ARIA New Singles Review: June 2024.

"Pink Skies" by Zach Bryan

So the timing of this review is interesting considering I am writing this in the same week that Zach Bryan releases his new album "The Great American Bar Scene" with this song being the lead single for it and...I really like this! Sure, it's not Zach's best but it is a somewhat raw song where he is describing attending a funeral and a series of events that happened at this funeral and yeah the more stripped back arrangement does lend the song some weight and pathos, I like it, keen to hear the album.

"Band4Band" by Central Cee and Lil Baby

So I guess we were due to have a Central Cee song hit the charts in 2024, only this time he brought along Lil Baby and I have to be honest, there's really not much to this, its just Central Cee and Lil Baby basically whining and flexing over another lazy beat. Central Cee kicks off the song complainung about flights being delayed for goodness sake. Either way, this is really forgettable...let's move on.

"Houdini" by Eminem

Oh look, its return of Eminem and he is touting the death of his alter ego Slim Shady for this new album cycle, this time with a song that bares the same title as a Dua Lipa song earlier this year...and I am not going to mince words...this sucks and in ways that are hard to quantify but let's start with that sample of Steve Miller Band's terrible 1982 hit "Abracadabra" which sounds somewhat downtuned while Eminem makes a Megan Thee Stallion being shot joke and some really other cringey bars around trans people and others...ugh...this is garbage, See my worst list at the end of the year for this song.

"Please Please Please" by Sabrina Carpenter

Ahh, a reprieve from the mediocre to outright nonsense hitting the charts this month because it's time to deal with the new Sabrina Carpenter single. "Espresso" has only gotten more annoying and insubstantial everytime I have heard it...a decent if over mixed groove doesn't go far enough to hide the song's obvious flaws. I will say that "Please Please Please" is somewhat better in that the groove isn't as over produced and it does sound like a 60s bubblegum song with a more modern twist but again I am left struggling with Sabrina's vocals which hit between an Ariana Grande coo and so sugar sweet that if a person can give you diabetes by singing...this song would. I don't mind the song but overplay might kill it for me.

"Close to You" by Gracie Abrams

So we jump from one Taylor Swift tour opening act to another, while I have liked one or two songs from Gracie Abrams, I have never been impressed by her that much so this was an opportunity to win me over and unfortunately this doesn't do it for me, it sounds like a really horrendous Instagram or Tik Tok song for teenage girls who think they are so edgy because they shop at Supre or Forever 21 but is so gummy that it lacks any bite whatsoever. I'll forget about this in record time.

"The Man He Sees In Me" by Luke Combs

So I have been a bit surprised with just how quick Luke Combs has released a new album this year, you'd think with the success of the "Fast Car" cover, he'd sit back and take a break but no, in stead we got that song for the Twisters movie soundtrack and now this song for his new album about father-son relationships and yeah, this hits hard even with it not being my favourite from the album, it's a song that where Luke sings about wondering what kind of man his sons see him to be and hoping he is living in a manner where they see him in a good way. Great song, definitely check out the album!

"High Road" by Koe Wetzel feat. Jessie Murph 

Just me or is Jessie Murph doing a lot of country or country adjacent features this year? She's got that song with Jelly Roll and now this with Texas country star Koe Wetzel and yeah...this sucks, for a lovr song, it just sounds curdled and sour and Jessie Murph doesn't really add much to it so yeah this is absolutely a skip.

Worst of the Mionth: "Houdini" by Eminem

Dishonourable Mention: High Road" by Koe Wetzel feat. Jessie Murph

Honourable Mention: "Pink Skies" by Zach Bryan

Best of the Month: "The Man He Sees In Me" by Luke Combs.

ARIA Singles Chart New Entry Review: April/May. A serving of nasty ugly rap beef.

