Quick Hits, Vol. 41 (My Morning Jacket, Passion Pit, Robert Earl Keen, Jr, Blackberry Smoke, Big Data, Father)

My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall.  Sweet!  MMJ is freaking awesome, and this album retains a little of the funk from Evil Urges or Circuital but takes me back to the best sounds from Z and It Still Moves. The opener, in typical Jim James fashion, is a sweeping, harmonic empowerment anthem with kick ass guitar solos, called "Believe."  If you don't want to sing along and jam out, then you need help.  I've been listening to one track from the disc for a few weeks that was released early to Spotify - Big Decisions - and I love it.

Their drummer is such a fantastic mix of laconic chill and spot-on rhythm.  "What do you want me to do?  Make all the big decisions for you?"  Classic MMJ sound with those cutting rhythm guitars and Jim James' excellent tenor over the top.  Love it.  "Like a River" sounds like a Native American chant put to music to relax to.  "In It's Infancy" is a trippy thing with Jim James apparently stopping a waterfall by using his mind.  "Get the Point" is so damn pretty - slide guitar and finger-picking.  Jim James has such a fine voice.  After jamming this a few times, and looking at their upcoming touring schedule, I was hoping that they had a good chance of following up their September Lolla Germany appearance with a headlining slot at ACL, but it looks like that won't happen.

Passion Pit - Kindred.  I've just never been able to get on board with Passion Pit.  The guy who offices next to me loooooooves them, but I just can't get it to click for me.  "Sleepyhead" off of 2009's Manners was an interesting song, kind of like the Avalanches until the singing starts, and "Take a Walk" from 2012's Gossamer was fine until the radio hammered it into everyone's face, but I just can't get behind this new album.  His high pitched singing is part of the issue, it never ever drops down into the normal range, and he cranks up auto-tune some on here as well.  Just not my stuff.

Robert Earl Keen - Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions.  This album is freaking great.  I walked through Waterloo Records the other day, looking to score a physical copy of the First Aid Kit album so that my wife could jam it some before we go to their show in July, and saw that REK had a new album up on the walls.  This is a gripe I have about Spotify's New Releases section, which shows me 80 new singles from bands I don't care about, but neglects to include good full length albums like this one.  Here is the album opener, "Hot Corn Cold Corn"

Silly thing, but the playing is legit.  REK has always leaned his country/alt-country stylings towards the bluegrass vein, so this album just fits him like a glove.  It is all covers - some greats like the Stanley Brothers and then a load of tunes I don't know at all - and I hear Lyle Lovett and Natalie Maines adding their vocals on here as well.  Great stuff.

Blackberry Smoke - Holding All the Roses.  Performers at last year's ACL Fest, who I was really bummed to miss out on.  But their tunes were rock solid southern rock when I checked them out back then, and this album doesn't stray from the formula.  Their sound lives right down in the valley between S. Country and S. Rock, with zero apologies.  Good time music for all!  Here is "Too High"

I heard one of their tunes on the radio the morning after my first few listens.  We have a new station here in Austin called Sun Radio (powered by the sun!) that plays a pretty damn good mix of country leaning rock (I've heard CSNY and Springsteen on there) and good Americana and bluegrass. Anyway, they played "Rock and Roll Again" which sounded pretty good.  Fun album yet again from these dudes.

Big Data - 2.0.  This is one dude, Alan Wilkis, who went from making remixes of other people's music to making an album of his own with a bunch of collaborative singers.  The big hit off the album, which is a truly great slice of elastic bass and tom-toms, is called "Dangerous:"

That video is super weird.  But the song is a pretty sweet jam.  The rest of the album is OK, with some good electronic dance songs, but it falls into a sameness that leaves me not remembering that I've heard anything after Dangerous. Won't save this album for later.

Father - Who's Gonna Get F***** First?  With a title like that, I mean, how could I not give the album a chance?  The title song is actually pretty sweet - although it doesn't have many spins on YouTube or Spotify, so it may be more under the radar than I thought.  Here is the "hit" he has been "known" for, which is so repetitive that its actually kind of catchy.

I say that, despite the fact that I can't stand other rappers (looking at you, Jay "cakecakecakecakecake" Z) who just repeat the same word over and over like they are broken.  But this tune has the simplest little beat and a chorus that "never had to lift a brick" but I get the gist. Still stuck in my head right now.  While that song isn't on the album, this whole thing is similarly spare, extremely simple and quiet beats with a kind of chanting flow over the beats.  Dirty lyrics, but pretty cool album.  I think I'll save a few songs and let the rest go though.