Quick Hits, Vol. 293 (Courtney Barnett, Bullet For My Valentine, Adele, Joshua Ray Walker)

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.