Charley Crockett - Music City USA. I dig this guy. He came to ACL last year but I missed the show. But he has a great sound and an entire schtick about his look and sound. It's great classic country stuff. That being said, nothing on here really stands out. It's all good, but there isn't some moment on this album that changes my overall opinion of him from listening to the older albums this summer. It's still him droning along over the top of the plunk-plunk of the two-step beat. Long album too, with 16 songs! Seems rare for country music. The top track is the second one, "I Need Your Love," with 2.2 million streams.
A little Dap King flavor to go with the country. Dig it. Love his videos - does a super cool job of classic visuals that still look dope. I need to get my cowboy hat re-shaped, man. Not that I'm going to try to pull off his look, I'd look like a dork, but I ought to shape it and wear it more. Anyhoo, I'm going to keep the album around because I'm into the guy, even if this one in particular doesn't bowl me over.
Lucy Dacus - Home Video. One of these songs actually made the cry the other day, just a fucking random drive-by of emotion when I heard one particular line on the radio while waiting at a stop light. Criminy. Getting old is weird. It was a line from "Brando," where she sings: "You called me cerebral. I didn't know what you meant, but now I do. Would it have killed you to call me pretty instead?" Damn, dude. Deeply great song. So much longing and pitch perfect building of the scenes. And on top of the great lyrics, the tune sounds like early R.E.M. joined forces with Death Cab. Sweetness. "Hot & Heavy" is an amazing song (killer first bit about how being back in a certain place makes her hot in the face when she thinks about her awkward past), as is "VBS." Dacus kills you with the details and realism of the lyrics. And meanwhile, the music going along with it is usually super good as well (although I'll admit that "Partner in Crime" makes me want to skip it each time). "Hot and Heavy" is the top track, likely because it is first, but its also a solid track on its own right, so here you go. 9.7 million streams.
I also dig her voice - it's just a touch different and original. The tune itself sounds like the very enjoyable War on Drugs album from earlier last year. Cute video as well. This is a really good album. May be my favorite one of last year.
Maxo Kream - Brandon Banks. Found this dude after reading an article about up and coming Houston rappers. I want to like it more than I do. The thing that sinks it for me is that his flow sounds exactly the same the whooooooole time. It's like a robot made a rap album. His flow sounds good, but I wish he would do that monotone shit for a little while and then switch it up just a little bit to create a different sound. But I like the beats, and the overall vibe of it is good. I just need him to chill with the rapid monotone. His voice almost just becomes part of the beat. Which makes it really work when he brings in his four A-list collaborators - Travis Scott, Megan thee Stallion, ScHoolboy Q, and A$AP Ferg. Their verse twists up the flow and makes it work. Interestingly, Megan gets the most streams of those four - figured Scott or Ferg was the bigger name. Shows you what I know! "She Live," with 15.2 million streams.
Yeah, that is a good track. The bouncing beat, the little plips and plops, the good bass. And both of them ride the beat at just the right rate. Dig it. As I keep going back to this disc, I like it more and more, even if I could use a little more variance in his flow.
Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days. I'm a little bummed out here. When I saw her set at ACL a couple years ago, I was just destroyed by the show. Like, floating on a cloud one moment, then ready to dance fight, then leaking tears like a moody teenager. Such a good show. Made me appreciate the albums even more as well, hearing them played with total ferocity and finesse. Awesome. But this album isn't doing it for me. I can't decide if she used to do this much deep vibrato in her voice in other songs, but it starts to feel forced and weird with how often it pops up in all of these songs. In "Broken Horses" she squeaks and squeals in between the mega-vibrato of the chorus. As usual with her, when you listen to the lyrics, its a wonderfully confessional and descriptive set of tunes here, but I keep being distracted by the rest of it. She's got a killer voice, not sure what is going on (or if my brain has just keyed in on a tiny kink in this hose and refuses to let go to my own detriment). The play count for the album looks like I might expect, with each individual song getting fewer streams than the one before it (with two minor exceptions). The opener is, thus, the top streamer. "Right on Time" has 5.7 million streams.
