Jamwise #33

Featuring: Fela Kuti, The Eagles, Pulp, Lil Wayne, Todd Rundgren

Project BAE - Best Albums Ever

Currently listening my way through the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Progress: 170/500

Expensive Shit - Fela Kuti

There’s a new winner for greatest album title. The story goes that Fela Kuti, arrested for possession of a joint, swallowed said joint in front of the cops. While sitting in jail, the police waited for him to, ah, produce the incriminating artifact a few hours later. Kuti was able to escape charges by exchanging product with another inmate, thus leaving the cops with no evidence and no choice but to set him free. An expensive shit, indeed.

And now that you’re completely grossed out, let’s focus on the music. Consisting of two ~13-minute afrobeat jams, which was not an atypical format for a Fela Kuti release, we’re treated to two extended sax-led explorations that epitomize the afrobeat genre, which Fela Kuti is largely credited with pioneering. The genre quickly spread from Nigeria to the world thanks to Kuti’s influence, which also extended into the US/European cultural and political sphere on a level not dissimilar to Bob Marley’s. 

Afrobeat is simply cool music. This album is jazzy without being too obtuse for a plebeian like me, danceable and catchy despite the extended jams. Highly listenable, and even more interesting when you dig into the legend of Fela Kuti, a flawed but fascinating character with a global influence few artists could match.

Tha Carter ii - Lil Wayne

It’s funny traveling back in time from The Carter iii, an album I reviewed previously on Jamwise (and that I pretty much had on repeat when it came out), to Carter ii. It’s not as aged-sounding as Weezy’s early stuff, which was somewhere between novelty music and a talented youngster trying to figure out his sound, but there’s a distinct evolution from this to Carter iii, released a few years later. 

Carter iii is better in most ways, to me, but this is still Lil Wayne in his prime. This album is a banger, a masterpiece if this was any lesser artist. If you’re wondering what people mean when they say “flow”, there are plenty of good examples here - flow isn’t spitting a million words an hour, to me it’s a feel of the beat, a matching lyric, an effortless delivery all rolled into one. There’s a timing to it that’s way more complex than just “hit the downbeats,” almost a blues-singer-like feel for timing that’s hard to quantify. Few have an effortless delivery like Lil Wayne. He’s always on the verge of falling behind the beat (see “Hustler Musik” and “Best Rapper Alive”, or honestly any of his verses), almost stuttering but completely under control, unhurried while he builds his legend and consistently reminds us how little he gives a fuck. The self-professed hustler doesn’t sound like he’s hustling at all. It’s deceptively laid back, and I have to believe the level of preparation for performances like that is sky high despite the image. His talent is largely revealed in how easy he makes it look.

Jams

• “Hustler Musik”

Something/Anything? - Todd Rundgren

We’re in an age where the universal “guitar hero” fantasy has evolved into something far more millennial. I call it the GarageBand fantasy; the idea that one person with a song to share with the world can create it on their own, no producer or backing band needed, and make it big. It does happen relatively frequently these days - Grimes, The Weeknd, Calvin Harris, Charlie Puth - but there’s a distinct difference in a generation with access to music production software in their lving rooms compared to one where only a top-of-the-line recording studio could achieve the same level of quality. And there’s a funny trend among Millennials, the desire to explore creative pursuits without fully committing, the impossible dream of being discovered without taking the risk of quitting one’s day job or showing one’s face on social media, that I think has also led to the rise of self-recording artists (not to mention infinite ways to distribute music on social media). It’s the universal Millennial daydream - to “make it” on your own.

Therefore, my central thesis: Todd Rundgren should be a Millennial hero, the epitome of the self-produced made-it-big daydream, not the somewhat mocked writer of “Hello, It’s Me” that has somehow become one of the most meme-ified songs out there. He’s the original GarageBand artist. 

At my local record store. I was tempted, but this would be hard to use without a turntable

Todd Rundgren wrote, performed, and produced every aspect of this album (until the last 1/4, which is recorded by a live band), somehow achieving a sound like a cohesive group of musicians rather than a loop-tracked solo project. The music - which I’d characterize as the purest distillation of yacht rock, a term that probably came much later - is varied and for the most part not self-indulgent, which is an achievement for a solo artist without bandmates to disagree with. Todd might not be a virtuoso of every instrument, but I’d argue that’s a benefit - there’s no show-offery, only pursuit of the essence of the song. Sure, there are a few songs that are obvious explorations that might have been cut from a band album, but as hard as Todd worked on this, I think we can forgive him some personal projects. Most of the songs are focused and purified, and that’s their strength.

This album is an accomplishment, and gets a high brain rating from me. I’m glad I learned the story of its creation. But my relationship with it going forward will probably be limited to the highlights. 

Jams

• “I Saw The Light”

• “Wolfman Jack”

• “Black Maria”

Hotel California - The Eagles

I’ve learned recently that there are significant portions of the Internet that dislike the Eagles. There are, to be fair, significant portions of the Internet that are happy to dislike anything, including puppies and sunshine and world peace. But I find the Eagles hate intriguing. A common complaint I hear is that they sound too polished, too rehearsed, too perfect to be considered real rock or country or whatever other category the Eagles flirted with. Maybe compared to their contemporaries this is true. But now, in the age of AI and hyper polished studio artists, that can’t still be a reason to dislike the Eagles. Some might call that ahead of their time, and although I don’t think that descriptor quite fits, there’s still a difference. 

It makes me think about what we’ll value in music going forward. In a way the Eagles haters might be right - flaws are what add character to music, and polishing every scratch from your record means there must have been significant time spent in the studio, perhaps implying the music we hear isn’t “real.” Now this sentiment is even worse - a lack of imperfections will soon scream AI. We’ll need those little imperfections to show what’s human - at least, until AI learns to copy those too. So from that angle, I can see the over polished sound of the Eagles galling some. 

But I’d make the case that the Eagle’s level of polish is the result of a ton of human artistic effort, and therefore also worth celebrating. That’s not to say that everyone will like their city-slicker brand of country-ish rock-ish easy listening, but you gotta at least respect the effort.

Jams

• “Hotel California”

• “Life In the Fast Lane”

• “New Kid In Town”

• “Victim of Love”

Different Class - Pulp

I’d never heard a peep about Pulp in my life before now. This being a Rolling Stone list, my guess was that they’re a Britpop or post punk band (this being statistically most likely) and lo and behold, I nailed it. This is somewhat linear Britpop, no cul-de-sacs or detours necessary aside from the expected wild synths and stadium reverb. It’s like a rough draft of a Bowie album - but that actually hits me as an extremely good thing. The lyrics are another bright spot, adding to the experience even above and beyond the great poppy melodies that were stuck in my head for a week.

Pulp had a long and twisting road to fame, going through more than a decade and several iterations of the lineup before finally finding their sound - and their audience - in the early 90’s. The fact that this came out in 1995 surprised me - it sounds like an extension of glam rock, and I was under the impression that glam was invented, perfected, and forgotten in a space of like 5 years in the 70’s. I know this isn’t exactly glam, but the sound fooled me for a minute.

I frankly struggle to separate Britpop as its own “genre” as everyone seems to classify it - this feels like a mix of influences that were (at the time) 10-20 years old, and are now approaching 50; a bit of glam and pre-punk and post-punk and just overall Britishness all rolled into one. Maybe it’s a good thing the RS list has like a 95% weighting of all of those genres - by the end of this project I’ll probably be able to pick out every single Britpop act like a sommelier identifying the vintage of a fine wine.

Jams

• “Mis-Shapes”

• “Common People”

• “Bar Italia”

• “Disco 2000”