Day 0660 - 3 Feet High and Rising

De La Soul "3 Feet High and Rising" (1989)

 
For a time De La Soul were labelled as rap's hippies.  This album is a startlingly more colourful, sunshiney and less aggressive release than those from other prominent hiphop artists at the time such as Public Enemy and NWA.

One critic called them the new-wave to Public Enemy's punk, and I guess it's as good a comparison as any.   A sample-heavy record, the group had borrowed from artists as diverse as Johnny Cash, Hall & Oates, and the Turtles.   The latter of these would lead to the former members of the Turtles suing the band for samples of their music featured in the track "Transmitting from Mars".  That lawsuit took a lot of air out of the sampling movement, with artists coming to fear the exorbitant legal costs that could result.

I don't usually take much interest in lyrics, but as one of the songs features the name of my wife I decided to read the lyrics.  This is some top shelf wordplay: interesting, narrative and creative usage.

Day 0269 - Let's Stay Together

Al Green "Let's stay together" (1972) - got it

 
As with Roxy Music, I got into Al Green through a slightly indirect route.  I saw/heard a slightly warped cover of his song "Simply Beautiful" by Mike Patton's band Fantômas.

Loved the song so I checked out a couple of Green's tracks on youtube ended up picking up a 4-pack of Green's classic albums for Hi records.

Green's voice is a thing of beauty.  It moves from a delicate, barely audible falsetto whisper to a raspy bold cry, giving each song exactly what it needs.  Whether it's the soul grooves of 'La la for you' and 'So you're leaving', the laid back RnB of 'What is this feeling?', or the epic, emotive 6 minute reading of "How can you mend a broken heart?" in which you could imagine that Green is actually searching for the broken shards.