My original intention for this column was to have reviews of ‘Shutter Island,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ ‘Green Zone,’ and ‘The Crazies‘ (I admit, I’m a sucker for thrillers). One small problem: I haven’t seen any of them. In the absence of movies, I have had some time to listen to some music, and with Miss Teen USSR poking her nose in my movie business, I figured it was time for me to take a shot at another medium, and get some thoughts on music off my chest.
March 9, 2010 brought forth the much-anticipated new Gorillaz album, ‘Plastic Beach.’ I’m not going to review it though, despite my love for the Gorillaz. I will say this: after ‘Demon Days,’ I had high expectations for the next album. When ‘Plastic Beach’ came out, I gave it a thorough listen and had my mind made up by the end of the album. I liked it. I liked some of it quite a bit, but I didn’t love it; and I knew exactly why. After the success of their self-titled first album, the Gorillaz employed super-producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) to helm ‘Demon Days.’ The results were incredible, and the absence of Danger Mouse was felt on this newest instalment. Instead, on the same day, Danger Mouse released his “new band’s” album with Shins’ front man James Mercer: the self-titled ‘Broken Bells.’ I’ll get to that a little later, but for now let’s take a look at my favorite Danger Mouse-related projects.
Ghetto Pop Life (2003) – Billed as Danger Mouse & Jemini, this was the first time I had ever heard Danger Mouse. Working at a music store, I grabbed it off the shelf purely due to its cover (it’s striking, but hard to describe). I was instantly grabbed. Seven years later, I still listen to this album regularly. The beats are unparalleled, and Jemini is as good as he can be, albeit on a different level than Danger Mouse (much like the pairing of RJD2 and Blueprint – satisfactory, but definitely beat-heavy duos). The adage of books does not translate to music but thankfully this album can be judged by its cover: attention-getting and memorable.
Pelican City (1999-2000) – The two albums (’The Chilling Effect’ and ‘Rhode Island’) released under Danger Mouses’s first alias, Pelican City, feel more like scores or soundtracks (’The Chilling Effect’ is even subtitled as a soundtrack) than cohesive artist albums, but these early releases lay the foundation well for what magic was to come at the hands of this producer. The latter, ‘Rhode Island,’ has a couple of amazing standout tracks that would have been enough to get me to buy ‘Ghetto Pop Life,’ if I had been lucky enough to have heard them when they came out. Unfortunately they are hard to come by, and I had to order the CD’s online and wait weeks before I could listen to them.
The Grey Album (2004) – With this album, Danger Mouse earned international recognition and notoriety over an online release that never saw the light of day through a record label, despite its popularity. Starting a whole new trend and encountering music industry backlash, Danger Mouse released his version of a “mash-up” that took things to a whole new level. By mixing Jay-Z’s a cappellas from ‘The Black Album‘ over top of beats expertly crafted from The Beatles’ ‘White Album,’ he managed to make something entirely unique from two fan-beloved albums, without ruining either. In fact, as someone who was never a Jay-Z fan before this album, it’s evident that Danger Mouse was able to showcase both original pieces in a brand new light. Since then, there have been tons of releases using the same idea, and while a few of them are fantastic, none of them would have happened without ‘The Grey Album’ creeping up on us out of nowhere and knocking us on our asses. You can download it pretty easily, and I highly recommend that you do (if you haven’t already). It’s one for the collection, without question.
Gorillaz, Demon Days (2005) – Following the underground buzz and fame around ‘The Grey Album,’ Danger Mouse turned heads in the mainstream world by producing the second Gorillaz album. With so many guests and talent, on paper this album should have been too cluttered to work. Danger Mouse managed to weave every single note and voice into an album that, I think, is hands down the best thing the Gorillaz have ever done (or will ever do). From first to last second, this defined the term “album”. Sure there’s singles, but this is one of those rare albums when you can start at Track One, press Play, and enjoy every second until “Repeat” kicks in and it starts all over again. There have been times when I’ve been studying or writing and I’ve done just that; pressed play and listened to it a few times through.
Danger Doom (2005) – MF Doom (now just Doom) has been around for a long time. Despite being admired by one of my favourite MC’s, Edan (who refers to him by his original moniker, Zev Love X), I never was able to get past Doom’s voice and give him the credit he was due. The Mouse and the Mask served to teach me a lesson, much in the same way as ‘The Grey Album.’ After being blown away by this concept album (which still stands as one of my all time favourite hip-hop albums), I have been a faithful Doom fan ever since. After the many faceted ‘Demon Days,’ it was nice to be reminded that when it comes to straight up beats to rap over, Danger Mouse can craft with the best of them. This one takes a few listens to really pick it all up, but once you do, there’s no going back (unless you have an uncontrollable aversion to Doom’s voice/flow, which is sadly the case for some people I know).
As with the rest of my long-winded write ups, I’m going to have to break this one into two. I’ll be back next week to continue with my Danger Mouse recap, tackling the second half of the decade.
– Pig
