Sorry about the delay in reviews
Nappy Roots and GZA reviews coming soon...I promise.
Peace.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Stoopid people won't buy this...
I first heard about Little Jackie through…sigh…VH1’s Artists You Oughta Know. I know; weak right? But they hit right on the money pretty often. Regina Spektor. Duffy. Matt Nathanson. Well…two out of three ain’t bad. VH1 may very well be the best source for decent music on TV. Little Jackie is a duo of DJ/producer/instrumentalist Allan Pallin and songwriter Imani Coppola. This isn’t a first time affair for either of them, but as a duo it is. So, although “The Stoop” is Little Jackie’s debut, it is just a continuation of a much longer career. It is kind of confusing. Think of when Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse teamed up to make Gnarls Barkley. Same thing and the music is just as good.
This album is truly nothing short of brilliant. At first glance, it seems to be riding on the coattails of the New Old Style Soul movement (Gnarls, Duffy, Amy Winehouse, etc.) all the while combining bits of the Hipster Rap movement (Kidz in the Hall, Lupe Fiasco, The Cool Kids, etc.). But it is more than that. This is Motown style soul with Brooklyn hip-hop. That is the best music ever made. And it is so, so, so, SO glorious!
The title track launches you into a crazy sound. It’s like…driving, walking, and flying all at the same time. But you never leave the projects. Imani wants you to know exactly where you are. “The stoop is my throne/this hood is my home/and the sky’s always blue but the brown stones/we in Brooklyn.” It is a fun rhythm. It is like that scene from Do the Right Thing where everyone is playing in the street after opening the fire hydrant. You ever seen that flick? I liked it. Spike Lee man…you can’t go wrong. And the fun just continues on.
The next track, “The World Should Revolve Around Me,” is so enjoyable. Too bad “New York Goes to Hollywood” is using it as its theme song. That is probably the most painful thing about this album; it is getting play in the wrong places. Way to drop the ball on that one VH1. Their music is good, but the reality TV is pretty…awful. But let’s look past that. Imani’s rhymes are clever. “There’s only one me/in the galaxy/I am an endangered species.” A few lines later, my favorite line from the whole album, maybe even one of my favorites ever, showcases good word play and humor. “I bide my time with philosophical questions/not for nothin’/but what came first/the chicken nugget or the egg McMuffin?”
Nobody has ever thought of this? Really? The album just keeps going on and on. “Guys Like When Girls Kiss” is probably the gayest track ever made. It is about deciding to become a lesbian. Seriously…it is gay. It is like The Supremes “Baby Love.” It just has so much love and pain in it. “How can we possibly co-exist/Men came from Mars/Women came from Venus/We think with our brains/Men think with their penis.” Wow…it is almost enough to wonder: Who turned this girl so bad that she hates men? The track itself sounds so sad, but it keeps its up-tempo, so you feel the joy of the new adventure. Good music always takes you on a trip.
Oh, you want hip-hop? “Cryin’ for the Queen” is your track. Imani’s delivery is a rhythm on its own, and the music is really just a compliment to her. This song may be one of the best female emcee tracks I’ve heard since…“Ruff Neck” by MC Lyte. It is a diss track to no one, hip-hop braggadocio reppin’ New York forever. The track is so immensely quotable; I can’t even try to do it.
This album has excellent production, and Allen does a terrific job. This is what music should sound like. But as good as the music is there is one flaw. The album doesn’t slow down. You just feel the love and excitement and everything this album wants you to feel, but it remains so up-tempo for the entire album. You’ll need a break after this one. I wish I could have examined the tracks a few more times, but I just couldn’t listen anymore. That is the major flaw. I don’t want to listen to this album for at least a week. I’ll come back, and boy I will pump it. But it was so packed and epic sounding, I couldn’t stand it much longer.
This is one of my favorite albums of the year. This is driving music. Traveling. Running. Walking. Shopping. This is music for people on the move. This is performance music. But if you need a slow vibe, pick something else up…after you listen to this.
As Imani says: “The people paid to see a show/they didn’t just make a kind donation.”
