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.

Part of her upcoming album “Happier Than Ever,” Billie Eilish is keeping the anticipation coming with her new single “Lost Cause.” I’m not the biggest fan of Billie Eilish, and this song didn’t really change my mind. The beat of the song at the beginning really drew me in. I wish it had changed during the chorus, but it stayed constant throughout, which didn’t keep
me wanting to listen to the whole song. Eilish has a reputation of mumbling on her music, and she keeps with that here. Personally, it’s not my favorite, but it wasn’t the entirety of the song either which was nice. Overall, the song wasn’t that great. The lyrics and beat didn’t mix well to me, and it didn’t improve as the song went on, it just stayed the same for the entire 3 and a half minutes, which got quite bland.

★☆☆☆☆

Ever since Tate Mcrae went viral with her debut song “One Day” when she was just 14 years old, everything has been going up for her. Her partnership with Blackbear on this song was a perfect addition to her discography. I love Blackbear’s music, and I also really like Tate Mcrae’s music. The song “u love u” perfectly blends the two voices to create a classic pop song. It starts off with Blackbear, and moves from him rapping to singing flawlessly. The chorus is exactly what I want from a pop song, a heavy beat that really backs up the voices. Tate Mcrae comes in, and her voice is a perfect transition for right after Blackbear’s, and during the chorus reprise, their voices blend wonderfully. It ends out with the chorus, and it is an overall amazing pop song.

★★★★☆

You’ve probably heard of JP Saxe through his song “If The World was Ending” which went viral on TikTok in early 2020. That was his first major success of many. His upcoming debut album “Dangerous Levels of Introspection” is laced with gorgeous piano ballads, and “More of you” is no different. I absolutely love JP Saxe — his voice is incredibly gorgeous, and the composition of his music is wonderful. The song starts off slow, then builds up into the chorus and drops back to the slow, almost talking, singing. The beat isn’t heavy, but it’s not meant to be. This is a much softer song, which makes the beat work ten times better than Billie Eilish’s “Lost Cause” beat was. It’s a shorter song, only about 2 minutes long, but it conveys so much in that short time. An absolutely beautiful song, and nothing less was expected from him.

★★★★★