New Music Friday: 11/15/24

Here are the rules: I listen to all 100 tracks of Spotify's New Music Friday playlist, except for anything that rhymes the n-word with itself more than three times, any screamo or screamo-adjacent stuff, any CCM that reveals its true intentions in time for me to hit the skip button, and any egregiously corny modern country music, typically performed by a dude with two first names. Having sifted through this week's playlist, here's what I actively enjoyed:

"GOT ME GEEKED," Denzel Curry
I think someone's been listening to a lot of "Tha Crossroads," but just because something is a pretty obvious ripoff doesn't mean it can't be entertaining in its own right. I confess I've never listened to any Denzel Curry before, and I'm curious as to whether the rest of it sounds anything like this. Curious enough to investigate on my own? Maybe, maybe not.

"People Watching," Sam Fender
Speaking of obvious ripoffs, there's no getting around the distinct "but we have Brandon Flowers at home" energy coursing through this track — and again, I'm not inclined to dismiss heavy borrowing if the ends justify the means. In this case, I feel like "People Watching" has enough solid pop hooks to support its deeply earnest melodrama, or maybe it's the other way around.