Speaker 1: 0:43

welcome back to another super awesome mix. My name is matt. Sit home alongside my co-host and co-founder, super awesome mix sam abusalbi sam. Happy new year happy new year.

Speaker 2: 0:54

I hope you had a good one. I, of course, haven't talked to matt since the end of last season because we have a strict no friendship policy off the air. How?

Speaker 1: 1:02

we keep it fresh when we're on mic. Everything you hear is a real reaction. I've never heard sam's voice since the last recording.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Yes, it's true. Yeah, I actually don't even know if matt is real, um, because he doesn't have his camera on right now, so I could just be talking to an AI bot, to be honest.

Speaker 1: 1:19

That is a technical issue. You will not see my face.

Speaker 2: 1:26

But yes, happy New Year to you and to all of our listeners. We hope it's been okay. I know the news right now is a little wild, as I've been reading tweets and threads and stuff. It's like man, what a year. And it's like all of us on January 10th, you know like it's. It's kind of a rocky start.

Speaker 1: 1:47

But you know it's, it's snowing here in Texas, so we I mean, it's like we. I mean it's amazing how people hunker down. Actually, it's not even really snowing all that much, but people hunker down as if we're never going to get out of this.

Speaker 2: 2:03

You're just buried under 20 feet of snow. There's snow banks. Yeah, that's the attitude here.

Speaker 1: 2:09

That's amazing. Let's talk about the show. We're back here for season five, which is amazing. I don't think when either one of us started this that we thought we'd get to this point season five. And you know, last year we moved the show to an every other week format and we're going to actually add a little bit to that this year, in that on the between, in between weeks, the new episodes.

Speaker 1: 2:33

I mean samuel, we've done well over a hundred episodes at this point, and so we're going to insert some of our best ofs in between there and a little mixtape rewind, as we like to call it. And so every single week you're going to get a new download and hopefully, if you're a more recent subscriber to the show, you're going to get something that that's new to you, that you love, and if you're a longtime listener, you're going to get something that's new to you that you love, and if you're a longtime listener, you're going to get kind of a throwback that you'll also enjoy. So a little bit of a programming note there. But we're still going to come to you every other week with a brand new mix. And this week, as we start off every year, it is our fifth season, and so we are going to be looking at the fifth album from various artists.

Speaker 2: 3:20

Yeah, these are so fun to put together, especially because as we are progressing through our season, it's becoming harder and harder, right to find bands that have made it to five albums. And you know, there's obviously like the names get bigger and bigger as we progress, because not many make it to that, to that milestone. So there are some names you're going to recognize on here, certainly, and maybe some others that you might be surprised, because that all often happens for me too where I'm like wow, they have that many albums. You know, like I just I had no idea, but I did have an idea that this man at the top of the list had that many albums and in fact I feel like I'm just, I'm in it for the long haul with this guy. There's no escape. You kick us off here on the mix with Out in the Street by the one and only Bruce Springsteen.

Speaker 1: 4:08

Yes, I mean of course.

Speaker 1: 4:11

First of all, he's got like 21 studio albums, so I'm pretty it's a safe bet You're set yeah, that I mean one song on this mix that we do annually is going to come from bruce um. This is from his fifth album, the river. It was a. It was a double album, um, and actually not just a double album. When he came out with like the 40th anniversary version of this a few years back, um, he released like a dozen other songs that he recorded about the same time that were never released on the actual studio album. So there's just a ton of hits on here, including the title track, the River. But Out in the Street, this is a fun one. It's fun to see live. I saw him, you know, when he toured with this one on the anniversary tour.

Speaker 1: 4:58

He played the entire double album, beginning to end, which is also pretty cool to hear and so, yeah, this is a great one. Any Bruce fan would love this, but even if you're not, you probably find something that you like, because there's a range of songs on this album which is really cool, of songs on this album which is really cool. I love this one because we've all had jobs where you just can't wait to get out there and get back to what you consider your real life, and that's what kind of this song is all about and meeting his friends out, his girl, all of it. So, yeah, so it's just a really fun song. I've always enjoyed it and I could have picked five others from this album, but went without in street.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Yeah, no, I I really enjoyed this one. It has a very fun, exuberant vibe to it which is perfect for, like, what he's singing about and you know, like I always like to tease him this was back when he was still, you know, connecting with kind of being working class and and having that kind of a life because I feel like now he'd talk about like, oh you know, when you're trying to park your Tesla and you just can't find the EV station, well, let's think about this.

