The Best Three Songs Released This Past Week Pt. 62

I’m back and better than ever!

Noteworthy album and EP releases:
Emotional Creature, Beach Bunny
Egg In the Backseat, Em Beihold
Jamie, Montell Fish
The Last Goodbye, Odesza
Does A Fish Know It’s Wet?, Peach Tree Rascals

In chronological order:

“The 30th” – Billie Eilish
Release Date – July 21

After having a life-altering experience on the 30th of November (year unknown), Billie Eilish and her brother and longtime collaborator Finneas sat down to write a song: one that was the first since writing 2021’s Happier Than Ever.

“I was with Finneas, and I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what you were planning on doing, but we need to write this song about this right now,'” She said.

A song that seemingly sounds like the realization that Billie found out that a loved one was in a horrific car accident. One of Staged Haze’s team members, Emma, pointed out that the songwriting felt similar to Taylor Swift’s “Out Of The Woods:” both tracks feature lyrics that tell a story, eventually building to something frantic at the bridge. The verses and chorus in “The 30th” are melancholy, slow, and quite calm. The bridge is where Eilish spills out her fears and racing thoughts into a few lines:

What if it happened to you on a different day?
On a bridge where there wasn’t a rail in the way?
Or a neighborhood street where the little kids play?
Or the Angeles Crest in the snow or the rain?
What if you weren’t alone? There were kids in the car
What if you were remote? No one knows where you are
If you changed anything, would you not have survived?

“Sadtown USA” – Carol Ades
Release Date – July 22

After a couple listens of this song, I couldn’t quite piece together why the melody sounded so similar, until I realized it! Chloe George (an artist whose viral moment releasing a cover of Kanye West’s “Ghost Town” on TikTok garnered her 63 million streams on Spotify) released a single at the end of 2021 that sounds astonishingly similar, but not to the point of it being, like, a legal issue.

“Sad Town” is 26-year-old Carol Ades’ newest single: FKA Caroline Pennell, a musician who competed on one of the earliest seasons of The Voice at just 17-years-old. Fast forward to present day, and she’s managed to co-write a string of pop songs with artists like Fletcher, Demi Lovato, Joshua Bassett and Selena Gomez: but for now, she’s also working on her own music.

Being sad can feel like you’re stuck in a place where everything makes your bad mood even worse: a sentiment that’s encapsulated perfectly in Ades’ newest song:

Oh where the sky is always gray and the coffee’s always cold
No leaves on the trees and the bars are always closed
I think I hate it here
Where the bus is always late and the sweaters always itch
And your heart hurts bad and the mayor is a bitch

“it’s ok” – Corook
Release Date – July 22

Is there really any better way to bond over the human experience than sharing the things that give you anxiety? I really don’t think so. I only recently discovered that, yet again, another indie singer-songwriter has gone viral on TikTok (I don’t mean to diminish this accomplishment, though it does happen quite frequently), and this time it’s Corook’s new lullably anthem titled “It’s Ok!”

The title of the track is pretty exemplary of the subject matter: it’s okay that we struggle, that we spend way too much empty time scrolling through TikTok, that we know we want to make improvements in our lives but do virtually nothing to actually implement them.