10 Best Albums of 2007
I haven't hit you with a Music Dude post in a while. But, I'm gonna spare the reintroduction and get right into business. 2007 was a tough year to get a handle on early. We had classics, we had progressions, we had dissapointments...all that. What follows is my Best of 2007 Top 10. BUT, before I get to the Top Ten, here are few other albums that caught my attention for varying reasons.
2007 Guilty Pleasure
Rise, Samantha James: I like dance music. Not dance music, as in club music; but dance music as in, the kind of mood-music they play in chic lounges. I love how airy it is...it's kinda sultry too. Well, a few months ago, while at work, I grabbed a CD off my dude Khalid's desk, solely because the white woman's face on the cover was somewhat enchanting. Plus, SLAM's sister publications are XXL, King and Scratch; so, usually, the CDs lying around almost always hip hop. What was the deal with this white chick's CD infiltrating the Harris Publications fortress? That's what I asked myself. So I snagged it, itunes'd it, podded it up and listened on the train ride home. I sat there entranced the whole way. This kinda music isn't for everyone and I'm assuming that most young black men would consider it somewhat gay -- OK, ultra-gay. But I dig this ish, and Samantha's album in particular. Her voice floats, the production flickers. She's like a new-age Flora Purim with an LA (not Brazilian) vibe. I'm a fan.
2007 Sleeper
Waitin' To Inhale, Devin the Dude: This was such an entertaining album...a mix of Dolomite and Mike Epps set to some really groovin production. And Devin is very experienced emcee with skill to burn. My personal favorites were "She Usta Be", a song about how this fine broad became a fat whale as an adult; and "Don't Wanna Be Alone", where Dev struts his crooning steez.
2007 Dissapointment
8 Diagrams, Wu Tang Clan: Wu Tang is my favorite hop group of all time and one of the greatest musical acts in the history of American music. RZA is the greatest hip hop producer of all time and one of a handful of TRUE musical geniuses. He's up there with Prince, Dylan and whomever else. Now, even though Iron Flag was underwhelming and it had been six years since the last Wu album, I held out high hopes because RZA was said to have taken this immense, grand, glorious musical leap with this album. primarily because RZA didn't save the album. So when I heard this joint, I was actually kinda depressed for the rest of the day. It wasn't garbage, but it may as well have been. I hate that my favorite rap group is irrelevant. I knew the Mcing would bore me, but I was expecting much more stellar work from the Abbott (RZA). He has some dope joints, but a lot of snoozers and not really any beat that even remotely sniffs his best work.
Before the release of the album, Raekwon went on some rampage about how RZA's new steez was F'n up the Clan vibe. He clowned RZA about always having a guitar strapped to his chest. He was kinda right, but for the wrong reasons. Rae's a narrow-minded music-midget who should stick to rhyming about drugs and clothes and not challenge a genius. However, Rza's guitar work on this joint was corny. He sounded like a dude that learned a few chords, progressions, licks and decided to trot them out on the album for no real reason other than his own entertainment, indulgence.
Sad to say, but I'm also sick of hearing Wu Mcs. these 40 year old men need to hang it up. Deck sucks balls. Meth still has the flow but is predictable and completely trivial. U God is the worse emcee on the planet and i'm not exaggerating. Rza still has his moments as an, but that could just be because i admittedly ride his jock. GZA still spits. Ghost has his moments, but he's been grating on me for the last 4 years. He's a cherry-head with crystal goggles skiing on a glacier of buttermilk rivers. His blue-cheese wallys go ill with his pancake apple jack skully. Burn em, Theodore.
2007's Unreleased Album of the Year
Land of the Lost, J*Davey: No unreleased album will EVER top Bilal's Love For Sale, which is probably one of the 100 greatest albums of the past 50 years. No joke. This isn't quite that transcendant, but it is still a collection of music that gives me the shakes. Were it an official release, it'd be vying for Album of the Year. The work on this joint was astounding. The production was slightly less textured than the Sa-Ra (an album in the Top 10) and nowhere near as complex and heavy in harmonic terms. But the production was still astounding and the chick is a very special songwriter, almost on Georgia Anne Muldrow's level and a little more accessible. Check "Let It Bleed". They break a lot of new ground throughout this album. Seriously, it bends my mind.
