Gene Hackman passing away had me kind of sad. I'm not a superfan or anything, but he was an excellent actor who had appeared in several movies that I think were really important to me. His Lex Luthor was a perfect blend of narcissism and malevolence, informing me early on about the best type of bad guy in a movie. Hoosiers is an obvious thing for a dude of my age - seeing him believe in those boys and will them to victory will never get old. Unforgiven was the first Western that I remember seeing that I didn't think was cheesy. I've come around on the genre after watching many more westerns, but back when that came out I had only seen the ones Doug Cooper played at camp movie night where everyone groaned and put up with the ketchup for blood and racist stereotypes. And I never saw Mississippi Burning until a southern history class in college and I can still remember how shocking it all was to me at the time. He's been in so many other things, those were just the ones that really stuck out in my mind after I learned he had died. Also, what happened to his dog, man?
Vince Staples - Dark Times. I missed his set at ACL, and am a little disappointed with myself for doing so. Always hard with the sub-headliners if I really want to see the big shows. But his low key, straight-forward delivery always hits for me. And the beats on here are solid too, even if not especially flashy. And he can drop a great lyric too - the one that keeps catching my ear as we go through this disc is in "Justin," where he's macking on a lady, and he seems to be doing well, and then when someone else knocks on her door, she introduces our hero as "my lil' cousin Justin." And then over the intro, he kind of mumble-whispers, "yeah, nice to meet you too." So awesome. You can just see it all in your mind's eye and that is so well done. The woozy ass beat on "Shame on the Devil" is dope for sure. But the top track is "Black&Blue," with 11 million streams.
That beat is more of a basic throwback that he gets to wander around on, but it works. he just kind of bops along over the top of that soulfulness, but the lyrics on that one really don't stick for me. "Little Homies" is kind of fun too, the beat reminds me of something else, and it is very danceable. Good album.
Childish Gambino - Bando Stone and the New World. Terrible disc. I take back all the nice things I said about his last album. The only redeemable tune on here is the Khruangbin one because he doesn't really do anything on it and they just groove. As usual with rap music, way too long at 17 tracks and an hour long, but it feels, uh, like, angry? Not angry, more like antagonistic? Like he wants me to not like it? You know how Kanye's most recent handful of albums lost all of the warmth and cleverness that made his original three albums so singularly amazing? Well, this is a lesser Kanye trying to pull the same unpleasant, electronic tweak. The opening song is a great encapsulation of that with a jarringly bad electronic track and unintelligible lyrics and space murder sounds. I hate that one for sure. Lots of R&B, less straight-on rap on here, which is always a disappointment as well. The second track is the biggest one, "Lithonia" has 66.4 million streams.
All very bombastic and self-important, like a potty-mouthed musical number intended to be sung by an army of over-eager college theater majors in a future off-Broadway production of Gambino's as-ye-unwritten musical entitled "I Am Serious." By the way, the real song does not end with bloodcurdling screams and whatever that was. "Got to Be" piqued my interest just because he threw in some recognizable samples, but it still doesn't create something as clever as those parts. But this is not an album made for me.
Jake Xerses Fussell - When I'm Called. Hell of a middle name. You really have to use that if you have been granted a name like that. A friend of mine was a singer-songwriter for a while, and his middle name was Thorn, which sounded dope as hell when he used that as part of his stage name. Zero recollection of how this homie ended up in my new music queue, but it is a really nice acoustic thing. He was raised in Georgia and now lives in North Carolina, the son of "song-collecting folklorist parents," and it all checks out. From digging around, it sounds like these are his original arrangements, but of old folk songs that otherwise would likely have been forgotten to time. They're beautiful. The combination of guitar and violin, playing together as he warbles along, in "Cuckoo!" is like a warm hug. "Leaving Here, Don't Know Where I'm Going" sounds like a Townes Van Zandt lament, carried along by gently finger-picked guitar and piano chords. Low stream count is sort of unsurprising here, but the last song is actually the most streamed, which is kind of odd. "Going to Georgia" has 263k streams.
Like the rest of the disc, just basic accompaniment and his warm voice meandering along over the top of it. Again, feeling the TVZ comp. Really a nice disc of songs. I love it.
Foster the People - Paradise State of Mind. I can't decide on this disc. It glides by without really making an impression as I work, but if I actually focus on it and pay attention, I kind of dig the funky wiggle of it. But then I go back and start it over, and if I really listen to it, my ears glaze over with the slick production and falsettos and sameness of it all. Nothing in here really grabs me as the reason to keep the disc around. The top track is the second one, "Lost in Space," with 9.7 million streams.
That definitely has some funky wiggle to it, with some classic disco thievery being brought to today. But again, it just kind of washes through and leaves nothing behind when I'm done. Probably more fun to see live than to try to parse at your desk. I'm good without this disc.
