New Music Friday - 21/03/2025

Albums:

• Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)
• Selena Gomez & benny blanco - I Said I Love You First

Singles:

• Ashnikko - Itty Bitty
• Ella Henderson (feat. Breland) - One Door Closes
• Jack Harlow (feat. Doja Cat) - Just Us
• Kilo Kish - digital emotional
  
• Leah Kate - Just Because
• Lil Nas X - LEAN ON MY BODY
• Louise - Love Me More
• Mae Muller - Breakaway
  
• MARINA - CUPID'S GIRL
• MØ - Keep Moving

Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)

Here Is Someone: Fun instruments to start off with. I thought it would be reasonably boring but there are interesting parts of production that get more intense and provide a fun and nice contrast with the more chill parts of the song. The vocals are nice. It's a decent song. 7/10

Orlando in Love: I like the contrast between the more grand instruments and the other production elements, it makes the song sound quite interesting. It's not a very long song at all and I wish there was more of it but it is a decent listen. It's giving fairly chill but I like it. 7/10

Honey Water: I'm less of a fan of this song personally. It still has those interesting production elements lurking in the background, but I'm less of a fan of this sound overall, and the vocals don't feel as good to me in this song either by contrast. Not awful but not really for me as much. 6/10

Mega Circuit: Again, not sure this one is one I'm much into either. It's not really my vibe. It sounds almost like it could be some sort of credits music or something like that, maybe? It's fine, nothing really bad about it, but not for me. 6/10

Little Girl: It sounds perfectly fine but there is even less to this one. It's a nice chill listen but nothing much really grips me with it. There's nice production element contrasts again though. 6/10

Leda: I have a feeling I'm going to be saying pretty much the same thing throughout the rest of these songs. It's a perfectly pleasant listen but nothing about it makes me want to listen to it again. It's relaxing and chill though. 6/10

Picture Window: Again pretty similar to before. I can't really totally distinguish these songs from each other, but I still think it's a pleasant and decent listen. This one is maybe a bit more upbeat in ways? 6/10

Men in Bars (feat. Jeff Bridges): The feature is nice (well, maybe not by himself, I don't know...) and provides a nice contrast with some of the other tracks. Otherwise, pretty much feel the same as every other track really. 6/10

Winter in LA: I almost feel there's little point me typing much in these anymore. I feel the same about it. 6/10

Magic Mountain: In a shock to everyone, I feel the same about this track compared to all the others. Nice vocals, decent production, nothing really grips me. 6/10

Overall Verdict: I feel this is the definition of an album that is not for me, and not my kind of music. In no way do I think it's bad. I think the production sounds great throughout, it has some really interesting elements to it. The vocals are fantastic too. It's a very chill listen throughout, and often that really is not my vibe. I'd recommend it to anyone who does like chill, folk-ish music though.

Selena Gomez & benny blanco - I Said I Love You First:

I Said I Love You First: Me when I'm an intro song. I do like the vibe of it being an emotional recording sort of thing with instruments gradually coming in. I do like intro tracks like this when they set up an album decently. It's just...will the follow up be as bad as the singles? [No rating].

Younger and Hotter Than Me: A nice transition into the piano. Selena sounds fine, but so far this piano song is just...boring? There's not much to it. The layered vocals bring something a bit more interesting to it. It's obviously a personal and emotional song but...eh. Also, trying to copy Taylor's nachos with the younger girlfriends line! When more elements come in later into the song it does start getting better, but it's not enough. 5/10

Call Me When You Break Up (feat. Gracie Abrams): This does provide a nice contrast to the last track. I still think Gracie Abrams is the highlight of this track, and that's a CRIME for me to ever have to say when I don't like her music. Selena just doesn't seem as good in comparison. It's nice it's a bit more of a bop but I still don't think that makes it good. I kinda think if this was a Gracie track I would like it a fair bit more? 6/10

Ojos Tristes: It's fine I guess? The Spanish is a nice touch. It sounds fine I guess, and the vocals do too? Kinda not much but it's not awful. 6/10

Don't Wanna Cry: This song is a bit better, but also not? It's definitely more upbeat but again I think the vocals are letting it down. They seem too distant or going through too much processing to me, and that takes me out of it. It somewhat counters the better production. 6/10

Sunset Blvd: It's the cringe anthem...like, we did NOT need to do this. At all. It really ruins the song. It's AWFUL. You're not Sabrina Carpenter. You don't get it (and I don't even like Sabrina Carpenter). Like, it would be an okay song other than that, nothing special, but those BIG, BIG, HARD...parts destroy it. It's AWFUL. Otherwise, the production is a bit bland but okay, same with the vocals. Not really sure it needed the whisper bridge too. 3/10

Cowboy: Me when I'm a boring ass song. Are we doing more sexual lyrics that I don't really think are that good? It's a song that exists, I can say that much. Not awful but also not really anything much at all. This dreamy sort of style does not a lot for me generally, and especially here. Also, random guitar moment at the end? Nice transition though. 5/10

Bluest Flame: Oh Charli XCX you can never fail. It does sound like it's brat shifted. Like, obviously the production style is a bit different but you can definitely see the Charli influences here. I'm not really sure it totally fits the rest of the album, but it definitely fits better here than it would on Brat. Anyway, this is probably my favourite song on the album because it has the closest to good production that I like. The vocal effects feel like they actually feel better here compared to other songs. The end is probably the best bit altogether! 7/10

How Does It Feel To Be Forgotten: And we're back down again! And back to a boring song. It has vocals, it has instruments, it has...parts of a song. But that's about it. Random ass angelic part at the end, okay?? 5/10

Do You Wanna Be Perfect: No. Not really. Funny skit haha! I did not need this at all. Random ass interlude that sort of...falls flat. I don't know. Not a fan. [No rating].

