The Roster is a series created by Aneesh Batchu. Each week, a tier list of the best, most average, and worst new releases is published alongside blistering hot takes. The best of the best receive a trophy, and the worst of the worst are tossed in the bin. First, Batchu tackles the latest singles. Then, the team comments on the most recent albums.
SINGLES…
Good
🏆The Black Keys – “Babygirl” delivers The Black Keys™ specialty with a twist. The familiar electric guitar and piano unfold with newly varied pacing, keeping listeners on their toes.
j-hope – “MONA LISA” is the third song named for the famous smile that I’ve enjoyed, after both Dominic Fike and Lil Wayne’s takes. The track brings with it a boundless, peppy energy derived directly from BTS’s style.
Mid
Conan Gray – “Bed Rest” is driven by a powerful piano throughline used to highlight Gray’s resonant voice, and emphasize the soulful lyrics. Aside from a sense of incompletion due to a series of false-starts, the song is gorgeous.
Jack Harlow, Doja Cat – “Just Us” is a classically horny Harlow song, filled with his characteristic strong bassline and flat delivery. Doja’s feature adds variety to the flow, but it’s too little too late.
Lil Durk, Jhene Aiko – “Can’t Hide It” is a waste of an Aiko feature. Instead of allowing Aiko’s talents to shine, she consistently repeats one phrase throughout. Even Durk doesn’t do much interesting work on this song, making for a lackluster piece overall.
Lil Nas X – “LEAN ON MY BODY” is yet another newly rap-focused single from Lil Nas X. He seems to be gearing up for a large project release in that vein. While this new track an intriguing departure from his previous album’s pop lean, its lyricism is generic and uninteresting.
NAV, Metro Boomin – “REAL ME” is faithful to its name, the track reverting to Nav’s old calling-card style atop Metro’s equally iconic production style. Despite the bland lyricism, the production strength allows for the song to be sonically pleasant.
Kacy Hill – “When in Rome” is a sleepy little tune with nearly whispered melodies. It’s gentle, maybe even pretty, the vocals macked by quiet strumming on a plucky guitar.
Bad
Morgan Wallen – “I’m A Little Crazy” is anything but crazy. It’s yet another Wallen same-old: a soft-strummed guitar backs the stereotypical country-pop lyrical themes that have defined his whole career.
Jonas Brothers – “Love Me To Heaven,” but you can’t love this. The song is markedly more folk/country than audiences could have expected from this group. Departing from their corporate yet catchy pop songs, this piece feels right at home on Broadway street.
YUNGBLUD – “Hello Heaven, Hello” is an archetypal upbeat, trashy “rock” song. A repeated one-word chorus and shout-sung vocals read s flat beside a gimmicky, positive guitar.
🚮Jon Bellion – “WASH” is incredibly disconnected. It continually switches between lyrical strands of thought in a distracting manner. Instrumentally, its tame, adding little to the song.
ALBUMS…
Good
🏆 Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholic Brunettes (& sad women) is true to its name: it’s an album that tugs at your heart. Zauner captures the feeling of life becoming all consuming; she teaches her audience how to grieve and accept–– how something so painful can become beautiful. This project is a newer sound for Japanese Breakfast with its country and folk influences mixed alongside her signature sound. With this new LP, Zauner truly captures melancholy. – K. Cross
Mid
🚮Selena Gomez, benny blanco – I Said I Love You First is an overhyped project full of identitcal singles written along a monotonous, shallow narrative thread. While some standout songs uniquely intertwined Gomez and blanco’s influences for a sonically pleasant collaboration, these moments were nowhere near the norm. – A. Batchu
