albums

new music;

Clydeways: The best of the pharcyde

Dan the Automator, Wanna buy a Monkey?

Roots Manuva, Brand New Second Hand

Tom Waits, Blood Money

the pharcyde comp is good. brings back memories. I was looking for bizzare ride, their first album, but I couldn't find it. this will do, it has all the songs I liked on that album on it anyways.

the dan the automator album was disappointing. maybe I didn't give it enough of a try yet. But i dunno... I've heard most of the songs on it already, and the remixes of them aren't spectacular. I'll listen to it a couple times more and then decide.

Roots Manuva is my new favorite. It's [brand new second hand] one of the best hip hop albums I've ever heard. Totally fresh and unique. Spacey beats mixed with dub and manuva's accented voice. He's got the skill of del, but his voice is completely his, his rhymes are Roots Manuva, and that's it. It's an example of perfectly executed hip-hop of the post golden era [1992-1998]. A lyrical bomb on the nay-sayers and hip hop haters.

I just gave the tom waits a once over. he's up to his usual creepiness, if not more so on this one. It's in the same vein as the mule album, very acoustic, rare instruments, light yet heavy, like dripping with beat, with piano chimes or guitar plucks as a topping. His voice gravely and shredded, telling story after story of wailing love ["All the stars make their wishes on her eyes"], spiteful death ["I don't believe you go to heaven when you're good/ Everything goes to hell, anyway..."], a careless god ["Who are the one's that we kept in charge?/ Killers, thieves, and lawyers./ God's away, God's away/ God's away on business. business"] and unkind man ["about mankind/ there's nothing kind about man"]. I love Tom Waits.