Revisiting two records that we didn’t spend enough time with in 2008.

Every arts writer is implored, to one degree or other, to write year-end lists. But for music fans (not just writers), the impulse is especially pronounced—many of us learned about pop via the Top 40. And many like to quantifying our tastes in lists. If we’re occasionally mocked for our trouble (cf. High Fidelity), so be it.

Nevertheless, list glut has been with us for…

Read & Discuss

Hip-hop beat-makers Jake One and DJ Signify offer differing takes on the showcase album Hip-hop albums by producers who don’t rap--unlike, say, Kanye West or Swizz Beatz, who started as beatmakers before taking to the mike--often fall into two broad categories: The first is to showcase the producer’s.. Read & Discuss

New Order and Jay Reatard release singles compilations that challenge the hallowed album form Albums were once simply collections of previously released songs. Therefore, there shouldn’t be too great a split between an album and a singles roundup, right? For whatever reason--reading too many issues.. Read & Discuss

New photo books on early punks say at least a thousand words Two of the year’s most enticing photo books tackle rock pioneers as their subjects. In a strange, coincidental twist, both have bright pink covers. New York Dolls (Abrams Image) collects photographer Bob Gruen’s portraits, live shots, and.. Read & Discuss

How Beyoncé’s younger sis may sidestep the trappings of success I wrote all those words last week discussing “A Milli” as a pop meme, and I missed the most obvious example to date: “Diva,” from Beyoncé’s new I Am ... Sasha Fierce. The track is not just inspired by Lil’ Wayne’s hit; it’s a shameless rewrite—and.. Read & Discuss

Reimagining Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” and M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” When does a song become a standard? Answer: when a lot of people put their spin on it. Jazz critic Will Friedwald, whose 2002 book Stardust Melodies features “biographies” of a dozen such songs (“Stardust,” “I Got Rhythm,” “St. Louis Blues”),.. Read & Discuss

Remembering a great man’s always-attentive ears There’s something cosmically appropriate about Studs Terkel dying, at age 96, on Halloween. It shares a similarity with James Brown dying on Christmas Day: the holiday adds a notable flourish. The Godfather of Soul lit up the stage like a Christmas tree,.. Read & Discuss

 

When two songs make a right

A great segue is where you find it—even if you weren’t necessarily on the lookout. The two I’m most besotted with lately mine narrow terrain—pop hits from the ’80s—but I came upon them in very different places.

The first caught me by surprise last week while visiting New York. I’m a night owl, and just prior to leaving the city I had roast chicken in Midtown at 3 a.m. The speakers…

Read & Discuss

Did Motown lose its way in the 1970s? I used to believe that compiling every Motown A-side up to about 1970 would create the greatest album of all time. Well, as it turns out, not quite. The Complete Motown Singles is a projected 12-volume, box set series released by Hip-O Select, an arm of Universal.. Read & Discuss

 How Raphael Saadiq honors the past and blends in the present The Way I See It (Columbia), the third solo album by Raphael Saadiq, is one of the more formally intriguing I’ve heard in a while. On it, a highly respected R&B veteran directly mimics soul music as it sounded in the decade prior to disco. Saadiq,.. Read & Discuss

Revisiting two records that we didn’t spend enough time with in 2008.

Every arts writer is implored, to one degree or other, to write year-end lists. But for music fans (not just writers), the impulse is especially pronounced—many of us learned about pop via the Top 40. And many like to quantifying our tastes in lists. If we’re occasionally mocked for our trouble (cf. High Fidelity), so be it.

Nevertheless, list glut has been with us for…

Read & Discuss

Hip-hop beat-makers Jake One and DJ Signify offer differing takes on the showcase album Hip-hop albums by producers who don’t rap--unlike, say, Kanye West or Swizz Beatz, who started as beatmakers before taking to the mike--often fall into two broad categories: The first is to showcase the producer’s.. Read & Discuss

New Order and Jay Reatard release singles compilations that challenge the hallowed album form Albums were once simply collections of previously released songs. Therefore, there shouldn’t be too great a split between an album and a singles roundup, right? For whatever reason--reading too many issues.. Read & Discuss

New photo books on early punks say at least a thousand words Two of the year’s most enticing photo books tackle rock pioneers as their subjects. In a strange, coincidental twist, both have bright pink covers. New York Dolls (Abrams Image) collects photographer Bob Gruen’s portraits, live shots, and.. Read & Discuss

How Beyoncé’s younger sis may sidestep the trappings of success I wrote all those words last week discussing “A Milli” as a pop meme, and I missed the most obvious example to date: “Diva,” from Beyoncé’s new I Am ... Sasha Fierce. The track is not just inspired by Lil’ Wayne’s hit; it’s a shameless rewrite—and.. Read & Discuss

Reimagining Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” and M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” When does a song become a standard? Answer: when a lot of people put their spin on it. Jazz critic Will Friedwald, whose 2002 book Stardust Melodies features “biographies” of a dozen such songs (“Stardust,” “I Got Rhythm,” “St. Louis Blues”),.. Read & Discuss

Remembering a great man’s always-attentive ears There’s something cosmically appropriate about Studs Terkel dying, at age 96, on Halloween. It shares a similarity with James Brown dying on Christmas Day: the holiday adds a notable flourish. The Godfather of Soul lit up the stage like a Christmas tree,.. Read & Discuss

 

When two songs make a right

A great segue is where you find it—even if you weren’t necessarily on the lookout. The two I’m most besotted with lately mine narrow terrain—pop hits from the ’80s—but I came upon them in very different places.

The first caught me by surprise last week while visiting New York. I’m a night owl, and just prior to leaving the city I had roast chicken in Midtown at 3 a.m. The speakers…

Read & Discuss

Did Motown lose its way in the 1970s? I used to believe that compiling every Motown A-side up to about 1970 would create the greatest album of all time. Well, as it turns out, not quite. The Complete Motown Singles is a projected 12-volume, box set series released by Hip-O Select, an arm of Universal.. Read & Discuss

 How Raphael Saadiq honors the past and blends in the present The Way I See It (Columbia), the third solo album by Raphael Saadiq, is one of the more formally intriguing I’ve heard in a while. On it, a highly respected R&B veteran directly mimics soul music as it sounded in the decade prior to disco. Saadiq,.. Read & Discuss