Hello y'all. Welcome to another installment of my weekly music series where I offer up some hot hits from wherever and whenever I feel like.
Don't have too much time this Monday (busy time at my office, which is actually a bench on a balcony outside the English department--adjunct problems, but hey I'm applying for a full job with an office and everything so fingers crossed) so I'll get right to it.
Up first is a wonderful number from one of the founders of the melodic death metal subgenre. What is melodic death metal, you ask? Well, as its name implies, it's death metal with an emphasis on a more harmonious, less brutal-for-the-sake-of-brutal sound. I actually can't stomach most straight death metal, but melo-death is close to my heart. It began in Sweden in the early 1990s with a trio of bands: Dark Tranquility, At the Gates, and In Flames. In Flames became by far the most successful and influential of the three. In Flames is still around now, but I haven't listened to their last two albums as their sound has changed into something like a Korn-ripoff as they became more and more influenced by the dubious charms of American Nu-Metal. But this song is from their old sound, from the best album, the brilliantly titled "Whoracle."
Highlight of the song: "Between the two of my eyes / feverish fractals form"
This is "Worlds Within the Margin"
I've been meaning to get to this song for quite a while but other things kept leaping in front of it. But finally I have an opening for this song by Indie pop band Lavender Diamond. I first heard this song playing on FSU's student radio station early one morning when I lived in Tallahassee and I was utterly transported by the vocalist's mellifluous and ethereal delivery. Oh no, I don't recall another song that renders me in such a state of amniotic bliss as this, "I Don't Recall" by Lavender Diamond:
You know I gotta put Aes on. Aesop Rock (not to be confused with A$AP Rocky), the proud (humble?) owner of hiphop's largest and most diverse personal glossary. I think what I like most about Aesop, beyond his lyrical dexterity is his humility and humanity. He's essentially a normal guy, and he acts and raps like it without ever becoming self-deprecating or aiming for cheap laughs as many other "normal-guy" rappers are wont to do. He's an artist, pure and simple, a lot of his lyrics could be printed on a page and called poetry and no one would bat an eye. I'm playing you his Magnum Opus, "Daylight."
Highlight of the song:
"Life's not a bitch, / life is a beautiful woman / you only call her a bitch cause she wouldn't let you get that pussy / maybe she didn't think you shared any common interests / or maybe you're just an asshole who couldn't sweettalk the princess"
Our last piece for the day is a remix of a Hundred Waters song featuring Skrillex and Chance the Rapper. This is "Show Me Love." Smooth, crisp, popping. Give it a listen:
