Quick Hits, Vol. 210 (Vince Staples, Earl Sweatshirt, Courteeners, Blossoms)

Vince Staples - FM!  For the first time in a while, a rap album that is just fun sounding.  Bouncy, joyful beats, with Staples' bobbing, smooth flow weaving through them - this album is very easy to just bop along to for the short 22 minute runtime.  Only two songs break the 3 minute mark, and several of the 11 tracks are actually just little skits.  "Don't Get Chipped" gets my head bobbing and shoulders dipping, and "Feels Like Summer" is also a tight banger, but "FUN!" has the most streams, so here you go:

Cool video, miming Google street view to show vignettes of life on a street.  Good song too.  I'm less impressed with the R&B-ish track "Tweakin'" or the "Brand New Tyga" interlude, but its mainly because I just don't much like that type of music.  Great little album.

Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs.  I listened to this a number of times for the year end albums lists, it was a top ten album for several publications.  Crazy stat - I saw this album was 15 songs and was like UUUGGGGHHHH, but then looked and the whole thing is 24 minutes.  Only three songs hit 2:00.  Interesting.  Especially in light of the Vince Staples album above and the Pusha T album from last year - rappers are finally getting off the 28 song, 2 hour beatdown albums and looking at shorter, better offerings.
These raps are fine, but the beats super simple, like just a single sample looped with little adornment but fuzzing or distortion added, and the tone of his raps is kind of boring, just plain and talkative.  I guess the lyrics must be great?  Not especially.  "Nowhere2go" has the most streams, and is a great example of this whack experimental beat stuff.  it's like someone ran an old ASAP Rocky beat backwards but removed the bass.

Nah, man.  I'm all for people trying to do something different and not just copy the exact same beats and trap styles as everyone else is currently up to, but this just isn't my thing.  Hard to even hear the lyrics over the racket of the "beat," I'm not keeping this stuff.

Courteeners - Mapping the Rendezvous.  Oooh, that is something fun for sure.  I found this band when reading an article about some other British rock band, can't recall who, but these folks (and the next band in this Quick Hit) were both mentioned as other in the same cannon of young band making noise in England right now.  These guys are from Manchester, so they're following in the large footsteps of other top pop rock bands like Oasis.  Their shit is very fun though, jangly, bouncy, danceable pop stuff (with the requisite serious slow song here and there) and I dig it.  Lots of 80's influence, but still a bunch of purely current rock moves.  "Lucifer's Dreams," "Kitchen," and "Tip Toes" are great for that sort of danceable rock stuff (and "De La Salle" is a good example of the serious slow song).  The top streamer is almost at the end of the album, "Modern Love," with 6.1 million streams.

Yeah, that one is good too.  Fun stuff that makes me want to bounce around the room.  We need this to show up for ACL - I need to pump my fist and sing "wooohooohooowoooowohooohooohoo!"  I'm in.

Blossoms - Cool Like You.  Not to be confused with the Gin Blossoms (who I just heard on the radio for the first time in eons, so it is super weird that I wrote this post two days ago before I heard them again), this is another band from around Manchester, that is part of a much hyped new wave of bands from the region.  This one is more pop leaning than the Courteeners album, and I think it is slightly worse because of that.  More The 1975 and less Two Door Cinema Club.  Their bio says that they are a "sweet spot between The Doors and Arctic Monkeys," which is not only horseshit but also super stupid.  The sound nothing like the Doors at all.  Like not even a little.

Kind of a little Phoenix in there as well.  A pretty solid song, and if I hadn't linked this band with the Courteeners, then I probably would have liked this one more, but since I'm comparing the two, I find this one to be less interesting and less powerful.  Sounds weird to call it plastic, but that is what I have in my head, like this is the thin, brittle plastic version of what the other band is doing.  Now, watch, this band will be the one to blow up and become famous...  Nah.

Quick Hits, Vol. 209 (Souls of Mischief, St. Vincent, Jason Isbell, Carson McHone)

Souls of Mischief - 93 'til Infinity.  An old album I had never heard before, I assume it came to me from reading either the Dirty South book or the West Coast rap book.  Either way, this is some classic sounding 1993 stuff - in the vein of Tribe Called Quest and Pharcyde.  And it kind of rules.  If you dug those old school rappers back in the day, then this one will click for you as well.  The beat in "Disseshowedo," which samples something that was used in almost the exact same way by the Black Sheep, is a great one.  But the wild thing is that these guys have six albums available on Spotify, and yet I'd never heard of them at all.  The title track was the sure fire hit, with 37.4 million stream (versus like 1.6 million for the nearest competitor).

That one guy looks like Pharrell.  Great beat, cool flow, classic track.  A bunch of these songs are classic sounding.  Wish I would have known about these guys back in the early nineties, could have slotted them in with Tribe, De La, Black Sheep, Pharcyde, etc. in my rap listening.  I'll keep listening to this one, I like it.

St. Vincent - MassEducation.  A companion album to last year's Masseduction, that converts the songs into loungey piano tunes, like Fiona Apple doing a full cover album, except its still Vincent.  Its beautiful, like in the ringing, loping piano solo in "Happy Birthday, Johnny," but I think I like the originals more, with the guitarwork and odd squelches that pop up throughout.  "Los Ageless" is probably my favorite.  It's not the most streamed, that goes to the first song ("Slow Disco") but I think that is only because people try that song, realize this is a sleepy piano ballad album, and move on.

Lovely.  Strips the songs down so that the lyrics are the star.  Cool enough versions of the songs, but I'm OK.  Will let this one go.

Jason Isbell - Live from the Ryman.  The more I think about Isbell's last album, the more I think that I didn't give it enough credit.  I hear "If We Were Vampires" on the radio from time to time, and it kicks me in the stomach with the same ferocity each time.  It is a freaking amazing song.  I can't think of anything that better captures the joy and sadness of truly loving someone.  Devastatingly good tune.  And I love songs that tell a good story or paint a good picture, and those tunes did that in spades.  "Cumberland Gap," "Super 8," or "24 Frames," they all do that on this live album.  It's damn good.

Not the live version from this album, but a live version nonetheless, so you'll get the feeling.  I'm sure they've sung that song together 400 times, but the idea of the two of them, a married couple, singing that song together about maybe getting 40 years together before one of them dies alone.  FUUUDGE.  This is a good album.

Carson McHone - Carousel.  I very much enjoyed a live show from this gal a few years back.  This album reprises several songs from her prior album, so I'm kind of annoyed at it from the get go.  Sounds kind of like old school Kelly Willis, some power voice followed by a little lilt and then soft ending to each word.  It's kind of cutesy, and a little annoying.  Here is "Sad."