Speaker 1: 6:03

It's probably been 40 years since he can just walk out in the street, right?

Speaker 2: 6:07

right. Right of being mobbed without security. Yeah, exactly, so yeah this.

Speaker 1: 6:13

He probably sings this longingly now rather than you know the theme?

Speaker 2: 6:17

Yeah, probably, but no, it's a really nice song it's. I enjoyed listening to it and I think the vibe matches like the lyrics really well and it's like just an easy one to put on and smile to Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 6:31

All right, your first pick, and this guy's going to be in the news a lot in the next month. It is Untitled. 018192024 by Kendrick Lamar.

Speaker 2: 6:42

Yeah, this is from the Untitled, unmastered album that he released. This is his fifth album and I loved how he released this because I think it was around the same time. If memory serves me of, I believe it was A Life of Pablo by Kanye West or one of his albums. You know albums and as if you remember, like anytime he would do a new album, I mean he would like go on tour to like preview the album would be this enormous big deal, he'd make such a fuss about it and then, like, the album would release and you know, often just get mixed reviews and then Kendrick at the time was just like, oh, I'm just going to randomly drop an album that no one even knew I was working on. And time is just like, oh, I'm just gonna randomly drop an album that no one even knew I was working on, um, and I'm gonna literally name it untitled, unmastered and and all the tracks are going to be called untitled 0102 and so forth, um, and it was a superb and remains a superb album. I mean start to finish. It's one that I can just hit, play on and enjoy.

Speaker 2: 7:31

You know he is again just showcasing his ability to just like rap about anything and and do it like so wonderfully. Um, you know, this one's all about kind of a warning about the end of the world. Um, sadly, feels kind of appropriate these days, uh, with just given the state of things. Um, so, you know, still still kind of applicable today. But yeah, I think you know this. He, yeah, he's had so many albums. Of course, he's got the the big game coming up. We cannot say the, the magic word, but he'll be doing the halftime show at that big game, uh, in february, and I'm really excited about that.

Speaker 1: 8:05

I'm eager to see what setlist he puts up yeah, I I'm not sure this one is going to make the setlist especially with the intro and the intro yeah, just 30 seconds in.

Speaker 1: 8:15

I'm like this won't play at halftime, nope not nfl friendly but I do think it's going to be really neat and I think we're ready people should get ready for, you know, a really unique show, similar to when, I think the weekend did the big game halftime show a few years ago. It's just really offbeat and different and so I think that'll be really cool for people. And yeah, I'm with you, I'm not sure exactly what from his catalog he's going to bring to halftime, and so often you know, they bring other people with them. So I think that's going to be pretty unique and probably should be an indicator of maybe what songs he might play.

Speaker 1: 8:58

But yeah, this is a great one. I mean it's funny because you kind of get into this one you don't even realize what the lyrics are about, I guess I don't know. Like you're kind of in it and then you realize maybe it's a little more ominous than you think, I don't know, maybe kind of cool as far as delivering a message, because you kind of have people at that point. But also, once you're kind of in it and into the beat, it's like kind of throws you off a little bit yeah, no, I agree, like you could, and I think this is true for many of his albums.

Speaker 2: 9:29

But you can just kind of hit, play and enjoy it musically, like even without diving into the lyrics. I just think he he's just so skilled at like his production value and how he raps and everything. All right with that. Let's move on a hard vibe shift here into track number three, your next pick. It's In God's Country by U2.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Yeah, this is off the Joshua Tree album, probably their biggest album ever. We did an intro to U2. And so that's an episode worth checking out. Gosh, I could have picked so many songs from this album in particular, and even as I revisited it in preparation for this mix, I mean there were several that I could have picked. But decide to go with In God's Country just because you know it's funny.

