Pop, Lock & Bops: Best of August 2018

Welcome to Pop, Lock & Bops, a monthly playlist series documenting our favorite windswept country tunes, heartfelt tearjerkers and down-right intoxicating dirty-pop club bangers.

Once a lost art, only found in the annals of time, torch singing has made a resurgence within the past 10 years. From Adele to Lana Del Rey, the kind of soul-stirring, mountain-beckoning wailing of yesteryear is now a staple of the mainstream, on and off terrestrial radio. Borrowing a similar slow-burn imprint, pop newcomer Riley Clemmons drowns out the noise with her high-flying new song “Drop Everything,” the essential cut from her self-titled album, and it not only feelings early 2010s but reaches for James Bond glory. “I just want to be set free,” she sings. The chorus explodes in a true waltz time signature, a rich gospel choir rising and falling down around her and synths swinging from proverbial chandeliers in grandiose, crystalline fashion.

Jessie Meuse was one of few bright spots on the 13th season of American Idol, and we finally have her debut record, Halfhearted, a rock-soaked country album that feels like not only a special moment for country, at large, but for the Texas red-dirt scene. “Relapse” buckles with a glossiness that’s cut with big and smoking electric guitars, a vocal that just won’t quit and enough percussion to send the listener over the edge (in the best possible scenario). Meuse’s adeptness in delivery a clawing lyric packs a punch…right for the jugular.

RØMANS twists the tribal drums with braided vocal distortions with “Glitter & Gold,” affected with synthetic tiger growls, while Jamie Lin Wilson reflects about heart-rending pain on “The Being Gone,” off her new album, Jumping Over Rocks. XYLØ spits and lashes out at an ex in quick and quirky jerks over finger snaps with “I Don’t Want To See You Anymore.” That’s only the tip of the iceberg, leading into splendid entries from Sister Sparrow, Adult Karate, Sarah White, Amanda Shires and lovelytheband.

The latest monthly roundup also includes a smorgasbord of other undeniable talent. Peep songs by Olivia Castriota, Sam Way, Ava Max, Bright Light Bright Light, Allie X, Con Murphy, Lucie Silvas, Loren Cole, Talk Time, Devin Kennedy, Emma Blackery and HOAX, among countless others.

When all is said and done, we’ve got 56 songs to discover over and over again.

Take a spin:

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