Albums of Influence - Cunninlynguists' "Will Rap For Food"

You'd be hard pressed to find better wordsmiths in the music industry than the Cunninlynguists. Their name says it all. They make puns out of puns, then use double entendres to make you both laugh and think at the same time.

The Southern-State duo (turn trio, turn duo, turn trio) not only write and record everything themselves, but also make nearly all of the music for their albums as well.
Although, while producer/emcee Kno has been labeled as "one of the top loop miners east of the Mississippi", his style has progressed significantly in later albums, which include hired studio musicians, and more complex arrangements.
This new, less loop-based style comes to fruition on the Cunninlynguist's third album "A Piece of Strange."

So, while I do enjoy their later albums more than I do their first two, the fact that I heard "Will Rap For Food" first, the fact that their wordplay on this album is unmatchable, and the fact that it contains possibly the best hip-hop sample in all of the world (video below), makes this album one of their most influential.

Make sure to download this album for free here, then go out and buy 'A Piece of Strange' today. It's amazing.




Other great Cunninlynguist albums include "SouthernUnderground", "A Piece of Strange", and "Dirty Acres".

Albums of Influence - Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark"

Help me. I think I've fallen... in love with a 23 year old gypsy from the 60's.

Up until recently, I'd always thought of Joni Mitchell as the female version of Bob Dylan. Not only is she an amazing singer/song-writer and genre crossing folk-rock trailblazer, but she's also one of the best lyricists I've ever heard.

Later on, after discovering Canadian indie band Metric, I'd always picture Joni as a 60's version of Emily Haines. They both write incredible songs and lyrics, they're both amazing singers with huge vocal ranges, and they're both ridiculously good looking.

Ridiculously good looking.

Make sure to download this album for free here, then go buy a couple of her other albums. Joni's one of the few artists that deserve a new pool.




Other great Joni albums include: Blue, For the Roses, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Night Ride Home, and Turbulent Indigo.

Albums of Influence - Prince Paul's "A Prince Among Thieves"

I've gotta admit, I've only ever listened to this album, the entire way through, front to back, about 5 times.

That being said, this concept album about up-and-coming rapper Tariq is probably the best audio-story ever told.

The 35 song album details Tariq's struggle to collect money owed, in order to record a demo tape that he can deliver to RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. Tariq quickly finds himself selling drugs to make a quick buck, and narrates his way through the drug scene, a police ambush, jail, and, finally, a deadly showdown.

This album features everyone from Kool Keith, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, De La Soul, Everlast, Sadat X, Xzibit, Chris Rock, and RZA.

This is one of the only "concept albums" I've ever heard that actually has a solid story to it. Most concept albums will follow a theme, or subject, (some bands just wear funny outfits, and call themselves a concept band while the songs themselves have little to nothing to do with each other...) but hardly do they follow an actual story line. Unfortunately for Prince Paul's "A Prince Among Thieves", what that means is that most people won't listen to the album more times than it takes to learn the story... which, at the end of the day, makes this record the "album that I'll remember the most, for having listened to it the least."
And I'm still trying to figure out if that's a good or bad thing.

Download this album for free here, then go out, buy a Prince Paul tee, and shout "De La Soul is Dead!" at the top of your lungs.




If you like this album check out just about anything else produced by Prince Paul, including De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising". Prince Paul has also produced for Method Man, Slick Rick, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Big Daddy Kane, Chris Rock, MC Paul Barman, Souls of Mischief, and many many more.

Albums of Influence - The Beach Boys' single - "Good Vibrations"

Good Vibrations was the first song to ever be recorded in what is now referred to as "modular" recording, meaning that it was the first song to ever be recorded in separate parts, then later spliced back together as to create the entire song. This was also the first song to use the studio as an instrument.

Brian Wilson, then-leader of the the Beach Boys, spent nearly $50,000 on this song alone, over the course of 6 months, spent throughout 17 recording sessions in 4 separate studios.

This song inspired countless recordings, including the Beatles' own "Strawberry Fields", and "A Day in the Life". It also inspired Brian Wilson to create an entire album of songs that were to be made in the "modular" recording fashion. Unfortunately, after hearing the Beatles' new work "Sgt. Peppers", which was supposed to include both "Strawberry Fields", and "A Day in the Life" (both of which were inspired by Wilson's "Good Vibrations") Brian Wilson had a mental breakdown, claiming that the Beatles' beat him to the sound he was trying to achieve. Although, his severe paranoia (he once thought that his song "Fire" was causing fires to spring up all around his Californian residence), and heavy cocaine use probably weren't helping anything either.

Forty years later the mythical album, SMiLE, that was to accompany "Good Vibrations" finally came out. It was still amazing to hear, and nice to know that Wilson had finally been able to put it out and get it off his chest, but one can only imagine what it would have sounded like if a twenty-something year-old Brian Wilson had created what he originally intended to create in the first place. An album full of "Good Vibrations".





Other great Beach Boys albums include the incredibly amazing "Pet Sounds", and, if you're into surfing, girls, and classic cars, then just about everything else by the Beach Boys is really good too.

Albums of Influence - DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing....."

This was the first record to be made entirely of samples of other albums, TV shows, interviews, radio snippets, and various other things pre-recorded.

This record is such a huge influence in that there's 0% "new" music on the album, and yet it's so different from the original songs that were sampled, and it still sounds so SO good. So so good in fact, that Time Magazine named the album one of the best 100 albums OF ALL TIME.

In 1996, back when most hip-hop beats were little more than 3 minute loops (a lot has changed) this album blew everything else out of the water. Shadow's beats had dynamic and spectrum. They evolved. Basically, this album, in which 10 of 12 tracks are lyric free, is still way better than 99% of albums that were instrumentals WITH lyrics.

Take that you lazy one-loop producers.

Download the entire alum for free on google. It's easy. In fact, you can download any album for free. Just google "download __________ free", and it's yours.
I had to take down the free link I had because the RIAA sent me another complaint, but google has links to every album ever.



Other great Shadow releases include "The Private Press".

Albums of Influence - Elliott Smith's From a Basement on the Hill

This posthumous album was released exactly 1 year after Elliott Smith stabbed himself in the chest, and bled to death.

The lyrics on this album are so haunting. Suddenly something like "Give me one good reason not to do it..." doesn't seem like an empty threat, given that the guy actually went and 'did it'.

With song titles like "A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to Be Free", "Strung Out Again", and "A Fond Farewell" the majority of the lyrics on the album sound like they're coming from a guy that plans on killing himself, and "...can't prepare for death any more than I already have."

Download the entire album for free here, then go out and buy a t-shirt or something.





Other great Elliott Smith albums include "XO", and "Figure 8".

Albums of Influence - Eyedea's "The Many Faces of Oliver Hart"

'The Many Faces of Oliver Hart' is a side project from the vocal half of Minneapolis-based hip-hop duo 'Eyedea & Abilities'.

For the majority of the Eyedea & Abilities tracks Eyedea works the vocals, while producer/DJ Abilities takes care of the musical side of things. This time around Eyedea chose to write both the lyrics as well as the music, and it came out wonderfully.

You can hear the lack of perfection, and the 'first time around' aspect of the production. That being said, this isn't a half-assed attempt at making beautiful music. This is the real deal. This sounds like a twenty-something year old Eyedea spent hours and weeks and months living in a dingy basement pouring over exactly how to fit all these amazing samples (samples?) together. However it came together, it works.

I love that Eyedea did everything on this album, from the drum programming, to the guitars, to the old school samples, to the really really quite good lyrics.


Make sure to download this album for free now! (Needs WinRAR to unzip). Then go out and buy Eyedea and Abilities' "E&A"... it's really good as well.





Other great Eyedea albums include "By The Throat", "E & A", and "First Born".

Albums of Influence - Smashing Pumpkins' "Siamese Dream"

As of late, Smashing Pumpkins front-man Billy Corgan has kinda lost the plot... but at one time, some 18 years ago, the Smashing Pumpkins created something amazing.
Siamese Dream's production is so tight. I've never heard bass sit so well in a mix. I've never heard 40 layers of guitar turn out so dreamy and lush sounding. Songs start from a whisper, transmorph into hate-raged screaming, then gently descend back into soft, surrealistic dream pop.

Make sure to download this album for FREE now, then go out and buy "Gish". If you've got $22, go cop their double album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness". At that point you'll have all the best Smashing Pumpkins music, before half the band quit, and the "The Billy Corgan Experience" went crazy.



Other good Smashing Pumpkin albums include "Gish", and "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"

Albums of Influence - Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein

In 2001 Cannibal Ox released The Cold Vein to amazing critical reception. The album was put on numerous 'best of 2001' lists, and even managed to make it on a few 'best of the decade' lists. Pitchfork Media placed The Cold Vein at number 152 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s. Rhapsody ranked the album #5 on its "Hip-Hop’s Best Albums of the Decade" list.
El-P was named to be producer of the year, and everyone was hoping Cannibal Ox was going to be the next Wu-Tang. Cannibal Ox was a gritty, yet beautiful sounding, take on the New York life style, easily taking listeners to the core of the Big Apple regardless of whether you've actually been there or not.

And then there were financial differences, and Vodul's alcoholism and clinical depression, and all of a sudden it's 2007, and all three members of Cannibal Ox are saying that The Cold Vein is going to be their first, last, and only release.

To me, this album sounds like the future. Not necessarily the future of music, but more so a sound-scape of what the future of New York will look and sound like one day. It's like a less-jokey version of Deltron's 3030, if 3030 had been called "Deltron 2020", and Del lived in New York.


Download the entire album for free now, then go cry about the fact that a new one isn't coming any time soon...






Other great El-P albums (the producer for CanOx) include Fantastic Damage, and I'll Sleep When You're Dead.

Albums of Influence - Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited

Of all of my favourite artists, Bob Dylan was the hardest to showcase a single album.

'Highway 61 Revistited' isn't my favourite Dylan album (probably either Blood on the Tracks, or Desire), nor is it even the most influential Dylan album I've ever heard. That being said, all of his albums have been incredibly important, and I ended up going with this one just because it features one of my favourite Dylan tracks.

Bob Dylan's lyrics are so much better than 99% of what's out there that his music literally changed the definition of pop-music in the 60's, and is still affecting musical output 50 years later. He's even been cited as the main reason that the Beatles stopped writing about holding your hand, and started writing about Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and Walruses, and the like.

I got heck from the DMCA so I had to take down the link for a free download of the album, but it's not hard to find free downloads on Google.
..Then go buy his other records. They rule.







Other awesome Dylan albums include: Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Skyline, Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and so many others....