Dan Cousart's Top 5 Albums of the Decade
We’ve worked with Dan and RFA countless times since Philly Live began. Their concerts were some of our earliest covers, and they’ve gladly spoken with us for interviews about what’s next. We’ve watched the band grow beyond Philly and gain an insane amount of traction - they’re probably one of the most successful college bands to come out of the DIY scene in the last handful of years. But, like I’ve said here so many times before, there’s nothing like an RFA show at home. Here are five of the albums that shaped Dan’s creative process over the last decade.
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (2013)
This album took me a long time to really appreciate it. I liked it when it came out, but their debut was always my favorite. It wasn’t until I got a little older and found it again that I truly started to get it. I feel like they scratched something deeper emotionally on this album. The songs are just amazing and so is the production. I think they made something very moving and it’s an album I’ll listen to forever, and be able to constantly find new things to love about it.
The Black Keys - Brothers (2010)
This album was really a developmental one for me in that it really informed a lot of my music tastes going forward. From the hip hop grooves and the really amazingly produced fuzz guitars, this album and this band prompted me to start diving heavily into the blues and psych music. It was also really cool to see this band really break through to the mainstream and show that people still really do love rock music.
Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap (2013)
Hip hop to me growing up was what jocks listened to and what played at those awful middle school cluster dances. I never connected with it being a classic rock and punk kid. This album was massive when I was a freshman in college and there was something about “cocoa butter kisses” that I really liked. I slowly but surely started to check it out and I gradually found myself really loving it. I credit this album and the arctic monkeys for getting me into hip hop, and I think that can be said for a lot of kids who had similar experiences to what I had. This mixtape really has it all too in terms of songs. Songs that are thought provoking and songs that will bring a smile to your face.
Whitney - Light Upon the Lake (2016)
I remember seeing a lot of press about this band online because I was a fan of Smith Westerns. I saw the video for “No Woman”’and didn’t get it, thinking it was actually really bad and that the band looked super dorky. But, as time went on and I kept hearing that song, it clicked. Then the single “Golden Days” came out and that was it. Now here I am tucking my t shirt into my pants and wearing high-top boots - life is pretty funny sometimes.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi-Love (2015)
I only really starred getting into this album within the last year, but I think it’s amazing. There are so many good songs and I think it’s a really great album to be played in its entirety. It’s incredibly well-orchestrated as well, and quite frankly very weird at points, but I think that adds to its charm. There’s a lot of cool understatement in UMO, songs that could be a lot louder, but they’re not. Chord changes that kind of make you scratch your head a bit if you’re a guitar player and a really artful use of effects are what make this band something really unique.