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January 9, 2006
3 Album Recommendations
Here's what I've been listening to lately that I really like. I highly recommend all of these albums.
Artist: Sage Francis
Album: A Healthy Distrust
Notes: Sage Francis used to be known primarily for his slam poetry, but he has moved on to a great career as a rapper. He is often pretty chill, but his lyrics are always loaded and sometimes they get him riled up. This album features one of the most beautiful hip-hop tracks I have ever heard, called "Lie Detector Test." I don't know who his DJ is, but the guy is a genius.
Artist: The Go! Team
Album: Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Notes: An energetic, inspirational (in a fun way) album with an old-school sampled rock feel to it. "Ladyflash," "We Just Won't Be Defeated," and "Huddle Formation" are probably my favorite tracks.
Artist: The Mountain Goats
Album: Tallahassee
Notes: For those that haven't heard The Mountain Goats, the band (which usually has only one member) is a California indie scene standard featuring a guy named John Darnielle. Most of his songs consist solely of himself singing and playing an acoustic guitar in a folksy indie-rock fashion. Tallahassee is a great album from The Mountain Goats, second only to "The Sunset Tree" as far as I'm concerned. I hated "All Hail West Texas" and it got a little discouraged about buying more Mountain Goats albums, but my faith has been restored.
Posted by josh at January 9, 2006 10:56 PM
Comments
Have you heard "We Shall All Be Healed" yet? Fucking amazing album; better than "The Sunset Tree," in some ways. It was his first kinda-sorta autobiographical album; all the characters in it belonged to a loose group of meth addicts he lived with, not too long after leaving home. (In other words, the really bad period that happened sometime after "You Or Your Memory" and possibly during "Song For Dennis Brown.")
The story, such as it is, is a lot more disjointed and confused than "The Sunset Tree," so it took me a while to piece it all together, but once I did, I actually had to stop listening to it for a month, because it kind of creeped me out. Nevertheless, a FANTASTICALLY powerful work, and easily among my favorite albums. (Bonus: It was another of his "studio" studio albums, so it has some actual arrangements and lacks the tape growl and crap EQ of "AHWT." I love that album too, but it's a little rough on the ol' ears.)
Anyway, among other things, WSABH makes the song "Pale Green Things" that much more amazing. Now that I've pretty much digested both albums, I consider it the best song he's ever written.
Sorry, I have kind of a thing for The Mountain Goats. Oh, and I haven't heard "We Just Won't Be Defeated"--I think I ended up with the UK version of Thunder Lightning Strike.
Posted by: Nick Fagerlund at January 10, 2006 1:20 AM
Excellent recommendations.
I can't decide if I like "We Shall All Be Healed" or "Tallahassee" more. "Sunset Tree" is phenomenal too, but perhaps a so intensely personal that I can't help but feel scared when listening to it.
Posted by: James at January 10, 2006 6:16 AM
I love Thunder, Lightning, Strike. Ladyflash is nice, since it has playability, but my favorite 30 seconds of that album are when the "2,4,6,8,10" chanting occurs in Bottle Rocket. Great album, either way. What I've heard from the other two has been good as well.
Posted by: Michael Greene at January 10, 2006 7:57 AM
Hey it's Nick Fagerlund! Us Doty people need to stick together. Still playing trombone?
Sorry to hijack the comments section with a non-comment, Josh. I do like the Mountain Goats though! You might have to let me listen to some Go!Team.
Posted by: holly at January 10, 2006 4:28 PM
Sorry to waste your space with my blabbering, but I just have to post this comment since I actually was listening to A Healthy Distrust when I was reading this post and I have to second your recommendation. The man is a genius. To make this comment not a complete waste of time and space I will counter with a recommendation of my own: Circle by Boom Bip & Doseone (of Anticon fame).
Posted by: Magnus at January 10, 2006 10:28 PM
Holly! Holla! I actually haven't touched my trombone for a few months. We're spending some time apart. Or something. I've been plinking around on the guitar though.
We should move this to Facebook or Livejournal (user=2ce) before we tweak Josh's nose too bad. Sorry, Josh!
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