A Decade of Music (Also Some Poetry and Enneagram Stuff)

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Song #5 -



"Sugar for the Pill" - Slowdive

There once was a band ‘cross the sea
Who constantly gazed at their feet
Broke up for a bit
Came back in a fit
and released the most beautiful doggon delilah song i’ve heard in my entire life

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Album #4 -



Blonde - Frank Ocean

I’m in front of you, I don’t need to accept you on Facebook.

One of my favorite moments on Blonde is a brief guitar solo, about halfway through “Self Control,” but I didn’t even notice it the first few times. It’s not showy, but it’s definitely there. Like a good friend, Blonde doesn’t yell at you—but once you’re clear-headed enough to actually listen, what’s being said somehow seems very wise.

Keep a place for me. I’ll sleep between y’all, it’s nothing.

Friendship, love, and sex are all over Blonde, and they pretty much always lead to heartbreak. No matter how well Frank connects with his audience, he doesn’t always seem to connect well with the people around him, and that just makes him even more relatable.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t devastated. But you could’ve held my hand through this, baby.

The original title to this album was “Boys Don’t Cry.” Can I just say how thankful I am that this person—who is often proclaimed to be a voice for millennials and was accompanied by his mother to President Obama's final state dinner at the White House—is a bi-sexual black man? Here, honesty and vulnerability are valued above all else, as if these two things could possibly be the panacea for an entire generation. That is, if people can be brave enough to stop treating their scars as things to be bragged about or covered up.

Hope you’re doing well, bruh. Everybody needs you.

I think Blonde is a healthy type 6. According to the Enneagram Institute: “Able to elicit strong emotional responses from others: very appealing, endearing, lovable, affectionate. Trust important: bonding with others, forming permanent relationships and alliances.”

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Song #4 -



“Are You… Can You… Were You? (Felt)” - Shabazz Palaces

it’s not your rims
your clothes
your hos

it’s not hip-hop
some bars
a beat

it’s not the melody
what they say
or if it’s lit

it’s not showing off
instant credibility
pass the aux

it’s not their childhood
their suffering
or yours

it’s not how it sounds
it’s not where it’s from
it’s not what it looks like

it’s a feeling

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Album #3 -



Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom

I’ll keep this brief. If you know, you know—and if you don’t, well, let me un-ironically say Joanna Newsom makes me proud to be an American. One might argue that Have One On Me has an unfair advantage on lists like these for being three discs and over two hours long.

Well, duh!

The sheer generosity of lyrical and musical content on this album has killed the desert island disc question. It’s both the oldest album on this list and the one I’m furthest from “finishing.” Ten years of studious listening has revealed so much, but most of all this: history will be kind to Have One On Me—and the larger the scope, the kinder I expect it will be.

I think Have One On Me is a heathy type 2. According to the Enneagram Institute: “Become deeply unselfish, humble and altruistic: giving unconditional love to self and others. Feel it is a privilege to be in the lives of others.”

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Song #3 -



"Bravado" - Kirin J. Callinan

kirin the jester of pop
take him seriously.
but not so much
you don’t laugh

here i stand
neck in a noose
naked and alone
Alas! Poor Yorick!

sounds like a guitar
but that’s too high
if i let myself cry,
well who knows

sometimes
i just sail away
what’s that mean
could it possibly be?

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Album #2 -



Cosmogramma - Flying Lotus

For years, Cosmogramma was obviously my favorite album of the decade. It wasn’t even a question, and I couldn’t imagine anything else that could come along and take its crown. I’m not going to wax philosophical about how it relates to the universe or whatever. Here are some things from each track that still get me:

“Clock Catcher” 0:00. No countdown, just liftoff.

“Pickled” 0:23. The moment Thundercat became a star.

“Nose Art” 1:34. Those syncopated bass drum kicks, good grief.

“Intro//A Cosmic Drama” 0:31. The strings are a fanfare announcing the arrival of a total master 100% in his zone.

“Zodiac Shit” 0:24. One time my bro and I were listening to Cosmogramma while watching The Adventures of Prince Achmed and the beat came in right as the royal envoy started dancing in unison and it totally wigged us out.

“Computer Face//Pure Being” 1:39. When the synth chords drop out and then come back in at 1:56 it’s the musical equivalent of those “oddly satisfying” videos.

“…And the World Laughs with You” 1:59. All the disembodied Thoms form a strange choir—it’s heavenly from one perspective, hellish from another.

“Arkestry” 1:00. Where are the drums taking us?

