Quick Hits, Vol. 35 (Action Bronson, Laura Marling, Chief Keef, The Prodigy)

Before I get to the reviews, a few interesting notes about the blog.  First, I have passed 3,000 views, which is kind of a fun milestone.  Aiming for 5k next!  Second, I keep seeing one particular old post pop up in my stats as being viewed repeatedly.  For ACL 2014, I listened to A Thousand Horses, and put up a post about them that was more or less complimentary, but also made fun of their marketing and website.  Well for the past month, the most popular post for my blog, other than the ACL Predictions post, is that Thousand Horses post.  Sounds like they have a new song out and people are hunting for more information on them.  Odd the way the Internet works.


Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful.  I've talked about Action Bronson before - his Rare Chandeliers mixtape was sincerely boss.  This one is his first real album, and according to Rolling Stone, it was produced by Mark Ronson.  All of that sounds great.  Uptown Funk plus a guy who can create great rhymes about food or being generally badass.  But I just can't get into a groove on this thing.  Actin' Crazy is still tight (see link above for video) but, like "Terry" or "Falconry," they've got a couplet or two that are cool, but a lot is just stream of consciousness random phrases.  "The Rising" is pretty good.  But he does a lot of sing-song action on this thing ("City Boy Blues" or "Baby Blue"), or the track is not much of a beat, more of a pretty song ("Only in America," or "Light in the Addict").  I'm conflicted, because normally I dig a funk song backing up a rapper, but most of this is just not memorable.  Well, that isn't entirely true.  "Actin' Crazy," "Baby Blue," and "Easy Rider" all stuck in my head afterwards, but this is not your typical rap album in the slightest.  Here is Easy Rider:

I mean, that beat and underlying sound is like something out of a spaghetti western movie.  No big bass thump, no trap skitter, no guest verse from Drake.  What?  And I think he rolls into the church from Kill Bill in this video, which is sweet, before a very Bon Jovi-esque guitar solo on some rocks (well, except JBJ is shaped like the Kool Aid Man).  Lyrically, this one goes some strange places, but it also has some cohesion and story, at least for a portion.  I dunno, man.  I wanted to love this thing, but I'm going to have to live with it for a few more listens to see if I can get my head around it.  Right now, not doing it for me.

Bjork.  Super dandelion of death alert!

Check out that cool costume thing!  And those scary boobs in shrink wrap behind lace!

Laura Marling - Short Movie.  Great folky rock from a strong songwriter.  I really liked her album from two years ago called Once I Was an Eagle, but this one comes a little stronger, a little more electric.  Marling's voice is lovely - warm and familiar in tracing beautiful lyrics over the music. "How Can I" and "Easy" have a little Nick Drake sound, and I hear echos of Jeff Buckley in here as well.  Here is the most popular tune, False Hope:

Nothing like the light folk tunes elsewhere on the album (and on Eagle), but a pretty solid rock song. Good disc to chill with on a rainy morning like today.

Chief Keef - Sorry 4 the Weight.  I fear that I am losing my love for rap music.  I can't get behind this, even with generally pretty good beats, it just has a same-ness that becomes brutal to listen to after the 71 minutes required to listen to this album.  So much auto-tune.  So many lines about money and drugs and killing people.  Enjoy "Vet Lungs," the most popular one on Spotify.

Yawn-o-rama.  Nothing on this album sticks to me at all.

The Prodigy - The Day is My Enemy.  More bang crash techno stuff from the Prodigy.  Music for the Jilted Generation and Fat of the Land were both kick ass sources of enjoyment in college.  My friend Jason showed up with Jilted in hand and we wore that disc out for a couple of years until Fat came out.  Fat was their big break into the mainstream, with "Firestarter" and "Smack My Bitch Up" going big in radio and Charlie's Angels movies and commercials and X-Games intros.  Both are still pretty damn great albums when you want to run or angrily dance or drive fast.  The Prodigy did a 2004 album (Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned) that was OK, I remember liking it pretty well, but then their 2009 album (Invaders Must Die) was not good (except for "Stand Up," which is a pretty good jam).  Sorry, not here for a history lesson.  This album is back to the classic sound - I wouldn't put anything on here at par with the best songs from their first two albums, but this stuff has a nasty edge to it, an aggressive pounding, crunching, snarling feel that takes me back and sounds good.

This one sounds like an old Sega game soundtrack, but with bass and chanted lyrics.  This fox and moose combo are hardcore badasses, yo.  Any moose that can explode people's heads with a war cry is pretty excellent.  But while it was fun to reminisce about Prodigy, I think I'll stick with the tried and true classic albums and let this one go.