NMNG Essential Listening I

Here we are, kicking off the Essential Listening list! Each post will consist of an image with a 3x3 grid of album covers and their titles. Then, underneath I'll get to explaining why I think they're such important albums. At the end of each post I'll link back to all of the older posts. If any readers would like to contribute to the list, please let me know via the comments below, Facebook or e-mail. Please at least list off the albums and artists as well a small blurb on each one (you'll see how it's all laid out below). If you can't think of 9 at a time, don't fret, just let us know which ones you want to be on the list, and once we've got 9 albums, we'll stitch 'em all together and post it!

Without further ado:

The White Stripes - Elephant
This is the first album I ever bought with my own money. At this time in my life I was listening to a lot of Metallica and Megadeth, and ol' Jack and Meg proved to me that sometimes simpler is better. Elephant still stands as one of my all time favorite albums, ever.

Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Another one of my all time favorites, Crack the Skye is the first whole album that mentally and emotionally moved me. I guess it just entered my life at the right place and time. A progressive metal album with no equal, and the inspiration behind planning my first tattoo.

Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard
This is beautiful. This is art.

Meshuggah - Nothing
Ain't nobody groove like Meshuggah grooves. Pre-Nothing I barely paid any attention to the rhythm and flow of songs. Meshuggah changed that. This is one of the heaviest recordings I've ever heard.

Childish Gambino - Camp
This is the album that sparked my interest in hip-hop and rap. Considering that before this I was almost exclusively anti-rap, this is a big deal.

Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet
Believe it or not, this album functioned the same way as Camp, but for pop music. I guess I needed the cheery and catchy melodies mixed in with heavy music before I was able to handle them in lighter genres.

Tool - 10,000 Days
Another album that can send me floating off in space. Tool were the first band that showed me that just because something is morbid, doesn't mean it can't be beautiful. If I hadn't been exposed to Tool, I doubt I'd listen to half of the extreme stuff I do now.

Sleep - Dopesmoker
On par with Electric Wizard's legendary Dopethrone as the heaviest piece of music ever, Dopesmoker is a single, unbroken track that lasts for over an hour. This shit is so thick and heavy that I think my hearing is forever skewed to think everything else just isn't heavy enough.

Daft Punk - Alive 2007
As Camp and I Get Wet, but for dance and electronic music. If anybody is looking for something to boogie down to, this should undeniably be your first choice.


So there we have it, our first 9 albums on the NMNG Essential Listening List! Let me know what you guys think, and remember that you can contact us if you want to recommend some albums for the list!

That's all for now, folks! Happy Halloween! I'm going to go get drunk and play D&D with my housemates now.

-DG

Album Review: Childish Gambino – “Camp”

As some of my friends know, I have a guilty pleasure for a little Hip-Hop and Rap every once in a while. “BUT DAVID!” I hear you scream, “HIP-HOP DOESN’T HAVE BLAST BEATS OR GUTTURAL VOCALS, HOW COULD YOU ENJOY IT?”. It’s true, I do like me some Hip-Hop from time to time, I’m going to be reviewing one of my new favorite albums from the genre: Camp by Childish Gambino (released November 15, 2011)

Childish Gambino is the stage name of comedian/ actor Donald Glover. Glover rose to popularity with his stand up comedy acts, and solidified himself as a comedy powerhouse by portraying Troy Barnes on NBC’s ridiculously awesome show Community. Gambino’s Camp was the first of his that I’ve heard, and it’s technically his debut studio album, but he’s released a bunch of stuff prior to this as well.

Dat simplicity.

Camp is a more straightforward Hip-Hop album, musically. There are no wonky rhythms and beats a là Death Grips (review of The Money Store coming whenever I get around to listening to it), and no over the top bass lines and bass drops a là every Bro-Hip-Hop and Bro-Rap artist ever. Gambino raps about whatever he feels like, from girls to the state of black youth in America, to his short shorts, to his philosophies. It might seem that since there’s such a wide breadth of topics covered in Camp, it might diminish the whole album as a whole, rest assured, Gambino keeps it surprisingly well focused.

The album holds a dramatic and somewhat melancholic vibe throughout, rising to anger on “Heartbeat” before swinging back down. The emotional mood cracks apart again and transforms into insanity on the track “You See Me” where Gambino’s delivery of the lines makes him sound like a mental case.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought his shirt said "Broom Rape" for a second. Please.

The album suffers in only a couple ways, and that’s in Gambino’s constant references to his dick and the processing on his voice at times. I have no problems with a few dick jokes, but when it starts to crop up in almost every song, it’s a little much. The processed vocals are simply run through some light distortion, but I feel like it really takes away from the quality of his natural voice.

Bomb-Ass Tracks

Outside: The opening track off of Camp really sets the mood for the entire album. It’s one of the more serious songs dealing with how it was like for him to grow up in various neighborhoods as a kid, and he tells the story flawlessly. The choir-sung chorus is absolutely fantastic, and when the piano kicks in, oh man, it’s just perfect.

Heartbeat: This song is just nothing but straight power. The calm choruses offer a nice contrast to the furiously spat out verses. Some of the lines in “Heartbeat” are just genius, too.

That Power: Spoken word over a beat/ track. As the final track, it sums up everything he (and this album) are about and closes off the album incredibly well.

Overall Score

4.5

Childish Gambino’s Camp is a great ride of ups, downs, twists and turns which really hits home with me. It’s not without its flaws, but I can easily overlook them for the great music that it is. Check it out sometime.

That’s all for now, folks. Keep being Awesome.