A couple of posts ago I told all of you I was a little concerned about picking a band a week, so this week I am going to try a little something different. I will be focusing on an album rather than an artist.

Beck

Sea Change

We’ve all been asked the question: “Who’s your favorite band?” or “What’s your favorite song?” This may be an easy answer for most, but for music nerds like me (and some people who read this blog) it’s an almost impossible question. Asking me to name my favorite song or artist is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. I can usually come up with a top ten, but these are only the “top ten” of the moment. Next week I might have a whole new list of favorite songs or artists. There is one album that has remained one of my favorites since the first time I heard it. Becks- Sea Change.

This is easily in my top 5 favorite albums of all time. In my opinion Sea Change is the best album of the new Millennium. For those of you familiar with beck from his songs on the radio you know him as a high energy, electronic, and sometimes silly artist. His songs “loser” and “where it’s at” are pretty universally known. I was a casual fan of Beck, I owned Odelay and Midnight Voulchers, and I enjoyed him for the most part. This all changed with the release of Sea Change.

Sea Change is a folk rock album by Beck and was released in September 2002. According Beck he had just broken up with a longtime girlfriend and was in a big state of depression over the entire thing. Instead of sitting around his apartment feeling sorry for himself he went into the studio and recorded the album of his career. While listening to this album you can just feel every emotion he is going through. Every time I listen to this album I feel the same emotions that he is feeling. With his lyrics I am able to remember exactly what going through that type of situation is like. Here is an expert from the Rolling Stone review:

“But you can clearly hear Beck banging between bravado and paralysis all over Sea Change. He gives his departing other a grand send-off at the start of the album, in "The Golden Age" ("Put your hands on the wheel/Let the golden age begin"), then fills the rest of the song with his own fear of going nowhere fast: "These days I barely get by/I don't even try." Compared to other titles here, such as "Lost Cause" and "Already Dead," "Guess I'm Doing Fine" is happy talk. In fact, Beck is doing anything but; the low, slow way he sings on his way to the song's punch line -- "It's only tears that I'm crying/It's only you that I'm losing/Guess I'm doing fine" -- is a powerful admission of failure.”

I am having a very difficult time describing in words how amazing this album is; hopefully some people can help me out with some comments. This is an album that every music fan should have in their collection. In my opinion it is one of the best albums ever made, its musical perfection.

Cool Music Video to Paper Tiger

Golden Age Video

Lonesome Tears (My favorite song on the album)

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Blackstar

Well we finally came to some Hip-Hop, it could be because its raining today, for some reason hip-hop sounds great when it’s raining. Let me start by saying that Hip-Hop gets a bad rap (no pun intended). True hip-hop music originated in the 1970’s in New York from inner city kids who needed an outlet for the frustrations they were dealing with. Rapping about poverty, crime, violence, etc may seem awful to the average person, but it’s exactly what they were experiencing. Unfortunately today there are very few artists keeping the true essence of hip-hop alive. Somehow it’s all transformed into songs about spending money and women. Not that those songs are bad, but its nice to hear a rap song with a message and meaning.

Blackstar is a project group made up to two rappers, Talib Kwali and Mos Def. They got together and made one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all time. This is a great example of what hip-hop was and, in my opinion, should be. Many times on this album you aren’t listing to rap, its poetry to a beat, its pretty incredible. Here are some examples of their incredible lyrics:

From Thieves in the Night:

Your firearms are too short to box with God Without faith, all of that is illusionary Raise my son, no vindication of manhood necessary

From K.O.S

At exactly which point do you start to realize That life without knowledge is, death in disguise? That's why, knowledge of self is like life after death Apply it, to your life, let destiny manifest

From Respiration

Look in the skies for god, what you see besides the smog Is broken dreams flying away on the wings of the obscene Thoughts that people put in the air Places where you could get murdered over a glare But everything is fair Its a paradox we call reality So keepin it real will make you casualty of abnormal normality

Yo...on the amen, corner I stood looking at my former hood Felt the spirit in the wind, knew my friend was gone for good Threw dirt on the casket, the hurt, I couldn’t mask it Mixin down emotions, struggle I hadn’t mastered

That’s just a small sample of the powerful messages in Black Stars songs. I can only have one song on my main page, but if you go to http://www.myspace.com/bkblackstar you can listen to some of their other tracks. Make sure to pay attention to the lyrics, hopefully you will have a whole new thought on Hip-Hop. I will write about more hip-hop in the future. Stay tuned!

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