New Music Friday - 02/05/2025

Albums/EPs:

• Aly & AJ - Silver Deliverer
• AURORA - What Happened to the Heart? (Deluxe)  
• Charlotte Plank - ClubLiminal
  
• Selena Gomez & benny blanco - I Said I Love You First... And You Said It Back

Singles:

• Alison Goldfrapp - Find Xanadu 
• Don Toliver (feat. Doja Cat) - Lose My Mind
  
• Dove Cameron - French Girls
• Ed Sheeran - Old Phone
• Kacey Musgraves - Lost Highway 
• KATSEYE - Gnarly
• Kelly Clarkson - Where Have You Been 
• Mabel (feat. Clavish) - Benz
• Maddie Zahm - Mothers & Daughters
  
• Maroon 5 (feat. LISA) - Priceless 
• Mimi Webb (with Meghan Trainor) - Mind Reader
• MØ - Lose Yourself
• Sophia Saffarian - 1000X
  
• Suki Waterhouse - On This Love 
• Tei Shi - Drop Dead

Aly & AJ - Silver Deliverer

Silver Deliverer: I have a distinct feeling this album will not be for me sadly. The intro was not giving, and nor is the rest of the song so far. It was certainly a song to exist. Very much not my genre. 5/10

What It Feels Like: This song was definitely more of a bop. It was more of a pleasant listen, but it was not my favourite. 6/10

Next to Nothing: This is definitely giving me some sort of rock vibes. Not like SCREAM rock but it reminds me of those sorts of vibes. Maybe I'm just confusing it with like a single song I've heard before. A lot more of a pleasant listen, but not a mega bop. 6/10

If You Get Lonely: I think it gets knocked down based on how repetitive it is. There's a lot of "if you get lonely I'll be there". It's not the worst song ever, it was a pleasant listen, but it was very repetitive, it was a bit slow, and a bit boring in places. 6/10

Dandelions: More of a country direction, but unfortunately a bit boring. If I was going to listen to a country song, it would not be this one. 5/10

I Don't Know What It Is: Weird intro! I had to come back to listen to this to make sure it wasn't just nothing, but unfortunately it was. I feel like if you're going to have an intro like that, why waste the rest of the song like this? Oh well. 5/10

Take Your Time: A bit slow. Full review: a bit slow, bland and repetitive. I'm having to take my time to finish this album! 5/10

Michael: Well, this is a sad and touching song. I didn't like it but I did appreciate it for what it is. Slow songs like these will just never be for me. 5/10

Sirens: Mostly boring, although it did get more interesting towards the end with the guitarrr. 5/10

Lasso: Again, far too long and far too repetitive. Not sure why it needed that long ass outro either. But maybe I'm just tuning out at the wrong places (the music is not gripping me) but these songs do seem very repetitive in parts. Anyway, kinda boring again, but okay. 5/10

Places to Run: Well, as ever, seemed too long, too repetitive, and heavily based around instruments such as the acoustic guitar that were not for me. 5/10

Overall Verdict: This was very much an album that was not for me. It was heavily boring, it felt like a drag to listen to, and it's just not my style of music at all. It's definitely an album I will never listen to again. It's sad because I like some other Aly & AJ songs and they're BOPS, but this album sadly did not provide that. It's one of the albums to exist.

AURORA - What Happened to the Heart? (Deluxe)

The Flood: This is a really nice song! Very pleasant to listen to. AURORA sounds great. It's just a very chill and pleasant listen for the most part. As the lyrics say, I do feel like I'm floating a bit. 7/10

Hearts Intuition: I thought this had a interesting intro, but it disappointed me mostly since that intro. It's mostly bland and boring. Some interesting production elements introduced themselves halfway through the song and made the song better. Unfortunately, mostly just a bland song. 5/10

The Weight of Missing: This was incredibly boring. It was just a very slow song, with basically just a piano and a bit more the whole way through. Just a song that's very much not for me. AURORA does sound good though. Don't think anything about it is super bad. 5/10

