WIXQ DJ's Recommended Music

Charli xcx - BRAT

Posted: 6/26/2024 by Leilani Krady ( See All) Show: Thursday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM

(2024) BRAT - Charli xcx

In case you have been living under a rock, it's officially BRAT summer. On June 7th Charli xcx returned from the world of CRASH (2022) to swoop in and save pop music with her already highly acclaimed 8th studio album, BRAT. The album artwork, which is simply the word ‘brat’ in blurry arial font on a vivid lime green background, immediately reached legendary icon status, prompting an internet trend where people take pictures or videos of any lime-green object they see out in the world and interpret it as intentional marketing for the album. There is even a brat generator website where users can type whatever they want in arial font on the now-famous shade of green. So what does BRAT summer entail? What does it mean to be a BRAT? What's this album all about?

BRAT summer is passing around a bottle of wine in the river with your friends. It’s unironically wearing Crocs. It’s sleeping naked. It’s finding beauty in and embracing the innate paradoxes of life. It’s getting a little too tipsy at the family function. It’s your favorite shoes giving you blisters. It’s ditching your man to go out with the girls. It’s going thrifting with a cold brew full of melted ice. It is embracing contradiction. It is simultaneously having a god complex while being debilitatingly insecure. BRAT is messy, it is unquestionably real, and it's not only already one of the most important albums of the summer, but I’ll bet that it’s going to be fighting for album of the year.

“360” was the last single and the opening track off of BRAT, and it sets the lyrical and sonic tone of the album. Sonically, it immediately tells us that we’re in for a hyperpop-infused treat. Lyrically, it’s a god complex club banger. Famous lines from “360” include “I’m everywhere, I’m so Julia” (a reference to Julia Fox, pop culture icon) and “when you're in the mirror, do you like what you see? / when you're in the mirror, you're just looking at me.” The track features a video-game-esque electronic melody and, of course, confident/bratty lyrics. This is where BRAT shines--walking the line between pure self confidence and brattiness… and it doesn’t feel the need to pick one or the other.

“Club classics” is driven by looping vocal clips, half-spoken lyrics, and thumping electronic synths. Hyperpop influence is massively apparent on this track as well as the rest of the album. “Club classics” is, of course, very SOPHIE-esque (more on that later). This track is another club banger about Charli’s favorite club bangers. Very meta. She wants to dance to A. G., to SOPHIE, with George, and, in BRAT fashion, to her own music.

The only way I can describe the masterpiece that is “Sympathy is a knife” is as a hyperpop lamentation about insecurity and the pain/embarrassment that can accompany sympathy. The verses are sparse musically, with a rapid repetition of motifs that drives us into a chorus expertly punctuated by what sounds like a staccato of violin notes. This one high-pitched detail gives this song a mournful and tense atmosphere. Charli’s vocals are also perfectly painful. She has a knack for encapsulating huge and overwhelming complex emotions in simplistic lyrics--such as the very specific feeling generated by lines like “I feel all these feelings I can't control.”

“I might say something stupid” is a musical vibe shift into a sad, slow, and autotuned world. Again Charli’s ability to convey such specific feelings associated with certain scenarios is highly commendable. Painfully relatable lyrics include “I look perfect for the background / I get nervous, sip the wine” and “I snag my tights out on the lawn chair / guess I'm a mess and play the role.” On this note, BRAT summer is also all about the duality of being able to switch up between dancing to hyperpop and crying to mellow electronic music. Which brings us back to…

With “Talk talk” we’re back to the bangers. Enough moping! This song is a wonderful, straight up pop joyride, featuring more 10/10 lines like “I followed you to the bathroom / but then I felt crazy”--which, according to Charli, actually happened. The repetition of “I wish you’d talk, talk” on the chorus is so satisfying to listen to and a real earworm. The outro is another highlight--I am constantly muttering “talk to me in French / talk to me in Spanish / talk to me in your own made-up language.” Groovy.

“Von dutch” was the lead single off of BRAT, dropping in February. It’s another banger which walks the line between confident and bratty. It also features the line “do that littl? dance, without it, you'd be namel?ss” which is funny, considering that a remix of this track was dropped shortly after featuring Addison Rae, who got famous dancing on TikTok. Lines like “it's okay to just admit that you're jealous of me” are quintessentially BRAT and loop in my head constantly. Sonically “Von dutch” features pulsating and swirling electronic sounds along with a pounding beat--the perfect mixture to drive your car full speed off of a cliff. It’s one the most banger bangers on the album.

“Everything is romantic” has a concept that I absolutely love. It seeks to emphasize the beauty of romanticizing everything. It asks you to fully appreciate every moment that you get to be alive. The orchestral intro is an absolutely perfect touch. Here Charli finds the beauty in “bad tattoos on leather-tanned skin” and “Jesus Christ on a plastic sign”. This is BRAT at its core. BRAT summer is about finding the beauty in the odd and the paradoxical. This album cuts to the core of the human experience wrapped up in a hyperpop package--that’s just the versatility of Charli xcx. However, rather than lines about seeing the beauty in a rich European country, it would, in my irrelevant opinion, be more effective to describe the beauty of very mundane aspects of regular life. Italy or wherever is already romanticized, it isn’t revolutionary to be in a place where you can see “Pompeii in the distance” and think about how beautiful life is. I would have loved to see more appreciation for the beauty in the “ugly” parts of life, like bad tattoos. Nonetheless, a fantastic song.

