I’ll be honest - I wasn’t a big fan of this guy when he first came out. I thought he was just riding the Kanye West bandwagon and his lyrical skills were limited. Then I realized I was stupid and that was that!

If you like Kanye, N.E.R.D., Common, and Blackstar - you will absolutely love Lupe Fiasco. Lupe has managed to finesse me into both his fan club and his bandwagon when I saw him perform live at University of Delaware. He’s got skill and the great thing is - he’s still young and growing!

His latest album, The Cool (2007), surpasses any of his past work. Although his first release Food and Liquor (2006) did well critically, it didn’t get as much attention publicly. This album, on the other hand, did well critically and still managed to blow up publicly. Even a few tracks became extremely popular like Superstar and Paris, Tokyo. Every track on this album was great and I appreciated the uniqueness in production + lyrical content. Besides Kanye’s Graduation (2007) and Common’s Finding Forever (2007), I thought The Cool was the best hip hop album of 2007.

One thing I truly admire about Lupe is how his albums stick to a theme. Every aspect of his latest album reflected back to the message of The Cool, representing all the stereotypes + racism that exist in the world and how at the same time they are made to be cool. In the intro to the album, a def poet announces this same premise and its relation to black culture in America.

The other aspect I love about Lupe is how well he plays his part as a Chicago emcee. He doesn’t try to be a NYC rapper, he doesn’t act like he knows about all old school music (e.g. being ok with forgetting the lines to one of ATCQ’s famous songs Award Tour), and he doesn’t put music out there that moves away from his feel. He takes inspiration from all the artists he grew up to listening and plays off that, nothing else. You can see and understand this by the way he flows on his tracks. Its just so natural, no force!

If you’re a fan of quality hip hop and you are a skater and/or hung out with skaters, Lupe has to be in your music vision. He’s somebody I see as becoming an even greater emcee than he already is. Check out this great interview with him.

For some reason Porcupine Tree seems to be only known to the music elitists, and not even all of them. They are one of the few bands out there that have managed to blend superb composition with accessibility and top notch recordings. In Absentia (2002) is widely regarded as Porcupine Tree’s masterpiece and belongs in the library of any self-respecting obnoxious listener.  Still don’t know who they are?  Well, Porcupine Tree has had the privilege of recording with musicians such as Alex Lifeson (Rush), Robert Fripp (King Crimson), and Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth). I should hope you know at least one of those three bands, if not all of them.

This album is absolutely incredible. Every track is immaculately arranged, performed, recorded, produced, and over-all executed. If you don’t have this album and you’re not audiophile, purchase this album immediately online to save the time. However, if you are indeed an audiophile, the extra effort to purchase an actual CD is well worth it. You could even take it a step further and get the version in Dolby Digital 5.1.

The first track, Blackest Eyes, almost speaks for the album in itself. It sets the expectations of the CD in terms of quality and dynamics. You will want to get some sound isolating headphones or crank your stereo loud enough to drown out any ambient noise because this is all you should hear. The first minute or so of the track starts out relatively heavy with seemingly odd metered rhythm and flows seamlessly into, what I’d call, technically articulate pop. Although it is seamless, it happens so quick you need to listen to it again to figure out what the hell just happened to you. Following Blackest Eyes is arguably Porcupine Tree’s greatest arrangement yet recorded. Trains is certainly my favorite Porcupine Tree track and I have plenty of confidence that you’ll agree. Skipping all the gory details and telling you to trust me on this one, I’ll just say that the entire album holds up to its end of the deal with the proposal it set out to you in the first couple tracks. If you were to only purchase one album because of the posts you’ve read at Obnoxious Listeners, I’d full-heartedly suggest In Absentia. It’s so rare to come across the trifecta combination of an amazing band, stunning compositions, and a remarkable recording.

Is it possible for music to scare you? I’m not talking about Marilyn Manson freaky scary nor am I talking about heavy screaming that makes you think “is this much pain in a human even possible?” I’m more talking about lyrics that are so truthful and delivery that is so right in your face, that you literally have 5 sec to decide if you want to take the blue pill or red pill from Morpheus. When I listened to Immortal Technique for the first time, that’s exactly how I felt.

Immortal Technique can be best described as a hardcore underground hip-hop emcee with raw style; he uses simple beats and his lyrics can be downright caustic at times, but mostly everything he does has a message. [thx, Schiavoni] And that message is so engrossing, you can’t help but listen to more of what he has to say. Last week, he dropped his 3rd full album entitled The 3rd World (2008).

I’d rather be proud of what I am, rather than desperately
try to be something I’m really not, just to fit in. And
whether we want to accept it or not, that’s what this
culture or lack of culture is feeding us.

The problem with always being a conformists will always
be that when you try to change the system from within,
it’s not you who changes the system. It’s the system
that will eventually change you.

- The Poverty of Philosophy

Immortal Technique, formerly Felipe Coronel, was born in a military hospital amidst a civil war that was breaking out in his native country of Peru. His family and him moved to Harlem during that time where he grew up and also became incarcerated for a few years. Learning the talents of rhyming and flow in his spare time, Immortal Technique began to rap at emcee battles after he got out. And he practically won every battle out there. The ones he lost, he probably should have won too. He was amazing and he could knock anyone out on the mic. I would put him at the top with Talib Kweli and Papoose - he could flow forever and it always stayed on the conscious tip (not the stupid 8 Mile shyt). With the money he earned from odd end jobs and his earnings from battles, he put together his first album entitled Revolutionary Vol. 1 (2001). Since then, he’s become a widespread artists touring the entire U.S. and making his way off seas for events.

What I truly appreciate about Immortal Technique is his brutal honesty and his choice of words. There are not many artists who would go out on a track and officially call The Media, the 4th Branch of the U.S. government. Or talk about how his only true love passed away to HIV from a blood transfusion in You Never Know (ft. Jean Grae). Or get someone as powerful and purposeful as Mumia Abu Jamal to make an intro for his second album.

The 3rd World carries along the same path as his original two albums - great lyrics, in your face lyrics, political + revolutionary, and each song has a message. Only two things I would point out which are very different are the production style and the collaboration with R&B/Soul stars. Because this album was made with legendary DJ Green Lantern, there is more emphasis on the beats, scratching, small echoes, and sound effects. Then in addition, there are a few tracks which have very soulful + still lyrical hooks. My favorite tracks from this album are Crimes Of The Heart, Reverse Pimpology, and Harlem Renaissance.

I know I just reviewed Russian Circles’s first release, and yes I posted it only a couple days after Station (2008) was released… but now I’ve had about a month for it to grow on me. I was a little unsure about it the first few listens, but now I can say with confidence that Station is one of the best instrumental rock albums I own.

It was the few heavy sections of Enter that really sold me, and because of that I was hoping for the new album to be heavier. Initially, I was a little disappointed, but that’s what expectations do to you. The worst thing about them is that they can blind you when you don’t get exactly what you’re looking for. Listening to Station over and over helped me notice many of the subtleties of the album, as well as the fact that heavier is not always better… even though they still have a few heavy movements. Granted, I happened to pick one of their heavier moments for the audio clip. I just couldn’t help myself, that movement was just too good to not use it as an attention grabber!

I’ve yet to see these guys live, but I certainly need to. I’m really looking forward to seeing them as they seem to do a few things in their studio recordings you wouldn’t think could be pulled off live by only three people… but they do. For example, I could have sworn they were at least a four piece band until I did some research. They are indeed a three piece band and just do a great job with live samplers/loops. That’s a great skill to have and not many bands pull it off so well… or at all. Another surprise to me from Station was the new bass player. I knew of Brian Cook from These Arms Are Snakes and was completely surprised when I found out that was him on the album. Personally, I think These Arms Are Snakes is an all together different band, but Brian transitioned into Russian Circles seamlessly and did a superb job. I also just recently found out Russian Circles had opened for Tool during their 2007 UK tour… I hope Tool decides to pick them up for an American leg next time they tour.  I might then have a hard time deciding who was their best opener… them or Isis. By the way, the audio clip above is Harper Lewis. Be sure to check out their myspace page for full versions and then promptly purchase the album!

The company’s product, Instinctiv Shuffle, is an iPhone application (jailbroken iPhones only, for now), that watches your listening habits to make a smart guess about which song you’ll want to listen to next. It claims to guess your mood and know exactly what you’ll want to listen to.

Fresh off his first single entitled Keep Looking Up featuring Bilal, Hezekiah is hitting the spotlight. He recently released his second album and it keeps cycling on my playlist. I caught him first on VH1 Soul and he is one of my favorite emcees right now (including Median). He’s got Freeway’s Philly flow with of twist of funk and a dash of soul. His production on I Predict a Riot (2007) is incredible too - reminds me of Hi-Tek.

How can I not give props to a Delaware-raised former choirboy turned producer, emcee? It says in his bio that, “Once he came out of highschool, he linked up with arguably the only Hip Hop crew to ever exist in Delaware,” during that time. Who’s arguing? I still don’t see any Hip Hop crews here in Delaware!

But anyways, Hezekiah roughed it for a while selling over 2,000 hand-to-hand copies of his mixtape on the streets and at shows. Then he finally linked up with the right people more recently providing songwriting and production for artists such as Musiq Soulchild, Bahamadia, and The Jazzyfatnastees. That got him his record deal with SoulSpazm Records and he went on to sell more than any of his previous compilations or mixtapes.

Outside of being from Delaware (woo woo), Hezekiah is a quality lyricist. He brings attention to the story of man in different situations of life. I like the way he ties his lyrics into one another to form a story. The album can definitely be listened through the whole way and there are alot of quality tracks. If you like the intro track above, be sure to check out Looking Up (feat. Bilal), That Filling (feat. Freeway), and Moments In Time (feat. Aaron Livingston).

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… there aren’t enough strong female voices in hard rock. Lacuna Coil is one of those few bands with a solid female singer, and they’re not known widely enough in the states. I have all four full length studio releases, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t either.

Supposedly Lacuna Coil is classified as gothic metal… but I don’t really buy that. It’s just good metal. Can’t we label a band as simply metal anymore? I know I tend to find the most descriptive sub-genre when possible, but sometimes you can’t and don’t need to. Heavy guitars, well placed keyboards, tight rhythm section, and a strong female singer with some male vocals thrown in there too. Lacuna Coil has a wide range of influences, and that’s certainly expressed in their writing styles as they’ve really developed their own unique sound. Unless of course every Italian metal band sounds like this for some crazy reason. But somehow I doubt that’s the case.

Never heard of Lacuna Coil? I’d suggest starting with Comalies (2002). That’s the generally agreed upon best album among my friends and myself, although In a Reverie (1999) is growing on me. Regardless of where you start, all the albums are good and none of them stray too far from the sound and style they defined for themselves.  Their latest album, Karmacode (2006), is notably harder than the others, but also a little more mainstream… but only marginally. I’d also say Cristina’s vocals are much stronger and exhibit more confidence than shown in previous releases. I definitely look forward to their new release due for September this year… you’ve still got a couple months to catch up on their discography before then. If the audio clip above with two tracks from Comalies, Daylight Dancer and Tightrope, isn’t enough, don’t forget to check out their myspace page for some full length samples.

I’ve mentioned Finger Eleven on the site a couple times by now, and it’s about time they got their own post. I was pretty lucky to find these guys as I found them back in my gambling days of buying cheap rock CDs I hadn’t heard of. While I don’t agree with their creative choices for their most recent CD, they still had a few great albums before they turned to complete mainstream. The first album I purchased was The Greyest of Blue Skies (2000), but my favorite is their first release under Finger Eleven, Tip (1997). Anyways, instead of writing a negative post about my dashed expectations of their latest release, I figured I’d try to get the word out about how solid their first three releases were.

I know it’s hard break first impressions, but if your first impression of Finger Eleven is from their latest album Them vs. You vs. Me (2007), I pray that you’ll have enough confidence in my tastes to believe that they used to be so much more than that (even Pearse liked them!). Maybe I just hold them at a higher regard because they were among the first bands I found when I began developing my own taste in music, but I still think they had a unique take on hard rock… certainly at the time, and even still today. I mulled over the idea of giving Scott Anderson a spot in the Strongest Voices in Rock post, but realized that even though he’s one of my favorites, he wasn’t really as strong as my other choices. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a great singer.

Aside from strong vocals and quality writing/arrangements, the next aspect that stuck out to me was their bass player. Too often bass players are either just guitar players that picked up a bass because they realized there’s more of a demand for bassists than guitarists or the bass guitar is mixed in such a way that you have to really listen for it to realize it’s good. Sean Anderson is one of those good bassists that just plays too damn subtle for anyone other than musicians to notice. He’s very rarely flashy, but he’s definitely creative. If you ever see him live, you can tell he’s holding back… you’ll probably also notice his feet nailed to the ground. If there’s anyone that moves less than me when performing on stage, it’s Sean Anderson. But that doesn’t bother me in the least bit.

I’ve got to give Finger Eleven some credit for being able to redefine their sound so many times. They’re no Radiohead or anything, but each album definitely has a different sound and feel. I’m really not sure how to describe the first album. I guess you could say its slightly harder and darker than alternative. The first track in this post’s audio clip is a pretty good slice of what to expect from Tip, it also happens to be my favorite Finger Eleven track, Awake and Dreaming. The Greyest of Blue Skies took their sound a little harder; it has a little hint of Korn, or at least Korn if they knew how to write good music. This album had a couple singles out, but didn’t do quite as well as Tip… perhaps their new American following wasn’t ready for the change. That might explain why they changed it up once again on their self-titled album which was released in 2003. I actually really liked this album, but there were a few tracks that just seemed like media grabbers just shy of the quality writing I came to expect of them. This album wasn’t as hard as The Greyest of Blue Skies. I’d say the guitars were “dirty” and not so much heavy or hard. Also, I really liked the bass guitar in the self-titled album… much more intricate than the prior release. Despite the stylistic changes from album to album, Scott’s voice was always great. So if you like his voice, you’ll like it on every album. Overall, Finger Eleven is still one of my favorite bands despite their latest release being well below par.  The audio clip in the post includes Awake and Dreaming, Suffocate, and Converstions from Tip, The Greyest of Blue Skies, and Finger Eleven respectively.

I have a semi-daily ritual of laying down on my couch, popping in my headphones, and cranking some good music. Some people like to come home from a long day of work and zone out to some TV or maybe grab a cold-one. I like to just lay down, close my eyes, and relax to music. Del Rey, another great instrumental rock band from Chicago, is one of those bands that’s perfect for said scenario. It’s very chill, yet busy, instrumental rock. You might find them a little abstract if you’re still a big radio listener, but they’re very structured. That’s because their drummer is phenomenal… and so is the sound engineer that recorded/mixed the drums, at least on A Pyramid For The Living (2006). You can’t help but feel you’re right in front of the drum set when engulfing yourself with this album.

I was seriously afraid I might get sick of this album. I must have listened to it at least five times a day for a solid two weeks when I first got it. Of course, I never did. I’d probably still listen to this album just as much if I hadn’t come across so many more bands over the past six months. So what is it that’s so great about this album? Superb composition, engaging dynamics, and mesmerizing percussion. There are only five tracks on this album, but each is unique and no less than 8 minutes. The album totals at about fifty minutes with only two of the tracks being less than 10 minutes. Even though they’re entirely instrumental, the songs are melodic and sporadic enough to keep your attention. If you’re as picky as I am about percussion, you’d probably be entertained by just the drums alone.

If I had to stylistically compare Del Rey to other bands because you haven’t heard them before and for some reason didn’t play the audio clip that is conveniently located at the top of the page… I’d say somewhere between Russian Circles and God Is An Astronaut, and yet still completely unique from the two. I’m sure there are better bands to use for comparison, but I’ve yet to hear them. Let me know if you’ve heard some bands similar to these guys.  It was hard to choose good clips for Del Rey since their songs are so long; a 30-second clip simply does not give a solid representation. So, I strongly encourage you check out their site to hear some tracks in entirety. The clip at the top of this post includes Lamplighter and Stemrick.