album(s) o the day

Amanda Rogers
"Daily News"
(Immigrant Sun)

More Emm Gryner than Gwen Stefani, Amanda Rogers' sophomore album, "Daily News," is the kind that you listen to and you realize why you fall in love with the girls in the art department, rather than the cold, calculating alcoholic zombies in marketing. Rogers dishes out a well-proportioned ratio of melancholy stanzas to skillful piano playing. This album is strong enough to bring the most jaded music fan to their knees.


The Roots
"Illadelph Halflife"
(DGC/Geffen)

The Roots' third record "Illadelph" is often touted as their strongest of their catalog. The improvisation of "Do You Want More?!?!?" is removed in place of stronger rhyming and structured hip-hop tunes. It's also a darker record which explores the nature of biters ("Clones"), posers ("What They Do"), and self-doubt ("UNIverse at War"). ?uestlove and gang use elements of opera, jazz, and good ol' hip-hoppin' to make a truly classic album, a notion that is played upon the album's back cover with a parody of the cover art for "Meet the Beatles."

[Related Links]
Amanda Rogers
The Roots