8 Comments

Forgot Scrapbook was 2003. Would have made my Top 10!

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Damn, I guess I am going to have to give The Fountains of Wayne yet another chance.

And give a listen to Viktor Vaughn and The Postal Service while I already have too much of a backlog. But I guess that is part of the value - and fun?- of these polls.

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The Viktor Vaughn barely made P&J 2003, but it’s definitely one of the best rap albums of the year. With two longish albums out in the same year (VV and King Geedorah) I wonder if critics thought he wasn’t taking time to edit and craft his work. On a relisten the first album is just so thematically and lyrically consistent, so funny, and has so many interesting beats. Dumile is making fun of “conscious” hip hop at that point and a lot of critics only listened to that style, so that could have turned them off too.

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It’s possible a lot of the FOW and Dumile votes are also because the relatively recent deaths of both artists prompted a reappraisal of both of their catalogs, but I don’t think they’re pity votes.

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"Reappraisal" seems right—lots of people replayed lots of Doo after his passing and the plurality viewpoint as far as I can tell was that VV sounded best in retrospect. OTOH Welcome Interstate Managers has long been the 2003 album I play the most, particularly after I lost my Sunny Adé Classic Years CD.

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I hope you have replaced the Sunny Ade! ?

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I haven't! I wouldn't mind if someone bought me all twelve of the early-mid '70s African Songs albums, and also a record player.

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I can't go that far. If you like, I can see about putting my hands on what Sunny Ade I have and try to burn copies for you. (What I could find would be limited to those CDs not in boxes. Anything only on LP would be in boxes in storage - yet another deeper layer barring access.) Cite names if you like. I don't have the vast collection that you do.

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