“Rewind” is a song about wanting to go back to simpler times. I find some of the sound effects to be a bit corny, but her lyrics are quite genuine and real. This song, I believe, was meant to be played exclusively off of a DSi. Or filmed at a concert on a DSi. That would be the ideal setting and vibe. This song feels quite 100gecs-y as well.

“So I” is Charli’s tribute song to her friend and collaborator, SOPHIE, a pioneer in hyperpop who tragically passed away in early 2021. SOPHIE’s song “It’s Okay To Cry” is referenced in the chorus. Painful and haunting lyrics infuse this grief-drenched track with a raw pain that anyone who’s ever experienced grief may find comfort in. Particularly devastating is the end of the first verse: “You'd say, "Come on, stay for dinner" / I'd say, "No, I'm fine" (Now I really wish I'd stayed)”. “So I” is a lovingly crafted well-written tribute to a lost artist and Charli’s friend.

“Girl, so confusing” is a masterclass in songcraft. Charli taps into a very specific experience common to young women everywhere. Lyrics like “Can't tell if you wanna see me / falling over and failing / and you can't tell what you're feeling / I think I know how you feel” perfectly capture how difficult it can be to navigate interpersonal relationships as a young person. This song also generated speculation as to who it was about--lines like “people say we're alike / they say we've got the same hair / we talk about making music” narrowed it down to a similar artist in Charli’s realm that also had the same hair as her. “Think you should come to my party / and put your hands up” seemed to indicate that the person in question was Lorde, who famously sung “I'm kind of over gettin' told to throw my hands up in the air.” After letting speculation run rampant for two full weeks, Charli xcx and Lorde confirmed the rumors and dropped a remix of “Girl, so confusing” together, featuring a wicked smart verse and chorus written by Lorde. The whole verse is worth checking out, but my favorite Lorde-lines are “and it's just self-defense / until you're building a weapon” and “I never thought for a second / my voice was in your head.” Both the original and the remix are works of art. It IS so confusing to be a girl! AND it’s a banger and a half! “Girl, so confusing” is another incredible track that embraces the BRAT energy in every paradoxical relationship.

“Apple” is one of BRAT’s most underrated deep cuts in my opinion. It’s based off of the simple “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” metaphor. The beat is bumping and the premise is a universal experience that doesn’t get voiced often in music. I totally understand just wanting to drive all night instead of confronting familial issues. “I think the apple's rotten right to the core / from all the things passed down / from all the apples coming before / I split the apple down symmetrical lines / and what I find is kinda scary / makes me just wanna drive” is jarringly poetic for a dancepop song. Did I mention that it’s also a banger? BRAT is chocked full of club bangers that lyrically confront deep existential questions. Thus is the nature of BRAT.

“B2b” SLAPS! The vocals are basically instrumentation on this one. The pounding beat drives this track, but at around 0:43, the introduction of a sort of distant droning synth adds a fascinating air of anxiety to the track. It almost reminds me of a tornado siren. “Maybe you should run right back to her / I don't wanna go back.” At 1:32 a falling noise that sounds like a bomb dropping is introduced. My favorite part of the song is at 1:49 when “Took a long time” hits and the beat drops through the floor. Inject that synth in my veins, I feel like a space robot! This song feels like a deepcut despite being the second single.

This one’s for all my “Mean girls”!!! Another song to blast at the pregame, and a shout-out to haters everywhere. It is another quintessential BRAT track: real brats are out here hating on fake people. The piano which is introduced at 1:25? Shut up. Expert choice, perfect touch. Charli is brilliant. It becomes so jaunty! I’ll even be gracious and say that the Parry Gripp sounding voice distortion at 1:37 is camp. Truly an anthem for haters everywhere.

“I think about it all the time” caught me off guard at first, but has steadily grown on me. It is a simple lullaby expressing very elegantly another common female experience--feeling torn between the prospect of motherhood and familial fulfillment vs. potentially missing out for the sake of an independent life. Charli has a less common perspective since she is a public figure: “Should I stop my birth control? / cause my career feels so small / in the existential scheme of it all.” Overall another gorgeous song which speaks to the unspoken ponderings of women everywhere.

Here’s the thing about girls--they CAN do it both. They can go from the existential prospect of motherhood to the drug-fueled rave of BRAT’s closing track, “365”. THIS is what BRAT summer is all about--duality. This track is another club hit, and certainly many people will play it while “bumpin’ that”. At 1:05 the way the synth comes in sends fire through your veins. It makes you want to get up and start running and maybe snort something. At 1:20 the “no, I never go home, don't sleep, don't eat / just do it on repeat” goes SO hard. Getting absolutely drowned under the ocean of dubstep in the outro is also the perfect end to this album. With that, we circle back to the beginning and continue to bump Charli xcx’s BRAT on repeat (keep bumpin’ that).

Recommended If You Like: Caroline Polachek, SOPHIE, Rina Sawayama, 100gecs, Addison Rae
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Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Posted: 5/19/2024 by Leilani Krady ( See All) Show: Thursday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM

(2024) HIT ME HARD AND SOFT - Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish carved herself a wildly successful niche in the zeitgeist of teenagers drowning in their own heads during the second half of the 2010s. After 2016’s “ocean eyes” came her 2017 EP, don’t smile at me, which proved not only her talent as an artist but her ability to construct a musical narrative and persona that cut through all the BS and gripped the inner world of freshly-conscious Gen Zers. Hits like “bellyache” and “idontwannabeyouanymore” are characteristic because they reveal two threads within Eilish’s musical universe that garnered her widespread popularity: The first being her unabashed willingness to explore and embrace the macabre, and the second being her determination to truthfully and explicitly give a voice to the depressed and anxious realities experienced by an unprecedented proportion of her young audience.

