Had a discussion with a friend online about how amazing Jamie XX's "In Colour" is, and how excited we were for his new album coming out soon (ok I started this post a month before the album came out, now it has been out for a month). This got me thinking about what my favorite "dance" albums are. So I decided to put together a list and a playlist.
Dance is such a weird genre, so I don't even know if you'd put all of these albums in that genre if you were a critic... but whatever. I'm not a professional reviewer, so this list isn't in order, nor particularly deeply researched, but rather albums I keep coming back to time and time again. You can listen to this list while you read on Spotify. So lets dive into a fun #music #listicle!
Jamie xx - In Colour
This album is perfect for me. High energy, lots of unique samples, and interesting beats. I originally learned about Jamie xx from listening to The xx, whom I love. I then started to hear some of his live sets (my favorite being Jamie xx Boiler Room London x Young Turks DJ Set), and his collaboration with Gil Scott-Heron, We're New Here.
When I listen to this album, I'm back living in London in 2014 & 2015. The sound just makes me think of big cities, full of diversity, movement and chaos.
Beyonce - Renaissance
The newest album on this list. This was basically the anthem for my 2023. I generally love Beyonce, but this album was a whole new vibe. It reminds me of the house music I loved in high school and college, and just makes me want to dance.
This album usually makes me think of the fantastic DJ Sprinkles, in particular her album Midtown 120 Blues and the outro of their song Ball'r:
When Madonna came out with her hit "Vogue" you knew it was over. She'd taken a very specifically queer, transgender, Latino and African-American phenomenon and totally erased that context with lyrics about how "It makes no difference if you're black or white, if you're a boy or a girl." Madonna was taking in tons of money, while the Queen who actually taught her how to vogue was sitting on a table in front of me, broke. So if anybody requested "Vogue" or any other Madonna track, I just told them, "No, this is a Madonna-free zone!" And as long as I'm DJ-ing, you will not be allowed to vogue to the decontextualized, reified, corporatized, liberalized, neutralized, asexualized, re-genderized pop reflection of this dance floor's reality! - Source
Beyonce has talked extensively about how dance music influenced her as an artist. NYT did a great dive into the decades of dance music it was inspired by. Compared to the Madonna quote, Beyonce can be seen hyping the underground dance scenes while still making commercialization off of it.
Justice - cross
This album, as well as their album Audio, Video, Disco, is the soundtrack for incident response. If something is going wrong at work late at night or early in the morning, this is playing in the background. It always gets me going. I've seen this album performed live twice, I've listened to it hundreds of times in the dead of night, and every time it gets my adrenaline pumping.
If I was a true adrenaline junkie, I'd be living to this all of the time.
Their new album Hyperdrama is also quite good, but doesn't get my blood pumping as much. But change is good!
Kaskade - Strobelite Seduction
Hmm, describing this album is hard. For me, this album is late nights working in computer labs in college. It's sexy, it's slow, it's calming. One of my roommates in college, Prentice, and I constantly traded dance music recommendations back and forth. I introduced him to Kaskade, he introduced me to Daft Punk.
Because this album was so seminal to my college computer science degree, and often in the background when I was working at iFixit at the time, this style of music is often what I have playing while I'm working today. Vocals that don't mean anything, calm beats, good vibes.
Deadmau5 - Random Album Title
This came out when I was regularly going to festivals. I saw Deadmau5 a bunch of times, and listening to this I feel like I'm on drugs in a field dancing at sunset.
I generally really like Deadmau5. He's a very interesting guy, and makes a lot of wonderful music, but this album will always be my favorite of his.
Burial - untrue
Ugh, how do I describe this album. This album is why Bandcamp will always have a special place in my heart.
I feel like Burial is often considered the hidden gem that critics love to recommend, and they should, it's wonderful. But for me, it was recommended during a period when I feel like services like what.cd had shutdown, and my new music discovery had dried up. Then a friend (who I do not remember) sent me a Bandcamp link to this album. I was immediately hooked on both the album and the platform. Bandcamp has become one of the main sources for new music discovery, and I'll forever appreciate this album for opening that door.
The Avalanches - Since I left you
Introduced to me by a classmate Ben while studying in college, this album sent me down a rabbit hole. Sample heavy, chaotic, electronic music. I don't expect to ever hear this in a club, and I don't like a lot of the remixes done of it. But it is a perfect piece of work to me.
They released an anniversary album that is also good, and has some fun takes on the original, but the original is perfect to me and doesn't need much more.
Daft punk - Tron: Legacy
The movie was good, but the soundtrack was better.
Look, I could have put any one of their albums on here and I'd be right. But to me, this was their best. Not as loop heavy as some of their earlier stuff, arguably unconnected to the rest of their discography, this album is a vibe. I can close my eyes and see scenes from the film. It makes me want to be living in Sam Flynn's container house. Racing through a digital desert in an SUV driven by Quorra. Sitting at the bar at the End of the Line.
Dj Shadow - Endtroducing...
This is what I listen to when I go for walks at night. I wrote about this in college for an English essay, and my professor used it as a teaching moment for me to learn about privilege. The lesson was pretty straight forward. Essentially I, as a large white man, can walk through most places and feel safe and comfortable. I hadn't realized how rare that was as a wee teen of 18. In hindsight, I regret my ignorance, but now I know as they say.
This album is great though, makes me think, and has for many years. Deep, dark and moody.
Moby - Destroyed
Jetlag the album. On my first solo-trip to Europe, this album had just came out. I couldn't sleep at 3am in London, and this was a great background music for my insomnia. I still listen to it when I'm tired but confused or jet lagged or just out of it, but can't sleep.
Hilariously, I found out later, that the entire premise of the album is Moby's insomnia while touring. He says in the release announcement:
my next album is called ‘destroyed’ and it comes out in the middle of may sometime. musically it’s very melodic and atmospheric and electronic, and if i had to sum it up i would describe it as: ‘broken down melodic electronic music for empty cities at 2 a.m’.
The End
While putting this list together, I got lost down lots of memories of other favorite albums. I forget that lists are actually hard to make!
Some other albums I love but didn't make the list:
- Nicolas Jaar - Space is only noise
- City Girl - Celestial Angel
- Paul Oakenfold - Great Wall
- Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network
- Pretty Lights - A color map of the sun
- Bonobo - Black Sands
- Tycho - Epoch
- Moderat - III
- Four Tet - There is love in you
- Fred Again.. - Actual Life (April 14 - December 17 2020)
- Caribou - Our Love
I hope you enjoyed this list and you have a musical day.
/Nat