Rain on Me, Rain, Rain, Rain! On! Me!

By Maria Sherman | May 22, 2020 | 9:30pm

Entertainment Music

Yes: Lady Gaga feat. Ariana Grande, “Rain On Me” – Dance Gaga is back, thank god! The latest from Chromatica is a smoldering disco song featuring Grande that’s giving me Kyle Minogue’s “Love at First Sight” vibes. You think Grande, who is so earnest and pitch-perfect, wouldn’t be a match for Gaga’s campier vocals (like when she bellows, “I’ll be your galaxy, rain on me tsunami,” like she’s a vocalist on a deep house song), but they work together perfectly here. —Hazel Cills

Can’t wait to wear something slutty on a night out with my friends, where we will hear this one million times: Last night, I smoked a bit too much weed and woke up on the couch this morning with an unsaved PNG open in Photoshop. I believe if I can remember events correctly, that I was attempting to explain to a friend what “Rain on Me” sounds like. This is what I’d come up with: Lady Gaga doing Kingdom Hearts doing Ariana Grande doing Namie Amuro. I think that makes sense? —Joan Summers

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Y: Noah Cyrus, “The End of Everything” – The youngest member of the Cyrus clan is notoriously morose—she leans into feeling bad on her SoundCloud-approved, somber country-pop songs, and in the confrontation hopes to find clarity. On “The End of Everything,” she finally manages to see the beauty in destruction. The song begins with a declaration of “Everyone you love is gonna die,” but finds restitution in the fact that “Everything you fear is gonna end/All your hate and hurt lost to the wind.” The video details the end of the earth, as filmed over billions of years, but hey—it’s still not an unenjoyable listen. —Maria Sherman

Y: Tomorrow X Together, “Can’t You See Me?” – Big Hit Entertainment (the team who brought you BTS) is back with a new boy band to fall in love with: Tomorrow X Together. Following the release of their 2019 debut, “Can’t You See Me?” is the latest from an upcoming EP—it’s fiery R&B K-pop meant to pull at those teen heartstrings. In the song’s chorus, they lament: “Can’t you see me?/Like on that magical day, say ‘believe me’/My heart incinerated, come and feel me, feel me/Oh can’t you see me?/ My friends don’t understand me, no.” If there’s anything more relatable than falling head over heels for a high school crush, I’ve yet to hear it. —MS

Y: Littler, “This Boulder Won’t Push Itself,” – The best song I’ve heard about tackling impossible, futile tasks during a time that feels particularly impossible and futile was recorded in 2016: on “This Boulder Won’t Push Itself,” Philadelphia’s indie-pop band Littler sound exhausted and wise—scrappy, frustrated, and finally, understanding that you can only do as much as you can in the face of injustice. Proceeds for the song go to the Movement for Black Lives COVID19 Mutual Aid Fund, which feels a lot like doing the right thing. —MS

Lloyd, “Slow Wine Bass Line” feat. Teddy Riley – Lloyd has descended from the heavens or wherever he’s been hiding to deliver a ballad for lovers of the 2000s who immediately melt upon hearing the lines, “Stop. Wait a minute.” This is a simple body-roll jam brought to you by Teddy Riley and another in the pantheon of sexy pandemic songs that make you resent not being partnered up. —Clover Hope