Quick Hits, Vol. 331 (Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler Childers, Royal Blood, Paramore)

Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS.  Something about Rodrigo makes me feel wrong.  Like, this is my kid's diary that I am reading through, or like I am spying on my kid and her friends as they talk about their lives.  Which is weird, because I have never felt like that with other confessional music things like Taylor Swift or whoever.  Something here just hits differently.  So much confession and story-telling tho.  For me, it is definitely the loose rock and roll tunes that make me enjoy this the most.  Because what makes this so fun is the reckless abandon of yelling along to things like "IT'S SOCIAL SUICIDE!" and the lyrics of "all-american bitch."  That last song is a great intro to the album - super basic but extremely fun riffage, Rodrigo vacillating between childish screaming and angelic singing while jumping all over the possible lyrical map.  The chorus of "bad idea right?" is cracking me up.  This is deeply fun music.  Without looking, I was trying to consider what would have the most streams, and I came down on either "vampire" or "pretty isn't pretty," but that second thought must just be a personal preference because it comes in at the second-least streamed on the album.  I like it though.  "vampire" has 703 million streams and some well-placed cuss words.

One thing it does really well is transition from a tender piano ballad into a danceable beat, and yet still destroys this guy with her lyrics.  When she last toured through Austin she played the tiny Moody Ampitheater, which meant that only 5,000 people got to go.  Which is jenky.  I'm sure it was fun for those select few, but I hope she gets put onto the ACL poster or otherwise swings back through Austin for us.  I'd go, and I know my daughters would be down for it.

Tyler Childers - Rustin' in the Rain.  Speaking of things my girls inexplicably love more than expected...  I put "In Your Love" on a playlist and while it was playing in the car I got a very serious - "turn that up right now please" - from the backseat.  I read a Tweet or Skeet or something the other day complaining that he's getting so much recognition for that song when he has so many other songs that are significantly better songwriting.  Which, sure, but getting a rocketship song on the charts just gets more folks to go back and listen to the old stuff and realize what he has back there in the catalog.  My main beef with him right now is that the last time I saw him live, at last year's Two Step Inn, he was straight-up boring.  He apparently refuses to play the old classics like "Feathered Indians," and just had no stage presence at all as he meandered through some gospel-tinged tunes.  Which is exactly what I hear on songs like "Space and Time" on here, just a slog of a country-tinged doowop tune.  I like the title tune though, as it's got some verve and gumption to it.  "In Your Love" crushes all the others on stream counts - like almost 10x the second-most streamed tune.

I really like some of those individual lines, stuff like "team of mules pullin' hell off of its hinges."  I had no expectation that the video for this song would feature two miner dudes making out.  I figured the new-found Christianity wouldn't have room for that sort of thing.  Maybe I'm not giving him the benefit of the doubt here.  Also, that little piano trill after that line I quoted up above is hilarious every time I hear it.  Sad fuckin' video, Tyler.  Damn.  That hurt my heart a little bit.  Couple good tunes in here, but the full album isn't a keeper.

Royal Blood - Back to the Water Below.  More of the same from these guys, and that is a good thing in my opinion.  I've seen them live a handful of times, and after the first one (where you realize, wait, all those sounds are really just made by two dudes?) you learn that this band will bring the powerful thumping catharsis each time they take the stage.  Their last disc had a little too much pop ambition for me, but this one generally leaves that behind in favor of pure riffage.  The funny one is the Beatles-esque (but it also makes me think of that band Jet) "There Goes My Cool," which pops up out of no where and throws in a psych-ish ballad tune among all of the punishing rock of the rest of the disc.  But this is a good return to form.  Top song is "Pull Me Through" with 7.1 million streams.

A little extra instrumentation on that one with the piano before the usual assault kicks in.  That lady's teeth are really gross.  Remember that intense video for "No Surprises"?  This felt like that for a minute, if it weren't for the random gallery of dopes collected around the car.  Good disc.

Paramore - Re: This is Why.  Completely unnecessary remix album of their last disc.  Like, they have some cool collaborators on here, like Wet Leg and Foals, and then you can't even really notice those folks' presence on the track.  Just a less good version of the song they already put out.  Like, "This is Why" supposedly features Foals, but it just sounds like a light, meandering house re-imagining of the tune.  Not at all like a Foals and Paramore collab.  Really weird.  Looks like the one with Remi Wolf ("You First") is the only one that has caught on at all.  5.2 million streams.

I guess that is more of a real collaboration.  But still, I'm sticking to my guns in finding this an unnecessary addition to the Paramore sound.  The originals are all better.