The Singles Jukebox, 2024: July

brat summer in full effect, another rare-for-me 0 score, and a great “all-American women” lineup for July 4th (though I oversold Lainey Wilson). I blurbed 14 singles, my biggest month in 2024.

Charli XCX ft. Robyn and Yung Lean - The 360 remix
Pure fun, giving nods to 1987 Miami freestyle -- this would sound great bumping from cars that, y'know, go boom -- while Charli, Robyn, and Yung Lean party your body. I actually wish this track were denser and had more going on, because it could handle it; as is, it's great but yet too spare. [7]

Eminem - Houdini
Granted, I've never been a fan, but this shit is just embarrassing, a return to his bullshit pop-cult insult-comic days atop a painfully obvious sample. Give it up, man. [0]

Zach Bryan - Pink Skies
Musically this wants to be '64 Dylan, but lyrically it's a C+ Creative Writing class poem. Bryan's flat, almost emotionless vocal does it no favors. [3]

Shinedown - A Symptom of Being Human
With more pneumatic production -- and getting rid of the strings -- this could damned near be scaling the Country Airplay chart. Singer Brent Smith's pleading voice makes me wanna punch him in the throat, as do the terrible lyrics here. [1]

JO1 - Love Seeker
A smart, absurdly catchy three minutes that mashes at least four songs together with live-sounding drums, crossing both pure pop and pop-rock, and ends up sounding like a sibling to peak-era One Direction. [7]

Orville Peck, Kylie Minogue and Diplo - Midnight Ride
Peck's and Minogue's voices pair okay enough, but Diplo (I'm gonna blame him) doesn't bring much to the song's production. If you want true disco country, go for Adam Mac's "Disco Cowboy," which gets it right in every way "Midnight Ride" doesn't. [4]

Myles Smith - Stargazing
Mewling post-Sheeran nothings -- of course it's big. [2]

Carbonne - Imagine
Carbonne sounds like a perfectly nice boy rapping over flamenco guitars and handclaps with all of his friends backing him on the chorus, which is exactly the problem. There's no push here, no pull; "Imagine" just dully exists. [3]

Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please
The way Sabrina Carpenter drops in "don't embarrass me, motherfucker" on the chorus of this country-tinged lament is so smart; she clearly understands pop music. This isn't another "Espresso," not even close, but that's smart, too, showing another angle of her. A real, new pop star: how refreshing. [7]

Lainey Wilson - Hang Tight Honey
The gasoline-revved single Miranda Lambert hasn't given us in years, this moves at a crazy (especially for mainstream country) clip. Jay Joyce's aggressive production gives this a thumping, propulsive, white-funky feel — akin to, I dunno, the James Gang's "Funk #49"? — while Wilson sells the hell out of it. Save the stupid line about her lover's "blue-collar kiss," this is great. [8]

GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B - Wanna Be (Remix)
Cardi joins Megan and Glo — clearly their spiritual daughter — for some real hot girl shit. The beat isn't anything special, but when you've got spitters this hot on the track, I don't care. [8]

Coldplay - feelslikeimfallinginlove
feelslikeyouhadmaxmartinproduceacoverofyellow [2]

Central Cee ft. Lil Baby - BAND4BAND
I pretty much always love Central Cee's flow, and this big-time US-UK rap summit with Lil Baby impresses, as the latter's heavily Auto-tuned voice fits nicely on Geenaro & Ghana Beats's hard UK drill track. [7]

Charli XCX ft. Lorde - The girl, so confusing version
I've traditionally not been a fan of Charli XCX, for various reasons not worth getting into here. That's relevant because I am thoroughly knocked the fuck out by the next-level-meta "girl talk" dialogue of this meeting-of-the-minds remix. Lorde responds to Charli's verse with a lacerating one of her own, spilling her guts and getting very real; talk about "work[ing] it out on the remix," goddamn. Charli, of course, is expert at riding producer A.G. Cook's hyperpop rhythms, but to hear Lorde matching her as the track heaves and bumps is a shock. This is profoundly soul-baring pop, what with Lorde candidly talking about eating disorders and Charli admitting on her opening verse "I don't know if you like me / Sometimes I think you might hate me." That they're doing this so publicly is frankly stunning. This feels like -- this is -- a true pop moment. [10]