The Exploding Hearts – Guitar Romantic

Without the rough punk sound, the songs on this record would be ridiculously dopey. Just about every song is about love in its various stages, and most include lines that rhyme “girl” with “world” and “gone away” with “here to stay”. That said, I didn’t mind so much. Between the inventive melodies and jagged guitar fuzz, this record was a lot of fun.

Apparently (and I have no idea if this is true), the manager of the band called them “the best band in America” shortly before they crashed their tour van, killing three of the four band members. Of such provenance, rock legends are born, and I was sort of expecting the Exploding Hearts to be the greatest thing I’d never heard. They weren’t that, but they were an entertaining listen with at least 4 quality songs. I suspect they would have been fantastic live. Sadly, I’ll never know.

(FYI: The songs I liked were “Modern Kicks” and the very catchy “I’m a Pretender” which start the album, and “Sleeping Aides and Razorblades” and “Rumors in Town” which fall right at the midpoint of the record. The second pair of songs, especially, rocked my world.)

Pete Rock and CL Smooth – Mecca and the Soul Brother, The Main Ingredient

This golden age partnership released a demo EP in 1991 called All Souled Out, which was followed the same year by Mecca and a few years later by Ingredient. Then they parted ways. Pete Rock is still producing records, but CL Smooth has mostly disappeared. It’s a real shame, because they were a force together.

I was excited about Mecca because I knew “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” as a certified b-boy classic from back in the day. Clearly, the rest of the album couldn’t be as good or “T.R.O.Y.” wouldn’t have been a standout track, but I was expecting the record to be a little stronger than it is. The production is great, but it not all the songs got my head nodding.

I wasn’t expecting as much from The Main Ingredient, and I was pleasantly surprised. This is the record I thought Mecca would be. Pete Rock’s drum track finds a heartbeat groove and doesn’t stop for 60 minutes. CL Smooth never sounds out of place or in over his head. There are simply no mistakes on this album. Whereas Mecca takes a lot of chances artistically (and pays for them, in my opinion), Ingredient isn’t as ambitious. It’s just about droppin’ that beat. Word.

OK Go – OK Go

A few months ago, I reviewed OK Go’s album Oh No, one of my favorite albums of 2006. (OK, technically it came out in 2005, but who was listening to it then?) This is the preceding (and debut) album, and while it’s interesting to recognize some of the same style and bombast, it’s equally clear that Oh No was a huge leap forward for the band. This record is for fans only.

There are certainly songs I liked. “Get Over It” starts the album off really well. It sounds a lot like “No Sign of Life” and “Invincible” from Oh No. I also enjoyed the fun vocal delivery of “C-C-Cinnamon Lips”.

But in general, the songs are slower and longer than on Oh No. The band started to remind me of Fountains of Wayne or Spacehog. That is, smart pop, but without the rocket sauce. People who were attracted to the momentum and energy of Oh No will be disappointed.

Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor

Few debut MCs get the kind of praise that was showered upon Lupe Fiasco in 2006. Music critics couldn’t slurp this guy fast enough. “Here’s a young, talented rapper who’s not rapping about cocaine! Jackpot!” Some of it is warranted. I like that he’s a socially conscious Muslim. I like that he’s literate and articulate. I like that he’s only fleetingly associated with Kanye West (if only to prevent West from cornering the market on socially conscious hip-hop).

But you know what? I didn’t really enjoy the album. It even took me a few listens to like the single, “Kick, Push”. Appreciating this record just seems like work to me, and that’s not what I look for in music. I can tell that Lupe can rap. (He’s much better here than on Kanye West’s “Touch the Sky”, where I hated his verse before I knew who he was.) He creates some complex structure and internal rhymes in his lyrics. He’s definitely skilled. It just isn’t, for lack of a better word, fun.

For example, certain people claim that James Joyce’s Ulysses is a work of staggering genius and possibly the best book ever written. But it’s so appallingly dense and obtuse that only a few people ever read it. What good is it that you wrote the best book ever, if you can only share it with a handful of dorks with the patience and resources to appreciate it?

Now, clearly, Food & Liquor is not Ulysses. It’s not so opaque as to be completely impenetrable, and it’s probably not the best record ever. But the same problem plagues this record. If I need to listen to this record another 4 times, paying strict attention, in order to appreciate it, is it worth it? Maybe I’m lazy, maybe I have a short attention span, maybe I have a philosophical aversion to Great Art, but I say no. For my money, Fishscale was the best hip-hop album of 2006. Even if I’m uncomfortable (and fascinated) by Ghostface Killah’s depictions of violence and drug trafficking, the music is more urgent, organic, and accessible.