Quick Hits, Vol. 86 (Weezer, Babymetal, Anderson Paak, Young Thug)

I've got about 5 of these packs of quick hits I need to release, so expect a deluge before the ACL lineup announcement this week.

Weezer - Weezer (the White Album).  I don't know why people are always so damn up in arms about a new Weezer album.  I appreciate the general consistency (dropping out that Hurley thing) of crunchy pop rock with occasional confessional lyrics and some wry observations of life and love. Stupid music reviewers, seriously.  I thought their last album was good stuff, and this one is as well. According to something I read, this album is either in tribute to or supposed to have been influenced by the Beach Boys, and you can see some of that in the song titles ("California Kids," "L.A. Girlz," "(Girl We Got a) Good Thing," and "Endless Bummer") and you can hear it in some of the sunny lyrics and instrumentation.  But despite that slight nod to beach pop from 50 years ago, this sounds like another fun Weezer album.
A couple of these tracks were released early on Spotify, so some of the play counts are much higher than others ("Thank God For Girls" at almost 5 million, "King of the World" at 2.7 million) but I won't say that either of those two is the best track on here.  So I'll give you "(Girl We Got a) Good Thing," which is plugging along at 735k listens, and best shows the Beach Boys influence thing going on here.

Peep those jingle bells!  And those uncharacteristically happy lyrics!  I like just about all of the songs on here, but for some reason "Jacked Up" annoys me.  The piano riff makes me think of the generally bad Kanye West and Chris Martin song, and the falsetto chorus in this one makes me cringe.  But, its not awful or anything, just a minor wart on an otherwise good album.

Babymetal - Metal Resistance.  I had a note about this band the other day.  I was browsing Spotify's new music tab the other day and just clicked on this album to see what it was about, and ended up going down a serious rabbit trail into this band.  Super freaking strange.  This is a metal band, but the singers are three cutesy little J-Pop singers who sing in pretty harmonies over the tight metal thrash. I seriously laughed when I first heard the vocals kick in.  And they have awesome song titles, like "Head Bangya!!" or "HeadBangeeeeeerrrrr!!!!!!" or "No Rain, No Rainbow" or "BABYMETAL DEATH" or this one, the most popular off of this new album, called "KARATE."

Watch that video.  I mean it.  The music is a little bit Linkin Park, but harder.  The band apparently rose out of another band, known as an "idol" group, called Sakura Gakuin, that is made up of 10 to 15 year old girls.  These girls (or at least one of them) apparently outgrew that band, so they kept this thing rolling with the new metal group.
I feel like this should be the music we show to the aliens when they come to us and ask for our art. Screw some old Chopin nocturne that is going to put them to sleep and make them think we are all boring old people with no pulse, we need to show them this video, on the monster screen at JerryWorld.  Once they see that even our children can use harmonies and choreography to melt away the evil martial arts spirit monster guys, the aliens will decide that we should be the ones to rule them. We won't need Randy Quaid to die!  But seriously, this is kind of a fun album.  I'm not going to keep it around - I have no freaking clue what they are saying and the metal is a little more real-deal than I would normally stick with - but it is entertainment for sure.

Anderson Paak - Malibu.  Odd album, but I've enjoyed listening to it.  Walks a wide swath between rap and R&B and soul, with a couple good guest verses from Schoolboy Q, The Game, BJ the Chicago Kid, and Talib Kweli.  Reminds me of some of the Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper tunes that involve more singing than rapping, and that soulful music instead of just beats.  The album opens with a funky little jazz song called "The Bird," peppered with a little bit of rap sound as well.  And it continues to mix genres and sounds after that, with some tracks interesting, some less so.  Two of my favorites come at the very end - "Celebrate," which sounds like a soul classic from 40 years ago, and then the next track is "The Dreamer," which is a solid and well-done rap track that reminds me of Common.  The most-listened to track on the album right now on Spotify is "Room in Here," with 3.8 million streams.

The beat, the hook, that is some addictive stuff right there.  And what is up with The Game? Somehow I've enjoyed that dude recently.  But this is a cool sound, and I heard from a friend that his live show was amazing.  I'm guessing that he'll be at ACL, so maybe I'll get to check that out...

Young Thug - Slime Season 3.  You know, this is better than I thought it would be.  I still don't like his delivery - mostly done through a semi-yell bark, at a tone that is just annoying to my ears.  Not Meek Mill-level terrible, but just grates on my ears after a while to have everything delivered in the tone that Hillary Clinton is forced to use in every debate.  I generally enjoy the beats, new school alien future grind from guys like London on the Track and Mike Will Made It.  The most listened to is "Digits," with just over 5.5 million.

I don't know, man.  I've been putting off reviewing this album because I just can't get into it.  That song, like the rest of the album, is generally fine to just fart along in the background of a day, but then if you try to parse the lyrics, its a pretty weak story about slangin' with some OK wordplay and simile.  I'm going to let this album go.