Quick Hits, Vol. 226 (Robert Ellis, Strand of Oaks, ScHoolboy Q, Kevin Abstract)

This whole set of reviews was written long before the ACL-imposed break in my regular reviewing and listening.  Giving 130+ artists a good, real listen takes a crapton of time, and while a few of the bands for ACL aren't worth the listen, I find a bunch of cool stuff.  Am thinking that I need to go through my old reviews and find the hidden gems from each year I've done this blog - maybe something to come soon.

I bring up the timing, just in case one of these songs now has a billion streams, because I'm not gonna go back and research and edit.  Sorry.  Love ya, mean it.

Robert Ellis - Texas Piano Man.  This dude came through ACL a few years back, and then came back as part of a band that I can't remember right now, but this one adds a fun layer of piano flourish and a bunch of pretty funny jokes.  Such as the album opener, "Fucking Crazy," "Topo Chico," "Passive Aggressive," and then the Elton John-ish "Nobody Smokes Anymore,' with good lines such as "I guess I'll be the only one who looks good in pictures" and "the last years of your life are so shitty anyway."  Great tune.  The tunes are good grooves - like the swaggering funk of "Passive Aggressive" that has the cadence of "Benny & the Jets" at the start and then rocks out later on.  Most of these songs have less than 50k streams, so the album isn't necessarily lighting the world on fire, but I actually enjoy it quite a bit.  The top track is "Passive Aggressive," with 254k streams.

The real version includes drums and guitar and other bits and pieces, but you'll get the gist from this version of him chilling in some music nerd catacomb.  It is a tasty album overall - you really should listen to "Nobody Smokes Anymore," which has a great rock jam, a good guitar solo, and a ton of funny lines.  What's not to like?  And even quieter tracks like "Lullaby" are surprisingly nice, with a jazzy guitar solo breaking up the falsetto loveliness.  Thought I'd only want to hear the jams, but even these low key ones are nice.  Good stuff.

Strand of Oaks - Eraserland.  I like this dude - he's played ACL before and put out some generally good rock albums. Old song "Goshen '97" is a jam.  The opening track of this one is perfection - "Weird Ways."  A slow start, a guitar spray, then a build up, and a longing bridge followed by guitar shreddage that brings you back to the rest of the song.  Then the second track is also upbeat rock and roll.  There are some dank tunes - slower, moody, introspective - on here, and I have no fault with that sound, but I definitely am here for the ones that rip instead of cuddle.  That being said, even the slow burner "Visions" rips a pretty serious guitar part into the middle of the otherwise plodding sound.  The top track, by a long way, is that album opener, with just over 1.1 million streams.

Feel that slow, quiet, purely lovely open?  A touch of pedal steel, a few strums of the acoustic, his plaintive vocals - "it's what you make, and the people you love..."  And then the guitar and drums at 1:30 kick in with a Springsteen-esque raw thump.  This dude is good, and this album is another good one.

ScHoolboy Q - CrasH Talk.  I've always enjoyed me some Schoolboy.  He puts great cameos on other people's tracks, but never seems able to make a full album that works from front to back.  Each of his other three albums have flashed top shelf stuff at bits, but also some filler.  This one is no different.  The two hot singles are the ones with 21 Savage and Travis Scott, but the one I'm gonna give you thankfully has more streams than either of those.  "Numb Numb Juice," with 55.5 million streams.

Yessir.  When the beat kicks in it works.  I would NOT Mess with the momma and her pink pistol.  He just bitch slapped that dude into hell!  "Tales" is another good one, as is "Die Wit Em," but none of the ones with big cameos hit for me (especially not the one with Ty Dolla Sign).  Maybe the one with 21 Savage is OK.  But overall, while there are a few pretty good tracks on here, nothing is really worthy of keeping for good.

Kevin Abstract - ARIZONA BABY.  He calls out a bunch of different locations, which is interesting to do.  "Georgia" is nice, sounds a lot like an Outkast track being performed by BROCKHAMPTON.  Being that this dude is part of BROCKHAMPTON, it makes sense for it to sound like them, I suppose.  "Corpus Christi" is a cool confessional talking track, but the beat is kind of non-existent.  I want some bass and shit in my rap songs, man.  I also can't tell why he named the song after Corpus.  He never mentions Whataburger or the Hooks, so what's the point, man?  "Mississippi" is too auto-tuned, and again, a little too sparse for my liking.  I get that he's not trying to make a banger about cash, weed, and hoes, but I feel like you can sneak in a smart rap if the beat is something people want to bang.  "Peach" is the top streamer, with just over 16 million.

Cool, laid back beat on that one.  But with the Brockhampton guys singing the hook and some background vocals, not sure how this is different than one of their tracks versus his own solo stuff?  In fact, the more I listen to this, the more it sounds like what BROCKHAMPTON has been doing on a lot of tracks - a lot of singing, less banging, less rapping, more introspection and boy band stuff.  I prefer the ones that are more traditional rap tracks like "Boyer" and "Big Wheels."  But overall, I don't need to hear this one anymore.