Weekly Winners, Week of 2/7/21 - 2/13/21

 I listened to a lot of albums and EPs this week and… to be honest was pretty let down. Not a lot of quality in what I heard. That being said we got a ton of quality singles, a lot of alternate versions of existing songs, but nonetheless quality. Take this week to listen to some songs and I’m sure we’ll have some good records to come.

Black Sabbath - Vol.4 remastered

Nothing new to report here. A classic ‘72 metal record whose audio has been cleaned up. Give it a go if the history is something you’re interested in and want a gateway into the classics.

Black Dresses - Forever in Your Heart

Managed to sneak in listening to this at the last minute. Black Dresses, a band I thought was defunct, (later turned out that this was true) has come out with this new record that I believe was a surprise. Had no prior experience with the band outside of a feature but this absolutely blew me away.

Dan Campbell - When I Face Into the Wind (Loneliest Place on Earth and Miscellaneous Recordings)

Ever since The Wonder Years’ double single toward the end of last year I’ve been on a huge kick of getting into their old stuff. Nice acoustic single from their vocalist this week that’s a relaxing listen. Seems to be a lot of relaxed tracks this week.

Dua Lipa - We’re Good (Warner)

I was pretty big on Future Nostalgia last year save for some tracks at the end there. This is good but takes a more mainstream approach. Production wise I wasn’t crazy about things like the Sublime samples and just various things like that but overall it was a quick, fun, mostly positive break up song.

Falling in Reverse - I’m Not a Vampire (Revamped) (Epitaph)

The Ronnie Radke experience releases their first track in about a year with yet another remake of one of their classics. Look, this is good but if you heard 2020’s “The Drug in Me is Gold” this is more of the same. That being said it’s more of the same! So if you liked that you’ll probably like this!

Nickelback - Rockstar Sea Shanty [feat. The Lottery Winners]

Alright here me out. This is good. Somehow it’s good. It’s a cash out (albeit a kind of late one) of the recent sea shanty meme boom and Nickleback is mostly absent on the track for being the main artist. Just trust me and give it a shot. It’s only two and a half minutes so it won’t even eat up your time.

Of Mice & Men - Timeless (SHARPTONE)

OM&M’s SHARPTONE debut EP is only a week away and to this point we will have gotten two of the three tracks as singles. So on release only one new one to digest. (Now, I know, I do this a week late.) Still a good song though, sounding more like the stuff on Defy here if you were into that sound.

pulses. - Bold New Taste

It’s pulses., they’re back! The spiritual sequel to last year’s Speak it into Existence, titled Speak Less also comes to us Feb. 26. This ones shorter, faster, even harder than the stuff on the full length and this track in particular gave me a Fall of Troy vibe. They have another track out this week too which I’ll cover in next week’s post.

Rebecca Black - Friday [Dylan Brady remix, feat. 3OH!3, Big Freedia & Dorian Electra]

I think we all remember “Friday” being a meme in 2011 and it left singer Rebecca Black with quite a hard time to deal with. Ten years to the day she releases a new hyperpop edition of the track with a cast of big names in the movement. The track is good but producer Dylan Brady basically just makes it feel like a song from his project 100 gecs. Not saying this is bad but when every track you touch sounds like it could be on your last record it makes me a bit worried for the genre at large becoming stale. That and, look, I love 100 gecs, I appreciate the chipmunk-nightcore vocals but that isn’t what I come to Rebecca for! She’s a super talented singer and she could have made this great. Still a good track, like all the lyrical changes and the sound as a whole. 

Reflections - Cicada

Want to end this week’s post by bringing up this Reflections track. Didn’t like it too much at first but, God, that breakdown really got me. Was really into it after a couple listens.

Other Tracks

Altin Gun - Kara Toprak (ATO Records)

Architects - Meteor (Epitaph)

BABii - Shadow (Gloo)

Cakes da Killa - What’s the Word [feat. Proper Villains] (Ruffians)

Chapel - First Love (Rise Records)

Lacey Sturm - State of Me (Follow Spot Records/The Fuel Music)

Madi Diaz - Man in Me (Anti)

Meet Me @ the Altar - Garden [acoustic version] (Fueled by Ramen)

Neck Deep - What Took You So Long? [acoustic version] (Hopeless Records)

One Morning Left - Sinners Are Winners (Arising Empire)

Phife Dawg - Nutshell Pt. 2 [feat. Busta Rhymes and Redman] (Smokin’ Needles Records)

Trash Boat - He’s So Good (Hopeless Records)