Quick Hits, Vol. 177 (Forming the Void, First Aid Kit, Car Seat Headrest, Brandi Carlile)

New A$AP Rocky/Gucci Mane/21 Savage track called "Cocky" is pretty salty.  Hope this bodes well for a new Rocky album coming out soon?

Forming the Void - Relic.  oooooooooooh yeah.  Gimme all the fuzzy metal crunch I can handle.  This band's bio is, like their music, basic and amazing.  "FORMING THE VOID is a heavy rock band from Louisiana."  That's it.  Rock and roll, baby.  Their top track is the first one off their album, "After Earth," but I choose to give you this one (with only 5k streams, so no one is listening to this stuff), "Unto the Smoke" because it has a video of sorts.

Psych rock.  Stoner rock.  Heavy rock.  All those things.  I dig it.  And even better, they close out the album with a righteous cover of Zeppelin's "Kashmir," which jams.  Well, to be honest, it kind of plods along a little bit, but still, it's Zep, so it is better than the majority of anything else you could listen to...  I've listened to this album many times by now while my New Music playlist was otherwise empty, and I like it.

First Aid Kit - Ruins.  These guys are a contentious band in my mind.  How can their published music be so wonderful while their live performance so lackluster?  Isn't it supposed to work the other way around?  I think I need to go back in time and get them to play a 50 person room before they were big, and maybe their sound will match the power of their studio work.  Well, this is more of the same from them: fine harmonies, slightly countrified indie rock, nothing too exciting but all quite lovely.  I am grateful that they left off the angry ass single they put out last year, and nothing on here is as strong as "Silver Lining" or "Stay Gold," but it is all very good.  "Postcard" is where the country really takes the forefront in the music, but the top single is not so country.  More like a 50's tinged torch song - "Fireworks" has 5.1 million streams and a sweet 80's video.

Yeah.  This album isn't as strong as Stay Gold, but it still is very good stuff.  I'm going to keep it around and make the kids listen to it on our way to Colorado in a few weeks.  Should be entertaining for me.  "Ruins" might be the best song on here, the one that best reflects the classic sound of the band.

Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (reissue).  I'd love to go talk to 10 year old Jack right about now, to let him know that someday, you'll listen to more than just R.E.M. and U2 and Midnight Oil, and instead you'll listen to a handful of bands where their band names sound like some complicated list of phrases you need to use the next time you play MadLibs.  This post is especially on point.  So, this album was actually released in 2011, to little fanfare, and so Will Toledo went back to it recently and re-recorded the whole album.  If I heard the original tunes, I have no recollection, but these version are freaking good.  Like his last kickass album, this is full of 90's buzz bin fuzzbox guitars and his plaintive singing, but this one sounds like lyrics to a lost lover or crush.  The track they keep playing on the radio is the top tune only if you count streams from a single version that came out before the album.  "Nervous Young Inhumans" is that one, with just over 500k streams, and it shows off some Beach Boy harmonies and 80's synths added in to the buzzy rock sound.

 For some reason, that video is only 3:07 long, while the track on the album is 5:26.  I guess that is the more popular single edit, which is probably actually a good thing, because the last few minutes of the real track are of Toledo mumbling a long spoken-word screed.  The other track that rules is "Beach Life-in-Death," but it is 13:19 minutes long, which is a little long for the blog.  But it rules, like a multi-part song that builds and jams, then mellows out, and then builds even higher with the power pop, super yellable chorus "the ocean washed over your grave!"  That line gets mirrored again in "Famous Prophets (Stars)," the other crazy long tune (16:10).  This album is very good.  Can I please see him play live again right now?

Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You.  Very nice folky/Americana tunes.  In my mind, this gal was country music, but none of these really fall into the usual country tropes, they stay out on that Americana thing, which I like much more.  She sounds like Lucinda Williams at times, Aimee Mann in bits, and other times like Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders, with a vulnerable tilt to her voice that is very endearing.  Lyrically, this disc can be fantastic.  "The Mother" is very good.  "Hold Out Your Hand" has an annoying way of feeling like I'm being yelled at.  But just about every other song on here is good.  The top song is the second one on the album, "The Joke," with 1.4 million streams.

Killer video.  I sure wish we still had a television channel that provided us with music videos all day long.  Although if that was on there I'm sure half the country would just change the channel.  I love it though.  Enjoyable album.

Look at that!  All four albums in one post getting the thumbs up!

2017 Book Reviews

I watch entirely too much junk on Netflix/Amazon/etc. these days.  Growing up, my parents did not allow me to watch TV unless it was Saturday or Sunday.  Which meant I read books like it was a freaking job.  I don't know how many hundreds of books I read before I left for college, but I'd easily take the over on a thousand.  Just in the Hardy Boys series alone, I bet there were 100+.  And if you count the number of times I have re-read Stephen King's The Stand and Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, my count would be probably 20 higher.  Voracious reader.  All the Stephen King books (some repeatedly).  All the Tom Clancy.  Three Investigators, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, and Dean Koontz.  So much other mystery, horror, science fiction...  During the summertime, once I finally learned to ride a bike (which was very late for me), I'd ride up to the library and check out the maximum number I was allowed at a time.  As you would expect, I also checked out scratchy ass record albums to play while I read.

And then law school happened, and that sort of broke me on reading for pleasure.  The nightly, careful reading of a couple hundred pages of dry, boring legal opinions and theory will suck the soul from anyone, but it definitely dried up my reservoir of patience for reading for fun.  Which sucked.  You know what got me back on that train for a little while?  Harry Potter.  I read the crap out of those books.  And then post-college, it was the Game of Thrones books that hooked me back into reading for pure pleasure.  And I do truly find genuine pleasure in a great book.  I'm usually a popcorn book guy - give me fanciful fiction over dreary truth any day of the week - but am up for trying new things all the time.

But, as I stated up above, I watch way too many screen-based stories.  So, at the start of 2016 I made a pact with myself to read more.  Partly for myself, partly as an example to my kids, but mostly just for myself.  I'm still reading less than I should, but I've increased my input significantly since 2015.  Here is what I read in 2016.  Without further meandering, here are the books I read in 2017.

