2025: 1ST Quarter - Intro & Singles
- kevpalowe8
- Mar 21
- 6 min read
Originally posted April 2025
INTRO
Some of the biggest hits of 2025 so far have been residuals from 2024. Rose & Bruno Mars, Lola Young, Chrystal, Gracie Abrams, Myles Smith, Teddy Swims, Kendrick Lamar etc. Although it was less apparent to me last year because everything was brand new to me, this was very much the case then too. Nonetheless, when we take the residual tracks away, 2025 has-been a little disappointing to me thus far.
SINGLES
Doechii “Denial Is A River”
This track is great fun – I was loving listening to it further down the chart and really happy when it cracked the top ten. To be honest, it is a bit comedic. It’s someone speaking to their friend / self-professed therapist about their life. I particularly like the breathing exercises at the end.
JADE “IT Girl”
This is really good. However, I can’t ignore the similarities between this and my number 1 from last year “Angel Of My Dreams”. It feels very much like a deliberate attempt to re-create that track. ‘ “Angel Of My Dreams #2”...... not as good version as #1’. It is good though.
Tate McRae “Sports Car”
I like the fact that the chorus is completely whispered. I’m not sure that’s ever happened before 🤔
Sonny Fodera & Clementine Douglas “Tell Me”
I like the driving rhythm with this one – it’s not only off-beat – but micro-off-beat (so it doesn’t just divide the beats up by 2 – it goes even deeper). This is really interesting to listen to in the opening before the beat drops. Everytime I listened I was challenging myself to count the 4 beats out correctly......... and usually failing. In honestly, I’m always so distracted by this that I never really notice anything much else about the track. I thinks it’s quite good – but it could be awful. Couldn’t tell ya.
LISA, Doja Cat, & RAYE “Born Again”
I’m really attracted whenever Raye starts doing that rapid-fire monotonic singing..... I dunno why. But aside from that and some genuinely funky bass work, this is just ‘OK’.
Lady Gaga “Abracadabra”
Check my upcoming post about 2025 albums to see a full summary of my position on Lady Gaga. In a nutshell, for me she is like an artist trapped by the industry. There's massive evidence of an amazing artist, one of the best there has ever been, dying to burst free. But, that isn’t reflected in the music. Its all good traditional pop music seasoned with Lady Gaga’s quirks. Its great...... except its not changes since “The Fame” (2008). Its all just variations of the same formula. Have you ever been on a train when it leaves the station on time and everything’s rosy....... but then just 5 minutes into the journey it halts for an hour? Imagine if that train you’re on genuinely never started to move again. 😱
Alex Warren “Ordinary” (#1 for 5 weeks so far)
Good track. A little cliché with its big choir / huge orchestral-like backdrop but it’s one of those times you kinda think ‘OK, why not?’
AJ Tracy & Jorja Smith “Crush”
I really like Jorja Smith’s rapping style. It’s sort of ‘casual’ and colloquial.
Sabrina Carpenter “Busy Woman”
M’eh
Selena Gomez, Bunny Blanco, & Gracie Abrams “Call Me When You Break Up”
M’eh
JENNIE & Dua Lipa “Handlebars”
It features Dua Lipa. Yey. It’s alright.
Doechii “Anxiety”
I’m really liking Doechii at this point. This is a contender for my favourite track of the year thus far. There’s a bit of problem with it. The music is essentially lifted from Gotye’s “Someone That I Used To Know” – so some of the reason I like it is because of that track. The “Baa Baa Black Sheep” tune placed over an interesting harmonic progression that displaces its root and puts it in a minor context rather than a major one. So the root note (I) becomes the flattened 7th note (bVII) – and the rest of the tune actually falls neatly within the harmonic progression. I always enjoyed that in the Gotye track and I like it here. But, there’s a lot that’s original to Doechii’s track that I like too. I’m really liking her style generally, I like both the rapping and singing, I like the way the vocals are arranged, I like the vocal percussion, and I like the way there’s so much going on in the chorus that it actually depicts a feeling of anxiety.
Sleep Token “Emergence”
I’ve not been massively impressed with the rockers during this project but these guys might be saving things a little. Its nothing ground-breaking but it is rock done very well and I like the piano/sax ending. There’s a little throw-off in the drum pattern that quite interesting. Other than that, just a great solid rock track.
Chappel Roan “The Giver”
This is just Roan jumping on the country band-wagon. And I suppose it’s fine. But quite disappointing compared to anything on the last album. I was actually glad that it hasn’t seemed to land quite as well as “Good Luck, Babe”, “HOTTOGO” and “Pink Pony Club”. That's justified.
Jade “FUFN”
Overall, I’m absolutely loving Jade thus far. She was my top single from last year and her version of Chase & Status / Stomzy’s “Backbone” absolutely blew me away. This one hasn’t quite got the edge of her other stuff. It’s very straightforward traditional pop. In fact, it sounds very much like Lady Gaga (minus the Lady Gaga quirks). Its often stuck in my head though.
Calvin Harris “Smoke The Pain Away”
A well written song with a nice enjoyable country flavour. I like the way the 8 bars phrases are divided into 3 & 5.
Playboi Carter “Evil Jordan”
It’s alright really. I like the dramatic opening and the persistent pulsing figure that sounds like an old phone ringing – which is a C# - D followed by G#. This is interesting because the 1st 2 are a semitone apart creating a really tense sound. The distance (interval) between the D and the G# is a diminished 5th which in the rules of western tonal harmony is the most unrelated 2 notes can be. It was traditionally the evil/devil interval in music......... note the track’s title.
Jack Harlow & Doja Cat “Just Us”
M’eh
Lil Tecca “Dark Thoughts”
M’eh
Wizthemc / Bees & Honey “Show Me Love”
I like how the percussion is held back. Here’s a few haunting/echo-y background figures and the melodic figure used in the chorus is pretty good. Overall, it’s not bad but I could take it or leave it.
Ravyn Lenae “Love Me Not”
I quite like this one. Its a well written song. I like the open 5ths figure that repeats a IV-I (arguably) pattern in the background. The chorus has a call-and -response theme that I generally like. (Statement (solo) followed by a contradictory wish (several voices in unison). The middle 8 is a repeating of the ‘he loves me he loves me not’ game we are probably all familiar with from our younger years. You know the one pulling the leaves of a daisy.......... if you got the wrong result you’d just ignore it and do another one. So my point is it’s relatable.
Ratbag “look at what you’re doing to me”
I really like this. Overall I’d say I’m a fan of Ratbag. In terms of ‘song-writing’ there’s nothing outstanding. If myself and Simon were to do one of our piano/vocal only performances of a Ratbag track, it wouldn’t sound all that impressive. Its the arrangements and sounds of the tracks that stand out. I’d say that summary it reflected in this track. The beat, various sounds and vocals jump and filter in and out. At the very end, the beat and vocals drop out and all the various sounds we’ve been hearing throughout all seem to sound simultaneously.
Ratbag “Juliet & Juliet”
This one I like even more than the other Ratbag track. My comments are similar but this one has an extra energy about it with it dance-track-like rhythmic drive. There’s a sound to it that I think really reminds me of another track but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Do you ever get that?
So what would I say for favourites so far. Well I guess I’d say the Doechii tracks, JADE’s “IT Girl”, and the Ratbag tracks. Its not saying a lot really, baring in mind I’ve accused “IT Girl” of being a less good “Angel Of My Dreams”, one of the Doechii tracks is essentially a comedy track and the other a rap track written over a karaoke version of an older track. But, its only the 1st quarter yet.
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