top three on my billboard

I'm not quite in the far east yet. however all of my music and turntables are packed. so instead, this friday I'd like to offer a re-iteration of the obvious for the sake of completion. specifically, here's three albums which have made my summer awesome, and though most of you will have heard either several cuts from each album or the entire thing, I'd like to stress that each of these three are magnificent complete works that should be owned in completion. as in, buy the album if you haven't. I'll pay you a Korean penny when I get back if you don't like any of 'em.

the Scissor Sisters. duh. you've seen them around, you heard them on Fluxblog, you may have been lucky enough to see them (or, if you're blair's girlfriend, open their show). but have you heard the whole album? sure, you've got Laura and Comfortably Numb (yes, a it's that cover) on your iPod, but have you heard the breathtaking It Can't Come Quickly Enough? Did you get the bonus track from the iTunes store? the entire album is fabulous, shoulder-bumping, campy disco pop-rock wierdness that plays like the Begees and the Rocky Horror Picture show cast covering a Pink Floyd album. it's like peanut butter and chocolate. it just works splendidly. buy it or download it from iTunes (plus bonus track!).

Franz Ferdinand. wow. I don't listen to the rock music much at all (I'd put the Scissor Sisters somewhere else, but argue with me if I'm wrong). I picked up the Strokes album in 2000 and thought "gee, this is catchy" for about a minute before the Avalanches album made me forget it entirely. all the whackamole pop-up-pop-down bands that have one by one been hailed as the saviors of rock (albeit in the pop genre) have one by one left me completely unstimulated. it just doesn't get my blood pumping. that said, since my girlfriend bought this album a month ago, I've listened to it almost once a day. it's that fucking good. the fella can sing like a champ, it's got a tinge of that post-punk drumming the kids love so well, and it's serious music without getting too caught up in itself. it's pretty close to a perfect rock LP, IMHO. but I don't listen to rock music. buy it or download it from iTunes.

RJD2's Since We Last Spoke has caught a lot of flak from everyone from hip-hop purists to critics to the girl who sold me my copy at Kim's. I don't know why; seriously y'all, take your heads out from your bottoms. this album is groundbreaking, beautiful, and most importantly, shows a great deal of growth and innovation on RJ's part. he takes on a more rock-oriented sound on some tracks, preserves the ghosts-from-the-archives sound of out of copyrighted funk and soul tracks, and creates some phenomenal new tracks weaving all of the above together. his mastery lies largely in his ability to unearth forgotten or entirely overlooked vocal tracks from god knows when and match their inherent intricacy with his skilled production. he does it to death on this album, and for the last time, no, it's NOT hip-hop. get over it. he's been seen as a hip-hop producer until now, true, but why people have slammed him for playing around outside his old stomping grounds. if anything, I think he shows more potential on this new path than any of his solid-production-meets-whack-emcee semi-successes before. buy it or download it from iTunes. you'll love it. you really will.