Music Discovery #2

"I thought Eminem killed all the boy bands off"

Alright, so, after having made it through Disco64's "The First Estate" I've had a little difficulty getting a hold of a new album that I really want to review.  I've tried to go back and listen to some older albums such as T.I.'s "Paper Trail" and Porcupine Tree's "Fear of a Blank Planet," both of which are great albums, but they're not really anything I want to talk about.  Plus, I do like to try to keep my reviews fairly fresh, so I'd like to do something more up to date.  With that being said, I think its time I do my second issue of "Music Discovery."

As with the last entry, I'll start with bad music.  If you remember from my last post, I mentioned having found an Korean boy band (at least that's what I thought at the time) thanks to a friend of mine on Facebook.  This artist goes by Taeyang and evidently started out as a hip-hop artist.  Now, seeing as how I don't speak any sort of foreign language very well, let along an oriental one, I can't really comment on his flow or his rhyming because I have no idea what he's saying.  However, there are some things he says in English, and these things I can analyze.  The song I chose from Taeyang is called "Where U At," which consists mainly of him singing in what I assume is Korean and saying in English "Where U At" come the chorus.  Now, its not his talent that I think is bad; he has a fairly good voice and a decent range.  However, what I do think is bad is that I feel like he should have exhisted in the boy band era.  He looks and acts very similarly to a contemporary N'Sync or Backstreet Boys, except without the boy band part because evidently he flies solo.  I don't know if this is where his country's pop culture is at or if he's just behind in the times compared to America's time line, but either way, he gets the same sort of disgust I showed N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys when they existed.  Taeyang is way over the top: he's decked out in a flat rimmed hat cocked to the side, all sorts of bling, and designer clothes.  However, that's not the worst part about it.  While rocking this soft boy band persona, around 1:50 into the music video we see him for how he really is: a bad ass wearing all leather, leaning up against his motorcycle, tossing up a delicious red fruit and/or ball; Oh, and what's under the hat?  A mohawk.  Yeah, that just happened.  This seemingly contradictory persona really makes me cringe.  One second he's the soft, sensitive guy: singing, dancing, and picking flowers;  the next minute he's decked out in leather with a mohawk making sure he gets his four daily servings of fruit.  Now, this double persona doesn't just happen in this video, but it seems to happen in all of them.  There might be two entirely different people, but I'm pretty sure there aren't seeing as how Taeyang is one person and there aren't any featuring artists.  As far as I'm concerned, he's the perfect contradiction of sweet and fluffy, bad ass and healthy, I mean... leather?

Now, more importantly, let's talk about the good music I stumbled upon: Jesca Hoop.  Now, while her name only makes me think of Brian Regan ("Hi, Jes...sica?" "Its Jesca, Bryan.  Jes-CA"), she seems to have a fair amount of talent musically.  Her most recent album release, "Hunting My Dress," received an average Metacritic score of 78 and is one of the highest rated albums for the month of July, 2010.  Unfortunately, I'm not really sure I would enjoy her whole album, so I won't be getting it, but one song in particular of hers really blew me away.  I took a listen to her song "The Kingdom" just to see what she was like.  She seems like your typical girl who has a pretty good, somewhat unique voice and can play the guitar.  As I was about to close out of the YouTube video, I couldn't help but notice the song had taken a bit of a turn; just before I clicked the "X" the song picked up, transitioning from soft singing and gentle guitar plucking to some sliding guitar licks and heavy, almost tribe like drumming.  This, to say the least, peaked my interest in the song.  Not only does she have a beautiful voice, but she seems to have some creativity lyrically that really creates an interesting picture.  On top of that, the music video is really intense, transitioning back and forth between several different characters, each of which Hoop plays.  This video is something you really have to take a look at for yourself to experience.  It has a sort of fervor and really possesses a different feel, more so than any other solo female vocalist I've listened to in her genre, save for Regina Spektor's early work.  If you like her, definitely give her album a listen,  its gotten pretty positive reviews.  I may reconsider listening to her, but we'll see.

As far as up and coming releases, there aren't a whole lot of things I'm looking forward to, which is unfortunate seeing as how I'm currently in a music drought.  However, some things are coming up that have some potential.  Arcade Fire is expecting to release their new album, "The Suburbs," some time next week and Gov't Mule is releasing a live album, "Mulennium," as well;  T.I. is also releasing a new album, "King Uncaged," on the week of August 15th.  The one thing that I am really anticipating is N.E.R.D.'s release of "Nothing," which will happen some time during the week of September 5th (check out their single, "Hot N' Fun"), as well as Eels new album "Tomorrow Morning," which is being released some time during the week of August 22nd.  So, now that I've told you, what sort of music have you stumbled upon?  Also, if you have a music suggestion for me, please toss it out there.  At this point, I'm definitely up for suggestions.

Dark Night of the Soul

"I have all the means of bringing you fuckers down"

While I haven't ever listened to anything from Sparklehorse, I have been familiarized with Danger Mouse through Gnarls Barkley and his "The Grey Album" (2004), as well as his appearances with artists such as Gorillaz and The Black Keys.  With that being said, I had been anticipating the release of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's album "Dark Night of the Soul" since I heard about it earlier this year.  Such as music is, however, label disputes plagued the release of the album, and while it was supposed to be released earlier, it was delayed until July 12th of 2010.  However, the album has been available streaming online for quite some time and memorabilia, such as posters and a book of original photographs, have been available since May of this year.  Included with these sets was a blank CD-R that Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse tossed in and, as far as I can tell, were used to speak out against the label dispute and encourage their listeners to burn their album onto the disc.  

