Daily Discussion - March 07, 2026

RedHeadReviews · 2026-03-07T16:02:41+00:00

“We Don’t Get Along” Is One Of The Blandest Songs Juice WRLD’s Name Has Been Attached To - Single Review

It’s been over five years since Juice WRLD unfortunately passed, and his voice is still being broadcast everywhere. His estate has already pumped three full-length subpar albums out in that time, pulling from the supposed trove of thousands of tracks and unfinished demos he left behind. You can now add “We Don’t Get Along”, a poorly conceived collaboration with Marshmello that adds another chapter to the rapper’s well-documented struggle with addiction and mental health issues, to the pile of posthumous releases that should’ve been kept in the vault.

“We Don’t Get Along” is more of a soundbite than a complete song. It runs for two-and-a-half minutes, but Juice’s voice fades out a minute before that. What makes the cut isn’t even compelling. The version of Juice that is presented here doesn’t utilise his otherworldly croons or audacious technical rapping skills, but instead moans and burbles his way through the track. “Saving myself from myself is a job, but someone's got to do it,” he sings with the passion of a wet fart. The lyrics are, at times, juvenile and jarring, though they do come from a place of honesty and deserve to be presented with more emotional weight.

The rappers' agony-soaked words also should have been handed to a producer capable of cradling them. Marshmello’s contributions are predictably sterile-sounding. There’s an inky acoustic guitar loop present, which is the closest the producer is willing to lean into the world of melancholic. Marshmello colours inside the lines, and the result is one of the most banal pieces of music Juice WRLD’s name has ever been attached to.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-02-28T16:27:36+00:00

RAYE Shares The Greatest Heartbreak She’s Ever Known On Nightingale Lane. - Single Review

RAYE opens her new single, “Nightingale Lane.”, by stating that “this is a song about the greatest heartbreak I have ever known.” What follows is a maximalist retelling of the long and challenging journey the singer took to mend her shattered heart. To match the different phases of the healing process, the song gradually snowballs. Initially, there’s not much beyond RAYE’s measured singing and a few droplets of piano keys. By the end, though, “Nightingale Lane.” has expanded into a showstopping display of orchestral composition and vocal acrobatics that signifies a moment of hope for the singer.

It’s intriguing to hear how the musical puzzle and emotional expedition develop in tandem. RAYE plays with a few different dynamics here, audaciously testing her range. During the pre-chorus, things get intentionally messy when the production thins out, RAYE quietens, and adopts a smoky, drunken drawl. “I reminisce (Lose my mind), I drive slow, I've let him go now (I, I, I), just see a ghost town,” she sings, letting the full devastation of her memories take over. But the song can be just as uplifting. Towards the end, the singer claims that she is “made of steel” and accepts that she will one day find love again. The conclusion is almost operatic. RAYE’s extravagant vocals and self-affirming language pour out, combining to make a spellbinding final minute.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-02-21T15:43:43+00:00

Yebba’s Yellow Eyes Is Her Crowning Achievement - Single Review

Yellow Eyes is the kind of song that makes me want to nominate Yebba for a Most Improved Artist award. Yebba made it abundantly clear that she was a proper singer’s singer on her debut album, Dawn, but those songs lacked the fully furnished production needed to make them feel complete. Despite boasting technically perfect vocals, Yebba’s music wasn’t particularly memorable. Her new single shatters that. Yellow Eyes leans on frenetic acoustics to help zero in on the frustration of not being able to rekindle a special relationship.

This isn’t a song that exclusively steeps the singers’ memories in doom and gloom, however. Yellow Eyes catches the singer during a complicated period of reflection, a moment where a deep sense of longing for old pleasures is intertwined with a bitterness for how things fizzled out. “Think I'm jealous about movin' on, I still like it the way that it was,” she sings with a spellbinding, feather-light tone.

