411 Music's Essential Summer Albums: Part 5 - Kanye West, the Rolling Stones, More
Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 07.12.2010
From Kanye West's Graduation and Prince's 1999 to albums from the Strokes, Fun Lovin' Criminals, the Rolling Stones and more, 411 concludes its look at the greatest summer albums ever!
By now we should all know the drill. Welcome to the fifth and final instalment of 411's Essential Summer Albums Guide. Over the last week myself and the staff have examined fifty fantastic summer records that should be making up the soundtrack to your summer.
Our recommendations have included classics from the likes of the Beatles, Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Marley, the Beach Boys, Pixies, Stone Roses, Prince and tons more legendary artists and some not so legendary. And even today we have records from Kanye West, the Rolling Stones, the Strokes and more.
Before we begin, I want to say a massive thank you to all those staffers who voted and contributed blurbs, making this feature the success I hope it's been; so thanks to Brian Berry, Chris Crowing, Alistair McGeorge, David Hayter, Mitch Michaels, Julian Williams, Adam Hill, Aaron Titan, José Aarón Mayagoitia and Lenny Vowels for their participation.
Blind Melon - Blind Melon
Genre: alternative rock
Released: September 1992
Mitch Michaels: It's a damn shame about Blind Melon, isn't it? I don't have any belief that Blind Melon would have been much more than your typical 90's one-hit wonder rockers today if frontman Shannon Hoon hadn't OD'd, but it would have been nice to see, wouldn't it? The centerpiece of the band's debut is, of course, the single "No Rain", which is reason alone to put this on your summer rotation. But the whole album holds that spirit - Hoon had an amazing vocal ability, and it was so distinctive that, had he been able to kick the habit, rather than the habit kick him, I know that Blind Melon would have at the least an interesting catalog. As it stands though, Blind Melon will always stand as their tentpole. But not without deservance. Tracks like "Paper Scratcher", "Sleepyhouse" and "Soak The Sin" all sound retro without having that dated 90's feel, even today. Dust this one off or pick it up - it's worth a summer listen.
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Genre: hip hop
Released: March 1989
David Hayter: This record needs no explanation surely? Everything about this LP oozes summer. De La Soul's relaxed, spacious, carefree rhymes were always perfectly suited to the summer sun. Then there are those arrangements and the glorious hooks. Is it even possible to listen to the glorious synth line of "Me, Myself & I" when it's raining, it's just wrong, right? The instrumentation on this album just has a lazy sun baked feel whether its the drowsy brass on "Pot Holes On My Lawn", the casual funk swagger of "Description" or the shimmering guitar chimes of "Eye Know". It's all gloriously summery. Prince Paul's production is sublime throughout and De La Soul's rhymes are irresistible. They're never in a rush, they're never aggressive even when they are legitimately angry, and they are always gloriously chilled. In 3 Feet High & Rising De La Soul created the perfect marriage of weighty lyrical content and happy-go-lucky summer beats.
Fun Lovin' Criminals - Come Find Yourself
Genre: hip hop/alternative rock
Released: February 1996
Chris Crowing: Some summer albums are good in a festival setting, some are good in a party setting. Some you love because they cause sing-a-longs, and some you love because they just give an awesome laid back vibe to the proceedings. Come Find Yourself is all of the above. Every year I went to T in the Park, the Fun Lovin' Criminals played the main stage in the middle of the afternoon, and I can't imagine a better way to spend two hours of my summer than getting groovy with Huey and Fast to tunes like "Scooby Snacks", "The King of New York", "Smoke ‘em If You Got ‘em" or "the Fun Lovin' Criminal"…
Adam Hill: Sunshine, BBQ, beer and balls (soccer balls that is) - listening to Come Find Yourself instantly sends me back to the summer before I went to university. Hanging out with my mates in the yard, burgers frying, beers flowing, the guys all were playing soccer and the girls were getting tanned and chatting. Fun Lovin' Criminals debut album was the soundtrack to our summer – it was on everywhere we went and we loved it. Their smooth as silk, laidback funk, summer style just begged to be played loudly in the car with the top down or outside in the sunshine. In fact, so good is it that I have just put it back on rotation on my mp3 player for this summer.
