Some Albums Through The Third Quarter of 2010

[koganbot]

Wrote this album wrap-up in response to Greg over on my singles thread, so might as well give it its own post. I've let album-listening slide, so I need to do lots of exploring. These are my top five:

Ke$ha's Animal: her vision or shtick is up my alley, and is pretending to come from an alley, but her lyrics could use stronger, more original images, and her voice is opening-act raw; yet somehow she's the only Top 40 star who knows what she's doing this year, the only one to sound like she's riding the current dance-pop mess rather than just trying to grab hold somewhere, balances ugliness and prettiness, storm and calm, etc. "Blah Blah Blah" is my favorite and after that the best stuff hasn't been singles: "Backstabber," a hint of Latin freestyle, the words being a bitch-fest about a gossip but the music bouncing the words around in the rhythm so much that Ke$ha hardly sounds unhappy; "Boots And Boys," which compares boys to boots, loves them both, tries them on, they got her looking rad, while a quagmire bass tries to pull her under but she floats blissfully above it; and "Party At A Rich Dude's House," sounding like Dr. Luke finally getting the loud-blaring-chorus-thing right, the melody lifting the song without blasting our ears off, except Luke actually had nothing to do with the song (is Ke$ha, Shellback, and Benny Blanco; but Luke restrains his own blare effectively on "TiK ToK" and "Take It Off"). In any event, for all the puke-slinging etc. the album is surprisingly pretty.

Marina And The Diamonds The Family Jewels, ridiculous lyrics coming across as if she's just discovered rebellion and originality, and she sounds like a heavily overburdened posh woman in the throes of letting loose, and I'm charmed.

Princesa Más Fuego, which Princesa herself posts on Mediafire for legal free download (all her links are on her Facebook); a reggaeton ball of fire from Argentina, got the ugly reggaeton yammering bit down but also what sounds like grief and dreaminess, even with a rough not particularly flexible voice; you may have heard the title track if you were following Argentina in the Pop World Cup.

E.via Must Have (EP), which even for an EP is scattershot in tone and quality, and through my cultural misunderstandings of Korea and my non-knowledge of the language I'm basically inventing her in my mind, so this account may have nothing to do with reality but... I imagine her as what I wish Gaga were, someone critiquing the sex sell while selling herself sexily in both a cute and threatening manner, and crucially she really can rap with force, while doing all the tuneful Asian chirpy things well.

Various Artists Shangaan Electro, South African speed dance with bubbling "marimba" keyboards; I like the fast burbles and the slow rich voices.

And that's all I've got for you, though I now possess the new Jamey Johnson without having had a chance to listen. Listened once to Chely Wright's Lifted Off The Ground and it feels like a potential grower, she now being more singer-songwriter than country, writing and singing with gentleness. Hurts' Happiness may also be a grower: only has one wonderful "Wonderful Life," but in general their dourness doesn't weigh down their prettiness as much as I'd feared, in fact the two facets sometimes work well together. Also intend to give Traband's Domasa and Kelis's Flesh Tone further listens, 'cause they have good stuff on them though so far they haven't hit me as much as they hit Chuck and Dave, respectively.

Disappointments: Little Big Town, Shontelle, A-Trak, Nina Sky, Lillix, though I've not listened all through the last two and only listened to the first two once.

Comments

[talrose.livejournal.com]

One thing I notice is that neither you nor Chuck have any rap on your lists, unless you count Princesa, M.I.A., Kid Rock, Shangaan Electro, or Bigg Robb as rap, and I don't think I would. Off the top of my head, Big Boi, Rick Ross, Starlito, E-40, Shabazz Palaces, Curren$y, and Roc Marciano all made great rap albums this year. In fact, it's probaby the best year for rap albums since 2004! If you guys are interested in any of these I'd be happy to send you guys .zip files or CD burns, whatever your druthers.

I'd make a top 20, but my list is always changing the more I hear stuff. At the moment, I think my top 10 would look something like this:

1. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today (4AD)
2. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (Warp)
3. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh (Universal Motown)
4. Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (Warp)
5. Rick Ross - Teflon Don (Def Jam)
6. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (Editions Mego)
7. Javiera Mena - Mena (Unión Del Sur)
8. Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool (Smalltown Supersound)
9. Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts, Vol. 1 (Faces)
10. Shed - The Traveller (Ostgut Ton)

One of these will have to make room for Seger on my P&J ballot, and I'm not putting in Jace Everett, which I love, because it did come out in 2009, and in June of 2009 at that. Ke$ha, No Age, The-Dream, Big Boi, Starlito, and Autechre all deserve a spot too, but hey, I can only submit ten! With The-Dream and Big Boi and maybe Ke$ha, I'll probably go for singles instead.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this list, Talrose (whoever you are). Though from my list you left off at least Far*East Movement and Colt Ford, both of which albums I'm pretty sure have more rapping on them than Kid Rock (which has none) or Bigg Robb (which has just I little). (Fwiw, both Laura Bell Bundy and This Moment In Black History rap in at least one track on their albums, too.) (I'm not saying Far*East's or Colt's rapping is great, though.)