"Dark Night of the Soul" contains tracks produced by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, as well as assistance vocally as well as in production by several other artists.  Upon my first listen of the album, it was hard to get a feel for it, what with so many different vocal styles and various moods strewn throughout the album, however, after a few listens, I haven't been able to stop.  The list of vocalists include James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casblancas of The Strokes, Frank Black (aka Black Francis) of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel.  While I don't know all of the vocalists and, furthermore, am not a fan of all of the ones I do know, each and everyone of them meld together to make an incredibly well thought out and successful album.  All the lyrics are incredibly inspired save for a few songs and every song, while some sound incredibly similar, present a different mood and a different perspective on the album as well as life. 

"Revenge," featuring The Flaming Lips, obviously kicks the album off with a very mellow, relaxed song, yet a dark message, saying "In my mind/ I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart/ I just didn't understand/ The ricochet is the second part/... And the more I try to hurt you/ The more that it hurts me."  Commenting on the idea of revenge and how it has just as much negative effect on the giver as it does the receiver, The Flaming lips manage to create a powerful message of anger through a song which sounds almost peaceful as Wayne Coyne says "Though I have all the means of bringing you fuckers down/ I can't make myself," creating a wonderful melodic contradiction.  Other songs convey a similar sort of contradiction, such as "Jaykub," featuring Jason Lytle from Grandaddy, which tells the story of a man, Jaykub, basking in glory on a podium in front of a crowd of people, only to wake up as "the alarm goes of and you're a sad man in a song."  Lytle's soft vocals manage to create a dreamlike atmosphere as he approaches the depressing turn of waking up from a pleasant dream into a less than pleasant life, something many of us can relate to.

The album also includes tracks which are bit more up beat and rock inspired such as "Little Girl" and "Angel's Harp."  "Little Girl" is by far one of my favorite tracks on the album, in particular because I seem to become a bigger fan of Julian Casablancas' vocals every time I listen to The Strokes.  "Little Girl" is seemingly one of the most creative songs lyrically, speaking on love, life, laughter, and pain.  Casablancas makes comments on people in society ("A trick that people use to make you think they are smart/ Is confidence when actually they're lost in the dark"), himself ("Because I'm ignorant as shit, not here to preach, man/ You know I just wanna have fun, go to the beach man/ That's all I am, I'm just a simple guy who talks when/ You put a microphone in front of him"), as well as money ("The wolds always amazed at how much cash you made/ But not at how you made it, it's just strange") all within four minutes.  

"Angel's Harp" has an edgier feel to it like "Little Girl," but takes it to an entirely different level.  Black Fracis' vocals are rough and raspy, shouting "Pluckin' all day on my angel's harp", which definitely create a different feel on the album, however, coupled with the heavy rock instrumentals, the song seems out of place among the rest of the album.  Nevertheless, "Angel's Harp" isn't alone in this case, and "Pain" featuring Iggy Pop seems out of place as well, another song that has rough vocals as well as a strong rock influence, only furthered by Pop chanting "Pain, pain, pain/ Bad brains must always feel pain."  Furthermore, "Pain"'s lyrics are limited as well as seemingly less inspired than the rest of the album, with lines such as "Good karma will not get you anywhere/ Look at Jesus and his hair" and "Justice, religion, and success are fake/ And the shiny people stink."  These lines, while they may seem profound, are poorly rhymed and don't contain little substance, if any at all.  However, one line saves the song: "Pretty creepy, pretty funny/ I'm a mix of God and monkey," something that I think is both clever and hilarious.

At the end of the album are two songs, both of which are my other two favorites off of the album next to "Little Girl."  "Grim Augury" features Vic Chesnutt and conveys an incredibly dark and disturbing mood not only through the somber instrumentals, but even more so through Chesnutt's shaky vocals.  As he sings "I was making noises in my sleep/ But you wouldn't believe me when I told ya/ That I wasn't with someone in my dream/ Catfish were wriggling in blood and gore in the kitchen sink" the sense of fear and disgust in his voice is almost palpable.  "Dark Night of the Soul" features David Lynch, a celebrated film director, who also took all of the original photos found in the limited edition book released with this album.  The instrumentals of the song are slow and steady, hearkening back to an old blues piano style, masked by a static like noise.  Lynch's vocals are echoed and scratchy as well, creating an almost ghost like feel as he sings "Distant bell ring/ But steps echo/ No one on these streets/ Callin' out your name/ Where are you baby/ It's a dream world/ Dark dream world/ Dark night of the soul."  And so finishes the album, an incredibly fitting end to a wonderful journey.

"Dark Night of the Soul" by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse contains a wealth of different musical moods, but has an immense amount of emotion and passion on top of that.  While some songs like "Angel's Harp" and "Pain" seem out of place, they can only help the album by creating a contrast with the more upbeat and happy songs like "The Man Who Played God" and "Insane Lullaby."  There's more on this album than I have time to talk about.  Several other songs are incredible and are worth taking the time to listen to.  "Dark Night of the Soul" conveys several human emotions in an incredibly diverse, yet structured way.  Although the variety vocally on this album is vast, each and every song comes together successfully to create an incredible album that every music listener will not only appreciate, but enjoy.

*Note: I'm fairly certain that the black and white pictures are samples from the book.  Each one contains David Lynch (man with the white hair), Sparklehorse (horse head), and Danger Mouse.*

"Dark Night of the Soul": 93/100

Take a listen here.

/\/\ /\ Y /\

Its been a while since I've last seen you!  How have you been?  Alright, enough of the small talk, lets get to business.  Its been over ten days since I last reviewed an album or even wrote about anything pertaining to music, BUT FEAR NOT!  I have been hard at work listening to and analyzing music to make sure I have something ready to go ASAP.  

