Going Steady: New Singles 2-18-22 – 2-24-22 Reviewed
Bad Habit (Don’t Make Me Bad) – April Rose Gabrielli – the former Rose Monarch lead singer’s second solo single is a brooding rocker that explodes on the chorus on what sounds like a patented Gabrielli sound – B+
We Can Dance Again – Armin van Buuren, Reinier Zonneveld, Roland Clark – in which the premiere purveyor of trance stops trancing and starts hard beats dance, the spoken word is beyond irritating – C+
Wait Too Long (feat. Blxst) – Buddy – Buddy is a rapper singer out of Compton who deserves to be a lot bigger than he actually is, the chorus is a beauty – B
Strange Interactions In The Night – Caracara – Philadelphian post-emo indie folk, nice melody but not crazy about the singer – C+
Everything But You (feat. A7S) – Clean Bandit – typical EDM pop from the English electronic band – B-
Elon Musk (feat. Gunna) – DDG – I was wondering how DDG was gonna sell it, the song is about super strong chronic that sends him to outer space like Elon – B
March of the Insane – Dream Widow – straight up metalcore from Dave Grohl using a pseudonym for a horror movie soundtrack – B
Black Be The Source – Fly Anakin, Billz Egypt, Pink Siifu – Fly is a DIY bedroom rapper with a love of boom-bap via, eh, Richmond – B
I Love You – Fontaines D.C. – the whiny post-punkers with a dog – D+
King Of Sweden – Future Island – dream pop with a harder bottom by this top band – B+
Sister 2 Sister – Ibeyi – the critic darlings World Music with an alright crossover self-portrait – B
Banking On Me – Gunna – Gunna has broken through into the first ranks of rappers, Metro Boomin’s production is a dream world of trap beats – B
Nail Tech – Jack Harlow – the white hip hop go to guy who broke big on “What’s Poppin’” and huge on “Industry Baby”, the horn intro to “Nail Tech” is a little Lil Nas X-y, but the song is average – B
Niño Soñador – J Balvin – what gives, Jose? The verses are a bachata variant, the chorus adds dance beats – B
Pray – Jessie Murph – a boring dance ballad though she has pretty good pipes – D+
Last Night – Jon Pardi – a first rate, old school country rocker, and an original idea – A-
Junk Man – Jon Spencer & the HITmakers – remember when Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion were anointed the greatest band in the States and NOTHING HAPPENED, well, it should have and his latest single “Junk Man” as Jon Spencer & the HITmakers is garage rock with an indelible keyboard lick – B+
Want It Bad (with Nigo) – Kid Cudi – produced by Pharrell it sounds like emo rap with a sinking musical backbone and autotune singing, not to mention rapping – B
Super Gremlin – David Guetta Trap House Mix – Kodak Black – Kodak got shot outside Justin Bieber’s mansion, but not before he got together with the French producer for a dance chance – B+
Like Exploding Stones – Kurt Vile – one person wrote this woozy seven minutes indie folk Americana, five people produced it – C
Story of My Life – Natalie Imbruglia – Natalie, the Australian actress singer, at her best on a wonderful take of One Direction’s maybe even best song; cool of her not to change the genders – A-
Bad Brain Daze – Oceanator – The L.A. singer songwriter tackling some power-punk, the horn break is pretty ace – B
AMAZING – Rex Orange County – the Limey singer songwriter does bedroom pop into a symphonic kiddie pop meets Stevie Wonder being tuneful – B
if jesus saves, she’s my type – ROLE MODEL – a low key slice of synth pop though the problem is the central concept is a miss – C
Fast Times – Sabrina Carpenter – ho-hum tween pop – C
For The Squadron – SAINt JHN – “Roses” streamed one and a half billion times, this one? Not as such – D+
R U That (feat. 21 Savage) – Shenseea – produced by Dr. Luke, who should really change his name, and the song is 2010s pop rap plus trap beat – B-
Love’s Train – Silk Sonic – honoring the O’Jays with some 1970s style soul (hint: check the song name) – B
Valentine – Snail Mail – Lindsay is usually better than this quiet bore – C
KULT (feat. Jasiah) – Steve Aoki, grandson – a dog of a too hard EDM beat fixed to sobcore – C-
I Need a Job – Swamp Dogg – a soulful workout from the funky singer still waiting for his close up (since I dubbed him a master in NINETEEN EIGHTY ONE!) – B
happy accident – Tomberlin – terrific guitar sound on the singer songwriters Saddle Creek latest, as well as a nervously upset vocal – B+
Naturally – Tinashe – she acts as though she is a one woman r&b hip hop singer and then she takes a cast of dozens to record her song – B-
AM Gold – Train – an analog Maroon 5 as good as any given song and fortunately for them, this is a strong track… back in the day it might have been a radio hit – B
Trouble – Troye Sivan, Jay Som – nice production work on the home PC though not Troye at his best -B-
Champions (feat. Wiz Khalifa) – Ty Dolla $ign – five years ago you couldn’t hear a song without Ty making an appearance… then he went a lot quieter, and here he and Wiz are most as usual hip hop singing track – B-
Wavery – Vein.fm – hardcore rhapsodic metal brain bruiser – B+
MAGIC (feat. Mustard) – Vince Staples – the poh-leese confounds Vince a little – B
I’ll Love You Till The Day I Die – Willie Nelson – composed by Chris Stapleton and Rodney Crowell, melodic old school country, well sung even if the compliment would mean a little more if he was closer to fifty years of age than 100 – B+