The 2007 Jazz Survivors Crew
I really dug all these albums this year. The Miles Davis box set was probably the most important release of the year. All the other albums listed below are from men that are my age and are pushing the boundaries of jazz. they're venturing away from the normalcy of acoustic sets and bringing in more electric vibes. It's all heavy, heavy music.
Jeremy Pelt, Shock Value: Live at Smoke
Marcus Strickland, Open Reel Deck
Kendrick Scott, The Source (disregard the wack review)
Christian Scott, Anthem
and lastly...
Miles Davis, The Complete On the Corner Sessions
My Favorite, Unassisted Find of 2007
Kenna, Make Sure They See My Face: I was flicking through video channels one night when I saw this wild, artsy, esoteric video. It starred a black dude galavanting around the LA night scene. The music was blazin. The name of the song was "Say Goodbye to Love", the artist was Kenna. I had never heard of this dude before, but from the sound of the track, he seemed to tied to the Neptunes camp. Not in a Clipse way, in a N.E.R.D. way. So I got up, flipped on the computer, downloaded his album and through it on the pod the next morning. It's my 2007 Gem. I love it when black folks do rock music. Sure, we invented it, but because we then moved to other genres and stopped really pursuing the rock idiom, it has become an overwhelmingly white music. Thankfully, whites have kept it thriving and have put their own stamps on it. They do it well. There are far more Eminems than Vanilla Ices in rock music. But when a nigga gets down, it's still something special, even if the said product doesn't compare to Radiohead's best work or something. With that said, I absolutely love this Kenna product, because you get the energy and rawness of rock, but with a lot of soul and funk. It's like a lesser version of N.E.R.D., which makes sense, since Chad produced much of the album. A bunch of gems on this joint. My absolute joint is "Loose Wires", it's sexy.
And finally...
The Top Ten Albums of 2007
10. American Gangster, Jay-Z: American Gangster is perhaps hip hop's first memoir. His recollections from an experienced adult's 20/20 vantage point. Recounting everything, sometimes from the psyche of the young Jay, other times with hindsight of current-Jay, but always with a keeness and clarity. And this is all done over some of the best instrumentation I've heard on a hop album that wasn't headed by Soulquarians. Truthfully, it's kinda classic.
9. Desire, Pharoahe Monch: I'll let my man Chuck explain this one (part of a review that was posted on ThisIsRealMusic.com) ... "In this current era that finds the first generation raised entirely on Hip-Hop longing to find their place in today’s immature state of the culture, Desire proves that there is such a thing as Hip-Hop for adults, giving its audience of grown-ups a more mature version of the music on which they grew up. Seamlessly wading through nearly every human emotion, Desire can make you laugh, cry, dance or just nod your head in satisfaction while simultaneously addressing every current relative topic of interest with grace, character and intelligence. Pharoahe’s superb storytelling and quick-witted wordplay renders Desire as an entertaining pleasure with incredibly high replay value, a seemingly endless range of subject matter and an impeccable cinematic value that is far too rare within the genre, rivaled by only a few other albums the likes of Rea and Ghost’s Purple Tape and Nas’ It Was Written. This level of poetic photoplay is all but non-existent within today’s unimaginative Hop scene. Containing virtually no filler, together with apt production and Pharoahe’s ability to make an entire album without ever taking a break on the mic, Desire is reminiscent of the remarkable albums of the genre’s illustrious past."
8. Graduation, Kanye West: This was a great album, in hindsight. Initial listens may have turned off some, because it was such a departure from previous efforts. I thought his last album, Late Registrtation, was a touchstone, not just in hip hop, but all music. I was expecting for Ye to continue on that rich path. Instead, he jetted off on a detour that, ultimately, was leading to another destination. Once I allowed myself to arrive there, I was please. then again, I'm not completely aversed to pop music. This album is an achievement. I didn't think it was possible for someone to rap and make "stadium music" as Ye calls it. When I say that this was a hip hop pop album, I don't mean a hip hop version of a Britney Spears album, it was a hip hop version of an album like U2's All You Can't Leave Behind. That's pretty spectacular when you put that in perspective. When you listen to the album, the bulk of the songs is so anthemic and rich that you automatically envision being at some music festival or Ye performing it at a sold-out MSG. I can see hop fans not digging it, but it's still a great album. Afterall, My Favorite Musical Moment of 2007 occurrs right before the third verse of "I Wonder", when Kanye takes it to the bridge with those lush strings and then it breaks back into the triumphant drums and synthesizers as Ye asks, "How many ladies in the house? How many ladies in the house without a spouse?" That line and break was meant for nothing other than a sold out arena. Classic.
