The Friday Five: July 20, 2012

Friday Five : |ˈfrÄ«dā – fÄ«v| : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button in iTunes and share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up the media player of your choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

The Five:

“Always Shine (feat. Lupe Fiasco & Bilal)” by Robert Glasper Experiment (from Black Radio, 2012)

Think ’90s Acid Jazz turned on its head with some incredibly talented new school jazz cats supplying the samples live. Lupe Fiasco drops a Gil-Scott Heron inspired jewel while the criminally underrated Bilal casts the hook. Someone should whisper in Lupe’s ear and get him to hire Glasper for his next record; he’d have a hit!

“Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler (from Footloose, 1998)

Jim Stienman, you magnificent bastard. You couldn’t make this fly on your own, so you went and found yourself another enormous voice to carry it. Good on you, Jim. Good. On. You.

“Hard Candy” by Counting Crows (from New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall February 4-6, 2003, 2006)

I can’t lie, Counting Crows has lost me by this point. I couldn’t relate to Duritz’s point of view anymore. Maybe it wasn’t him, maybe it was me. Who knows, we’ve made up since then and it’s all just water under the bridge.

“Face Down” by Prince (from Days of Soundboard, 2007)

I miss this little purple motherfucker. Yeah, that’s right … motherfucker. I don’t even need him to start cussin’ again, but he ain’t been this funky since Jehovah took the wheel. Ain’t that a bitch.

Oh, and don’t even mention that “F.U.N.K.” noise. Sure, it’s funky; but it can’t sit in the same house as this jam, featuring eight live minutes of P on bass, sparring with Rhonda Smith.

“Take This Waltz” by Leonard Cohen (from The Essential Leonard Cohen, 2002)

There is a little too much Neil Diamond style schmaltz in here. In with a bang, out with a whimper. C’est la vie!

What’s on your shuffle today?