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Here is thirty minutes of new music. 2008 is a good year to be doing this.

"Hero", Nas
Nas’ decision that he was mostly just interested in writing arena-rock epics was a good one. A song like "Hero" is just massive, with giant John Bonham-style drums carrying four minutes of Nas explaining all of the various ways in which he’s a hero- and he’s good enough to be pretty convincing. Nas is just incredibly gifted when it comes to working with a beat to carry an idea home- check out the electric guitar that breaks through in the third verse, where he calls out his label for refusing to put out the album until he changed the name to untitled, accusing them (rightly) of censoring him in ways they would never censor Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen. Functionally, "Hero" is a rock song, but even an artist as acclaimed as Nas is still defined in different terms. And yet here he is. Hell, maybe that does make him a hero.

"My Medicine", Snoop Dogg
And we follow that up with Snoop Dogg’s country song. Why not? I’ve never been a huge fan of Snoop’s records, since they’ve been really crappy for a long time, but there have been an increasingly satisfying number of really fun songs on each one for the past few years. "My Medicine" is trashy and mysogynistic, but it’s too much fun and too silly for me to take even a little seriously. It’s a twangy country song (at festival shows in Europe this spring, he was doing it onstage with Willie Nelson) about needing to get high so bad that you put your girl on the street so she can make the money to help you get your medicine. If it were even three minutes long, it’d be annoying, but instead it’s kinda infectious.

"The Raven", Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell
Oh, they’re creepy. Lanegan holds the lead vocal here, while Campbell mostly sticks to oooh oooooohs in the background, but the effect is a lot more subtle than it was on their first collaboration. Lanegan’s voice is really what sells this- if you imagine, like, Conor Oberst singing it then it becomes pretty laughable as a Southern gothic pastiche version of folk music. But there’s a real gravity to "The Raven" that makes this work.

"Lakeside", BLK JKS
Here’s a new band. I’ve made it a point to listen to more music released in 2008 than anything else this year, and the point of that isn’t just to listen to what people with 15+ year careers are doing. BLK JKS are from South Africa and make absolutely haunting little dub-inspired indie rock songs. Which I know sounds terrible, but click the link and hear what I mean. There’s a real love of sounds here, and a sort of reckless experimentation that shouldn’t work- in the instrumental bit at the end, there are noises that have no place in this song, but that they pull off because there’s an almost-audible love for playing with different sounds going on. This is a good one, watch for their album.

"I Came Home", Rhymefest
Floetry does the hook on this one, and I’ve never been a huge fan of hers, but if this is the direction that Rhymefest is moving, I’ll happily follow. "I Came Home" is really laid-back and relaxed, which contrasts well with the urgency of Rhymefest’s voice. He’s still funny, and here he’s using his gift for storytelling to show some empathy with people, rather than just make jokes and talk about women. Rhymefest is better than most MCs working right now, and it’s nice to see him using that to explore some ideas. Sleeper hit of the summer here, but only on nice nights, when you’re on your way home.

"Piano Blink", Hawksley Workman
This is another summery song. I have no idea what it’s about, because I suspect the lyrics are stupid and so I’ve worked to avoid paying much attention to them. I know there’s something about how would we know / we’d both end up crying and i’m lost in this heartbreak and that’s when I stop listening to the words and just enjoy the harmonies and the melody. I don’t listen to a lot of stuff like this anymore, but this really is a pretty song. Whatever he’s talking about.

"Gobbledigook", Sigur Ros
Hey, Sigur Ros is still weird. In case you were worried. To prove it, they made a song called "Gobbledigook" and the chorus goes "lalala lalala lala lala lalala (something in Icelandic) lalala lalala lala lala lalala", and it’s sung in a falsetto. Furthermore, this is maybe their most accessible and poppy song ever. I love Sigur Ros. And apparently I was in a good mood this month, because these last four songs are all pretty upbeat and pleasant. So that’s good to know.

"Letting You", Nine Inch Nails
Ah, this one’s a bit harsher. I never really expected to give a shit what Trent Reznor was up to in 2008, but I suppose it’s useful to know that people can surprise. As it turns out, he’s become one of the more interesting innovators in terms of both distribution and sonic ambition currently making music. It’s sort of like what everybody thought he would be in 1995, and gave up on him being by 2002. This is a pretty interesting song, with the hook just attacking the verse. Sign me up for whatever Trent Reznor does next, and I haven’t said anything like that since I was a teenager. Trent Reznor is the Brett Favre of contemporary rock music.

(june mixtape)
(may mixtape)
(april mixtape)
(march mixtape)