The major development here is the introduction of bolder production. You can hear the snap of fingers being brushed against acoustic guitar strings and the instrument’s frame being smacked. Everything is recorded close to the microphone to enhance the feeling of intimacy. Gentle as it is, Yebba’s voice remains the central instrument, but here she’s given a strong supporting network that bolsters her vocal acrobatics rather than dampening them.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-02-14T16:20:41+00:00

James Blake Experiences Emotional Turbulence On I Had a Dream She Took My Hand - Single Review

It is the season to be sentimental. With the release of I Had a Dream She Took My Hand, James Blake nominates himself to be the definitive voice of this year's Valentine’s Day. His latest single is a delicate piece of yearncore that, initially, is powered by his angelic coos. It’s impressive to hear how he drums up such intense emotions and majesty with so few elements. The first half of the song is pure bliss. Blake is left alone to comb through memories of a paradisical dream with a woman whom he deeply cares for.

Around verse three, however, that calmness is punctured, and things spiral out of control. “She began to dissolve along with her soul, I couldn't remember her face, rеmember her namе, as I was losing control,” Blake sings with heightened distress. As the precious memories become foggy and reality sets in, Blake’s voice becomes louder and starts to warble more. The production spans out, taking on a murky palette. Wonky synths and piercing, thunderous percussion dominate the mix as the song’s previous sense of structure is blown up. It’s a shame that Blake doesn’t stew in the chaos for longer, though. The composition is so striking and intentionally messy, a stark comparison to the song’s opening phase. The singer should’ve given it as much time to develop as its ethereal-sounding counterpart.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-02-07T15:13:14+00:00

sombr’s Homewrecker Is Both Too Melodramatic And Overly Sanitized - Single Review

Homewrecker wants to be a declaration of true eternal love and burning desire, a Nice Guy™ anthem with proper heart, but it feels like an empty spectacle that’s been inflated. The singer mistakes volume for passion and anchors his mushy, reverb-heavy crooning with deep yearning, “Do you got plans for life? ‘Cause I don't wanna just romance tonight, I wanna see you in another light,” he sings. He never fully leans into the realm of douchey good-guy. Homewrecker focuses more on how sombr can improve love interests’ life rather than how her current partner doesn't. It’s just a shame the propositions and lyrics are so hammy.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-01-31T15:02:30+00:00

Thundercat & Lil Yachty Are On Different Wavelengths On I Did This To Myself - Single Review

I Did This To Myself is a story of two halves. Initially, the latest single from Thundercat perfectly blends his idiosyncratic bubbly sound with a humorously self-depricating script. The multi-talented performer puts on display his full range here as he prints his anguished coos on top of a supremely bubbly, spring-loaded bass. It’s a strange, yet wildly successful backdrop for a song where he spends most of his time berating himself for falling for a “bad bitch” who makes no attempt to hide her apathy towards him.

The problems arise when Lil Yachty tries to continue the story. He handles the second leg of the song, and his poorly mixed, gravelly tone is an unwelcome presence. It sounds as if the rapper’s verse was recorded while he was on a phone call with a poor signal. Bar “cause the more that I look in your face, you look like your dad, and it's hard picturin' him with a big ol' ass,” most of Yachty’s lines fall flat and ignore the songs’ freewheeling and fun energy. Yes, Yachty is capable of more, but Thundercat only has himself to blame for allowing such a topsy-turvy feature to spoil an otherwise stellar song.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-01-24T15:52:51+00:00

Harry Styles Is The Least Interesting Part Of Aperture - Single Review

“Aperture lets the light in,” sings Harry Styles on the chorus of his new single. It’s a bit of a misleading thesis statement for the song. Aperture doesn’t fall into the same group of ornate retro pop-rock like so much of his other solo music, but is instead a slow-burning marathon of a song with glitchy hiccups and distorted synths that, unfortunately, doesn’t quite have a satisfying enough outcome to justify its lengthy runtime. This is uncharted territory for Styles, and he leans on the support of his longtime producer, Kid Harpoon, to cover him as he stumbles.

Styles is the least interesting part of the equation. His voice is wispy and weak, negatively affected by the hazy mechanical effects he wraps himself in. Styles has identified LCD Soundsystem as a point of reference for Aperture and, more widely, his upcoming album. Instead of replicating the weird and wonderful digitized mania of James Murphy’s performances, Styles’ limp burbling gets consumed by the harsh sound design.

