Quick Hits, Vol. 79 (Ray LaMontagne, Eric Church, Methyl Ethel, The Record Company)

I heard a single on a Spotify playlist the other day that locked right into my musical hot zone. The band, Paerish, has no album out of other tunes to check, but this track ("Undone") is worthy of being heard.

Some hot and fuzzy alt-rock hotness.  I want to hear more of that action right there.

Ray LaMontagne - Ouroboros.  I've never been into LaMontagne that much, but this album is a beauty.  Opens with that Nick Drake, Fleet Foxes, soft-focus vibe, and then kicks in a little bit more rockin', but imagine Pink Floyd in the "Wish You Were Here" era.  But then I went and read about the album and see that he made it with Jim James, from My Morning Jacket, and now I see that my Floyd sonic call does sound remarkably like MMJ stuff.  None of the songs on this disc have cracked his top ten on Spotify, but the rocker I mentioned above, called "Part One - Hey, No Pressure," is the definite leader in plays at almost a million.  Most of the rest of the album is in the less than 70k spins zone.

Definite MMJ influence.  And then the break in the middle is very Dark Side.  And then wait for the sounds in the middle of "Part Two - A Murmuration of Starlings," which is what locked in this idea. Anyway, man, I think this album sounds great.  You should go give it a spin or three.

Eric Church - The Outsiders.  I wanted to listen to this album two years ago when it first came out and Rolling Stone was all over it.  But Spotify didn't have the whole thing (just the title song) until sometime recently when I was searching for the new album.  I just listened to that new album, and its a good sound.  I like the combination of rock along with the sense of country.  That title track, "The Outsiders" has some lite Jack White guitar skuzz on it that is pretty well done.  Strangely though, that track only has about 9 million listens, and is crushed on Spotify by some others with over 20 million spins.  The top of those is "Like a Wrecking Ball," a simple Southern burner love song.

Which is all right and all, but not terribly great.  I get it, you want to see her so bad that you want to knock down the front door and knock down some pictures off the wall and the rafters'll be shakin, and love you baby like a wrecking ball.  No subtlety here.  And the next most popular track is also got the cheese, called "Talledega," all about "turnin' up, slowin' down, and cars that go real fast."  I feel like his other albums have a stronger lyrical sense than this one.  I'll pass on any more listens.

Methyl Ethel - Oh Inhuman Spectacle.  I don't know why I only had two songs from this album for a few weeks, but I got really in to "Rogues" and "Twilight Driving" before the whole album showed up in my playlist.  Found these cats while looking for others like Tame Impala from the Australia psych scene. and I like it.  Here is one of those two, "Twilight Driving"

Also happens to be their most popular Spotify track at about 500k listens.  Super chilled tunes, but something about this album has kept me coming back to it multiple times over the past two weeks. I'm going to keep jamming it.

The Record Company - Give It Back to You.  Some pure bluesy rock action.  Kind of a generic band name, but I'll give them a pass because the music is smoking and swaggering and sweaty good stuff.  I'd call them Black Keys-lite, but that sounds like a diss.  I mean it as a compliment.  They've also got some Cage the Elephant and Black Crowes elements in here.  The album opener, "Off the Ground" is their most popular Spotify track by a ways (141k listens vs. 19k for the next highest), and here's a chance for you to add to their playcount:

Nothing flashy, nothing new, but they take the classic sound and hammer it.  I dig it.  Their Wikipedia page is a heavy duty ad for themselves that is kind of lame, but I won't hold it against them.  And the list of their appearances in media is kind of cool - they've done a good job of getting their music featured in stuff.  Anyway, I think this album is worth you checking out.