Mixtape Side E

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Theme this week is covers that sound significantly different from the originals. Male, Italian Pop-Punk band does Female Barbadian R&B singer's hit song? Yes please. I'm not gonna do a theme every week, I just don't have a lot of new ideas right now.

Mixtape Side D

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Family stuff is putting album reviews on hold, please standby and listen to mixtapes in the meantime. This week's theme is: songs my friends thought I would like. Not to say I don't like them. The songs that is.

Mixtape Side C

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I'm the hiphopapotamus, my lyrics are bottomless...

Sage Francis - LI(F)E

"I heard god is coming and she's a screamer"- I Was Zero. I wasn't lying about doing a rap album this week . This is going to be a little new for me, so forgive my ignorance of the genre. I don't even know if I should call this stuff hip-hop, indie rap, or what. I generally don't like rap (which is different than not respecting it), and I think it has something to do with the lack of a live band. I feel that live instruments are able to convey a sense of dynamics and energy or emotion to a track that just doesn't happen as easily when backing tracks are programmed and/or sampled. Though I am a fan of earlier hip-hop like Run DMC, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys etc. and some of those beats are as robotic as you get, so who knows why I don't like it. There are groups such as the Roots who are a live band, but I find that hip-hop that makes use of a live band tends to lean towards reggae, another genre that I am not so fond of for some reason. Anyway, this week's mixtape is going to be all rap/hip-hop/grime/post-rap/whatever/post-whatever, so I can highlight some of that stuff I like. Now onto what I like about this album!

OVERVIEW
On LI(F)E, Sage Francis mixes Josh Martinez/Everlast/Kazzer vocals with rock, folk and indie backing tracks. The whole album seems to be without programmed beats or samples, relying mainly on live drums, keys, bass, guitars, and other stringed instruments of the acoustic and electric varieties. From time to time, some synthesized keys appear, but sound like they are played by a live person as opposed to a midi track. This all makes for an interesting mix, which I like so far, although I am unsure of its staying power in my playlists. I have a short attention span, and I generally listen to pop music with catchy melodies, so for me it is very hard to absorb everything a rapper says without listening intently a number of times. Sometimes it just seems like random figures of speech that sound interesting strung together. Mr. Francis does seem to be at his best when he is storytelling, like in "Little Houdini" or "The Best of Times". It makes the words easier to follow, and you quickly get a sense for the context of the lyrics so the metaphors don't come across as so random. I was a little torn on picking favourite songs, between fun rockin' backing tracks, and more vocal focused tracks. Anyway, I did my best, here they are, if you like any of them, please check out more.

HIGHLIGHTS
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Three Sheets to the Wind - This is the song that introduced me to Sage Francis. A chugging, charging guitar line starts this rockin' track. It's pretty cool how the vocal manages to join in the rhythm, instead of being part of the melody first and foremost.

The Baby Stays - The vocal reminds me of an aggressive Josh Martinez. The backing track comes courtesy of a very folkly ensemble of acoustic guitars, banjo, fiddle, and maybe some ukelele or mandolin. Almost zeppelin-ish at times.

London Bridge - Messy fuzz rock that sounds like it was recorded inside a bouncy castle with a bunch of kids that have been fed too much cotton candy. Awesome.

The Best of Times - A cool storytelling track. Sage Francis's childhood and beyond in five and a half minutes. Xylophones, skinny white boy indie backups, and warbly synths maintain the anti-beat feel of this album.

MUSIC NERDERY
In order to achieve the eclectic sound of this album, Mr. Francis got many indie artists on board for recording, including Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, and Richard Terfry (better known as Buck 65). Wiki it up to see the full list, It's pretty extensive.

RECOMMENDATIONS
If you are a fan of Josh Martinez, Buck 65, Everlast, The Streets, or other slightly off-center hip-hop/rap with clever lyrics, you should check this album out for sure. I think most everyone should give this album a listen though, the variety of odd combos of musical styles could mean lots of surprise favorite songs for each person. I don't think anything groundbreaking came out of this album, but I commend Sage Francis and his friends for trying something just a little different than what we've heard before.