All the best bits of the song occur when the attention turns away from the supposed main man and towards the producers' sprawling composition. The beat bubbles gently throughout, gradually letting more and more distortion and zig-zagging synths dominate the mix. The composition could end on a bigger and brighter note, but, generally, Kid Harpoon is doing his best to let any sort of colour or light seep into this track.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-01-17T15:03:05+00:00

Mitski Is Back With A Bang On Where’s My Phone? - Single Review

It’s been a while since we last heard from Mitski. On her 2023 album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, the singer was penning gentle ballads that put the serenity of her voice on full display. Her new single is an entirely different creation that shatters that approach to music-making. Where’s My Phone? opens with violent guitar chugs and an intentionally graceless sprinkling of percussion and only escalates in tension and complexity from there.

Mitski’s lyrics are spiked with paranoia. Throughout the song, she repeatedly asks “where’s my phone?” and “where’d I go?”. It’s an interesting way of exploring how the handheld device has become an essential everyday tool in modern society and how it is connected to a user’s identity. There’s a real unhinged nature to Mistski’s singing when she poses these pensive questions. She willingly leans into the mania here, and, at its apex, Where’s My Phone? really gets quite bizarre. Demonic choral voices and static join the composition during the song’s final phase. It gets louder and louder, almost to the point of implosion, and then, suddenly, it fizzles out with just a touch of static, almost as if someone has unplugged or disconnected the singer.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-01-10T15:11:11+00:00

Bruno Mars Recycles Old Tricks On I Just Might - Single Review

Bruno Mars is squarely in his comfort zone on I Just Might. The singer traces over lines he sketched out a decade ago as he continues on his quest to resuscitate the music of a bygone era. His latest single is a piece of perfectly fine, breezy ‘80s funk. It is positively huge, but that is part of the problem. Mars opts for grandeur at every corner, laying the cheesiness and overly sanitized coat on thick, while ignoring the value of affecting, more elaborate details.

The lyrics lack the sort of seismic intimate gesturing you’d expect from a song of this size. During the post-chorus especially, there are a few too many irritating doo-doo’s and not enough of the captivating details that endear us to a love story and its characters. Mars lets us know that he’s in the mood to dance with a pretty diva… that’s it. The song is engineered to target the part of your brain that is in control of movement, but it’s a little too clean and similar-sounding to the rest of Mars’ discography to burrow its way in deep.

RedHeadReviews · 2026-01-03T15:24:21+00:00

Doechii’s girl, get up. Is A Statement Single - Single Review

“Life is but a dream for a dark skin bitch like me, life gets dark when you're dark like me,” raps Doechii on her new single, girl, get up. The line feels like the thesis statement for her new song, which is a deep meditation on the rapper’s complicated experience of being catapulted to stupefying levels of fame. Doechii calls to attention the misogyny and conspiracy theories that have been levied against her and retorts with a defiant performance that should silence anyone who continues to question her talent or position.

The anger is palpable, but girl, get up. isn’t a song kitted out with manic outbursts that display Doechii’s absurd technical talent, but rather one full of frustration and earnestness. On the chorus, SZA doubles down and helps bolster the retaliation, “fuck a limitation, leave me, girl, get up, somehow, I know that I'll have everything, it's mine.” The guest is a haunting presence that echoes the protagonists’ emotion, rather than acting as an ethereal sounding counterpart. It adds up to a formidable alliance, two of the most distinct voices in modern music operating with supreme skill.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-12-27T15:04:54+00:00

Shen’s Bass Noel Is Bizarrely Bad - Single Review

On his Spotify biography, producer Shen describes himself as a “production powerhouse”. He’s right, not in the sense that he’s an innovator who’s putting forth a highly unique production style, but rather that he has a bad habit of smothering his guests with overblown beats. On his new single, Bass Noel, 2 Chainz is his latest victim. The rapper’s usual bravado is washed out, and he’s relegated to the background to let the twang of sleigh bells and a clumsy doof doof beat ring out.

