Odds and Ends 022
Gritty occasionally, grimey never
Death Grips: Exmilitary (free Third Worlds mixtape)
Death-metal hip-hop for El-P fans who secretly wish the Insane Clown Posse wasn't so dumb ("Blood Creepin," "Klink") ***
Lushlife: Plateau Vision (Western Vinyl)
Orchestrally textured, beat-driven alt-rap enlists vocoder and Satie-Shad-Kool Moe Dee collab ("Magnolia," "Gymnopedie 1.2") ***
E-40: Revenue Retrievin': Graveyard Shift (Heavy on the Grind/EMI)
Everybody should get to know one of the dozens of genially thuggish albums by the hyphy king, and this is the one I landed on ("My Lil Grimey N*gga," "Spooky," "Trapped") **
Lupe Fiasco: Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 (Atlantic)
Veteran wannabe avers amid thousands of words that if he were a Buddhist he'd be reborn as himself ("Bitch Bad," "Hood Now [Outro]") **
Roc Marciano: Reloaded (Decon)
Anybody who says a clitoris tastes like porridge would obviously rather keep his mouth where his rhymes are ("Deeper," "Tek to a Mack") *
Beanie Sigel: This Time (State Property/Ruffhouse)
Quite possibly the most assiduous Jay-Z impressions you'll ever hear ("No Hook," "The Reunion") *
Meek Mill: Dreams and Nightmares (Maybach Music/Warner Bros.)
To utilize Saigon's formula, the dreams are rap and the nightmares are reality ("Traumatized," "Who You Around") *
Big Boi: Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors (Def Jam)
Claims hip-hop, represents r&b, ends up neither here nor there ("Apple of My Eye," "She Hates Me") *
I'd rather read and chuckle through Vauche(x2) than any insufferable Ryan post. He puts the (big fat) "lip" in "solipsism."
Five songs into the Thompson, and I'm not hearing anything new in any department. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course - as long as it's alive and kicking, many greats have had honorable late years just doing what they do. On first listen these songs grab me a little more than the ones on his last one. But I'm also sort of having that later-R.E.M.-album feeling: how much of this stuff do I need?
A couple songs later: Here's something a little different: "Good things happen to bad people/but only for awhile." Not quite the truth, but neither is "There's nothing to grow up for any more."
http://goo.gl/q0v9Z
Thanks to Milo for the link.
And with some concentration, you can further link yourself to actor Sam Neill's blog site to discover for yourself what Toni Collette's favorite REM album is, the musician fave that Timothy Spall and Alan Rickman have in common, as well as what Marianne Faithfull's Desert Island songs are. Not in anyway a comprehensive Famous People site, but just enough to waste time with.
Now what was I going to do today?
p.s.: No Stones songs on the latter.
OK, no one ever said that. I also didn't mean to be so pedantic with the two options in responding to people who ruffle your feathers. I believe in absolute freedom of speech, so if personal attacks etc is what it boils down to, so be it. But I don't like it as much as either finding common ground or agreeing to disagree.
Beethoven's 9th and 5th symphonies are must haves. If there's a Classical Christgau in the bizarro universe, they're A and A- respectively.
EDIT: Posted before realizing Milo had pretty much covered things in his post.
Allen Allen, Allen - I am a Troll. Hath not a Troll eyes? Hath not a Troll hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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