Lana Del Rey’s Top 10 Sultriest Lines
July 25, 2017

Lana Del Rey’s Top 10 Sultriest Lines

Lana Del Rey promised us everything from the start: "Its you, its you, its all for you / Everything I do," she sang on 2011s "Video Games." Since then, shes remained completely committed to that line, doing everything in her power to continue to shock and seduce us with her purrs, her pouts, and her pen. As a songwriter, Lana Del Rey is utterly fearless. Some have even suggested she may just be the American Morrissey. Sure, shes just as romantic and melodramatic. But shes also crude and brash, sexy and sincere, and her sardonic side is vastly underrated. Though her tragic tales may be rife with clichés, her evocative telling of them remains her most intoxicating trait. Her fantasies and failures come alive in every vivid color, but what keeps us coming back for more is her unabashed openness: Shell tell you exactly what she wants, when she wants it, and how shes gonna get it. Here are 10 of Lana Del Reys sultriest, most biting lines.

  1. "Come and take a walk on the wild side / Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain / You like your girls insane"—"Born to Die"

Dont fall for it. Shes not unhinged—this girls completely in control.

  1. "You were sorta punk rock, I grew up on hip-hop / But you fit me better than my favorite sweater"—"Blue Jeans"

This is our "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" playing it coy.

  1. "Lets take Jesus off the dashboard / Got enough on his mind / We both know just what were here for / Saved too many times"—"Diet Mountain Dew"

Lana 101: Anytime you want to tease and provoke, you can always debase religion…

  1. "Money is the anthem, of success / So before we go out / Whats your address?”—"National Anthem"

…or patriotism…

  1. "My pussy tastes like Pepsi-Cola"—"Cola"

…or multinational corporations.

  1. "Lick me up and take me like a vitamin / Cause my bodys sweet like sugar venom, oh yeah"—"Radio"

We wonder if she recommends dosing daily?

  1. "He used to call me DN / That stood for ‘deadly nightshade’ / Cause I was filled with poison / But blessed with beauty and rage"—"Ultraviolence"

The femme fatale finds her weakness.

  1. "I fucked my way up to the top / This is my show"—"Fucked My Way Up to The Top"

She knows self-denial is never a good look…

  1. "You could be a bad motherfucker / But that dont make you a man"—"High By the Beach"

…neither is holding on to a low-down loser.

  1. "I got a feeling in my bones / Cant get you out of my veins / You cant escape my affection / Wrap you up in my daisy chains"—"Summer Bummer"

Only Lana can get away with tying you up then setting your hot summer fling on fire.

Dance, Dance, Dance: The Best of Justin Timberlake
July 28, 2017

Dance, Dance, Dance: The Best of Justin Timberlake

A charmer, also a dick. Critics love the idea of Justin Timberlake: white boy leaves best-selling boy band, “matures,” gets better haircuts, etc. I bet he even smells good! The boy band’s singles were solid to excellent, though, and for a while I didn’t hear a difference between end times N Sync jams like “Girlfriend” and “Gone” and the first couple Justifiedsingles. I can’t deny he’s recorded more than a dozen bangers, and now that pot smoking has sanded down his unbearable falsetto he’s become a decent ballad singer — I have a fondness for his Inside Lleweyn Davis number. His singles have a way of sneaking up on me too. Corporate retreats and elementary school talent shows have shown the sinister nature of “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” but its rictus grin of joy got hypnotic with each play. I haven’t quite forgotten the deviousness with which he slinked away from Janet Jackson after 2004’s so-called wardrobe malfunction during the Superbowl, nor the general ignorance of a promotional circle that didn’t understand why naming a pussyhound anthem “Take Back the Night” was a dreadful mistake.We’ll be dealing with this guy for the rest of our lives.Visit our affiliate/partner site Humanizing the Vacuum for great lists, commentary and more.