You Said You Were Sorry: Another boring song. It's got not that much going for it. Honestly don't really have anything more to say about it. Vocals in parts are quite annoying. 5/10

I Can't Get Enough (feat. Tainy and J Balvin): The way that started, nope! I'm not liking how this sounds at all. No thanks. Bad! Bad! The production is ANNOYING. The features are okay I guess but I mainly just want the song to stop ideally. 3/10

Don't Take It Personally: I'm taking having to listen to this album personally. Somehow the second half of the album was worse than the first. Another boring song, with boring production, and boring vocals. At least it's not awful though. It's just bland, though again it gets a bit better at the end. 5/10

Scared Of Losing You: For some reason I can never explain, this was the first single. I just do not understand that choice. It was boring then, and it is still boring now. It doesn't seem as bad in comparison to some of the other tracks though, so it seems slightly better than it did back then. It's serviceable. 6/10

Overall Verdict: This album was really...not it. The second half was worse than the first half, but the first half wasn't great either. For the most part, the features were doing better than Selena was. The production was boring and uninspired in a lot of cases, with weird vocal effects that did not sound like they really fit, even if they were intentional. In rare cases, some of the songs were interesting and had something going for them, but this was not very often. To some degree it felt like badly taking inspiration from other albums. I'm very sure this project is personal to Selena and her love story and I love that for her, but it was still an incredibly poor listen. I'd be surprised if it wasn't in my top 10 worst albums of the year.

Singles:

Ashnikko - Itty Bitty: That intro, okay! Yep it's a HIT in the first 10 seconds. She can never miss really. Obviously me and slutty ass songs always go together, especially with this style of production. Inject IT! I think the way some of the vocals sound prevent me from rating it higher, but it's great! Also I love it when songs switch it up somewhat mid song, like let's have more of that please. 8/10

Ella Henderson (feat. Breland) - One Door Closes: Well, I hear instruments I suppose. It's not awful but nor is it...much of anything actually. It's a somewhat acoustic, somewhat boring and nothing song for me. Just not really my kind of music. The feature is fine? There's not much here to make me want to return to it. The vocals sound very nice though, especially combined, can't lie! 6/10

Jack Harlow (feat. Doja Cat) - Just Us: Production sounds decent. Jack Harlow sounds fine here too. Surprisingly, I'm not sure I like Doja Cat as much here. She sounds like she fits less than Jack Harlow. I'm not sure if it's the vocals or what. Anyway, it's a decent song. Not one I see myself coming back too loads but I still think it's good overall. Mainly for Jack though. 7/10

Kilo Kish - digital economy: me when Kilo Kish wants to know. I feel like I kinda like this? It's got a fun electronic vibe to it. Same with the lyrics too. I've definitely heard those production flourishes before but I still LOVE them. I'm definitely interested to see where this upcoming project is going, especially with all the electronic/tech lyrics and production. 7/10

Leah Kate - Just Because: I was a massive HATER of Super Over. Like, it was one of my worst rated projects ever. I can't say that this is anywhere near as bad as that. It's actually quite decent! The production does a lot for me. Maybe it's time I unwrite Leah Kate off forever honestly. It's quite catchy. 7/10

Lil Nas X - LEAN ON MY BODY: Yet another Lil Nas X single. Not sure I vibe with this production at all actually. It's annoying. And his voice over it...eh. It's not giving. It gets a bit better I guess? But are we just throwing anything out at this point and hoping it sticks? Like, what is the idea here? Why all these singles? It's not giving!  5/10

Louise - Love Me More: I see what direction this album is taking, it's going to be full of bops. Which is sad because I think this one is somewhat lacking. It feels like it lacks soul honestly. I feel disconnected from it in a way. It's almost by the numbers pop. Also, the chorus is really unoriginal, but oh well. I've heard the "I love you but I love me more" so much. I don't know, I just feel this could be a lot better than it is. Production is fun in places though. 6/10

MARINA - CUPID'S GIRL: Those synths are kinda annoying to start with. When the beat comes in it's better. Did we need the dun-dun-dun boom-boom-boom nonsense? The problem I have again is that it has parts that are way way too high pitched and I'm just often not really a fan of that sound. However, I do think that despite some of these flaws it's overall quite catchy. It's just disappointing because it could be better, you know? The 2 singles so far don't give me super high hopes for the upcoming album. 7/10

Mae Muller - Breakaway: Does it give generic alt-pop singing and vibes? Yes. Does that make it bad? No. Some of those lyrics wew okay girl. I think it's a bop, actually, and it makes a big improvement on her previous album. It's no reinvention of the wheel and the vocals really SCREAM "I'm an alt-pop artist", I've heard a lot of sounds like this, but it's still decent. 7/10 

MØ - Keep Moving: Oh, those synths are REALLY giving Allie X. Did she clone some of Girl With No Face? Like, it's really giving that it could be a song off that album. The difference is I like this whereas I did not like most of that album. I like the production here. I think maybe the production is a bit too loud in comparison to the vocals though? Decent, boppy song! Looking forward to the album. 7/10