Mixtape Side B

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A few of these are far from new, but hopefully they are new to you, or at least enjoyable. I think I am going to review a rap album for sunday.

Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks

I have come to very much enjoy scottish bands. There is something about the way that a scottish accent sounds in vocals that is really cool. Maybe it's just because I have heard the English or faux English accents for so long, that this sounds fresh. One of my favorite scottish bands is Biffy Clyro, and when I originally heard Frightened Rabbit on the radio, I mistook the latter for the former. That is until the song continued and I realised how much more reigned in, flowy and straightforward the backing music was (if you are familiar with Biffy Clyro, that is not an insult, they can be pretty all over the place, loud, and angular at times). The best way I can describe Frightened Rabbit is if Snow Patrol had been from Scotland (instead of transplanted there), and if they had not gone the top 40, over-produced route at all, and instead kept playing in bars forever, and had a singer who emotes like that dude from Once.

OVERVIEW
The Winter of Mixed Drinks is filled with heartfelt, layered, scottish indie rock. Very strong front to back. The songs are never particularly quiet or loud, and changes in volume or dynamics tend to be gradual, and flow up and down, like waves that have not yet come close enough to the shore to topple over themselves. Blech, lame water analogy. I'll let that one pass though, this album is full of water themes. Many songs start with a single sound, but different instruments are quickly stacked, then the song is allowed to settle at that level for a bit before the main bits come in. The remainder of the song is usually buoyed by the base of either the initial sound, or the levelled out stack. The more I listen to it, the more I hear the atmospherics of The National, and Bon Iver's denser moments, but with a little more oomph.I found that the songs that moved me most just had an interesting vocal melody that sat just right over all the backing instrumentation and tugged at my heartstrings. I couldn't always hear the lyrics on the first go, but the communicated emotion makes me want to know what he is singing about if it makes him feel that strongly.

HIGHLIGHTS
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Things - The opening track is a good indicator of things to come. If you like this song, you'll like the album. Is it about getting rid of material things? Figurative baggage? Both? Good message either way, in a pleasing sonic wrapping.

Nothing Like You - An uncharacteristically speedy song, matured pop-punk verses bookended by the late 80's manchester sound on caffeine instead of acid. "She was not the cure for cancer, all my questions still ask for answers." 

Foot Shooter - A kick drum anchors the E-bow and piano intro, Vocals and Bass come in to raise it up, leading into Jimmy Eat World-ish gang drums (a la Your House or Disintigration) and quick, constant guitar strums. The chorus melody is kinda weird and disjointed but familiar and catchy at the same time. Lot's of oooo-wooo backup vocals to keep it floaty.

MUSIC NERDERY
When listening to this album, one has a sense of being surrounded by the music. I think this is due to two things, the reverb and echo used on the instruments, and the frequent use of organ, strings or other sustaining sounds hiding in the background. I feel that those subtle organ or organ-like background sounds are what gives songs by bands like U2 and Coldplay that soaring feeling. Listen to some of their songs again, and pay attention to what's going on behind all the instruments and vocals that jump out of the mix.

RECOMMENDATIONS
People who will like this: fans of The National, Glen Hansard, even Explosions in the Sky, awww heck, Snow Patrol too. Also, people who like scottish accents. Good in the background, great on headphones, or good speakers in an otherwise quiet room.

Mixtape Side A

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Woohah! Back with a new player! Let us see how it goes. R.I.P. One-sided Mixtapes 3 through 8

Chugga chugga...

Trying to get the engine going again, with a working computer and city internet. Unfortunately it seems in my absence imeem got taken over by myspace or something and now all my old mixtapes don't exist. I remember roughly what was on them, but not really, so there might be some repeats as I get the whole thing started again with a new media player. I think I am just going to delete all the old posts, and start back at mixtape #1 again.

Also, I think the format for the album reviews will change. Sometimes it will be an album that is new that week, sometimes it will be one that is new to me that week, however old it is. See you soon!