4/5
This album is truly nothing short of brilliant. At first glance, it seems to be riding on the coattails of the New Old Style Soul movement (Gnarls, Duffy, Amy Winehouse, etc.) all the while combining bits of the Hipster Rap movement (Kidz in the Hall, Lupe Fiasco, The Cool Kids, etc.). But it is more than that. This is Motown style soul with Brooklyn hip-hop. That is the best music ever made. And it is so, so, so, SO glorious!
The title track launches you into a crazy sound. It’s like…driving, walking, and flying all at the same time. But you never leave the projects. Imani wants you to know exactly where you are. “The stoop is my throne/this hood is my home/and the sky’s always blue but the brown stones/we in Brooklyn.” It is a fun rhythm. It is like that scene from Do the Right Thing where everyone is playing in the street after opening the fire hydrant. You ever seen that flick? I liked it. Spike Lee man…you can’t go wrong. And the fun just continues on.
The next track, “The World Should Revolve Around Me,” is so enjoyable. Too bad “New York Goes to Hollywood” is using it as its theme song. That is probably the most painful thing about this album; it is getting play in the wrong places. Way to drop the ball on that one VH1. Their music is good, but the reality TV is pretty…awful. But let’s look past that. Imani’s rhymes are clever. “There’s only one me/in the galaxy/I am an endangered species.” A few lines later, my favorite line from the whole album, maybe even one of my favorites ever, showcases good word play and humor. “I bide my time with philosophical questions/not for nothin’/but what came first/the chicken nugget or the egg McMuffin?”
Nobody has ever thought of this? Really? The album just keeps going on and on. “Guys Like When Girls Kiss” is probably the gayest track ever made. It is about deciding to become a lesbian. Seriously…it is gay. It is like The Supremes “Baby Love.” It just has so much love and pain in it. “How can we possibly co-exist/Men came from Mars/Women came from Venus/We think with our brains/Men think with their penis.” Wow…it is almost enough to wonder: Who turned this girl so bad that she hates men? The track itself sounds so sad, but it keeps its up-tempo, so you feel the joy of the new adventure. Good music always takes you on a trip.
Oh, you want hip-hop? “Cryin’ for the Queen” is your track. Imani’s delivery is a rhythm on its own, and the music is really just a compliment to her. This song may be one of the best female emcee tracks I’ve heard since…“Ruff Neck” by MC Lyte. It is a diss track to no one, hip-hop braggadocio reppin’ New York forever. The track is so immensely quotable; I can’t even try to do it.
This album has excellent production, and Allen does a terrific job. This is what music should sound like. But as good as the music is there is one flaw. The album doesn’t slow down. You just feel the love and excitement and everything this album wants you to feel, but it remains so up-tempo for the entire album. You’ll need a break after this one. I wish I could have examined the tracks a few more times, but I just couldn’t listen anymore. That is the major flaw. I don’t want to listen to this album for at least a week. I’ll come back, and boy I will pump it. But it was so packed and epic sounding, I couldn’t stand it much longer.
This is one of my favorite albums of the year. This is driving music. Traveling. Running. Walking. Shopping. This is music for people on the move. This is performance music. But if you need a slow vibe, pick something else up…after you listen to this.
As Imani says: “The people paid to see a show/they didn’t just make a kind donation.”
4/5
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Earth to the Dandy Warhols...(they made it too easy)
The Dandy Warhols are college rock at its absolute finest. Sadly, they aren’t much more than that.
Earth to the Dandy Warhols is an ambitious project. It sets a new standard for college radio. It tries to move rock music in a new direction as well. But this is probably too ambitious for the band. They are art for art’s sake. This album seems to be a mishmash of every different idea that was brought to the table. This is the album’s downfall. And it fell down pretty hard.
The album kicks off with a party sound, and the party continues throughout the album…well for a little bit at least. This record seems to be catered towards the indie kid dance scene. Not a bad thing, but wow…it hurts my head. “Mission Control” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It has a Depeche Mode mixed with Nine Inch Nails feeling to it. Heavy, but totally danceable. I would spin this at a party without hesitation. The funky “Welcome to the Third World” is a good follow-up track. You can feel the seventies just exuding from this record. The sing-speak reminded me a lot of Frank Zappa’s music, which is a very good thing. “The boys like the girls and the girls like the money/you gotta spread it around because/the girls like the boys and the boys like the honey.” That is probably one of the most quotable lyrics on the entire album, and it is just radiating with ironic chauvinism. Just like Zappa.
