Albums of the year

My picks for my favorite albums this year:

Blue Scholars
Bayani

This album has been rocking my world. Really lovely, conscious, thoughtful hip-hop. The song Morning of America is my favorite of the year - alas can't find it online for the link. Enjoy however Back Home, a powerful if a little on-the-nose anthem, NorthbyNorthwest, a delightful self-introduction and Ordinary Guys, a cute alternative to aggrandizement. Their first album is great, too.


Brother Ali
The Undisputed Truth

Incredible album for the albino rapper - Truth Is, sadly bleeped, makes me feel like I'm already free. I also love Daylight and his intro to Uncle Sam Goddamn quotes Nina Simone's classic line "this is a show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it... yet" and that made me very happy.


The White Stripes
Icky Thump

You already know about this one, unless, you know, you don't rock. Rag and Bone is my favorite track.

The Cat Empire
So Many Nights

Great third (and a half) album from The Cats. No Longer There is a beautiful song, Fishes is up there with their classic good time tunes like Hello Hello, but for me the best track is The Darkness, which is clearly Harry-led and shows the influence of his work on the Jackson Jackson album. I need to figure out how to host mp3s.

Feist
The Reminder

Talking of triumphant Nina Simone covers. Feist makes me happy.


Bruce Springsteen
Magic

Girls in Their Summer Clothes, to blatantly steal from the Onion Avclub, is the best Magnetic Fields song Bruce ever wrote. And Living in the Future stops me fretting about all this happening yet. His live in Belfast album, also out this year is also good news, it's all his classics but redone in the Seeger Sessions folk style.

One (remix)

First of all, since I don't own the album, I don't know if there exists a "One (not remix)." I assume so. But I've never heard it.

I just find myself listening to this song again and again. Perhaps it's that he calls Paul Wolfowitz a motherfucker in a really satisfying manner. I never get tired of that.

He is Immortal Technique, the album (which as I mentioned, I haven't heard in full) is Revolution, vol 2. Does there exist a Revolution, vol 1? I could look up both these questions on the internet, but I prefer the mystery.

I've found myself in the mood for radical hip-hop recently. Specifically, I've been really enjoying Dead Prez who are delightful mix of revolutionary and adorable. It makes me feel mostly fantastic and energized, but a little bit like Jon Stewart's pedantic character. You know the guy with the whiny voice who puts up one finger to make his quibble. Well, that's how radical hip hop makes me feel. I love Black Star
"Still mo' blacks is dyin, kids ain't livin they tryin
"How to Make a Slave" by Willie Lynch is still applyin"
but um... excuse me... did you know Willie Lynch is an internet hoax?
I love Dead Prez... but the fbi aren't really listening to you through your radio... I love immortal technique, but Bush didn't actually orchestrate 9/11.

You know the feeling? There's some great links in the above paragraph. I'm not sure how I feel about the youtube. On the one hand, it's so easy. And it's a great method of exploration. Like I just listened to a bunch of black ice on def jam from that above link. On the other hand, you end up with bizarre videos like the vegan dancing to Dead Prez. Or awful videos like the text of the lyrics on One. And then I want to comment on the videos. So I guess I feel it adds something, and detracts something, from the purity of my blog. Ha ha, I'm worried about the purity of my blog.

I got distracted. For going out to Mumia, One is the Song of the Week.

Express Yourself

The song of the week is Express Yourself by N.W.A. from Straight Outta Compton


The eponymous sample from this song is a great song in its own right: the soul/funk classic by Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band.

The song is something of an odd duck on the album. The vocals are Dr. Dre, leaving DJ Yella on production (Dre mostly produced the other tracks). I know this, because Dre says his own name repeatedly during the song, which is a public service the friendly fellas at nwa provide for their listeners through the album. They never said it was a bad attitude. Second, despite being a defence of their nasty lyrics, the song is just plain nice. Straight outta compton is a genius influencial album and all, but sometimes I feel like a bad feminist for enjoy that delightfully misogynistic shit. Dre even goes all nancy reagan on the ganja ("its known to give a brother brain damage") It's like when Bob sings "all them drugs gonna make you slow" on burnin' and lootin' Oh shit! Also, Dre rhymes "Yella" and "a-capella."

Sure, I'm lame and old for chosing the least gangsta n.w.a. song. But express yourself is fun, funky and positive. It also sums up the appeal and politics of the rest of this definitive album. And for that, it's my song of the week.

Charles Wright is not related to Eric 'Easy-E' Wright, although that would be a nice piece of trivia to end on, huh?