Quick Hits, Vol. 154 (Wolf Alice, Macklemore, Liam Gallagher, At the Drive In)

Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life.  Wolf Alice can freaking jam.  I'll still ride or die with "Bros" as an excellent song, and "Moaning Lisa Smile" is also rad.  This is a London band, who lives in the grungy alt-rock world but is led by a female vocalist.  They came to ACL a few years ago and are going to come back to Austin next year for a show that I am going to go to no matter what else is happening in my life.  Queens of the Stone Age with Wolf Alice opening?  Give me all of that all day.  [edit: Just bought my tickets this morning and now I'm preemptively pumped.]  This album is less even than their last one, which I still listen to all the time.  This band is at their best when they mix some groove into the aggression.  So, you can compare "Yuk Foo" and its pure scream-fest to "Beautifully Unconventional," the slightly funky track that showcases the beauty of Ellie Roswell's vocal.  Here is the latter.

Good stuff.  I also like the heft of the rock on "Planet Hunter" and funky click mixed with energetic outbursts of "Formidable Cool."  Some tracks go to much into the shoegaze world, like the whispering ethereal "Sky Musings," but overall this is a good album.  If I'm being honest, I likely won't listen to it much more though.

Macklemore - Gemeni.  Macklemore is another one of the guilty pleasures I have.  I've written at length before about how I think he gets an unreasonable amount of shit for genuinely trying to make a difference with his lyrics, and for making pop smash raps like "Thrift Shop," but I say screw that. Do your thing bro.  Top track features someone named Skylar Grey, who sounds like the secret alter ego of someone from the X-Men.  236 million streams.

Well, shit, there goes the daily does of tears welling up in my eyes.  CAN'T THE RAPPERS GO BACK TO REFRIGERATORS FULL OF 40'S AND LADIES IN G-STRINGS JUMPING ON MINI-TRAMPOLINES COVERED IN BUBBLES!!!  Honestly, very sweet video.  Makes me wish I still had a grandparent to go hang out with.
This album, though, is flavored heavily by the guests on here, as all but one song on the album (the pretty solid "Ten Million") have a guest listed.  That means you end up with garbage like Lil Yachty (shockingly rapping over a beat that involves a toy piano riff.  Shocked, I tell you) and weak verses in otherwise enjoyable tracks, like the Offset verse in "Willy Wonka" or the Reignwolf hook sung in "Firebreather."  But then the beat and loping chill of "How to Play a Flute" is super cool (until all of the weird sneezing happens).  Several of these songs are OK - "Cornerstore," "Glorious," or "Good Old Days," but overall nothing on here is so revelatory that I feel like I need to keep it around forever.

Liam Gallagher - As You Were.  Oh, hey.  That sounds like Oasis, right there.  Huh.  While I'd always prefer for the brothers to suck up their childish ass differences and go back to making the Oasis tunes I love, this is a pretty solid facsimile right here.  This album has a lot of the same kinds of sounds - obviously the vocals sound the same, but the vocal reverb, psych rock guitar fuzz and chiming guitars, and continuous use of tambourine.  The album's opener, and lead single, and most popular track, also grabs hold of that old harmonica bit that he used to great effect in Oasis.  Here is "Wall of Glass," which boasts 16.4 million streams (shockingly, more than several songs on (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, which is insane to me.  KIDS THESE DAYS!).

That harmonica is some big fat sound.  I like it, really sounds like the old stuff.  Same with "Bold," honestly same with much of this album.  Now, if you know anything about Liam, he's apparently a massive asshole, or at least his public persona act is that of a major prick and unapologetic jerk.  Although sometimes that shit is funny.  Some of these songs appear to be apologetic, like "Paper Crown," but its never real clear, more opaque.  "You Better Run" sounds good, "Chinatown" is kind of clever and is a good little ballad, and "Universal Gleam" is also kind of lovely.  The best stuff on here is prime day Oasis, but some of it is a little soggy and forgettable.  I'll be keeping it around, because even watered-down new Oasis is better than a bunch of the new music out there, but this isn't an excellent album by any means.

At the Drive In - in-ter a-li-a.  This is one of those albums that I really wanted to be over almost as soon as it started.  I think I found this album because I was reading a Chronicle article about Beto O'Rourke, or maybe Texas Monthly, but either way it mentioned that O'Rourke's best bud and fellow rocker was in this band.  So I thought I'd check out their new one and see what was up.  Apparently, yelling over post-punk thrashing is very much what is up.

That was "Governed by Contagions," the most listened to track from the album with 1.5 million streams.  There was a time when I enjoyed some post-punk yelling, but that time has faded into history.  I do not want to find out how many bites it takes to get to the center of the cyanide tooth.  I'm good.