Only 17k streams, so not necessarily lighting the world on fire.  It's fine for what it is, but I'll let it go for sure.

Quick Hits, Vol. 208 (Action Bronson, Milo, Mac Miller, Creed II Soundtrack)

Action Bronson - White Bronco.  Shout out forever to this guy's weird ass cooking videos where he gets exceedingly stoned and then cooks food.

I made that sandwich, or at least a passable facsimile, after watching that video a year or two ago, and it is legitimately good.  Now I make honey/sriracha sauce to put on other food because its delicious.

Anyhoo, this guy is a goofball, who raps a bunch about weird food metaphors and gangster bits.  He's at his best when he's just freestyling all over the place, like on "Irishman Freestyle," with a tight old soul sample beat in the background and his random ruminations about cars and the odd things he's doing in them.  And the end of "Mt. Edna," which rips some old anti-drug video is funny stuff. The hot sauce from the album is the title track, with 2.8 million streams.

Again, the beat on that one is chunky and melodious and unexpectedly hard.  Lyrically, this is a guy who is just pasting together a bunch of odd metaphors and thoughts and clever things, without much cohesive point or story to tell.  Which isn't my favorite thing in the world, but it still sounds dope.

milo - budding ornithologists are weary of tired analogies.  Quite an album title.  Pretty meh album.  The beats are very chilled out, laid back, basic nuggets of jazzy samples.  The raps are very wordy and complicated and dense, but casual.  And most of the song names are also very complex - like "thinking while eating a handful of almonds" or "deposition regarding the green horse for rap."  The second most heard track is "stet," with 222k streams.

You have to go into a fugue state just to do a passable job of keeping up with the flow.  So many references, in so many different subject areas.  Wild and interesting stuff.  The problem for me is that it never grabs me.  I've listened to the album like 10 times and put off writing about it because I just can't really recall anything about it.  So, instead of going through it yet again, I'll just let it go.

Mac Miller - Swimming.  I've never been all that into Miller, but still, when I heard that he had died, at only 26, of a drug overdose, I was bummed out.  He made some truly joyful funky stuff with Anderson Paak a few years back, and I was looking forward to seeing what other types of stuff he could put together.  Sadly, this is now his final album.  He gets into that same funky groove as the Paak stuff on tracks like "What's The Use?" and "Ladders."  But its a pretty chilled out album - nothing on here is a banger or hit song sound, they're all pretty laid back.  Kind of sad seeming, although that might just be his death weighing my opinion, but something about them just seems bummed out and contemplative.  I thought "Small Worlds" would be the hit, but its "Self Care," an ironic song title, for the win with 89.4 million streams.

Wow.  A video of him in a coffin, smoking?  When he died of a drug overdose?  Messed up, man.  "Jet Fuel," I think, has the best combination of interestingly cool beat and smooth lyrical flow.  But nothing on here sticks, and I'll let it go.  Such a bummer.

Creed II Soundtrack.  These evil geniuses, they sucked me in with a bona fide banger, and then the rest of the album is pretty plain jane.  The Kendrick verse on "The Mantra" is pretty good, but the song itself is bad.  Some of the verses on the jam packed "Runnin" are good, but the overall song isn't great.  But "Kill 'Em With Success" has a dope ass beat and a tough set of lyrics that makes me ready to go see this movie.

For some reason, as I walk around still singing the chorus of this song in my head, I keep wanting to say "kill they ass with respect," which is weirder than the real lyrics for sure. Dunno who Eearz is, but Schoolboy still has the juice.  But its that beat that makes the track.  The rhymes are fine, but the tough power slap of that beat is salty and sweet.  But then the majority of this album are kind of generic Mike Will beats and a current roll call of popular artists (but not too popular).  I don't need it.

Quick Hits, Vol. 207 (Wand, Quavo, Kevin Gates, Memphis May Fire)

Wand - Ganglion Reef.  I truly wish that I could remember how I came across this album, because its freaking fantastic.  But it's from 2014, so how did it end up in my queue?  It's psych rock with some 60's garage rock feel and a few exceedingly chunky, spiky, and hard riffs.  These tunes keep popping up, either when I shuffle my new music playlist or when I finish some other album, and every time I look up from whatever I am doing, bite my lip in aural pleasure, and figure out who is playing.  Like a heavy Tame Impala thing.  "Flying Golem" is the hit song as of now (ha!  as though that is going to suddenly change on a 5 year old album...) with 322k streams - so this album is not very popular...

When it kicks in, I feel like the first time the White Stripes melted my brain.  So melty and loose and fuzzed out.  Some of the tracks go for slower, spacey-ier action, and I'm less here for that, but when they crank it up, I'm all in.

Quavo - QUAVO HUNCHO.  One third of the terrible Migos.  Very similarly to the group's last album, a bloated, overlong, boring mess of tough sounding beats under terrible lyrics, this one sounds tight, but is vacuous and too long.  I'd love to say that the track with both Madonna and Cardi B is cool, but its garbage as well.  I figured for sure that the Drake collab would be the top track, but instead it is "WORKIN ME" (and yes, the all caps and lack of punctuation is part of the naming convention).  92.4 million streams.

Yep.  A whole 19 song album of those entirely mediocre raps.  And that video, directed by the man himself, also terrible.

Kevin Gates - Luca Brasi 3.  I swear, man, don't these rappers know that a little bit of scarcity can be a great thing in building your brand?  Gates has a cool sound, a good flow, a recognizable style of beats - he should be able to blow up.  Instead, he just keeps on shoving out more and more songs that all generally sound the same, which makes each new project sound less and less interesting.  This is eighteen more songs, that easily could have been part of any of his past 5 mixtapes/albums.  "Money Long" has the most streams, so I'll show you that one as an example of what I'm talking about.

Not a bad tune - but I just think he could take all of his songs, work on them a little bit more to make the lyrics a little more meaningful than "money long, but my dick longer" and kill it.  Oh well, he's just going to shove out 20 songs a year instead...  No lie, just had someone step into my office and hear this music and say they dug it, and the guy is not someone I ever would have pegged for a rap listener.  I'm shook.  No thanks on this album.  I'll just keep bumping "White Tan" instead.

