Stream of subconsciousness...

“Hook”, Live On The Rocks, Blues Traveler

The best recorded version of this timeless track available - in my opinion - for your consideration.

“Blueberry Pancakes”, Distance and Time, Fink

Mellow as can be.

“Most Of The Time”, The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs, Bob Dylan

Plain brilliant.

“It’s Not You It’s Me”, Nighttiming, Coconut Records

Loving this album.

“West Coast”, Nighttiming, Coconut Records

Don’t let it bias your opinion (because this track and album are incredible), but yes, it is that Jason Schwartzman.

“Up!”, Saturdays = Youth, M83.

Another off the Peacespeaker’s excellent Creative Commons-licensed free album. The trumpet player in this track just wails, so I’m posting knowing that Farktronix will dig it, but I hope everyone appreciates the track as a whole. Did I mention the album is free?!

“Heavy Water”, Antidotes, Foals

One more from the same album as the last. This one has a great horn breakdown near the end, so make sure to give it the full run.

“Electric Bloom”

The band is Foals, and they’re from jolly ‘ol England. In an attempt to escape the “self-applauding high brow math pack in Oxford”, these guys set out to make a math rock/techo/minimalist-influenced album that was - gasp - actually fun to write and play.

If you couldn’t tell by now, I specifically posted the Maps & Atlases track right before this to provide a contrast I hope proved effective. While I’ve no doubt that the members of Maps & Atlases have a great time writing and performing, I’ve also no doubt that many who listen to their music don’t get nearly as much enjoyment from it.

I like the math rock movement, I like progressive rock, I like expanding your horizons and mind to bring about new and interesting ways to play and write music. But as with anything, it’s good only in moderation, or at very least up to the line, whatever line that may be, that you should never cross. I’m not sure Maps & Atlases was even aware the line existed.

I think Foals might have actually walked up to that line, stared at it, and started rocking out, never looking back.

Either way, I just bought the album a few hours ago an have already been through it four times, so I’d highly suggest you take a listen to this track. I know I always say this, but really: it’s worth it.

“Big Bopper Anthem”

I just ran across an incredible new band, thanks to Last.fm’s Best of ‘08 listings.

But I’m not going to say who they are… yet.

First, I present you this track from Maps & Atlases, a group that - for me - pretty much defines “math rock” and the inherent problems with it. I’ll disclaim myself by saying that I was never a fan of free jazz, and maybe that’ll shed some light onto my opinion of this track and this group. It’s not that I don’t appreciate their musicianship and obvious skill, I just find it nearly impossible to listen to their music when I can barely follow where that music is heading. Take a listen for yourself.

“Guns & Ammo”

While I’m at it, this new album from Minus the Bear is very well done. Acoustic versions of seven of their better tunes (although not all ones I would have chosen), the music has been rearranged specifically for this album. Stellar musicianship and production, as always with these guys. Definitely worth the $almost-7 it’ll set you back on Amazon MP3.

“To Find Our Freedom”, Message From Planet Earth LP, Peacespeakers

At first, it all seemed very homogenous, but then I started flicking through and gravitating to interesting bits of sound, particularly in tracks like “Street Lights” and “Robocop.” Then I began to notice the variations in vocal effects, and realized that West was not just slipping into a standard T-Pain autotune autopilot, but was instead employing carefully considered tones and effects in order to achieve specific results of a piece with the goals of the entire arrangements. It’s so easy to think of autotune as being this crass, ugly production fad that seems to pop up almost exclusively in terrible songs, but West does so much on 808s & Heartbreak to redeem the very sound of it, and exploit it in ways that owe a debt to other artists who have toyed with vocal effects, but also seem specific to himself, and the particular, highly defined aesthetic of the album.

Fluxblog

Again, I manage to find a writer who’s much more adept than me at describing what I feel about a new album. I really do despise autotune under nearly all circumstances - I’ve heard far too many sub-par emo and hardcore singers kick the autotune into overdrive to cover their lack of talent - but Kanye has actually worked autotune into the artistic presentation of this album, and the result is nothing less than beautiful.

I’ve attached the second track from the album entitled Welcome to the Heartbreak: I find it to be fairly representative of the overall camber and motif of the album, and it’s a solid-enough track to stand by its lonesome, so check it out.

All in all, Kanye leaves absolutely no doubt that he is the current virtuoso and poet-laureate of the hip hop world. And that’s that.

By the way, if you’re seriously interested, ping me somehow and I might be able to dig up a link to an un-DRMed copy of the entire album…

A quick update with a bit more critical reception:

Next to [T-Pain], Kanye, who can actually sort of sing, sounds like an angel riding on a Pegasus made out of rainbows and ice cream.

Kanye is also the first of the post-T-Pain masses to use AutoTune as something other than an ear-grabbing gimmick. On Heartbreak, it’s a distancing effect, an opportunity to push his emo bellyaching to spectral levels.

So, yeah, 808s & Heartbreak can be queasy and even morally indefensible sometimes. But that puerile sentiment also gives it its force. Intentionally or not, Kanye has tapped into a mood here that transcends whatever his personal troubles might be. With winter looming and economic futures looking scarier every day, the icy throb and barely contained rage capture the ambient dread bleeding into everyday life from all sides. Like that crowd in Singapore, we might not understand exactly what Kanye’s trying to say, but, unlike them, we get the idea. This is a work borne of depression, and in the coming Great Depression, we’ll need it.

The Village Voice