Quick Hits, Vol. 363 (Charlie XCX, Soccer Mommy, Laura Marling, A$AP Ferg)

Charlie XCX - BRAT.  I am well aware that I am extremely late to this party, as this was the big album of last summer and the Kamala campaign and Saturday Night Live and everything else.  But my ACL listening needs really interfere with my other listening action, and to be quite honest every time this album has popped up I have found something else to listen to.  I got in to this a little with my Sabrina Carpenter review the other day, but I just can't get on board with the poptimism movement and the world declaring that this sort of thing is important music.  I can't stand it.  Sadly, this likely means that she will almost certainly be on the ACL lineup and I will be forced to dive more deeply into this stuff, but I have made my way through this album a handful of times and I hate the vocal effects and the generically uninteresting beats and the repetitiveness of it all.  And I am for sure biased, because I wouldn't think a thing of it if the Black Keys had a generic and repetitive riff.  But this is just not giving me any pleasure at all.  The playcount is interesting to me, in that several of these songs, on the supposedly biggest album of 2024, have less than 40 million streams, while only four have more than a hundred million.  Makes it seem to me like this wasn't as big a deal as the critics and media tried to make it seem.  The top track by a ways is the album opener, "360."  334.9 million streams.

The start of that being a Google ad was deeply annoying to me as well, as, for sure, was the skit at the start.  I hate it even more than the song itself.  I'm sure its some meta commentary that an old white guy would not like that portion or the song, but at the end of the day I am what I am and this is not good.  It just really feels like people felt like they needed to get on board with this in order to be cool or relevant or whatever despite its actual value.  It sort of reminds me of the flow of Iggy Izalea.  I will absolutely not be saving this album for later listens.

Soccer Mommy - Evergreen.  Ahhhhhh, a balm to my soul after that schlock.  She uses real instruments, and allows her voice to shine in all of its close-to-perfect glory.  I also really like how the songs vary between slower indie rock burners and low-key rockers.  My disappointment is that the disc is so darned short.  41 minutes feels like it slips by way too quickly.  The most rock of all of the songs is the top streamer, with "Driver" and 1.6 million streams.

Dig that fuzzy guitar crunch at the start, and the break for the chorus.  And I think the lyrics are sort of funny as well, with her saying she'd be the driver but is making no promises about staying on route.  Also, it looks really annoying to ride in a convertible with long hair.  Either way, I think her music is really a nice way to spend my time.  She's not breaking any barriers or creating a Rushmore album, but it sounds wonderful to me.

Laura Marling - Patterns in Repeat.  Another gem.  Truly a joy to hear.  However, despite that true praise, I am going to say that this wonderfully lovely collection of folky little beauties can be boring to me a little bit.  Which is terribly rude, because it is really pretty.  Sometimes you'd just rather have A$AP Ferg yell at you though.  "Child of Mine" sounds like Aimee Mann giving me a hug while wearing a floor length chinchilla coat.  "Interlude" keeps making me think that The Smile album has come back and I'm about to hear Thom Yorke sing about something weird.  Lyrically, "Caroline" has an amazingly subtle storyline that sticks among the slightly annoying lalalalalalalala bits.  I love the way she rends a tale of a lost love who still pops up in memory.  Top track by a large margin is "Patterns" with 5.2 million.

Huh.  She's so much younger than I expected.  I don't know why I figured her for a 70 year old.  Like I said, very lovely track - that fingerpicking is so nice.  Now it's time for Ferg to yell at us a lil.

A$AP Ferg - DAROLD.  One of my favorite memories of having my kids with me at ACL was sending them into the Austin Kiddie Limits area while I went to go watch Ferg's set.  Afterwards, we grabbed a snow cone or something, sitting in the grass, and middle kid was like "Dad, did you hear how naughty the guy was who was playing outside of the face paint area?  He used all the bad words!"  Yes, yes, he did my sweet.  Nothing on here is as good as "Shabba," "Plain Jane," or "New Level," but it can still be very fun to just go dumb with these sorts of brawny things.  Although, I will admit that the album loses its way by pretty much turning into an R&B disc on the back half.  Don't care for those tracks.  But the front half that features guys like Denzel Curry and Future, those work.  Top track is a solo one - "Thought I Was Dead."  2.6 million streams (which is crazy low - no one listens to Ferg?)

(1) I hate when the advertisement before a music video is a music video - did I click on the wrong thing? Who is this dork with a guitar in the A$AP video? (2) horns in a rap track always excite me (3) I've found myself walking around the house saying "hold up wait a minute let me talk my shit!" (4) anytime you get a crowd of kids jumping around and yelling a rap lyric, I am a big fan.  I am surprised that the Future track wasn't the top one, but maybe he is falling off now too?  And while I complained about the R&B back half, I actually find "French Tips" to be a pretty mellow LL Cool J-ish jam.  I kind of like that sort of "here is how I'm going to take of my girl in extravagant ways" type rap.  he even shouts out Biggie in here, and that matches as well.  Dig it.  Anyway, I wish I had more bangers and less pretty ones.  Can't always get what you want...