Quick Hits, Vol. 224 (BTS, Reignwolf, Better Oblivion Community Center, Cass McCombs)

BTS - Map of the Soul: Persona.  So these guys are all the rage right now, internationally, as the hottest of the hot South Korean boy bands.  They are the most successful K-Pop bands in U.S. Chart history.  So I thought I'd give their new album a chance to see what the hype is all about.  And it SUCKS.  Obviously, I can't understand 3/4 of the words (they sing and rap in a weird amalgamation of both English and Korean) so that makes it hard to enjoy.  And usually the words that do come through are garbage tripe like "where the party at?" or "oh yeah" or "you ready to get hyped up?" or "let it shine!" or something.  But even without knowing the words, the music itself blows.  Crappy, generic pop beats, sprinkled with some guitar and Auto-Tune.  If a legit rapper like Pusha T tried to put out an album backed by these tracks, he's get clowned into the grave.  Even a pop star in the US would get ragged on for these cheap ass beats.  Maybe like a cheap facsimile of The 1975 on "Mikrokosmos" but even that is a stretch.  This is very bad stuff.  The top track features Halsey, and I'm sure the opportunity to jam with these guys was too much to pass up, but that is just weird.  "Boy With Luv," currently has 24 million streams.

I mean, I get it that this might be all about their sex appeal and fun dances and stuff, but that song is very bad.  The rapping is painful.  And Halsey's part is kind of non-existent?  Does she just sing "ooh my my my" and then sing along with part of the chorus?  or is there more to it that I just can't hear?  Anyway, no thanks!

Reignwolf - Hear Me Out.  As I have noted before, the opening track of this album is a damn jam.  Just fuzzy, slammin' rock and damn roll.  This dude was at ACL last year, and he did weird stuff to his guitar like no one I had ever seen before, popping the strings one handed and playing it like a stand up bass.  Wild to see, but the sound was awesome.  This is his first proper album, and like the first song and the live show, it all bangs.  It has a flavor of Royal Blood and Jack White-centered-projects - heavy riffage, pounding drums, some squalling in the vocals.  He's best when he's in that mode - some of these go for a bluesy wailing mode, and slow down the hustle, and I'd rather have him losing his shit.  Like "Son of a Gun," too much petulance.  Give me the loose jam instead of the wail.  The top song, somehow beating out the opener and early single, is "Over & Over" with 530k streams.

Has a Nine Inch Nails meets Royal Blood thing going on.  Its great stuff and I'll keep it all around to keep jamming out.

Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center.  Quite a mouthful of a band name there, fellas.  This is a new band made up of Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst.  I have tried, so many times, to get into a Conor Oberst-helmed band.  Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk, his solo stuff, I just can't ever quite get to the point where I want to keep hearing it.  I don't think its just the depressingly bummed out lyrics he always uses, I don't think its just his bummer vocal tone, I don't think its just his tightly wound indie style.  Just something in there never makes me want more.  So this one adds in Phoebe Bridgers, who I didn't remember until someone at church last week asked me if I liked her tunes, and then quickly said "probably too sad for you, right?"  Which is weird, right?  I like sad music.  Like, you know, uh, "Nothing Else Matters" and, uh, "Let Him Roll."  I know sadness, yo!  (except she's probably right, screw sad ass music, man.).  "Dylan Thomas" is the hit so far, I've heard it on the radio a few times, with 2.8 million streams.

I like that one pretty well - kinda jangly and loose indie rock with a good singalong chorus.  Up tempo and cheery despite the lyrics about dying on a barroom floor.  Good guitar solo too.  But most of these songs are kind of quiet and isolated sounding, like the haunting "whoooooowoooo are you, waiting for" on "Service Road."  The album opener, "Didn't Know What I Was In For," keeps sticking in my head - I found myself randomly singing it last night while cleaning dishes.  But its a fucking insane song too - sounds lovely, and yet she's singing about losing it and getting strapped into a straight-jacket.  The last line, fading into nothing, says that she tries not to think about how living is just a promise that she made.  WTF.  Overall, very pretty music, but also bummer stuff.

Cass McCombs - Tip of the Sphere.  Holy Dead-Lovers convention, Batman!  Just go straight to the peakin' guitar solo in the opening track, complete with noodling and canoodling and supernoodling, while the rest of the band just keeps a semi-Americana groove going in the background for 3 minutes.  Prime, grade-A, aged, and well-executed Grateful Dead-iness that tastes sugary sweet.  I dig it for real.  Then the opening of "Estrella" has that same flavor, finger-picked jaunting over the top of jammy grooves, followed up with quiet vocals that don't harsh the vibe.  Many moments on here very clearly harken back to the Dead - "Sidewalk Bops After Suicide" is another with a heavy debt to the groovy guitar warbles that are trademark Dead.  You may hate the Dead, I know there are weirdos out there who can't stand it, but that ain't me.  I think the combination of country and funk and rock is tasty.  Only one song on this thing has more than a million streams, so you get "Sleeping Volcanoes."

Of course, that track is less Dead and more Arcade Fire meets Kurt Vile, after I spend 10 lines discussing Jerry and Co.  Whatever, go listen to the whole album and you'll catch that flavor quickly.  And maybe I should say that it just has a classic rock and jam band sort of feel overall (but I still hear Dead flourishes throughout).  The opener (7:37 long) and closer (10:09) long are crazy long but don't feel overly so, they flow into different parts and parcels in a pleasing way.  I think this album rules.