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.

‘Let it go’ — DJ Khaled (ft. Justin Bieber, 21 Savage) ★★★☆☆

Right off the bat, this song hit me as mediocre — I wouldn’t search it up to listen to it or add to my playlist but I wouldn’t mind listening to it if it happened to come on the radio. The music video, on the other hand, was hilarious. I wasn’t expecting Khaled to straight run towards an alligator and wrestle it, but then again the rest of the video up to that point was weird as well. The song is upbeat and chill, the lyrical flow of the song matches the beat and the tempo very well. I’m no Belieber, but Bieber’s lines were amazing enough to make me consider seeking out his other music. His lines were well thought out, well sung and you can hear the meanings behind his lines.

‘Dear Slim’ — Tom McDonald ★★★★★

McDonald is known for his controversial and brutally honest songs. He raps about what other artists are scared to mention or address, and his songs “Fake Woke” and “Clown World’’ are perfect examples of this honesty. He always speaks what’s on his mind and addresses the way things are going. This song however is very different, this song is about Eminem, and he didn’t criticize Eminem at all, didn’t point out a flaw in his music, it’s a whole different style from all his other pieces. McDonald isn’t signed to a label, he writes his own song, he sings it and his girlfriend, Nova, films the music videos and edits them. For a two man team, they’re doing better than some record companies. 

 ‘Butter’ —  BTS ★★★★☆

“Butter” is a great song for the summer season, it’s bright, chill, and easy to sing and dance along to. The first line of the song describes the song so well, “smooth like butter”. I’m not a BTS fan and every time I say that to my Kpop stan friends, they always drag me, but I really enjoyed this song. This music video has broken YouTube records by getting 30 million views in two hours and 20 minutes, the previous recorded holder was “Dynamite”, which is another one of their songs, we can probably expect these guys to continue breaking records this summer.