Mariah Carey: To Infinity and Beyond
July 21, 2017

Mariah Carey: To Infinity and Beyond

The only thing surprising about Mariah Carey’s residency in Las Vegas is that it didn’t start at an earlier point in the post-millennial extended-run boomlet, which was kicked off by Céline Dion back in 2003 and which had, before “#1 to Infinity” was announced in 2015, included retrospective shows by the likes of Britney Spears, Shania Twain, and Rod Stewart. One of pop’s premier divas skipping tour and beckoning her fans to come to her? Of course, dahling. Arranging the show so that it focused on her 18 chart-topping singles, an achievement that’s a rallying cry for her Lambs? [Whistle note here.]Mariah’s series of shows at the Colosseum in Caesars—the same theatre where Celine embarked on her extended run all those years ago—wrapped up last week. I caught one of the final performances, where she preened and belted through her biggest hits (and a couple of other notable tracks) while well-appointed dancers who could have been lured over from the Rio’s Chippendales revival flowed around her. James “Big Jim” Wright, a Flyte Tyme Studios alum who’s worked with Mariah since the Rainbow era, was the music director and, at times, the star’s soothsayer; Trey Lorenz, who became an MTV fixture when Mariah’s MTV Unplugged cover of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” hit big, sang backup. During longer set changes, a DJ would come out and try to hype up the crowd while running through megamixes of Mariah songs that had been hits, but not chart-toppers—hello “Can’t Let Go,” hi there, “Obsessed.” (Sadly, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” was missing, but Mariah’s holiday Vegas residency, set for Caesars this December, will no doubt rectify that.)A Mariah Carey show in 2017 not only gives one a chance to see her sing while sporting a fuzzy purple bathrobe that resembles an overly huggy Muppet; it doubles as a tour through pop’s last quarter-century. When she started out, Mariah was presented as a diva in the Whitney mold, a Long Island-born glass-breaker whose ability to leap octaves in a single bound was often the guiding force behind her songs’ arcs. “Vision of Love” and “I Don’t Wanna Cry” (produced by glitter-master Narada Michael Walden on record) updated the torch song for the MTV era, which was easier to get away with in the era when pop gave women more leeway about acting (and being) older; “Someday” and “Dreamlover” bubble and fizz, allowing for ample room to embark on gravity-defying vocal runs. “Fantasy” is a caesura for Carey’s career, its “Genius of Love” sample lending her a lighter-than-air platform off which she could vault and giving a shot of somewhat recent history to pop radio; its remix upped the Tom Tom Club quotient and dropped Ol’ Dirty Bastard into the mix for good measure.In the immediate wake of “Fantasy,” Mariah kept her big ballad quotient high (the chart-dominating Boyz II Men duet “One Sweet Day,” the diva showdown with Whitney Houston on “When You Believe”) but the taste of youth-culture fame that song had provided resulted in the production of varying clones, each with different old-school samples that suspiciously echoed “Genius,” each with different MCs serving as Mariah’s foil. It worked for a while, and the template laid down by these songs—gossamer vocals from singers bedeviled by dudes who were either lusty or self-obsessed, or both—calcified into an R&B norm. The Emancipation of Mimi—Mariah’s 2005 rebound from a rocky early-naughts period that included the megaflop Glitter and her multi-album contract with Virgin Records being canceled—broke the mold once again, allowing Mariah to show off her subtlety on songs like the gently tut-tutting “Shake It Off” and the passionate “We Belong Together.” While she was still flaunting her vocal prowess, she also reined it in at crucial moments, allowing the bruised emotions to take centerstage.Since then, Mariah has released a clutch of quality singles that have given space to her slightly maturing voice, which can still soar but which also has a bit more body in its low end, sounding a bit similar to the huskier affectations of Christina Aguilera. However, the tribulations of the music business—and those faced by female R&B artists in particular—have, sometimes unfairly, aced her out of the mainstream. “H.A.T.E.U.,” from 2009’s tumultuous Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, got notice when it was remixed with Ghost Town DJs’ 1996 rollerskating jam “My Boo,” but received little pickup on radio. “#Beautiful,” her 2013 collaboration with the ever-omnivorous Miguel, was absolute candy, its simple guitar lick and swaggering beat seemingly adding up to a lock for song of the summer. That didn’t quite work out. (“Blurred Lines” hogged the headlines; “Get Lucky” got the nerds excited.)The setlist for Mariah’s Vegas show, as a result, halted at 2008; even the gangster-era throwback YG, who appears on her latest single “I Don’t,” was relegated to sitting on the bed that serves as a set piece during “Touch My Body,” Mariah’s most recent chart-topper. (That was one of two beds involved in the evening’s festivities, both of which were motorized so that she could enter while seated. Other modes of on-stage transportation included a jet ski, a motorbike, and a pink Cadillac a la Christie Brinkley’s big entrance in Billy Joel’s absurd video for “Keeping The Faith.” When a diva is given the choice between wearing arch-contorting heels and walking on stage like a common person, there’s only one real option.) It was mostly fine, with Mariah dipping into the audience to say hi to her lambs a couple of times; why anyone wants her to perform choreographed steps, especially given her choice of footwear, is odd. And besides, she was always more of a bop-along type, as her early videos show.While the retro bent of the show was in keeping with Vegas traditions, it was also a moment to wonder what might need to change in order to allow the pop world to allow women over 30 back into whatever mainstream exists in 2017. A splintering of the Hot AC format—so that one type of station explicitly caters to, and even at times programs new music by, grown women—might seem like a desperate solution, but it’s one that would have at least allowed “#Beautiful” and other recent, and more than decent, songs by Carey’s peers and immediate heirs to get a little shine.