Speaker 1: 10:15

We just talked about how crazy the world is and seems, you know, here, especially like in the United States, like we all kind of are like oh man, this is crazy.

Speaker 1: 10:22

But when I hear in God's country, I always think about kind of life in other countries.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Because of that line, sleep comes like a drug, because if you think about and, like you know, both our families are from the middle east part of the world and in parts of the world where it's war-torn and stuff could happen like that at any moment, the idea of sleeping peacefully is actually like a drug, right, like it's hard to come by, yeah, and it's a luxury and I think, as bad as as maybe people think things are here, I always kind of when I hear this song, I think of that and I'm like, okay, we still have the ability to just lay our heads down at night and sleep peacefully.

Speaker 1: 11:05

And it's not this kind of you know, you know, stress riddled thing. Even though we do feel stress, it's not like we're immune from it, but it's like it's just different than what it is, I think, think in other countries, and uh, that's what the song also makes me think of. So I'll come back to this one off joshua tree, even though there's so many great songs off of that album yeah, I really like that, that interpretation and that thought.

Speaker 2: 11:29

I I think about that a lot whenever the news um was happening of everything going on in lebanon, israel, syria. You know my family's from Lebanon and so, just again, being so grateful that to your point, I can, you know, go safely home, put my head on the pillow and fall asleep, and you know that is truly something to be grateful for. That's a blessing, because you know my family's been struggling with even that. So, yeah, I'm always so grateful for at least that here in the United States. So, yeah, I like that interpretation a lot. I hadn't really connected that dot, but this, yeah, it's a really interesting song. I like this one. You know I'm not the largest fan of U2, but I enjoyed this track and this album as well all, right track four.

Speaker 1: 12:13

We've got cheers, parentheses, drink to that by rihanna yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:19

So this is like probably the opposite of the u2 song in the, in the sense that I feel like it's it's a party anthem, right, um, and I was funny when I was listening to it. I was just thrown back. This is from like 2010 and to just kind of like peak, you know early 2010s. You know, being like a millennial, like most millennials had like left college at that point. We're entering one of the worst job markets ever and I think, like our solution and my wife says that this is probably every generation's solution was to basically just drink away our problems. You know, like like hey, the world market is awful, I can't find a job, I'm living with my parents, but cheers, let's drink to that, you know. And I think that vibe kind of still continues with us as we face crisis after crisis as a generation. But I think Sarah's right, I think every generation goes through a whole litany of crises and oftentimes the solution is like you know, I'm just going to pour myself a drink because I don't know what else to do.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Yeah, that is often kind of the go-to. I think Homer Simpson said it once. It's sort of alcohol is the cause and solution to all of our problems. Exactly, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 13:30

Yeah, he was a poet, but no, this is a great song, right? I mean, rihanna is a superstar. She's had so many albums. I really like this album, um, and you know, again, her like big game halftime show was incredible. That's one of the ones I often go back and re-watch because she's just got such a deep catalog of massive hits and this was certainly one of them. So you're probably, uh, very familiar with this song, but I like it and it's a time capsule me. I just go back to now. It feels like a very much simpler time, so I enjoy that too.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Yeah, this is a great song. I really enjoy it. Um, I like the. You get kind of she's from Barbados and every now and then you don't always get that flavor from her music, right, it's not like every song kind of sounds like it, but I felt like this one had that sort of Caribbean, almost reggae feel to it, without being reggae, because I don't love reggae music and so I feel like this was sort of the best sort of compromise for me to get to that type of music.

Speaker 1: 14:37

But it made it. I don't know, for some reason that like came out in this song more so than a lot of her other songs, and just really, I don't know, I just enjoyed it. So you're right, it's a total party anthem and you know, just a great one, and obviously anyone celebrating the new year probably you know, put this on a mix.

Speaker 2: 15:01

Yeah, it's a good new year's mix song too. Um, I need to make a mental note and an actual note that you don't like reggae, because later this year we're going to be doing a mix for each other of like the worst mix I could make for matt and he's going to do the worst mix he could make for me.

