i received this record in the mail a couple of months ago and it has been getting regular spins. i meant to get this review out sooner but the 2007 list took more nerd effort than originally planned.so anyways, this defendant be: mark ronson. anyone who knows and loves '100 days, 100 nights' by sharon jones & the dap-kings should get this record (then again to know 100 days is to love it). i digress. in reality this should be by mark ronson & the motherfucking dap-kings because they appear on all but one track and are the main reason why this album is so fucking good. the dap-kings are also the daptone label's house band, playing together on a bunch of releases since 2002. whether they are at the forefront of the track ['god put a smile upon your face'] or just helping the groove move along ['pretty green'], they own. plus that funky drummer is something else altogether. considering he produced many blog-loved acts [amy winehouse, lily allen], many 'music superstars' [christina aguilera, robbie williams], worked with big names in hip hop [mos def, ghostface killah], worked with big names in guitar [jack white, rivers cuomo] and has been approved by jay-z, mark ronson has not gotten the attention in america he deserves. anyone remember how every motherfucker everywhere gobbled up those cockblasts fall out boy after jay-z approved of them? wot's... uh the deal. anyways, the latest release from mark ronson is comprised of covers minus the three mini-tracks using the word version. all of these songs i had heard before and although i wasn't super familiar with a few of them, they all are excellent funked up reinterpretations worthy of the dancefloor--be it nyc club or london discotheque. anyone looking for an ass shaking good time or like being reminded of the soulful motown and stax days of yore should look no further.
r and b/soul newcomer daniel merriweather helps ronson piece together the smith's 'stop me if you've heard this one before' with the soon to be coverversioned 'you keep me hanging on' by the supremes ('stop me' was #80 in rolling stones top 100 songs of the year). and taking the pasty whiteness of coldplay and replacing the piano and vocal melody with the openly blackness of the daphorns is an excellent way to kick off any album, let alone this one. he also brings ol' dirty bastard back from the bone orchard to help him remake the britney spears made famous but not written by her 'toxic' as the albums only straight ahead attempt at bridging new school hip hop (old school hip hop influence is found all over). other times he brings in the original writers [kasabian, maximo park's lead singer] to help him along. other collaborators include lily allen, amy winehouse, kenna, phantom planet and santo gold. (whoever the latter is.) mostly british songsmith work was selected for this record [radiohead, the jam, the zutons, kaiser chiefs, the smiths, the charlatans, coldplay] but there is some flag waver tuneage [kings of leon, ryan adams, the aforementioned spears] as well. for a club dj, mark here has shown his inner funk and soul that is apparently worthy of the dap-kings, which makes it worth my time. not that my time is ultra-valuable, but it's the same time that paris hilton gets. shit. anyways, mark ronson was also just a part of rhymesayer's tribute record to michael jackson. it's also probably totally worth looking in to.
so honestly, i never thought we'd get anything remotely popular (well, anything at all when this started out) for review on this site ('versions' was #2 and double platinum in the uk and mark was nominated for a few grammies with his amy winehouse work and overall 2007 production output), but this is great. who knew that making fart jokes and finding new ways to call people gay (elton john's mouth is a cockholster) would reap such killer benefits? tits!
arbitrary grade: that hooker didn't have vd!
mark ronson feat. lily allen - oh my god
mark ronson feat. the daphorns - god put a smile upon your face
mark ronson feat. amy winehouse - valerie
mark ronson feat. tiggers & odb - toxic
mark ronson feat. kasabian - l.s.f.
kaiser chiefs - oh my god
coldplay - god put a smile upon your face
the zutons - valerie
local h - toxic
kasabian - l.s.f.
check out the video for 'oh my god' with lily allen here.
ps. i know that there should have been at least a metric fuckton of linkage, it's just that i'm lazybones.
go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't
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