A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:Top Artists for the week ending Jan. 7, 2007Swear-to-god I'm nearly done listening to all the 2006 stuff I need to before I can spit out my "Best Of" for the year! Some random thoughts:
1. Madlib
2. Donald Fagen
3. Gnarls Barkley
3. Thom Yorke
3. Pearl Jam
3. The Procussions
7. Four Tet
8. Paul Simon
8. Eagles of Death Metal
8. Outkast
Really digging Madlib's Beat Konducta, Vol. 1-2, enough to make a surprise run for my year-end Top Ten. There's been a nice run of "beats and loops" discs over the past couple of years from folks like him and J Dilla and Pete Rock and Prince Paul. I'm wondering why now all of a sudden?
Don Fagen's Morph The Cat is actually some of the most pleasing stuff he's done in years...if you're into that sort of thing. Speaking of old skool, I had to check out Paul Simon's latest, Surprise, only because Brian Eno produced. While I can't say it's a great album, there are at least a couple of tracks where Eno obviously pushed him out of his comfort zone.
Nothing I can say here about Gnarls Barkley that hasn't already been said a long time ago, but St. Elsewhere is just way better and more inventive than it needed to be. Big ups to them for defying all genre stereotypes.
Heard about The Procussions thanks to the iTunes Store picking them for a Song Of The Week several months back. Their album 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents has a pretty fresh sound keeping one foot in the old school. Definitely a crew to keep an eye on in the future. Plus, they're from Colorado (Springs, that is) – represent!
Outkast's Idlewild: can't fault you for trying something different, guys. Better luck next time.
Pearl Jam's Pearl Jam: can't fault you for not fixin' it when it ain't broke, but it is awful hard to distinguish one album from another lately.
See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives
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