~ These tracks are from the first three albums {CDs} that I ever purchased as a kid. Each in their own way, these songs and albums contributed to my tastes and began to build an interest in music independent from my parents.
~ I probably listened to Hybrid Theory 10,000 times in the year that I bought it. Linkin Park was a band that brought together several disparate styles (rap, rock, metal, pop) rather seamlessly. The lyrics of Papercut presented a tense and entertaining avenue into the band’s psyche {which permeates all of their music}. They’ve only become truly relatable in the years hence…
I know just what it feels like
To have a voice in the back of my head
Like a face that I hold inside
A face that awakes when I close my eyes
A face watches every time I lie
A face that laughs every time I fall
(It watches everything)
~ At my young age, I never should’ve been able to purchase a Limp Bizkit CD. Granted, it was censored {which ruined the flow of the music considerably}. But nevertheless, my brother and I listened to this early and often in those days. We even brought the CD to our after-school daycare and secretly shared the tunes with the other young kids, as though we were sharing some forbidden knowledge. Listening to the album that we bought back then, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, now and it … doesn’t hold up. That being said, Rollin’ is a banger. The lyrics are meaningless of course, it’s all about the motion and the fury of the ensemble of metal, blast beats and scream rapping.
Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ (what?)
Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ (come on)
Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ (yeah)
Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’
~ The Gorillaz were unlike anything I’d ever heard. Electronic music, with pop and hip-hop elements, full of a fictional group of bandmates making up a kind of virtual band. Clint Eastwood was how I discovered the group, and that was because its music video came on Toonami on Cartoon Network {which I watched religiously in my formative years}. The song is weird, mesmerizing, yet catchy. The video was a spectacle filled with visual themes of horror, monsters, magic and animation akin to all of my interests during that time. The full debut album of the same name was an eclectic mix of varying styles. Just from this song, I would continue to listen to the Gorillaz for all the years to come. Truly: possessed with one go.
Yeah, ha-ha
Finally, someone let me out of my cage
Now time for me is nothing ’cause I’m counting no age
Now I couldn’t be there
Now you shouldn’t be scared
I’m good at repairs
And I’m under each snare
Intangible
Bet you didn’t think so I command you to
Panoramic view
Look, I’ll make it all manageable
Pick and choose
Sit and lose
All you different crews
Chicks and dudes
Who you think is really kickin’ tunes?
Picture you gettin’ down in a picture tube
Like you lit the fuse
You think it’s fictional?
Mystical? Maybe
Spiritual
Hero who appears in you to clear your view when you’re too crazy
Lifeless
To those the definition for what life is
Priceless
To you because I put you on the hype shit
You like it?
Gun smokin’ righteous with one toke
You’re psychic among those
Possess you with one go
Thresholds of Transformation 