There are two albums that would have made the best of list had I known about them beforehand. I will tell you about them after-hand or afterwards or...now. The first is called Causers of This by Toro Y Moi. We're talking about one dude, whose real name is Chazwick Bundick, which is awesome. Apparently in the summer of 2009 the music industry experienced something called the "chillwave" movement. I was unaware. Although in my defense, in the summer of 2009 I spent most of my time living as a Trappist monk might: in solitude with books and a journal as my friends and beer as my food. As far as I'm concerned, 2009 only lasted for three months yet contained a lifetime's worth of regret and lessons learned. But I digress. Imagine if early '90s R&B was combined with dance music from later that decade, sprinkle in some Animal Collective-sounding vocals and you'll get a good feel for what Causers of This brings to the table. It's very...chill.
Just after I posted my list Ghostface Killah decided to release his new LP Apollo Kids. Actually, I'm sure he had thought about it before that. In fact, he may not have thought about it at all and left that decision to Jay-Z and the others at Def Jam. At any rate, someone dropped it in stores the week before Christmas, giving folks zero time to stop and listen to it. I didn't even know he had new music in the pipeline and wasn't aware it was in stores until just before the new year. It's a shame because this is a gem. He's spared us the meaningless and mind numbing skits and filler and delivered 12 solid tracks of throwback sounding, Wu-Tang crushing hip-hop. I mean this even manages to make old Wu affiliates Killah Priest and Sun God sound good again, and they may have never sounded good to begin with. And my favorite part? A guest spot by Black Thought from the Roots on In Tha Park. Thought has rarely sounded hungrier. It's about time the Roots and Wu got together in some form.
