Folks, I don't know if I can keep up this pace. Seven songs AGAIN?
Dälek, "The Son of Immigrants"
As you'd probably imagine based on the stuff that shows up here, I'm 100% here for the merging of noise into hip-hop. There are a bunch of acts that are exploring this territory right now, and one of the better albums in the area is Dälek's Endangered Philosophies. There's an urgency that the noise adds to these songs that gives a pretty different feeling from more conventional hip-hop.
Dang it, this is a repeat. Lots of those recently!
The Good, The Bad & The Queen, "Three Changes"
You know, I haven't really loved any of Damon Albarn's projects. I've mostly thought they were good, but none of them really spoke to me that well. I certainly won't object to someone putting on Blur or Gorillaz, but I'm not really going to seek them out either. The Good, The Bad & The Queen is another of his bands, distinguished primarily by a long name, and undistinguished in that it also fails to get me excited.
Has-Lo, "Tinnitus"
A very nice, dreamy piece here by Has-Lo off of A Singular Point of Light, an excellent album. The bits between the verses with the second song floating through are particularly enjoyable.
Aw dang, a repeat? Can I really go to seven songs again so soon?
Cop Shoot Cop, "Burn Your Bridges"
Before Firewater, indeed before Cop Shoot Cop started turning in more tuneful (and soulful) stuff like on Release and Ask Questions Later, Tod Ashley and Cop Shoot Cop made Consumer Revolt, an unapologetically ugly album. It's all snarling lyrics, rattling, metallic percussion, wailing and whining samples, and bass that is both thundering and scraped. Cop Shoot Cop's unusual lineup (two bassists, a drummer playing half drums and half sheet metal, and a sampler) was used for maximum, alien effect on this album, and this song is the center of the album. Ominous, rattling, and hostile, CSC presented a unique sound and outlook. While Ashley would slowly learn how to write songs for the band that began using their lineup in ever more sophisticated ways, the raw, glistening rage they demonstrated on their debut remains as bracing and interesting as ever.
Kanye West, "Drunk and Hot Girls"
I'm happy to say that I have no idea what Kanye is up to these days, other than winding up Twitter. Don't tell me!
The Beatles, "Drive My Car"
Time to pull back the curtain on Five Songs! I usually write these while in my basement, hanging out with Megan. In order to not be totally isolated from what's going on down here, I put one earbud in. This can result in some very odd effects, such as when listening to the Beatles. What you don't always notice when you're just playing them on a stero is that the Beatles made HEAVY use of the two channels in stereo sound, such that you really only get half a song when you listen to only one channel. And this song sounds very odd this way. Not unpleasant, mind you! Just odd.
Green Day, "One Of My Lies"
This is the song that convinced me that Green Day deserved to be huge. The sweet litle chorus, coming out to the "why does my life have to be so small" verse is just so dialed in. The song is such a perfect little confection that it was hard to imagine the band making it not blowing up. And, of course, they did manage to do so with the next record, proving that even dipshits like me get it right once in a while.