My Favorite Album with Jeremy Dylan

With a new Paul McCartney album on the horizon, I'm joined once again by Steven Cockcroft of the great Nothing is Real podcast to delve into the 21st century albums of a 20th century icon. We look back on McCartney's underdiscussed and to varying degrees underappreciated output from Driving Rain to McCartney III and everything in between, looking at the music, the critical narrative around these albums, what they say about McCartney and what McCartney is trying to say about himself and what we're hoping for from The Boys of Dungeon Lane.

My guest today is Texas country artist Angel White, who joins me to discuss the debut studio album by Ray LaMontagne, 'Trouble'. We chat about how the album went on to shape the kinds of music Angel still listens to and is inspired by today, the way a great album reveals more of itself the more you grow with it, the tone of LaMontagne's voice and how it makes you hang on every lyric, the ways in which the artist's voice has influenced Angel's own singing style, and the album's original intention as a collection of songwriter demos to pitch to other artists.

My first guest to kick off our 2026 season is Zach Williams, frontman and founder of Americana band The Lone Bellow, to discuss D'Angelo's 2000 neo-soul classic album 'Voodoo'. We chat about Zach's origin story with this album, how growing up in Georgia he would offset his love of listening to country music with a secret passion for R&B, the incredibly moving 2026 Grammys in-memoriam tribute to D'Angelo led by Lauryn Hill, the unusually long process of making 'Voodoo' at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the artist's reluctance to be branded as a sex symbol despite the record label's insistence, D'Angelo's collaboration with Quest Love and Pino Palladino, and the way the fearless spirit of 'Voodoo' inspired Zach to be at his bravest and most honest when creating his own music.

In what we can all agree is the greatest of all holiday traditions, filmmaker Charles Hood and The Wrap's Drew Taylor join me to celebrate / argue about our picks for the ten best films of 2025. Our shortest one yet!

My guest today is Wisconsin-born, LA-based singer/songwriter Hillary Reynolds, who is one of the rare guests to bring a live album to this podcast in the form of Fleetwood Mac's 1997 live record 'The Dance'. Having discovered the album as a child in the backseat of her parents' car, Hillary shares her thoughts on the record, including how the passage of time between when the songs were written and when they were performed at this live concert creates a different perspective on certain songs, how the appeal of Fleetwood Mac is largely informed by the story of the band members' interpersonal relationships, the way the band members' vocal tones are so versatile and greatly contrast with one another, how Fleetwood Mac's melodic style has heavily influenced Hillary's own songwriting, how her relationship to their music has evolved over time, and much more.