Ulcerate

Talib Kweli, “The Proud”

Black Star underwent a slow disintegration after their one and only record, one of the best hip-hop records ever. Mos Def pursued a solo career, leaving Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek to make a record together. Then, Kweli broke from Hi-Tek and made his first solo record without any of his Black Star collaborators, Quality. It’s my favorite of his pure solo records, although it doesn’t rise up to Black Star. Kweli has made a lot of records of a relatively consistent level of success, but I really only consider the records he’s done with Hi-Tek to be essential.

Earth Wind & Fire, “Help Somebody”

There are several bands that I really only knew from later radio hits that were on when I was a kid. So, to me, they were just these bands that had some corny hits that I didn’t think much about. Kool & the Gang are absolutely in that cateogry, and Earth Wind & Fire is another. This is both an unfair evaluation of the hits that they had on the radio, but also fails to account for the long careers of these bands. Take EWF’s first album! It’s a fantastic blend of funk, R&B, jazz, and rock, and is incredibly impressive for a debut.

Rockabye Baby!, “Beautiful Day”

This is ostensibly a cover of the Green Day song. This was a gift to us, I think, a while back. And I suppose you can see the intended joke here - it’s lulliby music! But also Green Day! Har! But overall, this is so far from anything resembling the original that you’d probably have to explain it to anybody to attempt to convey the levity. Please try to slip it in-between the giggle-snorts.

Pretty angry set of songs today, mostly.

Ice Cube, “I Wanna Kill Sam”

Here, we have Ice Cube from one of his peak albums, in full-on fury at the state of America. I love the break in the middle of the song. At any rate, when Ice Cube was at the top of his form, there wasn’t anybody better.

Jesus Jones, “Your Crusade”

There was a brief boomlet in “Madchester” music, centered around the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, which combined alternative rock with dance music, giving an interesting hybrid. Technically, being from London instead of Manchester, Jesus Jones weren’t actually part of that scene, but spiritually, they were. Doubt, their second album, was a massive hit, thanks to “Right Here, Right Now”. Their followup record, Perverse, is impressive in one way: they could have basically made a carbon copy of their huge breakthrough album, but they chose instead to make some big changes to their style. In particular, they pushed the electronic stuff to the fore, rather than leaning more in the rock direction.