Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind E.P.

4 stars

                The perfect 2009 bookend to go with their perfect early January 2009 release, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Fall Be Kind is a five-track continuation mini album for the New York trio that pieces together three unreleased tracks from the Merriweather Post Pavilion sessions and two brand new songs.

                The first track on Fall Be Kind, “Graze,” is one of those songs that is so incredibly good, you wonder why they left it off the full-length to begin with. A hushed two-minute intro leads into a kick-ass flute solo built around heavy electronics that has an amazing rhythm to it that only a band so on top of their game could have concocted. “What Would I Want? Sky” is the infamous track here that has the first ever cleared sample from a Grateful Dead song. Animal Collective use bits of “Unbroken Chain” off of the Dead’s From the Mars Hotel album to great effect here, and word is that even Phil Lesh is a major fan of the track. While Fall Be Kind is a short set, this is yet another Animal Collective E.P. that stands up strong on its own.

Blakroc – Blakroc

3.5 stars

                Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the indie-blues rock duo The Black Keys certainly had their hands full in 2009 even though they didn’t have an official new album out. Auerbach and Carney each released solo side projects earlier in the year, and now comes Blakroc, a rap-rock super group that no one could have predicted coming.

Armed with the precursor question “Do you ever like to f**k with rock n’ roll?” Blakroc is The Black Keys on guitar and drums while hip-hop mainstays such as Ludacris, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monche, Jim Jones and multiple members of The Wu-Tang Clan rap lyrics over productions all overseen by hip-hop mogul Damon Dash. At first glance, this album could have turned into a massive train wreck with the two completely different styles, but The Black Keys do an admirable job of creating instrumentals for these hip-hop maestros to use to their advantage. One of the best tracks here is “Coochie” which features a vocal track from long-since deceased Ol’ Dirty Bastard. RZA must have dug deep in the vaults of unreleased Wu-Tang Clan gems for that one. “On the Vista” and “Ain’t Nothin’ Like You (Hoochie Coo),” which both feature Mos Def, are two of the most cohesive tracks as well, but this shouldn’t be a shock since Mos Def is no stranger to incorporating rock music into his work. While Blakroc isn’t a masterpiece in the slightest, it’s a fascinating listen that fans of rock and hip-hop should seek out and absorb at least once if they haven’t done so already.