Monthly Report: November Albums
1. Birds And Arrows - Starmaker
A few weeks ago I found myself thinking about Birds And Arrows, a North Carolina duo I saw back in May who had a song called "Not Interested" that just knocked me out. So I did a quick google, and it turned out they'd just released the upcoming album they mentioned at the show had just been released like 4 days beforehand, and it had "Not Interested" on it. I love when shit like that happens. I'm not sure if we're past the point yet where any 2-person band also a couple is considered a 'gimmick' (or at the very least a marketing hook), but if not we should be soon, since there's like dozens of well known bands fitting that description at this point. But really these guys are great, kinda rock live but have a more textured and overdubbed sound on record, and are great at both. Right now "Honeymoon Song" is just killing me.
2. Say Anything - Say Anything
This is a hard kind of thing to quantify, but based on iTunes play counts I've probably listened to Say Anything more than any other band in the past 2 years, mainly 2004's ...Is A Real Boy (my 6th favorite album of the decade), but also 2007's In Defense Of The Genre, which was the kind of double album that's impossible to listen to in one sitting but has more great songs than bad ones (even the Two Tongues album had some killer tracks). Still, following up a double LP is tough no matter how successful it was or wasn't, especially when the next record is a self-titled back to basics move like this, because it can't help but feel somehow scaled back and less attention-grabbing. As it turns out, though, this album isn't as unambitious or workaday as I feared, and "Do Better" and "Death For My Birthday" and "Less Cute" are about as great as anything they've ever done, and half the songs have some instrumental variation (synths, strings, horns, drum machines) to break up the monotony while the focus is still on hyper guitar-driven rock. I just wish Max Bemis would leave alone all the fourth wall-busting self-referential lyrics, like the spoken bit on "Property" or the weird nod to Kings Of Leon on "Mara Of Me." He needs to realize that ...Is A Real Boy was awesome in spite of things like the Rollins-ish ranting on "Admit It!!!" and the intro on "Belt," not because of them.
3. Freeway - Streetz Is Mine
Last month I ran down the ridiculous amount of music Freeway's dropped in the past year, and mentioned in passing that along with all the official albums and mixtapes, there was something called Streetz Is Mine that Free took to YouTube and interviews to insist was not authorized or endorsed by him. But a few weeks later, here the album is, and I guess Freeway had some problems on the business end, because it's all new material, and it's way better than the album he approved of earlier this year, Philadelphia Freeway 2. I love the song where he nonchalantly boasts “when you gonna drop a new song? probably today,” because it's absolutely true. "Last 2" with Beanie and Young Chris is one of the illest State Prop posse cuts in years, and "Transporter" is a candidate for one of my favorite Freeway songs of the year. His increasingly frequent sex talk on records is pretty gross, though, he needs to cut that out.
4. Freeway - The Beat Made Me Do It
Oh yeah, and Free dropped another whole official mixtape full of original songs last month too. For a few months this had been hyped as a Freeway/Don Cannon mixtape, which given the title, made me think it would be full of Cannon beats, which I was excited about given that I love practically every beat I've ever heard by the guy. As it turns out, though, Cannon's just the host, and all the beats are Jake One tracks, presumably outtakes from the Stimulus Package album Free's dropping wiht him in January, which I can't really complain about since he's a dope producer, too, but I'd rather hear Cannon's best with Free than Jake's leftovers. This is still pretty great, though, I love "Attitude."
5. Lil Boosie - The 25th Hour
Boosie's best mixtapes, like Thug Passion or Da Beginning, are essentially albums, with original production and fully written songs with choruses. But since he just dropped an actual album, the sorely underrated and underpromoted Superbad, I can't knock him for tossing out a more traditional mixtape right now, when he's staring down a prison sentence and is supposedly stockpiling material for an album to release when he gets out. So 25th Hour is kind of a loose clearinghouse for remixes like "Betta Believe It" and "5 Star Bitch," Hurricane Chris collabs, and tons of freestyles. And as much as I get bored of freestyle mixtapes, Boosie does a lot to make it his own, including weird beat choices like T-Pain's "Can't Believe It" (which features the incredible opening couplet "I'll put you in a casket/ crawled on by the maggots") and a bunch of old 2Pac beats.
