Quick Hits, Vol. 341 (Real Estate, ScHoolboy Q, MGMT, Madi Diaz)

How have I done so freaking many of these little reviews?  Three hundred and freaking forty one of them?  Weird.  A random aside that I very much enjoy, taken from a Defector article, because F Drake.

"At the core of it though, Kendrick just does not like the very idea of Drake's whole get down and what he represents—for all the reasons everyone else probably suspects. Drake is the manifestation of the last 40 years of the corporate absorption of hip-hop culture into mass entertainment. Drake is the lab-invented ideal of a rap superstar. Drake is this scene from The Simpsons. Drake is an algorithm-approved representation of rap. Drake is the gentrification, commodification, and globalization of hip-hop culture. Drake is a British museum stealing the artifacts of hip-hop's past for their exhibits. Drake is the personification of things like “trap brunch” and “trap yoga” and “I am not my ancestors” t-shirts. Drake is the tug of war between white dollars and black art. Drake is the pipeline between sensitive sad boy online performance and the deeply violent and misogynistic incel culture that is currently threatening to consume all of hip-hop. Drake is an Illuminati wet dream."

Chef's kiss.  Back to the tunes.

Real Estate - Daniel.  Absolutely wonderful album.  Love listening to this.  Nothing game changing here, just more catchy, melodic indie rock jams that have a sort of spacey quality to them.  REM is probably my favorite band of all time, and this feels like the kind of thing they could still be making if they wanted to.  Amazingly, no one is listening to this disc - only one song with more than a million streams - but it ought to be the top album on every February 2024 list.  Check out the biggest tune - "Water Underground" with 1.5 million streams.

Kind of a Shins, Decemberists vibe.  Beautiful and cheerful and just wonderful to hear.  I'll absolutely keep this album in rotation.

ScHoolboy Q - BLUE LIPS.  I really wanted this to be an instant classic.  I like Q a lot, and his live shows are freaking fun.  Maybe it will become a classic the more I spin it, because the beats are fun for sure - he yanks the beat from Project Pat's "Chickenheads" on "THank god 4 me" - and some are brawny as hell.  He does one thing throughout the disc, like with a cool maneuver with the first three songs - the incongruously soft "Funny Guy" followed right up by the hard edges of "Pop" that bleeds right into a soft flute intro to "THank god 4 me."  But the whole disc ends up being a little uneven for me - some songs are super good on first stream, others grew on me, and then a few are just uninteresting.  But I definitely enjoy the differences here - the soft jazzy background of "Blueslides" is super laid back but then followed up with "Yeern 101" and its hyper-aggressive electronica.  That's the top single for now with 10.6 million streams.

He jumps onto that beat like a speed bag at the gym.  He's a big golfer too, I know that, but it is still funny to see him smacking golf balls in here.  Great track - relentless.  But, like, "Love Birds" featuring some other crooners in it really doesn't get me anywhere.  "OHio" with Freddie Gibbs bangs, taking us through three different zones during one tune.  "Pig feet" is hard too.  Just an all-over-the-place disc, but overall I dig the vibe.  Lots of soul samples and development of the feel.

MGMT - Loss of Life.  I didn't have very high expectations on this disc - these guys made some massive hits many moons ago and then haven't done much of note since.  They're weird and experimental in ways I usually don't need.  But this is actually enjoyable.  I had a moment where I wanted to compare them to Jet, but that seems rude these days.  But they definitely have some of the slow burning British pop sounds that Jet went for when they were trying to recreate the Beatles.  "Mother Nature" is for sure one of those - oh hey, and its the top streamer too!  5.1 million streams.

Spacey and weird, as their tunes should be, but also melodic and pleasant.  "Dancing in Babylon" sounds like some 80's pop hiding from a teen romance soundtrack.  "Bubblegum Dog" is a fun one for sure - more like a David Bowie vibe there.  I just realized that the overall vibe actually makes me think of The Flaming Lips.  Weird and enjoyable album.

Madi Diaz - Weird Faith.  I'm just in a wonderful space with some of these albums - this is freaking great.  She is apparently a friend/opening act for Harry Styles, and he nailed that co-sign because the combination of confessional lyrics, a great singing voice, and catchy indie pop stylings make this an excellent disc.  She also gets the Kacey Musgraves co-sign with a duet on here.  That track gets the most streams - unsurprisingly - but I'll give you a different track to get the full Madi experience.  "Everything Almost" has 317k streams.

Love her voice so much.  Not sure how these work together, but it is both cute and strong.  Watching her sing it just then gave me goosebumps - fascinating, started to tear up near the end.  Aging is such a damn weird experience.  Great song, excellent album.