This is where I put things I like in black boxes

This is the review from yesterday I didn’t actually post:

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

It’s pretty safe to say Kanye’s been though the lowest point in his career. There was the VMA’s incident, the resulting meme, being called a jackass by the President and, maybe even worse, being called a gay fish by the writers of South Park. By the first half of this year, Kanye had quietly retreated from the public eye, and not too many people missed him. After having dropped off the map, though,  what he’s returned with is a reminder of why we should have - an epic 70 minute journey into his beautiful, dark, twisted psyche.

Really, Kanye isn’t inviting us inside so much as he’s exploring himself and allowing us to come along for the ride. As Kanye digs into himself, battling between his self images as an Olympian god or a lonely pop idol, he also revisits and expands upon the different styles he’s acquired throughout his career. Fantasy returns to the frequent sampling of his earlier albums, but on a completely new level, with West trying such eclectic combinations as King Crimson mixed with a gospel choir, or Bon Iver with a diverse medley of beats, melodies and samples. Sometimes the mix of musical selections don’t seem like they should work, but Kanye always finds a way to hold it all together, and he’s clearly got great taste.

The minimalist elements and heartbroken themes of 808s are here too, but most of the album’s more introspective moments are handled with welcome self deprecating humor, and less self pity. Another welcome element are the actual instruments Kanye’s starting to record and compose for, rather than using synthesized material. In terms of instrumentalists and guests artists, this is Kanye’s largest effort so far, and it shows. Between the samples, the string arrangements and consistently great beats, this is some of the richest, most complex and wonderfully discordant music Kanye’s ever produced. It really goes to show that, even if Kanye may not change his ways any time soon, he’s at least expanding his horizons. Say what you will about Kanye West, but at least acknowledge what he is - talented. Sure, the guy can be a douche sometimes. But in a scene that’s allowed itself to stagnate for far too long, he’s a douche that refuses to stop evolving as an artist and who’s never afraid to challenge his listeners. As far as I’m concerned, that’s really the best thing we can ask for in a musician.

As a final thought, I thought I’d quote what is probably my favorite line of the entire album: “Too many Urkels on your team, that’s why your wins low”. I don’t care of you hate every other note, word or beat of this. That is just an epic win.

Got back today from visiting my grandparents in West Virgina and gorging myself on thanksgiving food. Ready to write my first album review:

Girl Talk: All Day

When I heard Gregg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, was working on a new album, I got excited. I got to see him live when he came to UMBC and had an absolute blast. Then, I heard he was releasing the album for free and… I was a bit skeptical. A free album, from a mash-up artist? I thought there was a fairly good chance the album wasn’t going to be any good, but I love Girl Talk, downloaded the album anyway, and happily set aside my mistaken assumptions.

Gillis is back and doing what he does best - playing music matchmaker. He’s great at picking two tracks that mesh perfectly together, and seamlessly introducing them. Although transitions were slightly more abrupt and obvious than in his previous album, Feed The Animals, they’re always smooth and never feel forced. The whole album really shows off how ingenious he can be. What really gives the album its charm however, is how well Gillis balances being clever and comical. Listening to this album, I’d hear parts that were just brilliant, like a three way mash-up between Hot Spots by Foxy Brown, In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, and the beat from Nine Inch Nails’ Closer. Rather than allow himself to bask in this brilliance however, Gillis can instantly segue into mash-ups that are just funny as hell, like one between Waka Flocka Flame and Mr. Oizo’s Flat Beat, a track I love. It’s a moment that refuses to take itself or Waka Flocka Flame (I feel stupid just typing his name) seriously, and it really gives one the sense that Gillis is never trying too hard. He’s just in it to have fun.

The only issue I had with this album is Gillis could have gotten that point across even without the more amusing tracks because, to be honest, I wish he had tried too hard. Gillis plays pretty safe with the material he uses. For the most part, it’s hip hop verses juxtaposed over pop or rock, and as well as he manages to find songs that fit together, he very rarely mixes melodic lines. Overall, the amount of actual singing that takes center stage is minimal, or just doesn’t fit at all. One of the jarringly low points of the album for me is a combination between M.O.B.’s Ante Up and Beyonce’s Single Ladies. It’s an awesome beat with killer vocals that never really seems to work. I was also surprised with how little Lady Gaga was on the album. The only appearances she made were limited to a few seconds of Bad Romance and her line about wanting to ride on my disco stick. Considering she’s so popular and her songs are already suited for dance music so well, it was baffling not to hear her show up more often.

Still, one of the great things about All Day is the sheer variety that’s packed into it. Even if there isn’t quite enough of your favorite artist to satisfy, I can guarantee almost anyone can listen to this album and hear at least one fragment of a song they love. For instance, I was really happy to hear Radiohead appear a few times, and delightfully surprised when Portishead and Aphex Twin made appearances (even though Gillis mixed Twin with Soulja Boy, who is impossible for me to tolerate in any way). Each individual track uses a mind blowing number of samples. There were several instances where I would hear six to ten samples fly by and be surprised to see only a minute had passed. All Day is one dense album - nowhere near the insanity of Gillis’ last album, Feed The Animals, but you still get plenty of bang for bang for your buck. Considering that amount is zero, there’s really no reason not to pick this up.

This is a new segment of my tumblr I think I’m going to call “That’s Fucking Stupid”.

So, earlier today I stumbled upon a website trying to sell the most ludicrously stupid clothing I have ever seen. This is what I’m talking about:

Yeah. This shirt and the other associated paraphernalia, like underwear, have the fourth amendment written in metallic ink, so you can look like a tool inside and out of the new TSA scanners.