 

"Eating a truffle-flavored french fry, 'If that makes me a terrorist, then I'm a terrorist.'"

M.I.A.'s new album "/\/\ /\ Y /\" (I'll be writing "MAYA" from now on) was released on July 13th as her third album following "Kala" (2007) and "Arular" (2005).  Out of the three albums, "MAYA" has received the lowest scores by far, barely scrapping a 69, where as "Arular" received an 88 and "Kala" an 87.  M.I.A. has been known as a political rebel through her lyrics and has always spoke out against terrorist regimes in her native India (EDIT: I was just informed by a friend of mine that M.I.A. is not of India descent, but rather was born in the UK and is of Sri Lankan descent.  Thanks for the correction, Robby), as well as preaching a personal story of struggle and adversity.  "MAYA" doesn't seem to have the strength lyrically that her other two albums have had and, M.I.A. being the rebel she is, has only made things worse with the whirlwind of controversy she has created for herself.  Lynn Hirschberg of the New York Times released a cover story of M.I.A. on May 25th, focusing on her new album release and shedding light on many of her personal stories through interviews with both M.I.A. and those close to her.  Hirschberg painted a less than flattering picture of M.I.A. to say the least, pointing out several lifestyle contradictions, may of which circle around the lavish life she relishes in, living in an incredibly wealthy neighborhood and wearing "millions of dollars’ worth of gold jewelry" to a photo shoot for her new album, supposedly being proud "knowing that the jewelry [required] a bodyguard."  After the cover story had been released, M.I.A. responded by Tweeting "CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE, ill b taking calls all day bitches ;)."  To this Tweet she attached a phone number which was Hirschberg's cell phone number.  The number was heavily spammed with several admirers of M.I.A.  Hirschberg handled the situation with incredible grace, simply stating that while what M.I.A. did was "infuriating" it wasn't surprising and joking that "The messages have mostly been from people trying to hook up with M.I.A. ... If she wants to get together with John at Bard next week, I have his number."

With M.I.A.'s immaturity aside, what the cover story was about was her new album and that's what we're here to talk about as well.  "MAYA" starts out well enough with the very industrial sounding "Steppin Up" which contains drills, clanks, other machinery masked across the back beat.  However, the rest of her album doesn't contain the same intensity that this song does, save for a few titles which only seem to be found at the start of the album.  M.I.A., known for her more rap-like style, seems to migrate toward singing in this album on several track such as "It Takes a Muscle" and "Born Free."  "Born Free" is the point at which I lost interest in this album.  The song consists of an uptempo running bass line, the pounding of symbols and a bass drum, all topped of with M.I.A., not singing, but rather shouting.  The lyrics, while inspired, are sung in such a way that they become annoying and almost hard to listen too.  Auto-tune is used fairly heavily, which comes as no surprise seeing as how M.I.A. is not one to be familiar with singing, her producer actually stating that he "made her sing" and that M.I.A. is a "big pop star now, and pop stars sing" (he also noted that in the past, M.I.A. and he worked as a team, but for this album M.I.A. was determined to show "how much she didn’t need [them]" and that she is "postmodern: she can’t really make music or art that well, but she’s better than anyone at putting crazy ideas into motion," something I found hilarious).  "Born Free" also seems eerily similar to Nine Inch Nails' "Survivalism" both instrumentally and in context of their music videos.  While there hasn't been any sort of connection between the two, Colin brought it up to me, and I thought it was something worth mentioning.  You compare the two and let me know what you think.

The latter half of "MAYA" seems to spiral downward with a mess of songs that blend together such as "Meds and Feds," "Tell Me Why," "Space," and "Internet Connection."  "Space" is one of the more successful tracks in which M.I.A. sings, creating a pleasant atmosphere both instrumentally and vocally.  "Tell Me Why," however, still presents the annoying, whiny voice that can be seen in "Born Free."  "Illygirl," while harking back to the start of the album sounding very similar in style to "Steppin Up" and "Lovealot" still manages to throw a whole lot of bullshit together and sound like a mess of noise like "Born Free."  These weaker songs, however, do have stronger songs that attempt to balance them out such as "Lovealot" and "Believer feat. Blaqstarr," both of which emulate her more successful rapping style that was seen in her previous albums.  "Believer" is perhaps her strongest song on the album, greatly to the help of Blaqstarr's melodic, soothing vocals, which are a much needed break from M.I.A.'s screeching, high pitched, annoying singing voice. 

In the end, M.I.A. creates a fairly decent album, but nothing as strong as her past albums.  While her producer seems to believe that she's turned into a pop star, there's a reason for that and it is not singing.  M.I.A. gained fame because of her edgy rapping style.  Regardless if her lyrics are controversial to her lifestyle, were her album edgy like her past albums, the swarm of controversy that has surrounded this album wouldn't be nearly as bad.  However, it seems as though M.I.A. has taken a bow to popular culture in changing her style so drastically, something that rubs what she is supposed to stand for the wrong way.  The album has some enjoyable tracks and is worth taking a listen to.  The weaker tracks, however, do outweigh the stronger ones; that coupled with M.I.A.'s outlandish immaturity in handling a bad review (if you could call what she did "handling" it) severally hurt her score and tarnishes the reputation she had in the eyes of many of her supporters.  

"/\/\ /\ Y /\": 44/100

Take a listen to it here.

Streets of Gold

For this review, I decided to take a look at something I didn't think I would like.  3Oh!3's (I will be abbreviating it as 303 for simplicity sake) has received incredibly low reviews getting comments such as "Streets of Gold is about as pleasant as a case of genital herpes" (Rolling Stone) and "Streets of Gold [is packed] with mindless, completely clustered romps through nothingness" (Absolute Punk).  Now, in all honesty, I have a bit of a soft spot for 303: they're from Boulder, they went to CU, and I enjoyed their first two albums, "3OH!3" and "Want."  Unfortunately, these comments from other reviews aren't very far from the truth.  303's "Streets of Gold" is easily the worst album the duo has released so far.

