Video & Audio: We all scream
Near or far, closer together
Fridayy, Meek Mill: “Proud of Me”
This has mostly got attention for Meek pulling out one of his once-every-few-years meditations on loss and absence: describing the loss of his dad to gun violence as a kid, you can hear the void in him. But Fridayy’s fine here too: I like how his haphazard high-pitched “I”s destabilize both Auto-Tune and his persona, and how he renders repetitions of wealth signifiers meaningless in the face of tragedy.
Craig Finn: “Luke & Leanna”
Character sketches, but (listen up kids) there’s narrative as well, which helps to create intense and complex emotions! Best Finn song in decades, and thus the best Springsteen song in decades too.
BunnaB: “No Drought” and “Bunna Summa”
My hope to be this season’s breakout Southern rap ice cream girl. She’s a melodic MC in a way with little to do with singing or Auto-Tune, continuously varying the pitch of her syllables teasingly, best heard in her “da da da”s. “Bunna Summa” is on the verge on being a hit, but I prefer “No Drought” because I like timpanis.
Haley Mae Campbell: “Girl’s Girl”
An alum of the Song Suffragettes scene that brought Kalie Shorr to attention, though unlike Kalie she’s already had some kind of a hit, “Never Been in Love” (of primary interest to those of us interested in ersatz eary Taylor.) She writes like a younger version of Platinum-era Miranda: she’ll lend you a hair tie or set infrastructure on fire for you, that’s what sorority means.
Babymetal, Poppy: “From Me to U”
Not sure who could’ve dreamed up this collab, besides everyone who votes in People’s Pop Polls. Babymetal reminds us of how sophisticated metal melodic structures used to be (dig the final key change); Poppy screams. However the commerce works out, I don’t have a good artistic reason why they aren’t better together for the long-term.
Ciza, Jazzworx, Thukuthela: “Isaka (6am)”
Producer Jazzworx and singer Thukuthela have hit upon a smooth, not-too-frightening 3-step formula that’s ruled the South African charts this year. This is my favorite iteration, thanks to the prominence of slightly sweeter vocalist Ciza, who matches the “I’m delirious yet I refuse to nap” vibe.
Rio Da Yung OG: “Coincidence”
Flint rapper returns from prison with, on at least this song, an uncanny delivery, flipping between gravelly head voice and falsetto haphazardly. Best rhyme is “clitoris”/“ill as shit”; strangest non sequitur is “do you wanna fight a Chinese n— that can kick and flip?”; most meta rhetorical question is “why can’t you tell that I’m rich without me sayin’ it?”
Anna Vaus: “Dust”
CA-to-TN proper songwriter who follows Nashville conventions (the pause before hitting the final “dust” of the chorus at ground level) since they offer the best prospect of actually making a living as a writer-for-hire. She sings with an earthy, no-nonsense delivery, and deserves a shot at performing her own material.
Clipping.: “Dominator”
The only song on Dead Channel Sky that really did it for me, but it did a lot. Sampling Human Resource’s pioneering hardcore techno track (look it up in your or your grandpa’s Simon Reynolds books), for once Daveed Diggs’s virtuosity feels appropriate to the beat.
Dankie Boi, Goldmax, Blacks Jnr, Dladla Mshunqisi, Black Catz: “Vala”
Gqom is back! Any number of discrete sections follow on from each other over five minutes, a background chord on the half-beat unifying the vocal interjections, bonus drums, and keyb parts there more for tone quality than for tune. The track builds without ever climaxing, making it an ideal cornerstone for an all night dance party (I assume; five minutes is fine for me.)
Veronica Maggio: “Inte bra i grupp”
Dave says the Strokes; I say someone trying to do the Strokes while not quite understanding where the bands the Strokes ripped off were coming from. So: the Strokes.
Lil Baby, Young Thug, Future: “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber”
Well, Young Thug hasn’t lost his ability to make monosyllable rhymes sound like revelations, nor his sexual adventurousness: “fucked my brother, gave the b— a pass”. Ah, it’s his frat brother, you see; that explains everything. Future and Lil Baby bring their B+ games, which is as much and nearly as much as one currently hopes for from them respectively.
Chappell Roan: “The Giver”
As is my tradition with her, I was slow to come around: if I wanted country with merely competent musicianship and sledgehammer wit, I’d subscribe to Banjo Quarterly or the like, so I thought. Somehow I keep forgetting she’s a pop star, and as a pop single this is as catchy and subversively sapphic as usual. Still, I worry that in the admittedly increasingly unlikely event that the audience stops suspending its disbelief, well, good luck, bro.
Disco Shrine: “u+me”
I didn’t ever consider that “I Love You Always Forever” was a song one could be sacrilegious towards.