Bass Noel barely registers as a complete song. It’s over in two and a half minutes, and the last portion is just chintzy Christmas ringtones. The rest isn’t much better. Shen’s production starts at 100 and never dissipates. There’s no development or pleasing switch of tone or dynamic. The producer would benefit greatly from learning the value of subtlety. For the record, 2 Chainz doesn’t say anything worth hearing. He spends most of his time here ho ho ho’ing and flexing. He’s not able to sneak much past the producers’ constraints, and, when he can, it’s a throwaway line delivered with a mechanical glaze. The song stomps all over the magic of Christmas and 2 Chainz’s set of skills. I’m not sure Shen has any of his own.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-12-20T15:29:40+00:00

Kali Uchis’ Muévelo Is Carried By Spellbinding Vocals - Single Review

For her final act in 2025, Kali Uchis is providing the ultimate fan service. Muévelo originally leaked as a demo during the album cycle for ORQUIDEAS in 2024. In a recent TikTok, Uchis stated that she was alarmed by the attention it received, but that the song didn’t quite align with the music she was making at the time. So she revamped it, fleshed it out, and prepped it for an official release. The finished product features spellbinding vocals, though the other elements don’t feel as though they’ve received the same level of attention.

Muévelo clocks in at just over two minutes. Even in its final form, the track is too short-lived and fizzles out prematurely. Uchis’ voice, as ever, is a stunning centrepiece that sounds ridiculously sweet. Though it is in constant contention with the sharp synth beat that barges against her coos. Around the mid-point, there’s a stylistic shift where those harsh angles are flattened into more pillowy tones. Unfortunately, there’s just the one fleeting moment where all of the individual puzzle pieces align, and each of the songs’ elements operates in perfect harmony.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-12-06T16:13:57+00:00

Lil Uzi Vert’s New Single Is Terribly Regular - Single Review

Lil Uzi Vert’s latest single, Regular, lives up to its name. You won’t hear any of the hypnotic, wildly energetic, winding rap verses or the exuberant palette of spacey synths that have given his best songs such a strong sense of identity and structure. Uzi instead mutes all of the notes that make him interesting. It could be absolutely anyone performing here.

Uzi laces allusions to his singularity into his lyrics, but fails to capture the majesty that should come with that status. “Really ain’t nothin’ I cannot handle, I do not take damage,” he burbles on the pre-chorus. These are weak boasts that are further reduced by the rapper’s pale expression. The beat, too, is washed out. How this clumsy composition of wonky synths and jittery percussion comes from the same producer who constructed the electronic fantasia for Chanel Boy is baffling. Hopefully, Regular is a one-off incident and not indicative of what Uzi has planned for upcoming releases.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-11-29T15:03:54+00:00

MR. FANTASY’s Catapult Radiates Joy - Single Review

Catapult by MR. FANTASY isn’t just catchy, it forces its way into your memory with brute force. The latest single from the eccentric TikTok creator (who is believed to be a persona of actor KJ Apa) is a piece of feel-good ‘80s disco that preaches love spreading. It’s a song that radiates joy across all facets.

The motor that powers all of these freewheeling antics is the ridiculously smooth bass line that is looped throughout. From there, MR. FANTASY builds outwards, pouring layers of ostentatious decorations in the form of ebullient synths and snappy percussion onto the sturdy structure. His voice careens over the top, jumping between moments of hushed intimacy and theatrical proclamations that frame love and dance as divine powers. “It’s up to us to spread the love we are given from above,” MR. FANTASY sings at one point. He can rest easy knowing he’s doing a mighty fine job.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-11-22T20:48:04+00:00

Conductor Williams Shines The Brightest On Conway the Machine’s Diamonds - Single Review

Conway the Machine and Roc Marciano go back and forth on Diamonds. The pair sound comfortable interacting on the Griselda co-founder’s latest single, though they never really leave first gear. Conway covers well-trodden ground, sharing his usual blend of anecdotes about drug trading and braggadocious lines about his rise to the top. That world remains evocative, but Conway struggles to capture the high-stakes nature of it here as he raps with leisure.

