Quick Hits, Vol. 246 (Kevin Gates, Sturgill Simpson, Temples, The Avett Brothers)

Kevin Gates - I'm Him.  Gates is nothing if not prolific.  Dude seems to put out at least an album a year, and this one is packed up with 17 flipping songs.  Which gets exhausting after a while.  I made the mistake of enjoying an album from him like 10 years ago, and so now every time a new album comes out I grab it because I'm still chasing Stranger Than Fiction, but instead I get lesser stuff.  It isn't bad, its kind of good background rap.  The beats are undistinguished and generic, but pleasantly bouncy and bobbing.  But kind of like my Tool review the other day - any of these tracks could have been on his last three albums, and I wouldn't know the difference.  Just him angrily dropping bars about bad stuff happening in his hood.  "Push It" has the most streams at 17 million.

Tough.  I like it.  Like his past few albums, this stuff isn't bad by any means, but nothing on here is a hit, or a  special track that I feel like distinguishes itself from the rest as a great new rap.  I'll probably let it be.

Sturgill Simpson - Sound and Fury.  Another good album from this dude, taking mess of a country tack than ever and angling further and further into straight rock and roll.  Looking forward to seeing his concert at the Erwin Center coming up.  This one is definitely a keeper.

"Sing Along" is the hit so far from the album at 5.5 million streams.  That video is totally weird.  I've said this before, but for some reason the weird bass drop near the end of the song bugs the crap out of me.  Otherwise, its a fine song, but that one moment is out of place and weird and I don't like it.  But yes, this disc is good.

Temples - Hot Motion.  This one made my top ten albums of the year list, despite the fact I hadn't even written it up yet.  Their sound is like the old Tame Impala stuff, which in turn was kind of like the classic Beatles sound once they found psychedelia.  I love this stuff - sufficiently funky, rock enough, weird at just the right levels.  And their look is something as well, they're kind of going for one of those period piece things - they sound like 70's pysch rockers, so now they dress like it too.  Check the video for "You're Either On Something."

Trippy, bro!  So, yeah, it isn't anything groundbreakingly new, in fact, it goes backwards in time, but I don't give a crap, each song has a funky groove and a cool vibe that I dig.  Keeper.

The Avett Brothers - Closer Than Together.  I've always liked these dudes.  Saw them a few times at ACL and loved that I And Love And You album.  But they've gone further afield from that sound over time, and my initial read of this album was that it was terrible.  And that is entirely the fault of the first single, that I happened to hear 50 times last summer while driving a rental car with free XM.  This disc still has some rocking stuff and some that you could fit under the umbrella of Americana, but then that damn song comes on.  The opening track is a rollicking, braying rocker.  Nothing too offensive.  Some nice harmonies and mellotron on "Tell the Truth."  "We Americans" sounds nice, even if a little preachy.  It's when you get to "High Steppin'" that everything goes off the rails and I can't do it anymore.  That song blows.  Also, the "New Woman's World" track makes me criiiiinge.  Yikes.  Feels like the kind of thing a nervous college boy would play for a girl to show how woke he is, before trying to pull a move on her.  But my overall vibe for this disc is that it is pretty good.  This is "Tell the Truth," because I refuse to play the top track for you because I hate it so much.

Yeah, pretty OK.  I don't love the album, and its overlong at just under an hour, but some of these songs hew to the nice style they've honed over the years.