Alright, I had 20 minutes before class so... what the fuck, why not necropost a little?
Why? - Alopecia (2008)
This is the first Why? album I've ever heard of, and fuck... Upon listening to it all the way through (I've listened to "By Torpedos or Crohns" and "Song of the Sad Assassin" a few times before I sat down to listen to the whole record) it's just a fucking brilliant record. Yoni's lyrics are sometimes hard to read in (despite his very upfront and unassuming vocal delivery), but it seems like the majority of the album focuses on the end of cLOUDDEAD and his split from the other members, and there's a lot of death on the album. It's pretty fucking deep, IMO, and fans of the other Anticon releases featuring Yoni will dig this, I think. But yeah, definitely my two favorite tracks on the album are the ones I listed above, but "A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under", "The Hollows" and "These Few Presidents" are also fucking amazing tracks, "Good Frida" especially. This is quickly becoming one of my top 10 records of 2008. I suggest you go out and get it NOW.
And... continuing the somewhat indie-rap-ish theme of this post...
dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Angles (2008)
Yeah, this is my 4th or 5th favorite record of this year (Portishead, Hot Chip and a few others are at the top). You probably wont have heard of either member of this DJ/Rapper duo, but yeah... They've basically cultivated a following on Myspace, which is cliche, but their sound (despite Scroob's delivery sounding a bit like the Streets) is anything but cliche. One of the best tracks on the record uses Radiohead's "Planet Telex" as the backing beat to an apology letter spoken by Scroob as though delivered by god himself ("A Letter From God to Man"). The album starts with Scroobius reading some spoken word before launching into the love-angst-conflicted tune "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" which is followed by "Development" and the anxiety-and-awkward "are we falling out of love?" tune "Look for the Woman". Skip over and listen to "Tommy C" where Scroob raps about a comedian who died on-stage doing what he loved, and that is beautiful. "Fixed" is a bullet inAfte the heart of British hip-hop, and "Angles" is a hard track to swallow, but it's where Scroob is at his most versatile; he takes the point of view of 5 different people involved in a murder and a suicide but it's a fucking amazing track. After the previously mentioned "Letter" comes "Magician's Assistant" which is basically, in my mind, a better anti-suicide song than "Everybody Hurts". Skip over "Back from Hell" and then comes the best part of the album: it's ending. The last 3 songs are incredible. "Thou Shalt Always Kill" is definitely one of the best songs of 2008, "Waiting for the Beat To Kick In" is an amazing story rhyme, and the closing track is just this simply beautiful love song. A marvelous album, and probably the best hip-hop record of 2008. Enjoy!
