Saturday, May 07, 2005
Best of April 2005
Just a quick rundown of the top five records of April 2005:
Got your own favorites? Please comment and let everyone know what your favorite albums of the month are.
- Tweet: It's Me Again Missy Elliot's protogee scores a success with her sophomore release. Full of delightful melodies and harmonies, Tweet and her mentor dish out a delicious plate of soul. Careening between heartbreaking breakup songs, torch songs, and love songs, Tweet keeps her voice right where it needs to be: wrapping around your heart. Great album!
- Will Smith: Lost and Found What a surprise! The club song "Switch" took a while to grow on me, and I usually greet a Fresh Prince release as a merchandising tagalong to his latest movie (Fetch, in this case.) But there's some deep shit here—his majesty actually uses profanity one time to express some profound issues. I love the lyrics of "Miss Holy Roller" especially—something I'd like to say to all the self-rightous religious fanatics running away with my country: "Where was Jesus? ... He was with me, tryin' to keep me from killin' you! There's a degree of personal reflection that I thought Smith abandoned in order to take over Hollywood. This album reminds me that Will Smith was one of the founders of Hip-Hop.
- Out Hud: Let's Never Speak Of It Again It seems that New Wave is coming back now that the world is feeling that end-of-time angst again with another Bush in office. Rather than settling with wannabes like The Killers, Jet and Franz Ferdinand, groove to Out Hud: heavy duty dance music more reminiscent of PolyRock than Tom Tom Club, but enough in there to remind you that there was more to the Eighties than New Order and Orchestral Maneouvers. Gotta spin this disc more next month.
- Beck: Guero Beck reminds me of Bob Dylan—perhaps no white boy in the business understands American Popular Music to the depth that Beck can dive into it. So every so often, especially after the queasiness of his last album has worn off a bit, one wonders if Beck will be able to resurrect that slow dazzle in his next ouevre. He just keeps astonishing me. Hell Yes!
- Thievery Corporation: The Cosmic Game This time I think they've earned their overdue Grammy. Thievery Corporation totally astonishes me. Not since The Residents has a group's process been so inaccessible. The mystery of Thievery Corporation makes their magic. Where does their collaboration with The Flaming Lips in "Marching the Hate Machines" actually come into play and turn it into a song neither could've completed on their own? What awesome tracks—each one striking off the one before, like Santana's Supernatural. Finally, I think this album proved that David Byrne is at his best when he's collaborating with superior artists.
Got your own favorites? Please comment and let everyone know what your favorite albums of the month are.
