Vic Mensa - The Autobiography. I generally like Mensa, he came to ACL a few years ago and I liked his old stuff, and then I reviewed an album a year or so ago and liked that one too. This new one is pretty good, but it is honestly a little forgettable. I've gone through it probably 5 times just today, but I'd be hard pressed to remember anything interesting other than hearing Rivers Cuomo from Weezer sing some on one of the songs. The biggest problem is how many of these involve him singing. I don't want to hear that stuff, on tracks like "Rage," with a generic rock track in the back and him switching back and forth between singing and rapping. I'm also not much for the generic sounding weed anthem "Rolling Like a Stoner." But "Say I Didn't" is pretty cool, with its soul samples and the right kind of bragging, about taking care of your business and being a good dude. Sounds like a Common track. But I'll play you the Pusha T assisted one, "OMG."
That is some good popcorn rap right there. Interesting banger of a beat, tough braggadocio, and clever turns of phrase throughout. I also love Pusha T, so give me more of him rapping about his sheeples jumping the fence until you're snoring or tables full of coke and fresh powder skiing in the snow. I'll probably just keep a track or two from this one. Cold War Kids - LA Divine. I swear I am trying to get on board with the Cold War Kids. I really am. I know multiple people who really like them, and when I saw them live I thought they were pretty alright. But there is just something grating about the lead singer's voice that will not let me enjoy this stuff. But this disc has been in my queue for longer than anything else, so I need to do this and get off the pot. The top song from this disc is called "Love is Mystical," and it has 20 million streams on Spotify, so other people dig this stuff.
The tunes themselves are snappy good indie rock, but I just can't get behind the songs as their whole. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Sheryl Crow - Be Myself. Back when Tuesday Night Music Club came out, I was a ride-or-die Sheryl fan. That album ruled. Hell, I played the next two (Sheryl Crow and The Globe Sessions) a million times as well. Just seeing the track listing for Sheryl Crow makes me think of The Wallflowers and the house I lived in my junior year of college. Such a good album. These tunes are fine, but none of them are really lighting me up. I will say that they are much better than the foray into country music that Crow did over the last few years. This is back to that soulful, brassy rock thing that she was doing back in the day. Man, I need to just go listen to the classic Crow albums again... No songs from this album make her top ten on Spotify (and its actually shameful how few listens her classic songs have gotten, a Drake tune will get more in a minute than "Strong Enough" has gotten in more than a decade). But the second track on the album, "Halfway There," is the only one that is over a million streams, so here you go.
Aw look, the donkey and the elephant like each other! I want to make fun of this peace and love BS and meeting halfway across the aisle to get along with the guy with the long red tie, but it actually is a pretty fine and timely message. Let's meet halfway man. While this is better than her recent albums, I think I'll still just stick with my old school stuff. XXXTENTACION - 17. I remember putting this one into my list after seeing one of iamkingvader's videos, which was good, but not nearly as good as my favorite one. This is going to go down a weird rabbit trail for you, but let me just say before I get in to this, that this album of weird guitar ballad rap and boring verses is terrible. You don't want to listen to this album. But, back to iamkingvader, who is some dude I found on Twitter who makes these funny short videos that always involve him and a crew of dudes doing these weird stylized dances while rap music plays and someone gets a surprise of some sort. Here is my favorite one:
"They both at work, they can't do shit!" And then the ooooh face. Cracks me up all over again. And then the belt to the hands launching the guy. I'm a child. I know this. Makes me laugh every time I think about it. Then here is the one with the XXXtentacion song used in it.
Not as funny, but I am actually pretty impressed with the effects this guy can do. I tried to make a short video for work the other day and it look me like 9 hours to just add text to the screen. I'm far off topic, but whatever. Don't listen to this guy's album. But go watch some iamkingvader videos.
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