Stars and Satellites by Trampled by Turtles

Stars and Satellites, Trampled by Turtles' sixth studio album, came out on April 10, 2012, on the band's own Banjodad Records, and it was made about as far from a slick studio as you can get. Starting in the fall of 2011, the Duluth, Minnesota five-piece holed up in a log house outside town, shoved the furniture aside, put up microphones and got to work.

The band made its name playing bluegrass at punk tempos, but here the slow songs steal the show. "Alone" is a hushed, aching ballad, and they played it on Letterman for their network TV debut that same month; "Midnight on the Interstate" rolls along like a late drive home. Speed still gets its say on "Walt Whitman", frantic up top and melancholy underneath. Dave Simonett's guitar and voice lead, with Dave Carroll's banjo, Erik Berry's mandolin, Ryan Young's fiddle and Tim Saxhaug's bass around him. It reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.