996 album 'Pinkerton'. We talk about the band's dramatic identity change from their previous album, the poor reviews 'Pinkerton' originally received and frontman Rivers Cuomo's complicated relationship with the album. Dav...

My Favorite Album returns from hiatus for a special Americana Fest edition of the show, featuring one of the most compelling young Americana artists talking about a formative record of the genre. The devastating Kristina Murray joins me to chat Lucinda Williams ' 1988 self-titled album. We discuss how this record was overshadowed by Lucinda's classic album 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road' and the bir...

This week I chat to producer, bassist, songwriter, documentarian and president of iconic jazz label Blue Note Records, Don Was about Wayne Shorter's classic album 'Speak No Evil' (1966). We talk about how the album gave Don a sense of purpose, that a piece of music doesn't need lyrics to speak to someone, how great artists seem to appear from a creative ether and Don explains how engineer Rudy Van...

This week I chat to frontman of The Herd, co founder of Elefant Traks record label, manager and solo artist Urthboy (aka Tim Levinson) about A Tribe Called Quest's 'The Low End Theory'. We discuss how A Tribe Called Quest was political in a different way than other hip-hop artists of their era, how their sampling of jazz helped them cross generational lines and how your ability to appreciate conte...

This week I talk to Queen of Australian radio Zan Rowe about Talking Heads 'More Songs About Buildings and Food'. We chat about David Byrne's outsider appeal, the new wave funk sound that defined Talking Heads, the album's dystopian predictions and capitalist lyrics, producer Brian Eno's contribution to the album and delve into his Oblique Strategies cards. Zan tells us about the first time she me...

This week I chat to rapper, writer, comedian, actor, one half of A.B. Original and the man who should've been PM, Briggs , about Snoop Dogg 's classic album 'Doggy Style' (1993). We talk about Snoop as a crucial but underrated figure in the evolution of hip-hop, how Briggs discovered the record as a kid in Shepparton, make a case for the album's importance, the timelessness of the production, delv...

This week I chat to Australian singer-songwriter Gretta Ray about Blake Mills' 2010 album 'Break Mirrors'. Mills may be better known as a producer (Alabama Shakes, Dawes) but today we explore his own music. We talk about how Mills wrote this album as a calling card for his session work, his poetic but unpretentious turns of phrase, his unique but completely tasteful guitar work, Mills' production...

My Favorite Album Goes to the Movies continues as we explore how the iconic MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE theme has evolved over fifty years of the TV and film franchise, with special guest MI experts Drew Taylor and Charles Hood, hosts of the  Light the Fuse  podcasts. We look at the origins of the theme and delve into the scores of the 60s and 80s TV series, and how each composer has approached the films...

My Favorite Album goes to the Movies for the month of May! Kicking off with friend of the pod and host of the Empire Podcast, Chris Hewitt, joining me to count down our competing lists of Top 10 James Bond theme songs. From Goldfinger to Live and Let Die, A View to a Kill to Nobody Does it Better, we celebrate and argue about the iconic theme songs that have soundtracked the long-running franchise...

On the eve of her debut solo album release, I talk to singer-songwriter Charlie Collins about The War on Drugs' Grammy-winning fourth album 'A Deeper Understanding'. Charlie opens up about how the album influenced the sound and construction of her own record, even as they were recorded in total opposite ways. We talk about the blurred lines between bands and solo artists in the modern era, The War...