To clarify first, no this is not an album by hit a cappella group Rockapella, so I don’t get to end the review with "do it, Rockapella!" Like you might have hoped. This is an album by another a cappella group called the Nylons. This was one of those first albums I got on cassette when I first got my cruddy little portable cassette player, along with Kim Pensyl and some bible tape. I remember listening to this my freshman year of high school, then buying a few of the songs on itunes at the same time I bought Astro Lounge. Sadly I only had a 10 dollar gift card, so I only bought 3 songs off the album, and the rest faded away into the recesses of my mind.
Fortunately, the mind is a lot like a sewer: whatever goes in will eventually come back out when you least expect it. I thought I’d revisit this album and talk about it here, since it seems to interspliced with my music collection.. history? Rockapella is an album of mostly covers and old staples sung by an a cappella group, classic stuff. This album was a hit for me my freshman year of high school, same with Pensyl Sketches and the Indigo Girls self titled, because they were the things I had on cassette. I thought I was kinda cool, or at least stuck out, and people did start recognizing me as ‘that kid with the Hawaiian shirts and the tape deck.’ Problem is that for all of high school thats all I was known for. Pick your bits carefully, kids, it could stick.
Rockapella is pretty good, it has that 80’s ambience that feels like I’m in its album art, if that makes any sense at all. You can find this one wherever you find music, check it out if a cappella is your jam.
Oh, what the hell. DO IT, ROCKAPELLA!
Click here to go back to the music column hub