Speaker 1: 15:11

So noted I wanted to get that out there for everybody to hear. So when you do that, it's like, okay, wait, why? But I, because somebody out there's gonna go wait a minute.

Speaker 2: 15:23

I love this song and I'm right, right, yeah, no, you don't um the. The uh rules are that you can't pick more than two songs from a single genre, and I mentioned that because this next uh singer is from you know the country genre? This is american nights by zach bryan.

Speaker 1: 15:40

Yes, I'm gonna include some country music. Okay, of course, but I'm gonna go real, I'm gonna go real country. Okay, zach bryan's a little more like americana folk like you might get into one of his songs. When I pick those country songs like you're not going to enjoy it, sam okay but I'm going to enjoy it and so will the country music fans out there.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Um, all right, zach bryan he hasn't been around for very long but he came out with his fifth album just last year. At the great american bar scene I picked pink skies off of that one as one of my best of here. I'm coming with american nights. Uh, this was, I mean, a 19 song album. I mean he really has come a long way in a short time period to put out, you know, now five albums and you know he's gone from just sort of guy and a guitar on that first album to something much more fully produced on these more recent albums. Um, even had appearances by john mayer and bruce springsteen on this new album. Um, but he's a great songwriter.

Speaker 1: 16:37

I think even if you're not a country music fan, you can get into Zach Bryan and you know, like I said on my Best Of review, I mean I got to see him live and it was just incredible to hear. You know the environment and all the young people who are into this guy. He put out a live album very recently of like kind of best ofs from that concert tour last year and I think you know, even if you don't listen to the whole thing, sam. It's probably worth checking out just to kind of be like geez. I mean, people are I mean it's everybody singing every word to every song. You get that from the live album, so it's really pretty cool. Uh, the following he has but um, yeah, anyway. So, um, this is, this is a good one. The whole album's great.

Speaker 2: 17:21

I just, I just really enjoy the way he writes a song yeah, I think it was last season, middle of the season, where I began my um like olympic rating scorecard for country songs yes um, you know, out of 10, I actually am going to give this one a 9 out of 10 this is um, you know you're right, because it's not as like, it's not twangy, it's not like deep country, it almost, it honestly sounds more folksy to me than anything, um, and I I just really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2: 17:47

I I actually like like this song immediately. It didn't even take me like a couple seconds to warm to it. I think he just paints this beautiful picture. Like you know, the lyrics are really strong, the feel is really nice, like it just gives me that kind of cozy summer night, you know feeling, and I think he just does that so beautifully and so easily. So I really liked this one. So this should not go on your mix later this year, because I will enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 18:11

I love it. It also means Zach Bryan's like one step closer to that Bruce Springsteen territory where it's like oh, I can't, I can't write a song like that anymore. I don't know any of those people.

Speaker 2: 18:22

Right, right my driver was late.

Speaker 1: 18:25

No, that's not relatable. Exactly, I love that. All right, your next pick track six it is my Love by Florence and the Machine.

Speaker 2: 18:39

Yeah, I mean I'm guilty of, basically, I think, talking about every song in this album at this point it was difficult not to pick one that we hadn't already talked about. I think we have not covered my Love, but this one is, you know, off of her fifth album that just came out, dance Fever Incredible album it's still one that I listened to start to finish. Um, she wrote this one during covid lockdown and you know, we we've talked a lot about like music that would come from that time period and this one very clearly does, because she just from the opening lines, talks about her frustration. You know, I was always able to write my way out.

Speaker 2: 19:12

The song made sense to me and now I find when I look down, every page is empty and she's just talking about that kind of creative void that she felt, um, because, like, we were all like stuck at home and couldn't really do anything and we felt afraid to do things. So, you know, just, you feel that come out and and in a typical kind of Florence way, she does that in a very up-tempo, like poppy sound, um, that you can kind of, just if you ignore the lyrics, you're like, oh, I love this song, I feel really good listening to this song, but it's it's her like frustration coming out in this like really interesting way. So really really love this song and it's one of the ones that I have especially on repeat off of her album versus some of the others.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Yeah, she's, she's great and like I actually I say she because it's like Florence and the Machine I felt like was in that category, kind of like no Doubt was where you hear no Doubt and all you think of is Gwen Stefani. Right, right, you're absolutely right is that when I listen to just the music and just her voice, if I'm not even paying attention to the words she's saying, like this is a song that'll kind of get you fired up and kind of get you like, okay, here we go, all right, and it's titled my Love. So you just think nothing but positive, positive, positive.

