taylor swift is so back (i hope)
alice is cautiously optimistic about max martin’s sonic return to the taylorverse
pov of the week
When I first heard TTPD, I was furious. As a long-time Taylor fan, I’ve been patiently waiting for her to return to her BIG pop sound — her revenge diss tracks, ‘her drive off the road, run through the waves and crash out’ bridges, her ‘life will NEVER be the same after this’ songs. I wanted something I could scream to again. In euphoria (‘Cruel Summer’) or in anger (‘All Too Well’), I didn’t care: just let a girl scream. I had been patient, I had been good. I had understood the melancholy of the everlore sisters — and was frankly underwhelmed by the lack of power on Midnights — so I was sat for something BIG.
TTPD, as we found out, turned out to be a decidedly small album. The grayscale visual identity of the era was designed to mimic the aesthetic of the album’s boring male subject and succeeded in being way too on the nose for me. While lots of people I know loved songs like ‘loml’ and ‘But Daddy I Love Him’, when listening to these tracks, all I heard were the times she’d covered the same ground, but better. ‘loml’ was ‘White Horse’ 2.0 and ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ felt like a rinse-repeat of ‘The Way I Loved You’. Taylor’s been a constant contributor to the soundtrack of my life but the fact that TTPD didn’t do anything for me truly gave me pause. Would I ever again experience the feeling of falling in love with a new Taylor Swift album?
Enter: The Life of a Showgirl. Our chance to turn it around. Look, I did have to roll my eyes at the album being announced on her boyfriend’s irrelevant football podcast — but I’m hopeful.
The ‘And baby, that’s show business for you’ playlist released to introduce us to her sonic palette for this album is a promising sign that our girl’s returning to her maximalist pop beat. If we land anywhere close to her evolved interpretation of songs like “I Did Something Bad”, “New Romantics” “…Ready For It?” and “Blank Space”, I’m gonna be happy. Joining her for this project are the divas Max Martin and Martin Shellback — who wrote and produced a bunch of the songs on 1989 and worked with her on Reputation and Red. No notes. Jack Antonoff — a major culprit in helping Taylor go down all her most gratuitous sonic rabbit holes (I’m still not over the tattooed golden retriever thing) — is nowhere to be seen. Hope he’s well, all the best.
True pop belters for the girlies are in our future, I’m sure of it. And if we can throw in some self-aware ‘mirrorball’-esque reflections about what it’s like to be one of the most idolised and scrutinised women alive — and the ways she keeps that machine fed — then I’ll know we really are back.
— Alice
Hiii, Frank again! It’s no secret that the world sometimes… sucks!!! So I like to keep the good times rolling, whether that’s nerding out over lyrics with my pals, interviewing some of my fav artists before a gig, or celebrating a surprise album drop — all with a cheeky Young Henrys in hand. If this sounds like your vibe, check back here weekly for our fav moments from our latest sucks!!! interviews with artists we love that either made us chuckle, left us shaking our heads, or saw us crack open another Newtowner 3.5 and say “cheers to that, bestie!”.
Grab it here for the same full-flavoured goodness at 3.5% ABV.
this week’s mandatory watching: zion garcia and sollyy suck!!!
I’m not a casual fan. I put 10,000 hours of my adolescence into PS2 games and spent too much of my money on half-torn 90s comics. When I became infatuated with hip-hop, I found ways to geek out over it — scouring every rap blog I could and watching countless YouTube “guess the hip-hop sample” videos. So when I got the chance to meet multi-hyphenates Zion Garcia and Sollyy, I had to quiz them on their top ways to nerd out together.
It turns out Sollyy’s a YouTube kid like me, using the number key timestamps to discover the next thing he’s going to sample — and Zion applies the same method using the lyrics on Spotify. Their music embraces a dorkiness that lives within their masterful production, with off-kilter references to Western Sydney and early 2000s media. Zion and Solly understand that nerding out is one of the defining experiences of falling in love with our passions. Cheers to that.
Follow @younghenrys to stay in the loop on all things mates, music, mischief and booze.
some things on my radar this week:
The cultural comedown after the timeline takeover of the Las Culturistas culture awards is still being felt HARD. Ky ranked the best moments to delight in the brainrot and chronically online chaos.
Ben Platt’s orchestral cover of ‘Diet Pepsi’ at the aforementioned night of nights is sooooooo Glee coded. The people yearn for Glee in 2025.
Wednesday season 2 (part 1) is out and I gobbled it in one sitting. I think it was very!!! weird to see our spooky goth diva wearing… snap-off trackies when she broke into the asylum, but that’s ok!
She’s forgiven because the Wednesday press tour reiterates what we already know: Jenna Ortega knows how to turn a fucking look. Very keen for the cast to make their way to Aus this week!
That’s all from me, what’s goin on with you? <3
aux
songs to add to your playlist rn:
Ok sorry for the gut punch to start but this song came out last week and is already top of junkee’s on repeat. Religiously watched every cover of it on TikTok and already NEED MORE!!
Personal fave from the new album by Nina aka absolute superstar! This one’s for anyone who’s ever posted a story just for them (probably all of us), there’s something sooo addictive about it 👀 Interview otw!!
breathe - Sachém ft. Kobie Dee
Drop the weight of the world for a second and enjoy this moment of meditation with Sachém and Kobie Dee. ‘breathe’ is the latest single from Sachém’s debut album, easier said than done, arriving later this year.
(Save this playlist btw, updating every week!!)
Aftersun (2022) | I just needed to cry
I was feeling particularly destructive the other night so I revisited one of the most beautifully devastating films around: Aftersun. And hearing “this is our last dance” was just as crushing the second time round. It’s really easy to forget our parents were young once, that they had lives that had to stop, hobbies to put on hold, and ultimately, they’re just as flawed as the rest of us. I spent 80 percent of the film waiting to cry, then spent the last 20 percent wishing I had more than one snotty tissue to reuse over and over. But my main takeaway: I need to invest in a really shitty camcorder and start planning how to embarrass my kids at a holiday park.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) | I doubled down on the crying I think i’m getting my period
What better way to spend an evening than by questioning if love is real!!!! The combination of Jim Carrey with Kate Winslet in a romantic psychological drama where Mark Ruffalo is just a nerdy lil guy — spectacular, give me 14 of them right now. I think if I watched this in my most angsty teen phase, I would’ve truly spiralled so we can thank god I finally got around to this at 24. As Joel tries to hold onto his memories with Clementine, we really get to see just how complex relationships are. They’re messy! And ugly! And magical all at the same time. Also!!!! This movie has one of my favourite film fun facts. There are a tonne of intentional continuity errors to make us unsure of what Joel's reality is and what are strained memories slowly being erased. A sad fun fact. You’re welcome.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) | I needed to offset the crying
An amazing reminder that movies can be fun. I don’t know about you but a movie with a lesbian beating up Michael Cera is a movie I wanna watch (no shade to the man, it’s just inherently funny to visualise). The chaotic nature of the shots paired with deadpan dialogue and honestly just really fucken cool fight scenes make for such an enjoyable watch. Can we get Chris Evans back in more silly roles or at the very least Lucas Lee needs to be reprised imo (again — I haven’t forgotten about the 2023 animated series). I’ll seriously never pass up on watching this movie, just in case anyone was thinking of inviting me to a sleepover any time soon. Okay, trotting off to listen to Brie Larson's ‘Black Sheep’ now.
(More faves on our letterboxd if you wanna follow us there)
Junkee Media acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land where this newsletter was produced, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
"When I first heard TTPD, I was furious." you and me both queen