Sunday, June 22, 2008

Random Generator: The Serious Procrastination Edition

  1. Otha Fish - The Pharcyde. It's odd how the general west/east coast divide splits me evenly, really, between the two. For I do love the Wu Tang, and some Jay-Z. And I couldn't give a monkey's for mucho of the West Coast gangsta/heavy nonsense. But I love me some laidback, more lyrically interesting stuff like the Pharcyde or Jurassic 5. I particularly like the Pharcyde because when they talk about sex, it's comical, and they talk about love, break ups, like in this, without expressing the need to humiliate / beat / generally do violence upon women in general. Plus, who couldn't love a song with the line "A manwich is a meal"?
  2. Fuck Knows Blud - Jehst. Jehst produced one unbelievable tune that I absolutely bloody love, called Under The Weather, which is on one of DJ risco's fab mixes that he did us. I haven't listened to this, and while the rapping does have that slightly weird accent that many British rappers adopt, it's distinctive and pretty sweet.
  3. Waters of Nazareth - Justice. One of my favourite albums of last year, this hasn't been one of my favourite tunes thus far, but listening to it now it's got a lot of the stuff I quite like about earlier Daft Punk (such as Rollin' & Scratchin') - harsher sounding, rougher, but with a good disco sensibility underneath. Love it.
  4. Save a Prayer - Duran Duran. Oh, how I love Duran Duran. Awesome pop, ridiculous videos, stupidly self-important, but Simon Le Bon's voice really is a thing of rare beauty, in my opinion. Only highlighted by some horrendous eurodance version a couple of years ago. PLUS Arctic Monkeys reference it in Teddy Picker - what more do you need?
  5. Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos - Public Enemy. Is Chuck D guilty of that horror teenage girls are accused of - having a less "talented" friend (Flava Flav) around to show how wonderful he is? Just a question. This song is possibly one of my favourites by Public Enemy, only enhanced by the bizarro Tricky cover version. I also love the fact that the production is so sparse - yes, it was of the time, but it allows him to speak and be heard - it never overshadows him. I fear that these days, it'd be all about samples that tried to compete with him. Which would not be good.*
  6. Summertime - Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. This remains my favourite explicitly-summer-based (i.e. in the title) song of all time, despite strong competition from the Isley Brothers. Love love love it. Even if he is now bff with Tom Cruise.
  7. This Is How It Feels - The Inspiral Carpets. For a brief period, I loved them - and this is one of my favourites, although personally, I think the duet with Mark E. Smith (I Want You) is the best thing they ever did.
  8. A Little Deeper - Ms. Dynamite. Honestly, I listen to nothing on this album except for Dy-Na-Mit-Ee, which I think is genuinely genius, and occasionally It Takes More. She has such a great, smoky, slightly roughened voice, and I think it's really underused on this album. Given that this album was up against Original Pirate Material AND Run Come Save Me, it is really rather ridiculous it won, I think, given that the depth of those and the real lack of depth of this.
  9. Tick - Yeah Yeah Yeahs. A good friend of mine loathes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which I did at first, but this album (Fever to Tell) was MY album in the first year I came to law school, and really reminds me of walking to lectures in the mornings, and just being overwhelmed with being in NYC. I think lots of people who move here have a "NYC" album (often Interpol's latest, apparently), and this is mine. Plus, I absolutely love the video for this.**
  10. There She Goes - The La's. I've never been a big fan of the "Liverpool" sound - I like bits of the Coral, but didn't think the La's were all that. Having said that, this is so sweet and summery, I love it. And that Sixpence None The Richer cover was genuinely horrific, showed up the quality of his voice, and I really think a Christian rock band should probably not cover songs if they're about heroin addiction.

* He is going to be featured in a guardian special on the greatest lyricists of all time, soon, which I am looking forward to greatly. Must get the parentals to save me a copy.
** I looked for an online source, but couldn't find one anywhere. Dammit!

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