“MmmHmm” 1:19. Synthetic bird chirp beckons us on.

“Do the Astral Plane” 0:44. Thank you FlyLo for honoring the memory of J Dilla and delivering the most wonderful walking bass riff of my life.

“Satelllliiiiiiteee” 0:43. Nicki Minaj holding her nose.

“German Haircut” 0:46. Drums get a little extra loose and sax responds in kind.

“Recoiled” 2:53. Haha you thought it was over. Take a peek behind the curtain.

“Dance of the Pseudo Nymph” 1:24. Thundercat goes above and beyond.

“Drips//Auntie’s Harp” 0:45. Only in FlyLo’s world do 8-bit video game blips belong in transcendental music.

“Table Tennis” 2:29. Acoustic guitar? We must coming out of it.

“Galaxy In Janaki” 0:18. Ok, you made it back from your trip. Here's your homecoming banger.

I think Cosmogramma is a healthy type 5. According to the Enneagram Institute: “Attain skillful mastery of whatever interests them. Excited by knowledge: often become expert in some field. Innovative and inventive, producing extremely valuable, original works. Highly independent, idiosyncratic, and whimsical.”

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Song #2 -



"Flamingo" - Kero Kero Bonito

have you ever seen a baby flamingo?
they’re born with no color
not a rainbow but
that’s cool too

Pink!

if a flamingo ate a bunch of:
kiwi
peaches
strawberries
and juicy plums
it would look like a sunrise made of sherbert

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Album #1 -



To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar

What’s wrong, n****?
I thought you was keepin’ it gangster?
I thought this what you wanted?

They say if you’re scared, go to church
but remember, he knows the Bible too

I’ve mostly considered it a great comfort that Lucifer was cast out of heaven. It was hubris and the resulting downfall, spiritual justice, another mark in the ‘win’ column for the good guys. What is less comforting to think about is this—Lucifer, who has seen both sides, has all the intel he needs to completely ruin us all. When C. S. Lewis takes on the perspective of a demon in The Screwtape Letters, it’s gothic horror-comedy; when Kendrick Lamar does it in the “For Sale?” interlude of To Pimp a Butterfly, however, it’s the most beautiful moment on the album, complete with sing-song vocals, pillows of jazzy keyboards and harps, and lyrics that beckon you to join in. “Lucy” knows all our greatest weaknesses, how broken we are, and most of all how easily we can be tempted.

How can we be better to each other?
This is the crucial question on the surface of TPaB, and in a decade full of bullying, racism, and mass shootings, it was exalted by some and despised by others for its political messaging. Take “Alright,” for instance. If you want, you can hear Fox news anchors talk trash about it on TV (or re-appropriated on Kendrick’s follow-up album, Damn). If you’d rather, you can also hear it being chanted by protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally in Cleveland. That kind of context makes me want to be far more judicious when describing a song as “culturally relevant.” No matter anyone’s agenda, or how dark it may seem at points, TPaB is a record about hope. It’s the type of record where (on “Institutionalized”) a police siren morphs into a clarinet—as if pulling the trigger of a gun might one day reveal a blooming red rose.

How can we be better to ourselves?
This is the crucial question at the heart of TPaB, and the two most experimental songs on the album, “u” and “i,” provide a clear answer: if we want to somehow transcend the psychological struggle that keeps us hateful and self-centered—if we want to put down the bottle, clear our throat, and answer the knock at the door—we have to first forgive ourselves. After all, “What’s love got to do with it when you don’t love yourself?” One of my favorite meta-textual factoids about TPaB is that the single version of “i” (which was kind of slight and therefore won Kendrick his first Grammy) was scrapped for the “live” version which appears on the actual album, and it makes all the difference. The N-E-G-U-S freestyle was instantly legendary—Kendrick saying once and for all, in case all the similes and metaphors weren’t quite clear enough, that he was black, proud as hell, and here to speak truth to power.

I think To Pimp a Butterfly is a healthy type 1. According to the Enneagram Institute: “Extremely principled, always want to be fair, objective, and ethical: truth and justice primary values. Sense of responsibility, personal integrity, and of having a higher purpose often make them teachers and witnesses to the truth.”

[Idioteque Stalker]

- Song #1 -



"Beth/Rest" - Bon Iver

the name Beth
is not a particularly cool name
and this song
is not a particularly cool song

but sometimes
you feel things
and cool
is the last thing
you care about

I think I’ll give Beth a call
I’m having a good day
and week before last
she baked muffins

[Idioteque Stalker]

That's it! Thanks everyone for reading!