Staff Picks: May 2021

At Victrola, we are committed to bringing lifelong music memories into every home. Our employees are passionate about music, and believe music defines our moments, pressing them into our subconscious. The warm, imperfectly perfect needle on a record transports us to those places in our individual and collective history, with a nostalgia more powerful than simple recollection.

We've curated those music memories for you, featuring a few of our employees every month. Stop by and get to know us, and perhaps take our recommendations for a spin. We're certain you'll find some music memories to share with us.

Shop the selections >  

Nanci Bergman, Sales and Marketing

Tom Petty: Full Moon Fever

An amazing gem of an album, and without any Heartbreakers! I love all Tom Petty but this catchy more popish version of him is my all time favorite. I am a big fan of ELO also and you can hear some of that shine through with the influence of Jeff Lynne as a producer. Top to bottom every song makes you smile and most are full singalong classics.

U2: Joshua Tree  

I was introduced to U2 in my college years about 5 year after Joshua Tree was released. I became a fan of all their albums and loved the passionate crooning of Bono. As with many fans of the boys from Ireland, this album quickly became my favorite. It has some true diversity in the songs with some upbeat and high energy (Where the Streets Have No Name, In God’s Country) tunes but also some dark ones addressing addiction, politics, war (Running to a Standstill, Bullet the Blue Sky, Exit). Again, not a single bad song and an album I never grow tired of. I force my husband to play this at the first sighting of a Joshua Tree on the 395 whenever we are en route to Mammoth. Pairs quite well with the desert sky of course.

Scott Hagen, CEO

Marvin Gaye: What's Going on

Recorded 50 years ago this July, this album might be as or more relevant today as it was when it was first released. I'll admit, that I rarely listen to the words of a song for meaning. Usually I hone in on the instruments and sounds, but in this case, all of the contributors made something that needs to be listened to over and over again to catch everything "going on." This Album really delivers on what is missing from some much of our listening experience. It is truly a story from beginning (track) to the end (track) and should be listened to that way in one sitting. There are a lot of crazy stories surrounding this album that you can almost hear coming out in the complexity of the music itself. Barry Gordy was actually against releasing what's going on and believed it might become the end of Marvin's career. It ended up being the opposite for Motown and Marvin. James Jamerson played the bass tracks on this album laying on his back. And to make things even more dramatic, when the album was finished bring mixed in Detroit, and jackets were being pressed, Marvin stole the Master tapes and had them flown to LA and remixed the whole thing (which is what we hear today.) There was only one full performance of "what's going on." by Marvin Gaye live. The next best thing is this record...

Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (Volume 1)

When it originally released, I felt, "Walk this way" (the Run DMC/Aerosmith hit) seemed like something that was probably thought up in the ivory towers of their labels at the time, but the concept was cool to bring rock and rap together. It needed to happen. I think Check Your Head was a perfect execution of a rock, funk, soul, rap soup. As a piano player, one of the things that really inspired me was the contribution Mark Ramos Nishita had playing organ on many of the tracks. At the time, most people making hit records we using synths or starting to sample, but there wasn't much Hammond organ being found on albums. This was the exception and really inspired me to fall in love with the Hammond in my own personal music journey. His playing is highlighted on "Lighten Up."