In the Randomised Record series, I take us both on an adventure to (re)discover my record collection. Fate decides: whether it be that obscure grunge album I bought recently or that emo rap record from 2017. Nothing is safe from the hands of the randomiser! I will listen to the entire album and highlight my favourite song off of it here on the blog. Do I still enjoy my records as much as when I bought ‘em? Let’s find out. Today, episode 24: ‘Emerging Adulthood’ (2017) by Dan Croll.

Allow me to set the scene. You got friends coming over with quite a distinct music taste, and you would really like to play some tunes to serve as background noise. However, nothing in your record collection matches their preferences! Or, how about this one: you got someone coming over of which you have no idea what their music taste is! Well, look no further. Stick on Dan Croll’s ‘Emerging Adulthood’ and everyone will be as happy as Larry.

I got a few albums in my collection that serve as the ultimate middleman in case I have absolutely no clue what music to whip on. Dan Croll, however, might be the endboss when it comes down to this which, by the way, isn’t a bad thing whatsoever. If anything, it just shows how pleasurable the singer-songwriter’s albums are. Dan Croll is one of few who have quite smoothly survived both of my weblogs. A lot of music I highlighted on my previous blog De Spotlight (as displayed this month with flor and The Amazons) make me reminisce right back to younger me, whereas Dan Croll is still just as pleasant to 2025-me without having to wallow in melancholy listening to it. Songs like ‘One Of Us’, ‘Swim’, and ‘Away From Today’ get frequent playtime here in the Jam of Today household, as do classic indie hit ‘From Nowhere’, ‘In / Out’, and ‘Compliment Your Soul’ off of Dan’s debut ‘Sweet Disarray’ (2014).

Playing ‘Emerging Adulthood’ today is quite a breeze once more (especially after the hurly-burly of yesterday’s JPEGMAFIA album, haha!) and leaves me with a smile upon my face as it did when it got first released in 2017. It’s an album full of joyful, uplifting indie songs that continue to be musically interesting, too. ‘Emerging Adulthood’ is packed with songs suitable for many occasions so, yes. I can definitely see myself falling back to this album many more times in the future.