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.

‘Stupid Love’ – Lady Gaga ★★★☆☆

Lady Gaga’s new single “Stupid Love” is her first solo song in four years. In the song, she returns from her soul-singing role in “A Star Is Born” to her classic, pop style. The song displays Gaga with a happy, catchy melody mixed with some cymbal and an edited instrument in the background. In the chorus, she incorporates some EDM sound, which makes her sound more auto-tuned. It has an older 2000’s feel with older background sounds and beats. It builds to the chorus well, but the EDM and background singing detracts from the chorus and loses the momentum from the rest of the song. Overall, it is a catchy, energetic song, but it loses some of the feelings with the EDM sound in the chorus, when it could have a modern feel of Gaga.

‘The Other Side’ – SZA & Justin Timberlake ★★★★☆

“The Other Side” by SZA & Justin Timberlake is featured in the new “Trolls” movie, “Trolls World Tour.” It fits the happy, catchy, classic Justin Timberlake feel, mixed with SZA’s similar style. It is marked with light, peppy, clap-beat and bass to add to the dance feeling of the song. SZA dominates the song with light and catchy singing and lyrics. Timberlake features his trademark falsetto in the second verse and the background, which adds to SZA’s singing. However, it does not have much development in the song, especially at the chorus, and it does not feel like the song is growing in feeling or sound. Generally, the song has a catchy melody with upbeat vocals and lyrics, which adds to the pop feeling, but the song does not develop in feeling or sound.  

‘PTSD’ – G Herbo (feat. Chance the Rapper, Juice WRLD & Lil Uzi Vert) ★★★★☆

G Herbo’s new hit “PTSD” features Juice WRLD, who died three months before the song was released. The song talks about gang violence, and the three rappers’ experiences with it. The edited guitar intro brings me in and it sparks anticipation. Juice and Herbo take the chorus, which is catchy with good lyrics and melody. However, they sing off-key, which partially fits with the song, but also detracts from it. Herbo takes the second verse, which has great lyrics and shows his real experience with the way he sings it. Chance’s verse has great lyrics, but his rapping does not fit with the rest of the song, and it would be better if he was not featured. In general, the song has a good, consistent beat and besides Chance, all of the artists add to the overall sound.