Quick Hits, Vol. 324 (Margo Price, Hello Mary, Ice Spice, Martha)

Margo Price - Strays.  I keep coming back to the fact that this album makes me think of Sheryl Crow.  Classic Sheryl Crow.  And to me, that is a great thing - this is not shade at all.  But it has that easy listening rock style that Crow slayed back in the day.  Those first few Crow albums were perfection to me.  "Light Me Up," with Tom Petty's guitarist Mike Campbell, sounds a little like a nursery rhyme until the drums kick in.  "Change of Heart" is the most purely Crow tune on here.  I really hear her in there.  And it is both the background instrumentation - old-school organ, gentle guitar/bass/drum meanderings, good harmony vocals - and the way that Price herself sounds as she phrases the vocals.  "Lydia" makes me think of "Don't Give Up," although I was hoping it would be a Slaid Cleaves cover, because that song rules.  The top track is with Sharon Van Etten, which is all about getting NAKED while listening to tunes.  Or at least I think that is right.  "Radio" has 1.8 million streams.

The start of that track is super jenky, with those drum machine beats and synth chords.  But then it kicks in and sounds a little more rad.  Meh.  Not my favorite track on the album, it feels like the chorus was the focus and the verses just got tossed in there.  But I do like her giving the impressed pizza delivery gal her joint!  Also random aside, I really like the look of this album cover.  Like she's at a prom at Enchanted Rock!  Pretty solid disc.

Hello Mary - Ginger.  One of those bands that Rolling Stone said was on the come-up or something.  I like it, skuzzy, fuzzy, raw rock and roll blast.  The title track starts off the album with that sort of sound, and it rules.  Just sounds like a room of people blasting their instruments to 11 and having a good time.  Lo-fi, garage rock sort of sound from these three ladies bashing their way around, and then a few slinky, shoegazey sort of tunes tossed in to keep you honest.  But the guitar blast of Apple sounds kind of like early Nirvana.  Super low stream count, so I guess most people aren't digging the action.  That album opener is the top streamer for sure, and the only one above a million listens.  So, we'll just stick with that one.  "Ginger."

I wanna go mosh with seven other awkward people in a parking lot!  Oh wow, they look like children!  Just read up on them and the members were 16 and 19 when this album came out (in 2020!).  Got a definite throwback grunge sound on some of these tunes.  I like it!

Ice Spice - Like..?  I've been seeing things about Ice repeatedly recently, so I figured I needed to check it out.  Meh?  Has the beats like the British rappers doing ???, or maybe like drill?  I just don't know much about rap subgenres, but I know that the beats end up bleeding together and then the album just seems like nothing is different from the last track.  But honestly, her flow is pretty okay, she spits with speed and some clever rhymes here and there.  Lots of nasty lyrics.  Has a shitton of streams - like smokes everyone else I've listened to recently.  Five songs on here are in the eight figure range!  Top one is "In Ha Mood," with 84.9 million streams.

She says the same thing way too many times.  This feels like something that was hot through TikTok.  It is much better than a lot of the current dudes making lame mumble raps, but I don't find it all that interesting in the end.

Martha - Please Don't Take Me Back.  Yummy stuff!  Do you ever hate how some distasteful person can make a word seem bad in your mind?  I wanted to use the word "yummy" just then, but then it brought back the thing I read that Tucker Carlson had called a woman "yummy," while on a hot mic, and now I never want to use that word again.  It's like Ted Cruz saying that Princess Bride was a favorite, which makes me so sad because that movie rules.  Gross political people should all just shut up and live on CSPAN.  Anyway, this album has nothing to do with any of all of that, it is just a fantastic little nugget of straight-forward rock and roll pleasures.  I really like it.  English band, and I have no clue how they came into my queue.  No real lead singer either, which is an interesting wrinkle.  The title track is the top streamer, even though I think I like the first two tracks on the disc more.  144k streams.

Jangly sing-along tune that is good fun.  I also am always a fan of his accent in the chorus.  Like many rock and roll records these days, nothing on here is ground-breaking or new, but it has a poppy buoyancy under the riffage that works super well.  I'm on board!