Quick Hits, Vol. 95 (Drake, James Blake, Clams Casino, Mudcrutch)

Had no intention of this, but we've got a rhyme (Drake and Blake) and then some clams in the mud by a casino populated with folks on crutches.  Makes complete sense, right?

Drake - Views.  Oh, Drake.  I'm finally getting around to listening to this album, which was released as an exclusive for Tidal or Apple or HotBeatz.org earlier this year, so I couldn't hear it on Spotify for the first few months, and then got caught up in ACL listening, so I haven't heard it until now.  Also, I really dislike Drake.  So my reluctance to listen to the disc has also played a part.

Why do I really dislike Drake?  Mainly I think that is in response to the rest of the world's worship of the guy, when I think that worship is undeserved.  I read a list recently ranking the "songs of the summer" and it claimed that Drake's "One Dance" was the clear winner for 2016.  Which is a terrible thing to say during the summer when Justin Timberlake's "Can't Fight the Feeling" was the obvious party-jam-feel-good track all summer long.  And, I think "One Dance" blows.

Oh man, don't even get me started on the morose and introspective intro to that video.  Two minutes of being so dang deep!  So deep!  Then the beat is an uninteresting Caribbean piano riff and click. However, while I bag on the track, he has 882,697,457 streams for that song alone on Spotify.  That is, like, more than all of the ACL artists this year combined.  For one super crappy song.  Amazing. And it crushes his other "hits," like "Started from the Bottom" (143 million), "Hold On We're Going Home" (290 million), "Marvin's Room" (83 million), and even "Hotline Bling" (547 million).

Because I'm all about being real on this blog, I have to admit that I like "Hotline Bling."  I know this goes against just about everything else I've said in this post, but something about that awesomely bad Casio 2000, on-hold-music beat sounds just right to me and I get sucked in despite my general distaste for Drake.  I have a problem.

Realistically, the only time I like Drake is when he leaves the generic 90's R&B singing behind and just freaking raps.  This is why I similarly do not like the stupid sounding "Controlla" track, where he actually name-checks Jodeci (if only he also called out Dru Hill, Sisqo, and K-Ci & JoJo). Unfortunately, none of the tracks on here really go brawny.  Maybe "9," "Still Here," or "Hype," but even those are pretty weak.  Maybe Drake got all of his manly rap out of his system on the What a Time to Be Alive mixtape and needed this album to be all about sad-face-emoticon mumbling and coo-singing.

I'd also like to note that this album is 1:21 long and has 20 freaking songs.  Just give me the 12 best, man.  No need to fire out all of the future b-sides about your sadness right here.  I will not hold on to this album.

James Blake - The Colour in Anything.  This album is going to be affected by the fact that it comes right after me bagging on R&B blandness.  Blake is an interesting sounding dude, kind of a D'Angelo, Sam Smith, Disclosure thing going on.  The album is brooding electronica that never quite gets to the dance floor, but steps up tempos every once in a while to make it seem like it might. Another album that seems to just drag on a little too long for me - 17 songs of very similar sounding stuff gets lost on me.  The most listened to track from the album is "I Need a Forest Fire," with 11.8 million streams as of right now.

So much Bon Iver influence in there.  Starts like the sun is coming up over a mist-shrouded lake in the woods, and then all the Auto-tune descends over a strange, simple sample and beat.  Like the rest of the album, it is pretty enough, but imminently forgettable.  I won't save any of this.

Clams Casino - Rainforest.  Nope.  This guys made some of the best beats on the A$AP Rocky mixtapes, but this stuff is b-side garbage compared to the beats for "Palace," Bass," or "Wassup." This EP is from 2011, so this might have even been what A$AP heard to turn him on to the guy, but you'd have to have a dang good ear to go from this odd, atmospheric sound to the heft and bang of A$AP's sound.  I guess the best one on here is "Waterfalls."

Don't bother going back to check out this EP, not worth your time.

Mudcrutch - 2.  Hell yes.  I was starting to think that this entire post was going to be negative Nancy about everything, but this album is excellent.  For those of you living under a rock, this is Tom Petty's old band, his first band from way back in the day, that he has resurrected to make classic rock goodness with.  Their first disc was also good, but this one just hits a perfect sweet spot for me of classic Tom Petty and southern blues rock swagger.  However, temper my excitement slightly, as this is one of those classic "check it out!" albums where the album streams start high on the first song and then drop as the songs progress.  Meaning that a lot or people try it out for a song, or two, or three, but few are finishing the whole thing.  I might be wrong, and what the hell, I dig the whole thing. The most listened to track is the album opener, "Trailer," with 367k streams.

Just a classic sound - kind of a She's the One/Wildflowers era vibe, and a good story/lyric about living in that trailer after high school.  The rest of the album is generally like this too.  If you like Petty, then you're going to enjoy this thing.  I'll be saving this one to listen to many more times.