Zeke, "Action"
There are times when I think we should just ban all rock songs longer than two minutes. If you can't get your point across in two minutes, go play some jazz or something, loser!
Atmosphere, "Besos"
I typed this first as "Beos", and then thought, huh, I wonder what a veteran hip-hop duo was doing writing a song about a near-forgotten niche operating system. You all should be thankful I'm not going to even attempt a verse here.
Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, "The Spaceships of Ezekiel"
There are musicians that are brilliant, that take music in suprising directions and create an artistic legacy that is admired and emulated for years, decades, centuries. There are bands that are excellent, near the top of their genre, that stand out from their contemporaries and might be your favorite if it's a genre that you love. Then there are plenty of bands in popular music that are fine - they do good work, they're pleasant enough to listen to, but maybe they don't necessarily stand out particularly. Which of these bands you might follow and enjoy might come down to the circumstances of when you encounter them. Who knows how and why an artist catches our ears.
There's nothing novel about those observations. But what I can add, is that perhaps if you're in the latter category, just go ahead and name your band something like Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Kendrick Lamar, "King Kunta"
Kendrick is the best.
A Tribe Called Quest, "We The People..."
A Tribe Called Quest's legendary career ended in acrimony with a lackluster final album, 1998's The Love Movement. Phife Dawg's tragic death in early 2016 sealed away the possibility of a reunion. Except, it didn't. Surprisingly, the band managed to release a record late in 2016 that, yes, included Phife (it was recorded in 2015). What were the odds that this album, almost two decades after their run ended and more than two decades from their last great album, was going to be good? Incredibly, it's actually excellent, maybe their third best record. It seems miraculous that we were granted this one final gift, but it's so nice that we were.