Speaker 2: 20:29

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:30

It's like kind of swells up. But you're right, she does an amazing job with her voice when, when it builds up to that frustration and she can still sing that right like she. Yeah, you feel the emotion from her voice but her voice still sounds beautiful. But she does sound frustrated and I think most of us, when we're frustrated, probably are less melodic. Is that a fair?

Speaker 2: 20:54

I would say so yeah, yeah, I just get really whiny yeah that's right.

Speaker 1: 21:00

So she's incredible. This song was incredible. We're definitely you're the bigger fan than I am, probably, but I think we both kind of celebrate her work on this show, absolutely All right Now.

Speaker 1: 21:15

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Speaker 1: 21:46

Okay, when you're making a great mix there, they've got a ton of flavors and here are the two best parts. I think they're all sugar-free. So if you've started that New Year's resolution, you're gonna lose weight this year. This is gonna only help you, okay. So they taste great, they're sugar-free and you could save 10% with the promo code SUPERAWESOME okay. So put your next event together. Order some mixtape card. Go to skinnymixescom. Order some syrups SUPERAWES. Go to SkinnyMixescom. Order some syrups Super awesome, saves you 10% and you put together a super awesome event just like that. So really excited to talk about that, and you know. Back to our mix awesome.

Speaker 2: 22:27

All right, let's get into the second half of the mix here, track number seven and track number eight. I'm going to list them together. So this is the loadout by jackson brown, followed by stay by jackson brown okay, I cheated.

Speaker 1: 22:40

These two songs are on the running on empty album, which is probably his biggest album, but they're always played together and so anybody who's ever heard these two these songs on um, like a classic rock station, may not realize that they are two songs, because they just bleed right into each other.

Speaker 1: 22:58

So I mean, I've always loved this song. I first became familiar with it back when I was coaching basketball, and I was coaching college basketball as recruiting and so you're on the road a lot, and I feel like this is such the ultimate, like, you know, road weary song, you know, and it just starts off with him playing the piano and just talking about the scene post-concert, where they're just kind of picking up, and then it bleeds right to stay because he still wants to play his music. So it's kind of like you can hear the weariness in his voice and he talks about, you know, life on the road in this song. But then he's doing something he loves. So it's okay and and I don't know, I just I just love all of that and the message in the song and the way it sounds and I don't know, no matter when this comes on, I always kind of just dial in and listen to the whole thing, because it's just great. It kind of keeps you going no matter what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 23:53

I agree. So it was funny. Sarah usually asks me what's on our mix that we've put together and what songs have you picked? So I was reading through and I told her these two songs that you'd picked and she was like, oh my God, we have to listen to them right now because she loves these two songs. And so we stopped everything, we loaded it up on our speaker and and we listened and it was a really fun way for me to, you know, to listen to it.

Speaker 2: 24:16

I'm not, I wasn't as familiar with these two, but you're right, like I, you know, this is a huge credit to this song. I basically paused everything I was doing. I wasn't even on my phone, I was just listening to the story being told and listening to how he sings it and, yeah, just like falling into that space, I think it just immediately pulls you in and and you like, just it comes across like the emotion, the, the, the feelings and everything and the storytelling here, um, you can just like sit and listen and enjoy it and I think that's really powerful. So I really loved that, uh, that experience, and I'm glad that. I'm glad that. I'm glad that we had the little moment together, my wife and I courtesy of music. But yeah, this was really nice and I will allow the cheating because now we have a 13-song mix instead of a 12-song mix. But I understand, you get a pass. Yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 25:06

All right, track nine, I guess. Now on the mix it is 2085 by ajr yeah, so their fifth album was actually released.

