Not exactly the most exciting week for new releases (man, how much have I been saying THAT lately?), we begin this week’s column with a group that begs two questions: What happened to the R&B group? and Are there any acts left on Bad Boy Records? Shit, think back fifteen years, and the R&B scene was littered with groups: Boyz II Men, Jodeci, Shai, Silk, Intro, Hi-Five, Color Me Badd…now I can barely think of any besides Mint Condition (the only R&B band left on the scene). BIIM’s last release was a covers record, New Edition pretty much now exists only as a touring group, and everyone else broke up, it seems. What the hell, man?
Similarly, remember when Bad Boy’s roster boasted The Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Mase, 112 and a handful of others? Well, Biggie’s dead, Mase found Jesus (again), 112 split up, Faith switched labels, and the only acts left on Bad Boy appear to be Diddy himself, Cassie (who really doesn’t need to release another albums) and Day26. Although I’m not the biggest fan (actually, I’m not a fan at all), I at least give props to these cats for carrying the torch.
Here’s some other stuff hitting stores this week that you may find interesting.
Beck “One Foot in the Grave” (remastered w/bonus tracks)– Remember when Beck first came out, he had two record deals? His pop stuff was released through Geffen, while his more indie-flavored, uncommercial stuff was free to be released on other labels? Well, for those who don’t remember, “One Foot in the Grave” was the first of those lo-fi recordings after the success of “Mellow Gold” in ’94. Me? I’m not so much a fan of lo-fi Beck, but it’s nice to see his work getting the deluxe treatment.
Easy Star All Stars “Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band”-Following in the footsteps of “Dub Side of the Moon” and “Radiodread” (which tackled “OK Computer”), this album features a reggae makeover of the entire “Sgt. Pepper’s…” album. Not sure how appealing that sounds to you if you’re a Beatles fan, but the previous installments of this series have been quite listenable, actually. The album features everyone from Jamaican legends Steel Pulse to the hellbent-on-proving-he’s-not-a-one-hit-wonder Matisyahu. Remember him?
Fastball “Little White Lies”– Those of you who thought Fastball disappeared after scoring smash hits with “Out of My Head” and “The Way”, well, you’re wrong. The power-pop trio is back with their first album in five years. Although I don’t know much beyond the two singles, I have friends who swear these guys can do no wrong, and they certainly have a way with a hook. This one might be worth a listen.
Bernie WIlliams “Moving Forward”-Although my body is in Boston these days, my baseball heart will always be with the Yankees (that sound you just heard was me getting kicked in the head by 100 Red Sox fans). Retired Yank Bernie Williams has released albums of his instrumental guitar work before, and they’ve been surprisingly well-received-or at least well-received enough that I can’t think of a comparable athlete’s venture into music that was as successful. Anyway, Bernie pulled in the big guns for this release, as he got Bruce Springsteen to appear on this album. I always knew The Boss had good taste in baseball teams.
Get your complete list of this week’s new releases here.
Before I actually sat down and decided to write this up, I thought “wow. What a crappy year 2008 was for music”. Such a crappy year, in fact, that I thought I was gonna have trouble coming up with a list of even 10 albums that I thought were worthy of mention.
Well I’ll be…by the time the dust had cleared, I had a shortlist large enough (is that a double negative?) that I wound up with a Top 25. I would have edited down further, but I just couldn’t remove anything. My apologies to Adele, Anthony Hamilton, Ben Folds, Eric Benet and My Morning Jacket, who just missed the final cut.
Enough of the prelude. Let’s move on to the first part of my list.
25. “Santogold” Santogold
Most people say Santogold reminds them of M.I.A., I beg to differ. Those of you who remember Res, who recorded one album seven or eight years ago, will realize that she and Santi White are sisters in music. Indie pop with a hint of soul, and Go Hard was just fine before Jay-Z decided to sample it for a Biggie tribute.
Now 30, married and a dad of two, the former prince of teen pop grew up on this collection of (largely) midtempos and ballads. Songs like His Mistakes and the title track won’t satisfy those who were grooving to Yeah! a couple years back, but will speak to anyone trying to mature in a committed relationship. Besides, Love in This Club, which I hated at first-largely due to the presence of Young Jeezy-turned into one of 2008’s biggest earworms for me.
23. “Something Else” Robin Thicke
Usher’s sometime collaborator Robin Thicke returned for Round 3 with a collection that sits somewhere between the slightly obtuse Prince-isms of his first album and the smoother Marvin Gaye-esque sounds of his breakthrough sophomore release. Songs like Tie My Hands and Dreamworld reveal a burgeoning social conscience, while Sidestep is the best grown-folks dance song since R. Kelly’s Step in the Name of Love.
