Kendrick Lamar

Hey, if for some reason you’re reading this, and you used to read via RSS, please note you’ll have to delete the feed and re-add it after the server rebuild. Of course, if you tracked this via RSS, I don’t know how you would be seeing this in order to find this out. Because I also posted it on Bluesky, which seems like the only other place you’d find out about this post, and I told people to do that over there. So, I dunno. This is pointless. Everything about Five Songs is pointless. Let the yawning intentionless void consume you!

Zeke, “Action”

There are times when I think we should just ban all rock songs longer than two minutes. If you can’t get your point across in two minutes, go play some jazz or something, loser!

Atmosphere, “Besos”

I typed this first as “Beos”, and then thought, huh, I wonder what a veteran hip-hop duo was doing writing a song about a near-forgotten niche operating system. You all should be thankful I’m not going to even attempt a verse here.

Powerrun, “Pulse of the Night”

As someone who actually lived through the 80s, I have a real mixed opinion of stuff like this. Yes, there’s a nostalgia that tugs at me, and some of these sounds are genuinely fun. At the same time, it also evokes a lot of boring, dreary stuff from that period. I suppose that nobody is really trying to recreate the lame stuff, but a whiff of that stink still clings to it in my memory. Well, anyway, I do enjoy listening to stuff like this sometimes.

Mantar, “Eternal Return”

I long ago ran out of stuff to say about Mantar, so let’s just have a close listen to this. The shift up to the double-time drums fifty seconds in is nice. And a nice change in the gallop shortly after the vocals kick in. There’s a restlessness here, where they’re refusing to totally settle into a groove, which is kind of nice. Although sometimes the fun of music like this is a nice punishing rhythm. Views differ, apparently even in my head!

DJ Logic, “Abyss”

My kids and I often joke about “dog logic”, where dogs try to reason about the world from their first principles, and it leads to some funny places. So now, I’m trying to figure out what are the axioms of DJ logic, and what the precepts you’d reach based on them. But it’s late, and my head hurts, so I can’t really follow this through to its conclusion.

SIX SONGS WOOOO

The Temptations, “Hey Girl”

Goddamn, listen to those strings! With Cloud Nine, the Temptations laid down some of the building blocks of funk, as they departed from the traditional Motown sound and pointed the way to the 70s.

The xx, “Heart Skipped A Beat”

Indie pop band The xx kind of exploded out the door and were critical darlings right away with their electronic take on the genre, especially with the dual vocalists. And it’s here where I admit that a) I can never keep straight who The xx are and b) I clearly bought this at some point and I’m not entirely sure I’ve listened to it before. But I know I’ve read about them at various times! I totally didn’t have to look up stuff about them!

Today!

Unsane, “Dispatched”

I mentioned last time Unsane came up that they didn’t evolve that much between albums. And this song (from their second album) is a good example - this could easily have just slotted into the first album without skipping a beat. Finding your lane and staying to it is fine, of course, but it does mean that maybe you’re not going to want to keep up with a band for forever.

I don’t have a ton to say about these tracks, although there are a couple of truly great songs on the list. I figure, if I don’t have a ton to say, better to keep these things simple.

Kendrick Lamar, “The Blacker The Berry”

To Pimp a Butterfly was my favorite album of 2015, and this track is one of the hardest hitting songs on it.

Boss Hog, “Gerard”

Another scuzz rock track from Cold Hands, full of the same kind of distorted churn that that record is populated with.

My first repeat song today. I decided I’m going to skip repeats, because they’d be boring. Here’s your minty fresh songs for today.

Kendrick Lamar, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe (Remix)”

This remix was included as a bonus track at the end of Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, at least on the version I bought. Complete with unnecessary Jay-Z verse! Anyway, this album is fantastic, and as I mentioned last time, is part of an unbroken winning streak. I think Lamar is the closest person we have to George Clinton working today.

New arrival at Five Songs Manor is Engravings by Forest Swords, a record I found by reading the upcoming releases for May and wondering about the new record coming. So far, it’s really interesting, although I have to pause it for now to write about some songs. These songs, specifically.

Common Market, “Back Home (The Return)”

This is a Seattle rap group featuring Sabzi (of The Blue Scholars) and RA Scion on the mic. If you’ve heard the Blue Scholars, you’re familiar with Sabzi’s beats, and if you haven’t, you should fix that. At any rate, you’re likely to equally enjoy both groups. Since I like Sabzi’s work, I like this album a lot. I particularly like the piano on this track. And, as always, I’m always a sucker for artists repping the 206.