• Stephen King - It.  I had to go back and re-read this one before I watched the new movie.  I loved it as a curious 12 year old many moons ago, and loved it again now.  Such a well-written collection of characters, full of flaws and idiosyncrasies and fears.  If you've never tried it, you should.
• Alan Graham - Welcome Homeless.  This dude has been working very hard to change the homeless issue in Austin.  Through Mobile Loaves and Fishes and then the Community First property out east, he has transformed life for a good number of people.  Very inspirational guy, although I would say that the book is at its best when telling the stories of the folks he has helped, and then bogs down some when getting more philosophical.
• Max Barry - Lexicon.  Great book, very fast-paced, suspenseful read about magicians who use words to control those around them.  Liked it a lot.
• Bill O'Reilly - Killing the Rising Sun.  I know, I just lost all my credibility for suggestions by discussing a Bill freaking O'Reilly book, but my Dad gave me this one and it was a good read.  Told the story of the Japanese atomic bomb drops, as well as the events leading up to them, very well.  Pretty sure some ghost writer handled the majority of this, as it didn't involve crazy political theories or sexual harassment.
• Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Wandering through a very cool indie bookstore in Denver this summer, I spotted the fat anthology collection of the six books in this book's orbit, and just thought I should read them all again.  As a kid, I geeked out about these books for a good long chunk of time, and still carry a towel in my car at all times.  The first book is by far the best, hilariously odd and quirky, including a wonderful parallel between the dipshit leader of the Universe and our current President.  The other books in the series are fine, but they kind of get to meandering and losing focus.
• Colston Whitehead - Underground Railroad.  Very well written book, but I was fully and completely misled by the jacket blurb about what I was getting in to.  Yes, there was a number of slight tweaks to the historical narrative of slaves escaping from the South, but the gory, godawful details were well represented, along with the soul-crushing sadness and depression that hung around slave's necks like so much iron chain.  I liked the book, very well-written, but this is not some puff piece about cool steam trains that whisk the rebellion around under the earth.
• Kelly Barnhill - The Girl Who Drank the Moon.  I think we bought this one for the kids, but they are sometimes a-holes about reading the books we think they ought to read.  So I went ahead and dove in.  Interesting fairy-tale narrative world, with a fun set of strange characters and roadblocks.  Quick and easy read, but I enjoyed it.
• Dave Barry/Ridley Pearson - Peter and the Starcatchers.  Another one purchased for the children, also another we bought at the cool bookstore in Denver, on recommendation from a pixie-ish, well-tattooed clerk who had a good knowledge of YA books.  This one ended up being a Peter Pan origin story.  I liked it.
• Conn Iggulden - The Dangerous Book for Boys.  My uncle bought me this book, randomly, as a Christmas present after a conversation where I think I admitted an inability to handle some basic slice of male proficiency.  Actually a very cool book - more reference tome than narrative story, but you can use it to figure out such useful items as knots, paper airplanes, finding true north, and lashing together a stick structure.
• Reggie Joiner / Tom Shefchunas - Lead Small.  Very succinct, clever, quirky book on how to best lead small groups of youth.  
• Kate Winkler Dawson - Death in the Air.  I just saw an author appearance thing with this author where she described the process of figuring out this book, and it was fascinating.  Kate is a professor at UT, but also is a parent at my kids' elementary school and helped coach soccer for my youngest.  By proxy, that makes me famous.  This book is a historical narrative, which is a term I was unfamiliar with.  It means that you take a true historical event and then blend the telling of it with fictional situations or characters to blend fiction with non-fiction.  This one conflates the Great London Smog of 1952, an environmental killer that was ignored and covered up by the British government, and a scary serial killer guy named John Reginald Christie.  The descriptiveness of the writing is fantastic, and several of the stories are gripping.  Personally, I could have done without some of the minutia of Parliament discussions that were recounted in detail in here, but I get that without those discussions you miss out on the government's complicity in the head-in-the-sand treatment of the smog.  Overall a good book, even if not my normal read.
• Shea Serrano - Basketball and Other Things.  I love Shea Serrano.  He is a hilarious follow on Twitter, and also a very good dude who goes out of his way to use his platform of fame to do rad things for other people.  His first book, The Rap Yearbook, was one of my favorite reads of last year, with the perfect mix of humor, deep and broad rap head detail, and good nostalgia.  I loved it.  This one is less up my alley - basketball is much lower on my totem pole of cares than rap music - but still has some funny parts that were worth the read.  My favorite chapter was the one drafting fictional basketball-playing characters, especially the bit about Air Bud being an all-sport stud.
• Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist.  Someone was telling me that this was their favorite book of all time and they were super pumped about introducing their kids to it.  Blech.  I'm apparently not deep enough to understand all the amazing parallels to my real life, because it just seemed to me like a relatively uninteresting story about a shepherd who makes bad decisions and then realizes he is good enough.  I'm just an idiot though - here are two of the blurbs on the internet about this book:
• “It’s a brilliant, magical, life-changing book that continues to blow my mind with its lessons. [...] A remarkable tome.” — NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, ACTOR
• “it changed my whole life. I realized of all of the people who had conspired to get me to this place.” — PHARRELL WILLIAMS, MUSICIAN AND SONG-WRITER
• Lev Grossman - The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician's Land.  These books are wonderful.  Like a profane version of Harry Potter, full of fantasy and magic, but also the striking realism of what a teenager would be like if they were smart as shit, loved the Narnia books, and then learned magic without much oversight.  Instead of popping off to Hogsmeade for a butter beer at the Three Broomsticks and a few sweets from Honeydukes, these characters get shit-faced and sleep around, cuss one another out, and then use magic to extract their revenge.  Of course they also have to quest and solve and battle evil forces, as any good fantasy book worth its salt would demand, but the telling of these tales is excellent.  One cool aspect that I very much liked was how the spells were insanely difficult.  In Potter-world, you just flick your wrist and say the word and off you go.  In this universe, you have to learn a million variations of each spell so that you can account for the position of the moon or the direction of the wind.  Great series of books with flawed characters who resonate well.
• Drew Magary - The Postmortal.  Love me some Drew Magary.  Funny, foul-mouthed, he seems in many ways like a good buddy I don't actually know.  His first book, The Postmortal, is a really interesting story, where you can see him coming up with a really great, basic idea for a story, and then just fleshing that out.  SO EASY, I SHOULD WRITE A BOOK!  In short, what would happen if science solved aging?  People could still die of other stuff, but the body itself wouldn't age and people wouldn't die of the usual deterioration.  What does that do to the world?  The book addresses that scenario at several points in time - initial discovery and cautious embrace of the technology, widespread acceptance and its effects, those effects taken to their extreme.  I thought it was a well-written book, a fun concept, and exciting read.  Very good.