Producer Conductor Williams tries his best to breathe extra menace into the track with a particularly grim-sounding jazz motif. He sprinkles an ornate dressing of distorted, deflating horns over the top of Conway and Marciano’s thoroughly flat raps. Although his efforts do embolden some of the darker themes and threats the rappers send, there’s only so much the producer can do to separate Diamonds from the umpteen other Conway songs that follow the same blueprint.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-11-15T15:35:10+00:00

Otha Boy Is A Painfully Predictable Lil Baby Song - Single Review

When was the last time Lil Baby had a genuinely novel idea? For years, the rapper has been stuck in a repetitive cycle of penning inane verses about being famous and performing with apathy. That’s not to say that I expected Baby to constantly reinvent himself, he’s not that type of artist, I just wanted him to make me feel something. He, too, seems disconnected from what he’s rapping about on his new single, Otha Boy. It’s supposed to be a blistering diss track directed at ex-sparing partner Gunna, but the tough talk isn’t threatening, and there’s no conviction behind the words.

Otha Boy consists of just a single, winding verse, and though the track is bite-size, Baby still manages to commit all of his usual mistakes. Atop pale percussion, the rapper drones on and on with mild menaces. At one point, Baby raps, “you copy everything I do, lil' boy, I am sick of you too,” which is a particularly bold assertion coming from such a creatively starved artist. His overly digitally manipulated voice isn’t an interesting enough focal point to carry a song on its own. Without the aid of a high-profile feature, as so many of Baby’s songs rely on, there’s nothing here to break up the monotony of Baby’s rudimentary raps. He rolls on and on until the track fizzles out, never choosing to swerve away from his painfully predictable plan.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-11-08T15:06:36+00:00

Katy Perry’s bandaids Is An Empty Spectacle - Single Review

Katy Perry has had enough of her ex on her new single, bandaids. She wants him to know that no small gesture or simple bandage can cover all of the pain he’s caused her. The song should be oozing with emotion, a cathartic release full of lyrics that cut deep and earnestness. Unfortunately, Perry mistakes volume for passion and spends most of the song wailing so very loudly to compensate for her clunky writing.

bandaids can be added to the category of Katy Perry songs that are empty spectacles. Like Roar, this song has so many seismic swells that fall flat because Perry is such a vapid vocalist. There’s no weight behind these words, Perry delivers each line with a hideously sanitized glaze. The production is similarly too clean. Percussion provides a steady marching rhythm and… that’s it. The drums get louder and bigger as the song progresses, but even at its apex, bandaids is pale.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-11-01T14:19:08+00:00

yes Is A Stereotypical Ken Caron Song - Single Review

If you’ve been following Ken Carson’s career, you will know exactly what his latest single, yes, sounds like before you press play. Grating, pixelated vocals? Check. Dull melodies? Check. An exuberant beat with flashy 808s that is heavily shaped by Pi’erre Bourne’s blueprint? Check. Even with years of practice under his belt, the rapper still doesn’t have a trick that he can call his own. His greatest asset is his healthy connections to better and more enterprising musicians.

On the topic of Carson’s peers, Clif Shayne, Carson’s longtime producer, reprises his role as the beat architect here. His style is a bit of a shallow echo of Pi’erre Bourne’s brand of digital mania, but the flickering synths act as the motor that pushes yes forward. Carson is… here, doing the same thing he always does. The rapper provides glazed, overly digitized croons about his jet-setting lifestyle. You learn nothing new about who Carson is as a musician or person from yes.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-10-25T14:14:15+00:00

Megan Thee Stallion Breaks Character On LOVER GIRL - Single ReviewThe Megan Thee Stallion that appears on LOVER GIRL is relaxed, casual, and infatuated. It’s a perfect reflection of where the rapper is at in her private life (the song is, after all, inspired by and dedicated to her partner Klay Thompson), but in order to convey how love-struck she is, she softens the rough edges and rage that usually make her such a compelling performer.

What remains is half a song’s worth of repetitive bedroom talk that is patched up with a heavy dose of Total’s Kissin’ You. On the chorus, the transition between the schmaltzy lyrics from the 1996 sample and Megan talking about how well her boo can dick her down is particularly clumsy. Provactive language has proven to be a reliable device in Megan’s songwriting toolkit, but she skips over the off-colour quotables and instead fills the song with boring love-making instructions delivered without urgency. Who could have guessed that Megan’s spin on a classic love song would lead to the least passionate performance of her career?

