Quick Hits, Vol. 263 (The Secret Sisters, Squirrel Flower, Cornershop, Stephen Malkmus)

The Secret Sisters - Saturn Return.  I think Rolling Stone had talked these ladies up, but this is a damn pretty album.  If you are a fan of those harmonic bits of First Aid Kit, then this one will hook you right in the same spot.  "Cabin" strikes me each time I start it up, just the rockin' tune and the repeated threats to "burn this cabin down" make me look up from my work to see what is going on.  Overall, this one departs from the FAK sound by being more rockin', more traditional country, where those ladies aim more for the Laurel Canyon Americana soft stuff.  Interesting factoid I would never have known, and which seems really odd, they contributed a song to the Hunger Games soundtrack.  "Hold You Dear" is near the end of the album, and yet boasts the most streams by a good bit - 637k on Spotify.

That one kind of reminds me of Brandi Carlisle.  Pretty, heartfelt, solid.  They also did a Tiny Desk show - although it was four years ago, so it has nothing to do with this new album.  This is a good album - I don't love the entirety of it, but it is chock full of pretty harmonies and a pleasant listen in the background.

Squirrel Flower - I Was Born Swimming.  This feels like a made up band name and made up album name, like I just decided to screw with you and come up with something outlandish to see if you would buy it.  But nope!  This has a real Mitski vibe to me, a touch harder than Soccer Mommy, but still an indie rock thing.  "Eight Hours" struck me for its beauty, but its also kinda boring.  "Red Shoulder" is my favorite of the tracks, even though it is second place in streams to "Headlights," so I'll give you that one.

I dig the guitar tone at the start - it seems pissed.  And then it seems like the chorus is really just that guitar riffage that keeps coming back, because there aren't words repeated in a traditional chorus style.  That being said, I dig that guitar riffage, makes me think I would enjoy to get slightly inebriated and let my limbs dangle loosely while I shuffle and shake to those sounds.  But a lot of this album just fades off into the background, like pretty vocals, similar guitar strums, nothing much else going on.  Except the annoying jingle of "Honey, Oh Honey!" which should go away now.  But for the last half of the album, it just slips away into anonymity like she wanted this to be longer than an EP but didn't have the materials.  I actually hate to make it sound bad, its truly not, but I've lost interest after just a few runs through the disc.

Cornershop - England is a Garden.  I remember recalling some of their older stuff, had a kind of 60's Brit-pop feel along with an Indian/Pakistani influence.  They had a minor hit in the nineties called "Brimful of Asha," where the chorus just repeatedly said "brimful of asha on the, 45" and then a bridge repeatedly said "everybody needs a bosom for a pillow!"  I know I recall it, maybe you do to.  This one stays in that sort of classic Brit feel, feels like something a modern Austin Powers were still boogie to when he wanted to feel nostalgic for the good old days.  I'm not in love with it, and it would appear that the rest of the world is not either.  The first song is the only one to top 100k streams, and two of the tracks have less than 1,000.  Here is that first track, to give you the flavor, "St Marie Under Canon," with 174k streams.

Yeah, that's alright.  I've been through it several times by now, the album kept coming on after other stuff I wanted to hear, and it just bops along under my brain's radar for a long time until I realize something else is playing.  I'm good without this one.

Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques.  Now, I know we are all supposed to drop to our knees and worship Malkmus, if we like indie rock at all, because he brought Pavement to the world and thus must be on the short list of any Pitchfork writer's favorites.  This is not like Pavement at all, its more like one of Beck's acoustic, semi-depressing albums.  I guess you might call it psych indie?  or folk?  Has a lot of middle Eastern sounds in it.  Actually, the opening track ("ACC Kitten") sounded enough like Cornershop that I kept thinking that album was still farting along when this disc started playing.  Which is weird.  Anyway, I suppose that it is actually quite lovely.  Lots of nice harmonies in the acoustic guitars and sitars and whatnot.  Or like, "What Kind of Person" involves one of those flutes I associate with either a massage spa playlist or shopping in a new age-y store in New Mexico.  Drums are either non-existent or very muted, when they are used. Seems like something nice to be stoned to.  His voice frequently evoked Lou Reed's droll deadpan.  And yet, I'm not sure that I really like it.  "Xian Man" at 336k streams has the lead right now - nothing else breaks the 200k barrier.