Memphis May Fire - Broken.  Are people sneaking music into my new music playlist when I'm not looking?  This is terrible.  Where did it come from?  It's like a Linkin Park/Incubus facsimile thing of platitudes and generic lyrics.  Also, their Spotify bio looks like something written by an inspirational preacher in his spare time: "The music of Memphis May Fire is the sound of hope and compassion, delivered by a dedicated group of men striving for something greater than the world around them. Memphis May Fire is a clarion call to those who insist on bettering themselves, their loved ones and the conditions afflicting the world."  WT freaking F.  It's semi-electro-metal built for use in a Navy recruiting ad.

I kind of wanted to play "Watch Out" instead, but "The Old Me" has the most streams (2.1 million) and the real video.  Generic, uninteresting, no thanks.

Shaky Knees 2019 Announced!

Even since Shaky Knees got split up into Shaky Knees (rock) and Shaky Beats (electronic), its become one of the best lineups in the game.  (although, where did the rap artists go?)  This year is no different:



I'd pay to go see Tame Impala, Beck, and Cage the Elephant right now.  Then Gary Clark, Jr., Foals, Father John Misty, Jim James, The Struts, and Fidlar?  Nice.  And I'd definitely go try out Tears for Fears to live out some of the nostalgia of Songs from the Big Chair era TFF.  Also, while more recent Incubus isn't great, their old stuff was great at the time.  And you also get a bunch of the great up and coming lady indie rockers, like Jade Bird, Lucy Dacus, Japanese Breakfast, Soccer Mommy, and their OG muse Liz Phair.  Would be pretty fun to go immerse myself into a lineup like this and just rock out for a full weekend.

Governor's Ball 2019 Announced!

And it looks super sucky!



Really?  I feel like there were some huge years, where these guys brought the thunder and shamed some of the big festivals, but this is pretty low key.  Florence, Nas, Brockhampton, and Kacey Musgraves are big, but Tyler as the top name on a whole day?  The freaking Strokes?  Still?  There is a ton of medium level rapper stuff on here, which might be kind of interesting to see, but I'd need more real headliners to make this one even start to make sense.  Weird.

Quick Hits, Vol. 206 (Jealous of the Birds, Alice in Chains, Amanda Shires, Prince)

Jealous of the Birds - The Moths Of What I Want Will Eat Me in My Sleep.  Quite an album title.  I very infrequently Shazam anything anymore - I used to use it a lot more before now when I either don't care about a new song or I can guess who sings it already from my incessant new music eating.  But this band's lead single from this album came on KUTX a few weeks back, and I was fully engorged with an immediate need to know the band.  "Plastic Skeletons" has less than 300k streams, and yet it freaking jams.

Kind of funky indie tune, and then the post chorus rock kicks in, and I need to break out someone's teeth with my boot while dancing recklessly.  And then it just shifts right back into that 60's rock groove funkiness.  Such a great tune.  Sadly, the rest of this five song EP is not up to the lofty standards of that track.  They're good - indie rock tunes that stay pretty gentle, with a touch of fire here and there - but sadly nothing like the jam.  Some Breeders sound in here, I'm excited to hear what the full length album sounds like soon.

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog.  I have long considered when a band stops being that band and becomes something else entirely.  Band members can come and go, and sometimes that is fine, but other times the band doesn't carry on.  Metallica replaced their bassist (and earlier their singer), and I don't think the band has missed a beat.  Journey found a weird voice replica dude to take over for Steve Perry and now they're selling out shows as though nothing happened.  AC/DC kept rolling with a new singer.  Van Halen totally changed and yet kept cranking out hits with a new singer. 
But without Jerry Garcia, there can be no more real Dead.  You can have your Dead and Company and Wharf Rat and whatever else, but the true Dead is gone.  Same with Nirvana.  A one-off performance with St. Vincent on vocals is one thing, but trying to recreate that whole band without Cobain is garbage.  R.E.M. died when a member left.  Rage Against the Machine tried to keep going as Audioslave, but never with the same popularity or power.  Queen died with Freddie Mercury.  
I bring all of this up because Layne Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002, and yet this album sounds exactly like he's still the guy behind the mic for this band.  Which is eerie and weird.  The guy's name is apparently William DuVall, but he very much sounds like Staley over the top of songs that chug pretty much like the classic Alice in Chains.  So what does that leave me with?  Is this still the band, or have we crossed over?  I think its still the band, in this instance.  Except I'm not so sure that this brand of chugging semi-grunge is still the goal anymore.
The album opener is the most popular track by a long ways, at over 5 million streams, but I think those are just curiosity streams, not popularity streams.  But it also has 3.7 million YouTube views, so I'll assume this actually is the hit from the album.

In a way, its actually more impressive, that they could go out and find a guy who sounds enough like the old guy that you could honestly not know the difference.  I really liked the first two Alice in Chains albums, they were a solid part of my rock foundation back in the late 80's and early 90's, so with the strong nostalgia factor here, I'll say that I actually like this album.

Amanda Shires - To the Sunset.  Not sure where this one came from, but its pretty cool, spacey Americana stuff.  Oh, that's it - she's Jason Isbell's wife.  That is where I came up with her as someone to listen to.  But its nothing like the dark storytelling and hardscrabble Americana of Isbell, this is much brighter, with electronics and other odd flourishes used.  But I still like it - tuneful and snappy, its a fun album.  Like the sarcastic "Break Out the Champagne," a fun, guitar-driven tune about life.  "Leave It Alone" is the streaming champ for now, at 318k streams.

Fascinating, that video, which is like the official video on her YouTube channel, has zero comments.  Like, nothing.  94 thumbs up and 2 thumbs down, but zero comments.  Strange.  Also strange, the video version of the song brings out the electronic handclappy sounds from the background and makes them much more prominent, which is a negative.  These tunes are fine, but I'll let this album go.

Prince - Piano and a Microphone 1983.  I feel conflicted about this album, in that everyone seems to agree that Prince wouldn't have wanted to publish these incomplete demos.  And yet here they are, likely the first in a long string of money making releases for his family.  Bums me out.  And yet, it is pretty fun to hear him goofing around and trying out different things in his home studio.  "Purple Rain" is very cool, and "Mary Don't You Weep" is the strongest track on here.  Most of these are poignant sounding meanderings that remind me of that song from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack by Desiree, "Cold Coffee & Cocaine" is funny.  But nothing on here is something you should save and listen to all the time, its more just an interesting trip into his brain.  The most streamed, at 1.4 million, is "Mary Don't You Weep."

His voice is a monster on that one, so great.  Stupid drug overdoses, man.  I won't keep this album around, but that one track is powerful.

Kaaboo Lineup Announced!!

If you're curious about what the hell Kaaboo is, its because no one has ever heard of it!  And if you thought the lineup for Coachella or Bonnaroo was bad, get a load of this shit!



