White Men Are Black Men Too

Genre: indie, hip-hop (not some terrible crossover shite…just a quality hip-hop group moving into pop structures)

Young Fathers = a clan of talented Scottish hip-hoppers with a knack for grit and soul. They won the Mercury prize last year (beating out FKA Twigs and Damon Albarn) and have returned already with what I think is a much better album. Please also check out Tape Two in the library because I think it’s my favorite of theirs. More difficult to see their hip-hop roots in this release but it’s still a fun, off-kilter, poppy affair.

Others: TV on the Radio, Algiers, Metronomy

Favorites: 5, 7, 4, 2, 12, 10, 8. FCCs: clean copy.

1.(3:10) Mid. Plinky xylophone atop some distorted guitar. Nice vocal interplay
2.(3:32) *** Catchy drum machine + background coo combo. Switches off to another vocalist midway through. Keeps building…neat little keyboard fooling around at toward the end
3.(2:39) Bass, woodblock. Heavily processed group vocals. Strangely sinister. Doesn’t move around much but interesting nonetheless.
4.(2:27) *** Soulful…more xylophone. Cool blown-out little hip-hop lilt. Really like the simple piano element. Short and sweet.
5.(2:56) *** Fast constant keyboard. Awesome vocals and thumping almost krautrock groove. Favorite track?
6.(3:03) Mid/slow. Beautiful croon. Tense string section. Peels back layers for the bridge
7.(3:10) *** Warped vaguely middle eastern melody. Big thumping drums. Acts as the manifesto for the album themes…pretty awesome song as far as I’m concerned
8.(3:18) ** Skewed r&b.
9.(2:56) Mid. More of the same…builds up into a fun finish
10.(2:53) ** Total tv on the radio vibe. Electro-rock with emotive vocals. Little whistle passage.
11.(2:39) Organ backdrop. Unadorned vocals. Big bashing drums.
12.(4:47) ** Soul…50’s feel (but turned weird and clearly 21st century). Back half leaps into Animal Collective levels of psychedelia.