Monthly Report: January 2024 Singles
1. Ashley Cooke - "Your Place"
The lead single from Florida country singer Ashley Cooke's second album has one of those classic Nashville choruses where the title has a couple meanings that are woven together very gracefully, and it draws you into the story in the process. Here's the new 2024 singles Spotify playlist I'll be updating with 10 songs every month this year.
2. Flo Milli - "Never Lose Me"
Flo Milli has held steady at medium famous for a few years now without necessarily seeming like she would break through to the level of having a radio hit. But then she released her 6th single of 2023, which uses the same beat as Detroit rapper Babyface Ray's biggest hit "Ron Artest," and it's very quickly become her first Hot 100 hit. Sometimes when I hear it on the radio they play the remix with Lil Yachty, but he's not really a welcome presence on an extremely sexy song. Flo Milli teased that there's going to be another remix with SZA, so that'll probably be what really puts the song over the top.
3. The Last Dinner Party - "Nothing Matters"
Once again, a song about sex by beautiful women, because I'm not made of stone, sometimes I'm powerless to resist that kind of thing. I guess this band blew up in their native England last year but "Nothing Matters" is just starting to take off on American alternative radio and it's got me excited for their debut album in February, all five of the songs they have out so far are great.
4. P1Harmony - "Fall In Love Again"
Tricky Stewart produced a bunch of the biggest R&B songs of the last 25 years, many of them with The-Dream. But Stewart has had a lower profile in recent years, aside from co-producing Beyonce's "Break My Soul," so it was cool to see that he co-wrote Tyla's "Water" and co-produced this great American radio breakthrough from a K-pop group.
5. Ariana Grande - "Yes, And?"
Other than the "Problem"/"Break Free" era, Ariana Grande generally can do no wrong in my eyes. This feels like kind of a weirdly low key first single, despite being a Max Martin production that debuted at #1, but I like the sound of it and how she went for making a statement with her lead single after a three year break and a lot of speculation about her personal life.
6. Taylor Swift - "Is It Over Now?"
As with Ariana Grande and Drake and some other superstars, Taylor Swift has had several songs debut at #1 in the last few years, but they're often not the songs that really last or are remembered by people (like, c'mon, the non-diehard fan cannot hum "Cardigan," "Willow," or "All Too Well"). I thought that would be the case when "Is It Over Now?" from 1989 (Taylor's Version) debuted at #1 a few months ago, but it's turned into the new-old pop radio follow-up to the new-old "Cruel Summer" and has really grown on me, a really well constructed lyric.
7. Lil Nas X - "J. Christ"
It seems foolish to doubt Lil Nas X after he's beaten the odds with a few massive hits, but it feels like he might have a rare miss on his hands with "J. Christ" after the kind of weary reception to him once again actively courting scandal with lots of religious imagery. I think it'd be kind of a shame if this song flops, though, I like it. He makes pop rap with the instincts of someone who grew up in Atlanta in the golden age of trap music, I like his ear for beats. The only time I heard this song on the radio, the DJ referred to the song as "Back Like" and played an edited that muted the word 'Christ.'
8. Maeta f/ Free Nationals - "Through The Night"
I liked Maeta's album When I Hear Your Name last summer, I'm glad this song has turned into a bit of a sleeper hit, a rare live band groove on R&B radio.
9. Jonas Brothers f/ Bailey Zimmerman - "Strong Enough"
The Jonas Brothers released The Album last year and it wasn't a very successful record, but they've kept touring it and releasing a bunch of new collaborations with the K-pop group Tomorrow X Together, Busted, and rising country star Bailey Zimmerman. "Strong Enough" is produced by the same people who worked on The Album, Jon Bellion and The Monsters & Strangerz, and doesn't really sound country at all, but I like it.
10. Lil Tecca - "500lbs"
About four years ago, 17-year-old rapper Lil Tecca scored a massive hit with "Ransom" but seemed to quickly sour on rap stardom and talked publicly about retiring from music. Unsurprisingly, though, he never really left, and it seems like he's catching another wave of popularity and just returned to the Hot 100 with "500lbs."
The Worst Single of the Month: Nate Smith - "World On Fire"
I like Nate Smith's music generally but I don't like that this song recently eclipsed "Whiskey On You" as his biggest hit. The chorus just feels lazy, in a way that irritates me more because it sounds like a slowed-down grungy knockoff of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" (flames go "higher" to rhyme with "fire" and then he says "burn, burn, burn" three times).
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on Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 10:20 AM.
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