It has to be super weird to leave the stage after a standing ovation and just wander into an empty room. Beautiful song, and a killer set of heartfelt lyrics. The other one that rules is "Letter to the Past," lyrically just wonderful. "Your a stone wall, In a world full of rubber bands. You're a pillar of belief, Still fightin' your shakin' hands. Folks are gonna lean on you, And leave when the cracks appear. But, darlin', I'll be here, I'll be the last, You're my letter to the past." And the verses are likewise great - it would be so amazing to have the ability to reach out to yourself in the past and say something like: "You can cry. You know it's always okay to cry. You don't even need to know why. But don't you ever feel alone inside." Hell yeah. I just wish that I liked the sound of the album, because I'm left underwhelmed there. This is going to end up being like the time I said I didn't love that Jason Isbell album, only to realize later that it was a freaking masterpiece. Dammit.
Nas - Kings Disease II. I wonder why it is that rappers refuse to come up with a new name for their albums and just keep naming them as though they are sequels. Jay-Z used to do this, Logic keeps doing this, Nas too. I get it when it is a mixtape that you are selling out of your trunk, but a legitimate album, it feels weird to not come up with a new name for the album. I don't love anything on this one. It's fine - good sample-based beats, his smooth flow over the top, a few good cameos (EPMD, Eminem, Lauryn Hill) - but each time I fire it up it feels like a chore. Like I'm supposed to listen to Nas because he is an elder statesman of the rap world, and so I need to pay my proper respects. "Rare," with ten million streams, is the top track.
Some deep shit about chess strategy there at the start. I like the shift in beats in the middle, as well as the call out to one of his classic tunes during that transition. But overall, its just brags without much meat on the bone. That is what the whole album feels like - the dude just trying really hard to remind everyone that he is the king, without actually showing it. No thanks.
Disclosure - Never Enough. This is probably officially an EP, with only four songs on it, but since they are long songs, I figured I'd still make note of it. Also, I felt very cool when I heard one of these songs in a Uniqlo store on 5th Avenue over the weekend, recognized it, and could sing along a little. I'm very cosmopolitan, y'all. None of these tracks are as good as their best stuff, but they still do a damn fine job of turning a dance beat into an earworm that will keep rotating in your brain afterwards. "In My Arms" has the stream crown for now with 1.1 million.
Although, now that I listen to this and now the name of the song, I can confidently say that I was singing the wrong lyrics while perusing the clever t-shirts of Uniqlo. 100% was singing "need you in my life," instead of "arms." Oh well, for a few glorious minutes I was definitely extremely cool. I'll let this one go though.
Sleigh Bells - Texis. I keep coming back to this group as well, based solely off the pleasures that I got from 2010's "Kids." And nothing since then has hit me anywhere near as hard. This music is super aggressive electronic rock with a lady singer, which definitely has its time and place, but it super is not at my desk while trying to work. One tune has over a million streams - "Locust Laced" - with just over a million.
Like the "Kids" one, it has a distinct cheerleader vibe like a naughty cheerleader who flips a little too much of her skirt towards the crowd as she does her dance. I got a little worried at one point that she was going to hurt that hound dog. Either way, nothing on this album makes me need it.
Jose Gonzalez - Local Valley. Another lovely album of gentle tunes. If I am remembering correctly, it was the Secret Life of Walter Mitty soundtrack that introduced me to Gonzalez, and I have warm memories of that movie mainly because of those songs. I don't actually recall if the movie was any good, but the songs were for sure. Well, this album is more of the same. Warm, quiet, sparse, with lovely harmonies layered on each song and a lot of lightly strummed guitar. Funny thing is, the groove sounds so similar throughout that I frequently fail to notice that a tune is in Spanish, and several of the songs on here are in Spanish. Like the most popular one, "El Invento," which is the first track with 10.9 million streams. But then the second track "Visions" is the second most popular with 5.1 million streams, and is all English. I'm going to give you the third most popular, since it isn't at the start of the playlist. "Head On," with 3.9 million streams.