I've got four books stacked up on my bedside stand right now, just waiting for me to get through one that I'm in the midst of.  I'll have more to present soon.  If you have good suggestions, please let me know - always looking for good stuff.

Quick Hits, Vol. 176 (Cupcakke, Justin Timberlake, Black Panther Soundtrack, Franz Ferdinand)

I have no clue how it works, but something about Chvrches taps directly into my cerebral cortex joy center zone brain matter.  Their new single "Get Out" is honestly redux sounding stuff from their last album, but it doesn't matter, I want to blast it on repeat and punch the air as I dance around like a 13 year old girl.

Cupcake - Ephorize.  Holy shit.  I don't remember the last time I truly, deeply, honestly laughed out loud at music.  Maybe some old Eminem or something.  But in this age of super serious rap like Kendrick and super terrible brag garbage like Migos, this style of over-the-top hilariously raunchy rap is amazing and refreshing.  I mean, dirty.  Like someone ate only spoiled curry and drank Strawberry Kiwi Mad Dog and then vomited in the center of Bourbon Street, directly on a pile of horse manure, which then sat in the sun for a week before it was placed on your pillow.  Dirty.  "Spoiled Milk Titties" literally just made me laugh out loud and then look around my office to see if anyone else had heard that so that we could discuss.  And "Duck Duck Goose," similarly nasty as they wanna be.  Funny stuff.  Her top song on Spotify ("Deepthroat," with 16.7 million streams) isn't in this album, so I have to give you "Cartoons," which only has 738k.

"and them bullets go boo boo boop!"  Not a dirty sex rhyme, just a straight-forward bad ass rap, and it sounds good.  This album is highly entertaining, although I'm not sure how well it stands up over time.  Not sure many people are still playing 2 Live Crew other than to be funny for a song or two.  But I think you should go listen to this album right now.  High entertainment factor (and NSFW unless your work is cool with explicit oral sex jokes).

Justin Timberlake - Man in the Woods.  This is not a good album.  Just going to get that out of the way first.  "Flannel" sounds like JT accepted a bet to make a non-denominational Christmas song in the style of the Fleet Foxes.  The rest of these songs are perfectly pleasant milquetoast pop tunes with Timberlake's effortlessly great voice bopping along with them, but nothing on here even sniffs the songs on FutureSex/LoveSounds.  It is also over an hour and 16 songs long.  I hate what streaming numbers are doing to the world.  "Midnight Summer Jam" is not a jam.  In fact, none of these tracks are really great dance tracks.  They might have some bass, and some trappy hi-hats, but nothing ever actually launches here.  "Say Something" has promise, combining Timberlake with Chris Stapleton's soulful voice, but its just a generic acoustic strum over a generic beat combined with uninteresting lyrics.  Boring.  "Filthy" is the top single with 37 million streams, so here you go.

Just boring.  It's not terrible, but the beat is nothing interesting or exciting.  The lyrics are not memorable.  "Put your filthy hands all over me" and "haters gonna say its fake" over and over again.  Too bad, as I was fully prepared to enjoy this album.

Black Panther Soundtrack.  I am excited for this movie - my son keeps mentioning it and so I have kept it at the forefront of my brain for the past few months.  Ought to be another good one in the Marvel line of flicks.  So this soundtrack has been "curated" by Kendrick Lamar, which apparently means that he just got all of the Top Dawg Entertainment artists to give him a track and slapped them all together to make the album.  Not really that blatant, but you definitely have SZA, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and many others on here who might be part of TDE.  There are a few good tracks on here, but I'd say that it is very uneven.  I also don't much care for SZA or The Weeknd, and those two artists bookend the album with Kendrick collaborations that are alternative R&B stuff I don't really need to hear anymore...  But of course the rest of the world loves SZA with passion right now, so that track is the top one on here my a million miles.  87 million streams for "All the Stars."

Its not a bad song - SZA's voice is good, Kendrick's verse is good, but nothing in it sticks with me and feels like it will matter tomorrow.  I kind of liked the sound of Khalid's track, until Swae Lee started auto-crooning.  "X" sounds pretty solid and I always enjoy a good Anderson.Paak thing, like "Bloody Waters" with Ab-Soul.  My first three or so listens were unimpressed, but to be honest, I just did it two more times and I'm coming around.  Still not on board with the Zacari songs or the Jorja Smith tune.  That being said, the vibe is all over the place, but it actually kind of works.

Franz Ferdinand - Always Ascending.  Funny thing, I heard the first single from this album the other day on the radio and mentally thought - oh, this must be a new Arcade Fire song.  That was followed by the thought - oh, no, maybe this is an old Velvet Underground tune?  Which was followed by the thought - shit, is this Franz Ferdinand?  Sweet.  Here is that first single, the album opener, and title track of the disc.

Quick aside - I looked at the website for some hippie dippie clothing company to see if their cool guy outdoor pants looked good (which they don't, I refuse to buy stretchy pants) and now I get served up with their YouTube ad about 90% of every time I try to watch a video.  And it is an awful clip of shitty soft-core electro music and douchebags rock climbing and hammock chilling around a red rock paradise.  Ugh.
Anyway, so what did you hear at the opening of this tune?  Lou Reed-fronted Velvets?  Me too.  Then when the disco kicks in?  Total Arcade Fire track.  Then the chorus is pure old school Franz Ferdinand.  I fully enjoy this tune.  Same with several of the other ones, like "Paper Cages" or "Lazy Boy," or "Finally," but then I hit a pretty big speed bump with the boring, treacly, "The Academy Award."  Annoying song, bad sound, whiny sounding.  With the groan-inducing, oft-repeated line, "The Academy Award for Good Times goes to yooooouuuuuuu."  I like the groove of "Lois Lane" as well.  But as a cohesive album, I just wish that they would have more fun.  Feels like too much of this is spent plodding along with a hint of their old disco jam party selves, but never fully getting out of that Lazy Boy.

(see what I did there?)

Predicting ACL 2018: Critical Darlings

I've said it before, but I love doing this post, in part because of the excellent work done by Rob Mitchum in creating a master spreadsheet that takes all of the top/reputable best album of the year lists and mashes them together into a mega list of the consensus best music of the year. Love it.  In addition to it being a cool tool in general, I have also found it useful in determining artists who might show up at ACL, with the thought being that critically acclaimed artists are more likely to be hot the next year and get named to the ACL lineup.  If he ever stops doing this spreadsheet I might cry.

