New Music Friday: 4/5/24

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:

"Cry," Benson Boone
All I really know about Benson Boone is that he has a new album out today and a lot of people have apparently been waiting to hear it — and based on "Cry," I don't begrudge those folks their excitement, although I also have to admit that his sleek, precision-tooled pop nominally reminds me a lot of other hyper-talented young male artists like Jacob Collier, Harry Styles, etc. In other words, I really couldn't pinpoint anything that sets Benson Boone apart from any other act in his demographic, but that doesn't matter much when the music is as immediately ingratiating as this. Songs like this one are made to be enjoyed. Mission accomplished.