Quick Hits, Vol. 339 (The Smile, Katy Kirby, Lil Simz, IDLES)

The Smile - Wall of Eyes.  A Radiohead album by any other name would sound just as odd.  This is Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, of Radiohead, with Tom Skinner, a London-based drummer and producer, making music that pretty much sounds like a Radiohead album.  I guess they hate their normal drummer or something.  Like "Read the Room" 100% sounds like some of the more recent spacey-distorted Radiohead.  It's fine.  I love some of the old school Radiohead - like Mount Rushmore stuff - but this is just a nice little meandering set of stuff.  Top track is "Bending Hectic," with 5.4 million streams.

Sounds like a guitar tuning exercise for about half the song.  Pretty, but like I said, just feels kind of meandering and unfocused.  And maybe that is the point - they're not making killer indie pop rock or mind-bending synth rock here, they're doing a vibe piece.  And once the song shifts, at like 3 minutes in, I like the song so much more.  I don't need to add this to the canon.

Katy Kirby - Blue Raspberry.  Kirby was a late add to ACL last year, and I really loved her debut album.  This one is likewise a really solid piece of lovely indie rock.  Love songs abound, and she generally keeps the sound close and intimate without a ton of instrumentation.  I think they are wonderful.  "Cubic Zirconia" kind of jams, and the lyrics are interesting to parse for sure.  Unsurprisingly, that is the top track.  333k streams.

"like a barbed wire electric fence of personality" is a great line.  And I think the instrumentation is really enjoyable too - makes me want to jam it.  Really good album from start to finish.  You should try it out.

Lil Simz - Drop 7.  Disappointing.  After jamming her a lot last year and deeply enjoying her ACL set, I was looking forward to a new set of tunes.  But this is definitely matched by the cover - Simz as mostly robot - as the tracks mainly hew to electronic stuff that does nothing to contribute to her normally pleasant flow.  "SOS" is fun, just because it is more like a Afro-Carribean jam session.  At first, I thought this was just a remix album, like an electro reimagining of some of her hits or something.  The streams tell the same story, with the stream count starting low and then just getting lower over the runtime of the disc.  "Mood Swings" is the first track and the top streamer - 3.5 million.

Like that M.I.A. lady who ended up being a nutter.  "I Ain't Feelin' It" might be the top track on here for me.  More of a regular banger beat and flow.  I don't know.  The whole thing just feels a little like a b-sides collection, not the top tier stuff.

IDLES - TANGK.  Ever since I saw them at ACL, I've had a lingering fear of these dudes.  Their lead singer paces the stage like an animal, kicking and snarling and generally looking unhinged.  The opener to this one is odd, but the "Gift Horse" comes in swinging for your teeth with a tense dance beat and floating bassline, followed by an aggressive sing-along chorus.  He comes even harder on the LCD Soundsystem-assisted "Dancer," which would be a great mosh pit dance track.  10.4 million streams.

I'm not the biggest LCD fan out there, but this groove freaking jams.  Some songs are even kind of pretty - like the gentle "Grace" that comes on like a Radiohead tune.  But they bookend that little ditty with more aggressive danceability in "Hall & Oates."  I really dig the combination they make here of angry boogie.