Both of these threads wove their way into the hearts of people around Eilish’s age across the world. She was a catalyst for a new type of popstar, one who was, for lack of a better phrase, not like the other girls. She exclusively wore baggy clothes, she spoke openly about her mental health issues, and she released music that caused genuine parental concern. In short, she and her music represented the antithesis of happy-go-lucky stereotypical popstardom. It was raw, it was real, it was unheard of in the mainstream, and it spoke to the taboo darkness that every teenager experiences.

Don’t smile at me was followed up by her Grammy-winning 2019 debut album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? Devoid of capitalized song titles, WWAFAWDWG was an expertly executed expansion of ideas first proposed in DSAM. “bad guy” became a massive hit, “i love you” remains on sad playlists to this day, and “bury a friend” obliterated the boundaries of what a pop song could be with its visceral lyrics, tooth-drill-screeching sound effects, and horror-movie-style music video. The 2019 Album of the Year immediately became a classic in the genre and showed that Eilish could excel in the dark and gritty niche that she has carved out for herself.

Coming out of a pandemic-intermission, Eilish pulled a 180 with her 2021 release Happier Than Ever. She dyed her hair blonde, went on the cover of Vogue, and released a disjointed album that explored new sounds and themes. Don’t get me wrong; Happier Than Ever features some genuinely fantastic, fresh, and innovative songs like “Therefore I Am,” “Happier Than Ever,” “GOLDWING,” etcetera. As a complete package, though, it suffers from confusing song order choices and multiple unnecessary filler songs that, if cut, would’ve improved the album’s composition overall. Although I won’t get into the trenches here, some of my main gripes include the misguided decision to put an almost 4 minute spoken word piece smack-dab in the middle of an album which is already pushing it on length as well as the similarly odd choice to end the album on the painfully average and uninspired “Male Fantasy” rather than the explosive, scream-in-your-car penultimate track “Happier Than Ever”. Happier Than Ever represented an important side-quest in Eilish’s career which broke her self-made mold, freed her of expectations, and expanded her thematic and sonic resume in a way that left doors wide open for whatever direction she chose to pursue next.

This direction arrived on May 17th, 2024 with Eilish’s 3rd studio album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Despite her (justified) decision to not release any singles in the leadup to the album’s release, a couple of snippet leaks and an extremely personal Rolling Stones interview had expectations high. Fans of Eilish’s WWAFAWDWG aesthetic and sound are the clear winners here. Eilish herself describes (in the Rolling Stones interview by Angie Martoccio) HMHAS as a sort of homecoming to her pre-Happier Than Ever self: “I feel like this album is me … it feels like the When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? version of me.” She also admits what was evident to many long-time fans--that Happier Than Ever was “a coping mechanism of an album.”

But HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is a return to, as her brother/co-writer/producer Finneas says, “what we do best.” Eilish describes this album as feeling “like I’m coming back to the girl that I was. I’ve been grieving her. I’ve been looking for her in everything, and it's almost like she got drowned by the world and the media. I don’t remember when she went away.”

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is the perfect evolution of Billie Eilish. It is the culmination of eight years of musical growth and self-discovery. While being rooted in the Eilish-pioneered macabre-pop ambiance of her first album, her 3rd album ties in the thematic growth and experimentation of the 2nd album all while featuring the most mature and musically cutting-edge version of Eilish to date. It also cuts out the unnecessary fluff that bogged down Happier Than Ever--HMHAS is a perfectly tight, thematically and sonically unified, no-skip 10-song package. It reinforces what we already know: That Eilish has an uncanny ability to tap into the current cultural climate of her generation and release music at the opportune time for her listeners who have literally grown up with her. Thus, with HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie Eilish is back.

“SKINNY” tenderly transitions us out of the golden-but-sad realm of Happier Than Ever and into the reawakened deep-sea black-and-blue synth and electronica of HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. It reminds me of how boygenius’s “Without You Without Them” opens The Record in a very sonically similar way to how “Ketchum, ID” ends their self-titled prior album (acapella or nearly acapella, all three members harmonizing, etc). “SKINNY” underscores Eilish’s characteristic soaring soprano with a deliciously indie guitar melody. Lyrically it also feels quite Happier Than Ever, with discussions of fame, body image, getting older, and unbalanced relationships. The last minute of the song is an unexpected but gorgeous orchestral outro. This string arrangement leads us directly into HMHAS’s leading banger.

With “LUNCH”, Billie Eilish has thrown her hat in the ring for sexiest sapphic banger of the summer. It’s pulsating, groovy, and endlessly stuck in everyone’s head. In a sort of “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter manner, “LUNCH” opens with its chorus, which has been floating around on TikTok and my head as a snipped in the weeks leading up to May 17th: ‘I could eat that girl for lunch/yeah, she dances on my tongue/tastes like she might be the one/and I could never get enough/I could buy her so much stuff/it's a craving, not a crush, oh.’ The baseline and the guitar dance around each other and the synth is indescribably delicious. It ends with a melody of inhales and exhales, which I will probably never stop thinking about. No notes. With “LUNCH”, Eilish is back and better than ever.

