62. Andy Shauf - “Early to the Party”

This is Andy Shauf’s first appearance on this list, however, I guarantee you it will not be his last. The Party was perfection as an album. It had everything I love – great and stirring arrangements, heartfelt storytelling, and cohesive and conceptual plots and themes. The entire album I could imagine myself amongst the characters, almost like Scrooge in a Christmas Carol, I was the invisible voyeur, a silent participant watching the drama as it unfolds. In fact, anybody who has frequented various parties as a young adult can probably relate, conjuring up the environment within their minds and feeling the tension as various characters’ emotions and thoughts interplay with one another. It’s a cinematic album. Shauf portrays everything in such a natural and authentic way that he invites you to get lost within it and become a character yourself. He possesses the true skill of a storyteller, making the plot both clear enough to be traceable and yet vague enough to be relatable.

This jam in particular sets the stage and acts as a sort of intro into the rest of the night. You can feel that sort of quiet tension that infuses every party at its inception. Its an aura of awkward anticipation – like trying to decide if you should start drinking yet or whether or not you should get out of your car and be social or wait in anxious cowardice until your beyond certain that your friends have arrived. It’s finding oneself within the crux of expectation and reality. You’ve built up how things will be, or rather how things should be, mapping it out within your imagination, and now it’s actually happening. It’s outside of your control – outside of your mind, and all that you can do is ride it out the best you can.