Grimdark Parking Lot: My Thoughts: N.A.S.A.'s the Spirit of Apollo

Today I’m writing down my thoughts on a little-known (and I believe under-rated) hip-hop album entitled The Spirit of Apollo by N.A.S.A.

I first heard about this album when I was looking through Tom Waits’ website. (Tom Waits being one of my personal favorite singers and songwriters). He had put an update that he had done a song for this album called Spacious Thoughts. Now, I was expecting this song and album in general to be some type of Alternative Rock/Indie Rock. Imagine to my surprise that it was a hip-hop album!

I then thought, “Hmm…if this hip-hop album is cool enough to include Tom Waits, then it’ll probably be cool enough to listen to.”

I mainly bought the album for the Tom Waits song. The music video for Spacious Thoughts was on the website, but I wanted the album to hear what the rest of the songs sounded like. Sure enough, I went to Best Buy, bought it, played it, and I liked it. And I don’t like a lot of hip-hop albums either, very unusual purchase for me, because I’m more into classic rock or just rock in general.

It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting because I was expecting to only enjoy the Tom Waits song. But all the songs were very enjoyable to listen to. I agree with the A.V. Club's review of the album that there’s something for everybody who listens to this album. Every song on Spirit of Apollo features different artists, mostly hip-hop or even something different like David Byrne of Talking Heads fame or Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Even for someone as greenhorn as me to hip-hop artists recognizes some names such as most of the Wu-Tang Clan (RZA, Ghostface Killah and they even had Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who I guess they recorded before he died.) They also had some old school hip-hop artists like KRS-One, Chuck D and Chali 2na and newer artists like Kanye West and Santigold.

All the songs (in my opinion) had really good beats. I originally listen to the album in my car and I think I was just bobbing my head to the rhythm for most of the ride. The initial Tom Waits song, the very reason why I gave this album a second glance, is really good. It’s him paired up with a rapper named Kool Keith, who I’ve never heard of until this album. It’s such a different contrast between the two singers, Kool Keith has a more lighter standard voice and Tom Waits sound like some gravelly-voiced demon. In fact, many of the
songs have that type of contradicting voices singing.

Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable and fun album despite my unfamiliarity with hip-hop. If you ever see it, give it a chance. You might be surprised. I know I was. =)

I’ll be listing my top five favorite tracks from Spirit of Apollo (in no particular order). Keep in mind, all of the music videos are animated and can get from fairly trippy to “what the hell did I just watch?!”. I was going to post commentary on the songs but I think I’ll let the songs speak for themselves. Drop a comment and let me know what you think of them.

1. The People Tree featuring David Byrne, Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, and Z-Trip