I first found Mitchum's spreadsheet through the Rock Critic Hivemind article that came out in 2014.  I've talked about this article a lot. If I had all the time in the world, I'd love to make something similar every year, but thankfully he is a data nerd like me and just keeps on making it.  I love him.  Here is the 2017 spreadsheet.

Now, obviously, using this list goes for a more universal angle at critical love.  This takes everyone's thoughts into account, including non-US sources.  He's looking at shit like Rolling Stone, Paste, NME, Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, Spin, and NPR but then he's also using stuff like "factmag.com" and "tinymixtapes.com" and "thelineofbestfit.com" so who the hell knows what is going on with some of those people.  They could LOVE Norwegian elf flute bands or something.  In fact, The Line of Best Fit named Stranger in the Alps, by Phoebe Bridgers, as their top album in 2017.  So now I'm feeling less good about this data set...

So we may be getting data from sources that the ACL folks would never ever look to.  The ACL booking folks may be looking at best of lists by some obscure blogger, or Austin-centric sources like The Chronicle, Waterloo Records, and the Statesman.  I dunno.  But I still think that getting the consensus picks for best of the year can shed some light on the potential lineup choices.

Here's a look at history: And I'm still sticking to just the top 30 in each year, just because I have to limit this and not entirely lose my eyesight or fire up carpal tunnel.  Here is what I found:

With regard to the 2014 Top 30 Albums:

• Some top artists in the year end rankings got no big festival sets.  Sharon Van Etten, Aphex Twin, and Sun Kill Moon were all among the top ten of the critical darling list, but none played the big 4 festivals in 2014/2015.  Eight of the top 30 total artists had no show at any of the big 4 in either 2014 or 2015.
• In 2014, 10 of the top 30 2014 artists had a slot in one of the big 4 festivals.  So only 1/3, which isn't a real strong correlation.
• 5 of those 10 were booked for ACL, though, which is strong. (St. Vincent, Mac DeMarco, Spoon, Lana Del Rey, and Real Estate). ACL had the closest connection, as Lolla, Coach, and Roo each only had 3.  
• The next year, in 2015, 18 of the top 30 2014 artists scored a big Four Festival slot - a much stronger connection.  So maybe the critical love has to percolate a year before the artists can get booked to play a Fest.
• However, only two of those came to ACL (Sturgill and Run the Jewels), which is kind of crazy. The runaway winner for the Festival booking last year's top album artists was Cochella, with 14 of the 18 playing Coachella.  That looks like a strong connection. Lolla had five and Roo had ten.

With regard to the 2015 Top 30 Albums:

• More of the top ten got shows, as only two (9th place Sleater-Kinney and 10th place Bjork) didn't have any big four festival dates in 2015 or 2016.  Eleven total artists in the 2015 top 30 were blanked for big four festival dates in 2015/2016.
• In 2015, again, 10 of the top 30 2015 artists had a slot in one of the big 4 festivals.
• But if you looked forward, 7 of those 10 on the 2015 list were booked to ACL for 2015 (Tame Impala, Father John Misty, Vince Staples, Kurt Vile, Drake, Alabama Shakes, Chance the Rapper (Donnie Trumpet album)).  It makes sense - ACL is the latest festival, so it has the time to look at the best music and trends of the year, unlike say Coachella that announced its new lineup right at the start of the year.
• In 2016, 16 of the top 30 2015 artists played a big four festival show. Slightly down from the year before, but over 50% is pretty strong.
• However, only one of those came to ACL for 2016 (Kendrick Lamar), which again shows a pretty weak connection here between last year's top albums being booked to be at this year's ACL.  Instead, the C3 people are apparently going to slip out a crystal ball and predict who will be the best artists of 2017 before its even happened.  Of the other fests, Coach had 8, Roo had 8, and Lolla had 4 top 2015 artists play their 2016 festival.

Now adding in the 2016 Top 30 Albums vs. the 2017 Big Four posters:

• Looking at just the top ten from the 2016 spreadsheet, only four of the top ten showed up at a big 4 Fest in 2016 - Solange and Angel Olsen at ACL and Radiohead and Bon Iver at Coachella.  
• Top 30 in 2016, 13 of the top 30 had slots at the big four.  Stronger than both of the prior years.  If I were to guess, I'd bet that the Fests becoming more mainstream, and accepting things like Solange, makes it more likely to grow this number.
• ACL pulled a handful of these critical darlings last year: Solange (#3), Angel Olsen (#6), Chance the Rapper (#11), Danny Brown (#13), Car Seat Headrest (#19), and Skepta (#28).  Six is a much stronger connection than the year before.  Interesting.  Coachella also had a strong tie as well, with seven.  Lolla had 3, Roo had 3.

So, that shows a MUCH stronger connection between the 2016 top albums and the 2017 ACL schedule.  Six versus one the year before.  What does that mean for this year?  Wait, before we get to that, let's scorecard this bitch.  Last year, I guessed correctly that two of the 30 would be here (Angel Olsen and Car Seat Headrest), and correctly that 20 of the 30 wouldn't come.  So 22/30 ain't half bad, right?  But I also figured that Bon Inver, Nick Cave, Mitski, and Nicholas Jaar would show up (wrong) and that Solange, Chance, Danny Brown, and Skepta wouldn't come (wrong).  Doesn't seem like that good of a guessing average now.  But let's do it again anyway, right?

There were only two in the 2017 Best Albums List who already played ACL last year (Thundercat and Jay-Z), so maybe the ACL magic crystal ball ain't so strong after all.  Crazy thing, in looking down this list of the top 30 albums in 2017 - WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE?

