I know it’s late, but if you still don’t know; here comes the review of, The Tones‘ (ever heard of ‘em? no?) debut album, “Dreamtalk”. The Tones are two guys, Retro and Suhn, from the Bay Area of California, who have managed to make a good and compete album. This is music for people who have missed the soul in hip-hop lately.

Being one of the few coming from the Bay Area who missed out on the “hyphy” movement, The Tones take their music in a whole different level. With soulful beats, charm and honest lyrics, “Dreamtalk” is a breath of fresh air to end the year with (at the time..), or like, the once great rapper, Common said: “The Tones are some real soulful brothers”.

Dreamtalk is a consistent album from start to end; the songs “Get U High, pt.  1″ and “From The Ground Up” starts us up, and really sets the theme for the whole album. Even though the album follows in the footprints of artists such as Kanye West and Common, with a Chicago-like sound, we can also find alternative-sounding songs. The beats to “Searching”, my personal favorite on this album, sounds like something that CYNE or Five Deez could have included in their albums. Honesty is also one The Tones stronger sides and songs like “Fly Angel” and “Road Ahead” proves this.

The Tones have a lot on their heart, but sometimes they do not manage to get it out in a best way possible. Their lyrics mean something, and the beats on “Dreamtalk” are great, but their rhymes sounds a bit half-assed now and then. The beats are better than the lyrics (sometimes), so to speak.

All in all, this album is well worth a buy. Support some young, up and coming rappers and help them make hip-hop better. Even though these guys could step up their rhyming skills a bit, this is one of the best albums to come out in 2008.

Favorite songs: Searching, Road Ahead, The Movemeant, Dreamtalk, Withouth You

Buy on iTunes.
Or what about Amazon?
Atleast check out their MySpace.

Eighth studio album by one of my favorite rappers of all time, Common. Best live hip hop artist and one of the most original, deftly rhymers of the art. Love all his albums and I always have a hard time thinking of which one of them I like best, yes, even Electric Circus. Electric Circus was amazing since it included the experimental Common (Star 69) and the down to earth Common (Come Close) in the same album.

With 7 out of 10 songs produced by the Neptunes, UMC is prematurely condemned to be compared to Electric Circus. Must I say, I was less than excited about this album at first, much because of the leaks; UMC, Punch Drunk Love & Announcement, all weak by commons standards. But I vastly enjoyed Electric Circus so I won’t judge.

And now for the judgement.

Starts out with Pharrell production on Pharrell production which did not put me in the mood for anything and topping it off with Kanye auto-tuning (vaguely, lucky us) on the end of  ’Punch Drunk Love’. But I survived it because both tracks are adequately well done production wise, gets repetitive, though catchy. Next up comes a track I really enjoyed, ‘Make My Day’ proves once again that Cee-Lo and Common goes together like peanut butter & chocolate (or sausage biscuit & grape jelly… it’s a southern thing… delicious) proven last time in ‘01 with ‘A Song for Assata’ and made into a nature law in ‘97 by ‘G.O.D’. Not often does it occur that I skip a song when listening to an album for the first time… but… ‘Sex 4 Sugar’ is officially the worst song in my iTunes at the moment.

Further we have songs that I would describe with nothing else than the two letters; OK, because that’s what they are. Not particularly good nor bad, with one exception that is; ‘Gladiator’ is actually very well produced. Hard hitting, raw but still keeps the essence of what (semi-unfortunately) has become contemporary hip-hop. Also refutes the statement made before about The Neptunes being the most overrated ever. They’re not. Just… overrated, but they can do great tunes if they try. What do I know? Other than that they have made tons of half-ass, mediocre, annoying beats which always gets loved by people (not people i acquaint with).

Commons weakest work yet, but the hope is still there because he recovered from ‘Electric Circus’ (even though it was awesome, though ‘Be’ was another dimension) so we might just see another ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ some day in the future. Consider buying if you liked ‘Electric Circus’. Buy if you like The Neptunes.

Good reviewers aren’t supposed to compare new work to old too much, but you do, so why shouldn’t I?

Favorite Songs: ‘Make My Day’ & ‘Gladiator’

It was only six months ago when Coldplay released their album Viva la Vida, and the villagers rejoiced. So much so that Chris Martin realised that he could make more money by releasing a couple remixes from Viva la Vaida plus some tracks that weren’t good enough for the album and charge full price for them. (Disclaimer: May not have happened)

To me, Viva la Vida was a mild disappointment. There wasn’t any tracks that were built aroun epic riffs in the likings of Clocks or Talk, and the more down to earth sounds weren’t as pleasing as the space vibes that I got from X&Y. Never the less people seemed to like it, and even I awarded it as one of the top 10 albums of 2008. Prospekt’s march is like Viva la Vida 1.3, and if you’re going to buy it you’ll most likely already have Viva la Vida so I can’t really describe it without telling you what you already know, so I’ll just give you a brief introduction to the highs and lows of the EP.