Kanye West - Graduation
Genre: hip hop
Released: September 2007
David Hayter: "Good Morning" is the perfect summer wake up call. It's reluctant, you have to be coaxed into getting up, it's too damn hot to move, but there are things to be done, and alas you must awaken. Once you do arise you will be treated to some to slickest summer grooves of the last ten years; "Champion", "Good Life" and "The Homecoming" are perfect summer jams. They are all crammed full of the kind of feel good optimism that puts you in the mood for summer, and of course it helps that there surrounded by some of Kanye's best work ("You Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Flashing Lights"). For many, Graduation was a lightweight follow up to two of hip hops most essential albums, and for the most part, they right; but what Graduation loses in substance it gains in relaxing summer charm. Plus it wouldn't be summer if you couldn't get you faux gangsta swagger on, right? Okay so who hasn't rapped along like a total moron to "Stronger" in the summer sun? I know you have, even if it was grudgingly. Hell if Graduation wasn't summery enough ‘Ye even nicks the key hook for "Stronger" from one of our other essential summer albums. This record is so damn summery it's shamelessly stealing other records sunshine, but you won't hear me complaining.
Mitch Michaels:Graduation was the first album that got me into Kanye. I'd heard the singles and liked them (especially "Gold Digger"), but nothing got more airplay in my truck back in the summer of 2006 than "Stronger". Just catchy as fuck, it sounded like a revolution right out of the speakers. Throw in other great stuff like "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Flashing Lights" and this album just doesn't quit. You just can't hear it and not think back to the summer and that ridiculous release day war with 50 Cent. But in a good way. Still my favorite disc by Kanye.
M.I.A. - Arular
Genre: alternative hip hop
Released: March 2005
David Hayter: There are millions of records that encapsulate lazy carefree summers, but only M.I.A's Arular truly captures Summer's dirty sticky sexiness. M.I.A. has always represented the "World Town" and Arular is a record that encapsulates multiculturalism in all its glory. It's the sound of LDN, New York, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Lagos, Rio, Kingston and Colombo. If you're hot, sticky, sweaty and sexy this album represents you. It's a carnival of carefree sex and liberal values. Every beat and electro squelch is oozing summer sun. Whether it's the shanty town skank of "Bucky Done Gun", with its grimy arse beats and machine gun bass blast contrasted against blaring carnival trumpets, or the carefree patois of "Sunshowers"; Arular is summer world wide. Of course all is not what it seems, like Lily Allen's Alright Still and Vampire Weekend's Contra, all may sound summery and charming but beneath the surface lies a violent struggle for a miserable existence. Brutal exploitation, abject poverty, and child soldiers; it doesn't sound like much fun does it? Well surprisingly it is, Arular is the party that the whole world is invited to, but it's one with a stark and unequivocal moral lesson; we may enjoy the beautiful sounds of the third world summer, but we must remember they are born out of abject misery and brutal struggle.
Julian Williams: Who knew political activism could be so fun? With Arular, MIA proved just that. The album sounded like a mesh between dancehall, electro pop and hip-hop and produced some quality tunes that made you want to immediately hit a dance floor. Underneath the fun melodies, though, were some very thought-provoking lyrics that dealt with such uncomfortable topics like murder, terrorism, and war. If one were to just listen to the infectious pop beats, you would never suspect that such dark lyrics lay underneath. Yet, I feel that the dark lyrics help to make Arular rise above the pack because it proves that music can both be entertaining and informative. MIA proved that you don't need to separate entertaining music from political commentary. Not since Public Enemy was an artist able to pull it off so effortlessly. Arular illustrated that we can listen to beats that makes us tap our feet and also get deep, informative lyrics. What a novel concept!
Prince - 1999
Genre: pop/rock/dance
Released: October 1982
David Hayter: A wry smile always creeps across my face whenever I listen to "1999". I think back to when the year 2000 actually seemed exciting, now it just seems like an arbitrary number, but then again I've never really got the whole New Years thing. Anyway, 1999 by Prince is one of those albums that accomplishes the near impossible. It takes Prince's funk and distils it through a wall of synthesizers, robot noises and effects. Robots and funk don't go together right? Well wrong apparently as Prince managed to craft one of the most joyous albums of his career, despite being surrounded by big clugging, thudding, squelchy bombast. It actually provided one of the most exciting juxtapositions of Prince's career as his loose baselines, high pitch melodies and sexually charge sensual anthems met cold, metallic and uncaring arrangements. It's hard to articulate why exactly 1999 is a summer album, but I suspect the answer lies somewhere between "Little Red Corvette" and "Delirious"; proof positive that Prince can funk the life out of or into anything, even these cold, metallic, wintery soundscapes.