• Kendrick Lamar.  Played ACL in 2013 and 2016, so it seems too quick for him to come back.  Not much of a solo tour this year, will be done by early March and then plays the Hangout Fest in May.  But the Championship Tour for lots of the Top Dawg Entertainment artists, including Lamar, SZA, Schoolboy Q, and Jay Rock, starts up in May and goes through June.  One of those May dates is in Austin at the 360 amphitheater.  So, my guess is no, with an Austin show a few months before the Fest and a recent appearance.
• SZA.  Well, now I just said that SZA would be playing Austin with Kendrick in May, so you would think that my logic would hold the same here.  She also played Austin last October, at Emo's.  Playing Coachella, then all of these Championship shows, Firefly Festival, Panorama NYC Fest, and is done with all of the things I find listed by end of July.  So she has time to show up on both Lolla and ACL posters.  And she is buzzy, without a recent appearance at ACL.  I'm thinking she takes the spot Solange had last year and takes everyone along on a weird R&B ride.  Yes.
• Lorde.  I previously said that she would show up here, in my post about LiveNation bands.  Just as a by the way, she has Run the Jewels opening for her.  Cool.  Her current tour is done in early June as of now.  Includes several festivals - All Points East, Primavera, Parklife.  AND she played all three of the other major festival last year, so ACL is the only one that didn't get her last year. Still think this makes sense.  Go with yes.
• Sampha.  I literally have no clue what Sampha is.  Could be a metal band, a soul singer, a rapper, a string quartet, a body-free consciousness that was uploaded to the cloud by the Black Mirror people and now makes dubstep doowop for the deaf.  No clue.  And yet the consensus is that it had the fourth best album of 2017.  Interesting.  It's a dude, a Brit singer.  He's playing festivals in Europe in 2018.  Nothing in the U.S.  Going to go with no.  See no buzz or reason for him to be here.
• St. Vincent.  Her album cover is a problem for me - go to her website and anyone who might walk by at work thinks you have a peeper fetish for the lady business.  So, her tour includes two February dates in Austin at ACL Live, which is exactly what The xx did last year before their appearance at ACL.  BUT the difference is that the xx's shows were sold out, and it looks like there are still tickets available for these shows.  So that doesn't sound like there is a clamoring for her to return in October.  She plays Coachella, Hangout, Boston Calling, and some weird festivals in Europe, but is done by the end of August.  So she technically could make it to ACL, but I'm going to guess no because she can't even sell out her own shows in town.
• LCD Soundsystem.  I'm such a crotchety old man about these dudes now.  I honestly don't see how or why they would come back to Austin after only one year away.  They are playing several other fests - including South American Lollas - so they could be out there on the road.  They'll be done boring audiences in person, by refusing to play their hits and depending on their depressing tunes, at the end of June, so they have the time to come to Austin. But No.
• Kelela.  Like their buddy Sampha above - no clue what this is.  The internet seems to indicate that she is a recent collaborator with Gorillaz.  Handful of upcoming concerts all around the world, including Coachella, Governor's Ball, and a few foreign fests, so she is out there doing festival work.  Uhhh, sure, why not?  Her last show currently scheduled is in mid-September, so she could be here in October to fest it up.
• Vince Staples.  I've been listening to Summertime '06 some more recently, and it is very much better than the Big Fish album.  Staples is on the road right now, playing Dallas tonight, playing Coachella and some foreign fests.  Huh, ACL was the only one of the Big Four he skipped in 2016.  NORF NORF!  But ACL was the only one of the four he played in 2015.  Yeah, I guess we need some mid-tier rap guys to fill out the poster, so I'll go with a weak yes.  Will revise as more information comes in.
• Jlin.  I just tried this guy's album at the end of the year and am on the outside looking in here.  Not even sure I understand what this website is saying.  Playing festivals.  But I don't see any real buzz or reason he would be in Austin.  No.
• Perfume Genius.  Big tour right now, with many shows in Australia including a few festival dates (although not the City Limits shows out in Australia or New Zealand).  Comes back to the US to play Coachella, Boston Calling, Sasquatch, and others, including an Austin show on April 23.  Honestly, this touring schedule looks weird - it is all festivals except for that Emo's show.  Emo's is booked by C3, I'll make a guess here that they are playing the random one-off show as some sort of agreement to come to ACL.  Their last touring date is July 14, so they have the time to come to both Lolla and ACL.  I'll say yes.
• The War on Drugs.  I hope so.  They haven't been here since 2012, but I think they are great.  Touring schedule shows a bunch of fests (Coachella, Shaky Knees, Primavera, Panorama, among others) with a perfect gap for both Lolla and ACL.  Good fit band for Austin and haven't been here in a long time.  Gonna go with yes.
• Mount Eerie.  I'm so old.  When I have no clue about 3 artists in last year's top 11, I'm losing touch man.  A few shows upcoming, done in March, no clue what this is.  No.
• The National.  Yep.  Predicted this in my huge LiveNation post.  They continue to have a large hole in their tour around both the Lolla dates and the ACL dates.  Feels good.
• Fever Ray.  How can you name your band this and be OK with everyone immediately thinking about Sugar Ray when they see your band name?  Seems like an issue for me.  Maybe no one else remembers Sugar Ray.  I guess I barely do, I was conflating them with Smashmouth just now in my head.  Anyway, this is a young lady who is apparently half of Swedish electronic duo The Knife.  She is on tour right now, in Europe, with American dates in Spring and Summer.  A few minor festival dates, with European fests sandwiching the days of Lolla.  I know nothing about her style or whatever, I'm gonna go with no.
• King Krule.  Yeah, this one feels legit to me.  He is playing Emo's on April 10, so he is on C3's radar.  Kind of hot shit right now, even though I don't get it at all.  Tour ends in May.  Playing Coachella.  Feels right to me - I think this is the kind of dude who will end up on a lot of the festival posters and then you'll never hear of him again.
• Big Thief.  These dudes feel like they've been buzzy for a while, but I guess I'm wrong because none of the Big Four has had them before this year.  They look to start touring in March, mostly small venues, and then Coachella, Sasquatch, Boston Calling, and a big gap between May 25 and Sept. 24 (the last date on their calendar).  So they have the time to play Lolla and ACL, and I think they do it.  I'm predicting too many bands from this list, but whatever...
• Father John Misty.  I've been listening to my saved albums all week, and some of his songs from I Love You, Honeybear popped up today, and it just washed over me again how amazingly well done his lyrics are.  Bruno Mars and his Grammy win for songwriting can eat shit.  He's currently on tour overseas, done with Pamorama in NYC in July.  Have no reason to think he'd come to ACL this year, he was last here in 2015, and is still supporting that new album from last year.  Waffling.  I'll go with yes, he just seems like a good ACL band.
• Tyler, the Creator.  His website is golfwang.com.  Dude is weird, man.  Current tour includes the South American Lollas, then Coachella, Sasquatch, Boston Calling, and a bunch of European fests.  Done by mid-July, so I think he makes sense to show at both ACL and Lolla.  They need another mid-tier rapper for the Danny Brown slot from last year.  Yes.
• Slowdive.  Currently touring behind their new album that sounds just like they did 20 years ago.  They'll be in Austin for the Levitation Fest in April, so I think they don't come right back for another local fest.  No.
• Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.  The internet calls this person a composer.  Only two upcoming shows I could find, so I'm thinking this is not a touring performer.  Who ever added this to their top albums of the year list is trying to damn hard.  No.
• Migos.  Oh man, screw these freaking guys.  I just finished a new Rolling Stone article about them, right after writing about the new album.  They are trash and still refuse to write or otherwise try on their rhymes.  Playing a few fests - Coachella, Rolling Loud, Primavera, Panorama, so they are out there on the festival circuit.  Hopeful ACL has better sense than to book these pricks.  No.
• Julie Byrne.  Never heard of this gal.  Touring in support of someone named Steve Gunn, small venues.  Done in mid-March.  See no reason why she would be here...No.
• Bjork.  Oh my sweet sweet Bjork.  How I love your older music.  How I am confounded and disappointed by your new "music."  Playing a few smaller fests, but no real tour showing up on the web.  Her new album is listed on this list of top albums, but I haven't heard a soul talk about it.  Don't see any excitement over her being here, so I'll guess no.
• Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile.  Oh my sweet sweet Courtney Barnett.  I'm actually kind of hacked off at the ACL people - we've never gotten Barnett here.  All of the others in the big 4 have enjoyed some wry observations and ramen habit discussions, and we get jack shit.  She's playing a few small festivals, including the C3 booked Shaky Knees.  No real tour, just fests.  I don't really see any reason for her to be here unless she fires out new music (which isn't predicted).  No.
• Arca.  No clue what this is.  Two dates on this website, no reason to think this is coming to Austin.  No.
• Moses Sumney.  Tried this guy out at the end of the year, not my cup of tea.  Playing Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Governors and a few other small fests.  Plays right after Lolla in Chicago, so theoretically he could pull the Big Four quadleapfunktrimester move, but for now I'll guess no.
• Jane Weaver.  Never heard of her.  The only tour dates on her calendar are overseas.  No.
• J Hus.  No.  His website shows nothing for live shows.  I think he doesn't exist.

