1. Ed Sheeran f/ Chris Stapleton and Bruno Mars - "Blow" 
Ed Sheeran's No.6 Collaborations Project is an interesting record in that it allows him to dip his toe into a lot more sounds than his proper albums usually contain, at least in theory -- most of the tracks are in the clubby R&B or pop rap vein of "Shape of You" and "Don't," which tends to make me cringe. And that makes the closing track, "Blow," a full-on cock rock song, stand out all the more. It's funny how a song with 3 huge platinum stars, including arguably the 2 biggest male singers in the world right now, is effectively invisible to most people who listen to Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars because it's a hard rock song with a guitar solo, maybe the 8th or 10th most popular song on the album despite being one of the advance promo singles. It did get to #17 on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart (a little higher than Stapleton's previous rock radio crossover "Midnight Train To Memphis"), and my local station 98 Rock has been playing it quite a bit, it sounds great in between Def Leppard and Van Halen songs. Here's my favorite 2019 singles playlist I update every month. 

2. Volbeat - "Last Day Under The Sun" 
The Danish band Volbeat are another good example of the odd invisibility of popular hard rock in the context of popular music. They've had half a dozen rock radio #1s and play 20,000-seat venues when they tour America, but I'm sure a good number of the people reading this post never even heard of the band before. Most of their hits are kind of unpleasant tough guy jock jams that I usually hate -- one of them literally contains the words "let's get ready to rumble" -- but "Last Day Under The Sun" is a total breath of fresh air by comparison, a big bright catchy uptempo song with female backup singers wailing over the fade out. 

3. Zara Larsson - "All The Time"
I always think Zara Larsson should be as big in the U.S. as she is in Europe, but I'm surprised that "All The Time" didn't at least go top 10 in the countries where her singles usually do. The way it just bursts out with that first line -- "Summertime and I'm caught in the feeling" -- has such a classic summer jam feel to it. 

4. Luke Bryan - "Knockin' Boots"  
The first time I saw that Luke Bryan had a song called "Knockin' Boots," I was very concerned that he might have covered or interpolated H-Town's "Knockin' Da Boots," and even though he didn't, a Luke Bryan original with that title is a little frightening. But I have to admit, this is a tremendously catchy song, Luke Bryan has long been my least favorite country superstar and this is basically the first song of his that I've really liked since his 2007 debut single "All My Friends Say." 

5. Summerella - "Pretty Bitches In The Trap" 
I was confused when Summerella started showing up on the R&B radio charts around the same time as Summer Walker, as if one was a Pokemon evolution of the other. This song is kind of goofy and ridiculous but that's a great hook. The verses kind of feel like filler, though, I'm fine with listening to the remix with Gucci Mane and Trouble instead of the original. 

6. Fantasia - "Enough"
Fantasia Barrino's always been an incredible singer and even if the mainstream attention of the "American Idol" win has faded a bit, I think she's really at her peak creatively. Her last 2 albums were her best yet and found her getting more involved in songwriting, and she seems really charged up about going in a Tina Turner-inspired "rock/soul" direction with her new stuff. 

7. Sam Smith - "How Do You Sleep?"
I've always liked Sam Smith's more beat-driven crossover records more than their ballads (other than "Too Good At Goodbyes," that was great), so I'm glad that their recent stuff has been moving in that direction, I'm really rooting for them more now than I ever expected to. The EDM 'drop' where Smith's voice is sampled and played like a synth squealing a wordless melody is the kind of thing that was trendier back in 2016 and I worried that it was kind of an unnecessary addition to a song that would be fine without it, but it's grown on me. 

8. Maddie & Tae - "Die From A Broken Heart" 
When Maddie & Tae released their latest EP a few months ago, this song really hit me immediately, it's such an evocative and emotional lyric. I didn't necessarily think it had radio potential, but I'm glad they're working it as a single now.

9. Ingrid Andress - "More Hearts Than Mine"
I kind of paired "Die From A Broken Heart" and "More Hearts Than Mine" together in my head, because they're both country songs written from the perspective of a young woman whose heart was just broken and is taking solace in her family, they hit some of the same buttons really well.

10. Miley Cyrus - "Slide Away" 
I've never been much of a fan of Miley's Mike WiLL Made It-assisted mid-2010s reinvention, or really much of any of the stuff she's done since then, including the EP she released in May. So I was a little skeptical of everyone raving about the breakup song she wrote right after her split from her husband made the news. This song is nice, though, I'm sure she'll annoy me again soon but "Slide Away" is good. 

The Worst Single of the Month: Layton Greene, Lil Baby, City Girls and PnB Rock - "Leave Em Alone"
It's crazy to me that R&B nostalgia has cycled around to the point that we're getting remakes of songs from 2007 that weren't particularly good or particularly big the first time, Hitmaka is really just trying to get blood from a stone with some of these samples and interpolations. But I think what I really dislike about this is that the new vocal is so terrible that it makes me think "I miss real singers like Ciara!" 

This entry was posted on Friday, September 13, 2019 at 3:12 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.