x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Finest Worksongs

finestworksongs

Finest Worksongs is a music commentary and history podcast hosted by Matt Lail and Matt Stevens. The podcast is dedicated to discussing ”great albums” and delving into the music and history of the artists behind them. The hosts often reminisce about their 80s childhoods, providing a nostalgic lens through which they explore the chosen albums. While the podcast covers a wide range of musical genres and artists, their discussions often center around seminal albums, exploring their impact, production,

music music commentary

All Episodes

45:58

Tame Impala – Currents

Finest Worksongs ·

2024/05/21

The casual music fan may not immediately recognize the name Kevin Parker. But say "Tame Impala," and it's a different story. Sure, there have been band "members" (ie., collaborators) in Tame Impala, but the band is really all Parker's creation and doing. And nowhere is that more evident than on 2015's "Currents" album. Parker holed up in his Fremantle, Australia, home (taking some breaks to swim in the ocean) to record, mix and perfect the album. The result is a more dance-heavy take on Parker songs

en

46:53

Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little pill

Finest Worksongs ·

2024/04/05

Alanis Morissette's 1995 album "Jagged Little Pill" was ripe for mid-90s success -- and it more than delivered. Morissette -- previously a child actor and dance-pop artist -- dug into her soul, and (with the help of songwriter Glen Ballard) released an album of angry, frank and catchy post-grunge rock hits. To say these songs struck a nerve is an understatement. Six singles came off this album with five of them becoming bonafide radio and MTV hits: "Hand in My Pocket," "Ironic," "You Oughta Know,"

en

44:31

Cyndi Lauper – She's So Unusual

Finest Worksongs ·

2024/03/18

In an era of iconic music (and fashion) superstars, Cyndi Lauper burst onto the scene in the 1980s with a flash of neon-infused female-forward pop. She was perfect for the MTV generation, as her look took the pop culture world by storm. But “She’s So Unusual” was not just a vehicle to get her on TVs. The album is packed with timeless classics like “Time After Time,” “All Through the Night” and the VERY progressive for its time “She Bop.” But with “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Lauper delivered a

en

45:45

Led Zeppelin IV

Finest Worksongs ·

2024/03/05

"And as we wind on down the road ..." of Season 10 of Finest Worksongs, we turn our attention to perhaps the original Monsters of Rock: Lez Zeppelin. Their fourth album (sometimes called "IV," sometimes referred to as "ZoSo") was released in 1971 and was an immediate and longstanding success. "IV" became one of those albums that everyone seemingly had thanks to the might of muscle of "Rock and Roll," "Black Dog," the marathon majesty of "Stairway to Heaven," and the mystical and mysterious "Battle

en

45:22

Usher – Confessions

Finest Worksongs ·

2024/02/07

Sure, it's been 20 years since Usher's "Confessions" album was unleashed on the world and solidified Usher Raymond IV as one of the biggest musical and entertainment artists of his generation. But an artist like Usher is timeless, and his pick to rock the Super Bowl halftime in 2024 speaks to that. "Confessions" is the second best-selling album of the 2000s decade, and it spawned a number of (consecutive) No. 1 songs, including the iconic "Yeah!" But it wasn't just the music that made Usher a

en

41:31

Listener’s Choice – Billy Joel

Finest Worksongs ·

2024/01/10

For our season-ending "Listener's Choice" epipod, we dive into Billy Joel's fifth album, his 1977 offering, "The Stranger." The album made it to No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 thanks to singles such as "Just the Way Your Are," "Only the Good Die Young," and "She's Always a Woman," but it has long since become critically appreciated (especially by fans) due to Joel's ability to capture the Big Apple via tunes "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," along with

en

42:45

Christmas 2023

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/12/13

The boys are back with another special Christmas epipod! For the fifth annual edition, Matt & Matt are bringing you something fresh. One offering is a brand new (as of Thanksgiving 2023!) holiday album from Jim James and the boys from My Morning Jacket. The other is a serious deep cut: the early-80s funky and wacky album "Merry Christmas to You" by Joseph Washington Jr. Both albums are memorable in their own right, and we hope you enjoy the discussion this season. Merry Christmas from Finest

en

45:09

The Sundays – Reading, Writing & Arithmetic

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/12/01

If it seemed like England's The Sundays came out of nowhere in the early 1990s it's because, well, they sorta did. The dreampop quartet didn't start out with the idea of being major music stars -- they just wanted to have a little fun and make some music. But there were a couple problems with this: Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin. Harriet's lilting, songbird voice made her one of the most distinctive female voices in pop music; and the gorgeous guitar work by David made The Sundays alternative

en

42:54

Garth Brooks – Ropin’ The Wind

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/11/16

Few artists have had as much crossover success as Garth Brooks. The Okie not only took the country world by storm in the early-to-mid-1990s, but he was a certified mega pop star as well. And in doing so, Brooks redefined how country music was perceived -- and performed. Brooks made country music arena-friendly. His songs were radio friendly as well, as his 1991 album "Ropin' The Wind" proved. The album would go on to sale more than 14 million copies and produced hits (and Brooks standards) like

en

42:51

Whitney Houston - Our 100th Epipod!