Why Kesha Is Cooler Than You Think
August 10, 2016

Why Kesha Is Cooler Than You Think

You may not be as excited as a lot of people are to have Kesha Rose Sebert back in action. But even the very worst of haters ought to give her a chance to make a second impression after what she’s been through.After she spent the first years of the decade establishing herself as pop’s preeminent hard-rocking, fast-talking, tik-tok-ing party girl, things came off the rails when her already rocky relationship with producer Dr. Luke took a toxic turn in 2014. The charges and counter-charges—including sexual assault and battery, unfair business practices, and much more from her side—put her in the starring role in a legal drama so ugly, it made the “Blurred Lines” case seems like 10 benign minutes in traffic court. Though that drama is hardly over, developments earlier this year freed her from the conditions that prevented her releasing any new music for three years.During that time, she did her best to convey her feelings through other people’s songs. Of course, that was far from ideal for a singer who’s long prided herself on being a songwriter, too— she clearly took far more satisfaction in her co-writing credits for Britney Spears and Big Time Rush than for any hook-up with Flo Rida. But at least Kesha’s choice of covers on recent tours—a smattering that ranges from Lesley Gore to Eagles of Death Metal—has proven she has a wider, more surprising set of musical tastes than was evident from the over-abundance of would-be club bangers on her two albums. Nor should the abundance of Bob Dylan tributes over the years—like her exquisite cover of “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” from 2012’s Chimes of Freedom tribute—be quite so surprising given the number of times she’s namedNashville Skyline as her favorite album.In fact, Kesha’s been eager to show off her affinities for classic rock, punk, and alt-rock since well before it all went sideways. When not citing The Damned as heroes, she was palling around with Alice Cooper and getting assists from The Strokes, The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney and Iggy Pop. And while that fabled Flaming Lips/Kesha collaboration—nicknamed Lip$ha—may have been sucked into a legal void from which it has yet to escape, we still got a tantalizing taste thanks to her mind-bending appearance on The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends.So as for all those haters and doubters who didn’t miss her, I say: You don’t know what you were missing. To mark the arrival of her third album Rainbow, here’s a set of her most adventurous and most surprising songs, and many more she loves, which should demonstrate there was always more to her than she got credit for… though maybe that’s about to change.

Why You Should Follow Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Puerto Rico Playlist
October 13, 2017

Why You Should Follow Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Puerto Rico Playlist

All-star charity singles have a bad reputation that is entirely earned, but Lin-Manuel Mirandas “Almost Like Praying” (proceeds from which will benefit victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico) is unexpectedly fire. The Hamilton playwright and Moana composer brought together everyone from Jennifer Lopez to Dominican icon Juan Luis Guerra for the impassioned, dembow-driven love song to Puerto Rico—and it bangs.Also worth a listen is “For Puerto Rico/Por Puerto Rico,” the Spotify playlist Miranda curated to tease the single, featuring all the artists involved. Spotify will make a donation based on the number of followers the playlist racks up, so its worth the click. As an added incentive, the songwriter has pledged that, if the playlist hits 50,000 followers, he will share an old photo of himself, dressed as Jennifer Lopez. (At the time of this writing, the count was over 70,000, but we’re still waiting for the big reveal.)Though the playlist comprises a mosaic of styles, its a smooth listen. Underground rapper Dessa and L.A. producer Trooko, both of whom also contributed to The Hamilton Mixtape, seem to fit right in next to Rubén Blades. And the transitions are softened by loads of Latin pop. The selections here might be a product of who answered the “Almost Like Praying” call, but the assortment of rap, pop, Afro-Latino rhythms and, yes, show tunes could also be seen as a reflection of Miranda himself: an American composer of (mostly) Puerto Rican descent, and a self-confessed fan of both hip-hop and Disney musicals.Either way, what comes together on the playlist is a soulful portrait of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and its diaspora in the U.S. at this moment. If theres a commentary to be inferred, its that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. in more than just name—its culture is woven into the very fabric of the United States, and were all connected to it.

