I have Rick Beato do it for me
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Queen Lili’uokalani, Hawaii’s last monarch and only queen was born on this day in 1838. She was also a prolific composer:
Got sidetracked but impressions:
#1 STAY (The Kid LAROI f/ Justin Bieber)
1st: Bored to tears.
2nd: Comes in with add9 arpeggios (I think?) that repeat throughout. It’s just really boring and predictable. Vocal tails sound autotuned for pitch and not effect (yikes). I don’t understand who is still onto this stuff. It’s cliche in all aspects and doesn’t do anything particularly well, new, or interesting afaict.
#2 Hurricane (Kanye West)
1st: This sounds like The Weeknd (confirmed). Had to double check to make sure I was hearing the correct song. Skipped after the first rap which wasn’t Kanye. It’s not awful just kind of banal.
2nd: Decided to hear this through. Da Baby was first then Kanye appears at the end. Don’t love it or hate it just not that interesting.
#3 INDUSTRY BABY (Lil Nas X f/ Jack Harlow) 
1st: Leads in with harmonized minor brass which caught my attention then rolls into trap. Love the brass / trap combo. The vocal melody outlines the chords / mirrors the brass section. Thumbs up.
2nd: Ok I’m into this. I dunno if it’s LNX co-producing this stuff but whoever’s behind it knows what they’re doing. Added to playlist.
#4 Need to Know (Doja Cat)
1st: No skips here because this is fire. Added to playlist.
2nd: @beetlejuice was right about Doja Cat. I’ve heard some of her stuff but not this one and not paying close attention. I’ll point out that this song is really simple. It sounds like a two-chord nonfunctional harmony with minor tonality that repeats forever over trap bass, but you don’t need Coltrane changes with a hook like this. It’s liquid cocaine. Also lots of attitude the way she enunciates and subtly pulls the pitches out on some of the tails. Her voice sits in the mix really well and cuts through (like Dua Lipa). The mix is incredible btw with a great 808-style kick. Minor details: the “bridge” sounded vocaloid / Alvin and the Chipmunks, rhythmic ducking on the pads that were slightly glitched in the intro, and some kind of ducking or reverse effect on the hi-hats. I’ve already listened to this like 10 times today.
#5 Bad Habits (Ed Sheeran)
1st: Have definitely heard this a few times and posted it here already so this is more like a 2nd impression. To be honest it’s pretty boring. The thing that sticks out is that lean chorus where everything drops out. That’s the opposite of how a pop chorus usually works.
2nd: Listening closer the chord / melody is a real sleeper. Don’t have a guitar handy but it sounds like one of the ubiquitous I / IV / V / vi structure variations that make up most of these songs so I had to check. It’s mostly vi-I-IV-(V) on repeat. That alone isn’t bad but the voice leading is also blase. I don’t hate this song but I’ve heard it a few times and am already bored with it. Give me moar Doja Cat.
#6 Pepas (Farruko)
1st: No idea what this is but hear “Latin EDM.” Liked the cheese synth but nothing too sexy in the actual notes.
2nd: Second pass I liked better. Luke warm on it overall. Might be a foreign language entry for walrus.
#7 Beggin’ (Maneskin)
1st: Wasn’t expecting to hear something that’s not edm / pop. This doesn’t do it for me though.
2nd: Vocal is grating. I dunno just not into this. Think I hear an interesting harmonization (dorian or harmonic minor?) but not motivated enough to figure it out.
#8 good 4 u (Olivia Rodrigo)
1st: Dig it from the start. It’s a bit Billie Eilish ASMR x Paramore vibe and I’m fans of both. YMMV.
2nd: Now this really sounds like Paramore on second listen (not as good though). I own Riot!, know it pretty well, and thought this melody sounded familiar. Compare the chorus of good 4 u (0:29) with Misery Business (0:50):
#9 MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) (Lil Nas X)
1st: This is ok and I’d hear it again.
2nd: After hearing both of these LNX songs twice I noticed they have a formula that I like with the acoustic instruments and melodic chorus.
From there it’s The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, and other stuff I’m mostly familiar with so gonna cut it there. I’ll say that in terms of MESSAGE or whatever, Lil Nas X is way ahead of everyone here. So Industry Baby probably the “best” song in this group but the Doja Cat one better.
You want a 60-year-old guitar rock producer to be your tastemaker for modern pop?
I’m actually kind of impressed by those videos.
I assumed they’d be all old man yelling at cloud shit but he definitely likes some of the music that’s in the top 10.
The preview is supposed to give you that “what’s up with music kids are making these days” impression. Of course he likes good music though: he’s a jazz musician and a producer. I just don’t feel like he entirely “gets” some of the finer points of modern EDM/pop after watching the interview with Eric Johnson. For example, he knows guitar tone really well but does not seem to possess that same knowledge about synthesizer tone. I would assume my takes won’t be too far off his though.
