Going Steady: New Singles 7-5-19 -7-11-19 Reviewed

I Fell In Love With the Devil – Avril Lavigne – Avril has been trying to figure her position since ’02 and this years blink and you missed middle of the road pop sop didn’t help and neither does this bruised up pop anthem – C

PA PA YA!! – BABYMETAL, F.HERO – It’s like having your throat ripped out by tiny animes – B-

Sister Buddha – Belle & Sebastian – Pop as folk as pop hybrid, that seems to define twee – C+

Talk About The Weather – Beverly Girl – To us over here, Artur Uronen is the pedal guitarist for the True Groove but at Ground Zero Helsinki he’s a third of funk disco trio Beverly Girl featuring lead singer  Yoanna Saarinen’s Chic like cool distance slave to the beat vocal – B+

Reach – BJ The Chicago Kid, Afrojack – EDM meets r&b with a catchy bridge – B

Happy Days – blink-182 – what’s their age again? 104 – C

Capsule – Brian Eno – Part of Brian’s atmospheric (ha ha) background soundtrack to the moon landing – C+

XXXTC (feat. Charli XCX & Maliibu Miitch) – Brooke Candy, Charli XCX, Maliibu Miitch – Brooke considers herself part of the resistance, to what you”l have to ask her. Here she takes a bass hook and whispers spitefully over it, Mailiibu Miitch holds her own – B

Hungover – Cassie – Sex sizzler with an incessant bass hook – B

Ambush – Cheap Trick – Bluesy rock -so where’s the pop? – B-

Que reste-t-il de nos amours ? – Chrissie Hynde, The Valve Bone Woe Ensemble – Sylvie Varnat-y take on 1940s French pop ballad – C+

Poke – from Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ – Daughter – Every song I’ve heard from the upcoming tribute album to the late Scott Hutchison, this is a soaring indie pop song, very well done – B+

Lift Me Up – Dirty Heads – Sublime – C+

Cash App (feat. Key Glock) – Doe Boy, Key Glock, Tay Keith – A viral video away from becoming a major breakthrough rap monster – B

Between An Old Memory And Me – Dylan Scott – Country ugh – MUST TO AVOID – D

Tryin’ to Move On – Freedy Johnston – I don’t see any reason why I should take Freedy seriously till he puts Blue Days Black Nights on to streaming services. This is an acoustic lick disguised as a song – C+

Best Part of Me (feat. YEBBA) – Ed Sheeran, YEBBA – his lungs are vlack, his heart is pure, his brains are mush –  C-

BLOW (with Chris Stapleton & Bruno Mars) – Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton, Bruno Mars – godawful rock stomper, almost makes you take the Black Keys seriously – C-

Donkey Kosh – Demo – Florence + The Machine – An outtake from her decent, debut album, this acoustic mover is pretty good and she always had that voice especially where less is more – B+

My Best Dress – Demo – Florence + The Machine – Not quite dotted out, the dynamics are a little obvious – C+

Sister Rosetta – Frank Turner – in the paradigm of bad ideas, this comes first – D+

When In Rome – GATTÜSO, Damon Sharpe – Ho hum Israeli DJ streaming Avicii… stop whistling – C-

Ur So Beautiful – Grace VanderWaal – Sweet little birth of sexual desire track, and the “I am not untouchable” line is clever. for a fifteen year old – B-

A Human Touch (From “5B”) – Jackson Browne, Leslie Mendelson – “5B” is the documentary about the first hospital ward to treat AIDs patients… not bad piano ballad – C+

Fanfare for Phenomena – Jah Wobble, Bill Laswell – The best band Johnny Rotten ever had was the Public Image Ltd featuring Jah Wobble (and Keith Levine), since then Jah has skirted the outskirts of bass and dub, often with legendary producer Bill Laswell… including here, which adds flute to bass and rub-a-dub – B

1 Time – Jeezy – Old school rapper with a hook that will play great on stage – B

Aparentemente Bien – Versión Banda – Jenni Rivera – The late la Banda queen via Mexico sounds very much alive on this reshuffle – B

Unified – Khao, Nipsey Hussle, Snoop Dogg, The Game, E-40, Ice-T, Mozzy, Problem, G Perico – Trap superstars (Khao has Gucci Mane and Lil Baby among its members), here they sound like a  Dipset dirty dozen – C+

Rich, White, Straight Men – Kesha – Sounds like an outtake from “Fiddler On The Roof” goes nursery rhyme cum Kesha clever clogs… shoulda broken pop – B

Simmer (feat. Burna Boy) – Mahalia, Burna Boy – UK alt r&b -cool attitude but the song is weak – C+

Motivate – Mat Zo – EDM weirdness -what’s not to like? B-

Pop My Shit – Lil Gotit – Original piano hook – B

One True Pairing – One True Pairing – Former Wild Beast guy, very 00s with an, er, arresting voice – C+

Una Vida Para Recordar – Piso 21, Myke Towers – Urban Latin pop band, not bad – B-

Goodbyes (Feat. Young Thug) – Post Malone, Young Thug – a hugely important single for Post Malone. “Wow” and “Sunflower” have been in the top ten for nearly the entire year, both were released in 2018, and that makes “Goodbyes” (featuring a fair verse from Young Thug),Post’s first release of the year except for a remix and a DJ Khalid verse. A dog would hurt the brand and “Goodbyes,” a beautiful, anthemic ballad not a million miles from “Sunflowers” doesn’t come close: a sad break up song for a woman who is a mess. As heartfelt as possible, it should go straight to # 1 and remain there indefinitely – A

Glory to the Veins (feat. Ernest Turner) – Raphael Saadiq, Ernest Turner – Psychedelic r&b, nightmare vibe, love song – C+

BIG TYME – Rick Ross, Swizz Beatz – Whatever having a heart attack cdd to Rick a coupla years ago, it certainly derailed his career a little, he didn’t hurt his rapping at all – B

Repetition – Ride – Shoegaze plus garage rock – B-

I Don’t Think I Live There Anymore – ROAM – Indie rockers from UK, been around for years and years, and sound like old school emo though they predate it a little – B-

Fucking Money Man – ROSALÍA – Two songs, one revels i money, the other dismisses it. Guess which song is better… yup, a triumph of Flamenco trap Latin pop – SINGLE OF THE WEEK – A

Will We Talk? – Sam Fender – UK rocker, kills it on this masterful rhythm rocker – B+

I Wanna Thank Me – Snoop Dogg – Samples his speech upon receiving a star on Hollywood Walk Of Fame, yeah, well done – C+

Trouble No More – Live at Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA 1/29/71 – The Allman Brothers Band – From the eagerly awaited, 1971 vintage, gig on the West Coast… Often bootlegged and pretty fucking great – A

Social Babies – Twinnie – Strong and thoughtful EDM meets country pop track – B

Radio – Ty Segall – The most boring rocker in the world returns to rock boringly – C

Spaceship – YBN Almighty Jay – Echoy, soundcloud-y catchy rap, not “Chopstix” but not bad – B-