Quick Hits, Vol. 214 (Jay Rock, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Vic Mensa, Forming the Void)

Two short asides before the rest of the action - The Lumineers' version of Tom Petty's "Walls" is fantastic.  Also, I saw a guy at Antone's last night and he used a big spinning wheel to choose his next songs.  Kind of clever and got the crowd into it.

Jay Rock - Redemption.  I came to this guy and this album because of the excellent "King's Dead" song that was on the Black Panther soundtrack and is all brawny and rippling with aggressive beats and muscle.

And I've talked about that song before.  The bummer about that song is that I had heard that annoying little hook from Future before - the "ladidadidah, schlob on me knob" bit - without ever connecting the points to understand that MY NINE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER was listening to that portion of the song over and over while making these stupid Musical.ly videos.  I hate the modern world so very much.  
BUT, even beyond that song, this is a great hip hop album.  Three other standout tracks: "Wow Freestyle," "ES Tales," and "Rotation 112th."  Rock has a good flow and grabs some good beats - "ES Tales" is a good example of that - a pretty basic boom bap beat, but then they toss in the sound of Mario getting a coin here and there, and I like it.  And the "Wow Freestyle" invokes the Owen Wilson "wow" thing, which makes me smile.  Good disc.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen - Merrie Land.  I'm such a weirdo.  It truly bothers me that there is no oxford comma in that band name.  Why do I care? I dunno, but I'm all annoyed at them now.  So, this is the third (fourth?) band from Damon Albarn, the guy behind both Blur and Gorillaz, and it has hallmarks of the Gorillaz sound for sure.  But its more of a real band - actual instruments underneath Albarn's vocals instead of computer and drum machines.  Although it is pretty heavy on the organ/synth.  Anyway, I liked their first album, an eponymous disc from 2007 (I think I even purchased it), but this one doesn't do much for me.  It keeps coming on when I listen to that Jay Rock album over and over, and while its not terrible or anything, it just fails to light me up in any way.  Very chilled, very plain, unremarkable.  The top song is the album opener, but I'll give you the second most streamed, which is also the second song on the album.  This is "Gun to the Head," with 554k streams.

His cadence seems to try to shove more words into each line than it should, which makes it feel less planned, more tossed off, and therefore less enjoyable to hear.  Seems like he didn't take the time to really craft the songs and just shoved all the things he wanted to say into the tune that was given to him.  Is that tune about Brexit?  I think its about Brexit.  Whatevs, this album can move along it's merrie way.

Vic Mensa - HOOLIGANS.  Conflicting album right here - on the one hand, I very much dislike this style of Drake-ian sing-song semi-rap, and was embarrassed enough at listening to it to turn it off when someone just walked into my office.  On the other hand, it is extremely catchy and I keep very much enjoying it when it first comes back on.  I'm losing my edge, man.  Well, actually, now that I really analyze it, I think I like the first two songs, and then the rest of the album kind of blows.  That is the conflict.  The Ty Dolla Sign song really sucks, and the G Eazy track is somehow even worse (although, of course, it is the top track on this album, because the world is horrible and we should all die in a fire).  "Dark Things" is the second track, and the combination of beat and flow clicks right on.  2.6 million streams (compared to 32.9 for the G Eazy track).

Yeah, I'm embarrassed all over again about liking that song.  I've definitely lost my edge.  Time for me to take a trip back into the belly of classic rap.  This album can go.

Forming the Void - Rift.  Welcome to the vaulted halls of Metal Valhalla.  Here is your hammer, a flagon of mead, and a copy of this album.  Commence the rock!  This is some badass, sludgy, crunchy, fuzzy, pummeling hard rock action that kind of rules.  Kind of like that band Mastodon, but a little more tuneful, the perfect music to crank out boring work to.  Dudes are from Louisiana, but they almost sound like they could be from Norway or Germany or one of those places that mints this style of mega-riff rock and roll.  Only seven songs, but 45 minutes, and it feels like I get immersed into it each time.  A good sign.  The top track is the second one on the album, "On We Sail," with only 24k streams.  Which is hilarious.  How did I find this album?  They don't have a single song in their catalog that breaks 40k streams.  Weird.

Oh yeah, baby.  Bring out the druids and shit.  Druids who drink PBR.  The ending bonfire party is actually kind of a funny twist to an otherwise kind of cheesy video.  Anyway, I've been through this album no less than 15 times by now, I just keep going back to it, and I dig it.