Criminy man.  I think I'm doing this all wrong this year - these posts didn't feel like quite so much of a beating last time.  I think I need to limit my thoughts and not go with the top 30 or whatever.  Too many of these likely have zero chance of ever coming to Austin because they are European classical composers.

Guesses that survive this list:

SZA

Lorde

Kelela

Vince Staples

Perfume Genius

The War on Drugs

The National

King Krule

Big Thief

Father John Misty

Tyler, the Creator

No way those are all right.  Just no way.  I'll do more research and get back to you on this one.

Quick Hits, Vol. 175 (Migos, Nothing More, Mike Shinoda, some singles)

By the way, I have been killing off new music like a redneck with a chopper and a chopper over a field of hogs.  I can't remember the number, but when I was done with ACL last year, I had like 8,000 days worth of music saved up in my new music queue.  After reviewing the albums you see here, I am literally down to 46 minutes, and those are all singles.  A feature of Spotify that I really dislike - when you look at their list of New Releases, you get no differentiation between a single or an album.  So you see a new Jack White sitting there and get pumped up, but only later realize that was just a single and not a full album.  So see below for some thoughts on singles.

Migos - Culture II.  If you have read this blog before then you know about my distaste for Migos, starting with their homophobic garbage, but more importantly resting on their complete lack of talent.  They use catchy beats, they make fun random noises over the top of those beats, but their lyrics are idiotic stream of consciousness crap.  I know people call this mumble rap (although they even say, on "Narcos," that this is "real rap, no mumble") but that isn't my problem.  I can understand their words.  The problem is that they just barf out whatever words they can think of.  Rolling Stone previously watched them work out a song, and it looked like this: 

As Durel mans the board, firing up a beat he produced, Quavo enters the booth with a blunt. He spits gibberish first, hashing out rhythmic and melodic ideas: "Nigga, the ice on the boat," he mumbles. "Waste on, coo on." Bar by bar, he transforms this doggerel into intelligible ideas. "Prayer clean/Put on a pair of wings" becomes "Pull up McLaren and wings/Pull up and spread my wings."

Even at the end of that process, after the "doggerel" becomes "intelligible ideas," the rhyme he comes up with is absolute trash!  He starts and finishes both lines with the same words.  Rhyming isn't just saying the same word over and over.  Eminem's new album may be crap, but at least the guy understands that rhyming involves using different words and actually trying while writing.  And the imagery is OK, but it doesn't create anything of interest.  Yes, some cars have doors that raise up like wings.  This is why they are called gullwing doors.  You aren't coming up with anything new or valuable to the world.  Just cool sounding noise.  And noting that wings look like wings.

So, I know you don't care about my old complaints, what about the new album?  Have they progressed any?  Nope.  As is the usual complaint for me these days, it is way too long.  24 songs and an hour and 45 minutes?  AN HOUR AND FORTY FIVE FUCKING MINUTES?  That should be the run-time of a movie, not a bad rap album of very similar sounding tracks.  Obviously, they could have cut half of this and put out a stronger album.  But they do this to game the streaming system and grab more individual streams that build up their Billboard numbers and payments, so this is the world we live in.  But even if you assume they weren't trying to game the Billboard system, all you end up with is over 100 minutes of formulaic trap beat and lame lyrics.

They are hot shit right now, so they score big name collaborators - Drake, Gucci Mane, Big Sean, 21 Savage, Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Post Malone, 2 Chainz - and surprisingly, the Cardi B and Nicki tune might be one of the better ones on here.  That and the different sound of the "Stir Fry" track, which is not trap music like the rest.  But several tracks are brutally annoying because they just repeat the same shit for like 3 minutes - "Walk It Talk It" must say that phrase 385 times during the song.  And the AutoTune is annoying.  That Nicki/Cardi track also happens to be the most streamed on here, "Motorsport," with 114 million streams.

Yeah.  If that is the best thing on here, then you can tell what I think of the album overall.  Let me give you a lyrical sampling.

A Quavo verse:

Xans, Perky, check (yeah), Bill Belichick
Take the air out the ball (yeah), just so I can flex
Take the air out the mall (hey), walk in with the sacks
Take the air out your broad (woo, woo, woo, E)

The Bill Belichick bit is somewhat clever because it references a current, well, three years ago current, thing.  But the other two lines just sound like he forgot he was still on the mike.  Does the last line match up with anything?  I can't see that "broad" rhymes with anything in there?  Did he punch her in the stomach? (that RS article also mentions some potential lady beating as well by the gents).  Just a bad, nonsense line.

