As fun as it is to complain about “music these days,” and how it’s all been downhill since The Chronic came out, it’s even MORE fun to listen to — wait for it — good music. Every Tuesday, a.k.a. Music Release Day, we’ll highlight five albums worth (legally) downloading or driving to the local Best Buy (lolz) for.
Today, we've got selections from Green Day, Lupe Fiasco, and more.
Uno! by Green Day
It's good. Like, real good. Like, the missing link between Nimrod and Warning good, with instantly familiar choruses, smooth bridges, and track lengths between three and four minutes. The slashed-wrist anthems about the United States and century breakdowns and politicians are gone, (mostly) replaced with Billie Joe's forever-18 songwriting that drew fans to Green Day in the first place. The production's occasionally too slick and the vocals are seemingly shouted through a megaphone, but if you liked Insomniac, you'll like "Nuclear Family," and wonder why it took them so long to get back to their pop-punk roots.
Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 by Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco's smooth rapping is at odds with his brash, occasionally condescending political lyrics, but the two coalesce nicely together to form an album that's not afraid to tell it like it is, even if you disagree.
End of Daze EP by Dum Dum Girls
Hazy 1960s girl-pop, via the Jesus and Mary Chain, that's as deeply personal as it is haunting.
Babel by Mumford & Sons
Basically, yeah.
St. Peter and 57th by Preservation Hall Jazz Band
A celebration of 50 years of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band keeping the spirit of New Orleans alive, presented as a live album with special guests My Morning Jacket, Mos Def, Allen Toussaint, GIVERS, the Del McCoury Band, Steve Earle, Merrill Garbus, Ed Helms, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Trombone Shorty, and Tao Seeger.
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I can’t listen to F&L2 without acknowledging new overly preachy Lupe.
Also, new Freddie Gibbs tape is out. Smoking Section has the details.
I left my Green day fandom after American Idiot. It was beautiful, but after you get a little older and stop caring what famous people think of politics (actually I never cared, but you get the idea) it stops being fun and becomes a chore to listen to. Thankfully Uno seems to bring me back to my days of listening to them in middle and high school.
Think you should stick to writing about TV.