Jordan Smith
“Somebody To Love”
#21
Selena Gomez
“Hands To Myself”
#77
Gomez has become something of a mystery to me, one I find unsettling in some ways. Largely, the problem is her voice, which, despite her being 23, still retains all the trademarks of a teenager (the same applies to her appearance, which is a larger, and knottier, problem). Her lyrics and musical approach have matured, but her voice remains the same. It’s possible she has no control over this, but the result is unsettling, even creepy. On “Hands To Myself” the problem is made even worse by how badly the song fits her voice. She’s going for sultry and dominant (as opposed to the sultry and submissive “Good For You”), but she can’t quite pull it off. She comes across as a coy teenager teasing about things she doesn’t really understand, out of her depth and perhaps unaware of the risks she’s running. This may all be in my imagination, or at least my ears, but there’s something unhealthy going on here.
Dawin
“Dessert”
#89
A record with a split personality in more ways than one. The verses seem to want to be taken seriously as an attempt at seduction, but Dawin’s voice and flow are such an odd mix of Kanye West and Big Sean that they sometimes seem like an even bigger joke than the chorus, with its silly cartoon-character take on lust. I find it hard to enjoy anything that reminds me of Big Sean, but the chorus is funny—the first time, anyway.
Granger Smith
“Backroad Song”
#93
Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’, keep them cliches rollin’.
G-Eazy
“Random”, #94
“Drifting” (featuring Chris Brown & Tory Lanez), #98
As long as the focus remains on his voice, G-Eazy sounds fresh and diffferent, even if his rhymes are less than stellar. The more guests his records feature, the less interesting he sounds, which makes “Random” the easy winner between these two tracks (on “Drifting”, which features one of Chris Brown’s dullest choruses, Eazy almost completely disappears). Lyrically he’s often as flat as his vocals, and things would be greatly improved if he could find music that properly highlights his voice. Neither of these records are worth much of your time, but G-Eazy still sounds promising to me in a vague sort of way. Maybe he could be rap’s Stan Ridgeway.
Rick Ross Featuring Chris Brown
“Sorry”
#97
Too bad about the timing of the title—they didn’t intentionally set themselves up against Bieber, did they?—because this is one of the best records either of these guys, or their producer, has made. The old school r&b groove provided by Scott Storch is lovely, Brown has never sung better, and Ross, though his imagery, as usual, runs from lightly offensive to truly disgusting, at least gets a good flow going. And whoever came up with “Broken condoms, lipstick marks, and unprotected sex” deserves the annual Best Elvis Costello Line EC Didn’t Write Himself Award. It’s the toughest hook I’ve heard all year.