Quick Hits, Vol. 142 (Coldplay, RAC, Benjamin Gibbard, Kesha)

Holy smokes, man.  These Astros games are going to kill me.  I stayed up for last night's game and it was one of the most exciting baseball things I've ever watched.  But now I'm about to straight up nod off at my desk...

Coldplay - Kaleidoscope EP.  I have a soft spot in me for Coldplay.  I'm well aware that they left their cutesy indie rock world behind a long time ago and now make terrible garbage songs with the Chainsmokers, but I'd still give anything they put out the benefit of the doubt. This little EP has some good stuff that is kind of downbeat electronic stuff, and a track with Big Sean rapping (which surprisingly works OK), but also includes a live version of the shit Chainsmokers thing, so its a mixed bag here.  This is fine, but I'd prefer a full length that did not include the shit Chainsmokers thing.  The top track is the Big Sean thing, "Miracles (Someone Special)," with 18.5 million streams.

Go ahead, be the crabby ass guy who calls this cheesy, but I like it.  Admiring people who came before us to make the world better and trying to inspire others to do the same.  That is good.  The Big Sean verse is pretty lightweight, but whatever.  I won't keep this EP around, but looking forward to more from the band.

RAC - EGO.  There was a time when Spotify would let you use weird apps within the Spotify app to do things, like see lyrics or see playlists created by Rolling Stone or others.  If they still allow that on the desktop version, I can't tell, but I liked it.  Anyway, there is a guy named Keith Law who used to put out an annual best songs of the year list, and he pimped a tune by this band, called "Let It Go," that I still use on playlists because it is the freshest, happiest song there is.  This group is apparently best known for remixing other people's tracks, which is what this whole album kind of sounds like, because each track just has someone else singing on it, like Rivers Cuomo from Weezer or Rostam from Vampire Weekend.  That Rostam track is the most listened to on here, at 3.7 million streams, here is the underwhelming "This Song."

That video, and those multi-colored-painted-mouths, is foul.  The best track on here is probably the Simon & Garfunkel channeling "Heavy," with Karl Kling, which is OK.  I've tried this disc a few times now and nothing on here sticks.

Benjamin Gibbard - Bandwagonesque.  Gibbard is the lead singer for Death Cab for Cutie (which seems to have disappeared after a few really good albums), and this album is kind of a weird one, in that it is a song-for-song cover of the 1991 Teenage Fanclub album by the same name.  I have a weird love for that album, I got it from the Austin Public Access TV guy Dave, over at the east Austin studio where he broadcast his midnight music video show, along with a Blur CD (Leisure, also a 1991 Brit classic), and I listened to them religiously for a while.  So I know the source material really well here, and while this is kind of interesting and grin-worthy, the originals are just better.  I always dug that they called the rockin' riff jam second track on the album "Satan."  Honestly, if you've never heard of the original, you should just go check that one out.  Here is the super-long album opener, "The Concept," clocking in at 181k streams and winning the contest for now.

At least try the first two minutes of that and then try out the original below, and you'll see why I say the original is better, mainly because even when the song kicks in for Gibbard, its still kind of lifeless, but for the Fanclub, it kicks in for real.

I'll keep listening to the original.  I like the thought of Gibbard trying to make this happen, but nah.

Kesha - Rainbow.  I get it, that people are in love with this album because she is a strong woman who went through a really shitty legal mess and public support/shaming spiral that would have destroyed the will to live for almost every other human.  That sucked.  I feel sad that she had to go through that public beatdown.  That being said, this album is not for me. This one goes between a country sound, or a party rock sound, or power balladry.  Kesha has come onto my radar in the past when she has created top notch trash party pop, like "TikTok" or "Die Young."  Nothing on here comes close to either of those.  Maybe "Let 'Em Talk," or the other one with the Eagles of Death Metal called "Boogie Feet," but not really. Some of the lyrics are a little interesting, like the weird "Godzilla," but the tunes themselves are forgettable.  The top track is called "Praying" and has 90 million streams.  I'll give it to you, but I'm not condoning this.

Everyone in the comments is like "OMG KESHA IS A GODDESS, U R MY HEREO!!!" MMkay. Glad she makes you happy, commenter using an avatar of a cat wearing pink-lensed-sunglasses.  I just read an article about her comeback from eating disorders and lawsuits with Dr. Luke, and it sounds awful, but I don't get this as a top album of the year contender.