I’m too old for this: “Without You (Remix)” the Kid Laroi feat. Miley Cyrus : No one is ever “too old” for anything, because age is merely a state of mind, but I can say with confidence that I have aged out of finding any sort of appeal in this song. Alarmingly, I recognized parts of it, and that is because of TikTok. (I’m too old for that shit, too.) Anyway, it’s Miley Cyrus doing her mullet thing, singing on a remix of the Kid Laroi’s song, which is the version I’ve hard on TikTok one million times over! The remix improves the original slightly because I love Miley Cyrus’s voice, but the song itself leaves me cold. Why does it makes sense to me that the Kid Laroi is Australian? Maybe Miley has Australian vibes. Who can say! —Megan Reynolds
NOW I’M READY TO PARTY: “Please,” Jessie Ware: Never ONCE during the panorama have I desired being in a club, a crowded bar, or a party, not because I am an “introvert” but because I don’t like that many people and assume the same is true in the reverse. However, this new song from Jessie Ware makes me feel like I’d like to be at, I don’t know, a wedding? A rooftop where only people I care for and no one I don’t are in attendance, maybe. Beer sloshing around on my hand from my ham-fisted attempts at “dancing,” the promise of a hot dog within my grasp. Again, I am slowly coming to grips with my own misanthropy and figuring out whether or not I’ve always been like this, but Jessie Ware’s music is enough to push me out of myself, if even for a few moments. —MR
Sure: Billie Eilish, “Your Power” – Billie Eilish: She’s back, she’s blonde, and she’s… super ethereal on her new track “Your Power.” The music video is very pretty if a bit dull: Drone shots of a windswept Elish on an arid hillside, singing as a snake circles her body, allusion to the predatory behavior she addresses in the song. It may be a reference to her tumultuous past relationship with rapper Brandon Adams, and having a hunch as to what the snake represents gives the video a much more sinister edge. But to be honest, I was more distracted by Billie’s fresh-faced look than the scenery, and her whisper warble crooning is exactly the sound I’ll need when I’m feeling a little emo on a rainy day, looking out the window and feeling like I’m in my own music video chronically my emotional turmoil. We all do that sometimes, right?
There’s a vulnerability to “Your Power” that I find enticing, and the fact that her label chose this song as the first single for Eilish’s upcoming album Happier Than Never signals an exciting change of pace from, say, “Bad Guy.” This new song isn’t a banger, and that’s exactly why I’m intrigued by what Eilish has in store for us next. —Ashley Reese
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