Vinyl Verdict

Welcome back! We're happy to have you along for season 2! On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Bell's next pick, Prozzak's Hot Show . Like Gorillaz, Prozzak is a virtual band, consisting of two characters - Simon and Milo. In reality, Prozzak consists of the Canadian duo Jay Levine and James Bryan McCollum, previously of the group The Philosopher Kings....

After a long summer, Vinyl Verdict will be returning from our break with season 2 on September 2nd! Our first two episodes will be Bell's pick Hot Show by Prozzak, and Jamie's pick The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis. Thank you so much for tuning in, we can't wait to talk soon! Also: Make sure to check out vinylverdict.com where we'll be updating it with our reviews from Season 1!

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, the boys look back on our first year as a podcast! Were the ratings too harsh on some records? Too fair on others? What did we do well, what are we going to work on for next season? Will Jamie continue rating albums out of absurd numbers? All of these things will be answered! While this is our year end podcast, we're coming back with more Vinyl Verdict in August....

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Plouffe's next pick, Rage Against the Machine's The Battle of Los Angeles. Their third, and final album of original material, The Battle of Los Angeles was released in 1999 to critical and commercial success. Critics cited the lyrics and innovative guitar playing of Tom Morello as high points of the album. The album debuted at #1...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Jamie's next pick, Billy Joel's The Stranger . Released in 1977, The Stranger was a Hail Mary from Billy Joel to save his recording contract with Columbia. After his inexplicable rise to fame with Piano Man in 1973, his subsequent releases were lukewarmly received by both critics and the general public. Searching for a solution,...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Bell's next pick SZA's CTRL. Her debut studio album, it was released to widespread critical acclaim, with multiple reviewers citing its writing and SZA's singing as high points. In 2020, Rolling Stone pegged it as the number 472 of the 500 Greatest Albums of all Time. At the 2018 Grammy Awards, SZA received a nomination for Best...

On this special episode of Vinyl Verdict, Plouffe and Jamie have teamed up to pick two albums from Bell's collection! Jamie picks Leon Bridges' Coming Home and Plouffe picks Muse's Black Holes and Revelations . The two albums could not be more different! Coming Home, released in 2015, is a soul album with a throwback sound that would not be out of place on the radio of the late 50s and early 60s....

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Plouffe's next pick, Skinshape's Arrogance is the Death of Men . His sixth album in five years, and second of 2020, Arrogance is the Death of Men is a quick trek through a jazzy psychedelic sound with a distinct v i b e. While relatively unknown, Skinshape is the stage name of Will Dorey, previously of the band Palace, where he p...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Jamie's next pick, Death From Above 1979's - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine. Released in 2004, the album was recorded by the Canadian duo of Jesse F. Keeler on bass and Sebastien Grainger on drums and vocals. Genre-wise, this album was described as 'dance-punk', a genre combining the sound of post-punk, with a beat you could dance...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Bell's next pick, Nick Hakim's WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD. Released in 2020, it is his second studio album. The album touches upon issues such as climate change, the use of medication in children and the loss of friends. Hakim judiciously layers different sounds throughout the album, often as if the album is in multiple genres at the...

On this special episode of Vinyl Verdict, Plouffe, Bell and Jamie discuss albums released in their birth year. Up first is Bell's pick, Nas' Illmatic from 1994. His debut album, it was released to universal acclaim among critics, and has been hailed as a landmark in hip hop. Next, is Plouffe's pick, The Traveling Wilburys' The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, from 1990. A supergroup featuring the likes...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Plouffe's next pick, System of a Down's Toxicity. Released in 2001, Toxicity was their breakthrough album and contained four successful singles. The album that spans both the nu-metal and alternative metal genres, and also contains elements of jazz, folk, Armenian and Greek music. Two singles from the album - Aerials and Chop Sue...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Jamie's next pick, Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here . Released in 1975, Wish You Were Here was the follow up album to 1973's Dark Side of the Moon , the band's big breakout album. While less commercially successful than Dark Side of the Moon, the album has been warmly received retrospectively, having been named both the #4 progres...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Bell's next pick, The Barenaked Ladies' Gordon . Their debut album, Gordon was produced after the band won a contest with a $100,000 prize at the Toronto radio station, CFNY. Gordon was released in 1992 and sold 80,000 copies in its first 24 hours of release, and then proceeded to chart in Canada for 8 consecutive weeks. Consisti...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, are joined by Luke Lafreniere to talk about his pick, Tiger Army's self titled debut album. Released in 1999, Tiger Army comes in at a brisk 32 minutes, 33 if you round up. At the time of recording, the only actual member of Tiger Army was Nick 13, the alias of Kearney Nick Jones, the only constant member of the band through its 27 year ex...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe, listen to Plouffe's next pick, DANGERDOOM's The Mouse and the Mask . Released in 2005, this was the only full length album released by the duo of producer Danger Mouse and rapper MF DOOM. Consisting of fourteen tracks that are interspersed with clips from Adult Swim shows such as Perfect Hair Forever, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe listen to Jamie's next pick, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. His fifth studio album, this was his breakout album in both the US and UK, catapulting him to stardom. Initially giving it a lukewarm review, Rolling Stone later named the album number 6 on their list of the 100 Best Albums of the Last...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe listen to Bell's next pick, Woodkid's The Golden Age . Snippets of the album were teased in singles from 2011, 2012 and 2013, with the final release coming in February 2013. The single Run Boy Run has been used in over 80 advertisements, movie trailers, films and TV shows, and its music video was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video at...

On this special episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell and Jamie have teamed up to pick two albums from Plouffe's collection! Bell picks Summer Salt's Happy Camper, their album from 2018. Jamie picks Primus' Frizzle Fry, released in 1990. The albums could not be more polar opposite! Will this be a rare occasion where the whole crew likes albums that Plouffe owns? Will we say Primus Sucks multiple times th...

Quick content warning: Plouffe notes at the beginning of the episode that the lyrical content of the album features talk of sexual assault and suicide. On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe listen to Plouffe's next pick, The Distillers Coral Fang . Their third studio album, and only major label release, Coral Fang  came out in 2003 to positive critical reviews. Stradling the li...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe listen to Jamie's next pick, S U R V I V E's MNQ026 ( HD015 for the vinyl release). S U R V I V E is a electronic band from Austin, Texas, formed in 2009. Two of their members, Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon went on to do the soundtrack score for the Netflix series Stranger Things . Completely instrumental, MNQ026 is made up of two parts spoo...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe listen to Bell's next pick, MGMTs Little Dark Age. Released in 2018, it is the band's fourth studio album. After their second and third albums were released to lukewarm receptions, the band took some time off and came back with the single for the track Little Dark Age in October 2017, releasing further singles up until the release of the al...

Content warning for this episode: we talk about hate crimes, sex crimes and spousal abuse. We also left the swears in. Come back to us next week for a not as spicy episode if any of that sounds rotten to you.  On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe talk about albums in their collections from artists who have bad things . Bell's pick, Kids See Ghost's only album, features notorio...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe listen to Plouffe's next pick, Steve Hiett's Down on the Road by the Beach. Steve Hiett started off as a concert photographer for such greats as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and The Beach Boys, and then graduated to being a fashion photographer for publications such as Vogue. Along the way, it was requested that he write and perform an album of...

On this episode of Vinyl Verdict, Bell, Jamie and Plouffe listen to Jamie's next pick, Led Zeppelin's Untitled Fourth Album . Commonly referred to as Led Zeppelin IV , it was released in 1971. After reviews of the band's third album were lukewarm at best, Led Zeppelin sought out to make an album and give it no title, instead representing it by three hand drawn symbols by each member of the band. W...