This Week’s Music is a weekly column that discusses the weeks’ best, worst, and most interesting songs. We try to select songs of different artists and genres to keep things interesting and to please a variety of music fans.
This week, we feature two pop songs from icon Ariana Grande and former punk princess Avril Lavigne. The first song is great, while the latter is passable. Then there’s Pitbull, who’s the world’s most reliable artist in terms of embarrassment. Check them out:
Pop
Ariana Grande – Imagine
After the record shattering single “Thank U, Next,” Ariana Grande is back with another ear worm, this one more vulnerable and delicate but still managing to sneak in a great beat that doesn’t allow the song to leave your brain for a minimum of a couple of hours. “Imagine” is a fantasy, focused on the beauty of an ideal and perfect love that disregards all problems and realities. It’s a gorgeous and melancholic experience that proves, yet again, that Grande is at the top of her game, bringing to mind the great songs of Mariah Carey and other powerful voices who redefined the genre.
Avril Lavigne – Tell Me It’s Over
Related: This Week’s Music: Grimes, Zolita And Los Unidades
Remember Avril Lavigne? She was a big hit in the 2000’s having a hand in redefining an era of pop and punk music for young women? Yeah, her. Despite the fact that there’s an ongoing conspiracy claiming that Lavigne is dead and that a look alike called Melissa is impersonating her, someone is very alive and making songs in her name. Even though the quality of Lavigne’s content is up for debate, “Tell Me It’s Over” has its moments of enjoyment. They are not many but they’re there in the blues-y rhythms and in her always honest and eager lyrics. After the minute and a half mark I was kind of losing my mind but hey, it’s a vast improvement over her last song.
Hip Hop
Pitbull – Ocean To Ocean (Ft. Rhea)
Where to begin with this? No one would ever believe that the Aquaman movie would feature a song from Pitbull that samples Toto’s “Africa,” yet here we are. “Ocean To Ocean,” Jesus Christ, is a pastiche of rap and awkward tropical music that only offers a break when Rhea sings the original lyrics of “Africa.” Pitbull doesn’t do anything besides pat himself on the back with ridiculous lyrics that proclaim “From ocean to ocean, sea to sea, I’m something you gotta see.” Thank you for ruining a perfectly amazing Karaoke song, Pitbull.
