Friday 28 February 2020

BEST AND WORST NEW TRACKS OF THE WEEK 28/02/2020: Lady Gaga, JPEGMAFIA, Wesley Gonzalez and more…



Lady Gaga had returned with a vibrant music video shot entirely on an iPhone.


THE BEST:

‘Stupid Love’ – Lady Gaga


I feel like all the moody downtempo whisper-sung songs in the charts have been getting me down recently. This new rambunctious single from Lady Gaga is exactly what the current pop landscape needs. The cyber-synths and punchy drums go hard and I’ve already got the ‘freak out, freak out, freak out’ refrain stuck in my head. The colourful sci-fi video gives me Power Rangers vibes and was apparently ‘shot entirely on the iPhone 11 Pro’. Pretty soon they’ll be shooting Hollywood movies with smartphones.

‘Bald!’ – JPEGMAFIA


They be fucking up my lyrics on Genius/And these pussy-ass critics repeat it’. Who are you calling a ‘pussy-ass critic’? DO YOU WANT TO END UP IN MY WORST TRACKS OF THE WEEK??? No, but really, this new track is fire. I love how the beat speeds up at the start like a car accelerating to speed (I’m also pretty sure it’s a sample from a Ridge Racer game). The lyrics are about dismissing baldness while squashing others, pointing out their issues as more significant than his issue of baldness (or so Genius tells me).

‘Change’ – Wesley Gonzalez


Who is this curious and peculiar fellow? He looks like such a normal dude and the amateurish aesthetic of the video seems intent on making him look as uncool as possible, and yet it somehow makes him all the more cool. It helps that this is such a phenomenal tune. The shimmering synths and groovy bass are hypnotic and his voice gives off Bowie vibes. Wesley Gonzalez will be dropping an album in June titled Appalling Human.

 ‘I Don’t Wanna Wait’ – Remington Super 60


This new twinkling track comes courtesy of Norwegian indie pop act Remington Super 60 and is straight off their new EP (which is titled New EP!). It sounds a bit like a Carpenters track but with a dreamier feel to it. The building instrumental layers keep it captivating and there are some ethereal vocal harmonies towards the end that are a nice touch.

‘Pickup’ – A Car That Swims


If I owned a car that could swim, this floaty synthpop track is definitely the type of song I’d jam while gliding along underwater. The reverb-soaked vocal style isn’t particularly original, however I’m digging the creative lo-fi instrumentation.

THE WORST:

‘Yummy (Country Remix)’ – Justin Bieber ft. Florida Georgia Line


There were quite a few tracks this week that I was disappointed by including the new Gorillaz single and a slew of new Disclosure releases. But nothing struck me as repulsive enough to write about – until I heard this new official country remix of Justin Bieber’s ‘Yummy’. As if the ‘yummy yummy, yummy yum’ hook wasn’t awful enough, it’s now sung in a southern drawl and accompanied by steel pedal guitar. Maybe if you’re a country fan, it will be an improvement, but I hate country, so for me it’s a bad song made worse.