The Album Files

Bet you thought we were done. Well, surprise, surprise! We're back, baby! A new Taylor Swift album was just what we needed to resurrect the Album Files. After sitting with The Life of a Showgirl for a little while, Abby, Matt, and Iain sat down to discuss it. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Album Files! We will return (probably) to discuss Abby's pick: 'Sgt. Pepp...

"I came across Ceres’ 2016 album Drag It Down on You by accident. The Spotify algorithm thought I’d like it, and I did. A lot. Ever since I heard the raucous drums that kickstart Happy in Your Head, this album has been one I’ve returned to often and always enjoyed. It’s heavy, it’s dark, and it’s raw, but it’s also a thing of great beauty – guitars and drums hit hard, as do the lyrics, and the voc...

"Arooj Aftab's most recent album, Night Reign, is a fascinating merging of styles with the Pakistani-American singer's breathtaking voice floating over the top of it. Something about Aftab's work has really struck a chord with me and I was excited to share it with the rest of the crew – to see whether Abby and Matt were able to find the beauty in this haunting music." - Iain...

"From the moment I heard My Lady of Mercy I knew 'The Last Dinner Party' was a band I wanted to introduce to this podcast. The over-the-top, grandiose, almost theatrical nature of the band, not just their music but also their overall aesthetic, was attractive from the first music video and the story behind the band and the rapid trajectory of their last two years makes the whole pictu...

Yes, we were supposed to talk about The Last Dinner Party's Prelude to Ecstasy this week, but we couldn't stop listening to Taylor Swift's new album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. Don't worry, we'll be back to our regular episodes next time! For now, please enjoy this bonus episode that could have lasted another 54 minutes.

"Lizzy McAlpine’s sophomore album, ‘Five Seconds Flat’, was one of the first albums we reviewed here at The Album Files. It made an immediate impression on all of us and has been an album we’ve come back to again and again in the year and a bit since. So when she released her third album, ‘Older’, earlier this month, we knew we had to get together and talk about it." - Matt We will be ba...

"Neutral Milk Hotel’s second and final album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998), is an indie rock cult classic, a weird and wonderful journey through the mind of a reclusive genius, and an album that’s as provocative as it is intriguing. Sonically it’s rough and unpolished; lyrically it’s largely impenetrable and often unsettling. Ultimately, this is a fascinating and important piece of ar...

"Before the Taylor Swift and Kanye West collabs, Bon Iver's debut album is an insular, inward-looking reflection on its frontman Justin Vernon, originally intended as a demo before going on to sell in its hundreds of thousands and birthing a new generation of singer-songwriter. It's a fascinating record not just because of what it says but what it doesn't - and the considerable my...

For this episode, we asked our listeners for their suggestions of albums that are worth listening to. The three that we landed on were Japanese Breakfast's Jubilee  (suggested by Escape Collective member jlb1705), Alt-J's  An Awesome Wave  (suggested by Brooke Lendvay), and Camp Cope's  How to Socialise and Make Friends  (suggested by Andy Gerrie). We had a blast listening to all three...

"Apart from that I love it, and in a lot of ways it was the first album that I fell in love with without influence from my family, it also feels weirdly “too close” in the current political climate. John Colapinto of Rolling Stone wrote about the album that it "gives voice to the disenfranchised suburban underclass of Americans who feel wholly unrepresented by the current leadership of o...

"Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat out of Hell’ holds a special place in my heart. It’s an album I grew up listening to and one that, decades later, still delights me every time I put it on. It’s an album that has everything from nine-minute self-contained mini rock operas, all the way across the spectrum to the most beautiful ballads you’re likely to hear. It’s a wild and bombastic ride and one that, almost...

For our final episode of the year, we revealed our Wrapped/Replay/Iain's concoction of music to each other. Matt broke down all the stats from our albums throughout the year, and we talked about some albums we are excited about in 2024. Our next episode coming in January will feature Matt's pick of Bat Out of Hell, the debut album by Meat Loaf. For a playlist of music we mentioned check ou...

