Some Girls, if nothing else, proves that statement wrong. Goat's Head Soup is at least half brilliant, and while it took me way too long to realize, so is Tattoo You.
1. White Album (let's be friends!)
2. Revolver
3. Sticky Fingers
4. Abbey Road (hey we legit to line up on the Beatles catalog)
5. Exile
6. Rubber Soul
7. Beggar's
8. Pepper
9. Let it Bleed
10. Some Girls
I feel kind of ambivalent about it, too, overall. On the positive side of the term, though. Considering his previous two were contenders for my AotY, that's a bit of a failure/disappointment, but I still like it well enough.
"Breathe Deeper", this, and "Is It True" are my favorites. I only find myself listening to the others sporadically, but those three I've given a lot of play time to this year.
Da-yum these guys have been busy! I wish I loved them as much as everyone else seems to, but I like them enough to generally try to keep up and the feature/producer list here definitely caught my eye earlier this week. Looking forward to giving it a go later.
If anything I see more people saying they prefer 2017-2019.
I think 2012-2017 blows it out of the water, but it's clearly just a taste thing. I love that warm house sound on 2012 - 2017 and the combo of clanging post-industrial sounds in the first 1/2-2/2 and then the super minimalism in the back end doesn't do much for me. My favorite on there is "If Loving You is Wrong", which is the only one that to me sounds like it would have fit comfortably on the previous album.
AAL - 2012 - 2017
Kaytranada - 99.9%
Todd Terje - It's Album Time
In Colour
Daft Punk - RAM (patchy, but contains lots of good stuff)
Great, but do they count?
DJ Koze - Knock Knock
Robin - Body Talk (Honey was really great, too, but even less of a dance album)
The Avalanches - Wildflower
Mark Ronson - Uptown Special
Glad to see this wasn't given some kind of nasty low rating - I still liking hearing it from time to time, for one!
My parents' honeymoon was kinda ruined by the assassination.
For years after a certain point in maybe the late 60's/very early 70s, you're right - that is a pretty solid year, better than any covered in this column in a long time.
I'm there for Shabazz. I guess I'll check Fiona's because it's basically an event release, even though I shamefully have never really gotten all the way into her albums. And I have to say, this write writeup has me suddenly interested in the AotW.
Each of those first Wu solo albums is perfectly sonically crafted to play to that member's persona and skills. It all still sounds like RZA, sure, but there's versatility on display for sure.
Also, some of his second style of more maximalist production was awesome, too - Forever has awesome production ("Reunited" bestill my heart!), and even some of the keyboard army shit he was doing on the Bobby Digi records was cool. It's just that the rest of the songs weren't always there, especially on the Digital albums (there's a ton of great stuff on Forever).
I think all three of his solo releases are quality, and what's kind of cool (but makes this a hard question to answer for someone whose taste I don't know) is that they're all pretty different:
Amplified came out of that whole fruitful Dilla-based Soulquarians scene (Tip was kind of a peripheral member - working with Dilla who was central to the scene and also appearing on the Slum Village album) and sounds great. Tip's not pushing any boundaries lyrically on it, but it's a fun listen with great production, and he sounds great over top of it. It got shit when it came out for not being what Tribe fans wanted, but it seems like people have come around.
- Kamaal the Abstract is like a full, deep dive into "jazz rap" in a way that ATCQ never was. It's more like what I imagined "jazz rap" sounding like when I was first starting to open up to the idea that maybe hip-hop didn't suck in y late teens - Q-Tip rapping on songs full of all live instruments, solos, etc. It's a really unique little piece of work that has some quality tracks (not all are essential, but overall it's cool).
Renaissance...it's just a really good Q-Tip solo album. It doesn't fit a narrative so well as the other two, but it's got a lot of good-ass tracks. "Won't Trade" is awesome.
a) obviously that wasn't all meant for you, I'm just sick of people saying shit like that and the implication that goes along with it that clearly we don't hate the Trump administration on the same level, which staggers me
b) I reaaaally hate that we live in a world where I'm devoting rants to why anyone should support senile, creep-bag, out-of-touch, also-ran schmuck Joe Biden. I really, really do.