That is the weirdest festival lineup ever.  A group of Mormon's from Vegas who are a decade past their last hit?  Check.  A right wing nutjob rabblerouser redneck who is a decade past his last hit?  Check.  A British tantric sex practitioner who is way more than a decade past his last hit?  Check.  A punch line of a southern rock group who haven't made a hit since the seventies?  Roger that.  A bad Nashville band who, as far as I know, have never had any hits?  You betcha.  Did Jerruh make this lineup himself by just looking at his 53 year old mistress' old iPod?

After those "headliners," it gets really weird, with a bunch of other nostalgia inducing artists with zero new music that I know of, but a heyday many moons ago.  Counting Crows?  Lauryn Hill?  Bush?  Alanis Morissette?  The B-52s?  Garbage?  Ludacris?  Rick freaking Springfield?  Violent Femmes?  I mean, what the hell is all of this?  The English Beat?  Collective Soul?  This is soooooo weird.

Now, I'd go see some of those bands.  Don't get me wrong, I'd do the B-52s immediately.  I love old Counting Crows.  Lauryn Hill is amazing.  I've loved Sting since the 80's.  But I've never seen a lineup quite like this.  It looks like the calendar for a Louisiana casino, or like the answer to the trivia question of the bands that were two hit wonders.  I do not want to attend this mess.

Quick Hits, Vol. 205 (Smashing Pumpkins, Imagine Dragons, Flatland Cavalry, Animals as Leaders)

The new video from Gary Clark Jr. is freaking amazing.  Blazing hot song, married to great imagery in the video.  Check it.

That "Fuck you, I'm America's son" line in the chorus gets me fired up.  I need to see this one done live.

Smashing Pumpkins - Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1.  Dammit.  What is the quote, about how you live long enough to see your heroes turn into villains or something?  Hahaha!  If it is what I am thinking of, its from the freaking Dark Knight: "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." I had no clue I was such a batman aficionado.  Anyway, you only need to go so far as the first song on this album, a turgid piano banger with the recurring sound of someone trying to sing with a mouthful of Listerine.  Blurg.  The second song has the most streams - "Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)" with 3.7 million streams - and its OK, I'd rather they go harder than this milquetoast soft rock stuff.

They had video stuff with that guy at their concert in the fall - Mark McGrath, the lead singer from Sugar Ray, of all bands - and its super weird that he is some sort of special spokesperson for the band.  I'd say that "Solara" is the best thing on the album, and some of the others crank it up slightly.  But, nothing on this album stands out like a potential hit or something showing signs of future awesomeness, just a pile of mediocre filler songs that were likely cut from the Melancholy sessions.

Imagine Dragons - Origins.  I was trying to figure out how to quantify what it is that makes this band so truly, deeply horrible.  It is easy to point to the yelling chorus thing, where every hit involves the lead singer shifting up from his normal singing voice into a grating, chanting-kind of yell for the chorus.  YOU'RE A NAT-U-RAL!  NOW WE STANDIN' ON TOP OF THE WORLD!  IT'S WHERE MY DEMONS HIDE!  MAKE ME UH, MAKE ME UH, BELIEVEAAAH!  BELIEVAAH!  That is an easy source of annoyance.  Is it the fact that I love alternative rock type music, but this feels like a soulless, corporate reproduction intended to draw me in?  Yes, that is true.  And they bastardize the whole thing with all of these drum machines and snaps and coke bottle dinging, after they've drawn me in with the guitar chug.  Bastards.  Is it the chanting nature of so much of their music, as though they just want people to be prepared to holler it all at their next appearance at HOT 105.9's Summer Jam concert series?  Is it because they have a song that my kids love to sing that repeats the word thunder at least 300 times while simply repeating that lightning comes after thunder?  And that song makes me want to claw my ears out?  Is it the generic platitudes that are firmly seated in every inch of their lyrics, as though they found a BE STRONG lyric generator and just sang whatever it printed out?  I guess it is all of those things.

This album encapsulates all of those things, as well as one other that I didn't mention, which is that "Cool Out" and some of these other songs sounds just like a low rent Coldplay.  Which bums me out, because I loved Coldplay once, and conflating them with this yell-factory of mediocre fist pumpers sucks.  And "Digital" tries to be some sort of deep message presented in rap form over a terrible beat, and I hate that I've listened to this.  "Natural" is the hit from this one so far, with 264.5 million streams.  "Bad Liar" is trying to make a case for hit status as well, with just over 100 million streams right now.  But that latter song sounds like a shit ripoff of recent, bad Taylor Swift, so I'll make you hear "Natural" instead.

Can I just talk about the four guys in the band for a moment?  The lead singer is dressed like a cosplaying idiot from the Civil War.  The bassist is waaay to pumped up and dyed hair to be playing in a song that doesn't even appear to have a bass guitar used in it.  Same with the drummer, all sweaty and pained, when his beat is an exceedingly basic boom bap augmented by lots of electronics.  Only that strangely chilled guy on the acoustic guitar seems like an OK guy (even if he appears misplaced with this group of insanely pumped other guys).  Ugh.
Meanwhile, these dildos get picked to play the halftime for the National Championship game, and get a song on the Ralph Breaks the Internet soundtrack - so they keep worming their way into the world's consciousness.  Thankfully they haven't been added to any big music festival posters, so I don't have to worry about them infiltrating ACL.  Oh yeah, and this album sucks.

Flatland Cavalry - Humble Folks.  An in-law went and saw this band live a few weeks back and loved the show.  I had never heard of the band so I thought I'd check it out.  Pleasant enough Texas country stuff, in the vein of Pat Green.  In fact, the lead singer frequently sounds like Green.  "A Good Memory" is a good place to start to hear that similarity.  The hit on here is the one featuring the excellently named Kaitlin Butts.  Who is either an heir to the HEB fortune and therefore it makes sense that she kept that surname, or was hoping for the old Beavis and Butthead crowd to find her and push her into stardom, or has a fantastic seat.  I'm going to imagine it's number 2.  Huh huh, cool.  Butts.  Anyway, "A Life Where We Work Out" boasts 4.9 million streams, which is damn solid for a Texas country band I've never heard of.

Nice little tune - her voice is nice.  I've been through this album a few times, and if I were still in my Americana 4 Lyfe mindset from post-college, I'd probably hold on to this one, but as it is, I'm cool letting it go.