I really appreciate the zip-or-burn offer. But knowing my habits, I don't think I've ever gotten around to listening to a zip file of an album I wasn't expressly being paid to write about, and I'd feel bad if you took the time to burn those CDs and I gave up on them after just a couple songs, then never played them again (which, given my history with hip-hop albums over the past two decades, is highly likely. Somewhere along the line, new rap albums really started seeming like work to me, for some reason. Partly my fault, I'm sure. But mostly the music's fault.) I will though, try to find some time to figure out which of those albums you listed are on Rhapsody, and check them out there. But again, I'm not optimistic. I've more-or-less hated most of the Rick Ross I've heard this year (including "Blowing Money Fast"); been meh on what Big Boi I've checked (though his album's been on my "try to find time to listen to this" shortlist for a while already now.) I've got an older E-40 CD on my shelf (My Ghetto Report Card from 2006) that I determined was good at the time, but haven't been remotely inspired to play since; in fact, yesterday, before your email, it was almost bumped into the storage boxes in the closet before being saved by the second Eluvium CD, which made that trip instead. Don't even know who Starlito, Shabazz Palaces, Curren$y, or Roc Marciano are; I'm really not keeping up with this stuff lately, I guess. So I'm now vaguely curious about them, but to be honest, what I'm now most curious about on your list is Motor City Drum Ensemble, which I never heard of before. Promising name though!

Had no idea 2004 was considered a great year for hip-hop albums, by the way. All those '00s years run together in my head, but going back and looking at the (probably incomplete) album list from that year on my laptop, here are the hip-hoppingest things I'm seeing in my own top 50 or so:

Spoonie Gee – Godfather Of Hip-Hop (Ol’ Skool Flava/Tuff City reissue)
Big & Rich – Horse Of A Different Color (Warner Bros.)
M.I.A. – Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1 (unlabeled promo mix album)
Chingo Bling – The Tamale Kingpin (Big Chile Enterprises)
Death Comet Crew – This Is Riphop (Troubleman Unlimited reissue)
Mannie Fresh – The Mind Of… (Cash Money/Universal)
Mr. Wonka?! – Codeine Rock (mistrwonka@yahoo.com)
Federation – The Album (Virgin)
(Various) – Crunk Classics (TVT)

Definitely overrated Chingo Bling at the time. (Did not overrate Big N Rich, which okay, doesn't have that much rapping on it. Might have more than Mr. Wonka, but I think screwing and chopping still counted as hip-hop back in the pre-witchhouse era.) Pretty sure my own favorite year for hip-hop albums of the '00s (or at least the year the most made my Top 10 -- four, I think) was 2003, thanks primarily to Ying Yang Twins, Bubba Sparxxx, two David Banner albums voted for screwed-and-chopped one), and Buck 65 and Fannypack if they count. (Lyrics Born, Lifesavas, and Joe Budden also good that year, looks like.)

[talrose.livejournal.com]

Have not heard Far*East Movement aside from what was reviewed on the jukebox, but I'm looking forward to hearing it when it comes out. Listened to the Colt Ford off of a prior list you made and didn't like it at all. Thought the idea took precedence over the music, if that makes any sense (and yes, the rapping was a barrier).

Don't worry, it's just an offer and no shakes if you guys wanna pass up on it! Just seeing that maybe you guys haven't heard these albums and was wondering if you wanted to. MCDE is actually just one guy, a German house producer, and this is a collection of all his early singles.

2004 had M.I.A. and Crunk Classics and Mannie Fresh, and also Madvillain, Ghostface, Cam'ron, The Streets, Kanye West, Masta Killa, De La Soul, Masta Ace, Jadakiss, Ludacris, etc.

and it's Ta1 from the Jukebox.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Oops, duh -- Kid Rock's album has T.I. on one cut (same cut as Martina McBride!), so that's some rapping, I guess.

And Colt Ford's album has definitely soured on me a bit since it came out; played it again a few weeks back, and decided it doesn't really kick in til its second half. But I do still think a handful of songs come close to pulling the "idea" off.
Has a shot at my Nashville Scene ballot, but not Pazz & Jop.

My favorite hip-hop artists of the '00s, fwiw, were probably Trick Daddy and Field Mob, and maybe Trina. (Not that I pull any of their albums out all that much anymore either, tbh.)

Also, excuse all my typos above, as usual.

[koganbot]

What my album list has on it is a notable lack of albums! But the most rap thing on it is actually the E.via EP. Websites refer to her as "rap," anyway, though she's pretty much her own category I'd say, but rap is a big part of it, and she raps well.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

And oh yeah....duh, theres's also rapping on the albums on my list by Coati Mundi and Chuck Brown (both of whom have used rap as a part of their music since Old Old Old School Days, and reside on the cusp of hip-hop if not actually in it.)