Quick Hits, Vo. 111 (The Head and the Heart, DJ Khaled, The Shrine, Sum 41)

The Head and the Heart - Signs of Light.  Another great album from these folks, I'm generally impressed by them and enjoy what they do.  Slightly more pop-centric than the indie-heavy first album, but I'm not using the pop moniker as an insult at all, more just that this is tuneful and fun instead of all introspective.  The hit from the album so far, that I've heard on radio a good bit, is "All We Ever Knew," which clocks in at 19.3 million as of right now.  Very good tune.  But there is one other song on here that I want to highlight, because as I've spent all day listening to this album, it keeps grabbing my attention and making me look up from my work.  "Library Magic" has just over 3 million streams.

More of a quiet hymn, to be sung in the dusty aisles of the library, with all the harmonies possible. Well, until the librarian shushes them.  And then cranks up "Hot for Teacher" and throws her glasses into the reference section so that she can start to STRIPPIN!  Sorry, got out of hand there.  This tune is lovely and so well done.  I want to drive up through Colorado or Northern California with the top down and this playing on repeat while holding hands with my woman and backing in the warm glow of the sun.  And then a few days ago, a friend from work told me that this album sucks.  At the time, I was valiantly avoiding the basket of tortilla chips on our table, and therefore was unable to hear or process information, so I can't recall his logic here, but whatever dude.  That guy probably likes Shawn Mendes and Trill Youngins, yo.

DJ Khaled - Major Key.  Khaled is a well-know beatmaker and Instagram advice-giver, and I heard a pretty interesting NPR piece on him the other day that discussed his fascination with the "major keys" in life - those items of knowledge you need to be successful.  The one I recall from the story was you need a lot of pillows.  Like tons of extra pillows.  The quote he said was something about how you should have something soft anywhere you turn when you are sleeping.  Which is weird, unless you are sleeping on concrete, the bed itself ought to be relatively soft for you.  Whatever, go buy pillows, bra!

Anyway, Khaled makes pretty solid beats, and then he just invites a who's who of rappers on here to do the lyrics.  You get superstars like Jay Z, Nas, Kendrick, and Lil Wayne.  You get other interesting rappers like Big Sean, YG, Busta Rhymes, and Nicki Minaj.  And you get the garbage rappers that other people seem to love like Future, Drake, J. Cole, and 2 Chainz.  The interesting thing about that is this variance allows you to really pay attention to the differences in their sounds and vocals.  Like, Jay-Z actually sounds relatively good because he's paired with Future.  The best is "Don't Ever Play Yourself," which has Jadakiss, Fabolous, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, and someone named Kent Jones, so you really get a four pack of old(er)-school rappers, one after another, to compare.  Jadakiss has a grimy flow, then Fabolous sounds smooth as silk, the Fat Joe does he usual blah, then Busta comes in with a pretty reserved verse, then someone named Kent Jones (who actually puts down a pretty good verse) fires in for the final verse.  I figured that "F*ck up the Club" would be the top song, but it doesn't even make his top ten.  Instead, "For Free," which features freaking Drake, is his biggest hit with 97 million streams.  But F Drake, I'm going to give you the lead song with Future and Jay Z instead.

43 million streams for that one, and Jay sounds pretty good.  Especially when compared to the robotic idiocy that is Future.  I might keep a couple of these tracks around in my Popcorn rap playlist.

The Shrine - Rare Breed.  Shit yeah.  Some Sabbath-y, stoner rock that freaking rules.  If you want some dope shredding that includes a song called "Savage Skulls and Nomads," then you should look no further than right here.  And I know that is exactly what you want out of life.  I'm going to listen to this album every day on my way home for the rest of my life and I'm going to buy a Hummer and outfit it with Mad Max-style armor and spikes and flamethrowing guitar gimps and I will OWN MOPAC LIKE A GOD!!!  Oh, did you want a taste?  I knew you did.  Top song on the album is the opener, "Coming Down Quick," with 286k spins.  Taste it.

Straight power right there.  Nothing out of the ordinary, well, except for the trippy ass video, but as far as the music goes, we are just blasting on drums, guitar, bass, and vocals.  But the vocals are not scream-y so much as yell-y (kinda Henry Rollins at times, or Red Fang), and I much prefer that angle.  FIGHT ME!  Speaking of fight me, before that video played, I saw, yet again, the super annoying ad where they show an "old guy" who is so very obviously not old, like a bad jackass skit thing, who then strips off his shirt to tell you about how crazy strong he is because he watched a video or something.  I hate that commercial so much.  But I dig the fire on this album.

Sum 41 - 13 Voices.  I was a big fan of 2001's All Killer No Filler, and even liked the next album (Chuck) well enough, but this one is much less pop-aware and more of a straight slog of punk-ish bashing.  Don't much care for it.  The top song still has a bunch of listens (6.5 million), so they're getting love from others even if not from me.  Here is that track, "War."

Yeah, I get that we're going for a more introspective look here (likely because the lead singer almost died recently from alcoholism), but it doesn't make me care all that much to hear this album more.