Woah, video game foot launcher toe tapping! Crazy video game attacks from all sides! Yeah, like I said, a distinctly pretty sound, very low-key and lovely. The whole album is going to sound much like that. It is a wonderful thing, so long as you are in the mood to relax and let it wash over you. Good stuff.
Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time. I love her so very much. Some of her earlier songs are just perfect slices of the best songwriting around. Sadly, nothing on here really reaches out and grabs me the same way. Feels kind of like a demo or EP that she put together to push the ball forward without really trying to score. I like some of the lines, like talking about how thoughts and prayers don't mean shit without actual change, in the opener "Rae Street." The guitar licks sound like past albums, but it all feels more spare, more like she's just set up a drum machine to practice some lines over (but then forgot to flesh them out). I'm listening to "Sunfair Sundown" when I wrote that bit - feels like this could have been put together without that drum machine holding it down to make it a good song. "Rae Street" is the top streamer, but also the first song, so I'll give you "Before You Gotta Go," because it is second place and not the opener. 2.1 million streams.
It is pretty, and as usual has good lyrics, but I keep wishing for it to really kick in, instead of the "kick in" being that a hit hat phases in. But even as a slight little tune like that, I find myself kind of bopping along pleasantly. I definitely like the more full-some sound that comes near the end. Random aside - toothsome is a great word, but using it to describe an attractive person is deeply weird. "Write a List of Things to Look Forward To" has a happiness to it that I enjoy. Anyway, this will not be my favorite of Barnett's albums, but I'll probably keep listening just to see what happens.
Bullet for My Valentine - Bullet for My Valentine. I had heard of this band for years, but didn't really know anything about them or the music. Kind of figured it was going to be some emo alternative rock, from the band name. Well, that was wrong. This is the real-deal scary ass metal stuff your mom warned you about. I have no clue how someone can "sing" like that and not die of shredded vocal chords. This album is not good at all. "Knives," with 7.5 million streams, is the top streamer, and I can't help but notice that is more than triple the top streamer for Barnett. The world is weird.
I mean, I like some hard rock and all, but that screaming is more than I can deal with. I'll readily admit that the guitar work is killer, but the screaming isn't my jam. Part of the chorus reminds me of another song - I wonder if I've heard a BFMV song before? Whatever, this album can go.
Adele - 30. She's done heartbreak and sadness before, to amazing effect. "Rolling in the Deep" is a damn jam, and its all about the guy who could have had it all, if he hadn't pissed it all away. But here, the third song, "My Little Love," is just a bit much. Like, she has extended chunks of audio of her apparently talking to the microphone by herself and then other parts of her talking to her little boy, and she's just laying it bare about the struggles she has been having with mental health and feeling wrong. Like, just write some lyrics that opaquely allow people to realize that maybe you have been sad and lonely, don't just come out and say it through your tears on the song. I'm sure that is insensitive, but it definitely yanks away the pleasure of listening to the album when that song jams you in the face with her actual sadness. But then a few songs later the mood is upbeat on "Can I Get It," a big pop number that swaggers and flirts with you.
Of interesting note, to me at least, is that Adele very publicly got Spotify to turn off the album shuffle setting that they had previously included on their app. Apparently (and I had never noticed this), the regular play button was not the default button to listen to an album. It was the shuffle button. What kind of serial killer ass person shuffles an album they haven't heard yet? Can you imagine all of the disjointed stuff you would hear? Like, here's the outro and a skit and another skit and then a song that sounds like it cuts off in the middle! Enjoy! So weird. Well, anyway, she got what she wanted and now people need to listen to this album in the proper order. And I think the reason she wanted that is because these songs have an order, to show the beginning, middle, and end of her trip from love to heartbreak to bottom to rebuilding. Don't all albums? Am I insane?
"Easy on Me" crushes the stream count with 438.2 million streams, but you've probably already heard that one. I'll give you second place with "Oh My God." 77 million streams.
