Quick Hits, Vol. 180 (YUNGBLUD, Lil Yachty, slenderbodies, Jack White)

YUNGBLUD - YUNGBLUD.  If you can get past the dumb-looking band name, this is highly fun music.  Sounds kind of like the Arctic Monkeys lead singer decided to make excellently danceable pop rock and pulls it off damn well.  This is just a 5 song EP, but it is infectiously fun.  I thought that the lead song would be the most popular, as "King Charles" kind of rules, but instead it is the second track, "I Love You, Will You Marry Me," with 2.3 million streams, that wins that prize for now.

The way that brits say Adidas is super weird.  But whatever, that tune is crazy fun.  Gimme more of that stuff all day.  Two tracks, "Anarchist" and "Polygraph Eyes" pull back the throttle for a bit - everything else on here is maniacal and therefore awesome.  But even those slower tracks are good stuff, even if the latter us sad (and a well-told story). I'm in on this guy.

Lil Yachty - Lil Boat 2.  Why do I do this shit to myself?  I mean, I know this album is going to suck.  Like, everyone knows this album is going to suck.  Yachty himself probably knows this.  He just wants it up on Spotify so that he can make his $20 jillion dollars and get another platinum album.  Somehow the last song on this thing is the top streamer at 9.1 million streams.  That is either 9.1 million idiots or a bunch of people streaming some "Worst New Rap" playlist who had to suffer through this.

While searching for that video, I also saw this article from Genius saying that this was going to be the runaway hit from this album.  Not good.  Boring brags without any interesting bits.  You do not need to go listen to this album.

slenderbodies - fabulist: extended.  Do you remember that insufferable song "Gooey" from Glass Animals?  I do, because they came to ACL so I had to listen to their music and suffer through that song repeatedly.  This is like if that song became an entire band of whispery love songs soundtracked by limp guitar licks.  Also, if you go read their Spotify bio, you will wish for the sweet oblivion of death.  "intricate airy guitar work complemented by gentle vocals and present drums. With vivid imagery at the forefront of vocal waves, the duo paints portraits of siren songs, sultry nights with foreign lovers, lost romance, and home."  <gurgle, death, sweet embrace, gurgle, choke, deadthery>

I think I'm probably being an asshole here, because I kind of enjoy the lower end of the tune - the slinky smearing guitar over the nimble bass groove - but the overall sound of this and the rest of this EP are annoyingly twee to me.  Not on board.

Jack White - Boarding House Reach.  I mean, just the title alone is enough for an eye roll, and then the first song is a groaner of a brutal tune.  I'm sorry, "Connected by Love" just sucks.  And it makes me so annoyed, because I freaking love Jack White's stuff sometimes.  The White Stripes and Raconteurs (took me 3 minutes to correctly spell that, by the way) freaking ruled.  But then he pulls this "Connected by Love" garbage, all moody synths and trite lyrics.  It's like he lost a bet or something.  I just don't get it.  And then the next song, "Why Walk a Dog?" doubles down on the moody synth thing.  Why can't we have a driving rhythm section with bad ass guitar heroics?  
This album is damn weird.  "Respect Commander" is way out there - did White find an old cool synth somewhere and just make a wager with himself that he could make an album using it on each song?  "Abulia and Akrasia" is like he just randomly decided to perform a play in the midst of this album.  "Connected by Love" is the top track on Spotify, but you don't need to experience that (although honestly it is an indication of suckiness that it has been out for a while and only have 2.6 million streams).  I'll give you the much better sounding second most streamed track - "Over and Over and Over."

Musically, I dig it.  But what is up with the schlocky backup singers who sound like they are intentionally out of tune and offbeat?  What is happening?  If White wasn't on his own label, I'd think this album was put out only to fulfill a contractual requirement.  I kinda dig the groove action on "Corporation."  But this album is extremely uneven after a few attempts.  I'm going to keep playing this disc and see if it clicks, but so far this is outside of my comfort zone.