303 struck fame at first with their song "Holler 'Til You Pass Out" among native audiences, but gained national attention with their song "Don't Trust Me."  A comparison of these two songs really shows what has happened to the band over time.  "Holler 'Til You Pass Out," coming from their album "3OH!3," epitomizes what I liked about the band: they're an awkward looking, lanky white-boy hardcore rap group from Boulder, CO.  The vocals are harsh, complimented by the heavily synthesized and electronic sounding background music.  From this song comes the famous line "You'z a punk bitch if you don't know 'bout Boulda" which has to be one of my favorite lines 303 has ever come up with, just for the simple fact that I find it HI-larious.  "Don't Trust Me" on the other hand has a much different feel from that of the previously mentioned song.  While there's still a bit of edginess in the lyrics, the overall feel of the song isn't the same.  Its much more poppy and upbeat with little to no hardcore rapping, replaced by a vast amount of sub-par singing.  Unfortunately for 303, "Streets of Gold" seems to follow the trend that garnered national attention rather than that that accumulated native love.

While "Streets of Gold" isn't poppy entirely vocally, it is poppy almost entirely in instrumentals and content.  Every other song has some sort of connection to their fan base which largely consists of college students and those who which they were college students (namely guidos and high school students).  "My First Kiss" guest stars Ke$ha, who, in my opinion, makes me want to throw up all over the place, take a nap, and then throw up again.  As much as I hate Ke$ha, she seems to compliment 303's vocals fairly well and this song will undoubtedly be a hit, if not the single 303 decides to release for the album.  "House Party" is most likely 303's most ingenious song lyrically, starting off by saying: "GONNA HAVE A HOUSE PARTY IN MY HOUSE/ Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, PARTY/ Thursday, Friday, Saturday, PARTY/ Sunday better find somebody else/ So for one day i don't have to clean up after myself/ Everybody say FUCK THE CLUBS (FUCK THE CLUBS)/ FUCK THE CLUBS (FUCK THE CLUBS)/ Say FUCK THE CLUBS (FUCK THE CLUBS)."  This song alone drastically lowers the scores "Streets of Gold" has been receiving and is by far one of the worst songs I have heard in a long time.  I can understand writing stupid songs for an audience, but this song eludes stupid with something that stupid even thinks is stupid.  I hope that not even a drunk frat boy smashing Keystone Light in his face would enjoy this song.

*Note: After looking for links to "House Party" I found that they've already made a music video for it... this is upsetting*

One song manages to stand out among the rest on the album, however, and that song is "I Know How To Say."  This might be because the instrumentals are fairly reminiscent of an old song by The Offspring (a band that has always been a guilty pleasure of mine), but with that aside, the instrumentals aren't terrible, the lyrics are fairly creative, and 303 doesn't sound poppy but rather rock-like, which is closer to their roots.  However, as the song proceeds, it gets worse.  The chorus really takes away from the verses, but doesn't ruin the song entirely.  What really ruins it is around two minutes and fifteen seconds when 303 begins chanting "Aishiteru/ Te amo!/ I love you!/ Je t'aime!/ Everywhere I go I always say the same thing/ In Russia, Japan, Brazil, Spain/ Everywhere I go they seem to scream the same thing."  Now, this wouldn't be so bad, but they butcher the pronunciation of "Je t'aime" (French for "I love you" if you couldn't guess).  Its bad enough when the content of your song, rather, your album as a whole is stupid, but to actually get things wrong and sound stupid on top of that doesn't help.  Sure, your main audience won't care, much less notice, but its things like this that make me appreciate the fact that I don't listen to main stream music.  Lyrics should be creative and inspired and 303 is fresh out of inspiration.

3Oh!3's "Streets of Gold" caters to a particular audience, an audience that snagged them fame on a national level.  They've strayed from their hardcore rap roots so much that the 3Oh!3 of the past and the present could likely be considered two different groups entirely.  Furthermore, they insult their fan base by both lowering the quality of their instrumentals and the content of their lyrics, showing that, for now, the creativity they were once adored for has disappeared entirely.  Beyond that, 3Oh!3 decides to tack on two tracks at the end of the album which were already previously released: "Don't Trust Me" and "Starstrukk."  "Strarstrukk" makes a bit of sense because this version is featuring Katy Perry, a version that was only previously available through the duo's music video of the song.  "Don't Trust Me," however, doesn't make any sense; nothing in this version of the song has been changed, remixed, or even changed in the slightest from  the version that was on "Want."  In my eyes, its just another low ball attempt for the duo to entice fans to buy their album by placing their first hit on it just for the hell of it.  "Streets of Gold" will likely be popular among the national 3Oh!3 fan base, but native Coloradians that discovered them before they hit it big will likely be disappointed.  The duo has found success straying from their roots and it is incredibly unlikely that they will return.

Take a listen here. 

"Streets of Gold": 22/100

Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

"Damn, and that wasn't nothin' but the intro.  Here we go."

Four years since the release of Outkast's "Idlewild" Big Boi has blown critics away with his debut solo album, "Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty."  Averaging a Metacritic score of 90 thanks to rave reviews from Pitchfork (92), NOW Magazine (100), and the L.A. Times (88) it seems as though Big Boi hasn't fallen far from the tree of Outkast's record success.  "Idlewild" aside (receiving an average score of 72), Outkast is no stranger to high reviews with "Stankonia" receiving an average of 95 and "Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below" receiving an average of 91; In fact, "Stankonia" was the highest rated album of 2000 and Outkast was the highest rated hip-hop artist of the past decade.  Even after a label dispute regarding Andre 3000's appearance on the album causing Big Boi to completely change his track listing, he still managed to pull through and blow everyone out of the water.  Thankfully, Andre 3000 still manages to make an appearance as a producer on "You Ain't No DJ" and, although removed from the final track list, on "Lookin' For Ya," which can be found on YouTube thanks to Big Boi.

