For me, T.I. resides in the pantheon of fantastic rappers. This elite group counts Kanye, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Talib Kweli and The Roots among its members, and with this latest effort from T.I., he will hopefully find permanent housing among their ranks. After an explosive performance of "Whatever You Like" and "Live Your Life" (the former with a nameless model at his side, the latter with Rihanna at the chorus) this album should be a knockout. The fact that T.I. will be going to jail any day now for gun possession only adds intrigue to how that factors into his rhymes.
On his third full length solo album, Ben Folds seems to no more on the way to normal than before. Kicking off with the Elton-inspired "Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head),"
Way To Normal is Folds letting loose and grinding out all the piano-funked weirdness he can- but of course in a lovable and oddly endearing way. The tunes seem to be more synthed out than those on his past two solo releases, but between his quirky attitude and lyrics, I'm sure he'll tie it all together.
I admit, I haven't read this book yet, but I am quite excited for the movie. It looks like one of those things where it'll be very cliche to love and be obsessed with the soundtrack, and it will spoil the joy of Devendra Banhart and Vampire Weekend for ol' indie folks the way Juno soured Kimya Dawson, but hey, I'm cool with that. With track from artists mentioned above as well as Bishop Allen, We Are Scientists, Rogue Wave and Shout Out Louds, this looks like, well, a pretty solid playlist.
