Monday Mixtape, Vol. 21
Sometimes a week or many weeks will pass by without too much music that gets me excited. Then a week will come by that is overwhelming in its breadth of tunes that get me amped. Last week was the latter.
Foals just released their fourth album, What Went Down, a more rock-oriented album which built on the pieces that made their prior stuff so enjoyable and unique. The title track is all you need to hear to gauge whether this band and album is for you. The buildup to this track hinges on Yannis' warbling vocals and an excitable drumbeat, culminating in an orgy of sounds blasting through your eardrums. I can't wait to see this album live.
Listen to the hip-hop drumbeat that starts "Cold Tears" by AM & Shawn Lee and ask yourself if it sounds familiar? Anything?
I LOVE this track by JT (and unabashedly love JT's music), but it's all propelled by that drumbeat by Pharrell. The fact that The Clipse are featured only makes the song that much better.
Speaking of rappers, guess who's back? Mighty Mos! Blackstar's (only) album and his own Black on Both Side are two of my favorite rap albums ever. His lyrics and easily identifiable voice (you can hear it's Mos in a split second - just like Q-Tip) are his trademarks. May I offer an example? (Starting at 0:15)
My restlessness is my nemesis
It's hard to really chill and sit still
Committed to page, I write a rhyme
Sometimes won't finish for days
Scrutinize my literature from the large to the miniature
I mathematically administer
Subtract the wack
Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that
From the core to the perimeter black
You know the motto
Stay fluid even in staccato
Moving on, The Weeknd just released his new album, Beauty Behind the Madness. It's crazy how much he has blown up since "Can't Feel My Face" became the #1 hit on Billboard. It feels like an eternity since I wrote about his obsession with drugs, and now he's on the covers of magazines, performing at award shows, and constantly clogging your radio station.
I've listened through his album a few times and am overly impressed with the whole thing albeit a couple clunkers ("Dark Times" with Ed Sheeran seems like a completely forced guest appearance to gain listeners and sales).
One of my favorite tracks from the album is the Kanye West produced "Tell Your Friends," an R Kelly-sounding slow jam with The Weeknd sweetly puffing out his chest as he talks about his usuals (see: his hair, poppin' pills, fuckin' bitches, living life trill, cocaine, and other blatant disregards for the opposite see - for further references, see: An Intervention for...The Weeknd).
The distorted, auto-tuned guitar (playing throughout but easily heard at 2:49 - 3:14) is pure Kanye. I recognized the sound from tracks from his classic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, mainly "Devil In a New Dress" and "Runaway":
Starting at 2:52:
Starting at 6:05:
It's cool to hear influences remain and are still borrowed (somewhat) subtly in a musician's arsenal, and the production form "Tell Your Friends" is really superb.
I just started listening to Widowspeak - as in, I just heard this song today and instantly fell for it. I have a sweet spot for chill tracks, and this track has a subdued pace, sweet and soft vocals, and a bit going on in the background to keep it entertaining.
I can't stop listening to this track from Half Moon Run. Their debut album last year, Dark Eyes, was a weird amalgamation (I looked this word up to make sure I was using it right, definiton: the action, process, or result of combining or uniting.) of Radiohead and Kings of Leon. I always heard a bit of Thom Yorke and Radiohead's spaced out sounds while keeping some rock elements I heard in KOL.
But if you can't hear the Thom Yorke's influence IMMEDIATELY from the beginning of this track, you haven't been listening to enough Radiohead! Although the pace is much slower on this Radiohead track (my favorite from King of Limbs), just listen to the opening vocals:
Lots of sounds and influences this week! Happy Labor Day!