The lyrics are almost like a rap - "I'm Miles Davis better than you" sounds like a rapper brag.  The album isn't bad, I just don't much notice it as it bops along while I work.  Nothing terribly interesting to me, so I'll let it go.

Quick Hits, Vol. 262 (12RODS, Mac Miller, HAIM, CHIKA)

Oh man, they declared that Lolla isn't going to happen.  I'm just about certain that this means no ACL.  Gonna go cry myself to sleep on my huge pillow now.

12RODS - Gay?.  This is nothing new, its a 1997 album by some random Minneapolis band who I had never heard of until the other day, while reading an article about the new Fiona Apple album getting a perfect ten on Pitchfork.  One of the reviewers who used to work for Pitchfork mentioned how he had given this album a perfect ten twenty-something years ago, not because it was necessarily perfect, but because it was home-grown talent doing something that he thought was amazing.  Piqued my interest, so here I am.  The disc definitely has the sheen of a late 90's alt-rock project - a little bit grunge (like the Bush version of grunge), a little bit too earnest, a tiny touch Brit shoegaze (like Teenage Fanclub-ish business) - and in a weird twist, the lead singer keeps making me think of one of the voices that thew They Must Be Giants lead singer frequently shifts into (also, on "Gaymo," they sound like a drugged up Beach Boys).  I also hear some Replacements in here, but I wonder if I would think the same thing before I knew they were based in MN?  "Make Out Music" is the top streamer, with only 29,488 total streams.  Which is interesting for a disc that should have been peeped more often because of that perfect score, but I guess not that many people are going archive diving for perfect Pitchfork albums...

Overall, the album is pretty solid.  Seems like something that could have been played on the radio in 1997 without making any waves, right there among the ... huh ...  who would have remembered the top song in 1997?  I would have guessed Puff Daddy before looking it up just now, but he was down at #5.  Instead?  The Elton John "Candle in the Wind" remix for Princess Di, and then Jewel's "You Were Meant For Me."  Freaking weird.  Okay, but the songs that this would have felt at home with on the charts - "Semi-Charmed Life," "The Freshmen," or "Naked Eye."  That track above would have worked on alternative radio for sure.  I think I'm good without it, but interesting dive into the past.

Mac Miller - K.I.D.S.  When I saw this listed on Spotify's new release list, I figured it was yet another posthumous release, maybe posting his old lyrics over new beats or something.  Instead, I just found out that its actually his initial, breakout mixtape that came out in 2010.  Which makes way more sense, because when I heard it the first five or so times, while believing that it might have been a mashed up album created as a cash grab by his label, I was thinking to myself that this thing sounded freaking awesome.  Mac sounds invigorated, smooth, bouncy, positively killing every beat.  It sounds like that was actually the issue about getting this one up to stream - they had to clear a bunch of samples before they could stream it.  Like, "Don't Mind if I Do," that bites that Owl City song from years back, or "Nikes on My Feet," which was probably something they had to make a deal on because it nabs a slice of Nas saying the title in one of his tracks.  That is a good track, which I thought would be the stream king, but it looks like "Knock Knock" is crushing that instead with 101 million streams.

I'm sorry, did you just say that your shoes give you cushion like whoopie?  Yeesh.  Funny that this would be the top track, I think several of the others on this album are significantly better.  I guess this one is a little more pop-friendly?  People can do the dance where they act like they are knocking on a door?  "Senior Skip Day" also has a pure fun-ness to it that is classic.  If I could pop and lock, I would definitely pop and lock to that song.  But I can't, so I just shimmy my shoulders a little bit at my desk instead.  "Ride Around" uses the beat and sample from "25 Lighters," (which I guess is really an Al B. Sure sample) which is supremely smooth (and reminds me of the classic LL Cool J "Loungin'").  "Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza" is also smooth as can be - makes me want to put that one on rotation and just cruise.  This is a fun album.  I liked it.