A Takeoff verse:

And the left hand on Richard Mille (ice)
Not the watch, but the price on the ice
If you don't know what that is (huh)
Motorsport, motorville
Abort the mission, that's a kill (pew, pew, brrr)

So he's making fun of me for not knowing about fancy watch brands, which is semi-clever.  And then he just farts out some random words in the final two lines that have zero relation to anything.  Pew Pew Brrr.  Yes, "motorville" and "kill" both rhyme.  Good job Takeoff.  However, there is no way to make those two lines mean anything other than you were too lazy to write a verse and so you just thought of gibberish.  Unless he is a big fan of the online car parts emporium in Kansas?

An Offset verse:

Uh, the coupe came imported (hey)
This season's Off-White come in snorted (white)
Green Lamborghini a tortoise (Lambo)
No human being, I'm immortal (no)

Does he think that the color green makes a Lamborghini slow?  Does he not know tortoises are slow?  How else could that line make any sense?  The last line - its like a triple negative and I can't figure out whether he really is immortal or not.  And I also can't figure out whether I'm supposed to see the final word as the rhyming word, like in the first two lines of rhyming imported with snorted, or if the random parenthetical exclamation is supposed to be the rhyming bit (like Lambo with no).  There is no apparent rule here.  Why am I worried about this shit?  I can't believe I just wrote like 2 pages of words about this idiocy.  You really should just avoid this whole thing.

[EDIT] I had to come back and add another note after reading the new article/interview about these dolts from the Feb. 8 Rolling Stone: "When they were younger, Migos had a 20-minute rule: They wouldn't spend longer than that coming up with a verse.  Now, tracks take a little longer but one key to their sound is that they never write out their lyrics.  They just freestyle and see what happens, which prevents them from overthinking things and lets instinct take over."  Freaking idiots.  And they go on in this article to talk about how they want to be the most famous people ever - you know how rappers got extremely famous in the past?  They took the time to write out amazing rap lyrics!!!  Amazing rap songs like "Fuck tha Police" or "6 in the Morning" or "Paul Revere" or "It Was a Good Day" or "Juicy" or "Mind's Playing Tricks on Me," those artists spent time crafting amazing, memorable lines that rhymed and told a cool story.  How do the Migos not understand this?  Why do I care so much?

Nothing More - The Stories We Tell Ourselves.  Futhermucker.  Another 18 song long album.  While this one is just under an hour long, you people are killing me.  So this band was nominated for all three of the Rock categories at the Grammys this year, and yet no one had ever heard of them.  How does this band come along and get more nominations than anyone else in those categories?  From that article above, this sounds like some insider garbage where their manager just used connections and pushed to get them noticed, even though the band is unknown even to hometown people.  I mean, you'd really think that a great San Antonio band would make enough noise to be noticed up in Austin.  Nope.

So, thought I'd give them a shot.  This is pretty generic hard rock stuff, lots of super-double-poundfest kick drums with Korn-esque slappy bass and vocals that sound kind of like Fall Out Boy meets Incubus meets Linkin Park.  And the mix is relatively poor as well - on "Tunnels," for example, the cymbals/high hats in the chorus part sound muted/washed out terrible.  Sounds like old mp3s did when the compression was jacked.  So, I'll give you the track that was up for a Grammy, "Go to War," which is by far the most popular track on here at 9.3 million streams.

This shit just made me Google "Did Nickelback ever win a Grammy?"  The answer to that question is no, which is heartening, but, like this band, even Nickelback was nominated.  6 times, in case you need that for your next trivia night.  I asked a friend of mine, who owns a stake in an San Antonio club and is plugged in to the scene down there, he said that the Grammy nods for these dudes is baffling to everyone down there.  Says no one in SA even knows anything about them, and that they played a show right after their nomination was announced and no one showed up.  Fascinating.  If I were a real reporter, instead of a repressed music nerd stuck behind a desk, I'd go spend six months embedded in the system to reveal the secrets of how this random ass band got three Grammy nominations while vastly superior rock, like Royal Blood, Queens of the Stone Age (who did get one nod), Greta Van Fleet, White Reaper, Nothing But Thieves, J. Roddy Walston, Arcade Fire, Spoon, Temples, and many other rock and roll albums got ignored.  Pulitzer prize, baby.

Mike Shinoda - Post Traumatic EP.  Shiiiiiiiiiit.  Brutal to hear the pain for Shinoda, losing Chester Bedingfield last year, and then immediately pouring out those feelings onto these three songs.  I won't say these are classic Linkin Park songs, the beats leave something to be desired, but if you want to look into the mind of someone struggling with sadness and losing his friend to suicide, then this is your jam.  One of these three tracks includes an interlude when you hear several guys leaving Shinoda sympathy voice mails.  Heartbreaking.  Seriously.

Jesus.  That fired up the old goosebump machine.  Fuck suicide, man.  I won't hold on to this album, but I honestly hope that it helped Shinoda to get this stuff off his chest.

Sting & Shaggy - Don't Make Me Wait.  Lord have mercy.  Come on, Sting.  I used to love you!  This is terrible.  Not as bad as the awkward and uncomfortable mess on the Grammys where you were semi-busking in the subway, but bad stuff.

Jack White - Corporation.  Huh.  Kind of funky with soul-tastic organs.  Kind of southern rock with the Allman-esque guitar at the start.  Kind of freaky weird when it goes into a freakout in the latter half and White keep screaming and then asking who is with him.  Interesting intro to the new album to be released soon, although definitely not a radio hit.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - American Guilt.  Oh hell yeah.  Now this is the one that should have been Jack White.  These psych rock weirdos bring some guitar fuzz and raucous thump.  Dig it.  Loved this group's last album, hope the new one comes out soon.

Lord Huron - Ancient Names (Part 1).  Loved his last album and the opportunity to see him play twice at ACL.  This one goes a little more out there, almost into the Tame Impala-ish psych sound.  Pretty catchy chit after a slow Renaissance Faire start.

The Sword - Deadly Nightshade.  Whenever people cream about Mastadon's music, I just come back to these dudes being similar but better.  And local, which is also rad.  This song is good heavy stuff.

The Vaccines - Nightclub.  Sounds like Franz Ferdinand.  I like it.