The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
Genre: rock
Released: August 1981
Mitch Michaels: No one is going to confuse the Stones' 80's output for their classic 60's and 70's tracks, but Tattoo You may be the reason they didn't fade away in that weird era of music. Tattoo You proved that the Stones deserved to still be playing huge halls like Van Halen and that they could still rock with the best of them. "Start Me Up" is the most recognizable hit, but there's also "Hang Fire" and "Little T&A" to shake your booty too. This is just great rock and will take you back to the days of FM radio and barbecues, before you could look on the internet and find out your neighbors were all sex offenders.
The Strokes - Is This It
Genre: Indie rock
Released: July 2001
David Hayter: The Strokes 2001 debut Is This It is a summer record of a very unique sort. It's all about inner city understatement, chasing girls, and lounging around dreaming and wondering if things are going to pick up. The album's title track is its second most summery moment. It's melancholy and yet hopefully, it's conjures up the image of lazing around exhausted in a hot apartment desperately waiting for something to happen. It's almost defeatist, it's too hot and too emotional stressful to do anything, so we're just going to lie here and chill. Elsewhere Is This It is more cheerful, full of sharp, sleek and revolutionary pop music it all has a distinctly inner city summertime feel. Following in the footsteps of the Velvet Underground and Television, Is This It is the kind of record that's emotionally rich and yet utterly cool. It's the type of album you can drive around on long summer's day with your mates and just chill to. You can be as engaged or as disengaged with it as you like. You can sing along with the huge soaring choruses or relax and watch the time effortlessly pass you by with their sharp winding minimalist guitar work. Oh and then of course there's "Someday", perhaps the most summery song of all time, it's the sound of daydreams, an ode to great ambitions and unfulfilled promises, it's quite simply a work of art, and a slice of purest summer.
Mitch Michaels: Before the White Stripes hit it big, there were The Strokes. The Strokes brought garage rock back and made it cool, spawning a million clones in the process. But none of them (even the Strokes in later years) could top the sheer energy of their debut Is This It. With a lo-tech sound and hooks-a-million, you just couldn't put this album down. And you still can't. I think that's the key for a summer album. Everybody tries to make the big summer single these days, and it's mostly disposable trash. But in the summer for get togethers and good times, you want the familiar stuff. And the familiar stuff holds up.
50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Genre: hip-hop
Released: February 2003
Lenny Vowels: When I first heard about 50 Cent, I was intrigued. I had been spending the better part of the previous year listening to Eminem, so naturally, I was curious how his new protégé would sound. Around the summer of 2003, I bought Get Rich or Die Tryin' completely on a whim, which is something I'm not prone to do when it comes to CDs. It ended up being one of the better decisions I ever made. From the opening intro into the awesome track "What Up Gangsta," I was hooked. Other big tracks like "In da Club," "Don't Push Me," and especially "P.I.M.P." made sure the album was well on its way to becoming my album of that summer. Even today, I can still throw it on if I'm out in the pool or cruising down the street in this hot weather, and it seems to always fit the mood perfectly. Sadly, 50's later albums would hurt my respect level for him overall, as he seemed to lose his edge, but I can always look back to this album for the fond memories it brought me during one of the more fun summers that I can remember having.
Julian Williams: I remember in the summer of 2000 when I first heard a song from a new up-and-coming rapper named 50 Cent entitled "How To Rob". In the song, he detailed in length his desire to rob practically every mainstream hip-hop artist at the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the song and looked forward to hearing more from the rookie. Problems with his record label and the law prevented 50 from getting that mainstream album release that he was looking for, so he instead turned to making mixtapes. I remember going into my local record shop and seeing 50's face plastered on no less than 5 different mixtapes and I decided to pick some up. I loved what I heard as 50 took virtually every popular hip-hop song at the time and spun it around to make . I bought into the hype and apparently, so did Eminem and Dr. Dre. They signed him to a huge contract and began to promote the hell out of him. In the months leading up to his major record label debut, Get Rich Or Die Tryin', it was nearly impossible to turn on the radio or TV without hearing some mention of 50 Cent. With such astronomical hype, it may have been easy to deliver a sub-par effort and blame it on fans having set their expectations too high. That wasn't the case, though, as Get Rich Or Die Tryin' more than lived up to the hype and was praised as one of the best hip-hop albums of the decade. 50 was able to do the impossible: He made an album that was as respected by hip-hop aficionados as it was by suburban teenagers. Songs like, "In Da Club", "If I Can't", and "Wanksta" filled up dance floors around the world while "What Up Gangsta", "Many Men" and "Back Down" had everyone feeling about 52% more gangster. While 50 has not been able to repeat the success of his debut and has fallen out of favor with many of the fans who initially loved him, nobody can take away from the fact that this album was an absolute masterpiece.
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