PinkPantheress – Fancy That
Fame suits PinkPantheress well. Fancy That demonstrates more personality, more experience and more confidence than her earlier work. She’s comfortable now. This fame lets her build on her established sounds and to surprise you with their evolutions, especially in her lead single “Illegal”. It also lets her be much more flirtatious than before and the playfulness is excellent.
It never quite becomes a statement album though. It’s more of a stretch than a flex. It is simply a smart, fun pop album from a very likable artist.
KATSEYE – BEAUTIFUL CHAOS
I come to KATSEYE pretty fresh. I have not watched the reality show that brought them together. I don’t follow any of them on social media. I didn’t track their singles. This album is exciting enough without any of that.
“Gabriela” is the best expression of what makes them so interesting. When your K-pop group is international, it makes possible a section where your Latina member can have a Spanish verse. It’s a natural fit, especially when you consider how much new Latin musics like reggaeton and corridos draw from the same well as K-pop. It’s still a breathtaking innovation and one done perfectly. Le Sserafim delving into afrobeats seemed like the forerunner of a new space in K-Pop and this is a welcome development there.
Having said that, I never see the point of reimagining “Jolene.” The rewrites are always scared of the honesty of the original. I do appreciate the homoeroticism in “Gabriela” though, even as I could have done with much more of it.
I also really like the blending in of hyperpop through the album. “Gnarly” works very well as the aggressive edge to it and “M.I.A” on the other side of the album shows its more dancefloor while remaining dense and layered.
They do well in traditional K-Pop as well. “Gameboy” is fairly standard and it’s done well. It has a great, light tone and a catchy hook. “Mean Girls” is perfectly acceptable slow pop even as they do much better for more energy.
The manufactory is inextricable from KATSEYE, as it should be for a pop group. They are exciting, not despite it, but through it. This is the natural meeting point of the reality TV music group, the emergence of hyperpop and the internationalization of K-pop. This is exactly what all three should be in this moment.
Addison Rae – Addison
I’ll be the first to admit that Addison has some great pop. I really liked “Obsessed” and the narcissism of its hook even as it had the worst music video of all time. Addison starts out strong too. “New York” is glittering modern pop with a good pace and a story that it sells.
It’s a tired story though. The back story of a small town girl longing for a big city was hackneyed in the 1930s and Addison does nothing to update it. Popstars need hooks every bit as badly as pop songs and all of Addison’s hooks are too blunt to snag me.
I have yet to like a single one of her looks. I don’t understand how a TikTok star has such abysmal choreography. I think the grindset philosophy is poorly considered.
So, we get to a song like “In The Rain” that has interesting parts but ones that she repeats rather than develops. There’s neither sophistication nor subtlety in her songcrafting. The constant repetition shows a lack of respect. It positions me as a follower rather than a fan and when I’m treated like this, I find that I’m neither one.
So much of the album falls into filler this way. “High Fashion” and “Diet Pepsi” both could have been quite good had they developed their themes further. “Aquamarine” is better but is overlong and every maneuver in the song is predictable, particularly the boring spoken word interlude. “Times Like These” is too trite to make any impact. “Summer Forever”, like “High Fashion”, are very LDR but without the edge that made Born to Die so interesting. Also, Lana has moved a lot in the past decade. I don’t see a reason to return to 2015.
For all of that, she can still make good pop. None of these songs are music that you would object to hearing at a mall. However, it’s all too serious and too manufactured. Some play and some fun would be undeniable music given her strong ear but it’s clear that’s not why she’s here.
Selena Gomez – I Said I Love You First
I don’t think Selena Gomez gets enough credit as one of the great chameleons of our time. She has done than dabble, she has defining hits in both reggaeton and in afrobeats and her KPop excursion is still infectious.
She tries classic Hollywood for much of I Said I Love You First and it works both visually and musically. “Sunset Blvd” and “You Said You Were Sorry” both work well. “How Does It Feel To Be Forgotten” does well in LDR’s space and “Cowboy” is another standout like this.
Some of her other experiments here don’t do as well. I’m a big fan of the Charli sound but “Bluest Flame” doesn’t do anything interesting with Selena. The Charli chorus is fun but it’s insufficient without Selena adding something of her own. The 80s synths of “Don’t Wanna Cry” are fine but uninteresting. “Do You Wanna Be Perfect” is unbelievably trite and highlights how inchoate the album is.
The stronger vein is what the album promises from the jump; the Selena Gomez / Benny Blanco relationship. It’s easy to feel happy for them and you can feel it in “Scared of Loving You” strongly enough to lift it above the shallow lyrics. “I Can’t Get Enough” is both of them in their comfort zone and so one of the strongest songs in the album
I’m not very well versed in Selena lore myself. I don’t understand anything in “Call Me When You Break Up” for instance. However, their very public engagement has consistently been a very positive spectacle and this album may not be the best pop around but it’s still another successful maneuver in what I hope ends up a total success.
Justin Bieber – SWAG
On the plus side, “YUKON” is an excellent song. There is some interesting R&B in this album. “BUTTERFLIES” also works well as does the opener “ALL I CAN TAKE.”
On the negative side, the album is stuffed with boring music. “GO BABY GO” is a putrid ballad, “DAISIES” is uninteresting throwback pop, “SWEET SPOT” is a paint-by-number Sexyy Red cut.
On the disgusting side, the skits in the album and the social media filth as a rollout campaign.
Top Five Records 