Lil Wayne: No Ceilings

So I've had ample time to digest Lil Wayne's newest mixtape by now. Hip-hop/rap/etc aren't in my normal musical vocabulary but there are a couple of artists that always catch my attention when they release something new and Lil Wayne is one of them. I find the idea of his mixtapes, where he puts new lyrics over already existing beats of mostly current hits, kind of odd. It's like a Weird Al parody if Weird Al was addicted to cough syrup and marijuana. That said I can't stop listening to this album. It took my a while to get used to him rapping over songs like Jay-Z's DOA and Run This Town, but he does a good job. He's by far the best lyricist in rap, and surprisingly, one of the most clever wordsmiths around period. Granted, he's absurdly vulgar, to the point where every once in a while I'm just totally disgusted by what he says. But, that doesn't have to detract from his pure ability with words. He's funny, he's clever, he's pretty cocky and all of that works to his favor- especially when he's taking other people's beats and making them 10x better. He also picked some great songs, songs that had really catchy beats but terrible lyrics, to "rewrite." I'm looking at you "I've Got a Feeling." If you treat this as Wayne practicing his craft, methodically keeping his lyricism up to par, then this is one of the best hip-hop releases this year.

Also- just look at that picture. Would you publicly bash anything a guy with that many face tattoos released?

He gave it away for free so I don't feel bad about giving a link to it.
Download: No Ceilings- Lil Wayne

Best of the Decade Pt. 3

There's a lull in exciting new releases so more best of the decade! I will push through!

These Friends of Mine by Rosie Thomas Rosie Thomas, Denison Witmer and Sufjan Stevens all on one album. There is no way that this could not be a contender for one of my favorite albums of the decade. It also features a tender version of "The One I Love" by REM which is beautiful. This CD is so strong though, precisely because it has the perfectly Sufjan-backed "Much Farther to Go." Songs on this CD where Sufjan or Denison lend a voice or a banjo make this CD stand out much more than any of Rosie's other efforts. When it's cold and I'm super-lonely pining for my girlfriend 3000 miles away, I will always put on this CD. It's soft and warm-hearted and hopeful all while putting forth the minimalist songs that you would expect from Rosie or Sufjan.

Philadelphia Songs by Denison Witmer Let's talk about Denison Witmer now! It's time that my preference for singer-songwriters comes out, I guess. What immediately appealed to me about this CD (and something I'll emphatically echo later, about Sufjan) is that his guitar parts are so simple yet sound so intricate. There's something to be said for simple songs, but Denison's fingers move so quickly that there are parts on this CD where I could swear that his one guitar is actually two. This is, to the best of my knowledge, Witmer's first full-band effort as well. Most singer-songwriters tend to falter when they switch from one acoustic guitar to a full-band arrangement, but some of his best songs are on this CD (Stations, 24 to 25, Chestnut Hill) despite sometimes getting carried away with an electric guitar or a weird keyboard. Also, it's a good musician out of Philadelphia, not a ton of those around.

The Sunset Tree by the Mountain Goats I figured I'd keep the super-literate story-teller with an acoustic guitar theme going here. It's probably also better to be up front about this- the Mountain Goats are by far my favorite band making music right now. If Sufjan releases a CD in the next decade or two that's not weird instrumental music maybe he'll shoot back up, but for now it's the Mountain Goats. John Darnielle's voice isn't for everyone, and his lyrics can seem pretty ridiculous, but after a couple listens to his music it will suck you right in. He is a brilliant story teller. His songs are simple, most often not more than 3 chords in an entire song, but they accompany his tales of growing up and making mistakes perfectly. This is a CD for anyone who didn't have a conventional high school experience. Nerds mostly. Maybe that's just my personal association with them but this CD will always remind me of the nerdiest parts or least conventional parts of my life. "Love Love Love" is a pretty messed up love song too.

Best of the Decade Pt. 2

I am a posting machine today! More best albums of the decade!

In a Safe Place by the Album Leaf I can feel this collection of albums being a lot mellower than the previous one. That's sort of how the decade went for me, trying to find a balance between hyperactive post-punk and super mellow post-rock. I guess post-rock is what you'd call Album Leaf, sort of an ambient, electronic driven, post-rock. This is the perfect album for when you're by yourself and deep in thought-or, I guess, when you want to be by yourself and deep in thought. The whole album sounds like it could easily be one song split in to 10 parts. Vocals, when there are any, are sparse and nonsensical. This CD gains speed with every passing year-it's minimalist effort being contrasted starkly by the overproduced, jam-packed singles that saturate KISS FM.

The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know this band is all huge now because of Friday Night Lights and blah blah blah. This is one of the most beautiful CDs I have ever heard. Perfectly crafted, guitar-driven, post-rock that proves it's title true. With every passing second this album instills more and more hope in you. It was originally pretty hard for me to believe that music without lyrics could tell a story. I read an interview where a guitarist of Explosions in the Sky was talking about the inspiration for "The Only Moment We Were Alone," being a scenario about a girl moving across the country and a boy stealing his parents car to go see her before she disappeared from his life forever. I'm pretty sure I read that, but if I didn't, it's an even stronger testament to the power of EITS' music. If people could rebrand music, this would be emo. But it's hopeful.

The Coast is Never Clear by Beulah This CD is a laid-back pop masterpiece. Sort of a Beach Boys for Bay Area burnouts. Plenty of guitars borrowed from Brian Wilson, clever lyrics delivered in simple words and simple melodies. "A Good Man is Easy to Kill," presumably a play on the similarly-titled short-story by Flannery O'Conner, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," is one of my favorite songs of any decade. The way the guitars fade from fuzzy to clean so simply, the perfectly timed trumpet and vibraphone breaks, the simple plea of "I need ya. Don't know about god, but I believe in you." There's pretty much no way that Miles Kurosky should have stopped making music.

Introducing: War Tapes

Sorry I've been out of commission for the week. There's a myriad of excuses for my laziness- stories due, midterms to study for, tickets to have been had- all sorts of fun. But there was a bright spot to my week. My school puts on free concerts every Wednesday and Thursday with whatever bands they can get into playing for 12 kids in a darklit room. This Thursday I had the pleasure of seeing a band called War Tapes.

Comparisons to the Cure would be all too easy, especially since they donned all black clothes and had died black hair, but that's really the first thing that came to mind. They sound like the cure if Robert Smith wasn't too busy moping to rock out. Every part of the band was spot on but the thing that most got my attention was their guitarist. For the majority of the show he was creating a noises from his guitar that would have made Thurston Moore's neck hair stand straight. Combined with the singer's melancholy tenor it created a dissonance in mood that has been thrown to the wayside in recent years.

They also behaved like total rockstars towards the end, which I wouldn't want to condone because it usually annoys me, but every once in a while it's fun to see a band just simply not care about what you think.