Speaker 2: 25:17

I believe it was last year, the year before, I can't remember, I don't know what time is anymore, but it was their most recent album, maybe, man, um, you know, I, I, this is the final song in the album, and it's one that I will repeat a lot. Um, you know, I think for a couple reasons. One, 2085, catches my eye because I was born in 1985, so in 2085 I will be 100 years old. So there's just something about that that, you know, draws me to that, which is crazy to think of myself as 100 years old, that's, that's wild that is wild.

Speaker 1: 25:52

What season are we going to be on by then? I don't know, 65, I think season 65 okay, but you're not going to quit the show, right?

Speaker 2: 26:01

I mean just so no, I'm here for the long haul, okay. Uh, we'll be hard pressed to find bands with 100 albums, though I'm worried, or 65 albums, I think something bruce will have just put out an album somehow right, it's just gonna be one bruce album all 12 songs. Um, it'll take us like four and a half hours to record, because we'll just keep being like what?

Speaker 1: 26:26

we can't get the audio loud enough.

Speaker 2: 26:32

That aside, I think you know he he's I get the sense very similar to the age to me, possibly even, you know, like born in the 80s, I think. I don't know his exact age. But you know, someone said that the song is optimism and existential pondering, and I think that that like kind of sums up my entire vibe too, because I'm a mix, I'm a pretty fairly optimistic person, but then I'll have those moments where I'm just like what is this all for? What are we doing? And I think that's something that is very, you know, can be very universal.

Speaker 2: 27:00

So I really love the song, I love the end. It actually almost always brings tears to my eye when, whenever he sings, you know this part. So if this is me, then I'll do my best, I'll take all the blank so you never have to. You can be you and I'll be the rest. Yeah, maybe that's the who, maybe that's who the hell I am. And I think what he's thinking about here is like he he struggles with trying to figure out his identity, but then he kind of realizes that his identity might just be being whoever the people in his life need him to be so that they can flourish and they can do really well, and that's something I've always felt about myself is like I want others around me to be their best and feel like, maximize and live their life, and I've often wondered then, like who am I, you know, and so I think I really connect with this lyric and this song in particular.

Speaker 1: 27:47

Yeah, I love this one. Obviously we're big fans of ajr. If you're a long-time listener, you've heard us talk about them before, um, but yeah, this one is so great to hear on the first mix of the year because, you know, it's kind of about reflecting a little bit, thinking about the future. And it actually was perfectly timed, because I just read this article about Ron Shach, who founded Panera Bread and they just sold last year for like $7 billion. So he's obviously uber wealthy now. But he does this thing every year. He calls a pre-mortem, where it's sort of a reflective exercise he does at the beginning of the year where he thinks about the last moments of his life and thinks about what he wants to be most proud of in those moments and then if there's things he can kind of add to that list, to like get to that point. So let's say you want to, you know, send a million kids to college, right?

Speaker 1: 28:44

Well, you're going to need money to do that or some way to do that. So it's like he kind of maps out his goals for the year in this way, because he kind of thinks ahead to those last moments and then just sort of works backwards and says okay so what, then, can I do in this year to you know, be closer to that moment, right and and so it's really kind of cool and he says it's something that kind of evolves and, you know, requires him kind of getting away from his devices and technology and just kind of taking a step to think about what that looks like and then work backwards to get to that point.

Speaker 1: 29:20

So it was just really appropriate that I just read this article and then hearing the song and it just, you know, marries up perfectly.

Speaker 2: 29:29

I really like that. Yeah, that's. I might have to borrow that because I enjoy that thought process or that thought experiment. All right, let's get to it. Track number 10. It is You've Got to Hide your Love Away by the Beatles.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Yeah, I realized on the show we don't really reach back to a group like the Beatles very often. We've only put them on the show, I think, a few times, and you know they have so many great songs outside of sort of your conventional hits and this is obviously off. One of their massive albums called help, which includes the song help as well as ticket to ride, and yesterday all came from this album. This one kind of got a second life with Eddie Vedder doing a version of it for the soundtrack to a movie called I Am Sam, which I don't know if anybody out there remembers but it starred Sean Penn, but it was anyway kind of gave this song a little bit.

