Three Essential Spring Albums

What makes an album a spring album? In my opinion, it is necessary for a spring album to have a hopeful attitude. Whether that means that the album is more upbeat, or the lyrics are hopeful, or even if the artist just said they made their record in a hopeful place, there must be hope somewhere. Another major element of this ‘kind’ of music is having at least one catchy or danceable song on the album. With summer coming up next, I want to feel excited and energized. Plus, now in the second half of spring semester, I am so busy and so tired. But, without further ado, here are my three favorite spring albums!

99.9% Album Cover

First up is 99.9%, DJ and producer Kaytranada’s debut album. This album is one of the more incredible electronic music albums that I’ve heard in my life. It remains my favorite of Kaytranda’s despite all of the amazing music he’s put out since its release in 2016. 9.99%’s songs are upbeat, energizing, catchy; they’re everything I could want from a good spring-time album. My favorite song on the album is Vivid Dreams, a nicely repetitive dance track featuring River Tiber. The song itself is fast and punchy. What I like the most about Kaytranda’s production on the album is that there’s always something filling the negative space and making sure that the song is a full tapestry of sound. There’s never a dull moment, and never a place in a song where I’m not interested in what’s going on.

Through Love Album Cover

My next spring album is Korean indie band HYUKOH’s fourth EP, 2020’s Through Love. This EP is a project that I have kept returning to since it came out because it’s just that good. The EP is six perfect, catchy-yet-mellow tracks that exemplify spring perfectly. The project’s first song, Help, is rhythmic and jazzy. The songs stay mid-tempo throughout, but things pick up towards the middle of things. The album’s final song, however, is my favorite and what I consider to be the best track on the EP. The song is very nearly nine droning minutes of guitar and drums that steadily ramps up throughout the course of the song over resolutely half-sung half-spoken lyrics. Despite all of that, the band still manages to keep the song a pleasant listen. Through Love is an incredible piece of music, and I’m always excited to hear what HYUKOH has next.

SABLE, fABLE Album Cover

And finally, last but not least, there’s an album that I feel perfectly represents spring: Bon Iver’s fifth studio album, last year’s SABLE, fABLE. Not only did this album come out on April 11th, making it a literal spring album, but it was also preceded by the release of the first four tracks on the album packaged as an EP. The EP was entitled Sable, implying through the album’s titles that the ‘fable’ part of the album was the unreleased second half. What made this release schedule so perfect for spring is that, release in mid-October of 2024, the Sable EP features largely sad songs that Justin Vernon of Bon Iver uses to articulate how he felt before the happiness that followed him. With the EP being released in the fall, Vernon provided a kind of winter precursor to his spring album. And, outside of this release schedule, the album that follows the four initial Sable songs is very upbeat. On Everything Is Peaceful Love, Vernon sings about moving onward and upward with happiness in his life. On Day One, a song that features a favorite artist of mine, Dijon, and singer Flock of Dimes, Vernon makes peace with the difficulty of life. All in all, the album expresses a new chapter of Vernon’s life, and fortunately, it seems to be a happy one.