i’ll be starting a new rating system titled: HEAT, NEAT, or BEAT. we’ll see if i do this going forward!
01) Apollo Love - NEAT; i like the production and his voice is nice. the second verse is sorta where i begin to get lost with this song though, and it becomes a bit too repetitive and draggy for me to stan
02) Madison Del Rey - HEAT; the fact that this “music video” is just a compilation of clips from a shite movie is funny. anyways, i like madison beer but this album was a mess, although this is one of the few i really enjoyed from it. the chorus is cool as hell, the production is nice, too. it’s no boyshit but i still really enjoy this song
03) THE BLOSSOM - NEAT; these are… lyrics! i’m not exactly gravitated toward to this but i do admit that it gets better as the song progresses. the chorus is pretty fire i just kinda don’t have any major attachment to this song
04) Eivør - BEAT; this song starts pretty boring. like her voice is pretty weak? and the production is dull? pretty predictable explosion into a chorus that isn’t TERRIBLE but is pretty plain. then this asegir guy kinda pops off for 20 seconds before the girl takes the beat over that she now very CLEARLY can’t control because the featured artist is outshining her by a few million miles… yeah this is just dull
05) Meg Myers - BEAT; my original comment for this song opened with “this girl is a weirdo” and i stand by that. what is this song supposed to be?? she seems to be chanting to try to evoke some sort of passion but it comes across more comedic than anything. like this really does border on a troll entry for me but i can’t get through it. sorry
06) Jake Bugg - BEAT; as much as i love my Verizon Wireless Smartphone, i don’t exactly care for music that sounds like it was made for a commercial for my smartphone. the gospel here is random, i find his voice annoying, and i just find it getting worse and worse throughout
07) Faouzia & John Legend - BEAT; i will be totally honest, as talented as both of these people are, the minute i see john legend, i immediately lose interest. and my girl faouzia wasn’t doing much here either. this song really does just become a riff off where they see who can do the most nonsensical vocal riffs when they could have probably given us really polished, nice harmonies. wasted potential, sad!
08) Kota Banks - NEAT; i mean this song is hysterical but i unironically prefer it to a majority of this week’s songs LOL. like, gimmicky lyrics aside, this melody is catchy? as an italian i have no choice but to support my friend kota and hope her side of foccacia does well this week
09) Aitana - HEAT; this melody has been stuck in my head since the listening party!!! i think this is so cute and fun. we’ve had a lot of nostalgic-sounding (pop-)rock this week and this is one of the ones that does it the best imo. do i think it needed the last chorus? no, but it stopped right before it began to drag and i appreciate that. thank you, aitana!
10) D'allant - BEAT; i appreciate this sound, but i would appreciate if there was a more dramatic shift in the music/melody, because it felt very one-note to me even though it is like an objectively pretty sounding song. like yes, we get a key change, but it doesn’t really do much, and the otherwise ethereal feeling i would have gotten from this song kinda got discounted due to the pretty annoying jazz-y piano riffs that happen every few lines
11) Stark - NEAT; the funny thing is the worst part about this song for me is the trumpets, they sound so melancholic and for what! her voice is really strong and kinda carries this away from being a BEAT. i wish this wasn’t super loud lol, there are a lot of halfway good components leading to a halfway good song
12) BUNT. - BEAT; rip avicii and all of that but this sounds exactly like wake me up & the only good thing about that song (other than the drop the first 10 times i heard it) is the incredible vocals from aloe blacc. this guy is SCREAMING for no reason and it does not sound pleasant at all. removes any sort of magic this song could have potentially had
13) Chairlift - HEAT; i am proud to say i was a chairlift stan before i was a caroline polachek stan! this is one of their messier songs but, especially this week, i appreciate its sort of out-of-the-box-ness. i’m dancing in my seat & even though it’s repetitive, it doesn’t DRAG for me, which is a win. i also have bias toward caroline, sorry
14) TRAMP STAMPS - HEAT; i, for one. am really loving this nostalgic rock sound that seems to be pretty prevalent in TSC this year & this is my favorite example of it so far. i normally hate these kind of aw-high-school lyrics but from the layered vocals & subtle harmonies, to the actual nostaglic instrumental tying it all in, i really appreciate this. i get the nasty cherry comparisons but as a nasty cherry stan i can honestly say this is way more consistent than any nasty cherry song LMAO. also loving the hyperpop nibbles we get in the chorus
15) sød ven - HEAT; i appreciate this. beautiful vocals, there’s a cool, almost haunting, side of this song we see in the strings. i don’t necessarily consider this boring, like at all, but i don’t really have too much to say. just a very, very pretty song from the vocals, to the production, to the lyrics.
16) Alina Pash - HEAT; this is eat them apples’ younger sister and absolutely no one can change my mind on that. idk which i prefer but this is sick, i feel really captivated by a lot of the aspects of this, namely the production which goes HARD. i definitely want to hear more from this artist, i’m a fan!
17) Joey Yung - BEAT; i feel like this takes a lot of time and doesn’t really take me anywhere, sonically. kind of sounds more like a musical theater song than anything, and that is not my cup of tea at all. pretty vocals but that’s really it for me
18) Sam Creighton - NEAT; this is a pleasant listen, as dated as this sounds. lyrically, this is a damn mess. like a DAMN mess. that being said, this is probably my favorite chorus this week, at least sonically. i love the throwback to 2000s R&B and she maintains a really nice tone throughout. i just really wish the lyrics were different, it’s holding me back from stanning
19) Against The Current - HEAT; the lead singer of this was a big youtuber back in the early-mid 2010s, and i loved them but haven’t heard them in forever. i don’t agree with the paramore comparisons, this kind of has its own sound that i respect, i don’t really know what other group i’d compare it to. nice use of a strong-ish pop melody with a really great rock instrumental. very solid entry
20) Larkins - HEAT; this genre is very much for me, so i can look past the fact that this is a very generic sounding indie rock. a pleasantly surprisingly strong lyrical entry for this genre, and i adore this chorus. his voice is really nice, too. AWESOME bridge, too. this is a really strong entry for this genre, and as someone who loves this kind of music, i’m happy! has aged a lot better since the semi listen
21) Allison Ponthier - NEAT; this song has lived rent free in my recommendations on youtube for a week or 2 now & clearly the payola is paying off (150k views in a week? 459 subscribers?). her label is clearly pushing her to be the next big thing and i get the appeal, as this is a very pleasant listen. but, i can’t lie, there’s nothing really pulling me into loving this song. i can recognize that it’s good, but especially for an artist who is being given so much backing, i expected more! more than anything, i’m just confused at the melodic structure of this, it feels very free verse which makes it hard for this to be a real earworm
22) Ulrikke - NEAT; oh, this is cute! i just don’t really have much to say about this, like i enjoy the beat and her voice is strong but, re: a lot of my neats, i just don’t know if i’m the target audience / it’s not landing in stan territory. no fault of hers, though, she’s very talented !
23) Dr. Peacock - i can’t give this song a heat, neat, OR a beat. this song is like all in one. it’s funny that this song is called trip to valhalla because this is what i imagine tripping on molly laced with fent is like! i’ll be honest, this type of super aggressive edm doesn’t always land with me, but when it lands, it LANDS. and i honestly really enjoy the last 2 minutes of this LMAO. like i could head bang heavy to this song. is this song my cup of tea for a lot of occasions? or, really any occasion? i don’t know. i’m not sure. but this song has been embedded in my mind since the first listen and honestly very few other songs in this final can relate… it’s just so fucking crazy that i have to respect it
