Top Ten Albums of 2018 (me)

Always fun to run back through the year and remember some good music times.  Right?  I have listened to like a million albums in 2018.  Unfortunately, Spotify doesn’t list individual albums, but it did claim that I listened to 8,943 different songs on Spotify in 2018.  If you figure that the average album has like 12 songs on it, that would be 745 albums.  That is a ridiculous number, I’d guess it is lower than that for full albums, more like 300.  And not all of those were brand new.  Anyhoo, its time to run back through all of the albums released this year to see what I liked the most.  Honestly, I need to work this up as I go through the year, making notes of what is good all year long.  Ah well, lessons learned (and likely ignored).

A lot of the big releases in 2018 just plain sucked.  Camila Cabello and new Fall Out Boy?  Blerg.  Wait, there was a new They Might Be Giants?  Migos sucked. Jack White’s new one was weak.  Cardi B was OK.  THERE IS A NEW STRYPER ALBUM CALLED GOD DAMN EVIL!!!!!!!!  Oh, that new Arctic Monkeys.  Easily my biggest disappointment record of the year.  Shawn Mendes was surprisingly good.  Father John Misty, Kanye West, Nas, The Carters, Drake, Eminem, Florence & the Machine, Lenny Kravitz, Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Death Cab – loads of albums that weren’t up to snuff but should have been exciting.  The Struts was only OK.  A Perfect Circle’s album was horrible.

And I haven't really gotten to some albums as well.  I tried to at least give a quick speed run through any of the recently released new stuff (like Muse, Ice Cube, Mumford, Smashing Pumpkins) just to see if they automatically knocked my socks off and needed immediate extra listening.  So, there very well could be some stuff that sneaks through my cracks. It happens every year - a handful of great albums I listened to in 2018 were actually released in 2017, so they can’t get on this important and exclusive list.  If that Charly Bliss album had been released in 2018, it might top my list – love that disc.  Same with INHEAVEN, and Diet Cig.  Oh, and The Sherlocks.  Why do I only find these albums after the year is done!

Brandi Carlisle was great.  Car Seat Headrest was good.  Superorganism rules.  I liked David Byrne’s new one and Logic’s early 2018 release.  Oooh, I need to go back and listen to the Kasey Musgraves album more.  I love that disc.  Unknown Mortal Orchestra was a good one.  Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer was solid.  Leon Bridges.  Courtney Barnett.  Parquet Courts.  Chvches.  Pusha T.  Panic! At the Disco.  White Denim.  I liked the new Paul Simon, but it was all old songs, so I don’t think that can count.  BROCKHAMPTON.  Logic again.  Greta Van Fleet.  

Wait, the Wikipedia list of all 2018 albums doesn’t even mention two of my recent favorites – The Beths or Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever!  This list is BS!  Or Snail Mail!  F this Wikipedia BS.  Others that I loved this year that weren't listed by Wikipedia – Ruston Kelly, The Record Company, The Wombats, Shame, Manchester Orchestra, Lord Huron, Soccer Mommy.  Starcrawler.  The Decemberists.  The Vaccines.  Caitlyn Smith.  Khruangbin.  Smoke DZA was a good rap album in a year of pretty weak ones. White Denim.

Very weird thing – the world of music is so hopelessly fractured now, that this list is just plain all over the place.  At least half of the artists on this list are total nobodies that, if I mentioned them to five random people at my work, they'd probably only know Ice Cube.  Where are the massive blockbusters that are actually good?  I have purposefully avoided looking at other top ten lists at the end of this year, so I don't get an influence on my own list, but I'm super curious to see if there are consensus picks this year.  Doesn't feel like there will be.

1.  Kasey Musgraves - Golden Hour.  

I heard "Slow Burn" again on the radio the other day and felt like I needed to melt.  You know I love Beck, and so combining Musgraves' voice with a purely note-for-note Beck sound gives it to me coming and going.  And then the rest of the album bounces around to weird disco-funk, straight country, and longing indie love songs that could melt the Grinch's heart.  Love it.  Going to see her in March and am very much looking forward to it.

2. BROCKHAMPTON - iridescence.   

Weird that my top rap album is a super weird, non-traditional one like this, but whatever.  The heart loves what it loves, amiright?  My most listened-to artist of the year, and I saw them play three different shows, so it makes complete sense that I want this one at the top of my list.  This album gives you two sides - aggressive, pure rap but also tender, confessional feelings in song and rap together.  These guys are wild.

3. The Beths – Future Me Hates Me.  

I get it, I'm just stuck in the Buzz Bin of the 90's, unable to launch out into the modern musical landscape and content to cuddle up in the comfortable fuzz of my coming-of-age music.  Yeah, so?  This stuff is highly entertaining.  "Happy Unhappy," "Uptown Girl," "Future Me Hates Me," "Whatever," the songs are all great pop rock pleasures.  I want to listen to the album again right now.

4. Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel.  

Although this one was not as good as her first album, I still think the songwriting is amazing and the guitarwork is good.  "Nameless Faceless" has bothered me for a while, the general message of ladies avoiding getting murdered if they walk at night (while guys are bummed about getting made fun of online).  But there are good grooves and excellent lyrics all over here.

5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food.

Psych rock thrashing on some tunes, bouncing, poppy funk on others, these guys rock and roll.  While it missed the mark on my wife, I loved their show this summer and have been jamming this album pretty religiously - two tracks were in my five most listened-to Spotify songs for the year.

6. Superorganism - Superorganism.

Hilariously freaky and weird, infinitely groovy and fun, this album is like none other that I've heard this year.  Delicious.  PRAAAWWWWWWNNNNNN.

7. Chvches - Love is Dead.

Just fired this album up again, and I'm immediately caught up in it again. Its amazing, really, because I want very little to do with pure electronic music or pop, and yet this would be categorized as both and I love it.  Every song feels like a declaration that I need to make to everyone I know while standing on the roof of a building and holding my fist in the sky.  Their show at ACL was amazing.

8. Snail Mail – Lush.

Hey, man, I'm surprised as you about this one, but the more I listened to this album, the more I wanted to hear it again.  I'm apparently becoming a sucker for lady-fronted-indie-guitar bands.  "And I hope whoever it is holds their breath around you, 'cause I know I did."  Sunny but longing at the same time, and with some grand guitar fireworks.  Give it to me.  Its like a female Car Seat Headrest, and I dig it.

9. Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface.

Two bands with Orchestra in their name, in the same year?  Weird.  This one was definitely helped by their excellent ACL show, where I gained a new appreciation for just how hard their music is, and how great their lyrics fit in those rocked spaces.  Like a Band of Horses who can shred when necessary.