Listeners, undoubtedly, will still feel like they're listening to Outkast even with the absence of Andre 3000.  However, even so, Big Boi's sound is a little different from what can be heard in his half of "Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below."  Big Boi has always had a harder more gangster sound between the two members of Outkast, but has always managed to successfully pull off a very smooth, jazz type feel as well.  Songs such as "The Way You Move" and "Church" from "Speakerboxx" definitely have a softer, smoother sound to them when compared to his more gangster rap songs like "Ghetto Musick" and "Last Call."  These sorts of songs, while not entirely absent, are definitely overshadowed in Big Boi's solo debut.  "Be Still" featuring Janelle Monae definitely calls back to Big Boi's softer roots, but overall the song is unimpressive.  For people who have followed my blog you'll know that when I reviewed Janelle Monae's "The ArchAndroid" I raved about her creativity and range vocally.  However, in "Be Still," while she sounds incredibly smooth and has a beautiful voice, nothing about this song shows off how much talent she has; This song, to say the least, is boring.  

"Sir Lucious Left Foot" definitely has more strength in its faster, potential club hits such as "Shutterbug" and "Shine Blockas," as well as its harder, more gangster songs such as "Tangerine" and "Night Night."  "Shutterbug," which by far will be the song the album is remembered for, shows that Big Boi still has the same impressive flow in 2010 that he had in "Humble Mumble" from "Stankonia" in 2000.  While "Shutterbug" will definitely be the most well known song from "Sir Lucious Left Foot," "Tangerine" is without doubt Big Boi's most impressive song.  The steady guitar, the slow but heavy bass drum, and the clapping meld together to make an incredibly sensual and seductive back beat.  Big Boi and T.I.'s flow create the same sort of atmosphere that can be seen in songs such as "The Next Episode" by Dr. Dre.  What's that atmosphere you say?  A strip club.  You can't argue me on this one, Tangerine is a strippers name and I won't hear anything saying otherwise.  "Tangerine" just has the feel of a completed song; nothing is missing and it seems to accomplish exactly what its striving for.  Big Boi and T.I. create an impressive tandem and the overall feel of the song is just awesome.

Big Boi, however, does fall short in one aspect with "Sir Lucious Left Foot" and that's with his guest appearances.  He has a stellar cast of featuring artists such as Janelle Monae, B.O.B., T.I., Jamie Foxx, and George Clinton, but with several of these artists Big Boi fails to utilize them as well as he could have or should.  I've already mentioned how Janelle Monae's vocals are boring and lackluster, but the most disappointing of these guest appearances has to be George Clinton's.  "Fo Yo Sorrows" is an incredible song that really shows of Big Boi's talent lyrically and his incredible flow.  He addresses Hurricane Katrina quickly by saying "'member when the levee scream, made the folks evacua-ezz/ Yeah, I'm still speakin about it 'cause New Orleans ain't clean/ When we shout "Dirty South", I don't think that is what we mean/ I mean, it means the rough, the tough, the dangerous, we reign supreme."  However, although George Clinton is on this track, his appearance is very brief.   He chimes in during the songs intro as well as the bridge and outro.  In both instances he talks about how much he likes smoking weed, something that is far from news to anyone who know George Clinton (I mean, just look at the picture of him, come on).  Unfortunately, it seems as though Big Boi only really makes use of the lesser known guest appearances on his album such as Gucci Mane, Too Short, and Cutty.  While these artists make a solid contribution to the album, they're not nearly as exciting as some of the other names that grace the album.  Even Sleepy Brown, who had an incredible appearance on Big Boi's "The Way You Move," while appearing on a track seems to go unnoticed in "Turns Me On."

Outside of the unfortunate misuse of his guest appearances, Big Boi sounds incredible on this album and is definitely at the top of his game.  He still has the flare and spark that made him so intimidating in "Stankonia," yet seems more polished and refined both as a rapper and a creative artist.  Even with several road blocks in the midst of the albums creation, Big Boi manages to turn out a fresh sounding and beyond impressive solo debut.  "Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty" is an album that should be in every hip-hop listener's collection.  With a solo debut album coming up potentially this year, the ball is in Andre 3000's court.  Hopefully he'll be able to produce a solo album of the same caliber as Big Boi.  Take a listen to the album here.

"Sir Lurcious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty": 89/100

Music Discovery #1

Music: Some good, some bang-your-head-against-the-wall worthy
Since its a little difficult to find, listen to, and review more than about two or three albums a week, I thought I would start something new, but still music related, similar to my "Guilty Pleasures" posts.  This time, however, I thought I would write a bit about music I have recently stumbled upon. 


