Quick Hits, Vol. 248 (Wilco, Gang Starr, Sheer Mag, Hiss Golden Messenger)

Wilco - Ode to Joy.  I've said this before, but Wilco vexes me.  On the one hand, I really want to like them.  They're kinda rock, kinda Americana, and definitely weird.  All of those things appeal to me.  I have lots of friends who are ride-or-die for them, using their songs as first-wedding-dance songs or greatest-song-of-all-time arguments.  But other than a couple of the early albums and tracks, they've just never worked for me.  I don't get it.  They're perfectly fine, but I can't get any more out of them than that.  This one is similar.  The first song ("Bright Leaves") has a plodding drumbeat that just kind of sinks me into despair before the album has even properly begun.  And it never really pulls itself up from there, with many more mumbled, muted downers wrapped up together for the album.  Does he normally whisper and mumble this much?  The most springy track is, of course, my favorite.  That would be "Everyone Hides," which comes on with a happier tempo, a bright guitar line, and a catchy sound.

Loogit all of those instruments behind them!  That video made me grin.  And see, there I am again, thinking to myself, these guys seem really cool!  I should love them!  And then another forgettable one comes on with a plodding tempo and whisper/mumbled lyrics, and I'm out again.  "We Were Lucky" is actively annoying.  "Love is Everywhere (Beware)" is very nice.  I've gotta let this one go, or I'm gonna go insane.

Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet.  I got super pumped when I saw that a new Gang Starr album was out.  My recollection was that Guru had been adamant back in the day about the fact that the group was gone, and wouldn't be back, and then he died.  Guru is greatness - his solo albums based on jazz samples (Jazzmatazz) were supremely dope.  So I was glad to see this pop up.  But I guess I'm curious to know if Guru would have wanted it to happen.  This is kind of like those weird holograms that people are talking about taking out on tour - Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison and stuff - its kind of ghoulish and feels wrong to make a dead person put out music or perform when they may be extremely opposed to that.  Weird.  Anyway, regardless of how this thing was created, it sounds pretty good.  The beats sound throwback and sample-rific, and while some of the bars seem kind of bitter (the "Bad Name" parts about how disappointed Biggie and Tupac would be with current rappers, and "So Many Rappers" is similarly down on rappers), the flow still sound smooth as ever.  I dig the Q-Tip bits on "Hit Man" as well.  "Family and Loyalty" must have been on a rap playlist or something, because its crushing the rest of the album at just over 12 million streams.

Solid track.  The whole disc is pretty solid - its not as good as the classic Gang Starr stuff, but still sounds good.  Wish they didn't bleep out all of the cuss words though, just breaks up the flow (and everyone knows the word that was used there anyway).  I mean, really, what is the point of letting the listener hear the ffff sound, then an out-of-place beep, then the ccckkk sound?  Is the "uh" sound in the middle the actually naughty part?  Just dumb.  Anyway, I like that some new Gang Starr exists, but I think I'll just go back to the classics rather than this hologram of an album.

Sheer Mag - A Distant Call.  My recollection was that this was a punk band, but this is more like an 80's hard rock throwback, like a Joan Jett cover band with a yeller as the lead singer.  And that is the thing that holds this album back for me, I get very fatigued by the howling and hollering from the lead singer.  The tunes are solid, the guitarwork is gloriously complicated but classic, so it all has a very fun sound.  Like one moment you'll hear something like "White Wedding," then you'll hear Thin Lizzy, then you'll hear Bon Jovi, then a taste of AC/DC. It's fun in a way the White Denim guys are.  But I could use more tuneful singing, and less angry girl snarl.  "Blood from a Stone" is the current most popular, at 213k streams.

Dig the rifftastic tune.  Also, I haven't mentioned this yet, but lyrically, these songs are very good as well - fed up and disaffected with the current status of the world.  Like living check to check and how that sucks.  If the vocals were a little less harsh, I might really dig into this. 

Hiss Golden Messenger - Terms of Surrender.  Not sure where I found this one, but its an odd one.  The first track sounds like an entirely unfunky Prince is singing over a lost John Mayer instrumental from the "Your Body is a Wonderland" sessions.  The guy's voice is nice, but I literally can't get the Prince comparison out of my head, but its just the straight, normal Prince, not the wild man with funk oozing out of his pores.  And actually, this whole album is really nice - very relaxed and lovely stuff. Kinda folky, kinda soulful, kinda Americana.  The name of the band is so very weird, but I didn't find an easy explanation in three minutes of internet research.  Why "Hiss" at the start of it?  Anyway, "I Need a Teacher" is the lead single from the album at just over 2 million streams.

Can you hear my Prince thing?  And yet he's a beard-o white dude making folky music in North Carolina, so you'd never connect his face to that voice (or at least I wouldn't).  This is a nice album - surprising - I expected that the music would be hardcore or something, not folky, soulful John Mayer.