I wish the Warhols would have kept up the good music. The next track, “Wasp in the Lotus,” I had to skip about halfway through. Could they have used more distortion on this track? Probably not. It is white noise with a vocoder. It just gave me a headache like you wouldn’t believe. Damn, it still hurts. Did they come out of the speaker and punch me in the forehead? That would probably be a better feeling. God…it still hurts.
The band really seems to have changed gears in the last half of the album. Remember how I said the dance sound continues for a while? “Wasp in the Lotus” destroyed that, and it quickly becomes an amalgamation of old style rock and the left of center scene. “Now You Love Me” and “Mis Amigos” are reminiscent of the California surf tunes in the fifties and sixties. But they do keep the Dandy sound in it very much. Not a bad thing, but at times I wished the Beatles had never opened the world up to recorded distortion. It is good, and it works just fine but damn, I really wonder how much better this band would be if they used little-to-no distortion, at least on these tracks.
The rest of the album is a little too dark. Especially with the sounds they have been pumping for these last couple tracks. “The Legend of the Last of the Outlaw Truckers a.k.a. the Ballad of Sheriff Shorty” is an unwarranted excursion into country and light metal. It is an okay track, but it comes out of nowhere. And the album just gets darker and darker for three more tracks. The Dandy Warhols are not fun for a good half hour. “Musee D' Nougat” is some storytelling and some pseudo-classical music. Not a good mix. Seriously…the mix is just bad. I couldn’t even hear that there was speaking until the second time around. Who produced this garbage? Sure, not every producer is Rick Rubin, but damn…this is just bad. And at nearly fifteen minutes long, it really isn't worth it.
Going through this, you may say to yourself “Oh…he hates distorted music.” That’s not true. I will throw on some good old fashioned thrash. Death Cab does good rock distortion. The Beatles’ “Let it Be” is a distorted classic. I don’t dislike distortion; I just like it done well. The Dandy Warhols had an awful production mix. You may say to yourself “Oh…he doesn’t like variety.” More lies from you, you wretched creature! I love variety. My music collection goes from Selena to Arvo Part to Dan Deacon to NWA. I thrive on variety. I just like music that is varied on a record to have a focus. The Dandy Warhols didn’t have that. You may say “Oh…he doesn’t like college radio.” You’re right, I don’t. And it is because of music like this that I don’t. The Dandy Warhols need to pick one thing. Stick with it for, I don’t know, an entire album. Yeah, they set a standard for college radio. But that isn't saying much.
It’s cliché to say there is always next time. But there is always next time.
2/5
Earth to the Dandy Warhols is an ambitious project. It sets a new standard for college radio. It tries to move rock music in a new direction as well. But this is probably too ambitious for the band. They are art for art’s sake. This album seems to be a mishmash of every different idea that was brought to the table. This is the album’s downfall. And it fell down pretty hard.
The album kicks off with a party sound, and the party continues throughout the album…well for a little bit at least. This record seems to be catered towards the indie kid dance scene. Not a bad thing, but wow…it hurts my head. “Mission Control” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It has a Depeche Mode mixed with Nine Inch Nails feeling to it. Heavy, but totally danceable. I would spin this at a party without hesitation. The funky “Welcome to the Third World” is a good follow-up track. You can feel the seventies just exuding from this record. The sing-speak reminded me a lot of Frank Zappa’s music, which is a very good thing. “The boys like the girls and the girls like the money/you gotta spread it around because/the girls like the boys and the boys like the honey.” That is probably one of the most quotable lyrics on the entire album, and it is just radiating with ironic chauvinism. Just like Zappa.
I wish the Warhols would have kept up the good music. The next track, “Wasp in the Lotus,” I had to skip about halfway through. Could they have used more distortion on this track? Probably not. It is white noise with a vocoder. It just gave me a headache like you wouldn’t believe. Damn, it still hurts. Did they come out of the speaker and punch me in the forehead? That would probably be a better feeling. God…it still hurts.
