I woke up to some really interesting news. Kendrick Lamar dropped an official collection of many of the songs he’s been debuting on Colbert, Fallon, and other one-time appearances over the last year. I’m just posting to share the new with any friends and readers who haven’t heard yet.
The whole brief album is streaming right here:
This week in music features a big dip into the past, plus something super new. I also need to mention the movie I watched instead of the Oscars, because it’s the best I’ve seen in weeks. All I know about Sunday’s ceremony is that Ennio Morricone finally won and so did Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s a good thing; this music is more interesting and important.
I’ll start with the new music because it’s the most deserving of attention.
I feel like I’m going to start doing a weekly post about the albums I’m listening to. That way, even if I don’t end up writing something lengthy about a given album, I’m still spreading the good word.
So here goes.
Tonight I’m feeling like this.
Because I’m listening to this:
Seriously, I feel like a post apocalyptic princess fulfilling a prophecy by befriending a hyper-intelligent bug, saving the world from mutant nuclear annihilation.
Thanks for the incredible song, Dip In The Pool.
I heard of this band because of CFCF. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know why.
Yoko Ono is one of my greatest inspirations, a true artist in every fiber of her being. Her words have symbolically marked my mixtapes, and her book, Grapefruit, sits always on my desk at work.
She is 83 today, and still making daring music that puts most artists a quarter of her age to shame. Here’s hoping there’s more to come.
In November of 1980, a few days before John Lennon untimely death on December 8, photographer Allan Tannenbaum had unique and total access to Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, who were emerging from five years of seclusion, ready to release a new album, “Double Fantasy.” Many of the photographs never released before are now in the book “John & Yoko, A new York Love Story”, release by Insight Editions, November 2007.///John Lennon and Yoko Ono during filming of the “Starting Over” video.
This album changes everything for the Dream Catalogue mastermind.
With last month’s deep-dive into the Dream Catalogue roster, I became aware that label co-founders telepath テレパシ and Hong Kong Express had each released an incredible amount of material in the past year. Their output rivals that of every other artist on the label combined, and incredibly, most of it is top notch. Sure, a handful of them tread in the same ultra-drifting waters, but somehow there’s a fascinating diversity of styles between the pair, all lit with the signature cyberpunk glow of the burgeoning label.
I still haven’t heard Kanye West’s new album The Life Of Pablo, but he apparently just added a handful of tracks to it, in addition to the official list released yesterday. This is the first one I’ve heard and it’s incredible.
On 30 Hours, Kanye samples Arthur Russell, quotes Nelly, and completely reset my expectations for the album.
This is good.
To be honest, all I had to hear was “sampled Arthur Russell” and I was all over this. The tune comes together really well, and Kanye’s rhymes still appear to be in peak form. I’ve got high hopes for the album.
Hopefully he changes the cover art too. I really like this faded photo.
Optimistic Underground 