Corook ft. Olivia Barton: “If I Were a Fish”
Amidst everything else, a conceptual coup: make your fjuck-the-haters not only exceedingly clever but also disgustingly, sickeningly cute. Play it at every elementary school, frat party, NASCAR race etc.
Olivia Rodrigo: “Bad Idea Right?”
It only took until the second single from her second album to show he had a sense of humor about her media image, so she’s three albums ahead of Taylor on that count. The recurring “blah”s in the backing vocals are the funniest bit (wittier than the Beatles’ “tit”s, so she’s at least four albums ahead of them too.)
Aespa: “I’m Unhappy”
The title is an almost unprecedented admission in their genre, and the on-the-beat motif signals unease at least as well as the “No Surprises” glockenspiel. It’s left to listeners to decide whether the un-unhappy verbal finish is an “it was all a dream” ending, or its opposite.
Jelly Roll & Lainey Wilson: “Save Me” (live at the ACM Awards)
Two valid approaches to singing: he’s all about using the mic as a conduit for hard-earned experience, while Wilson takes a cool, professional approach that still hits the notes with color. It does seem that after favoring the latter since the first Idol season, pop singing is gradually swinging back towards Mr. Roll’s style (c.f. Lewis Capaldi.)
CMAT: “Have Fun!”
The backing track bounces like a credits theme from a long-forgotten ’70s BBC (or RTÉ I suppose) dramedy—fun, sure, but sometimes fun takes real effort. What the hundred parakeets on a Tesco symbolize I’m not sure, but I’m gonna assume a hundred parakeets on a Tesco.
BigXthaPlug: “Texas”
BigX’s one song so far with the music to elevate his drawl into something great is his tribute to his Beyoncé- and gun-crazy home state, backed by a sample of… California’s Shuggie Otis? Hey, Texas is a state of mind.
IVE: “I Am”
A whole generation is gonna learn English verb tenses through this song and its parent album, I’ve IVE (correct punctuation not so much.) A smaller proportion of that generation is going to learn how to hit a G5 with power but without shouting thanks to Yujin’s “that’s my”s here.
King Stingray: “Yellow”
You’d be forgiven for having forgotten or never realizing this was actually a good song (the original vocalist didn’t exactly help.) Here, a didgeridoo and Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu’s monolithic vocal make it sound like it’s been around on a geological timescale.
Billie Eilish: “What Was I Made For?”
Religious pop being passé (Jelly Roll notwithstanding), we need other ways to get some theology into popular culture. Toy movies are apparently one way. A major star writing her career-best ballad for a toy movie soundtrack? A better way.
Burna Boy: “Big 7”
No longer the obvious largest giant in Afrobeats, he’s resorting to putting fleeting moments of emotion into a song, mourning his comrades Virgil Abloh and Punjabi rapper Sidhu whilst informing us about his watches (expensive) and his cocktail preferences (with a likkle Molly.) With a beat funner than his average, I’ll take it.
Madison Beer: “Home to Another One”
The Lana mutter-sighing tricks you into thinking it’ll be lugubrious, but it turns to have the chord structure and BPM to throw on a kick drum and shine up real pretty. The aliens and wind machines in the video distract from how uneventful she makes adultery sound. Normalize being a side chick!
Jordan Davis: “Next Thing You Know”
If small town odes don’t play like they used to, at least country can fall back on intergenerational sentimentality. Meet cute, have kid, send kid to USC (doesn’t matter which one), kid comes back with kids, all in three minutes. If the fourth minute had a funeral, it’d be a Pixar movie.