In classic Eilish manner, the sultry dance banger is followed by a monumental vibe shift that she somehow manages to totally pull off. “CHIHIRO” also had a snippet of the verse floating around the internet (‘not today, maybe tomorrow/open up the door/can you open up the door…’). It takes us on a well-deserved 5-minute journey across pulsing electronic beats, echoing vocals, and a hauntingly out-of-this-world bridge. The synth melody which takes us to the climactic bridge first unassumingly starts throbbing underneath Eilish’s tender voice until it becomes so loud and demanding that it grabs listeners by the shoulders and throws them out of the windows of their comfort zone. Eilish is now yelling in the background, ‘I, I don't know why I called/I don't know you at all/I don't know you’. I can think of no other comparison other than Eilish’s own extremely underappreciated song, “NDA”. “NDA” always stood out to me on Happier Than Ever, and I think it could fit on this new album. The striking build to the bridge on “CHIHIRO” reminds me of the crescendoing build to the outro on “NDA”--the way Eilish is loudly pleading only to be drowned out by synthesizers is an expert artistic choice. Every time the synth melody before the bridge starts to build in “CHIHIRO” I half expect to hear Eilish belt out ‘did I take it too far?/now I know what you are/you hit me so hard/I saw stars.’

“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” blesses our ears with a rare genuinely sweet Billie Eilish love song. It’s a beautiful demonstration of her vocal range, it features a classic Finneas/Billie electronic beat and melody, it will go on love playlists everywhere, and it’s just plain beautiful. I am personally a huge fan of the post-chorus: ‘I knew you in another life/you had that same look in your eyes/I love you, don't act so surprised.’ Another smash hit.

“WILDFLOWER” is the most stripped back song on the album. It starts off with a slow guitar strum which eventually builds. Eilish’s crooning voice absolutely oozes with feelings of regret and guilt, which are the main emotions in the song. Again, the chorus melody is intriguing and haunting. These feelings are in line with the song’s subject matter, which describes the narrator (presumably Eilish) harboring extremely mixed feelings about entering a relationship with her friend’s ex--and how it haunted her for their whole relationship. The belting vocalizations that enter across the later chorus and bridge are a great touch, contributing to the haunting ambiance. This song is sonically and thematically riddled with ghosts--something only Eilish and Finneas can achieve so well.

“THE GREATEST” starts off innocently enough with a simple plucky guitar melody and eventually culminates in an all-out rock breakdown. In a more recent Rolling Stones article featuring omitted interview snippets from the original article, Eilish accurately says that “'Happier Than Ever' walked so that 'The Greatest' could run.” It has a tension-building chorus (sort of akin to “i love you”) where you can feel the pain of sacrificing everything for someone who doesn’t seem to care. The line ‘doing what's right/without a reward/and we don't have to fight/when it's not worth fighting for’ is exceptionally painful. Again, Eilish shows off her vocal maturity and belts all across the incredible rock-infused bridge. Although “THE GREATEST” is perhaps more sad-rock than the more rage-rock of “Happier Than Ever,” it is still a worthy successor.

“L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” is the first of multiple 2-part songs on the latter half of HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. By this I mean that the beginning and ending of these songs are so sonically different from each other that they function as two distinct but complementary parts of the greater whole. Think “GONE, GONE / THANK YOU” from Tyler, The Creator’s IGOR. “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” is witty and self aware, with the first part featuring an almost “Billie Bossa Nova” sort of guitar melody. It has a jazzy breakdown for the second chorus, which is scrumptious--Billie’s ‘then you moved on [*chuckle*] immediately (bum, bum, bum)’ is impeccable. Just when you think you know what this song is gonna be, the 3.5-minute mark rolls around, and you’re introduced to a thumping beat, 80s-synths, and hyper-auto-tuned vocals that make her sound like she’s singing in a retro video game. This part of the song is vibrant and pulsating. The lyrics ‘wanna know what I told her/with her hand on my shoulder?/you were so mediocre/and we're so glad it's over now’ were also released in a snippet online in the lead up to the album's release. Both parts of the song work together perfectly in a way that only Billie Eilish can pull off. Another incredible song.

“THE DINER” is from the perspective of a stalker. The sonic landscape is something out of a retro murder mystery movie. You can imagine the subject creeping around in a cartoon-villain-esque manner. The macabre subject matter and sonic atmosphere make this song feel like it would fit well on WWAFAWDWG. Eilish’s low and sly voice is reverbed to give the song an even more creepy and haunting ambiance. She sounds like she is singing into one of those echo microphone kids toys from the 2000s in a dark room in a big chair with window-blind striped shadows across her face. This type of genuinely creepy pop masterpiece is emblematic of what Billie Eilish has always done best.

The video-game-esque synth that smacks you in the face at the start of “BITTERSUITE” feels like something off of IGOR (maybe the initial droning of “IGOR’S THEME”). This song is another 2-parter. “BITTERSUITE” feels like a perfect example of Billie and Finneas incorporating some of the new sonic and lyrical experiences gained from Happier Than Ever into the older WWAFAWDWG sonic landscape and mood. Lyrically and rhythmically it draws from HTE, but it is steeped in a deep dark oceanic moodiness first worked with on her first album. The build in the pre-chorus and the chorus itself is brooding and carnal, with the pulsating synth and Eilish’s soaring voice locked into a stupefying dance. After the first minute and a half we enter the second part of the song which has a very “I Didn’t Change My Number” sort of rhythm to it. Both halves of “BITTERSUITE” work together to produce a very anticipatory atmosphere of tense desire.

“BLUE” is the final track on HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. It is also a 2-parter. It is beautiful, devastating, and, of course, absolutely soaking in deep hues of black and blue. The chorus sets the tone: ‘I try to live in black and white, but I'm so blue/I'd like to mean it when I say I'm over you/but that's still not true (blue)/and I'm still so blue, oh.’ The melody dances across a chasmic bass and guitar. Part 2 hits around two minutes in. It is a simple lullaby, but with Eilish-style ‘listen before i go’ sirens in the background for ambiance. The bridge introduces an altered Eilish voice and creepy audio effects which carry us into the last chorus and bridge, which serve as the synthesis of both parts of “BLUE”. The ending portion even brings in another orchestral strings section, which brings us back to the beginning with the string arrangement on “SKINNY”. A gorgeous way to wrap up a stunning album, perfectly priming the listener to loop back around to the beginning.

