Quick Hits, Vol. 256 (The Chicks, Taylor Swift, My Morning Jacket, HAIM)

The Chicks - Gaslighter.  I really want to love this album, but after a handful of listens I'm pretty ambivalent about it.  First off, this ain't country.  And I know that shouldn't be surprising, they've been angling away from that work for a while, but the use of drum machines ("Julianna Calm Down," with a drum machine and forlorn organ instead of banjo and fiddle) and one song that is more or less a rap ("Tights on My Boat") are both surprising moves from these ladies.  And I'm sure changing their name to step away from the potential racist connotations of "Dixie" is likewise carried along by distancing themselves from the country establishment in general.  But more importantly, the album as a whole seems to be focused on personal issues, and less on the broadly pleasing story-telling, catchy tunes, and humor-with-insight that made them amazingly compelling back on their first two albums.  I think back to "Wide Open Spaces" or "Goodbye Earl," and I'm immediately happy about the feelings those great songs evoke.  But I think back to what I remember after 10 or so streams through this album and what I recall are Natalie's multiple mentions of some damn boat where her husband must have cheated on her.  Which isn't really all that interesting in the end, except to the TMZ folks who want the tea spilled.  And it's so specific - I can't relate to the issues they're singing about.

Their harmonies are still lovely.  The banjo picking is still technically proficient and well-placed.  But it feels like they put this out to show that they still aren't ready to make nice, but now none of us even remember why they were mad in the first place.  The lead single and title track kind of bugs me - I think I'm tired of hearing the term gaslighting because I over-scroll Twitter - and I'm sure it was cathartic to Natalie to call out her ex-husband for being a lying jerk, but the song isn't catchy enough to make me want to dig in.  And if it was catchy enough, then I could apply it to my own life - the liars that I might have to deal with - but in the end I just think about the dumb boat and that annoying term.  That track is the top streamer on Spotify at 18.2 million streams, but I'm going to give you second place instead, "Sleep at Night," with 2.5 million.

The chorus makes me think of "HOW DO YA LIKE ME NOW!" from Toby Keith each time she sings it.  Also, her ex-husband truly sounds like a piece of shit.  Even if I don't much care about knowing about it.  Maybe they'll release another album next that isn't quite so directly aimed at the balls of her old man.  Despite not caring about the subject matter so much, that one is a good song.  "Everybody Loves You" makes me think repeatedly of Coldplay - there is a piano lick lifted directly from "Trouble" and it throws me off each time.  I know that "March March" is saying the word "march," but I keep hearing "Marge Marge" and I think of the Simpson's mom angrily marching down a Portland street to protest all of the random things that they sing about in this song.  I think that normally I would gravitate to their big songs, but on this album, it's the quiet songs that are more appealing.  But, despite really wishing that this was going to be the next big thing on my radar, I don't much care for this one.  I'll let it go.

Taylor Swift - folklore.  Like everyone else, I have been on lockdown with my family for far too long by now, and so I used this album and some AirPods the other day to block out the incessant talking of my first born.  It was lovely.  We were on vacation when this surprise album dropped, and so I barely heard it for the first few weeks of its existence, but now that I've really slipped into it, I've enjoyed it.  And I say that even though some of these songs sound directly like a Lana Del Rey album, which isn't necessarily a compliment from me.  "cardigan" is lovely, but it absolutely sounds like Lana, down to the vampy whisper of the chorus line "when you are young they assume you know nothing."

I really like "the last great american dynasty," the storytelling is well done (as is usual from Swift), but it really allows you to see this odd story of a real person from decades ago.  I also dig the Bon Iver track, especially him starting off in a weird lower register than he ever uses, until he kicks it in with the chorus.  That was hawt.  Overall it is a very spare album - which was obviously the point - but after the aural onslaught of her last few albums, it is pretty welcome to take it down a few notches.  I think my favorite song of the album is "invisible string," it is the track that I keep finding myself humming and thinking of after I'm done with the album.  The line about sending presents to the babies of the guys who broke her heart is genius (and probably all too real).  I also enjoy the line in "mad woman" about a woman mouthing "fuck you forever" as she stands in her lawn.  "betty" is interesting, just because it seems so odd to have Queen TayTay singing about a lesbian love affair.  And I love the lyrics of "this is me trying," even if they sometimes hit a little close to home.  Very enjoyable album that I'll keep.

My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall, Pt. 2.  I love these guys.  I was a little perplexed when the new album was a part 2 to an earlier album, instead of just being its own animal, but in the end, I'm digging the groove no matter what they called it.  While it's a little slow and noodly, I really love "Feel You" right out of the box, despite the fact that I would normally aim for the stompers instead.  Which of course means I also dig the wild country abandon of "Climbing the Ladder."  Likewise, the deep march at the start of "Magic Bullet" gets me ready to bop.  And while I don't love the whole song, the groove/freakout about halfway into "Wasted" is what I'm here for.  Can't wait to hear that portion live so that I can shamble around and dance all over the people around me as I pantomime ejaculation without using my hands.  The opener is a beautiful, meandering meditation on living a life too busy - "hypnotized from endless travelling" and "riskin' my life for the sake of the song."  Hey, "Feel You" ends up being the top track on here!  I'm so smart!  1.3 million streams for this slow jam beauty.

Love the guitar sliding up into the sky right after the first chorus.  Just sounds like easing my ears down into the hot spring that's the exact right temperature.  I'd say that, overall, this isn't their best album.  The overall feel is good and I enjoy each run through it, but with their older stuff in my head, nothing on here seems vital.  Which probably makes sense, if the tunes on here were the best songs of the Waterfall sessions, then they would have been included on the first album.  Nonetheless, it's still better than 9/10 of the dreck being released each day.

HAIM - Women in Music Part III.  I wrote about HAIM just recently when they released an EP with several of these songs on there, and I'm just going to blatantly steal from some of that writing.  First off, how about that album title and the fact that it can be turned into WIMPIII.  Overall, this album is really great.  There are a few tracks that I love less, but its good generally from start to finish.

"Don't Wanna" 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 keep finding myself singing the track in my head long after another listen of the album.  Really catchy and bright.  "I Know Alone" has a tinge of Latino 80's pop/breakin' drums in the chorus, but it's catchy as crap, 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 with a good groove tucked into a plaintive rock song.  "Now I'm In It" sounds like one of the Antonoff-produced Taylor Swift tracks.  "Hallelujah," is 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 "Summer Girl," 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!"  

"All That Ever Mattered" can go away - the Prince-esque screams in there - stolen right out of "Gett Off" - are like fingernails on a chalkboard each time they erupt.  No thank you.  But the semi-ska breakdown at the end of "Los Angeles" makes me grin.  Overall, I've listened to this album a ton and its great. 

In fact, I doubt anyone has noticed that it has taken me a really long to put out a recent blog post, but part of that delay is because I just keep going back to these discs to listen to them again.  Three of these four are great stuff.