It’s 4/20! Are you too stoned to figure out what you want to listen to? Let the aptly-named Emerald guide you!
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Do you like electronic music? Does the magic of computers translate to your everyday stonerdom? Do you wish your doobie was an e-doobie? Here’s some music for you.
Entry level: Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma. Like hip hop? Ever wish it was a bit weirder and had the dude from Radiohead cooing over it? The phenomenal breakout LP from Los Angeles’s king of instrumental hip hop should do the trick.
Intermediate: Herbert – Bodily Functions. Half jazz, half house and all chill. Sit back in a lawn chair and let Matthew Herbert’s jazz chords sink in.
Advanced: Moodymann – Silence In The Secret Garden. Like Herbert, but deeper, funkier, and with a whole lot more attitude.
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Do you like dance music? Do bowls make you want to boogie? Here’s some music for you!
Entry level: Disclosure – Settle. Because I play the fool for yuh.
Intermediate: Burger/Ink – Las Vegas. It’s groovy. It’s ambient. It’s baked. So are you.
Advanced: Luomo – Vocalcity. You will either think this is stupid lounge music or the most transcendent listening experience you will ever have.
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Do you like hip hop? Well, if anyone gives you shit for liking rap, punch ’em!
Entry level: Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle. I mean, what celebrity do you think of when you think of weed? And if you said Willie Nelson, sorry but country’s not my thing (though The Red Headed Stranger is a pretty infallible stoner album).
Intermediate: Curren$y – Pilot Talk. Like Snoop Dogg, but chiller, less iconic and with more video game references.
Advanced: Madvillain – Madvillainy. How Doom hold heat and preach non-violence? Shh, he about to start the speech, come on, silence.
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Do you like Rock? Are guitars your catnip? These albums will make you meow!
Entry Level: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV. In the 1970s, a bunch of Brits came together to make the ultimate stoner album. Whether they succeeded or not depends on how much you like loud guitars, louder screaming and EVEN LOUDER DRUMS!!!
Intermediate: Tame Impala – Innerspeaker. She doesn’t like sand stuck on her feet, or sitting around smoking weed. I must seem more like a friend in need.
Advanced: Parson Sound – Parson Sound. Imagine you’re in 1966 in Sweden having a really awesome acid trip and you’ll get these guys. The Swedes know what’s up.
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Do you like reggae? Well, you’re in luck!
Entry level: Bob Marley – Legend. For a lot of music fans, reggae starts and ends here. No surprise given how good a compilation album this concise, 51-minute set is.
Intermediate: The Upsetters – Super Ape. Lee “Scratch” Perry is the reason reggae is great as it is. There’s a gorilla smoking a giant joint on the cover of this album–’nuff said.
Advanced: M. Geddes Gengras, Sun Araw & the Congos – Icon Give Thank. With Lee “Scratch” Perry holed up in Switzerland, it’s up to a couple hotshot Los Angelenos to make his ’70s proteges the Congos weird again. And my God, do they succeed.
Stoned? Here are the essential 4/20 albums
Daniel Bromfield
April 19, 2015
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