loving wild beats like two headed boy here

haven't listened to the new one, but hooting & howling is my jam

Led Zeppelin - Rain Song
Big KRIT - Hometown Hero
King Crimson - Fallen Angel

Bass.

Nick Drake

What a lovely trio of albums — I don't think I can pick a favorite because they tell such a story together. Five Leaves Left finds Drake at his most mystical and his least overtly introspective, no problem when he invests his third-person tales with so much hypnotic power. He would never create a more visible sense of place than on Three Hours. Followers like Stuart Murdoch may approach his voice's timbre, but the darkly ironic way in which his melodies turn in on themselves gives his work an inimitable stamp. Cello Song is surely one of the most gorgeous songs of the 60s.

The accompaniments on Bryter are a mixed bag. Often they contribute wonderfully to the mood, as on Northern Sky, and even add a bit of cheeky attitude in the case of Hazy Jane II, while at other times they can be overbearing. The more jazzy elements in particular tend to seem out of place, like Drake and the other musicians aren't communicating. With its absolutely bizarre backing vocals ("so sowwy for hisseeeeelf") and sax shrieks threatening to bludgeon the gentle Nick, Poor Boy is the worst offender. Such quibbles don't add up to much. Drake himself is in top form here and these are some of his boldest songs.

Pink Moon took a while longer to click, but when it did, good lord. The melodies here are shyer, more insidious, and the spareness of the sound is vital to the feeling of isolation he creates; it also adds intensity by removing barriers between artist and audience. He weaves mesmerizing webs with his guitar. The picture I see is of a man who appreciates the beauty in life but has simply grown tired of it all, a condition he distills to its barest essence on Know. How could he ever have followed this? We know how he did, sadly — and not too surprisingly, regardless of why. While the person who made this album might not have sought death, there is little resistance to be heard.

great write-ups

an understatement

I hesitate to call it an obsession because that seems too small and temporary, but I'm going through another phase with Astral Weeks. I remember a few months ago, I think, Dreww posted a review of it and gave each song 5 out of 5 stars, and even with the album being my favorite of all time, I didn't at the time think each song was perfect enough to deserve a perfect score. My obsession has since re-sparked, thanks to finally purchasing the CD, and at this point in time I think I really would give each song a perfect score. Each song is perfect. Even Beside You, where Van's singing and melodies are at their roughest. Even The Way Young Lovers Do, which sort of fits on the album by not really fitting on the album - both of which I didn't used to like all that much, at least relative to the rest of the album. But they're both amazing and this recent little bout of Astral Weeks-listening has only reinforced that this is some of the most transcendent music I've ever heard. It's far and away the best album I've ever heard. I don't really know what I would pick as a number two, but it's so far behind it doesn't even fucking matter. And I'm still discovering new things about it, like how quiet Madame George is after the rumbling, tumbling The Way Young Lovers Do and how effective a transition it makes for. This album makes most other music insignificant.

Cam'ron - "Purple Haze"

any other albums worth checking out? this one's great. I'm especially loving "More Reasons" (bet nobody can guess why on that one), "Harlem Streetz," and of course "Killa Cam"

Purple Haze has some great jams on it. I like the Kanye produced tracks - Dipset Forever and Down And Out. Come Home With Me has some cool singles (i'm sure you've heard Oh Boy) but I haven't listened to the whole of it.

Tago Mago. And probably Can generally once I get off the high this album is currently giving me.

edit: and it's Can generally now. Note to self: Monster Movie is always better than you remember.

edit2: also, Notorious B.I.G. I've never been a huge fan because neither Ready to Die nor Life After Death is a great album for taking in a single sitting, but I stole a playlist of highlights from Dreww and I've been listening on shuffle, and his best songs are amazing, especially when you get the added variety of them coming from different albums (because seriously, Ready to Die is samey as fuck). Also, the highlights on Life After Death are probably better than the highlights on Ready to Die, but the highlights of both rank among the best hip-hop ever made. So yay.

little bit of a wilco kick going on now

The Pogues - Greenland Whale Fisheries

Intense whaling action! If not for the improbable existence of The Mariner's Revenge Song, this would the best song about the business by a fair margin. The chorus is shouted with such vigor and manly spirit that it makes me want to get up and join a whaling crew right now, or at the very least start Moby Dick again tomorrow, and how many times has flipping one verse made a song so much more compelling?

From:
To lose the whale, our captain said,
It grieves my heart full sore,
But oh! to lose (those) four gallant men
It grieves me ten times more

To:
The losing of those five jolly men
It grieved the captain sore
But the losing of that fine whalefish
Now it grieved him ten times more

Fucking awesome. Best band of the eighties for me in a walk.

that lucky old sun - ray charles.

the whole albums phenomenal but i've overlooked this song until recently. one of the richest and most evocative vocal performs i've heard.

man im thinking "will do" is one of the best songs tv on the radio ever wrote, fuuuck