Spin It! The Record Ranking Podcast

There's nothing like the sound of Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, and there's no voice that can sing it like the froggy croak of Kris Kristofferson, perhaps the smartest man in music! His eponymous debut album is full of character work and hit after hit of excellent storytelling. We'll discover how he abandoned his Rhodes scholar days and exploited his military pilot training to harass a superstar and...

Maybe it's the loving in her eyes, but we're ready to Dive right into Olivia Dean's debut album Messy to celebrate Valentine's Day! She's one of the UK's biggest up-and-coming songwriters, and her vibrant lyrics and neo-soul style effortlessly dance through new love and heartbreak alike. We'll discuss her childhood stage fright, crack down on UFOs and UAPs, and learn about our own limited high-div...

This ain't Texas, ain't no Hold 'Em... But there sure is an Album Of The Year Grammy! Beyoncé took home top honors at the 67th Grammy Awards this week and we're celebrating with our traditional special dedicated to Cowboy Carter! This genre-fluid country crossover record defied expectations and shed new light on country's history and trajectory. James & Connor will debrief about our favorite m...

Happy Gopher Day! We finally caught 'em all-- all the members of Boygenius, that is-- and now it's time to be Cool About It as we learn about their debut record, The Record! You've listened to their episodes separately; now hear Lucy, Julien, and Phoebe's powers combined in a supergroup! From the sick riffs of $20 to the Grammy-winning Not Strong Enough, find out if We're In Love with this album!...

Hey, all you able-bodied creatures! This week James & Connor learn all the rules behind Mentors, the new album by singer, songwriter, Poet, and folk renaissance multi-instrumentalist Fish In A Birdcage. Connor discovered his music on a trip and has deemed it a "no skips" discography. After sharing a Fish List with James he decided to bring a brand new album to the podcast full of plucky instru...

Jump into the heat of a Technicolour Beat with the 2015 debut record from the indie-pop duo Oh Wonder! This collection of bedroom-produced tracks was rolled out as a series of singles over the course of a full year before launching the couple into stardom! Get ready to Lose It in a warm, cozy blanket of soft emotions, sparked by a Livewire of electronic ambience. We'll discover how quickly and nat...

Get ready for a run-in with The Police and their farewell record Synchronicity! We're having Tea In The Sahara with Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, and Sting... and you know he'll be watching you! From the chaotic Mother to the dinosaur-filled Walking In Your Footsteps, this new wave record truly has a little bit of everything. We'll trace the band's story and learn what Sting can do during a head...

What's our age again? 182 Episodes? That sounds like the perfect time to get into All The Small Things with Blink-182's genre-altering skate punk record Enema Of The State! We'll learn the moving stories behind Adam's Song and Going Away To College and the un-moving stories behind The Party Song and Mutt. The Mixtaper will teach us about Mark Hoppus' comedic flamingos, Tom DeLonge's extraterrestri...

We're Back Again just in time for The New Year, and we're taking the leap with Parachute's very 2009 debut record Losing Sleep! It features their biggest hit She Is Love, alongside pop-rockers like Under Control and piano ballads like The Mess I Made. The Mixtaper's gone a bit mad and is teaching us about Parade Chutes, laundromats, and the Taste Of Love as we tackle another round of Fact Or Spin....

Three years of competition all comes down to this... It's our annual Naughty Or Nice Holiday Special! We'll put the best seasonal songs by podcast artists head-to-head and see who comes out on top with live voting, and the stakes have never been higher. Not only is this a rubber match between James & Connor, NoN 2024 will also determine the fate of two-time champion Last Christmas by Wham! Wil...

We don't want a lot for Christmas, we just want to listen to Mariah Carey's first holiday album, Merry Christmas! It features seven impressive covers of the tried-and-true classics alongside brand new songs for the season like Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) and the incomparable All I Want For Christmas Is You! We'll talk about the annual staple's broken records-- it's a LOT. We also get into th...

There's a little bit of something Rob Thomas in everything in you.. We're entering a Mad Season with the sophomore album from the new millennium's hottest pop-rock band, Matchbox Twenty! We'll learn the true stories that inspired songs like Rest Stop and Last Beautiful Girl, and ponder the softball jersey that gave the band their name. The Mixtaperoo will teach us how to Tour The Rainbow and give...

