Initial thoughts:

1) This reminds me of Katy Perry’s “Chained to the Rhythm” career wise, sonically, and visually. Huge, overstuffed cotton candy vibe trying to overcome clear artistic and popular decline. The almost scary hyper-positivity is also so far removed from what’s big on the charts now that maybe it finds an (older) audience that feels alienated from Billie Eilish’s whispery emo vibes. It’s also very pop-rock rather than overtly hip-hop biting which is also a bet on trends changing a bit there too, or more likely reminding her fans what she used to be good at.

2) The song is clearly a swing for tons of Despicable Me/Target commercial-type syncs a la Pharrell’s Happy. She really made the sonic equivalent of a live, laugh, love pillow.

3) So prominently featuring someone else on her comeback single speaks to a real lack of confidence, and for a song about “Me,” she seems to understand her brand is bad enough she benefits from letting her persona take a backseat.

All in all, feels like the magic is clearly gone, and she’s going to transition to being a (phenomenally successful) legacy artist. She had an amazing run of pop dominance from 2007-2015. Nothing lasts forever.

Just swinging in to confess that there is nothing premature about this evaluation. I’ve had the album for weeks, have listened to it probably 50+ times, and have thought more about it than any other LP in recent memory. And right now it really is my favorite Vampire Weekend album, though I suspect it’s going to be an OK Computer/Kid A situation with MVOTC and FOTB where I prefer a different one depending on the day. (And yes, I think these albums are on the same level as peak Radiohead.)

First needle Pete ever worried about.

Thanks, I’m sure I’ll carry the guilt of slandering Chris Brown for the rest of my life.

Moby Dick?

The promotion for the new Sonic movie is already out of control.

The Venn of people that like this song and people that applaud when the plane lands is TIGHT

You’re talking about someone who was detained on rape charges three months ago.

Why are adults with liberal arts degrees listening to this when there’s a new Mountain Goats album out

Who knew Chris Brown was a terrible person?

It was proven to be false.

True, but sometimes, (rarely) sexual assault in the form of a well timed teabagging after a drunk night can be kinda funny.

They were false charges… they were proven false.

Call it incoherent if you want, but clearly plenty of artists feel this way and I think there’s some validity to it. It’s why many black artists have spoken out about Leaving Neverland for example

I sort of see where CB is coming from. I can see how it looks like (for lack of a better way to put it) the white/mainstream music industry uses him as a punching bag to drum up support while black artists more-or-less have forgiven him and continue to work with him. (And if not exactly forgiven him, they are aware that white artists sometimes randomly bring up black artists’ troubled pasts when it benefits them — In fact, that was Azealia Bank’s reason for calling out Lana Del Rey not too long ago).
At this point, we all know CB is not the nicest guy and that he has a history of domestic abuse. Constantly bringing it up sort of comes off as opportunistic (and implicitly racist).

20 tracks? Bill going for those streaming numbers now that Drag City is on Spotify. Super pumped for this.