7. Kala, M.I.A.: This will probably get the top spot on most year end magazine and website lists. it's an excpetion album, made by an inspired, special artist. I do, however, think her backstory plays into how much love she gets. Still, at the end of the day, her artistry trumps everything. She's militant, insightful, sassy, crass, witty, complex -- all that. And she does so over what has to be the most ecclectic mix of worldly beats in popular music. Everyone needs to get hip to this chick, if you're not already.
6. Tru3 Magic, Mos Def: This album was panned by critics and pulled off record store shelves after less than two months in stores. Everyone was dead wrong about this album. It wasn't a classic like his first two solo efforts -- Black On Both Sides and New Danger -- but it was about as stellar as a non-classic album can get. in fact, it's Mos' track record that keeps this album from being a classic, since we have no choice but to hold it up against against his previous work. As far as the album goes, I'll let my man Tony do that work (this is part of his review that was posted on ThisIsRealMusic.com) ... "One of Mos’ greatest talents is his ability to manifest raw human emotions in his songs. Of course, the music on Tru3 Magic is sonically pleasurable and mentally stimulating, but, maybe more impressively, Mos utilizes his rare ability to tap into the soul of the listener. He is not afraid to let go of his “cool” and inadvertently appears ice cold. Tru3 Magic is uncut, grown man music, intended for an audience with an educated listening ear. The album celebrates Bridge music and, were it not released so late in the year, would have been the best album to drop in 2006."
5. The Hollywood Recordings, Sa-Ra: The Top 5 albums on this list are all classics. I've said enough about this album to anyone that talks music with me regularly. This is my favorite album of the year, maybe even by far. As for the product ... the production is exceptional. The amount of textures found on these tracks is far and above 99% of what you hear. Every 4 or 8 bars a new instrument, new key, new mood, new something is introduced. The music never gets old and sometimes its straight up, bona fide transcendant classic, like instrumentation on the "Hollywood Redux". As for the vocals, the bridge genre is really a mood based music. The fact that Sa-Ra typically sings in more hushed tones is because tt aint about the lyrics, the vocals are often supposed to serve as instruments. There's this refrain "Do Me Gurl" that sounds like its a "response" to the "call" of the sharp harpsichord. The way they write music is really beyond creative. Raheem DeVaughn is creative. These nigs is in another realm. They have a Sa-Ra sound. "Glorious" sounds like noone but Sa-Ra, with that electro bass and those oddly harmonious vocals. Even there more neo-soulish songs like "So Special" and "Ladies Sing" are layered with so much sonically, cascading keys, horns. And more than anything, this album grooves. I mean grooves that are different than funk. More like a pungent aroma. This was the quintessential vibin' album of the year.
4. The World Has Made Me The Man of My Dreams, Mechelle N'degeocello: N'degeocello is one of the great artists of my lifetime. I know you've read a lot of hyperbole thus far, but don't let that diminish what I just wrote. I mean that sincerely. I was born in 1979. When I tallk about "artists of my lifetime", I mean any artist who's career initially began flourishing in either 80s, 90s or new millenni. That includes Madonna, MJ, Public Enemy, Radiohead, whomever. N'degeocello is up their in the 95 percentile. I just think that, often, her overt homosexuality makes people shy away. Like on her previous album, Comfort Woman, she has a song where the chorus says "take me down to your river, I wanna get close to you." Well, she's obviously talking about felating her lipstick lesbo girlfriend. That can turn folks off. But, musically, she is very close to the Prince kinda realm when it comes to musical ideas...and that's what people are missing by ignoring her releases and her insanely good live shows. This joint, though?! It sent my hurling off a clift, seriously. It's just so positively nasty that it's insane. My brain rumbles when I listen to this album. In particular, "Lovely, Lovely" and "Evolution" are some of the grimiest, rockin, bad-a$$ tunes you'll from a soul sister in your life. It's not that she just may be the greatest living non-jazz bass player, but her overal approach to music and her sonic ideologies are legendary. Seriously. If she were white, she'd headline summer festivals and win Album of the Year awards at the Grammys.
