(Tribute to MJ)”
by the Game ft. Chris Brown, Diddy, Polow Da Don, Mario
Winans, Usher, Boyz II Men<
(MP3)
“This the type of song that make the angels cry”—you know,
guys, I’m actually going to dispute this one. “You were the one that
made us all realize that we are the world”—must you? “Somebody
tell Usher/I seen the moonwalk/I guess the young thriller touched
him/Like he touched me/Like he touched you”—um…
by the Dead Weather
(Third Man)
Am I the only one who thinks it’s absolutely hilarious that Jack
White’s new band features him (a) chant-rapping like some nu-metal
doofus and (b) playing drums better than anyone else in the group plays
his/her instrument, voice included? Song’s professional but nothing
special, alas.
by DJ Koze
(Mule Electronic)
Someday, DJ Koze will stop making records that stop me in my tracks,
and then I will stop writing about them. Until then, here’s another
compilation standout (My Favorite Things Vol. 2) in the
semi-ambient vein: a wash of organ that starts out like a wide-open yet
cozy Field track, ends with the keyboards daubing pastels in the dark,
and picks up a by-now-requisite “surprise” klonk! a couple
minutes in, as well as some snugly scratchy percussion.
by the Fiery Furnaces
(Thrill Jockey)
I’m Going Away, from which this is the track that won’t let
go, is the most immediate, song-oriented album they’ve made since
2003’s Gallowsbird’s Bark, but they haven’t so much gone back to
normal as reinvented themselves again, this time as something
approaching a simple rock band. “Lost at Sea” is the simplest song,
with the simplest chorus, but it won’t stop nagging you: “Baby, I’m…
maybe I’m not me.”
by Altair Nouveau
(eMusic.com)
Five songs, 30 minutes, zero new ideas on this loving
mock-late-disco tribute to synthesizers in the age of Tron. The
title tune is a leaner (in every way) version of a Lindstrøm
epic, “Cosmos” layers keyboard squiggles with an easy lightness, and if
the video-game-noise quasi-symphony “Street Thunder II” is a bit tinny,
tonality has nothing to do with warmth.
by Jahdan Blakkamoore and 77Klash
(DuttyArtz.com)
Brooklyn dancehall vocalist Blakkamoore “freestyles” by crooning a
good new song over Drake’s summer-jam earworm, with a verse borrowed
from Radiohead’s “Climbing up the Walls.” It’s every bit as lovely as
the earworm. 