Some stuff I've been listening to

I love music. Who doesn't?

I also realize that this is the lazy man's blog, so yet again here's a list of stuff I've been listening to, with some expository sentences that are thrown in simply as justifications and other bullsh*t.

First, a caveat: I'm a near-40 white guy who grew up in what's now considered suburban Maryland. I attended high school in DC, but I've got ZERO street bona fides. Some of the stuff below will be rap and hip-hop music - I AM NO EXPERT ON THIS TYPE OF MUSIC - but I do know what I like and what I don't. In this writer's opinion, rap/hip-hop has been a boring niche, full of songs that are (like this blog) simple lists of how tough a guy is, how many gals a guy can get, how much money he has, [INSERT THE EXCESSES HERE]. Or, when it gets more "gangsta", how many caps he's busted in the asses of others.

Yawn. Next.

Well, some of the artists on the list below have caught my greying attention by exposing a little heart and humanity. Some real emotion. For me, this was new.

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Cee-Lo Green's The Ladykiller: a really great album. Cee-Lo's work with Gnarls Barkley got him a lot of radio play, but "F--k You" is a tremendous song (forget the clean version, but at least your kids could get the tune stuck in their heads, too). His voice is distinctively old-school (like Al Green) and so are the melodies on this record. But it soars. "Bright Lights, Bigger City", "Satisfied", and "No one's Gonna Love you" are among the better songs, but really the whole thing's good. I can't say there's much heart in this - not the real kind. It kind-of reminds me of Barry White a bit, he's playing a character. It works, at least here.

Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: reminded me a bit of a Queen record in its' polished sound. Every noise seems to serve a purpose, which is put to great effect in the fantastic song "Runaway." "Monster" is another standout, too, I think the gal on this track is Nikki Minaj (won't swear to it, could be MIA). The title track is good, too - who knew they had seances at malls? I have Kanye's first two records (College Dropout and the follow-up) but they were OK, not great. He seems to have realized that it takes courage to show a little heart, and I think he does that here. This isn't an album of love ballads, of course, but there's heart and humanity here that I didn't notice on the other albums I'd listened to.

"Love the Way you Lie" by Eminem: another heartbreaker. I know it's yet another fictional "rap story" but Rihanna's vocals are poignant and the lyrics are grownup and - again- show some heart. I've never really been a fan of Eminem, and probably still am not one. But this song is great.

"Tik-Tok" by Ke$ha: my 11-year old daughter picked out Eminem and this song last week. OK? That's my defense. This is a brain-sucker that removes your mind and replaces it with this electronically-produced piece of crap that makes me wish I was young and dumb instead of old and dumb.

"Tired Climb" Kylesa from the album Spiral Shadow: like rap, metal tends to be boring. For me, I'm a Metallica guy. But they've shambled into middling territory (trying to recapture old magic, I guess) whilst bands like Mastodon press on. We saw Kylesa open for Mastodon in 2009, I think, and the big "gimmick" was that they have 2 drummers in the band. And a girl in there, too. I got this album based on the single "Tired Climb" which is pretty good. Their music is very layered, not as trippy as Mastodon but perhaps a bit more accessible to non-metal fans.

"White Crosses" Against Me! (mentioned on this page last summer): a good neo-punk record. These guys are maturing from a punk band to a rock band (if you wanna see 40-somethings claim the punk mantle, listen to the rather boring new Rancid record).

"Townes" by Steve Earle: love this one, it's not new but it's worth a listen - if only for the song "Rake."

"Bubblegum" by Mark Lanegan: another older record, I love the song "Methamphetamine Blues".

"when they come to murder me" : Black Francis. The former Pixies frontman has been playing solo since 1992, this is off his record Sevn Fingers. It's a good song, I think it's about the mythological Minotaur - but that's just a guess.

always looking for new stuff, as my ipod has a bunch of songs I've already listened to 100 times. Feel free to hit me on The Book of Face or drop a comment - I'll give ya full credit for your suggestion if I like it.

Rock on