10.   Ice Cube - Everythangs Corrupt.

I know, homer pick.  But here's the thing, he's got some great beats, including a sweet bump on "That New Funkadelic" and a trap nod on "Don't Bring Me No Bag," and then tight lyrics on topical subjects, like "Arrest the President," "Everythangs Corrupt," "Good Cop, Bad Cop," or "Chase Down the Bully," which starts with audio of those shitheads in Charlottesville chanting anti-Semetic garbage.  It's not his best album ever - don't get me wrong, there is some filler in here that probably could have been left out or improved if Dre was still around cutting some beats - but it's better than 99% of the rap that came out in 2018.  And I'm a self-avowed sucker for Cube.

I had originally had the Soccer Mommy album (Clean) in there at number 10, but I listened to it some more, and while I really liked a few of the songs, it wasn't as strong as a whole.  Then I moved Starcrawler's album in there because it kind of rules - like the Breeders playing classic rock - but it wasn't as strong as Cube. I also thought long and hard about both Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Pusha T.   

Interesting observation here - six of the ten bands on this list have female lead singers.  And if Soccer Mommy or Starcrawler had elbowed their way in there over OShea, it would have been 7 of 10.  What is up with that?  A switch in my preferences, or a movement afoot in rock music in general?  I don't know, but its still kinda weird!

Now I need to go read some others Top Ten lists and see if I get some new good music from them!

Quick Hits, Vol. 203 (Tj Dizzle SnoMan, The Struts, White Denim, 1800 Seconds)

Tj Dizzle SnoMan - Blood in the Water.  This is the moment where you know I have lost my mind, listening to something called Tj Dizzle SnoMan.  What has happened to me?  How did I get here?  Well, I found this artist because I gave a ninth grade boy control of the radio in the car the other day, and he pulled up a Soundcloud track by this guy that was apparently the theme song for some weird anime that the kid liked.  The world works in mysterious ways, baby.

"Don't want your hoe she look like Chewbacca or a Chupacabra I might gotta block her," "How your chain gold if that thing look like copper," and "I got the beef I ain't talkin' 'bout whoppers."  Some funny lines, matched with a super cool sounding beat?  That little Asian whistle/flute thing makes the beat for sure.  
BUT, this whole album (which doesn't even feature that track), is pretty mediocre.  He'll have a good run of bars in a song, but then he'll also spend time mucking around in boring repetition and Migos-style copies.  The opening track on the album uses the same beat as "Live Sheck Wes," which is weird, and makes the track less exciting because I'm wanting to hear the other one instead.  The second song just ends in the middle of a line, and he frequently falls off of the beat.  I'm guessing he blew up on the basis of "ChinaTown" and tried to shove out a quick album to capitalize on that fame.  Too bad, this one is not worth saving.

The Struts - Young & Dangerous.  Speaking of things that don't live up to the hype...  While I very much enjoyed their live show the other night, I can't say that this second album was worth the wait.  They're still leaning heavily on the Queen-comparison-nostalgia and disco-rock beats to make fun rock and roll, but some of these just feel forced.  Especially "Primadonna Like Me," which was their initial single from the album.  Not great, like they're trying to hype up a disinterested crowd and just make it worse by pushing too hard.  Nothing on here is as good as "Could Have Been Me" or "Kiss This," but "Bulletproof Baby" and "Body Talks" and "Fire - Part 1" are still pretty fun.  Here is the second version of "Body Talk," which features Kesha.

Huh.  That sure sounds like an acoustic guitar in the chorus, but the video doesn't show one anywhere in the band.  And the song ends up a little bit irritating, it gives me the bombast and largess, but ends up I don't want it now.  Bummer - I don't much like this album.

White Denim - Performance.  These guys are great, even if you really can't differentiate this album from their last great rock and roll album.  No difference that I can even discern.  Loose and fun guitar-forward rock, with some reverb-y vocals.  The title track jams out and includes a spacey organ interlude as the band keeps the squawking rock pounding forward.  Their top track on the album is the opener ("Magazin"), but I'm going to give you the second most streamed tune instead - "It Might Get Dark," with 537k streams.

A little Southern rock swagger, with barroom piano, and a good groove. I dig it.  I really liked their last album - in fact it might have made my top ten of the year list because I actually bought the disc - and this one feels just as good.

1800 Seconds: Curated by Pusha T.  Hoooorrrrrrrrible compilation album curated by King Push.  i got all excited, thinking there might be some cool new stuff on here, but I was very wrong.  The first song, "Make It Count," by something called Cartel Count Up is absolutely awful.  Just, like a guy yelling the same words over (rhyming "making it count" with "make it count") at the most annoying spot in his vocal range.  I want to die when I hear it.  Now you must also suffer.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!  Not a good album.  In fact, a very bad album...

Quick Hits, Vol. 202 (Logic, Cypress Hill, MNEK, Greta Van Fleet)

Logic - YSIV.  That album title stands for Young Sinatra, Volume 4, which Logic has been teasing in singles for a while.  The cover of the album also evokes Sinatra's mug shot.  Which is all very weird, for this dude to call himself young Sinatra, as though Frank Sinatra was a half black rapper?  Weird.

Anyway, I generally enjoy me some Logic.  He's got a good flow and this album takes the beats back to old school sounds, less of the current trap sound and more of the classic sample-based stuff.  And he does a good job of paying homage to those who came before him - a track called "Wu Tang Forever" that features most of that group, a track called "100 Miles and Running" (that for some reason features Wale and not the NWA guys), a part that references Busta's WOOOHAAA! yell, one that pays homage to Nas, a track called "Last Call" that bites Kanye's storytelling album ender from College Dropout.  The first, and biggest, misstep to me on here is opening the album with "Thank You," that spends like four minutes playing dumb voice mails from his fans.  But the third track, the first single from the album, has a great groove and smooth flow - "The Return."

24.5 million streams.  Good stuff - sounds like an old Kanye or Common sample, but with Logic's significantly faster flow.  His more listened to track is a pretty bad one, called "One Day" and featuring Ryan Tedder max-sing-yelling a hook.  Also, it features a VERY IMPORTANT video that starts off very intense, and then devolves into an After School Special message of tolerance despite swastikas.  or something.  I was distracted by Tedder yelling at me about ONE DAY and couldn't really pay attention.

I see no connection at all between that video and this song.  The song is all about him stepping up to the plate and making money for his family or something, while the video is an anti-racism/ anti-anti-immigration thing.  Huh?  Also, the line "no class, like bomb threats" = gross.  BUT, the Wu Tang track is great, an eight minute long beat lifted out of the 36 Chambers and the dudes all taking their turn to blast.  The amazing bongo beat and his speed flow on "100 Miles and Running" puts me in a good mood - if you don't want to bob your head and bite your bottom lip as you groove to that stuff, then check yourself into Shoal Creek right now.  And the beat and flow combination on the title track is slick as hell - and also references classic Nas.  "ICONIC" is also cool sounding.  There may be a few groaners on here, but the majority of this is right up my alley.

