Quick Hits, Vol. 19 (Chet Faker, Restorations, Azealia Banks, How to Dress Well)

Chet Faker - Built on Glass.  Aussie electronic guy.  The album opens like Trolley from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood decided to make an electro slow-jam with a crooner.  Austin radio has been pimping "Gold" pretty heavy for a while, and I like it well enough.  Here is "Gold,"

That is the finest rolling skating I think I've ever seen.  Although I have no clue what the song has to do with midriff-baring roller skaters, its a good tune.  The rest of the album is similar, chilled out electro with a kind of mumble-y singer over the top.  An R&B-flavored, slo-mo-electro thing.  I've never heard of Kilo Kish, but the collaboration "Melt," is a pretty awesome sultry, breathy slink.  The guy got his fame through covering Blackstreet's "No Diggity," which is a pretty ballsy move, but he actually turns it into a downtempo synth groove that is funny but still a jam.  This is interesting music that I could listen to again, but I likely won't keep it.

Not music, but interesting article on five thirty eight about the true definition of Austin's city limits and the flight of people out of the increasingly expensive city core.  I went back to my old Junior High school a few weeks back, which is located on the east side of Austin, and was struck at how different the neighborhood is 25 years later.  Some of the houses are still tiny, wooden homes with chain link fencing and carports, while many of those lots have been replaced with architectural, large houses.  Weird to see.  Hard to believe that Austin-metro now has 1.7 million freaking people, with the real "city" (@ 800k) being larger than San Francisco, Detroit, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Baltimore, etc.  Weird that we have no professional teams and still miss out on some of the big concert schedules.

Restorations - LP3.  One of the Grantland top ten albums of last year I listened to previously, but this one stuck with me for a while.  Some 90's alternative flourishes in driving, earnest rock and roll. Their most-listened to tune off the album is "Separate Songs," which only has about 60k listens, but is a kick ass tune.  "Imagine going outside to hear the sweet sound of separate songs."

Dig it.  The rest of the album is similar - pounding rock and roll with heart on the sleeve and fist raised.  Good stuff.

Azealia Banks - Broke with Expensive Taste.  Much hyped New York rapper who finally got her album out after years of issues with a label.  Odd beats, with less typical rap thump and more island-flavored bounce, techno click, or funk bass with horns.  Oh, and the super weird beach-boogie "Nude Beach A Go-Go."  Her lyrics are so blazing fast it is hard to decipher all that she is rolling through, so while I am impressed by the speed, I'm not entirely sure that she is saying much of anything.  I listened carefully to the frenetic techno-rap of "Desperado," and it appears to be about her looking good and being badass, but the lyrics are super dense.  I don't even know the words she is using sometimes.  Even without understanding, the flow of her lyrics is excellent - I wish the music/beats were more appealing to me.  Her big hit a few years ago, which is only out now officially, is "212":

Not quite as speedy as some of her other tracks, this still gives you an idea of the quick delivery and non-traditional beats.  Next-level smack talking going on there.  Later, she says she is PYT and you be Billie Jean.  Which is awesome.  Majority of the lyrics seems to be about her being super high fashion and badass and way cooler than you.  Not my favorite music, but I'll respect the skills of her delivery.

How to Dress Well - What is this Heart?  Dude looks like a sad Manu Ginobli on the cover of his album.  Boo hoo, Timmy and Tony are going to retire some day!  He so sad!  He kind of sounds like a sad Manu Ginobli might if he tried to make an album - its all spare electronic and tender quasi-R&B falsetto style. Super boring.  I think this was the last of the Pretty-Good Top 5, and it sure was an underwhelming list.

Quick Hits, Vol. 18 (Fat White Family, Joey Bada$$, The Decemberists, Kevin Gates)

The Fat White Family - Champagne Holocaust.  Rolling Stone noted that they were "Hot" something a few weeks ago, although I can't recall the category they won.  These dudes are a sloppy, English mess of guitar and keyboards.  I don't have the foggiest idea what I would call their sound - dirty indie?  Garage weirdo?  As if the cover art (cow/man with a big dong, bloody hammer, bloody scythe, and bottle in his head) wasn't foul enough, the lyrics don't rise up much above the lovely "Is It Raining In Your Mouth."

Right-O!  Somehow, that is the most listened to song of the band on Spotify!  I think I'm cool never listening to this again...

Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$.  Bring it.  After a few mix-tapes, this is the first true album from Bada$$.  New York rapper, he's got the cool jazzy sample sound of some other New York dudes.  The first time I remember this guy is from an A$AP Rocky song, so maybe he only hangs out with people who stylize their names with dollar signs.  Either way, the flow on here reminds me of old Nas or Tribe Called Quest.  "Big Dusty" is the first of second single off of the album:

Grimy voiced stuff over a laaaaid back, but still kind of aggressive, beat.  Laconically ominous? While getting asked to check out his style over and over is a little annoying, this is a good example of the great tunes on this album.  "Piece of Mind" is also money.

The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.  I loved their last album (The King is Dead) for its alt-country flourishes, R.E.M. homage, and well-spoken beauty.  I had the disc in my car for months - just never could bring myself to pull it out of the player.  I remember a few years ago that my friend Jordan asked me to go see them play a show at Stubbs, but I foolishly declined, saying something about Renaissance Faire nerd music.  So very wrong.  This is another good one, with more folk rock jaunty-ness and introspective hymns as well.  The opener brings Beck's sad orchestral music to mind.  "Make You Better" is the hit song:

Yes!  Ron Swanson!  Its an excellent love song in their love-sick, book-nerd style.  Because we actually aren't so starry-eyed anymore, and it feels right to sing about it.  "Lake Song" feels like a Nick Drake homage (and uses the word "prevaricate!") to evoke a lovely sadness in poetry about loss of a love.  "12/17/12" is a harmony-soaked, simple beauty that I thought was about Meloy having a son, maybe the kid's birthday, and along with one portion that I love, about how excited a father is when his son comes around ("How I waste my days wishing you would come around, just to have you around.").  But I just read that the song is actually about President Obama's speech given after the Newtown shootings, which makes the tune even more poignant.  Great album.

Kevin Gates - Luca Brasi 2: Gangsta Grillz.  Another mixtape from this dude, but not a throwaway mix at all.  Solid beats, more of the same lyrically (dealing drugs, getting paid, hooking up, etc.)  He even has a hashtag song (#IDGT = "I Don't Get Tired").  He also repeats "I don't talk on phones" about a jillion times in one song.  You're not solving world problems jamming this stuff out, but you'll feel imminently tough and badass.

Classics: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Have you ever had an album or song become imbued with the memory or spirit of a place or time in your life?  Clint Black told me all about it being funny how a melody can bring back a memory, and then Eric Church stole that thought recently to sing that its funny how a melody sounds like a memory.  (I mean, come on.  They make thesauruses just for that exact circumstance.  You had to say "melody" and "memory?")  I have a few albums like that in my life.

The Fleet Foxes are a Seattle band who created a lush, harmony-filled sound that brings old-English-y baroque-ness together with southern California 70's folk rock.  This whole 2008 album feels like historical fiction for the ears, twisting lovely harmonies up, around, and through beautifully picked guitar arrangements.  I don't think there is a single bad tune on the album.

"White Winter Hymnal."  The title, sound, instrumentation - it sounds like something the Appalachians would have sung to their kids at bedtime to warn about the evil Bluecoat northerners who killed pappy during the war of northern aggression.  But it makes me want to sing along as I drive the Pacific Coast Highway.  So I did.

The wife and I took a trip where we landed in San Francisco to spend a night before renting a car and driving up the coast to go to Gold Beach, Oregon for a few days.  I brought along 4 or 5 CDs in a small case, and this one ended up in the player for the majority of the trip.  For me, these songs are now soaked in my memories of the craggy, misty California coast, the dank, dark, quiet redwood forests, and the cold water of the Rogue River.  I think Ragged Wood is my favorite one:

That experience took an otherwise really good album to become a superlative one that I go back to all the time to enjoy that blissful feeling from the trip.  Such a beautiful area of the world and this music takes me back there.  If you haven't already heard this one, get out there and give it a listen.

Quick Hits, Vol. 17 (Nicki Minaj, Shakey Graves)

Nicki Minaj - The Pinkprint.  I've never been entirely sure what to think of Minaj in the past. Reviewers talk about her guest verses on other people's tracks like she is the undisputed greatest rapper of all time.  I don't know how many times Rolling Stone has cited her verse in Kanye's Monster, but I feel like they can't mention Minaj without again gushing over the outlandish and amazing flow of that spot.  It is good, but jeeez.

