Earl Sweatshirt-Doris
The West Coast hip-hop movement has been filled with moments
of brilliance, violence and straight up silliness. Quasimoto was this guy back in the day who
got kind of emotional at times. Perhaps,
Drake’s openness framed Earl Sweatshirt’s, yet it feels so much more raw, straightforward and honest. Earl says, directly,
“I’m depressed.” What? An MC letting his guard down that low is a
pretty new thing to me. Then, on the
other hand there is a song about fucking freckles off a bitch’s face. So, it is a mixed bag of maturity. Yet, unlike Drake, who pours out his heart
again and again, this kid is still protecting it. He is only 21 or something and he should
protect it. Yet, this album has some of
the best sounding beats I’ve heard in a while (since early Qausimoto/GZA?) and
his delivery is priceless.
Sonny and the Sunsets-Longtime
Companion
This album came out in 2012 and he has a new one this year,
which is also really good. I’m spacing
the title at this point, but it is really good and has a bit better production
value than this one. I looked up Sonny’s
name beforehand, but I want to make you, dear readers look that up yourselves
because it is fun to investigate things on your own. Anyway, this amazing album came up as a
recommendation on Spotify. I listened to
it and I thought, this is a divorce album. It turns out it was. Yet, what is brilliant about it is that it is
as open as open can be. He spares us
from too many personal experiences, which could alienate a shitty episode from
listeners. You know that he and his wife
had spilt up, yet he makes that break up as universal as possible. You feel him, in ways, kind of letting go as
he sings, yet you’re not sure if he wants to give her up completely. His voice only says so much.
Other Stuff:
Galaxie 500- This is
Our Music
Townes Van Zandt- Live
at the Old Quarter
Bruce Springsteen- Nebraska
Pavement-Slanted &
Enchanted
Drake- Nothing Was the
Same
Neil Young-Zuma
