Hey bitches,
Sorry for the AWOL lol a bitch was busy having a brat summer. In my 2-month absence, so much happened?! Most notably, Ms Charli xcx blew the fuck up (finally, don’t say I never tell you) & the sapphics are dominating pop music. Meanwhile, I was quietly taking it all in while trying to get men with erectile dysfunction to get it up again. It never gets old.
I’ll split this into 2 issues because wow, so much to cover. This issue’s gonna be all about music.
New(ish) music. 🎶
💿: Megan Thee Stallion’s new album is really good!!!!! It has quite a few heavy Japanese influences on it. Special shout out to the track Mamushi that Spotify keeps shoving down my throat but understandably so.
💿: L’lmperatric album, Pulsar. Listened to it many many times. They’re always good. Unsurprising.
💿: KAYTRANADA album. Also good, but haven’t spent much time with it.
💿: Raye EP, because maybe god is real? An absolute delight. Waiting for her to blow the fuck up.
💿: Glass Animals album. I’ve heard it many times. They’re getting more and more pop. Easy on the ears. But it’s no Pork Soda.
💿: Also very good: Tove Lo & SG Lewis’ EP, HEAT. Got me dancing in my seat.
💿: I quite like the new Omar Apollo album.
💿: PLAY THAT NEW KESHA SONG AT MY FUNERAL!!!!!!!!!! I’m angry, distraught, depressed that this song is not getting the attention it deserves???? STREAM JOYRIDE!!!!!!!!!!
Musical people around town. 🕺
📹: I love Billie Eilish to death but the Chihiro MV gave me motion sickness. She performed The Greatest on the Late show. That bitch can really sing. She also went on Chicken Shop Date in a very confusing outfit. Her fashion has always been... unique. But this just gives me early 2000s Nelly without the plaster on the cheek and I’m just like, is that cultural appropriation? But literally NOBODY has said a thing so maybe I’m just overthinking and everything is actually fine!! ANYWAY the sexual tension between her and Amelia got me very very squirmy. Billie can get it. Seriously.
📹: SPEAKING OF CHICKEN SHOP DATE. SZA also went on it. And things got dialled up to a 100 real quick. At some point SZA said “with a strap-on?” and idk I think I blacked out. Idk what happened in the video anymore, you gotta just watch it based on this one sound bite.
📖: Apparently Paris Hilton is gonna release a new album titled Infinite Icon. It’s good timing, obviously. But not sure how I feel about it beyond that track with Rina Sawayama.
📹: 3 albums on heavy rotation for me right now. Hit me hard and soft, brat, and eternal sunshine. Yup, that last one a bit surprising considering it was released quite awhile ago. But the boy is mine has just been stuck in my head. When she released the remix with Brandy and Monica (genius tbh, considering their 90s hit of the same-ish title), their voices sound like fucking butter. I’m obsessed. Then she released the music video (not the remix tho) for it with Dan Humphrey/Joe Goldberg/Penn Badgely. Just really really good, it’s probably my favourite MV in recent times. AND at the same time, she performed it on Fallon (are her hands tattooed frfr? if so, slay!!!) She knows what she’s doing and it shows. Can’t wait for Wicked.
📹: Shoutout to Sabrina Carpenter, who has grown on me. I’ll say it again, Spotify has been shoving her and Chappell Roan down my throat. I was not into it, till I was. Anyway her video for Please Please Please got me shy???? Because of this Barry Keoghan la. He videos well but he photographs terribly. I do think he’s sexy. Especially as a weirdo bad boy character. Dark makeup seems to suit her better, it balances out her intensely light hair. I’m not afraid of her anymore.
📖: We need to talk about Kehlani. First, she raised $555k+ for Gaza, Sudan and Congo. Second, she got a butch haircut and someone said she looks like Dominic Fike. To which she said “Fominic Dike”. I died. I’m still dead. She looks fucking hot. And funny too? Girl… Talk about the full package…
📹: MORE OF THE WEEKND IS COMING. He released a trailer thingy announcing that there’s one more album coming and it’s part of a trilogy from After Hours to DAWN FM to.. something. I’m excited. Think he’s gonna pull a Zayn Malik Mind of Mine album cover vibe. IYKYK.
