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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Prince

  • The Sunday Shuffle: Trying People

    Who knew sitting on your ass could be so exhausting? After a day at the beach, I’m maxin’ and relaxin’ and ready for another edition of the Sunday Shuffle. Let’s get started!!

    Track 1: “Room To Breathe” by Downtown Science
    Downtown Science was a rap group consisting of Sam Sever (who at that point was best known as one of 3rd Bass’s producers) and Bosco Money (who had one of the most unfortunate rap handles ever invented). It took me ages to track this CD down on half.com, as it’s been out of print for ages. This song has a very airy quality to it with a looped piano riff and a fairly easygoing backbeat for the average hip-hop record. I like it more for the beat than anything else. Another thing worth noting is that Bosco Money sounds a LOT like 3rd Bass’s MC Serch. This album is also notable for featuring the recording debut of noted female MC The Lady of Rage. Wonder if she’s still rockin’ rough and stuff with her Afro puffs.

    2. “Everloving” by Moby
    “Play” was Moby’s lightning in a bottle. I haven’t particularly cared for anything before or since (actually, I kinda gave up on him after being completely unimpressed by “Hotel”), but, damn, “Play” is such a good album. This song has a very hazy, new age-ish quality to it, like a very slightly more caffeinated Enigma (without the Gregorian monk chants).

    3. “My Ex-Girlfriend” by Tony! Toni! Tone!
    “Sons of Soul” is one of the five best R&B albums of the Nineties. The smoothness of this track sort of obscures the fact that the chorus of the song goes “My ex-girlfriend is a ho”. It comes off as more funny than misogynistic. It’s got a pretty neat doo-woppy mid-section, too. Damn, what happened to the R&B band? There’s Mint Condition, The Roots, and…

    I guess it ain’t cool for black folks to play instruments anymore.

    Track 4: “I Miss You” by Bjork
    OK, Bjork’s always been kind of weird, but as her career has progressed, her albums have gotten more and more obtuse. Her first couple of albums at least placed her weirdness in a danceable, poppy framework. Now, it’s basically just like “I don’t get it”. I hate most dance music made after 1990, but this and the rest of “Debut” is pretty damn good. Wacky horn part too.

    Track 5: “Diamonds & Pearls” by Prince & the New Power Generation
    This is one of the few songs-perhaps the ONLY song-where Prince plays second fiddle to another artist. In this case, Rosie Gaines hits this one out of the park. It’s one of Prince’s more lyrically slight songs, but this is one of those cases where the feeling overrules the somewhat Hallmark-ish sentiments. I’d post the video, but I don’t want to feel Prince’s high heel in my ass, so let’s just skip it for right now.

    Track 6: “Trying People” by De La Soul
    Hip-hop isn’t exactly overflowing with tearjerkers, but this song is near the top of my list. Over a dreamlike Laura Nyro sample (this song was one of several things that made me investigate her music further), Pos and Dave deliver subdued, mature meditations on life. Sounds simple enough, but man, rarely is hip-hop so nakedly emotional. Yet another stamp on De La Soul’s status as the most criminally underrated hip-hop act EVER.

    Track 7: “Possibly Maybe” by Bjork
    Wow…I wasn’t expecting iTunes to go Bjork crazy on me tonight. After the relative nuttiness of “I Miss You”, “Possibly Maybe” is the calming rain after. Just Bjork and a heartbeat of a drum machine. A perfect way to end this week’s seven. Good night.

  • Strawberry Fields Forever: The Ultimate Beatles Mix

    A few Beatle-related personal factoids for you:

    *I think I knew who Paul McCartney and John Lennon were individually before I knew who the Beatles were collectively. I remember first being cognizant of Paul around 1980, when “Coming Up” was a hit. I obviously found out who John was shortly after: first via “Double Fantasy” and then via his murder. It must have been a couple months later when I saw “Yellow Submarine” on TV and either put together the fact that John and Paul were in a group together (with two other guys) or someone mentioned it to me.

    *I first really discovered The Beatles’ music back in 5th grade. Hmm, it might have been 6th. Nope, it was 5th. At any rate, I had a teacher named Mr. Duffy who was the coolest. He had the musical version of Trivial Pursuit and we used to play it in class. He even let me bring him a cassette and recorded “Rubber Soul” onto it. To this day, I have no clue how I was able to listen to it (my folks wouldn’t allow me to listen to music of my own in the house…another story for another therapist), but I was immediately enraptured.

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  • New Music In Stores & Online 7/29/08: Wow, This Is Bad

    In most years, there’s a period from mid-July to mid-August during which NOTHING comes out. As a record buyer, this is frustrating because you’re walking into record stores and not finding a thing that strikes your interest. On the other hand, with the holiday selling season closer than you think, it might be a good idea to save your money for the deluge that awaits.

    Anywhere, here’s my five picks (if I must) out of this week’s releases. How bad is it? I’m actually mentioning one of the same releases this week that I mentioned last week. Thank God for semantics.

    Sugarland “Love on the Inside”-The hottest country duo in the land took an interesting tactic with their new release. It came out last week in a “deluxe” edition, while this week marks the introduction of the presumably less-bells-and-whistles containing (and cheaper) regular version. Ten years ago, if you were to tell me that I’d even be considering buying an album like this, I’d have laughed you into September, but I’ve acquired a fondness for modern-day country. Although I’ve not heard much of Sugarland (aside from the godawful duet with Bon Jovi that I mentioned in last week’s column), I could very well be tempted to check this one out.

    Country duo Sugarland\'s new CD \"Love on the Inside\"

    http://www.sugarlandmusic.com/splash.html

    Rick Springfield “Venus in Overdrive”-Here’s something that just might freak you out. The guy that teenage girls drooled over in the early Eighties (my cousin had a picture of him hanging in her bedroom back in the day) is approaching 60. SIXTY. Nevertheless, the indefatigable Springfield continues playing and touring. This is Rick’s first album of original material in five years. His last album, “The Day After Yesterday” was an interesting collection of covers. I said “interesting”, not good.

    http://rickspringfield.com/

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