A Trump win in this next election is infinitely worse than a Biden win, which I say as a decidedly non-Biden fan. Come on. Supreme Court. District courts. A party that presumably will not completely bend over and take it for the president they'd be supporting against one that was spread its asshole wide open for the candidate they have been supporting for the last four years and would get to do so again. Disastrous foreign policies and the eradication of America's ability to work with or be respected by other countries (regardless of how much you justifiably think out foreign policy has always been kind of ghastly under the surface). Endless racist, misogynist, xenophobic rhetoric and dog whistling spewing forth from the highest office in the country. The highest single-person authority figure constantly supporting dangerous, incorrect information during crises.
Biden sucks bad, but still way less than Trump. Or, even if that's not the case, a Biden administration will suck less than a second Trump one. I hate that they have us by the balls like this...but guess what? They fucking do.
Sure, Trump is a symptom, not the cause - but this is a case where the symptom must be dealt with before the cause. 4 more years of Trump is game over. And people who don't see that clearly don't hate that disastrous, foul, corrosive, embarrassing, senile, wanna-be-fascist, egomaniacal fvckhead and what he's doing to this country enough. And shame on all of the people who don't, because he has made it pretty goddamn clear that he doesn't care about a single MF-er out there not named Donald John Trump and that, in fact, he has a deep-seeded disregard and loathing toward the people of the country and the world who aren't wealthy and powerful enough to help him or give him a little wee-dick boner when he sees them repressing their people and playing games with the world's safety. I love Bernie. I think it's a tragedy that we went from him actually being the frontrunner for a few primaries to what we have now. But I'm sorry, the less of two evils is still a lot lesser. Unless we're all willing to go out in the streets during a pandemic and fight an unwinnable war the US government like 18th/19th Century Parisians, it doesn't matter how sour you or I are that the voices of real change and decency got screwed. Because I'll say it the fvck again, a Biden presidency is almost infinitely better than a second Trump one. Eat your damn flavorless mashed peas and vote against Trump for the only person who's going to be allowed to beat Trump.
I wish they would have too, but the the fourth track is a lot weaker (more forgettable than BAD) than the rest, so maybe that was all they had in them during the sessions.
I am chilling. I basically said "who cares about downvotes on a music blog?"
Also, I - like I assume most people here - click and read any "hidden" comment that comes up in sections I'm reading. It's just a click of the mouse.
Bridges loves working with other artists, especially guitar-capable ones. He brought on two of the guys from White Denim to his band, he released the EP with Khruangbin after they toured together, and now this. Cool.
I loved this when it came out, remember getting it vividly.
It can't fuck with Is This It or Room on Fire by any stretch of anyone other than bloc's imagination, and I'd put it behind White Blood Cells, too. But I'd probably say I prefer it to the other major NYC rock albums from that era and maybe even Elephant (and no I'm not trying to imply that The Hives or White Stripes are from NYC in case anyone read it that way and is eager to tell me I'm a dumbass).
I really like the album after one full listen, but one thing I do vaguely agree on is that I wish synths hadn't become such a big, permanent party if their sound. Not that they haven't gaf plenty of great songs/moments with synths, going back to "12:51", but I'm just so so so so tired of the 80s being endlessly referenced/cribbed by musicians.
After a meager 1 listen I'd say there's a decent chance it could dislodge Angles as my #3...but we'll have to see. Almost certainly like it better than FIoE & CM.
I don't agree with all the CM love that's started to circulate the last few years, but I like it well enough, love a few tracks, and I'm always happy when these guys' late stuff gets love. Love me some Angles, though.
The other site have been one of the hardest pushers over the years of trying to belittle The Strokes and remove then from the conversation. After Room on Fire they've had nothing but condescension and negativity towards the band for...I don't know, not fitting their narrative anymore?
Also, the person got some downvotes. Boo-hoo. Last I checked, SG votes haven't started being counted as China-style social credits yet, AfirN will be alright.
How about, not only did that poster dump on this album everyone else is enjoying and a lot of us have been waiting for...but also they declared something objectively silly and wrong - "they really did try to recapture their original sound on this one". Yeah man, Is This It was really loaded up with 5-6 minute tracks drenched in synths.
Nice one, Jim!
I stayed awake through the whole lackluster (IMO) episode to see this and must have fallen asleep in the commercial break after Chance, lol. But I remedied that this morning.
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