Quick Hits, Vol. 193 (Superorganism, Drake, Panic! at the Disco, Nine Inch Nails)

Superorganism - Superorganism.  This weird ass album is amazing.  I don't know how this wasn't a band on the ACL lineup, because they would have been perfect.  Trippy, weird, random, and psychedelic, and yet also catchy and groovy and poppy.  Spiked with unexpected sounds like the crunch of an apple, the ribbit of a frog, the honk of car horns, the screech of car tires, a whistle, a splash, birds tweeting, etc.  It smells like the freaky stuff of The Flaming Lips, but its a little more funky, like hip hop inspired.  Like M.I.A. joined the Flaming Lips and they all ate a bunch of drugs and made beautiful love.  The deeply squelchy voice that says "prawwwwwwwwn" over and over again on "The Prawn Song" will both haunt me in my nightmares and also jump start my next dance move.  The top two streaming tracks are "Everybody Wants to be Famous" (11.9 million ) and "Something for Your M.I.N.D." (13.5 million).

AND THEN, holy shit, please take ten minutes and watch this Tiny Desk concert, and please revel in the oddity that is this band:

The extra sound making, with hands in buckets and blowing in straws and cranking on toys and whatnot, is amazing.  So deliciously strange.  And the lead singer, sitting there singing as though she gives no craps.  This is all a wonderful spectacle.  I'm in.  That redhead bit two apples at once.  She is an apple eating marvel.  And even without the live spectacle, know that the album itself is also very groovy and good.  It speaks to my theater and band background, and my love for the absurd, and tickles my fancy.  Go give it a spin.

Drake - Scorpion.  Drake, man.  Dude is honestly unbelievable.  Over a billion streams for "God's Plan."  B-B-B-BILLION.  537 million for "Nice for What."  629 million for "In My Feelings."  The RIAA requires 1,500 streams to be counted the same as an album sale, so based solely on the streams of two of those three songs, this album went platinum.  That is INSANE.  His raps are absolutely mediocre.  His singing is significantly worse than that.  Some of the beats are dope and his flow over them sounds good, but this is just fascinating to me, that he crushes all other artists without any originality or even flair.  He just sings the hooks written for him, raps the tender bars written for him, and blows everyone else out of the water.  It's amazing.  
I previously dissected "God's Plan" somewhat, and I'll just reproduce that here: "Drake - God's Plan.  As usual with Drake, I generally enjoy the beat and the flow.  I catch myself grooving to the track.  But once he's past the telling the girl not to roll up and cuddle with him at 6am, the lyrics drop into a boring hole.  Here is the chorus:

God's plan, God's plan
I hold back, sometimes I won't, yuh
I feel good, sometimes I don't, ayy, don't
I finessed down Weston Road, ayy, 'nessed
Might go down a G.O.D., yeah, wait
I go hard on Southside G, yuh, wait
I make sure that north-side eat

Errr, OK.  I feel like I missed the part of that which could be seen as God's plan?  Is God planning for you to become him?  Was it God's plan for you to "go hard" on a particular direction of the compass?  Oh, or was the loaves and fishes miracle where God's son fed the multitudes done on the north-side of Bethsaida?  GOOD REFERENCE!!!  Also, I cannot permit someone to get away with saying "'nessed" as a shortened form of "finessed."  GTFOH.  Scary thing - that throwaway track just broke records for streaming numbers, and it isn't even special.  Drake is truly baffling to me."

So, many of these songs are completely forgettable and totally uninteresting.  "Is There More," "I'm Upset," "Peak," "Summer Games," (STOP saying 'breaking my heart!'), "Jaded," and many others that make up the majority of the album - have terrible beats and zero charisma at all.  And the album is 25 songs, a full hour and a half.  Like, feature movies aren't this freaking long.  And although those songs are boring, at least they aren't as wretchedly horrible as "Ratchet Happy Birthday," which is bad AND super annoying.  Horrible song.  "I'm Upset" is also even more horrible than Drake's usual badness.

But then he's got tracks like "Nice for What," which samples Miss Lauryn Hill, is fun, and is different from other stuff on the radio.  Good track, not great, but I like the woman-empowering message as well.

Get it!  But as soon as that party is over, the album just goes right back to the lifeless slog through some more dead on arrival tunes. I know people love "In My Feelings," but its not good. The Michael Jackson collaboration, which must have cost him a damn mint to buy, is also not good.  Could have been cool to bring MJ back from the dead, and instead its on a lifeless ballad with a dead beat.  "March 14" is interesting just because he is talking about his disappointment at not being there for his son after wishing for a two parent family of his own, which is a cool thing for him to dissect.  I'll admit that I also like "Nonstop," and "Talk Up" had me bobbing my head.  Overall, this album is bad.

Panic! at the Disco - Pray for the Wicked.  So, neat thing to realize by the checkmarks next to each song that your ten year old daughter has downloaded this whole album for repeat listening on her personal device.  Which means that she's jamming the opening track repeatedly, which is entitled "(Fuck A) Silver Lining," and repeats that lovely language about 30 times during the track.  Ugh.  Modern parenting blows, man.
This band has always been a second place to me in the race for top pop punk emo band, just because I always thought Fall Out Boy was quite a bit more fun.  And who puts a damn piece of punctuation in the middle of their band name?  Second place guys, that's who.  Anyway, they've grown on me over time, and now they are actually getting some radio play with one of these songs, which is interesting.  I thought that the emo pop punk was dead, but apparently not.  My guess is that "Say Amen (Saturday Night)" might end up being the bigger song because some college football producer is going to put it into heavy rotation for the college games of the week or something, but for now, the biggest track and radio hit is "High Hopes."  179.1 million streams.  Which is a boatload for someone who is not Drake.

Obviously heavy on the lead singer's falsetto, but the drum machine-style beat in the back is what powers the whole tune, as well as the horns.  Good message, pretty fun song.  I also like the breakneck speed of "The Overpass," as well as the other two tunes I've already mentioned.  Fun album overall.  Nothing amazing, but enjoyable.

Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch.  Trent should have given up while he was ahead.  To me, the best part of old Nine Inch Nails was that it was imminently danceable, while still making you want to fight people.  Songs like "Head Like a Hole" and "Closer" and "The Hand that Feeds" were tailor made for angry dancing.  Or moody aggro-teen driving when I was 18.  This stuff has some anger, has a lot of dissonance, gives a feeling of dread and unhappiness, but its not danceable or fun or accessible.  Its like avant-garde jazz for the electronic generation.  The top track is the first song on the album (which is never a good sign) at 1.5 million streams.  "Shit Mirror."

I do not enjoy that.  No thank you.