Over the summer, a multitude of popular albums and singles were released, some of which earned awards at the 2025 VMAs and topped charts on the Billboard 200. While many of them received good feedback, others were a hit-or-miss.
WMC Senior Brooke Jones listened to most pop-indie albums that came out over the summer, but some failed to live up to others.. Jones looked forward to the release of Wishbone by Conan Gray, Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter, and Who’s the Clown by Audrey Hobert. Hobert’s album was the most anticipated release for her, and she listened to it “every single morning, every single afternoon.”
According to Jones, Wishbone by Conan Gray had the same energy as his older album–some of which sparked her interest in music–from previous years that his last album Found Heaven was lacking. She also expressed disappointment in Lorde’s album Virgin, saying she “wasn’t a big fan of Virgin,” and, “was expecting more.” Other than that, most of these summer albums passed her test.
Nicolas Murillo–WMC Sophomore–had pretty similar opinions on this summer’s releases. His intrigue in music stemmed from his household being full of music, which he says is because of his hispanic culture. Murillo shared a lot of the same opinions, but he mentioned two different albums. He compared Alex Warren’s You’ll be Alright, Kid and Addison Rae’s Addison.
Murillo expressed that You’ll be Alright, Kid felt like it was mainstream and essentially made to be radio music. A common review heard since its release is that the album felt repetitive with most of the songs sounding the same. He then brought up Addison Rae’s album which was a huge hit all across social media. According to Murillo, “every song had a different feel to it” and still all managed to be good songs.
This summer had an overall successful run with music releases, and settled well with the student body of West Morris Central. Students look forward to upcoming releases, such as The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift and Vie by Doja Cat in the last few months of the year!