HAIM - Don't Wanna.  Sadly, this is just a little EP of three tracks and then three bonus tracks (which is honestly a weird thing, like, if those bonus tracks are part of the EP, then why are they considered a "bonus"?  It's not like you can buy this EP on a cassette single somewhere without the "bonus tracks."  Anyway...)  The title track is a sunny jam that builds on itself up to a big, full ending that must be danced to if you plan to survive a listen.  "I Know Alone" has a tinge of Latino 80's pop/breakin' drums in the chorus, but I'll put it at the bottom of the pile for this disc.  "The Steps" is a great, pleading rocker - I know that these ladies get Fleetwood comparisons all the time because of The Wire, but this is another that pops into that same slot.  A little Sheryl Crow flavor too.  Great tune.  "Now I'm In It" sounds like one of the Antonoff-produced Taylor Swift tracks.  The final track is "Hallelujah," and its a beaut.  I love the way that she ends the first hallelujah of the chorus, that lilt down is so nice.  But the gem of this whole thing is the fifth track, a laid back classic that sounds like Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" traded in the dirty streets of New York for the boardwalks of sunny California, smoked a huge doobie, and crawled into a hammock for a nap.

I fuckin' love everything about that tune.  And the video cracked me up when they kept noticing the sax player doing his thing, and they seemed surprised each time they saw him, like "woah!  Saxy Blake is back!"  This is a very good little EP.  Hope they turn it into a full-length.

CHIKA - INDUSTRY GAMES.  WHY ARE ALL OF THE BAND NAMES SHOUTING RIGHT NOW?  This lady has a very sweet flow on her raps.  "SONGS ABOUT YOU" starts off really cool, talking about meeting Jay Z and Puff Daddy talking her up, over a laid back, squelchy beat.  She just seems genuinely cool.  Kind of a No Name vibe in here.  She gained some fame a few years back when she called out Kanye's political antics, via freestyle rap, over the "Jesus Walks" beat. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DlheS1QbDI

Get 'em!  She's only 23, but she says she has been making music since she was 2.  I dig it.  I thought "DESIGNER" would be the top track, but it's the title track instead.  Here is "INDUSTRY GAMES" at 1.8 million streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loowVwE4wVk

"CROWN" has the feel of a Chance the Rapper Christian-y track.

And a last note here - she fires it up on the NPR Tiny Desk!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vLoM-EqWq8

Go watch that - she's legit!  Also, I find it very impressive that those background singers can make those noises in "Balencies" over and over.  I like this stuff.

Quick Hits, Vol. 261 (Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Car Seat Headrest, The 1975, Fiona Apple)

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Reunions.  I'm growing more disappointed in myself for that review I did of his last album, where I let the depressing subject matter guide my thoughts to a less than excited review.  Because now I have seen the light, and quite frankly, if I could be any artist of the planet right now, it would be Isbell.  He has rocking tunes ("Be Afraid"), he has gentle tunes ("Only Children"), hell, he has one that sounds like the accidentally covered a Dire Straits song ("Running With Our Eyes Closed").  And more importantly that the genres that he touches, which fit right up one of my alleys, is the fact that he writes lyrics that are fantastic.  He is insightful, touching, thoughtful, funny, and wrings imagery out of words like few do in popular music right now.  For me to dismiss the last album because of its bummer vibe was foolish, and I hereby take it back. "If We Were Vampires" (from that album) is an absolute stone cold classic that gets my tears ducts lubed up by the second chorus.  Anywhoo, this album is also very good.  The top track with 1.8 million streams is "Be Afraid."

Weird thing about that song, I read in the Chronicle that KUTX had taken it out of the rotation during the pandemic lockdown thing, and then some people got pissed off that they were removing the song because of people's feelings.  Everything is so damn weird right now, and everyone gets offended by everything.  So annoying.  Anyway, I don't think these lyrics are especially painful or anything, I guess it was just to avoid having people hear that they should be afraid (even if the next lyric is to "do it anyway").

"It Gets Easier" is a wild song, about his struggles with alcoholism, and some dreams he still has about drinking.  The chorus starts "It gets easier, but it never gets easy."  Which I expect is a very true thing, about any addiction.  The other killer line in there is about his daughter's eyes when she's ashamed of her dad.  Ooof.  Anyway, this sort of songwriting, where you can see the scene and feel the emotions of it all, is so good.  It's just a necessary thing we need in the world, versus a rapper taking four seconds to figure out that bitch rhymes with bitch.  I've been going back to this album again and again while on lockdown here at the house, and its super good.

