Quick Hits, Vol. 160 (Jason Isbell, Truckfighters, Calwayne, Khalid)

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound.  I've honestly put off reviewing this album for a while because its such a devastating set of lyrics.  Amazingly well written, but strap in, man.  Here, I'll give you a taste from album opener, "Last of My Kind."

I tried to go to college but I didn't belong
Everything I said was either funny or wrong
They laughed at my boots, laughed at my jeans
Laughed when they gave me amphetamines
Left me alone in a bad part of town
Thirty-six hours to come back down
...
Mama says God won't give you too much to bear
That might be true in Arkansas
But I'm a long, long way from there
That whole world's a lonely, faded picture in my mind 

Just a damn sad song.  Sung over a lovely plucked tune that sounds very nice, but the dark lyrics and depressing picture of a guy who just never fits in and worries about what is happening around him, it drags you down.
As soon as that track fades out, you are on to the upbeat rock of "Cumberland Gap," which sounds happy, but is instead a depressing tale of failure for a young miner who just drinks his pains away and can't figure out how to escape the shit of life.  If you ignore the lyrics, its a snappy rock song, but man, if you listen to the words, its sad as all living hell.  "As soon as the sun goes down, I find my way to the Mustang Lounge, And if you don't sit facing the window, You could be in any town.  Maybe the Cumberland Gap just swallows you whole..."  I mean, there is damn song called "Anxiety" on here that talks about being in constant pain - "I can't enjoy a goddamn thing...".  Lord have mercy, this is some dark shit.  

The top track is another real uplifter, this time called "If We Were Vampires," which has 3.6 million streams.

I mean, damn, Jason.  Give me a break here!  The opening verse is about how great his love is, and then he hits you with this chorus of the bleak, horrible reality that your loved ones are going to die: "It's knowing that this can't go on forever, Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone, Maybe we'll get forty years together, But one day I'll be gone, Or one day you'll be gone."  Fuuuuuuuuck, man.  I get it, the reason that his love is so powerful is because he understands the transient nature of it, and the need to work hard at it while he can, but this tune (and re-reading the lyrics afterwards) hit me like a sack of bricks.  Thanks for the daily dose of tears.

I honestly can't think of an album like this.  Is there another album that is so brutally honest and crushingly sad?  I mean, I know an album might have a song - "Everybody Hurts" or "Last Kiss" or "Tears in Heaven" or "He Stopped Loving Her Today" or "Travellin' Soldier" or "Angry All the Time" - but to have a rapid fire destruction of emotions like this for a sustained, multi-song stretch?  Ugh.  Maybe an album by the Smiths?  Beck's Sea Change is melancholy, but nothing like this.  I don't know, man.  On the one hand, I really like this album for being so damn legitimate.  And the sound is great, these songs are fun to hear.  On the other hand, I feel like if I keep this in my musical rotation I'm going to end up driving off a cliff.

To the extent you go listen to it, I really would like to hear what you think about this one.  I can't shake it from my mind.

Truckfighters - Gravity X. I could have sworn I already wrote about this album, but now I can't find it, so I suppose I did not such thing.  I remember being at a show during SXSW a few years ago, and striking up conversation with a guy next to me in between sets, and when I told him that I loved the most recent Queens of the Stone Age album, he told me that I had to check out Truckfighters.  Which I did, and I remember enjoying the thump, but being weirded out by the fact that these dudes are from Sweden.  Seems like America should have a lock down on sludgy stoner rock.  But this album is from 2005, so its not like this is fresh music to check out.

That rifftastic nugget is "Desert Cruiser," with 2.6 million streams and all the chugging sludge that you could want from your rock and roll.  The singing that goes with these tunes is more of the half-yell you can find on metal and Tool songs.  Pretty solid album, and I liked the groove on some of the tunes, but not worth holding on to forever.

Calwayne - The Best of CalWayne.  I was reading something the other day that mentioned CalWayne as a king in Houston rap.  Being that I'd never heard of the guy, I figured I needed to check it out.  These tunes are OK, they sound like Houston, that kind of laid back beat with laid back rhymes and poorly sung hooks.
I feel like the bios on Spotify used to be written by real music critics, or at least someone with a high school education.  I feel like they are mostly now written by the PR firm for each band, and this one is especially poorly written.  "Robbed of a descent childhood and of his music royalties several times over, Cal Wayne still goes to the studio and aggressively put in work because of his passion for the music and love of his neighborhood of Third Ward in Houston, Texas."  First, I've never even heard of Third Ward, all I ever hear about in Geto Boys tracks is the Fifth Ward.  Second, a "descent childhood" makes me think he is sad about not getting to spelunk as a child.  I'm an a-hole.  I know.

Anyway, I've given this one a few runs, and very little is special or interesting.  Boring beats, plodding vocals, nothing special.  (one slightly better track I found on YouTube, called "Project Building," but that isn't on this album).  Most tracks are at less than 10k in streams, just one cracks the 5 digit plateau, "P's & Q's," with 10,968 streams.  This one has the best beat of all of these tracks.

Yeah, I like that beat, but I feel like it ought to be screwed to be even better, its a little too energetic for my tastes.  Oooh, you gotta cut yo grass, because they snakes up in this mug!  I'm OK without this album.

Khalid - American Teen.  oooh, holy shit, this is who sings that "young, dumb, broke high school kids" song?  That song is tight.  I've been reading about Khalid for a while, he just recently graduated from high school out in El Paso, and grew up feeling out of place wherever he was, so he started putting songs up on Soundcloud for his high school classmates to check out.  From what I remember of the article I read, he had a cool story about this, that the jocks (or some group) had been clowning him about making music but then "Location" actually blew up and the jocks got to eat shit for being jerk faces.  That may not be the way it went, but its how I'm going to remember it.  I may have some left over, pent up energy relating to my time in band and theater in high school.  Here is that first hit, "Location," which has 379 million freaking streams.  Huge.

Homie's gonna get laid!  Slinky and sexy booty call song using the mapping function on the phone.  Can you imagine being a freaking high school student and coming up with that song right there?  What a bad ass.  First, his voice is fantastic.  Second, he's put together some great lyrics, that reference the slang of youth while still explaining it in terms that even us old people can understand.  And then the track coming up behind it for new dominance, "Young Dumb & Broke," with 268 million streams.

That song is a damn jam.  I mean, that is two legitimate, big-time hits for this 19 year old dude.  Pretty awesome.  I also like "8TEEN," even if the song title makes me want to barf.  I'll admit that the soul-pop-electronic sound is not my normal thing, and after 15 songs I get a little fatigued by it, but those three I've just mentioned are legitimately great tunes.