Louder yo!

You were 100% right about A Seat at the Table. Wow. Fucking HELL of an album. Better than Lemonade? I think so. Almost too good to really believe. It's an extremely powerful statement, but it's subtle enough to remind one of Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, and other leviathans of modern soul. Very organic and very bittersweet and very beautiful.

And Master P's on that shit!

I'm floored. Could have done without Lil Wayne's verse (which sounds like Wayne trying to Drake... ugh) but other than that, WOW.

I feel like I'm getting too old to keep on pace. Too many albums released. I barely have time to absorb the ones I'm still catching up on from months ago. Maybe it just takes me longer to really "get" an album. (Not to mention, my listening time has basically been reduced to one album on my commute home every day... and some listening depending on what's going on during the weekend). Plus, y'know - sometimes I listen to things that weren't released this year. It's just a lot of work to keep on top of things. I'm old and bitter. The guy that used to praise MF Doom for dropping 3 records a year is now like "Game! Please slow down! I can't keep up with you!"

I feel you.. I've listened to Danny's new album once. I haven't heard Game's 1992 yet. I listen to The Life of Pablo every day now (an album that took 8 months for me to "get"), that's it.

But yeah, A Seat at the Table is so great.

This for me too. Like I've said elsewhere, I'm coming off three years of EXTREMELY excessive record buying... like, really. So many albums that I actually had a top 50 in 2015, and a fucking top 100 in 2014 (what's the point? I don't know. To drive yourself crazy, I expect, without getting to know many albums in full.) This year I'm guessing that I've maybe bought 25, tops.

And like you, there are only a small few that I've kept listening to over time. Most of what I've listened to this year has been Pablo, and when Pablo gets old, I tend to just listen to Kanye's EIGHT other albums.

I think Nicolas Jaar and Kaytranada and Chance are the only other records I've listened to over and over again. I buy new album and listen once, and then there's more new shit to listen to, but it's usually not that exciting so I just put on Pablo again.

I'm definitely getting a bit old for this shit. Everyone just rushed through music like, consuming it like it's candy, and moving onto the next piece. "Classics" are sooooo rare these days, even in the pop culture sense. The fact that TPAB and 1989 (two modern insta-classics for sure) dropped in the same year is just WILD.

Even back in 2013, albums like Yeezus and Long.Live.A$AP and that Campire Weekend joint stayed on the national radar for a long ass time. Things got really weird in 2014 I think. Streaming, yknow? It's made everything fleeting. Given music a really weird sense of impermanence. Even the "biggest" album of the year (Views, by fake ass bitch) is kind of a flop. I can't remember the last time someone said anything about it in my presence, and it's supposed to be the "new Purple Rain" (baaaahaaaaaaaa!!!!)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, me me me Kanye me me.

It's weird, right? When Old came out, I cranked that shit off and on for months. Just listened to it the other day actually. And I really like Atrocity Exhibition, but I don't get in my car in the morning and think, "what do I need to hear today? Oh! Got it! Atrocity Exhibition!"

Not sure why I don't think that. What I almost always think when I get in the car and I'm in a piss poor mood and need to get fired up for a 10-hour day of talking to politicians and dipshits is "No Church in the Wild." By the time "Lift off" starts, I'm firmly in Kanyeland, and the thought of listening to some other hip-hop is almost depressing (though Chance and Kendrick always come through.)

Honestly I'm SO glad that new Nicolas Jaar is so good, because frankly I've been pretty unimpressed by a lot of the newer music that's come out this year.

When Kanye fails, and I'm not in an electro mood, I almost always go for Sebadoh. Don't ask me why. Just feels right when it plays. Don't have to worry about skipping around or losing interest.

I'm slowly becoming a dad rock dude. This is clear to me now.

I've probably added about 20-25 new albums over the past three years.. and even that feels like A LOT to me, and some of them are actually newly rediscovered old shit..

I checked out a lot of new stuff on youtube/soundcloud/streaming I just didn't have enough interest to get it.

Psychic World of Walter Reed and No Cities to Love remain the two heavyweights on that list, the only "life changing" music I have encountered in a LOOOOOOOONG stretch of time..

snap forgot about that radiohead last year, that was epic good too!

But I REALLY like that new Solange. Everything about it works, and it sounds incredibly original for an album that is so focused on history and tradition.

