One of my favorite things about Metro Boomin's great A Futuristic Summa tape is that he didn't just get a bunch of Atlanta rappers from the late 2000s/early 2010s era together, he made tracks that sound like they could've been hits back then and restored the swag rap feeling. And the project's breakout single "Take Me Thru Dere" has one of those steel drum loops that brings to mind "Crank Dat Soulja Boy" and D.G. Yola's "Ain't Gon Let Up." YK Niece is a newer artist, but she broke through on an old-fashioned Zaytoven beat this year as Pluto's sidekick on "Whim Whamiee" and is perfect for the track, and Quavo sounds like he's really having fun on a record again for the first time since Takeoff died. 

By the time Ella Langley and Riley Green's "You Look Like You Love Me" hit #1 on country radio last year, they'd already released another duet as the title track to Green's latest album, and I'm glad that that one is finally a hit single as well. I love the way Green sings the first half of the song by himself, then Langley starts to harmonize a little, and when she finally sings lead on a few lines it just hits perfectly and changes the whole emotional dynamic of the song. I hope they do a whole album together, male and female country singers don't make collaborative albums as much as they used to back the day. 

Like "Daisies," the second-biggest song from Bieber's latest album was penned by Dijon and has an appealingly minimal arrangement. There are 2 Chainz ad libs on "Yukon" but he never actually raps, kind of a throwback to what Kanye did with Jeezy's voice on "You Can't Tell Me Nothing." Annoyingly, the  R&B stations I listen to have taken to playing an unofficial remix of "Yukon" that uses the beat from Loverance's "Up!" and I don't like it nearly as much as the original. 

Sabrina Carpenter is on an insane run of six singles that have hit #1 on pop radio in the same of 18 months. "Tears" has reached #8 and could still get to #1 but I have a feeling it's gonna break the streak and the fan favorite album cut "When Did You Get Hot?" may eventually do better as a single. "Tears" has grown on me a lot, and the end of the video is one of the funniest things she's ever done, but it feels like they wrote this song thinking they could get away with the word "wet" in the chorus on the radio but it gets censored every time and it really hurts the effectiveness of the hook. 

Limp Bizkit's Sam Rivers died last week at only 48 years old, just heartbreaking news, he was a great bassist, they may be a divisive band but I think people can generally agree that their rhythm section is tight as hell. It's especially sad because it happened just a few weeks after Limp Bizkit released a new single that's become their biggest radio hit in 21 years and probably their best song in even longer. I know the meaning of the title lyric is "making love to Morgan Wallen['s music] in an elevator" but it's more fun to imagine that Fred Durst is singing about banging Wallen.

I don't like this British band's name because it reminds me too much of Sparklehorse, who I revere, but I really like this song, looking forward to their next album. 

Doja Cat had too much momentum in 2023 for Scarlet's pivot to fail but it feels like the more deliberately accessible Vie is bearing the brunt of her spending a year basically shitting on her fans and the music that made her a mainstream star. Kind of a shame because I like Vie, Doja and Jack Antonoff both have a capacity to make pretty annoying music but they make a really good combination. "Stranger" might be my favorite Doja Cat song of all time and the lead single "Jealous Type" is pretty good too. 

"Heavens To Betsy" recently became Odenton native Jackson Dean's second top 10 hit on country radio, and it's been nice to finally hear the Maryland stations I listen to actually support him heavily, I don't think they really got behind "Don't Come Lookin'" to the same extent. He's already started to release new songs from this third album, so I hope that momentum carries over, "Be Your Man" is really good. 

I interviewed Yellowcard recently during their current co-headlining tour with A Day To Remember, which surprised me only because I know Yellowcard's music pretty well but I'd never even heard a band by A Day To Remember before. But I guess they're pretty popular these days, and I just heard them on the radio for the first time the other day and good lord, this song is so terrible. The "aww shit" refrain, the "I got a text from the crew" verse, the nod to "The Boys Are Back in Town," it feels like a Lonely Island song where the comedic twist never arrives.