22. “A Long Time Coming” Wayne Brady
Never in my life would I have imagined ever featuring a Wayne Brady album on a year-end list, but the actor/comedian/Renaissance man showed me a thing or two with his debut effort. Whether smoothing out a Beatles classic (Can’t Buy Me Love) or reminiscing about his childhood, Brady’s smooth and effortless vocals carried this solid collection of soul-inflected pop.
With some stellar assistance from ?uestlove, Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend and Anthony Hamilton, the world’s greatest living male soul singer stepped in the wayback machine, and suddenly, it was 1974 all over again-minus the hot grits. Not many folks eligible for AARP and ordained in the ministry can make records that sound this sexy.
20. “Modern Guilt” Beck
You’ve gotta give Beck props for being, along with The White Stripes, The Roots and Kanye West, this decade’s most consistent artist. Modern Guilt is his fourth consecutive strong effort, and finds him joining forces with Danger Mouse for a collection that matches maturing lyrics with bouncy (for the most part) instrumental backing without the massive genre-jumps that marked his most recent two albums.
19. “It is Time for a Love Revolution” Lenny Kravitz
Lenny almost lost me for good with the travesty that was 2004’s Baptism, but the four years off did him a world of good. Dancin’ Til Dawn was a groover, even as it shamelessly ripped off The Rolling Stones’ Miss You. Songs like A Long & Sad Goodbye pushed emotional buttons while I’ll Be Waiting was the lighter-waving devotional ballad of the year, a fact reinforced when I found myself in a situation in which the lyrics applied perfectly.
18. “Rising Down” The Roots
It says something when The Roots’ least-essential album of the decade still winds up in my year end Top 20. Although I could have done without the abundance of guest appearances, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Styles P are among the featured artists who bring their A games, while the criminally underrated Black Thought is dependable as ever. Fellow Philly emcee Peedi Peedi defines himself on one track as “W.E.B. Dubois mixed with Heavy D & the Boyz” and that perfectly describes the sound of Rising Down.
17. “Gossip in the Grain” Ray LaMontagne
2008 was the year that the heart-on-sleeve singer/songwriter loosened up. Gossip contained the usual plaintive ballads, but Ray shined most on loose, country-flecked songs like Hey Me Hey Mama and the slightly disturbing love letter Meg White, a tribute to the distaff half of The White Stripes. If I was Meg, I’d make sure my doors were locked, but I’d still let Ray sing outside.
16. “Everything is Borrowed” The Streets
The States will never “get” Mike Skinner, so his success will never match up to the quality of his records, but oh well. He can continue being my (and the U.K.’s) secret. Skinner’s fourth effort finds the rapper tackling life, death and all the other big issues with the matter-of-fact cheekiness that’s become his trademark. The Escapist is unquestionably one of the year’s best videos.
15. “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay
Whether giving Lost! some hip-hop flavor (even before the Jay-Z remix), rocking hard on Violet Hill or getting all majestic with the title track, Chris Martin and company expanded their sound on Viva La Vida and wound up with their best effort since their debut. Credit some of that to the addition of Brian Eno in the producer’s chair and credit the rest to Martin’s commitment to quality songwriting and his decision to save the weepy piano ballads for the end of the album.
14. “Shine” Estelle
Shine is the first worthwhile album by a female artist who raps (at least part-time) since The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and while the Brit can’t step into L-Boogie’s high heels, she does pretty good for herself. American Boy is yet another earworm (and finds Kanye at his most charming), Just a Touch has swagger to spare, and Pretty Please (Love Me) suggests she should do a whole album with Cee-Lo.
13. “Evolver” John Legend
Thankfully, Evolver was not exactly John Legend goes crunk. Despite the addition of a slightly more uptempo element, Legend’s dedication to classy R&B remains intact. Jumping from subgenres from light reggae to near-orchestral balladry (This Time suggests that an album-length John Legend/Trevor Horn collaboration would be magical), Legend takes yet another baby step towards justifying his name with his third album.
Next up-the mother of all mash-ups, my favorite Swedish cupcake, the year’s best covers album…my 12 favorite albums of 2008, coming up next.
Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone. Our own Greg Harrell has passed on his own indie-tastic list of his favorites of 2008. Have a look-see, won’t you?
20.) Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold
19.) The Verve – Forth
18.) Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See it
17.) Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line
16.) Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
15.) Robyn – Robyn
14.) Bloc Party – Intimacy
13.) The Streets – Everything Is Borrowed
12.) Shearwater – Rook
11.) ohGr – Devils in my Details
10.) The Mars Volta – The Bedlam In Goliath
Were it not for a handful of shitty songs, this would easily be album of the year. “Metatron” is the greatest thing anybody recorded in 2008, and when this record’s on, it’ll give you seizures. Seriously, Curtis Mayfield could’ve written “Goliath” after a weekend of dropping acid in the desert. Occultist prog-rock doesn’t get any better.