Car Seat Headrest - Making a Door Less Open.  This one lands out of left field, a little bit.  I really dig this guy - this last album with "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales was magic - but this album literally includes an EDM beat drop ("Deadlines (Thoughtful)") to go along with his normal indie rock tunes. At first, that track sounds more like an LCD Soundsystem tune, before the true EDM-ness pops in. Which, at first, was a major turnoff, and now that I've heard it a few more times, got me kind of fired up.  I just danced so hard in my crappy home office chair I worried it might crack.  Same with "Famous," where at first the heavy electronics pushed me away, but after repeat streams I've started grooving it.  But he still does good rock and roll licks, like the opening to "Hollywood," which I want to tattoo on my eardrum.  And "Deadlines (Hostile)" is back to the normal bashing indie rock that he did so well on his previous disc.  I figured that "Must Be More Than Blood" would be the hit track, with its loopy, laid back sound, but it's actually "Can't Cool Me Down," which feels like something Napoleon Dynamite should do a sweet dance routine to.

"Whats With You Lately" is odd, in that its like a minute long and sounds like an out-of-place b-side from a Grave Dancer's Union session.  The one that goes a little too much on the electro side is "Hymn - Remix," which I could do without here.  But overall, I really like this album.  I keep going back to start it over instead of listening to the next album in the queue.

The 1975 - Notes on a Conditional Form.  These guys juked me.  The single I have been listening to for a few weeks is awesomely schlocky 80's sex-party anthem gold.  Heavy on the sax.  "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" belongs on a John Hughes soundtrack (except for the modern mentions of things like being online) and pretty much jams.  BUT, then I fire up the whole album, which is like nine hours of splatter painting through every genre known to man and loads of high-level pretension.  I mean, the opening track is a kid talking for like 5 minutes over a plinky little track - its like a child wanted to copy Radiohead and this was the best she could do.  I've read online that this is Greta Thunberg throwing down her climate control speech action, so I'm sure I'd get shouted down for calling this stupid, but to open an entire album of pop with this is lame.  And then the third song is a cinematic, symphonic instrumental called "The End (Music for Cars)" and I want to barf (even if the song is quite pretty).  "The Birthday Party" is like a John Mayer song without the great guitar solo. "Shiny Collarbone" has some world music flavors going on with a cool instrumental beat.   "Me & You Together Song" sounds like a sunny brit pop song from the 90's.  There is a song on here named "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" - which is quite pretty - but that title, man.  Also, and I know I'm whining a lot here, its freaking an hour and twenty minute long.  GTFOH - clean that noise up, kids.

The top track is surprisingly not that awesome Too Shy track, but instead that sunny brit pop of "Me & You Together Song."  23.3 million streams.

I like that song, and I like "If You're Too Shy," and some of the other songs are pleasant, but as a full album, this thing is way to fat and way to pretentious for me to hold around for good.

Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters.  This album is already behind the eight-ball for me, since it is the first album for Pitchfork to give a 10.0 rating to in like ten years.  C'mon man.  On the one hand, I understand that a numbered rating system is inherently dumb - what is really the difference between a 6.6. and a 6.8?  A 6.8 and a 8.2?  It's just one person's subjective decision that some editor rubber stamps to attract more clicks.  But still, Pitchfork continues to hold some sway in the Internet music world, and them giving a perfection vote for this disc is news.  

So, the actual music is kind of wildly weird.  There is nothing on here that looks like a hit, or a radio friendly single, or even something fun to add to a mix.  I heard "Shameika" on the radio the other day, and near the end, when it devolves into an aggravating stew of noise, I had to just switch the station.  But some of them, I'm thinking right now of "Under the Table," have great confessional lyrics and imagery that is legitimately good.  "Kick me under the table all you want, I won't shut up" or "that fancy wine won't put this fire out" (related to a fancy dinner party she hates going to).  The actual top song on the album is the first song, which I always attribute to people giving it a taste to see what the new shiny thing is like, and then moving on without listening to the rest of the album.  But, in case it is the undisputed hit on here, this is "I Want You to Love Me."

Starts out weird, then a pretty traditional piano-based indie track.  And definitely has her normal vocal tone - sounds like Fiona Apple both in voice and in those odd piano phrasings (which I like right up until she starts having a vocal dolphin orgy near the end).  "Relay" makes me think of some band that came to ACL a few years ago that I just couldn't stand - Can't recall the name of it, but I just remember a lot of random, messy percussion and mental overload.  Other songs are fine - "Rack of His," or " But it seems like most songs have a portion where she just decides to scream or bang on shit or something to ruin anything nice she might have built previously.  I will not hold on to this album.