It starts nicely with Life in Technicolor II. Life in technicolor (1) was one of my favorites from la Vida, but it was too short and was only an instrumental. The sequel fixes these problems and is a strong opening for the EP.

Then comes Postcards from far away. It lasts less than a minute and has only piano in it. Nice playing, granted, but pointless.

When Rainy day starts I don’t know what to think. The beginning is so strange, I don’t know how I should feel about it. Then after the middle of the song you’ll see the big picture, and it’s a good song, but november feels like the wrong season for songs like this.

Glass of water could be a solid track, but it kinda dies after the chorus so it’s one of those songs that you wish didn’t have verses. Also, after about a minute it feels like the song starts dragging and you’ll just wish it was over.

Lost+ features Jay-Z, and oh boy is it a fail. Jay-Z’s verse is like underwear on your head; totally misplaced, but surely there are people think it’s cool. It feels glued on and provides nothing to the song, so I have to wonder why is it be there in the first place? Original lost was excellent and so is lost+, when Jay isn’t around but without him it’s just lost. Pontless remix that never should’ve been released. Definately the weakest song off the EP.

Lovers in Japan (Osaka sun mix) is also a remix. Although I couldn’t tell if I didn’t know it already. I guess the Osaka sun mix part just means that reign of love was removed (tell me if you know better)

So what’s my final verdict? As an own release, it’s lacking, but if you haven’t yet bought Viva la vida I would advise you to buy the new re-release that also has Prospekt’s march in it. Also if you can get it for a reasonable price it’s a nice little release, but right now they’re selling it for more than Colplay’s previous albums cost, so it’s way too much.

Well here we go again, another album from Mr. West which I am sure is set to shift a few copies in stores all over the world. He certainly made his intentions clear with this album, he wanted to make something he felt he needed to make, and basically didn’t care what people thought about it, however people are going to think things about it, and Kanye will just have to accept that. As far as I know it’s an album to deal with the loss of his mother Dr. Donda West, God rest her soul, and the break up with what’s her face, Alexis. Unfortunately it seems this emotionally driven album has had some compromise with, well what’s an easy way to put this, ummm, good music! Go back 4 or 5 years and you would find Kanye singing soulfully on Spaceship, and doing it really well to make a brilliant track, but that was without autotuner (or whatever it’s called), jump back forward to the present day and you hear him singing an entire album (yes, the whole thing) in autotuner (I know, I can’t believe it either) and overall, not doing it that well.

One of the main criticisms of Kanye’s last album (Graduation) was the amount of tracks, only 14. Well there’s only 12 on this album, which I’m sure a few people wont be too happy about, I suppose you could look at it from a good point of view too, less singing. There are glimpses of Kanye’s real talent on 808’s, only glimpses, and as soon as you think you’ve heard something good Kanye will just shoot you down with one of many really really REALLY bad songs. One positive thing is that this sounds better than the early recordings that leaked months before release, that’s mainly due to Kanye listening to his fans opinions on how bad some of his singing was, and he apparently re-recorded everything, and changed a few beats aswell. The whole thing was originally completed in just a few weeks, that really doesn’t impress me what so ever, and it really shows when you hear some effortless and poor singing from Kanye, it’s just as if he’s not even bothering to try. I refuse to comment on the addition of Jeezy and Weezy, *Stelf sighs*.

There are a few good beats on this, good meaning they wouldn’t sound bad if you took away the singing, mainly Paranoid and Welcome To Heartbreak. However the rest are poor at best, with primitive drums that lack inspiration and have countless stupid sound effects that just ruin any sort of creative direction Kanye would have been even possibly been attempting to try and pull off. I must say this album does disappoint me, I know I wasn’t expecting much from it, but part of me expected to be blown away by some amazing display of raw emotion fused with some new age soulful beats, but I’m just left with a mainstream album that lacks a lot of things, Kanye seemingly try to seek approval from a new genre, as this certainly is not hip hop. It’s some sort of depressing pop genre that I would rather not deal with if I had the choice.