 "Like That" by Future and Metro Boomin feat. Kendrick Lamar

This is a diss track aimed at Drake where Kendrick Lamar pretty much goes off on Drake which has triggered one hell of a rap beef with it feels like everyone in rap piling in on Drake (we'll get to one such song later) and the song really does circulate around that one verse from Kendrick where he just takes aim at Drake and J Cole's song "First Person Shooter" and sets in train for what was to come. Overall not bad but it really does now feel like a scene setter...

"Million Dollar Baby" by Tommy Richman

Ahh here we go, Tik Tok blasts another one to chart success, this time, Tommy Richman who is an American rapper, singer and songwriter with this being his break out hit and look, I do actually get the appeal of this, it sounds like a song that has been around for years and could have come out in the 60s or 70s but man, does it sound like it was made with the TikTok crowd in mind. I don't hate this but I also don't really love it, not going to complain if this disappears to be honest.

"Good Luck, Babe!" by Chappell Roan

I've known about Chappell Roan for awhile now, she's an American midwest pop act who definitely has a bit of that theatre burlesque type presence who released her debut album "The Rise and Fall of a Mid West Princess" last year to a lot of critical praise and since toured with Olivia Rodrigo (they share the same producer in Danuel Nigro) with this song appearing to be a loose single to capitalise on attention from touring with Olivia and...yeah, while this is not better than "Red Wine Supernova", "Pink Pony Club" or "Casual", it's still really damn good with Roan looking back on how a secret relationship with another woman fell apart because of this idea of enforced heteronormativity aka man and woman. 

Also does anyone else hear the Kate Bush influence in this song? I sure do, Check this song out. 

"Euphoria" by Kendrick Lamar

So for the next few songs we are dealing with songs from the biggest rap beef possibly ever with Kendrick Lamar firing this shot at Drake and honestly...it might be the best of the disses that charted as Kendrick switches up his flow to warn Drake that if he continues to lie about Kendrick's family and Kendrick himself than the truth about Drake will be put out there and it won't just be subs thrown either as these two have been doing for years now. The atmosphere around the production from here also feels truly menacing and a definite sign that things were about to get quite real...

So low and behold...

"Family Matters"  by Drake

And from here, this is where the beef gets uncomfortably nasty because holy hell, do the accusations fly here and there are some really funny bars but Drake really isn't beating around the bush with the allegations of domestic abuse aimed directly at Kendrick  but along the way hitting out at Future, Metro Boomin, Rick Ross and The Weeknd to the point that instead of being laser pointed on Kendrick, it has the feel of Drake firing at all comers from the corner and while it's not bad and Kendrick hasn't really responded to the claims Drake made...Drake could have done better with a more focussed and refined verse,

"Meet The Grahams"  by Kendrick Lamar

Less than an hour after Drake released "Family Matters", Kendrick fired back with a murky piano sample where he addresses Drake's family one by one including his son, parents, a secret daughter and then Drake himself and this song gets really uncomfortable right from the get go because Kendrick opens the song with "Dear Adonis, I am sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest"...like whoa if somebody come up to me and said that about my dad, I'd be horrified but that's not the worst of it as Kendrick goes in hard on these accusations that Drake takes drugs and is a paedophile on verses aimed at Drake's parents, directs a lot of sympatby to a daughter that Drake apparently has before addressing Drake himself and accusing Drake of lying about everything from his religious views to the existence of this child, It's a song that I honestly skip because it's not an easy song to listen to at all. 

"Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar

So I am going to stress this because I think it bares so worth saying for as much as I love Mustard's beat here and some of the quotable lines here, I am not comfortable with this song at all especially as Kendrick doubles down on the allegations of Drake being a paedophile. hanging out with a crew of alleged paedophiles in the OVO bubble and how Drake rode on the backs of other rappers to get where he is now. The funny bars are rampant here with "certified lover boy, certified paedophiles", "why you trolling like a bitch, ain't you tired, tryna strike a chord and it's probably a minor" and "Lemme hear you say Ovhoe" but yeab, this song is still nasty and creates this discomfort watching people party to this song given its content. Don't be a surprised if even for as much as I like it, it's not on my best list at the end of the year, just saying,

"I Had Some Help" by Poat Malone and Morgan Wallen

Now we're out the other side of the rap beef, lets deal with the big new hit from Post Malone who is going country and bringing with him the chairs of the roofs of bars slinger Morgan Wallen with him and I have to be honest here because this song is just mediocre at best, it's a song all about how this other person in their lives is enabling their alcohol addiction, shame the verses are sing songy to the point of annoying and Morgan Wallen still sounds distractingly nasal on any song he is on, Yeah, I am going to hope for better from Post Malone. 