3. I'll Sleep When You're Dead, El-P: To be honest, i've avoided this album this long because i'm about all tapped out on white brooklynites doing hip hop. Every month, I have to write about 10-15 short biographies on various undergroung rap and rock artists for AllMusic.com. Having done a slew of these, i get annoyed with all these white rap artists who moved to NYC from everywhere and they all bring this self-righteous, quasi-progressive, geeky, I-Am-Hip-Hop kind of wackness and it just gets annoying. They all wanna be the next El-P. PLUS, I simply have trouble with this kind of music, the jilted-rythym, barely-harmonic/melodic kinda hop with some dude rapping incredibly intricate, stuffing 100 words into a bar. This is why i probably won't listen to this album very often, but it's also why I'll Sleep When You're Dead is a classic. The music is OUT THERE! I mean it's some incredibly moody, complex, ambitious, schizo stuff. You can hear the brilliance when listening the first time. If I did a top 10 favorite list, this joint prolly wouldnt get honorable mention (I "like" the will.i.am Songs About Girls more than this joint)...but 10 "best"...this joint is outrageous. It's just that, lsietning to it is almost an assignment.
2. The Cool, Lupe: I don't know what to say about this album, other than it's remarkable. Just Lupe and his production team offering a touchstone piece of art. After my first listen I knew I was listening to greatness, striaght up. I was straight floored at how much of an artist he is. Artists have mastered that nuances of making great music, whether it's an adlib, a vocal inflection, a break or bridge, some faint percussion underneath, it can be anything...things that make really good songs become actually great. This album was full of that. it's an astounding piece of work, man. Again, this is remarkable and along with Madvillainy, Like Water For Chocolate and Late Registation, the only pure hop release of the new millenium that can spar with the great albums of all time, regardless of genre. You'll read a lot of reviews that will tell you otherwise, but from the eclectic production, to Lupe's super-style-flipping, to his seriously weighty subject matter and the way he turns inane fodder into social critique (this niggas has a song about Cheesburgers ("Gotta Eat") that can be used as a metaphor for a number of things), this is classic material. Don't get it twisted, just get it.
1. Yesterdays Universe, Yesterday's New Quintet: This was my review I wrote for allmusic.com ... "Madlib lets you know what he's after at the onset, with cover art emulating Ornette Coleman's free-jazz pioneering Ornette! and a hip-hop-rooted revision of Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" as the album's first song. The familiar "Brew" vamp is updated with Madlib's genius sensibilities and a welcome addition to Yesterdays New Quintet: the jazz-drumming, hip hop-producing Karriem Riggins. For the next 14 tracks, Madlib, Riggins, and Azymuth's Ivan Conti create the most stunning fusion of jazz and hip-hop to date. Madlib began this in March 2001, indulging all of his eccentricities, tastes and ideas with Angles Without Edges, where Madlib one-man-banded his way to a forward-moving testimony that appropriated everything from jam band vibes of Soulive and Beastie Boys-style organic hip-hop, combining it with freewheeling, experimental jazz ingredients to produce an album hailed as an evolution. Yesterdays Universe, however, is meaner, nastier and even more ambitious. Madlib has clearly grown as an artist, mastering the area where the improvisational nature of jazz meets the sampled urbanity of hip-hop. The additions of Riggins and Conti give the music even more textures and emotion. While "One for the Monica Lingas Band" is pretty and expressive, the hallmarks of this album are tunes such as "Street Talkin'" and "Marcus, Martin and Malcolm" — the former sounding like a jazz breakbeat and the latter sounding like a new-millennium, reared-on-hip-hop version of Joe Henderson's early '70s work. You don't hear music this daring and edgy in the jazz idiom, nor do you often encounter music this evolved and creative from its hip-hop peers. The 12-minute "Vibe from the Tribe Suite" is an instance that happens rarely in music, when it seems that new terrain has been discovered and you aren't just listening to a quirky hip-hop producer dibble and dabble at his whim, but that a full-fledged, unique musical idea has developed. The bassline is sinister, the drum rhythm is as head-nodding as it gets, the distorted flute staccatos with an MC's cadence, the piano chords are from the school of Mwandishi-era Herbie Hancock, and the soprano sax is off-kilter. The result is a musical and creative statement that caps an album full of new statements. This album is an early 21st century landmark flushed with the optimism and possibilities of a new frontier. Madlib and Yesterdays New Quintet are the bold first settlers waiting for other musicians (if they can) to follow the leaders. "
2007 Guilty Pleasure
Rise, Samantha James: I like dance music. Not dance music, as in club music; but dance music as in, the kind of mood-music they play in chic lounges. I love how airy it is...it's kinda sultry too. Well, a few months ago, while at work, I grabbed a CD off my dude Khalid's desk, solely because the white woman's face on the cover was somewhat enchanting. Plus, SLAM's sister publications are XXL, King and Scratch; so, usually, the CDs lying around almost always hip hop. What was the deal with this white chick's CD infiltrating the Harris Publications fortress? That's what I asked myself. So I snagged it, itunes'd it, podded it up and listened on the train ride home. I sat there entranced the whole way. This kinda music isn't for everyone and I'm assuming that most young black men would consider it somewhat gay -- OK, ultra-gay. But I dig this ish, and Samantha's album in particular. Her voice floats, the production flickers. She's like a new-age Flora Purim with an LA (not Brazilian) vibe. I'm a fan.
