Discord and Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Eight Thousand Million Questions: Listener Q&A 8.2 30.06.2026 2h 37m

For this year's Q&A episode, we asked you guys what artists and albums you'd like to hear us cover on the show, and you did not disappoint! We got literally hundreds of suggestions, and we did our best to narrow them down but we still ended up having to split this episode into two parts. We published Part 1 last week, and here's Part 2 right here. We had a great time talking about everything from Bob Dylan to Dennis Wilson, and we hope you enjoy it too.

Eight Thousand Million Questions: Listener Q&A 8.1 23.06.2026 2h 34m

For this year's Q&A episode, we asked you guys what artists and albums you'd like to hear us cover on the show, and you did not disappoint! We got literally hundreds of suggestions, and we did our best to narrow them down but we still ended up having to split this episode into two parts. Part 1 is right here, and you'll hear Part 2 next week. We had a great time talking about everything from Bob Dylan to Dennis Wilson, and we hope you enjoy it too.

This Is Comp: Weird Al's The Alternative Polka (1996), Tracks 1-6 09.06.2026 1h 9m

This week, we don our lederhosen and celebrate the return of our compilation series dissecting "Weird Al" Yankovic's polka medleys, on which he rounded up and lovingly lampooned the chart music of the day. Originally released on his 1996 album Bad Hair Day, "The Alternative Polka" was Al's attempt to catalog the emerging radio format of alternative rock, though the artists in this batch cover so much stylistic ground as to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the whole "alternative" label was just a marketing gimmick. Whether it's a real genre or not, we've finally reached the radio hits our hosts grew up listening to, which makes for a fun discussion with a healthy dose of '90s nostalgia.

174: Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) 26.05.2026 1h 50m

By the late 60s, Harry Nilsson’s songs had a way of showing up everywhere– from TV and movies to other people’s hit records. However, it was 1971’s Nilsson Schmilsson that finally scored him a bona fide hit album, spawning three hit singles and a Grammy win. The record holds the unique status of being Harry’s most focused and disciplined album while still featuring an idiosyncratic range of styles including hard rock, power ballads, and oddball novelties. All of these genres are effortlessly held together with one of the best voices in the business. Join Dan, Amanda, and Rich as they put the lime in the coconut and discuss the man, the legend, and the group himself.

Bonus: We Can Make Your Hands Clap 12.05.2026 1h 27m

It's time for a release from the Patreon vault! In this one, originally released in October 2025, we're talking about one of the best percussion instruments: handclaps! From the doomiest metal to the sunniest pop, handclaps add an interesting new layer to anything.

173: Outkast - Aquemini (1998) 28.04.2026 2h 55m

Ready for action, nip it in the bud, we’re never relaxin’, this podcast is everlasting! In this episode, Rich has somethin’ to say about OutKast, the Atlanta duo consisting of Antwon “Big Boi” Patton and André “3000” Benjamin, who conquered hip-hop in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s before quietly parting ways. The most fascinating characteristic of OutKast is the duality between Big Boi’s extroverted, in-your-face gangsta persona and Andre’s introverted, quiet philosopher poet persona, a contrast they thoroughly explore on their 1998 album Aquemini, whose title is a portmanteau of their astrological signs. The duo emerged from Atlanta at a time when Southern hip-hop was struggling to be taken seriously amid the dominant West Coast/East Coast narrative, and on this album OutKast proudly make an argument for themselves as masters of the genre with music that’s both overwhelmingly colorful and layered with history and cultural subtext, all in a way that’s distinctly Southern. So if you’ve been on the fence about getting into hip-hop, Aquemini may be the album that helps you get the hump up out your back now.

This Is Comp: The Wrecking Crew! Disc 1, Tracks 12-16 14.04.2026 46m

Today we're wrapping up the first disc of The Wrecking Crew! In this episode: the surprise return of a Discord & Rhyme hero, an all-time great that deserves revisiting, and possibly the worst Jan and Dean song ever.

172: Big Star - #1 Record (1972) 31.03.2026 1h 46m

Big Star are your favorite eighties band’s favorite band; but while you've heard their influence, you may not have heard their music. In the early 1970s, this Memphis-based band recorded two albums filled with jangly power-pop and yearning balladry that should have been huge but that had to settle for being mysterious and legendary. Ben found those albums on his 19th birthday, and he's loved them ever since. Joined by Rich and Phil, he explores the band’s sparkling debut album, #1 Record.

