album you must listen to in their entirety

Kendall Cleveland
Mar 24, 2025
4 min read

Spoiler alert... "Big Green Tractor" is actually way less cheesy in the context of the album.

I love singles, especially in the modern age of music marketing, it can be exciting waiting for a song to be released. I love playlists, though I will say I am a habitual listener to my daily mixes and daylist. It is not always that someone wants to listen to the same artist on repeat, or they want to listen to music with a certain theme. But especially with favorite artists, it is also great to listen to your favorite songs in the context of the piece of art they were released within. In an era where there isn't as much short term emphasis on albums, listeners can lose sight of why a particular song was released. Albums truly have the ability to tell a great story.

The following albums are some of my favorite to throw on and listen to in their entirety.

Wyatt Flores: Half Life

Wyatt Flores is of the most genuinely entertaining artists to me right now. First of all, there is no amount of praise high enough for Chloe Tyler, the cover artist of all his releases. She is a fellow Dawg and everything I inspire to be creatively when I pick up a paint brush. Anyways, the album. Flores has a very unique voice and can sing just about anything. Exhibit A: his cover of The Fray's "How To Save A Life" on this album. I really enjoy listening to artists that fall into a similar age range as me, no matter their background, because it helps put into perspective what other people in my peer group are going through. At only 23 years old, Flores absolutely fits into this mold, and is able to tell his story beautifully. I honestly could have picked any single one of his albums to include in this post, because each one is its own piece of art.

Treaty Oak Revival: No Vacancy

No, this is not actually a Treaty Oak Revival fan page. (Shocker!) No Vacancy is not really an album that is easy to throw on shuffle, thanks to the designated intro and outro tracks on the album. It can be weird to catch them in the middle of listening. However, that is part of why I love listening to this album. From the intro explaining they are not a church group, straight into an insane hardcore track like "Boomtown" is creatively genius. The album tells a pretty awesome stories, with no shortage of substance induced-roadie-hook up-break up songs. The end of the album has a similar transition as the beginning, with the title track stating they are left with booze, a motel room, "and a broken heart with no vacancy", and cleverly transitioning to the outro, where they proceed to be kicked out by the motel manager. For a first album release, No Vacancy is something different than what most artists are doing these days.

Jason Aldean: Wide Open

Wide Open is an album that has multiple songs that my neighbor and I had dances to, in which we would give frequent living room concerts. His third album release, Wide Open has hits that really put Jason Aldean on the map. Most notably, "She's Country" and "Big Green Tractor" both falling in the top 5 of his most streamed songs. These two songs specifically I feel have a reputation of being very cheesy "bro country" type songs. However, I have been vibing with this album HEAVY recently, and one day was listening and did not feel the need to sing "Big Green Tractor" in a ridiculously southern accent and throw on a cowboy hat. It fit so well into the flow of the rest of the songs that it took me a second to realize what I was listening to. This album specifically inspired this post and put into perspective what works and what doesn't within a context of an album, and even when singles may not age as well, albums can withstand a bit more change within a genre.

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Second Helping

I don't think I actually sat and listened to this album in order until recently when I found an impeccable copy of this record for only $7. I never realized that "Sweet Home Alabama" was the opening track on this record, and I had a very similar reaction to that as I did to "Big Green Tractor". With that opening riff to Second Helping, Lynyrd Skynyrd may have known how solid of a start the album would have, but there is no way they could've known the impact of that song alone. "Sweet Home Alabama" has just short of 1.5 billion streams on Spotify alone, about double of their next highest streamed song. ("Free Bird", if you couldn't guess.) It has become an anthem for Alabama universities, bars, really everything. There are hundreds of other songs that reference the title. Taking the time to really hear the lyrics, though, the disses to Neil Young and Governor Wallace, and putting it into perspective with songs like "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" and "Workin' For MCA" deeply explain the true meaning of "Sweet Home Alabama", and even what Lynyrd Skynyrd as a group believed in.