Yes please!: Dua Lipa, “Physical” – It is going to be a good few months at the gay club. It is going to be a very good few months at the gay club! Dua Lipa stuns on this track, mostly because she has given me something I genuinely want to dance to—a metric I judge most music by these days. If you have not provided something with which I can boogey down to in the gay club, then what’s the fucking point? Thankfully, “Physical” is immediately danceable, with a middle-eight that features my favorite pop staple (HANDCLAPS!). What else is there to say? And with a Normani collaboration in the works, I have the feeling that Dua Lipa will keep me sweaty and drunk for the better part of the year. I’m not complaining! —Joan Summers
Yes? No? I’m on the fence: Demi Lovato, “Anyone” – Like most pop music fans with a soul, I’m rooting for Lovato. Her journey to sobriety has been paved with missteps, as is any journey to sobriety, and good news is great news. “Anyone” was written days before her 2018 overdose, and that’s probably why it is so hard to hear now; it is the sound of a person who’s lost their way, whose desperation has clouded their vision. In that sense, it lacks nuance, which can make the delivery feel a bit ham-fisted—that’s not to say it isn’t a gorgeous vocal performance. —Maria Sherman
Not really: Hayley Williams, “Leave It Alone” – Last week Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams shared a solo track from her forthcoming solo debut LP. “Simmer” was a giant leap into new sonic territory; Radiohead-channeling soundscapes with momentary blips of ’80s synth-pop syncopation that extend far beyond the confines of Warped Tour. “Leave It Alone” doesn’t hit as hard. The hook leaves much to be desired. I could see this working as an interlude, but if it is meant to be a single, I’m not so sure it works. —MS
Y: Shopping, “For Your Pleasure” – Who knew what I really desired from British post-punk band Shopping was a queer club-ready banger, but one that also interrogates “frustration, the feeling of always wanting more, needing material things to distract or gratify us… It’s about consumerism but also searching for meaning in life,” as the band writes in their press release? This is 2020 in a nutshell. —MS
Yes: SUPER JUNIOR, “2YA2YAO!” – I’m not sure what’s in the water SUPER JUNIOR has been drinking this comeback, but I would like a taste. “2YA2YAO!” is bass-heavy Bruno Mars-cum-Justin Timberlake worship from the year 3000. I love the fact that the song ends with the repetition of “you’re welcome, you’re welcome, you’re welcome,” too, as if they know how grateful I am for such layered, larger-than-life boy band songwriting. —MS
Sure: Taylor Swift, “Only the Young” – Swift’s light protest song (or is it just a song urging youngsters to vote?) might be heavy-handed on Gen Z’s disempowerment and fears (“You go to class scared/Wondering where the best hiding spot would be”), but I’ll give her two cents for the 1989 production here, after the sugary mess that was Lover. —Hazel Cills
Yes? No? I’m on the fence: Demi Lovato, “Anyone” – Like most pop music fans with a soul, I’m rooting for Lovato. Her journey to sobriety has been paved with missteps, as is any journey to sobriety, and good news is great news. “Anyone” was written days before her 2018 overdose, and that’s probably why it is so hard to hear now; it is the sound of a person who’s lost their way, whose desperation has clouded their vision. In that sense, it lacks nuance, which can make the delivery feel a bit ham-fisted—that’s not to say it isn’t a gorgeous vocal performance. —Maria Sherman
Not really: Hayley Williams, “Leave It Alone” – Last week Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams shared a solo track from her forthcoming solo debut LP. “Simmer” was a giant leap into new sonic territory; Radiohead-channeling soundscapes with momentary blips of ’80s synth-pop syncopation that extend far beyond the confines of Warped Tour. “Leave It Alone” doesn’t hit as hard. The hook leaves much to be desired. I could see this working as an interlude, but if it is meant to be a single, I’m not so sure it works. —MS
Y: Shopping, “For Your Pleasure” – Who knew what I really desired from British post-punk band Shopping was a queer club-ready banger, but one that also interrogates “frustration, the feeling of always wanting more, needing material things to distract or gratify us… It’s about consumerism but also searching for meaning in life,” as the band writes in their press release? This is 2020 in a nutshell. —MS
Yes: SUPER JUNIOR, “2YA2YAO!” – I’m not sure what’s in the water SUPER JUNIOR has been drinking this comeback, but I would like a taste. “2YA2YAO!” is bass-heavy Bruno Mars-cum-Justin Timberlake worship from the year 3000. I love the fact that the song ends with the repetition of “you’re welcome, you’re welcome, you’re welcome,” too, as if they know how grateful I am for such layered, larger-than-life boy band songwriting. —MS
Sure: Taylor Swift, “Only the Young” – Swift’s light protest song (or is it just a song urging youngsters to vote?) might be heavy-handed on Gen Z’s disempowerment and fears (“You go to class scared/Wondering where the best hiding spot would be”), but I’ll give her two cents for the 1989 production here, after the sugary mess that was Lover. —Hazel Cills
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