#5. Drake – Toosie Slide

soundcloud.com/octobersveryown

UGH. It’s almost in pain that I post this. I mean wtf is that lyric “basically I’m sayin either way we bout to slide…”. It’s so lazy and IMO ruins what’s legit a pretty sick track. The verses are classic Drake and painfully good. But that chorus is basically just pandering to TikTok (and apparently it’s working – breaking records left and right). I dunno, this coulda been such a good track. Instead it’s kinda “ya ok it’s good but i’m mad at you”.

#4. His Bitter Truth – Planets

instagram.com/hisbittertruth/

Any artist or track endorsed by Ben Macklin is good in my books (even better, this was written and producsed by him!). Some solid electro disco vibes from someone who doesn’t appear to have a Soundcloud or Facebook page…

#3. Aaron Marco – Told You

soundcloud.com/aaronmarco

Catchy Sam Smith-esque pop.

#2. Allan Rayman – I Talk To My Cigarette

soundcloud.com/allanrayman

My relationship with Allan Rayman is complicated. I mean first he doesn’t even know we have a relationship, but we do. Second, I touted him so so so highly to my very music-hip friend when she was visiting, dragged her to his show and it was a complete bomb (partly due to bad sound, meaning he had to go Acapella halfway through, but in general it just was a bad show). And yet, Graceland remains one of my top 5 favorite songs ever probably. I still love his sound, and I Talk To My Cigarette is catchy and clever enough for me to stay interested.

#1. Lauv – Miss Me

soundcloud.com/lauvsongs

Didn’t expect this to be the #1 track when I started out this week but here we are (I’m looking at you Drake… this should be you). It’s just a demo, and I’m really hoping he expands this out a bit to be a 3-4 min track. Nevertheless, the Lauv charm is there in full force.  Dude knows how to write catchy, teenage love pop tracks… and I’m totally here for it.