I only have two goals for this series: 1) Introducing the masses to great new music and 2) Giving myself an excuse to listen to every single new release on the Tidal streaming service so I can stay up with new music. Doing this on a weekly basis means that I have a one week window to get this up before the Tidal feed flips to the next set of records, so by posting song reviews rather than full album reviews, it allows me to get more out there and then if you choose to dig deeper, you can.

So… songs of the week for the release date of 2/28/2020.

• Artist: Lil Baby
• Song: “Same Thing”
• Album: My Turn
• Genre: Trap
• Notes: As usual, I listen to everything that comes into my Tidal feed but I probably would have hit this one up anyway as Lil Baby is my 11-year-old son’s favorite artist right now and as a dad, I feel like I have to keep up with my sons shitty taste. (But why can’t I force my son to listen to Huey Lewis & the News with Me?) Not fair. But, well, a lot of Lil Baby’s second album is typical trap but there are a few tracks like this one, that’s actually pretty solid.

• Artist: Ratboys
• Song: “Look To”
• Album: Printer’s Devil
• Genre: Indie Rock
• Notes: I’m not a huge fan of the record as a whole but there are quite a few tracks like this one on it, which take me back to mid-2000s indie rock that I played at the radio station in college.

• Artist: Wrangler
• Song: “Anthropocene”
• Album: A Situation
• Genre: Electronic Post-Punk
• Notes: Wrangler is a project of industrial post-punk legend Stephen Mallinder, of Cabaret Voltaire – it ends up being a quirky electronic project with post-punk influences worked into the minimal nature of his music.

• Artist: Hudson Taylor
• Song: “Back To You”
• Album: Loving Everywhere I Go
• Genre: Pop / Americana
• Notes: Well, they are billed as folk and Americana – maybe that’s true on previous albums but I’ve never heard them so I don’t know. But this album is pretty much all the upbeat moments that make Mumford and Sons good.

• Artist: Four Year Strong
• Song: “Get Out of My Head”
• Album: Brain Pain
• Genre: Pop-Punk/Melodic Hardcore
• Notes: I don’t remember much from this pop-punk band even though this is their seventh record but it’s heavy as hell – much more than typical pop-punk. There’s certainly some hardcore in the mix here as well. I’m always surprised that pop-punk is still a thing in 2020 but here’s a group keeping it fresh.