The Outsider, DJ Shadow’s most recent album, is a rather strange offering. If you know Entroducing… and The Private Press you’ll know that they’re almost entirely instrumental, breakbeat-style dance music. The Outsider however, wanders from Hip Hop to dance to soul to the “hyphy” sound that’s apparently big in the San Francisco area. Indeed, DJ Shadow himself said this of his album:
“There’re songs on this album that I think blow away almost anything else I’ve ever done. I think song for song it’s the best album I’ve ever made. One thing’s for sure – it’s going to make it very difficult for people to imitate my sound!”
The guy’s got a point. Although, the pitchfork review that suggests that:
“It’d be impossible to “sound” like Shadow anyway, since there’s no consistency (or any distinctive elements, really) to be found here. In fact, The Outsider may be one of the least cohesive records this year. Its total incoherence is actually kind of impressive.”
Has got a point too.
This particular track falls quite neatly into the soul grouping. The vocal track sounds like it could have been recorded and produced in the early 70s. The funky guitar and lazy strings drag it a little further into that decade. Altogether the effect is of a soaring song that could almost have been playing while the credits went up on Mean Streets.
Indeed, I’ve got the song playing in the background and DV has just suggested that it’s Stevie Wonder, and frankly, it could be.
So there’s a lot of stuff on the album that I think most people - Shadow fans or not - would find rather confusing. Personally, I find this to be one of the standout tracks on the album. But I find that quite weird. On other DJ Shadow albums, it’s pretty tricky to choose a favourite, since the album only works as a cohesive whole (of course, that didn’t stop me choosing a track off Endtroducing… as a song of the week a little while back). Anyway - personally, I think that this track is worth the cost of the album on its own. And there are a fair few other corkers on there too, so I don’t feel cheated. A great song, by an ever-intriguing artist.
Sorry, I’m running a little late with my song of the week this week. I’m afraid I’ve been ironing the cat.
Lemon Jelly are a corking live band, but other than the fact that their music is wonderful, I’m not sure if I can work out why. Yes the two members bounce around a bit, but they don’t look anywhere near as weird as, I think by rights, they should.
Nevertheless, it was live at Somerset House a couple of years back that I saw the two of them and was enchanted by their pretty light show and their cheery summery music. Of course, this doesn’t explain why The Staunton Lick is song of the week during this dreary autumnal week.
Well, the song starts out with a 1970s-sounding sample explaining how to play a C chord so that it sounds a bit like Postman Pat (well, clearly that’s not how he explains it, but that’s how I remember that sound) and then builds in fluffy bits of melody from there. I would imagine that the mandolin riff that arrives early on in the track is a bit like what it would sound like inside Paris Hilton’s head.
So a cheery lovely song for a dull, damp week, well done Lemon Jelly.
Surely doing the test qualifies you for extra points.
