The summer wave of releases is over but it didn’t stop us from a particularly busy New Music Friday to close out September. Both of these songs were released on the 27th and entered my rotation pretty much instantly.
The Weeknd ft. Playboi Carti “Timeless“
This song was previewed at The Weeknd’s show in Brazil a couple weeks ago when he brought out Playboi Carti for a surprise guest appearance to perform the song. It features Carti so it immediately blew up and was all over my social media the following day with clip after clip of his verse. Finally a song Carti previews on his own before it gets leaked. If you’re unfamiliar with Carti’s music he is known for his mysterious nature and a cult like following that is ALWAYS leaking his music. He has some weird styles though and I’m not always the biggest fan his music. This song though I can 100% get behind. I like what The Weeknd brings to the song but it’s the Carti verse that keeps me coming back. I’m a sucker for synths and the production with those is so groovy it didn’t take long for me to like the song. Carti’s verse is so simple, especially the rhymes, but I’m glad he didn’t try to do too much on a beat like this. It does kind of bother me that there are probably a bunch of artists that could’ve used that flow and had just as good of a performance. But they weren’t chosen for this song and I can still respect the verse he gives.
Tommy Richman “Whitney“
More and more I’m starting to believe that Tommy Richman is beating the Tiktok artist allegations. We hear it all the time when an artist has such a massive hit on Tiktok that it’s so hard to ever escape from the shadow that song. Even before the release of “Million Dollar Baby” Tommy Richman was facing the allegations saying he was a one trick pony. With the release of his album “Coyote” I feel like he’s proven his ability to reach different sounds. This song is a great example of that. “Whitney” still has that disco sound, but with almost a bit of an indie style to it that I really enjoyed. Sometimes Richman hits this really high and whiney sounding note which isn’t the most desirable sound. I’m sure there’s an audience for it, but it isn’t me. I say that because he does hit that note very briefly in the song, and I also say that to note that even despite that I still really like this song. The production has some pulsations to it where it stops and starts throughout the song and Richman does a really good job navigating it and making it sound good. My favorite part of the song is on the final chorus when he comes in for background vocals with a light “nananana” mixing up the sound of the chorus. I always love when a song changes things up and adds an extra layer to the final chorus to close things out.
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