Favorite Albums: 2000-2004
42. Northern State, Dying In Stereo
Original Position on my Stylus ballot: n/a
This album received a 0.8 from Michael Idov in Pitchfork. Idov apparently couldn’t fathom anything more “heinous” to come out of hip-hop than “smug, middlebrow, liberal condescension” from “Long Island lolitas…clearly children of privilege” with a “wrongheaded sense of entitlement.” “As if a group of haughty correctives from suburbia could somehow trump - or even start a meaningful dialogue with - the inner city.”
As you can guess, I’m not quite as outraged as Idov by three twentysomething women aping up-tempo Beastie Boys as they celebrate themselves and their left-wing politics. In fact, I think it’s pretty awesome. I can’t say songs like “The Man’s Dollar” and “A Thousand Words” trump - or even start a meaningful dialogue with - the inner city, but they match the energy and enthusiasm of the tracks from Check Your Head I bothered to keep (with no jazzy instrumental filler!), and do a far better job of injecting politics to the mix than the Beasties did in the Dubya era. The vocals on “At The Party” could be described as goofy and shrill, but if you dig Ghostface and/or Fred Durst like I do, goofy and shrill obviously aren’t dealbreakers.
