Going Steady: New Singles 12-3-21 – 12-9-21 Reviewed
Lose My Cool (feat. NLE Choppa) – 070 Shake, NLE Choppa – The Ye protégée with an emo, melodic trap song – B
2011 – 5 Seconds of Summer – the former boys and now men boyband with a sliver of rock and nostalgia – C+
Radiohead – Alix Page – acoustic strummer singer songwriter dreams about her ex -not a good idea – B+
I Don’t Want Our Love To Become Routine – Anand Wilder – The Yeasayer leader goes solo with a lovely, bluesy number – B+
Just Look Up (From Don’t Look Up) – Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi – I’ve got a bad feeling about the star studded apocalypse movie “Don’t Look Up” on Netflix (see “The Irishman”) and while Kid Cudi is credible on “Just Look Up” it is Ariana Grande’s, while beautifully sung, most boring song in years – B
I Only Want To Be With You – Birdy – ten years ago, the English folky came to view with a cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love”. Ten years later she is as fragile and lovely as ever on the Dusty Springfield (and BCR) pop classic- B
Give Me a Reason – Boy Harsher – Darkwave duo rest hard on the bass in a gray dream state – B
Sinister (feat. Lil Wayne) – Cordae, Lil Wayne – 2019’s The Lost Boy was one of 2019’s best albums and if you’d forgotten the rapper, his best performance of the festival Governors Ball set reminded you why. Here we have a perfect rap track with Weezy on board as Cordae declares “This ain’t rap music, this straight literature” – SINGLE OF THE WEEK – A-
U Are My High (with Future) – DJ Snake – The French producer gave us back crunk with Lil Jon back in the day and we could certainly use Future’s return to the fold, Future still sounds woozy and yet for all his cough syrup flowing flow Future also sounds perky – B+
Merry Christmas – Ed Sheeran, Elton John -when did you head to the last exit for Hanukkah? It was the Xmas bells that drove me out… – MUST TO AVOID – D
JUPITER’S DANCE – Hurray For The Riff Raff – the indie Americana Alynda with a “song in the shape of a guardian angel” – B+
Story Of My Life (feat. Trippie Redd) – Heavy Edit – ILLENIUM, Sueco, Trippie Redd – The Denver DJ with a horrid piece of electronic rock and disco genre move… run for your life – C-
Crisis – Joshua Bassett -hey Joshua, the thing is that as your ex is well aware, anger is better than self-pity as proven on this acoustic sub-Bieber crap – C-
Secret – Joshua Bassett -okay, Joshua claims Olivia Rodrigo were just dating as she told her friends, she wasn’t that interested in him, on a slow beats drag – C-
Set Me Free – Joshua Bassett – oh go away, you wretched boy – D
Wandered To LA (with Justin Bieber) – Juice WRLD – the best posthumous Juice WRLD is one time where the song was clearly completed (more or less) before his death as opposed to a spare verse that could be built on, as Bieber remains some kinda feature – B+
Simple, Short, & Fast – Kill Your Idols – with their first song in fifteen years the local boys sound more like three chord punk than hardcore and a full swing song that lives up to its name – A-
Coconuts – Kim Petras – as disco divas go, the transgender Kim has never lived up to her backstory: the material isn’t there though the fame gene is in place – C+
Sing Me a Song (It’s Christmas Time) – Maria Taylor – if she sounded anymore like Maria Taylor on the delicate seasonal song she’d have to sue herself for plagiarism – B+
Happy Loner – MARINA – an electronic plodder – D+
In Bloom (in the woods) – Moses Sumney – 2020’s Grae was one of the best albums of the year and while this remix is way more out there by an artist with an valid take on r&b, it is good enough – B
Bystanders (in space) – Moses Sumney – the addition of the piano works well enough but the original version was better – B
Welcome Back – Neil Young, Crazy Horse – acoustic driven, guitar performing bore for eight minutes plus – C
It’ll Be Okay – Shawn Mendes – the entire Mendes – Cabello union has been iffy in the extreme, none of our business of course, except on this supposed heartbreaker – C-
I Hate U – SZA – It feels as though SZA hasn’t been away because she shows up here and there, on the Dear Evan Hansen album, with Kali Uchi on a single, with Kendrick Lamar on the Inspired by Black Panther album. But in the real world it has been nearly five years since CTRL and while SZA can do any neo-R&B she pleases, the new one “I Hate You” is clearly from the same pen that gave us “Drew Barrymore” and a more than welcome taster for the next real, solo album – A
Nino – The Linda Lindas – The three chord wonders with a song about another cat – B
Somebody Desperate – From ”Cyrano” Soundtrack – The National – just awful exposition, musical storytelling that is like having your ears cut in a million tiny nicks – D