Little birdie whistles! Man, her voice is just killer. Like, I know it is. I know this. And yet then I really listen to one of her tracks again and it's just freaking beautiful. Although I can't say I'm in love with either that track or the other super poppy one - "Can I Get It." Neither is an undeniable hit, and yet both feel really out of place shoved in the middle of this otherwise non-poppy album. The background singer on "I Drink Wine" sounds like Amy Winehouse. I really like the playful tune of "All Night Parking," it feels like a hip hop song based on a classic piano tune from the 40's. "To Be Loved" is a little blare-y with her voice. Just before the last note, you can almost hear her back off from the microphone so that she doesn't melt it with her last salvo. But it's a damn powerful song anyway. I know we are all supposed to bow down to the altar of Adele these days - each time she fires out an album it is an event. And I definitely think he voice is amazing. But this one is uneven to me, and there aren't any truly fun songs to balance out the depression. I'll let it go and probably just listen as the radio drills my brain with more of the singles over the next few years.
Joshua Ray Walker - Glad You Made It. Great songwriter guy, and his voice is pretty good too. Dallas born and bred. Many times when you lead with "songwriter" then they've got the Dylan/Keen type voice that isn't going to win any awards, but the high and lonesome note he hits a few minutes into "Voices" is clean and lovely. This is also that type of country where you get rockin' guitars to go with the good stories - a guy who is gonna start using drugs again, a guy who is going to ride the buckin' bronco at a bar, a gal showing boats to rednecks at a boat show, or a guy who kills himself by drinking a bottle and putting his truck in a lake. I read a thing about him in Texas Monthly a few months back, which piqued my interest enough to stick this album in the queue. He's huge - like his photo on the cover of this album is fascinating just because of how large of a man he is, while his voice just sounds like it could be any skinny hipster who used to front BR-549. And from what I recall in that profile, he really did live the rough-and-tumble, poor lifestyle that he sings about in these songs. The lyrics in "Boat Show Girl" are wonderful. But "Voices" gets the top streaming at just over 1 million.
I dig that video too - basic concept but it is still fun to see those people looking at you and clicking that million-year-old remote. The drunk lady is going to be in my nightmares though. Pretty great. I like the whole album.
The Killers - Pressure Machine. Very cool album, not only in that the music and lyrics are good, but also because it tracks a story/feel in here, tied together with some spoken word interview bits, of a small town struggling to get its head around modern life. "Quiet Town" is the hit and several other songs sound deceptively upbeat, but the rest hits like when Bruce Springsteen dialed back the arena rock power for the dusty melancholy of Nebraska. The same goes here, with them turning off the disco drum machine for an album about junkies and dusty roads and dead kids and a train that sounds like a real jerk. "Quiet Town" is a good song. Most streams at 2.4 million (which is actually surprisingly low).
The track does a good job of juxtaposing an upbeat chorus about how nice the town is (they don't have to deadbolt their doors! they believe in Jesus!) with some painful realities in the verses (some kids got killed by the train! Everyone is dying of opioids!). Some of these songs are just low-key acoustic guitar numbers without much to them. "Runaway Horses" has a high stream count for where it is on the album, likely because it features Phoebe Bridgers, and it is a good quiet tune. But others still bop like you would expect from the killers, like "In The Car Outside" or "Sleepwalker." I like the disc.
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg. I subjected myself to this long article the other day all about this style of talk-singing, which told me to check out this new album as a great example. WTF, man. I like the music itself a lot, good groovy indie alternative rock music is a hit with me. But all the vocalist does is just talk? She never once sings. So freaking weird. But then I find myself absolutely digging "Strong Feelings," which makes me think of an 80's song I can't put my finger on because of the guitar bit. Deeply weird. Feels like it's a joke and I'm just not in on it yet but the person playing it for me is waiting for me to crack. The first song is the top streamer - I'm sure everyone tried it out of curiosity and then bailed - but I am going to give you the number 4 song because it is the most popular that isn't at the start of the album. "Her Hippo," with 808k streams.
