1. Jacquees and Dej Loaf - "At The Club"
I always root for Dej Loaf but I didn't bother checking out the project she did last year with Jacquees because I don't care much for his whole Great Value Pleasure P thing. But the sleeper hit from that record turned out to be really good! I'm kinda surprised it's turned out to be a bigger hit for Dej than "No Fear" was, I thought that one was gonna be huge. She has such a funny awkward vibe, like on "At The Club" she'll sing some seductive and suggestive line and then in the background do those goofy kung fu movie ad libs she always does. Here's the Spotify playlist of my favorite 2018 singles that I update every month. 

2. Pink - "Beautiful Trauma" 
I wasn't sure if this song really was single material initially and just thought the choreography of the video was charming, but the song has really grown on me lately. There aren't a lot of pop songs these days that do loud verses and a quiet chorus, I always enjoy hearing tracks that invert the usual formula. 

3. AJR f/ Rivers Cuomo - "Sober Up"
I have had mixed feelings about AJR's couple of minor pop radio hits, and when I saw they had a song on the rock radio charts that featured Rivers Cuomo, I had imagined the worst case scenario of what they'd sound like combined with late period Weezer. But this is really pretty nice, and Cuomo is a minor, welcome presence on the bridge of the song, apparently he's a fan of AJR and asked to be on one of their songs, which is kind of an interesting thing for an older established artist to do with a newer act. 

4. Bishop Briggs - "Dream" 
It bums me out that after Bishop Briggs got her big push of having songs in big ad campaigns and opening a Coldplay tour, her singles just did okay and her label only released an EP last year, because her music is really good and if the industry wants to blow someone up it might as well be her. The INXS cover she did for the last Fifty Shades soundtrack was disappointing, though, she just changed the melody way too much. 

5. SZA - "Broken Clocks" 
I'm glad this one got released as a single, I'm hot and cold on CTRL but this one is good. The performance on the Grammys with the harmonies was awesome. 

6. Royal Blood - "I Only Lie When I Love You" 
These guys are pretty aggressive derivative, but they have a nice sound and I always enjoy hearing a new song from them on rock radio. 

7. Chris Young - "Losing Sleep" 
I had started writing a chorus a while back that I was really excited about that had kind of the same idea of "Losing Sleep," so I was bummed out a little to hear this song and decided to scrap my idea. But those Nashville guys are always coming up with the kind of clever catchy hooks I aspire to, so it also kinda made me feel like I'm on the right track. 

8. Old Dominion - "Written In The Sand"
I feel like the Old Dominion singer's delivery is a little too cutesy for me, but that's a good lyric. I like the playful minimal percussion on the song and the way that little tap-tap riff feels like a key part of the chorus. 

9. Midland - "Make A Little" 
"Make A Little" is really good, but I'm not surprised that it hasn't done remotely as well as "Drinkin' Problem," Midland is a bit more traditionalist than most acts on country radio so they have to be careful what they release as a single. I would've gone with "Burn Out" or "Check Cashin' Country" or "This Old Heart." Hopefully there'll be a third single.

10. Sofi Tukker f/ NERVO, The Knocks, and Alisa Ueno - "Best Friend" 
This song blew up off an Apple ad and Sofi Tukker and The Knocks are both goofy-looking groups who seem to exist mainly to get sync money from ad agencies. But this song's main riff is pretty damn catchy, almost makes me look past all the annoying things happening in almost every vocal part of the song. So far this is doing slightly better on alt-rock radio than on top 40 radio, which interests me, rock radio is really hilariously more influenced by advertising than any other format. 

Worst Single of the Month: NF - "Let You Down"
Just because I'm a white rap fan doesn't mean I have to like white rappers, and although invariably there are some good ones, I think they're mostly terrible and laughable. And in the past couple years, their market share of the pop charts has become disproportionately large. There have been a few times in recent months when the majority of the top songs on iTunes' hip hop charts have been by G-Eazy, Post Malone, Eminem, etc. And one of the newest ascendant stars of this white rap zeitgeist is NF, who seems to be some kind of white rap Frankenstein's monster -- he warbles like Post on the hook while the verses sound like an earnest Macklemore type rapping in furious Eminem flows. It's like a perfect little capsule of exactly how white rap is its own crappy little inbred genre for tweens now. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 10:50 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.