Going Steady: New Singles 2-17-23 – 2-23-23 Reviewed
Hollywood Baby – 100 gecs, Dylan Brady, Laura Les – the thing to keep in mind about the hyper-pop duo is that yes, hyper electronics, music and sound manipulation, but also pop, melody, hooks, addictiveness… here they enter the mainstream. Plus? That video is a real firecracker – SINGLE OF THE WEEK A-
Glue Song – beabadoobee – the bedsitland woman is coming off a live presentation that needs work, but this is one of her better songs, a dream pop joy – B+
Heart Wants What It Wants – Bebe Rexha – the EDM singer on a pure disco track – B-
LA HORA Y EL DÍA – Daddy Yankee, Dalex, Justin Quiles – an outtake from his last album, 2022’s Legendaddy, a real strong trap track sprinkled with reggaeton, and so I guess this is it till he unretires – B+
Leave The Club (feat. Lil Durk & GloRilla) – Don Toliver, GloRilla, Lil Durk – EDM goes trap on this late night drop the bass rap track – B
Tonight – Fetty Wap – I went to see Fetty years ago with Tomas Doncker of True Groove (he co-produced Sam Huber’s Sinatra cover) and he thought it was so funny how Fetty did nothing on stage, sitting on a throne (he’d had a motorbike accident) Fetty laughed and lip synched in an arena, and now he is Wapped out in prison for years as a a bigtime gang member: well at least we have the wonderful autotuned “Tonight” – B+
SAGA – acoustic – Hurray For The Riff Raff – say what you will about Alynda Segarra, she can still compose a song that gets in your head as this quiet beauty did – B+
I Want You – Icona Pop, Galantis – it’s been ten years since “I Love It” and substituting Charli XCX with the DJ duo Galantis is not an upgrade – C+
A&W – Lana Del Rey – Okay, let’s wrap it up: I think we are all tired of embracing Lana, the self-proclaimed American Whore, which she isn’t (her father jump-started her career year ago). She went on an early run that ended after the brilliant Norman Fucking Rockwell, the last two albums have been bores and this single goes on for two, maybe three years… co-written by Jack Fucking Antonoff – C
Lottery (feat. LU KALA) – Latto – This is her official follow up to the “Big Energy”, produced by alleged rapist Dr. Luke who was behind her huge hit and does pretty well on this one, Latto is a pop Megan Thee Stallion – B
Delivering The Goods – Megadeth – a Judas Priest cover and good for him, Dave gives a straightforward tribute take on the Hall Of Famers – B+
Heaven – Niall Horan – while Harry got into classic rock, Niall is more like pop folk with heavy drums and the song is feel good, life is good, enjoy it – B+
Holding Pattern – Nickel Creek – I expected better from the renaissance man Chris Thiel, this is minor folk Americana meets country – C+
Jolene (feat. Dolly Parton) – Olivia Newton-John – there is a final duets album set to be released and the fist taste, Dolly’s epic “Jolene” isn’t really what we want but it will do – B
Charred Remains – Romeo Void – I was so stupid back in the day (don’t say a word), I missed that Dave Kahne (the fifth Bangle) was their producer, which explains Debora Iyall’s pop jones on this 1980 live take on an It’s A Condition‘s song – B
So Insensitive – Sam Huber – Greatest Frank Sinatra: probably in the 50s, the Wee Small/Swinging Lovers era, the following decade he created his own label, Reprise, but it had its up and downs… which means it had its ups, and reaching a 60s height with the introduction of a speeded up samba aka the bossa nova on Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim. The album had “The Girl From Ipanema” which introduced the Bossa Nova to the States. Sam Huber covered one of the tracks “How Insensitive” , a sort of Sinatra miasma including a snippet from “Stranger In The Night”, post-modern drumming, and Sam’s gorgeous and outro vocal, a sort of psychotic lover of the world take as he devastates losing a girl and confronts the man who took her – A-
Gonna Go – serpentwithfeet – our best singer songwriter serpentwithfeet sings the hell outta the brooding if slight- “Gotta Go” – B+
There – Stray Kids – K-Pop, where South Korean kids go to be cloned – B
Hypnogram – Thurston Moore – that is bassist Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine but for some weird reason Moore has gone quiet on us – B-
