Hipster CD Collection: N

hipster CD collection
N

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Check out the CDs on Mr. Hipster's shelves.

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Nada Surf
[nada surf website]

Let Go

Nas
[nas website]

Illmatic

The National
[the national website]

Alligator

Imagine American Music Club after a venti mochachino and you pretty much have The National pegged. That's not to say this album is in any way spazzy. In fact, it's extremely controlled--almost to a fault. The lead singer's voice churns, just one eek higher than Calvin Johnson's grumbling baritone. He is sometimes joined by a female vocal that at least keeps the album from sounding like it's stuck in the swamp. While the album is far from unpleasant, with its Americana, folksy lilt, I can't help but feel like I have enough "wallpaper" albums that make this just another in a faceless stack.

Natural Born Killers

Soundtrack

The Natural History
[the natural history website]

Beat Beat Heartbeat

Trying to define hipness in music is very difficult. Some people think Radiohead is hip. They're not. Some people think The Strokes are hip. They're not (they try too hard). In my ultimate unhipness, I vote for the cooled out sounds of bands like The Natural History. Owing a lot to Elvis Costello and various other hip rock acts from the 70's, The Natural History doesn't make music to smash thing by, but will make you want to pick up the smoking habit, drink a beer and chill with a chick with a nose ring. The album sounds as if it were recorded in a loft in Brooklyn (it probably was) and singer Max Tepper not only sounds like the name of some kid I went to Hebrew school with, but also sounds like the dude, with his deep, raspy voice, I'd want fronting my band--if I had one. This is a very cool album, despite sounding like a lot like a Spoon practice session, and should be added to the collection of any blue blooded hipster out there looking for an album to do it to.

Naughty by Nature

Nelly
[nelly website]

Country Grammar

Da Derrty Versions - The Reinvention

Willie Nelson
[willie nelson website]

Milk Cow Blues

Nerf Herder
[nerf herder website]

Nerf Herder

Neutral Milk Hotel
[neutral milk hotel website]

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

On Avery Island

The New Amsterdams
[the new amsterdams website]

Never Mind You

Para Toda Vida

New End Original

Thriller

A New Found Glory
[a new found glory website]

Nothing Gold Can Stay

The New Pornographers
[the new pornographers website]

Electric Version

Mass Romantic

Twin Cinema

The New Year
[the new year website]

Newness Ends

A.C. Newman
[a.c. newman website]

The Slow Wonder

Is it my imagination or are the Canadians slowly becoming the new Brits? For years we have laughed at our neighbors to the North, asking them how many words they have for the word "snow" and wondering how they could love a sport that requires long underwear and a penchant for sweaty mullets. Now they have actually come up with some really good music--this album being one its truly shining stars. As the main songwriter for the fine imports, The New Pornographers, Newman has certainly stuck with their progressive-retro sound here, but mixed in a more eclectic sound. Somewhere between The Shins and early Tobin Sprout solo work, Newman creates a nostalgia and warm sound with his music that wraps you up like a good blanket, but still makes you wonder why more people can't write great pop music like this. There's just a relaxed cool to this album. It doesn't try too hard to be hip; it just is. We all know how horribly wrong solo albums can go, but Newman has certainly found his voice here, and it's the voice of the sunny 60's wrapped in the gauze of the melancholy of the late nineties, with a totally modern, 2004 slant.

Nickelback
[nickelback website]