I really like the combo of the electric guitar droning a little with the acoustic guitar jangling underneath. That is a good sound. Maybe reminds me of classic REM. But then the Nico ass voice over the top of it all just bugs. Not my cup.
Lil Nas X - Montero. Nothing on here is nearly as catchy as the "Old Town Road" business. It's all kind of gently boring trap rap stuff (except for "Lost in the Citadel," which makes me think of all of these goofy Blink 182 wannabe bands) or R&B stuff like most rappers angle for these days. Probably the best track is the one with Jack Harlow, "Industry Baby." He has a bunch of other A-List guests here - Miley Cyrus, Doja Cat, Elton John, Megan Thee Stallion - but the key to the album is his extremely personal lyrics. "Don't Want It" is a good example of that, rapping about having to smoke himself to sleep and taking too many shots. While I just called the album "gently boring," and I stand by that, I just discovered that NPR named the title track as the 2021 song of the year. Which is kind of insane. I know the video was a hot button source of social media fire - including a lap dance for Satan - but the song isn't that interesting at all. I guess this album is having more of a social impact on the world, and to LGBTQIA folks, than to me personally. Montero is actually his first name - so it is an interesting and good choice to make that the name of his album and the lead single. It is, by far, the stream hit with over 1.1 billion streams. Getting funky with Satan must have worked for marketing!
I mean, that's just dumb and funny. I don't know why people get all up in arms about stupid stuff. Other tracks have a lot of streams, but interestingly it goes that one, then "Industry Baby" with 792 million, "Thats What I Want" with 234 million, and then "Sun Goes Down" with 100 million. Those tracks are all over the album, there is no real pattern to where the popular songs are in the track listing. A few songs on here are just bad - I do not enjoy the poppy enthusiasm of "That's What I Want" or the "Lost in the Citadel" one mentioned earlier. But I also know that the lyrics on this album really aren't aimed for me. When he's singing "Sun Goes Down" to his childhood self (and other kids who aren't sure about themselves), that isn't resonating much with me anymore. The album overall is fine, but nothing that I need to keep forever.
Taylor Swift - Red (Taylor's Version) but only the bonus songs from the vault. I'm a little torn by the (Taylor's Version) movement here. On the one hand, I love that she is taking back her art and sticking it to the jerks who have monetized her and then refused to sell the masters back. That feels cool. But on the other hand, it feels sucky that she can just destroy the investment made by those people, like I bought a Picasso only to discover that he actually painted 7 billion exact copies and gave them to everyone in the world. I think I lean more towards Taylor's side, but it just feels weird.
Anyway, the original Red album is a masterpiece that I love very much. But I wasn't terribly interested in hearing the original tracks again, so I just queued up the nine "From the Vault" songs included as bonus tracks to see what those are like. They're solid, of course, with cameos from Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran, and Chris Stapleton, as well as the long-awaited release of the ten minute version of "All To Well." BUT, I think the new version of "All To Well" sucks ass, to be honest. The good thing it does is helps you to see how amazing the original track was, and how important it is to edit. The original version (still five and a half minutes long!) does a great job of describing her love and the hurt without devolving into anger or pity. But the new one breaks out more of the story, and it becomes more like sour grapes and less like a relatable story that any of us have experienced. That original song still fucking rules with so many perfect details of the romance and the breaking (including a killer nuclear dismissal line, with "so casually cruel, in the name of being honest," which rules) and so the regular version is just what everyone needs. Of course, though, because everyone wants to revel in the joys of shitting on Jake Gyllenhaal and how mean he was, the song has now broken streaming records as the longest #1 song ever and has over 108 million streams already. Instead of giving you that thing, I'll give you the Bridgers collaboration - "Nothing New" with just over 30 million streams.
Sounds very much like a Phoebe Bridgers song of sadness and depression. Pretty good! She probably made the right call to choose the songs she did for Red, and leave these in the vault.
