Deadmau5 & the Neptunes
Pomegranate
It’s been seven years since Get Lucky – long enough in Pharrell’s mind to essentially remake it and flog it back to us. So: another slinky, sex-disco, gyration-jam, another power-grab for “sound of the summer”, another potentially lucrative meeting of musical minds. None of which will matter, of course, if the song is a load of old pony. So is it? Erm, no it isn’t. It’s really, really great. Sound of the summer, for sure. Dammit, Pharrell!
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande
Rain on Me
Gagarande join G N’R and Travis in the hallowed Valhalla of “using rain as a metaphor for struggle”. And the result is aggressively fine, if only inasmuch as there’s nothing challenging enough about its burnished pool-party triumphalism to actively dislike. With the possible exception of the line “I’d rather be dry, but at least I’m alive”, which sounds as if it’s gone round the world and back again through Google Translate.
Matt Berninger
Serpentine Prison
Speaking of which, on the surface, “Sorry, I’m fishin’ without permission / Tell her I’m missing in a serpentine prison” sounds almost Gallagherian in its “if it rhymes, it be fines” stance on egregious doggerelry. Predictably, though, this monochrome rumination on depression is profound, beautiful and sad. Be easier to take the piss out of, Matt! Jeez!
Carly Rae Jepsen
This Love Isn’t Crazy
With the release of the Dedicated Side B compilation, Carly Rae could also be said to be taking a Gallagherian approach: not by trying to make the unibrow desirable but, like a numb-septumed mid-90s Noel, by effortlessly farting out so many class-A bangers that an assemblage of offcuts, of which this burst of smile-emoji pop is one, might turn out to be her finest album.
Brockhampton
IFL/Downside/Baby Bull
The answer to the unasked question: “What if America had their own Blazin’ Squad?” dropped three songs this week, so here we go: IFL – agreeable Compton hip-hop; Downside – the same, but slower; Baby Bull – the same, but with a splash of Craig David, though, sadly, not literally. Bish, bash, bosh.