Honestly, I’m pretty aggravated at seeing this, and it has nothing to do with my personal views on whether or not these new “invasive” scanners are appropriate. In fact, that’s almost completely irrelevant. What bothers me is that these shirts are specifically designed to annoy airline workers, or, as one shirt call them, “perverts” who should “read the 4th amendment”.

I’m going to state the obvious and say that, by and large, airline employees are not perverts. They’re just people trying to do their jobs, and I’m sure they’re no more thrilled about seeing your embarrassingly small junk than you are about showing it off. Still, people are going to buy this t-shirt and think they’re hilariously sticking it to the airline, or silently protecting their child’s rights. They are not. What they’re doing is simply causing a minor annoyance to a few people who are just doing their jobs. And I say minor because, hey, who cares about a stupid t-shirt, right?

Well, I do. It’s not so much the shirt though, as the attitude it conveys, which is that somehow the employees are responsible for the situation and deserve to be harassed, however passive aggressively (or passively aggressive?) that may be. It’s a misdirection of anger, and they don’t deserve it. More importantly, it’s not going to change anything. Say subway abolishes their five dollar foot long deal. I’m fairly certain the least constructive thing I could do to get my cheap sandwiches back would be to walk into Subway everyday with a shirt that reads “Sandwich artists are Nazis”.

What I’m getting at here is, if you really want to do something to protest the airlines, don’t direct it at the working class. Start a petition, write letters, or simply boycott flying for a while. What’s wrong with taking a train? Whatever you choose to do, make it something that matters. Otherwise, you’re just kind of being as asshole.

An asshole who just wasted 15 bucks.

And that’s fucking stupid.

Lately I’ve been thinking that popular music and the way we listen to it has some… problems.

No, I’m not alluding to the obvious “problems” such as Kesha, Justin Bieber and numerous hip hop artists that have absolutely nothing to say. Although it is aggravating to see so many popular artists that are either obnoxious, talentless, posing for a certain demographic or all three, these kinds of people are always going to be shoveled down the throats of the masses and there’s not a whole lot complaining is going to do about it. We can only hope the general populace will stop being so thoughtless, and that the artists they listen to might mature someday and break away from their meaningless, emotionless cellophane packaged bullshit.

No, the issue that I have with popular music is one that effects artists both great and terrible, and that is the gradual phasing out of the album. Artists are no longer appreciated for having a cohesive, complete product, but rather for being able to write a catchy, three to five minute snippet of music. This is damaging to music of all calibers. On one side of the scale, you have a song that is so popular, the album it is on no longer needs to be decent to support it. On the other side, you get a single like “Fuck You” by Cee Lo Green. This is another insanely popular song that’s going to be thrown into the top 40 mix, tossed about on the radio for a while and ultimately forgotten. It’s the same thing that happened to Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. It’s a shame too, because Cee Lo is actually a great musician who may only be recognized by a mass audience for one song, when his album as a whole is marvelous.

Now, the single has always existed along with radio, but our modern systems of media distribution have made it so much easier to pay attention (what little we have to spare) to a single track. Not only are individual songs over saturated on the radio, television and parodied on the internet, but we now have instant access to buy only the specific tracks we’re interested in. Paying ten dollars for a CD isn’t necessary anymore; not when you could pay three bucks for the tracks you’re actually going to listen to. Even after purchasing the music, we have more advanced ways of storing and organizing that media. No longer must we turn to the radio to hear a mix of music. Now, we have the playlist, where we can fragment these tracks even more.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that it isn’t great to have more freedom. It would suck if I had to listen to an entire album on my iPod to get to one particular song I want to listen to, because hey, sometimes you’re just in the mood for a quick fix. It’s regrettable however, that the “quick fix” seems to be entirely what our society values. It would seem like the consumer getting what they want when they want it would be great, and in a way it is, but when it comes to music, the consumer misses out on something really important - depth. Often, a good album will have an overall theme, a plot, a message or even just some simple character development that can range from song to song or, in the case of some artists, album to album. In that way, albums to me are very much like theater. Listening to one track is like listening to a single monologue from Hamlet, over and over. Yes, if delivered correctly it is very enjoyable, but where’s the context? Where is Hamlet coming from? Where is he going? What’s going to happen to him? Without the play as a whole, that particular monologue is just a character who is frozen in time. There might be some development as he contemplates life with himself, but there is ultimately no action to give it any meaning. That’s what music has become, and I think if you’re listening to the same singer deliver the same message over and over ad nauseam, you’re missing the fucking point.

Anyway, I’m going to cut this rant shot and get to the point of this post. I’ve been browsing through my iTunes library a lot recently, looking over all of my albums and songs I’m familiar with, and I’ve started to realize that I’ve fallen into this trend as much as anyone else. I have plenty of albums I’ve purchased but haven’t really enjoyed fully in one solid listening experience. So, I guess the whole idea behind this little project is to change that. Starting this thanksgiving break, I’m going to listen to an album or two, every day, in its entirety. Then, when I’m finished, I’ll write a written review about it. This is partially because writing about an album will help me remember it and why I enjoyed it so much (or not), but mostly because I want to practice describing the music I listen to, which is often something I’ve always had trouble accurately conveying. Overall, if I can commit to it it should be a pretty cool experience. Hopefully I’ll get reacquainted with some great music and learn how to write about it in the process. I’m not exactly sure what order I’m going to go in, or if I’m even going to do every album I own (since even at two a day, it’d take about a solid year). The goal is to revisit albums I haven’t “finished”, but I’ll probably write a lot about some of my favorites as well. However I go about this, though, it’s going to be a pretty big project. I’ve been thinking about doing something like it for a while, but I always seem to forget about it or put it off. So fuck it. Now’s as good a time as any to get cracking.