Quick Hits, Vol. 138 (The Shins, Kodak Black, Machine Gun Kelly, Linkin Park)

The Shins - Heartworms.  I've always really enjoyed the Shins.  I think its mainly James Mercer's voice, which I find to be very soothing and yet interesting at the same time.  The older, hit songs are still classic, I love the stuff from Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World.  But this album seems to drop off some of the tuneful indie playing in favor of a more electronic sound.  I can't say I like the change.  A bunch of people are listening, as he has multiple song with more than a million streams, but I think I'd rather stick to the classics.  For an example, here is the top track these days, called "Dead Alive" and boasting 3.1 million streams.

I don't know, its better than I'm giving it credit for as I listen again.  Something about it just isn't as magical as I am used to expecting from the band.  I was really hoping to like this album more, as I'm excited to try to see The Shins play at Sound on Sound Fest in the fall.   I think I'll keep this one in the Q and keep listening to see how I feel after a few more tries.

Kodak Black - Painting Pictures.  I heard the other day that someone calls this style of music mumblerap.  Now I get it.  Half the time, I have no clue what the guy is saying. Definitely southern rapper in style, but pretty bad.  Some of the beats are good, but the raps not so much.  There was a moment when I thought I heard him reference Caillou, the children's cartoon character who I hate with the power of the sun, and so I went back to check out that line, and HOLY SHIT.  Here is the entire chorus of the song, "Patty Cake."

"I'm sippin' on Belaire, my chick from Bel-Air
My whip from Germany, I'm cooler that LL (x2)
I clap a nigga like patty cake
I clap a nigga like patty cake
I'm swaggin', I got flavor, I got sauce, call me Ragu
I love my baby girl pussy bald, call her Caillou
I clap a nigga like patty cake."

Oh sweet baby Jesus.  I'm so freaking disturbed by how awful and weird and creepy and terrible that whole thing is.  What the shit?  Blleeeeechh.  I need to wash my brain out with soap or something.  That song is his second most listened to on the album at 33.3 million streams.  Which is insane.  But I'll give you the top song, which has a great beat for sure, "Tunnel Vision," with 174 million streams (which is legit, and another 154 million YouTube views).

Disturbing ass video with a kind of dumb ending too.  The dude just sounds like he has some gauze in his mouth after oral surgery.  The beat is good, but I can't get behind the raps.  This disc can go.

Machine Gun Kelly - Bloom.  This guy seems like a jackass.  I read a short article about him in RS a few months ago, and he has one of those personalities that makes you just shake your head.  First, the description of his sartorial choices:

"His fashion sense is singular: Think Axl Rose styled by Elton John during a blackout. Tonight, he's got on a distressed, acid-washed pale-blue denim jacket with "Thrill Ryde" etched on the back, a black and red floral shirt, low-hanging black jeans (with safety pins where the fly should be, a wallet chain, plus a black bandanna in a rear pocket) and pink-tinted circular-lensed glasses not unlike the pair Canadian reggae artist Snow wore in the "Informer" video. The shades nearly match the ruby grilles on his teeth."

Ugh.  Or this great quote (now that he is going some movie and television work):

"On the set of a sci-fi movie he just shot, an actor playing a cop kept punching him in the chest, for real, in take after take. When he complained, he says, he was told to suck it up. "As Colson Baker, I took that loss on the chin," MGK says. "But, like, dude: Machine Gun probably would've whupped his fucking ass."

That is like fourth person speaking in the 12th person about a fictional person in the first person through the fourth wall.  And so douchey.  "If I would have been myself when I'm rapping when you punches me I would have killed you, bro!  But since I was just me and not myself then its cool"  And, finally:

"I just gave everything. I gave everything on that fucking stage! That's not right! They don't even know! I might not even walk the same at 40 years old because of how much shit I leave onstage. I'm fighting every night up there! How are you dissatisfied?"

Come on, man.  If you literally are damaging your ability to walk in 13 more years, which I sincerely doubt, then you are doing it wrong.  So stupid.  Just jam your weak pop punk raps out and people will still enjoy.  Or not.  But you get paid either way.  Don't injure yourself. "Let You Go" is the bad pop punk rap song I'm thinking of here, but the massive hit (and yes, this clown really does have a massive hit) is "Bad Things," which features Camila Cabello and boasts over 284 million streams.

Biting a little bit of Pachelbel's Canon in D, but also some of Austin band Fastball's "Out of my Head," to make a radio-friendly cross-over hit like just about every one of Eminem's recent hits with some lady singer on board.  Not a fan of that song or the rest of this album. Bits of it got my head nodding, but nah.

Linkin Park - One More Light.  Well damn, now, in light of Chester Beddington's suicide, this album sounds very different.  The first track on the album is called "Nobody Can Save Me," and has lyrics like "But nobody can save me now, I’m holding up a light, Chasing up the darkness inside, 'Cause nobody can save me" and "I’m dancing with my demons, I’m hanging off the edge, Storm clouds gather beneath me, Waves break above my head." Creepy.  
I fully admit that I enjoyed the old Linkin Park albums, especially Hybrid Theory and Meteora, but this is unfortunately pretty terrible stuff.  It loses all of the fierce energy of the old LP songs and sanitizes and dilutes it so that it sounds more like other stuff on the radio right now.  Literally, "Talking to Myself" sounds like a Kelly Clarkson song or something. Where is the muscle and power?  I thought that "Battle Symphony" was going to be the most listened-to track on here, but instead that is the one that follows the same path as the Machine Gun Kelly hit from up above, recruiting a lady friend to come sing portions and further water down the power of the song.

At 87 million streams, that one is by far the most popular from this new album, but it doesn't come close to "In the End" or "Numb" from the old albums.  But shit, man, that video gave me chills, with Beddington going to an AA-type meeting and then screaming at himself and then kicking his own ass.  Ugh.  And then "One More Light" sounds like he truly cares about "one more light" flickering out, or someone's time running out.  Man.  Suicide is some shitty shit.  I won't keep the album around, but I have to say that listening to it and watching that video has kind of messed me up today.