Cypress Hill - Elephants on Acid.  Classic Cypress Hill is greatness.  Their first two albums are freaking damn near perfect - brash, funny, weird, and supported by top notch beats.  This one generally sounds the same - B-Real's nasal flow, Sen Dog's staccato, threatening vocals - but with more of a world sound (i.e. lots of weird Indian/Middle Eastern sounding bits).  But, none of this is funny, or all that weird.  They try, making a song called "Jesus Was a Stoner," but its honestly not all that funny and the slooooooooooow roll is kinda of hypnotically boring.  Which is the problem back and forth on this one - you get 21 tracks that all generally sound similar, so it just zones you out entirely.  The top track is "Band of Gypsies," with 1.2 million streams, and its different enough to merit me showing it to you.

The samples and singing in the background on that one definitely make it stand out.  But others can be highly annoying, like "Crazy," which is obviously trying to be weird to show how they are going crazy and all, but it just comes off as lame.

MNEK - Language.  Not sure how I came across this one, and somehow my best-song-picker is broken, because I think "Girlfriend" is a damn jam, but the album has two other songs with significantly more streams.  Pronounced M-N-E-K (not emm-neck as mentioned on the album), this guy has writing or production credits for loads of other people, including Beyonce and Madonna, but he's got a fun sound, like British party R&B.  He's openly gay, as is very obvious from the cheeky lyrics of "Girlfriend."

"Neither you nor your story's straight" is a classic line.  Only 246k streams, while "Tongue" has 6.9 million and "Paradise" has 5.4 million.  "Tongue" is pretty good, but I actually like "Phone" more.  Its honestly weird, normally I'd run away from an R&B singer like the plague, but something about the playful lyrics of these songs, and his strong voice, have me wanting to come back to these tracks.  They're fun and funky.

Greta Van Fleet - Anthem of the Peaceful Army.  I have been THIRSTY for this album to show up.  I love their initial EP, really enjoyed their live show, and am fully ready to buy into the whole package.  But they shafted up the opening of the album.
"Age of Man" whispers into a slow intro, with some proggy sounds like I'm listening to Wolfmother covering a long lost Rush tune about D&D.  Finally, after a minute, some laconic guitar riffs kick in, but the song never really gets off the beach, even when it gets louder for the chorus, its still just a plodding clump of rock-flavored tofu.  Who starts their new album with a six minute slog like that?  Dang!  Just a pompous, self-important sound that deflated my joy like Austin Powers' peen while thinking of the old Iron Lady on a cold day.     

But then the second song holds the promise I've been wanting all along - "The Cold Wind" breaks down some good licks, sweet drum breaks, a solid groove.  That's the right stuff.  And then "When the Curtain Falls" is similar.  "When the Curtain Falls" is the top stream-getter, so here you go.  12.6 million streams.

Yeah baby.  The majority of these songs are good, but they're just not as good as "Highway Tune" or "Black Smoke Rising" or "Flower Power."  "Anthem" adds some Cat Stevens to the Zeppelin comparison.  Man, I really wish that first song wasn't so lame.  After a few more listens, I really enjoy the rest of the album, but that first tune just starts the whole thing off on the wrong foot.  Oh well, no perfection, but still very good if you like Led Zeppelin.

Quick Hits, Vol. 201 (6ix 9ine, Dave Matthews Band, Alt J, The D.O.C.)

6ix 9ine - Dummy Boy.  Just even writing the name of this guy makes my old skin crawl.  If you thought that I might dislike an album by a new rapper with a ton of tattoos on his face and more news articles writing about his antics and indictments than his rap, then you would be entirely correct.  This album sucks.  A few of the beats are interesting, but this guy's rap tone makes Meek Mill sound like Josh Groban.  Just a slice below screaming - the best parts of each song are the guests he's brought on to help him rap the tracks.  You know how sometimes Eminem gets screamy when he's really trying to show you the depths of his anger or frustration?  Or like when some douchey QB is miked up in the huddle and trying to psych up his guys with garbage platitudes?  THIS OUR TIME!  WHO HAS THE TIME!  WE IS THE TIME!  That is what this guy sounds like when he raps.  "KIKA" and "WAKA" (literally titles of his songs, for real) are prime examples of this garbage.  His biggest hit features Nicki Minaj, and he actually sounds like he tries on it, so I'll give you that one.  "FEFE," with 330.6 million streams.

OK.  That beat is great.  I can totally understand listening to that beat and enjoying that song.  But his verse is plain jane and Nicki has the better lyrics for sure.  I might add that track to my popcorn rap playlist, but otherwise, nope.  Especially the two tracks on here where he's trying to grab onto the latin groove movement thing, those are horrible.

Dave Matthews Band - Come Tomorrow.  Oooh yeah!  DMB is still out there, churning out vaguely rocking, highly anthemic tunes about joy and living in the now.  Unfortunately, I literally just thought that the initial single ("Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin)") from the album reminds me of the new Mumford and now I'm screwed.  What went from a pretty good impression of it just soured into curdled disappointment.  A few of these songs are actively painful to listen to, like "That Girl is You" or "When I'm Weary."  Seriously, "That Girl is You" is like fingernails on a chalkboard.  There are some better tunes on here, like the Samurai Cop one (which definitely sticks in my head), "Idea of You," or "She."  Most of this one kind of glides by in a DMB haze, I just listened to it again and now can't recall what any of the tunes sound like.  Samurai Cop is the most streamed (but it is the first song and the first single), but I'll give you "Here On Out," second most streamed at 3.9 million.

Oh no.  Was his music always helplessly cheesy?  This is worrying me.  These lyrics hurt me, and then the added french horn and strings, to give it heft and gravitas, as he sings about needing you so and falling into your eyes, and says that you are not only light as a butterfly but also heavy as a rock.  Nooooooooooooo.  Schmaltzy, sticky, sweet dreck.  Will let this one sing to the bottom of the ocean.

Alt J - Reduxer.  An album of remixes of their last album (Relaxer) full of rappers taking a slum trip down to these terrible beat-layered versions of the original songs.  Even Pusha T sounds lost on this.  Don't waste your time.

The D.O.C. - No One Can Do It Better.  Nice!  Another great find because of that Original Gangsta book that I read.  I have heard this dude's name before, and I guess heard him rap as well, on old school Dr. Dre hits, but I'd never known that he had his own album.  This is good stuff - has the same vibe and sound as classic Dr. Dre and N.W.A.  The top track very well could have been a hit for Dre, but I really don't recall ever having heard it before now.  "It's Funky Enough," with 4.7 million streams.