A few weeks ago I found myself thinking about Birds And Arrows, a North Carolina duo I saw back in May who had a song called "Not Interested" that just knocked me out. So I did a quick google, and it turned out they'd just released the upcoming album they mentioned at the show had just been released like 4 days beforehand, and it had "Not Interested" on it. I love when shit like that happens. I'm not sure if we're past the point yet where any 2-person band also a couple is considered a 'gimmick' (or at the very least a marketing hook), but if not we should be soon, since there's like dozens of well known bands fitting that description at this point. But really these guys are great, kinda rock live but have a more textured and overdubbed sound on record, and are great at both. Right now "Honeymoon Song" is just killing me.
2. Say Anything - Say Anything
This is a hard kind of thing to quantify, but based on iTunes play counts I've probably listened to Say Anything more than any other band in the past 2 years, mainly 2004's ...Is A Real Boy (my 6th favorite album of the decade), but also 2007's In Defense Of The Genre, which was the kind of double album that's impossible to listen to in one sitting but has more great songs than bad ones (even the Two Tongues album had some killer tracks). Still, following up a double LP is tough no matter how successful it was or wasn't, especially when the next record is a self-titled back to basics move like this, because it can't help but feel somehow scaled back and less attention-grabbing. As it turns out, though, this album isn't as unambitious or workaday as I feared, and "Do Better" and "Death For My Birthday" and "Less Cute" are about as great as anything they've ever done, and half the songs have some instrumental variation (synths, strings, horns, drum machines) to break up the monotony while the focus is still on hyper guitar-driven rock. I just wish Max Bemis would leave alone all the fourth wall-busting self-referential lyrics, like the spoken bit on "Property" or the weird nod to Kings Of Leon on "Mara Of Me." He needs to realize that ...Is A Real Boy was awesome in spite of things like the Rollins-ish ranting on "Admit It!!!" and the intro on "Belt," not because of them.
3. Freeway - Streetz Is Mine
Last month I ran down the ridiculous amount of music Freeway's dropped in the past year, and mentioned in passing that along with all the official albums and mixtapes, there was something called Streetz Is Mine that Free took to YouTube and interviews to insist was not authorized or endorsed by him. But a few weeks later, here the album is, and I guess Freeway had some problems on the business end, because it's all new material, and it's way better than the album he approved of earlier this year, Philadelphia Freeway 2. I love the song where he nonchalantly boasts “when you gonna drop a new song? probably today,” because it's absolutely true. "Last 2" with Beanie and Young Chris is one of the illest State Prop posse cuts in years, and "Transporter" is a candidate for one of my favorite Freeway songs of the year. His increasingly frequent sex talk on records is pretty gross, though, he needs to cut that out.
4. Freeway - The Beat Made Me Do It
Oh yeah, and Free dropped another whole official mixtape full of original songs last month too. For a few months this had been hyped as a Freeway/Don Cannon mixtape, which given the title, made me think it would be full of Cannon beats, which I was excited about given that I love practically every beat I've ever heard by the guy. As it turns out, though, Cannon's just the host, and all the beats are Jake One tracks, presumably outtakes from the Stimulus Package album Free's dropping wiht him in January, which I can't really complain about since he's a dope producer, too, but I'd rather hear Cannon's best with Free than Jake's leftovers. This is still pretty great, though, I love "Attitude."
5. Lil Boosie - The 25th Hour
Boosie's best mixtapes, like Thug Passion or Da Beginning, are essentially albums, with original production and fully written songs with choruses. But since he just dropped an actual album, the sorely underrated and underpromoted Superbad, I can't knock him for tossing out a more traditional mixtape right now, when he's staring down a prison sentence and is supposedly stockpiling material for an album to release when he gets out. So 25th Hour is kind of a loose clearinghouse for remixes like "Betta Believe It" and "5 Star Bitch," Hurricane Chris collabs, and tons of freestyles. And as much as I get bored of freestyle mixtapes, Boosie does a lot to make it his own, including weird beat choices like T-Pain's "Can't Believe It" (which features the incredible opening couplet "I'll put you in a casket/ crawled on by the maggots") and a bunch of old 2Pac beats.
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