2007 Sleeper
Waitin' To Inhale, Devin the Dude: This was such an entertaining album...a mix of Dolomite and Mike Epps set to some really groovin production. And Devin is very experienced emcee with skill to burn. My personal favorites were "She Usta Be", a song about how this fine broad became a fat whale as an adult; and "Don't Wanna Be Alone", where Dev struts his crooning steez.
2007 Dissapointment
8 Diagrams, Wu Tang Clan: Wu Tang is my favorite hop group of all time and one of the greatest musical acts in the history of American music. RZA is the greatest hip hop producer of all time and one of a handful of TRUE musical geniuses. He's up there with Prince, Dylan and whomever else. Now, even though Iron Flag was underwhelming and it had been six years since the last Wu album, I held out high hopes because RZA was said to have taken this immense, grand, glorious musical leap with this album. primarily because RZA didn't save the album. So when I heard this joint, I was actually kinda depressed for the rest of the day. It wasn't garbage, but it may as well have been. I hate that my favorite rap group is irrelevant. I knew the Mcing would bore me, but I was expecting much more stellar work from the Abbott (RZA). He has some dope joints, but a lot of snoozers and not really any beat that even remotely sniffs his best work.
Before the release of the album, Raekwon went on some rampage about how RZA's new steez was F'n up the Clan vibe. He clowned RZA about always having a guitar strapped to his chest. He was kinda right, but for the wrong reasons. Rae's a narrow-minded music-midget who should stick to rhyming about drugs and clothes and not challenge a genius. However, Rza's guitar work on this joint was corny. He sounded like a dude that learned a few chords, progressions, licks and decided to trot them out on the album for no real reason other than his own entertainment, indulgence.
Sad to say, but I'm also sick of hearing Wu Mcs. these 40 year old men need to hang it up. Deck sucks balls. Meth still has the flow but is predictable and completely trivial. U God is the worse emcee on the planet and i'm not exaggerating. Rza still has his moments as an, but that could just be because i admittedly ride his jock. GZA still spits. Ghost has his moments, but he's been grating on me for the last 4 years. He's a cherry-head with crystal goggles skiing on a glacier of buttermilk rivers. His blue-cheese wallys go ill with his pancake apple jack skully. Burn em, Theodore.
2007's Unreleased Album of the Year
Land of the Lost, J*Davey: No unreleased album will EVER top Bilal's Love For Sale, which is probably one of the 100 greatest albums of the past 50 years. No joke. This isn't quite that transcendant, but it is still a collection of music that gives me the shakes. Were it an official release, it'd be vying for Album of the Year. The work on this joint was astounding. The production was slightly less textured than the Sa-Ra (an album in the Top 10) and nowhere near as complex and heavy in harmonic terms. But the production was still astounding and the chick is a very special songwriter, almost on Georgia Anne Muldrow's level and a little more accessible. Check "Let It Bleed". They break a lot of new ground throughout this album. Seriously, it bends my mind.
The 2007 Jazz Survivors Crew
I really dug all these albums this year. The Miles Davis box set was probably the most important release of the year. All the other albums listed below are from men that are my age and are pushing the boundaries of jazz. they're venturing away from the normalcy of acoustic sets and bringing in more electric vibes. It's all heavy, heavy music.
