Monthly Report: April 2025 Singles
1. Chappell Roan - "The Giver"
I'm glad "Good Luck, Babe!" served its purpose of cementing Chappell Roan's breakthrough but then she waited almost a year to release any other new songs to let The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess get its moment in the sun. "The Giver" might have still come out a little too soon to make maximum impact, because "Pink Pony Club" is still in the top 10 after the boost it got from her Grammys performance. But "The Giver" is fantastic, even better than I expected from when she debuted it on "SNL" last year. I like that John Rich being a shitty MAGA conservative didn't stop Roan from being influenced by Big & Rich's classic "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)" when writing her gay country anthem. Here's the 2025 singles Spotify playlist that I update with new songs every month.
2. Sleep Theory - "Stuck In My Head"
The Memphis band Sleep Theory already has three top 10 hits on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and they haven't even released their first album yet, and "Stuck In My Head" is their first #1 and has started to cross over to alternative radio a little as well. Hard rock radio has been pretty uninspired lately but they're really a breath of fresh air, the guitars are heavy but Cullen Moore can actually sing and there's a little R&B in his delivery.
3. Lil Baby f/ Young Thug and Future - "Dum, Dumb, and Dumber"
Young Thug has an album coming out next month, but so far he's been relatively quiet since the RICO trial ended and he was released five months ago, I think the only new verses we've gotten so far are the two on the Lil Baby and Playboi Carti albums. Thug still has that casual way of slipping out these clever lines ("dog on the side like a bus" and "pocket full of grandparents") without emphasizing or explaining them that I love, really gives me hope that we might get another run of great music out of him.
4. Fridayy f/ Meek Mill - "Proud Of Me"
I've never said anything positive about Fridayy's music, but I will give him credit, this song is good, and features Meek's best verse in years, 32 bars of emotional catharsis about his dead father. Even if my family history isn't tragic like Meek's, it's hard not to feel what he's saying in the song, especially since last week would've been my dad's 75th birthday.
5. Tyler, The Creator f/ Lola Young - "Like Him"
Tyler, The Creator's absent father has always loomed large over his music, from the title of his debut album Bastard to stray lines on his breakthrough song "Yonkers" as well as an entire song addressed to him, "Answer." "Like Him" is his most earnest song on the topic to date, and it concludes with some new information, a clip of Tyler's mother explaining that his father wanted to be in his life, and her apologizing and taking the blame for the fact that he wasn't. Even as someone who's never been that invested in Tyler's music or persona, it's pretty moving and compelling stuff, and became an unlikely single when "Like Him" got more and more streams after Lola Young's solo work blew up. Hearing this alongside "Proud of Me" on the radio can really hit you with a lot of emotion when you're just driving and minding your business.
6. SZA f/ Kendrick Lamar - "30 For 30"
"Throw Some D's" is one of the greatest songs of its era, and I was wary of anybody else rapping on that Switch sample, even Kendrick, especially because "30 For 30" just feels lower energy, keeping the sample at the original 70bpm tempo when the Rich Boy track boosted it up to 80bpm. But it's grown on me, really fun song.
7. Shenseea f/ Di Genius- "Puni Police"
I sometimes go down a YouTube rabbit hole of watching every music video Shenseea's ever made just because she's a gorgeous woman and has some really good songs. And "Puni Police," the only solo single she's released so far this year, hasn't gotten much attention and isn't even in her top 10 songs on Spotify, but I think it's hilarious, she found a really entertaining way to talk about men who get possessive and paranoid in relationships. Run when you see the puni police! Hide when you see the puni police!
8. Jay Swishes - "Pronto"
Jay Swishes is a Brooklyn-based rapper who was born in Toronto to parents from Grenada, and "Pronto" recently spent a few weeks on Billboard's rap/R&B airplay chart. Pretty catchy song, almost sounds like it perfectly triangulates his NYC, Toronto, and Caribbean roots, I love the bassline.
9. Lil Nas X - "Hotbox"
People love to sample old Neptunes or do new songs with Pharrell, but what really restores that early 2000s feeling is to just make a new track with those Korg Triton "guitar" synth presets that the Neptunes used to use on everything, which is what Take A Daytrip and Omer Fedi did on Lil Nas X's "Hotbox."
10. Lil Tecca - "Dark Thoughts"
It's not astronomically coincidental, but it's still some funny parallel thinking that Lil Tecca and Lil Nas X released singles the same day that used that same Neptunes-style synth guitar sound on new beats with no samples. It surprised me a little that Lil Tecca's song has been doing better so far, "Dark Thoughts" is already his biggest Hot 100 hit since "Ransom" six years ago. Considering that he talked about retiring from rap at 16 years old, Tecca has really stuck around and wound up with a pretty nice career.
The Worst Single of the Month: Blake Shelton - "Texas"
Blake Shelton's 2001 debut single "Austin" managed to tell a good story about an ex who lives in Texas without going for any obvious George Strait allusions, but Shelton's mediocre latest goes Strait for the Strait references.
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