Quick Hits, Vol. 252 (Mac Miller, Eminem, Harry Styles, Shoreline Mafia)

Mac Miller - Circles.  Kind of a bummer of an album, in that all posthumous albums are kind of sad stuff.  Like, the first song comes in with a very chill, basic strum of a track, and Mac's vulnerable, rough-hewn voice rasping over the top.  This is probably the best track on this disc.  Just so vulnerable and cool sounding.  Overall, I never really got into Miller's stuff - and especially so in these tracks that are more singing and less rapping.  "Good News" is killing it, with over 73 million streams.  Which is pretty wild.

Damn that is a bummer of a song, but then it's kinda happy too?  Another sad sounding track over minimal instrumentation.  Some are more upbeat, its not all bummer stuff.  I wonder (and I'm sure I could go look this up) if these were tracks he finished before dying, or if these were all just vocals that someone else has come along and put to music.  Either way, I think it's a hell of a way to pay tribute to the guy - doesn't feel like a cash in, feels like a tribute.

Eminem - Music to be Murdered By.  I don't know what to do with Eminem.  On the one hand, his classic stuff was absolutely classic.  When he had a chip on his shoulder, it seemed real and proper and exciting to watch him blow everyone else up.  And now he's still acting like he has a chip on his shoulder about people disrespecting him and not loving his raps, but it just comes off as a long, bitter rant about why he's bigger and better than everyone else.  It's tiresome.  I want him to keep making music, but this stuff is just uninteresting.  Well, for the most part.  The one where he murders his step-dad is pretty entertaining.  The intro song - "Premonition" - is the worst offender of the complaining verses style, and yet I actually like it.  The D-12 song is bad.  The Ed Sheeran song is also bad.  "In Too Deep" is kind of too much of the R&B thing.  I kinda like the top song, mainly because of the bouncing beat, but I have a feeling many of the streams on it are because Juice WRLD is on the track.  "Godzilla" with 133.2 million streams.

You can't fault Em for his technical prowess.  He really can weave words into any space, and chip in rhyming words all over the place, and its freaking impressive.  He's gotta be ridiculously intelligent, to come up with ways to use all of those rhymes in each line (while half the other rappers are just rhyming bitch with bitch at the end of each line).  "Darkness" is freaking very dark - a track from the perspective of a mass shooter (maybe the Vegas guy) as he prepares and then fires on everyone.  It's also, like most rap albums now, overly long at 20 tracks and more than an hour.  There is definitely some flotsam on here that could have been jettisoned.  And I honestly don't hear a hit anywhere.

Harry Styles - Fine Line.  I kind of wanted to bag on this album, because people keep talking about Styles as though he is somehow single-handedly saving rock music with his new stylings that look backwards to the old stylings.  But honestly, this is a really nice album.  "Lights Up" is a really good tune - very cool, very chill, gets stuck in my head.  His voice is great, and much of the throwback music used here appeals to me as an official old guy.  "Watermelon Sugar" is a little repetitive for me, and "Cherry" seems a little too cute for its britches, with the toy piano and cutesy ending.  "Adore You" sounds very much like a song that could have been on the new Taylor Swift album.  That one is currently on top of the streaming numbers, so here you go - 192 million streams.

He loves his fish friend so much!  Do you hear the sound I'm talking about?  That Jack Antonoff-ish pop guitar strum and killer chorus funk?  I enjoy the tunes.  Good on you Harry.

Shoreline Mafia - Party Pack, Vol. 2.  Weird thing - found this group because I was reading comments people left to an IG post about some Fest lineup, where a ton of different people were begging them to add this group to the lineup.  Having never heard of them before, I figured I'd give it a shot.  The first track, "Wings," is bouncy and fun as hell.  I don't hear much in the lyrics that sounds all that great, but the track itself is a good time.

That guy with the first verse looks like the little boy from Spy Kids, except with a potty mouth and a love for expensive shit.  But his verse is actually smooth as hell.  The skinnier guy who does the chorus has a much weaker verse.  Sometimes this stuff has a Bone Thugs flavor (see "Pour Two 4's").  Others have a Brockhampton vibe - like a bunch of guys contributing bits and pieces over a good beat, with a little singing and a little rapping.  Although the Brockhampton guys usually aren't quite so vulgar in their tracks.  I've actually kind of enjoyed these guys.  Kinda hope they'll end up on the ACL poster or something.