Dreams (Remix) (feat. Nicole Zignago): Unfortunately, this was also boring, but the feature is really good. The singing is fantastic. But it is still boring. 5/10

Some Type Of Skin (Remix) (feat. 新しい学校のリーダーズ (ATARASHII GAKKO!)): This is more what I remember being great from the standard album. This is way more of a bop! The feature sounds decent but I'm not really sure I like it over the original. It does feel a bit out of place. 7/10

Overall Verdict: This album was surprisingly one of my favourites of last year. I did not expect that going into it, but it was full of amazing songs, bops, and a great voice. Unfortunately, I feel like this deluxe has mostly missed the mark. The features were either wasted on a boring track or not that good, and the extra solo tracks were mostly boring. The Flood was a decent track, but that was the exception rather than the rule. I guess these were deluxe tracks for a reason!

Charlotte Plank - ClubLiminal

was it all a dream (intro interlude): Yikes, what the hell is this? Charlotte sounds bad and this is some sort of D&B track? If this is how the rest of the project will go, I'm in for a rough ride. Sounds bad and quite repetitive. 4/10

little miss sunshine: Well, I guess this is doing to be a D&B project. Again, Charlotte is not the tea. Maybe I just don't like the way her voice sounds. I'm not like a mega fan of D&B either but I don't mind it, but it's not hitting here. 4/10

candy stores: Repetitive ass background vocals. No thanks. Absolutely not. There's no rest for me because this sucks mega ass. Hopefully the police sirens indicate Charlotte is about to be arrested for the crime of making a bad track, because wow. 3/10

chemical fashion: Well, I think we know by now I'm not going to like this project, and this song is no exception. It's just so...stale, almost. I don't know why but to me it almost feels like it's by the numbers. 4/10

stargirl: I feel like this one feels a bit better to me but I'm still not a mega fan of it. To be fair to it, it does have more of a boppy quality to it, and I feel like it was a lot better than some of the other pieces of...music. Maybe I'm in luck and things will improve! 6/10

ellen: Saying this moment won't last forever...I hope it doesn't! This is like the mandatory ballad of a D&B project, I guess. Still don't like it. 4/10

Nightshift: Random man for no reason? Doesn't redeem it! The production is more interesting on this one though, so that's something. Production definitely carried. 5/10

Rage: The production definitely carried again here. I could almost just listen to this without the vocals and it could even be better, although it wouldn't be my favourite song ever. Anyway, production ate. Other parts...eh. 5/10

Overall Verdict: Well, this was the definition of bad. D&B may not be my favourite genre ever, but I definitely think it can be better than this. A lot of the songs were bland and felt uninspired to me, but it's hard to tell how much of that is just because I do not have familiarity with the genre. Anyway, some songs definitely became more interesting with the production, but for some reason the vocals just really let it down.

Selena Gomez & benny blanco - I Said I Love You First... And You Said It Back

That's When I'll Care: It's a boring country leaning song, in my view. There's nothing special to it. At least it doesn't sound bad I suppose. Selena actually sounds alright here, and the production is okay too. But it's merely okay. 5/10

Talk: Now what the hell is going on here? Weird intro. Not the man! Okay, unfortunately this is grating on me now. The production is annoying me and so is Selena. It's kinda a bop but it's just missing something for me that I quite can't connect to it. Like I should like it tons based on the production but I just don't And that ending was cringe as hell, sorry, there was no need for that. 5/10

Stained: Random religious ass moment here? Or at least angelic type voices. Well, that was a really boring song yet again. Didn't sound awful but I was bored to death listening to it. The angelic voice was more interesting than Selena. 5/10

Guess You Could Say I'm in Love: Is this a sample or something? This seems familiar to me. It's also yet again, boring as hell. A real snooze fest. Hopefully it ends soon. The production is boring, and so is Selena. I am very much not in love with these deluxe tracks. 5/10

Overall Verdict: A collection of boring and soulless tracks have come to join the boring and soulless main album. The main and only bit of praise I have for these songs is that at least they weren't awful like some of the songs on the base album, but nor are they good. Not sure what I expected really considering the main album was bad, but hey, sometimes you just have to try things for yourself. It's times like these when I regret listening to new music because ZZZZZZ.