In general, I like he music that she has done in the past - her guest spots are solid, I dig Beez in the Trap, Champion, and I am Your Leader (less so the rest of that last album), and this album is good too.

She starts the album off on a downer, introspective note (the first three tracks, named "All Things Go," "I Lied," and "Crying Game") - and its actually really good.  Normally, don't bum me out when I want to jam rap, but those three tracks are good stuff.  Then she kicks in with a pretty salty beat and collaboration with Beyonce for "Feeling Myself."  Sounds like a beat from the Watch the Throne disc, and Minaj does her usual trippy, off-kilter flow to make a damn fine track.  The next song is "Only," the second hit from the album (ft. Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown):

That simple, ominous beat is money, and the lyrics are an odd ode to getting it on with Minaj (or at least Drake's are, Wayne's, as usual, start on that subject but then meander off into whatever he thought of that rhymed).  "Ass on Houston Texas but the face look just like Claire Huxtable."  Ha! Yes!  "Anaconda" is the big hit, which bites heavily from "Baby's Got Back," to less interesting results.  "Four Door Aventador" is a pretty good example of Minaj just rapping on a simple beat - no frills or weird voices, just clever wordplay.  The back half of the album is less interesting to me until the beat for "Shanghai" kicks in, which combines with some grimy ass lyrics about how tough she is to make a pretty strong track.  Slightly uneven, but overall a really good album.

Shakey Graves - And the War Came.  An Austin High graduate (Go Maroons!) who spent some time in L.A. before coming back home to make his odd style of music, this dude is a one man band who can jam out.  He has a great story about the stage name - it apparently came from a campout with friends when a drunk/high dude wandered through their campsite and muttered some weird phrase on his way out that ended with "spooky wagons."  So the dudes decided to make their own camp scary names, and this guy's was Shakey Graves.

I remember a video my brother in law showed me last summer that had this dude just going insane on the guitar, while singing, and while playing a kick drum and tambourine. I would hurt myself. Seemed totally impossible to me:

Wild, right?  Anyway, his first album is now out on the street and it is a good jam as well.  The track on the radio right now is Perfect Parts:

The rest of the album has this same feral, raw, lo-fi quality, although not all are this rockin'.  You've gotta throw in a few more tender tunes here and there.  Great stuff - I hope that he keeps it up and that I can see him live sometime soon.

I've gone done into a hole listening to old Wilco, so you'll just have to enjoy a slightly shorter QH for version 17.

Quick Hits, Vol. 16 (Mark Ronson, Pharmakon, War on Drugs, Ben Frost)

Mark Ronson - Uptown Special.  The lead single off of this album is a freaking weapons grade JAM.  "Uptown Funk":

That is James Brown, Prince, George Clinton, Sly, Flea, Claypool, and some more James Brown, all wrapped into something ridiculously amazing.  I straight up got goose bumps on my arms just listening again.  Bonkers!  Bring me more of that!  He uses a classic Stevie Wonder harmonica to open the album, turns freaking Mystikal ('member him?) into James Brown, and generally puts funk back into the pop scene.  I'd rather have an entire album of Uptown Funks, but as it is, Leaving Los Feliz, Feel Right, and Heavy and Rolling are good examples of the good groove on this album.  Nice.

Pharmakon - Bestial Burden.  Er, between the cover art (sketchy internal organs lying on someone's chest with their hands grasping on them) and the first track (which I'm pretty sure sounds like a lady showing her O face), this is flipping weird.  Second song "Intent or Instinct" is all ominous drums and distortion until about 3 minutes in, when someone starts screaming.  Not cookie monster sing/screaming, but literally like Possessed-by-Satan, full-throat, They-Just-Took-My-Precious-Give-Back-My-Precious screaming without words.  I'm pretty sure I've never heard a song on any album that is less pleasant than this experience. Yuck.  Yep, third song is all screaming (there may be words going on too, but I can't tell). This album really and truly sucks and I'm not going to finish it.  How in the world did it get into the Pretty-Good Top 5 list from last year?  Does everyone who reviews music hate themselves?  This is awful.

