albums i listened to all the way through

posted this week and every week (38)

Nov 09, 2025

What a week for music!

Two of my favorites—The Mountain Goats and h. pruz—released great albums, albeit somewhat different in their approaches, production, and writing.

The Mountain Goats released a concept album about a captain and a few of his surviving sailors living on a deserted island after their ship has capsized. One of them goes missing, the rest eventually succumb to starvation and injury. There are countless religious references and psychotic visions sprinkled throughout the album. Death and doom seem to permeate an album otherwise characterized by its upbeat sonic landscape. Some songs are more rock-inspired. Some expand and contract with a calypso flare, while others feature more traditional strings, synths, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s iconic backing vocals.

It’s a great concept album and feels primed for something more. It seems like it may follow in pursuit of its folksy concept album predecessors and seek prestige Broadway musical status. Having Lin-Manuel on board would certainly be a major plus. However, I wonder seriously how it will translate to a Broadway stage, especially in this climate.

Some really make it work (Anais Mitchell) while others (The Avett Brothers) don’t find the audience in time. The expense of bringing a new show to the great white way is just too great in most cases. Unless you make it to Tony’s season and somehow win, you’re screwed, no matter how great the show is.

Also—the Avett Brothers already tried to bring a tragic sailor tale to the stage. They worked on that show for a decade and did everything right. It payed off in building a die-hard, cult-like audience (i.e. me and all fans of John Gallagher Jr.) but ultimately didn’t reach the level of success they hoped it would.

Would this one work?

Regardless, I recommend you all take a listen. It’s a perfect album to listen to from beginning to end. My personal favorite tracks are probably “Armies of the Lord” and “The Lady From Shanghai 2.”

Now onto h.pruz…wow, what a release! Featuring a proverb-sourced title—Red sky at morning, this album is such a gorgeous showcase of Hannah Pruzinsky’s songwriting, as well as the talent of producer Felix Walworth.

I need a solid month of listening to this album to really grasp its meaning and appreciate its musical details. As always, Pruzinsky sings with a voice that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. In fact, about a year ago, when I first discovered h. pruz on Bandcamp, I remember listening to the song “Angel” on a lonely November night. I felt myself well up in response to the music in a way I hadn’t in years. It’s remarkably intimate, particularly the bit in the middle of the song where the piano twinkles with a sigh behind Hannah’s hushed singing.

Take a listen if you don’t believe me:

Red sky at morning is fully realized and mature in a way their previous release No Glory leans towards. My favorite tracks are “After always” and “Force.” While their subject matters are different, there is a common thread between them. Maybe it’s the longing. Whatever it is, they both hypnotize me in a way I can’t explain. “Force” in particular reminds me of my own brother. It explores a kind of distant sibling dynamic in a way I recognize and even wish for, knowing my own older alternative sibling moved away from our limiting Southern upbringing.

The track “If you cannot make it stop” marks a transition between the first and second half of the album. It’s grittier and sounds more like the work of Hannah’s other band, sister, on their album Abundance. I like its placement on this album otherwise characterized by wandering acoustic guitar and light synths.

If you take a look at the liner notes, you’ll recognize more than a few of the names—Felix Walworth and Emily Sprague of Florist, Elijah Wolf, and of course, best friend and collaborator Ceci Sturman of famed gunk and the band, sister. A few instrumental tracks were also entirely improvised, which only adds to the atmosphere and provides the smoothest of transitions.

As a final note, both this album and Through The Fire Across From Peter Balkan feature well-placed woodwinds in the mix. I gotta say—I love this shit. I want more of it. More saxophones and clarinets and flutes in folk and alt-rock, please and thank you.

I wish I had the space to delve into all of the albums for this week. I especially loved Patty Water’s album Sings and Snõõper’s Worldwide. Please go listen to Snõõper if you like egg punk music and/or utterly insane, unserious Beatles covers. Along with Rocket and Die Spitz, I think they’re the next inheritors of punk, whereas Geese, Wednesday, and MJ Lenderman are clearly the next generation of indie rock. It’s a great time to be a Gen Z music writer!

Here are the albums I listened to all the way through this past week: