K'naan, The Trabadour: Record Review

I normally don’t listen to hip-hop because I think it all sounds like the same exact talentless crap played over and over on the radio. So when a friend of mine recently introduced me to a hip-hop artist named K’naan, I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. However, after listening to his songs, I believe K’naan (traveller in the Somali language) is one of the genre’s most promising rising stars.

K’naan was born in chaotic Somalia in 1978. He lived through his country’s Civil War, and at the age of 13, Keinan Abdi Warsame, his two siblings and mother were able to leave on the very last commercial flight out of Somalia. Settling in Toronto, K’naan brought with him a vivid account of the horrors of his youth which come through in his emotional music and powerfully poetic lyrics.

With an incredibly peculiar mix of Bob Marley, Eminem, and John Lennon, K’naan has always been unconventional. Asked to speak before the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, K’Naan bashed the U.N. for their repeatedly failing aid missions to Somalia. Indeed, the brilliance of his music lays behind its striking lyrics which are primarily a political protest.

Troubadour, released last summer, is the second (and best) album by K’naan. Notable tracks include the inspiring "Waving Flag," which was chosen as the anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Waving Flag is one of the most powerful hip-hop songs I have heard in a long time. In it, he talks about his childhood: "Where I got grown, streets we would roam/ But out of the darkness, I came the farthest/Among the hardest survival/ Learn from these streets, it can be bleak/Except no defeat, surrender retreat. So we struggling, fighting to eat and/We wondering when we’ll be free/So we patiently wait, for that fateful day/ It’s not far away. "

Other superb tracks include the poignant, heart-breaking love story of "Fatima," and my favorite song on the album, the autobiographical "Take a Minute." In "Take a Minute," K’naan explores the difficulty of doing good growing up in a world that shows you so little of it, "How did Mandela get the will to surpass the everyday/When injustice had him caged and trapped in every way? How did Gandhi ever withstand the hunger strikes and all?/ Didn't do it to gain power or money if I recall. "

Labelling K’naan is damn near impossible. Known for his diverse range in musical style, K’naan weaves in and out of love songs and ballads, of hard rock, reggae and rap. In "ABC," "America," "TIA," and "If Rap Gets Jealous," the more appealing hip-hop style is abandoned in place of an angrier reggae-rap tone, reminiscent of his original album, The Dusty Foot Philosopher. Even though overall, Troubadour is much more hip-hop than the style of the Dusty Foot Philosopher, and more appealing to a wider range of people, K’naan still remains grounded in the roots of his chaotic homeland. All in all, K’naan’s newest album successfully brings the listener to the streets of Somalia, globe trekking between love stories, bullets, and hope.

-Scott Goldstein

Album Review: The Antlers - Hospice

Today, Scott Goldstein tells us about an album I have been curious about myself for quite some time. His thoughtful review and beautiful descriptions have convinced me to head to the record store ASAP.

The Antlers released their latest album, Hospice, on June 23, 2009. Hospice weaves a bitter narrative about a Hospice worker and his grief stricken relationship with a terminally-ill bone cancer patient named Sylvia.

Hospice, like For Emma, Forever Ago (Bon Iver), was written by a lone artist secluded from the world. Frontman Peter Silberman moved to New York in 2006, cut off all ties from family and friends, and started recording the album in 2007 that was intended as an elegy for his disappearance. The result, two years later, is Hospice, an intensely sad album that explores tragedy and loss.

Hospice is an elegant record made brilliant because of the way the Antlers have mastered their sounds. The album opens with the instrumental "Prologue," which has piano symphonied with swelling ethereal noise, whose constant repetition recalls life support. "Kettering" takes the listener straight to the death bed of the girl, a place of isolation where our hospice worker is so absorbed caring for his patient that the rest of the world has been muffled into a hollow, eerie murmur.

The beautiful tragedy takes a brief detour in what is one of their best songs on the album, "Bear." In "Bear," Silberman tells the tale of a young couple who decide to have an abortion. Metaphor-filled, Bear describes the remorse they feel, yet the Antlers exploration of regret sounds interestingly original; none of that screaming crap, but rather an eerily beautiful sound that could give nightmares in its calmness. However, Bear does not come across political, rather it provides a thoughtful break from one depressing story, and brings you into another. Like many of the songs on the album, Bear immerses you into its own dreary world and then explodes into its chorus before receding back to the lump-in-throat alternative Universe that is Hospice. This pattern occurs in many of the songs on Hospice, and the little/soft-to-big and back to little refrain brings to mind a flickering candle, or a dying star.

The introductions to the songs in Hospice are a huge reason why the story of the album makes its point. The intros pull you into their dreary world magnificently and originally. "Sylvia" begins with a striking banging of drums evoking being told some terrible news, while "Prologue" captures the repetition of a life support machine.

The true brilliance of Hospice lies in its simplicity, the story feels so right because it is so simple. The Antlers are only three guys; Silberman, drummer Michael Lerner and Darby Cicci, and they bring you into their world without overdoing it. Perhaps this is because most of the album was done without a label. The lyrics, too, are clever and thoughtful, as Silberman comes across looking like a careful wordsmith.

Hospice is so compelling because of the strikingly intimate look at the psychology of our sufferer. This is attained because of the emotion felt by Silberman during his time in New york. In an interview I saw, Silberman explains that, “The record came about during the ending of one period of my life and the beginning of another…I’d say the record is semi-autobiographical. The story was written alongside the recording which took about a year and a half. It took a long time to make it make sense…” Merely hearing the pain in his choked-up voice shows the emotion Silberman feels talking about the album that is so much about himself. His pain makes the album so brilliant, it enables him to describe pain with astounding accuracy.

The best songs on the album are probably Bear, Two, Shiva, and Sylvia. Silberman and company have captured tragedy and loss, and paint the world in Hospice in a way that you are so drawn in that listening to the album almost makes you feel ashamed for peering down into the world of our sufferer, for seeing him get broken time and time again in the grand performance that is the world of Hospice.

-Scott Goldstein