Happy Halloween/my birthday month 🥳🥳You'll be pleased to know that it was a relatively quiet week for pop music and I've put together a very manageable 11 songs for you to check out.
Before that, I just wanted to flag up my 'September: 20 songs you might have missed' post over on my website, which gives a little iainsight (sorry) into which of last month's releases I thought were the best of the best.
Thanks for subscribing as ever. Here's the Spotify playlist for this week. Happy listening!
Here Comes The Night by Agnes - it's exciting and all that ABBA came back with vault tracks, but if you wanted to hear what they'd sound like circa 2021 then Agnes has got you covered with this brilliant disco-pop nod to Gimme Gimme Gimme
Honey by Alba August - it's not quite Ariana and Abel, but this excellent synth-pop tune is a short sonic stone throw away from Save Your Tears, the spoken bridge is a standout moment
Going to the Party by The Allergies + Lyrics Born - The Allergies (awful name) are taking 90s hip hop/funk and breathing in fresh energy, a fun way to spend 3 minutes of your life
Panic Attacks in Paradise by Ashnikko - if her empowered, cuss-filled, 18+ take on Sk8r Boi wasn't enough of a signal that she's an Avril Lavigne fan, Ashnikko's latest is surely a statement that she's poised and ready to carry the torch. Some great lyrics on this one, including ‘They call me Polly Pessimism, I'm a macabre Barbie'
Do Something by Blithe - Blithe has become a pretty reliable go-to for a good, solid pop song and this little number further advances that status, really lovely melody in the chorus and a great vocal to boot
Rise by Calum Scott - I'm loathe to include a song by music criminal Calum Scott who is still serving an extended sentence for his popular butchering of Robyn’s Dancing On My Own, but the melodic choices that are made here are too pretty to pass up
Hurricane (with Tyson Ritter) by Cheat Codes + Grey - a big, angsty-lyriced bit of trap-pop, the 'maybe they’ll name a hurricane after us' hook is delivered neatly
Deep end by Jeremy Zucker - pleased to report that sadboi Jeremy Zucker's third proper album is here, bringing goodies like the vocal surprise that is Deep end - the emotion that he pedals in this one's chorus is raw, rich and ready to enrapture
Day One by JLS - bit of a naff idea lyrically that binds this big funky banger from JLS together, but the the bass and the vocal harmonies on this hit just right
Bitch (I Said It) by Sody - sometimes a song comes on and I think to myself in the grand scheme of the billion year history of the universe, what an amazing thing it is to be alive at the same time as this kind of pure, archetypal pop music
Crave by Years & Years - whether he's delivering a 3/10 or a 10/10 it's always exciting to hear Olly Alexander's voice kicking into a track; some fun melodic choices here, although I can't help but shake the feeling that this sounds a lot like RuPaul's Cover Girl