This Is Comp: The Wrecking Crew! Disc 1, Tracks 7-11 17.03.2026 58m

Episode 2 of our Wrecking Crew series features one of the best pop songs of all time followed by one of the worst, with some okay ones in between! Try not to get too excited as we discuss how these incredible musicians could work with just about anything.

171: Van Halen - Van Halen (1978) 03.03.2026 2h 1m

GoddammitbabyyouknowIain'tlyintoyouThisIsDiscordAndRhyyyymeYEEEEEAAAAHHHHWWWW!!! Van Halen was a cultural phenomenon in the late 1970s and early 1980s until David Lee Roth split with the band, and they’re one of the first bands that John had any real opinions on in his journey of getting into rock music. With this album, the band largely redefined the boundaries of what an electric guitar could do in a rock context, but they also found a way to make this boundary-pushing fun and light on its feet in a way that largely helped shape rock music for the next decade. About half of this album is radio staples, but the other half has some real gems as well, so come listen to John lead a discussion (with Rich and Mike) about a great album from what was, for a few years, an absolutely great band.

This Is Comp: The Wrecking Crew! Disc 1, Tracks 1-6 17.02.2026 1h 17m

This Is Comp is back! We're reviving our compilation series with a great one: The Wrecking Crew!, released in 2015 as a soundtrack to the excellent documentary film of the same name. The songs on this comp cover a huge range of genre and quality, but the session musicians are always top-notch. From weird crossover country to Mexican folk to one of the finest pop songs ever recorded, we had a ton of fun with this first batch of songs and we're thrilled to be back.

170: DJ Shadow - Endtroducing..... (1996) 03.02.2026 3h 6m

It … is happening … again! This week, Producer Mike rings in 2026 with NorCal producer DJ Shadow’s 1996 masterpiece Endtroducing….., whose release was a watershed moment for the art of instrumental hip-hop. It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first album to be composed entirely out of sampled sounds, but focusing on the technical achievement seriously undersells the depths of Shadow’s artistry. This is lively, organic music, with compositions that feel like sculptures crafted from the clay of music history, and the entire 21st-century DJing movement stands on the foundation of what Shadow accomplished here. Mike himself is a composer of sample-based music (including our awesome theme song) and a long-time admirer of Shadow’s work, and he’s invited Rich and returning special guest Shivam Bhatt to deconstruct an album that builds a mighty head of steam out of a grain of salt.

169: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) 24.12.2025 3h 1m

It feels like there shouldn't be anything left to say about The Dark Side of the Moon. It's one of the best-selling albums of all time, and it's consistently rated as one of the greatest albums of all time by critics. If you tune into a classic rock station for more than a couple of hours, chances are better than 50/50 that you'll hear a track or three from it get played. It's so common to hear tracks from here out of context that it's become easy to forget that these tracks, when heard in order from start to finish, constitute one of the most stunningly coherent artistic statements of the album era, and that makes it an album that Discord & Rhyme had to cover in depth at some point. Join Amanda, Mike, Rich, and John as they discuss the 1973 classic that transformed Pink Floyd from a niche-famous British prog-adjacent band into one of the most famous bands in the world.

Bonus: Thank You for the Music, Vol. 2 09.12.2025 2h 1m

The gang sits down by the fire to discuss a second round of the songs that made them love music. This year's batch covers an astonishing amount of ground, including movie soundtracks, jazz, funk, girl groups, folk, prog (of course), hip-hop, musicals, dub reggae, power pop — and even a hymn!

168: Badfinger - Straight Up (1971) 25.11.2025 1h 48m

Of all the casualties of the Beatles’ Apple label, Badfinger is the most tragic. They had a very promising start, helped along by the Beatles and their associates, but a combination of bad management and personal tragedy stopped them from being as successful as they should have been. However, for a brief period everything worked out exactly right, and Badfinger came up with an album that deserves to be ranked among the all-time classics. From power pop to boogie rock and various points in between, Straight Up is a no-skips album that deserves your attention, so listen up.

