D'Angelo - Black Messiah

Label: RCA
Genre: Funk, R&B
Year: 2014
Recommended by: Alura Henry

This is album is funky, and great. It was universally loved by critics, commercially successful, and again it's great. D'Angelo wanted to release it in 2015, but RCA wanted it for 2014. Either way it was going to be the best album released that year. 

Politically charged, wonderfully orchestrated, and incredibly soulful Black Messiah succeed at everything it attempts and then some. It's really a joy to listen to, but where it succeed is indescribable. A feeling of synchronicity with everything seems to creep in. All problems are yours, but the solutions are there as well.

Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming

Label: RCA
Genre: Rock
Year: 1994
Recommended by: Sarah Sherry

While some people in the US may be celebrating a cult holiday, I am listening to the one the only DMB!

The guy who once dumped his crap into the Chicago River. Only there were people there. Ooops Dave.

This album is actually pretty strong. I always hear these songs as album tracks are so much better than whatever live version that people always play. "Satellite" is actually a very good song when it doesn't go on for fourteen minutes and Dave Matthews sounds like he knows the words.

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Label: RCA
Year: 1972
Genre: Glam Rock, Art Rock
Recommending Person: Jeff Sherry

This is just a fantastic piece of rock music. The glam rock era is one I've rarely investigated even though it was influence for the influential bands of my generation. 

Ziggy Stardust is a persona that David Bowie created to tell his rock opera of bi-sexual rock star who was used as the communicator for extra-terrestrial beings. You know that old ditty.

Even though I lacked the ability of being alive during the release of this album, I imagine that the questionable sexuality of David Bowie himself led to confusion and intrigue into the album. However, the album was not a stunt and is easily his most celebrated work. 

The actual story kind of falls apart. That's okay because this has album contains "Suffragette City", "Ziggy Stardust", "Rock 'n Roll Suicide", and "Starman"! It's great, but David Bowie's best song is still "Changes".

Bleachers - Strange Desire

Label: RCA
Year: 2014
Genre: Indie Pop
Recommending Person: Chris Heck

Jack Antonoff, of Fun. fame as well as the boyfriend of Lena Dunham, went off on his first solo project with Bleachers.

By now everyone has probably heard the first single "I Wanna Get Better". It's one of the strongest songs of the entire album, but it's probably my second favorite. The issue I have with the record is that it's almost a bit too one note. It hits the same melodic beats over and over again. It at least has a distinct sound that separates himself from fun entirely, while still containing the fantastic pop sound that Some Nights had. 

Elvis - Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite

Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1973
Genre: Pop
Recommending Person: Jeanne Sherry

What a groovy album cover! So Nixon went to China and it was covered live. So obviously Elvis's manager was able to come up with a scheme to make boat loads of cash.

He promoted it saying that over 1 billion viewers would watch Elvis worldwide at the same time, despite the fact it wasn't aired live in many countries because of the time changes and in the US it wasn't shown because it would have been competing against the Super Bowl.

They still claim that in January they got over a Billion viewers even though the total populations of where it was shown totaled 1.3 Billion.  Whatever, not a big deal promoters lie, the concert is good!

Elvis covering the Beatles, James Taylor, and Frank Sinatra is pretty fantastic. His backing band was fantastic all the way through and it was just a fun album, although there did seem to be a few songs that Elvis was taking off, but I would have to watch the concert to really tell it wasn't just a stylistic choice by the King. What's that YouTube?

The 20/20 Experience (1 of 2) - Justin Timberlake

Label: RCA
Year: 2013
Genre: Pop
Recommending Person: Chrissy Walker

Besides the song Strawberry Bubblegum this album isn't bad. It's not my favorite, but the songs at least are trying to do something. I wish they limited that attempt to less than 7 minutes a song or you know try more things in a single song, there was a lot of checking the time remaining on the track while I was listening. Also, JT you have a nice singing voice. Stop resorting to Falsetto all the time. It's not necessary.