Monthly Report: October 2026 Singles
1. Zach Jon King - "Get To Drinkin'"
Georgia singer-songwriter Zach John King's debut album, released in August, is really good, and the lead single just finally became a top 5 hit on country radio. The fact that "think" and "drink" rhyme has been exploited maybe a little too much by country songwriters over the years, but I like how "Get To Drinkin'" is pretty fast for a slow song and a good lyric, I love the line "It ain't all the time, just right now and then." Here's the 2026 singles Spotify playlist I update every month.
2. Tyla - "Is It Love"
"It" has been very big in Tyla's catalog lately, her last few singles have included "Is It," "She Did It Again," and "Is It Love." This song is one of her very best, I feel like she's a better vocalist than a lot of the people she gets compared to, the way she keeps switching octaves to end each line of the verses with a higher note is so great.
3. Weezer f/ Wednesday - "We Might As Well Be Strangers"
I like The Gold Album, it only has one of those annoyingly self-conscious fourth wall-breaking Rivers Cuomo moments (he sings about the demands of a hit-hungry label CEO over an "Undone" soundalike) and is otherwise easily one of Weezer's better later albums. The 2014 Weezer/Best Coast collaboration "Go Away" went viral this year, so making another breakup duet with one of this decade's indie rock ingenues, Wednesday's Karly Hartzman, seems like a shrewd idea the title character of "C.E.O." would approve of. But it's got a great riff and a lyric that feels cuts pretty deep emotionally even though Cuomo at one point rhymes "Nietzsche" with "I need ya."
4. Ella Langley - "Loving Life Again"
In addition to "Choosin' Texas"'s record-breaking run at #1, "Be Her" spend 24 weeks in the top 10, and I'm glad that one of my favorite songs from Dandelion, "Loving Life Again," became the album's third single and is doing well.
5. Olivia Dean - "A Couple Minutes"
"A Couple Minutes" is another third single from a huge album that I'm really hoping doesn't get lost in the shuffle as the first two singles continue to do numbers, it's such a lovely, restrained song that really shows how subtle and nuanced Olivia Dean's vocal performances can be.
6. Cardi B - "Ah Ha"
Cardi B waited a full ten months after the release of Am I The Drama? to start releasing new non-album singles, which is more time than Invasion of Privacy got ("Money" came out just six months later). Will we wait another seven years for another album? I have no idea, but I'm glad she's back to releasing singles. Lately it feels like everything Cardi says in a song or online is taunting a less successful female rapper, and it's starting to remind me of Nicki Minaj in unpleasant ways (hurt people hurt people!). "Ah Ha" literally ends with Cardi yelling "nana nana boo boo," which takes my opinion of the song down a notch, it's really annoying, but otherwise I like it.
7. Noodah05 - "Around Me"
An Atlanta AutoTune rapper sampling a 2010s dance pop hit sounds like an eye-rolling way for a rapper to break through on the charts. But Tove Lo's "Talking Body" is a classic to me, and I kind of love that after Noodah05 interpolates its melody for a bit, Tove Lo's own voice pops up on "Around Me," which I really wasn't expecting the first time I heard it.
8. Future - "Konnichiwa"
The pre-release "Radio" and first video "California Girls" were the initial hits from Future's The Real Me, but it feels like the dark hedonistic banger "Konnichiwa" will probably be the song people really remember from this album.
9. Dave f/ Tems - "Raindance"
People who listen faithfully to UK rap seem to hold Dave and his 2025 album The Boy Who Played the Harp in high esteem, but I didn't really get into it when I listened to it, and I mostly just like his breakthrough US radio hit for the Tems parts.
10. The Jonas Brothers - "Listen When Sad"
The Jonas Brothers' unsuccessful debut single "Mandy" was a full-on pop punk song, but that song flopped and they've mostly been successful making things that sound nothing like it for the last 20 years. So it was surprising to hear the Jonas Brothers namecheck Taking Back Sunday on a vaguely Warped Tour-sounding song, even if it's closer to something Yellowcard or Something Corporate would do than TBS.
The Worst Song of the Month: Jelly Roll - "Hands Up"
There's nothing really surprising about Jelly Roll namechecking Rage Against the Machine song titles in a cheesy inspirational song about his destiny, but I still hate it.
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on Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 3:41 PM.
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