The Monday Playlist: Taylor Swift, Holly Humberstone, Camp Cope and more
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the best new songs from two weeks ago right here in your inbox!
Sometimes the weeks just roll away from you and you never quite catch them - which is why today you will be getting not one but two Monday Playlists in your inbox because I’m a whole week behind on myself. I’ll keep it brief, but just to say that this week was a bumper one for incredible new music, and that’s before we even get to Taylor Swift’s vault.
Here’s this week’s Spotify Playlist - I defy you not to find something you like. Happy listening!
Teenage Mona Lisa by Alfie Castley - not entirely sure what it is that’s so compelling about this whiny sadboi-pop stuff that there’s a never ending stream of, also not entirely sure what Castley means by a Teenage Mona Lisa, but I am certain that there is something great about this song. Think it might be the way he rhymes ‘mountain’ and ‘shoutin’ in the second verse
Bed I Made by Allen Stone and Alessia Cara - a gorgeous acoustic duet from two gorgeous vocalists, the way their voices glide together is perfection
Bite Me by Avril Lavigne - the original pop punk princess recently signed to Travis Barker’s label DTA and is reportedly working with the best in the business for her new record. Bite Me is a reminder of what Lavigne can do, a toe back in the water after far too long and an exciting taste of things to come
Wannabe by Baby Queen - incredible that Bella Latham considers herself a loser, when she is in fact the coolest person in pop? Delighted to announce that I have two tickets for Baby Queen in Glasgow next year, will be taking whoever can prove themselves a member of the Baby Kingdom to come hear this sexy little tune
Fly As Me/777 by Bruno Mars + Anderson .Paak - picked up all three of Bruno Mars’ albums in a charity shop the other week because my ‘new’ car doesn’t support bluetooth, and I surprised myself with how many songs I knew most of the words to. The funky full-length collaboration album with .Paak is further proof that Mars really is one of the best artists working in the industry - a great record and these were the best unreleased songs it housed (although I can’t not see Courtney Cox of Friends fame whenever they sing seven-seven-seven)
Blue by Camp Cope - one of my favourite songs this week, can’t really explain it, just now that the vocal is hitting me in some nostalgic kind of way
hurts to love you by Carla Wehbe - a brilliantly buoyant bit of pop music that ticks all of the boxes, will have you bouncing around in your bedroom
Friendly Fire by Holly Humberstone - this is a flawless song, and by far Humberstone’s best yet; from that opening ‘Hello’ to the gentle way the melody wraps around you there’s nothing about this that isn’t perfect. It will break you in two, but you’ll have to forgive her for it because when she hurts you, it’s just friendly fire
let you by iann dior - here’s something that is interesting to me and also perhaps you: one of the main writers on this sounds-like-its-from-Montero trap-pop ditty also helped pen both my favourite song from last year - MGK’s bloody valentine - and the exquisitely good Electric Love by Børns
Everyone’s Pretentious & I’m Bored by Lauren Sanderson - Sanderson starts throwing punches and doesn’t stop on this brilliantly angsty pop-punk tune: ‘Baby I found your diagnosis/So here's a little list/You're co-dependent/Say you're not toxic/Then put me thru a bunch of toxic shit/Bitch’ - and that’s just the first verse
Without You by Miss Li - I just yesterday discovered that all of Miss Li’s recent releases actually already existed in her native Swedish, but she re-recorded them all in English (presumably for commercial appeal) and I have been having a wonderful time listening to both versions and comparing. This is just one of many brilliant songs from one of this year’s best pop records
Songs You’ll Never Hear (feat. Maisie Peters) by Sarcastic Sounds - isn’t it mad that two people can never meet in real life and have a song together? This, I learned, is true of Peters and Sarcastic Sounds, when looking up the phenomenally brutal lyrics on this track’s Genius page. Here is one of those phenomenally brutal lyrics I was looking up: ‘There was no point in all of those phone calls/Can't believe I had you on my ringer/Counting all the times you were honest/I don't need a hand, just a middle finger’ - oof, am I right?
Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) by Taylor Swift - Swift and Bridgers sound so good together on this song about knowing that someone is going to come along and be the new, better you, it almost felt predestined that this song was rescued from the ‘vault’ for their collaboration. We know that Taylor is a masterful lyricist, but it’s still almost surprising when she lands something as simple and poignant as ‘How can a person know everything/At eighteen, but nothin' at twenty-two?’
Message In A Bottle (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) by Taylor Swift - not mad that this perfect pop song wasn’t released at the time of its conception because I think the 1989 and Lover albums were needed to get this to where it is now. The best song from the vault, been blasting this on repeat for a week
I Bet You Think About Me (feat. Chris Stapleton) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) by Taylor Swift - given it was near the close of a very long record I was initially unbothered by this country-heavy tune until that video - the way the story is teased out elevates the song beyond itself and feeds into Red’s story canon, and that ‘I bet you think about me’ lands so much better when you pay attention to how it’s framed
All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) by Taylor Swift - without dwelling too deeply on the Gyllenhaal of it all, I think we can all agree that Taylor did the impossible of taking a masterpiece, tearing it all up, and turning it into something even greater. Probably the only song in history over 10 minutes long that is worth listening to in full every single time. ‘You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath’ is surely among her best lines ever, no?
Population of Two by WALK THE MOON - also out with an album this week were WALK THE MOON of Shut Up And Dance fame - if you’re in the market for a radio-friendly pop-rock record than I cannot recommend this enough