Carly Pearce's last album, 29: Written In Stone, was, in my opinion, one of the great modern divorce albums, cathartic and poignant. Pearce is still in breakup song mode for a lot of Hummingbird, but the lyrics feel a little less personal, or at least resemble other people's songs more -- "Truck On Fire" takes revenge on an ex's pickup much like Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats," and "My Place" hinges on the same wordplay as Ashley Cooke's current hit "Your Place." It's still a very good album from a beautifully expressive vocalist, though, and "Still Blue" and the Chris Stapleton duet "We Don't Fight Anymore" have some deeper feeling to them. 

Kaytranada is one of the most prominent Black artists in contemporary dance music, and also one of the few who had a foot in R&B and hip hop, particularly before Beyonce and Drake released dance albums in 2022. His album with Amine last year was great, my favorite thing he's done to date, but it's only in the last few months that I've started to hear Kaytranada productions like Victoria Monet's "Alright" and Mariah The Scientist's "Out Of Luck" on R&B radio (the latter appears on Timeless). There's still a myriad of dance music styles on Timeless -- there's even a little Baltimore club in "Drip Sweat" with Channel Tres -- but I dig how R&B it is, how guest singers like Dawn Richard and Tinashe and PinkPantheress are perfect choices that often occupy that same liminal space between genres. Meghan Trainor also released an album named Timeless on the same day as this one, and it kinda goes without saying that it's not as good. 

2024 began with a lot of obituaries declaring Pitchfork as effectively over thanks to some (admittedly worrysome) corporate meddling. But already twice this year, we've seen the resilient power of a Best New Music endorsement to dramatically raise the profile of an obscure act (Cindy Lee) or put a fringe chart act at the center of the conversation (Charli XCX). I've always like Charli XCX's music, but as someone who likes basic ass Top 40 pop more than quirky art-damaged "hyperpop," I'm about as happy with her more conventional albums like Sucker and Crash as I am with Brat. A lot of Charli XCX's signature moments ("I'm so fancy, you already know," "I don't care, I love it") are genuinely bratty, but Brat doesn't hit those notes that often. Instead, there's lot of anxiety about her career and her contemporaries (one song that's probably about Taylor Swift, another that's already been confirmed as being about Lorde and has been remixed with a Lorde verse), thoughts about getting older, getting engaged, possibly having a baby. The more introspective and emotional her lyrics get, the more robotically AutoTuned her voice is, which is a trick that rappers have doing for 15 years now, so it feels a little boring, or like a more calculated version of Farrah Abraham's 2012 cult classic My Teenage Dream Ended. It's a good record, but the more straightforward uptempo tracks like "Apple" or "Talk Talk" are my favorites. 

In June, Camila Cabello released her shitpost of a 4th solo album, while her far more talented former Fifth Harmony groupmate Normani finally staggered to the finish line with her long-delayed debut. It's a depressing situation, and Normani is already kind of admitting defeat in interviews and fans are pointing fingers over who's to blame for the album's commercial failure. I will say, though, it's a really good album, I love Normani's voice and she got a great assortment of writers and producers on Dopamine, including Starrah (who's from Delaware and went to the same schools I went to growing up!), who co-wrote about half of the album and guests on the opening track "Big Boy." It's a way more solid, confident record than the Chloe Bailey album that suffered a similar fate last year. 

The way classic rock influences have come to dominate mainstream country music in the last couple decades is maybe not the best thing for Nashville creatively. But I must admit I smile every time I hear a riff that reminds me of Tom Petty on country radio, and I loved other recent tribute albums like Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin or Stoned Cold Country, so this is right up my alley. Dolly Parton's version of "Southern Accents" is better than every overly obvious cover on her 2023 album Rockstar, and the way Justin Moore nails the details on "Here Comes My Girl" totally vindicates my frequent claim that he's one of country's best vocalists of our time. It's cool that some of the Heartbreakers participate in this album: Benmont Tench plays on the Rhiannon Giddens version of "Don't Come Around Here No More," and Mike Campbell sings with Margo Price on "Ways To Be Wicked," a song he and Petty wrote for the country-ish band Lone Justice. I also love hearing Brothers Osborne cover "I Won't Back Down" because when I interviewed John Osborne last year he cited Campbell as a big influence on how he plays lead guitar. 

If you've heard J.P.'s viral hit "Bad Bitty," you pretty much know what to expect from his independent debut album, which has no guests and a dozen 2-minute songs in the "Bad Bitty" template. He doesn't blossom into the T-Pain level talent you suspect he might be eventually, but he's got a durable formula, and some fun twists like the acoustic guitar on "Never Make Me Hate You" and the Laurie Anderson "O Superman" sample on "YDKM." 

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