Jordan Davis's first album a few years ago had some good singles, but "What My World Spins Around" from his forthcoming sophomore album, co-written by Maren Morris's husband Ryan Hurd, feels like a big jump forward, curious to hear the rest of the record. I love that sort of rapid tremolo guitar thing over the post-chorus section, you don't hear stuff like that on major label country very often. Here's my new 2023 singles Spotify playlist that I'll update throughout the  year. 

Writer/producer Julian Bunetta is an MVP of One Direction's albums and several of the members' solo albums, and he's also done some excellent country records in the last few years for Thomas Rhett, Kelsea Ballerini and others. And I love how that worked seemed to inform "Nonsense" which has this lush country steel guitar thing that really elevates a song that it'd be easy to imagine with more generic R&B-ish pop production. Sabrina Carpenter has been signed to major labels since she was 15 and kind of plugging away at at the lower rungs of the pop world, and so far her only Hot 100 entry has been "Skin," her alleged response to being part of the love triangle of Disney-adjacent actor/singers that inspired Olivia Rodrigo's "Drivers License." But it really feels like she's been getting better at making music and steadily gaining momentum -- I really dug 2019's Singular: Act II and it looks like "Nonsense," the 5th single from her 5th album, might be her tipping point. I love how she keeps riffing and free associating at the end of the song, apparently on tour she'd add different lines in every city, and also personalized the outro on her Jimmy Kimmel performance a couple weeks ago. 

Lil Uzi Vert's "Just Wanna Rock" is the fast-paced dance rap hit that's getting all the attention right now, but I much prefer "Do It Again" (and not just because I don't really fuck with Uzi anymore after they assaulted their ex-girlfriend). "Do It Again" has this awesome propulsive kick drum pattern, but it's also a breakup song with heartbreaking sample of Rose Royce's "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" running under the entire track. 

SiR dropped an album or EP every year from 2015 to 2019, so it was kind of a bummer to realize recently how long it's been since Chasing Summer, and that he's kind of fallen into the lax schedule at TDE, where many of their artists have gone 5 or 6 years between albums lately. But his recent singles have been great, "Nothing Even Matters" definitely has my hopes up that he has an album coming this year. 

Even at his peak it felt like Jeremih was often shortchanged and underestimated by the music industry, but it's still kind of crazy to look up and realize that it's been 7 years since his last solo album. But "Changes" is the biggest solo track he's had in a while, and it's great to hear him in action again after his COVID hospitalization. Hitmaka does a typically lazy chop of a 2000s R&B hit, Avant's "Read Your Mind," but to his credit Jeremih puts his own spin and his own vocal melody over it. 

Brett Young is one of those country stars that's never left any kind of impression on me, despite the fact that 2017's "In Case You Didn't Know" is 8 times platinum (for some perspective, only 4 country songs have ever gone 10x platinum, and two of them were Florida Georgia Line). But "You Didn't" came on the radio one day and hit me hard, that's a good sad country song. 

Another nice sad song from a guy I never had strong feelings about. Morgan Evans is basically a one hit wonder for 2017's "Kiss Somebody," and around that time got married to another rising star, Kelsea Ballerini. But Ballerini filed for divorce a few months ago, and has talked a lot about her decision to end the marriage, while Evans has released "Over For You." And, without taking sides or getting too invested in the drama, it's a pretty heart-rending song from the perspective of a guy blindsided by a breakup and wondering how long ago it had really been over. 

Blake Shelton has a lot of hits and I only like a handful of them. But I'll add "No Body" to that list, a fun little throwback to '90s line dancing, with a reference to Brooks & Dunn's "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and retro VHS effects in the video

It's kind of funny to see a millennial pop star like Pink arrive at a classic rocker sort of career where she can release a lead single that misses the Hot 100 while also announcing a stadium tour. Pink's last couple lead singles ("What About Us" and "Walk Me Home"). "Never Gonna Not Dance Again" was produced by the unstoppable hitmaking team of Max Martin and Shellback but it's an airy little trifle that reminds me more of '80s Lionel Richie than contemporary pop. It took some time to grow on me but Pink's spirited delivery makes it work, she even weirdly throws a "bruh" into the hook. 

Akon had a pretty good run as a hitmaker, and may have made an even greater impact at an executive level -- the last 15 years of popular music could have been completely different if he hadn't signed T-Pain and Lady Gaga. But he sort of disappeared from the charts for a decade, at one point announcing a quintuple album in 5 different genres that never came out. And his first minor hit in a long time is just awful, his voice has just not aged well. And because of that Metro Boomin/The Weeknd song, it's not even the only bad song out right now with that Enya sample. Using the same sample as The Fugees' "Ready Or Not" feels like a clever nod to how long Akon has been around, though -- he was down with the Fugees circa The Score and appeared on the "Fu-Gee-La" remix.