Quick Hits, Vol. 379 (Ghostface Killah, Friendship, Chance the Rapper, Cass McCombs)

I have been really bad at writing reviews recently, or tracking potential ACL acts, because work has actually gotten busy again.  If this keeps up, my usual ACL reviewing is going to be severely truncated!  But today I felt like finishing up this one and moving Cass McCombs to my saved albums (I also really want to get the Earl Sweatshirt album out of my new music list), so I'm back!  Hopefully will have more for you to enjoy soon.

Also, sadly, the YouTube linking problem is back.  Dammit.

Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele 2.  The first music I ever played on Spotify was Ghostface.  When I found out that I could just heard anything I wanted to, and I had been enjoying his Fishscale album (on CD!), I went and fired up the original Supreme Clientele from 2000.  I felt like a million bucks, to be able to just pull up whatever I wanted at any time.  Now, I think it feels overwhelming to have this much choice, but it is also awesome at the same time.  Anyway, here is another classic-sounding rap album full of soul samples, old school collaborators (Redman, Raekwon, Method Man, Dave Chapelle), and Ghost firing up dexterous raps over the top of it all.  They also use the sample from "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" that immediately had me walking around singing "YOU LOOK LIKE AC GREEN, BITCH DON'T CALL HERE ANYMORE!"  Which is both an amazingly rude thing to say about former NBA Champion Green, as well as a terrible thing to say to a woman.  Of interest to me, but likely a conspiracy theory too far, is that this song ("Love Me Anymore") never actually includes the AC Green line, it just samples that same song, but AC Green's nickname in the league was Iron Man, which is also the nickname and persona that Ghostface has used for years.  Was that intentional?  Probably not.  I very obviously have too much dumb information in my head.  Top track is "Rap Kingpin" with a sad 1.091 million streams.

I freaking love videos with crowds of people, especially kids, just grooving to a rap track.  I need someone to invite me to stand in the background and be the weird redhead bobbing his head.  "Soul Thang" has a line that cracks me up every time - "Bitch how the fuck is you bougie you drive a Nissan."  My son and I have a theory that 97% of all Nissans in the world have damaged bumpers.  Now that I have told you this, everywhere you go you will notice Sentras with their front bumper barely hanging on and Altimas with dented plastic around their license plate.  Some of the skits here are kind of funny, but most of them aren't moving the needle.  Final thought is "Candyland," one of those classic schtick tracks where he shouts out loads of candy things as he raps about slanging drugs.  Makes me think of the old Ice Cube track about Mother Goose stories.  Pretty good album, nothing in here just pops like a major hit is waiting, but if you love sample-based rap and lyrics you can understand (Grandpa alert!) then this is for you.

Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up.  I think I know who suggested this to me, because it definitely has a Marshall feel to it.  Sort of The National meets Lou Reed vibe.  I haven't looked up the band yet, but it feels like a group of dudes who met in art school in Brooklyn and formed the band in a cramped loft where they live, rehearse, and throw pottery.  Nope - Philly!  I think "Love Vape" is a good indicator of the album - rambling, DIY-sounding little guitar meandering with a driving backbeat and lyrics that go through some items like this: "Kind of freaky at the BP down off Locust, I heard they got the cheapest cigarettes on Earth, They still give you plastic bags, Rolling shutters covеred in tags, Somebody's name writtеn on the overpass, Did they have to hang upside down?"  Low streams, but honestly not as low as I sort of expected.  "Free Association" has 682k streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB_fN-Ghb2w

Maybe a Strand of Oaks feel here as well. But definitely the mopey ass sound of The National is cruising along with these guys.  They claim this to be country rock, which I am not hearing, but their Spotify bio also says that this album is for "loitering outside a roadhouse on the haunted tundra."  Which, sure.  Yeah.  I don't know, I guess it would be fine to keep around and let these songs loiter in my Keepers playlist to pop up every other month, but I think I'll just let them go.

Chance the Rapper - STAR LINE.  I can't do it.  Every time the first song starts my brain cringes in on itself and I just have to stop.  That is not entirely true, I've made it through here a few times while just working and not paying attention, but if I pay attention, this honestly grates my nerves.  Part is his little yelp that he does repeatedly, but part of it also is that this feels too loud or too maximal in my ears.  Not sure how to explain it.  It is also AN HOUR AND SEVEN MINUTES.  Get over yourself.  Most songs have about 1.5 million streams, but one with Joey Bada$$ crushes those - "The Highs & The Lows" has 28.1 million streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEv2NMr46E

My God it felt good to delete that album out of my queue.  Meanwhile, listening again to that particular track, and it has a good ass beat and some nice flow.  Some of those lyrics are corny but it sounds really nice.  Whatever.  Go away, Chance.

Cass McCombs - Interior Live Oak.  This album is wild.  I like it, but I feel like it takes hours and takes me on a journey between so many other artists.  Like, you know those moments when you are listening to a disc and think "oh, I guess that was the end of the CD and now I am listening to a new Gary Clark Jr. song."  That happens over and over during the hour and fourteen minute runtime of this disc.  Gary Clark, Ryan Adams, Fleet Foxes, Robert Ellis, Beck, like Norah Jones or something, it just keeps morphing around with sounds.  Top track is the second one, called "Peace" with 510k streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyB8EqCEYZM

Like much of this, nothing in that tune is going to just blow you away with mastery, but it is a really nice little rock and roll tune.  Great harmonies, good guitar picking, just a lovely nugget of tuneful rock.  I really like this fella.