Up on the hill, James & Connor are talking about Aja by Steely Dan! The group gave up on touring to pursue perfection in the studio and this 7-track yacht rock staple was the result. With the help of more than 40 session players who learned to work the saxophone, Don Fagen and Walter Becker's complicated chord work and "obscure" lyricism will take us Home At Last. The Mixtaper whisks us throug...

Country Roads, Take Me Home! We're heading to almost-heaven this week with John Denver's commercial breakthrough record Poems, Prayers & Promises! It features his first and biggest hits like the title track and Sunshine On My Shoulders, as well as several well-chosen covers from musicians he loves. We'll talk about his Deutschendorf days, his ill-fated aviation aspirations, his Muppet specials...

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in Episode 175, no escape from Queen's sweeping hit record A Night At The Opera! From vaudevillian jaunts to space odysseys to the incomparable Bohemian Rhapsody, this ambitious album has a little bit of everything. We'll get into the band's dentist-approved origins and their genre-altering rise to fame before The Mixtaper baffles us with a tail...

It's time to get Good At Falling with the 2019 debut album from The Japanese House! After a long journey of anonymity and EPs under the mentorship of The 1975's Matty Healy, this indie pop record explores loneliness and dreams through vast soundscapes. As usual, We Talk All The Time as we learn about lilos, accidental catfishing, and party tricks. The Mixtaper will teach us what she really means w...

Hello, Darkness, my old friend.. This week we'll hear everything BUT the Sound Of Silence as we journey across a Bridge Over Troubled Water with Simon & Garfunkel! They wrote and recorded their final album while the breakup was imminent. We'll talk about this career retrospective and try to count all the times these childhood best friends quit speaking (spoiler alert, it's a LOT). Then the Mix...

IT'S HERE! The Mixtaper is back for the grand finale of Mixtober and he's got a playlist full of ANOTHER 13 Halloween songs to get you into the spirit of the season! They're not the best thirteen, they're just thirteen of the best! Play along as James tries to guess each song through cryptic clues from Spinny-taper. Can he solve the riddles? Has he even heard most of these songs? Put on your scari...

Walk Away From The Sun and seethe into another Mixtober episode.. We're talking about Seether's monumental 2007 record Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces! It tackles Shaun "Cheerful" Morgan's breakup with singer Amy Lee as he grapples with the loss of his brother. We'll learn about Sarin Gas, meet Candace The Ghost, bless the rains (again), and find out what it truly means to seethe as we Breakdown...

Calling All Phantogram fans! We're keeping Mixtober rolling with their 2016 album Three (or Ӡ if you're cool)! Their unique, shoegazey style of sample-laden dark electropop makes for a captivating backdrop for this record that's anything but the Same Old Blues. We'll explore Big Bois and sound toys, learn how to be the best a man can be, and figure out if hurt people hurt people. The Mixtaper will...

Peel slowly and see what we have in store this week-- it's The Velvet Underground And Nico! What happens when experimentalists Lou Reed and John Cale join forces with eccentric pop artist Andy Warhol? Turns out they make one of the most influential and regarded cult classic records of the late '60s. Its raunchy, suggestive, and provocative lyrics kept them off the radio, but won over fans worldwid...

We'll take the Night Shift this week with Lucy Dacus' 2018 record Historian! This album explores the weighty emotions that come with the human condition, from finding purpose through the act of creating to facing death with courage. The Mixtaper is teaching us how to play with fire, singing to foliage, and shocking us with Fact Or Spin! Take care of you and yours, but me and mine are gonna fight t...

Yeah, boy!! Get some bass for your face this week with It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, the sophomore album from hip-hop pioneers Public Enemy! James & Connor will learn about Chuck D and Flavor Flav's moving van freestyles, Hank Shocklee's Bomb Squad and their iconic wall of noise, and more as we tackle exactly one hour of music. We'll find out what's on Channel Zero (shewatchsh...

Ahoy! It's another Connor Pick, and he's taking us sailing on the seven seas with the self-titled debut of The Wellermen! Born from long-distance collaboration in the midst of a TikTok sea shanty craze, the group's signature deep bass folk style brings new life to 13 classics (although some are more classic than others)! After a shocking surprise reveal we'll learn their backstory and dive into so...

Bonus Content! In Episode 165 we took a stroll by the Green River with Creedence Clearwater Revival. Now we're back to dive into their THIRD album from 1969 (and fourth overall), Willy And The Poor Boys! James struggled to choose between the two but is standing by Green River... Will this very similar record with a scrapped concept win us over? How do hits like Down On The Corner and the juggernau...