Close, but no: Julia Michaels, “Anxiety” feat. Selena Gomez – Right off the bat, Julia Michaels tries too hard on this song: Over laidback strumming, Michaels talk-sings “My friends, they wanna take me to the movies/ I tell them to fuck off, I’m holding hands with my depression.” Michaels’ earlier songs are strikingly clear-eyed about mental health and relationship problems, but instead of sounding relatable, the lyrics on “Anxiety” sound like reverse-engineered to fit in as many anti-social tropes as possible. Selena Gomez, too, comes in with a long-winded, nonsensical confession about wishing she was “one of those people in the room/ That says something and everyone puts their hand up.” Between the barebones guitar and the plain singing style, the opening track on Michaels’s latest EP falls a little flat, in a way that doesn’t seem intentional. I’ll be listening for her next one. —Frida Garza
Hard pass: Weezer, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” – We should all be shocked and horrified that in the year 2019, Weezer just put out a cover album. The tracklist—including “Everybody Wants to Rule The World,” “Take On Me,” and “Happy Together”—is so cheesy, I almost can’t look at it, and each song is virtually identical to the original; the only difference, of course, is that Rivers Cuomo is singing. His rendition of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is the worst offender, as Cuomo tries to match every dip and warble in Annie Lennox’s voice, an act I find disrespectful and wholly unlistenable. This performatively nostalgic crap should have stayed at home on someone’s MacBook. Now let’s never speak of this album again. —FG
Hard pass: Weezer, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” – We should all be shocked and horrified that in the year 2019, Weezer just put out a cover album. The tracklist—including “Everybody Wants to Rule The World,” “Take On Me,” and “Happy Together”—is so cheesy, I almost can’t look at it, and each song is virtually identical to the original; the only difference, of course, is that Rivers Cuomo is singing. His rendition of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is the worst offender, as Cuomo tries to match every dip and warble in Annie Lennox’s voice, an act I find disrespectful and wholly unlistenable. This performatively nostalgic crap should have stayed at home on someone’s MacBook. Now let’s never speak of this album again. —FG