So what is there to talk about this month? Not a lot really. An incredibly average selection of country and rap songs, and then Olivia Rodrigo continuing to be by far the best thing to happen to the music industry this year, standard stuff really. I guess we also got a nice bit of controversy with Levitating’s failed #1 push thanks to Billboard actually bothering to vet the sales figures to make sure that they’re legit – how dare they! Any rate, let’s kick off.
“Hell of a View” by Eric Church
Peak #28, Current #36
This is the first Eric Church song I’ve been lined up to review, and shockingly his first top 40 hit since “Give Me Back My Hometown” all the way back in 2014. I like Eric Church. I mean who doesn’t, he’s got a great voice, driving textured production, and a ton of defiant spirit.
This track isn’t one of his most gripping seeing as it’s just a love song, but it is still a very good one. The slow-burn groove isn’t a million miles away from that of Springsteen, his biggest hit and one of the best country singles from the last decade. It’s smooth and melodic enough to be sweet, but the live instrumentation and Eric’s growling delivery give it enough bite to still stand out. Nice summer song.
7.5/10
“Breaking Up Was Easy In the 90’s” by Sam Hunt
Peak #32, Current #43
For some reason Sam Hunt is persisting with releasing singles from Southside that aren’t “2016”, and whilst this isn’t the worst song on the album, it is definitely the worst to be pushed to radio so far. First of all, why is he still doing these awful talk-sung verses? I don’t think anybody even liked it when he was doing it in 2015, it didn’t catch on as a trend, but for some reason he’s bringing it back now. It just makes you sound like a complete twat, whether the lyrics actually back that up or not.
Speaking of which, lyrically the song details Sam’s inability to move on post-breakup because his ex posts stuff on social media that he can’t help looking at, hence the song title. I mean I get the sentiment, but it does come across a bit pathetically, and not really in an endearing way, particularly when you consider how much of a stalker tone some of the other tracks on the album had. The production also sounds pretty crap with the fizzy drums, hollow kicking sound and generally amateurish feel, including the most underwhelming group vocal moment I’ve heard all year in that bridge.
So yeah, a pretty lousy song from a generally lousy artist. Not a surprise.
2.5/10
“Made For You” by Jake Owen
Peak #32, Current #56
According to my records, I have reviewed one Jake Owen song previously (“Homemade”) but I have literally no recollection of it. This song is similarly unmemorable. It’s a rather tedious list-driven song where every line is “blank was made for blank”, with the central line predictably being “I was made for you”. It gets old mid-way through the first verse, and whilst OK instrumentation and vocals do make this tolerable, they’re not enough to make it interesting, especially not at this sluggish tempo and over-bearing length.
4/10
“EVERY CHANCE I GET” by DJ Khaled ft. Lil Baby & Lil Durk
Peak #20, Current #35
May saw a DJ Khaled album bomb, and this is the only song from it that’s still charting. Unsurprisingly it’s a big ol’ flex anthem complete with crunchy snares, a glistening melodic loop, and both rappers giving very intense performances. It’s not bad, but I have a fairly specific type of trap banger that appeals to me and this isn’t really it. The hook is too wordy, there’s very little difference between the chorus and the verses, Lil Baby and Lil Durk’s voices don’t really contrast in any meaningful way making the double appearance somewhat redundant, and ultimately it just isn’t that catchy. Alright song, doesn’t do a lot for me personally.
5/10
“Your Power” by Billie Eilish
Peak #10, Current #54
At the end of April, Billie Eilish announced that her second album, Happier Than Ever, would be released on July 30th, with this track being released two days later. Not technically the lead single since My Future and Therefore I Am are both included in the tracklist, but as those two songs aren’t really similar at all perhaps this one might give us a clearer idea of the sound she’s heading towards.