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/11/03

Long before there was a TV singing competition called "The Voice," there was Whitney Houston -- aka "The Voice." But there really was no competition. Houston's power and range was second to no one else of her generation. In fact, the term of "The Voice" was something of an insult; it suggested that she was given a gift of singing from above, that it had little to do with talent. But to those who heard "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" or "Greatest Love of All" Or "I Will Always Love You" or any of the

en

49:21

Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/10/26

Early computer animation. Sports bloopers. Pastel sport coats. And "I want my MTV." On the surface, it's hard to get more "1980s" than Dire Straits during their "Brothers in Arms" era. But peak MTV era was also quite superficial, and with Dire Straits, there was always more just below the surface. Even with mega radio and music video hits like "Walk of Life" and "Money For Nothing," 1985's "Brothers in Arms" is yet another album with frontman and guitar god Mark Knopfler weaving stories about the

en

43:51

Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/10/09

Lucinda Williams' fifth album, released in the summer of 1998, not only cemented the artist as a bonafide songwriting juggernaut, but it solidified her place among America's best storytellers. "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" would go on to be named The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop (critics) Album of the Year, and to date it is among Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time. And for good reason. Williams bemoans (and even moans) about love and loss in songs like "Right In Time," Lake Charles" and

en

36:02

Weezer – Weezer (Blue Album)

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/09/29

In 1994, heavy metal and hard rock were on the way out and grunge ruled supreme. But that mattered not to a young, quick-witted songwriter named Rivers Cuomo. Raised on KISS, Iron Maiden and the rest, Cuomo and his band Weezer brought forth an amalgamation of rock that embraced the angst of grunge with the chops of metal -- all framed by the disposition and perspective of a loner. Weezer's self-titled debut (aka "The Blue Album") set the music world on fire with radio and MTV hits "Buddy Holly,"

en

42:23

Van Morrison – Moondance

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/09/19

How does a young songwriter come back from releasing a mega hit that EVERYBODY knows? For Van Morrison, he followed the success of "Brown Eyed Girl" with two different approaches. First came "Astral Weeks," an album built on and around Morrison's jazz upbringing. Next came "Moondance," which bridged the gap (eventually) between his love of various genres of music with a nod to a more pop-friendly format. It worked. Like "Brown Eyed Girl," the title track has since become a standard, but the album is

en

43:55

Listener’s Choice – The Allman Brothers

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/07/14

"With the help of God and true friends, I come to realize / I still had two strong legs and even wings to fly."Those are among some of the first lines of the first song ("Ain't Wastin' Time No More") from "Eat a Peach," the double album by the Allman Brothers Band, which was released in early 1972. The lines and the song -- heck, SEVERAL of the songs -- underscore a lot of what the Allman Brothers were all about throughout their career -- but perhaps never more so than at this point. They were a

en

41:48

Missy Elliott – Under Construction

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/07/06

Few musical genres have the level of deep-seated appreciation for its forefathers (and mothers) like rap and hip hop. And Missy Elliott's 2002 album, "Under Construction" is a wonderful homage to "the good old days" when it was about "British Knights and gold chains," as Elliott raps on "Back in the Day." But for all the looking back, this was also an album where Elliott continued to put her stamp on music. While the single "Work It" continues to be one of the Virginia-born Elliott's biggest and

en

44:51

Rage Against The Machine – self-titled debut

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/06/01

Sure, prior to 1992 there had been combinations of rap and rock. But they were mostly of the novelty variety - a way to offer a safe crossover of different genres and audiences. When Rage Against the Machine unloaded their debut album in 1992, they kicked the crap out of the novelty and drew a line in the sand that told the world that playtime was over. This wasn't "Walk this Way" or "I'm the Man." Tom Morello, Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford laid down some of the heaviest, grooviest music around --

en

43:46

Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/05/23

Perhaps no band benefited from the beauty of the mix tape better than the Violent Femmes. However, you could argue that no other band led to the proliferation of the art form of creating a mix tape more than the Femmes. The simpleness of song structure (and production) and the adolescent lyrical content (one reviewer calling it "uber-elementary sing-alongs") were absolutely {chef's kiss} to represent frustrated, angsty teenagers of the 1980s and '90s. It makes sense -- chief songwriter Gordon Gano

en

45:52

Dolly Parton – Jolene

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/05/05

Few artists have enjoyed a resurgence in appreciation over the past decade like Dolly Parton. But in the 1970s, she fought against the perception that she was just a sidekick to Porter Wagoner ... or just a pretty face. It also goes without saying that a lot of people think of other things first when thinking about Dolly, instead of thinking about her talents as a songwriter, singer and musician. But Dolly has remained true to her roots and to herself, and in recent years, she has begun to enjoy an

en

44:21

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

Finest Worksongs ·

2023/04/13

With his 1971 album, "What's Going On," Motown staple Marvin Gaye turned the R&B world -- and the pop music world for that matter -- upside down, smashing conventional ideas about pop songs, album topics and even song themes. It's an album -- and one you really should listen to from start to finish -- about a Vietnam vet returning from war to find an America weighted down by racism, drugs, hatred and injustice. Not surprising, Gaye had to fight hard to have his vision come to life. It was deemed to

en

129 results

Similar Podcasts

Pasquale Maassen Soundcloud

Pasquale Maassen

Marian Klose

Marian Klose

sevenism

sevenism

Dean Delray"s LET THERE BE TALK

Cactus Radio Network

Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold