Category Archives: Music

My iPod #47: Big Boi – Apple of My Eye

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Yeeeah. Antwan André Patton (The Only One) aka Daddy Fat Sax aka Sir Lucious Left Foot aka Big Boi in the hizz-ouse.

I’m only joking.

You all know him as one half of the influential hip-hop group, OutKast, along with André 3000.

OutKast released their most recent album, ‘Idlewild’, in 2006 which received positive reviews. The film it was released alongside, however, did not fare so well. After enjoyable single releases such as ‘Morris Brown‘ and ‘Idlewild Blue (Don’tchu Worry ‘Bout Me)‘, OutKast faded away but it was okay, because they only faded away to record their next album, right?

WRONG. Since 2006, no new material has been released under the OutKast name. André has featured on various songs here and there but hasn’t released any solo albums. We still love him though. He’s so classy. Have you seen that Gillette advert? Mmm-mmm-mmm.

Big Boi stepped up to the plate and unveiled his debut ‘Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty‘ to the world in 2010, which got everybody worried because they were still waiting for the new OutKast album, but was eventually recognised to be one of the best hip hop albums of that year. Then My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy came out, and everyone was less hyped about Lucious.

I downloaded ‘Left Foot‘ in summer last year, and I found it rather enjoyable. The beats were huge, Big Boi’s lyrics and flow were on par, full to the brim with hubris. Big Boi was at the top of his game, and if he wasn’t getting enough respect already I would assume that he only received more after such a confident debut.

The album became one of my favourites, hip-hop wise, and it got me wondering when he would release his sophomore. As I said, I listened to the full album two years after it was released so something would have been coming soon.

It came as a surprise to me. In December 2012, I go onto Spotify to listen to an album and there under ‘WHAT’S NEW’, I see it:

BIG BOI – VICIOUS LIES AND DANGEROUS RUMORS

I am British, so ‘rumours’ without the ‘u’ looks quite weird but it’s fine.

“Ooh! Let’s listen.”

So I did. Annnnnd it was good. ‘Apple of My Eye’ was the song that really caught my attention. Booming bass, the lyrical delivery, the chorus is an ear worm if there ever was one. I know he released ‘Mama Told Me‘ as the first official single, maybe just because of Kelly Rowland’s appearance and because it is probably the song most suited for radio play from the album. Despite this, ‘Apple of My Eye’ could have been that first single. It’s got everything you want, a great song with only Big Boi at the reins and the soulful chorus. I would have chosen it as my first single, I’m just saying.

Overall, ‘Vicious Lies‘ wasn’t as positively greeted as ‘Left Foot‘ was upon its release. I feel the same way too. I don’t know what it is. It’s hard to explain. Maybe you can have a listen to both albums, and comment on how you feel about them.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #46: Dananananaykroyd – Apostrophe

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I have nothing much to say about this song, I didn’t come with anything prepared.

Most of what I said about the album this song is on, can be found if you click here.

So…. it’s a shame about Margaret Thatcher, eh?

I can’t really say anything about her, I wasn’t born when she was Prime Minister. From what I witness, a lot of people liked her and a lot of people hated her. She’s Marmite.

Whatever though, she’s still dead. She will always go down as being Britain’s first female Prime Minister, and that’s something. I think it would be a long time before another female was elected to be PM. You’ve got to respect the dead… surely…. right?

OK. This is boring.

‘Apostrophe’ is the eighth track on Danananananaykroyd’s second album. It’s actually one of the more slower songs at 140bpm. That sounds fast doesn’t it? Not for Danana…. it isn’t.

It’s a pretty standard song for the band, it follows the verse-chorus-verse-bridge stuff that you would get in regular pop songs today, and for me it’s one of the most radio-friendly songs that the band have ever done.

The duo lead vocals work off together perfectly yet again and it’s hard not to sing along to the melodies. They are Scottish mind you, so it may be hard to understand what they are saying at first. It’s all good though, you can figure it out.

The key changes during the instrumental break, adding a bit of change to the track. It makes you wonder where the song will end up next. Then the last section starts, the lyrics are belted out at the top of the two pairs of lungs, the overall tracks just picks up. It’s one of those things where a crowd could just been seen shouting everything right back at them at a festival. Then the song finishes in a fade out of feedback, except for one guitar that just goes on and on, and leads into the next track ‘Seven Days Late’. That song is crazy. I’ll tell you about it soon.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #45: George Harrison – Any Road

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Another George Harrison song.

‘Any Road’ was released on George Harrison’s posthumous album ‘Brainwashed’ almost a year after his death from cancer.

It was written during the making of the video for his song ‘This Is Love‘ from ‘Cloud Nine’ in 1988, and continued to work on songs over the next decade.

On 30 December 1999, Harrison and his wife were attacked in their home. Harrison had to be hospitalized after being stabbed multiple times, and underwent treatment for his first bout of cancer in 2001. It was rough times for him. The cancer in his liver then spread to his brain, and after learning that it would be fatal he dedicated more time towards completing the album with his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra.

He passed away whilst the album was still being made, but had left enough information for Jeff and Dhani to finish the job.

However bleak the history behind the album may seem, ‘Any Road’ provides a shining light in the tunnel. After a three second introduction by George, (Give me, uh, plenty of that guitar), the song bursts into life with a joyful ukelele and slide guitar licks that pop up here and there after the chorus.

The song is basically Harrison telling us his life story, the things he’s witnessed before him, places he’s been to and how he got there, and of course having such a life to the full like Harrison did you would have no idea whether you were coming or going. It has an ‘Amazing Grace’ type of message, I once was lost but now am found kind of thing, but it’s no preachy thing. In fact, you can tell that Harrison wanted to make this a fun song whilst maintaining a serious and reflective message. Listen to those ‘Arribas’ during the last minute or so, it’s quite heartwarming once you listen to it all.

Rest in peace George Harrison, you were a cool guy.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #44: Pink Floyd – Any Colour You Like

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In 2009, I became a Pink Floyd fan.

I don’t particularly know why or how. As a child I saw the video for ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)’ on the TV. The band wasn’t in it, and it only showed clips of children running around in a playground interspersed with the walking hammers that are seen in the film. Of course I had no idea what I had just witnessed, and was left quite confused by the whole thing.

I watched the movie for ‘The Wall’ when I was 13, and I guess I was just hooked from then. Bob Geldof was actually a good actor, the concept behind the album was enthralling and obviously the music played a big part. I ended up getting the double album for my fourteenth birthday.

‘The Wall’ is up there for being one of Pink Floyd’s most popular albums. However, ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ is the one that most people agree on for being their finest piece of work and one of the greatest albums ever.

‘Any Colour You Like’ starts rather abruptly; the song before it named ‘Us and Them’ segues right into it. There are no lyrics as it is an instrumental, but it’s really funky and upbeat. David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright wrote the song, making it one out of three tracks that Waters did not contribute on.

The first minute or so is a synthesizer played by Wright, panning and echoing from one channel to the other. That then segues into a guitar solo, and the whole band joins in with additional scat singing.

I would think that most people would skip this song, but please reconsider. If you have this album, where the songs segue into each other (except one time), and you don’t have this song… Well then, that just messes everything up doesn’t it? It’s also very important in the album’s overall concept. Pink Floyd had a thing for concept albums.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #43: Hyper – Ant Music

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Oh my god. Year 8 was one of the best school years of my life.

You didn’t care about anything, I wasn’t in the youngest year anymore, we had no real exams to worry about, I turned thirteen years old. I have so many things I could list; I wouldn’t want to bore you with all my sentimental crap though. It was good times. Some gooood times.

Another thing that was great around the time was the freedom I had to play my PS2 for hours on end. I am a FIFA fanatic, I’m not like KSI or any of those gamers online, but I’ve been buying EA Sports’ yearly release since I was seven.

In 2005 EA Sports BIG, known for SSX, released its own FIFA game, ‘FIFA Street’. It was nothing like I ever played before. You could make your own team in the ‘career mode’ and recruit professional players to be on your team. This was when people like Zidane, the original Ronaldo…. All those legends were still playing. It was the best.

In fact it was so good that they released the sequel two years later, ‘FIFA Street 2’. The sequel had improved vastly from the first. The first game wasn’t even that bad, but the second was out of this world. The locations, the players, the music! The music!

That’s where this song comes in. ‘Ant Music’ is a cover of the song by Adam and the Ants. I have no idea what else I can say to you about Hyper. I probably won’t like their stuff, but this song became one of my favourites from the game.

The best thing was some of my friends also owned FIFA Street 2, so we would start bursting into song in lessons, at break, at lunch, when we were going home. All the time.

FIFA Street 2, I love you. Thank you for those memories.

Whatever you do, don’t buy FIFA Street 3 or the one that came out last year because those flopped like hell. Seriously. Don’t.

The playlist on this game has real quality, so I’m going to list my favourites. Me and my friends sang these everyday.

Highlights
The Flaming Lips – The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Lethal Bizzle – Kickback
The Subways – Rock and Roll Queen
Coldcut ft. Roots Manuva – True Skool
Sway – Flo Fashion
Killa Kela (I think that’s right) – Jawbreaker
Art Brut – Formed a Band
Pendulum – Hold Your Colour (Bi-Polar Mix)
End of Fashion – O Yeah
Editors – Munich
British Beef – Without Me
Swingfly – Something’s Got Me Started

Yep, that’s about it. Have fun listening to them!

Until next time.

Jamie.