Quick Hits, Vol. 251 (Foals, Night Moves, Hold Steady, Foo Fighters)

Foals - Part 2 Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost.  Mouthful of a title, but another very good album.  These guys do that catchy rock thing the same way that Highly Suspect or Muse (used to), with soaring vocals and a tight ass rock and roll beat.  "The Runner" is a good head-bobber of a driving jam.  "Black Bull" was one of my favorite rock tracks of 2019.  "The Runner" is the stream captain right now at over 9 million, but I'm gonna go with third place at 5.5 million since I've already mentioned the other two.  "Like Lightning."

Little preachy on the video, but I agree with the sentiment for the most part, so I'll let it slide.  Nothing in these tunes is new or different, really, but I still dig the classic rock and roll thump and crackle.  Good stuff.

Night Moves - Can You Really Find Me.  Dunno where I found this one, but I've run through it a number of times and am uninspired.  It's not horrible or anything, it just kind of bores.  Generally pretty music, with some falsetto lyrics that are hard to understand sometimes.  Kind of an 80's vibe, in fact.  "Strands Aline" at 445k is the streamer winner for now.

I recognize that actor, but can't recall from where.  I like the concept of the video.  That song pretty well sounds like what I think of for the rest of the disc.  Loads of overbearing synths, vaguely whiny falsetto vocals.  This feels like some regional band who has a small, rapid following of people who have seen them frequently at the local bars, and now they're finally making some national noise and hoping for a breakout.  Not horrible, like I said, but just not anything that great either.

The Hold Steady - Thrashing Thru the Passion.  These are the dudes that everyone always wants to equate to Springsteen.  I really like the tunes - the backing music is barroom rock with swagger and fun - it really sounds like the band is having a blast back there just cutting into a groove and bashing it out.  But the vocals are lacking for me - he's not really singing, just talking in time to the tune, and its so verbose that sometimes it seems like he has more words than can fit into the bar.  Now, the reason he has all those words is that he is busy filling every bar with stories for days - that part makes the listens significantly better, trying to find out which twist and turn you'll go on with each line.  "Entitlement Crew" wins the streams at 694k.

See what I mean, just seems like he's pushing to get all of the words out of his mouth as the music is pushing along without waiting for him, and he's just talking it out.  But, how great are the lyrics of him watching you mouthing all the words? Paints a great picture of what is happening.  I like this album.  It's not perfect, I wish he sang a little more, but I'm sometimes in the mood for a moody talkin' rock album.

Foo Fighters - 0999925.  Never knew this, but the Foos have been putting out a bunch of these numbered EPs over the past few years - I count ten as of right now - that mostly have a few unreleased studio tracks and then a handful of live tracks.  Y'all know I dig the Foos, so these are right up my alley now that I know about them  The first track on here is a studio banger called "Iron and Stone" that just pummels the shit out of you with the drums and some heavy, rifftastic guitar.  Tasty anger.  Second, you get a cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar," which is pretty OK (but the old Primus cover of this one is better) and that is definitely not Dave singing.  The tracks I want to highlight more on here are three of the live ones.  First, "Learn to Fly" is really a better song than I remember at any given time.  I downloaded that track off some weird, scary website back in like 1999, before mp3s were really a big deal, and so it was part of a well-worn collection of a few songs I could find online.  I'd listen to it at my first job while I programmed UNIX things, and I still love it.  Tuneful and singable and great.  Also, "Stacked Actors," while I can't say I understand what it is about, is a great one to yell along to.  "stacked dead actors, stacked to the rafters, line up all the bastards all I want is the truth."  Mmmkay.  Reminds me of a late night road trip out to Alpine, Texas in the big black truck I used to own, and how my wife just wanted me to turn it down.  And then the version on here of "Breakout" is also fun, in that I like the idea of myself getting to sing along at the top of my lungs, in that crowd.  "Monkeywrench" (live) is the winner with just over a million streams, although this may or may not be the right version:

I doubt I'll save this one, but I will definitely go through some of the other ones to enjoy some B-sides and live cuts.  Fun project.