Justin Hunter Scott

Leisure

Eminem-cee

The flower power generation likes to brag about its prized Midwestern white boy with the nasally voice, the one whose lyrics were bizarre but beautiful and heartfelt. It’s a shame our generation has no Dylan—sorry, Conor Oberst—but we do have someone close, though he’s not who you’d expect. You see, this Midwestern white boy with the nasally voice comes from the streets of Detroit, and where Dylan changed the game for vocalists without good voices, Eminem changed the game for emcees with white skin.

By October 23, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Deerhoof, “Offend Maggie”

Deerhoof has long straddled the line between experimentalism and straightforward pop, and their latest release is no exception—Offend Maggie finds them gravitating toward their pop side with an undeniable oomph.... Read more

By October 9, 2008

Leisure

Extra, extra!

Instead I calmed down and mostly forgot about Field Music until last week, when the other Brewis, Peter, released his side project, The Week That Was. I didn’t have high expectations going in—how could he make Field Music without Field Music? But, much to my surprise, he pulled it off. And in my joy I started to remember some other impressive side projects.

By October 9, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: T.I., “Paper Trail”

Over the past year, T.I. has been in the news more for his legal problems than for his music. But apparently, despite being locked up under house arrest for weapons charges, T.I. has been paying attention. Paper Trail is a much better effort than 2007’s T.I. vs. T.I.P. and it re-establishes T.I. as one of today’s most important mainstream rap artists.

By October 2, 2008

Leisure

The music that actually matters most

Some albums are so good you can’t stop listening to them. You listen and listen, memorize the ins and outs, and the music means so much to you—it is you—that when someone asks you what your favorite record is, there’s no hesitation in your answer.

By September 25, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: Mogwai, “The Hawk is Howling”

Mogwai’s 1997 debut, Young Team, featured songs that alternated between long tranquil stretches and equally lengthy, face-melting, pummeling hard rock. It won them a lot of fans, but over the years, as they added minor electronic touches and adopted more conventional song structures, those fans begged for a return to their more dynamic early work. Unlike 2006’s Mr. Beast, which largely did away with their vaunted quiet/loud dynamic and stuck with a whole bunch of loud, The Hawk is Howling returns to that template, and longtime Mogwai fans will likely be pleased.

By September 18, 2008

Leisure

By any means necessary

In case you didn’t know, the Internet is a remarkable source for learning about music and finding that music for free. While many collectors are in the habit of finding full albums to add to their libraries, casual downloaders are often in search of single songs.

By September 11, 2008

Leisure

Beat it: Unexpected Results

Every once in a while, an artist will follow a string of homogenous-sounding records with an absolutely unexpected curveball. Bloc Party are the latest to do it with their breakbeat-influenced, bombastic electronic album Intimacy, which was a surprise release much like Radiohead’s In Rainbows. And it was Radiohead who made perhaps the most famous curveball record over the last decade: released in 2000, Kid A is a blippity bloopity electronic record released after one of modern rock’s most bombastic and powerful statements, OK Computer. But Radiohead was hardly the first band to disappoint fans with high expectations.

By August 28, 2008

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Walkmen, “You & Me”

No, the Walkmen did not hang up their sneakers after everyone declared “The Rat” to be one of 2004’s best singles. And yet, when they came back in 2006 with the wildly underrated A Hundred Miles Off, nobody seemed to notice, probably because there was nothing like “The Rat” there. There is nothing like “The Rat” on their latest release, You & Me, either. The Walkmen have evolved, mellowed, even—gasp!—matured.

By August 22, 2008

Leisure

T-Pain, on Top of the Game

Faheem Najm—sound familiar? If not, perhaps you know him better by his stage name, T-Pain. Despite being married with two children, his songs about hitting on bartenders and buying women drinks have propelled him to stardom in a pop/R&B field flooded with younger, more visible talents.

By April 24, 2008