Quick Hits, Vol. 115 (Lizzo, The xx, The Flaming Lips, Ruth B)

Lizzo - Coconut Oil.  If you recall my reviews for ACL, and especially my follow up afterwards, Lizzo is the good stuff.  Bad ass woman rapper/singer who has zero qualms about busting out and feeling good.  I'm 90% sure that the album opener ("Worship") is about going down on her, and that "Scuse Me" might be about going after herself.  If I'm reading some sexuality into this thing that doesn't exist, maybe I'm just BBW curious.  And this album (EP?) has the instant classic on it - "Good as Hell" - which is what got me fired up about her in the first place.  It is a jam.  If you haven't already done it, go to the link of my review above and jam it loud all weekend long.  I'm torn between giving you "Phone" or "Coconut Oil" for this one, but I think I'll go with "Phone," even though its kind of goofy.  But you know I love that rap that tells a story!

So, not to go all analytics on you or anything, but what is she doing with the huge Beats headphones while she is walking home, if she doesn't have her phone.  She using an old school Sports Walkman or something?  I THINK NOT!!!  Busted by the fact checkers!  But its a fun song anyway.  Good disc overall, if a little short for my tastes.

In fact, I woke up this morning (a week after writing that review above) still singing "Scuse Me" in my head.  "I don't, need no, body else, scuse me while I feel myself."  This is the truth.  And again, "Good as Hell" is the real deal song on this album.  Between that and "Coconut Oil," she's just doing some rad self-empowerment action on this thing that I love.

The xx - I See You.  Funny thing, this album.  I was fully prepared to really dislike this thing and kind of hate listen along while coming up with snarky things to say here.  Instead, I find that I actually like the record quite a bit.  I had honestly never even heard of this band until this new album dropped and Twitter had a fit over how amazing it was.  Well, that and the fact that every festival appears to have added them to the lineup.  The best is the most popular track, "On Hold," which has 37.2 million streams so far and a super rad sample of Hall & Oates involved.

Weird that they filmed the video in Marfa.  I don't imagine that most people out there had any clue what was going on when this was being filmed.  Although I guess Marfa isn't the same today as it was a few years ago.  Now hip kids in crazzeee clothes are probably entirely normal.  True story, my step-uncle lives in between Marfa and Alpine, and was driving to Marfa the other night to get some dinner.  He spots a guy standing next to a broken down car on the side of the highway, and stops to give him a ride.  The POS truck my uncle drives requires the manipulation of a set of vise grips to get into the passenger door, so I'm sure the guy was sufficiently impressed.  Oh, and uncle is also missing a front tooth.  After a little conversation, the guy mentions that his name is Sting.  Uncle has vague understanding that he might be famous, but is pretty well unimpressed.  I asked if he had at least taken a picture with the guy, uncle laughs and says his flip phone doesn't have a camera.  West Texas, man.
Anyway, these songs are all kind of longing and sweet sounding electronic pop.  The guy behind the music is Jamie xx, who I previously reviewed as not being very impressive.  But something about this does a better job of an 80's nostalgia trip, a feeling indebted to Molly Ringwald leaning against a brick wall and wishing for love.  Whatever, I like it.

The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody.  These dudes are so weird.  I liked the weirdness on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but I haven't been able to get behind their stuff ever since. The closest this album comes to that same trippy, feel-unsure-to-be-happy rock is "The Castle."  That isn't the most popular track, because Miley Cyrus sings on one called "We a Family," so hipster nerds have been listening to that instead.  But I play you the one I like.

That video is annoying.  And no matter how much she cried cartoons and prayed, her brain could not be rebuilt.  No way.  No way.  No way.  I'll let this one go back to the weird depths of the band's brains.

Ruth B - The Intro.  I think Rolling Stone profiled this gal a while back.  That is the only recollection of where she came from in my Q.  My recall is that she became famous from a Vine and then a YouTube video that caught the eye of someone at a label.  This is just a little 4 song EP, of very simple tunes full of soul and longing.  The big hit from here, massively large over anything else she has released, is "Lost Boy," a clever take on the Peter Pan story put into a spare piano ballad.  178 million streams, with her next most popular down at 16 million.  All four of these songs are good, but I'll give you the hit for your taste test.

Just simple and basic, but beautiful and powerful.  Like that Lizzo album before this one, the short little 4 song thing is pretty weak, because it would be cool to see if she could take off from this super-basic sound and make something else even more interesting with that voice and lyrical touch.  But I'll readily admit that this gal is good.