High quality acting by Eazy E in there.  Yikes.  But the combination of that cool ass G Funk beat, to go with his smooth flow jumping on the beat, and the good yell-along chorus?  Slice of goodness right there.  Over 6 million views of that video.  He also does a cool last track of the album - "The Grad Finale"  - which boasts the NWA guys dropping verses for him.  The whole album is pretty solid.  Went platinum (even though I never noticed it back then) and spawned two hit singles.

Crazy thing, he got into a bad car accident a few months after the album came out, and almost died.  As part of the injuries from being thrown from his car in the accident, his larynx was crushed, and he wasn't able to make anything near the same tone of voice as you hear on this album.  Instead, his voice was raspy and rough and weak, as you'd hear on his next album, Helter Skelter.  Poor guy, that album has very few streams, and for good reason, because it sucks.  Here is the top track, "From Ruthless 2 Death Row (We All Part)," with only 150k streams.

Tough to keep it going with that voice, and his production took a big hit too by leaving Dre and his smooth beats.  Sad story really, although I just found an article showing that he apparently recently got his voice back after 25 year.  Maybe he's about to stage a big come back with Dre by his side...  I'll let this second album fall in the trash, but that first one is solid.

Auto-Tune and Melodyne

Pardon my French, but this is fucked up.

https://pitchfork.com/features/article/how-auto-tune-revolutionized-the-sound-of-popular-music/

"The program captures the characteristics of a vocal or instrumental performance and displays them graphically, with each note appearing as what Celemony calls a “blob.” Sound becomes Play-Doh to be sculpted or tinted by a huge range of effects. The blobs can be stretched or squished by dragging the cursor. Internal fluctuations within a blob can be smoothed out or added, creating, say, vibrato that didn’t exist in the original performance. As for timing, a note-blob can be separated more cleanly from a preceding or following blob—or conversely, pushed closer—to create effects of syncopation, stress, or sharper attack. The entire feel of a rapper’s flow or a singer’s phrasing can be radically re-articulated. Emotion itself becomes raw material to be edited. 

“Keeping it real-ish” seems to be the presiding ethos of Melodyne, and certainly something that its users prize and see as the edge it has over Auto-Tune. “My goal is natural-sounding vocals,” says Chris “TEK” O’Ryan, an in-demand vocal producer whose clientele includes Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Mary J. Blige. “It’s like a good CGI monster—you don’t want it to look fake.” O’Ryan uses Auto-Tune in the recording studio as well, but only so that he and the artist don’t get distracted by striving to achieve a pitch-perfect take and can concentrate on delivery, timing, groove, and character. The real work, though, comes later, when he removes the Auto-Tune and sculpts the vocal “by hand” using Melodyne. “I’ll add trills, I’ll emphasize attacks or the scoop up to a moment in a performance,” O’Ryan says. At the extreme, the recording of the singer might take three or four hours, and then he’ll spend two to four days working it over in Melodyne, on his own."

I had no clue.  I'm obviously naive, but this is a horrible development.  I can see the other argument, that we can enjoy the sounds of perfection and craft flawless music now.  But I say shove that up your pie hole.  A singer ought to have the chops to hit the notes, or create the vibrato, or space the words.  How did we all collectively lose our minds at Milli Vannilli for being fake, but now we are just totally cool with Katy Perry having a "voice ... so lacking in textural width" that Auto-Tune can be used to create those missing elements?

The article makes a good point about how music long ago lost any sort of truly natural sound when it was amplified and recorded for later use.  Bands have been using effects and filters for decades.  So I'm likely pearl clutching after the horses have left the barn.  But I can't shake the fact that this feels different.

I've never even considered this before, but can people use Auto-Tune live?  Does Future have a producer at each of his shows, running his voice through these effects systems in real time?  You would think they would have to, as all of Future's lyrics are Auto-Tuned.  That is super weird to think of.  Well, yes.  Now they have Auto Tune Live, for just this use.  So there you go.

Now I'm all depressed.  Time to go listen to Daft Punk.

Quick Hits, Vol. 200 (The Beths, Paul Simon, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Snail Mail)

It is hard for me to believe how much I have written on this dumb little blog.  Up to 200 of these quick hits posts, with 1109 total published posts (most of those, obviously, about the ACL bands). 48,219 total views of the blog (although I suspect that 85% of that are Russian bots).  Pretty wild.  Sometimes I wonder if this is all a waste of time, but the truth is that even if no  one read any of it, I find it extremely therapeutic and enjoyable to use a little of my time allotment in this way.

The Beths - Future Me Hates Me.  Hell and yes.  This sounds like Courtney Barnett had a younger sister who grew up listening to Weezer ("Happy Unhappy") and Green Day ("Uptown Girl") and Best Coast ("Whatever") and Courtney Barnett (the title track).  I can't get enough of this album.  Haven't really thought about my albums of the year yet, but this might very well win the damn thing, because its a pop rock masterpiece that checks just about every box I have.  I love the way she sings the word "knows" in the bridge of "You Wouldn't Like Me," and that song has a badass way of shifting back and forth from a happy clap-along to a chugging riff monster.  I love the guitar chug and chortle of "Happy Unhappy."  "River Run: Lvl 1" has emotional heft built into the harmonies, again like classic Weezer.  The driving rock assault of "Not Running" made me realize that I did this a few years ago, randomly falling in love with that Paerish album out of no where.  I literally just got chills listening to "Uptown Girl" again.  I'm lost, a goner.  Now all I can think of is seeing this band play live.  GIVE IT TO ME.  I will air guitar until I can air guitar no more.  And on my gravestone, tell the world it was The Beths.

Meanwhile, in Reality Town, not a single one of these songs has more than a million streams.  Which is bullhonkey.  And freaking Lil 69 or whatever gets 400 million streams on a rap track where he just reads a Chinese food menu over a trap beat.  Damn it all to hell.  The world is a messed up place.  But I'll go to bat for these guys anyway.  A New Zealander accent is good stuff too.  The top track is that title tune, the second track on the album.  613k streams.

Yeah, buddy.  And the track right after that one on the album, "Uptown Girl" is a rock and roll blast that makes me need to air guitar and kick dents in order people's car doors.  "I'M GOING OUT TONIGHT!  I'M GONNA DRINK THE WHOLE TOWN DRY! PUT POISON IN MY WINE!  AND HOPE THAT YOU'RE THE ONE WHO DIES!"  Check it as the second tune on this live performance in a radio studio.