Animals As Leaders - The Madness of Many.  Where in the hell did this album come from?  Super intricate math metal stuff, like Les Claypool is doing his usual Primus bass freakout but with all of the instruments in the band.  No lyrics, all dense instrumentals.  So thick and chunky.  Meanwhile, the guitarwork and meandering solo pieces make me think of jam bands.  It's like Phish combined with Tool and Primus and fired their lead singer.  I actually kind of like it, even though it all feels a little insanity inducing.  The top streamer is "The Brain Dance" with 3.5 million streams.

Those nylon strings - makes it sound like you're about to hear a classical song, then everything else kicks in and it goes in all sorts of directions.  Also, that song is way more chill than many of these on the album, that go harder.  "The Brain Dance" is more like a Dave Matthews instrumental track...  Challenging album.  I do think that I like it, but its honestly melting my brain.

Top Albums of 2018 (Consensus Collected by Rob Mitchum)

I've spent years banging the drum of this cool spreadsheet that collects all of the albums of the year lists (well, not all of them but a large number of the most, uh, reputable?) and determines the actual best albums of the year through consensus (or as it was called several years ago in an article, the Hive Mind).  But, as I've mentioned before, with the proliferation of styles and super easy access to new music, I think the Hive Mind is dead. 

Only five of the albums on Mitchum's spreadsheet received more than one number 1 vote (out of thirty-two different top ten lists).  Mitski's album received four number ones, Pusha T, Low, The 1975, and something called SOPHIE each received two number ones a piece.  Using the ratings system in the spreadsheet, which gives value for high rankings, Pusha T's Daytona is the top album of the year.  Which I don't entirely disagree with, I just wish there was more to it.  But you also end up with a bunch of albums in the consensus top ten that are fully out of left field.

1.  Pusha-T - Daytona.  Yeah, I'm on board.  Hopefully this means he'll be at ACL this year.

2.  Mitski - Be The Cowboy.  Sure, this one got a lot of love.  I like ti well enough, but it couldn't crack my personal top ten.

3.  Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer.  Awesome.  Love that this one got the critical love, as its a great album and she's an excellent performer.  I hope more people go out and see her do it up.

4.  Low - Double Negative.  God, this album is horrible.  I tried it, I really did, but no thanks.  Discordant noise hell is not for me.

5.  Robyn - Honey.  I tried this one too, and it was just fine.  But that brand of 90's pop is best left behind for me, personally.

6.  Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour.  Travesty that its this low.  My favorite of the year.

7.  Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy.  Still fascinated that this one is so high, although I genuinely enjoy some of the tunes.  I've been listening to it more over the past two weeks, and its good.

8.  Noname - Room 25.  Another good one, although I'm shocked that it has done this well.  No radio play that I know of, no big collaborations.  I'm glad for her, she seemed genuinely pleased to just be there at ACL this year.

9.  SOPHIE - OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES.  What is this?  No, I mean, I'm currently listening to it and WTF is happening to my ears right now?  Her bio says she is a "hyperreal pop star, blending U.K. dance music rhythms with maximalist cotton-candy synthesizers and helium-inflated high pitched vocals."  Freaking weird stuff, man.  Those number ones came from something called Tiny Mix Tapes and something called Crack Magazine.  And those two sources included some other highly weird stuff in their top tens, so I'll take this ranking with a grain of salt.

10.  Idles - Joy as an Act of Resistance.  Never heard of this one either, although strangely enough YouTube keeps wanting me to watch a video of their in-studio performance at some radio station.  So, now I get a chance to check them out...  And, you know what?  pretty good punk rock/post-punk.  Sometimes it gets a little strident for me, but overall I enjoyed it a few times.

Top Albums of 2018 (SPIN)

I loved SPIN magazine when I was in high school.  Had subscriptions to it and Rolling Stone (which is actually kind of curious - not sure what I would think if my kids asked for that right now) and, although I don't have a subscription now, I frequently visit the website.  Their top ten is interesting for their number one pick, which hasn't even been top ten on any of the lists I have looked at so far.

1. The 1975 — A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.  Well, now.  That is a shocker.  I actually ended up liking this album pretty well, even though I originally wanted to rip it up because of the album title.  But "Love It If We Made It" is a very good song.  It's an uneven album, some very good stuff and some terrible things, so I would never include it as the album of the year, but I can understand the love anyway.

2. Mitski — Be the Cowboy.  Yeah, I liked it, but it couldn't crack my top ten.
3. Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour.  Word.  My best album of the year.
4. Amen Dunes — Freedom.  Nice!  Another ACL artist, who I had never heard of up until listening up for the Fest.  I really enjoyed the album, and was disappointed that his set time was such that I couldn't get there to see him.  Cool album.
5. Blood Orange — Negro Swan.  Bad album.  He came to ACL, so I went through the process of listening up to all of his stuff, but I did not enjoy this album at all.  Boring to me.
6. Earl Sweatshirt — Some Rap Songs.  Interesting that this is on so many year end lists.  It isn't bad, but to me it is very forgettable.  No thanks.
7. Low — Double Negative.  Nope.  Tried this one for another top ten list and it sucks.  I called it "grinding ear murder," if that helps.
8. Pusha T — Daytona.  Just went ahead and popped this on again, and yeah, its a good album.  I think it is an indictment on rap that the best or second best album of the year was only 7 songs long, but that's OK.

9. Robyn — Honey.  Yeah, I tried this one the other day after it was in a different top ten.  Not for me.
10. Oneohtrix Point Never — Age Of.  I have no clue what type of music this would be called.  Space electronica?  There are guitars, but there is also lots of autotune.  There are beats, but there are also meandering schmears of sound that last into eternity.  This is a terrible thing.  I had to stop listening during "We'll Take It," which I think is the sound of an air conditioner condenser unit mating with a pneumatic drill.

Quick Hits, Vol. 204 (Christine and the Queens, The 1975, Muse, Mumford & Sons)

Christine & the Queens - Chris.  Oh, hey, didn't see that HAIM was right back over there performing under another name.  Huh.  I don't say that as an insult in the slightest, I dig HAIM, and this has that same 80's pop feel with a kick ass set of vocals jumping into the grooves.
However, this comes off as a little odd/pretentious because the album includes 11 songs in English, and then the exact same 11 songs in French.  Which is fine and good for the Franco-files in the world, but I don't wanna hear all that throat clearing BS.  Just give them to me the way they were intended, IN AMERICAN!!!  Just kidding, but honestly some of the time the English versions of the songs also sound like they are in a foreign tongue.

