1. Ichicuts - Filthy First Year
Last month I saw a local band I know play a show in Baltimore (a band called Jumpcuts, no relation), and these guys Ichicuts were also on the bill and really impressed me. Two guys, one on drums and the other juggling bass and synths and vocals, well written and engaging songs with a really odd and twitchy aesthetic built up aroudn them. There was something about the guys and their attitude that struck me as strange that made them stick out, and then when I found out they're a New York band I was like OK yeah, that's it, bands in Baltimore don't act like that (not a bad thing per se, just different). As it turned out, they just released an album, and while it lacks a little of the energy of the live show, it mostly retains what I like about them, and as the album goes on it gets better, ending strong with "Cut Up Cut Out" and "Respectful."

2. The Water - Scandals And Animals
As with the monthly singles, I decided to expand this column from a top 5 to a top 10 for the new year, and that goes hand in hand with another change to start including local Baltimore artists in this and my year-end lists. There are a lot of reasons for that, but mainly because people in Baltimore make great music and it's silly to seperate it from everything else, and because increasingly there've been some great records by people I know personally or work with or write PR copy for that I wouldn't be able to cover professionally in any publication, so I can at least talk about them here on my own blog. First and foremost here is the debut album by the instrumental duo The Water, who've been one of my favorite live bands in the city ever since I first saw them a few years ago. And now they've finally got a studio release that captures their huge, amazing sound, mainly thanks to my friends at Mobtown Studios, and I visited with them in the studio while they were working on it, and wrote the official press release for the album, and invited The Water to play at my 30th birthday party back in January. So you can take my praise with a grain of salt because I'm not totally distanced or objective, but this is an awesome record, "Cornish Guilt" and "DeSelby" are my favorite tracks.

3. T.I. - Fuck Da City Up
T.I. has had such a weird up-and-down career over the past 5 years, where it seems like he was always either coming out of jail or about to go back in, so there was this constant recurring comeback narrative that didn't have much to do with what his music sounded like at the moment. But there was a definite dip in quality around the time No Mercy bricked, and his run of remixes the last few months has really been pretty great, so I'm good with where he's at right now even if I'm not trying to buy too much into the latest comeback narrative. It bodes well that this tape is full of songs with ATL's new guard (2 Chainz, Travis Porter, Future, etc.) but doesn't feel forced at all, T.I. defined so much of the music these guys are making anyway that it all fits together pretty well, and "Hot Wheels" with Young Dro and Travis Porter is just dope, that shit should be a hit.

4. Future - Astronaut Status
I definitely wouldn't have expected a few months ago that I'd even be able to stomach a full-length Future mixtape, as much as I hated "Racks" and "Tony Montana." But lately I started to warm to "Magic" (at least before I realized how much the chorus is a rewrite of Gucci's "Wasted") and "Racks" and the Caddy Da Don remix he did, and really this tape is pretty aight, at the very least I'm starting to hear his voice and his own aesthetic more than just a generic AutoTuned goon. "Shopping Spree" is pretty dope.

5. Guided By Voices - Let's Eat The Factory
I've never been a big GBV fan, I basically think of them as a singles band and the Human Amusements at Hourly Rates comp is the only CD of theirs I've ever owned. I like their 20-songs-in-40-minutes barrage approach to making albums more in theory than in practice, or maybe I just expect that kind of thing to be more overtly entertaining and novelty-driven, like early They Might Be Giants albums. But anyway this is nice, a bit more lo-fi than I would've expected or even liked, but I get that they're getting the old lineup back together and going 'back to their roots.'

6. Schoolboy Q - Habits & Contradictions
I don't feel too much guilt about not really following all the new rappers that are so celebrated on the internet, but I am trying to hear more new rap in general and I should probably give more of this stuff a chance. None of the Kendrick Lamar stuff I've heard has really grabbed me, but I decided to check this out and I think while I like Schoolboy Q a little more, I'm not a huge fan of him either. Basically he's got this tasteful blankness of so many new rappers, like he might as well be a slightly tougher J. Cole when you get down to it. Even on the rare occasion that he kinda sounds like he's having fun, "There He Go" and "Sexting" get annoying really quickly. And by the time I get to that track where he says "fag" over and over I had just kind of turned against the album and didn't really want to hear it anymore.

7. Sinista - Here, My Dear: The Mixtape
I reviewed this for the City Paper recently, it's very flawed and slapdash in a lot of ways but it's also undeniably compelling, might grow with me more over time.

8. Rick Ross - Rich Forever
As one of the only mainstream rap fans left who doesn't give a shit about Rick Ross, I was actually ready to give this a fair chance after all the buzz and say OK, he made a dope record, he deserves his spot in the game. But man, this tape really ain't shit, "Keys To The Crib" is the only song I would really bang again, most of the beats are pretty generic post-Lex Luger bullshit and Ross is still getting graded on that generous curve where being better than 2006 era Ross is considered a big deal. As I always say, Ross on his best day still barely competes with guys like T.I. on their worst day.

9. Jason Urick - I Love You
I also reviewed this recently, it's quite lovely in some spots but also a bit spare for my taste, I always kind of wonder whether Urick is gonna have something way more interesting up his sleeve down the road than what he's done so far.

10. Yo Gotti - Live From The Kitchen
This album was a disappointment, I thought Yo Gotti had finally released the live LP I'd been clamoring for all these years! Nah, but really, though, I've never really understood Yo Gotti's appeal aside from making the same basic kind of music as a lot of more famous and/or more skilled rappers, and for that matter I never really understood how he reached the modest level of success that he has. This album is at least good for it is, though, until that shitshow with Big Sean and Wale and Wiz Khalifa kind of throws off the whole 'would be dope as a mixtape' vibe of it. I will give him credit for "Letter," that's a pretty compelling song.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 1:46 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.