To try and sum up this review then, 808’s & Heartbreak is everything I imagined it to be, not much. Maybe if Kanye we’re to bring in some better featuring artists, sort out his bloody vocals, sort out his bloody beats, sort out his bloody lyrics, sort out that bloody crappy sounding guitar that plays behind his singing, and lose the bloody autotuner then we could have had a better album, but I guess we’ll see how that venture goes come July 09 (or whenever it is he’s releasing this next “RAP” album).

Favourite track: Welcome To Heartbreak

I could have gone into a lot more detail of the things that I don’t like about this album, but I thought I would might get bored after a while. Also just a little sympathy shoutout to all those Kanye fans from the good old days who have force fed themselves this album until they were convinced it was good *cough*marty*cough*.

Serious Kanye is serious.

What the hell ever happened to a review of this thing? Unbelievable..

Q-tips last solo album was out nearly a decade ago, not to speak of a long time with A tribe called quest, the amazing part is though, that this has a rookie feel to it. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, not at all. It just doesn’t sound like a hip hop veteran put together an album, it’s a fresh contemporary breeze in other words.

In contradiction to some people, I pretty much love this joint. One of my fave albums of this yerrro.

Q-Tips flow gets old, it really does in this album. But if you like/love classic Tribe, you’ll very likely fall feet in the air in love with this too. And how can you not love an album with a pop-art cover, but the music isn’t whack?

Don’t feel like reviewing much now, and this wasn’t really a review I’ll just name my favorite songs cus theres a lot of them:
Johnny is dead, Won’t trade, Gettin up, Official, You, WeFight/WeLove, ManWomanBoogie, Move, Dance on Glass, Life is Better
That was all of them except three that’ll probably grow on me eventually. Buy now if you havent, but you have so what is there to remind you of?
Oh yea…

MINUTE AFTER MIDNIGHT DEC 16

I know, I know. WTF, Right? I can understand the Emma Salokoski Ensemble part. Barely. But what does ‘Veden alla‘ mean? It means under the water, when translated literally, and it’s my favorite album this year.

Back in the days of 5 years ago the band was called Emma Saloksoki Trio and they only released one EP. Luckily they realized that a singer, a bassist and a guitarist don’t form a very good band, so they decided to pick up a pianist and a drummer. Thus Emma Salokoski Ensemble was born.

Back in the days of 2005 the Ensemble released their debut album called Kaksi mannerta, Two continents. The album was the 4th best selling album in Finland for at least a week and their song Miksi sä meet (a cover version of Por que te vas) was the most played song of one radio station “for a long time”. Veden alla was heavily Brazilian influenced and is usually filed under bossa nova.

I’m a man opposing changes in artist’s or band’s new artistic directions. If you want to do some new kind of music you should just form a new band/use a different name instead of using your existing fan-base to sell more albums. [Magnus goes: "WORD!!"]

Back in the days of last August (now it’s a gimmick) Veden alla was released, but because Emma Salokoski Ensemble isn’t some über mainstream crap they don’t get many radio plays, so I had no idea that, instead of getting a solid bossa nova album, I would get an excellent progressive, Finish folk rock influenced album with a clear Helsinki sound. If the album would’ve been even slightly worse than their previous I would’ve been furious. You got lucky, Emma.

Veden alla has clear direction. It’s very emotionally charged, instruments are acoustic and Emma’s singing is more beautiful than ever, although I’m not sure if this emotion transfers if you can’t understand a word.

The album was Finland’s best selling album for a week or three but still didn’t get any radio time, which just proves that most of people are too stupid to listen to music, so they need to be told what sounds good and is worth their 3,5 minutes plus commercials.

Favorite tracks: Veden alla, Kehtolaulu (lullaby), Ja sun äänesi (and your voice), Tiistaieuforiaa (tuesday euphoria)

88-Keys, Kanye West’s best friend and a relatively unknown figure in hip-hop has (finally?) released his debut album The Death of Adam. The Harlem based producer/rapper has made songs for Black Star, The Pharcyde, Macy Gray and Consequence, and ever since he dropped the free(!) mixtape Adam’s Case Files in june, I have been looking forward to this album.

so uhm

Over to the review:

I would not call this album directly incredible, but there are quite a few light-spots in this album and it has a funny concept. Oh yes, “the concept?” you may ask. Well, the album follow the investigation of the death of a guy named Adam and as 88 said himself: “The entire album is about the power of the punani, if you will. It follows the story line of my man Adam who passed away and basically how he died.”