Although, when it comes to the tunes, these are good.  I just got caught up in "the walker," bobbing my head along, and before the sane part of my brain could intervene against allowing the whole "you're talking to yourself again" thing to happen, I just said "oooh, this is fucking good."  So, there's that.  Like Florence with the drum machine used on INXS's "Need You Tonight" or something.  Yummy.  The top streamer is "Girlfriend," with something called Dam-Funk also playing some role in the song.  5.8 million streams, but I don't like it's Babyface vibe as much.  The second-most streamer is the one that is super HAIM flavored ("Doesn't matter") and requires grooving.  Like, holds your hips with an iron grip and requires motion.  4.3 million streams.

How am I so attracted to this album - its honestly weird - because usually I wouldn't be so in to a French lady singing over 80's pop tracks.  Well, unless that lady was french Madonna.  Whatever, this one is fun to listen to and I'll keep it.

The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships.  I started this review originally ready to bag on these dudes for being as pretentious as that album title.  But then I heard "Be My Mistake" and I kinda got thrown back from being a prick.  Its quite a nice little acoustical tune.  One other track has been getting a lot of radio play (or something, because I've heard it a number of times already) recently, so it seems familiar - "Love It If We Made It," with 33.6 million streams.  The horrible "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME" - an autotuned mess of world musical influences - has more streams at 35.5 million, but it sucks as a song.  Here is the former.

Criminy, hold on.  A superficial listen to that song would lead me to believe that this a sunny little 80's throwback love song that would be at home on the radio in Grand Theft Auto Vice City.  Instead, its a pretty brutal takedown of the ways that modern society has failed and he is saying he would love it if humanity could actually make it.  Watch the video.  Huh.  That one song just made me change my initial approach to the album - I don't like the auto-tuning, and some of this sounds a little schmaltzy, but now I'm sucked in and want to take this thing apart.  God help me, I might actually like a 1975 album.

[EDIT] went back to it for a handful more listens, and while there are some good songs on here, overall it is not that great.  There are a number of bad to mediocre songs on it that make it hard to enjoy as a cohesive piece.

Muse - Simulation Theory.  I can't think of another band that brings out such a swing in opinion from me.  Some of their tunes are freaking awesome - bombastic rock and roll and sweeping declarations of revolution or love.  Some of them are treacly horrors - bombastic rock and roll and sweeping declarations of revolution or love.  So this one is more of the same, with loads of robot synths and beat machines backing up an otherwise pretty rocking groove.  "The Dark Side" sounds like the 80's never died and Duran Duran just kept on keeping on with a new lead singer.  I don't hate it, but I appreciate their early albums much more.  "Break it to me" delivers some Rage-esque guitar fireworks among an otherwise kind of annoying guitar loop.  "Propaganda" is a dumb robot-sounding beat down.  But then some songs are more better - "Pressure" has more of a guitar-forward rock sound - maybe more Bangles and less Duran Duran.  "Something Human" is more of a prime, old Muse tune.  The two early singles have the most streams, with "Dig Down" wining the contest at 30.9 million, but I'd rather give you the less chant-ish "Thought Contagion" with 30.2 million.

That soaring guitar, patched over the clap-trap-track and some bass, and then the WOAAAAHHHH-able chorus?  This one was minted solely to be a big festival jam track.  That part is great.  But the lyrics?  Uh, "you've been bitten byyyyyy, someone's false beliefs" is brutal.  I mean, I'm all on board with how shitty it is for the country's politics to have devolved to the point of complete chaos, but that cheese-ball take on the matter doesn't fix a thing.  "Dig Down" mentions that a "clown" has taken the "throne" and "they" are trying to divide us.  So you can tell the spirit of the album - which I don't disagree with! - but the delivery of it feels a little ham-handed with all of these 80's throwback sounds and falsetto squeals.  I won't save this album, but when these guys show up as a top 9 artists for ACL this fall, I won't be shocked (and will actually plan to go see them do it live).

Also, just in case you were curious, the name of the album nods to a Matrix-style conspiracy theory that we are all just living in a computer-simulated reality.  Which is totally true.  I don't actually exist and you aren't actually reading this.

Mumford & Sons - Delta.  Speaking of uneven track records for bands!  This album is bad.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to try to say that these guys have somehow resurrected from their career suicide of the last album.  But there are a few gleams of something on here that I don't totally hate (the kinda banjo-ey "Beloved," the stripped-down "Wild Heart"), but then something like "Picture You" comes on, and its all snaps and trite lyrics and an almost island vibe, and I wish the album would die in a volcanic eruption.  And then the next "song" is like they wanted to make something super meaningful and deep, as though they are Radiohead making robot-voiced interludes, when they are obviously not, and so you have to suffer through "Darkness Visible."  
The thing is that I don't know what I really want from them.  Would I even listen to a new album of purely folky banjo jams?  Feels like that moment has passed on by.  But then these exceedingly earnest arena rock tunes, which are very right-now, also leave me uninspired.  The hit from the album is "Guiding Light," which gives an acoustic guitar shuffle over to a slight nod at electronic stuff, but stays pretty true to piano and guitar and the soaring vocals.

I like it well enough.  Definitely better than the tunes from Wilder Mind, but nonetheless I don't listen to it and immediately need to dance or pump my fist.  Sorry, Mumford, maybe its me and not you, but I don't need this album.

New Orleans Jazz Fest 2019 Announced!!

Damn, man.  Their lineup poster always looks like the greatest festival of all time.  And then you realize that this lineup is spread out over like 8 different nights, so you aren't really getting this lineup if you buy tickets for a single weekend.  But still...  check out this lineup.



I mean, the Rolling Stones is already enough to want to try to go to this Fest.  All alone, that is huge.  But then Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffett, Chris Stapleton, Van Morrison, Logic, The Revivalists (who are like 15 artists in!), Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr.!  Jimmy freaking Cliff and Ziggy Marley!  Indigo Girls!  Mavis Staples, and Gladys Knight, and Earth Wind and Fire and Chaka Khan and Herbie Hancock!  Freaking weird shit like Alanis Morissette and Tom Jones!  Better than Ezra!  Little Feat!  The Head and the Heart!  Marcia Ball and the Mavericks!

Its an outrageous lineup.  Although, as usual, you miss out on a ton of stuff if you can only pick one weekend.  If you pick weekend one, you would get Santana, The Revivalists, Jimmy Cliff, and Head & the Heart on Friday, Katy Perry, Leon Bridges, and Logic on Saturday, and Van Morrison, Indigo Girls, and Al Green on Sunday.  Not nearly as fabulous a lineup when split out.  The Stones are on the Thursday in between the two weekends, so if you tried to pull off a single weekend ticket, you wouldn't even catch their show.  Second weekend is pretty sick though, as you'll get Stapleton, Matthews, and Buffett as the number 1 bands each night - that is a super cool weekend of headliners.

