Carrie Underwood
“Heartbeat”
#76
“Heartbeat” may not be Underwood’s worst record, but it’s certainly one of her blandest. It lacks the fierceness that’s filled her work since “Before He Cheats”. That may be intentional—she’s married with a child now, and all that heavy emoting in the past has no doubt taken a toll on her voice—but it leaves Underwood nothing to work with but the usual country banalities. I’ve complained about the level of bombast in her records before, but now it turns out that finding subject matter to match her vocal predilections may be the only thing that makes her music interesting, or even entertaining.
Jeremih
“oui”
#81
“oui” isn’t really a song—it’s Jeremih toying with a good idea and seeing where it will take him. Which is fine; for the first time he strikes me as worthy of the praise other critics have given him over the last couple of years. Like a lot of other R&B singers he’s realized he can be more successful, and make better music, if he follows his own inclinations and steps away from obvious formulas (I wish there were more female R&B artists who had the same opportunity). That doesn’t mean the results couldn’t use a litte more shaping musically and conceptually, but at least they’re starting from a surer and more honest foundation.
Robin Schulz Featuring Francesco Yates
“Sugar”
#87
Aside from the usual kneejerk criticisms, the real problem with EDM is that out of all it’s practitioners only Skrillex, and occasionally Diplo, seem to be trying to make anything interesting or new out of it. Everyone else is either recreating in condensed form the ecstatic high points of a DJ set they caught on Ibiza five or ten or fifteen years ago, or producing dance friendly versions of the self-absorbed, serious rock music found either in their parent’s (or grandparent’s) record collection or in their local bargain bin. Either way, the results generally seem arbitrary and half-assed. Schulz goes the rock music route, and “Sugar” is better than most: it sounds like laid-back Golden Earring, or a mid-album change-of-pace from some 70s middle-european rock mongerer, only with a more precise groove. It flows nicely, the lyrics skirt the edge of misogyny (it’s rock, after all) but are otherwise inoffensive, and the singing is tolerable. But if all EDM sounded like this, no one would even notice it. At least the Ibiza imitators produce some sort of sonic impact.
Kevin Gates
“2 Phones”
#93
Like I said before, better than most, and this is even better than last time. How much you get out of it depends on how attuned you are to the incremental differences in forms of bragging and boasting, rhythmic flow, and beats. All I know is that the hook is impossible to shake out of your head and the lyrics reveal the same troubled relationship with money, drugs, and sex as many other rappers. It’s good, but not enough to put him over the top.
Chris Stapleton
“Nobody To Blame”
#97
This is almost strong enough to make me believe along with all the other Stapleton believers. If it were 25 or 30 years old it would be a record I would recall with a vague fondness. Not enough to seek it out again, though.