167: Ween - Chocolate and Cheese (1994) 28.10.2025 2h 22m

Buenas tardes, amigos, and happy Hallo-Ween, my good friends. It took us way, way too long to get the bright idea to devote our annual All Hallow’s Eve episode to the Brothers Ween, but now that we have, it seems appropriate to discuss 1994’s Chocolate and Cheese, an album where Deaner and Gener try on a whole bunch of different musical costumes. While C&C isn’t their major-label debut, it’s the first album they produced in a major-label fashion, and the songs cover a lot of stylistic ground, including Tom Jones Vegas rockabilly lounge, kaleidoscopic Prince psychedelia, a sweeping Morricone murder ballad, smooth Philly soul, and a few songs that completely defy categorization. While this album is often ranked behind powerhouse Ween classics like The Mollusk and Quebec, many of its songs have gone on to become live standards, and there’s an argument to be made that it formed the bedrock of the band’s musical legacy. So join John, Mike, Phil, and Rich as they make a return pilgrimage to the shrine of the mighty Boognish, and remember: don’t believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free.

166: Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend (1991) 30.09.2025 2h 6m

Power pop legend Matthew Sweet has had a rough go of it lately, suffering a debilitating stroke last year while setting out on tour, and it’s possible that he may never play music again. So today’s episode is both a bittersweet tribute to his career and a joyous celebration of his music, which is exactly the emotional tightrope that his 1991 cult classic Girlfriend walks from start to finish. Sweet recorded this album during the interim between going through a painful divorce and meeting his now-wife, and while his lyrics aren’t strictly autobiographical, the album’s 15 songs run the gamut from desperate yearning (“Don’t Go,” “You Don’t Love Me”) to pure ebullience (“I’ve Been Waiting,” “Girlfriend”). And it’s all topped off with crisp, direct production that evoked Crazy Horse and the Beatles’ Revolver during a period when many rock albums were soaked in reverb and drained of personality. So kick back as Rich, Phil, and returning guest Libby Cudmore deconstruct and consume an album that’s perfect in so many ways.

165: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys (1969) 26.08.2025 1h 55m

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 album Willy and the Poor Boys sounds like something out of 1965, or even 1865 - but definitely not the heavy, psychedelic late 1960s. But even though CCR’s music feels like it's outside of time - or maybe because of it - it became the soundtrack of a generation. Ben, Amanda, and Rich make the case that Willy and the Poor Boys should be pulled down from the cultural wallpaper and appreciated as the fresh, crackling music it still is.

164b: Prince - Sign o' the Times, Disc 2 (1987) 05.08.2025 2h

Shut up, already. Damn! Prince was one of the most interesting popular artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and Sign o’ the Times from 1987 was the culmination of one of the most interesting periods in a career full of interesting periods. After various circumstances caused him to abandon a double album (Dream Factory), and other circumstances caused him to abandon a single album (Camille) that he didn’t plan to release under his own name, he initially tried to release a triple album before Warner Bros. made him cut it down to a double. Sign o’ the Times (the resulting double album) has its fair share of hits, yet it’s also messy in a way that appeals to many critics and fans but has also left many people puzzled by some of Prince’s decisions. This episode’s panel has three outright fans of the album (John, Mike, and Rich) and one moderate skeptic (Ben), and this combined with the album’s sprawl results in a lengthy but incredibly dense discussion. Prince was somebody who could appeal to many different people for many different reasons, and in this episode we make a case for why he’s worth digging into beyond a handful of ubiquitous radio hits.

164a: Prince - Sign o' the Times, Disc 1 (1987) 22.07.2025 2h 9m

Shut up, already. Damn! Prince was one of the most interesting popular artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and Sign o’ the Times from 1987 was the culmination of one of the most interesting periods in a career full of interesting periods. After various circumstances caused him to abandon a double album (Dream Factory), and other circumstances caused him to abandon a single album (Camille) that he didn’t plan to release under his own name, he initially tried to release a triple album before Warner Bros. made him cut it down to a double. Sign o’ the Times (the resulting double album) has its fair share of hits, yet it’s also messy in a way that appeals to many critics and fans but has also left many people puzzled by some of Prince’s decisions. This episode’s panel has three outright fans of the album (John, Mike, and Rich) and one moderate skeptic (Ben), and this combined with the album’s sprawl results in a lengthy but incredibly dense discussion. Prince was somebody who could appeal to many different people for many different reasons, and in this episode we make a case for why he’s worth digging into beyond a handful of ubiquitous radio hits.