With “of the year” lists now beginning to matriculate in newsrooms across the country, the clock is ticking if any artists are hoping to end up in 2025 retrospectives. With two defining acts releasing or teasing new material and a heartbreaking headline hitting the wire in the past week, there’s plenty to cover on this edition of Music Daily’s Tracks, highlighted by appearances from D’Angelo, Rod Wave, and Tame Impala.
We can’t ignore the fact that overall reactions to Deadbeat remain mixed, largely for Parker’s divergence from the psych-pop sound that made Tame Impala a defining cultural product of the 2010s. However, its lead single has proved far more agreeable. No doubt part of that acceptance comes from the song’s accessibility and production, a song that’d easily fit into any previous project. Despite how vaunted an LP like Currents and its material is, “Dracula” shockingly marks the first Tame Impala track to hit Billboard’s list. Strong performance across the board on streaming and social media rockets the song up to #28 on our chart, the apparent winner from this latest album cycle. However, don’t sleep on “My Old Ways,” also a budding streaming giant in its own right and closing in on the #69 position for us.
Beyond Tame Impala, Rod Wave Returns And D’Angelo Waves Goodbye
He may lack a #1 trophy in his cabinet, but Rod Wave’s status as a commercial titan is something you discount at your own peril. A genuine “leader of the new school,” his melodic trap/R&B mixture propelled top-three starts for several albums running, and if you’re an artist with a release date before the end of the year, it may be time to prepare for another. The multi-hyphenate closed in on 100 unique Billboard entries with his latest single, “Leavin’,” riding significant streaming numbers up to the top 40 on our rankings. While he continues to gesture at a new project in interviews, we’re yet to see whether this is the opening salvo for just that—but it does mark a chart return, as if he ever left.
We’d certainly love it if this weren’t something we ever had to tangle with, but sadly, we’re seeing the legacy of another late legend on the charts. Earlier this summer, Ozzy Osbourne again demonstrated his monumental presence as smashes like “Crazy Train” experienced late-stage resurgences. If that’s any indication, expect “(Untitled) How Does It Feel” to gain some additional peers in the coming weeks; the Voodoo standout is the earliest indication we’re seeing from outpourings of support for the R&B icon.
As always, you can catch all the music mentioned throughout this piece on whichever streaming platform you prefer.