I will freely admit that the lead singer looks kind of sad in that performance.  I want her to look like she's having a good time, not like she's just about to break down in tears, but if I just listen to the tunes instead of watching her sad eyes, I feel all better again.  Ah, then they explain that she seemed to be rocking her headphones off when she tried to jam loose, so she was trying to be chill.  It also looks like they replaced their drummer?  Or at least the drummer in the first video is not the drummer (absent serious sex change and plastic surgery) in the second video.   Anyhoo - the recorded album is absolutely fantastic.  Get some.

Paul Simon - In the Blue Light.  This dude is such a cool mofo.  I got to see him play this year during his final tour, and while his voice isn't as strong as it was back in the day, he still generally sounds great.  And this new album uses his weathered and worn (but still beautiful) voice and smart lyrics to keep his legacy going - by making a covers album, but of his own old songs.  Calling it a covers album is weird, since he wrote all the tunes, but because he reimagines them and recreates them himself, it seems kind of cover-ish.  Cool.

The album opener, "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor" is clever and funny.  His re-making of "Can't Run But," a deep cut from Rhythm of the Saints reimagined here with woodwinds and brass instead of an African xylophone type thing, is supremely cool.  And the weirdly endearing, even if goofily titled, "Rene and Georgette Magritte with The Dog After the War" puts a lovely sheen on a good story song.  I love the imagery of the couple dancing to the old classic songs, and then the weird juxtaposition of their dog and the war being mentioned each time.  He played that song live and I recall both my wife and I liking it.
Nothing from this album cracks his top ten most popular tracks - I think people still just want to hear the classics (which I totally get).  But these songs are really nice, even if I fully agree that they aren't better than "Sounds of Silence" or "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard."  None of these tunes are re-creations of his most popular tracks, these all appear to be deep cuts from his catalog.  The top streaming track from this album is that "Rene and Georgette" one, with 989k streams.

This song was actually first on his 1983 album Hearts and Bones, but that version is without the flutes and includes some doowop background singing during the chorus.  Still they're pretty dang similar, both quiet and understated and pretty.  And those are good adjectives for this whole album - nothing on here really catches you with a groove or hype tune, its all very pretty and relaxed.  Which is nice.  I think I'll save it.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs.  They definitely don't have to worry about getting their band name confused with anyone else, although I can't remember it for more than 20 seconds.  This is a great album.  Kind of a punky indie rock, with bright guitars and a pop lean in the rhythms and grooves.  The beginning of "Ballarine" sounds like something I've heard before, that bass line, and in the prior version I've heard before it devolves into laughing.  Maybe old Queens of the Stone Age?  Foo Fighters?  Dangit, I hate when my brain won't dredge up on random sound from the eighty billion individual sounds I've heard in my lifetime.  Guess I'm getting old.  Anyway, I really like this album, has a combination of Real Estate plus young Arctic Monkeys.  Most streamed tune is "Talking Straight," with 1.9 million streams.

A pack of Aussies, they have a chilled aspect to them that is appealing, but the tunes also kinda jam out.  Maybe Parquet Courts is a good comparison?  That song gets my head bobbin' all up in this.  I'm in for more of this one.

Snail Mail - Lush.  This gal got a lot of press this year as an up and coming star and whatnot.  I never got around to checking it out during my ACL listening death march, and am only now getting it done.  I really like this album as well.  She called the album Lush, and I think that matches.  Its got a comfortable, confessional, warm sound that makes me feel like I need to hug her and tell her its all gonna be OK.  This reminds me of Soccer Mommy, who I also really liked, and sort of Japanese Breakfast (who played ACL this year and I also liked).  Some Alvvays as well.  Feels very DIY, but not in a sloppy way, just feels like you happened to walk into her bedroom and hear all of her innermost confessions set to a chill guitar groove.  "Heat Wave" is the top streaming track with 4.1 million streams (and I dig it).  But I like "Pristine" better, so you get that one instead - 3.6 million.

Great song.  I love when it first kicks in, right at 30 second in.  Lyrics like the way you really feel when you're 16.  Those jangly guitars, fumbling along under her searching words.  Also of note, in that she apparently just graduated from high school.  Which is kind of insane to be the big indie buzz when you're still a damn teenager.  I'm sure it was hard to write all of this and put it together, but it just feels so simple and perfect.  Some of the guitar licks sound like Kurt Vile.  When "Golden Dream" starts, I want to wrap up in a big fluffy blanket and contemplate my existence.  I think I'm going to knit her voice into that blanket and start using it to go to sleep each night.  I don't know, man, I like this one a lot.  Very pretty and chilled out but still rocking.

Also, she has a Tiny Desk from prior to this new album, and its endearing to see her talking up the crowd in between tunes.

That last song is "Anytime" from Lush.  Honestly, this whole thing is somewhat conflicting, as I my normal musical sensibilities would say to move right on, but I'm definitely digging it.

Quick Hits, Vol. 196 (Nicki Minaj, Fall Out Boy, Death Cab For Cutie, Future, Gorillaz)

Before I get to the albums, I just have to give a shoutout to Maggie Rogers' new song "Light On," because its a perfect slice of emotional rendering filtering the synths from the Stranger Things intro music through HAIM.  And it makes me want to shout it from the rooftops.

Nicki Minaj - Queen.  This album sucks.  19 songs, over an hour, with two or three worthwhile tracks.  I don't even want to talk about it.  I already suffered through listening to it several times.  Lots of bad R&B singing to go with a lot of medium-level OK rap and A-list guests.  This one doesn't have the most streams, but "Barbie Dreams," which echoes Notorious BIG, is the best track.

Which just steals a beat, steals a theme, and calls out a bunch of rappers who she might bone.  None of this is good enough to keep.

Fall Out Boy - Lake Effect Kid EP.  Horrible.  Like, brutal and life altering.  Not even going to link to a song.  If you're gonna suck, man, just stop making music.

Death Cab For Cutie - Thank You For Today.  Sooooo boring.  Earlier this week, I tried just shuffling through all the music in my new music Q.  I was busy at work and it was nice to just try out new stuff without feeling a compulsion to write about it or really heavily listen.  Every time a song from this album came on, I looked at Spotify just to see who was crushing my soul.  I like me some old Death Cab, but this does zero for me.  "Gold Rush" is the hit so far, with about 6 million streams.

Sounds like KGSR, now "Austin City Limits Radio" (voooooooomit), in 1992.  And not in a good way.  Each song is just super milquetoast and gentle.

Let's find one more that I hate, or maybe two, to make this whole post all about terrible music.  HATERMODE 2!

