Sam's Favorite Album of All Time

There are many factors that make an album someone's favorite. Whether it be a memory linked to the album, an overall appreciation of the musical talents involved in it, or just because someone loves the band in general. I have a handful of albums that I really like in the vast world of music, but one tops them all.

Era Extrana, the 2011 Neon Indian LP, is my favorite album of all time. There are many reasons why this album is my favorite and may possibly remain my favorite.

I came across the Denton, Texas Neon Indian brain child, Alan Palomo in early 2011. He had only released his notorious 2009 lo-fi/chillwave LP, Psychic Chasms that received high praise on blogs like Pitchfork and Hype Machine. I really liked the style of his music and the album itself, but for some reason I lost track of Neon Indian for a while. Then came summer of 2011, and July brought the release of the single Fallout and August brought the most well known Neon Indian single, Polish Girl. Immediately I downloaded these singles as Neon Indian had once again popped onto my radar. These two songs were on repeat for days. I can not tell you how many times I heard that Polish Girl synth melody within the first day of downloading it. Something about this song gave it re-playabillity and I listened to it continuously to the release of the glorious Era Extrana album.

Era Extrana began in Helsinki, Finland in 2010 following the release of Psychic Chasms. The cold winter inspired Palomo's album yet, ironically this album really reminds me of spring/summer. It was finally released on September 13th, 2011 under the Static Tongues record label. Now, I had to download the entire thing because of how much I loved the singles. I would never regret this choice.

This album is fantastic because every song is different and fresh. Every synth filled, modulation filled song is a master piece elegantly composed and formatted into one great sonic beauty. Between the three part instrumental interludes, showcasing Palomo's brilliant synth talents, following the process of the heart (Heart: Attack, Heart: Decay, and Heart: Release) and the upbeat songs such as Hex Girlfriend and Halogen this album shines bright. There is not one song that I dislike on this album. However, most of the ratings it received seem to be either 3's or 4's out of 5 or 7 out of 10's. The reviews are mediocre and don't reflect the brilliance of this album and I highly disagree with a majority of them. Palomo did a beautiful job on this album. I would review every song if I could but, it would probably turn into a novel, so I'll cut you some reading.

Not only do I love this album for its musical composition, but this album holds a great deal of nostalgia and has plenty of memories behind it. In my freshman year, I started to show my friends Polish Girl after it had been released over the summer. At first, like many songs I attempt to show them, they just kind of shrugged it off as "eh, just another boring indie song Sam is trying to brainwash us with." But, after a while it became more and more popular between the four of us and we all had it blasting on our iPods. It's also funny because originally one of my friends thought Polish Girl was pronounced polish as in nail polish and I'll always seem to remember that when listening to the song. Polish Girl essentially became the "anthem" between my friends and I will always remember listening to this song with them in freshman year. Beyond school, summer 2012 was the absolute best summer of my life. Almost every day I listened to Era Extrana in its entirety. I'll always remember those hazy summer afternoons just hanging out longboarding with the beating sunset in the background having Era Extrana playing in my ears. There are so many great memories linked with this album that it always puts a smile on my face when I listen to it and it always seems to pick me up when I'm feeling down.

Eventually, Neon Indian, and Polish Girl especially, began increasing in popularity and I soon found out that kids in our school were listening to Neon Indian. That information took away a little bit of the feeling that it was my "little secret" but no matter how many people began to listen to Neon Indian it still held and still holds a special place in my heart (as wishy washy and cliche as that sounds).

Era Extrana is and will probably always be my favorite album of all time. I'm still hungrily awaiting a new Neon Indian LP to hopefully match the greatness that is Era Extrana. But, until then if you haven't heard Era Extrana, seriously what are you waiting for, listen to it RIGHT NOW!

Here is a stream of the entire album:

 

-∆Sam