Tom Waits - Mule Variations Can't go through this draft without having a Waits' album on my board. Released in 1999 and shows that he has lost nothing off his fastball. What more can be said about him? He's an American treasure and as he says on this album, he's big in Japan. Big In Japa [youtube]rMt5t1dG2cg[/youtube] Chocolate Jesus [youtube]1wfamPW3Eaw[/youtube] Hold On [youtube]74xpualjuhk[/youtube]
Sorry, I didn't realise I wouldn't be online for such a long time. My two picks are; Primal Scream - Screamadelica (1991) and Paul Weller - Wild Wood (1993)
Fashion Nugget ~ Cake I didn't think much of the album until I started listening to my wife's copy a couple years ago. I ended up really enjoying it. It is campy and fun. Q My List Entroducing... ~ DJ Shadow Enter the 36 Chambers ~ Wu Tang Clan Dig Me Out ~ Sleater-Kinney Time Out of Mind ~ Bob Dylan Violator ~ Depeche Mode Broken ~ Nine Inch Nails Badmotorfinger ~ Soundgarden Dots and Loops ~ Stereolab Fashion Nugget ~ Cake
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley 1994 The band that pioneered "stoner rock". Epic can't even begin to describe this album. It transcends Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and goes beyond. Gardenia [youtube]XM-dM7WoPIo[/youtube] Asteroid [youtube]-j4A2iGgQQk[/youtube] Demon Cleaner [youtube]LuL5W7nTz7s[/youtube]
Just listened to it the other day in an effort to narrow down my choices for the next round. I guess I can thank you for making it easier for me. Ya bastard.
I really can't stand Cake... your list was hitting the spot with me until cake... hmm... I tried to like them, i did... but ultimately i found myself more annoyed than entertained...
2pac - All Eyez On Me (1996) Along with B.S. 2pac presented a new wave of hip hop so to speak. AEOM is one of the most influential rap albums, one that probably influenced a lot of what is out there at the moment, not only because of its content but also because of the production involved. I'm not the biggest fan of rap or their "thug lifestyle" but I have respect for Tupac's poetic songwriting and lyricism. California Love [youtube]FWOsbGP5Ox4[/youtube] How Do U Want it [youtube]nlvS_Uk5yJM[/youtube] I ain't mad at cha [youtube]UveQdzrRfVg[/youtube]
Willie and Lobo-- "Fandango Nights" Willie Royal and Wolfgang Fink are surfers who met in the baja. The former is a classically trained violinist with a country/dixie rock resume, the other a flamenco guitar player; both have keen ears for many musical traditions and they developed a duet in part to finance their surf habit with gigs in the cantinas and tourist traps of the baja. The results are terrific. They get sold as new age or yuppie jazz, but its just music. They don't bring a lot of amps, they don't need a lot of space, and they don't bring much attitude. They just enjoy the places music can go, and they take an audience with them. They are as comfortable in a turkish or korean vein as in flamenco or swing or norteno. I could have chosen any of four albums for this pick; I went with this because it is the first with Rick Braun, their trumpeter of choice and eventually their producer. Unfortunately I couldn't find a good reproduction of the color values of this cover...
To me what was interesting about 2Pac was how he incorporated a lot R&B riffs into his beats -- The chorus for "Skandalouz" for example, would not be out of place in a Barry White song!! (no one's gonna pick him, are they?). So would the baseline for "California Love." As result, the harsh thug lyrics and aggressive vocals create a stark contrast to the smooth musical underlayment. You see the same R&B foundation is a song like "2 of Americaz Most Wanted" (my favorite 2Pac song). By the way, has anybody seen the David Chappelle skit "2Pac-Rest in Peace" where 2Pac's unreleased "oeuvre" is unleashed on a partying Dave and his date, and the lyrics manage to precisely mirror Dave's situation at the time. Hilarious. I don't know what it says about 2Pac's place in the artistic universe when part of his "image" -- a dead guy who has a huge library of unreleased thug rap songs -- becomes the linchpin for a comedy sketch.
Well yeah but I also like alot of west coast stuff. The Chronic is one of the best hip hop albums ever. But still I just don't like 2pac.
I dunno -- I think he's properly rated, frankly. I said this during the Current Music draft and Jeremy really pounded on me for it, but, heck, why not again: Rap as a genre is going to fade. It may not happen tomorrow, and it may not happen next year...but it is going to happen. Rumor has it that Tupac was going to abandon music and concentrate on acting. He had taken the music as far as it could go. If so, I think he understood that the genre has inherent limitations and he had, in his mind, begun to exhaust possibilities. I think this is true not just for his work, but the work of others. What you see now is that the various forms of rap/hip hop are now being co-opted and absorbed by standard muscial forms. The genre will live on, but it will do so as a component of music, not as its own type.
Not going to happen. Nowadays alot of the most innovative stuff is coming out of hip hop. The genre lends itself to reinvention and innovation more so than any other one. Because of its variety it can incorporate alot of other things into the mix which is not always easy or true or other genres. Not to mention that the use of samples will always be a foundation for new and interesting stuff. 2pac was extremely one dimentional and completely overrated. It had nothing to do about limitations. He just wasn't innovative in any way that's why countless rappers surpassed him and if he hadn't been murdered he would have passed into oblivion and would be forgotten. The same thing that happens to many musicians happened to him. He gets more praise than he deserves because of the way he died and because it was premature. Wait so is it going to live on or is it going to fade away??? Which one is it? Hip hop like indie rock and many other genres will learn to reinvent itself and continue to produce good stuff. Most indie rock coming out nowadays is ripoff and rehashing of old stuff. But they've still found a way to make it interesting and sound new. The same will happen with hip hop.
All Eyez on Me would have been better as a single disc (as most double-disc releases seem to be). For that reason I would have gone with Me Against the World.
A little history for you -- genres fade away. How's restoration drama going? Any word on that? How's the dramatic farce going? Any word on that? How's light operatta going? Any word on that? How's do wop goin'? Any word on that? How's the big band scene these days? Any word on that? I am sorry hip/hop rap is not immune to the forces of decline. And one way a genre declines is to have its forms absorbed. Think about psychedlic music -- no one makes purely psychedlic music anymore. But the riffs, the sonic patterns -- they get abosorbed. Ween is a good example of a band that does such things. In my view, the future of hip hop -- if you can call it that -- is a band like Subtle. They are simply not characterizable the way Eminem, Snoop, or Kanye West are.
Thanks for the pm guys. Bjork- Homogenic I know I'm going to get flamed for this but the psycho needed to be represented in the draft. This album proved that she wasn't a fluke who got lucky with her first album. A dark album with a mixture of a whole bunch of sounds, string octets, harmonicas, accordions, djs all mixed together to her liking. And the voice is as good as its ever been. Bachelorette [youtube]x5nNfbTS6N4[/youtube] Joga [youtube]Z8Ol-7DiXCM[/youtube]
Hip hop as a genre is more popular that it's ever been. http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/11/music_charts/main1699527.shtml