Welcome to “Cut Through the Noise,” an Entertainment column from the St. Louis Park Echo covering new music releases. Every week, a different Echo staffer takes on the role as writer, reviewing recent single releases from a variety of artists.

“Shoota” – Playboi Carti (featuring Lil Uzi Vert): ★★★★☆

With Playboi Carti’s first official studio album “Die Lit,” after several mixtapes, Carti brings no surprise with an album full of bass boosted bangers. “Shoota” is a colorful piano backed beat with a later heavy distorted bass. No signals are given that “Shoota” is a Carti song until the song’s halfway point. With Lil Uzi Vert leading “Shoota” it sounds way more like a Carti feature than a Carti song. Although being misled, a more lighthearted beat with Carti’s usual bass works very well opposed to his usual darker beats. and I would hope to hear more in the future. The lyrics are nothing deep, but no one is expecting anything revolutionary or thought provoking from Playboi Carti and most listeners are just looking for turn up songs. I surprisingly really enjoyed this song and will be a go-to upbeat hype song.

“Future Me Hates Me” – The Beths: ★★★★☆

Randomly stumbling on this song on Radio K, I was blown out of the water. “Future Me Hates Me” is a great example of what the Alternative genre can be. With the fuzzy driven opening paired with vocalist Elizabeth Stokes soft thoughtful vocals covering themes of heartbreak and self-acceptance rounding off the song nicely.  Stokes talks about “future heartbreaks, future headaches,” and “future me hates me more and more” that allows the audience to empathize with her struggles. As the song progresses, backing vocals give the lyrics a more layered feel. I really enjoyed this song for it’s hard-hitting guitar licks and relatable lyrics definitely landing a place in my summer playlist.

“Dark Spring” – Beach House: ★★★☆☆

“Dark Spring” from Beach House’s most recent album “7” is a perfect example of that dream pop, floating through space aesthetic they are best known for. Formerly hearing about the band through a song called “Space Song,” Beach House brings an even more open sound with vocals covered in reverb and echo. “Dark Spring” experiments with slowly moving, drone like synths paired with hard hitting drum beats and cymbals crashes giving that illusive feel not relying on time, letting the song progress as it wishes. “Dark Spring” is well put together and has a very full sound with a lot of likeable aspects but not something I would commonly listen to as I tend to lean more towards lyrical songs. For that reason, the song lands in middle ground for me as it is not my specific taste but not bad at all.