Jeremy Pelt, Shock Value: Live at Smoke
Marcus Strickland, Open Reel Deck
Kendrick Scott, The Source (disregard the wack review)
Christian Scott, Anthem
and lastly...
Miles Davis, The Complete On the Corner Sessions
My Favorite, Unassisted Find of 2007
Kenna, Make Sure They See My Face: I was flicking through video channels one night when I saw this wild, artsy, esoteric video. It starred a black dude galavanting around the LA night scene. The music was blazin. The name of the song was "Say Goodbye to Love", the artist was Kenna. I had never heard of this dude before, but from the sound of the track, he seemed to tied to the Neptunes camp. Not in a Clipse way, in a N.E.R.D. way. So I got up, flipped on the computer, downloaded his album and through it on the pod the next morning. It's my 2007 Gem. I love it when black folks do rock music. Sure, we invented it, but because we then moved to other genres and stopped really pursuing the rock idiom, it has become an overwhelmingly white music. Thankfully, whites have kept it thriving and have put their own stamps on it. They do it well. There are far more Eminems than Vanilla Ices in rock music. But when a nigga gets down, it's still something special, even if the said product doesn't compare to Radiohead's best work or something. With that said, I absolutely love this Kenna product, because you get the energy and rawness of rock, but with a lot of soul and funk. It's like a lesser version of N.E.R.D., which makes sense, since Chad produced much of the album. A bunch of gems on this joint. My absolute joint is "Loose Wires", it's sexy.
And finally...
The Top Ten Albums of 2007
10. American Gangster, Jay-Z: American Gangster is perhaps hip hop's first memoir. His recollections from an experienced adult's 20/20 vantage point. Recounting everything, sometimes from the psyche of the young Jay, other times with hindsight of current-Jay, but always with a keeness and clarity. And this is all done over some of the best instrumentation I've heard on a hop album that wasn't headed by Soulquarians. Truthfully, it's kinda classic.
9. Desire, Pharoahe Monch: I'll let my man Chuck explain this one (part of a review that was posted on ThisIsRealMusic.com) ... "In this current era that finds the first generation raised entirely on Hip-Hop longing to find their place in today’s immature state of the culture, Desire proves that there is such a thing as Hip-Hop for adults, giving its audience of grown-ups a more mature version of the music on which they grew up. Seamlessly wading through nearly every human emotion, Desire can make you laugh, cry, dance or just nod your head in satisfaction while simultaneously addressing every current relative topic of interest with grace, character and intelligence. Pharoahe’s superb storytelling and quick-witted wordplay renders Desire as an entertaining pleasure with incredibly high replay value, a seemingly endless range of subject matter and an impeccable cinematic value that is far too rare within the genre, rivaled by only a few other albums the likes of Rea and Ghost’s Purple Tape and Nas’ It Was Written. This level of poetic photoplay is all but non-existent within today’s unimaginative Hop scene. Containing virtually no filler, together with apt production and Pharoahe’s ability to make an entire album without ever taking a break on the mic, Desire is reminiscent of the remarkable albums of the genre’s illustrious past."
8. Graduation, Kanye West: This was a great album, in hindsight. Initial listens may have turned off some, because it was such a departure from previous efforts. I thought his last album, Late Registrtation, was a touchstone, not just in hip hop, but all music. I was expecting for Ye to continue on that rich path. Instead, he jetted off on a detour that, ultimately, was leading to another destination. Once I allowed myself to arrive there, I was please. then again, I'm not completely aversed to pop music. This album is an achievement. I didn't think it was possible for someone to rap and make "stadium music" as Ye calls it. When I say that this was a hip hop pop album, I don't mean a hip hop version of a Britney Spears album, it was a hip hop version of an album like U2's All You Can't Leave Behind. That's pretty spectacular when you put that in perspective. When you listen to the album, the bulk of the songs is so anthemic and rich that you automatically envision being at some music festival or Ye performing it at a sold-out MSG. I can see hop fans not digging it, but it's still a great album. Afterall, My Favorite Musical Moment of 2007 occurrs right before the third verse of "I Wonder", when Kanye takes it to the bridge with those lush strings and then it breaks back into the triumphant drums and synthesizers as Ye asks, "How many ladies in the house? How many ladies in the house without a spouse?" That line and break was meant for nothing other than a sold out arena. Classic.