The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream.  Here is what I said back in December after this popped up in multiple year-end top lists: "After one listen, it is really good - sounds like a Ryan Adams album with some Springsteen sax and Cure synth. Wow, no, seriously, after listening again, I'm 90% sure this is a Ryan Adams album. A really good one, but still."  A few days later, I said: "I agree it was good, although after about 10 listens now, I think this may be more David Gray than Ryan Adams.  Either way, it is a really nice album."  Isn't it fun to just rehash what you previously didn't read that I said on this blog?  Super fun.  I should just quote myself all the time.  Anyway, totally sticking by my David Gray comparison.  This is good music that sad, old KGSR is going to play to death to the few people out there who haven't yet figured out that KUTX is the actual sound of Austin.  "Under the Pressure" and "Red Eyes" are both really excellent songs.

Ben Frost - A U R O R A.  Yeah, that "Pretty Good Top 5" apparently sucks on toast.  This is awful as well.  A lot of silence, a lot of noise, no lyrics, extremely discordant.  If you are putting this on your list of top albums, then you absolutely must work for Pitchfork, want acclaim as a "serious" music listener, or generally hate music.  I'm not sure if it is my allergies or this music, but I literally feel sick to my stomach right now.  "Venter" is kind of pretty, in a very bleak sort of way that also sounds like a late-90's video game soundtrack from Final Fantasy, but otherwise this album is el sucko.  Its like NIN made an album to finish their contract with a label Trent Reznor really, really, really hated. 

Quick Hits, Vol. 15 (Jungle, DJ Mustard, T.I., Run the Jewels, Bobby Shmurda)

Jungle - Jungle.  Jungle is a funny word when you write it two times quickly.  I wasn't sure if I had just typed Juggle or Bungle or some other weird word, and now staring at it to make sure I was right, it just looks like a funny word. Anyway, these guys strike me as modern soft rock.  Some Christopher Cross/Michael McDonald stuff going on here with their soft harmonies and synths.  Their label says Jungle makes "mesmeric, kaleidoscopic modern soul that’s unmistakably born in the UK but has true global appeal."  That may be true, I have no clue, but sounds lame.  Here is the single I have heard a few times on the radio, Busy Earnin':

Get yo dance on!  A friend had told me that he went to their live show and it was amazing.  From listening to their album, not sure I get that, but I'm also not a huge soul connoisseur, either.

DJ Mustard - 10 Summers.  Mustard is a producer who has been behind a slew of popular tracks for folks like Y.G. and T.I.  He is also one of those annoying guys who has to have the same little phrase intoned at the beginning of each song, with "Mustard on that beat, Ho!" at or near the beginning of every single song. (Although you might think it says "Muzzaonnabee oh.")  Also, according to the Internet, Mustard is the guy who came up with having "Hey!" repeated behind a beat throughout a song, like in Iggy Azalea's "Fancy."  No clue if that is true that he was the originator, but that element is definitely here in these songs.  This album is collaboration victory lap of sorts for him - full of guest spots from YG, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Jeezy, 2 Chainz, Rick Ross, etc.  The hit is "Face Down," with Lil Wayne, Big Sean, and YG.

Look at that mustard bottle chain!  Yes!  The beats are definitely good, although there is not a lot of variation between them so that listening to a whole album bleeds together to where you aren't sure if the song changed or not.  And the rapping is also uneven, as should be expected when 20 different guys are doing the lyrics.  All of that in mind, this is the kind of thing to just bump to in the background without trying to worry about paying attention to lyrics.

T.I. - Paperwork.  I kind of wish that T.I. had spent his time in jail more productively.  Paper Trail was a freaking top notch album - Ready for Whatever, Live Your Life, Whatever You Like, Swagga Like Us, No Matter What, You Ain't Missin' Nothing, I'm Illy - with the exception of "My Life Your Entertainment," I thought every song was great.  Since then?  No Mercy and Trouble Man were both pretty mediocre (Ha!) and this new album is more of the same.  It's not terrible, I still think T.I.'s laconic tone and smooth flow are great, and some of the beats on here are interesting, but when compared to Paper Trail, this is much weaker.  The hit is "No Mediocre" with Iggy Azalea, but other than having kind of a cool Carribean steel drum, Miami Vice soundtrack vibe to the beat, its pretty dumb.

Random aside - it really stresses me out when people don't check their e-mails.  I'm sure everyone has their own system, but I sat next to a guy at a dinner the other night and noticed that the mail icon on his iPhone had over seven thousand in the little red alert balloon above it.  WTF!  I'm sure its all spam and he totally knows what he is doing, but dude!  Check your e-mails!  What if Groupon had a great teeth whitening deal and you missed it!?!

