I still love it. I think. It's been a while.
Pluto - ITS A SONG ABOUT PLUTO BEING A PLANET IN THE FACE OF SCIENTIFIC ADVERSITY. If that doesnt make yer geek heart swoon you are dead inside. It's great. If you don't think so, you are a jerk.
Wild Kingdom - Hmmm. Nope.
The Best - Geek love again, references to Sonic the hedgehog and mario. chorus is lacking. illusions getting shattered.
Ball Point Man - Ok much better, I'm a sucker for stupid shit like "I'm more novel than War and Peace" and I'm left with the idea that when these dudes actually try they've got some interesting ideas, but retrospectively those ideas seemed much more densely packed. It should be noted that we've already hit astronomy, video games and comic book refs so where do we go from here?
In the Clutches of the Diabolical Sgt. Stilletto - So full admission, it is hard for me to separate all of this from the fact that I saw this band on this tour, and they had funny costumes and did synchronized dance moves and karate kicks and we were all drunk. There's still some base level awesomeness going on here though. The fact that the one guy sounds like a 311 b-side might mitigate this somewhat. Not going to lie, there's some pretty stupid shit going on here, but hey its a party. Breakdown in the middle is fun for a little bit.
The Whammy - Motiviation to talk about this song is lacking. meh. Rampagingly uninteresting.
You're A Champion - This really was a fucking weird time for music, theres def a post-G. Love thing (aaaaggggghhhh) going on here, although its much better than that, i mean boutros boutros ghali name-drops earn at least some respect from me. And theres some "rocking guitars", but its not limp bizkit mook-metal or anything. 1998. Weird year. (and uh i had to look at the back of the CD to find out the release date, and i would have placed it much earlier.)
(718) - See people (not me) adore late-period beastie boys, so i shouldnt really feel all that bad about this, but oh as this album goes on its getting harder to justify my positive memories.
The Good, the Bad, and the Skinnee - Fuck it, I love this. And I don't think it's nostalgia talking here, there's something to this - again there are moments where this album lives up to some weird magic promise that is kind of always there, but only clicks a few times.
Riot Nrrrd - ok if nothing else this deserves adulation due to brilliant song titling, but after that fades, uh shit, its another great song. Organ stabs are perfect, synth pad weirdness is dead on, all of this reminds me why I always had these guys shoved into that odd Len/Bran Van 3000 category (which also means that I didn't really have to judge them as rappers, because lord, they are NOT GOOD in the grander scheme. Top Canadian rappers tho!)
Organic Machine - Fuck this. This song is bullshit. Skip.
Mind Trick - Oh yeah remember that whole geek reference game, yeah well, Jedi Mind Trick. GET IT! GET IT! Sub MC Paul Barman/MC Chris shit level references, and jammy geetars = shut the fuck up. Terrible closer, taints album, bah.
Price Paid: Who knows? Probably retail. Quit fucking snickering.
Rating (1-10): 7.
OK SO, i've just hit the first multi-album artist here, and I don't think that I can do track by track for everything, so it's just highlights from here out.
Volumizer - Horns Of Destruction is FUCKING GREAT. MC #2, who in general SUCKED on the first album (Special J. oh hahahaha oh my sides) is kind of killing it here. 3 Minutes also right there among the best moments of the first record, somewhere on the way the band became some sort of totally respectable funk combo, and the production is ridiculously solid, lots of background flourishes, hooks a plenty. huh. Lyrically still half-clever half-stupid. Maintaining rule of not actually measuring these dudes as MC's, but instead as guys who enjoy hip hop and are doing what they can helps me stay positive. We are definitely slipping into some frighteningly 311/Sugar Ray territory here (both of which I fully expect to give a one album passionate defense of in a week/3 years respectively). J Guevara (oh hahahahahaha see do you get it! J! like the band!) is slipping into some slightly more lucid Chuck Mosely territory on this album, which is probably a step in the right direction (side note: did I buy the Chuck Mosely solo record at a pawn shop for 50 cents recently OH YES I DID). Going to lose my local cred card and say that Girl With the World in Her Eyes is like an Atmosphere song, but fun. Also it has a moment in the middle that makes me feel like Weezer might have had some positive effect on the world, which seems inconcievable considering all the horror they spawned and their dogged efforts at releasing shitty fucking garbage.
OK, I'm just going to go ahead and say it (go shame!) this is a great album. I could keep liveblogging it, but why? It's fucking stupid magic.
(1-10)? 9. Yep I'm serious.
Sexy Karate - Broken beat skitter at the beginning is jarring but good. hmmmmppphhh rapping weakness in full effect though. And this production awesomeness sullied by frontman ineptitude appears to be a theme, talking dudes seem to be very into themselves, and garbage white boy hip hop and more now then ever, commercial appeal, which given what we all know about their meteoric rise to fame is painful. song 3 is fucking awful. song 4 is some sort of serious turn which is hilariously out of character and also no good. ah fuck song 5 is like biz markie slow jaw sensitive without biz markie charm or biz markie talent or biz markie persona. not awesome. song 6 WORSE, what the hell happened in the 1 year gap from the last album to this? song 7 is titled "Friends Don't Let Friends Listen to Rap Metal" and uh really you are going to throw in an ICP diss? this is getting embarrassing. The rest is just as shitty. Don't bother.
(1-10) 4. oh well.
No comments:
Post a Comment