Song of the Day

**4/20/10

Ratatat - Cherry

---------------I trolled around on Pitchfork.com today to find some new albums released today (Tuesday is the official unofficial release date for most albums, by the way), and I wasn't satisfied with the attractiveness of the names on the list.

I saw one band named after what I swear is a character from Harry Potter (Deadelus, as in Deadelus Diggle?, nerds? anyone?), and a separation of a hotspot Florida city, Mi Ami. Not too appealing, let's be real here.

Some of you may have been waiting for me to talk about Ratatat. Ratatat is a New York City electronica duo of Mike Stroud and Evan Mast playing synthesizer and bass, respectively. Not always known as Ratatat, "Cherry is a tribute to the band's original name.

"Cherry" is a sweet-synth mass of Chutes and Ladders chord progressions and a minimalist bass line that's perfect for today of all days. This instrumental album is a prelude to the massive hip hop collaborations Ratatat would do on their next two LP's, working with everyone from Kanye West to Kid Cudi. "Cherry" is the final song on their debut full-length, 2004's Ratatat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW8VmSfYLAU

The Blueprint 3

So I know I'm a little behind on this one, but I bought (with that green papery stuff called cash) The Blueprint 3 Jay-Z's latest encore released officially-ish on September 11th.

I had a leaked copy of the album, but the inner music geek inside of me wanted the plastic, the celophane wrapper, and the album artwork. To get these treasures of tracks, I shelled out a phenomenal $17 for a copy (you're welcome, Jigga Man and Atlantic). This small fortune is now sitting amongst my very haphazard collection of cassette tapes, vinyl, and cds that are temporarily on my desk until I can move them to my collection.

Many of the tracks are produced by Timbaland and Kanye West, and a line of artists longer than Saturday morning at the DMV appear on collaborative tracks. Rihanna's chorus-belting role and Alicia Key's sultry cry take hold of "Run This Town" and "Empire State of Mind," respectively. Pharell, Kanye, Drake, and Kid Cudi take hold of the B-Sides.

I still haven't formed a definite yay or nay to this one. It may take me a few more listens, for while I may acquire leaked tracks early on, I sometimes forget that I have them and the necessity to revisit material rears its head.

What do you guys think? Is Jay-Z's latest the greatest, or can you find way more than 99 problems with The Blueprint 3?