- 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"?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.*
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.**
- 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!
No comments:
Post a Comment