Speaker 1: 30:26

You know a lot of radio play and in fact I still hear the Eddie Vedder version more often, I think, than I hear the Beatles version. But I think it's just a great song about, you know, just sort of I don't know unrequited love or just you know just that feeling, not just love, but anytime you have to hide something from anybody, whatever, that is right, your true self. I think this song kind of speaks to that. It was a John Lennon written song, but it's a great one. It's always been one of my favorites, but just thought you know it's probably worth reaching back and tapping into some of the Beatles catalog every now and then.

Speaker 2: 31:04

Yeah, I'm glad you did, because I really liked this song and actually, if you didn't tell me it was the Beatles, you could have easily told me it was Bob Dylan. You can really hear the Dylan influence on them at this point.

Speaker 1: 31:16

Well, John Lennon actually talks about that. He actually kind of refers to this, he makes a Bob Dylan reference. He says it's kind of his Bob Dylan era when he wrote this song.

Speaker 2: 31:26

Yeah, I believe it. I mean, you can definitely hear it and I just think that that's always so fun about music too, that we've talked about throughout these years of musicians influencing other musicians, either generationally or, in this case, and within the same generation, right of just like you hear a sound and then you go and do a version of it and that's really cool. So I really like this song. I think it's beautifully done and and has a really nice, really nice topic to sing about.

Speaker 1: 31:51

Alright, track 11. This is another kind of sharp turn. If you will, we're going to go to the Unforgiven by Metallica.

Speaker 2: 31:59

Yeah, exactly the last two picks. We just go hard right into rock in typical me fashion. So this is their fifth album, which we did an intro to Metallica mix, I think last season or a couple of seasons ago, I can't remember. But, um, you know another one off of this one. It's known as the black album uh, just because the cover was black, but it's actually not the name of the album.

Speaker 2: 32:23

But I really, you know, I come back to that album a lot. I know it's controversial, but I really like it. I think that it's one of their, that it has some of their biggest hits and I think that's. You know, I love the. What he's singing about here and what he the chorus of what I felt, what I've known never shined through and what I've shown never free, never me. So I dubbed the unforgiven and when you kind of break that apart, he's basically just saying like he never was himself, like he had to have this false outward appearance. So you know, what he really is has never shined through and what he's shown to people and I think, similar to the last song we just talked about with the Beatles, that can be very difficult, right, it can be hard to kind of have this outward false appearance when in reality you're someone else. And I think he's singing to that struggle and that frustration. So it also has an amazing guitar solo that I just never get tired of, so that's why I wanted to put this on here.

Speaker 1: 33:19

No, totally agree. And it is interesting that these songs kind of paired up the Beatles song and then Metallica, because they're both kind of legendary bands and both kind of singing about regret in a way but in their own way.

Speaker 1: 33:33

So it's always kind of cool on these mixes when we have these things kind of line up that way, because it's like nobody would ever really associate these two bands together. But you know, here's sort of this universal theme that they both kind of take a shot at. So I thought that was really cool how that lined up. Um, but yeah, I mean this is just an absolute classic. I don't know, anybody who's ever followed this band knows the unforgiven it it's yeah, you're right, the guitar, the sound, I mean you, just from the first couple of chords I'm like, yep, I'm right in it and I, you know I'm not a huge like hard rock fan, but Metallica is definitely the one that I can get into. And no, this is a, this is a great pick is a great pick, awesome, all right.

Speaker 2: 34:21

To round it out, another just superstar um the late and the great david bowie, and this is star man.

Speaker 1: 34:24

Yes, and this is from and I love this album title the rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars. It's from 1972, yeah and uh it's funny, this one popped into my head and it just happened to be from his fifth album, so it worked out really well. I mean, this is considered one of the top albums of all time, so it's definitely worth checking out. But from a timing perspective, it's like we had the drones and then you know, as donald trump prepares to take office again I think it was during his first term when we kind of had this news report come and go that it's like, yeah, we've known about ufos for a long time anyway. So donald trump today, talking to the prime minister of iceland, said and it was like wait, what do we have ufos? We have UFOs, right.

Speaker 2: 35:19

Just casually yeah no problem.

