Quick Hits, Vol. 259 (Logic, Pheobe Bridgers, Old 97s, Bully)

Logic - No Pressure.  I don't know what the national consensus is on Logic, but I generally like him.  He's freaking fast - not like Twista or Busta fast - but he can just skim rhymes across the beats like a skipping stone.  Some rhymes can be cheesy here and there, but I give him the benefit of the doubt because a lot of his turns of phrase are good too.  And some of that older cheesy stuff was important stuff - his song about suicide, or his tracks about identity.  I appreciate some of that positivity (even if some think it's corny).  

Also, the beats on this album are very good.  Several of the tracks kind of sound like classic Kanye beats - and with No ID doing the production, that makes sense.  No ID has worked a lot with Kanye and Common - he's a big Chicago guy - and helped Kanye learn the ropes on acting as producer.  So you can catch some of that flavor on here for sure - soulful samples and cool vibes abound.  Check "Celebration."  Or "Heard Em Say" sounds like Common or that eight-year-long outro track on College Dropout.  I actually unfollowed Kanye on Twitter today.  Which has nothing to do with this album, I just got so tired of seeing that poor dude's mentally addled ramblings and freakouts.  Used to be kind of funny, but now that I know he is bipolar, it's just not funny anymore.  The dude needs some help.  In addition to the tracks that sound like classic Chicago, he's also got one ("GP4") that bites the amazing beat from Outkast's "Elevators."  The original makes better use of that beat for sure, but I enjoy this one as well.  "Soul Food II" is legit as well.  Smooth, especially when it switches up halfway through, makes me want to roller skate in a cloud.  "man i is" also pays homage to Outkast, biting the horn lick from "SpottieOttieDopalicious."  

The top track for streams is "Perfect," a track smack dab in the middle of the disc, with 26.1 million streams.

Classic sounding, very basic beat, along with some great braggadocio, packaged up into a tiny little 1:40 track.  Not sure why that is the top track - many of the others on here are better.  Must be on a Spotify playlist or something.  One issue with the album is that it does some navel gazing BS later on, with him including parts of his raw, early mixtapes, and a long speech about racism by some old-sounding guy, and then his own long outro.  Also, "DadBod" is a track about him being a dad now, with all the dad responsibilities, but it also goes into a really weird soliloquy about him shopping at Target that seems to include him crapping in his pants?  That one is odd.  But overall, this is a good disc.

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher.  I've heard her a good number of times, through her part in the Better Oblivion Community Center and then again with Boygenius, but I don't think I have ever dug into one of her solo albums.  This disc is beautiful.  I'm in the midst of "Savior Complex" again right now, and between the lilting violins and gentle strumming of the guitar, it really is a lovely package designed to deliver a real bummer of a relationship song.  Which is kind of the default position in these songs - a deep, real, honest sadness.  Or maybe not sadness, maybe it's more just realism about how complex every relationship is and a lack of covering up the sharp edges of those relationships.  "Garden Song," the first real track on here, showcases that really well, singing about "I grew up here till it all went up in flames, Except the notches and the door frames" and a recurring dream that involves both movies, tidal waves, and a dorm room.  It's a beautiful tune, but has that deep longing in it that smells like sadness, even if it really isn't.  "Kyoto" has a brighter sound, and it sounds like the one that would get some radio play and become a hit.  11.2 million streams.

Again, despite the sunny horns, her lyrics are bringing up old disappointments like the guy calling her brother for his birthday, but missing the birthday by ten days, and then cutting into the chorus of her soaring as she sings "I don't forgive you."  It's a good one.  "Graceland Too" is freaking lovely as well.  In "I Know the End," she has this great line about "windows down, scream along, to some America First Rap Country Song" that I love to hear each time I breeze through that tune.

Old 97's - Twelfth.  That is a funny word to type.  Twelfth.  ell-fff-tthh.  Like talking with a mouthful of marbles.  Anyway, you know just about exactly what you are getting with this album.  There are no surprises waiting under the hood here, you just get another dose of great guitar-fueled Alt. Country pop.  And I'm not dogging it - I still love their first four albums from the 90's - they're great stuff with clever lyrics and a fun edge.  I actually heard "Turn Off the TV" (from this album) the other day on the radio, which is good - get these guys a little radio airplay.  But I suspect that airtime on some public radio station in Austin isn't going to translate to any sort of real popularity in the mainstream.  My kids would probably think this is dinosaur music.  And they can go a little cheesy at times - "I Like You Better" feels like a song someone wrote at a songwriting workshop where the other attendees just yelled out things to say that the singer likes less than his girl.  I mean, "I like you better than cash," or "I like you better than a six pack of beer," I can't see how this song is going to supplant "Question" as the Rhett Miller wedding dance tune.  Ends up that "Turn off the TV" is the streaming hit for now at 111k streams.

Like I said - sounds like the Old 97's.  Jangly, danceable, alt. country with an easy to jam chorus and a running time of less than 3 minutes.  Perfect little poppy nuggets.  "Confessional Boxing" is the same thing - driving jams.  And "Bottle Rocket Baby" is the perfect encapsulation of the Old 97s sound - a backbeat that sounds like a train rolling down the line, and a sing-along chorus that even the most drunk guy at the show could figure out.  But near the end of the disc, they do throw a curveball, where I kept thinking that the album had ended and something else had started.  "Why Don't We Ever Say We're Sorry" sounds like a b-side from old Bon Iver or something.  Weird way to end the disc.  But, overall I like this one.

Bully - SUGAREGG.  I freaking loved their track "Trying," from 2015's Feels Like, a purely great grungy track that made me feel like maybe I actually liked Hole (before remembering that, no, I do not like Hole.  So, at first this was an EP that I had been listening to for a while, just four of these songs, but now I realized that it was actually a full album.  From what I have read on Twitter, I know that this was more of a solo album for the lead singer - she dumped the normal band - but it sure sounds like a full-band album.  I'd like to like it more than I do.  The problem for me is that I like the harder instrumentation songs, but I'd rather have her gentler singing tone on those.  Instead, you either get to choose from hard rockers where the singer's voice sounds like it is trying to peel paint from an aircraft carrier three oceans over, or you get the gentler tracks where her voice sounds great but the tune itself is sleepier.  "Prism" is a great example of that latter type - her voice sounds legitimately good, but the tune is kind of plodding.  For the former, look at the top track - "Where to Start" - where the beat and tune is driving and strong, but she spends the majority of the song screaming herself ragged over the top.  346k streams.

At first, she has a nice tone, and then the yelling dialed to 11 rolls in.  This is what I had against Sheer Mag in the past - the critics love it and I can't get past the screamy-ness of it.  It's too bad, because the Sonic Youth-ass tune is very appealing.  I don't think I'll hold on to this one.