Quick Hits, Vol. 42 (Tobias Jesso, Zac Brown Band, Raekwon, Blur)

Time to restart up the Quick Hits.  I'll still be getting into other ACL stuff, but I'm listening to other stuff now as well.  First things first, this, right here, is the best.

Little kids in music videos?  Never gets old.  And this is also a great track off of that Mark Ronson album that spawned Uptown Funk.  If you don't feel kind of bad ass strutting around to that track, you need to get it together.

Tobias Jesso Jr. - Goon.  I forget how I added this guy to my queue, maybe through a Rolling Stone review, but his tune remind me heavily of the mediocre 70's John Lennon albums.  His debut got good press and kind words from stars like Adele, leading him to some level of immediate fame.  Not really my thing, but here is the most listened-to track off of that 2015 debut album, called "How Could You Babe."

Also reminds me a little of the Afghan Whigs tunes on the Beautiful Girls soundtrack from 20 years ago.  I liked those songs.

Zac Brown Band - Jekyll + Hyde.  Blerg, this is terrible.  I had heard good things about this guy in the past, but I can't get behind this album at all.  Maybe the Soundgarden-lite sound of "Heavy is the Head" is good, but I don't think it actually is.  I'm just drawn in by Chris Cornell's voice and hoping its good.  But not.  A lot of this is not country-sounding at all but is more soft rock boringness with banjo, or the kind of cross-over banjofied-almost-EDM Avicci makes (see "Tomorrow Never Comes").  I guess the title of the album makes sense.

Raekwon - Fly International Luxurious Art.  Bummer, but I think this establishes for me that Ghostface is the superior of those two ex-Wu guys.  This album has a few head-bobber tunes that are fun enough to listen to, but overall it is uninteresting.

This track, with A$AP Rocky, is called "I Got Money" and explains my point well.  Even though this is the most popular on Spotify from the album, I have to imagine that is just from people searching for A$AP, because it is so terribly boring that there is no way this is a hit.

Blur - The Magic Whip.  A couple of years ago, I went on half.com and bought a couple of Blur albums to figure out what they were about.  I owned Leisure back in high school, and loved it. "There's No Other Way" is a jam, and before I'd heard of Oasis, I thought this was perfect Brit music. Of course, after that, I'd heard "Song 2" but I had never taken the time to listen to their other albums. After reading repeatedly how they were the best thing in the world, I bought 1994's Parklife and 1997's Blur, both of which I put on heavy rotation during an annoying period when my work blocked all streaming.  They are good - I still prefer old Oasis - but it is good music.

I think the same is true about this album, it can be poppy and fun ("Lonesome Street"), or they can go with brooding rock ("Go Out"), or it can be kind of forlorn and tender ("My Terracotta Heart"), but I dig the sound.  The most listened-to track on the album is "Go Out," with just over 4 million listens.

That video is we-e-e-e-e-e-e-ird, but I kind of want some ice cream now.  None of this belongs on pop radio the way "Boys and Girls" or "Song 2" did, but I like the disc and am going to keep it around.