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels.  I remember this coming out a year or two back (although Spotify lists it as a 2014 album) but I never could find it to listen to.  I dig Killer Mike's solo album, so it sounded like a good fit to me and Rolling Stone liked it.  But it is only now that #2 blew up and got a lot of critical love that I have actually heard the thing.  I like it a lot.  The beats are original and different with strange sounds like an F1 car speeding around a track.  My favorite one features Big Boi - "Banana Clipper" and has an 808 thump underneath some echoing reverb-y sound that reminds me of running a record backwards.  And Big Boi is a stud - love his tough sound.  "Run the Jewels" is also a keeper, ominous synth with breakneck tambourine and similarly speedy flow about ganking someone's stuff.

Bobby Shmurda.  I was driving into Dallas last fall and switched the radio over to K-one-O-fizzoh, like back in the days when I lived there.  This song came on (apologies in advance for the language, but the radio version ("Hot Boy") isn't the video):

That beat is freaking sick.  Super basic - low bass hits, high hat clicks, Kansas tornado sirens, understated synth, the caw of a crow every once in a while.  I immediately grabbed out my phone to Shazam the tune and figure out who it was, and found out about Bobby Shmurda.  Which was really too bad, because he appears to be a complete moron who happened to fire up one really hot track off of a beat he says he found on YouTube.  I watched this brutally long interview with him and something called Global Grind TV and holeee crap.  Not only does he come off as ridiculously dumb, but the fact that he is pushing a dance move from his video that appears to just consist of the most basic of moves (see about 2:22 in the video) is even worse.  Soooo, no thanks.

Quick Hits, Vol. 14 (Rae Sremmurd, Alvvays, Body Count, Radiator Hospital)

Rae Sremmurd -  SremmLife.  I could provide a detailed accounting of who these dudes are, but others on the web have already done a fine job of just that.  In case you don't go read that article, know that these are two young brothers from Mississippi who have used the terrible naming convention of using their new label's name, backwards, to create their group moniker.  I fully expect them to realize how dumb that is by their next album and to come out with a new name.  Either way, this is some strong Mike.Will.Made.It action right here, with bass-heavy, skittering, trappy beats and these two little dudes talking smack all over them.  This is fun rap - absolutely idiotic stuff: "Unlock the Swag" is like a stream-of-consciousness meandering through being pimp and high, over the top of some video game bleep/bloop and hi-hat coated bass bounce.  "No Flex Zone" was their big hit from 2014:

Wow.  Weird Science called and they want their graphics back.  And I see why these dudes are compared to Kriss Kross in the article above - they look and act like they are 15.  Still, this is a fun tune.  The album as a whole is uneven.  "Safe Sex Pay Checks" has a lame beat to go along with lame lyrics, and the majority of these songs are the type that just repeat a phrase over and over (and over), but there are a few on here that combine a sweet beat along with care-free rhymes.

Alvvays - Alvvays.  I just spent a whole day listening to this album over and over again.  I wish I had listened to it before the end of last year, because it deserves a spot in my best of 2014 list.  I've always liked Best Coast, and this has a similar feel - sunshine music and lovely singing.  "Archie, Marry Me" is so great - fuzzy Cali sunshine, verses about her man who isn't in to marriage and is too worried about the consequences, but she just wants to throw away the worries and get hitched, and a simple sing-along chorus.

Yes!  Fine love song, and its beautiful to boot.  The bright, pretty sound can sometimes obscure darker lyrics, like in "Next of Kin," which (I think) is a song about killing her lover.  Or it could be about quietly getting it on.  Not sure, but her repeating that his skin had no color seems like she killed him and tossed him in the river (so Warrant's Uncle Tom's Cabin!).  "Party Police" is another favorite, so much longing in there for him not to leave and just stay with her.  I wish I could take that song back to Junior High and throw it on all the mix tapes.

Body Count - Manslaughter.  Seriously, I laughed out loud when the first song came on. Remember P.O.D.?  This is P.O.D.'s straight-forward chug of cock-rock with Ice T yelping stupid things over the top.  "Talk shit, get shot!  Pop off, get shot!" etc.  In another tune, T goes back to rip off what Jay-Z ripped off from him, by re-doing his original "99 Problems," but stealing the crunchy guitar riff from Jay's "99 Problems."  For the record, Jay's reinterpretation is the best of the three.  They also re-do Suicidal Tendency's "Institutionalized" for modern times, which is actually pretty good.  Here's the thing, I will give Body Count respect for the absolutely real alt-metal crush they put together on this thing.  It's too bad that I still think of this as a joke project, because the music underneath Ice T's dumb growling is actually kind of awesome.