Recommended If You Like: Anything Billie Eilish has ever done; pop in general
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Taylor Swift - THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY

Posted: 4/23/2024 by Leilani Krady ( See All) Show: Thursday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM

(2024) Taylor Swift has released her newest collection of pages out of her diary. She has also followed in Midnight’s footsteps and surprise-dropped an extended edition in the early morning hours after the album’s initial release. However, unlike Midnights (3AM Edition)’s 7 bonus tracks, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY is marketed as a double album, and adds 15 additional songs to the original 16 of TTPD. The term “double album drop,” doesn’t describe two separate sister albums, but one 31-song conglomeration that’s over 2 hours long. TTPD:TA is now Swift’s longest album in terms of number of tracks, but is second longest in terms of run time: It is 8 minutes shorter than Red (Taylor’s Version) while still being 1 track longer. Swift’s latest movie-length project was produced and written by herself and her frequent collaborators, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.

As evident as it was to me going into this that TTPD was going to be a relatively mellow breakup album, I was still overwhelmed by the strict sonic cohesion that, though giving the piece as a whole a very concrete aesthetic and palate, inevitably leads to many of the non-standout tracks blurring together or even falling through the cracks. In her defense, it’s an unachievable goal to create an album as long as this one that solely contains standout songs. In fact, these standouts are generally the tracks that provide the most sonic variation and experimentation: “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,” for example, provides a much-needed shot of adrenaline in the trenches of the album. Unsurprising for the run time, this album really drags at times as it cycles through the same few themes. Sonically, thematically, and lyrically TTPD is “Maroon” from Midnights expanded over 31 songs. Maybe it’s the Antonoff curse, but truly, these songs all sound SO similar. The music, of which there are rarely identifiable instruments, is colored a sad millennial beige. Sure, you can argue that this is the intended aesthetic of the album, but the uniformity of the music even for the sake of aesthetics does not make it good or interesting to listen to--ESPECIALLY not for 2 straight hours.

What this album needed most was to understand the meaning of ‘quality over quantity’--it could have been a much greater TS release if it possessed the self awareness to only feature the best 10 to 12 tracks off of TTPD:TA. Afterall, it isn’t like all 31 tracks on TTPD:TA are being used to explore new themes, thoughts, or concepts; they just continue to beat the same five dead horses with different synth backdrops. If the album was boiled down to the top 11 songs, it would contain the same amount of thematic content present in the current album but with a much more effective brevity that allows the emotional and lyrical contents to fully breathe in the fresh air of a normal 40 minute run time. (In fact, I have taken one for the team and created TORTURED POETS (ABRIDGED VERSION) which preserves the best tracks, core themes, and overall tone of the album without any of the filler--all in a perfectly reasonable 40 minute run time: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1dGQmwzlymyNu573E5hk7q?si=4fb419e6165445f5 )

ALBUM 1

“Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)” will inevitably be misspelled as ‘fortnite’ by Googlers everywhere for the foreseeable future. Despite its perhaps unfortunate name, the opening track sets the tone and ambiance that will follow throughout the album. Synth backdrops, lyrical repetition, and a slow build will all be featured many times more in the coming tracks. Malone is a great feature, and his harmonies are a beautiful addition to the song. It’s an alright opener. It’s no “State of Grace.”

“The Tortured Poets Department” has a twinkling synth that dances through each line, almost “Bejeweled”-esque (I hate to keep making comparisons to Midnights, but the sonic palates are almost identical, with TTPD just foregoing the electrifying dance songs for even more somber lamentations).
With the second track, we are introduced to an unfortunate recurring theme that plagues this album: some of the most jaw-droppingly cringey lyrics ever penned by Taylor Swift. It painfully boggles my mind how the same woman who wrote “cowboy like me,” “illicit affairs,” and “All Too Well” can unironically sing lyrics like ‘and who’s gonna hold you like me?/No-f*cking-body/You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate/We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.’ But I digress.

On that note, TTPD:TA also has the most offensively cringe song titles in Swift’s repertoire. Putting aside the first two, the third track hits you with “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.” Other offenders that I will get to include “But Daddy I Love Him,” “Fresh Out The Slammer,” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” I do not have much to say about this song--it’s another “Maroon” or “Question…?”

“Down Bad,” which sounds by the title as if it would be a Reputation vault track, actually is, would you believe, also a sad-synth-ballad-from-Midnights-esque track. It utilizes its 4.5 minute run time to go absolutely nowhere. The way she says ‘f*ck it if I can’t have him’ is sort of satisfying, in a weird brain-scratching way. Another skip for me.

“So Long, London” is the 5th track, which is usually regarded as the most devastating on a given Taylor Swift album. On this album, the 5th track is not only finally the place where we get to see Swift’s true songwriting chops, but it also probably killed Joe Alwyn, just like “All Too Well” did to Jake Gyllenhaal. The melody is immediately much more engaging, unique, and musically interesting than the previous four songs. ‘And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free’ is, and I am dead serious here, chef’s kiss. Lyrically, she nailed this one. The bridge is also classically beautiful, but, in my own nitpicky opinion, would have been even better with an explosive emotional bridge, a la ‘Well, maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much/But maybe this thing was a masterpiece 'til you tore it all up’ of “All Too Well” or ‘Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts/Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first’ of “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.”

