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Selena Gomez’s Bad Liar: a hypnotic banger of a track

TRACK OF THE WEEK

Selena Gomez
Bad Liar

Former Disney star Selena Gomez wants you to think she’s sexy now; you can tell because she’s doing a croaky whisper, like a phone-sex operator dying for a cuppa. Bad Liar is about trying not to obsess over an ex, and the insistent repetition of “I’m trying/ I’m trying/ I’m trying” is catchy as hell. A total banger, and one of the only pop songs you’ll hear this year that references Greek mythology (“Just like the battle of Troy/ There’s nothing subtle here”).

Royal Blood
Hook, Line and Sinker

Stand back, hot take coming in: Royal Blood make a shedload of noise, don’t they? Hook, Line and Sinker sounds as if it should be accompanied by your mum yelling up the stairs to turn that racket off and come down for tea and don’t make her come up there. Well guess what, Mum? You live an hour away and you can’t tell me what to do because I RENT MY OWN FLAT NOW!

Liam Payne
Strip That Down

Finally, we have the full house of One Direction solo singles, all in totally different musical genres, presumably picked out of a hat on the last day of the farewell tour so there was no overlap between them. Liam got “radio-friendly R&B” so here we are with the by-the-numbers Strip That Down, which has an Ed Sheeran co-write (tick!), an appearance by Quavo from Migos (tick!), and obligatory lyrics about sippin’ Bacardi in the club (tick!). It’s fine, literally fine, and you’ll hear it once an hour on the radio from now until September so get used to it.

Haim
Want You Back

Haim are back, sounding like they’ve done nothing in their two-year break except listen to Fleetwood Mac and get really good at coordinated handclaps. In Want You Back, as the lyrics explain, Haim want you back. Yes, they ended things before but they think they’ve pulled it together now so ... worth trying again? Maybe? Sorry Haim: that’s not good enough.

Chase and Status and Blossoms
This Moment

The unexpected musical pairing we really wanted, rather than the one we got at this year’s Brit awards (Coldplay and the Chainsmokers – why?), this is a 100% guilty pleasure, slop-a-warm-Tuborg-into-your-own-hair-at-a-festival tune. Weirdly, it also sounds exactly like the music Hard-Fi would be making if they were still around in 2017.