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.

Light on – Maggie Rogers  ★★★★☆

“Light On,” from Maggie Rogers’ debut album “Heard It in a Past Life” delivers the perfect mix of a relaxed and uplifting feeling. Rogers’ vocals sound incredible on this track, fitting perfectly with the sunny vibe. The synth sounds give the song a futuristic feel. The backing track is upbeat and the chorus is catchy. All that coupled with the fun melody creates a great song for playing on a drive with your windows rolled down. An interesting feature of this song is that  the verses outshine the chorus. They are more distinctive since the chorus is pretty unoriginal. Although you wouldn’t expect it at first, the song has a surprising way of lifting your spirits. The track shines, not by trying really hard to be something spectacular, but by reveling in its own simplicity. It would brighten up any listener’s day.

Love You Anymore – Michael Bublé    ★★★☆☆

In Michael Bublé’s newest song “Love You Anymore,” the artist creates an all-too-familiar feeling. Bublé sounds fantastic as always on the Charlie Puth-penned track. The opening guitar riff gives off a ‘vinyl’ vibe, setting up a pleasant but unoriginal melody. The lyrics are well-written; it’s almost transparent Puth wrote the song. The tune fosters a feeling of relaxing by the fire while it snows outside, even though the holiday season is still a ways away. “Love You Anymore” is a very textbook Bublé song and brings nothing new to his discography. Although “Love You Anymore” is great, a more timely release during the holiday season with a different artist could have served the song much better.

Fashion After All – Poppy  ★☆☆☆☆

“Fashion After All” by Poppy is a thin, unentertaining shadow of a song. The track begins with a pulsating beat accompanied by Poppy dictating the lyrics like an “I’m Too Sexy” copycat. The song therefore lacks a melody until the chorus which is incredibly boring and over-produced. The lyrics are a mess no one tried to clean up and the beat is just as bad. Most of the time I can barely tell that she’s saying actual words, much less that they make any sense. The bridge is horrendous, only made worse by the fact that it’s trying to be a dance beat but doesn’t actually make anyone want to dance at all. The whole song is a textbook example of quantity over quality: “Fashion After All” tries to compact way too many musical textures into three and a half minutes, leaving a musical trainwreck of a song. Overall the song isn’t worth a listen, even just to hear how bad it is for yourself.