The Monday Playlist: Machine Gun Kelly, James Bay, JESSIA and more
The best new songs from last week here in your own little inbox, what a treat!
Hello! What a lovely weekend, wasn’t it? I spent most of it cutting about outdoors listening to all the noteworthy new releases in the pop sphere from last week to bring to you the cream of what this time was quite a sizeable crop!
I’ve spent a lot of time with this particular bunch and I should forewarn you that a third of the songs I’m about to recommend to you are from pop-punk poet Machine Gun Kelly’s new record, which to me was exceptionally good but to you may be an abhorrent piece of trash - isn’t it fun that we all get to have opinions on such things!!
I’ll be pulling together my 20 favourite songs from March later this week, so look out for that sometime soon - it’s going to be a tough call I can already tell.
Alright, let’s get to the music then shall we? I hope you find something you like and as ever, happy listening!
The Monday Playlist on Spotify | Archive Playlist for 2022 week 12
Life by 1991 + Sharlene Hector - sorry but this is exactly the kind of high pace EDM nonsense that you need to come on at about 2.12 am when the alcohol is starting to wear off and you feel like you just want to go home and be in bed but your friends are still dancing and this helps you power through
Unloving You by Anson Seabra - wee Anson is back with another sad acoustic ballad, this one he’s slamming in with the gut-punching lyrics, particularly the second verse about going to see someone who has moved on but hasn’t gone through with the breakup yet: “I want all of my flights back/When you were goin' to college/Promise we'd make it work/Threw all my clothes in a backpack/Twelve hundred miles just so I could say "I love you" in person” - ouch!
evergone by Christina Perri - Christina Perri has been gone for EIGHT YEARS (unless you count the lullaby album she wrote for her infant child) and then she just shows up with another gorgeous heartbreaking ballad about loving someone after they’ve passed? Sorry, I was not at all ready for this, even if it is a very, very gentle little song - absolutely delighted to have her back
Extra Agenda by Claudia Valentina - this is a nice little spicy blast of pop from one of our most promising newcomers and it dominates, the line ‘Spread that body on these three thousand thread count white sheets/'Til I get what I need’ is so good
I Can’t Drive by Crawlers - its all very angsty pop-punk and I wasn’t sure about it but the more you really listen to the lyrics the better it gets, for me the standout moment was the bridge which begins: ‘Wanna start smoking just to feel the rush/I liked someone who did it once’
Give Me The Reason by James Bay - James Bay always delivers on the could-be-cheesy-but-is-just-too-charming, and this feels like he’s right in that lane; I heard this at his concert back in January and have been waiting patiently for it to drop and it’s even more of an earworm than I remember
Love on the Side by James Gillespie - this is of course largely dependent on your penchant for white dudes with gravelly voices, but this one is quite cute and fun, the vocals are annoyingly catchy can already tell this one is going to get lodged in my head for ages
Last Call by Jamie Miller - being a true, gentle, emotional, love-oriented pop boy is a dying art form, but Miller is giving it a good go on this cute little tune based on being someone’s number one, it’s a sweet song and the vocals are really great
Forever My Love by J Balvin + Ed Sheeran - the lesser of two evils for the duology single release from J Balvin and Ed Sheeran is this soppy sentimental ballad from two of the music industry’s biggest names; there’s just something about Ed Sheeran singing in a different language isn’t there?
Next Time by JESSIA - ok look you think this is just another big run of the mill emotional pop ballad that you might feel like skipping after the first chorus but I promise you that finish is so worth it, it feels like a very Olivia Rodrigo thing that she does and it is absolutely huge I cannot stop listening to it
god save me by Machine Gun Kelly - sure this one sounds like a very grungy punk song but some of lyrics are (tw) about being suicidal and are more than a little heartbreaking: ‘Last month, took a gun in the room alone/Last month, almost blew my head off/She screamеd and I never put down the phonе/I gotta be somewhere, please hang up’
drug dealer (feat. Lil Wayne) by Machine Gun Kelly - the second Lil Wayne feature is where the record really hits its stride, this one is about being in love with your drug dealer which isn’t something I can relate to but feels thematically in the right place
make up sex (feat. blackbear) by Machine Gun Kelly - one of MGK’s biggest hits from his first pop-punk effort is with blackbear so unsurprising he’s back for the new record; here the narrative pivots to the girl herself being the drug: ‘You're my only drug, you're my only vice, yeah/Fighting then we fuck, you're my only type”
fake love don’t last (feat. iann dior) by Machine Gun Kelly - the opening lyric on this feels iconic, I can already feel the hype in the concert venue when MGK starts singing: ‘I watched a movie scene, got déjà vu/'Cause the antagonist looked just like you’ which is such a good line isn’t it?
die in California (feat. Gunna Young Thug & Landon Barker) by Machine Gun Kelly - you might remember that MGK wasn't always a pop-punk king, but an actually quite good rapper, as seen on this, particularly how he sounds when he spits: ‘Tell me, was it my fear of bein' complacent/That ended up leavin' me so jaded?’
twin flame by Machine Gun Kelly - this is the album closer and much like play this when i’m gone from his last record, this song is a love letter, this time to Megan Fox, and sure it’s a bit angsty but it’s also quite beautiful and is about not being good enough for the person you’re with, that closing interlude of ‘In this film I know, there’s no happy endings’ is so so sad
Foreign Obstacles by Mvlholland - this is a very charming little pop song, that opening ‘Um, I'll just sing a bunch of different things I’ve written’ sets the tone so well and it’s actually perfect
Gold by Sonny Tennet - A really perfect, upbeat bit of blue-eyed soul to round off this week, as if the sunny weather over the weekend distilled into a glorious piece of music, some really excellent vocals from Tennet on this one