The Artist/Album: DJ Shadow, The Private Press (MCA, 2002)
The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: While we’re not about to deny the stone-cold-classic status of DJ Shadow’s debut album (1996’s Endtroducing…), its long-awaited follow-up is just as much of a sample-happy journey through whatever Josh Davis happened to feel like sharing from his hangar-sized record collection today. If anything, the iconic producer is at the top of his game here, the very definition of the “bad ass, motherfucking DJ” on “Walkie Talkie.”
The Private Press also includes some of Shadow’s tensest tracks, the kind of cuts that make you stop in your tracks and think about something other than trunk-thumping beats and bad ass breaks. Like our own mortality, which is hinted at in such haunting, career-high productions as “Six Days” and “Blood On the Motorway.”
Nearly a decade later, we can only hope that the strongest strains of this record are picked up on LP No. 4, The Less You Know, The Better, which drops next month.
Available At: Amazon · DJ Shadow · iTunes
