De La Soul, "Rap De Rap Show"
There's a concept of a "difficult second album", which is mostly just a farm for confirmation bias, but hell, let's talk about De La Soul's difficult second album. Their first album was a huge smash, a groundbreaking album, and an artistic statement that truly came from left field. But the flower power personas that De La Soul wore during that record began to feel stifling pretty quickly. They set out to break that mold on the next album, starting with the name of the album, and proceeding with rejecting the hippie approach throughout. The results are rough in spots, a little overly laden with filler and skits, but there are also some legitimately amazing tracks on the record. This, alas, is not one of them.
Andrew Bird, "Ides of Swing"
This song comes from Andrew Bird's first album, Thrills, credited to "Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire". At this point, he still was very much working in the tradition of hot jazz, along the lines of Django Rheinhardt, and bearing similarity to the Squirrel Nut Zippers, who he had worked with as a side player. It wasn't until his third record that he would really find his own voice, but the early stuff still certainly has its charms. A lot of the early material was gathered together on Bird Songs.
Modest Mouse, "Medication"
You know, that's two songs in a row from comps that I like, which suggests that my stupid music server is trying to demonstrate that the "comp records are mostly bullshit" stance from yesterday is, itself, mostly bullshit. But I won't back down! I just don't buy the shitty ones! Take that, randomizer!
Merle Haggard, "Sing a Sad Song"
I think one of the hardest things to do around here is when we get the same artist a couple times in a row. I have to rely on everybody forgetting what I have to say so I can roll out the same old crap! This is unacceptable! Or would be, if anybody were in fact reading.
Farside, "Nice"
I think I could probably safely mix songs up from Samiam, Farside, and Big Drill Car, all melodic punk from California, on the same record and people might not even notice. That's not throwing shade or anything, because I love this stuff, just an observation of fact.