MF Doom

Stevie Wonder, “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)”

Music Of My Mind was the album where Stevie Wonder found another gear. He was a one-man band at this point, and he had really mastered writing a complete record. From here through Songs in the Key of Life, there was nobody better, and that five album stretch might be the best anybody has ever made.

Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”

I’m not going to say anything revelatory about this song or album, so lemme just say that this song is such a goddamn blast in Rock Band, both on the drums and singing. Both at the same time is fuckin’ hard, though.

Y’all, I screwed up. 4/14 is this project’s birthday, and I just flat missed it. I didn’t forget, I just didn’t get around to posting, and that’s a shame. I don’t want to neglect this! 471 entries over the first two years, right around two-thirds of days. Not bad! But, you know, I haven’t been carving out as much time recently. But nevermind that, I’m going to try and pick up the pace again! HIT IT, PLEXASAURUS REX!

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!

I’m pleased to announce that I managed to post an entry for every day this month. Not bad! I can’t imagine I’ll manage to keep it up for the whole year, but still: solid work, me! Here’s our final entry for January.

Danny Brown, “Generation Rx”

It seems like just yesterday I was saying I liked it when electronic music met rap, and this beat here is a fine example of that kind of thing. This is from Detroit rapper Danny Brown’s debut album, The Hybrid. I haven’t had this album long, and damn, there’s some bad shit in these lyrics. Hadn’t noticed that before.

A brief discussion popped up on Twitter, and I realized how strong 1989 was for albums. In no particular order: Bleach, 3 Feet High and Rising, Pretty Hate Machine, Doolittle, Energy, 13 Songs, Wrong, Bizarro, Paul’s Boutique, and Mudhoney were all released that year. And I’m sure I’m missing others. Although I’m sure I’d come up with similar lists for other years. I did look at 1990, and at first glance, it doesn’t seem as strong. Anyway, here’s today’s music.

No intro today, just tunes.

De La Soul, “Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin’s Revenge)”

I remember being pretty baffled by a lot of the slang that De La Soul used on Three Feet High and Rising. This is mainly because I was a sheltered 14-year-old boy living in Spokane, and the internet didn’t exist to sort things out for me (or misinform me, to be fair). I worked out the general gist of a fair bit of it, and it never really bothered me or stopped me from listening to the music, but I was nevertheless baffled. I think it was an album designed to baffle folks.

It has been pointed out that I should probably have comments enabled on this blog. I’ll see what I can do about turning those on, although fiddling around with Ghost kind of makes me want to turn myself into a ghost. In the meantime, we soldier on! As always, you can listen along here.

Ugly Duckling, “Pay or Quit”

Ugly Duckling is a bit of an odd band, a proud throwback rap group that tries to recall a percieved golden age, with the result that they seem really disconnected from other rap acts. This ends up giving them a bit of a sui generis feel, which is dumb for a band that is explicitly trying to reference and revive the past of their musical genre. Well, whatever. Expect lots of loops, trading the mic back and forth, word-play focused rhymes, and a total lack of profanity. When the formula works, it can be pretty lively, bouncy fun. When it drags, it drags painfully.