What we get on Your Power is a very sparse acoustic ballad with nothing but guitar plucks, softly layered vocals and minimal atmospheric touches. Naturally the idea is to put all the attention on the lyrics, and what we get in that department is a pretty heartbreaking tale of an abusive relationship where one party is underage. It’s told in the third person but sources point to this being based on her own unfortunate experience, and it really is a bleak and emotionally afflicting tale. I like how she also digs a little deeper beyond this just being a takedown, exploring more into the power dynamic that exists and how exerting power over her is the only way for him to feel in control. There’s real aching pain in Billie’s delivery, it really is a hard-hitting track.
With that being said, boy I wish I liked this more musically. It’s not that any aspect of it is bad but I have to be honest and say I just can’t see myself going out of my way to relisten to this. I have nothing against more minimal songs, but this one doesn’t really have the same force that her best ballads such as idontwannabeyouanymore, when the party’s over and ocean eyes have. I think this probably largely comes down to the lack of the “wall of sound” vocal layering that those tracks had, as well as just less of a tune here. There just isn’t much to Your Power on a compositional level and whilst it might feel a bit shallow to say so, that does put a pretty big dampener on my enthusiasm for it. Still a good song, but this falls in the same lane as my future for me where I enjoy it when I hear it, but I won’t choose to go back to it. I hope she doesn’t lose sight of the melodic instincts that helped made her so popular in the first place. She’s already cemented herself as the type of artist who won’t need hit singles to be relevant, but the way things are heading that might be just as well because I can’t see this sticking around.
7/10
“Miss the Rage” by Trippie Redd ft. Playboi Carti
Peak #11, Current #50
Another one of those trap songs that debuts high off name recognition and then falls off when people remember that neither artist is actually very good at making music. The basis of this track leaked a while back, following which fans made their own edits featuring Playboi Carti vocals as it seems like the type of song he’d fit on, and then we wound up with this official collab.
Given that, as usual, both rappers just sort of make incoherent noises the main focus is on the abrasive production, which I think is just OK. Yeah I quite like wailing synths and blown-out bass kicks, but it isn’t that interesting if you just loop it for four minutes and have two passive rappers over the top of it. Some kind of cool sounds but not a song that amounts to much.
5/10
“Wockesha” by Moneybagg Yo
Peak #39, Current #39
Moneybagg Yo seems to have quickly gone from rap also-ran to solid B-lister, and I’m not really sure how. He’s easily one of the least remarkable rappers in the game, but that didn’t stop his latest album achieving an impressive debut. This track has grown to be the sleeper hit of the project because there’s a TikTok trend around the line “Damn you hit the spot, taste like candy, sweet like fruit” near the start of the song. Anyways, I don’t care about that nonsense and the rest of the song is just sort of there. No I actually have nothing to say here at all, I didn’t know it was possible for music to leave this little impression on me. Not unpleasant though.
5/10
“Straightenin” by Migos
Peak #38, Current #38
Migos are another act that are both beneficiaries and victims of rap fans’ overreactionary hype trains. They quickly became established as big stars with some decent but frankly very overhyped and one-dimensional material. Then came the inevitable comedown as people got sick of them with Culture II being largely panned as a symbol of their artistic dead-end. But they’ve now taken long enough away that the idea of new Migos music begins to sound more appealing, especially with the constant teasing of Culture III, giving it the same mystical lore as the likes of Whole Lotta Red and Eternal Atake.
I can only assume that when it eventually does arrive it will be similarly underwhelming as people remember that Migos simply aren’t that good, and this lead-off single does nothing to make me think I’m wrong. This just sounds like any other Migos song. The production, the flows the content, they’re all virtually unchanged and unfortunately they’ve never been very good at writing hooks, as this is yet another song of theirs where they just repeat a word in place of an actual chorus.
4.5/10
“Seeing Green” by Nicki Minaj, Drake & Lil Wayne
Peak #12, Current #12
So Nicki Minaj reissued her 2009 Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape with three new tracks added on the start. I presume that this is off interest to her long-time fans, personally I don’t care but she recruited Lil Wayne and Drake for this song so I’m bullied into listening to it. Can’t say that I was looking forward to this considering the garbage collaborations we got from No Frauds and especially the amazingly awful Only, but here we are.