The elephant in the room about “But Daddy I Love Him” is obviously the egregiously self-aware, fourth-wall-breaking lyric, ‘But, daddy, I love him! I’m having his baby/No, I’m not, but you should see your faces.’ Now, I’m woman enough to admit that that did, indeed, get me good. In fact, I thought it was hilarious; she really can just write whatever she wants to at this point, huh? That being said, it is still absolutely ridiculous--whether in a good way or a bad way, I cannot decide. Musically, it’s one of the more upbeat tracks, and for that reprieve, I am thankful. It is not good enough to be almost 6 minutes long, though… not in an album already double an acceptable length.

My immediate take on “Fresh Out the Slammer”--BESIDES the fact that the title is too embarrassing for me to ever say out loud--is that I LOVE the spaghetti-western-esque electric guitar sound that plays in the first second of the track. This song would have been incredible and subversive in the context of the album if the production leaned more into a steel guitar/western vibe for this track rather than continuing the same synthpop we’ve waded through for the first six tracks.

“Florida!!! (feat. Florence + The Machine)” finally tries to do something different. Florence Welch is IMPECCABLE and the perfect feature. Unfortunately I am not confident that I can get over just how jarring the percussive explosions are on the chorus. I know that’s the point, but… it doesn’t quite work. This song would have worked well as a “no body, not crime” moment. The bridge is excellent, and it's a shame the rest of the song does not follow suit. There are enough redemptive bits and pieces of this song that I wouldn’t skip it if it came on shuffle. I think that this song stands out because it's one of the few on this album that actually tries to do something different. It doesn’t hold up compared to other Taylor Swift songs, but in the specific context of TTPD, it is certainly in the top 5 of most engaging tracks.

First perfected with Reputation, “Guilty as Sin?” is emblematic of Swift’s ability to write a really good carnal-yearning-in-a-religiously-repressed-way banger. The beat is groovy, the melody is satisfying, the lyrics are risqué, and the contrasting religious imagery is flowing. Finally we get the hint of real instruments with the choruses, and somehow the flow (or maybe it's the crooning guitar) almost makes it seem like this song could be a Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) vault track. The bridge is vulnerable but not musically exciting enough for it not to almost feel like the bridge of a worship song (oof).

“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” just doesn’t quite land. It feels very “Anti-Hero” in message. Maybe it's the unfortunate pairing of a phrase your creepy uncle might say at a family gathering with a The Greatest Showman-type musical swell+drumbeat+cymbal clash on the choruses. It just seems like it would fit a little too well in the climax of a PG-13 movie that was strictly following the Hero’s Journey beat by beat. I’m sure it's very inspirational to main characters undergoing character development everywhere, though.

“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” once again wants to tease me with the vaguely-Western sonic ambiance. The lyrics contribute to this, with lines like ‘the dopamine races through his brain on a six-lane Texas highway/His hands, so callused from his pistol softly traces hearts on my face.’ It sounds like she wrote this on a rough table in a shady corner of her local saloon. Finally a different sound to pull us out of the synthpop bog… I dig it. Since I like this one and it sounds different, obviously it would be one of the shortest songs on the album, barely passing 2:30.

“loml” has a real piano in it! Clearly the appeal of this song is Swift’s poetry. This Dessner-produced track would fit in the ranks of the evermore tracklist (see: “happiness” or “coney island [ironically, featuring The National]”). This track is for lovers of Swift’s devastating piano ballads about her lost lovers. Usually not my speed, but this track is worthwhile for its lack of synthpop (rare on this album), its unapologetic centering of Swift’s lyricism (thank you, Aaron Dessner), and the fact that it could fit on evermore or folklore.

Sonically, “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” is “Mastermind” in the verses and “Bejeweled” in the post-choruses. In other words, it is a breath of fresh air. Easily one of the best tracks from TTPD, “ICDIWABH” is dazzling. Finally, it seems, Swift’s self-deprecating humor lands correctly against a purposefully ironic upbeat musical backdrop. If you only hear one song from this album, it should be this one. Again, the “Bejeweled”-type beat behind Swift singing ‘I’m so obsessed with him, but he avoids me like the plague/I cry a lot, but I am so productive, it’s an art’ through gritted teeth is 10/10. This one speaks to all the straight A kids on Prozac out there (so, her whole audience). It’s light, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it is a resounding win for this album.

Aaaannddd “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” pushes us right back into the trenches. This song I feel the exact same way about as “loml.” Thank you Aaron Dessner, why don’t we all go cry over a song probably written about the guy who allegedly inspired the rat from Flushed Away. This one is slightly better than “loml” purely because it turns into a satisfying “rage song” (by TS standards, obviously) where Taylor Swift calls Matty Healy small. It’s a similar structure in that regard to “Dear John,” but way less good.

“The Alchemy'' lyrically is, perhaps, reminiscent of the adolescent setting of “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince.” It feels like Swift views her ongoing romance with Travis Kelce as a more R rated High School Musical (this will make more sense with the abomination that is “So High School,” so bear with me for that discussion later). “The Alchemy” features, and I say this with a tremendous sigh, numerous football references: ‘Call the amateurs and cut ‘em from the team,’ ‘These blokes warm the benches,’ and, no joke, ‘Touchdown.’ But that’s not all--there’s an elephant on this football field…
If anyone has spent any time near the Taylor Swift side of TikTok, there is a chance that they will have heard the smash-hit AI generated meme song that, in an impeccable Taylor Swift impression, goes, ‘so happy that my Travy made it to the big game/One step closer to Kelce being my last name.’ It is with simultaneous laughter and despair that I inform everyone that “The Alchemy” sounds exactly like this AI generated meme. If you don’t believe me, please, just listen to the AI song and then “The Alchemy.”

