Going Steady: New Singles 11-12-21 – 11-18-21 Reviewed

Bite Me – Avril Lavigne – There may be a good reason why the endlessly bland Blink 182 became a lodestone for pop-punk, except for that 1999 album they are pretty fucking awful. Here they give some support (pace Travis Barker) to that always floundering upstream Avril – C+

Sleep Apnea (Piano) – Beach Fossils – a beautiful dream pop track given an iffy smooth jazz arrangement – C+

Aunt Lola and the Quail – Ben LaMar Gay – art jazz but less experimental than arrangemental with horns leading the way – B-

Stretchy Pants – Carrie Underwood – about overeating at Thanksgiving – D+

Tommy – Claud – The Phoebe Bridgers find with a sadthey (choose a pronoun, I dare you) and a somewhat convoluted story of a romance by the other parties obsession with a former love… Oh well… – B

Water Theme 2 – Clams Casino – a mood piece by the hip hop producer – C+

Rise, Naianasha (Cut The Cord) – Coheed and Cambria – is it prog? Is it emo? Is it emocore? Yes, but mostly prog with one of their better, catchier tries – B

Here’s To Moving On – Dashboard Confessional – the head emo guy who stopped being a head emo guy, with a branded single of losing love – C+

Se Menea – Don Omar, Nio Garcia – a top reggaeton performer in the 00s, he remains what he is with an old fashioned beat – C+

Detective Lieutenant – Drug Church – a quiet intensity that explodes on the chorus, you’ll like it more if you catch the lyrics -an iteration of bummerdom – C+

Million Miles of Fun – Drug Church – post-hardcore pop industrial and quite, maybe not appealing or earpleasing, but relishable – B

Don’t Go Throwing Roses In My Grave – Gregor Barnett – The Menzingers (you remember: “America, You’re Freaking Me Out”) solo song is one of the best songs I’ve heard about the pandemic where the mortality is thrown into hard relief with an indie-folk rock vibe – A-

let you – iann dior – in search of another mood, this isn’t it but Iann is a talented sadboy with a way with an axiom, here it’s “I don’t wanna die young…” – B+

Jupiter – Jenny Hval – the Norwegian singer songwriter adds dream vibes to a lo-fi track which explodes in mood enhancing electronics towards the end – B

Particles – Jessica Simpson – wow, it doesn’t take long: middle aged, middle of the road, bad news ballad – C-

Sensory Street – Johnny Marr – a UK rock, bluesy generic sound – C+

Tenement Time – Johnny Marr – the sound is no nonsense, guitar rock and if you can convince me James Doviak can lick Morrissey’s boots maybe I’ll listen again – C-

Guardian Angel – Josephine Foster – Americana nightmare folk – B-

Never Forget My Love – Joss Stone – overrated because she is pretty and singing, gasp, blues variants, Regina Bonelli sings circles round her – C

Already Dead – Juice WRLD – yet again, they took a rap and built a song but the song is not ironic, it is disrespectful, the “I’ve been dead for years” is beyond creepy – MUST TO AVOID – D-

Start The Healing – Korn – the hook is an industrial noise that works wonders, the sentiment self-evident, the chorus sucks so let’s say – B-

Lion Eyes – Lil Durk – his first drop since the Lil Baby album, a trap brooder about life before and after success – B+

Thumbs Again – Lucy Dacus – not sure why she re-released “Thumbs” with a different name, but if she must, why not “Hot N Heavy”? – C

Doin’ This – Luke Combs – Luke cleaned up at the CMAs earlier this week and I think he is a good enough singer and songwriter to matter… but Morgan Wallen deserved to and that will teach him to call his buddies by the n world – B

Where The Rocks Are – Maia Friedman – indie folk based upon the first time the Dirty Projector saw “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” -just be happy it isn’t called “Mashed Potatoes” – C

Mama Tetema (feat. Rayvanny) – Maluma – top urbano Latino singer from Columbia, the dancehall stop and start is weird but coalesces into a hook master – B+

I Lost You – Marissa Paternoster – the Screaming Females lead singer still has her ax in mothballs with an indie folk track that is remarkably pretty for its sad subject matter – B+

The Only Heartbreaker – Mitski – if you have never seen her live (here) I have one word to describe her: wow. This is a builder that will kill on stage – B+

Bystanders (in space) – Moses Sumney – a live take on a beautifully sung, low impact soul track – B

Velocirapture (The Serpent Flew) – Particle Kid, Mickey Raphael, Sean Ono Lennon – Particle Kid is Willie Nelson’s youngest song, which explains why Sean is visiting… he performs future folk with a heavy electronic weirdness – C+

Surrounded By Spies – Placebo – remember when Placebo were the next Spiders From Mars? Now they are the next Interpol – C+

Bad Man (Smooth Criminal) – Polo G – when you are sampling Michael Jackson you are spending big bucks and you are salting the mines, it’s not bad but not MJ good – B-

Kill Something – PUP – Toronto punk pop go new wave on a lovely little slow rocker – B

Waiting – PUP – from punk to new wave to post-punk on a noise rocker with melody – B

Cisgender – Shamir – the electronic popstar goes from “Gay Agenda” to another sort of agenda on a beautifully electronic feel piece – A-

Highway Butterfly – Steve Earle, The Dukes – Neal Casal is the former Cardinals guitarist who commited suicide in 2019 at the age of 50, Steve Earle does service to a lovely song and should be proud of it, a double tribute as Casal wrote it for Townes Van Zandt – SINGLE OF THE WEEK – A-

feel like shit – Tate McRae – i have this rubberband on my wrist (on my wrist) and I snap every time I think about giving Tate another chance – C-

Stop and Start – The Sadies – These rockers have been around since the late 90s and on their first song in four years they have the same garage psychedelia as we are used to – B-