Going Steady: New Singles 11-2-18 – 11-8-19

Nothing Compares 2 U – Anna Of the North – The accurately named electro pop woman from Norway has nothing to add to this song – C+

Perfect To Me – Anne-Marie – A sweet as molasses pop song with a terrific little hook it uses sparingly – B+

Tambor – Anuel As, Almighty – Another child of Bad Bunny -this is a real banger – B

I Found You – Benny Blanco, Calvin Harris – Two top EDM producers need a better singer than Benny – B-

Land Of Hope And Dreams – Springsteen On Broadway – Bruce Springsteen – Not bad, it was always a good song, but wait till he releases the “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” from the show – B

One (2018) – Carole King – Carole came out of retirement to re-record this turkey from 1977? Why? – C

Party for One – Carly Rae Jepsen – Catchy EDM pop – C+

Baby – Clean Bandit, Marina And the Diamonds – Marina has been spinning her wheels for years but here Clean Bandits give her a Spanish lilt and she makes the most of it – B+

Viva La Vida – Live In Buenos Aires – Coldplay – Pretty soon it will be four years since Coldplay released any new material, I guess that is why we are stuck with this useless single, though the song is still a goodie  – C+

Fix You – Live In Buenos Aires – Coldplay – On the other hand, “Fix You” isn’t even a good song – C-

Let It Rain (Is Anybody There) – Crowder, Maddisa – Say what you will about this (relatively) superior CCM cat, you can’t deny that the beard is impressive – B-

Girl In The Movies – from the Dumplin Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Dolly Parton – Dolly has been off her game since 2011’s great “In The Meantime” -she is kinda too serious nowadays. This is pretty but bland – B-

Baby You’re A Haunted House – Gerard Way – Far be it for me to give musicians advice but if I did I would advise Gerard to record The Black Parade Part Two – C+

Precious – HA, Hodgy, Alvin Risk – Apparently time is precious, though I say if you only live once feel free to waste time as you chose – B-

First World Problems – Ian Brown – The Stone Roses lead singer with a good old school UK rocker – B+

Machine – Imagine Dragon – Beats heavy politics on this catchy ode to living outside the mainstream – B

You Only Live Twice – Isaac Gracie – Sweet, down beat cover of the terrific Strokes song – B

Creeme – Karol G, Maluma – Karol G is really hot right now, she is up there with the very top Latin American popsters… this one as well where she is joined by Maluma – B+

Waving Through A Window – from Dear Evan Hansen – Katy Perry – What “Hamilton” hath wrought, we have “The Greatest Show” terrifying us in the wings, and let’s hope this is just a one off… though the song only goes wrong at the break, it doesn’t straighten up – C+

No Budget – Kid Ink, Rich The Kid – Hook of the week right here: “money talks, money talks, end of discussion” – B+

Pussy Is God – King Princess – I love this pop track ode to lesbianism from the woman who has worked out the DNA for EDM pop and brought same sexers anthems they can take home with them. This is classic shit and hotter than hell  and in case you were wondering, King Princess still hates it when dude chase her… – SINGLE OF THE WEEK – A

Downtime – Kirk Knight – More r&b than anything, this is a sweet soul track from the Pro Era alumni – B

(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang – LCD Soundsystem – Heaven 17’s classic given a pretty bad walloping – C-

Neighborhood Hero – Lil Durk – Not bad, coulda gone easy on the autotuned – B-

Joan Of Arc – Lil Mix – Apparently Lil Mix are feminists, girl power is back on this catchy track – B

Runaway – Lil Peep – Next week sees the release of Call Me When You’re Sober Pt II, the beginning of what appears to a fair amount of material found on the late emo rapper’s hard drive. This is another good one, a haunted ;y prescient song, “O was dying nobody was there, please don’t cry baby life ain’t fair…” – B+

A No No – Mariah Carey – She may have a goodie on the back burner, this uses a pretty good lil Kim sample and doesn’t make an ass of itself – B

That’s Right Baby – Marianne Faithfull – This sexy little song dates from the 1962s – B

Dreamer – Martin Garrix, Mike Yung – Dreadful faux soul dog – MUST TO AVOID – C-

Back On The Chain Gang – Morrissey – About as useless a cover as I’ve ever heard – C+

The Greatest Show – Panic! At The Disco – Perhaps it wasn’t the songs, perhaps it was the singers? Brendon kills it – B

bad – ricky retro – pitter patter house – C+

Sword of Damocles – Rufus Wainwright – This is pretty fucking awful, what happened to this guy? Anyway I think he is doing Poses on December 4th – C

Armor – Sara Bareilles -What is there not to like about Sara? Little voice was a good album and I haven’t seen “Waitress” but I am sure it isn’t terrible. Plus, this ain’t bad… a little strident, everybody is always telling me off for something, it gets boring… – B-

It’s A Process – Say Anything – A little arty for emo – C+

All Our Life – Slipknot – Four years between new material? That’s a lot for these metalcore screamers. They still sound the same, and the same is really pretty good – B+

Gonna Love Me – Teyana Taylor. Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Raekwon – Three big time Wus and one great song off one of the best albums of the year, it all works out fine, more than fine. I hear Teyana is thinking of releasing a remix album.. we can but hope – A-

Back When We Were Kids – Timeflies – EDM duo, ho hum – C+

Gravity – Tim McGraw – This is the sort of quasi CCM big ballad Tim excels at,  though excels isn’t quite the word – D

Glass Onion – Take 10 – Stripped of the psychedelic sound effects it is even better than the released  Lennon’s eye roller about Beatle fanaticism, the vocal isn’t there but it is a cleaner sound – A

Merrie Land – The Good, The Bad And The Queen –  There are ways to write about politics, but nobody seems to remember how -typical moribund blah, maybe a little better than that – C

Only You – Theophilus London, Tame Impala – Catchy neo-soul but the song ain’t there – B-

Transformer Man – Trentemoller – Electronic pop, doesn’t live up to his reputation – B-

Shootin Shots – Trey Songz, Ty Dolla $ign, Tory Lanez – we had a word for this when I was growing up: hip hop – B-

Somebody To Love – Troye Sivan – Troye removes every ounce of camp from the Queen classic and performs it with so much feeling, he makes it what it always was. May I add that in a week where Barbra’s histrionics have given me a huge headache,  I couldn’t appreciate the directness of this performance more – B+

You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch – Tyler, The Creator – So… here we are – C

Cocoa Sugar – Young Fathers – The title track of the album that never made it onto the album and a beautiful little number – B