This turned out fairly well. Not a huge fan of this sort of pitched-up vocal sample for a beat, but it gives the song some sort of colour as all three take turns to lay down verses with no hook required. Wayne’s verse is pretty decent as he prevents his voice from going into that awful, slimy cracking noise it does sometimes and actually sounds pretty tight. Another line about pissing lean wasn’t needed but he redeems himself by ending his verse with some pretty tight cut-throat bars. Nicki’s verse is alright, even if it is full of all the usual tired nonsense of criticizing every other female rapper “these bitches still my sons!”, yeah we don’t care and you really ain’t the biggest anymore. There’s also an unsubstantiated reference to corporate giants and machines being against her, which given the career that she’s had off the back of very inconsistent output doesn’t seem to ring true, but this is the same victim mentality she’s had going back to at least the 2015 VMAs so I’m not surprised. Drake’s verse is a bit all over the place as he switches topic from line to line without any of it really saying anything. Interesting to hear him say he wants to run a country one day, but using Vladimir Putin as his reference point is pretty questionable.
All in all though, not bad. Too long for me to really want to return to it, but it’s not a bad reunion for the famous trio, they all do their thing well enough.
6/10
“m y . l i f e” by J. Cole, 21 Savage & Morray
Peak #2, Current #2
I don’t know if there’s anybody I dread turning up in this column more than J Cole. Not that I dislike him, just that I don’t care. His whole career has pretty much entirely passed me by since he’s virtually irrelevant outside North America and I’ve never heard anything that’s made me want to take a deep dive into his music. So when the highest charting song from a huge new album turns up I feel like I’m supposed to have a think-piece prepared on why this is important/great/terrible and give an essay about moralism or perspective or something, but in reality I’m just not interested.
Haven’t heard the album, as for this song it is fine. Reminds me of A Lot (a song that I never understood the hype for in the first place) but with a less good vocal sample in the beat. Combined with the over-the-top hi-hats and J Cole’s shouty delivery it’s a bit of an earache for me in his verse. 21 Savage’s verse goes over a lot smoother but the star of the show has to be Morray’s soulful hook. Lyrically it’s a standard come-up track with nothing very notable about it except for this baffling line in 21’s verse:
Have an extra half point for that.
5.5/10
“good 4 u” by Olivia Rodrigo
Peak #1, Current #1
It feels so good to be fully on board with Olivia Rodrigo’s success right from the get go. I can only imagine the confusion of those people who, rather inexplicably, have been indifferent to her work as they watch her become a superstar so quickly. But to me her ascent is simply proof that in the end quality output and good marketing will always win, and given that Taylor Swift is her idol she’s learning from the best in both departments.
Good 4 u is the perfect third single for her, every bit as good as the two that went before, but again changing things up stylistically. This time she takes a break from mimicking Taylor, Lorde and Billie, and delivers what I can only describe as a brilliant Paramore knock-off. Not only does she closely copy the styles of these artists but she somehow is able to make her voice sound similar as well; out of nowhere she comes through sounding like Hayley Williams here. The riff is great, the post-chorus drum fill is superb, the chorus crashes in with so much impact, the instrumental break in the bridge is beautiful, the killer lines cut in at all the right moments, it’s a really glorious pop-rock banger. She just makes all the right decisions when it comes to structuring these songs, every element is exactly how I would’ve designed it, she just fully gets it.
Again, she’s struggling to establish much of an artistic identity for herself by virtually copying these other popular artists, but hell a great vocalist with great production making an assortment of songs inspired by some of the best mainstream female artists of the last decade or so is not exactly a bad thing. And whilst I don’t think Sour quite landed as well as it could’ve as a full album (I may expand more on that if any of the album tracks are still charting for the June roundup), she is easily 3/3 for singles. Terrific song. Screw That!! And Screw You!! You Will Never Have To Hurt The Way You Know That I Do!!! Rock on.
9/10
May average: 5.5/10
Worth listening to: “good 4 u”, “Hell of a View”
🙂
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