First off, I'd like to start out with the bad music I've found.  While I was writing my Miley Cyrus post and watching her music video on YouTube, I read a comment that said something along the lines of "Young girls can't look up to Cyrus anymore, blah blah blah, she better watch out for Cymphonique."  Now, after reading the name "Cymphonique," I thought to myself, "Maybe this is some sort of up and coming, young, R&B singer."  Well, I was pretty wrong.  After searching YouTube for "Cymphonique," this is what I found: "Lil Miss Swaggar."  At first, I thought it had to be a joke or at least some sort of Kidz Bop thing.  Unfortunately, this is serious.  I thought I had found the epitome of child extortion, but thankfully, she's related to a rapper or two.  For anyone who hasn't heard of Lil' Romeo, you're better off, he's terrible.  He was like a worse version of Lil' Bow Wow, ehem, excuse me, Bow Wow (fun fact: Bow Wow started getting upset at people for calling him "Lil'").  Lil' Romeo and Cymphonique are the children of Master P who has done little to nothing significant outside of the song "Oohhhwee," a song that's only redeeming quality is.... well, its sort of funny.  Oh, he was on Cribs too.  Anyway, if you couldn't tell, Cynmphonique's "Lil Miss Swaggar" is pretty catchy, but nevertheless, she scares me and needs to go away.  She's almost as bad as Bieber... almost...  I have one more bad thing I stumbled upon, but I'll save that for a later post (Hint: Asian pop song).

Next, I'd like to talk about something I found that was surprisingly good: J. Cole's "Who Dat."  I came across this song because I was listening to something on YouTube in the morning and he came on immediately after by mistake.  J. Cole's video, as far as I can tell, was taken in one shot and includes a mob of people follow him, a marching band, and lots of stuff exploding as he shouts "Who dat?  Who dat?  Bitch I got that flame! So don't worry 'bout my mother fuckin' name!"  J. Cole has some pretty impressive flow and has great personality and inflection on top of that.  His voice sounds good, a little similar to Kanye West, but has a certain rhaspy quality to it that really makes him stand out.  He also has lines that really make you go "Woah!" or, my favorite, "OOOOOOOOOOH SNAP!"  Among these lines are: "Clown told me, 'Ain't you rock, where the fuck your chain at?'/ Guess its something like your girl, nigger, it ain't came yet" and "Boy I'm picture perfect baby, you can check the Kodak/ Hey! So anything you can do, I can do better/ And any chick you can screw, I can get wetter."  All I can say is that I would absolutely love to see this guy throw down in a rap battle.  I may be mistaken, but at some point I can distinctively hear a clip of Andre 3000, and all I can say is that if Andre 3000 is backing this guy, I can too (it would make sense seeing as how Big Boi recently backed Janelle Monae with great success).  I am now eagerly anticipating the release of his new album, which should drop some time later this year.

As a finishing point I'd just like to mention a few things happening as far as releases go in the music world.  Big Boi, half of the Outkast duo, is coming out with his solo album "Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty."  Kylie Minogue is also expected to have a release coming out this week, although I'm less excited about that one.  3Oh!3 came out with their newest album "Streets of Gold" which, unfortunately, has received underwhelming reviews averaging a 47.  Lil Jon also came out with his newest album, "Crunk Rock," averaging a 59, just shy of overall positive reviews.  I may just have to give that a listen, for a laugh if not for anything else.  As for me, right now, I'm listening to the new Roots album "How I Got Over" and The Decemberists' "Hazards of Love."  Hope you enjoyed this new segment, and hopefully I'll be able to keep it going in the future.  What music have you stumbled upon?

Total Life Forever

"Religious regret and infinite debt,/ Heaven's pressure"

I wanted to write about something that was completely foreign to me, so I decided to take a listen to Foals new album "Total Life Forever."  I had never heard of this band, so I was interested to hear what they sound like.  Foals is a British indie/rock band that released their debut album, "Antidotes," in 2008.  "Total Life Forever" overall got a Metacritic score of 79 with high scores from Sputnikmusic (90) and BBC Music (80).

Out of all of the albums I've reviewed so far, I definitely had to listen to this one the most.  I listened to it about three or four times and thought I had a good feel for it.  However, when I looked at the track list, I couldn't imagine what each song sounded like.  I then proceeded to listen to the album about three more times really intently until I could think of what almost every song sounded like and I could pick out at least two songs that I felt explained the bands sound on "Total Life Forever" the most

The first song that really caught my attention was "Total Life Forever" (this link will take you to a pretty good live studio version of the song; you can listen to the album version here)  The reason it attracted my attention was because its significantly more upbeat than the albums first two songs.  It has a very bouncy beat with some funky guitar licks and keyboard lines.  Another reason why it caught my attention was because "Total Life Forever" sounds incredibly similar to Friendly Fires' "Skeleton Boy" (another album I may review at some point).  They sound so similar vocally that I did some research to see if the vocalists were the same.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the musical epiphany that I had thought, although they have played together before.

As you progress through the album, you'll notice that Foals has two different sorts of sounds they like to play with: one that is a bit more upbeat and funky, and another that is much slower and much more ambient.  "Alabaster" is the second song that attracted my attention starting with some simple synthesizing and guitar strumming which leads into some mild, but brief tension, bringing in the bass and vocals, all of which are incredibly light.  Not only do the lyrics present the idea of flying with lines such as "She's up in the sky/ She's up in the domes/ She's up in the sky, up in the dome," but the instrumentals also create a soft melody to compliment it.  About half way through the song, the vocals turn to chanting which lead into a brief industrial sound that becomes ever present throughout the background of the rest of the song as Yannis Philippakis, the band's vocalist, begins to convey a darker message: "She's up in the sky and the sky is one fire/...And with victory the whole world will be ours/ We will build nothing in it/ Nothing in it."

Lyrically, Foals is pretty strong and has fairly good content.  However, some of them seem lazy and redundant audibly with lyrics such as "Come and help me accept it, affect it, protect it/ Come and help me accept it, it's always my home" in the song "Blue Blood;" and "I'm the fury in your head/ I'm the fury in your bed/ I'm the ghost in the back of your head" from "Spanish Sahara."  Lyrics like these really take away from some of their more creative lyrics that are seen in songs such as "Alabaster."  "Blue Blood" in all fairness is one of the better tracks on the album, but because of the aforementioned lyrics, it drops significantly, not only because of the lyrics themselves, but because of the way they're sung, or rather, chanted.  Furthermore, unfortunately, the chant of "accept it, affect it, protect it" happens more than once.