Future - BEASTMODE 2.  I don't get it.  At all.  The continued robot voice fascination.  The good ratings.  Nothing on here piques my interest at all.  It just bangs and stumbles its way through each song like a depressed robot croon-rapping as his batteries run dry and he dies.  Nothing on this album, released in 2018, is in his top ten on Spotify, so maybe no one else gets it on this one either, but blurg... nothing special on here that needs to be retained.

Gorillaz - The Now Now.  Nope.  Very heavy on the catchy, sunny beats based on, like, a samba preset from an old casio keyboard.  Are people loving this stuff?  Anyone?  It seems generally happy and upbeat, but it also seems utterly devoid of calories or anything that would stick to your bones.  Somehow, the opening song has 32.5 million streams.

Jack Black is kinda funny in the video.  But nothing about that song invites me in for more, and the rest of the album is pretty much more of the same, just meandering synth grooviness.  No thanks.

Quick Hits, Vol. 199 (Bun B, U.S. Girls, Asleep at the Wheel, Above the Law)

Bun B - Return of the Trill.  Half of the classic duo UGK, out of Houston.  With Pimp C now dead, this is all we get, the solo tunes.  I was actually listening to some UGK the other day, and I don't know if its my favorite rap song ever, but "International Players Anthem" is up there.  And "The Corruptor's Execution," very similar to another song I need to review soon, is greatness as well.  Bun's solo stuff uses very similar beats, lots of snare, some bass, a little guitar lick here and there, and his flow is still great.  Instead of leaning on Pimp C in these tunes, he brings in a bunch of good collaborators - Run the Jewels, Big KRIT, Slim Thug, Lil Wayne, Giggs, Yo Gotti, 2 Chainz, TI - even Gary Clark Jr. on two tracks.  In fact, that track, "Blood on the Dash," is a cool one, telling both sides of the story of a guy getting pulled over by a cop, both of them nervous about each other and what is about to happen.  Well done story. The top track (604k streams) is one with Leon Bridges and Gary Clark Jr., a bluesy tribute to Pimp C called "Gone Away."  But I'm going to give you the T.I./Big KRIT collaboration, "Recognize," with 571k streams.

You know, that one is all right.  This album is kind of like that, each song is pretty all right.  None of them are really sticking with me, but I just generally like all of them pretty well.   "Traphandz" and "KnoWhatImSayin" are good ones too.  "Myself," the RTJ song, sounds very much like a RTJ song, with a very RTJ beat and the usual flow from Killer Mike and El P.  Even the kind of out-there reggae-tinged "Rudeboi" with Lil Wayne is pretty cool sounding.  "U A Bitch" has a couple good verses - the one where he goes after big pharma companies is pretty well done.  I'll keep this one.

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited.  What the hell is this?  My recollection was that Rolling Stone said it was punk or noise rock or something that would be attractive to me.  Instead, this keeps making me think of Lana Del Rey re-making the Grease Soundtrack.  It's poppy (but like weird art pop, dream pop, whatever pop), vaguely rocky, and generally terrible.  Maybe the best tune is the Talking Heads-esque "Time" but even that one isn't great.  her voice is highly annoying to me.  The top streamed tune is "Rosebud" with 1.7 million streams.

Comments are disabled for that video.  I wonder if they just do that for their videos, or if people were merciless about this music?  Rolling Stone loved it, I'm sure Pitchfork said it was the album of the year, but this one is out of my head.

Asleep at the Wheel - New Routes.  The elder statesmen of the Austin City Limits experience, finally releasing new music!  Woohoo!  A handful of covers, and then a bunch of new tunes.  I wanted to hate on them re-making Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues," because that song is a damn masterwork, and on first blush I thought this one wasn't very good, but on repeat listening, I've decided that I will allow it.  They also do a cool tune with the Avett Brothers, paying tribute to Willie's effect on the rest of us all. Good one.  None of the songs from this album crack their top ten most popular - deservedly, most of those popular tunes are from the Bob Wills tribute Still the King (which is great) - and most of these tunes have been streamed like 4k times, so I'll give you the most streamed, the one with the Avetts.  "Willie Got There First," with 54k streams.

I could curl up and sleep in the voices of the Avetts.  Just warm and cool and perfect.  Good tune, acknowledging that he already did everything worth doing in country music.  "I had such a good idea for a song!  But Willie, he got there first."  I'm good letting this album go though.  Nice enough, but nothing too remarkable.

Above the Law - Livin' Like Hustlers.  What in the hell?  How have I missed this album all these years?  Not sure if I've talked about this before, but I recently finished reading a great book that was all about the rise of West Coast rap (Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap by Ben Westhoff).  And as part of that discussion, Westhoff brought up this group, saying that they were creating and crafting the G Funk sound right at the same time as Dr. Dre, but Dre's version of it took off before their version could.  What is up with that?  This album is a damn jam!  How did the world just ignore it at the time?  Maybe it was more popular than I know, but I certainly never heard any of this before now.  It samples N.W.A., these guys were signed to Eazy's label, and Dre was involved in production of the album.  So weird that it never blew up at the time though...

Well, that might not be entirely true.  One of these tracks - "Another Execution" - sounded super familiar, and my brain finally put the pieces together to lead me back to UGK's "The Corrupter's Execution" (discussed above in the Bun B piece).  What is up with both of those songs being out there?  This album came out in 1990.  The UGK song was released in 1999 as part of a soundtrack to a movie called The Corrupter.  The samples are the same, and UGK steals some of the same bits (like the "why why why?" and the sound of the chorus.  And while UGK is obviously paying homage to the original of the song, I gotta say the UGK flow kicks way harder.  Great beat though.

One other random observation before I get to the actual music - the names these guys chose for the nom du rap?  Freaking horrible:  Cold 187um, KMG the Illustrator, and DJ Total K-Oss.  WTF, man.  No wonder you couldn't compete with Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy E.  Cold 187um?  Seriously.

Their top songs on Spotify are from a later album (that is not very good) like the generic West Coast-East Coast let's-all-get-along anthem "We're All in the Same Gang."  The top track from this album is "Murder Rap," with 787k streams.  Weird to me that "Another Execution" has so few streams.

That high pitched sound, which makes me think of Kill Bill (or one of those old school kung fu-based movies) when someone starts to kick ass, is kind of annoying.  But overall the track is solid - sampling Public Enemy and doing some good scratching.  I also LOVE IT when one of them uses the word "nerd" in his rap.  Makes me laugh every time.  "NERD!"

Quick Hits, Vol. 198 (Florence & the Machine, Mitski, Lenny Kravitz, Eminem)

Florence & the Machine - High as Hope.  Her voice is still a killer instrument of mass destruction, sounding tender and strong in the same bar, but this album never hooked me.  "Hunger" is the hit from it, although it has a sixth of the streams of their true big hit.  At 44.0 million streams, its not like it has done badly or anything, but a song about her eating disorders and body issues isn't going to turn into the fun time song of the summer.  If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be "Big God."  The second most streamed tune, "Sky Full of Song," is also beautiful, but another song that appears to be about depressing subject matter.  23.9 million streams.

