A few pop and country juggernauts mingle with promising upstarts in the latest review roundup.
Matt B – “Reassured”
Incompatible love languages are the biggest downfall of relationships. Pop singer-songwriter Matt B contemplates as much with a new song called “Reassured,” a confessional laced up with thumping rhythm and a velvet melody. “You got me feeling so crazy,” he admits, slipping into his falsetto. In the chorus, he lays all the cards on the table, “I can’t tell by your actions / That you are the one / I need to be reassured.” With his bleeding heart, he etches into stone what he needs and perhaps deserves in a romantic entanglement. It’s certainly a universal feeling.
Listen to “Reassured” below.
Ava Max – “Weapons”
“Stop using your words as weapons,” Ava Max assembles with her new song. “Weapons” calls out the toxicity permeating Los Angeles, a slithering and grimy cityscape full of soulless executives. “I swear this town’s a battlefield,” she continues. “Can make you feel strong and vulnerable / These empty hearts are made of steel…” Over glinting synths, adorned with plastic percussion, Max howls into the silver-casting lights of the city. She determines on the pre-hook that she’s “got a bulletproof vest under my dress” and “packed bags under my bed…” She’s cocked and loaded, ready to storm into the night.
Listen to “Weapons” below.
Modern Temple – “Radio”
Radio static whips the listener back in time when terrestrial radio was the benchmark of music discovery. Through the streaming age, Modern Temple’s “Radio” carries with it a sonic precision, signaling a bygone era that feels both classic and current. Thematically, the electro-pop duo call out to “ground control” as a way to understand the world and their place within such a slippery hellscape. “I don’t know about you but it’s said to be true / Then it makes me wanna ask why,” begs Dustin Moreau. “I just had to be blind, acid all in my eyes / For the reason I would find, I was built by design.” Their frequency is enveloping and dare I say, transportative. Dial in for yourself.
Listen to “Radio” below.
Zach Bryan – “The Greatest Day of My Life”
No one has released as much music as Zach Bryan has this year. We said it before but it bears repeating: his output is wild. This week, Bryan has issued two new songs, one of which is the emotive “The Greatest Day of My Life.” Within its airy, wistful arrangement, Bryan expresses gratitude for the whirlwind that’s become his life these days. ““I had the greatest day of my life / Wrote up a single in a New York high-rise / How the city makes a country boy dream,” he waxes philosophical. He later asks himself, “What did I do to deserve all this?” It seems he finds that answer with every single song he writes: his music speaks to people. And that’s enough.
Listen to “The Greatest Day of My Life” below.
Fly by Midnight – “Nothing New”
Their hearts shatter on the floor, and the glass shards almost glisten. With “Nothing New,” Fly by Midnight attempts to “get through getting over you,” picking up fragments with each sharply forlorn lyric. Despite having been here before, it doesn’t lessen the prickly sting throbbing throughout their bodies. “Eight nights of waking up face down,” they acknowledge exactly how far they’ve fallen. “Can’t find a way out / It’s nothing new…” The heaviness of the lyrics is masked behind walls of sound. It drips into the eardrums and congeals, leaving the listener unable to refuse singing along.
Listen to “Nothing New” below.
Follow our Spotify playlist for more fresh finds.