"The Scottish group There Will Be Fireworks is one of the less well-known artists we've covered on the podcast, working without a label and juggling the demands of day-jobs and lives outside of music. Summer Moon, the band's third album – and first in a decade –  made an enormous impression on me when it was released in November and I've spent the last few weeks with the band'...

"Lana Del Rey, in my opinion, changed female-led pop in the music industry with her release of Born To Die in 2012. Listening to it now, you can hear how she influenced a handful of today's biggest pop stars and even though the album has some...flaws....I still enjoy listening to it today. Personally, I discovered Del Rey when the rest of the world did- via YouTube. Her whole aesthetic ca...

"The journey that Kendrick Lamar takes us on with this album is one that, for me at least, was unsettling to begin with. His lived experience is worlds away from mine, and listening to this album felt like I was stepping into a world where I didn’t belong. But in time I’ve come to appreciate that experience – this is a fascinating glimpse into a different universe, fashioned with great care a...

"In 2007, the little-known French band Alcest released an album that would go on to be one of the founding texts of an entire genre, blackgaze. A melding of black metal and shoegaze, this album - Souvenirs d'un autre monde - is, 15 years later, still surprising in its delicacy and beauty, filled with childhood visions of fairy kingdoms. It was a gateway into a whole new musical world for...

Don't miss Matt's new music! Matt and his brother Ash recently released their album Bad Winds Blow . Together they are called Brineheart and you can find the album on all streaming platforms. The story behind it is pretty cool, Matt talks a little about it at the top of this episode but we will definitely be diving into it more in the next one. "Griff is one of those new artists on th...

"Most musicians evolve as they mature, shedding the trappings of their earlier work to venture out in search of new challenges, and new sounds. Few popular artists embody this journey quite like Post Malone. After breaking out in the mid-2010s as part of the Soundcloud hip-hop movement, Malone’s more recent works show him embracing a wide array of influences, not just those that sparked his e...

"After really enjoying a couple of albums by The War on Drugs, their latest didn't really connect for me in quite the same way, for reasons I couldn't really put my finger on - even if all the ingredients seem to be there, from the warm atmospherics to the stirring melodies. So instead of sharing an album I loved, I wanted to share one that I liked, to spend more time with it and see...

For our first episode back we dust off the cobwebs by chatting about what we've been listening to over the break before diving into Taylor Swift's Speak Now (Taylor's Version). Thank you so much for listening to the Album Files podcast! In the next episode, we will chat about Iain's latest pick I Don't Live Here Anymore by The War on Drugs . What we've been listening to lat...

"From the first time I heard this album I was obsessed with it. Months after hearing it I found I kept coming back, whenever I was in need of some good vibes. Although it's not as deep as some of the albums Matt and Iain have suggested or as adventurous, I felt there were elements of this album that would spur discussion, but I also hoped this album and First Aid Kit's other would bri...

"From the moment I first heard this record (late at night in a dark, suburban lounge room) I was entranced. The beauty and the chaos; the light and shade; the juxtaposition of spoken-word recordings and heartfelt musicianship – 'Slow Riot' still has so much to offer 25 years after it was recorded. More than just about anything else I've heard, this EP is a journey, and a mesmerisi...

"Through his vast, diverse discography, I never really felt like I understood Sufjan Stevens – he was an enigmatic figure hidden behind other people’s stories. With his 2015 album Carrie & Lowell, that all changed. The album is a shockingly candid collection of songs about his harrowing upbringing, and the troubled relationship with a mother that would repeatedly abandon him throughout hi...

"After a few heavy albums, it felt right to me to pick something I can't help but dance to. I find this album sounds, to me, like a love letter. A plea to put our phones down and connect with the people around us. Plus, Matty Healy's questionable personality on and off the stage I think gives us something a bit extra to talk about." -Abby Episode 11 features Iain's pick:  Suf...

"Few Australian bands were as big as Silverchair in the 1990s and 2000s and no Silverchair album was more important than Diorama. An evolution from the trio's earlier, grungier works, Diorama was a fascinating, meandering journey through a fantastical dreamworld conjured up by frontman-genius Daniel Johns. It's an album that meant a lot to me when it came out, and listening to it agai...