Disco de Why?: “Alopecia”

Yoni Wolf aka Why? mastermind, once a force in the juggernaut "hip-hop" outfit cLOUDDEAD (someone once said "they are to hip-hop as Nirvana is to, say, the blues"), returns with more of the same obtuse songwriting he has displayed since he began. He can create interest out of nothing, offering commentary on the minutia of everything from kitchen towels to white-boy auto-erotic literature ("only look at black and Puerto-Rican porno/'cuz they want something that their dad don't got") to sleeping positions, all subjects he flits between in a stream-of-consciousness fashion. Together with Andrew Broder and Austin Brown, Wolf complements his words with a mélange of hip-hop, new wave and twang, the trio capably realizing all sorts of mix-and-match experiments. After dozens of solo and group releases, Why? still manages to work a niche that thrives on ambiguity, forged ingenuity and unassuming trinkets, their own genre that only they know how to work.

Fun album to listen to, very cool artwork too. I definitely reccomend any WHY? listeners to grab this album.

Why? are certainly not mainstream. Bizarre cover art, and weird cryptic lyrics set to rap mixed with indie rock? That won't be getting played on the radio. But it's a fresh sound that doesn't get boring after repeated listens, full of interesting lyrics and melodies that keep you interested. It all sounds very personal.

I can tell you that you will get more value out of this one record than anything the mainstream artists will squeeze out this year.

Also, find Boards of Canada's remix of "Good Friday" if you can. It's just amazing.

For any excellent genre-blending/breaking music, it may be cliché and not particularly descriptive to say this, but I'll say it anyway because I mean it: Why? make music that sounds unlike anything else I have ever heard. And it is brilliant. It is complex, inventive, exciting, eminently tight, catchy, and thought-provoking. This is one of my favorite records by any artist. A friend burned this cd for me a few years ago, and I decided it was finally time to pay for it and get my own higher quality copy. Listen, enjoy, and make a point to get out and see them live, too. It's all worth your money.

I'm (slowly) making a vinyl collection and this was a "must" for my collection. I already own this in mp3 format, but it was worth the repurchase.