Radiator Hospital - Torch Song.  Super lo-fi, rock out with wild abandon.  I have no recollection of where I heard of these dudes, but this album is a fun spin of short rockers (longest song is 3:03, but no other song breaks 3:00 and I bet the average is 2:20).

This one slows their roll a little bit from the heady speed jams of "Leather & Lace" or "Blue Gown," but still a good tune.  Reminds me of the sunny, love pop of Alvvays up above.

Quick Hits, Vol. 13 (Spoon, The Libertines, Common, Ab-Soul)

Spoon - They Want My Soul.  Great album.  Solid from front to back and one of my top ten from last year.  I think the thing that I most enjoy on here is that you have classic Spoon rockers like "Rent I Pay" or "Do You," but then they shift it up a little bit with the more pensive "Knock Knock Knock," and then they just throw all that out the window with the super awesome Asian-influenced "Inside Out."

Reminds me of Coldplay going all in on the EDM movement - this is outside of the Spoon playbook, but it works and is a great, relaxed groove waterfall of a song.  Outlier is a feisty rock jam as well. Excellente.

The Libertines - Up the Bracket.  Across the pond, the Libertines were hot shit for a bit.  But their frontman, Pete Doherty, just couldn't keep from spiking his veins and getting on the front page of tabloids, so they split up a few years back.  I think they may be working things out now, but I thought I'd give them a shot to see if the music lived up to the hype.  Up the Bracket was their debut, a 2002 album that was met with a good bit of critical acclaim.  They straight tear into songs - Strokes-esque sound - with a little more punk than their New York brothers.  Good rock and roll stuff.  I think "Begging" is my favorite from the album.  Too bad the guy couldn't keep his crap together.

Common - Nobody's Smiling.  Kanye and No ID's fingerprints are on the production, as usual, for Common, with soulful samples and solid beats behind them.  This one has Common using a load of collaborators (although Big Sean is the only one I am familiar with) and I think it makes the album more uneven than his last ones.  Not a bad album, but Common is definitely the better rapper and story-teller on here - "Rewind That" is a good example. "Speak My Piece" is a cool bouncing beat sampling Notorious BIG, with Common telling all about Chicago.  "Kingdom" was the lead single, and the video intro is super intense:

Important film-making!  The plight of the lady drug dealer who still likes strip clubs!  I bet Snoop from the Wire would have gone to strip clubs if she hadn't been busy using nail guns on fools.

Ab-Soul - These Days...  I wanted to check this guy out after hearing him on some other people's tracks - he is part of the same collective as Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar.  Lyrically he varies between interesting and generic, but the beats he uses are dope.  For example, the banging "Hunnid Stax" with Schoolboy Q and Mac Miller is his most popular song off of this album.

Money is the answer, right?!  The beat makes you want to bounce all day, but the verses are all just dumb dope and money and getting action.  I've been thinking about this issue recently - I like this song.  Even though the lyrics are dumb, the fact is that it is fun to sometimes just jam a good beat and not worry about whether the lyrics are going to change the world.  Cool album overall, but the last track is this silly rap battle thing apparently in a room of other people, who keep oooooh'ing and ahhh'ing and psssshhh'ing as these two guys trade verses.  The verses are pretty sweet, but the people contribute their noises of pleasure at odd times.  Lame-o to them, hooray-o for the album.

Bass Drop Friday!

Happy Friday morning, people!

If you are anything like me, the whole EDM movement has generally passed you by.  I know a few of these dudes and have listened to some of it.  I even liked a few bits and pieces of what I have heard (Skrillex, Paper Diamond, Bassnectar).  But today, I offer up the hot bass drop hits of last year to get you pumped up for the weekend.

First, DJ Snake and Dillon Francis with Get Low.  Strangely enough, I first heard this at my kid's Christian youth camp.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm glad they didn't show him this video just yet.

Next up, Derp, by Bassjackers and MAKJ.  First heard this one before a Diabetes walk, again, with kids.  Once again, nothing wrong with the song and my kids, but the video would not be a good idea for my 6 year old daughter to see if I want to avoid teen pregnancies.

Finally, Rage the Night Away, by Steve Aoki and featuring Waka Flaka Flame (doing his best Lil Jon).

