My Favorite Album with Jeremy Dylan – Details, episodes & analysis

Comedian, author, actor, musician and more Michelle Braisier joins Jeremy Dylan to talk about Once, the album of music by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from the classic film of the same name.

Michelle discusses the intimacy and sincerity that powers the film, the beautiful sadness of the music, her annual rewatches of the film in memory of her brother, whether the film is a musical or not, people who hate musicals but like superhero movies, songs that she can’t sing without crying, the blurred lines between Hansard and Irglove and their characters, getting RSI auditioning for the stage musical adaption of Once and much more.

Michelle also talks about the trick to writing comedy songs that are actually funny, and shares the story of a beautiful moment in Edinburgh during one of her performances just after the passing of her brother when the comedy community rallied around her.

Today comedian/writer/musician/podcaster Chloe Maddren joins me to shine a light on the less heralded Amy Winehouse album, 2003’s Frank.

We talk about the cat she named after the album, fighting against Winehouse’s influence on her voice and lifestyle, the difference between the popular conception of Winehouse and who she was on this album, the differences between Frank and Back to Black, identifying with music beyond your age, the jazz influence on the record, being older than Amy Winehouse when she passed away, the validity of teenage pain, the pun of the album title, lyrics that haven’t aged well and much more.

We also talk about why she didn’t choose a Taylor Swift album, her pop star aspirations, how her comedy career balances with her earnest songwriting, bombing in Bondi and “the girl fedora”.

Chloe's standup special 'Hot Girl Stuff (Disordered Eating & Crippling Self-Hate) is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=fMzLtyC6VMo&t=65s

https://www.patreon.com/TheFriendRequest/posts 

Today I'm joined by songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and co-founder of The Lumineers, Jeremiah Fraites, to wax rhapsodic on Radiohead's iconic 1997 album 'OK Computer'.
We talk about Jeremiah's journey from hating to loving Radiohead as a teenager, the album's diverse but coherent sound, the album's sonic easter eggs, the balance of performed and constructed elements, the early live incarnations of the OK Computer songs, road testing songs in the pre-iPhone era, the power of boredom as creative fuel and more. We also breakdown Jeremiah's beautiful interpretation of 'No Surprises', featured on his new album 'Piano Piano 2', and the process of arranging the song and recording with Gregory Alan Isakov.

Australian comedy legend Colin Lane (Lano and Woodley) is a self-proclaimed sceptic when it comes to people’s deep emotional connection to pop stars, but he proves a game guest on this week’s podcast, as he and I mark Elton John’s first appearance on the show by talking about ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. We get into the ins and outs of Elton’s partnership with Bernie Taupin, how much the songs reflect Bernie’s point of view over Elton’s, Colin’s own insights on how to keep a creative partnership together over multiple decades, the beautiful ‘naffness’ of Elton’s music, whether it’s becoming more acceptable to sing explicitly about same sex relationships in pop music and a great rollicking chat about the Elton biopic Rocket Man and why we feel like it was far superior than Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Today one Australia’s most compelling artists, Mo’Ju, joins me for a celebration of the love child of Raymond Chandler and the Cookie Monster, Tom Waits, and his classic 1978 album ‘Blue Valentine’. We talk about the Tom Waits musical universe, how Waits uses a clearly defined persona to keep his private life private, the film noir sensibility that pervades Waits’ lyrics, how Mo’Ju chased the sound of Waits’ records in her early music, how Waits made the grotesque and the mundane beautiful, the different definitions of authenticity in art, double standards around lyrical content for different types of artists and much more.

Today music journalist (People, Rolling Stone) and co-host of the Rivals podcast Jordan Runtagh joins me from New York City to finally tackle one of our white whales - The Beach Boys immortal classic ‘Pet Sounds’. Yes, somehow we are in year eight of the show without anyone doing the record. Never fear, we get into it in some detail today, from the background of the record and Brian Wilson’s shift to non-touring creative genius, the intra-family fights between Brian and Mike Love, the contrasts between Pet Sounds and the Beatles' Sgt Pepper, the starkness of the lyrics, the contributions of the Wrecking Crew and Jordan’s experiences interviewing Brian Wilson and how this album helped him connect with his father.

Today we’re bringing you a fascinating conversation with Batwoman’s Nicole Kang on country icon Patsy Cline’s ‘Sentimentally Yours’, the last album the legendary singer recorded before her tragically premature death at age 30. Nicole tells the story of how Cline’s music formed part of the tapestry of her childhood and became an essential shibboleth of her relationship with her taciturn immigrant father and spoke to his relationship with his adopted home country. Nicole tells the story of discovering the album anew as an adult in the midst of heartbreak and how it led her to open a new dialogue with her father about her childhood. We talk about identity, assimilation, direct emotion, the idea of Nicole playing Patsy on Broadway, the mystique around artists who died young and Nicole performs a poem from her one-woman show that speaks to the impact of Patsy Cline’s music on her.

Today New York bred Nashville based singer-songwriter Jillette Johnson joins me on the eve of her new album release, to discuss Patty Griffin’s game-changing genre-defying second album Flaming Red. Like Bob Dylan, Patty shocked a lot of people when she ‘went electric’ on this record, and we get into why this album was different to her folky debut, the reactions upon its release, why it’s impossible to put Patty in a genre box, how Jillette has been inspired to expand and evolve her sound on her new record and more. We dig into seminal songs like ‘One Big Love’, ‘Tony’ and more, the different lyrical modes Patty deploys across the record, and the contributions from producer Jay Joyce and the other stellar musicians who played on the record.

Today, legendary songwriter and Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson joins me to talk about the Joni Mitchell masterpiece that isn’t ‘Blue’ - 1976's ‘Hejira’.
We talk about where the title came from, how a teenage infatuation led Dan to Joni, why Jaco Pastorius is like Hannibal Lector, the album’s lyrical themes of groundedness vs freedom, key songs like Amelia and Furry Sings the Blues and how Dan’s relationship with the album changed when he started writing his own songs.

We’re kicking off 2021 with the legendary producer, guitarist and singer/songwriter Daniel Lanois, talking about one of the greatest debut albums of all time, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967 barnstormer ‘Are You Experienced?’
We delve into Daniel’s discovery of the record while he was a teenage record producer in Canada, how the album opened up his imagination, the idiosyncrasies and nuances of Hendrix’s guitar playing technique and how it’s influenced Lanois’ own approach to the instrument, Mitch Mitchell’s jazz influenced drumming and some of the studio innovations that made the album special. Daniel also talks about reimagining ‘May This Be Love’ with Emmylou Harris when they recorded it for her classic album ‘Wrecking Ball’.
Plus I pick Daniel’s brain about the making of my favorite Willie Nelson album ‘Teatro’, which he produced and was the subject of a previous episode of this show.