11. Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album pt. 1 - Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco's intricate lyricism and "**** the system" message shine brightly in this album, and while most of his opinions people wouldn't agree with, we can at least respect his honesty and his storytelling abilities through his rap. The album is no where near as radio friendly as his former album, LASERS, and instead only has one potential pop hit, "Battle Scars", which has already peaked at #1 in Austrailia. The instrumentals on this album are pure hip-hop for the most part, with a few poplike exceptions, and his flow continues to improve on every album while his lyricism stays consistent. Lupe also seems to experiment with a few different samples on this album, creepily noted in single "Lamborghini Angels". A great lyrical album that screams a message and also tells great stories along the way. And yes, that is the album cover (pure black).
12. What Model Are You? - Kinetics & One Love
Kinetics & One Love released this mixtape very late last year, and with it came a ton of amazing songs that wouldn't make it onto their future album - You Are Not Alone. What Model Are You? is the best free album released in the past year, no doubt. It contains a great mixture of electronic, alternative, pop, and hip-hop influences and showcases quite a few great unknown artist like Missy Modell, Radical Something, and Man-u-iLL. The lyricism is amazing on the album, as usual with K&OL, and the production is stellar, worthy of a Ivy-League graduate. Oh wait, One Love did graduate from Cornell! ^_^
"I Will Wait" is an explosion of folk music in a quick, 4:37 long burst. Very long for a song that peaked in the top 25, actually. The song, along with the entire album, Babel, doesn't do absolutely anything new, but does what it does better than almost anyone else. There isn't really much to say about the song, the production is very good, the vocals are amazing and extremely raw, and the passion that this band puts into their music is greater than almost any other artist making music. A great song to start off my top ten alternative songs of 2012.
"U.N.I." is a great hip-hop/folk song by Ed Sheeran. His lyrics about a breakup can relate to many listeners of the song, and his personal inclusion of drugs and alcohol show more of Ed. His guitar playing, which Ed famously loops, sounds amazing as usual. And the hook isn't very infectious, but thats fine since Ed wants you to focus on the verses in this song. The bridge I find somewhat lackluster, but its made up for due to the quality of the production, lyricism, rapping, and of course Ed's guitar. Ed Sheeran sings too, which is inviting considering most rappers just have guest singers on their tracks.
Our lack of music compatibility lol, maybe you'll like this next album?
10. Electronic Earth - Labrinth
Labrinth is an interesting artist. He was originally signed to Syco as the first act not from a talent show that Simon runs, and as a producer. Somehow Labrinth got around to creating massive UK hits with him singing and producing. The album is extremely polar, with high points, let me rephrase, EXTREMELY high points, then extremely low points. The singles "Earthquake" ft. Tinie Tempah, and "Beneath Your Beautiful" ft. Emile Sandé are each perfect singles in almost every way, yet are totally different. The album shows the diversity in Labrinth's talent, from gigantic party songs like "Earthquake", to radio-friendly pop hits like "Express Yourself", a variation of the same song that N.W.A. sampled in the 80's, and slow love ballads like "Beneath Your Beautiful." Labrinth's talent is extremely diverse, and he does almost everything well, and some things not well at all (Last Time's music video )
Professional Griefers that's really one of my fave songs OF THE YEAR! and Silhouettes too
Labrinth... Battle Scars, I Will Wait... I love almost everything
Professional Griefers that's really one of my fave songs OF THE YEAR! and Silhouettes too
Labrinth... Battle Scars, I Will Wait... I love almost everything
Same! At first I hated "Professional Griefers", but I have since come to love the song so much!!! "Silhouettes" is amazing as well :3
"Battle Scars" is another Lupe Fiasco metaphor song, but with a huge pop influence due to Guy Sebastian's part in the song. And instead of being some political metaphor, Lupe Fiasco and Guy Sebastian rap/sing about battle scars as a reference to love. Reminds me of Jordan Sparks's song "Battlefield". Sonically, with Lupe and Guy trading verses and then Guy performing a giant chorus, the song sounds amazing. The production is good too, not perfect, but still great.
9. "Telemiscommunications" - Deadmau5 ft. Imogen Heap
Two of my favourite artists collaborating on a song? Amazing. While I was expecting a huge deadmau5 song similar to "Professional Griefers", I got a slow conversational song between Imogen Heap and a lover on the phone. Its amazing, in every way. Lets get this out of the way first - the production on this is perfect. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this masterpiece. Next, the piano is extremely well done. It lingers for a while and acts almost as a cliffhanger within a song. The lyricism is great, and totally different from anything else I've heard. The drum used in the song, which is an irritating beep, is the only part of the song that I slightly dislike. But its only irritating at the beginning and end of the song, during the actual song it works amazingly. Deadmau5 created a masterpiece with this song, and Imogen's vocals provide a great listen over his ambient beat.