Elvis Costello and The Roots, Wise Up Ghost
When the legendary Elvis Costello and the legendary Roots Crew team up, good things happen. The unique and adventurous partnership has produced Wise Up Ghost, a funk rock odyssey that channels the 1970s but also manages to live in a modern space. Wise Up Ghost seems to mainly focus a lot on abuse of power and manipulation but in a cinematic kind of way. Listen to “(She Might Be a) Grenade,” for example, where you’re not sure if the subject is a lover, a spy or a combination of both. Overall, the project (sans Black Thought, by the way) finds a good balance between the respective musicians’ styles while being able to satisfy their diverse fanbases.
Available at iTunes.
Drake, Nothing Ever Stays the Same
Nothing Ever Stays the Same was originally slated for a September 24 release but the curse of the Internets got to it (a.k.a. it leaked)… and people are subsequently dragging Aubrey for dear life. It’s not that the album is bad, it’s just: how much more sing-rap-emo-whining-about-girls-then-switching-back-to-feigning-hardcore are listeners expected to take? Drake fans have probably gotten the same album since his So Far Gone mixtape.
Available on September 24—but if you haven’t illegally downloaded it already, you can sample it at iTunes.
Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams, “Lose Yourself to Dance” (Video)
We’ve been hearing—and probably nodding or two-stepping—to “Lose Yourself to Dance” all summer. But now there’s a visual component to the funkdafied track. It’s pretty simple: Daft Punk, Pharrell, and a very Rick-James-esque guitarist are jamming out on stage decked out in black slacks, button-down shirts and silver blazers as a very suspecting crowd literally lose themselves to dance, pun intended.
Watch here.
Lady Luck, “Paper Thin Freestyle”
The underrated New Jersey native known for freestyling dropped a few bars over MC Lyte’s 1988 hip-hop classic, “Paper Thin.” It’s a brief track where Lady Luck goes in about how ill she is, lyrically and in general. It’s a nice reminder that there are still some emceeing-ass MCs in the world who care more about being lyrically superior than material possessions.
Listen here.