I get that everything doesn't have to be "Party in the USA" or anything, and that writing this album was probably very cathartic for her, and that these tunes are intrinsically beautiful.  Very passionate.  Very nostalgic.  But it doesn't mean I want to keep listening to them over and over.  I'm sure for some people these word-stuffed tunes will hit home and be very important, but not for me.  I was pretty excited to have a new album come out, but I'm OK without this one.

Mitski - Be the Cowboy.  I was also pretty excited about this album after her last disc ruled ("Your Best American Girl" is still pretty likely to make me randomly tear up as I listen to it, as it literally did a few days after I wrote this and then saw a clip of it during the excellent movie Hearts Beat Loud) and then I heard the disco-fied "Nobody" on the radio a few times.

Funky and cool, also highly weird.  I like it.  The rest of the album, I'm conflicted about.  Her voice is still great, and lyrically there are some interesting bits in this, but some of it gets bogged down in the same way that the Florence album above does, or the St. Vincent album.  Her last album was much grungier, this one leans more towards a clean poppier sound.  Like "Why Didn't You Stop Me," which sounds like an 80's pop anthem full of squiggly synths and sprayed guitar licks and some horns.  But then "Old Friends" is more like a gentle confessional slog of her just talking over spare tunes.  The start of "Blue Light" evokes the Pixies, which I like for a heartbeat, and then the song is kinda boring.  This one just doesn't do much for me.  There will be bits of songs that I dig, but the overall feel is empty.

Lenny Kravitz - Raise Vibration.  Maaaaaaan.  I loved Lenny.  Mama Said is a classic album, and Are You Gonna Go My Way is damn good as well.  But if you're still expecting that style of great rock and funk wrapped up into a good time, you will be very disappointed here.  Emblematic of that feel is "Johnny Cash," which literally made me laugh out loud when it first came on, because its a horrible ballad and makes zero sense.  "Just hold me like Johnny Cash, When I lost my mother, Whisper in my ear, Just like June Carter, And though I fight these tears that I hide, Just hold me tight for the rest of my life."  Apparently, Johnny Cash was actually there when Lenny found out that his mother had died, and so Johnny Cash actually held him at that moment.  Which is super weird.  But even more weird is to make a song about that randomly strange moment, but I guess tie it to the love you have for someone else, and then title it Johnny Cash!  WTF?  The most streamed song is "It's Enough," with 2.7 million streams.

Blurg.  Ooooh yeah!  We gotta be better people and stuff!  The hatred in your heart makes me sad!  Get it together for the children!  Ooooooh yeah!  "Here to Love" is a pretty similar message, except over a treacly piano-humping tune - We are here to love!  No time to waste!  Turn your back on the hate!  Oooooh yeah!  Nope.

Eminem - Kamikaze.  Poor Eminem.  He can still absolutely blaze on a beat.  But he also fills albums full of absolutely cringeworthy dreck.  His classic tunes are still amazing.  But his last album was front to back awful.  This one has a few good ones, and a bunch of terrible ones.  The album opener is a prime cut of his vocal gymnastics and multi-rhyme schemes that sounds cool as hell, but actually says just about nothing - "The Ringer." Has a cool, ominous beat, and his flow is amazing as he makes fun of all the mumble rappers with Lil names, while also exposing his own failures and troubles.  (can't find anything on YouTube that sounds good, they all sound tinny and weird, just go listen to it on Spotify).  Lyrically, its dumb, but the flow and rhymes sound awesome.  I mean, really, if he could say something good, with his insanely contorted flow and rhyme scheme?  Would be amazing.
"Lucky You" is pretty good, but leans pretty heavily on some guy called Joyner Lucas.  I also always enjoy the skits with Paul, those still make me grin even after like 50 of them over the years.  But he spends soooo much of this album complaining about other people and telling them how he is going to fight them for dissing him, or whatever.  Where are the funny raps?  Where is the jokey, playful, ridiculous?  Nope, just shit talking about good rhymes.  "Lucky You" has the most streams at 193 million, but I'm going to show you "Fall" because it has a real video - 84.8 million streams.

Cheesy ass video, but I like the song, and the Bon Iver hook is nice.  Again though, I wish he would stick with the funny bits, and not some diatribe about how the Grammys don't give him their awards.
"Not Alike" sounds like he's trying to copy Block Boy JB and Migos.  "Nice Guy" and "Good Guy" and "Venom," the last three songs on the album, are terrible.  The I'm-so-sorry to his old D-12 mates in "Stepping Stone" is also not great.  "Kamikaze" is OK.  yeah, this whole album is just a bummer.  He's just lashing out at his haters and mad about everything, but where he used to turn that into funny stuff and weird jokes, this time he's just bitching.  I'll save a few and dump the rest.

Quick Hits, Vol. 197 (Jim James, Jim James, Rayland Baxter, Punch Brothers, The Record Company)

Before I get to the new albums, I just have to note some very good albums that I already sort of reviewed because of ACL, and so while I'm not feeling the need to write a full on note about them here, I just have to note that these albums are very good.

• Ruston Kelly - Dying Star
• Shame - Songs of Praise
• Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface
• The Wombats - Glitterbug

Jim James - Uniform Distortion.  Another solo record from the My Morning Jacket singer.  Has some bright spots, but also some rough-edged tunes that never find a good groove.  The funny thing with these tunes is that they're pretty inseparable from MMJ - they use the same groove-jam-blues-rock blueprint as the regular MMJ tunes, obviously with James' vocals on top, so its odd to me why he even wants to go out and make a solo album instead of just sticking with his mates.  Maybe they all hate each other.  But songs like "Throwback," with the extended guitar jam in the middle and the sung harmonies, have the total taste and feel of a classic MMJ tune.  I think I like the straight-forward rock out of "You Get to Rome" the best on here, but "No Secrets" (a quieter rock meander that, of course, erupts into guitar fireworks) and "Throwback" are vastly more popular in stream counts.  The album opener has the most streams - "Just a Fool" - with 827k.  But I'll give you a live version of "Throwback."  Get 'em.

So, I dig MMJ, and so the fact that this album sounds like another album from those dudes is a good thing.  The continuous guitar riff in "No Use Waiting" very much sounds like a slowed down riff from an old MMJ song.  Whatever the label is on the album, I like it.

