MON., MAY 14, 2007
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Your Music: May 2007
by J. Edward Keyes
"“Oh, no! There's only a few days left in the month and I still have some downloads to use up!” Sound familiar? Well, never fear, dear subscriber, eMusic’s crackerjack Editorial staff has the answer. Or, rather, thirty of them. Welcome to the May edition of “Your Music,” a monthly feature where we'll suggest some of our favorite eMusic tracks for your downloading pleasure. And now, without further ado…
Michael Azerrad, Editor-in-Chief
Todd Burns, Production Editor
J. Edward Keyes, Managing Editor
Black Sheep - 8VM/Novakane
Through a strange turn of events that I'm not clear enough on to expound, Joe from eMusic's content department (aka the incredible DJ Bazooka Joe) is now touring the world as Black Sheep's DJ. Before any of this went down, he was hard-selling me on the new Black Sheep record, and I have to confess I was more than a little lax in responding.
Well, I should have listened to him, because it's great — the exact combination of sizzling production and deft lyricism I've been craving. It's smart without being remote or academic, and crackles where most backpack rappers thud. The record comes out swinging: it begins with a gruff voice barking a series of idiotic boasts over a chintzy, monotonous club beat. It sounds like an empty, overstyled widget-shifter — until it's suddenly cut short by the sound of Black Sheep's sarcastically panting: "I had a dream — I dreamed I had a hot record out!"
From that point on, it's a dazzling journey deep into the world of Black Sheep, a flashback back to a time when a person didn't have to choose between hot lyrics and hot beats. The production is thick and thumping, full of horn blasts and bouncing bass. But the record's fulcrum is Dres: his flow is crisp and nimble, and he knots up insane amounts of internal rhyming. Nearly every song boasts a thrilling syntactical trick: "Hey" is a deft exercise in alliteration, soaring where Papoose's "Alphabetical Slaughter" flamed out, "Everyday" is a laid-back slow-jam built around a sweet, summery hook. Dres loads each verse with meaning, and the record grows in stature with every pass. I only wish I'd gotten to it sooner.
Download: "Hey," "Whodat?," "Everyday," "Heed the Word"
O.C. - Word…Life
For fun, take a few minutes and try to buy this one online. Having trouble? This is just one of the many out-of-print classics we've got on site. This one is a particular marvel: Released in 1994, in the heyday of New York hip-hop, Word… Life took careful pains not to booster myths about street life but instead parsed weighty social issues. "Time's Up" is a hip-hop classic, O.C.'s flow rocketing up from beneath the great, grainy sample: "You lack the minerals and vitamins/ Iron and the niacin/ …you talk and squawk/ but never even walked the walk/ More or less destined to get tested/ Never been arrested/ My album will manifest/ things I saw, did, or heard about/ told first-hand, never word of mouth…" He keeps up that thicket of rhyme throughout, staring down crooked cops in "Constable" and laying out his m.o. in "Point o Viewz" — a song that opens with the same break as Jay-Z's "Public Service Announcement." That Word…Life is out of print is a travesty, but its presence here is some relief. It's a stunner from the first beat to the last.
Download: "Time's Up," "Constable," "Point O Viewz"
Malcolm & Alwyn - Fool's Wisdom
I got really, really into this record about a year ago, and have been revisiting it a lot recently. Full disclosure: I had kind of an extended flirtation with religion in my past, so that probably makes me a bit more susceptible to the charms of Fool's Wisdom, but I'd maintain that there's enough here to satisfy even the surliest skeptic. The songs are straight '60s folk/pop, twinkles of acoustic guitar and the grand, tangled vocals of Malcolm & Alwyn. The group was popular during the late-'60s Jesus Movement, coming close to crossover success before petering out entirely. I still think some enterprising DJ should set the vocal to "Say it Like it Is" to a sweltering club rhythm.
All of the Jesus Music earmarks are here in full effect — the soft strumming, the lovely (and Love-ly) harmonies, the creepy obsession with eschatology. Fool's Wisdom (taking its title from a passage in the Bible that says that God uses the "foolish things of this world to confound the wise") is a lost treasure, a collection of relentlessly melodic folk songs that charm and disarm. Malcolm & Alwyn rarely sing above a stage whisper, and their tender plucking and easy demeanors create a mood of abiding tranquility. It's amazing that such tender songs can carry such grim, merciless doctrine. But in a weird way, though, the heavy dogma is what makes the music so fascinating. "Tomorrow's News", with its rococo piano runs and fluttering vocals, would be Bread pudding as a love ballad, but it becomes strangely ominous when topped with lyrics like, "Remember Mr. Tomlinson who everybody knew?/ He vanished from his home last week, he was one of the chosen few."
The album's finest moment comes at the center, with the mournful ballad "Growing Old," where Malc & Al take a break from soul-saving to lament their lost youth. It's a grand, golden number, building from an elegiac strum to a frenetic orchestra crescendo that falls squarely alongside Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. Here we get the boys as rambunctious scamps, jamming gum into the inkwell and scribbling lyrics in beat-up notebooks. For four minutes, Malcolm & Alwyn close the divide between their audience and themselves, turning in a consideration of mortality that is both heartfelt and heartbreaking. Like the book that inspired it, Fool's Wisdom is at its best when it's least concerned with instilling dogma. Isn't that a devil of a twist?
