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  • The First Year by Here For You

    The First Year by Here For You

    Note From the Author: This review was originally posted on the Start-track blog.

    Artist: Here For You

    Album: The First Year 

    Released: October 25, 2025; Atlanta Zone Records 

    Here For You is a band from Brooklyn, New York and on their first album: “The First Year” they offer up an eclectic mix of folk and pop. I actually covered “Theme Song 2” their last single for this album a few weeks ago here on the blog[This is in reference to this Start-track blog post].  I bring this up because it is my favorite song from the album and I feel like if you haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should. 

    “French Toast” is hands down my second favorite song from the album, mainly because it is a very tongue and cheek reflection on the food industry, food culture and marketing. It does this under the guise of a song about enjoying breakfast and all conveniences provided by modern times that make it great.. It’s an up beat song that is highly infectious. It is hard not to start singing along. About a minute into the song there is a jazzy bit that is really fun. It is a pure bop. 

    There is an extraordinary vibe presented by “Night at Maud’s”. I would frankly, be remiss for failing to mention it. The song starts out with an extremely twangy guitar riff that is quite enjoyable.The group vocals are exceptional and the distorted guitar that ends the song is a great finish. The lyrics are about hot summer nights in the city and that is just about as relatable as anything. All this adds up to equal the ultimate sit and chill song.

    “Brunson Floater” is a song about the people in your life that you can always count on for support and wanting to reciprocate that support. I must confess that I had to google the name of the song because it presented a metaphor I wasn’t New York and/or sporty enough to initially understand. That being said, I think its rather delightful now that I am in the know. This song features some more group vocals that I think work really well.

    The last song that I want to talk about is “Go Forth”. This is probably the song on the album that is the most folk punk in terms of vocal presentation, which is something that I quite like. And again the group vocals in the song are superb. What I really like about this song in particular is the ending lyrics are borrowed from a Utah Phillips song. Aside from me personally being a Utah Phillips appreciator in general, I think that there is a direct line between his music and themes of solidarity, friendship, and finding joy presented in the song and in the album in general. To me, it feels very much like modern folk paying homage to someone who helped shape the genre. 

    “The First Year” by Here For You can be defined largely by its poppy folk performance, its use of stellar group vocals, and its themes of overcoming adversity through solidarity and friendship. On top of all that, they still manage to fit in a dash or two of punk rock attitude. This is a very strong first album and I am definitely looking forward to more from Here For You in the future. 

    If you like the album I reviewed here and want to support the artist as well as this blog please consider picking up the album via this affiliate link—> Purchase The First Year by Here For you via Amazon Music 

  • A Love Letter to Collecting Vinyl

    A Love Letter to Collecting Vinyl

    This year August 12th was National Vinyl Records Day. This little fact has inspired me to share, not only why I like collecting these incredible, impractical, plastic sound disks, but also a few of my favorite records from my collection.

    The best thing about vinyl to me, will always be the experience. It is almost visceral the way you have to, after deciding what you want to listen to, flip through your collection to find the album. Slide it out of the jacket, getting hit with the smell of cardboard as you do so. The feel of the paper inner sleeve crinkle as you pull the record out. The way you have to carefully hold the record (only by the edges, you don’t want your greasy prints on the grooves) as you put it on the turn table. Spinning up the platter, setting the needle, and at least in my rickety old house the way you have to ensure everyone in the room walks softer to not skip the record, takes on a reverence as you sit there listening or dancing only to have to flip the record and do it all again. You simply don’t get that type of experience in the world of digital music streaming. 

    The next best thing about vinyl is the hunt. I don’t know about you, but I know that I could buy any type of music digitally off the internet but that doesn’t scratch the primal hunter gatherer part of my brain the way going to a record store and flipping through their stock only to find or not find the exact album I wanted does. Then you have what my wife likes to call: Pokémon syndrome. When you have to have the coolest, most rare, or unique version of a record. In the DIY music space, this really just translates to getting your favorite artists album pressing because it’s hard to know if they will ever press another. However, when it comes to other, more mainstream artists, the sky really is the limit on the unique pressings they do. I tend to pick the color I like the best and roll with it. Again the experience of the hunt and collecting the shiny thing is what matters.     

    As expensive hobbies go, vinyl collection is not the most egregious and can provide a lot of joy to anyone who practices it. I really enjoy it and definitely wish I had more opportunities to collect. As every vinyl collector feels, I am sure. If you have ever thought you might like to give it a try, now is just as good a time as any to give it a shot. 

    Before I let you go, here are a few pieces from my collection that I am rather fond of:

    This is a Less Than Jake/Megadeath 7 inch split. It has the song “Some of my Best Friends Are Metalhead on one side and The Disintegrators. It is a record I bought in the early 2000s at a concert. At the time,  I didn’t collect vinyl and had absolutely no intention of starting. I bought it as a keepsake and by the end of the night even managed to get Roger of Less Than Jake to sign it. It’s a cool memory from my youth, but what I think really makes it special is that—as I would come to find out many years later after starting to actually collect. This record is somewhat unique. It’s a color that was pressed from a release exclusive to the US. However, the gatefold jacket that came with was printed specifically for the European release. I spent some time asking around the Less than Jake internet community and learned that at some point several record jackets became water damaged. Those jackets were than replaced with some printed for the European release. So there is an amount of records (I have no clue exactly how many) that have this missed matched US/Europe record/jacket combo. I doubt it makes the record worth more, but to me I think it’s a neat little happenstance.   

    The other record I want to share is “Ordinary Life” by We are the Union. My copy is a repressing probably second or third if I remember correctly, but it’s olive green which is a really cool color especially with the contrast it provides against the pink cover art of the jacket. This was the first album I purchased (literally over 20 years after my first) once I decided I wanted to start collecting vinyl. It is also one of my all time favorite albums. Quite honestly, it is amazing. Y’all should at the very least give it a listen.