Groove is your heartbeat. It is feel, swing, and flow. You can notate rhythm, but you can’t notate groove. It cannot be conjured. It is a living, breathing, propulsive manifestation of rhythm. This blog is in its service.
Well, it only took 22 years. Apple Corps and EMI have announced that the Beatles' albums will be remastered in individual stereo CDs and two box sets (one stereo, one mono) and released on September 9. The albums have been untouched since they were initially released on CD in 1987. Allan Kozinn writes that the remasters series "will include only the 12 albums the Beatles released in Britain from 1963 to 1970, from Please Please Me through Let It Be, along with Magical Mystery Tour — an American album that was originally released as a two-EP set in England — and the two-CD Past Masters compilation of the group’s nonalbum singles."
Looks like The Purple One digs the government's recovery plan.
Instead of releasing his upcoming albums through a big time label and packaging them individually in record shops, Prince will bundle his two new albums, LOtUSFLO3R and MPLSoUND, and his protege Bria Valente's Elixer, in one package for $11.98 starting March 29 exclusively at Target. That's a real bargain. Admit it, even though you don't really care about Valente's record, it's pretty sweet to pick up two new Prince records for about twelve bucks. And if Elixer turns out to be good - or even a'right - then that's just a lucky boon. Prince is another in a line of artists, including AC/DC, The Eagles, and Guns n' Roses who have exclusively released records via massive retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. These retailers have been hit or miss with exclusive deals lately. AC/DC sold more than a million units while GNR has sold barely over 500,000.
1. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III 2. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges 3. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) 4. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night 5. Porter Batiste Stoltz - MOODOO 6. Metallica - Death Magnetic 7. Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
And a few reissues... 8. Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue 9. Otis Redding - Otis Blue 10. Beck - Odelay
Pearl Jam is back in the studio with producer Brendan O'Brien for the first time in 11 years for their ninth studio album. They last collaborated on 1998's Yield. Bassist Jeff Ament says that vocalist Eddie Vedder just "keeps getting better." 2009 looks like it will be a busy year for Pearl Jam. On March 24, their debut album and grunge cornerstone Ten will be rereleased with brand new mastering and mixing, courtesy, of course, of one Mr. O'Brien. Here is a remixed Porch and fan fave B-side Brother.
D'Angelo is expected to collaborate with none other than Prince on James River, his follow-up to 2000's bongepic, sultryfunk suite, Voodoo. He has already teamed with Raphael Saadiq (who was the axeman behind "Untitled [How Does It Feel?]), Cee-Lo from Gnarls Barkley, and trumpet/cornetist Roy Hargrove. D will also tour Europe and the U.S. in support of the album, which is slated to be released this summer. All we need is Dr. Dre's The Detox and we're golden.
"You ain't been hungry since Supreme Clientele," a raspy voice imitating Mickey the trainer from Rocky tells Ghostface Killah. He's right. Ghostface's albums between Supreme and this his fifth album were often uninspired and lacking his fevered need to get on the mic. Fishscale, produced by MF DOOM, Pete Rock, J Dilla, among others, isn't a return to form. It greatly surpasses his previous best effort and firmly establishes him as one of the best rappers alive.
Proof isn't hard to come by. Dig "Shakey Dog," the first track off the album. Lyrically, it's a first-person account of a drug heist gone terribly wrong. The level of detail in the lyrics ("Back seat with my leg all stiff...tartar sauce on S Dot kicks") is worthy of the strongest crime fiction. Rapnoir, anybody? But the tune's structure is what freaks me out. Ghostface raps for 64 straight bars without pausing for a hook or chorus. Given that the standard hip-hop verse is 16 bars long, this is extraordinary. Absurd thoughts crossed my mind listening to the narrative: Does Ghostface breathe? If so, has he learned circular breathing? Is it possible this is a freestyle, no pen-and-pad, rap? Just when those thoughts began to interfere with paying attention to the song, something uncommon happened with the horns and the loping bassline -- tonal modulation. "Wait," you say, "he raps for 64 bars nonstop and the song changes chords too?" Yeah, that's right, homie. 12 bars in the A sections and four bars in the B sections. That's how Ghostface rolls, though the structure is loosened up the first time around. For good reason, it took me quite a while to get to track two. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that "Shakey Dog" bests "Nutmeg" and "Run" as far as prime Ghostface Killah jams go.
Fishscale, slang for uncut cocaine, mostly focuses on coke slanging, or "pyrex scholars," as Ghost says. "Kilo" introduces the metric system while Ghost and Raekwon cook coke, "Big Girl" cautions ladies to lay off the nose candy, and "Crack Spot" spotlights the dangers of paranoia. When Ghost's next album drops, I hope he's as hungry as he is here.
NOTE: In "Whip You With A Strap" Ghostface samples a J Dilla song off of Donuts, the last album Dilla cut while alive. The song he sampled is called "One for Ghost." Glad Dilla was keeping an eye out.
I'm a journalist living in the U.S. by way of Venezuela, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. I received my B.A. from Bowdoin College and my master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University's Newhouse School. I worked as an editorial intern at Spin Magazine, publishing an album review in a recent issue. I've also written for Rolling Stone Magazine (see links below.) Album reviews are the focus of this blog, along with book reviews and occasional musings on politics and life in exile. I enjoy go, flat fifths, double plays, and modal scales.
