Quick Hits, Vol. 112 (DJ Mustard, Kings of Leon, The Game, Wrong)

Is Wolf Alice the greatest band of all time?  No, but does listening again to their 2015 album My Love Is Cool make me want to speed and fight and hug and cry and jump and kick?  Yes.  "Bros," "Your Loves Whore," and "Moaning Lisa Smile" are such choice cuts.

Also, does the Euphoria Fest lineup make anyone else out there feel like an old person?  I don't think I'd intentionally go see anything on that poster.  May end up being fun if I was there, but that is like a random amalgamation of the 7th line of every minor festival in Delaware, Kansas City Motor Speedway, and eastern Canada.

DJ Mustard - Cold Summer.  Ugh.  After seeing this guy at ACL last year, which was one of the worst shows of the weekend for me, I don't really care to hear his music any more. And a run through this album doesn't change that opinion at all.  I'll give him kudos for solid beat production, which is his work on this album, but the raps on here are mainly garbage. I was about to just skip past even giving you an example, because I just don't want to hear this stuff anymore, but here is the most popular track, "Want Her," which has just over 6 million streams.

For the first full minute and then some, you just hear one of two lines said over and over and over and over.  And they aren't even fun or clever lines.  This is Quavo, who is part of Migos, and YG, who is Mustard's #1 customer.  And each of them pretty much takes one verse and then goes right back to repeating themselves.  The beat is good, definitely a great groove and bounce, but lyrically its just trash.  I won't keep any of this album.

Kings of Leon - Walls. The Kings of Leon have been a favorite ever since I bought 2004's Aha Shake Heartbreak at a Best Buy, upwrapped the old cellophane wrapper, slid that disc into my sweet Jetta's soundsystem, and began the process of blaring it while driving around town.  That album is great.  I went and got Youth and Young Manhood (2003) soon thereafter, and then enjoyed Because of the Times (2007) after that.  At first, I wasn't all that hot on Only By the Night (2008), but then I saw these guys at Stubb's and connected much more forcefully with some of those tracks.  I love when that happens, you go see someone pour their sweat and fire right into a song, and hear the crowd soaking it up (and firing it right back at the band), and then your feeling and memory of a song is forever transformed. Good stuff.  I remember "On Call" that way, just the hymn-like quality and the crowd carrying the vocals to a different place than I'd noticed before.  So I've stuck by these guys as they have continued to release albums through the years, and they've been fine.  Nothing as urgent and awesome as those first few albums, but still keeping these guys up there in the conversation for the best (out of very few contenders) rock band left in America.

This one keeps that same conversation going.  Nothing new or revelatory, but still solid groove-based rock and roll with one of my favorite lead singer voices.  Strong, but glitchy enough to be real, and harmonic, but not so fancy that it loses its rock sound.  Most of this album is in the 5 million plus range for streams, except for two tracks that both bust trough the ten million zone - "Walls" (15 mill.) and "Waste a Moment" (31.5 million).  Here is the latter.

Weird video.  Still don't understand what he is accomplishing with the side-head-jazz-hand whenever the bad guy whips out his comb.  Although it appears to be something involving fire and toys.  I dunno.  But this whole album contains the classic sound of the KOL and works well.  I wish this album had more of the rawness on their first few albums, but I get it, they aren't young and raw anymore.  They are fully practiced and skilled at using their instruments.  But I like it anyway, still hoping the come to ACL again.

The Game - 1992.  It feels really weird that I like The Game so much.  I don't know why I want to resist this music, but something inside of me wants to assume that he sucks, when truthfully, his last few albums have been great.  This one is more of the same, story-telling rap, heavy on good homage (Wu Tang, Dr. Dre) and cool sampling.  This is the kind of rap I've always loved the most.  I will say that the bonus track available on Spotify is weak.  But otherwise, this is solid stuff.  Haha!  I just went to look at the most popular track to discuss it here, and see that the bonus track that I just crapped on ("All Eyez (feat. Jeremih)") is that number one track with 35.3 million streams.  Unfortunately, my choices for videos for this album are that and the other weakest cut, "Baby You."  Both are just more of the slow jam love song crap.  I guess I'll just play you the most popular one.

Best part is when he dogs on Future and Desiigner.  But seriously, much better stuff on here like "True Colors/It's On," "Bompton," "I Grew Up On Wu Tang," or "The Soundtrack."  I especially like that last one, which shows Game's love for Dre, even though he's no longer on the Aftermath label, which I respect.  The cool thing is that most of these songs seem like an homage to someone awesome.  So "True Colors/It's On" sounds like an Ice T lover's track, and "The Soundtrack" sounds like Clams Casino took a trip to a g-funk class, took a bunch of drugs, and hashed together a laid back beat from Dr. Dre's leftovers.  Best thing about all of this, and the other recent Game albums, is that this is real story-telling rap.  Actually reminds me of Nas in some of this.  But instead of just listing brands, he's weaving tales and reminiscing about his past.  Love it.

WRONG - WRONG.  Oh hell yeah.  There is that deep down filthy love making music I need.  If you were like me, and loved Helmet back in the day, then this is your stuff.  Loud, crushing, thumping, based on a dark ass groove and then searing guitar solos, this is where I LIVED in high school.  I swear, these guys just listened to Helmet songs from Strap it On and Meantime and just made a slight adjustment to create their copy.  Check out "Wrong," which is "Turned Out" and "Iron Head" and "FBLA II" mashed together for me and only me. Sadly, not available on the YouTubes, so I'll have to choose between "Turn In" or "Mucilage."  We'll go with the more streamed one, "Turn In."

Its not only the music, but also the cadence of the singer that reeks of Helmet.  "Fake Brain" is also spot on Helmet homage.  By the way, it is difficult to search for the song "Wrong" on the album Wrong by the band Wrong, on YouTube, because of Donald Trump's weird little mutterings about Clinton's claims in a debate.  Definitely going to keep this album, its like I'm being transported right back to my straight-edge, faux-angry days of high school and I love it.