Quick Hits, Vol. 221 (Ben Platt, George Strait, Birdman & Juvenile, Nipsey Hussle)

Ben Platt - Sing to Me Instead.  I'm sure most of you are wondering who the hell Ben Platt is, but through the suggestion of a friend I got to see the musical Dear Evan Hansen when in New York in 2017, and this guy was the powerhouse lead in that musical.  Which is a freaking amazing, brutally, painfully great musical.  If you haven't heard it - go listen to at least "Waving Through a Window," or go watch the musical.  It stuck with me for weeks, a well-done story of teenage confusion and awkward navigation of some of the hardest years of life.
So I guess he's off of the show now and becoming a musical artist who tours and whatnot, because he's headed to Austin for a show in May.  A bunch of this ends up sounding very much like showtunes - looking directly at "Older," a truthbomb about how the young wish they were old and the old wish they were young.  The top song is "Bad Habit," with just over 4 million streams (although I thought it would be "Grow As We Go," but what do I know?).

Good lord his voice is so freaking awesome.  He can fit so much inflection into notes - not just the power blast bits, but even when he is getting to those peaks, he slips so much nuance into the switch between tones.  And he also hammers the power notes.  The album closer, "Run Away," is a beautiful engagement story that turns into a lovely mothering story that turns into an anti-dependence moment with a girlfriend (which is a weird twist, figured it would be old age).  And honestly, it can be a little cheesy and maudlin when the strings pop in, but fuck it, I just teared up anyway like a big dumb idiot.

The issue with this stuff is the same as I have with someone like Sam Smith or Michael Buble - killer voice, supremely talented, pretty well-written songs - but the music itself feels only slightly removed from, like, Train or something.  Not that it would make sense for him to sing over chugging grunge music or something, but I can't shake the feeling that I don't actually like the music behind the songs.  Not sure yet, going to keep this one around and keep it going...

George Strait - Honky Tonk Time Machine.  What is not to like?  The King of Country music making a new album that hews very exactly to his time-honored sound and style?  Check.  A cover with the Broken Spoke on it?  Check.  Nostalgia-inducing tunes that are just as cheesy as the old ones were but I still love them anyway?  Roger that.  "Blue Water" is like something he could have put out in the mid-80's penned by Jimmy Buffett or something, but I don't give a damn, it makes me happy to hear it.  Some even cheesier bits to feed the red-meat Country-with-a-capital-C guys on here, like "The Weight of the Badge" (Back the Blue!), "What Goes Up," (Jesus is Comin' Back!) and "God and Country Music," but the overall vibe on this is classic George and I'm into it.  The top track is "Every Little Honky Tonk Bar," with 2.9 million streams.

I mean, don't get me wrong, those lines about the individual pieces of a honky tonk bar, and the McConaughey-esque L-I-V-I-N and D-R-A-G-G-I-N lines, are cheese, but you know what?  They work - I can see those lines becoming things you sing along to at a show for years to come.  They're fun and memorable and easy.  Also of note on this album, he finally has a duet with Willie, which is good and all, except that the whole point of the song is singing about the fact that they are finally doing a duet together.  It's like the country version of a rapper who can't rap about anything except for his possessions.  Before you get sucked into thinking that "Codigo" is good (and sadly, it is a pretty classic George fun-time track that is good), just know that the tequila he is singing about is an actual tequila brand that he invested in.  So understand that you are bopping along to a commercial.  This album is very good.  If you fondly recall the George of old, this falls right in line.

Birdman & Juvenile - Just Another Gangsta.  Very up and down album from part of the Cash Money folks.  Some tracks are fun - "Filthy Money" or "Breeze" - then others (most) are garbage - "One Two" and "Today" for sure.  Most of the tracks reflect their mediocrity in their play count, right around 50k, but two of them are in the half-million range.  "Dreams" features something called NLE Choppa, who just sounds like a younger Meek Mill yelling at me, and has 542k, while album opener "Just Another Gangsta" has 506k.  We'll go with the first...

Meh.  Mediocre beat, mediocre hook, terrible guest verse from the yelling guy.  Kind of entertaining to hear these guys still trying to put together their old thing, but this one can go for sure.

Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap.  You might recognize this rapper's unfortunate name because he was recently murdered outside of his own clothing store.  After hearing that story, and that he was a Grammy-nominated rapper, I thought I'd check out his debut album.  He has some legit collaborators on here - Kendrick, Diddy, CeeLo, YG - but most of this has the feel, to me, of a mix tape from someone still just trying to get found.  The first one I really notice is the second track, "Rap N***gas," that has a good beat with a ton of the old school G Funk era high pitched synths weaving in the top end.  The YG track has the most streams - "Last Time That I Checc'd" - with 21.2 million streams (curious what that count was before the murder).

Dude.  I wanna ride out the window of a bad ass car with my shirt wide open throwing up gang signs.  That looks badass.  Its actually a good track, although YG gets bodied up on there for sure - his verse is terrible.  A guy in my office just walked in and asked what I was listening to, and he legitimately guffawed when I told him the name of this guy.  It is a stupid sounding name, for sure.  There are a handful of good tracks on here - check the beat on "Hussle & Motivate," which is a super slowed slice of Jay Z's "Hard Knock Life," with some little asides that remind me of Clams Casino beats.  That flavor of screwed down track, in the midst of other stuff that sounds more outright G Funk/West Coast, is a good changeup.  But there is also a good number of forgettable tracks.  I won't hold on to this one, but showed some promise.  Sad to have him get killed over some dumb BS...