Quick Hits, Vol. 51 (Scarface, Reed Turner, Dawes, Boosie Badazz)

Man, if you haven't heard heard the remake of Run the Jewels 2 called Meow the Jewels, you need to help yourself to it.  It is ridiculous, but just cracked me up.  The vocal track is the same, but now they have cat noises prominently featured in each song.  The purr bass line in "Close Your Eyes and Meow to Fluff" is amazing.

Scarface - Deeply Rooted.  Man, old school Scarface is badass.  When he was with the Geto Boys, and then his solo stuff in the mid-90's?  The Diary?  The first 20 minutes of that album is freaking classic.  When I saw them use "No Tears" in the beginning of Office Space, with Michael Bolton spitting those lyrics at the stoplight, I loved it.  And then using "Still" later when killing the printer?  Comedic genius.

However, this is not old school Scarface.  Some is good, some is bad, a lot of it is derivative and kind of sad because it feels like he is trying to be the newest fad thing.  For example, see "Steer," which is an EDM-ish thing that also asks "Lord, if you're with me, steer."

Uh, can we go back to being hardcore?  That video is pretty heavy, but the music in that song just isn't doing it for me.  Stick with the screwed soul samples, man.  See also "Voices," which sounds very much like he listened to some recent Eminem song with Rihanna, acoustic guitar, and some military drums, and copied the whole thing.  He's also got the John Legend collabo, a Ceelo Green song, eh, just kind of disappointing.  Even the Nas and Rick Ross aided "Do What I Do" is just OK. "Rooted" and "The Hot Seat" are cool enough, but the lyrics in "Rooted" are just generic.  I won't be keeping this around.

Reed Turner - Ghosts in the Attic.  Haunting indie tunes.  Although, I can't get over the fact that this guy's voice makes me think of Aaron Neville.  Which makes me think of those Little People songs that my kids used to make me listen to for hours in the car, which made me a little insane.  Not this guy's fault, but I'm having trouble taking this music seriously at all.  But this is pretty stuff in the chilled out Jose Gonzalez (but with more Americana pedal steel) and Ben Howard (but more American in general) section of my musical mind.  Most popular track on Spotify is "Room for Doubt," with just under 10k listens.

Live version, but you'll get the gist.  I kind of like "Ghost in the Attic" and "Killed That Girl" better than this one.  Cool tunes.

Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands.  Ever since seeing them at ACL a few years ago - a perfect set of sun-kissed, laid-back rock in a Sunday afternoon set spent laying in the grass with a cold beer - I have liked Dawes.  That being said, I find that I love the first album I heard - North Hills - much more than their subsequent output.  Not that this album is bad, but it is more polished and less pure sounding than that 2009 album.  Feels more produced. But I still love the sweet harmonies and relaxed vibe running through this one as well.  The title track is probably my favorite.

They just seem like nice guys who want me to be happy.  I hope they'll be my friends.  I'll hold on to this one for a few more months and see what I think after more marinating.

Boosie Badazz - Touch Down 2 Cause Hell.  Yawn.  Generally, kind of boring. This guy came out of Louisiana as Lil Boosie a few years back, but now he has apparently decided he is grown. And badass with zz's. He's got the obligatory cameos from Chris Brown and Rick Ross on this album, but there just really isn't a standout on here. The most listened-to track is "No Juice," which is a spare beat with brags about how you ain't got no juice, but Boozie has all the juice. Here you go. 

This isn't bad, pretty good thought-free head bob music, up until "Hands Up" near the end. Which is a pretty bad song over a boring beat, but I do appreciate the attempt to stop flossing for a sec to complain about something real.  Those lyrics made me take notice, versus the rest of this blah blah album. I won't keep this album around, but that song stuck in my mind.