Tuesday, November 9, 2010

BRING ME THE PHONEBOOK OF MARK RONSON

I've been a fan of Mark Ronson's work for a while.  I love the stuff that he produced for Amy Winehouse, I love the "Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" remix that he did for Bob Dylan, and his solo albums come off like great parties with incredible music jams (much like the N.A.S.A. album that came out last year). But for a minute, I was wondering if he could do anything outside of his vintage soul with horn section sound. On his new album, Record Collection, he kind of jumps from the '60s to the '80s, drops the horns and picks up bands of synthesizers.

My favorite track is "Bang Bang Bang" which features Q-Tip (who has appeared on all three of his solo albums) and Amanda Warner of a group called MNDR.  But there's also a great jam called "Glass Mountain Trust" featuring D'Angelo - and where the hell has he been? If you just heard this in the background, you'd be excused for thinking it's a Cee-Lo joint. But D sounds excellent on this track, and hopefully it will inspire him to get back into the game!

I also dig "Lose It (In The End)" with Ghostface (who sampled Amy Winehouse's Ronson-produced "You Know I'm No Good," which is where I first heard it, and probably lots of other people too). Then there's "Somebody To Love Me" featuring Boy George. Come on!  Who has that kind of game, to get Ghost and Boy George on the same album! 

Anyway, if you don't know Ronson by name, you probably have heard some of the music he has worked on, but do yourself a favor and buy one of his albums (I love his last one, Version) or download some tracks. 

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