The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hootie & the Blowfish cover and more new songs
Post Malone, ‘Only Wanna Be With You (Pokémon 25 Version)’
Cut through with a tinny sample from an early Pokémon video game, this Post Malone cover of one of the essential Hootie & the Blowfish songs is both a symbol of the arbitrary cultural detritus that fifth-gear capitalism expels into the world and also an effortless, obvious merger of the roots-rock then and the arena post-rap now that suggests the conditions for this song to succeed have always been with us and will never go away. (You’re welcome?)
Jade Bird, ‘Open Up the Heavens’
English songwriter Jade Bird moves quickly from wistful clarity to raspy ferocity in “Open Up the Heavens,” from the coming album she made in Nashville, Tennessee, with producer Dave Cobb. She’s “alone in the middle of the night” and thinking too hard about a romance gone wrong: “Have you ever known love at first sight / Do you pick the bones of somebody left behind?” A grungy stop-start guitar line pushes toward a chorus with a forthright soul beat as she sings about a drenching thunderstorm that might be all in her head.
Bachelor, ‘Anything at All’
Bachelor is the partnership of Palehound (Ellen Kempner) and Jay Som, two slowburn songwriters who sound like they compounded each other’s daring on their first single, “Anything at All.” They sing about a liaison that could grow passionate or predatory — “She’s forever approaching, I’m forever in dread / Wrap me in silk and bite off my head” — while the track continually builds and bristles, starting with a skulking bass line and peaking with an onslaught of frenetic guitars.
Nick Jonas, ‘Spaceman’
Even a Jonas brother can succumb to COVID-19 malaise and isolation. “Mask off minute I get home / All safe now that I’m alone,” Nick Jonas sings, with reverb placing his voice at a distance; throughout the song, blurred, pulsing chords tick out the time cocooned from what used to be everyday life.
Pop Smoke, ‘AP’
It’s been just over a year since Pop Smoke was killed, but his music never left. It was the persistent, urgent and tense soundtrack to a chaotic 2020, and the new year still feels like his time. This new song — from the soundtrack to the forthcoming film “Boogie,” in which he has a supporting turn — is reassuringly gravelly: “Am I a killer? / Might be.” An anthem for dark summer nights that feel like they’ll never give way to morning.