Jim James - Uniform Clarity.  Never knew this existed until just now, but James apparently released a companion album to go along with Distortion, just 3 months later, that remakes all of those same songs in an acoustic sound.  Which I thought I'd love.  Strips out the chugging guitar that usually defines my favorite tunes, but lays out the lyrics in a way you don't fully grab during a rock and roll grind.  But what it also does is expose James' voice and show you some holes and vulnerabilities in his range that you don't hear when the band is blaring along.  "Throwback" ends up sounding like he's yelling and yelping over the top of a nice fingerpicked tune.  Feels like maybe a few of these could have been slotted into the rock album, for a change of pace, but the whole album of them is weak.  It's too bad, but nothing on here really works that well.

Rayland Baxter - Wide Awake.  This guy came to ACL a year or two ago, and I remember enjoying his stuff back then, but this album is solid as well.  Kind of a Beatles vibe on these tunes, well, sort of post-Beatles Beatles, as though all four of the guys left to make their solo tunes, then came back together and made their solo sounds into a new Voltron of the Beatles.  Groovy and hook-filled, its great.  I also hear Spoon in it, mainly in the piano bits.  The album suffers from the same issue as many streaming albums do these days, with significantly more plays at the start of the disc than at the end.  So it would appear that "Strange American Dream" is the most popular tune, at 1.3 million streams.  But I'm not so sure that one represents the best of this album (although its good).  "Let it All Go, Man" is a beauty ending the whole album.  I'll give you the second-most streamed tune - "Casanova," with just over a million streams.

Good groove.  For some reason, I thought the dude was from Texas, but he's actually a Nashville guy.  I know, intrinsically, that this guy is never going to get a big following and will keep making good music under the radar, but I enjoy it.

Punch Brothers - All Ashore.  Speaking of under the radar, being the greatest mandolin player of all time gets Chris Thile zero notice other than through the types of Grammys that are given away before the cameras turn on.  If you've read this for a while, then you know that I love these guys.  I loved Nickel Creek even more, but this band is also packed with some of the best instrumentalists on the planet, playing intricate and detail-filled folky, bluegrassy, Americana for the NPR listener.  The mandolin is the star, but it wouldn't have as much room to run and jump and spaz if the banjo, fiddle, bass, and guitar didn't create an expansive soundscape for it to play in.  This link doesn't take you to their song, but just go witness some of the insanity of Thile's skills on the mandolin as he plays Bach.

Anyhoo, this is the full band, not just Thile doing his thing alone.  I saw them this summer and it ruled.  While I very much enjoy the mandolin fireworks, and Thile's voice is also excellent, nothing on this album is especially strong.  Feels like these songs are technically tight but emotionally lacking.  I think I like the instrumental "Three Dots and a Dash" is my favorite, but I'll give you the second-most streamed tune, "It's All Part of the Plan," with 535k streams.

I'm guessing that is an anti-Trump tune, without taking the time to go research and read about it.  But my sweet Lord look at his fingers fly in that solo around 2:30 minutes in.  I so wish I could do something that well.  I'll let this album go and just keep listening to Who's Feeling Young Now.

The Record Company - All Of This Life.  Good stuff.  I'm well aware that their band name is up there with the worst ever in the world, but their brand of bluesy classic rock is super tasty.  I saw them play live here in Austin a few weeks ago, and they put on a fantastically heavy show (ending with a cover of the Beasties' "Sabotage") to a smallish crowd of mainly middle-aged white dudes. Also saw them a year or two ago at Antone's, and they rocked it out there as well. That being said, this album is very enjoyable rock and roll.  The top track, which I hear on the radio here and there, is called "Life to Fix" (although I would have called it "Brick by Brick").  1.8 million streams for the radio edit, 629k for the regular version.

I remember previously writing about these guys and they scored a Grammy nod for their first album, rising up out of obscurity as a new band made up of old hands from random LA bands.  But again, I don't think they'll ever actually gain any fame with a name like this.  Literally every single person I said their name to, in the lead up to that last show, asked me to repeat myself, made a face, and then refused to speak to me again.  If you can forgive them the name, then go jam the tunes.

Spotify Year in Review 2018

Love this report.  A few years ago, they didn't release one and I was sad.  Probably, you could give a rat's butt about my listening habits, but this is my blog, so you get to relive some stuff with me.

First, Spotify claims that the first song I listened to in 2018 was "Glasgow Kisses" by Estrons?  I don't think I've even heard this song before.  Weird.  Either I jammed it after a few bottles of champagne, or it was part of some radio mix thing?  No way this was the kids.

63,605 minutes listening to music this year.  Holy smokes.  That is 1,060 hours.  That is 44 days (and some change).  I love it.  But wait, let's think about it.  There are about 260 work days in a year.  Remove about 30 for vacation and holidays.  Subtracting an hour for lunch out of the ten-ish hours I'm here each day, that's about 2070 hours.  So they think I only listen half the time I'm at my desk?  I call BS on this number.  It's only stopped when I'm not at the desk or on the phone.  No way my true count isn't higher.  WAIT - just saw that this only counts January 1 to October 31, so that is more like 1,710.  Still seems low.

Most listened-to artist?  BROCKHAMPTON with 29 hours.  TWENTY-NINE freaking hours?!?!  Damn.  I liked them a lot, and saw them live three times, but that is a really large amount of time with just one artist.  The rest of my top five is Metallica, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Parquet Courts, and Queens of the Stone Age.  I'd buy most of those, but Parquet Courts?  I liked them well enough, but there is no way I listened to them more than the new Pusha T or Kasey Musgraves or Chris Stapleton or Chvrches.  Weird.

My top songs list is BS, because of my kids using my account.  My daughters love this truly garbage song (which is actually pretty catchy, but still...) called "Wedgie" by something called Taylor Girlz.  So, sadly, that is my top song of the year.  "Wedgie in my bootie feelin' tight huuyaaaaah!"  Next, two Brockhampton songs ("BLEACH" and "SWEET"), then two Unknown Mortal Orchestra songs.  Those four might be true, but this sure seems like a broken system of data tracking.  Feels to me like I've listened to Greta Van Fleet or Highly Suspect a lot more than UMO.  I wonder when they cut this off?  Their FAQ says it cuts off at Halloween.  Huh.

My favorite musical subgenre is apparently Modern Rock.  Which is probably true, but I'm shocked they don't think I listen to more rap than anything else...  Although, at the end of the slideshow, it says that Indie is my top listened to genre.  So, not sure what is up with that?

The oldest song I listened to all year was a Miles Davis track from 1957.  I remember that day, during the huge rains that caused the flooding at Lake LBJ.  Weird.

Fun - wish they would give me even more data so that I could dig into it and find even more cool factoids about my listening this year.  I need to get on my end of year list!