DORFiest record ever

Wherein absolutely no contest


At one of the fake Slate.com blog, the androgynously named Jody Rosen creates the The DORF Matrix: Towards a Theory of NPR's Taste in Black Music. At the end we're asked to answer "What is the DORFiest record ever made?" The answer, obviously, is Paul Simon's "Graceland." No contest. Perfect record for the NPR crowd by allowing them to feel musically enlightened without actually having to be exposed to new music.

Let's review:

Dead -- Paul's career. Pretty much stone cold worm food by then, "Graceland" resurrected him and he's spent the last 20 years wandering the earth as a zombie. Though with only four albums these last two decades, not a very productive zombie.

Old -- everyone on the album

Retro -- Paul Simon, Everly Brothers, Linda Ronstadt (who did not refuse to play Sun City), Chevy Chase in the video

Foreign -- Heavily borrowed music from and lightly featured the artists from multiple African countries, and a few of the more ethnically exotic locales of the Southern regions of the United States. Then represented the faint shell of what made the original music interesting as something revolutionary and new.

I offer this up as someone who enjoyed the album and never understood all the over praise for this entertaining trifle.