Quick Hits, Vol. 360 (Drug Church, Zach Bryan, Coldplay, Momma)

Drug Church - PRUDE.  The backing music for this band is the pummeling pleasure-center tweaking action I need most days.  The drawback is the yelling - sometimes I like it, but a lot of the vocals are just straight screaming, which gets hard to enjoy over the course of the entire album.  But the tunes themselves can be tuneful and harmonic, even as the drums want to grind your brain into paste.  I think that was part of why Turnstile was so appealing to me a year or two ago, was that they brought the thunder on the music but also had a singer who I could enjoy the whole time.  But on a track like "The Bitters," it works - he sings part of it and then gets yell-y when it makes sense to do so.  And there are some kick ass little lyrical ideas in here too if you listen in - "Slide 2 Me" has this great one - "ran in the liquor store / yelled 'get on the goddamn floor' / man at the counter smiles wide / he's been waiting his whole life" and then goes on to tell the rest of the story of him being shot, running from the cops, and bleeding out in a stranger's backyard.  And in the end, he just repeats that he had fun.  It's funny and clever and loud.  "Myopic" is the top streamer with 2.2 million streams.

The way that one starts just seems tailor made for a skateboarding video game.  And I don't think I have ever played a skateboarding video game.  You can definitely hear what I meant before - some nice singing during the verses where he sings about some old mistakes, and then he barrels in with the screaming for the chorus.  And as I jam these songs more, I'm liking the tenor of the yelling more and more.  Maybe I just want to yell "WISHING FAILURE / ON A STRANGER / EATING SHIT UNTIL YOU CHOKE" like this guy gets to.  Dunno.

Zach Bryan - The Great American Bar Scene.  At the risk of sounding overly repetitive about every album of his that I review, this thing is too damn long.  19 songs on an album is just overkill.  Pick the ten best and shelve the rest for the next disc in a few months!  I find it frustrating, mainly because I really enjoy the tunes overall, but when listening to the album having the same thing flowing for so long gets tiring.  It's like I said about Logic's staccato flow the other day.  But this dude's lyricism will keep him in the discussion of greats no matter how bloated his discs are.  Just little throwaway lines in the middle of a song about playing baseball with a worn glove and how the leaves might change but the roots stuck.  He really can write a hell of a tune.  The title song is great, and although Springsteen sounds old and warbly, their duet is good.  John Mayer's guitar is unmistakable, but it is weird that he doesn't take over the singing duties in their tune together.  "Purple Gas" with Noeline Hofmann is lovely as well.  "28" is the runaway hit on here though, with 195 million streams.

That chorus just gave me goosebumps - this is a raw live version, compared to the album cut (and it is fascinating that he can't whistle for shit!) but you get the idea.  Funny that he biffs the camera down and just keeps on rolling.  Really good song.  I like the album, just wish it was tighter!

Coldplay - Moon Music.  I really want to like this, because I really love me some old Coldplay.  But this is not the same band.  This is a techno group featuring Chris Martin.  It feels like many of these songs would be absolutely transcendent to hear live in a huge crowd of people going crazy for them - "feelslikeimfallinginlove" for example, or "Good Feelings" or "AETERNA" - like during the ALALALALOBEELOOOOH chant-along bit for sure.  But nothing on here can touch the beauty and perfection of "Yellow" or "Clocks" or "Fix You."  By the way, I pulled their main page up to make sure I was identifying those songs correctly, and EVERY song in their Spotify top ten most popular list has over a BILLION streams.  Good freaking Lord.

Also, there is a song on here named by using just the rainbow emoji and that level of annoying pretentiousness has never been sniffed by any prior band.  While I could see some of these tunes being fun in person, I just can't get the album to work for me.  I feel disappointment when it comes on, and that isn't what you are shooting for here...

Momma - Household Name.  This band popped onto my radar a while back because the single "Medicine" was getting radio play here in Austin and I thought it jammed.  2022 album, so this is not fresh off the presses.  They throw off Soccer Mommy, Bully, beabadoobee, Snail Mail, Japanese Breakfast vibes.  And I dig it.  Lady singer and some frequently heavy, fuzzy, grungy rock accompaniment.  Like, "Rip Off," the first track on the disc, pleasantly roils so that by the end it is just a head-nodding jam.  Very nice.  Fascinating, at least to me, is that the song I knew beforehand is actually not the top streamer, that would be "Speeding 72," by less than 100k streams.  So I am giving you "Medicine" anyway, just because I think that song is so cool.  4.8 million streams.

I like the foreboding low end when it starts, that then launches into a sparklier joy at the chorus.  This is some pure 90's 120 Minutes tastiness and I am very here for it.  More Breeders than Hole, and it makes me happy.  This whole disc is totally worth your time if you are into 90's era rock and roll.