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Old 02-09-2020, 01:00 PM
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Default Re: Sounds of Science vs. Solid Gold - Best introductory album?

Quote:
Originally Posted by tuc70021 View Post
CYH covers a few different genres, which is an important part of understanding the band. But more than that, you get these genres right up front. Within the first four songs you've got rap, funk, and rock, and one of the rap tracks is Pass the Mic which casual listeners may connect to since it was kind of a popular track for mainstream audiences.

CYH is also not too long. Of what I'd call their three genre-defying albums (CYH, IC, HN), it is the shortest at just over 53 minutes while IC is just shy of an hour and HN is a grueling 67 minutes (I don't find it grueling, but in their 2009 commentary they say that they should have cut it short and that when they played if for their friends they were like "Oh wow... so it's still going?") I feel like for an "intro" album, you don't want to overburden people (which is the problem with Sounds of Science).

CYH was also their crossroads album. By their own admissions, this was the album when they found themselves as a band. The LTI vibe is dead by this point, but there are still references to mackin' on girls and flashy shit. At the same time, the conscious lyrics that would define much of their later work also shows up. So if someone were listening to it they might be like "Oh that 'you scream and you holla 'bout my Chevy Impala' rhyme is nice!" they could go back and check out Paul's Boutique; if they thought "Wow, they've got some deep shit to say here" they could check out IC and listen to Yauch given a full sermon on Mahayana Buddhism.

Anyway, my two cents.
I'm going with this for those reasons
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