Quick Hits, Vol. 378 (Florence + The Machine, JID, Goose, Margo Price)

Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream.  I wish that there was a single on this.  Because her voice is freaking magic - definitely one of my favorite female singers - and I think some of that comes from the time I saw her live and it felt like I had the top of my head blown off.  She can wail or croon or whisper or bray and all of them swaddle me like silk.  The opening/title track is a little odd to me, in that it feels like she is making fun of how the crowd reacts to her show.  I guess it isn't making fun so much as finding comfort in it, but it also seems to cheapen the pleasure of freaking out at a show.  But the second tune, "One of the Greats" has stuck with me some, just because it builds in a really great way until it all falls out for the orchestral outro.  The opening clicking and tense vocals of "Witch Dance" is also cool.  But I don't feel like there is one that just jams - lots of thickly layered songs with heavy lyrics and style shifts throughout.  Maybe I'm vacuous, but gimme a "Dog Days Are Over."  The top track is the title track with 23.2 million streams.

As someone with a tiny tattoo on my lower gut, the idea of a tattoo on the Achilles region seems really painful to me.  But watching them all freak out in the little pressed-tin ceilinged room gave me the goose bumps anyway.  Feels like this song will be great when they play live, just to get the whole crowd doing as they are told.  Some clever boffin is going to figure to scream FLORENCE when she tells the crowd to scream her name and will be very proud of him or herself.  I like the album - this is good music - I just wanted something more catchy if I could get it.

JID - God Does Like Ugly.  I have talked about J.I.D. before, and I find him to be one of the best-sounding rappers around right now.  He's got a deep tone like Pusha T, and wildly inventive lyricism like Kendrick.  High praise, I know.  My personal issue with this album is that it is not very fun.  I want my rap to be a good time, and this is some time-consuming, deep-dive-listening type stuff where you really need to sit down and listen carefully for it to mean anything.  So much work!  Jeez!  But like, "Glory" is somewhat accessible with all of the beat switches and the gospel singers getting after it in the background.  "WRK" is the top streamer, and feels the most like a traditional catchy rap track aiming for popularity.  16.4 million streams and a good groove.

Get yo ass up!  The next song features Clipse and is cool, to hear all three of these guys on one track, just trying to outdo each other.  For me, personally, I could do without the pop angle it seems to go in about halfway through the disc.  "No Boo" with all of the Spanish language bits can go, "Sk8" with Ciara and Earthgang isn't doing it for me, but the Don Toliver track "What We On" can stay even if it is kind of slow.  Thankfully, "On McAfee" pops back with a brawny beat and some dexterous vocals to get me back into the mood.  Mereba sounds like Janet Jackson ("comin' out the car lookin' more like Freddie Jackson!") but once she is done, "Of Blue" gets better.  Uneven album for me.  I wish it had more real bangers.

Goose - Chain Yer Dragon.  I am becoming a bit obsessive with Goose.  This week, my youngest walked into the living room/kitchen area as I was cooking dinner and jamming to a very weird Christmas-time Goose show on YouTube, raised an eyebrow at me, and asked who my favorite band of all time is.  I said, as I have always said since about 1988, R.E.M., and then went into a longer explanation that she promptly tuned out.  Good times.  But I will definitely say that I have been listening to this band like crazy over the past few months.  And this disc is a big reason why.  This album rules.  You may hate jam band music, and that is totally fine, but the opening track just makes me happy with its goofy ass lyrics and funky strut.  "please don't groove in the middle of my love connection" is just a wonderful lyric.  I like how the disc gives you multiple facets - funky groove nuggets and chill balladry and all of the points in between.  Just makes me want to reach for it again each time it is time to play music (which annoys the crap out of my lovely wife).  Criminally low stream count, so maybe I'm just out here on an island jamming by myself... "Madalena" is the top track with 1.4 million streams.

That's your piano ballad side, but it is really nice.  Makes me think of some smooth 70's AM gold - if James Taylor used more instruments and liked his bassist to funk it up.  "Royal" kinda rules too.  I think they just do a great job of allowing a little bit of jammy wandering, but still keep the overall songs themselves cohesive and tight enough.  

Margo Price - Hard Headed Woman.  Pretty straight-forward, classic country thing.  I don't hear any obvious hits or lyrics that really turn my head, but bumping along with "Don't Let The Bastards Get You Down," which sounds like it could have been an old Waylon tune from back in the day being covered now, is entirely pleasant.  Sadly for her, the top song, by 3x, is the one that features Tyler Childers.  "Love Me Like You Used to Do."  1.5 million streams.

Again, that could be a classic tune from 1975 - and nothing is wrong with that at all!  If you want to hear a really well-sung country ballad, then you are in the right spot!  I generally like it, but I am also generally ready to quit hearing it.  When I want some country music, this will be a sweet spot.  But most days, I would prefer other things.