Quick Hits, Vol. 348 (Billie Eilish, Wyatt Flores, Adrianne Lenker, Lovejoy)

So today, at my professional workplace, we had a catered lunch that involved a three-song dance number by three women dressed as the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus.  Apparently, they are professional Sanderson Sisters.  Never knew such a thing existed, but truly fascinating to watch them lip sync some of the dance numbers from that movie while a room full of bewildered lawyers tried to decide what to do with themselves.  Good times.

Billie Eilish - HOT ME HARD AND SOFT.  My God, this album is so boring.  At least with the freaky early stuff it was interesting, if disturbing and confusing and dark, but this is just the lamest pile of torchy balladry and soft lite pop I can think of right now.  I normally don't try to go read other people's reviews while I am writing mine, but I am so curious to see if Pitchfork was somehow fawning over this turd.  Oh thank goodness they only gave it a 6.8.  That feels like where they land on an artist where they feel scared to be honest about an album being sucky because the fans will freak out, but they make it low enough so that people don't get confused that it is good.  Nothing on here stands out as a hit to me, they all just blend together into a smear of synths and whispery vocals.  You can sort of see it in the stream counts too, because although one song of course blasts past the billion stream mark, the back half of the album shows that nobody really wanted to keep the whole thing.  That big song is "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" with 1.2 billion streams.

Just a generic "love you 'til the day that I die" pop song.  I have zero clue why that song has a billion streams.  Should we show the kids that Debbie Gibson once existed?  I wish I had not read the Pitchfork review though, because now all I hear in that is "Last Christmas" by Wham! and it makes it even worse!  No need to save any of this.

Wyatt Flores - Half Life.  This fellas was on the bill for Two Step in in 2024 and I was a big fan of the music leading up to the weekend.  I didn't get to see him because the line to get in took an hour, which I am not at all still salty about five months later.  No sir.  But this is more enjoyably heartfelt Texas country that doesn't break new boundaries and isn't trying to become a Nashville hit, but sounds good.  At times, his voice gets a little plaintive and that can be grating, but in general I enjoy it all.  "Milwaukee" is the top track with 16 million streams.

That bar sort of looked like the White Horse, so I tried googling where the video was filmed.  The super-smart-always-correct AI thing on google now told me it was filmed at Times Square.  Which is completely dumb and false.  Anyway, overall, a good album.  The title track is great (and reminds me of Sturgill with the way it starts), and his cover of the Fray's "How to Save a Life" is spot on.

Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future.  You'll maybe recognize her voice as the lead singer from the very fun band Big Thief.  A month or two ago, I was out for beers with some friends and we were talking about the pros and cons of several of the ACL bands, and one of my oldest friends in the world said that he just finds himself listening to this album instead of all that "upbeat stuff."  So this disc has been waiting for me in my queue for months, just waiting for me to be done with the ACL stuff, but because it is the first album in there I keep firing it up first.  It is kind of brutal in its plainspoken power.  Album opener "Real House" will just nail you with its extremely muted background behind her voice - singing about being in the hospital at age 14, abandoned by her friends, but laughing anyway as she gets a needle shoved into her arm.  Definitely not my favorite album ever, even though some of it is really nice.  The slightly more upbeat - in music if not in title - song "Sadness is a Gift" is the top streamer with 10.4 million.

Definitely sounds more like the Big Thief stuff, and her harmonies are wonderful.  Kind of sounds like Gillian Welch or Nanci Griffith.  Beautiful sentiment.  "Free treasure" also has fantastic harmonies.  Yeah, this is a funky disc.  You go from the bare-bones depression of the opener, but then right in to this sort of snappy observational beauty.  Up and down.

Lovejoy - Are You Alright?  I think this little EP popped into my queue because of that same night, discussing music over beers.  Another friend who generally has my same musical taste said that he had been enjoying this little British band.  Agreed.  This is like an early Arctic Monkeys freakout thing, and its loose and wild and fun.  They add some trumpet to a breakneck rock wiggle that is a good time.  Top track is the second, "One Day," with a surprisingly large stream count.  Three of the tracks on here crack a hundred million!?  That is wild, when, like, nothing on the new Justice album comes even close and they are an established hit?  Crazy.  Any way, 144 million streams for "One Day."

Pretty great yell-a-long line there with the chorus.  They're fun.  I don't know a lick about their backstory, but it is a good time.  All four songs here are enjoyable.  I'll go back for more of their tunes.

Right when I thought I'd have the time to listen to tunes and clear out the queue - Two Step Inn gets announced and now I need to listen to those folks.  A good number are retreads from before, so they'll be easy to write up, but a good number of newby bands as well.  Good times.