Quick Hits, Vol. 77 (Weaves, Eric Church, Wolfmother, Kevin Gates)

Surprise Kendrick!  I saw a Kendrick Lamar song in a new music playlist this morning, and thought it was odd, being that the name of the song appeared to show that it was old and Kendrick didn't have any new music out.  WRONG-O.  As my twitter feed blow up would attest, Kendrick dropped a surprise album this morning called untitled unmastered.  I spent pretty much all day listening to it, but I'm not ready to discuss the music yet.  But I still wanted to note that it exists and think about the song titles, which are just dates or year ranges, which is weird.  I had been guessing that those were the dates the stuff was written, but I'm not so sure that I buy it that he was making these tracks three years ago. So far, the first few minutes of untitled 07 is my favorite beat.

Weaves - Weaves EP.  Electronic indie guitar rock smearing around in weird ways.  Pretty annoying at times ("Buttercup"), but then it can be fun as well ("Motorcycle").  Here is the top track on Spotify, called "Take a Dip."

Her voice drones on a bit more than I'd like, and combined with the whine of the guitar at times, this one bugs me.  I dunno, this band ought to be up my alley but its not working out for me.

Eric Church - Mr. Misunderstood.  This guy gets an immediate pass because "Springsteen" was so very awesome.  This one flashes some good stuff, but it is somewhat forgettable as it plinks and plunks along in the background of a day.  And he calls Jeff Tweedy "one bad muther," which is too hard for me to get my head around.  But I like his juxtaposition of real deal rock and roll with country - he walks that line without dipping into the bullshit bro rockin' country of modern times, all about hot chicks and pickup trucks and 'Merica.  "Chattanooga Lucy" is fun, "Knives of New Orleans" is brooding and cool, the duet with Susan Tedeschi is damn pretty, but I think "Record Year" is my favorite track from the album.

I can't put my finger on it with this guy, but I like him despite a thin layer of schmaltz over the top of this entire album.  I've run through this thing about 5 times today, and I just can't quite figure it out. But then I woke up the other day singing "Round Here Buzz" in my head, so it has somehow stuck with me anyway.  I'll just have to keep it around and see what happens.

Wolfmother - Victorious.  Their first album, back in 2006, was awesome.  Over-the-top, bombastic, power rock with nerdy allusions to mysticism.  It was awesome.  And then everyone knew them because "Joker and the Thief" was used in the Hangover when the guys hammer the casino. Anyway, I fell out from these dudes in the interim and never even noticed that they made two more albums (2009's Cosmic Egg and 2014's New Crown), but this album is a good time.  If you didn't like the old album - power riffage and chugging rhythm under high pitched rock wail - then you'll want to skip this one too, but I am getting down to this.

The title track is also their most listened-to on Spotify, and you'll know its Wolfmother the second the vocals kick in.  They can get a little more chilled, like on "Best of a Bad Situation," but even then they've still got the same proggy organs and hand claps that make it obvious who is playing.  "Gypsy Caravan" is the other classic Wolfmother track on here - no mistaking it.  Pretty sweet disc.  I'm kind of expecting to see these guys show at ACL, so I may need to revisit this review sometime soon.

Kevin Gates - Islah.  Sometimes I fault artists for waiting too long in between releases, but like Ryan Adams, ol' Kevin Gates is not the guy to take a bunch of time to craft his next album.  Two in 2013 (including the awesome Stranger than Fiction), two in 2014, an uncharacteristic gap in 2015, and now this album released in the first month of this year.  Uneven album.  I don't hear anything that immediately hits me up like "White Tan" did, but there are a few good tracks on here.  The most listened-to track is "2 Phones," about how he's so big time that he needs 2 (or maybe 4) phones to manage all his drugs and women and general badassness.

Over 18 million streams - hotness.  I wish I knew what "one for the plug and one for the load" meant. Going to go with drugs. The next most listened to track, "Really Really," fires up over 15 million spins, and then one ("Kno One") cracks 9 million, but the rest of the album is down in the 1 or 2 million range.  Unfortunately though, "2 Phones" and "Really Really" are in the first three on the album, and after those you get mired down in some pretty forgettable tracks for the next 14 songs. Like the garbage "One Thing," all sexual braggadocio boringness over a mediocre beat.  Even "Kno One" doesn't do much for me - "She say I'm a dog but it takes one to know one, allright."  Meh.  I think I'll just save a track or two from this and let the rest go.