Quick Hits, Vol. 336 (Hayden Pedigo, Andre 3000, Green Day, BabyTron, Chris Stapleton)

Hayden Pedigo - Greetings from Amarillo.  One of my wife's cousins suggested this one to me, and it has some really lovely moments.  The title track, which starts the album, is the best cut to me.  There is a certain class of musician who can make an instrumental guitar song and have it turn out cool.  This one walks a fine line between classical and popular that I think sounds great.  It's not a classic Eric Johnson instrumental or Leo Kottke classic, but the incessant picking makes it almost feel like a harpsicord or the intro to a Vampire Weekend song that rips off Bach.  My guy is from Amarillo, too, which is kind of different.  Some of the tunes are a little too "soundscape-y" for my tastes - swirling synth sounds and swelling noise in "Dark Heaven" just sounds a little hackneyed.  "Cloud Pharaoh" does the same to me - its more like a Trent Reznor vibe piece for a video game than the finger-picked guitar goodness of other tunes like "Madrid."  Top track is "Good Night," the final song on the album, with 292k streams.

It has a "Harvest Moon" imprint in my mind as I hear those notes.  It feels like I could turn it on and then sing Neil's words over the top and it would match up just right.  Pretty song though.  I don't think I need to save this album - some of the songs are lovely, but much of it is uninteresting at the end of the day.  I bet a concert with him would be rad though.

Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun.  Yeah.  Not getting this one.  I read a few things calling it innovative and blah blah blah, but the 12 minute opening track just sounds like he told the synthesizer to play a background rhythm and then he took out his little electric light saber/flute thing and started just making weird sounds with it to see where his mind took him.  Just a meandering set of toot toot toot toot toot toots weaving around some spacey background synths.  I hope making it made him happy and all, but I don't need to hear it anymore at all.  I know you won't be surprised, but that first track is the top one on Spotify, because no one made it past that one to hear the rest.  "I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A "Rap" Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time" is the dopey ass name of that track.

Nah breh.  We good.

Green Day - Saviors.  I said something the other day about Blink 182 going back to their roots - same thing is going on here.  This is the classic Green Day sound - a little sneery and punk, but with a professional and poppy sheen applied liberally.  They have a tendency, which I like, to reference some weird things musically, like 50's doo wop.  So, musically, I enjoy the disc - classic chugging Green Day tunes.  I'd say that my big beef with it is how safe it all feels.  I saw them create some controversy at New Years when they changed the lyrics of "American Idiot" to say they aren't part of the MAGA agenda.  Sooooo rebellious!  But then this has nothing on it that feels as vital and exciting as their best work in the past.  Dookie was classic, but for chronicling the boredom and discontent and goofiness of youth.  American Idiot was classic, because it shit all over George W. Bush and also rocked ass.  And so this one came out at a time when they could have really dug into the MAGA mess and acted as a voice for the broken shit strewn around us every day.  Instead, they just kind of bop along and sing pointless crap about "calling all saviors tonight, make us all believers tonight," instead of actually telling us what we need saving from and how to do it.  The first song is the top streamer, and has the chance to talk about something deep about our situation, but instead says stuff like "Send out an SOS, It's getting serious, Bulldoze your family home, Now it's a condo."  Which, uh, okay?  "TikTok and taxes!"  YEAH!  RAGE AGAINST THAT MACHINE BILLY JOE!  So, I'm going to give you #2.  "Dilemma" has 10 million streams.

Hear that doowop start?  You can just hear a fifties girl group in that intro.  But then come the chugging guitars and bashing drums and you're back in the Green Day zone.  Being that Billy Joe has been sober for a while, kind of a strange song to throw out there at this point.  But it sounds badass!  Eh, I like it.  I'd keep listening to the album, even if I think they could have done more.

BabyTron - Out on Bond.  Rolling Stone had some article recently talking about the, like, "next up" rappers that we should be paying attention to.  This guy sucks major ass.  Terrible beats, weak bars, off the beat, just zero substance at all in this album.  By the way, I also cancelled my Rolling Stone subscription the other day.  The lady on the phone asked why I was cancelling, and I said that the magazine just doesn't interest me anymore.

Chris Stapleton - Higher.  Such an amazing talent - I love Stapleton so much.  And its weird, to consider why he's so great.  I guess in large part it is because the usual country star doesn't have much of a voice, and Stapleton's is an absolutely beautiful instrument.  Soulful and soaring and rich in ways that a Jason Isbell or Zach Bryan or Luke Combs or the other current crop of country stars just are not.  Like, take the power rock or "White Horse," immediately followed by the soul and falsetto balladry of "Higher."  Totally different songs, but they are both anchored by the magical voice.  So good.  I figured the album opener would be the top track, but it gets crushed by "Think I'm in Love With You" at 44 million and the aforementioned "White Horse," which jams its way to 108.4 million streams.

You know the man is big time when he hasn't put together a video for a hundred million stream song.  Any smaller artist would be doing everything they could to pump up those numbers, but he just cranks the guitar one notch louder and wails at his lover.  Excellent track, I can see it being amazing in a live setting.  "It Takes a Woman" is lovely, as is "What Am I Gonna Do" and "Higher."  Front to back, great stuff.