Going Steady: New Singles 10-6-17 – 10-12-17
How Long – Charlie Puth – The youngster manages a very catchy modern soul pop strong with hand traps and beats aplenty behind his sweet falsetto on this song of infidelity – B
Stay Ignorant – DON BROCO – The best Brit rock this side of the Gallagher Brothers, the accent is so thick and the song is a delightful soul snarl, “kill yourself, live like that you know you can’t live like that”. Though it goes way off the rails during the bridge – C+
Escape My Mind – Grace Vanderwaal – The first single was aces by this America’s Got Talent winner, this one is a little obvious dance pop – C+
Windows Up – IDK – Trap rap but with better rapping and worse backing – B-
Not My Ex – Jessie J – Average EDM pop by a woman always banging on the window of pop – B-
Make This Song Cry – K. Michelle – Average r&b – B-
Almost Like Praying (feat. Artists for Puerto Rico) – Lin-Manuel Miranda – With a sample from “West Side Story” to anchor the song, Lin-Manuel does extremely well by Puerto Rico on this tremendous charity song, a veritable who’s who of modern Latin AMerican Pop: Jennifer Lopez? Check. Luis Fonso? Check. Marc Anthony, Ruben Blades, Camila Cabello, Fat Joe, John Leguizamo, Rita Moreno, Gina Rodriguez, Gilberto Santa Rosa,. He could have used a Wisin or a Bad Bunny, but this is not the “We Are The World” horrorshow everybody be quiet this is my line ego bursting. At the very least, it has a terrific beat to push it along – SINGLE OF THE WEEK – A
Vices – Ludacris – I saw this cat opening for Outkasts back in the 90s -he was bad ass then and is bad ass now and he was cool and funny in “The Fast And The Fury,” and this is earworm hooky rapping – B+
What Makes You Country – Luke Bryan – All that good feeling from the MSG gig? Over – C-
Dear Hate – Maren Morris, Vince Gill – Well intentioned bore – C+
Help Me Out (with Julia Michaels) – Maroon 5 – The best of the singles we’ve heard but nothing is hitting big time and while this one deserves to, I bet it doesn’t – B
Holy Mountain – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds -Ian McNabb says Plastic Bertrand meets Ricky Martin, well, Noel always wanted to give the world a coke and he gives em a fizzy one on this immensely fun track – B+
Whatever You Want – P!nk – The best of the singles we’ve heard, this is where she goes ballad and it is a sweet EDM power pop with a good vocal – B
Check Callin (feat. YoungBoy Never Broke Again) – Plies – The rap is strong, the song pretty, and the song in the moment – B+
Fingerprints – POP ETC – OK, maybe Morning Benders wasn’t a tactful name, POP ETC is terrible. The song is OK – B-
Pray – Sam Smith – First things first, tell Smith to put on weight, he looks cadaverish… next things next, “Pray,” performed with a Gospel choir on SNL last week, is a much better track than that “Good At Goodbyes” “Pray” isa strange ballad, slow burning which equates one form of losing and an answer to it – B+
I Wish I Knew – Sharon Van Etten – Re-recording of an early song, puts me straight to sleep – C+
Back In Your Head – Tegan and Sara, Ryan Adams – The queer identifying rockers are only as good as their songs, and this is a cracker rock track with Ryan offering back up – B+
Wait In The Car – The Breeders – 90s alt rocker – B-
The Rest of Our Life – Tim McGraw, Faith Hill – I feel the same about these two as I do about Trump: I give up trying – MUST TO AVOID – D
Ex (feat. YG) – Ty Dolla $ign – Ty is ace at this sorta mix and match, very catchy r&b – B
Keep The devil Off – Big K.R.I.T. – Very catchy faux Gospel – B
Weekend Woman – Weezer – Another crappy pop song, Pinkerton feels like a different lifetime – C-
