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.

Wet Leg — ‘Being In Love’: ★★★★☆

Wet Leg has recently come into the spotlight, primarily on TikTok, with songs such as “Chaise Longue” quickly amassing over 3 million views. “Being In Love” is a recent addition to their growing album “Wet Leg,” and it features the retro, effortlessly cool vibe listeners expect to hear from Wet Leg. The song covers a familiar topic: love. More specifically, it’s a beautiful portrayal of how love can hurt, and how it’s easy to fall into a cycle of enjoying that pain. The lyricism is unique, with clever wordplay and rhymes. The beat is simple yet inventive, and the band uses repetition tactfully to pull its verses together. The chorus is catchy, with a nice balance between words and vocalization. My only qualm is the tone of the singers, it starts to become a monotone, which reduces the impact of the exceptional lyricism. Overall, this is a song to add to any of your summer playlists.

Syd — ‘Out Loud’: ★★★☆☆

Syd is a smaller artist with an indie style and great album covers. Their new album “Broken Hearts Club” is a cute album with a wide variety of feelings expressed and styles explored. Syd’s song “Out Loud”, however, feels tamer and less inventive than Syd’s other work. The vocal quality is stunning, and the lyrics are beautiful and are able to talk very honestly about the feeling of being neglected or hidden by a romantic partner. That being said, the song feels boring. The lyrics have so much potential, but with the lack of experimentation in vocal tone and beat, it’s hard for this song to grab a listener’s attention. It feels like the song fades into the background whenever I listen to it, which diminishes the beautiful message of the song. This song has so many wonderful components, and with a little workshopping and flair, this song could blossom.

Girl Talk, Wiz Khalifa, Big K.R.I.T and Smoke DZA — ‘No Singles’: ★★★★☆

Some people love rap, some people hate it. I personally fall into the latter category, but that doesn’t mean I can’t acknowledge a rap song is good without personally loving it. That’s exactly how I feel about “No Singles.” Right away there’s a distinctive beat with fun vocalization that pulls listeners in, and I appreciate that it changes throughout the song and doesn’t stay monotone. The verses are fun, with good tone and vocalization. You can really tell what they are saying and they are able to emote well with their tone and word emphasis. Not to mention, there’s a lot of fun usage of repetition and the rhymes throughout the song are incredibly creative. The chorus is a little long for my taste, but the creativity and originality of the verses balance that out well. Whether you like rap or not, all music fanatics should at least give this song a chance  — who knows, you might be pleasantly surprised.