Quick Hits, Vol. 220 (Wallows, Andrew Bird, Jenny Lewis, Billie Eillish)

Wallows - Nothing Happens.  Yeah, baby.  These guys came to ACL last year and I dug the handful of singles and tracks they had released beforehand, but now they have a full album in the wild and it is tasty rock and roll scrumminess.  Also, this is that band that features a relatively famous actor, who was in Alexander and the Horrible Terrible No Good Day (or whatever) and that 13 Ways to Die show on Netflix.  But regardless of that semi-fame angle, this music is highly fun bashing rock - less of the 80's rock vibe from their early EP and more of a Killers mixed with Vampire Weekend mixed with the Strokes vibe.  The song I was sure would be the hit, "Scrawny," which has this catchy chorus of "scrawny motherfucker with a cool hairstyle," only has 2.5 million streams, so it loses out to "Are You Bored Yet?" with 9.5 million streams.  Pretty respectable for an off-the-radar band...

Got like some Bowie flavor in there as well - heavy on the 80's synths and that vaguely Asian recurring riff.  That's a good tune and all, but I like it better when they get dirty like on the guitar breakdown on "What You Like."  Overall, the album is pretty chilled rock, not a lot of truly uptempo tracks, but I have liked it a lot.

Andrew Bird - My Finest Work Yet.  So very true.  This album is wonderful.  Has a touching softness and beauty that reminds me of Iron & Wine and Father John Misty.  "Olympians" sounds like The Beatles.  "Sisyphus" is the one that sounds most like a Father John Misty track.  The groove of "Bloodless," and the lyricism of a bloodless (for now) uncivil war, is clever and memorable.  The violins at the start of "Archipelago" sound like a Beck track.  This album just has a beauty to it - a complex weave of different instrumentation and bits, that nonetheless feels simple and throwback.  Its wonderful.  The top track is "Sisyphus," the album opener, with 2.3 million streams.

"let it rooooooollll! let it crash down low!"  Poor Sisyphus, fighting that damn rock all the time.  I hate when leadership at work brings up pushing the rock back up the hill.  So freaking depressing to always have to start back over on pushing the rock back up the hill.  Dammit.  Juts let me LIVE!!!  But good tune, and the rest of this album is likewise really nice.  I'm a fan.

Jenny Lewis - On the Line.  The freaking cover of this album is like a moth to a flame for me.  I literally just keep getting sucked into it over there on my second monitor anytime this album is playing.  The instinctual reaction is for my eyes to just need to make sure I have every nuance of the cover fully memorized.  I apologize, but its true.  As for the music itself, its damn good.  I recall liking her last album (although I just went and found my mention of it and I called her the "new Jewel," which sounds more like a burn than I intended it to sound).  The top song is more of a cross between Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams - "Red Bull & Hennessy," which has 1.3 millon streams.

Buncha famous people in that video.  And the guitar solo part there near the end is salty.  Good song.  The whole album is good stuff, although a few moments bug for weird reasons, like the "doowitdoodoooodoooo" pieces in "Wasted Youth."  Shouldn't matter, but I don't want to hear that song (and that one super sounds like Sheryl Crow).  On the other hand, the languid pace and rock beat of "Do Si Do" wrap me in each time.  And she mentions the devil being in Austin in "Party Clown," which is kind of entertaining.  And "Taffy" kills the buzz, could do without.  But then "Rabbit Hole" comes on and its so clean and pretty that I'm sucked in again.  Up and down album, but I'd say that I like it.

Billie Eillish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE TO WE GO?  This girl is all over my kids music brains right now.  Between this shit (mainly "ocean eyes") and "Mo Bamba" I swear that totals about 9/10 of what they want to hear.  And "Lucid Dreams" and Ariana Grande.  I miss the sweet old days of Taylor Swift, man.  I like the "you should see me in a crown" track, which has been out there for a while, and which I had thought was Lorde for the first 30 or so times I heard it on the radio.  Nope, its this weirdo 17 year old.  I am almost certain that she will be on the ACL lineup this year - feels like the super hot star in the making they would score.  Huh, the crown song is not her most streamed - I'm actually shocked.  It only has 162 million streams (only!  ha!), while "bury a friend" has 210.6 million and "when the party's over" has 330.8 million.

ahhhhh gaaaaahhhhhd.  Please don't drink that shit!  aaaaaahhhhhhh gaaaahhhhhhddd what is eewwww oh noooooooo!  I just watched the last two thirds of that video with a complete sneer of revulsion on my face - its actually still there as I write this.  Guuuuuhhhhhddddd.  I guess the song itself is pretty but now I want to shred my eyeballs in a trash compactor.  She makes me think of Lana Del Rey all the time (which is not a compliment to me, I find that to be boring stuff).  But while I wanted to dismiss her early music as boring and Lana-ish, a lot of these songs are actually good.  No fun, or happy, as these songs are mostly so damn depressing.  Like, "listen before i go," which is the saddest suicide note I think I've ever heard.  Damn.  I kinda like "wish you were gay" which is clever and funny.  But overall, the album is a little too quiet - I want more of the "crown"-type power and menace.  Strangely, I don't hate this album!  Totally thought I would hate every inch of it, but this is pretty OK.

A couple other observations - I came home talking up Billie to the girls last night, and they seemed genuinely impressed that I knew things about her.  I was able to Music-Nerd-Splain to one of them that, actually, Khalid isn't on the full album, his depressing ass song is just a single, and then make sure that my other daughter knew it was "you should see me in a crown," not "you should see me in a crowd."  Which is a good lyric as well.  Makes me think of losing my shit in a giant throng of humanity shoving to get closer for stupid Camilla Cabello.  Also, dammit, this album is still growing on me.  Listening to it again this morning and its sad but beautiful (at times), and while that is never my goal for music, it actually works here.