Favorite Danger Mouse projects? - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

ExTeaSea

Gender: Male

Love pretty much anything he's associated with, Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells and various collaboration albums, especially his most recent album with Karen O. Curious what everyone thinks and likes about him. He's pretty underappreciated honestly.

NewsFromHome

How can you be underrated if you’ve produced the most commercially successful albums from big pitchfork acts? I think he’s one of maybe 3 or 4 producers that my friends who aren’t really into music are aware of. That said, I don’t really care for him. Wide Awake and Danger Doom are the releases I gloss over the most from artists I like. His mashups feel kind of uninspired in the year 2020 where soundclowns are an art form.

Skinny
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NewsFromHome wrote:

How can you be underrated if you’ve produced the most commercially successful albums from big pitchfork acts? I think he’s one of maybe 3 or 4 producers that my friends who aren’t really into music are aware of. That said, I don’t really care for him. Wide Awake and Danger Doom are the releases I gloss over the most from artists I like. His mashups feel kind of uninspired in the year 2020 where soundclowns are an art form.

Interesting that you don't vibe with Dangerdoom. I think it's actually one of Doom's strongest, full of some of his most memorable verses, and accessible, almost shiny beats - 'Benzi Box' could easily have been a radio hit with the right promo - that make it stand out as fairly unique within his catalogue. The Adult Swim interludes are kinda irritating, but not thematically out of place, and I've certainly heard more jarring skits. It's not as brimming with ideas as some of his other projects, but I actually think it has a sense of focus that really benefits it - I'm not sure Doom has another album with the same level of clarity, either literally or figuratively. He may have sanded down some of his stranger impulses, but the rhymes are still super sharp and often hilariously cutting. Danger Mouse's beats don't have the same distinctive personality that Madlib's or Doom's own have, but they work in service of his flow and many of them are super memorable, if far from revolutionary. I would actually recommend the album to mainstream (1990s and 2000s) hip-hop fans as a perfect entry point to Doom, whereas I think his '99-'04 output probably has more that appeals to indie fans.
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NewsFromHome

You make a compelling case for it. The skits certainly aren't the worst thing and while the weird is slimmed down, it's certainly a very consistent release (if a little advertisement-y). In retrospect my dislike of danger doom might originate more from how I was introduced to it. 18 year old StuCo WASP dude, really into Bret Easton Ellis quotes, insisting on replacing every swear with "FELLAS" in tiny tim timbre while driving me around chicago blasting this album.

Spyglass
Resident Metalhead

Gender: Male
Location: The red dot on the map

NewsFromHome wrote:

How can you be underrated if you’ve produced the most commercially successful albums from big pitchfork acts? I think he’s one of maybe 3 or 4 producers that my friends who aren’t really into music are aware of. That said, I don’t really care for him. Wide Awake and Danger Doom are the releases I gloss over the most from artists I like. His mashups feel kind of uninspired in the year 2020 where soundclowns are an art form.

"Underrated" doesn't always apply to popularity. Quality and popularity are completely different things. You see, the radio companies are not looking for the "best" new songs, they're looking to fill an aesthetic. McDonald's, Budweiser, blockbusters. These are things that the populace find easy to digest, so they will typically make more money. If a song fits the pop-aesthetic and is of high-quality at the same time (depending on a common consensus), that's two good things about it. But high quality is a novelty that the companies treat as second-banana to the hit single.

I might be a noob, but I've been to these websites long enough to notice that the common consensus of an online community will greatly differ from the consensus of the fanbase. So the "rating" will occasionally be lower than the sales, which is why you don't see 21 here in Besteveralbums' top 100. So if someone says they are "underrated" on a place like this, that could possibly mean that they disagree with the consensus of the forum music junkie community made of people who had more practice and experience in music venturing as a hobby than the people looking for some quick singles to groove to. I'm not saying "one's right and the other's wrong," but it looks like the consensus from what I've seen in the Besteveralbum chart. If I mention Tim Hecker to my friends, they'll typically say "who's that?" And when I tell them that he makes incredible ambient music, they'll say something like, "you mean new age?"
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

NewsFromHome

There's a difference between asking my friends if they know Dr. Ambient and Gorillaz and The Black Keys though

Spyglass
Resident Metalhead

Gender: Male
Location: The red dot on the map

NewsFromHome wrote:

There's a difference between asking my friends if they know Dr. Ambient and Gorillaz and The Black Keys though

Besides the fact that one's not popular and one is?
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

ExTeaSea

Gender: Male

All I'm saying is his work isn't very highly rated on this site compared to other artists. I personally love his work, Rome, Dark Night of the Soul and Lux Prima are beautiful albums. Appreciate his use of various indie vocalist on Dark Night. Having Wayne Coyne, Jason Lytle, Julian Casablancas and The Shins guy all on one album is pretty wonderful IMO.

Tha1ChiefRocka
Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry.

Location: Kansas

Combing through his credits, the only thing he's done of note lately was produce on Parquet Courts' "Wide Awake", which was a great album.

Danger Doom & Demon Days would be the only other two I still care to listen to.

The Grey Album was always just a kind of a novelty, and I think Wugazi is better, as far as mashup albums go anyways.

baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts

Wouldn't call myself a fan or say he's underrated, but Grey Album is super fun and he's had his hands on some really good projects.

Haven't seen anyone mention his production for Michael Kiwanuka yet, and I think that deserves some recognition.
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