Monthly Report: July 2021 Singles
1. Ayron Jones - "Mercy"
The first #1 by a black solo artist on Billboard's mainstream rock chart since Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away" and a total banger. Ayron Jones is from Seattle and was actually discovered by Sir Mix-A-Lot, hell of a singer and I like the tempo change in the last minute. Here is the 2021 singles Spotify playlist I add 10 songs to every month.
2. Olivia Rodrigo - "Good 4 U"
I've already written two pieces that were partly inspired by the success of "Good 4 U" but I haven't written much about the song itself. It totally kicks ass, though, at first I thought it was maybe just kind of a smart gesture to put out a song before the album that felt like a 180 from "Drivers License," but I didn't really expect it to hit #1 in its own right and work so well in the context of pop radio.
3. Wizkid f/ Tems - "Essence"
A handful of Afrobeats or Afrobeats-adjacent songs have broken through in the U.S. in the last few years -- "Drogba (Joanna)" by Afro B, "Fall" by Davido, "Don't Rush" by Young T & Bugsey -- but it's always felt like there was some really big crossover moment coming. And "Essence," which was released on Wizkid's album last fall but has exploded into summer jam ubiquity in just the last few weeks, seems like that moment, just an incredibly smooth and addictive song.
4. Regard, Troye Sivan, and Tate McRae - "You"
Three mid-level Top 40 acts that have each had a big hit or two but are hardly a sure thing, getting together and making a jam where everything sort of falls together nicely and feels like a new calling card for all of them.
5. Lil Baby & Kirk Franklin - "We Win"
Lil Baby ascended to huge multiplatinum success last year without really leaving his comfort zone or making any strained crossover moves, so 2021 is kind of the ongoing test of how well he can navigate all these new lanes that have opened up for him. And teaming up with Kirk Franklin and Just Blaze for the new Space Jam movie seems like a big opportunity for embarrassment, but the song holds together really nicely, in contrast to pretty much every other song on the Space Jam soundtrack album.
6. Rod Wave - "Tombstone"
Two rap trends that don't go well together are producer tags and songs with multiple producers. "Tombstone" is a really sad, moving song that Rod Wave fills with poignant little details ("seven missed calls, I know it's bad news"). But before he says anything, 2 of the song's 3 producers tack on their obnoixous: "damn, this muthafucka too crazy, Saucii!" and "let that shit ride, Eighty 8!"
7. Luke Combs - "Forever After All"
I like to joke about how compulsively regimented country radio is, but it's really kind of hilarious how there's such an orderly queue to make sure every big artist gets a week at #1 with almost every single. One of the people who's benefited the most from that system is Luke Combs, the only artist who's hit #1 on country radio with all of his first 11 singles. So when "Forever After All" debuted at #2 on the Hot 100 last fall, another historic achievement, country radio still made sure it waited in the wings for a few months while another Combs single, "Better Together," got its turn at #1. It eventually got it, thoguh, and "Forever After All" just spent 6 weeks at #1 -- only the 3rd song in the past decade to stay at #1 on country radio for more than 5 weeks (naturally, one of the other songs was another Luke Combs track, "Beautiful Crazy").
8. Robin Thicke - "Look Easy"
Happy to see On Earth And In Heaven doing well on R&B radio, "Look Easy" kind of has that gentle Spanish guitar sound that served Thicke so well back in the "Lost Without You" era.
9. HD4President - "Touch Down 2 Cause Hell"
Touch Down 2 Cause Hell was the title of Boosie Badazz's excellent 2015 comeback album after 4 years in prison, but new school Baton Rouge rapper HD4President is definitely more interested in evoking Boosie's scrappy early days in this song that really hits that mid-2000s Trill Ent. vibe perfectly.
10. Cynthia Erivo - "The Good"
A couple weeks ago I worked at Wolf Trap's 50th anniversary event, and it was sort of the first concert I'd been to in over a year. It was a fun night and part of my job was running the lyric prompter for Cynthia Erivo's performance where she was backed by the National Symphony Orchestra. She mostly did standards and Aretha covers, but she closed with her current single, which I hadn't heard before, and it really got stuck in my head after the rehearsals and the performance.
The Worst Single of the Month: Tai Verdes - "A-O-K"
This song is currently creeping up the lower reaches of both pop radio and alternative radio playlists, and I'm bracing myself for this to become as inescapable as all the insufferable songs it reminds me of like Cee-Lo's "Fuck You" or Afroman's "Because I Got High."
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on Monday, July 19, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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