Last Week's Releases Today: Sing To Me, Child

It's Tuesday evening and I am very behind on this so let's just all hope for the best, shall we?

"All the pop singles out this week are great", y'all said, "it's a lovely time". Well, if that's the case how come it has taken me an entire extra day to post this? Huh? Hmm thought so.

The real shock this week is that my favourite song has come from young duo Let's Eat Grandma who I quite frankly could not stand throughout their debut album cycle. 'Hot Pink', although as quirky as what they were doing before, is far more cohesive than any of it's LEG (what an acronym) predecessors. It's taken a week for me to work it out, but instrumentally the verses on this track sound like something straight out of Oceaan's catalogue and I am pining for Oceaan so that's where I'm at here. I would fucking love if everything this pair do in between ALevels and GCSEs etc sounds like this from now on. Holy shit okay I've just seen that SOPHIE co-wrote and produced this and I'm not sure if that makes my feelings towards 'Hot Pink' more or less mad because I'm actually not that into SOPHIE but there we damn well go.

My second favourite song this week is another pretty rando choice in the form of Trinidad Cardon's 'Dinero'. A hit. A banger. Sing to me, child. This kid has the prettiest damn face I've ever seen. 'Dinero' is good for many reasons, but mostly because it takes this latin/reggaeton craze, tones it down to sound younger and fresher and then gives it all a Caribbean twist. That is the shittiest sentence I've written this year but it's all true. Also this is a damn sight better than his breakout 'Jennifer'.

Where dance and electronic things are concerned: 3LAU continues to truly do the most on 'On My Own' with the enlisted vocal of Nevve. There are two notes in this track that sound lifted from an 00's song and I can't work out what it is, so answers on a postcard please. I think Just Kiddin are good and all they need is to catch a bit of a break; 'Indiana' could very feasibly do that for them. No idea who does the ol' vox on this but I would quite like to know if anybody is willing to share that information with me. Me ol' mate Scott Quinn has joined Set Mo (... nope, me neither) for a foray into dance music on a song titled 'Nightmares' and you know what lads, it bloody works, it does.

JMSN is back again. Does this man ever rest? His new single is called 'So Badly', you don't need me to tell you that it's good. Sam Wills, a man who I frequently get confused with other men who have average stage names, has a new single called 'Kool Aid'. It's very "okay and inoffensive" until the chorus where it gets good. In fact, it's just that "kool aid in the water" line. Excellent content. At least... I think that's what he's saying? Josie Dunne is brand new (I assume) and this is her debut single (I assume) 'Old School', it's very nice, it's very L Devine, but there is strong potential here for her as a musical artist. I'm possibly embarrassed that I like Doja Cat's 'Roll With Us'. I sure as hell might get fed up with it very soon but for now I like it. I'm definitely embarrassed that I like The Mowgli's 'Real Good Life', but what can we do?

February has finally brought us some albums worth talking about. All of the singles on Don Broco's Technology are great, but the rest of the album doesn't quite live up to the hits on their previous two full lengths. South Korea is shaking in the wake of a new album from EXO and a repackaged album situation from Red Velvet. EXO's COUNTDOWN is packed with wall to wall bangers and I would highly recommend; the Red Velvet thing was far less "for me" but opener 'Bad Boys' is pretty fun. Julie Bergan's debut album Turn On The Lights is totally fine, undoubtedly there are hits throughout, but the whole drop for chorus thing gets a bit tiresome after a while. You can check the songs I deemed to be the best from these albums (and more) on the WIIHAMB Q1 playlist which I finally decided was worthy of making public this week.

All the songs I've mentioned can be found in my Keep It 2018 playlist here and below.