The Official ACL Blog for like Eight People!
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Let me start this discussion with a set of bars from his new album's opener, "Thought It Was a Drought." "I just f**ked your b*tch in some Gucci flip flops I just had some b*tches and I made them lip lock I just took a piss and seen codeine comin' out We got purple Activis, I thought it was a drought."
Wha? I don't even know how to unpack all of that. I can tell you that Activis is a pharmaceutical company that makes Botox, an Alzheimers medicine called Namenda, an immunosuppressant drug called Restasis, as well as many other prescription drugs. However, a search for "activis lean" brings up the fact that they also make a promethazine/codeine sizzurp, which must be what ol' Future is digging on in this song. Ah, and they have apparently pulled that off the shelves because it was so popular with rappers and Bieber. That must be the drought he is talking about. I do know how to unpack all of that! 2.3 million listens. Anyway, I've read about Future for a while, with Rolling Stone continually calling him the best new rapper. Out of Atlanta, uses auto-tune a ton. I got to see him play a show at Stubb's during SXSW a year or two ago, and I remember that he spent all of the time in between songs pimping the new album that was coming out the next week or something. "'Honest,' dat new album, droppin' next week yoooooooooo!! Get to the stoooooooooooooe!!" And while I thought his tunes were pretty good, he had the unfortunate issue of the fact that most of his best known songs are ones where he only has a portion. His best, from that Honest album, is one of my favorite tunes from the past few years of rap - "Move that Dope." 18.3 million spins.
That beat! Yessir! So Future only performs part of that - Pusha T and Pharrell each get a turn to kill it - like other tracks "Tony Montana" (ft. Drake) or "Magic" (ft. T.I.), or even other people's songs like Ace Hood's "Bugatti" or Rocko's "U.O.E.N.O." (made more famous for Rick Ross verse about Cosby-ing a girl). Which meant he got the crowd all hyped up for a huge hit, and then did a single verse and switched the beat to the next thing. Weak. When he cranked the beat for "Move that Dope," the crowd went insane, but he did his verse and said the chorus, all in about a minute, and then shifted the beat to another song that he did for 45 seconds. Disorienting and not very fun. After seeing that show, I tried out Honest a few times, and other than "Move that Dope," I didn't get it. Wasn't very original sounding or lyrically interesting to me. This new album, DS2, just released in 2015, is better though. Not great - he's not a story-teller, more of the type to grab hold of a phrase ("Blow a Bag" comes to mind) and just pound it to death with some brags about how awesome he is. "Where Ya At" is a Drake collaboration that is pretty slick, and "I Serve the Base" has a dope ass beat. "Freak Hoes" sounds like Too $hort. For reasons I don't understand, the biggest song is called "F*ck Up Some Commas," and is his current most popular track with 22.7 million listens.
As far as I can tell, that entire song is about making money, and the commas bit is about moving the commas in the amounts of money he is getting. As in, move the comma in $1,000 and you could have $100,000! Kind of a stretch of an idea. Not a bad tune, but nothing nearly as good as "Move that Dope." Another rapper talking about serving Katy Perry when talking about coke. Weird. Anyway, my experience would tell me that you could skip seeing him, because it will just be an annoying pastiche of his portions of hits, but with two full albums of his own stuff under his belt, he just might make for a better show now. I don't know. Good luck all you weekend 2 warriors!
I don't know what is wrong with me, but I clearly recall walking away from the Alabama Shakes show in 2012 to get some food before the Black Keys, and thinking "Eh, Florence and the Machine, who cares." as I ignored her set and got a Mighty Cone or three. Fool. I should have gotten up close and personal to hear this thing right then and there. Her voice is a force of nature. So lush and powerful and demanding, with a switch that can click it right up into an slight, angelic falsetto. If it doesn't get your attention, then I can't believe you are really listening. I think the thing that I previously thought had always left me wanting with them is the music behind that voice. Not bad music, but just kind of there. Now, after really digging into this music, I think that old reaction was wrong. This music is good as well - kind of bombastic and over-the-top, but good stuff. Three albums, including one that just recently came out in 2015. Their big, first hit is still their second most popular track on Spotify, with just over 73 million listens. "Dog Days are Over," from 2009's Lungs.
Love the intro to that song, with the light back and forth in the stereo speakers of that mandolin or uke. Distinctive and cool. And then the thump and hand-claps of classic 50's rock, it was something new and fun back at the start of the decade. But their most popular track is off of 2011's Ceremonials, "Shake it Out," with almost 80 million listens on Spotify.