BRAT BRAT BRAT BRAT
Have you heard Charli xcx’s BRAT? You should. Over the past month, this album and Charli herself blew the fuck up. It’s so serious, some people are giving Charli credit for the rise of one Kamala Harris as the newest democrat candidate since Joe Biden’s geriatric ass stepped down. I’m not joking.
It’s funny. Charli tried the traditional pop star route in her previous album, CRASH. Complete with choreography, intense dancing, high production music videos. And everyone made fun of her for selling out. Her album didn’t do well. I loved it though. Wanted to get a Good Ones tattoo.
BRAT is a return to roots. The roots being the club scene. No choreo. Just some sunglasses and dancing to the beat of your own drum at the club. What I love about the album is how transparent it is. Lyrically, it’s so straightforward. She’s literally singing, “You wanna guess the colour of my underwear” like you could not be more straightforward than this.
It’s about simplicity. She cuts straight to it, like in her 2016 classic, VROOM VROOM. She’s not about poetry or layers on layers. What’s wrong with playing with the surface??? Not everything has to be so deep. In her billboard interview, she said that she hates it when girls in the bathroom line at the club try to get deep. She just wants to take a piss and carry on dancing. That’s who she is. That’s what her music is. And it’s great. It’s refreshing. It’s unapologetic.
Let’s get to Girl so confusing. Transparent lyrics about a one-sided friendship, but no naming of names. Naturally, the internet had theories that it’s about Lorde. The lore between these 2 can be a whole think piece on its own. Then she released a remix with Lorde. Where Lorde responds. When I say I cried tears. The communication is so clear. It’s about 2 friends that had a misunderstanding but now they’ve worked it out in 3 minutes by just cutting to the chase and being 100% honest. It’s not just extremely relatable content about friendship in general, but also heartwarming, wholesome, beautiful, inspiring. No ladida about it. It’s great copywriting LOL.
Fire your therapist, listen to brat, paint yourself green.
WHO THE FUCK IS CHAPPELL ROAN
She blew up randomly. Suddenly. But she’s been around for a very long time. In fact, Spotify who had discovered my sexuality a long time ago, consistently served me Pink Pony Club (from 2020) till I started liking it. That was the first foray but it didn’t go further than that.
A little history. Chappell was working closely with producer Dan Nigro, that’s how Pink Pony Club was made but the world didn’t shake (yet). Dan then worked with Olivia Rodrigo on driver’s license, and we know what happened next. She blew up in a big way. And by proxy, he got a whole lot of clout too. He then worked on SOUR with Olivia. That left Chappell in the dust.
Some time passes. He now has his own label, he signs Chappell. She became the opening act for Olivia from SOUR to this year’s GUTS. But what really sent her over the edge was her appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk. That shit went viral, and changed her life forever. And of course, her charisma uniqueness nerve and talent. Things escalated really quickly for her from that moment forth. Got her on Fallon, Stephen Colbert, at Coachella, the Governor’s Ball, drawing serious crowds bigger than Ed Sheeran.
Right now, the track that really blew her up is Good Luck Babe! Which yes, you guessed it, Spotify keeps serving me. That songs kinda annoys me. Because of how often it’s force fed to me. I’d rather they feed me Femininomenon and I would’ve been onboard much earlier.
Chappell is pretty iconic as a lesbian artist. She’s a big and strong name in the rise of the sapphic pop star, and she deserves this spotlight as someone who’d been hustling for years. Her queerness has an edge to it, with her stage persona being a drag persona, and her deep connection to the drag community, notably with Sasha Colby. Sasha’s your favourite drag queen’s favourite drag queen. Chappell is your favourite artist’s favourite artist. When those 2 worlds collide, we get fucking magic.
Anyway, fuck my filter. Read the full story in this excellent piece.
K BYE anticipate part 2 soon…ish.
XOXO,
Bitchington