Quick Hits, Vol. 257 (Real Estate, Grip, Megan Thee Stallion, Childish Gambino)

Funny thing - I should be blogging my ass off right now, what with being locked down and just chilling at the house all day.  I should have completed all sorts of posts about potential ACL headliners and whatever.  But instead I've been slow to sit down and do any of this stuff.  Also, for some reason, my New Music list has been very slow to fill up recently - most of the things I see on Spotify's new release list are completely uninteresting to me.  Not sure why, but I'll bang out a few reviews here - maybe something in this list will pique your interest while you too are on lock down at home.

Real Estate - The Main Thing.  I loved their 2014 album Atlas - they either came to ACL right around then or soon thereafter, and so I went and saw them play and loved them live.  Very chill rock heavy on harmonies and a relaxed sound.  "Talking Backwards" is a beaut.  But this album hasn't been able to catch on in my mind - every time it comes on I feel bored and wish it was over.  Which is a sucky thing to say, but its the truth.  It's just under an hour, but it sure feels a lot longer than that.  Sometimes it kicks into a Grateful Dead vibe, such as the noodling during "Also a But".  Other times, more of a yacht rock thing ("Paper Cup").  

What the actual F is going on with that video?  Why do we need to watch nickel Chuck E Cheese go through a medical crisis?  Although I did giggle when the kid gets a full load of the 10W-30 special gut pack.  I generally like this style of music, but this disc left me listless.  I'll drop it.

Grip - Snubnose.  No recollection where I found this one, but its actually very solid.  Flows like Kendrick Lamar with great story-telling flow, and as far as I can tell, the whole album circles around his pistol.  "Snub Speaks" is a short song, but has a laid back, cool beat fronted by the gun bragging about how he's handled his shit in the past and ready to go again.  The stories aren't linear - this isn't Good Kid, but each one tells a story and does a kick ass job of putting you in the place.  A dark place full of violence and fear.  The final track is great - good beat, good flow, sad story.  The album opener, "He is ... I am" is the top track at 672k streams.

That one starts out sounding like I'm about to hear a Common track, then the flow comes out Kendrick, then the whole beat rips off its fairy wings, balls them up and shoves them into a trash can, straps on body armor, cocks its weapon, turns off the lights, and starts running towards a fight.  That second half is from the perspective of the gun, and its freaking awesome.  I keep going back to this album - I really like it.

Megan Thee Stallion - Suga.  This gal is having a huge year - makes me even more annoyed that she missed her show at ACL last year so that we could have tasted the greatness before it became a huge deal.  She just had a writeup in Rolling Stone that made her seem funny and interesting - she's still fighting to stay in college and finish a degree, despite having major shows booked all over the place now.  So, this new album is short - only 24 minutes and 9 songs - but it keeps the same fire as her last disc (Fever).  Lots of that "aaaaaahhggghhhh" sound, as though she is opening her mouth wide, poking out her tongue, and getting your attention.  The cover of the album looks like that sound sounds.  I wrote something the other day about her Tupac homage "B.I.T.C.H.," which is pretty cool (and very catchy).  It actually owns her streaming crown right now at 20.5 million, but "Savage" is the hotter track right now, so I'll give you that one.  just over 11 million streams.

This one is apparently hot right now because of TikTok.  Which is going to be the downfall of society - I keep hearing my 11 year old daughter listening to pieces of this, and although I'd like to chew her out for listening to stuff with cuss words in it, we have to pick our battles in the times of Corona.  If she really wants to walk around saying that she is "sassy, moody, nasty" then that isn't the worst thing ever.  This album is kind of a mood piece.  If I'm feeling this way, then it's perfect.  If I'm not in that mood, then I won't want it.

Childish Gambino - 3.15.20.  Gambino dropped a new album out of no where, right in the midst of the Coronavirus mess, and it feels like this was a set of demos he was working on and then just impulsively decided to launch them into the world.  He didn't even name all the tracks.  This has some of the same vibe as those loose singles he released last year, in fact, one of them is still on here, but instead of being called "Feels Like Summer," its now just called "42.26" for some reason.  "19.10" has a Prince vibe going on.  I haven't cared for Gambino's music for a while, and this one can just go back into the pile with the rest of his weird attempts to meld funk with rap and soul and R&B.  Here is "12.38," which is winning on streams at just over 2 million.

21 Savage comes on there and I kinda like his verse.  But the song itself just sounds like they were noodling around with a beat and tried a freestyle for the fun of it.  Nothing special.  And what is the crap at the end?  It's like they are just playing around, but then actually published this to the world.  "32.22" is actively unpleasant to listen to.  Like, I am literally grimacing.  Not for me!