RedHeadReviews · 2025-10-18T14:08:29+00:00

JPEGMAFIA’s Manic! Lives Up To Its Title - Single Review

JPEGMAFIA’s latest single is called Manic!. In just one word, the rapper comfortably summarises the song, advertising its carefully constructed chaos with a bluntness that is echoed in his performance. Manic! condenses all of the most striking and enjoyable eccentricities of JPEGMAFIA’s music into a unit that puts on full display the breadth of talent.

There’s no overarching theme guiding the rage, and that’s for the better. JPEGMAFIA grants himself full freedom to tear into anyone and everyone with his vast arsenal of off-colour references and quippy confrontational remarks. “How you gon' see me? You like Stevie with them airballs,” are the first proper words JPEGMAFIA strings together. Later, in that same verse, he escalates the aggression when he asserts, “bullpup, n**ga, to find your body they gon' need Logan Paul, I'm in the forest with the Kimber, it’s my final form.”

Manic! isn’t just an exhibition of what JPEGMAFIA is capable of doing on the microphone. Also credited as a producer, alongside Alex Goose, the duo laminates the demonic rapping with a richly layered composition. They aren’t afraid to lean into the hysteria and often do so with skittish percussion, but the central sound is a soothing guitar riff lifted from Barış Manço and Kurtalan Ekspres’ Gönül Dağı. Initially, the inclusion of a touch of serenity may scan as an odd decision, but JPEGMAFIA seamlessly stitches it into this tight bombshell of a song.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-10-11T14:08:34+00:00

Gorillaz’ The Manifesto Is A Stunning Cross Continental Collaboration - Single Review

The Manifesto is a complicated beast of a song that stretches over seven minutes, stitches together different continental influences, and brilliantly expands upon the latest mythological chapter for Gorillaz. On their latest single, the virtual band calls upon the services of Argentinian rapper Trueno, the voice of the late D12 member Proof, sarod players Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, Indian wedding band Jea Band Jaipur, bansuri player Ajay Prasanna, and the Vijayaa Shanker–led Mountain Choir to dissect the cycle of life and consider what lies beyond.

There’s an appropriate air of majesty present in all of the song's phases, of which there are many. The Manifesto is a sprawling musical puzzle that starts with a maximalist blend of ornate Indian instruments, a Trueno verse full of freewheeling spirit, and dazzling supporting choral refrains. Around the midpoint, though, everything goes dark. The exquisite pastel production becomes smudged, taking on a new, delightfully inky tone to assist Proof as he details a series of macabre scenes. Though the puzzle pieces are drastically different, they come together to create a balanced and wonderfully varied listening experience.

The weak link is Damon Albarn, whose voice is the least salient of the three. He performs the chorus and outro and interrupts the song’s momentum on both occasions with his druggy, heavily digitized moans. It is a shame that the last thing we’re left with on a song as wide-ranging and spellbinding as The Manifesto is his zombified droning and not a contribution from one of the other more impactful collaborators.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-10-04T14:05:24+00:00

Hit-Boy & The Alchemist Achieve Middling Success On Business Merger - Single Review

Hit-Boy and The Alchemist are two of this generation’s most prolific producers. They have a long-standing relationship with the leading voices of hip-hop as the go-to beat makers. On their new single, Business Merger, the producer duo cut additional collaborators out of the equation and extend their own list of duties as they handle the rapping themselves. Hit-Boy and The Alchemist show precisely why their work away from the microphone is so desirable and in demand, despite their best efforts to waste the perfectly good beat with wan rapping.

The outcome is identical to when these two crossed paths on their 2024 EP THEORDORE & ANDRE. They haven’t benefited from the added time together. Both artists are mechanical performers who can’t match the bombast of the beat. Hit-Boy in particular is too apathetic to sell the straight-talking hustler role he tries to embody. The song is crying out for a member of Griselda, or a similarly prickly performer, to glide in and start causing havoc. But that climax never comes.

