Quick Hits, Vol. 235 (Goldlink, Lil Nas X, Grateful Dead, Gucci Mane)

Goldlink - Diaspora.  I remember reviewing this dude for his 2014 album because it had one hot song on it that people were talking about called "Ay Ay."  I put it into my Popcorn Rap playlist for further listening, but after a few years, I deleted it out as the tune got stale to me.  This one has a lot of interesting sounds in it - some Kendrick style verses, some Big Sean sounding stuff, and some singing R&B as well.  A track with Khalid is solid.  The one with Tyler the Creator and someone named Jay Prince has the most streams, "U Say" at 16.4 million.

The speed of that camera makes me want to barf.  I like the laid back vibe in that track, and a catchy chorus.  "Zulu Screams" has a very fun groove from somewhere other than here, which is fun.  In fact, many of these songs have a world feel to them - "Yard," "More," and "Spanish Song."   And Pusha T makes an appearance, which just about always make me happy.  I like the overall vibe of this album, but nothing on here really stands out as the key track that I perk up to every time it comes on.  I'll let it slide.

Lil Nas X - 7.  I'm still so shocked that this album was nominated for multiple Grammy awards.  Including Album of the Year!  It's freaking 18 minutes long!  And the best song on it is a ridiculous one-hit wonder piece of badly written fluff with a hyper catchy chorus that leans on Billy Ray Cyrus to get it any sort of gravity!  One of the songs ("F9mily") sounds like a bad Fall Out Boy song (But has Travis Barker inexplicably drumming on it)!  One of the songs involves Cardi B dropping an entirely forgettable verse!  Here is the thing, I really enjoyed the Lil Nas X phenomenon - breaking the Country charts with his dumb song, all of his goofy tweets, his generally winning personality throughout the whole rise to fame - he seems like a genuinely good dude.  But this album is dudu.

Chris Rock!  Vince Staples!  Other famous-looking people I should probably know!  The beat is undeniable.  The lyrics are horrific.  I will not save this album for any reason.

Grateful Dead - Live Dead.  Rolling Stone did one of those Guide things in the Sept. 2019 magazine that went through all of the definitive albums from the Dead.  In general, I like the Dead, so I was kind of surprised when I saw that they had this album, 1969's Live Dead, as the number one Must-Have album.  I'd agree with American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Europe '72 being up in the Must-Have grouping, but I had never even listened to this one.  RS says this is a candidate for the "best live rock album ever."  There is no way in hell that this album could take that crown.  It has an almost eight minute long track called "Feedback" that is just that - freaky feedback and distortion - not part of a song or jam or whatever, just a fuck you to the crowd.  I'll readily admit that this version of "Dark Star" is great, and "St. Stephen" is always solid, but this little five song album (removing the last two non-music tracks, but still with running time over an hour) is not the greatest thing ever.

Good one.  And the "Turn on Your Love Light" version on here, with the crowd yelps included in the slow and low part, is also good stuff.  But, I'll stick to the Europe '72 discs instead.

Gucci Mane - Delusions of Grandeur.  This is one of those albums that has been in my queue for a long time, so it keeps popping up, and I keep avoid writing about it.  Not because it's bad, it just doesn't really inspire a reaction at all.  Generically good trap beats, generically good flow, and a ton of big name collaborators (Beiber, Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Jeremih, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Boogie Wit a Hoodie).  Some have a catchy flow to them - for some reason "Proud of You" has a cadence that pops into my head after listening to it - but most could be the same song just with a slightly different beat.  Well, I'll note that "Potential" usually makes me look up (first off because I think that little "coo!" aside might mean that ASAP Ferg is about to appear on the track, which would have been cool) but also because the mixture of the beat and flow is very cool and laid back.  Most of the tracks are down in the million stream range - but the ones with Beiber, Lil Baby, and Lil Uzi Vert get more streams.  I'm gonna just give you "Potential," just over 11 million streams.

You know, kind of cool sound to it - just generic as far as things go.  I won't keep anything from this album.