Chris Portka Goes Straight to Vinyl with New Album "The Album Everyone Wants"

Chris Portka’s, "The Album Everyone Wants", is at once ambitious and playful, a record that dives deep into the American songbook while still letting in plenty of eccentricity. Across 11 tracks, split between four originals and seven re-imaginings, Portka shapes a world where heartfelt songwriting collides with noise, twang, and a touch of psychedelic abandon. Recorded at both New York City’s legendary Sear Sound and Oakland’s Brothers (Chinese) Recording, the album captures the raw immediacy of a band in a room alongside the layered detail of careful overdubs. The result is a record that feels unpredictable, nostalgic and yet strikingly new.

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Side A opens with two of Portka’s strongest originals: "She Looks So Good Tonight,” a sweeping and windswept ballad, and “Fun in the Summer,” a shimmering psychedelic rocker built for long, sun-scorched drives. They sit comfortably beside interpretations of Syd Barrett’s, “It Is Obvious”, and Mayo Thompson’s, “Dear Betty Baby,” tracks that highlight Portka’s ability to tease out both fragility and strangeness from other writers’ work. The side closes with, “Song for Carol,” another original that underscores his knack for balancing intimacy with expansive arrangements.

Side B takes the listener further into Portka’s world of reinterpretation. Alan Wilson’s “Poor Moon” and Fred Eaglesmith’s “Trucker Speed” come alive through Portka’s noisy-yet-steady lens, while Skip Spence’s “Broken Heart” retains its aching core but gains new textures with contributions from Al Harper and Omar Negrete. “Tennessee Whiskey,” reimagined as a krautrock-infused, pedal-steel-driven groove, is one of the most striking departures, featuring additional vocals from Alison Niedbalski. The album closes on two reflective notes: Portka’s own, “The Observer,” a roots-inspired meditation reminiscent of Jackson Browne or Silver Jews, and, “Molly”, written by co-producer Jasper Leach, tying the collaborative spirit of the record together.

That collaborative spirit is central to the album’s character. Portka handles vocals, guitars, organ, and synths, but the project thrives because of its ensemble approach. Leach contributes bass, piano, organ, guitar, and backing vocals, while also co-producing, engineering, and mixing. Mike Vattuone’s drumming and harmonies give the record drive and presence, Kyle Carlson’s pedal steel brings aching beauty, and special guest Tom Meagher (as Beardwail) injects bursts of chaotic guitar energy. Additional voices from Niedbalski, Harper, and Negrete enrich the arrangements, making the record feel like a gathering of friends channeling their collective influences into something bigger than themselves.

The sound is both expansive and cohesive. One moment, the listener is pulled into the tender atmosphere of, “The Observer,” and the next, they’re surrounded by the raucous noise that propels tracks like “Fun in the Summer.” Yet, through the shifts in tone and style, there’s a steady through-line: Portka’s voice, both literal and artistic. His singing carries a mix of sincerity and grit, while his artistic choices remind listeners that the past doesn’t need to be preserved under glass—it can be bent, reshaped, and brought into dialogue with the present.

Behind the scenes, the record is equally well-supported. Engineering at Sear Sound was handled by Leach with Andrew Kochinka and Maximilian Troppe, while Jay Pellici oversaw overdubs at Brothers (Chinese) Recording in Oakland. Final mastering came courtesy of JJ Golden, whose resume includes work with Calexico, Vetiver, and Thee Oh Sees. These touches give the album clarity and heft without sanding off its rougher, more exciting edges. Even the visual presentation contributes: Naomi Phan-Quang provides the cover photo, while Carol Miltimore and Portka handled design, extending the personal, handmade quality of the record beyond the music itself.

What makes, "The Album Everyone Wants", compelling isn’t just its mix of covers and originals, or even the caliber of the musicians involved, it’s the way the album leans into contrasts—earnestness against noise, tradition against experimentation, melancholy against humor—and manages to make them feel like parts of a whole. It’s a record that honors its influences while still sounding unmistakably like Chris Portka, built from both reverence and restlessness.

In the end, "The Album Everyone Wants", is less a greatest-hits style collection and more a living conversation with music’s past and present. It doesn’t attempt to be definitive; instead, it revels in exploration, community, and the joy of creation. For listeners, it offers both familiarity and surprise, something to return to again and again - and for Chris Portka, it’s a defining statement: a collaborative, genre-bending, deeply human album that earns its title in unexpected ways.

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