Monthly Report: February 2024 Singles
1. Chayce Beckham - "23"
"American Idol" has been a sad shell of its former self for a long time, but it still shocked me a little to realize that none of the last four winners have released albums. What's the point of "winning" a record contract if you're just stuck releasing singles and EPs and hoping for the best like every other struggling kid in the industry? Chayce Beckham won "Idol" almost three years ago, the first artist on the show to win with an original song. And that song, "23," has just recently finally become a country radio hit and is climbing up the Hot 100. And it's not a really obvious radio song, it's a kind of ominous song about the decision to stop drinking, he's got other good songs but I'm glad he went the distance with this one. Here's the 2024 singles Spotify playlist I update every month.
2. Lainey Wilson - "Wildflowers and Wild Horses"
I loved seeing Lainey Wilson win her first Grammy last week, she's on such a great run right now, I don't know the last time a country album had 3 hits as good as Bell Bottom Country.
3. Beyonce - "Texas Hold 'Em"
For 18 months, people were trying to figure out why Beyonce's Renaissance was 'Act I' and whether it'd be a trilogy of albums or if the other two acts would be something else entirely, This week, the answer finally came when Beyonce released two songs from Act II that more or less confirm that it's her long-rumored country album. People who don't usually listen to country and people who don't usually listen to Beyonce are already being really extra about it, but as someone who listens to both, I'm excited. The fact that Raphael Saadiq co-wrote both of these new songs is really a testament to his versatility as well as Beyonce's.
4. GloRilla - "Yeah Glo!"
There are so many women thriving in hip-hop right now that I got really annoyed that people spent a lot of 2023 saying that Sexyy Red or whoever took GloRilla's "spot" just because her new songs weren't hitting like her 2022 singles. So I'm happy that Glo's getting her momentum back with this one, which very cleverly puts her own personalized spin on the classic Juicy J "yeah ho" ad lib.
5. Megan Thee Stallion - "Hiss"
I wouldn't put "Hiss," Megan's first solo #1, on the same level as her very best singles ("Big Ol' Freak," "Thot Shit," "Plan B"), but it's pretty fun for a song with no chorus and I love how it's put her on this new trajectory that's really promising, this could be the best year of her career.
6. Cat Janice - "Dance You Outta My Head"
A few weeks ago, my wife came home and started telling me about a song that was going viral, and tried to play it on our Amazon Echo, but couldn't get it to play because it has curse words on it and I guess there's some explicit content setting on there that I didn't even mean to have. Then a few days ago, I heard this catchy song on the local top 40 station, googled the artist and read the heartbreaking story of Cat Janice, a 31-year-old singer with a 7-year-old son who's currently in hospice dying of cancer, while the last song she recorded before she lost her voice blows up on TikTok. It's such a fun, uptempo song, whether or not you know the story, I hope it gets huge while she's still living and generates a nice little chunk of money for her kid.
7. Sum 41 - "Landmines"
Sum 41 announcing a whole farewell tour and final album, when I doubt many people knew they were still together or have heard a new song from them in 20 years, is kind of funny, a very "you thought you was Kobe" moment. That said, I'm happy they can have their little sunset moment and the lead single "Landmines" is really good, totally brings back a bit of what made them stars back in the day.
8. Nicki Minaj f/ Lil Uzi Vert - "Everybody"
The whole thing with Nicki Minaj making a Megan Thee Stallion diss song bums me out, I wish she didn't have problems with so many artists. And it's just bad timing because she has a genuine hit out right now with the same producer, one of my favorite Baltimore artists Tate Kobang, who gave "Everybody" a little Baltimore club flavor (although I'm sure most people are calling it Jersey club).
9. Benson Boone - "Beautiful Things"
Benson Boone is an earnest white pop singer who blew up on TikTok and has had a couple songs on the charts over the past few years who just blew up with his first top 10 song. And it's kind of a weirdly structured song to become a huge pop hit, with a quiet first half in 4/4 followed by a second half in waltz time that builds to a big bombastic climax (this is also pretty much the structure of Billie Eilish's "Happier Than Ever," which also surprised me with its popularity).
10. Cody Johnson - "The Painter"
I like "Til You Can't" way more than other Cody Johnson songs because it builds to this big satisfying climax, but his more conventional ballads are good too, and "The Painter" has really grown on me lately.
The Worst Single of the Month: Skilla Baby - "Bae"
Skilla Baby has two songs blowing up on rap radio right now. One of them, Rob49's "Mama," which I wrote about a couple months ago, features Skilla Baby saying "you know you the coldest, bae, you know you the coldest" on the hook. And on the other, "Bae," he says "you know you fine, bae, you know you fine" on the hook. I don't think both of these songs need to exist, and them both being hits just seems ridiculous.
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on Friday, February 16, 2024 at 11:00 AM.
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