1. Flipp Dinero - "Leave Me Alone"
So many new rap stars come with so much backstory about who they are before they have a hit that sometimes it's nice to just hear a song on the radio and enjoy it without any context. I don't know where Flipp Dinero's from, I only googled him to figure out if his name was 'dinero' like money or 'De Niro' like the actor. I mean, at some point I'm sure I will know more about him, but for now I kind of enjoy just knowing that this is a catchy song by a guy with a cool raspy voice and the beat has multiple elements I associate with Zaytoven but isn't actually produced by Zaytoven. Here's the Spotify playlist with my 10 favorite songs of the month for the last 12 months, kind of a rough draft of my forthcoming year-end singles list. 

2. Ariana Grande - "Breathin"
"Thank U, Next" is cool and all, but I really am salty that the surprise release and runaway success of Ariana Grande's first #1 single came at the cost of a song I like more that's a bit more in the sweet spot of past bombastic dance tracks like "Into You" and "Love Me Harder." 

3. Bri Steves - "Jealousy"
Really good song, mostly sung but rapped a little, thought it was about to be big on R&B radio and then it just dropped off the charts. 

4. Pardison Fontaine f/ Cardi B - "Backin' It Up"
A lot of Cardi B features like "No Limit" and "MotorSport" I end up liking her verse but thinking the song is kind of trash as a whole, but this one has really grown on me, Pardison Fontaine is a great brash counterpoint to her. 

5. Maggie Rogers - "Light On" 
Lately, more than ever before, the "SNL" musical guests feel like maybe some major labels are stongarming the music bookers to take their new acts alongside A-listers, because it really seemed out of nowhere for Maggie Rogers to be on the show. But I'm glad she's getting that kind of visibility, all the singles she released this year were great and I'm looking forward to the album in January. 

6. Post Malone & Swae Lee - "Sunflower" 
Swae Kroeger and Posty Scott gave us the best Spider-Man soundtrack single since 2002. Obviously Post gets top billing as the bigger artist, but it's really a Swae Lee song, and a better one than anything on Swaecation, and Post's presence on the second half works really well. My son is so hyped for Into The Spider-Verse, he's watched the trailers a dozen times and loves the Vince Staples song. 

7. Zara Larsson - "Ruin My Life" 
Zara's album last year was kind of slept on, I'm glad she's back at it with a strong new single. I love how the chorus has that descending stairstep melody with a little upward lilt at the end.  

8. Jay Rock f/ Jeremih - "Tap Out" 
If you're gonna have a token R&B track on a rap album, Jeremih is my first choice for a hook in this day and age, he never fails. In the 3 years since I interviewed D.K. The Punisher it's been great to watch him work his way up the industry and get into TDE circles and now score a single from one of their albums, hopefully even bigger and better things ahead for him. 

9. Khalid - "Better" 
A StarGate production that sounds like something they would've given Ne-Yo at the height of his career seems like an odd, kind of dated move for Khalid as R&B's crossover golden boy circa 2018, but I like the song. 

10. Jordan Davis - "Take It From Me" 
This sounds like a lot of country radio fodder that kind of washes over me neutrally but this one is catchy enough to stick with me a little bit, good wordy chorus. "Slow Dance In A Parking Lot" from Davis's album is good, too, I hope it gets released as a single.

Worst Single of the Month: Camila Cabello - "Consequences"
Although they've come back to a small extent, ballads have been out of fashion in pop music for most of this decade in part because so few of our current pop stars can pull them off even a little bit. So it was mildly shocking to me that Camila Cabello, who can barely even pull off her uptempo material, released an orchestral version of the slowest song on her album as the 3rd single. Just appalling.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 05, 2018 at 11:30 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.