Almost like a Special in here today!
I feel like I haven’t bought a new concept record in a while. I suppose some of the unintelligable garbled metal I listen to could be concept records, I’d have no real way of knowing. You could tell me basically anything about the lyrics or themes or whatever of some of those slabs and I’d probably believe you. At any rate, many of my favorite concept records are rap records, and I Phantom is one of the very best.
[Read More]Because they hung around so long and turned into basically Rolling Stones Inc., a licensing corporation with a neglected music production arm that would occasionally squeeze out a desultory album, it’s easy for folks of my generation (old, but not super old) to lose track of the fact that for for a while there in the late 60s and early 70s, the Rolling Stones were pretty amazing. The run from Beggars Banquet through Exile on Main Street is one of the foundations of modern rock, and still sounds pretty great today.
[Read More]This song comes from Freaked Out And Small, by which time most people had long since moved on. The major labels certainly had, as the Presidents found themselves back on an indie label. But that’s fine, they were still putting together fun stuff. And maybe that’s what’s so enjoyable about the Presidents. They always legitimately sounds like they’re having fun, and it’s infectious. I don’t think this album beats their second one, but it’s still very good.
[Read More]Another year-end roundup, this time from Heavy Blog. I love this time of year. And here’s today’s music.
A skit from Idlewild, a shaggy album that has some highlights, but is a mess and is the worst of Outkast’s career.
Somehow, anti-George W. Bush songs sound quaint these days. And he was a deeply terrible president! This is a track from Revolverlution, another later album from a Hall of Fame rap group that is also a mess.
[Read More]Today’s set is, frankly, a mess. The hazards of the random number generator.
210 songs in my collection from Andrew Bird, and this stupid thing picked a repeat song. Sure, we get Six Songs today, but come on. I do feel like the number of repeats I’ve seen is higher than I would expect. I also know that humans are TERRIBLE at estimating the randomness of a system and related probabilities. I should work it out for real.
[Read More]Was camping this weekend with no network access, so I deprived everybody of music. Sorry! It’s a shame there’s no other way to listen to music! Anyway, here’s your relief.
Outkast, at the top of their game, was breathtaking. Up through Stankonia, they were just incredible. At then, 2003 saw them release Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, two solo records just packaged as one release under Outkast. And for the first time, they were really showing some cracks. Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx was outstanding, while Andre 3000’s The Love Below was uneven at best. He delivered the standout hit (“Hey Ya!”), but most of his album is frankly a mess, wandering around too much for me to truly love it. This song, a collaboration with Norah Jones, is a good example - it doesn’t really go anywhere.
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