20 Odd Years

20 Odd Years is an album by Canadian hip-hop artist Buck 65. It was released on February 1, 2011, and is named in honour of Buck 65's 20 years in the music industry.^[1]

20 Odd Years EPs

The album was preceded by a series of four EPs, released digitally and on 7" vinyl: 20 Odd Years Vol. 1: Avant (released June 2010), 20 Odd Years Vol. 2: Distance (July 2010), 20 Odd Years Vol. 3: Albuquerque (August 2010), and 20 Odd Years Vol. 4: Cenotaph (September 2010).^[2] The album primarily collects songs from the EPs, including a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Who By Fire", but also includes two new songs.^[1]

Reception

Ross Langager of PopMatters gave it a seven out of 10 rating and called it "uneven but dynamic", complimenting Buck 65's "mix of subcultural influences is Canada’s [...] a dizzying, post-modern, multicultural stew".^[5] In consumer guide for MSN Music, critic Robert Christgau gave 20 Odd Years an A- rating,^[4] indicating "remarkable one way or another, yet also flirts with the humdrum or the half-assed".^[8] Christgau noted "Superstars Don't Love" and "Zombie Delight" as highlights, and commented that "Beholden to nobody's scene or purist myths, the Halifax-spawned, Toronto-based, Paris-savvy cult rapper makes beats his way—drum tracks of course, this is hip-hop like it or not, but with whatever on top, which here comes down to mostly female collaborators whose sonics subsume their considerable verbal input".^[4]

The album was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.^[9]

Track listing

1. "Superstars Don't Love"
2. "Gee Whiz" (ft. Nick Thorburn)
3. "Whispers of the Waves" (ft. Gord Downie)
4. "Paper Airplane" (ft. Jenn Grant)
5. "Stop" (ft. Hannah Georgas)
6. "Zombie Delight"
7. "Tears of Your Heart" (ft. Olivia Ruiz)
8. "Cold Steel Drum" (ft. Jenn Grant)
9. "Who By Fire" (ft. Jenn Grant)
10. "She Said Yes"
11. "BCC" (ft. John Southworth)
12. "Lights Out"
13. "Final Approach" (ft. Marie-Pierre Arthur)

Produced by Charles Austin, Buck 65, Graeme Campbell and Emily Wells.^[10]

References