Our (Arguable) Top 10 in Music – Summer Sounds

A column where self proclaimed producer “Jwill” gives his take on the top 10

Image courtesy vibemusicacademy.com

Jack Harrison, Contributing Music Editor

What’s up BHS, have you guys been listening to a lot of music? Back at it with another review of the top 10 in the music.

1) WHERE SHE GOES (Bad Bunny) – It starts out very cinematic and then transitions into a nice bounce with Bad Bunny singing over it. Out of all the songs on this list this one sounds the most professional and is really well done in all aspects. I don’t know what he is saying of course, but I can tell that Bad Bunny took this one seriously and the same goes with the production and mixing.  8/10

2) All My Life  (J. Cole) – This is an interesting one because on this song Lil Durk switches up his usual style of rap, talking about much more positive stuff than he usually does with his normal aggressive style of rapping. The beat is very basic but that actually helps to give a lot of space for Durk as well as J. Cole, who developed a really good verse by switching up his flow a couple times. Both of them have intriguing bars on this. Though the song is pretty thought provoking, personally I wasn’t really feeling the hook with kids’ voices. I get that it works with the theme of the song, but I wish they maybe kept that part at just the beginning and end and had Durk do the hook. It also would have been nice to hear Durk rap a little faster, but it’s an overall good song despite those two downsides.  8/10

3) See You Again (Tyler, the Creator, Kali Uchis) – Not really sure why this song is on the charts since it dropped so long ago, but this was actually one of the first songs I heard from Tyler. Definitely one of my favorite songs from him. Everything in this song has a purpose: A lot of the times mainstream songs are missing that element. The lyrics, beat, the featuring artist and vocal inflections all have their space. Tyler and Kali both bring their best, and it shows on this one. Tyler also produced this song which was pretty surprising to me because the beat might just be the best element in the song.  9/10

4) Cupid – Twin Ver. (FIFTY FIFTY) –  This song kinda just has that “it” factor. It just sticks in your head. Vocals are good, instrumental is good and the mixing is very clean. It doesn’t stick around too long and does its job: a very catchy replayable song.  8/10

5) B*tch Let’s Do It  (YoungBoy Never Broke Again) – Pretty average YoungBoy song. Not amazing but not bad either. I just hope YoungBoy focuses on quality over quantity in the future since he’s dropped 26 albums since 2015, and a lot of them have almost the exact same material with not too many standout songs. I’m not gonna act like I listened to every single album, but I’ve listened to a lot of him and hope he switches it up a bit in the future because this style of rap is starting to get old to me. That being said, the beat and his flow are still good regardless of my qualms with it.  6/10

6) Area Codes (Kali) – What am I really supposed to say about this one? I mean there is pretty much no beat, the lyrics are very basic, and she keeps the same flow pretty much the whole song. Hmmmm. If all of the music on TikTok was represented by one song, it would be this one.  4/10

7) You Proof  (Morgan Wallen) – The thing that stuck out to me about this song is just how catchy it is straight off the rip; no wonder it climbed the charts and stayed on them for awhile. Though most of the song is pretty formulaic, from a producing standpoint, it’s a bit different. The use of hi-hats as well as the kick and bassline which layer on top of each other gives it a nice bounce.  7/10

8) Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift) – This is a pretty good song; not really my taste but it’s pretty catchy. I get why people like it. With a good vocal performance, and with the instrumental having a lot of depth, it really immerses the listener in the song. I also like how the instrumental switches up along with Taylor’s cadence in the bridge.  8/10

9) Search & Rescue (Drake) – I was honestly expecting more from BNYX but he doesn’t do much: He kinda just lets Drake do his thing. Don’t get me wrong. I really like Drake, but he has had much better hits than this one; there’s many songs on his late album Her Loss that I prefer. Despite Drake’s solid vocals and nice flows, I can’t give this one a high score since it’s a “nothing” song.  6/10

10) Flight The Feeling (Rod Wave)   This song was in the charts last week and though I didn’t take too much more away from it, I’ve noticed that the beat has a good bounce and that I looked past Rod Wave’s vocal performance, which is very strong. It sounds like he really put his all into this one.  7/10