How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?, Public Enemy

It's Black Music Month!

How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?, Public Enemy, 2007, 1:06

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

These guys just continue to rock harder, stay uncompromising and critical of their peers, and keep on preaching.  But the beats somehow don't sound dated, and they even experiment, as on the children's chorus on "Sex, Drugs and Violence."  I was intrigued by "The Long and Whining Road," which looks back at PE's career, sprinkled liberally with references to their own and Bob Dylan's songs.  I could do without "Flavor Man," or the four-minute, tired, repetitive "Col-Leepin."  Favorite tracks: "Can You Hear Me Now?," "Escapism," "Harder Than You Think."

Wincing the Night Away, the Shins

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2007. 

Wincing the Night Away, the Shins, 2007, :41

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Delicate indie folk-pop with introspective, image-rich lyrics, with bits of post-punk influence. The drums are front and center, which gives it a more muscular sound than a lot of other indie-pop in this vein.  Much of the album is a little more restrained than I'd like, but "Phantom Limb," an ethereal, enigmatic tale of two lesbian outcasts in high school, is worth the price of admission alone. Of course, I didn't pay a price of admission, but that's beside the point. "Phantom Limb," "Turn On Me," "A Comet Appears."