The Monday Playlist: Joshua Bassett, JLS, Clinton Kane and more!
Put those Christmas songs on hold for a few minutes would ya, new music incoming!
It’s officially December, a notoriously difficult month to make an impact in the music ecosystem, but here I am reminding you the new music cycle hasn’t quite stopped yet. It feels only right that pop-legends JLS of Merry Christmas fame decided to release their comeback album this month, and Joshua Bassett getting the final lyric in about the Olivia Rodrigo drama and how it ruined his life seems like the pop-justice we deserve to round out the year.
I’ve just written a 3,300 word report so you’ll have to excuse me for spouting nonsense this week, my brain is a basically a fried little egg at this point.
Here’s this week’s playlist - hope you find something you like!
2011 by 5 Seconds of Summer - a mournful little reminiscence of days gone by, the 5SOS boys are channelling the little known pop-punk genre made famous by Olivia Rodrigo in 2021 on their latest - sure it’s a little angsty, but who isn’t these days?
Hometown Girl by Blakey - a cute little pop-rock love song, some nice synthy-keyboard bits in here, but I just can’t quite believe Blakey isn’t actually Coldplay, surely this is Chris Martin in disguise?
Keep Me Up All Night by Charlotte Sands - as mentioned above, pop-punk has been resurrected and here we have yet another fine example of nuanced musical angst ✨ with guitars✨, Sands really pulls it all out there in the chorus
GO TO HELL by Clinton Kane - last year Clinton Kane brought out a song around this time called remember the mornings which rightfully should have been one of my favourites of 2020 but landed so late I didn’t find the time with it until January and has been erased from the history books - but don’t worry Clinton, I got you, I hear you, this one is GREAT and we LOVE IT - at the risk of being repetitive, another excellent example of pop punk, the way the hook lands is so unexpected, already cannot get enough
Glitter by Daisy the Great - so you had a bit of a TikTok hit but what do you do next? Daisy the Great playing the if-it-ain’t-broke chime and giving us another catchy, quirky, vocally interesting little alt-pop tune
Merry Christmas by Ed Sheeran + Elton John - there’s something missing about this that makes me question whether this will enter the annual Christmas playlist cannon - sure, it’s cute and fun, but the hook isn’t *quite* there is it? - but given the popularity of both involved it seems highly likely, so here’s my take: I’d enjoy this about 25% more if it was someone that wasn’t Ed Sheeran, but I’d enjoy this 50% less if it was Gary Barlow instead, so I’m taking this one as a win
Audition/Love Immortal/Tango by JLS - I was visiting home yesterday and in the annals of junk my parents lovingly hoard for me I found my old JLS hoodie - the impact of X-Factor in the last 00s has a lot to answer for - and after such a surprisingly good return to form with their comeback album it took some convincing that I should put it back in the drawer for another 10 years (unless someone is willing to make me a good offer). After some shockingly good comeback singles, their album 2.0 is sonically a collection of songs from the cutting room floor of Jason Derulo’s 2011 album Future History, which is to say it is one of the best pop records to come out this year. I narrowed it down to the three best songs non-single tracks and they are: Audition, which is a gentle rip off of Jennifer Lopez’s Lets Get Loud; Love Immortal, which is chaotic rehash of Katy Perry’s Firework; and Tango, which is essentially a cover of Derulo’s Take You Dancing. A perfect album, worth every second of your precious time.
Crisis/Secret/Set Me Free by Joshua Bassett - let’s say it: it was hard to feel much sympathy for Joshua Bassett after the life-ruining drivers license and subsequent SOUR record from Olivia Rodrigo - the whole world was against him, and he couldn’t get out a good rebuttal track because they simply couldn’t find the melodies. But now, a whole 11 months after it all kicked off, he’s finally getting a word in and, more importantly, he has found not only melodies but the vocal wheelhouse he should have been in from the start. All three tracks on his new little EP are different and perfect in their own little ways: Crisis is a gorgeous cry for help after being public enemy number one looking to reclaim his reputation that sounds like a Rodrigo original: ‘don't you dare act like I didn't love you/Don't go thinkin' that I didn't hurt, too/Don't you ever wonder if I'm okay after all you put me through?'/Half the shit you're saying's only half-true’; Secret is a genuinely surprising, truly delicious pop song - that ‘your secret’s safe with me/and him/and all of the friends you told’ is so unexpected it might just give you chills; and Set Me Free delivers a falsetto we did not know Bassett had in him, the way it soars is magnificent, and you really feel it when he sighs ‘it’s been a fuckin year’. It took him a while to get here, but the wait was certainly worth it
Trust by newfamiliar - the lead singer of newfamiliar, formerly known as Skinny Living, has one of those voices that just has me by the throat, can’t explain it, gets me every time. This is sweet, sad little pop ballad with some gorgeous vocals
Pretty Boy by poutyface - you can’t tell me this isn’t shut up and drive by Rihanna, but you also can’t tell me that this isn’t a bangin little anti-toxic-masculinity pop tune about boys dressing howeverthefucktheywant and how awesome that is
Dirty by Twin Atlantic - disappointingly not a cover of Christina Aguilera’s seminal hit, but a sexy little outing of lyrical nonsense from one of Scotland’s best bands - who would have thought listing random things could sound so good: ‘Frank Sinatra/Champagne/Fizzy bubbles/I’m on that bass train/Konichiwa/Sayonara/Feels good’
L.O.V.E. (Is On) by Vistas - speaking of Scotland’s best bands, I’ve included this one from Vistas as a treat, because much as it does sound a lot like all their other wee indie-pop bangers, that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate their little corner of cheery music every once in a while - cute!