The Top 50 Pop Songs of 2017
December 6, 2017

The Top 50 Pop Songs of 2017

The overall unsteadiness of 2017 stretched to pop, which seemed plagued by an existential crisis that could be chalked up to the still-developing sea legs of streaming-music discovery, the panic of radio programmers looking over their collective shoulders at the looming threats posed by Spotifys Rap Caviar and Apples A-Lists, or just overall exhaustion. (It was a trying year.) The best pure pop pleasures of the year came largely from those artists who decided to cast formula to the wind and instead veer off in their own direction.Carly Rae Jepsens "Cut to the Feeling" (a holdover from the E•MO•TION era that proved how her cast-offs pack more punch than even the most precision-grade Max Martin concoction) led the charge, its call for letting it all out urged along by a squad of synths clapping; Paramore distracted from the heartache at the core of After Laughter by eclipsing it with laserbeam guitars and Hayley Williams height-scaling vocals; Miguel threw himself into his vocals as well on War & Leisure, singing like it was the only thing keeping him from certain doom. Radio wasnt without its pleasures; DJ Khaleds seemingly improbable Santana interpolation got life from Rihannas dead-serious flirtations on "Wild Thoughts," while Camila Cabellos slinky "Havana" felt like a trap-pop update of the "Smooth" formula, only with Young Thugs tongue-twisting rhymes standing in for Carlos licks.Kelly Clarkson and Kesha announced their liberation from pops mathematicians with albums that felt more like their live presences, electric and whipsawing through genres and giggling at the fun of it all. Ne-Yo, trapped in the purgatory of vocal features and top-down label uncertainty over the "marketability" of R&B for so long, put out "Another Love Song," a suited-up return to his Year of the Gentleman era that also stood out for actually expressing romantic pleasure. It aided a resurgent year for the genre on multiple levels: younger artists like Khalid, SZA, and Jordan Bratton used their soul-side-ready voices as a jumping-off point into modern textures; the sibling duo Chloe x Halle twinned and looped their ghostly voices into next-generation gold on The Two of Us; Luke James triple-dipped with his star turn as Johnny Gill in BETs outrageous New Edition biopic, the woozily coital "Drip," and a recurring role (complete with weekly singles releases) on Foxs girl-group musical soap Star; and Michigans Curtis Harding threw it back to the hot-buttered era on the stunning, sumptuous Face Your Fear. Pops best moments provided a metaphor for the year—the noisy mainstream might have its ever-more-fleeting moments, but the really satisfying moments lurked within more hidden corners.

Emo Omnivores: How Fall Out Boy Became America’s Most Promiscuous Pop Band
January 15, 2018

Emo Omnivores: How Fall Out Boy Became America’s Most Promiscuous Pop Band

In May 2005, the Illinois quartet Fall Out Boy were just starting to get known outside of Midwestern emo circles when they took a candid backstage pic with two unlikely supporters: JAY Z and Beyoncé. Jay, then an executive at the Island Def Jam conglomerate that had just released the band’s latest album, was probably just schmoozing as a businessman. But that photo-op foreshadowed Fall Out Boy’s ambitions to reach outside of pop-punk, and mix rap, R&B, dance music, and classic rock into a sound that could provide a little something for everyone.Fall Out Boy’s early forays into hip-hop were self consciously awkward. Their next album, 2007’s Infinity On High, featured a cameo appearance by JAY Z, but he just blandly played hypeman on the opening track, “Thriller.” The video for the lead single, “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race,” mockingly depicts the culture clash of Fall Out Boy recording with a hip-hop producer, and being “thrown out the hood” after they break someone’s 40 ounce. Kanye West appeared on a remix of the song, but he mostly just shrugged that he didn’t know what the song was about and riffed on the band’s tight jeans. But Infinity On High showed signs that the group wasn’t just clowning on their own tenuous grasp of black music: The Babyface-produced “I’m Like A Lawyer With The Way I’m Always Trying To Get You Off” was an early glimpse of Patrick Stump’s chops as an R&B crooner.Over the next few years, Fall Out Boy would work hip-hop into their sound more fluidly, utilizing Lil Wayne and Pharrell Williams to great effect on 2008’s Folie à Deux. But they also demonstrated that their taste in rock ranged far outside pop-punk and emo, seeking out Elvis Costello, Elton John, and Courtney Love for collaborations. They wrote their own cheeky Christmas song, “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out,” and their cover sources ranged from Michael Jackson to Disney’s The Jungle Book.During an extended hiatus in the early 2010s, the members of Fall Out Boy moved onto side projects that illustrated their far-ranging influences. Patrick Stump’s 2011 solo album, Soul Punk, was full of lo-fi homages to Prince; bassist Pete Wentz united with future pop star Bebe Rexha for the dancey duo Black Cards; and guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley formed the metal band The Damned Things with members of Anthrax and Volbeat.Since reconvening in 2013, Fall Out Boy have put even more of a pop polish on their albums and have continued to stir together genres, making an entire rap remix album (2015’s Make America Psycho Again) and working with everyone from Demi Lovato to Missy Elliott. They even dashed off an EP of breakneck punk anthems produced by Ryan Adams, 2013’s PAX AM Days, just to prove they hadn’t abandoned their roots. Their seventh album, Mania, is set to continue diversifying Fall Out Boy’s résumé through collaborations with pop superstar Sia, folk singer Audra Mae, R&B producer Illangelo, and Afrobeat star Burna Boy. And it was preceded by a single, “Young And Menace,” that put the band’s sound in an EDM blender even while the lyrics nodded to Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx—yet another defiant statement that Fall Out Boy will never stay in their lane.