9.) Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eryum Vid Spilium Endalaust
This record is every bit as “Sigur Ros” as anything these crazy Icelandic bastards have done in the past: meaning it sounds very much like pop music from some beautiful alien civilization. Still, the band decided to throw in a few curveballs, and it definitely sounds much…earthier than anything else they’ve done, probably because the sweeping electric guitars of yore have been replaced with acoustics. Surprisingly, they pull the folky direction off beautifully. The sweet ballad “Illgresi” has made it onto just about every mixtape I’ve burned this year, “Gobbledigook” is a gleeful sprint through the woods, and the angelic explosion of “Ara batur” is just paralyzingly beautiful. I don’t know what the hell world these guys inhabit, but I’d sure like to visit it someday.
8.) TV on the Radio – Dear Science
Depending on whose reading this, you either have no idea who the fuck TV on the Radio is or you’ve had the brilliance of this record shoved down your throat so many times that you’re completely sick of it. So yeah, TV on the Radio experiments with dance / disco / afro-beat / new wave, everybody loves it and I’m already sick of talking about it.
7.) Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
I wasn’t as scared of this record as a lot of people were. I dug “Love Lockdown” from the get go, and figured if anyone could make a great record out of the autotune it would be Kanye. Sure enough, he proved me right. If for whatever reason you haven’t heard this yet, “808s & Heartbreak” finds Mr. West going a more somber route. Yeah, there’s singing; yeah, there’s heartbreak; yeah, there are 808s too incidentally enough. I don’t know if this as radical as some people have made it out to be, seeing as there are at least four great singles on this album, but whether you love the man or hate him, you’ve gotta respect his artistic daring. I mean, how many times has Kanye reinvented his style now? Exactly. I don’t really know where to place the sound of this record: somewhere between the “walking through the streets at night contemplating what an utter failure your life has become” sound of Burial’s last record, the catchier side of Depeche Mode and the more Eurocentric songs from “Graduation.” It’s a hell of a statement, and nobody other than Kanye West could’ve possibly made it.
6.) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Imagine “Highway 61 Revisited” plowed into the Doors’ self-titled record. “Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!” is the result.
5.) Beck – Modern Guilt
Beck writes a bunch of apocalyptic songs and gets Dangermouse to provide some colorful and vaguely psychedelic beats. Naturally, the result is brilliance.
4.) Q-Tip – The Renaissance
The only legitimately great hip-hop record released this year (“808s” is a little too leftfield to qualify as hip-hop exclusively). Q-Tip does something that not too many pioneers of the genre are willing to do: he looks forward instead of trying to plagiarize himself. The result is an excellent hip-hop medley, sometimes jazzy, sometimes soulful, always electrifying. Tip puts everybody doing this to shame so astoundingly, and so effortlessly, it’s almost humbling.
3.) Portishead – Third
Speaking of leftfield comebacks, holy shit this record is amazing. Considering that trip-hop (which isn’t really a genre but let’s pretend it is for a sentence) has essentially been left to fester in a ditch, I can’t say I was expecting Portishead to pull off a masterpiece. But lo and behold they did. Beth Gibbons sounds as lovely as ever, and the other two guys still know how to convert dank and despair into beauty. From the shimmering “Hunter” to the bubbling “Rip” to the foggy “Small,” there’s not a bad song here. Proof that your musical idols aren’t always content to just sit on their asses and exploit their legacies.
2.) Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
The sound of a white wolf pawing at the moon. Music don’t get much sadder and wintry than this.
1.) Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
How the hell have these guys not blown up yet? Seriously, “Grounds for Divorce” alone should have made them a household name. Well, unless Judd Apatow decides to use one of their songs to promote his next movie, I guess these guys are gonna have to remain a secret. “The Seldom Seen Kid” goes everywhere: one track you’re soaring through space, the next you’re getting stretched through a funhouse mirror. One minute you’re sitting on top of a skyscraper, the next you’re walking past a friend’s grave. And so on. Guy Garvey is an absolutely brilliant songwriter, and the lyrics wash through you as if the feelings were your own. As a singer, he’s capable of evoking both the tenderness of Chris Martin and the swagger of Peter Gabriel (who I guess could be tender too but…um…). If you’ve yet to hear this, then look up the dazzling “Mirrorball.” If that song doesn’t move you then I don’t want to share the same…planet as you. Get out.
