Quick Hits, Vol. 231 (Wu Tang Clan, The Mountain Goats, Charly Bliss, Kanye West)

I just watched Juice last night - the 90's movie with Tupac in a starring role.  It made me realize that I don't think I've ever seen any of the movies with him in them.  Which seems kind of weird - I went down a rabbit hole and found that he was in a number of movies.  Most of those were not popular, but his performance in Juice was great.  I'd slightly fault the director or writer who made him with the ability to just pop up anywhere like a monster in a scary movie, but his on-screen transition from generally happy dude with a small mean streak to a full on sociopath was well done.  Now I'm gonna end up watching Dridlock'd and Poetic Justice and being very disappointed...
Wu Tang Clan - Of Mics & Men Soundtrack.  There is apparently a documentary about the group on Showtime right now, and this very short album is the soundtrack for it.  Don't expect that you are going to get their classic songs - these are new tracks for this docuseries.  None of them even come anywhere close to the classics - the beats are weaker, the rhymes are uninspired - but the great piece to me are the skits/interviews.  "Yo, Is You Cheo," a story told by a guy who got punched in the eye by one of the members because he talked smack about caricatures drawn of the members for a magazine story, is funny.  The story in "One Rhyme" is cool.  The opening track is the top streamer - "On That Sh8T Again," with 1.7 million streams.

Ghostface has always been my favorite of the Wu members - best storyteller, a distinctive flow - so I'm glad he is featured on that one.  I'll let this little album go.

The Mountain Goats - In League With Dragons.  Pretty sure I came across these guys because of a friend mentioning them repeatedly on Twitter.  I've never come across them or heard any of their music, and yet they have been firing out albums since 1994, and this is their 17th. (!!!) Kind of weird feeling to "find" a band that has been plugging along for decades.  This is their 2019 album, and it has a very relaxed, kind of Decemberists vibe to it.  The first comparison I came up with was the part of the Barenaked Ladies catalog where they go kind of soft, but after a few more trips through the album, The Decemberists have lodged into my mind as the proper comparison.  The top track so far,m with 760k streams, is "Younger."

"Possum by Night" is a pretty one as well - something about it sounds familiar.  And the "Cadaver Sniffing Dog" song is also pretty snappy.  "Doc Gooden" makes me think that I actually like the album - a little higher tempo, weird lyrics that includes a reference to "Mama Said Knock You Out."  And the odd story in "Waylon Jennings Live!" is funny.  I don't know man, the album is nice.  Super chilled and odd, but its kinda pretty.

Charly Bliss - Young Enough.  I loved their last album - "Westermark" is my jam, and "Ruby" and "Percolator" are fun ass tunes too.  Sometimes, as I listen to a full album of theirs though, the tone of the lead singer's voice makes me wonder if it's annoying or good.  I generally then decide that it is good, but just every once in a while it comes across as a little whiny and I question myself again.  This generally still tracks to the same sound - power poppy punk-ish rock - although none of these have that same unmistakable swagger as those tracks from the last album.  The hit is "Capacity," with just under a million streams.

Pretty little rock ditty - but it just never really takes off.  I keep waiting for the guitar licks to really kick in - they kind of squeak around for a sec in the second verse, but then they duck back into their hole.  I know that not every song has to be a rock and roll banger, but this one just feels like it's missing a little more swagger.  There are other, more fun songs on here, and I like this album well enough, but it's not as good IMO as the last one.

Kanye West - Jesus is King.  This guy is such a freaking asshat.  His first few albums were absolute masterpieces.  Great beats, amazingly funny and intricate lyrics, important topics.  He hit every single button for the best that rap has to offer.  And since then, he's turned into this petulant, bomb-throwing, out-of-touch, crazy person who makes nonsensical decisions to the delight and disgust of the entire country.  

And so this is his newest bomb - thrown out in the midst of a crisis of religion in America, where our administration repeatedly pushes policies and makes statements diametrically at odds with the teachings of the Bible, and yet they get solid and unblinking support from the supposed Evangelical folks.  I gave it the benefit of the doubt at first - OK, Kanye is going to make a real Christian album and move the conversation forward.  But instead, you end up with this furtherance of his personal brand of grievances and gripes about how much he himself is mistreated and misunderstood, sprinkled throughout with bland religious tropes he adds as though those out-of-context lines can somehow connect without any effort.  "I bleach my hair for every time I couldn't die, but I survived, that's on God."  I mean, he literally shouts out Chick Fil A repeatedly in "Closed on Sunday."  Which is funny now that they have pulled their support for the anti-LGBTQ groups...

I know he has repped Christianity before - "Jesus Walks" had not only a good message but a great beat - but this just feels like either performance art or insincere exploitation.  I can't tell which because the dude is so damn weird and inscrutable, that there is no way to understand where he is really coming from.  This just uses Bible verses and vaguely biblical phrases and words to create a thin veneer of Christianity, once it is combined with the pretty solid choral pieces in the background of many of these tracks.  But if his goal really is to convert people to Christianity, he should spend more time talking about actual key teachings of God, or fruits of the spirit - things like grace and justice and kindness and love for your fellow man, rather than griping about the IRS or shouting out his ranch.  

I mean, he calls out the thirteenth amendment twice (the one abolishing slavery), saying "we gotta end it" on "On God."  What the actual hell is that about?  Is he seriously adding a lyric, on an ostensibly Christian album, about going back to fucking slavery in America?  And the problem is that many people will just see the headline that Kanye is saved and putting out a gospel album called Jesus is King, and be so pleased by the news, without realizing that this is just a little nugget of dogshit, shoved between the pages of an open Bible, eased shut and handed to a kid for Confirmation.

Luckily the album is only 27 minutes long.  But no, I am absolutely not hanging on to this garbage.