One Direction
“Drag Me Down”
#3
Reduced to a quartet, and with only solo albums planned for the immediate future, One Direction suddenly sound vocally distinctive in a way they never have before (that is, I can actually tell them apart). The song, however, is nothing. Several nothings, really, since each section seems to have been specifically crafted for whoever’s singing it. It’s like a mini-White Album. And if that sounds too exalted remember they have a lot of fans who are thinking about the group’s situation in exactly that way. Whether they’ll be back as a group depends on how those solo albums do. One smash may be enough to seal their fate. But if they all flop who’d want them back? So maybe this is the end.
Drake
“Back To Back”, #21
“Hotline Bling”, #66
“Charged Up”, #78
Drake’s obvious anger gives the tracks a bit of fire, and there are some good lines, but he seems so intent on looking and staying cool that nothing much sticks, and the only worthwhile musical moment comes from the Timmy Thomas sample on “Hotline Bling”. For the most part, these tracks are only of interest if you care about Drake’s beef with Meek Mill, or if you care about Drake as much as he cares about himself. Either way you have better things to concern yourself with.
Dove Cameron, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart & Sofia Carson
“Rotten To The Core”, #38
“If Only”, #99
There’s a lot of Disney pop that I like, but virtually none of it comes from their musical soundtracks, which put a premium on theatricallity amid the pop rehash. The dubstep on “Rotten To the Core” is strictly by the book, and in the context of all that showtune “evil” sounds even worse. As for “If Only”—well, Disney ballads have always been rotten to the core, and this is no exception.
Disclosure Featuring Sam Smith
“Omen”
#64
The music is good, the song just OK, and Sam Smith sounds the same as ever. There’s bound to be a point at which the audience tires of his relentless sobbing, and that point may well be now, considering how poorly this record has done. I like Smith (or at least I don’t hate him), but he needs to find a second emotion to sing about.
The Game Featuring Drake
“100”
#90
I’m having a hard time understanding why some people are so enamored of this. The beat is good, the Game is fine (though he’s been better), and Drake settles into the laid-back Southern California flow as if he were born to it, but that’s it. Maybe the two of them have created such low expectations that anything even slightly above average seems like a miracle.
K Camp
“Comfortable”
#91
“Comfortable” lives up to its title a little too much. It’s so soft and cushy it puts you to sleep.
Cole Swindell
“Let Me See Ya Girl”
#94
Sounds like someone forgot to send Swindell the bro-country-is-over memo. I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and say he doesn’t give a shit, but his music is too derivative and too fawning to the country audience to reach that conclusion. He’s so far behind the pack he hasn’t noticed they’re turning yet.
Alessia Cara
“Here”
#95
Clever and then some. Maybe too clever—that Portishead sample really weighs things down—and Cara often comes across as a snob, more sinning than sinned against. A little self-satisfied in her wordcraft, too. Put it all together and you have a hip-hop Suzanne Vega rewriting “Stuck In the Middle With You”. Which doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable, just a little pompous.