51 EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION [122409]

Merry Christmas Eve.

As I write these words I am sitting what I believe to be the final mix of song number 52. With any luck, I will be done with this deal before I leave for the holidays on Thursday morning. Here is this week's song:

Download 51_Extraordinary_Rendition_122409.mp3

Download 51_Extraordinary_Rendition_RADIO_122409.mp3

Blog!

Blog love is still trickling in, despite the early-fall halt of my internet self-promotion campaign. I made the songs-of-the-year list at Boston Band Crush. See for yourself if you don't believe me.

The Song, Quickly, So We Can Do More Superlative Playlists

You'll notice that I take a not-entirely-focused swipe at inverting (subverting? I don't know) the definition of the term "Extraordinary Rendition" to mean something along the lines of "an exceptional instance or performance of a song."

The beat is hot, and that's mostly Tuck Digz' fault. I took the backbone of the beat from a 4-minute drum bullshit that we committed to the hard drive during our string of collaborations in weeks 42, 43, and 44. Tucker did the drum performances to a click through his Roland 505 groove box, but we didn't quantize them, so there is a satisfactory amount of feel to the drums, I think. Also, check once again for live tambourine and cabasa. Live hand percussion is starting to become something of a trend, here.

Perhaps most importantly, I think I managed to make the vocals pop without relying on boosts in mid range frequencies, which should make this tune slightly easier to listen to. Let me know if you hear anything goofy. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

More Superlative Playlists

Inclusion in the playlist "Best Thematic Follow-Through" requires that (1) a song presents a unique thematic angle or viewpoint, often by way of lyrics, and that (2) I don't suddenly forget about the theme and start rapping about other things halfway through. Item (2) is a bad habit of mine that might have been exacerbated by the time constraints of the project. Let's reward me for staying focus:

04 Last Words
08 Horse Thief
10 Jacques Cousteau
14 Dirge Nowitzki
15 Playing in the Kitchen
18 He Was Sad
26 Superhero
48 Despondent Clown Rap

Download 52pickup_Best_Thematic_Follow_Through.zip

Best Beats. Subcategory: Fuck Your Speakers Up

08 Horse Thief
22 Pimp Armstrong
30 Rumble
31 Sit There (Get Your Head Right)
41 Bad Motherfucker (outro only, but holy shit, what an outro)
42 Company Man

Download 52pickup_Best_Beats_FYSU.zip

Now let's do Best Beats, Subcategory: Use of Tasteful Discretion

21 Body
25 Your Beats
38 Self-Destruct/Flower People (Self-Destruct section, mainly)
45 Que me pasa
49 Lap You

Download 52pickup_Best_Beats_UOTD.zip

Done with that!

Links

Obama to WaPo: "I didn't campaign on the public option." Of all the things he could have said that might have been true, I'm fairly sure that this was not one of them. Ugh. What to do, what to do.

That's all I have, folks. Time to go finish this project up.

Song details: (T.Dawson/A. Kinkopf). Mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, Cambridge MA.