"Stargazing" by Myles Smith

Myles Smith is a British folktronica singer and songwriter with this song being his break out and hit and...I wish I cared for it as much as everyone else does, I mean it's fine but it just does nothing for me. I'd rather Avicii instead. 

"Lunch' by Billie Eilish

You know, it's interesting to remember how scandalised certain sections of the world were by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's "WAP" back in 2020 that I was expecting far right Christian fundamentalists lash Billie Eilish for this great and very funny song dedicated to eating this girl out for lunch and that she dances on  the tip of Billie's tongue. I guess when its as fun and as catchy as this...I don't blame the fundies for grooving to this. 

"Birds of a Feather"  by Billie Eilish

This is one of my favourite songs from that new Billie Eilish album because I just love how good Billie sounds over this production. Just a pretty song that leaves me with not much toi say to some degree except that the lyrics play to the notion that Billie wants this other person to stay with her until they die except unlike James Arthur in 2017, she doesn't overplay her hand. Damn good song that I am glad is sticking around.

"Ain't No Love in Oklahoma' by Luke Combs

So for some reason the culture has decided we need a new Twisters movie with this song being the first from the very country line up to be released by Luke Combs and look it's a respectfully good stab at coimtry rock song however this makes me think the people behind the soundtravk really wanted Chris Stapleton

Worst of the Month: Nothing too terrible this month. I'll give it to "Stargazing" by Myles Smith I guess.

Honourable Mention: "Birds of a Feather" ties with "Lunch" both by Billie Eilish

Best of the Month: "Good Luck, Babe" by Chappell Roan

My Top Ten Favourite Albums at the 2024 Mid year

So I have never done a mid year list like this before, mainly because I mostly deal with sdngs rather than albums here but I thought seeing as I enjoy hearing about the music everyone else is enjoying, I'd throw forth my own list of albums I am enjoying so far in 2024. Now I do want to say if you don't see your favourite album on this list than it's probably because I haven't heard it yet...nobody has heard every album that has come out this year...I feel behind as it is (Got a slew of albums on a list that I need to hear)

Anyway let's get to this list.

10. "Dark Times" by Vince Staples

Best Songs: "Little Homies", "Etoufee", "Freeman"

9. "Keep Me Fed" by The Warning

Best Songs: "Automatic Sun", "Escapism", "More"

8. "Love Ain't Pretty" by Charles Esten

Best Songs: "Willing To Try", :One Good Move". "Make You Happy"

7. "Prelude to Ecstasy" by The Last Dinner Party

Best Songs: "Caesar on a TV Screen", "Sinner", "Porttrait of a Dead Girl"

6. "The Heartbroken Record" by Lauren Watkins

Best Songs: "Gatlinburg", "Cowboys on Music Row" feat. Carter Faith, "Lovers Leave"

5. "Dangerous Men" by Addison Johnson

Best Songs: "The Busker",  'Waiting on the World to End", "End of a Rope"

4. "The Rose of Jericho" by Georgia Lines

Best Songs: "Trust", "The Letter", "Wayside"

3. "Hit Me Hard and Soft" by Billie Eilish

Best Songs: "Lunch", "Birds of a Feather", "Blue"

2. "Rise and Fall" by Scotty McCreery

Best Songs: "Cab in A Solo", "Little More Gone", "No Country For Old Men"

1. "Gravity Stairs" by Crowded House

Best Songs: "Some Greater Plan (For Claire)",  "Teenage Summer", "Blurry Grass"