The band really seems to have changed gears in the last half of the album. Remember how I said the dance sound continues for a while? “Wasp in the Lotus” destroyed that, and it quickly becomes an amalgamation of old style rock and the left of center scene. “Now You Love Me” and “Mis Amigos” are reminiscent of the California surf tunes in the fifties and sixties. But they do keep the Dandy sound in it very much. Not a bad thing, but at times I wished the Beatles had never opened the world up to recorded distortion. It is good, and it works just fine but damn, I really wonder how much better this band would be if they used little-to-no distortion, at least on these tracks.
The rest of the album is a little too dark. Especially with the sounds they have been pumping for these last couple tracks. “The Legend of the Last of the Outlaw Truckers a.k.a. the Ballad of Sheriff Shorty” is an unwarranted excursion into country and light metal. It is an okay track, but it comes out of nowhere. And the album just gets darker and darker for three more tracks. The Dandy Warhols are not fun for a good half hour. “Musee D' Nougat” is some storytelling and some pseudo-classical music. Not a good mix. Seriously…the mix is just bad. I couldn’t even hear that there was speaking until the second time around. Who produced this garbage? Sure, not every producer is Rick Rubin, but damn…this is just bad. And at nearly fifteen minutes long, it really isn't worth it.
Going through this, you may say to yourself “Oh…he hates distorted music.” That’s not true. I will throw on some good old fashioned thrash. Death Cab does good rock distortion. The Beatles’ “Let it Be” is a distorted classic. I don’t dislike distortion; I just like it done well. The Dandy Warhols had an awful production mix. You may say to yourself “Oh…he doesn’t like variety.” More lies from you, you wretched creature! I love variety. My music collection goes from Selena to Arvo Part to Dan Deacon to NWA. I thrive on variety. I just like music that is varied on a record to have a focus. The Dandy Warhols didn’t have that. You may say “Oh…he doesn’t like college radio.” You’re right, I don’t. And it is because of music like this that I don’t. The Dandy Warhols need to pick one thing. Stick with it for, I don’t know, an entire album. Yeah, they set a standard for college radio. But that isn't saying much.
It’s cliché to say there is always next time. But there is always next time.
2/5
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
A few upcoming posts
Hello to any and all!
As you can tell, the blog is new and just getting underway. I'm currently at work on quite a few reviews, and a couple other posts that might be of interest.
1. The Dandy Warhol's latest is the next review for the site. Althought it came out in May, they are releasing an actual physical copy, so I might as well review it now.
2. GZA's new album "Pro Tools" will be reviewed (early even!). I just got it today, and I'm hard at work.
3. Little Jackie (aka Imani Coppola and Adam Pallin). Released July 15th, this is probably one album that has been slept on, so it will be in a recurring series titled "Missed it? GET IT!"
4. The Nappy Roots' "Humdinger". Got it a few days ago, and just haven't reviewed it yet. First I heard from them since "Watermelon, Chicken and Grits." Be on the look out for this.
So, those are the four upcoming posts. Just something for you to get excited about.
PEACE.
Joseph aka The Trouble Clef Composer!
As you can tell, the blog is new and just getting underway. I'm currently at work on quite a few reviews, and a couple other posts that might be of interest.
1. The Dandy Warhol's latest is the next review for the site. Althought it came out in May, they are releasing an actual physical copy, so I might as well review it now.
2. GZA's new album "Pro Tools" will be reviewed (early even!). I just got it today, and I'm hard at work.
3. Little Jackie (aka Imani Coppola and Adam Pallin). Released July 15th, this is probably one album that has been slept on, so it will be in a recurring series titled "Missed it? GET IT!"
4. The Nappy Roots' "Humdinger". Got it a few days ago, and just haven't reviewed it yet. First I heard from them since "Watermelon, Chicken and Grits." Be on the look out for this.
So, those are the four upcoming posts. Just something for you to get excited about.
PEACE.
Joseph aka The Trouble Clef Composer!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
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