Going Steady: New Singles Reviewed 4-27-18 – 5-3-18

Right Moves – A Boogie Wit da Hoodie – The xylophone track is prime and the beat is a bounce and while the lyric is the usual blowhard ego stuff the sample, a marimba,  comes straight off “Rugrats” and that counts for a lot – B+

Brooklyn In The Summer – Aloe Blacc – This neo soul guy had his moments, and this is a pretty sound, with a terrific hook, a beat on keyboards bang, but the song should be a touch better – B-

Any Old Road (Will Take You There) [with Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble] – Balsam Range – A terrific bluegrass band adds strings and steals a sound you first heard from Harry Nilsson   – B+

Faithful – BOBI ANDONOV -alt pop singer from Australia’s spare soul moment – C+

Never Be the Same (feat. Kane Brown) – Camila Cabello – Kane doesn’t help  Camila on this masterpiece though he doesn’t hurt either. By the way, the great Sasha Sloan co-wrote it – A

4EVER – Clairo – Yeah it is funky, but it isn’t more than generic – C+

Dura – Remix – Daddy Yankee, Becky G, Bad Bunny – A who’s who of Latin pop release a song not reggaeton but actual reggae – B

MI Amore – FRENSHIP – James Sunderland and Brett Hite craft a fine EDN back beat mid-tempo banger – B-

All The Way Live – Freeway  – Great eight bar put down from Philly – B

Rich (With Wiz Khalifa) – Gladius James – Gladius dabbles the autotune and Wiz adds a word here and there  on this r&b track – C

California – Hot Shade, Mike Perry, Karlyn – Off the rack EDM banger, that sample… what is it? Sounds like horns with a cold – C+

Hasta Luego – HRVY, Malu, Trevejo –  Not unpleasant Latin dance – B

Have It All – Jason Mraz – This guy can write a jaunty singer songwriter song but he is beyond tepid even when he does  and this really stinks – MUST TO AVOID – D

El Anillo – Jennifer Lopez – Nice little dance track, doesn’t try too much and will probably remain solely on the Latin charts, but none the worse for it as he bangs and bounces with intensity – B+

F**k U – Kailee Morgue – The bass sounds like a Burt Bacharach hook transported and the mood is slow, sweet, singer songwriter trope as Kailee sticks it to a jerk guy. This girl is cool, here she is talking to I.D.  “What would Kailee would do, we wonder, if one day, like the record’s namesake, she woke up with venomous snakes instead of hair? “Probably take a bunch of selfies” – B+

Ye Vs The People – Kanye West, T.I. – Kanye’s problem isn’t his politics but that he is not very clever, T.I. calls him “stubborn, selfish, bullheaded” and it is hard to deny, but the point isn’t the argument (which makes an occasional valid argument: Kweezy feels boxed in to the democrats) or that we all know that Kanye was upset by Obama’s dismissal of him, and is striking right back. The point is the rapping, and the rapping is great and also?  That Four Tops sample (“7 Rooms Of Gloom”) is ace – SINGLE OF THE WEEK – A

Lift Yourself – Kanye West – Excellent Gospel sample and a funny response to Hut 97’s Ebro Darden – B+

Almost Back (with Phoebe Ryan) – Kaskade – Kaskade are the most boring band in the world and Phoebe is a poor man’s Julia Michael – C

congratulations – Lewis Watson – UK singer songwriter is soulful enough – B-

Heart Wide Open – Mack Brock – Awful MOR ballad – D+

Famous – Mason Ramsey – The Walmart Yodeling Boy, is eleven years old and this creepy beyond sense – D+

Olha A Explosão – Remix – MC Kevinho, 2Chainz –  Nice dance, reggaeton and rap mix and match – B

Numb – Meg Myers – The former Jehovah’s Witness sounds less numb and more in the midts of a breakdowwn

About You (feat. blackbear) – Mike Shinoda I never much liked Linkin Park but this is the best EDM hard rock mix I have heard in a very long time,

Darling – NEEDTOBREATHE – Awful rock ballad – C-

Wasted Time – Overstreet – This is Chance Overstreet, the former Glee guy now dating Emma Watson’s band, and they suck – C

Unica – Ozuna – My least favorite new reggaeton star, this has a steady salsa beat but it is too slow – C+

Prey – Parkway Drive Something or the other core by the numbers – B-

Till I Found You – Phil Wickham – Impressive Christian Contemporary Dance Music ballad… I mean for the genre but even so – B-

Sore Losers – Russ [rock’s the bars with a chorusless state of  rap smackdown –  C+

Keisha Complexion – Shea Diamond – Female identified soulful r&b dance track – B

Mother – Sugarland – Yeah, god save mothers – C

After You – Tay-K – Here is a first, Tay-K recorded a video once while on the run from the cops after cutting off his ankle bracelet… you’d think this would be a little heavier…

2 Vaults (feat. Lil Yachty) – Tee Grizzley – Jesus Christ, his mom was arrested for drug trafficking and his dad was murdered, the first member of his family to make it to college, he was arrested for stealing over 20K of appliances in his dorm, and this is a very good rap track – B

Want – Time Mix 2018 – The Cure – From the upcoming Mixed Up and Torn down remix albums, it works for me  – B

Roll (Burbank Funk) – The Internet – First rate EDM blues track from the great band – B+

Elder Green – Tom Rush – Legendary Tom Rush sounds an awful lot like Bruce Springsteen in country mode -or is it vice versa? – B+