LeapBackBlog 2011 Music Awards – Part 2: Ten Essential Songs (Singles)

Music in 2011 saw the further domination of hip hop and indie rock as the principal forms of ‘good’ music. Forms of electronic music have also taken up a much more mainstream appeal in recent years, and there is certainly evidence of this in what was great in music in 2011. Here are ten of my favorite songs not of my Ten Essential Albums.

Part 1: Ten Essential Albums

Part 3: Ten More Essential Songs (Deep Cuts)

Artist: Dum Dum Girls Song: Coming Down Producer: Richard Gottehrer & Sune Rose Wagner Featuring: N/A Album: Only in Dreams Why It Made the List: Coming Down is just a fantastically moody ballad, packed with almost tentative emotion and sorrow. Available: Here

Artist: Ellie Goulding Song: Lights Producer: Richard Stannard & Ash Howes Featuring: N/A Album: Lights  Why It Made the List: Lights is my favorite pop dance track of 2011. Ellie Goulding, already a star in England, is one of the many great new artists this year. Available: Here

Artist: Eminem & Royce da 5’9” Song: Fast Lane Producer: Supa Dups Featuring: N/A Album: Hell: The Sequel Why It Made the List: Eminem and Royce da 5’9” flow back and forth effortlessly, creating one of the best rap tracks of 2011 with Fast Lane. They have great chemistry. Available: Here

Artist: Frank Ocean Song: Novocane Producer: Tricky Stewart Featuring: N/A Album: nostalgia, ULTRA. Why It Made the List: Along with The Weeknd, Frank Ocean (of Odd Future) has reinvented and taken over the pop modern R&B sound. Novocane is a brilliant example. Available: Here

Artist: Girls Song: Vomit Producer: Girls and Doug Boehm Featuring: N/A Album: Father, Son, Holy Ghost Why It Made the List: The San Francisco duo has brought sort of a grunge sound to indie rock, and it is wonderful. I also like the sort of grand progression of Vomit as well. Available: Here

Artist: Neon Indian Song: Polish Girl Producer: Alan Palomo Featuring: N/A Album: Era Extrana Why It Made the List: As chillwave becomes more and more popular, Neon Indian’s Polish Girl serves as both a song to relax to and also get down to. Available: Here

Artist: Peter Bjorn and John Song: Second Chance Producer: Per Sunding Featuring: N/A Album: Gimme Some Why It Made the List: Second Chance is an immediately likable and catchy driving pop rock song; I dare you not to like it. Available: Here

Artist: Reks Song: 25^th Hour Producer: DJ Premier Featuring: N/A Album: R.E.K.S. (Rhythmatic Eternal King Supreme) Why It Made the List: Very nearly one of my ten essential albums, 25^th Hour is the best song off this great hip hop album. DJ Premier’s beat and Reks’s flow meddle together perfectly. Available: Here

Artist: Rihanna Song: We Found Love Producer: Calvin Harris Featuring: Calvin Harris Album: Talk That Talk Why It Made the List: We Found Love is a fun dance track that is catchy but also has a real emotional core. Available: Here

Artist: Tyler, The Creator Song: Yonkers Producer: Tyler, The Creator Featuring: N/A Album: Goblin Why It Made the List: Not only does it have a great (if not the best of 2011) music video, Yonkers firmly put Tyler, The Creator on the mainstream hip hop map. It is incredible. Available: Here

Pusha T – Fear of God II: Let Us Pray EP (2011) – Review

Pusha T – Fear of God II: Let Us Pray

Pusha T’s first commercial release as a solo artist and member of G.O.O.D. Music is a follow-up EP to his mixtape Fear of God. The EP features seven new tracks and five off Fear of God. Of the new tracks, three or four are album quality while the rest feels like mixtape material. Trouble on My Mind featuring Tyler, The Creator and produced by The Neptunes is a standout song (and one of my favorites of the second half of the year, plus the video is great too). The production quality outside of The Neptunes is not quite as good on the new tracks as those previously released, but they have more of a street-banger feel, which probably speaks to Pusha T being in a different place musically for Let Us Pray than when he recorded Fear of God. However, lyrically and delivery wise, Pusha T still comes with great flow and composition. We all knew he was great from his previous work with his brother Malice as a member of Clipse (the album Hell Hath No Fury is brilliant), but that said he is certainly putting forth very good material as a solo act that puts him near the top of the hip hop game. To me, this sounds more like another mixtape and is being used to test the commercial waters a bit. Though, Trouble on My Mind is good enough to make just about any hip hop album released this year. The Fear of God albums feel like just a preview of what we can expect from his first solo LP, which seems like it will be fantastic given his lyrics, flow and the better class of beats he will have on it. In terms of features, again just looking at the new material, Tyler, The Creator give a great verse and a half and is the standout accompanying act on the EP. Kanye West and Young Jeezy are decent but not memorable. Meek Mill lays down a good verse too on Body Work. However, aside from Tyler, The Creator, it is Ric Flair’s wrestling promo clip at the beginning of What Dreams Are Made Of that might be the best accompanying piece, it is both a brilliant clip and works well with the narrative of the album and the persona of Pusha T. I would not say the album is a must, based on the new material, especially if you have Fear of God and Trouble on My Mind already, but it is certainly a good pick up for fans of Pusha T, and a must if you do not yet have Fear of God. 4/5

