Beat Your Seasonal Depression with These Happy, Energetic Albums

Aliens In the Outfield, by Diarrhea Planet
It’s tempting to write off Nashville rock sextet Diarrhea Planet because of their name, but you’d be making a huge mistake; this band writes surprisingly complex and earnest heavy rock with plenty of punkish irreverence. And, because of their four-guitar assault, it’s heavy enough to appeal to metal fans, as well. Aliens In the Outfield, released in 2014, isn’t just a great record, it’s a controlled chaos experiment full of blazing guitar solos, inhuman drum fills, and impressive creative ambition. Opening track “Heat Wave” gets the energy going with chugging rhythm guitar set at a mid-career Ramones tempo, and “Spooners” has the gang vocals and upthrust energy of a Japandroids song.

Your Face Sideways, by Wildhoney
Baltimore-based shoegaze band Wildhoney got some unexpected press earlier this year, when a record pressing plant accidentally shipped out a few hundred copies of this album instead of Lana Del Rey’s new record. Luckily, Your Face Sideways is glorious and totally deserving of the exposure. Fuzzed-out, wall-of-sound guitars, hazy female vocals, and drifting song structures are this record’s defining characteristics—and they owe much to certain brands of 1990s indie rock—but Wildhoney’s music has a certain forward momentum that their contemporaries don’t have, and while it can be relaxing, it’s never listless or dull. “Laura” and “Thin Air” are great examples of this.

Energy, by Operation Ivy
One of the all-time classic American punk records, Energy is a chipper and endearingly sloppy album by one of the pioneering bands of the East Bay punk scene (from which Green Day would rise to stardom). It’s also notable for the people who played on it; guitarist Tim “Lint” Armstrong and bassist Matt Freeman would later form Rancid, and main vocalist Jesse Michaels would resurface in Common Rider and Classics of Love. Playing ska-punk well before it was cool, Operation Ivy’s music is bright and energetic, especially tracks like “Sound System,” “Jaded,” and “Bankshot.” Even on the slower tracks (“Take Warning”) or the more traditionally punk songs (“The Crowd”), this is a record where you can actually hear the fun being had.

Wonderful World of Sam Cooke, by Sam Cooke
Blessed with an incredible singing voice and one of the smoothest vocal deliveries in soul music, Sam Cooke was an important figure in pop music despite the relatively short length (and tragic end) of his career as a solo performer. More importantly, his music is one of the best known cures for a bad mood; songs like “That’s Heaven to Me” or “With You” make frowning almost impossible. Cooke preferred a relaxed tempo, and his musical arrangements and lyrics are uplifting, and sometimes genuinely romantic, without sounding corny or dated. That last item is important, because this album was originally released in 1960 and it hasn’t aged a day.

Maggot Brain, by Funkadelic
This album, released in 1971, is something of a departure from Funkadelic’s party-band reputation, featuring more psychedelic influences, socially conscious lyrics, and sonic weirdness than their normal, groove-oriented output. It also has one of the best, and most wrenching, guitar solos ever recorded, which comprises the majority of the album’s title track. Under orders from George Clinton to play like he’d just heard his mother had died, guitarist Eddie Hazel lays down ten minutes of pure catharsis, which is perfect for those days when you just want to get the holidays out of your system. After that, you’re free to dance to tracks like “Hit It and Quit It” and “Super Stupid.”

Rockin’ With Wanda, by Wanda Jackson
Straddling the country and rockabilly genres with her homespun voice and glamorous appearance, Wanda Jackson was a fun and versatile performer, as demonstrated by this mix of her rockabilly and mid-tempo country material. Wanda’s take on country was sweeter than many of her contemporaries, and her faster rockabilly songs gave her a chance to show off how gritty her voice could get. “Mean Mean Man” and her most enduring hit, “Fujiyama Mama,” are great examples of this, and her unvarnished style was a big influence on more contemporary performers like Cyndi Lauper and Rosanne Cash. On the country side of things, even heartbroken songs like “You’ve Turned to a Stranger” are good for slow dancing with someone special around the Christmas tree (or menorah).