The Dana and Alden Albums Ranked
I became aware of the jazz duo/group Dana and Alden through Alden’s quite popular TikTok account gucci_pineapple. His surreal yet seemingly earnest videos are funny and often kind of sweet. Eventually, I became aware of this musical project. Dana (saxophone) is Alden’s (drums) brother (the McWaynes), and together, these young ‘uns (they’re just entering their mid-20s according to their site) have put out three quite good and fresh jazz albums, with various other influences plugged in, in the two years since 2023, as well as the EP BROTHERS in 2021. I was lucky enough to see Dana and Alden in October 2024, when they were touring their second album COYOTE, YOU’RE MY STAR, and I was so enamored with the show that I did a rare merch purchase. So as usual with these “ranked” pieces, this is less about being terribly reductive about the placement of the up-and-coming Dana and Alden’s three albums so far (although of course I’m inherently being a little reductive) and more about singing the praises of this funky and moving group.
#3 — SPEEDO (2025)
Favorite track: “Childhood Crush”
SPEEDO is Dana and Alden’s latest album at the time of this writing, their longest, and their most experimental. The spacey soundscapes aren’t terribly out-of-step with the work on their previous two records, but they have a little bit less “structure,” I suppose is the word. The array of influences beyond jazz are strongest on SPEEDO, with funk grooves, trap drum beats, and rock hooks coming through across the album’s 18 tracks. “Childhood Crush,” which features the vocals of Cinya Khan (I believe Alden’s girlfriend/partner?), is beautiful and evocative of the few other vocal tracks the group has put out (often with Khan as well). SPEEDO, to be clear, is still a great listen and an intriguing blend of instincts, just one that doesn’t quite hit the highs of Dana and Alden’s other efforts.
#2 — QUIET MUSIC FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (2023)
Favorite track: “Let’s Go to Trader Joe’s”
I don’t quite know how to measure the popularity of songs from a (quite online) group like Dana and Alden, but I suppose the popular songs section of the artist page on Spotify gives some clues. I would have guessed “Let’s Go to Trader Joe’s,” a kind of funny love song duet featuring Khan and Alden’s own vocals, was their most popular song because that’s how I became aware of the project on TikTok. But QUIET MUSIC FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, Dana and Alden’s first album, also features the instrumental “Dragonfly,” which with 13 million-plus listens seems to be their biggest “hit” (and indeed it’s a great song). This is all to say that the shape of critical reception to Dana and Alden’s work is still being formed in my mind, although of course I’m not the first to recognize their talents. Regardless of others, though, I find this debut to be exceptionally strong. It features the mellow tones the band has continued to strike but with a few hooks (as on the vocal track and extended instrumental mentioned above) that have the album latch on in my mind a bit more intensely. QUIET MUSIC FOR YOUNG PEOPLE shows how Dana and Alden sounded great right out the gate (well, after the aforementioned and still quite good BROTHERS EP).
#1 — COYOTE, YOU’RE MY STAR (2024)
Favorite track: “Family Garden”
Maybe it’s just because I was so smitten with the live versions of the songs from COYOTE, YOU’RE MY STAR, but Dana and Alden’s second album feels like the perfect blend of the experimentation of SPEEDO and the scrappiness of QUIET MUSIC FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. Across all three of these albums, I’ve been so impressed with how “mature” and fully formed the band’s musical identity feels, which maybe reflects the fact that the brothers have presumably been performing music together for quite some time before 2021. My favorite track from COYOTE, YOU’RE MY STAR is once again one of the few vocal songs from Dana and Alden. “Family Garden” features Melanie Charles with a great repetitive chorus that keeps a moving groove going. And “moving groove” is a good phrase to describe much of COYOTE, YOU’RE MY STAR and the whole of Dana and Alden’s discography. They’ve been able to impart exciting jazz forms and pleasant ambient sounds while threading in impactful emotion. COYOTE, YOU’RE MY STAR is the most impressive effort from this very young but immediately prolific band and I, somewhat selfishly, hope the frequency and creativity of their work continues at this same pace.
