The Bocker.com

I decided to post two “albums of the week” this week, partially due to my lack of an “album of the week” last week. Mostly though, I decided to include a second album this week because I so badly wanted to praise Beck’s re-release of Odelay even when I had already slated Rhymefest’s “Michael Jackson Dedication/Mashup” mixtape, Man in the Mirror to fill this weeks post.

Man in the Mirror

One of the more perplexing issues in Pop Music History is where to draw the line between the Michael Jackson’s obvious musical genius and his equally apparent personal problems. I love Michael Jackson’s music, but I can’t watch the Thriller music video without squirming at the thought of some the more perverse accusations made against the King of Pop. In Man in the Mirror, Rhymefest balances Mike’s great musical talent and bizarre persona by sampling deep into the Jackson catalog and also splicing in Jackson sound bites for hysterical skits that acknowledge the off the wall behavior of Michael Jackson.

The album, available for free via Rhymefest’s website, is produced as a Michael Jackson/Rhymefest collaboration, even though Michael Jackson has nothing officially to do with this project. Rhymefest is not profiting off this mixtape, which is unfortunate given the quality of it, but this pro bono effort prevents a potential cease-and-desist lawsuit from MJ. Regardless, the work done by producer Mark Ransom is phenomenal as the album legitimately sounds as though Rhymefest and Michael Jackson met in a studio for a week to hammer this out.

One of the tracks I really came to like on this album was Dancing Machine. Dancing Machine, based on the Jackson 5 track of the same name, is a fun song that samples the sweet horn solo where Michael Jackson would often break out a Robot Dance during a live performance. Though only a minute and a half, Rhymefest provides the lyrics for what would be a sure club banger if it were just a minute longer. However, in the construct of the album, it feels perfect. The whole song makes you want to emulate Mike at about 0:54 in the video below.

A track that I think best shows the musical interplay between MJ and Rhymefest is Set The Mood, a nice slow-it-down track performed with a smirk. Please enjoy it below.

The skits are where its at on this album. They nearly outdo the music itself, but thats more a compliment of Rhymefest’s great comedic sense. The skit track that sums up the whole Jackson-Rhymefest dynamic is the Mike the Mentor track. Rhymefest took some of the best excerpts from Jackson’s press statements and used them as answers to questions he would ask Jackson, highlighted with this excerpt:

Rhymefest: Ya, thats cool, but sometimes, I feel embarrassed to be black, G, like, I’m ashamed to say it, but how do other cultures perceive us?…

Michael Jackson: Well lets reverse it , what about all the million of people who sit out in the sun, become darker, become other than what they are. No one says nothing about that…

R: Ya, you right, I mean, I can’t even argue.

Hilarious.

With other awesome skits, not to mention a full selection of Jackson-based hip-hop gems, including songs with Camp Lo, Talib Kweli and Ghostface Killah (With Mary J. Blige), Rhymefest’s homage to the King of Pop is on point and shows the creative talent of Rhymefest in full.

Odelay (Deluxe Edition)

A Best of the 90’s album list without Beck’s 1996 Odelay is simply incomplete. Beck’s magnum opus still sounds fresh today, twelve years and a trip through most original listeners’ puberty. Devil’s Haircut still gets airplay on most rock stations.

I’m not posting on Odelay because I’m nostalgic for my middle school years. (I don’t miss my bowl cut or my low self-esteem thank you). Rather, the b-sides and unreleased tracks included on the 2008 Deluxe Edition compelled me to sing Beck’s virtues.

The two-disc set features the original album on disc one, along with three unreleased tracks, while disc two is chock full of Beck b-sides and more unreleased diddies. While I am a fan of Beck, I’m not the b-side aficionado, so most of disc 2 was completely new to me, except for some remixes of original Odelay tracks.

The first three tracks on disc 2, which are remixes of Where Its At (Track 1) and Devil’s Haircut (Tracks 2 and 3), are just ok at best, but the rest of album plays like a great companion disc to the original Odelay. My favorite of the b-sides was Thunder Peel, a track that combines driven rock music, some synth and the full range of Beck’s singing styles; that is at some points he is basically talking while at others he is screaming.

I have attached a music video from the deluxe edition for the song Deadweight, one of the unreleased tracks. The video is worth a watch just for Beck’s odd tastes in visual storytelling, as its tough to make out much of a plot based on the video. But its wacky and cool, plus its Beck so I give it a thumbs up.

Odelay (Deluxe Edition) is the rare reissue that actually adds value to the original album. Most often, these albums are just put back on the shelf with a new cover art and “digital remastering in the latest technology”, but little else worth spending $14 (sometimes more like $20) for an album already owned. Beck gives lots with the latest edition of Odelay. Its strange that it was released twelve years after its first release, both because its relatively soon and lacking any 5 or 10 year anniversary milestone, but who cares, its Beck!