So this week's new music sees Justin Bieber return despite quitting his tour just weeks earlier (due to being exhausted. Didn't seem to stop him hitting the studio though?), Little Mix jump on the Latin boom and Miley Cyrus drops the title track of her new album.
But let's get Bieber out of the way first.
Song: Friends
Artist(s): Justin Bieber, Bloodpop
I have listened to this song several times and I really don't remember a whole lot about this song if I am to be honest. Maybe the thing I do remember most strongly about is that the music had a good groove and it did work to certain degree but then we get to Justin Bieber's presence on the microphone and wow, he sounds like he literally phoned it in, he sounds ridiculously inert. You could get into the song a least a little bit!.
Rating: 5/10. The instrumentation saves this from a lower ranking
Song: Younger Now
Artist: Miley Cyrus
The title track from her forthcoming new album and I got to be honest here, if this is Miley 3.0 than I miss Miley 2.0 because at least in the era of Bangerz and her appearing on stage in barely anything while singing with a kitten miming the words on a big screen, her music was interestingly bad, this era Miley looks like being boringly bad because "Younger Now" really is qute a tough listen even with the pretty cool flourishes of electric guitar, Miley's vocals are too polish to match the ragged edge that this song needed.
The lyrics aren't anything special except Miley proclaiming that she feels younger now, we can talk about how that doesn't quite work unless you are Benjamin Button but I'll save that for another day.
Rating: 4/10. It's not aggressively bad. Just boring and that's even worse than just bad.
Song: Broken Glass
Artist: Rachel Platten
One artist who I had completely forgotten about was Rachel Platten until she turned up on the New Music Friday playlist and yeah she was responsible for that self esteem song "Fight Song" and the first single from her forthcoming second album is a feminist anthem (what is it with this girl releasing 'anthems' as first singles).
What we get with "Broken Glass" is a very tropical sounding song about a being a woman and breaking that glass ceiling and well I'll give it this, it is way better as a feminist anthem than the flat and almost monotonus "Most Girls" by Hailee Steinfeld, just a pity I am almost done with feministic empowerment anthems. Most of the modern feminist anthems really lack any kind of power these days, at there's some swell to this one.
Rating: 6/10
Song: Reggaeton Lento (Bailemos)
Artist(s): CNCO, Little Mix
Yet another act getting in on the Latin boom sparked by the Justin Bieber remix of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's hit "Despacito", this time courtesy of Latin pop boyband CNCO teaming up with Little Mix for a Spanglish version of their single "Reggaeton Lento" which was a huge hit in the Latin world for CNCO with it going number one in Argentina (digital songs), Mexico and on the US Latin song chart.
For as much as I do think the English remixes of Spanish songs are ridiculously unnecessary, I will say that I think CNCO and Little Mix really kind of work here, there's an odd chemistry between the two groups that does come off in the song. I really kind of hope this is a hit.
Rating: 7/10
Best of the Week: "Reggaeton Lento (remix)" by CNCO and Little Mix
Worst: "Friends" by Justin Bieber and Bloodpop (Just because Bieber's vocals are pretty inert and the lyrics not all that memorable)
Next New Music Friday
- "Fire Fade" by Tove Lo
- Whatever song Taylor Swift is releasing, I honestly have a fair bit to say about Tay-Tay so I may review her new single in a separate blog post.
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