For the Love of Music: Friendswood Library's New Music Collection

Over the past year the Friendswood Library has been making changes with the music lover in mind, creating a New Music section with more contemporary music and some of the best music in eleven different genres.  We’ve added vinyl records for the old school enthusiasts and a new listening station for both vinyl and cd listening. 

Along with our regular collection of cds, our New Music collection currently has 534 cds and vinyl records to browse and check out. 

To help us kick off this New Music promotion, feel free to send us some of your favorite summer album titles to share on our From the Reference Desk blog.  Include your name and your list (not more than 8) of favorite summer records to share with other patrons.  We will include links to these titles or similar titles found in our collection.  

Email your list to mriley@friendswood.com including the words Summer Music in the subject heading.

Check out my list here.

Pioneers of Alternative Rock, this is R.E.M.’s self-described summer record with All the Way to Reno and Imitation of Life.

Go here for all R.E.M titles in the library collection.

Aimee Mann’s universally acclaimed third album Bachelor No. 2 with wonderfully catchy melodies in songs like Red Vines or How Am I Different.

Go here for all Aimee Mann titles in the library collection.

Considered one of the best albums of 2008 and an “instant classic” according to Mojo magazine, Fleet Foxes self-titled debut is a great summer chill-out album with mesmerizing folk harmonies.  The album sounds a little like the BeachBoys if they had grown up in the mountains and streams of California instead of on its coastline.

Go here for all Fleet Foxes titles in the library collection.

Two Jazz legends together. Sublime.

Go here for all Thelonious Monk titles in the library collection.

Go here for all John Coltrane titles in the library collection.

Big Thief singer Adrianne Lenker can sound like a warm summer breeze one moment, and a hurricane force wind the next.  Her band Big Thief was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Band in 2020.  Very well deserved!

Go here for all Big Thief titles in the library collection.

With such a talented family; dad Loudon, mother Kate McGarrigle, and sister Martha, Rufus Wainwright has carved out an amazing space all his own.  With 9 studio albums and a tenth on the way, his third album, Want One, is still my favorite. David Bowie praised the song "Dinner at Eight" as "the best" father/son song he knew, calling Rufus "simply one of the great writers”.

Go here for all Rufus Wainwright titles in the library collection.

Recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Goth pop band the Cure tried their hardest to smile with this ninth studio album.  Songs like Doing the Unstuck and Friday I’m In Love make a nice summer soundscape.

Go here for all Cure titles in the library collection.

Five albums in, Elliot Smith was still the sound of sadness, but Figure 8 makes sadness sound so very beautiful with lush Beatlesque arrangements.  Figure 8 has made many greatest albums lists.

Go here for all Elliot Smith albums in the library collection.

It’s near impossible to choose a favorite Andrew Bird album so I’m going with his latest effort, and by the album title I can’t be too wrong, “My Finest Work Yet”.  I’m not positive that Bird is his real name because it is just too fitting.  He is a classically trained musician and violinist and the most amazing whistler I’ve ever heard.  He weaves these two distinct sounds throughout his intelligent word play to create songs unlike anything else you will hear in the world of popular music.  Give it try if you haven’t already.

Go here for Andrew Bird albums in the library collection.

Josh Tillman, better known as Father John Misty, is not, by his own admission, an easy listening experience.  His songs, while always beautifully crafted and sung, explore the dark zones of his own psyche in songs such as Hangout at the Gallows and God’s Favorite Customer. He’s an immensely talented songwriter who has shared his talent in contributions to the albums of artists such as Beyonce, LadyGaga, and PostMalone.  If you’re ready to wallow a bit, it’s easy to get lost in songs such as Please Don’t Die and God’s Favorite Customer.

Go here for Father John Misty titles in the library collection.