With “Clara Bow” we’ve finally passed the halfway point, and reached the end of the standard release of TTPD. Tired yet? This song, like other songs Swift has released recently, plays out her fears of growing old and irrelevant as the next Taylor Swift takes her place. She name-drops herself. Unfortunately after 16 songs I am emotionally drained. Nothing exceptional, will be skipping.

[Allegedly] ALBUM 2

“The Black Dog” is another sad song. The musical earthquake that occurs behind ‘old habits die screaming’ is headache inducing and certainly not warranted for such a mediocre subversion of an old adage. ‘And I hope it’s shitty in The Black Dog’ is actually a great line…or maybe this is Stockholm syndrome. Either way, it scratches my brain! I also hope it's shitty in The Black Dog, mostly because it's fun to say.

“imgonnagetyouback,” despite being stylized like a 2017 Billie Eilish song, can actually be perfectly described as the TTPD-ification of “get him back!” by Olivia Rodrigo. This is ironic because Rodrigo has been chastised in the past for “ripping off” Swift’s style, so to see Swift come out with a song destined to be so much less fun, popular, and successful than “get him back!” is crazy. Rodrigo’s song is more conceptually and lyrically well executed, but the similarities draw themselves… Rodrigo’s ‘I wanna key his car/I wanna make him lunch’ is just plainly more fun than ‘Whether I’m gonna be your wife, or/Gonna smash up your bike.’

“The Albatross,” for some unknown reason, is a hidden gem buried under the weight of 18 other tracks. This Dessner-produced track has a deliciously lush melody, which serves as the perfect cradle for Swift’s lyricism. This track would fit perfectly on evermore or folklore, from its plucky acoustic guitars to its earworm melody to its mythologizing storytelling. Rich oceans of harmonies accentuated by subtle string arrangements bring this track vivaciously to life. Its excellence leads the listener to long for the alternate universe where TTPD was sonically like folklore/evermore and produced far away from the clutches of Jack Antonoff’s synth-stained hands (and I say this as someone who constantly wants MORE synth and who’s favorite TS album is 1989--but the synthpop actually works in that lyrical and aesthetic context. This album’s contents are mismatched with its sonic landscape… it would have been much more convincing as a fully Dessner collaboration). This is one of, if not the, best track on TTPD.

As much as I dislike the mouthful that “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” is to say, almost all of my opinions about “The Albatross” apply here. Swift’s lyrics and Dessner’s production style once again meld together, propping up and accentuating the best parts of each other. The warm symphony of stringed instruments layered upon each other provides a breathtaking depth and musical intrigue to this track not present on many Antonoff tracks. I feel like a broken record.

“How Did It End?” Not for another 10 songs, I can tell you that much. There is not much new to say about this one. The piano is gorgeous and the Dessner production lets Swift’s lyrical talents shine. They could put this one in a Twilight movie. I will not be adding it to the queue.

At last, we have arrived at “So High School.” In an unbelievably cruel and disgusting twist of fate, this song simultaneously is musically Taylor Swift’s most perfectly indie rock song to date and also contains some of the most horrendous lyrics I have ever heard leave her mouth. Why, on God’s green earth, would this song that sonically could fit on any The National album contain lyrics like ‘you know how to ball, I know Aristotle,’ and ‘touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto’? I am frankly appalled. Despite this, I miiiiight be able to ignore such lyrics for the sake of slurping up this rare glimpse into what it could be like if Swift was in an indie rock band in 2008 instead of Nashville. Undecided.

“I Hate It Here” is sonically solid but lyrically a mess. It does actually contain the line, ‘We wished we could live in instead of this/I’d say the 1830s, but without all the racists/and get married off for the highest bid.’ This truly has left me speechless. This song is nothing special.

With “thanK you aIMee” Swift has the audacity (or maybe just good lawyers) to spell out ‘KIM’ in the title, and with that it is obvious that the song is about her decade-ish old beef with Kim Kardashian. It's just fine. I do NOT care.

“I Look in People’s Windows” is the shortest track on the album, thank god. It is boring and I can’t believe this was good enough for her to add it to this already lengthy album.

“The Prophecy” is the third, but by no means the last, song on this album to follow the “The ___” format. This song shockingly is also boring and more of the same. I have nothing new to say, and this song has nothing new to add.

“Cassandra” also could have been on folklore or evermore! And I would have skipped it every time on either of them. It is once again just fine.

“Peter” is something we have definitely never seen before… another piano ballad! Luckily it's only almost five minutes long. Boring! Skip! Oh my God!

“The Bolter” is like “betty” in some ways, maybe in the boring guitar strumming and odd use of ‘f*cking’. Another skip for me.

“Robin” is probably about something but I actually couldn’t be bothered to figure it out. It’s probably tragic but it is also boring for 4 straight minutes so I will pass.

“The Manuscript” starts off with echoing piano chords that make me feel like I’m watching the ending to a movie that I cannot wait to give a bad review on Letterboxd. This one is probably very sad and exposes Swift’s whole soul to the listener. Unfortunately, I’ve spent hours of my life wading through the swampwater of this amalgamation called a double album and I will only ever be returning to like, maybe 4 out of the 31 songs. Goodbye, and good riddance, The Dead Poets Society or whatever this album was called.