Rihjects: Songs Intended For Rihanna
September 25, 2016

Rihjects: Songs Intended For Rihanna

Rihanna has become one of the most successful singles artists of our time thanks to her singular voice and charisma, as well as a small army of producers and songwriters that are itching to work on her next chart-topper. But she’s become an increasingly discriminating artist, turning down a number of surefire hits to pursue a more unique and personal sound. In the process, dozens of artists have wound up releasing the Rihjects that were pitched to Rihanna. Some were massive hits anyway, like Sia’s “Cheap Thrills” and Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop,” while some songs never found their way to a voice that could occupy Rihanna’s unique combination of dancehall, hip-hop, and EDM.

Dev’s #1

Dev’s #1

With its pinging electro beat, earworm melodies, and dubby, disorienting vocals, Dev’s new single “#1” is a sugar-rush of addictive pop. The Los Angeles vocalist is best known for her contribution to the Far East Movement’s breakout hit, “Like a G6,” but this playlist of her favorite tracks reveals the breadth of her influences. From the gauzy purr of R&B singer Banks on “Brain” to the infernal howl of Kurt Cobain on Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box,” this is an intense and eclectic set of songs, with the only throughline being an emphasis on pop songcraft and precision, an abiding focus that is evident in Dev’s own new material. -- Sam Chennault

Unpacked: Lady Gaga, Joanne
October 31, 2016

Unpacked: Lady Gaga, Joanne

Subscribe to the Spotify playlist right here.Lady Gaga once seemed so untouchable, perched on skyscraping heels while spinning dirty innuendos into chart-topping gold. But like the fame she has so gloriously glorified, shes also fickle—sometimes to a fault. Now, she simply wants to be our slightly wild drinking buddy eager to cause a scene at the dive bar in her Bud Light crop top and ratty cut-offs. Or at least this is the scrappy image shes conceived for her fourth solo album, Joanne.Since her arrival, Gaga has been constantly, exhaustedly calculating her next move. On Joanne, she speeds up that process, attempting reinvention with nearly every song. It makes for a scattered album with little focus: Even the title, named after her late aunt who died young of lupus, makes no sense in the context of, say, the reggae-tinged self-pleasuring ode "Dancin in Circles."But it also makes for one of pops more exciting releases of 2016. And thats partially due to her choice of collaborators: She pushes for indie cred by enlisting Tame Impalas Kevin Parker for "Perfect Illusion," a move that becomes somewhat overshadowed by Mark Ronsons disco-fied production and the chorus likeness to Madonnas "Papa Dont Preach." Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme is more successful at pulling that rock-bred rawness out of her on the Springsteen-soaring, Pat Benatar-nodding anthem "Diamond Heart."But when Gaga ditches the 80s glamour, she makes an even better case as a convincing Spaghetti western seductress alongside hippie-eccentric Father John Misty on "Sinners Prayer"; a slinky soul sister to Florence Welch on "Hey Girl"; and even a country crossover star, making the gorgeous ballad "Joanne" her "Jolene" and giving Taylor one more thing to shake off with the honky-tonkin "A-Yo," co-penned by Nashville hitmaker Hillary Lindsey. Forget that dive bar girl— with all that (and more), Gaga suddenly seems untouchable again.For this playlist we attempt to trace the influences and collaborators behind Joanne, which deserves way more than one listen to fully unpack.

'90S THROWBACKS
Indie Rock Face-Off: Neo vs. ’90s

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Indie Rock Face-Off: Neo vs. ’90s

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Indie Rock Face-Off: Neo vs. ’90s

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.