Even the title is perfect for the modern era. Hate to say it, but she shines in a way that Beyoncé doesn't. Not that Bey isn't awesome, but she's not quite at the point where her artistic identity is more prevalent than her "performer" identity. She's close, but if she's not there now, she probably never will be. And Lemonade is a GREAT album, but you get the sense that it's great because of producers, strangers, co-writers, making the most of the Beyoncé "brand." I don't know if Solange writes her own shit, but her album sounds more artistically mature. Though Lemonade does have that "All Night" shit though. Damn that's a great song.

Louder - Isn't NxWxrries out today? Didn't it get an early release?

I know how you feel, while I check out a lot of new stuff, the stuff I actually download or buy for heavy rotation seems to take MONTHS to process and synthesize and I always swear that I just got a new record when something else new comes out.

my favorite reggae artist midnite (now called Akae Beka) has put out three top shelf records in the past 18 months and I haven't got ANY OF THEM because I am still really enjoying the first one from 2015

but Beyonce was never an artist, she has always been a performer. It doesn't mean she lacks talent or input but she is mos def not a transformative artist! Honestly how much help did Solange get too from ghost writers, studio musicians, and producers is a fair question worth asking..

So I check the credits and Raphael Saadiq is credited on almost every track??? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..

I mean I aint tryna sneak diss here, I respect all artists and performers, but I have so much more for those truly self driven and self directed artists who channel their inner Prince and do as much as they can on their own efforts, initiative, and inspiration.

No shame in collaborating but it in my opinion definitely diminishes the shine

edit: ok.. after seeing my boy Raphael Saadiq involved I finally checked it out, this is a surprisingly good record. I don't like the publicity shrine surrounding it and frankly my perspective of everything Knowles sisters is tainted because i was already an adult in the peak Destiny's Child era so its just so damn hard for me to take these women serious as artists BUT i think its time to admit my bias and open my perspective

HOW THE FUCK DID I FORGET ABOUT THIS NEW GAME???? just ot it.. fucking shit I think Game has single-handedly saved hip hop and rap music for me, I was really drifting away but over the past 12 months he just keeps dropping jewel after jewel here like he possessed with a vision like Tupac's last two years of life..

Indeed, I've listened to some of it and it's really good of course, it's got more of a straight hip hop vibe than Malibu.

Well, I think the main diffrerence is Solange writes her own music (to a larger extent than Bey does). Bey doesn't really have ghost writers, all of her writers are credited, she never claimed to be the main writer behind most of her songs.. actually, I'm not sure if my first claim was true.

But I still consider Bey an artist. I don't respect her as much as, say, Prince of course.. but she's always been involved in the creative process of her albums, especially her last three.

By the way, Raphael Saadiq was all over Solange's album, can't really go wrong with that.

i didn't mean to minimize her input, i implied the modifier "performance artist" where her art and craft is in the performing itself.

As to Solange, I am surprisingly digging this record even if I am a few weeks late to the party. I rarely am into things with buzz or which are trending, and like i said, when it comes to the Knowles sisters my own perspective is rather tainted by the Destiny's Child era, its truly hard for me to respect any of them as sincere artists or creators of authentic music.

Raphael Saadiq is fucking brilliant. Just saying.

Anyway, my other issue w/ keeping up w/ these new hip hop albums is that the last 2 years I've been so focused on jazz.

I intended to hear 1992 or teh new Danny Brown today... but Robert Glasper Experiment dropped a new album so I listened to that instead. It's stellar. Dude is on a streak... last year his Trio album was my 2nd fav jazz album of the year right after Kamasi Washington. This year he's already had a hand in compiling the Miles Ahead soundtrack, then did an album of Miles Davis reinterpretations and now this new Experiment album.

Beyoncé is definitely involved in her shit. Has been since she went solo, and she's been more involved on each project. She co-writes a lot of tracks, but yeah, doesn't claim to be the main songwriter.

I don't think of her as a performance artist... she's just a really charismatic singer with a great personality (like Aretha, or, honestly, Michael Jackson) and those qualities shine through and make the art itself a special and beautiful thing.

She's a grown ass woman, and she puts herself into everything. I think it's fair to call her an artist, without qualification. Her records have been kind-blowing since 4, and she's doing her own totally Beyoncé thing.

I didn't know Saadiq was writing on that Solange joint though.
He was on LUKE CAGE too y'all!

Yeah, NxWorries album is amazing. Gonna play it all day. Sorry, Danny and Game.

I love Anderson's raspy voice so much. "Best One", "Get Bigger" and "Starlite" are early favorites.. Andy is the only artist who makes the term "bitch" sound endearing for me. Haha.