Quick Hits, Vol. 85 (Kanye West, The Heavy, Sturgill Simpson, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down)

ACL lineup to be announced in a few weeks!  May 5.  I need to get out some more thoughts about the lineup before then, so I gotta stop working so much and get to playing.

Kanye West - The Life of Pablo.  I almost feel bad writing more words about this guy - the last person in the world who needs more people to parse his ego and discuss him at length. But this is an interesting album.  There is a great a capella track, "I Love Kanye," with him rapping about how "I miss the old Kanye ... chop up the soul Kanye, ... I hate the new Kanye ... spaz in the news Kanye."  For me, and I know for a bunch of other fans, that is entirely true.  College Dropout was absolutely amazing.  So many great beats.  So many excellent lines of wordplay and interesting similes and metaphors and odd combinations of pop culture.  It was awesome.  I have this great memory of listening to that album for the first time ever, in my sister-in-law's boyfriend's crappy Saab convertible as we drove around L.A. Such a perfect juxtaposition of cleverness and braggadocio.
But the end of that same song is: "I love you, like Kanye loves Kanye."  So very true.  I'd say it was tongue in cheek, except it ain't.   Now, its all brags.  He claims he made Taylor Swift famous.  He claims people lined up for days to buy his stupid shoes.  He wishes he could have a GoPro on his dickhead so people could watch in slow mo.  He claims his wife's stupid app shut down the app store.  And its all damn AutoTune again too (well, not all, but so very much AutoTune).  Don't we all remember when Jay Z declared that dead?  Oh, no, wait, he did that on one of those garbage recent albums that no one listened to.  Nevermind. Long live fake vocals!
Interestingly, this album has been available on Spotify now for a few weeks, but none of the songs cracks his top ten most popular.  Most of the tracks have less than 10 million listens, so maybe its not that big of a hit?  Hard to tell, but since I doubt a lot of people signed up for dumb Tidal just to hear this disc, I'd expect that he would have had more listens.  The top one is that track that claims he made TayTay famous, titled "Famous."  It has about 34 million streams.

Look, that beat is great.  And the video is funny stuff.  But I feel like the point of the lyrics is just to get people all riled up and writing more stupid words about a stupid controversy that just further feeds the massive ego festival that is Kanye West.  The beat drop in "Father Stretch My Hands," the beat in "Feedback," even the beat in the dumbass "Facts," those are good moments.  I also like The Weeknd's hook in "FML."  But then "Waves" sounds kinda dumb (and I'm almost as tired of the Chris Brown hooks in rap as I am of the AutoTune), "Freestyle 4" is pretty weak, and the moron lyrics of "Facts," those are not good moments. There are a few flashes on here that are worth holding on to, but the majority of this can go back to Tidal for those 8 people to listen to.  I heard somewhere that he has been changing the songs even after their release, which is such a weird but very Kanye thing to do.  But it makes sense, because this whole thing feels unfinished.

The Heavy - Hurt & the Merciless.  Good, fun, funky stuff.  Not entirely sure what this should be called, rockin' soul?  Funky doo-wop rock?  It comes alongside the Nathaniel Rateliff sound, maybe some of the Jack White or Black Keys old school rock sense, with a southern tinge as well.  This band had a minor hit a few years back with "How You Like Me Now," which was in movies and commercials and sounded pretty tight as well.  The hit off of this one, with almost 600k streams, is called "Since You Been Gone."

Got those horns pumping, baby.  Hell of a good track.  "Turn Up" and "Slave to your Love" also bring the funk and the horns and make a fun jam.  And they can also take it down a notch and burn it up with stuff like "Goodbye Baby" and "Nobody's Hero."  I bet these dudes would be a fun band to see live for sure.

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth.  I mean, I love this guy.  I know I'm very much not alone in that sentiment, as any middle aged guy who hates Nashville bro-country but likes the old outlaws is required by DNA and law to think Sturgill is the best thing of all time, but I just thoroughly enjoy the guy's tunes.  The last album was classic, and although I've only heard this one 7 or 8 times, I'm starting to feel the same way here.  Although be warned that the last album stayed much more true to the country rules.
First, he opens with this piano ballad for his first born son ("Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)") that evolves into a kick ass blast of Stax-horns-funk-fueled soul.  That is part of why I dig on this guy - he's not just sticking with a formulaic method of pandering to the country crowd - he's crossing boundaries and making kick ass music, regardless of the sound.  And as a dad, this kind of stuff hits right on up there into home.  Second, he covers Nirvana.  I mean, bold ass move, but he pulls it off and I dig it.  I've been singing his version of "In Bloom" for days.  He dropped old school 80's on us in the last album with "The Promise," now he went grunge, so I'm predicting he covers a Lil Wayne track next album.

The hit so far off the the album is my favorite track on here, which is a little more traditionally country (with a dose of southern rock), but its a good one.  "Brace for Impact (Live a Little)" has almost a million listens on Spotify, and its just a well-done track.

Make sure you live a little, man.  Be a scary old guy running down gravestones in your hot rod, and you'll be more satisfied when you are dead. Good stuff.  I think my only beef with the album is that its too damn short.  9 songs and 38 minutes?  Come on man, keep it coming.  Cover "Mayonnaise," "Sober," and "Peaches" to make some 90's alt history.  The other extremely fun track on here is the album closer, "Call to Arms," which sounds like it could be a Blues Brothers rave-up, that includes a succinct review of the current state of entertainment media ("bullshit on the TV, bullshit on the radio").

I'm curious to hear how this one will be received by the hardcore country fans, those who listen because of the lineage before Sturgill with comparisons to Haggard and Jennings. But as it stands, this is some funky, rockin' country music that sounds great to me.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - A Man Alive.  I dig this sound as well.  Groove, like a deep ass groove you can't stand up out of, kicks in right at the start.  Its got an odd sound, kind of off-kilter and trippy at times, but underneath all of that, it grooves.  It almost has the sound of rap beat at times, but just with her voice over the top instead of a rap.  I can full on imagine a backpack rapper getting down over the funk of "The Evening."  The most popular track on Spotify right now is "Astonished Man," but the most listened to from this album is "Nobody Dies," with almost 800k spins.  I like the former more, so here you go.

For real, that is a dope ass beat that Ghostface needs to remix and collaborate on.  Let's get this thing going.  I say that as though this track isn't cool on its own, which is not what I mean at all.  I dig it just like it is.  Just thinking that there could be another cool iteration that would push this track to be more.  Some of the songs sound a bit like tUnE-yArDs, which is not my favorite thing, but I'm pretty chill about it because the rest of the album sounds good. I'm also betting that these cats make an ACL appearance, so maybe we'll get even more time with them in the near future.