Coming away from a work of art — whether it be an album, book or movie — and not feeling anything is never (or, at least, should never be) the goal of the artist. Somebody needs to tell Dave Grohl. Concrete and Gold, the ninth album from the Foo Fighters, Grohl's musical vehicle, is pretty okay. But, damn, is being pretty okay a good goal?

Sad white men making sad music has long been a staple of modern rock music, so much so that it can sometimes be a little too much shtick, not enough substance. The few bands that can cross this barrier — such as Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver (sort of) — are rightfully remembered for it. The National, with their new album Sleep Well Beast, has perfected the art.

A group of parishioners mobilized late last week after an act of vandalism damaged their sanctuary. Vandals emptied two fire extinguishers in the sanctuary of Westphalia's St. Joseph Catholic Church sometime between late afternoon and early Friday evening, according to a report by the Osage County Sheriff's Department.

Executive branch regulations in Missouri may soon be rolled back. State agencies are beginning to comply with Gov. Greitens' February order aimed at trimming the number of regulations present in executive departments. Signed by the governor just one day after his inauguration, the order is intended to remove "needless and burdensome regulations."

Jay-Z has gained levels of famous that only a few others have reached: he married the biggest singer and pop culture icon on the planet — Beyoncé — he created Kanye West, and he hangs out with Obama. He's also gained levels of rap credibility and success that others have consistently struggled to achieve: he's on track to be the genre's first billionaire, he hung out with Biggie, he released one of rap's best albums as a retirement statement then promptly returned to the game.

Psychedelic troubadours Portugal. The Man have been a stalwart of the indie rock scene for over a decade, creating cool rock 'n' roll fired up by lead singer John Gourley's funky falsetto. The band's last album, Evil Friends was produced with Dangermouse, and the group benefited from the process, unlike another band I won't mention.

Missouri's governor is beginning to chip away at a large amount of legislation still on his desk, signing four bills into law late Tuesday afternoon. Eric Greitens, despite having called two special sessions, has signed only 15 bills into law out of the 81 passed in the 2017 regular session. He recently signed a bill passed during the year's first special session discounting electric rates for companies using large amounts of electricity.

The past few years have seen the decline of the sophomore slump. The traditional panic surrounding an artist's second album has faded — likely due to the stellar second releases of pop culture juggernauts like Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean. Lorde follows in those footsteps. It's probably got something to do with the four-year gap between albums, a time in which she grew out of teenager-dom and into superstar-dom.

Old rappers have a tendency to fade to the background. Many times it's not warranted, but such is the nature of the game. Big Boi has fallen into this trap slightly — Lucious Left Foot is still the only one of two solo albums many people can name (Speakerboxx doesn't count). He's managed, however, to do slightly better than most due to a combination of his history in Outkast, his status as Atlanta royalty and his willingness to innovate and collaborate with artists like Run the Jewels and Phantogram.

2 Chainz's new album, Pretty Girls Like Trap Music has changed my life. I'm a better person. The world is a better place. Since the release of this album, I've saved three old ladies from apartment fires and adopted 20 stray kittens that needed a home. Listening to 2 Chainz makes you a saint. 2 Chainz has never shied away from what he is — an intensely self-aware trap artist who makes music that will force you to turn up at nine in the morning.

Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize win will, hopefully, create a new appreciation for songs as literature. Jason Isbell, whose songs capture what the Drive-By Truckers called "the duality of the Southern thing," will hopefully be the beneficiary of such an award by the time he's Dylan's age. God knows he deserves it.

Josh Hickman runs into Bike & Build participants every year at his church. They'd stop, eat and take off early in the morning, continuing their coast-to-coast charity ride. Hickman was at the church this year as well, but he hadn't driven there from his house. He biked there from Yorktown, Virginia — a distance of more than 1,000 miles.

Chuck Berry left us earlier this year shortly after announcing his first album since the '70s — simply titled Chuck. Charles County police tried to revive the rock 'n' roll star in his Wentzville, Missouri home, but in the end, he left the world as a complicated figure. He has claim to being the first true rock 'n' roller, but sexual offenses, including statutory rape, mar his legacy.

Need more? Alright then (damn, I thought I'd get to go home early today). Many albums exist for their creators to crack open their souls, baring the tragedies and trials they had to go through for romance or love. It's rare to find one that both opens the artist up for viewing and displays the artist's control over the situation.

It's a rare album that makes me question the point of even doing a review. This album is so devoid of anything resembling artistic creativity that it's hard to know what to even critique. Witness doesn't even have the credentials of being originally boring. Perry has bleached her hair and cut it short like Miley Cyrus and pretty blatantly jacked the aesthetic for Lady Gaga's work.

Decades removed from the sharecropping tradition and deeply ingrained Mississippi Delta racism that fueled the genre's internal strife, most "blues" bands now are something along the lines of The Black Keys, young artists channeling their forebearers' tradition into a garage rock sensibility. That's not to say they aren't good, but the form of the genre that inspired these men and women likely died off with R.L.