TRACK OF THE WEEK
Frank Ocean
Lens
A sparse, vocoder-led hum of a track, slowly built up around layers of sound that lead to a blissful, stuttering climax, with lyrics that are an impenetrable, critically appealing mess of deep emotions. Lens will remind you of how smart Frank Ocean is and how not smart you are.
Fall Out Boy
Young and Menace
Fall Out Boy will for ever be associated with a lanky emo boy I used to fancy when I was 13 – a crush that led to me deciding that fishnet gloves were a good idea – but this track has actually kinda got something. Specifically, the whiny emo-pop vibe that has been missing from mainstream music for the past 10 years. Yet Young and Menace also manages to transcend that with a catchy electro breakdown. Not menacing at all; very listenable, in fact.
SZA ft Travis Scott
Love Galore
SZA, surely set to become everyone’s new girl crush, takes another star turn on this silky track with Travis Scott. It’s arguably pretty basic at its core, but surely everyone is used to love being boiled down to sticky lust through the medium of pop and R&B by now. Less impressive is Scott, whose most memorable contribution to this song is the thoughtful line “Let me plant that seed inside, yeah/ Ass and titties, titties”.
DJ Khaled ft Justin Bieber Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne
I’m the One
Genuinely awful. If, for some reason, you wanted to compare this song to food, its equivalent would be a puddle of neon liquid sicked up by an annoying child (not Khaled’s son Asahd, he’s super cute). DJ Khaled should get off the Auto-Tune and stick to his emoji keys because, despite it being his catchphrase, I really don’t want “another one”.
De’Wayne Jackson
Truth Is
A sleepy, woozy purr of a song that’ll leave you reminiscing about your last bad breakup. But it also makes you want to give De’Wayne a bit of a shake and tell him to stop pondering over his ex, especially when you hear that phone ringing out to dial tone as he tries to get hold of her. It’s not healthy De’Wayne, mate. Definitely not one to listen to while drunk and/or heartbroken.
