Quick Hits, Vol. 195 (Ashley McBride, Courtney Barnett, Jean Grae x Quelle Chris, A$AP Rocky)

Ashley McBride - Girl Going Nowhere.  A pretty good album of country story-teller tunes - the kind that are named "Livin' Next to Leroy" and describe the details of what it was like living next to a gentleman named Leroy.  A gentleman who happened to steal neighbor's stuff to buy drugs to cook up in a spoon until he died and she found him.  NEAT!  But in all seriousness, this brand of good lyricism and her strong voice combine well to make a pretty good album overall.  I like "A Little Dive Bar in Dohlonega" and "El Dorado" and "Girl Goin' Nowhere," but I figured the "American Scandal" would be the hit.  I was wrong, so here is the hit, the one about the dive bar in a town I don't want to try to type again.  6.6 million streams.

A little heavy on the slogans, but I like the message of getting right when you're down.  I kind of like "The Jacket" too - all about a jean jacket from her dad and the miles it has seen.  Yeah, pretty good album.  Probably done listening to it, but if you like country and want to avoid the garbage, then this is your thing.

Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel.  I loved Barnett's last album and was super pumped about this one.  It has grown on me, but I will readily say that it is not an instant smash.  The opening track is a quietly dark groove that builds into some major feedback, confusingly called "Hopefulessness."  Then "City Looks Pretty" kicks in and it sounds like we're back to more upbeat rock with funny lyrics (and a very nice, relaxed groove in the last half of the tune).  The early single from this album was the relatively jaunty "Nameless, Faceless," which only recently revealed itself to me to be not just about anonymous trolls online, but also a good ol' rollicking good-time anthem about womens' assault fears.  Neat!

Here is that chorus, to help you get what it took me 20 streams to catch:  "I wanna walk through the park in the dark, Men are scared that women will laugh at them, I wanna walk through the park in the dark, Women are scared that men will kill them, I hold my keys, Between my fingers!"  It's a good song.  I hate that this message needs to exist out there and that ladies are literally afraid to walk in the park, so I'm glad she made the song.
It's a short album - 37 minutes for ten songs - so it kind of ends just when I'm warming up for it, but if you give it the time to percolate and sink the lyrics in, you'll be rewarded with another gem.

Jean Grae x Quelle Chris - Everything's Fine.  How in the world is this album only 55 minutes?  I swear to God, everytime I play it, I feel like its been playing for four hours by the time its over.  It's like a black hole of rap.  If you listen to the lyrics, its got some great stuff in here.  But the beats are those kind of weird, relaxed, odd styles like you might get from a Doom album or something.  Like, they would take an old soul song, slow it down, distort it, and then slide a drummer over the top to give it a beat.  And lyrically, they attack the world that we currently live in - the police shootings, the poseurs glomming on to rap and its scene, and people just trying to survive the current world by calling it all "fine."  The top track is "Gold Purple Orange," with 545k streams.

Really great lyrics.  Very boring song.  I think that is the theme of this whole album - it has great messages and should be important, but with beats like those and a speaking tempo flow that never grabs you?  Nope.

A$AP Rocky - Testing.  Joyless slog.  I really liked his early mixtapes when Clams Casino was making his cool beats.  Other than the track on this one that uses that Moby song from the Beach soundtrack, this album has nothing interesting about the beats at all.  And without good beats, his mediocre flow is exposed and nothing special to carry the whole album.  Only one song from this album is in his top ten most popular tracks on Spotify - the one with Skepta - with 228 million streams, but nothing else even comes close to those numbers.  "Praise The Lord (Da Shine)."

OK.  That beat isn't awful.  But the song overall is still weak.  I've slogged my way through this whole album like five times, and I just can't do it anymore.  Done.