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.