Download: "Say it Like it Is," "Tomorrow's News," "Growing Old"
Todd Burns, Production Editor
Black Sheep - 8VM/Novakane
Through a strange turn of events that I'm not clear enough on to expound, Joe from eMusic's content department (aka the incredible DJ Bazooka Joe) is now touring the world as Black Sheep's DJ. Before any of this went down, he was hard-selling me on the new Black Sheep record, and I have to confess I was more than a little lax in responding.
Well, I should have listened to him, because it's great — the exact combination of sizzling production and deft lyricism I've been craving. It's smart without being remote or academic, and crackles where most backpack rappers thud. The record comes out swinging: it begins with a gruff voice barking a series of idiotic boasts over a chintzy, monotonous club beat. It sounds like an empty, overstyled widget-shifter — until it's suddenly cut short by the sound of Black Sheep's sarcastically panting: "I had a dream — I dreamed I had a hot record out!"
From that point on, it's a dazzling journey deep into the world of Black Sheep, a flashback back to a time when a person didn't have to choose between hot lyrics and hot beats. The production is thick and thumping, full of horn blasts and bouncing bass. But the record's fulcrum is Dres: his flow is crisp and nimble, and he knots up insane amounts of internal rhyming. Nearly every song boasts a thrilling syntactical trick: "Hey" is a deft exercise in alliteration, soaring where Papoose's "Alphabetical Slaughter" flamed out, "Everyday" is a laid-back slow-jam built around a sweet, summery hook. Dres loads each verse with meaning, and the record grows in stature with every pass. I only wish I'd gotten to it sooner.
Download: "Hey," "Whodat?," "Everyday," "Heed the Word"
O.C. - Word…Life
For fun, take a few minutes and try to buy this one online. Having trouble? This is just one of the many out-of-print classics we've got on site. This one is a particular marvel: Released in 1994, in the heyday of New York hip-hop, Word… Life took careful pains not to booster myths about street life but instead parsed weighty social issues. "Time's Up" is a hip-hop classic, O.C.'s flow rocketing up from beneath the great, grainy sample: "You lack the minerals and vitamins/ Iron and the niacin/ …you talk and squawk/ but never even walked the walk/ More or less destined to get tested/ Never been arrested/ My album will manifest/ things I saw, did, or heard about/ told first-hand, never word of mouth…" He keeps up that thicket of rhyme throughout, staring down crooked cops in "Constable" and laying out his m.o. in "Point o Viewz" — a song that opens with the same break as Jay-Z's "Public Service Announcement." That Word…Life is out of print is a travesty, but its presence here is some relief. It's a stunner from the first beat to the last.
Download: "Time's Up," "Constable," "Point O Viewz"
Malcolm & Alwyn - Fool's Wisdom
I got really, really into this record about a year ago, and have been revisiting it a lot recently. Full disclosure: I had kind of an extended flirtation with religion in my past, so that probably makes me a bit more susceptible to the charms of Fool's Wisdom, but I'd maintain that there's enough here to satisfy even the surliest skeptic. The songs are straight '60s folk/pop, twinkles of acoustic guitar and the grand, tangled vocals of Malcolm & Alwyn. The group was popular during the late-'60s Jesus Movement, coming close to crossover success before petering out entirely. I still think some enterprising DJ should set the vocal to "Say it Like it Is" to a sweltering club rhythm.
All of the Jesus Music earmarks are here in full effect — the soft strumming, the lovely (and Love-ly) harmonies, the creepy obsession with eschatology. Fool's Wisdom (taking its title from a passage in the Bible that says that God uses the "foolish things of this world to confound the wise") is a lost treasure, a collection of relentlessly melodic folk songs that charm and disarm. Malcolm & Alwyn rarely sing above a stage whisper, and their tender plucking and easy demeanors create a mood of abiding tranquility. It's amazing that such tender songs can carry such grim, merciless doctrine. But in a weird way, though, the heavy dogma is what makes the music so fascinating. "Tomorrow's News", with its rococo piano runs and fluttering vocals, would be Bread pudding as a love ballad, but it becomes strangely ominous when topped with lyrics like, "Remember Mr. Tomlinson who everybody knew?/ He vanished from his home last week, he was one of the chosen few."
The album's finest moment comes at the center, with the mournful ballad "Growing Old," where Malc & Al take a break from soul-saving to lament their lost youth. It's a grand, golden number, building from an elegiac strum to a frenetic orchestra crescendo that falls squarely alongside Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. Here we get the boys as rambunctious scamps, jamming gum into the inkwell and scribbling lyrics in beat-up notebooks. For four minutes, Malcolm & Alwyn close the divide between their audience and themselves, turning in a consideration of mortality that is both heartfelt and heartbreaking. Like the book that inspired it, Fool's Wisdom is at its best when it's least concerned with instilling dogma. Isn't that a devil of a twist?
Download: "Say it Like it Is," "Tomorrow's News," "Growing Old"
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