Soft and Music

Without question, the Wu-Tang Clan’s November 1993 debut stands as one of the most influential albums in the history of hip-hop. Anyone with even a passing interest in rap music needs to experience Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and check the bombardment of ghostly beats, lethal cuts, and hardcore verses from the squad. The importance of this record on the New York hip-hop scene cannot be overstated, as the East Coast rappers infused their debut with intellectual rhymes and technical expertise that many had not yet experienced. The use of martial arts imagery, comic book and chess references, and mic-tradin’ battle rap would heavily influence the best in the business. The beauty of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) lies in the stripped-down production by RZA. His use of cuts from martial arts movies and soul music instills the record with an uncanny style that captures the tone of the streets and places the lyrical content on another level. The coarse sound is due in part to the fact that RZA didn’t have access to the best equipment to put the album together, giving 36 Chambers a sincere, raw resonance. With RZA’s production as a framework, the MCs build stories and narratives on top of the beats with class and style that few others could emulate. The basic themes of the verses are the same, although each MC’s ability to conduct the rhymes varies. From Method Man’s foggy delivery to Ghostface Killah’s verbal idiosyncrasies, the group delivers a scourge of rhymes throughout the record. In today’s modern context, where the landscape of hip-hop is often dominated by crews with less than stellar efforts, a listen to the 36 Chambers is as invigorating as ever. Take the unrefined first track, “Bring da Ruckus,” as it explodes through the martial arts samples and bursts alongside the tight background woven by RZA. While other crews deliver stocky, big-headed rhymes over dance pop sheets, the Wu-Tang blasts over a crude low-fi soundscape and dominate the proceedings with belligerent, unprocessed verses. The ODB-dominated “Shame on a Nigga” flows with eccentric energy as Method Man and Raekwon tuck flowing rhymes over the fast track. And “Clan in da Front” uses a peculiar beat and plunks of piano to mesh with GZA’s vocals, formulating a great cut that bursts out of the hectic introduction. “Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber” takes listeners on a journey through the Clan’s membership. Floating on top of a Lonnie Smith sample and following a skit that surges with the dialect of the streets, the track’s flow is insistent. Verses by Method Man, Inspectah Deck, ODB, Ghostface Killah, RZA, GZA, and Raekwon temper the cut with the breadth of the collective’s mindset, offering a veritable window to the soul of these diverse personalities.page 1 | 2

This is a list exercise that has made the blog rounds of late. I discovered it via Steve Hyden of the AV Club Blog, who in turn picked it up from Idolator. The premise is simple: list your favourite album for every year you've been alive. There are a couple different ways to go about this, with the most obvious being choosing what your favourite album from a given year is now, but a different way would be to try and recollect what your favourite album was then (at least for years where you were old enough to have an opinion). I'm choosing the "favourite album now" way to go, since I think it's more interesting posting opinions I can defend now, as opposed to ones where I can just say, "What do you want from me? I was a kid". That said, in years where I didn't have a strong favourite, or needed a tiebreaker, I chose albums that defined the year for me at the time. So here's the list, with some thoughts about how it all shaped up to follow: 1977 Television – Marquee Moon1978 Ramones – Road to Ruin1979 The Clash – London Calling1980 Joy Division – Closer1981 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – Bad Reputation1982 Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes1983 The Cure – Japanese Whispers1984 The Smiths – The Smiths1985 The Smiths – Meat is Murder1986 The Smiths – The Queen is Dead1987 The Smiths – Strangeways, Here We Come1988 Pixies – Surfer Rosa1989 Pixies – Doolittle1990 Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet1991 Nirvana – Nevermind1992 Neil Young – Harvest Moon1993 Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)1994 Nas – Illmatic1995 Radiohead – The Bends1996 Belle & Sebastian – If You're Feeling Sinister1997 Radiohead – OK Computer1998 Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap1999 The Flaming Lips – Soft Bulletin2000 Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 22001 Death Cab for Cutie – The Photo Album2002 Tegan and Sara – If It Was You2003 Kathleen Edwards – Failer2004 Arcade Fire – Funeral2005 The Decemberists – Picaresque2006 The Decemberists – The Crane Wife2007 The National – Boxer2008 Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the ConchordsMy process for putting the list together was as follows: first, I sorted my iTunes player by year in reverse, then looked at each year from 1977 on. I cross-referenced these dates with Wikipedia's lists of albums released per year (like this one for 1977), to make sure my albums weren't mistagged by year (some were). If a year had an obvious winner, then I wrote it down and moved on. If it had a few different contenders, I wrote them all down and listened to them to make the hard choice (ties are for sissies). The most difficult were for years where no particular favourite emerged. That's when I'd reconsult the Wikipedia lists to see if there was an album from that time period that I'd previously enjoyed (or had a few songs on it that I enjoyed), but didn't have in iTunes. I then downloaded those contenders and picked a winner. Oh, and only actual albums were eligible, no compilations (otherwise 1988 would've been Joy Division's Substance, and it wouldn't have been close).page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4