The songs on the album have all something to do with the story, and with titles like Morning Wood, and M.I.L.F., it will at least catch some people’s attention. The production is tight, and with guest performers, ranging from alternative rock-group Shitake Monkey (even though I mention them, does NOT mean that I like them) to Redman, this album is fun-filled and something different from all the other stuff coming out today. But.. like every other album, this one has flaws to it. Like The Friends Zone (with Shitake Monkey) sounds like some crazy-ass T-Pain Shit gone wrong..

The Album is executively produced by good-Kanye West, not the bad one, and contains a little bit of the soul-y feeling from the College Dropout days. Good-Kanye also makes an ok appearance on the single Stay Up (Viagra), which was recorded ages ago.

This is a good, innovative and uncompromising (I mean, the album artwork tells that much right?)) album for people who need some jolly and rollicking music in their life, and for all those who miss the old College Dropout feeling.

Buy here.

Favorite songs: M.I.LF., The Burning Bush, Morning Wood, Handcuff’Em

Chances are that if you have heard any hip hop in the last few years you might have heard about Black Milk. Now I wouldnt know because I suck at probability, I mean geez, math is supposed to make sense, probability sucks tit(s). Back to what we came to now (dundundududduuunnun). Detroit producer Black Milk has been an underdog in Hip Hop for the last 7 years, producing stuff for people like Slum Village, Phat Kat and Guilty Simpson… and Lloyd Banks… hmmm…

I’m very dissapointed in myself for not bringing this to the table before, released in late october. One of the absolute most skillful producers of our time, in the leauge with Dilla & Pete Rock. Nothing nostalgic or anything, just good contemporary hip hop, if the art is going somewhere different, this is the preferable direction. Unconventional, original and real (notice: “turn it up” sticker).

Starts off hard, real hard, ‘Long Story Short’ one of the strongest songs on the album. A hookless autobiography, a good example of splendid rapping and even better production. Dwele hums a little bit on the end, enough to be featured though. Few weak tracks, one being ‘Hold it Down’, gets boring and not the best way to rap for Milk. Further we have the oh so soulful song, ‘Without U’, probably shouldn’t say this, but this is the kind we wanted the College Dropout Kanye to be making now, but he’s not. Under this category does ‘Loosing Out’ fall too. It features Royce Da 5′9′, an artists I’ve never gotten into, he does an ok job on this.

Later we have the all-star track ‘The Matrix’ feauring Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price plus some scratching business by DJ Premier. A solid track, though doesn’t appeal to me like some of the other tracks on this joint do. Bottom line is that this album is a good mix of production you might have expected to hear on tracks of other artists, anything from Jay-Z (’Hell Yeah’), The Roots (’Bond 4 Life’) to Dabrye (’Tronic Summer’).

An outstanding album, one of the very better of this year at least. Offers great quality and variety, whatever kind of hip hop you’re into you will find some you like on this one. Another must-have, that is of course if you’re not a SUCKAH.

Favorite songs: Long Story Short, Loosing out, Overdose, Tronic Summer

Let’s briefly mention the essentials in one sentence. Illa J is the late J Dillas brother, aged 21, lives up to the yancey name, has shown producer skills before with his self-entitled ep and is now showing deftly rapping too with this debut album.

Yancey boys starts off with the real soulful sh*t right from the beginning and it keeps throughout. Good rhymes and also singing over leftover beats from the prime days of J Dilla producing for Pharcyde, this simultaneously setting a/the theme for the album.

The album is released under the Delicious Vinyl, known for the discoveries of Tone Loc, Masta Ace and Pharcyde back in their days. I must say I’m excessively impressed by Illas amazing soothing flow and singing, yes singing I said singing. The whole Yancey blood line is full of good singers (mother, father, sister, brother’n'brother), beautifully explained by Frank Nitty in the interlude ‘Alien Family’. While listening, you feel like this was a collabo in the ways of the beats being tailored for Illas voice, it’s like the Yancey boys connected on some spiritual level while this was in the works. Now you can always knit-pick on the lyrics or the beats being too similar to eachother, but damn… save your knit-picking for something else, this is some solid sounds right here. With the essence of a tribute album, you’ll very much enjoy this joint if you like either Dilla, Pharcyde or even Nate Dogg. Did I mention Guilty Simpson is on it? No, yes now..

Flyest thing you’ve heard since Labcabincalifornia, a must check-out, buy, bump-all-over-the-place-all-the-time record. BAY EIT on itewnz. Or at Delicious Vinyl dot-to-tha-com

Favorite songs: Timeless, Sounds Like Love, Everytime, Air Signs