He has some obvious biases. I mean when he hears a guitar he goes, “Well the song has a guitar. So that’s good.” So he’ll always lean towards rock over rap or EDM. But I appreciate music more when he breaks it down.
Alright you got me interested enough that I looked to see if Beato did these. A few of them are the same. Thing we disagree the most on is Industry Baby. I love how everything is stacked but he says it’s “boring.” I dunno how much hip-hop he listens to but it could really use more melodic catchy shit like this which is why I upgraded it hugely. I also just assumed the brass was sampled from somewhere but it’s not, nor is the Spanish guitar from the other LNX song, and that’s a breath of fresh air. I totally get the history and necessity of sampling but these whales have real producers and zillions of dollars to throw at it now so make original music.
He seemed to think Stay was pretty good wtf? I thought it was the flattest / least remarkable of the ones I reviewed.
He says my thoughts exactly about Sheeran with “it just has kind of a generic sound.” Yeah it’s that progression and bass line being an off-the-rack suit. LOL @ Ed being some elite song writer. Rick seemed to be annoyed by autotune on this one but not Stay which was opposite for me.
But now for the real interesting shit. He calls out the Paramore doppelganger too. I dunno if he’s into Paramore but it should be obvious to anyone who knows that song. Apparently this was a full-on controversy and Paramore is receiving INTERPOLATION credits for it now which this guy describes well:
Ah shit when he said “long history of white artists stealing from and profiting off of black artists” it was a perfect spot to name drop The Beatles.
Influential because they were the blueprint for art rock (warm Romantic vocals + electronic experimentalism), they wrote great songs and were innovators in their use of instruments and of dissonance…what more reason do you want?
Eno famously said the banana album only sold 30,000 copies but everyone who bought one of those 30,000 started a band - and he should know because Roxy were one band that followed the VU’s art rock blueprint.
Sorry man. I don’t see it. Seems to be more a product of its time I guess. Kind of like how my students don’t like punk rock since they’re used to perfectly produced music without a single flaw in it rather than the minimalist DIY mindset that came with the advent of punk.
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Let me know if this does anything for you. Same goes for anyone else that wants to chime in. Full range of reactions welcome from newly-minted fanboi to lawnmowers-in-orbit jimmy rustling. Yes there’s a specific reason I chose this song and it isn’t just some random forgettable pop I pulled out of my ass.
I can tell it’s high quality production, but this kind of music does nothing for me. That’s just a me thing and I can see people really liking it.
Seems to have pulled a lot from pop songs in the 70s and 80s while maintaining some basic feminist-oriented lyrics.
I’m not a big Dua Lipa fan. I don’t hate her music at all. It just doesn’t draw any emotion out of me good or bad. Sounds like something that would play in the background of a bar or club that likely wouldn’t stand out compared to the songs before or after it.
I think these takes are accurate but none of them are what stuck out like an 800 pound gorilla to me. Are you telling me that nothing sounds “off” to you guys in the chorus? Nothing bent your ear in terms of the actual notes played? To me it sounds like this:
Near the end when the rhythm section drops out and they reharmonize it is that gif raised to some power.
Yeah it sounds insanely familiar to me. But I have no idea what song it sounds like. Beyond that, I got nothing.
EDIT: Oh you mean the very end. Meh, I don’t really care. Not really worth thinking about imo.
No I mean the main chorus and I don’t think it sounds familiar. What hits is the chorus hanging on a half-diminished chord. Not something you hear too often in a mainstream pop song.
Dmin7
I know you’re
C6
dying trying to figure me
Bmin7b5
out
She sings “out” as two syllables with a minor descending third F to D. That F is the color note in the half-diminished chord and spicy as fuck. It’s an odd way to harmonize this and not what your ear should be expecting. The more common line there by far would be to land on the Bbmaj7 chord which has all of the same notes except Bb instead of B natural.
Bbmaj7 = Bb D F A
Bmin7b5 = B D F A
If this song was in D minor (F major) then Bbmaj7 would be in the key. That should sound way more consonant and familiar to your ear, but this song is in D dorian (C major) which is cleverly hidden until the surprise reveal of Bmin7b5. Dua Lipa could sing the exact same notes and both chords would work, but changing that Bb to B♮ gives it an entirely different flavor.
Then it modulates and reharmonizes in the bridge and it’s crazy enough that people are doing YooToobz just on the “jazz chords” part:
It doesn’t sound that unusual to me. Like it sounds like Britney Spears or maybe even Alanis Morissette. But I’m a terrible musician with almost no classical training.