Quick Hits, Vol. 323 (SINGLES! SO MANY SINGLES!)

The singles have been building up in my queue for a long time.  The first one of these was added to the queue in March 2022.  I've been way to concentrated on the full albums!  Well, today I fix some of that!  Come along for the ride!

• Silk Sonic - Love's Train.  These guys jam.  Cheesy as hell, but also slinky and smooth and funny, and played like champions by this band.  Just tight as a watchspring.
• Future - Worst Day.  I wish I liked Future more.  He has a few bangers, but this one just sounds depressing (which, yeah, it's name should have tipped me off) and I don't want to be depressed when banging out a rap song.
• HAIM - Lost Track.  Cute little toy piano and hand-claps makes me think of Wes Anderson. HAIM are great.
• Joey Bada$$ - Head High.  Super chilled rap track.  I like it.  Got some J Cole vibes, some nostalgic vibes about looking back and figuring out a way forward.
• Royal Blood - Honeybrains.  Word.  Back to the good stuff for these dudes, less of that synth heavy stuff.
• Freddie Gibbs - Ice Cream.  Short little nugget, but I still think Freddie Gibbs is an excellent rapper.  I'm kind of tired of the same-old-same-old from Rick Ross, who appears here, but this one gets me bobbing.
• Maggie Rogers - That's Where I Am.  First few times of hearing this on the radio, I was not on board.  Didn't like the overly electronic sound.  But then I caught myself singing it later and the power pop balladry has stuck in my head.  I know it is trite, but "even boulders turn into sand" is good.  I also really like the bridge.
• Lizzo - About Damn Time.  She just has something in her brain that knows how to make earworm bangers.  So great for Lizzo to exist and just pop out another Chic-influenced bop.  So fun.
• Phoebe Bridgers - Sidelines.  Did you watch that show Shrinking?  Great show.  My wife and I loved it.  But there was a scene that has stuck in my head and made me laugh ever since.  The Dad is told that he can maybe feel better about a sad situation if he listens to a very sad song and just bawls his eyes out, and he picks Bridgers' "I Know The End," and as he's riding his bike jamming the song and bawling, he yells out "FUCK YOU PHEOBE BRIDGERS!" twice.  Freaking great.  Anyway, this is not that song, but it is another than just seeps into your bones with emotion.  I don't know how she does it, but she really knows how to create a mood and smother you with it.  I love her music so much, even if it makes me bummed half the time.  This one just poignantly dives into the feeling of finding love and fearing its loss.
• 100 gecs - Doritos and Fritos.  I hate this song so much.  I had read a thing about how the youth love this band, but this is just garbage.
• Megan Thee Stallion - Plan B.  Classic beat, and some hard disses to the dude she is eating Plan B because of.  Love the turn of the tables against so many of the dude tracks talking shit about ladies.
• Paerish - Stick to Silence.  I know that no one knows this band, and I can't recall how I came across them, but they freaking jam.  One of their albums from years ago was in constant rotation for me for so long.  Still can't believe they are French - you can't detect the accent at all.
• Logic - Tetris.  I like Logic way more than I intellectually think I should.  No one ever talks about Logic, he's never on a list of top rappers, but for whatever reason I'm usually in on anything he releases.  This one is just a free-flowing freestyle poured out all over a chill breakbeat.  Because he mentions it like 10 times, I guess this is a JDilla beat.
• A$AP Rocky - D.M.B.  I've mentioned before how Rocky felt like one of the best rappers of all time on that first mix-tape, but it feels like he gets less and less vital as he goes.
• My Chemical Romance - The Foundations of Decay.  Always with the melodramatic song names... this one has some of the usual emotive power and propulsive rock as their best stuff, but also feels a little plodding.  I need them to speed it up or tap into a better chorus.  it's also 6 freaking minutes.  That being said, I'd still go see them live in a heartbeat if they came through.
• Notorious B.I.G. - G.O.A.T.  Yeah, I know he's dead.  I dunno man.  This is the future, just rehashing things by dead people forever.  They just took his verses from an old song, slapped them into this new song, and I guess made money?  Not good.
• Logic - Vinyl Days.  Great beat, spinning a little violin sample over some good drums.  Wish he did more with the lyrics on it.  Just a bragging freestyle about how cool he is.
• Taylor Swift - Carolina.  This was the tune for that Where the Crawdads Sing movie.  Great book, you could literally feel the grime and stickiness that she lived through.  The movie was a little too clean for my tastes, but was still good.  This tune perfectly matches the vibe though.
• Kevin Gates - Bad For Me.  Another good one from him, I just like his sound.  Although not so sure I like the whole choking her during sex thing.
• Gorillaz - Cracker Island. I really dislike this one.  Under my skin for some reason.  Although I still laugh about someone calling the brotilla in Lady Bird Lake the Cracker Island.
• Eminem (feat. Snoop) - From the D 2 The LBC.  Yawn.  Eminem's verse is actually pretty cool, just the usual non-stop spraying of rhymes and freeform association.  Snoops verse is boring as hell though.
• Djo - Change.  The Stranger Things guy, who was supposed to come to ACL and then bailed on us.  When this song has popped up in the queue, I always thing it is the start of a Two Door Cinema Club album.  Which seems like a compliment.
• Brandi Carlile - You and Me on the Rock.  Lovely song.  Sounds a little like a classic Indigo Girls tune, just a perfectly wrought little love song.  Truly makes me want to buy my little abandoned house in the Japanese countryside and talk Amy into leaving everything behind to go live without any of this mess.
