Much like a father passing down the family name, an album will sometimes share its name with one of its songs — the title track. Not every album has one, so when an artist chooses a song to bear the name, I find myself wondering why. Is it the album’s best song, the artist’s favorite or the catalyst for the entire work?
In honor of this past Family Weekend, I turn to a principle my parents borrowed from Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and instilled in me growing up: “that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” If albums are anything like people, perhaps the songs bearing their names really are just a little sweeter than the rest. This week, I leave it to you to decide whether these 13 tracks live up to their family names.
1. “The Sound of Silence – Electric Version” — Simon & Garfunkel (1966)
“The Sound of Silence” was nearly lost to silence itself. After Simon & Garfunkel’s debut album flopped and the duo split, producer Tom Wilson secretly overdubbed electric instruments onto the acoustic recording. The “rockified” version topped the Billboard Hot 100, generating enough demand to reunite the pair once more. Evidently, the power of going viral hasn’t changed much.
2. “Sylvie” — Sylvie, Iain Matthews (2021)
Sylvie’s “Sylvie,” off the album “Sylvie,” is a rare triple kill. Ben Schwab borrowed all three names from Iain Matthews’ 1970 original, and then invited Matthews himself to sing on this warm, easygoing version. Some names, it seems, are sweeter when shared.
3. “Traveller” — Chris Stapleton (2015)
Chris Stapleton’s Grammy-winning breakout album began, like most good things, with a drive through the desert. The trip inspired this title track, a song about life “and how we’re all kind of passing through it.” I find few modern country voices as compelling as Stapleton’s.
4. “Hijos Del Sol” — Hermanos Gutiérrez (2020)
In a similar vein, desert landscapes are never far from the instrumental guitar duo Hermanos Gutiérrez, known for their spaghetti Western sound and aesthetic. After seeing them live this summer, one comment beneath the “Hijos del Sol” music video resonated well: “It gave me a nostalgic feeling of places I’ve never been…of memories I never had.”
5. “Become” — Beach House (2023)
Beach House released the EP “Become” to little fanfare in 2023. Though it found a small and devoted following (myself included), it deserved more love. To me, the EP remains some of the band’s best work — a true “becoming” of the albums that preceded it.
6. “LOVE IS THE LAW” — Love Spells (2026)
One of the catchiest indie pop releases of the summer, “LOVE IS THE LAW” serves rather literally as the record’s constitution, where human nature is governed primarily by love: “Don’t go breaking the law,” the song warns, for “Love is the law.” Rather circular, if you ask me.
7. “GINGER” — BROCKHAMPTON (2019)
While BROCKHAMPTON’s pop-rap hits “SUGAR” and “BOY BYE” soundtracked my early years of high school, I have since come to prefer this mellower title track. One Reddit theory suggests the album takes its name from the spice, for some songs are sweet and others spicy. I’d argue “GINGER” is the palate cleanser.
8. “Angel” — Lizzy McAlpine (2026)
Released just days ago on Sept. 18, “Angel” is Lizzy McAlpine’s fourth album, as heartfelt as ever but more folk-leaning than usual. Its title track, the album’s only song with pedal steel guitar, closes with what McAlpine told Rolling Stone was the “thesis statement of the record”: “I have always been here waiting / Just to be.”
9. “Earthstar” — Hannah Cohen (2025)
While “Earthstar” is only 50% of the album title “Earthstar Mountain,” it’s 100% vibes. Fortunately, Hannah Cohen’s website offers an unusually thorough song-by-song guide, saving me the trouble of describing its “kaleidoscopically serene synths” myself.
10. “3D Country” — Geese (2023)
Nearly a year after “Getting Killed” went viral, Geese remain at the forefront of online discourse, now over claims that fake TikTok fan accounts manufactured their fame. Bassist Dominic DiGesu offered Rolling Stone a simple rebuttal: “Just come to the show, and ******* tell me how many bots you see.” Editor-in-Chief Chloe Liversidge and I plan to investigate at their Boston show this November. Until then, I’m revisiting their second album, “3D Country,” in remembrance of a time before all this internet hullabaloo.
11. “D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L” — Panchiko (2000)
Back in 2000, a group of British teenagers by the name of Panchiko burned roughly 30 copies of their debut EP, “D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L,” and then disappeared. Sixteen years later, a thrifted CD resurfaced online, its music warped by disc rot, sparking a grassroots search that ultimately revived the band. Even post-restoration, the title track remains notably hazy and dreamlike, almost as if the disc rot never fully left.
12. “ATLiens” — Outkast (1996)
Outkast fans have long argued over the duo’s best album, usually among “ATLiens,” “Aquemini” and “Stankonia.” Consider this title track my case for the first. It is nearly impossible not to nod along, especially as Big Boi delivers the epic line: “‘Cause I’m cooler than a polar bear’s toenails.”
13. “24K Magic” — Bruno Mars (2016)
The infamous Urban Outfitters x Crosley briefcase turntable entered my life at the peak of my middle-school Bruno Mars obsession, making “24K Magic” my first vinyl record. Amid the album’s fair share of classic Bruno Mars love songs, this title track practically exploderizes with energy and swagger — so very 2016.