Yola - Stand For Myself. I got to see Yola play right before the pandemic kicked in, and then I just saw her again in August as the pandemic loosened its grip on the world a little bit. She freaking jams. Such a great voice. This album, like the last one, generally stays in the same lane of playing to a classic, soulful sound. Feels like Dan Auerbach is still at the wheel (and he is), but his instinct to match her voice to those warm sounds is spot on perfect. "Barely Alive" is the album opener and it feels just right for this moment - "when will you start living, now that you've survived?" The disco-ness of "Dancing Away in Tears" is kind of clever. My only quibble is the quasi-yelling she gets into on "Now You're Here" and "Whatever You Want" - that is less of what I want, even though I get that she should get to holler sometimes "If I Had to Do It All Again" sounds like it is about to be a great rap song. But overall it is hard to find any reason not to dig this. Seems criminally understreamed - only four songs have more than a million and only "Diamond Studded Shoes" breaks two million with 2.6 million.
Got some soul and funk rolled into that one and I'm here for it. The title makes me think of Paul Simon, but this is a definitely different animal. I hope it does turn out right, although its not feeling that way right now! Also love "Be My Friend" and the lovely flow of "Like a Photograph." Another really enjoyable album.
Logic- Bobby Tarantino III. Logic is playing with my emotions. I could have sworn that he said he was retired from making new music. And then he just keeps rolling out new stuff that is fun to me. Just quit or don't! "introll" is funny, and then the beat kicks in for "Vaccine." "introll" is funny just because it sounds like he's getting all hyped up to start off a rhyme, and then it just cuts off. I'd leave out the ones that are more song-based than rap based, like "Get Up," but overall this is good beats and good flow. "Vaccine" is the top track by a lot - 14.1 millions streams and a fun beat that sounds like a posse cut.
Nothing to the lyrics - you'd think that the track would be about the COVID vaccine or something, but its just a plain-jane brag track. I literally don't think it ever even says the word vaccine in the lyrics. Overall, the album is just okay - I think Logic has a great flow, but this one meanders around in the R&B-adjacent world too much for my taste. I will say that I really like the line in "God Might Judge" that he can satisfy the girl like a toy won't. That line clicks.
Chvrches - Screen Violence. The opening track of this album is just perfection. It helps that I just saw them play live and the joy and pleasure of that show is still ringing in my ears, but "Asking for a Friend" does several things really well. it starts with just the slightest accompaniment and a soft vocal, that then builds into an exuberant dance song, that is topped off by the wonderful-to-yell-along-to chorus of "you still matter!" They included it as part of their encore at the show a few weeks back and it ruled. "He Said She Said" and "Good Girls" are also top notch songs that will last from this album. At first, I wasn't so on board with "California" or "Final Girl," but now they click too. The top track is "He Said She Said" with 10.6 million streams.
Lyrically, it sure makes it seem tough to be a young woman in the music industry. I guess it really applies to any young woman who is trying to navigate the social media-concentrated world of right now. Be thin but don't be obsessed. Get drunk, but don't be a mess. Funny thing is, on stage, she said that they had wanted to make a happy album this time, but I don't know what about that song right there could be considered a happy tune! They have a tune on here with Robert Smith from the Cure, and then the song right after that sounds like they were trying to make a Cure song. Actually, I hear Cure-esque guitars on here repeatedly. Good album.
Nothing But Thieves - Moral Panic II. Not an actual full album, at only five songs, but more of the stylishly crunchy rock that I dig from these guys - like Muse mixed with Royal Blood. Saw them play ACL back in 2016 and dug the sound, so I've been locked in on them ever since. The opening track is the hit so far with 9.4 million streams for "Futureproof," although I kind of like the swagger of "If I Were You" better. We'll go with the former for your exemplar though.
Groovy and danceable, but also hard. You'll just about always hook me with that combo. "Your Blood" is not the best song on it, but when it gets about half way through and jams into a droning, crushing wall of fuzzed guitars sounding like angry violins in a Zeppelin song, I dig it for sure. I'm just a sucker for these guys, I like this one too.
