Quick Hits, Vol. 183 (The Sword, Sunflower Bean, The Weeknd, Czarface vs. MF DOOM)

Yes.  I have talked about how annoyingly long rap albums are right now, and Rolling Stone backed it up with a blurb a few weeks ago.  Chris Brown with a 2:38 long album?  45 freaking songs?  GTFOH with that shit.  Everyone is just going to put out every song they could think of now and grab the gold albums while the algorithms are jacked up and reward this garbage.

The Sword - Used Future.  The Sword is an Austin band, and yet somehow I've never caught one of their shows.  I feel like a bad fan.  This album stays true to their usual sound - epic metal/hard rock that sounds like it is a concept album because of the underlying sounds that thread throughout.  Pretty solid stuff.  The top tune is the second track, but it only has 235k streams, so I guess the rest of the world isn't ready for these guys to melt their faces just yet.  "Deadly Nightshade."

Sweet Mad Max mobile on the cover there, brah.  Pretty straight-forward rock and roll crunch on there, not too hard, not too fantasy-laden, just right.  I've had this album in the rotation for a few weeks now and have probably been through it 15 times by now.  I enjoy it and will hold on to it for a while.

Sunflower Bean - Twentytwo in Blue.  I LOVED their last album.  Like I couldn't get enough and was more into it than was comfortable for even myself.  So I was pretty pumped when this one came out.  Sadly, only to be disappointed.  The last album was much more experimental-sounding, psych rock and shimmering cool, while this one seems more straight-forward and like plain indie rock stuff that I've heard a lot before.  Here is the top track, "I Was a Fool," with 897k streams.

It isn't bad or anything, its just underwhelming.  Her vocals sound like The Sundays, and his just sound murky and boring.  And her vamping for the camera is too much.  I don't know, I guess I'm just bummed about the change in sound so I'm finding loads of flaws even when I generally like the tunes.  I think I'll let this one go.

The Weeknd - My Dear Melancholy,.  (yes, there really is a random comma at the end of that album title.  This is why I want to die).  The freaking Weeknd, man.  What to do with this guy?  At his best, he is a Michael-Jackson-level pop master (see, "Can't Feel My Face"), but at his worst (see, his first three albums and this one) he is a depressing, boring, meandering guy with a golden voice who smears around over boring electronic R&B tunes.  This disc is not good - there is nothing that would even begin to sniff the best stuff in Weeknd's catalog.  The top track is the opener, yawn-o-ramathon "Call Out My Name," which feels like a track rejected for the 50 Shades of Gray soundtrack.  23 million streams.

Seriously, doesn't that one sound very similar to the "Worth It" (maybe not the name of that song, but I'm refusing to look it up) track from the 50 Shades soundtrack?  Luckily for you and me, the album is only six songs long, so the suffering is short and contained.  Negatory good buddy.

Czarface vs. MF DOOM - Czarface Meets Metal Face.  I know, right now, you are wondering what the hell I am talking about.  I had a co-worker stop by my office the other day, asking what the bass was sneaking through my office door, and it was this album.  This co-worker, a relatively legit rap head (except that he loves Post Malone, so his bona fides are in question), had no clue about any of these rappers, so I got to be the cool guy in the know.  MF DOOM is rad, I've been on board with him since the Madvillain album back in the early oughts.  Kind of a lax cross between Ghostface Killah and Nas - very New York.  I'd never heard of Czarface (and was in fact hoping that this was Scarface or Ghostface just using a pseudonym, no such luck).  According to Wikipedia, "Czarface (/ˈzɑːrfeɪs/) is an American hip hop supergroup formed in 2013 by underground hip hop duo 7L & Esoteric and Wu-Tang Clan member Inspectah Deck."  Which is ....... uh, I think we can sometimes disagree on the definition of "supergroup," but I think when you are talking about unknown underground artists mixing it up with the 7th best-known member of a 10 member rap group, then maybe "super" is a little much...  That being said, Deck ends up having the best raps on this album, in my opinion.
Anyway, this album is cool, regardless of who all is doing the vocals.  The beats are pretty basic, sort of like Wu Tang beats, but even more sparse.  But they have that classic sound of old school samples and loops from real rap, you aren't having any Marshmallo or Skrillex collabos on this.  One of the guys on this reminds me of old Jay-Z, both in vocal tone and the weak rhymes.  No clue which underground rapper that is. 
Probably the best song on here is "Phantoms," with Open Mike Eagle, but the top track is the first single, "Nautical Depth," with 286k streams.

For some reason, the line that keeps poking out in my face is something about "Beyonce's twins."  So weird, I literally had to google Beyonce's twins to figure out if she really had twins or if this was some reference to her boobs.  Who knew, Queen Bey has a set of twins in addition to Blue Ivy? True news.  The MF Doom verse on that track is pretty solid too, especially the first four lines.  Also, "Bomb Thrown" is pretty solid.  I don't know, it is funny that this came out in 2018 - I suspect its low streaming numbers are due to how old school it sounds.  None of the crap rappers of the day sound like this, so they aren't getting press, but I enjoy it.