Go get 'em today, boys and girls.

The Rock Critic Hive Mind

Deadspin's Concourse (or The Concourse, or some other website that is owned by the same people as Deadspin, I swear telling the difference is flipping impossible on that family of sites) put out a cool meta analysis of the End of Year Music Best-Of Lists.  Check it out.  



While you are reading that and what I have below, enjoy this gem from the Alvvays album, Party Police.

The author notes that the annoying explosion of the "crowded internet-rock-critic ecosystem" has made the world so flooded with Top Album lists that it is nigh impossible to cut through the clutter and figure out what you should go listen to.  This is likely true, which is why I just look to the normal websites I read.  And which is why you should just come to me - I know everything.

But Mitchum goes to the exceedingly difficult-sounding trouble to compile all major staff pick lists into one spreadsheet, do some magical algorithm-ing, and have it spit out the consensus best music of the year (according to his weighted methodology and the collective group mind).  Strangely enough, he did not ask for or use my Top Ten List.

While he notes that many of the rock-leaning reviewers granted a large early lead to The War on Drugs, the weight of non-rock electro/rap reviews pushed the FKA Twigs album into first place, with St. Vincent right behind.  However, outside of that methodology that he created, the War on Drugs album would have taken first prize on average rating.

An unfortunate trend that Mitchum notes is that the lists appear to show increased homogeneity in the albums that are reviewed, so that the reviewers may not be casting as wide a net as they once did to find the true best albums.  Obviously, there is no way a single reviewer could hear and digest everything out there.  I am living proof.  The reviewers obviously didn't hear everything, or else Spanish Gold would have been in everyone's top ten.  Jokes aside, I want to see as much listening as possible, just so that the true cream of the year can rise to the top and be noticed.

Of interest, I am going to check out the "pretty-good Top 5" that he found - albums that place highly overall without making any top ten lists.  
"Ty Segall's Manipulator (no. 25) [nope, not on Spotify.  Lame.], 
Azealia Banks' Broke With Expensive Taste (no. 37), 
Pharmakon's Bestial Burden (no. 51), 
How to Dress Well's What Is This Heart? (no. 60), and 
Ben Frost's A U R O R A (no. 64)."  
I'll let you know what I think.  I also need to listen to FKA Twigs.  Although first, I should probably go listen to some teenagers say the name so that I know how it is pronounced.  In my mind, it sounds like Brad Pitt in Snatch, trying to say he doesn't like Iggy Azalea.

Finally, Mitchum's review of the Rolling Stone list is hilarious, mainly because I went through some of the same thoughts when reading and reviewing it.  Only two other lists even included U2's Songs of Innocence, and they had it as 33 and 44, not number 1.  And no other list included the dumb High Hopes album (the RS #2), Coldplay's new disc, or the underrated Lenny Kravitz disc.  Somehow, by being traditionalist and fuddy-duddy, Rolling Stone is the one reviewing outlet that is breaking ground.  Take that, Pitchforks of the world.

Quick Hits, Vol. 12 (Kaiser Chiefs, Guided by Voices, Alex G., Philip Selway, Beck's Song Reader)

Kaiser Chiefs - Education, Education, Education & War.  Fun album of poppy rock in the Franz Ferdinand mold.  This tune, Coming Home, is excellent.

With 2.3 million views, I am not the only one who digs that tune.  Must have been featured on an ABC dramedy recently.  "Roses" sounds like an attempt at the Flaming Lips.  "Cannons" is a rousing tune that repeats the album title in preparing for battle against the VIPs of the world.  The rest of the album is more of the same upbeat and driving, slightly punky, very English-sounding rock, and is very enjoyable.

Guided by Voices - The Best of Guided by Voices.  This is a band that the American Band Championship Belt post led me to.  I've heard of them for years but never given them a chance - this is solid indie rock.  Sounds like a bridge between the Replacements and Nirvana. 2001's "Glad Girls" is their most listened to song:

Just slightly poppier than the 90's grunge movement, but I still feel like these tunes would have sounded right in line on the Singles soundtrack.  I like it.  I'll have to dig in past the greatest hits and see what happens.

Alex G - DSU.  Kind of funny, for the first few songs, I didn't realize that the album had transitioned from Guided by Voices over to Alex G.  I remember Rolling Stone's review on this album, calling his music "dorm-room jams."  They definitely sound lo-fi, but I think they are great anyway.  If he really is playing all of the instruments and writing all of the lyrics himself, it is a damn impressive debut. "Harvey" is short, but is a keeper.

