"he vacations in people's lives. takes pictures, puts them in his scrapbook, and moves on. all he's interested in is stories. basically, leslie, he's selfish. and you're not. that's why you don't like him"
okay cats and kittens, it looks like this is going to be a double-post evening but this is an emergency and cannot wait.
i was as skeptical as anybody about the weeknd - it seemed he was about to be snapped up by the drake/lil wayne production team and mashed into whatever godless machine took drake's initial appeal and transmogrified into that mess called thank me later. but this week's free release, entitled thursday, is just as good if not better than house of balloons - it's dark and sexy and faded in all the right ways. everybody's pretty excited about life of the party, and with the club-worthy guitars i suppose i can see why, but the zone is by far my pick of the litter; abel's voice works so well when it's layered over such a devastatingly distorted acoustic sample, and just when you thought he was about to be swallowed alive by his own ego, drake does the track justice with a surprisingly understated verse. pick this one up fo' free as soon as you can.
i bailed on reality for a week to go be in a sun-coma, but now i am back and there is music to catch up on. this one's going to be a bit of a grab bag - just whatever's crossed through my ears in the past 4 hours.
producer chi duly played a bit with the ol' time machine, blending early 2000's coldplay and more recent drake to create something that is, hesitantly, greater than the sum of its parts. don't know if i love this yet - i harbour a deep resentment of all things cold and play, but maybe a little production value will redeem them in my heart of hearts. like all good things in life, the album's available for free download here.
drake & coldplay - forever la vida ft. lil wayne, kanye west, eminem
holding up thoroughly in the 'don't know how long this one'll last' category is the deans list. my hip-hop game isn't exactly tight these days - too many bearded folk-types gracing my recently added playlist to date - but p'haps this one will help bring me back up to speed. the vocal sample has a way of staying with you. and, oh boy, it's another freebie!
the dean's list - dear professor
finally, mansions on the moon is a production dream team - benzi and diplo combined (a long time ago, i'll admit it) to cobble together the band's 'paradise falls' mixtape, and it flows beautifully. i'd highly reccommend the deadmau5 and junior boys tracks, but this one in particular has been in the back of my head for a week or so now. it won't go away, and i can't say i want it to.
the xx were one of my favourite iTunes additions from 2010; their muted, low-key sound filled a gap in my auditory library, and i found myself letting the album play on loop for inordinate amounts of time, just to enjoy having it around. for the longest time i couldn't quite put a finger on what made their sound what it is, but over time i think the answer's pretty clear - jamie xx. while a lot of the hype around the band has focused on drummer baria qureshi's departure, and the intoxicating lead vocals of romy madley croft (for the record, deservedly so), it's pretty clear that jamie's the source of the band's unique mix. since the release of xx, he's been somewhat all over the place - working on a collaboration album with gil scott-heron and contributing to drake's upcoming sophomore release, to name a few projects - but has found the time to lend his genius to a few remixed tracks, and they're all gold. deceptively simple, these songs contain multitudes; sometime i catch an influence only to get lost when the next verse hits (that off-step snare sounds very hip-hop... but the bassline sounds almost dubstep-y?). they're coyly addictive, giving you just enough to keep listening, and leaving you wanting for more when it's over.
eliza doolittle - money box (jamie xx remix)
there's something very meta about remixing a song on which you were responsible for the original mix, but i'm just not up to the task of diving that far into it.
