Quick Hits, Vol. 290 (John Mayer, Leon Bridges, Ty Segall, Jade Bird)

John Mayer - Sob Rock.  This dude is interesting to me, the way he leans into the cheese.  I actually like his music and have thought that his last several albums are solid.  I even tried to buy tickets to go see his live show when it swings through town, but the pricing was stupid.  I'd love to catch a show, but like $500 for two seats (and not even awesome seats) is plain dumb.  Except for one song, I think this album is good.  "Shouldn't Matter But It Does" sounds like a Taylor Swift tune.  "Last Train Home" makes me think of latter day Eric Clapton.  "New Light" is just poppy 80's schtick dancing all over the floor like Anthony Michael Hall.  That is the top song by a couple hundred million, with 494.7 million under its belt.  That actually surprises me, but good for him.  It's a fun song.

Goofy lyrics, goofy sound, goofy video.  It all checks out.  But its still a good tune.  The awful one is the baby-talk-ass "Why You No Love Me."  I literally can't handle the chorus.  It's a jenky ass song even if the chorus lyrics didn't sound like a Baby Muppet song.  "Carry Me Away" and "I Guess I Just Feel Like" are also good tunes.  Overall a good disc!

Leon Bridges - Gold-Diggers Sound.  Texas Monthly had an excellent article about Bridges a few months back that really dove into him and now I like him even more than I already did.  It was just very humanizing to read about his history - a nervousness about performing, but a steely need to get himself out there.  There was an awesome anecdote in there about how some of his friends chastised him about acting shy, saying "that shy shit is disrespectful of your gift."  I love that.  His voice is so damn pretty, and some of these arrangements just match it perfectly.  "Steam" is the jam, and "Motorbike" is damn good too.  But the current streamer champ is "Sweeter," with features someone named Terrace Martin.  14.7 million streams.  I suspect it is on a few playlists.

A beautiful song, a powerful song.  "somebody should hand you a felony, 'cause you stole from me, my chance to be. Hopin' for a life more sweeter, instead I'm just a story repeated."  Ah, Martin is the sax player who worked with Kendrick Lamar and then helped out on this album.  I read about him.  Great song.  I'll keep this album too.

Ty Segall - Harmonizer.  I've laughed about this album before I even got a chance to hear it, because either Sun Radio or KUTX has been playing one of these songs, and I don't think it would actually be possible for my wife to change the stations any quicker than when he starts to make his guitar squawk and squeal.  And now that I've heard it, I just have to laugh at the terrible line in the title song about how he wants to "hear our tongues make friction."  I'll never get over that line.  That tune has more streams right now, but the one that I have been jonesing for and seeking out again and again is "Whisper."  456k streams.

Got a distinct Jack-White-wailing-on-his-guitar-vibe, as well as some of those old school organ licks.  And the rest of the album keeps that psych rock fuzzy guitar jam thing going in a very tasty way.  I dig the groove.  Like, "Play" has a stone cold funk going and yet also sounds like he is torturing his guitar to get it to spill all of its secrets.  Somehow he turns the sludgy fuzz of psych rock into something I could dance to - check "Feel Good" - which feels like the people in Sixteen Candles should dance to it.  Dig it.

Jade Bird - Different Kinds of Light.  I know it doesn't really matter, as thousands of people flock to Austin and now attempt to call it home, but it makes me very pleased that Jade Bird has moved to town.  Her songs are lovely, and having her live her just makes me feel like the whole town is a touch better.  She was on the ACL poster, but had some BS time slot like 11am on Sunday, so I didn't get to see the show, but I'm hopeful I can rectify that sometime soon.  This album has some quiet stuff, and then some funky stuff, and all of it is carried by her insistent voice.  She can do a quiet purr or a brassy blast in any given song, and that ease of change is appealing to me anytime.  Five of the tracks have more than a million streams, but somehow they are all sprinkled around the album.  Can't recall a time when the top tracks were so evenly spread around the playlisting.  Second-to-top track is "Houdini" with just over 2 million streams.

Live version, but you'll get the gist anyway.  Beautiful.  Terribly sad lyrics, but just a beautiful song anyway.  The top track is "Headstart," the last song on the album, and a great, driving hammer of a tune.  7.7 million streams and a great groove, and another classic example of her going quiet/loud/quiet to good effect.  This is a good album.