Overall, the album is very relaxed, but well put together.  Seems right for an earnest make-out session in your dorm room.  Someone give it a try and let me know how it goes for you.

Philip Selway - Weatherhouse.  I have no clue where this one came from.  Rolling Stone must have given it an interesting review.  Super chill-ville tunes.  Most popular on Spotify is "Coming up for Air:

Nice enough.  Album is kind of Radiohead-esque, but without the freakouts.  Nothing too exciting for me.

Beck and Friends - Beck's Song Reader.  (I think the actual title might just be Warby Parker Presents Song Reader Beck, if you read the album cover).  In case you missed it, in 2012, Beck put out a book of sheet music and lyrics as an "album" release.  http://www.amazon.com/Song-Reader-Beck/dp/193807338X.  He never recorded the music (that I know of), but the sheet music inspired a huge pile of people, famous and playing-in-the-bedroom-13-year-olds, to take a shot at recording his tunes.
Anyway, a handful of tracks are really good.  Norah Jones with a bluesy, fun "It's Just Noise," Jeff Tweedy, fun., Lord Huron (who I always forget about but need to listen to again), Laura Marling, and even Beck's take on his own "Jacob's Ladder."  Jack White does a good countrified version of "I'm Down."  Pretty cool mismash of styles, makes you realize how well-crafted Beck's songs can be. And then there is Jack Black's We All Wear Cloaks, which is super weird, and I'm not sure it would have even been a good song if Beck had performed it.  Fun project.

Quick Hits, Vol. 11 (J. Cole, Mary J. Blige, Charlie XCX, D'Angelo)

J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive.  "January 28th" rolls a pretty dang good set of lyrics about empowering yourself over the top of a light-touch beat and feathery sample that reminds me of an old Wyclef song.  I like the wordplay and story-telling going on here - presupposing these lyrics are true, a confessional and earnest album.  "Wet Dreamz" is a great story, even if the beat is super basic boom bap.  "03 Adolescence" is a great story as well - Cole talking to a drug dealer he looks up to and realizing that he actually has a pretty good life in comparison.  The last track is highly annoying, because he tries to pull a Kanye and shout out to everyone in the world in a 15 minute long track.  Blah blah.  But if you delete that track, this album is pretty good.

Mary J. Blige - The London Sessions.  Well, hell yeah.  I can't say I have ever listened to a Mary J. Blige album in my life, but this is good stuff.  Crazy powerful voice.  Beats shifting between pretty generic piano looping to solid Disclosure electronic.  Only "Follow" is listed on Spotify as being done with Disclosure, but "Right Now" has a cool glitchy ping-pong beat during the versus and then a great squishy synth beat during the chorus.  Sounds like Disclosure:

Soul and dance and a cool, current twist.  And it makes me want to get all girl-power on that ass with a serious head bob.  Fun album.

Charlie XCX - Sucker.  Boom Clap is a damn jam.  Although, when my four year old can make a reasonable approximation of your lyrics, then you aren't exactly beating back the world with you lyrical innovation.  That being said, great song.  The rest of this album is forgettable pop with a weird punk-lite bent.  British Avril Lavigne.  Remember her?  "He was a sk8ter boy, she said see you later boy."  Ugh.  Replaced with the effortlessly boring "Gold coins everywhere, dollars up in the air, it's a billionaire's love affair."

D'Angelo - Black Messiah.  I was not waiting with breath held to see if D'Angelo could ever break back into the music making business.  For those of you who don't know, D'Angelo put out Brown Sugar in 1995, Voodoo (to massive critical acclaim, including a spot of Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time) in 2000, and then nothing ever since.  I have heard of this dude, but not even sure I ever listened to his old music that everyone loved so much.  Regardless, this is a funky and fun jam. A ton of Prince influence on here, but he also has his own thing going on much of the album.  The band behind him is awesome - the bass player just walks up and down the funk throughout.  It is damn near impossible not to bite my lower lip and get some old-man-Huxtable grooving going on while listening to this album.  No real video here, but check the groove under this song, Prayer:

Back to the Future Parts 1 and 2 are also funky as hell.  I'm not going to automatically anoint this as the best album of the decade or anything, but this is cool stuff.  Definitely going to be hanging around.