7. Kala, M.I.A.: This will probably get the top spot on most year end magazine and website lists. it's an excpetion album, made by an inspired, special artist. I do, however, think her backstory plays into how much love she gets. Still, at the end of the day, her artistry trumps everything. She's militant, insightful, sassy, crass, witty, complex -- all that. And she does so over what has to be the most ecclectic mix of worldly beats in popular music. Everyone needs to get hip to this chick, if you're not already.
6. Tru3 Magic, Mos Def: This album was panned by critics and pulled off record store shelves after less than two months in stores. Everyone was dead wrong about this album. It wasn't a classic like his first two solo efforts -- Black On Both Sides and New Danger -- but it was about as stellar as a non-classic album can get. in fact, it's Mos' track record that keeps this album from being a classic, since we have no choice but to hold it up against against his previous work. As far as the album goes, I'll let my man Tony do that work (this is part of his review that was posted on ThisIsRealMusic.com) ... "One of Mos’ greatest talents is his ability to manifest raw human emotions in his songs. Of course, the music on Tru3 Magic is sonically pleasurable and mentally stimulating, but, maybe more impressively, Mos utilizes his rare ability to tap into the soul of the listener. He is not afraid to let go of his “cool” and inadvertently appears ice cold. Tru3 Magic is uncut, grown man music, intended for an audience with an educated listening ear. The album celebrates Bridge music and, were it not released so late in the year, would have been the best album to drop in 2006."
5. The Hollywood Recordings, Sa-Ra: The Top 5 albums on this list are all classics. I've said enough about this album to anyone that talks music with me regularly. This is my favorite album of the year, maybe even by far. As for the product ... the production is exceptional. The amount of textures found on these tracks is far and above 99% of what you hear. Every 4 or 8 bars a new instrument, new key, new mood, new something is introduced. The music never gets old and sometimes its straight up, bona fide transcendant classic, like instrumentation on the "Hollywood Redux". As for the vocals, the bridge genre is really a mood based music. The fact that Sa-Ra typically sings in more hushed tones is because tt aint about the lyrics, the vocals are often supposed to serve as instruments. There's this refrain "Do Me Gurl" that sounds like its a "response" to the "call" of the sharp harpsichord. The way they write music is really beyond creative. Raheem DeVaughn is creative. These nigs is in another realm. They have a Sa-Ra sound. "Glorious" sounds like noone but Sa-Ra, with that electro bass and those oddly harmonious vocals. Even there more neo-soulish songs like "So Special" and "Ladies Sing" are layered with so much sonically, cascading keys, horns. And more than anything, this album grooves. I mean grooves that are different than funk. More like a pungent aroma. This was the quintessential vibin' album of the year.
4. The World Has Made Me The Man of My Dreams, Mechelle N'degeocello: N'degeocello is one of the great artists of my lifetime. I know you've read a lot of hyperbole thus far, but don't let that diminish what I just wrote. I mean that sincerely. I was born in 1979. When I tallk about "artists of my lifetime", I mean any artist who's career initially began flourishing in either 80s, 90s or new millenni. That includes Madonna, MJ, Public Enemy, Radiohead, whomever. N'degeocello is up their in the 95 percentile. I just think that, often, her overt homosexuality makes people shy away. Like on her previous album, Comfort Woman, she has a song where the chorus says "take me down to your river, I wanna get close to you." Well, she's obviously talking about felating her lipstick lesbo girlfriend. That can turn folks off. But, musically, she is very close to the Prince kinda realm when it comes to musical ideas...and that's what people are missing by ignoring her releases and her insanely good live shows. This joint, though?! It sent my hurling off a clift, seriously. It's just so positively nasty that it's insane. My brain rumbles when I listen to this album. In particular, "Lovely, Lovely" and "Evolution" are some of the grimiest, rockin, bad-a$$ tunes you'll from a soul sister in your life. It's not that she just may be the greatest living non-jazz bass player, but her overal approach to music and her sonic ideologies are legendary. Seriously. If she were white, she'd headline summer festivals and win Album of the Year awards at the Grammys.
