The Riff’s Album Club Discussion Recap

Here’s a quick summary of our fun and lively discussion this weekend

The album club discussions are easily one of my favorite social moments each month. In it, we do our best to articulate our true and unapologetic feelings about a particular music project. It's a rich and safe space. This past album club discussion was no different. As many of you know, we chatted about Girlpool’s third studio album, What Chaos is Imaginary. Here is what you missed!

What They Loved

The reaction to the album was overwhelmingly positive. To be honest, this gave me a sigh of relief. My last album discussion pick didn’t go over so well. Interestingly, the love came from several different directions. Terry Barr connected with the heavy guitar work on here, David Acaster was pleasantly propelled into a dream state, and Jessica Lee McMillan was proudly reminded about several alternative rock bands from her coming of age years. Their sophisticated and detailed ruminations on the album’s compelling qualities opened doors to new parts of the album that I have yet to discover.

The Lone Dissenter

The discussion would have been enjoyable but a little empty without our prized lone dissenter. We have the incomparable Nicole Brown to thank for that. Despite putting herself down before giving her retort, Nicole gave a wide-eyed and in-depth analysis of the album’s flaws. She highlighted the project’s lack of relatability and the overproduced atmosphere.

In short, she couldn’t feel or connect with Girlpool in any significant way. With her red-inked notes verbally scribbled over my assignment, I jumped to my monitor and searched for my plan B; The album’s demo version. One of the songs was played, and some of her criticisms were addressed immediately.

Crisis avoided.

The Novelty of Having Novel Music Opinions

After the main album discussion, we seamlessly transitioned into a music nerd conversation. This is definitely my favorite part of the discussion. One of the negative consequences of loving various types of music is the isolation associated with the novel taste. We are driven by this passion to find music that speaks to us. In the process, we ended up finding each other. There’s always a silver lining. :)

Hey Reuben!

The conversation wasn’t all roses. We had a quick bone to pick with the agent provocateur, Reuben Salsa. Yeah, buddy, you heard us right. His prescient piece about the Riff’s nostalgia problem came up in our discussion as well.

While we understood where he was coming from, we reached a different conclusion about the Riff. In the end, we talked our way through the Riff’s mission. That is, the pursuit of describing music’s connection to our lives.

Whether it's oldies, modern top 40, or niche indie finds, the Riff writers only need to write about the song’s meaning to them. For example, How does the music make you feel? Why do you feel that way? Where do you go when a certain piece comes on?

These personal and deeply intimate confessions demonstrate the Riff’s special place in today’s music publication landscape. While most music publications endlessly search for the new thing-of-the-month or shamelessly post provocative stories for clicks, The Riff slows down time, and reminds us about the power of music in our lives.

Before our loving goodbye’s we received a volunteer for next month's discussion. I’m going to wait for them to reveal themselves when the time comes. Meanwhile, save the first Sunday of December on your calendars and get ready to come and hang with us. I promise we don’t bite!