| Payola | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 23, 2015 | |||
| Genre | Punk rock, post-hardcore | |||
| Length | 40:27 | |||
| Label | Epitaph | |||
| Producer | Mike Mogis and Desaparecidos | |||
| Desaparecidos chronology | ||||
| ||||
Payola is the second studio album by the American rock band Desaparecidos, released on June 23, 2015, through Epitaph Records. [1]
While Read Music/Speak Spanish , the band's first album, focused on themes relating to socioeconomics, marriage, and the American workforce, Payola consciously tackles a wider range of political issues. Payola is a cohesive body of raw, loud, and angry songs about endemic injustice, racial profiling, the mistreatment of immigrants, corporate greed, and domestic spying. [2]
The band reunited in 2010 to play a Concert For Equality in its hometown of Omaha—an event organized by lead singer Conor Oberst to promote the repeal of then-recently enacted measures to prohibit businesses and landlords from hiring or renting to undocumented immigrants in Fremont, Nebraska. In 2012, the band worked with Mike Mogis to record some singles, and in the subsequent years recorded all the material for Payola.
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 76/100 [3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| The A.V. Club | B [5] |
| Consequence of Sound | B+ [6] |
| Absolute Punk | 8.5/10 [7] |
| The Guardian | [8] |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.6/10 [9] |
| Pop Matters |   [10] |
| Paste | 8.8/10 [11] |
| Mojo | [12] |
| Vice (Expert Witness) | A− [13] |
Payola reached the number 160 position of the Billboard 200 on July 11 of 2015. [14]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Left is Right" | 2:25 |
| 2. | "The Underground Man" | 2:24 |
| 3. | "City on the Hill" | 3:09 |
| 4. | "Golden Parachutes" | 2:03 |
| 5. | "Radicalized" | 2:49 |
| 6. | "MariKKKopa" | 2:46 |
| 7. | "Te Amo Camila Vallejo" | 3:38 |
| 8. | "Ralphy's Cut" | 3:22 |
| 9. | "Backsell" | 3:13 |
| 10. | "Slacktivist" | 2:54 |
| 11. | "Search the Searches" | 2:31 |
| 12. | "10 Steps Behind" | 2:58 |
| 13. | "Von Maur Massacre" | 2:26 |
| 14. | "Anonymous" | 3:44 |
| Total length: | 40:27 | |
Cameos on the album include Tim Kasher of Cursive (on "City on the Hill"), Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! (on "Golden Parachutes"), and the So So Glos (on "Slacktivist"). Tracks including "MariKKKopa", "Backsell", "Anonymous", "The Left Is Right", "Te Amo Camila Vallejo", and "The Underground Man" were previously released as singles. [15]
Bright Eyes is an American indie rock band founded by singer-songwriter and guitarist Conor Oberst. It consists of Oberst, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, arranger, composer and trumpet and piano player Nate Walcott, and a rotating line-up of collaborators drawn primarily from Omaha's indie music scene. Between 1998 and 2011, the band's albums were released through Saddle Creek Records, a Nebraska-based label founded by Justin Oberst and Mogis. In January 2020, the band announced their return, having signed with Dead Oceans.
Fevers and Mirrors is the third studio album by the Nebraska indie band Bright Eyes, recorded in 1999 and released on May 29, 2000. It was the 32nd release of the Omaha, Nebraska-based record label Saddle Creek Records. The album was released later in 2000 in the United Kingdom as the inaugural release from Wichita Recordings.
Desaparecidos is an American punk rock band from Omaha, Nebraska, headed by singer/guitarist Conor Oberst, the frontman of the indie rock band Bright Eyes.
Read Music/Speak Spanish is the first studio album by American punk band Desaparecidos. Released in February 2002, the record is the forty-second release of Saddle Creek Records. Reviews were mostly positive upon release.
Conor Mullen Oberst is an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos, the Faint, Commander Venus, Park Ave., Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Monsters of Folk, and Better Oblivion Community Center. Oberst was named the Best Songwriter of 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine.
Life Won't Wait is the fourth studio album by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was released on June 30, 1998, through Epitaph Records. It was released as the follow-up to ...And Out Come the Wolves (1995).
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Distortion is the eighth studio album by American indie pop band The Magnetic Fields. It was released on January 15, 2008 on Nonesuch Records.
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I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is the sixth studio album by American band Bright Eyes, released on January 25, 2005 by Saddle Creek Records.
Joyce Manor is an American rock band formed in Torrance, California in 2008. The band's lineup consists of singer-songwriter and guitarist Barry Johnson, guitarist Chase Knobbe, and bassist/backing vocalist Matt Ebert. The band's musical style is rooted in punk rock, but has diversified throughout its career. The band first gained momentum through word-of-mouth and social media sites. Kurt Walcher was the band's founding drummer; the group has switched drummers each album cycle since 2015.
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die is an American indie rock band formed in Willimantic, Connecticut, in 2009. Following the release of several EPs and splits featuring original lead singer Thomas Diaz, they released their debut LP Whenever, If Ever in 2013 to generally positive reviews. Undergoing a series of roster changes, they proceeded to release a 2014 collaboration with spoken word artist Christopher Zizzamia titled Between Bodies, as well as several full-length records, including Harmlessness in 2015, Always Foreign in 2017, and 2021's Illusory Walls.
Sylvan Esso is the debut studio album by American electropop group Sylvan Esso, released May 12, 2014 via Partisan Records. The band consists of singer Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn.
+ − is the sixth studio album by Danish alternative rock band Mew. It was released on 24 April 2015. The album was produced by Michael Beinhorn and was promoted by the singles "Satellites" and "Water Slides". It was Mew's first studio album in five-and-a-half years, following their 2009 record No More Stories.... Bassist Johan Wohlert made his return on this album after being absent from the band's previous album following his departure in 2006. + - was also the final album to feature guitarist Bo Madsen, who left the band on 1 July 2015, as well as the final album to featured original formation.
Eat Pray Thug is the debut studio album by American hip hop artist Heems. It was released on Megaforce Records on March 10, 2015. Music videos were created for "Sometimes", "Damn, Girl", and "Pop Song (Games)".
Ruminations is the seventh solo studio album by American musician Conor Oberst, released on October 14, 2016 on Nonesuch Records. An expanded edition of the album featuring five bonus tracks was released on July 23, 2021.
Stage Four is the fourth studio album by the American post-hardcore band Touché Amoré. The album was released in the United States and Europe on September 24, 2016, by Epitaph Records. The album's title is in reference to it being the band's fourth album, and due to the central inspiration for most of the album's lyrics being singer Jeremy Bolm's mother, who died of cancer.
Salutations is the eighth solo studio album by American musician Conor Oberst, released on March 17, 2017 on Nonesuch Records. Ten of the tracks originally appeared on Ruminations in acoustic form.
Better Oblivion Community Center is the debut studio album by American indie rock duo Better Oblivion Community Center, composed of Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers. The album was released on January 24, 2019, through Dead Oceans.
Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was is the tenth studio album by American band Bright Eyes. The album marked the band's first release in nearly a decade, following The People's Key in 2011. It was released by Dead Oceans on August 21, 2020, and it was their first album not released by Saddle Creek Records. The album was recorded at Electro-Vox and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and ARC Studios in Omaha, Nebraska.