3. I'll Sleep When You're Dead, El-P: To be honest, i've avoided this album this long because i'm about all tapped out on white brooklynites doing hip hop. Every month, I have to write about 10-15 short biographies on various undergroung rap and rock artists for AllMusic.com. Having done a slew of these, i get annoyed with all these white rap artists who moved to NYC from everywhere and they all bring this self-righteous, quasi-progressive, geeky, I-Am-Hip-Hop kind of wackness and it just gets annoying. They all wanna be the next El-P. PLUS, I simply have trouble with this kind of music, the jilted-rythym, barely-harmonic/melodic kinda hop with some dude rapping incredibly intricate, stuffing 100 words into a bar. This is why i probably won't listen to this album very often, but it's also why I'll Sleep When You're Dead is a classic. The music is OUT THERE! I mean it's some incredibly moody, complex, ambitious, schizo stuff. You can hear the brilliance when listening the first time. If I did a top 10 favorite list, this joint prolly wouldnt get honorable mention (I "like" the will.i.am Songs About Girls more than this joint)...but 10 "best"...this joint is outrageous. It's just that, lsietning to it is almost an assignment.
2. The Cool, Lupe: I don't know what to say about this album, other than it's remarkable. Just Lupe and his production team offering a touchstone piece of art. After my first listen I knew I was listening to greatness, striaght up. I was straight floored at how much of an artist he is. Artists have mastered that nuances of making great music, whether it's an adlib, a vocal inflection, a break or bridge, some faint percussion underneath, it can be anything...things that make really good songs become actually great. This album was full of that. it's an astounding piece of work, man. Again, this is remarkable and along with Madvillainy, Like Water For Chocolate and Late Registation, the only pure hop release of the new millenium that can spar with the great albums of all time, regardless of genre. You'll read a lot of reviews that will tell you otherwise, but from the eclectic production, to Lupe's super-style-flipping, to his seriously weighty subject matter and the way he turns inane fodder into social critique (this niggas has a song about Cheesburgers ("Gotta Eat") that can be used as a metaphor for a number of things), this is classic material. Don't get it twisted, just get it.
1. Yesterdays Universe, Yesterday's New Quintet: This was my review I wrote for allmusic.com ... "Madlib lets you know what he's after at the onset, with cover art emulating Ornette Coleman's free-jazz pioneering Ornette! and a hip-hop-rooted revision of Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" as the album's first song. The familiar "Brew" vamp is updated with Madlib's genius sensibilities and a welcome addition to Yesterdays New Quintet: the jazz-drumming, hip hop-producing Karriem Riggins. For the next 14 tracks, Madlib, Riggins, and Azymuth's Ivan Conti create the most stunning fusion of jazz and hip-hop to date. Madlib began this in March 2001, indulging all of his eccentricities, tastes and ideas with Angles Without Edges, where Madlib one-man-banded his way to a forward-moving testimony that appropriated everything from jam band vibes of Soulive and Beastie Boys-style organic hip-hop, combining it with freewheeling, experimental jazz ingredients to produce an album hailed as an evolution. Yesterdays Universe, however, is meaner, nastier and even more ambitious. Madlib has clearly grown as an artist, mastering the area where the improvisational nature of jazz meets the sampled urbanity of hip-hop. The additions of Riggins and Conti give the music even more textures and emotion. While "One for the Monica Lingas Band" is pretty and expressive, the hallmarks of this album are tunes such as "Street Talkin'" and "Marcus, Martin and Malcolm" — the former sounding like a jazz breakbeat and the latter sounding like a new-millennium, reared-on-hip-hop version of Joe Henderson's early '70s work. You don't hear music this daring and edgy in the jazz idiom, nor do you often encounter music this evolved and creative from its hip-hop peers. The 12-minute "Vibe from the Tribe Suite" is an instance that happens rarely in music, when it seems that new terrain has been discovered and you aren't just listening to a quirky hip-hop producer dibble and dabble at his whim, but that a full-fledged, unique musical idea has developed. The bassline is sinister, the drum rhythm is as head-nodding as it gets, the distorted flute staccatos with an MC's cadence, the piano chords are from the school of Mwandishi-era Herbie Hancock, and the soprano sax is off-kilter. The result is a musical and creative statement that caps an album full of new statements. This album is an early 21st century landmark flushed with the optimism and possibilities of a new frontier. Madlib and Yesterdays New Quintet are the bold first settlers waiting for other musicians (if they can) to follow the leaders. "
posted by Twistinado @ 3:48 PM
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