As Spring Break approaches, the need to find a road trip soundtrack becomes increasingly important. This brief guide by Daniel Bromfield and Craig Wright will provide a starting point for making travel feel shorter, or provide a basis for further enjoyment of the break in general.
No Cities To Love — Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney returned at the top of its game after a ten year absence. No Cities To Love brings Carrie Brownstein’s signature guitar sound, Corin Tucker’s banshee-esque vocals and Janet Weiss’s thunderous drums back together for a production that can simply be described as near-perfection.
I Love You Honeybear — Father John Misty
Josh Tillman has created a love story made for the spring. From the opening title track to the closing of “I Went To The Store One Day,” the album breezes along with a sampling of different genres, but begins and ends with a storybook love tale.
Uptown Special — Mark Ronson
Ronson (along with a barrage of guests) creates an easy to enjoy funk album, highlighted by the mega hit “Uptown Funk” (with Bruno Mars). It plays like a classic funk album, but maintains a modern twist throughout that will help those long road trips pass along much more quickly.
1989 — Taylor Swift
There may be a time during break when you just need to “Shake It Off.” 1989 overtook the Frozen Soundtrack as the best-selling album of 2014 in a mere nine week span. Taylor Swift holds control of the pop world, and studies have shown that her music is scientifically proven to improve your mood, so why should her reign end now?
— By Craig Wright
Jack U – Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack U. Skrillex soundtracked Harmony Korine’s millennial-skewering cinematic masterpiece Spring Breakers–and as his brutal EDM bangers prove, he was the right man for the job. Working in tandem with Diplo, he’s made a spring break album for the ages. Every song goes hard, but I’d recommend “Beats Knockin’” or “Take U There” (preferably the Missy Elliott version, though the original is fine as well).
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly. The Compton rapper’s latest opus is as thematically weighty as anything he’s put out, but as a spring break soundtrack, those G-funk grooves are all that matter. Like Biggie’s Ready To Die (and his own good kid, m.A.A.d city) before, To Pimp A Butterfly works equally well as a social-gathering accompaniment and an intellectually and emotionally stimulating private listen.
Project Pablo – I Want To Believe. Vancouver’s made some of the best house music on the planet over the last two years, and Project Pablo’s I Want To Believe is the latest addition to this canon. Funky, immersive, compulsively listenable, and often strikingly beautiful, I Want To Believe is a great album to party or simply sink into the couch to.
— By Daniel Bromfield