I just found out the other day Falling In Reverse were also behind that god awful 'why do good girls like bad guys' song that I've heard in cringe TikTok compilations / reaction videos lol

 

Still need to listen through this joyous list of songs to vote myself but a bit over a day left to vote in this and the January monthly round B-) (might try and get the new thread up before 8pm tomorrow to get it out of the way before the BJSC listenthrough)

RAYE - Ice Cream Man. (#69)

Switch Disco and Robert Miles - REACT (feat. Ella Henderson) (#90)

Rita Ora - You Only Love Me (#57)

Matt Sassari - Give It To Me (#96)

Nathan Dawe and Bru-C - Oh Baby (feat. bshp and Issey Cross) (#60)

Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran - Who We Love (#85)

Anne-Marie - SAD B!TCH (#65)

Falling In Reverse - Watch The World Burn (#95)

 

Pretty meh week~ voting the top 3

I discounted Ice Cream Man after one listen on my playlist I put together of this week's new music, but it is the best song here by some distance :manson:

1 'Ice Cream Man.' - so yeah this is in a universe of its own in quality this week, was already one of my top 5 or so songs on RAYE's album from first listen but after a couple more listens it's now a comfortable 2nd fave after 'Escapism.', and a rare example of a song that I actively like mainly for its lyrics, really brutal but powerful stuff here (although her voice sounds great on it and love the production too, especially the part where it kicks back in with power after the middle 8(?) so it hits the usual stuff I comment on too). Quite amazed that a song like this managed to chart when there were much more hit-ready songs on the album but then again I didn't think 'Escapism.' sounded much like a big hit either so I guess I just underestimate the general public's taste in RAYE songs! 9.5/10

2 'Give It To Me' - I listened to both the original and the 'full vocal mix' and I actually prefer the original, it's a pretty decent minimalist-ish techno/house instrumental which I don't think really needs the sample played over it, it's ok in a small dose but having it take over the whole song is just overkill. 7/10 for the original, 6/10 for the actually popular version, so will call it 6.5/10

3 'Oh Baby' - as with Nathan's last single I feel like I should probably hate this but it's fine, nothing amazing but it's a decent garage tune that I don't think leans tooo heavily on the sample, Bru-C does an ok job as a stand-in AJ Tracey and I guess I'm yet to really dislike anything Issey Cross has been on. I guess I prefer soulless garage remakes over soulless house remakes so yay? (boo at this outpeaking 'Au Seve' now though) 6/10

4 'Who We Love' - I actually liked this more on first listen than I did just relistening to it now oops x I do quite like the choral vocals but overall it is a little bland really, soz Ed 5.5/10

5 'Watch The World Burn' - lmao at this nearly ending up in my top half but it's kind of a hard one to rank - if anything I feel like without knowing the context of it being Ronnie Radke I'd probably have ranked it higher as I'd not be actively looking out for reasons why I should be hating it. As it were the context is making me listen more critically and yeah there are some parts of this that are not good at all, mainly the part where he almost literally says the meme rap 'lyrical miracle spiritual individual' (nice Eminem impression), plus I think the 'punk' section is pretty mediocre and just feels thrown in because multiple genres in the same song is so interesting and groundbreaking. That said there are other parts I genuinely quite like, the first section sounds exactly like an NF song but like... a good NF song (I do quite like the flow and the grandiose instrumental) and the more hardcore outro sounds pretty cool too. I don't want to listen to this again because of what it is but on a purely sonic level I'd probably prefer to hear it again than any of the songs I've ranked below it (and it's definitely better than the other 2 Falling In Reverse songs I've heard) so... I didn't entirely hate it/10

6 'You Only Love Me' - mediocre pop song with a grating chopped up non-chorus, why are we still doing this 2/10

7 'REACT' - can we please leave Robert Miles out of this garbage soulless house remakes narrative, he does not deserve this. :cry: 1/10 (purely because the sample is obviously great, it just makes no sense in this context)

8 'SAD B!TCH' - "Mum can we get Ashnikko?" Mum: "We have Ashnikko at home." The Ashnikko at home: 0.5/10 (half a point for not being quite as volatile ultra cringe as 'PSYCHO' but dear Christ why is she doubling down on making her absolute most obnoxious music to date after accidentally making a few songs I liked, bring back '2002' and 'Perfect To Me' any day over whatever this is)

 

Too many words about such a subpar list of songs oop. x

 

Only voted for RAYE obvz, glad that she is winning as deserved but it's a lot closer than I hoped it would be.

literally only one good/decent song in here 💀

 

1 RAYE - Ice Cream Man [upfront and harrowing, the spacey instrumentation is perfect to help her story shine through. Mad respect to our independent queen 👏]

2 Matt Sassari - Give It To Me [really glad i listened to all 1 minutes of this]

3 Sam Smith & Ed Sheeran - Who We Love [exactly as yawn-worthy as i expected this collab to be]

4 Nathan Dawe - Oh Baby [this guy is a total hack lmao]

5 Switch Disco - React [still haven't heard this one, but i saw "feat. Ella Henderson" and "samples Robert Miles" and "slap house" and decided that wouldn't be necessary]

6 Falling In Reverse - Watch The World Burn [that's adorable but you can stop now honey you're embarrassing yourself]

7 Anne-Marie - Sad Bitch ["this is boring, so annoying" could've been a neat self aware dig, but I imagine the tragic reality is Anne-Marie & co genuinely believe they've crafted a relatable banger for the TikTok kids]

8 Rita Ora - You Only Love Me [The "go girl give us nothing!" meme in musical form - no hook, no fun, no personality, no effort (I guess all of that went into writing the spotify cheques). There is good pop music out there buzzjack you don't actually have to settle for this]

 

Voted for Nathan Dawe but even that isn't one I'd actively choose to listen to, not a great set of entries this week