The Mountain Goats “We Shall All Be Healed”
4AD Records
Album No. 11 brings Mountain Goats mastermind John
Darnielle’s song count to a frightening 403. But if
you’re to believe the man, these last 13 are the first to
tell the story of real-life headcases, instead of made up ones.
It’s also the second set of songs that feature the new
studio-friendly Darnielle, who opted this time for John
Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studio instead of a recordable
boombox. Purists will balk (that’s what they do), but
Darnielle, after nine years of crafting a devoted following, can
still shake up the formula and maintain his core mission ““
that is, mixing the DIY aesthetic with someone else’s
confessionals, fictional or otherwise. He receives plenty of help
here, notably from frequent collaborator and local Bruin Franklin
Bruno, but the songs are still driven by the winning combo of a
chugging guitar and a relentless narrative flow. His subjects this
time are a group of tweakers he knew growing up in Claremont,
followed from a fly-on-the-wall perspective, but with the emotional
range of the people whose stories these songs tell. So much freedom
in the studio may have made the album a bit uneven, but
Darnielle’s songwriting has always been secondary to the
words, and still, no one this year has written a song as catchy and
disturbing as “Palmcorder Yajna,” which may or may not
have listeners bobbing their heads along with a refrain that goes,
“and the headstones climbed up the hills.”
““Andrew Lee
Kanye West “The College Dropout” Def
Jam
As with 50 Cent this time last year, Kanye West’s highly
anticipated debut album boasts a knack for radio-ready hooks and a
publicity wave generated by mixtape releases, a near-death
experience and the ensuing reconstructive surgery. Other than the
Next Big Thing similarities, however, the two vary dramatically in
terms of content and sound ““ Kanye’s college
dropout/Midwestern working class hero persona is a far cry from
gritty gangsta rap. And though it’ll be lucky to move a third
of the units “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” did,
“The College Dropout” marks a more exciting new voice
in hip hop. It doesn’t hurt that Kanye is arguably the best
producer in hip-hop today, as well as one of its biggest hitmakers:
see recent smashes “You Don’t Know My Name” and
“Stand Up” for Alicia Keys and Ludacris, respectively,
in addition to album cuts “Through the Wire” (recorded
with his jaw still wired shut due to his near-fatal car accident)
and No. 1 single “Slow Jamz.” The production on the
album rarely drops below the standard of quality now expected of
Kanye and is strongly influenced by soul ““ sped-up soul
samples permeate throughout, along with heavy doses of gospel and
R&B singing. His technical prowess as an MC leaves something to
be desired ““ a potentially dangerous quality for a hip-hop LP
stretching past 70 minutes ““ but Kanye gets by on charisma,
wit and an ability to mask biting social criticism behind decidedly
pop arrangements. Despite having too many skits and a bit too much
sugar on the production end, “The College Dropout”
raises the bar early for hip-hop albums in 2004. ““Alfred
Lee