RJD2, "Sell The World"
I think we've had a couple tracks from The Horror by now, which is kind of a companion EP/remix project to go along with Deadringer. Unlike a lot of these kinds of revists/companion pieces, it's very much a worthy release in its own right and not just riding the coattails of another album.
Vaz, "Chartreuse Blues"
Why, it seems like just the other day that I got really fired up about Vaz and Hammerhead. And here they are, back for another tune. "Tune"? Blast. Whatever! Love this stuff.
Mayer Hawthorne, "Her Favorite Song"
Mayer Hawthorne's third album, Where Does This Door Go, moved away from his retro-soul to push forward a decade or two. There's a lot more funk in this album, along with a lot more soft rock. Like everything else he does, it's all well-executed, but I have to say that I generally prefer the soul stuff, so this isn't my favorite record from him.
De La Soul, "Eye Patch"
This song transports me to a very specific time and place. I'm walking to an off-campus house during college, to meet up with a friend that I don't know especially well and their friends, who I don't know at all. It's a cold, rainy evening, and I'm nervous about this whole thing. As I walk, I have on this De La Soul album, which I'm listening to closely for the first time. And it strikes me how confident they sound, and it helps me keep moving forward to hang out with folks I don't know in a strange place. Nothing particularly notable happened that evening. I was mostly a wallflower, striking up a brief conversation about music with another person there, but otherwise kind of keeping to myself. But that walk there was full of possibility, the new music from one of my favorite bands, and the chance that maybe I would be meeting some new good friends.
Jimi Hendrix, "Hey Joe"
Do you really need my thoughts on Jimi Hendrix?