• Bjork - Atopos.  Freaking Bjork, man.  Debut and Post were the bomb diggity.  The more recent stuff just feels like a test to see if someone will actually subject themselves to it.  Aggro drum machine and bassoon!  Let's Go!
• Hozier - Swan Upon Leda.  Soft little atmospheric tune.  Pretty, if forgettable.
• First Aid Kit - Turning Onto You.  Another nice set of harmonies and 70's a.m. gold vibe.  Dig it.
• bling-182 - EDGING.  I'd like to yell at them about the need to just grow up already, but really, who needs to grow up.  Not a great song, but we can always use another bratty group of 50 year olds joking about sex in a church.  But I'd definitely say that I don't need to see them when they come back to town.  Just feels sad in a way it wouldn't to see other old bands.
• Zach Bryan - Starved.  Builds up in an interesting way from a quiet acoustic strummer to a hollering, bashing tune.  Not his best stuff, even though that line "there ain't no world in which I am good for you" is a solid one for the crowd to yell with him at a show.
• Mom Rock - Dishes.  Yeah baby, this song jams.  Each time it has come up among other albums in the New stuff playlist, I've enjoyed it.  Yummy indie rock jammer.
• Mom Rock - Grand Romantic Life.  This one is a little more kitschy, but it also rules.  Just a fun blast of over-the-top showtune-ass rock and roll.  I dig these guys.
• A$AP Rocky - Shittin' Me.  Better than that earlier one, just because the beat is brawny and fun.  Still, he's got nothing in his lyrics.
• Bizzy Banks - Don't Start Pt.2.  This is some sort of new style of rap that Rolling Stone told me I needed to check out.  Just sounds like boring stuff I've heard before, don't hear anything special.
• Parker McCollum - Stoned.  Surprisingly confessional tune for a young country star.  I don't know much about him, but I know some high school dudes who think he rules.  Pretty good song, actually.
• Zach Bryan (feat. Maggie Rogers) - Dawns.  Good pairing here.  They sound good together.  I'll also say though that he played this song live the other night, and it sounded significantly better than he does on this recording.  He's a little uneven and rough in this studio version, and the violins are weird.  He can do this one better, as that line of "give me my dogs back" was a great one to yell along to.
• Dave Matthews Band - Madman's Eyes.  I wonder what it is about DMB that makes them want to re-do this sort of middle east influenced thing over and over.  I feel like this is just a rehash.
• Beabadoobee - Glue Song.  Her voice rules on this track - its overly cutesy sounding, but it really matches the tone of the track itself.
• Bully (feat. Soccer Mommy) - Lose You.  Jam.  Really good rock and roll tune, dig the drumming and the fuzzed out guitar.
• The Revivalists - Kid.  Solid, not a ready-made hit, but catchy and fun.  I frequently listen for the pedal steel in their songs, just because it is the thing that makes them different, but it is frequently really hard to hear it.  Hope they'll be at ACL!
• Larry June - 60 Days.  Cool ass track - just a chill beat and a smooth delivery over the top.
• Lizzo - Special.  Not as exciting as her fun bangers, this one is more R&B.  Meh.
• Gracie Abrams - Amelie.  JJ Abrams' daughter, folks!  I want to like her, the Rolling Stone review I read about her was great and made her seem very likeable, but this just doesn't sound like anything special at all.  My daughters saw her open for Taylor Swift last night and were similarly non-impressed.
• Beck - Thinking About You.  Nice tune.  Not quite as atmospheric and singular as those Sea Change or Morning Phase songs, but a pretty little acoustic love song nonetheless.
• Tame Impala - Wings of Time.  Funny thing is, this sounds a lot like an old tune from InnerSpeaker.  At least that driving drumming really brings to mind one of those tracks - maybe "Alter Ego" is what I am thinking of?  Anyway, nothing special for me in this track, although it sounds like something that some cosplaying dudes might want to jam.
• Home Free - Sea Shanty Melody.  Do you ever have people suggest a song to you and then want to stand there and watch you listen to it?  Brutal.  A family member was shocked that I was not familiar with Home Free, and then proceeded to bring up the video of them performing Man of Constant Sorrow.  It is actually pretty wild - dudes can sing, and they make insane noises out of their faceholes.  Anyway, I saved this one to my queue because it is their top song.  Like Glee for pirates.
• Militarie Gun - Very High.  Sweet!  This one just came to me from a playlist I found by Brooklyn Vegan, and its a tasty little nugget!
• Killer Mike - Don't Let The Devil.  Just from the first few seconds, this one sounds so freaking good.  Like, the beat kicks in and Mike just starts literally flowing along with it like a fish being buoyed by the waves.  Sounds so freaking dope.  Also, how you going to have El-P show up on a solo album track?  How is this not a RTJ track?  Feeling it for sure.
• Family Dinner - Revenge Dress.  Chugging good time, joining the ranks of a handful of other ladies making kiss-off rock right now.
• Foo Fighters - Rescued.  Man, I'm glad that they are still up for making new music.  I was really worried that they would just retire to live off of their riches after Taylor Hawkins died.  Another song with inscrutable lyrics - you can try to read something into it about Hawkins - "I'm just waiting to be rescued, bring me back to life" or "I fell in a trap, my heart's getting colder."  Or the opening: "It came in a flash, It came out of nowhere, It happened so fast, And then it was over, Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Is this happening now? Oh, Are you feeling what I'm feeling? This is happening now."  I could see that being about losing Hawkins out of no where and them struggling with their feelings.  But, another good, bashing, howling rock song.  I dig the way it all kicks in at the start - this sounds like some classic Foos.  I'll take it.