Intel: 14 Jan 2019
New tunes from Lizzo, Betty Who, and Sam Smith & Normani
This is the first IDOLTHREAT Intel — it’s something we’re trying out to see how it goes down, and we’re thinking it’ll be a Monday morning thing, so you can start your week off with new music you need to be across.
Maybe you’ll like it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
⚡ Priorities
- This Lizzo song has gone the hell off online for the last week or two. It’s super badass, and features the best middle eight to reference one’s DMs you’ll likely ever hear. If you want to be able to say you were one of the first to this song you’re about a week late, but you’ll still be ahead of the general population:
• Betty Who is setting out to make her former label regret ignoring her, and continues to do an excellent job at it. I Remember is definitely what you’d call a bop, and if you are in charge of playing pop music and you’re not playing this you’re just bad at your job.
• Sam Smith and Normani’s song leans pretty heavy onto that Hold On We’re Going Home vibe, which is fine because it worked for Ariana with breathin’.
• The new Broods song Hospitalized is delightfully bonkers. Their new album is called Don’t Feed The Pop Monster, which is an excellent album title.
• Lauren Jauregui’s already very good song is lifted by the outstanding cover art.
- ANYA’s These Days features the best use of strings since Julia Michaels sang about her issues.
- Fleur East is back!
🤷♀️ YMMV
- Walk The Moon’s Timebomb is, off the top of my head, the fifth best song titled Timebomb, behind other songs by Beck, Kylie Minogue, Post Precious, and Tove Lo. This is a highly competitive category though, so you really have to know what you’re doing when you choose to release a song called Timebomb. Top 5 is a solid effort.
- If you liked Imogen Heap’s Hide And Seek, maybe you’ll like Billie Eilish’s new song.
- Bring Me The Horizon have finally finished their transition from metalcore to pop-punk, but you know they’re still exploring their artistry because their new video clip is in 21:9 aspect ratio. Opens with the truly cringey lyric “some people are a lot like clouds, you know / ’cause life’s so much brighter when they go”.
- The Weeknd has also done his new video in 21:9 aspect ratio, which would be noteworthy had it not been attached to his worst song ever — in this one, he sings about a girl who “said [she] might be into girls / said [she’s] going through a phase / keeping [her] heart safe,” then tells her to bring a friend to “ride on top your face while I fuck you straight”.
Your dick ain’t magic, Abel, and historically, people who think their dick is magic have been stupendously wrong, 100% of the time.
Come back when you’re not a total deadshit.
- The new song by Calvin Harris and Rag 'n' Bone Man sounds exactly as you imagine it sounds. The lyric video has been done in 4:3 aspect ratio, due to a black letterbox bar shortage thanks to all the acts who decided to release videos in 21:9 aspect ratio.
- Mike Posner’s done his latest video in 9:16 aspect ratio because fuck you.
I hope he’s doing okay.
- There is a new song out from Sam Spiegel featuring Brazil’s MC Pikachu. Sadly there is no "DEE-JAY KHALED!"-style audio signature from MC Pikachu on the song, so to save you the time I won’t even bother linking to it.
- We don’t deserve Stella Donnelly. What a wonderful human.
Here ends the first IDOLTHREAT Intel. We’re thinking of doing this every Monday morning, or at least, every second Monday morning. Was it any good, or a bit shit? Let us know!
You can hear the best in new music on our Spotify playlist.