While Foals seems to be successful in having two predominant sounds in their album (upbeat and ambient) they still seem to struggle with how to use both of these sounds effectively.  While "Spanish Sahara" turns out to be a pretty great song, it begins so quietly that not until almost forty-five seconds in did I realize I was listening to a new song as opposed to my iPod freezing; to me that's a little too ambient.  Their more uptempo songs, however, overall, are much stronger, "Black Gold" and "Miami" among them.  Overall, Foals manages to create something that is unique and possesses and interesting quality.  They are, however, a band that can easily become background noise; you really have to listen to the album intently in order to gain an appreciation for their music.

"Total Life Forever": 82/100

Take a listen to the full album here.

Although I wanted to go to bed... I had to say something

 "I've never heard a Jay-Z song."

 Miley Cyrus... she used to be Hannah Montana or whatever, right?  Well, she's certainly not looking like it.  I don't know if anyone has heard or noticed anything about her as of recent, but she's grown boobs, I mean, wings, and has evidently become a slut and is quite proud of it (I can thank this discovery to Target).  Her new single, "Can't Be Tamed," off the album by the same name has her prancing around in a bird costume with a bunch of other people in bird costumes talking about how she, get this, can't be tamed.  This is seemingly ironic seeing as how in her music video she both starts and ends it inside of a cage.

Anyway, on to the issue: why does she exist?  She started out like Hilary Duff with her own teeny bopper show on Disney, followed up with a movie that hit theaters based off of said show, only to land a musical career afterward.  Now, Hilary Duff was a big flop and didn't really go anywhere.  Thank god the biggest mistake she ever made was dating Joel Madden from Good Charlotte;  she never seemed to hit her Britney phase.  Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, seems to heading straight down the path towards Britney, however, this could be much more interesting than Birtney's crazy phase ever was.

The part about this "new" Miley Cyrus that baffles me is that she's using this song as a platform to say, "Hey, everyone!  I'm an adult and am going to sing about adult things, so, like, take me serious, okay?"  which roughly translates to, "Hey, dudes!  I'm a slut still, but am going public!  Do adults things to me, like, serious, okay?"  I can understand where certain pop stars had these phases: Britney was always seen as the innocent virgin until she released her "Britney" album in 2000 with the "sultry" song "I'm a Slave 4 U" (Yay for text talk);  Christina Aguilera did the exact same thing, with a slightly grungier look, in 2002 with "Stripped."  There's no denying that all three of these female vocalists started in Disney, but there is one big difference.  Britney came out and said, "Hey, I'm a slut!" when she was twenty, Christina did it when she was twenty-two... guess how old Miley Cyrus is.  She's a whopping seventeen years old.  You know what that means?  She's still jailbait (jailbait: n. Slang A person below the age of consent with whom sexual intercourse can constitute statutory rape).  Uh... that's a no go.

The thing that's even worse about it is that while now she's publicly trying to have a womanly image and have people take her seriously sexually as opposed to thinking she's still some sort of Disney child star, everyone already thought she was a slut in the first place.  Her announcing it via album isn't anything new.  Remember in 2008 when you were FIFTEEN YEARS OLD and there was a scandal about you posing in PROVOCATIVE photos as well as doing a supposed NUDE PHOTO SHOOT for Vanity Fair?  Everyone thought you were a slut then and no one has changed their minds about that, I promise you.  If anything, you're just admitting that you're a slut (I have never used the word slut so many times in such a short amount of time in my life).

Just to add another thing, she's stupid as hell.  In an interview she was asked what Jay-Z song inspired her to write "Party in the U.S.A.," her hit from last year, seeing as how in the song she mentions a Jay-Z song coming on the radio.  She responded with "I don't know, I didn't write the song, so I have no idea," closely followed by "I've never heard a Jay-Z song. I don't listen to pop music." ... shit like this makes me mad that people like her have a fan base.  Anyway, she's heading straight down the path to marry K-Fed, have two children, and look like Britney in her crazy days.

Have fun shaving your head.

Recovery

After over a week of sitting in a wedding, reading the seventh Harry Potter, getting sun burnt, and eating cheese curds I'm finally back from Wisconsin.  Its nice to be home.  On to the review, and its gonna be a long one, its Eminem:

"Cinderella Man"

I was really anticipating the release of Eminem's new album "Recovery," and had been for a long time.  Anyone who reads my blog might have read a post I wrote about Eminem talking about why I hold him in such high esteem as a rapper.  After listening to his 2009 release "Relapse" and being severely disappointed, I was expecting a lot from this album.  When I first listened to it I was pleasantly surprised.  Where on "Relapse" Eminem took a dramatic turn towards his more comedic rapping style, in "Recovery" he definitely tries to return to the edgy, angsty, angry sound that made him so popular on his "Slim Shady LP" and "The Eminem Show."  At first, I thought the album was great.  After talking to a friend of mine, however, I realized that even though he is trying to dig back down to his roots, it isn't possible; there is absolutely no way Eminem can be the Eminem that Dr. Dre originally discovered.  He's changed drastically and he just isn't the same.  After listening to the album a few more times, I realized that this is even more true in terms of his rapping and lyrics.  The best way I can describe it is through this analogy:  Say you have a friend who you go out drinking with a lot; you have fun, get drunk, get schwasted, whatever.  Say later they become an alcoholic and are crazy out of control.  They check into rehab and afterward, you're glad they're sober, but they're just not as much fun as they used to be.  Well, that's Eminem.