Weird thing though, just looked at tickets and you have to buy them by the day - there are no three day passes without buying a VIP type experience.  Huh.  Nah, I don't think I'd make the trip for this, with how spread out all of the good stuff is, but sooner or later I need to make this pilgrimage to New Orleans.

Bonnaroo 2019 Announced!

And its another pretty bad lineup!



I mean, Phish twice?  I'd go see Phish just to check it out, but twice for the same festival on the same weekend?  What is up with that?  Childish Gambino on another major lineup?  I thought Gambino was supposed to hang it up?  I wish he would.  Totally overrated.  Is Walk the Moon really still a thing?

And Post Malone.  I saved a savage review of Post Malone just so that I could use it sooner or later in one of my posts.  Please go read this review from Jeff Weiss of the Washington Post.  A taste test for those who don't want to read the whole thing (although you totally should):  "Him?  The most popular young artist in the most unpopular young nation is a rhinestone cowboy who looks like he crawled out of a primordial swamp of nacho cheese. Post Malone is a Halloween rental, a removable platinum grill, a Cubic Zirconium proposal on the jumbo screen of a last-place team."  Oh, so very delicious.  It tastes so great going into my eyeballs.  Anyway, him being the headliner of Saturday night is a pile of suck.

Once you get below those headliners, this poster actually offers a great secondary lineup - Avett Brothers, Brockhampton, Kacey Musgraves, Cardi B, Brandi Carlisle, John Prine, The Lumineers, Courtney Barnett, Girl Talk, Catfish & the Bottlemen, Parquet Courts, Jim James, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Record Company, Ruston Kelly, Trampled By Turtles.  Hell, even The Naitonal, Hozier, and Gucci Mane would get some people excited.  And the Lonely Island might be funny to see, I don't know.

Of note for me, personally, I know all of the bands written in color except for RL Grime.  So at least they aren't trying to pass off totally weird shit as big time bands.

So, not as bad as Coachella, but still some jacked up decisions on here.  I'd much rather do this one than Coach, but the headlining slots on this one are fully and completely blown.

Coachella 2019 Announced!

And holy hannah, it's freaking terrible!



Of the top three, only Tame Impala is a great band, but they still should be about the 7th best band on a major lineup's poster!  Grande is not good, despite the opinions of eight year olds everywhere, and Gambino is ridiculously overhyped based on the excellence of that "This is America" video.  The song isn't even good.

Down from those top three, you get very few great things in the second/third lines: Janelle Monae is amazing.  The 1975 are surprisingly growing on me.  Weezer.  Chvrches.  Kacey Musgraves.  Pusha T. Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

But more so than those few bands, you get a ton of flash in the pan junk, like one hit wonders DJ Snake or Dillon Francis or Bazzi, bad rappers like Juice WRLD or Playboi Carti, hot for now Latin guys like J Balvin and Bad Bunny, and stuff I've never heard of like Gesaffelstein or Blackpink (which looks to be an Asian girlgroup) or Cirez D or H.E.R. or Los Tucanes de Tijuana.  

I would be seriously disappointed in this lineup if it showed up in Austin.  I don't know if I'd bag my tickets, but I would consider it.

Top Ten Albums of 2018 (Keith Law)

Keith Law is a baseball writer and board game aficionado and music obsessive with a good website, and I generally appreciate his taste in music.  He likes more dark metal than me, and a little more electronic pop than me, but we otherwise frequently agree on things.  Here is his top ten for 2018.

10. Artificial Pleasure – The Bitter End. Nah.  Kind of a dance rock thing that jams for bits and then bums for longer stretches.  Not terrible, but I wouldn't go back to it.

9. Snail Mail – Lush. Agreed - very good.

8. Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo in Blue. Yuck.  He says this album is better than their first, but I very much disagree.

7. Soft Science – Maps.  God, I've become entirely predictable.  Fire up a 90's alternative-rock-esque album and I'll start salivating like Pavlov's dogs.  Good groove, nice guitar wash, and pretty female vocalist?  I'm sucked right on in.  This one has a little British pop rock shoegaze type thing added in - its not straight grunge - like Teenage Fanclub and The Sundays mixed up in the opener "Undone."  Also has a heavy 80's synth vibe to it at times - see "Enough."  I've liked this one a lot.

6. Jungle – For Ever. They came to ACL this year, so I thought I would have reviewed this album, but it looks like my entire post was about the prior album and only mentioned that they might have a new album coming out soon. This one is good - I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between their two albums - the sound remains the same.  I won't keep it, but pretty solid.

5. Wombats – Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. Another ACL band - this album is good and their live show was high energy fun.  This is a good pick.  

4. Turbowolf – The Free Life.  I don't know Turbowolf, but I like what I hear right here.  The opening guitar bars sound like a fuzzy Queens of the Stone Age riff kicking in.  The whole thing is kind of sneering rock and roll jam session stuff.  I like it.

Rock and roll, baby.

3. Black Honey – Black Honey. Nah.  Way too Lana Del Rey - try hard - for me.  Also, 21 freaking songs?  C'mon man.

2. TVAM – Psychic Data. Again, nah.  Very electronic, very 80's synth stuff, but very dark and discordant.  Well, sometimes the tunes try to get pretty for a sec, but even then there is something tweaked or soured somewhere in the sound.  Not for me.

1. Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar.  Huh.  Law admits that this is not an album he enjoys from start to finish or comfortable, but is instead something that makes him uncomfortable and diverges from the confines of conventional popular music.  Which is think is BS - if the album bugs you, then it shouldn't be your favorite album, right?  If I could choose an album of a baby crying or R.E.M.'s Out of Time, would I ever actually pick the crying as a favorite?  Just to challenge myself?  Its insane.  This music is very odd.  Kinda rap (but only in that someone is speaking instead of singing over the music), kinda R&B, kinda electronic sound collage mess...  Sort of makes me think of the way I felt with TV on the Radio at first, except this is much less tuneful.  Dumb pick.  Don't like it.

Top Ten Albums of 2018 (Rolling Stone)

I'm actually shocked that the Rolling Stone folks had the editorial wherewithal to push the new Paul McCartney back to #11.  I figured this would be like a few years ago when they put mediocre Springsteen and U2 albums at the top of their annual list, either oblivious to the changing of the musical guard or obstinate in the face of shifting winds.  Now they've flipped it entirely, with a top five entirely made up of women and terrible (but immensely popular) rappers claiming top ten spots.  They can't win.

