The Walrus Was Bleek
For those like poor David who are sick of A. The Neptunes (understandable), B. Jay-Z (madness), C. the dearth of novelty records in this post-Dr. Demento/Boom Selection world (err…), plz direct the p2p of yr choice to DJ Dangermouse’s Gray Album. Yes, it’s a mash-up album. Yes, it’s the White Album vs. The Black Album. Yes, the irony of this guy being from Athens, GA is not lost on me. But…it’s actually pretty good! It’s probably only so good (when it is) because of how goddamn disappointing the proper Black Album was, but compared to the Paint-By-Neptunes of the original “Change Clothes”, hearing it with the harpsichord from “Piggies” looped underneath transcends novelty (almost) until it sounds like a particularly jaunty/wacky Prince Paul production circa 3 Feet High… At worst it sounds like middling backpacker glitch-hop/hip-hop with some rather obvious samples. At its best (the Prefuse-styled [or maybe Todd Edwards if he was suddenly violently possessed of the spirit of DJ Premier] juggle of “Justify My Thug” and “The Ballad of Rocky Racoon”) it does two things I never though possible: it makes me want to hear the original Black Album and White Album again.
(According to Pitchfork today there are three different bootleg albums remaking the Black Album which has to be some sort of record, either referencing Jay’s standing in his field or, more likely, how crappy the album turned out to be.)