Singles:

Alison Goldfrapp - Find Xanadu: Okay synths! This is definitely more my vibe of music. However, it IS more vibe, but it still feels a bit lifeless. Synths can't save everything I guess, SAD! Still, an alright song. 6/10

Clara Mae - Tennessee: Expected a country song, got a country song! And it was...a country song. Nothing really special about it to me, it served its purpose fine, it was a decent country song. 6/10

Don Toliver (feat. Doja Cat) - Lose My Mind: Back to my F1 era! Meh, it's a man, who cares? Doja Cat was definitely the highlight of the song, but I think it's a bit boring and nothing sadly. Not sure the harmonies are really working for me either. 5/10

Dove Cameron - French Girls: I'm not really super gagged by this, it's nothing extraordinary, but it's alright. Production is decent, if a bit bland, but maybe it's the singing bringing it down for me? There's maybe something about the general vibe of the song I just don't like as much. 6/10

Ed Sheeran - Old Phone: This was a lot more boring compared to the other single. Very acoustic guitar, very boring. May be kinda classic Ed Sheeran but that makes it boring. It didn't sound bad but it was very boring. Didn't need the quiet part really. 5/10

Kacey Musgraves - Lost Highway: Not the radio announcement. Well, that was super boring and kinda bad. What even was there here? A hot load of nothing. Managed to make a country song sound really boring and bad. 4/10

KATSEYE - Gnarly: Not the Tesla mention...ew. Okay, we're going towards hyperpop-ish type production here? Love that. Best K-Pop group to exist. The switchups are fun too! This is a really fun song, enjoyed it a lot. Other than mentioning Tesla... 8/10

Kelly Clarkson - Where Have You Been:  Honestly, a mediocre song for me. It gets a bit more interesting later on but ehhhh, it's again just a bit bland. Wasn't a fan of the long instrumental either. Kelly does sound good though! 5/10

Mabel (feat. Clavish) - Benz: Parts of this are catchy, and Mabel sounds alright, but this isn't really that much of a song. The man was unnecessary and dragged it down, he sounds bad. The end was also too long, with barely anything there. It's an okay R&B song but that's about it. 5/10

Maddie Zahm - Mothers & Daughters: Well, this is a sad song. Not here for this really. Acoustic guitar focus, and also a piano. Nah. It's not the worst to be fair to it. It's a very touching song and I appreciate that. Still, not really my jam. 6/10

Maroon 5 (feat. LISA) - Priceless: Well, that was a hot load of rubbish. One of the most bland songs to ever exist. They both sound like they were phoning it in. It's almost like some sort of AI production. There was really nothing to this song sadly, and barely anything redeeming about it. Kinda like a by the numbers song. Not sure this needed to exist. 2/10

Mimi Webb (with Meghan Trainor) - Mind Reader: It's hot garbage like every other song with Meghan Trainor in it. Sorry Mimi Webb, why are we doing this? There's something just so instinctively cringe about her music sadly. It's just badddd. Very bland. On the bright sight, it didn't last too long! 4/10

MØ - Lose Yourself: I am excited for this album! The production here is gooood. Although, not AS much of a van of the vocals. A decent song, though I do think the production is doing some of the heavy lifting for me. 7/10

Sophia Saffarian - 1000X: Feels like a kinda generic bop. I could see something like this at Eurovision honestly. It does sound good, it has fun synths and Sophia sounds good, but it is quite repetitive. Definitely a decent dance track though. 6/10

Suki Waterhouse - On This Love: This was a good Suki song! It was enjoyable to listen to, it wasn't really slow and nothing. It was such a good song actually! More like this. I could honestly listen to this a lot more. 7/10

Tei Shi - Drop Dead: This is definitely in the hyperpop adjacent sphere for me. The synths and production are fun! I do like this. It's fun, it's catchy, it's mainly the production I love but Tei Shi does fit it well. Give me those aggressive sounds. 7/10