10. Drake - Scorpion.  I love this ridiculous quote from their review: "It’s a double album with no low points, and if you do find it beginning to drag a little, simply turn it into a playlist of your favorite tracks; Drake’s savvy enough to know that’s how you’d end up listening to it, and he pockets the streams either way."  How stupid is that?  "On the one hand, its perfect and has no bad tracks, but on the other hand, it has boring parts you should skip to make a better playlist.  In the end, who cares because Drake gets paid."  WTF?  This is a bad album of mediocre music.  "Nice for What" is the only redeeming song I can remember from it.

9. Kurt Vile - Bottle It In.  Hadn't tried this one yet, but I like it a lot.  Very loose and shaggy and cool.  I'm gonna add this one to my Q and do a real write-up of it.

8. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper - ‘A Star Is Born Soundtrack’.  I need to see this movie.  The wife played the "Shallow" song for me the other day, with a load of expectations for me to swoon over how amazing it was, and its kinda just OK for me.  Gaga's voice is kind of fascinating.  I'd put her in the same category of the other pop star divas, but her voice is more powerful and less refined than someone like Katy Perry.  That song is like a blunt-force instrument, and she's more of a belter than a songbird.  But I think if I had seen the flick, I'd get the same context as the wife and it would sound better.  Anyhoo, just tried this album for the first time, and it has some good tunes.  "Maybe It's Time" is good, "Out of Time" has legit guitarwork, and "Always Remember Us This Way" and "Too Far Gone" are good stuff.  But then the album turns into bad, generic pop music, and it loses the thread, and I don't like it anymore.

7. Pusha T - Daytona.  Yep, a good album.

6. Travis Scott - Astroworld.  Dammit.  "Astroworld is a monument to excess in a year overcome with bloat."  That means the same thing, right?  Like, excess and bloat are both the same side of a negative, right?  This is terrible, even if the beats and transitions on "Sicko Mode" have grown on me over time.  Still bad rap though.

5. Ariana Grande - Sweetener.  Huh. Top five? Really?  I've heard several of these songs a bunch because my girls love her music to death.  I'll say this:

• "no tears left to cry" is enjoyable.  The beat and the flow of the vocals match well and its a groove.
• "God is a woman" sucks on socks sewn out of seaweed.
• "breathin" is annoying and I want it to go away.
• She named a fucking song "R.E.M" (without the final period) and I want to fight her to the death now BECAUSE ITS ALL ABOUT MEETING A STUPID BOY WHILE SHE'S ASLEEP AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BEST BAND OF ALL TIME!!!  

So, overall, my review is Hell and No.  I do not like this album.  I'd rather her go more pop and less R&B.  That being said, I bopped to the "pete davidson" song (even if it hasn't aged well).

4. Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel.  Yep, I talked about this one the other day in the look back at The Ringer's top ten.  Actually pretty solid.

3. Camila Cabello - Camila.  WTF, dude.  This album is actively bad, and her live show was super bad.  I loved the chance to take my kid to Cabello's show and hold her up near the stage and hear her earnestly singing along with Cabello, but beyond that, this album is not good.

2. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour.  Yes!  My number one of the year, and it finally made someone else's list!  great album.

1. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy.  Well, I'm surprised.  Two of the four lists I've reviewed so far, with this album at the top.  I liked it, but best album of the year seems like a stretch.  Oh well, I'll go jam it a few more times!

Top Ten Albums of 2018 (The Ringer)

I love both Rob Harvilla and Shea Serrano, so this list from The Ringer ought to be right up my alley.  AND YET we have zero overlapping albums.  What is happening in the world?  Also, they say that the #10 album could have been easily replaced by Travis Scott, and therefore all credibility becomes ZERO.

10. Action Bronson - White Bronco.  I actually also like this album.  In his usual way, Bronson is funny and silly and boastful and odd, but I like most of the sample-based beats, I dig his sense of humor, and now I want to make his bullet salami sandwich with hot peppers and honey again.

9. Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel.  This is surprisingly good.  I had dismissed it when seeing it released, thinking that Miranda Lambert (one third of this lady-centric Nashville supergroup, also including Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley) is too Nashville country for my tastes.  But for the most part, this is more like a Dixie Chicks thing, and less of a Big & Rich thing.  Now don't get me wrong, they stick to many of the usual, current Nashville tropes like smoking dope and divorce and farming.  But the guitars and harmonies are irresistible anyway.  "Cheyenne" and "Best Years of My Life" and "Got My Name Changed Back" are all good or fun.  "Sugar Daddy" is less so.  But overall, an actual fun album.

8. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Sparkle Hard.  Yeah, all right.  Pavement never sparked my interest much back in the day, so I've never paid much attention to this guy's "solo" stuff either.  But this is a pleasant enough little mumbly jam groove.  They are correct - "Kite" is a jamfest looper.  I like this one too.  Very chill.  Here's a mash of the flavors:

7. Smino - Noir.  This is the first one I've never heard of - I was going to give these guys props for being super accessible (although its going to get even weirder in a sec).  Serrano gets all existential in discussing this album, and I'm not going that far in, but I agree with the person who called it "soothing."  Nothing on here leaves much of a mark though - it's just an hour of chilled out beats and smooth flows that just bop on by until something else comes on.  Not my strongest endorsement.  I wouldn't keep this one around, but its kinda nice.

On some Chance the Rapper sounding stuff right there...

6. Nils Frahm - All Melody.  Theeeerrrrrreeee it is.  Was waiting for one of these guys to show the depth of his musical powers, and here it is, with a neoclassical album by a German pianist no one has ever heard of.  I mean, its freaking lovely at times, very interesting (but also a little electronica-ish at other times) - great to like study to or read a book on Freudian economics or whatever, but not my bag, baby.

5. Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer.  Big respect to this pick.  Love this album, and love Monae.  Got to see her play live twice this year, and she's fabulous.

4. Vince Staples - FM!  Huh.  I've given this one a few spins as 2018 drew to a close, but nothing on it struck me as especially noteworthy.  I'll have to give it a deeper dive.

3. Soccer Mommy - Clean.  Yessir.  Great album.  Almost made my top ten list and then lost out at the end.

2. Pusha T - Daytona.  Same with this one.  Great album, no filler, all good stuff.  Almost made my list.

1. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy.  WHHHAAAAA???  I reviewed this one and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it, but the top album of the whole year!?!?!  I guess I need to go back to it and try it some more, because best album of the year sounds like they're just trying to say the most popular in pop culture, instead of actual most lasting album that will stand the test of time.  Huh.

Overall, great list.  Some oddities and I have some disagreements, obviously, but in general I like the picks and hearing some of this new stuff.