Speaker 1: 35:21

It was definitely the secondary behind whatever Donald Trump had done that particular day. So, anyway, but yeah, this song is all about the character Ziggy Stardust coming to tell us that there's this wonderful star man coming to you know, give us hope and and everything. He's from this other planet or this other universe, whatever it is. Um, and so in all this, uh, ufo hubbub, I was like, wow, okay, I would hope that's how somebody from another planet would come to this planet and just sort of, you know, be like, hey, man, it's cool, we can help each other out.

Speaker 1: 35:57

You know, so often like you watch any movie or read any number of stories and it's like they're coming here to destroy you, right, right, it's like what if they're just coming to hang out, you know, and they're listening to this show, and it's like, hey, they want to be a guest sometime. Okay, so just DM us at superawesomemix on Instagram, okay, threads, but yeah, I mean, maybe they just want to come and hang out and learn from us. So I don't know, I just love that messaging from Starman, especially in light of the fact that, I don't know, it feels like we're getting closer to actually meeting you aliens.

Speaker 2: 36:32

You know I have no notes to add to any of that. That was a perfect read, 10 out of 10.

Speaker 1: 36:43

I'm eagerly awaiting the star man myself. This is it right. I mean, come on, what else is there to say? Yeah, uh, it's also just a great song, it's a great album everybody should listen to this.

Speaker 2: 36:51

Yes, it's a great song, a classic bowie song.

Speaker 1: 36:54

Yeah all right. Well, let's bring this one home, okay, and we're gonna do a long outro.

Speaker 2: 37:00

All right, and because track 13 is invincible by tool yeah, so well, part of what happened here is um, you know, you had the, the two songs by jackson brown that totaled something like 10 or 11 minutes, and my brain was like well, I gotta get matt back for for that. And I I was like I, well, I got to get Matt back for that. And I was like I'm pretty sure Tool has had five albums and they just made the cut. Their fifth album released in 2019 or 2020. I can't remember which year.

Speaker 2: 37:30

And I was like perfect, because that album is like it's like a 75 minute long meditation of hard rock. Every song is like 12 minutes long. There's only a handful of them, and what's so funny is I saw a meme recently on instagram and it just cracked me up. I think I reposted it in a story, but it was like someone. It was like arthur from the animated show um listening to tool, like someone edited it that way, but they were like it started out with a character being like why is their band, why is this band tuning their instruments for the first six minutes?

Speaker 2: 38:00

And I feel like that's how that's absolutely tool. Like every start of every song in this album, you're just like okay, like you've restarted the warm-up, you know, and then it starts to like break open and break open and by the end you're just like, oh my gosh, this is incredible and like you just turn the volume up and your head is melting and and I and I love it. So I had to throw this on here. It was a little bit of a revenge pick, but also just a great song, a great album okay, you call it revenge.

Speaker 1: 38:30

I mean, I really enjoyed this. I was like great awesome I'm into this.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Okay, like I, I got fired up listening to this song so I mean I'm I'm all about it. But, yeah, I totally agree on the sort of instrument warm-up thing. Yes, yeah, if you listen to, there are some live albums out there where, like track one is just of like warm-up, right, like so if you poke around like, you'll see that. So I like the fact that they just kind of make it part of a song instead of this sort of live album intro thing. Um, I also wonder why that's even needed from some bands. Like you did a sound check three hours ago, right, like, let's just get into the song that people know like what are we building?

Speaker 1: 39:13

towards exactly. Um, so I like that. It's just part of the song and so they get a little bit of a twofer there. But no, no, this song is actually I don't know. I really got fired up listening to it all. 12 minutes, no-transcript. Well, we're both going to live to 100 or well past 100. So Invincible may be a good way to describe us, but no great pick. And there you have it. It's your first super awesome mix for your collection here in 2025. Um, we've got more mixes on the way. So much fun ahead of us here in season five of the show. We're so excited you are with us, so hit us up at super awesome mix. Check out the website superawesommixcom and, of course, skinnymixescom. Use the promo code super awesome 10%. There, sam and I will get to work on our next mix. So for Sam, this is Matt. We'll see you next time.