Recommended If You Like: Midnights, Folklore, or Evermore
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Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me

Posted: 4/18/2024 by Leilani Krady ( See All) Show: Thursday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM

(2024) Maggie Rogers returns from Surrender with her 3rd LP, Don’t Forget Me. Opener “It Was Coming All Along” features a synthy backdrop that I can only describe as The War On Drugs-esque, which provides depth and melancholy to the track. As usual her lyrics are poignant, self aware, and relevant. Another strong opener that leaves you engaged and begging for more, sort of like a less carnal and more end-of-summer-dread version of “Overdrive.”

“Drunk” is immediately a high-point of the album, on par with the passion and fervor of “Want Want” from Surrender. ‘I’m drunk, but not drinking’ speaks to the chronic daydreamers in Rogers’ audience, as well as to the central reflective themes of this pensive album. The track benefits tremendously from her breathy, passionate, and raw vocals--her continual choice to leave her vocal quirks and inhalations in the final mixes of her songs always pay off and help give her body of work a distinct personal realness. “Drunk” leaves the listener wistfully riding off into the sunset. Additionally, Rogers’ ability to use her voice to accentuate the instrumentation of her songs never fails.

“So Sick of Dreaming”, the second single, is effortlessly groovy. Although I’m rarely an enjoyer of speaking in the middle of songs, Rogers mostly manages to pull it off. The overall construction of the song (elements of her vocals, drums, and guitar riffs) almost reminds me of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac--a comparison I don’t make lightly. This track floats high in the sky, an easy listen and an obvious choice as the second single.

Something about “The Kill” fills me with a nostalgic sense of existential anxiety. It drips in delicious dread as she paints murals with her lyrics. The simple descent of the three notes at the very beginning of the song set the melancholic vibe of the track. ‘And you were going in for the kill’ is the crux of the song, which she reverses in the second chorus: ‘And I was going in for the kill’. It’s a simple but well executed songwriting trick. The track benefits heavily from the deep and aching piano (?) chords anchoring the pre-chorus and chorus--I almost wish she would have leaned more into the dark nostalgia set up by the opening few notes. Overall, “The Kill” is another knockout.

“If Now Was Then” is another easy listen. Not necessarily unique in terms of Maggie Rogers’ catalog, but not unlistenable in any way. Again, it oozes nostalgia and feeds the soul of daydreamers everywhere. Features an absolutely delicious bassline.

If I have to pick between a slow piano ballad or a slow acoustic guitar ballad, I would pick piano everytime--and Maggie Rogers excels when she sits at a piano. Her falsetto in “I Still Do” is drop-dead gorgeous; again, her ability to use her voice as an instrument is critical to her unique sound. For some reason, the tonality of ‘love is not a debt you pay’ almost reminds me of Billie Eilish’s upper range (and on that note… collab?). Although I would not find myself adding “I Still Do” to a queue or playlist, it remains a gorgeous piano ballad that I would kill to hear live. One thing about Ms. Rogers… she is gonna sing a damn fine piano ballad.

“On & On & On” will be added to female-rage playlists everywhere. Rogers’ continual ability to write a passionate banger that probably killed a man somewhere will never cease to amaze me. This track soars, grooves, and sobs in your arms drunk at 2am. The harmonies, the subtle anger in her voice, and the soul-nourishing bassline work together to create a masterpiece that will blow out car speakers globally. And ending it with ‘yeah, you better run’? No notes. Absolutely none. In fact, my only complaint with this song is that it’s the shortest on the album--a disappointing length of 2:34.

“Never Going Home” continues to conjure feelings of bittersweet nostalgia. In classic Maggie Rogers fashion, she paints a going-out-with-the-girls scene tainted with unwanted memories of an ex-lover. Her ability to write a song that makes you feel like you were reminded of your ex when out with your girls is something literally only Rogers can manage to do in a 3.5 minute song. Yet another highlight that will be scream-sung by 20-somethings in college dorms everywhere.

“All The Same” is the guitar ballad that I was not asking for in the previous slow song, “I Still Do.” This one unfortunately features a much less impressive display of Rogers’ range. The piano motifs are pretty, but not enough to keep me engaged. That being said, I do think this song fits sonically and contextually in the album as the penultimate track. Unfortunately, I will still be hitting skip each time--this is the “Past Life” of Don’t Forget Me.

I have mixed feelings on the lead single and final track, “Don’t Forget Me.” This one, I agree, does feel like a sunny Sunday afternoon. The instrumentation is fine, her vocals are good, and the lyrics are… alright. It's definitely a great track for all the chronic yearners out there. The song builds nicely, but for a four and a half minute run time… it almost, almost, feels a bit too churchy for my personal taste. Certainly a very different vibe than the previous tracks…

…That being said, I do overall think this album has a very cohesive vibe and musical aesthetic. The singles released gave me a much different vignette of the album, which meant I was VERY pleasantly surprised by tracks that had darker/more intense musical undertones like “The Kill.”

Although no work of preplanned photographic and artistic genius, the album cover suits the album. It’s very in line with her previous album cover/album aesthetics--spontaneous, real, and effortlessly beautiful. The cover art for Surrender suited the album extraordinarily well: both the album and the cover took you up close and personal to Rogers’ soul, highlighting the intensity of longing and the simultaneous anger and soft joy that can come from it. Don’t Forget Me forgoes the unbreakable eye contact for a polaroid of her now grown out pixie cut. Its golden glow, I think, sums up the album well: it exchanges passionate intensity for an equally reflective but softer, more mature, and golden work of art.

Recommended If You Like: Del Water Gap, Fleetwood Mac
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