• Shaboozey, A Bar Song (Tipsy) (Country)- The winner from the April 22 playlist, is a sing-along barnstormer, which borrows its chorus lyrics from J-Kwon’s 2004 hip-hop hit.  Shaboozey’s name is derived from mispronunciations of his family name, Chibueze while growing up in Virginia as a 2nd generation Nigerian immigrant.  Also a Beyonce collaborator on “Country Carter” and featured on Spider-Man’s “Into the Spider-Verse” Soundtrack (thanks Meredith…), Shaboozey’s newly released “Tipsy” debuted two weeks ago (pre “Tortured Poets”) in the iTunes Top 10- and is already #1 in Canada.  

• Charley Crockett, Midnight Cowboy (Country)- With Crockett’s newly released, “$10 Cowboy” featuring his classic baritone voice, an economical 60’s country sound and an assortment of ramblers, gamblers and hard-livin’ characters, it was difficult to pick just one song from Crockett’s fantastic new LP.  “Midnight Cowboy”, the final song on the LP, is a road song where the protagonist leaves his woman and his baby, with “Starry skies above his head, in front the headlights shine”, backed by a jaunty 60’s Bakersfield sound (think Buck Owens/Merle Haggard).

  Trivia- Charley is a descendant of folk hero, and Alamo defender, Davy Crockett. 

• Stephen Sanchez, The Other Side (Alternative/Pop)- Last week, the 21-year-old Sanchez, who was signed in 2022 after becoming a TikTok singing sensation, released a “deluxe version” of his first album “Angel Face”, which included “The Other Side”.  Sounding like a long-lost son of Roy Orbison, this song continues with the concept of “Angel Face” with the singer (fictional late 1950’s star, Troubadour Sanchez), enticing his Jayne Mansfield-like lover Evangeline, to let him take her to “The Other Side”.

• Dua Lipa, Happy For You (Pop/Alternative)- Fresh off performing this song on the May 4 SNL, Ms. Lipa seems to be channeling another 90’s/00’s British band, Coldplay with the uplifting melodic progression of “Happy For You”.  No wonder the songwriting on this song and “Radical Optimism” is so catchy as Lipa’s co-songwriting collaborators are Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, Danny Harle (from underground hyperpop collective PC Music) and Scandinavian hitmaker, Caroline Ailin.  

• Taylor Swift, The Prophecy (Folk/Pop)- T. Swizzle’s “Tortured Poets Department” is still dominating the music charts- and I’ve had more time to digest the LP.  Frankly, I think the 31-song opus would have benefited from some self-editing, but there are 10+ very good songs on the release- and I agree with Neuphorian JoMo, that the ones co-written with The National’s Aaron Dessner seem best.   While “The Prophecy” is only the 26th most-streamed song on the LP, its simple beauty evokes Sufjan Stevens- no surprise since Stevens and Dessner are frequent collaborators.

• Hayden Everett, Seize the Sun (Folk/Alternative)- Everett is relatively unknown, getting his first acclaim with his performance of a self-written song in UCLA’s Spring Sing (sorry USC Neuphorians).  Those of us Neuphorians who performed in their college Spring Sings did not have similar success- go figure...  “Seize the Sun” is from Everett’s first EP release and channels an easy listening 70’s folk sound, but crescendos into a major sing along hook where Everett claims it is “About time we get back to kissing”.  Hear, Hear!!

• Tems, Love Me JeJe (AfroBeats)- “Love Me JeJe” is the new single from the 28-year-old Grammy and AMA award winning Nigerian Tems and is rapidly moving up the African charts.  Tems unique androgynous voice and freestyling harmonies have established her as a critics’ favorite.  “Love Me JeJe” was from an impromptu post-happy hour recording session with Tems’ non-music friends and gets its name from when one started referencing Seyi Sodimu’s 1999 eponymous African hit. 

• Kendrick Lamar, Meet the Grahams and Not Like Us (Rap)- Kendrick released 3 Drake diss songs on May 4, including “Euphoria” (not to be confused with Neuphoria…), which is not included here. “Meet the Grahams” is addressed to both Drake’s parents and his son addressing Drake’s shortcomings- pretty brutal.  “Not Like Us” has the most staying power, being the #2 most streamed song in the World and accuses Drake’s OVO crew members (acts on his music label) of misogyny against a banger sample from 70’s jazz saxophonist, Monk Higgins that is chopped and sped up so that it is barely recognizable.

  
  

  Note that I added “Not Like Us” on May 12, given it has become the biggest hit of the Drake diss tracks.

• Tommy Richman, Million Dollar Baby (R&B/Rap)- The 24-year-old, Washington DC native, Richman was discovered by Brent Faiyaz in 2023. Currently, the #2 most streamed song in world, the newly released “Million Dollar Baby” has been called a possible 2024 “Song of the Summer” by both Billboard and Complex. A Reddit commentator said “yea this is some top tier funky shit- im gonna keep listening to it til my ears pop”. I couldn't have said it any better.

• The Streets & Overmono, Turn the Page (Electronic)- This is a remake of the lead-off song from the Streets 2002 critically acclaimed seminal UK garage album, “Original Pirate Material”.  This version trades out Mike Skinner’s (aka The Streets) original breakbeats with more current ones from the Welsh DJ brothers, Overmono.  The effect remains powerful.

• Dua Lipa, End of an Era (Dance/Pop)- Since this is the 2nd song of hers on the playlist, seems that we have a Duo Lipa...... While it is still unclear which song(s) from “Radical Optimism” will be the breakout(s), “End of an Era” is a contender. It is now the #1 streamed song in Brazil- maybe due to its breezy sophisticated melody.  As a Dua fanboy, I’m admittedly a sucker for her British-accented talk/rap bridges in this song.

Another reason to like Dua is that she gushes about her parents, regularly bringing them to awards shows (and SNL) which has fostered headlines like People mag's "Dua Lipa's Really Hot Dad Turns Heads at Brit Awards...." https://people.com/music/dua-lipa-hot-dad-brit-awards/

• Jaxomy, Agatino Romero & Raffaella Carra, Pedro (Dance)- Since I’ve just returned from Austria and Slovakia, I’m recognizing this Eastern/Central European smash hit, “Pedro”. No, this isn't a reference to Neuphorian, Pedro Sanchez, but instead, a techno-dance remake of the 1980 hit by the Italian pop culture icon, Ms. Carra and Mr. Romero. This is one of the finer specimens of EuroTrash you'll find as it includes all of the key ingredients; 1) a remake of a vaguely familiar old continental European tune, 2) a shamelessly thumping beat and 3) insane repetition. Mix vigorously and dance! 

• Mdou Moctar, Imouhar (Rock/World)- Warning- for many Neuphorians, this guitar hero platform will not be your cup of tea, but Mdou Moctar’s brand new LP “Funeral for Justice” is regarded as a very important release by critics.  Fresh from his appearance at Coachella, the Nigerien (from Niger, not Nigeria) Muslim Moctar, while influenced by some Western music, is completely unbound by its stereotypes.  He was the subject of a May 4 NY Times article entitled “Mdou Moctar’s Guitar is a Screaming Siren Against Africa’s Colonial Legacy”; it is recommended reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/arts/music/mdou-moctar-funeral-for-justice.html 

While not on the playlist, worthy of mention is last week's release of the first single, “Well, Alright” from an upcoming posthumous Johnny Cash album, which tells a clever story about the singer meeting his love at a laundromat.  The album is comprised of demos that were found by Cash’s son, and then stripped down to just Cash’s vocals and guitar, with the members of Cash’s backing band then adding other instrumentals. 

Happy listening!