Quick Hits Vol. 138 (Bob Hillman, The Outfit, TX, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Drake)

Bob Hillman - Lost Soul.  For a while I couldn't place where I knew this guy from.  In the end, I don't think I know his from anywhere (and can't figure out how he landed in my new music list), but its more just that his voice sounds familiar.  I think he lands somewhere in between the lead singer for the Barenaked Ladies and Colin Meloy from the Decemberists. With great song titles like "I Think I've Taken Enough Shit from You This Year" or "You Started Drinking Again" or "I'll Replace You With Machines," his music is very easy to relate to and understand.  Great lines too, like "you're an overnight failure, wake up and die" or "empty bedroom, dust motes, push broom, starting point of a new life, minus one coulda been wife."  I like the imagery and the relaxed tone.  Seriously, where did this album come from?  Nothing on here has more than a thousand spins on Spotify.  I think this is the only track with a video, so here you go, "Big Sur."

Like the rest of this album, its a good tune, well pieced together and executed.  He ought to be doing better than the low number of listens he has, but its a tough world out there.  Damn fine voice and good lyrics.

The Outfit, Tx - Green Light: Everythang Goin'  There we go, anytime a colon is used in a rap album's title, you know it is lit, bruh.  Actually, its almost hard for me to tell the difference between this album and the last album from this group that I listened to.  Same type of beats, same type of brags.  I want to like this more than I do, but I just don't.  The most listened to track (only a few of their songs have more than a thousand listens) is "Look Into My Eyes," with just over 3,000 spins.

Huh.  The video has 28k views.  That is interesting.  That second rapper, the guy in the Thrasher t-shirt, makes me think of Red from Friday.  MY GRANDMOMMA GAVE ME THAT CHAIN!  Nah.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana.  I've gone back and forth on these weirdos.  A few albums back, I declared them not that interesting, but then their last disc (Nonagon Infinity) was freaking awesome.  This one falls somewhere in the middle of that, heavier on the strange psych and lighter on the real rock and roll sound.  The top track is the second to last one, "Nuclear Fusion," which clocks in at about 1.2 million streams.

These tunes almost sound Indian or Middle Eastern-influenced.  I guess that is the microtonal tuning they are trying out here, but it makes it sound like they went on a guru exploration and ended up with a more chill sound they wanted to pump out for an album.  I'd prefer the manic stuff.

Drake - More Life.  Because I know I'm about to get sucked into the wormhole of listening to ACL bands, I know that I need to knock out more of the albums in my New stuff queue. I've been putting off listening to this album (no, wait, it is called a "playlist," not an album, because ... Drake) because I'm just so damn tired of hearing Drake's crap.  But, in the interest of (not at all) assisting the world in understanding his music, here we go.  

The currently most popular track on here is absolutely terrible, called "Passionfruit," with 157 million streams and a jenky ass casio 2000 beat from the 80's and his sad singing over the top.  Like Drake found disco and thought he'd introduce the masses to it.  Why do people want to hear this? What is happening?  By the way, "One Dance," the terrible dance-hall track from him last album, has almost 1.2 BILLION freaking streams.  BBBBBBBBBBBillion. Criminy.  

But the big hit from this album is "Fake Love," the track that sounds a lot like that Saba tune I reviewed the other day.  With 384 million streams, this is another huge hit for Drake, and it is not nearly as horrible as the other songs on this album.  However, every single video I can find for that track appears to be a fake, which is kind of funny in its own way... and then I looked at his Vevo YouTube page, and it doesn't look like any video up there is from this album.  So, I won't give you a link.  Just know that you can go party with Drake right now on Spotify with this playlist.

Here is how I've come down on the Drake thing after a few more listens to this album.  He actually can turn a really good phrase.  Here and there on this album, he puts a line together that is really well done.  And I like that he brought guys like Skepta and Giggs on this thing. But the singing portions are bad and I wish he'd just do a rap album with none of the filler.