Which of the following is your favourite album?

i think you miss out on something there, phil. at least mlah, doolittle, passion, president yo la tengo and maybe disintegration are albums which i would have regretted if i had never listened to them in their entirety.

alex - i probably am missing out but i just can't seem to get past the sound of the recordings. my bad.

is phantastic. the first track alone, the instrumental la valse is worth the price of the whole cd. it's only about 90 seconds long, i think, but i could listen to it endlessly on repeat. a totally hypnotic, melancholic tune. the accordion is such an amazing instrument when played well.

i have never been a fan of hip-hop, that's why i don't own anything by de la soul. the only rap i kinda like is the rap which doesn't really sound as aggressive as most rap. some german rap (fanta 4), some french rap (mc solaar) and i also liked dc basehead. arrested development i found terribly boring though.

...would fall pretty firmly into the non-aggressive rap category; De La were pretty important in developing a more "conscious" strain of hip-hop, and I always thought Arrested Development were a pale echo of that. The album is fun and inventive and there are some clever samples; it makes diverting listening and you can get hooked quite easily. It's fair to say it's a "hip-hop album for people who don't like hip-hop"... or even "psychedelic rap".