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.
No comments:
Post a Comment