Duck Rock (studio album)
by Malcolm McLaren

nice African rhythms mix in hip hop and good fun

From OldToad 02/18/2020 22:42

I need to raise this album on my top 25 list--just for how often I play it, and how much I love every single second of it, it needs to be in my top...2, probably, 5 at least. There are so many layers of meaning in this album. It's a true masterpiece--not timeless or ahead of its time, but perfectly of its time so that people of the future can listen back and relive that time, feel nostalgia for a time they never knew. I love that kind of thing, don't you?

So...the supposed problem is that it's Malcolm McLaren. We're supposed to have feelings about him. He tried to write his history of the Sex Pistols, they came back and wrote their version over his, and we're all now supposed to think that he's a sham and a dick. But...it's Johnny Lydon who swung to the right...he's a Trump apologist, you know. Malcolm McLaren was left as left can be, boy, he wouldn't swing right, and you know that. I'm just saying, the villainizing of McLaren that the Pistols talked us into was not fair. This really is a genius album, and yes, this person Malcolm McLaren actually did that.

The radio interludes of the World's Famous Supreme Team stuff, is just as musical and just as note-perfect as the music is. As I mentioned, there are layers on layers of meaning, and the interludes are essential to that, they're the farthest thing from filler. The music? It's f-ing brilliant--having an African chorus singing the chants of NYC jump rope girls...it's bliss. There are instrumental tracks--this guy was not a poseur, not on this album anyway, the musical substance is completely solid.

The only slight downgrade from a 100 rating is for the filthy last tune--it's fine, I'm not a prude, but I can't really play this in mixed company, and there's no real reason to take it there. Other than that, by my lights, a majestic and glorious work, easily the best album of the 80s for me.

From paladisiac 05/24/2018 19:18

Not only is this duckin' fun, but sounds like it was a big influence on 80s and 90s hip hop, along with dj sounds of the 00s and 10s.