Eminem has always been the epitome of edgy rap.  Certain rappers like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, 2-Pac, and the Notorious B.I.G. pushed what was typically acceptable to rap about by (as Steve Berman puts it in "The Marshall Mathers LP") "rappin' about big-screen TVs, blunts, 40's and bitches."  Eminem, however, took it to an entirely different level, as Steve Berman again puts it, "rappin' about homosexuals and Vicadin."  Its without question that Eminem is the edgiest most controversial rapper out there.  In fact that's what attracted me to him; he is entirely different from any other rapper that has ever picked up a mic.  In his 2009 release "Relapse" Eminem was almost entirely devoid of his typical edge.  "Relapse" focused more on his comedic side and although it did have some disturbing content, such as his song "3 AM," even those songs were rapped in his more joking style of rap seen in hits such as "My Name Is" and the "The Real Slim Shady" (save for the stand alone harder song "Underground/Ken Kaniff" at the end of the album).  In "Recovery" Eminem really does try to turn back to his harder edgier style, but, unfortunately, with little success. 

His single from the album "Not Afraid" conveys feelings of regret for his last album, confessing that he knew it was a disaster, saying "Let’s be honest, that last Relapse CD was 'ehhhh.'" He also addresses his absence from his fans right before by rapping "And to the fans, I’ll never let you down again, I’m back/ I promise to never go back on that promise."  Eminem really does stand out on this track and does sound a bit like his old self.  Its nice to hear him own up to his mistakes and actually apologize to his fans.  While this is all well and good on "Not Afraid," Eminem wears his apology a little too thin, the same subject matter appears in several other songs such as "Cinderella Man."  He exhausts several other themes such as how he hates "the fame" but loves "the game;"  how hip-hop can't be the same without him and he's not going away; and how he has been constantly doubted as a rapper.

To get the rest of the negativity out really quick, the only other serious downfall on this album is that Eminem doesn't make the most of his guest appearances.  In "Won't Back Down" and "Love the Way You Lie" he has P!nk and Rihanna as guest appearances respectively.  However, all they do is sing the chorus and nothing more than that.  Having two hot, popular female artists on a hip-hop album is huge and to not use their vocals to your advantage is a huge mistake.  The only guest appearance Eminem makes use of is Lil Wayne in "No Love;" however, even then, this song doesn't seem to compliment Lil Wayne very well and one would expect a duo of Eminem and Lil Wayne to make a hilarious rap song if used correctly.  Unfortunately, the end product is an almost cheesy, heart-broken ballad with Haddaway's "What is Love" as a back track.

Onto what makes this album good, namely three tracks: "Cold Wind Blows," "Almost Famous," and "Cinderella Man." While at first I didn't really enjoy "Cold Wind Blows," after listening to it a few times I liked it more.  Eminem has comedic rapping in it (my favorite line is "Yeah I laugh when I call you a slut, its funny!") while still having a sort of tough back beat.  I was unsure about the chorus at first because its Eminem singing which is never pretty.  However, after listening to Mariah Carey's "Obsessed" it is clear that this song is a little stab at her.  Although Eminem already DESTROYED Mariah and her husband, regrettably, Nick Cannon in his single "The Warning," everyone knows that Eminem tends to hold onto grudges for quite some time.  His flow overall is really solid and his content is decent making an overall standout song.  "Almost Famous" has an eerie, almost creepy sound that borders on a hybrid of "Amityville" from "The Marshall Mathers LP" and "3 AM" from "Relapse."  A female vocalist sings the chorus which really provides for the eerie atmosphere.  The lyrics in the song back track through how Eminem started out and made it famous.  Although this is a subject Eminem has touched upon several times in the past, the lyrics are strong, dynamic, and manage to paint an impressive pictures with lines such as "Now there he goes in Dre's studio cuppin' his balls/ Screaming the wood off the panel/ And cussing the paint off the walls."

"Cinderella Man"  in my opinion, is the best track on the entire album.  It starts with Eminem talking over a stomping and clapping beat, closely followed by a male choir singing.  The male vocalists also later sings the hook "Cinderella man, Cinderella man, Cinderella man" mingled in between Eminem's verses which really compliments the harshness of his flow.  The chorus on top of that, while being somewhat cheesy, is incredibly well constructed and really works as possibly one of the best he's ever created: "Now guess who who (hey)/ Here's a clue (hey)/ He came to a ball in a wife beater/ Lost his Nike shoe/ It's in ya ass (hey)/ He's in ya ass, he's all up in ya psyche too/ Now what's his name?" followed by the choir repeating "Cinderella Man."  The overall feel of the song really juxtaposes a calm, relaxing feeling with one of anger and triumph creating an epic song that really shows that Eminem still has his spark. 

While its not his best album ever, Eminem does have some shining moments in "Recovery," which ended up with an overall Metacritic score of 61, which is a huge success, considering that he started his release out with as low of a score as 30.  Thankfully he had high reviews from Entertainment Weekly (83) and Rolling Stone (80).  Where "The Marshall Mathers LP" (arguably his best album) has all good songs with stand out great songs, "Recovery" has some decent songs, some good songs, and one great song, "Cinderella Man."  Eminem will never be the edgy rapper he used to be.  He's not struggling as much as he once was and although I'm glad his life is almost entirely turned around, that in turn turns around his rap as well; his torment and anger is what originally fueled his fire.  Fortunately, "Cinderella Man" shows listeners that Eminem doesn't need to be at the bottom of the barrel in order to create something great.  Take a listen to it here.

"Recovery": 79/100

Check out Mariah Carey's "Obsessed" and Eminem's rebuke, "The Warning" and you be the judge as to who won the battle.