Quick Hits, Vol. 168 (G-Eazy, Open Mike Eagle, Alex Williams, Downtown Boys)

Before I get to the music, I have to note that ComedyDefensiveDriving.com is absolutely godawful.  Like painfully terrible.  Which I really cannot comprehend.  As the owner of this website address, you know this product is something that is going to be online and make you continued money into perpetuity (with slight tweaks as the laws change).  So literally spend $8 to make it look and sound better than a Junior High media class project.  I'm about half way done and it is just brutal.  To me, it would be a valuable use of the company's money to write good scripts and create real jokes, not just terrible, tired, cliched skits and crappy cartoons.  Or even hire famous comedians?  Even D-Listers?  I feel like Kathy Griffin and Carrot Top would crush this.  Hell, Gallagher would crush this.  So far, I literally have not laughed a single time.

And speaking of brutal things I do to myself...

G-Eazy - The Beautiful & Damned.  This guy came to ACL a few years ago and I thought a few of his raps were pretty fine.  Dumb popcorn type stuff.  The "James Dean of Rap," as stated in his Spotify bio.  Burp, barf, snort, vomit.  The insane thing is that he is very popular.  One song on Spotify has over 669 million streams.  One from this album ("No Limit") has 136 million, and the current hit ("Him & I") has almost 100 million.  So people are into it, but I just don't really get it.  Most of his popular tracks feature a female hook singer added in - Halsey, something called Bebe Rexha, Kehlani, etc.  This album is just not good.  "Him & I" is truly bad, the one with Halsey on it.  But that other popular one ("No Limit") isn't awful - it isn't great either - but if you just bump the beat and enjoy the flow, it works.

Good beat.  Reminds me of Ferg's "Plain Jane."  Weird that he would name check Kamayiah, but then get Cardi B to do a guest bit instead?  Guess that is just Bay Area love talking.  Love when the owner of the track has the worst rap on it.  Cardi and Rocky are way better on here than Eazy's wooden flow.  Don't plan to listen to this one again.

Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream.  I reviewed this guy quickly a few years ago when he was coming to Sound on Sound and I thought I might get to check him out (before the epic rainstorm cancelled that day for me, boooo).  Thoughtful rapper, throwing out bar after bar of dense wordplay over odd beats that could be sampled, but are more likely just weird soul-ish licks on synths that are then run through distortion or looped or something.  It is kind of like old Kanye beats, or Common beats.  Pretty basic, and not at all caught up in the current trap beat movement (well, I guess "Brick Body Complex" has some of those aspects to it).  The top track on Spotify for streams is called "95 Radios," with 390k streams.

I really like his delivery, and I like the chilled vibe of that track.  But I'd also say that the beat is pretty generic and uninspired.  If he could set his lyricism and flow over the top of better beats, I think he'd be in better shape.  I've enjoyed a few trips through the album, but I still think I'll let it go.

Alex Williams - Better Than Myself.  I wish I remembered where I read about this guy.  It walks a very wobbly line right between some good outlaw country and some garbage bro country stuff.  I like the tunes themselves, very much the rock and roll side of country.  But then the lyrics can get a little eye-rolly with their attempts to make the country world cool.

• "Cause I got a little cash in my bank, Got a little nitro in my tank, Feeling like a small-town big-tent revival" (from "More than Just Survival").
• "Well, I'm hellbent for one more hallelujah, Yeah, there's just so many ways that life can screw ya" (from "Hellbent Hallelujah").

And then lots of lyrics about getting drunk and getting stoned and being too stoned and getting some green and being fucked up.  If I wasn't so worried that he was about to step into the Nashville side of the line he's zig-zagging down, I'd enjoy this more.  I think I like it, kind of Jamey Johnson-like, without any obvious hits.  The most popular song (SHOCKINGLY, I TELL YOU) is the one about being too stoned.  "Little Too Stoned" has 160k streams.

He's also got one called "Freak Flag" that is all about letting your freak flag fly proudly, but stops well shy of being a true anthem for freaks, a la "Follow Your Arrow" from Kasey Musgraves.  The chorus seems to try to for that, singing "I really don't care how you get high, let your freak flag fly..." but the verses are kind of odd non sequiturs about wanting a tan, to win the Powerball to start a war, to knit the Golden Gate Bridge with thread, or congo-ing in Afghanistan.  Definitely weird, but feels like a missed opportunity to make a cool song and not just nonsense.  I like this album well enough, but I think I'll let it go once I finish this next listen.

Downtown Boys - Cost of Living.  My first listen through this album was a pretty positive experience, but the more I've gone through it, the less appealing the songs have become.  This is punk music, with a female vocalist, where a handful of the tunes are sung in Spanish, and while that seems kind of neato at first, the tunes wore me out pretty quickly.  "Lips that Bite" is the top track at 175k streams.

The title of the Spanish song, "Somos Chulas (No Somos Pendejas)" is a thing of beauty, translating to "we are cool (we are not assholes)."  But I'm not much for the yelled vocals or grimy, low-fi production on here.  I'm good.