Drake - God's Plan.  As usual with Drake, I generally enjoy the beat and the flow.  I catch myself grooving to the track.  But once he's past the telling the girl not to roll up and cuddle with him at 6am, the lyrics drop into a boring hole.  here is the chorus:

God's plan, God's plan
I hold back, sometimes I won't, yuh
I feel good, sometimes I don't, ayy, don't
I finessed down Weston Road, ayy, 'nessed
Might go down a G.O.D., yeah, wait
I go hard on Southside G, yuh, wait
I make sure that north-side eat

Errr, OK.  I feel like I missed the part of that which could be seen as God's plan?  Is God planning for you to become him?  Was it God's plan for you to "go hard" on a particular direction of the compass?  Oh, or was the loaves and fishes miracle where God's son fed the multitudes done on the north-side of Bethsaida?  GOOD REFERENCE!!!  Also, I cannot permit someone to get away with saying "'nessed" as a shortened form of "finessed."  GTFOH.  Scary thing - that throwaway track just broke records for streaming numbers, and it isn't even special.  Drake is truly baffling to me.

Danger Mouse, Run the Jewels, Big Boi - Chase Me.  This one was nominated for a Grammy, but I'd never heard of it.  Apparently a tune from the Baby Driver soundtrack.  Danger Mouse is truly one of the most interesting dudes in the world.  I so wish that I had the patience to sit down and make beats.  I feel like I know enough music to where I could come up with some rad sounds to mash together.  But I spent like an hour fighting garage band one night to make one mediocre track and would die if that was my job.  Anyway, OK track - good beat, relatively toothless verses from otherwise great rappers.

My New Stuff playlist is now officially empty.  Such a freeing moment.  Time to go hunt for some new action.

Quick Hits, Vol. 174 (Greta Van Fleet, billy woods, Jim James, J.I.D.)

Greta Van Fleet - From the Fires.  You know how sometimes you can hear a band's influence?  You might note that the guitar licks in a particular White Stripes tune are in the lane of Jimmy Page.  Or that the heavy drums in a Royal Blood tune bang like a Bonham blast.  Or that the Woflmother guy can howl like Robert Plant.  But never, outside of an actual Led Zeppelin album, could you find all of those influences and allegiances so tightly wound together and perfectly stitched into a life-sized Zeppelin tribute statue.  Seriously.  Someone should contact the trademark lawyers because the likeness is uncanny.  In "Highway Tune," when he sings "My my! My my!" and then gives a primal wooooooooaaaaaaahhhhh, it is classic Plant.  At the end of "Flower Power," you get all the "You're Time Is Gonna Come" organs you can stomach.  And as far as I'm concerned, hell yes, gimme some more.  This is highly cool.  "Highway Tune" is the top track, by a large margin, with 11.6 million streams, so get your lighters ready.

Yeah, baby.  Sometimes, the vocals do stray further out into Wolfmother zone, where it is more caricature and less homage, like in "Talk on the Street." And sometime he gets shrill enough to sound like Heart.   But when they have it together (as in most of these tracks), it just works. Total Zeppelin recreation.  I dig it and would be excited to see them play live.

billy woods - Known Unknowns.  I've been putting off a review of this one for a while.  Dunno where I found it, and the guy has no Spotify bio, so I'm lost on context.  Rapper, with a good, well-paced, enunciated flow.  Beats are good, nothing flashy or bass heavy, more like sample-heavy beats but without any samples that I recognize.  Crate digger samples.  or they might not even be samples, just track snippets made to emulate the sampling.  Kind of a madvillian vibe on here.  The top song is the first track of the album, "Bush League," with only 95k streams.

Interesting thing is that this is his 6th album.  Never heard of the dude.  Short tracks, only one cracks 4 minutes, and most are under 3 minutes.  But each of the 18 (?!?) tracks on here packs a load of lyrics in - I feel like I need to stop everything and really study the lyrics to even understand what is happening.  None of it sounds like a radio friendly hit, they are all more densely packed and no pop styles.  I can't decide if I really like this all that much - feels like more work than I'm willing to give to him.  He needs to hook me with something, give me a head bobbing hook or catchy chorus or something.  I've probably been through this disc 10 times by now and I just can't get it into my head.

Jim James - Tribute to 2.  I love me some My Morning Jacket.  The combination of Jim James' voice and their slightly jammy rock is right up my alley.  So I was pumped to see a new Jim James disc.  Less pumped now.  This one opens on a different note, with the horn-assisted, kind of cheesy "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times."  And it stays in that kind of classy, cutesy zone the whole time, like these are all covers of 70's soft rock or 50's do-wop songs that he is trying to put his own spin on.  And lookee there, I just went and looked it up, and this album is all covers.  Some are obvious covers I could ID - Willie's "Funny How Time Slips Away" or Emerson Lake & Palmer's "Lucky Man" - but the rest of these are not in my normal wheelhouse.  That opening track (apparently a Brian Wilson song) is the most popular, but only with 210k.  The streaming numbers fall off precipitously from there, showing me that I'm not alone in feeling underwhelmed by these tunes.

I still think James has a wonderful voice - full of soft creases and crinkles and humor (at times), but this violin and clarinet (?) schlock is dead on arrival for me.  Some of the tunes are better than this, but I won't hold on to any of and will just hope that another MMJ album comes along soon.

J.I.D. - The Never Story.  Never heard of this rapper, but Shea Serrano called him out the other day in an article he wrote about good or bad albums from last year.  Figured I'd try it out.  Sounds a lot like Kendrick, where is just goes and goes and goes, and can go up in pitch in that same earnest way.  He can also sound like Lil Wayne, that kind of high-pitched tone, slightly nasal, punctuated by sharp breaths and squeaks from a voice at its limit.  For a few tracks, I thought he was a female.  Interesting.  Top track, by a ton, is "NEVER," with 16.3 million streams.

Cool song.  Start is a chilled out beat with that Kendrick flow, and then he entirely flips the beat and flow into that more stressful, electronic beat and more of the Lil Wayne sound.  I like it.  "EdEddnEddy" got me all excited for a moment, because they use a slowed down version of the plucked/hold note sample that is used in Tribe's "Scenario," so I get all pumped up to hear that song, and its a chilled ass track instead.  I really like this album.    As usual, I could do without the R&B section of "Hereditary" back to back with "All Bad," as I want my rap album to be just a rap album and not a sneaky way to make me listen to R&B, but "Hereditary" is actually an all-right track.  Probably the first rap album that I think I'll hold on to entirely since DAMN.