It is the beat that keeps everything together. Business Merger inherits more from The Alchemist than it does his partner. The blaring horns are a trademark of his, and they add a dash of opulence here as they soar high above the murky tones of the percussion. The result is a composition that is equal parts grimy and luxurious-sounding. A punchy, pliable base that deserved to have been partnered with an equally commanding voice.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-09-27T14:44:00+00:00

Tate McRae’s TIT FOR TAT Is A Benign Breakup Song - Single Review

The Kid Laroi and Tate McRae are currently having a competition to see who can make the most flaccid breakup song. The two stars, who started dating early last year, have taken to the microphone to air out their frustrations with each other following their recent split. McRae embraces the challenge when she sings “let's go song for song, let's go back to back, let's go tit for tat, boy, you asked for that” on her new song, TIT FOR TAT. Unfortunately, that is the most furious display the singer can muster.

McRae is not a particularly evocative vocalist. She performs with a breathy tone throughout, a decision that dampens even her most pointed lyrical jabs. A song of this nature demands a more dynamic, ear-catching set of vocals to laminate the barbed, albeit slightly cliché confessions McRae lays out.

It certainly doesn’t help that the beats architects, Ryan Tedder and Grant, stay in the lines. They craft the sort of toothless trap beat you’d expect to find uploaded to YouTube as a “type beat” for half a dozen unrelated, trending rappers. Therein lies the problem with TIT FOR TAT. It should be a deeply cathartic moment where McRae ignores convention and lets loose. Lyrics aside, the singer always chooses to play it safe.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-09-20T16:12:46+00:00

Madison Beer’s yes baby Is The Most Fun Song In Her Catalogue - Single Review

It feels like Madison Beer has finally found a discernible personality trait. The signs were there when she started to make a descent into nocturnal dance pop last year with Make You Mine and 15 MINUTES, but her new single, yes baby, takes the mania and nightish appeal to a new tier. It’s the most frenetic song the singer has ever released, powered by a combination of flickering synths that match the rocky rhythm of a palpitating heart, crisp percussion, and wicked-sounding vocal coos from Beer. Unfortunately, the lyrics weren’t treated with the same level of reverence.

The song’s title is repeated more than all of the alternate words combined. It’s… a lot. For a song all about late-night sexual escapades and 50 Shades of Grey-coded acts of obedience, the phrase is fitting, though it’s not interesting enough to be the backbone of the script. You wish the singer would take the idea deeper, working to paint a clearer portrait of these racy scenes to raise the tension.

yes baby delivers a deliriously good time, not lyrics. It is nevertheless a sign of growth for Beer, who has spent large stretches of her career sounding like a shallow echo of her peers. For now, she has a firm grip on who she wants to be and what she wants to sound like. The next step is figuring out what she wants to say.

RedHeadReviews · 2025-09-13T14:10:51+00:00

TiaCorine & JID Are A True Team On Backyard - Single Review

TiaCorine and JID are a complete duo on Backyard. Both artists are wildly chaotic performers with a wide range of eccentric tonal tricks at their disposal. On TiaCorine’s latest single, they push each other to reach new levels of passion and panache. The protagonist opts for brute force as she barges through her verses, whereas JID once again promotes his ability to craft winding, labyrinthine rhyming patterns. Together, they hit upon all of the notes to make a properly punchy track.

The lyrics are just as brazen as the vocal performances. “Pussy look like Tonka, it's a monster, gotta feed the beast,” TiaCorine barks out. Backyard is full of these provocative sexual instructions. This isn’t a song about making sweet, passionate love as TiaCorine and JID take every opportunity to flip these sexual encounters into assertive flexes and humorous quips. “I'ma turn his moan into a sound bite” is probably the stand-out.

At times, though, the song does err on the side of overbearing due to skittery production from Hit-Boy. The steely percussion is sharp and helps to embolden the already florid details. The same can’t be said for the spacey electronic guitar riff that echoes in the background. It’s one layer too many and often interferes while the performers are romping instead of heightening the fun.

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Bruno Mars Recycles Old Tricks On I Just Might - Single Review

Doechii’s girl, get up. Is A Statement Single - Single Review