"Regrets collect like old friends, Here to relive your darkest moments, I can see no way, I can see now way...Its always darkest before the dawn." And then the music builds until it all peaks. Great tune. Their new album is really solid as well, I've listened to it a couple of times over the past two days, and its not just the singles. Here is the hit, "What Kind of Man," with over 23.2 million listens.
I have to say, it was confusing to hear at first, until I figured out that she is saying the word "this" as though it was "these." She's not talking about some group of inanimate objects when asking about man's love. Makes me think of the scene in the Matrix when one of the minor crew members is about to die by getting disconnected by the bad guy from the Goonies and she says "Not like dis, not like dis" before she collapses. Off that new album, "Ship to Wreck" and "Queen of Peace" are also killer tracks. Now, with hindsight, I wish I'd bought weekend Two passes instead of weekend One. I'd hate to miss Alabama Shakes, but they are doing an ACL taping on the Friday night of first weekend, so I could have fit everything in, avoided the Strokes, and jammed both Modest Mouse and Florence into the weekend. Oh well! I'll just keep listening to her tunes on Spotify!
Sadly, Modest Mouse is not coming to Weekend One. Those of us who have purchased Weekend One tickets get stuck with The Strokes (and Alabama Shakes, so not all bad) while Weekend Two people get Florence and the Machine and Modest Mouse (and Future, for that matter). I know I said I was only looking at Weekend One bands, but when your most prolific commenter feels sadness because you won't talk about the band he is most excited to see for the whole of ACL, you listen and make it happen. (but with 32 additional groups on Weekend Two only, I'm not doing them all. I'm only a man, not a machine.) Modest Mouse is indie rock that became popular without me in the early oughts. I knew their first hit or two ("Float On" and "Ocean Breathes Salty") and generally liked those songs well enough, but felt intimidated by the rest of the music to the point where I never really gave them a try. After a concerted effort for the past two full days, I have now listened to their three most recent albums a handful of times each and feel like I get it. There are three categories I think their songs fall in to: (1) excellent funky rock that is built to be fun ("Float On," "Ocean Breathes Salty," "The View"); (2) more simple, introspective tunes ("Bukowski" "Strangers to Ourselves"); and (3) weird stuff where they let their inner freak out of the cage ("Bury Me With It," "Dancehall," or "The Devil's Workday"). Their most popular tracks are type 1, such as "Float On," "Lampshades on Fire," "Dashboard," and my favorite from their new album (2015's Strangers to Ourselves), "The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box."
Creeptastic video, yo. With barely over 3 million listens on Spotify, this is about the 8th most popular track from MM, but I dig the funky beat and tight cadence of the odd lyrics. That song is a good time. And I feel the same way on the other funky, fun tunes in the catalog. Of type 2, "The World at Large," from 2004's Good News for People who Love Bad News is the top hit, with about 14.2 million listens. But I think "Missed the Boat," from 2007's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is the better tune. Serious album titles, right?
About 7.4 million listens. Kind of a Shins/R.E.M.-type sound going on in that track. It is another good one. I think that 2007 album is my favorite of these three. And then comes the type 3's, none of which are represented in the most popular songs on Spotify, and which just throw me off of my enjoyment for the albums. On the new album, its definitely "Pistol" that fits this bill, which sounds like a bad Ween song. But I'll give you "The Devil's Workday" to try on for size.
About 1.3 million listens. Right in between the lovely "Bukowski" and the funky "The View" on the album, with this squealing, toneless annoyance of a song. But, if you remove those type 3's from their albums, they make good music and would be a ball to see play live. This would be a good band to get a mixtape of from my sister, like she did with Phish 20-something years ago. I doubt they'd even play that weird garbage in their shows. They remind me of the Decemberists, as a group who fires out albums that aren't necessarily built for pop success, and are thick with wordy lyrics and few and far between sing-along hits, but when you dig into them, you'll find something you like. And by the way, my experience with them only scratches the surface. They have 7 other albums from before Good News for People Who Love Bad News (1996's This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, 1996's Interstate 8, 1997's The Lonesome Crowded West, 2000's The Moon & Antarctica, 2000's Building Nothing out of Something, 2001's Sad Happy Sucker, and 2004's Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again). That is a prolific output. Good band - I'll keep listening to them.
