As fall starts to creep up on us, I’m taking time to catch up on some of the great music that I’ve missed out on over the past month. Here are a few highlight albums that have been in constant rotation at TWC the past few weeks, and are definitely worth checking out.
Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon: The End of Day
In the land of hype, Kid Cudi is king. I feel like this album has been waiting to drop for the past two years and now that it is finally here I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised. There is a huge problem in our current day and age (both with music and elsewhere) how we build up people, art, and ideas to ridiculous heights that they can in no way live up to. With all the hype surrounding Kid Cudi everyone expected him to deliver another hip hop album filled with the standard fair that everyone would subsequently trash and write him off as a one-hit wonder – but he didn’t.
Man on the Moon is a bit weird, more than a bit out there, very dark and introspective at times, and I kind of like it. This is definitely not a phenomenal album, but certain tracks have been bouncing down my ear drums over the past month. The Kid definitely has talent and the ability to flip the script on the hype machine. I’m ready to see what he does next now that he has my attention.
Mayer Hawthorne – A Strange Arrangement
Stones Throw Records is consistently ahead of the curve. Apparently a while back Hawthorne met with Peanut Butter Wolf and played him two soul-inspired tracks that at first PB thought were re-edits or covers of records from the 60′s. Surprised to find that the tracks had been composed and recorded entirely by Hawthorne himself, Wolf immediately signed him and sent him to work to make more.
The result is a wonderful anachronistic album that pays tribute to the soul sound of Hawthorne’s home of Detroit while maintaining the dusty atmosphere you expect to find from Stones Throw. What I’m waiting to see now is how long it takes for one of Hawthorne’s tracks to find itself sampled by a label mate or elsewhere. (I know I would)
Kings of Convenience – Declaration of Dependence
I remember first listening to Kings of Convenience after being handed their record Riot on an Empty Street by one of my close friends back in high school. While I normally find myself at home with looped samples and hard hitting claps, Kings were a plunge into a new feeling of sound that I soon found myself returning to like one does to your favorite brand of frozen pretzels. Comforting, familiar, and at the same time foreign, Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe (great names) composed great songs with harmonies that pop into your head days later. Riot has been one of my constant albums over the past years and I’m sure it will continue to be.
Their latest effort once again showcases their great songwriting and vocal skills from the frigid shores of Norway. Perfect for chilling out on a slow day, they continue to haunt with their new tracks. In addition to the album, the below video for “Boat Behind” is how I imagine Erlend and Eirik spend most of their Sunday afternoons.
