Daily Archives: November 2, 2014

My iPod #380: Big Boi ft. Vonnegutt – Follow Us

Honestly, I got nothing to say about this track. I heard it when I was listening through “Sir Lucious” for the first time, and it sounded like a highlight to me.

On a lot of tracks on the album, Big Boi is very boastful and is always eager to tell you just how sick he is. It is no different on this one, going on to compare his rhymes and rapping to a vicious pitbull attack and sending a message to those who thought he wouldn’t do so well solo without his Outkast partner André 3000. Well he proved them wrong, and along with fellow label act Vonnegutt (or at least that group’s lead singer) he calls to you to follow him and listen to this song and other good music in general, because that is the only way you will learn.

This is a good hip-hop song, from a great hip-hop album. Admittedly, I don’t know all the words to the verses and only sing along to the chorus…. but I still know good music when I hear it. This qualifies.

My iPod #379: Pavement – Folk Jam

I like “Terror Twilight”. I like it a lot. It’s my favourite Pavement album – I don’t care what you think. The whole album has this airy, breezy production to it which acts as a great hangover cure, and generally the songs on there aren’t too shabby.

The album includes “Folk Jam”, a steady number where the band play over a groove that is established from the first hit of the crash cymbal. The track has a bit of a country/folky vibe to it, probably because of the appearance of a banjo that is played by one of the members. Stephen Malkmus also mentions the manner of his birth, bemoans his ancestry and states a fear of Irish folk tales. So you can probably tell that the song won’t necessarily mean anything just by looking at that. But at least Malkmus doesn’t lie, this is a tune about his folks and another type of folk that scares him. Pretty clever, didn’t really think about that until now.

There’s not much of a chorus or a change in dynamics; it may come off as a bit repetitive for a new listener. However, it doesn’t have ‘jam’ in the song’s title for no reason. But I’m just saying, if you get bored listening to the track (which you shouldn’t)…. what you see is what you get.