Category: Music
From “I Kissed A Girl” to “Good Luck, Babe!”: Queer Yearning and Regret Gets A More Layered and Genuine Upgrade in Pop Song Form
In 2008, Katy Perry caught her big break with “I Kissed A Girl” (made all the more retroactively cringe because Dr. Luke co-produced it). After [Read More…]
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” Mimics the Frothiness of Selena Gomez’s “Love On”
While Sabrina Carpenter might not have written a song about cappuccino, “Espresso” has plenty of (sonic) froth to offer. And it’s of the variety that [Read More…]
Nellie McKay’s “Columbia Is Bleeding” Has Taken On A New Meaning
In 2006, when another U.S.-backed war was raging, Nellie McKay released her sophomore album, Pretty Little Head. Among the many gems on the record (including [Read More…]
Neither Radical Nor Incredibly Optimistic, Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Still Manages to Contend For Album of the Summer (Hell, Maybe Even the Year)
Commencing with an immediate callback to the sound of Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman,” Dua Lipa kicks off what is sure to be the album of [Read More…]
Jennifer Check Continues to Inspire in Madison Beer’s “Make You Mine” Video
For the girl who once said, “I am bi, always have been, it’s nothing new,” perhaps an homage to Diablo Cody’s beloved 2009 “camp classic,” [Read More…]
What Does It Say About the Current Culture That A Critic Has To Hide Their Name to Write An Unfiltered Assessment of a Taylor Swift Album?
While Taylor Swift, in her cloying manner, has seen fit to post all of the glowing reviews she collected about The Tortured Poets Department by [Read More…]
Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Para Argentina o Cualquier Hombre)
Shakira’s first album of this decade, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, is something of a yin to the yang of El Dorado (the record she [Read More…]
“Fortnight” Video: Being in (Unrequited) Love/Artistically Inclined Will Send You to the Loony Bin
Despite Taylor Swift’s pervasiveness, it’s probably more likely that Gen Zers would associate the word “fortnight” with the misspelled (as “Fortnite”) video game of the [Read More…]
Just Who Is Taylor Swift Really Torturing on The Tortured Poets Department? Anyone She Can (Herself Included).
Pulling close to the same rate of album releases—one a year—that Rihanna once did starting in 2005 (with some rare breaks in 2008 and between [Read More…]
Madonna Ushered “Yeehaw Culture” Into the Mainstream
While the term “yeehaw culture” (an oxymoron if ever there was one) has only recently become a “trend” (along with the phrase “yeehaw agenda”), Madonna [Read More…]