Editor’s Song Picks:

1)      Trouble on My Mind – Produced by The Neptunes, featuring Tyler, The Creator

2)      Changing of the Guards – Produced by Rico Beats, featuring Diddy

3)      Amen – Produced by Shawty Redd, featuring Kanye West and Young Jeezy

Available on CD and Digital Download

Game – The R.E.D. Album (2011) – Review

Game – The R.E.D. Album

Much like LAX, Game’s The R.E.D. Album has really good tracks (about eight) and a lot of filler. This album would be better if he just cut out the tracks that are not quite album quality (getting it down to about twelve songs). That said, iTunes allows us to uncheck songs, so I guess it does not really matter (and maybe the more music we get the merrier?). Game has really good flow and his lyrics fit his persona and style well. He has a lot of features on the album, mixing hip hop’s big stars like Lil Wayne, Drake, Rick Ross with LA legends like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. I also like that he features LA’s upcoming great artists Tyler, The Creator (there is a lot of hype around their track Martians vs Goblins, but personally I prefer Tyler’s track with Pusha T: Trouble on My Mind) and Kendrick Lamar. Game works again with Cool & Dre who make beats that fit Game’s flow well, but he also branches out working with DJ Khalil (who is making really good stuff right now) and up-and-comers Hit-Boy and Boi-1da. This is not quite a classic West Coast album like his first two albums (The Documentary and Doctor’s Advocate); it has much more of a mainstream hip hop sound (in terms of what is popular right now and not specifically geared to a certain region or style). However, there is enough good music to keep Game in the conversation for the best artists in hip hop (though, with all the great newcomers lately competition is getting very strong). Game fans are going to like The R.E.D. Album; others should probably just cherry pick the best songs. 3/5

Editor’s Song Picks:

1)      The City – Featuring Kendrick Lamar, produced by Cool & Dre

2)      Ricky – Produced by DJ Khalil

3)      Good Girls Gone Bad – Featuring Drake, produced by Cool & Dre

Available on CD and Digital Download

Tyler, The Creator – Goblin (2011) – Review

Tyler, The Creator – Goblin

The album from the L.A. MC is raw, personal and infectious. Tyler, The Creator has no intention of making an album (or music in general) that appeals to the mainstream, seemingly to go out of his way on Goblin to alienate any crossover listeners that heard Yonkers after Kanye West tweeted that it was the video of 2011. This is for his fans (and himself and Odd Future crew only). Many will be put off, even horrified by the language and lyrical content of the album (but really it is no worse than stuff Eminem has done). But getting past the face value of the lyrics, there is a deeper resonance that connects with many listeners. Tyler is not rapping about money, woman and cars – he is delving into his own personal feelings, fears and wants making the album very intimate (and endearing to his fans). The production on the album is also very interesting. It does not sound anything like current hip hop, rather taking maybe some influence from The Neptunes and The Cool Kids and creating very atmospheric, dark and hypnotic tracks. At times, it sounds a bit like an electronic soundtrack to a horror film. They fit Tyler’s flow and lyrics very well (as they should, being that he did all but one of the beats). The album is long and a little uneven, but works very well in its overall listening experience. The good stuff is amazing (tracks Goblin, Yonkers, Transylvania, Nightmare, Tron Cat, Her, Sandwitches, and Golden are all musts). If his first album Bastard did not already establish Tyler, The Creator as one of the best young hip hop artists, Goblin certainly does. It is a great album. 4/5

Editor’s Song Picks:

1)      Tron Cat – Produced by Tyler, The Creator

2)      Yonkers – Produced by Tyler, The Creator

3)      Transylvania – Produced by Left Brain

Available on CD and Digital Download