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      'Evermore' Review: Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Sequel Is a Journey Deeper Inward

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAlbum Review‘Evermore,’ Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Sequel, Is a Journey Deeper InwardThe singer and songwriter’s July album traded glossy sheen for an acoustic-Minimalistic palette. A second album with the same collaborators moves even further from her pop past.Taylor Swift surprised fans with a second album written and recorded during the coronavirus lockdown, “Evermore.”Credit…Beth GarrabrantDec. 11, 2020Sequels are always tricky. The original is a creative leap; the follow-up is likely to be incremental. Until now, Taylor Swift has switched up her collaborators and general sound with each album. But she has rightly billed “Evermore,” her surprise-release ninth album, as the “sister” to the one she released less than five months ago, “Folklore.”“It feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music,” Swift wrote in a statement. “We chose to wander deeper in.”She continued writing songs with the “Folklore” brain trust of producers and musicians — primarily Aaron Dessner of the National, who plays most of the instruments and collaborated on 14 of 15 songs. Swift’s boyfriend, the actor Joe Alwyn, had a hand in three songs under the pseudonym William Bowery; Jack Antonoff, who also wrote with Swift on “Folklore,” worked on two.[embedded content]“Evermore” clings to the acoustic-Minimalistic palette of “Folklore,” with homey piano and imperturbable guitar patterns. Swift and Dessner enlisted more backup musicians for mini-orchestral arrangements by Bryce Dessner, also of the National, but for most of “Evermore,” Swift turns even further inward, away from her pop past, than she did on “Folklore,” drifting toward elegant but cerebral craftsmanship.On “Folklore,” Swift decided she could set aside autobiography to tell stories that weren’t necessarily her own. “Evermore” features more character studies and role playing, as she sings about infidelity, con jobs, even murder. “Ivy,” written with Aaron Dessner and Antonoff, is a folky, convoluted song about a married woman’s secret affair, enfolded by banjo and guitar picking as she sings about the temptation that tears at her: “Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow/Tarnished but so grand.”In “’Tis the Damn Season,” the singer visits her hometown for the holidays and suggests a weekend fling with someone she had left behind. In “Champagne Problems,” the narrator turns down an earnest proposal, singing, “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer/Til someone’s on their knees and asks you.” The music is an elaborate, evolving sigh, starting with low-fi, oompah piano chords that grow entwined with guitar arpeggios and a choir of “aah”s. Swift has more fun with “No Body, No Crime,” joined by two of the sisters in Haim, Este and Danielle, singing about cheating, revenge and unsolved murders and egged on by a yowling harmonica.Swift’s latest breakup songs, her longtime specialty, seek maturity by stepping back. Churchy organ tones surround her as she faces the end of a seven-year romance in “Happiness,” slipping toward anger — “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool/Who takes my spot next to you” — but determined to be fair: “There’ll be happiness after you/But there was happiness because of you too.” And the album’s title song, “Evermore,” looks back, over a serene piano line, on how she used to believe “that this pain would be for evermore”; Bon Iver (Justin Vernon), returning after his appearance on “Folklore,” arrives midway through to recall more turbulent times, but Swift is determined to put pain behind her.Swift can still bristle, as she does in “Closure.” With insistently clattering percussion and electronic creaks behind her, she refuses to give an ex the satisfaction of pretending to be amicable. Even though “It’s been a long time,” she sneers, “Don’t treat me like some situation that needs to be handled/I’m fine with my spite and my tears.” It’s a glimpse of what Swift might call “the old Taylor,” still in close emotional combat.“Closure” is in an unconventional meter, 5/4; so is “Tolerate It,” in which Swift’s character is a woman giving her all to someone who takes her for granted. Those are two of the album’s countless musicianly flourishes, along with the restlessly intertwined guitar picking in “Willow” and the glimmering electronics and furtive pizzicato strings in “Marjorie” (which pays fond tribute to Swift’s grandmother, Marjorie Finlay). The sonic details of “Evermore” are radiant and meticulous; the songwriting is poised and careful. It’s an album to respect. But with all its constructions and conceits, it also keeps a certain emotional distance.Taylor Swift“Evermore”(Republic)AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Taylor Swift Announces Second Surprise Album of 2020, ‘Evermore’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTaylor Swift Announces Second Surprise Quarantine Album, ‘Evermore’The “sister record” to her Grammy-nominated “Folklore” again features Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff and Justin Vernon, along with new collaborators.Taylor Swift’s ninth album, “Evermore,” is a creative continuation of her blockbuster “Folklore.”Credit…Beth GarrabrantPublished More

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      Gwen Stefani’s Ska-Pop Flashback, and 10 More New Songs

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe PlaylistGwen Stefani’s Ska-Pop Flashback, and 10 More New SongsHear tracks by Sturgill Simpson, John Carpenter, Elle King and others.Gwen Stefani returns to the familiar sounds of her band, No Doubt, on a new single, “Let Me Reintroduce Myself.”Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images For IheartmediaJon Pareles, Jon Caramanica, Giovanni Russonello and Dec. 11, 2020Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Gwen Stefani, ‘Let Me Reintroduce Myself’[embedded content]When the brash, sneering No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani emerged in the mid-90s to break up the boys-club monopoly of alternative rock, it would have been hard to predict where she’d be now, at 51. She is arguably even more of a household name than in the “Tragic Kingdom” days, but occupies a space at the deadest center of centrist pop — a fixture on a broadcast TV singing competition that is (somehow) in its 20th season, and an occasional (if sonically ill-suited) duet partner with her country-star fiancé. Her new single, the not-so-subtly-titled “Let Me Reintroduce Myself,” gestures back to Stefani’s middle period of, roughly, “Rock Steady” through “Hollaback Girl,” assuring the skeptical listener that she’s still “the original, original old” Gwen. A few clunky verse lyrics protest a bit too much (“It’s not a comeback, I’m recycling me”), but when her brassy voice rises to match the ska instrumentation of the chorus, there’s a fleeting rush of that old No Doubt magic. LINDSAY ZOLADZTroye Sivan, Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson, ‘Easy’The neon-kissed “Easy” was already a highlight off the Australian pop sweetheart Troye Sivan’s recent EP, “In a Dream,” but a new mix by Mark Ronson and guest vocals from Kacey Musgraves kick it into another gear. Ronson’s production expands the song’s spacious atmosphere, accentuating an echoing New Order bass line, starry synth flourishes and cavernous percussion. For all her disco flirtations on “High Horse,” Musgraves has never lent her benevolent croon to a song so straightforwardly poppy before — but she sounds so at home that it’s worth wondering if this hints at a potential post-“Golden Hour” direction. ZOLADZJohn Carpenter, ‘The Dead Walk’The director John Carpenter is a full-fledged musician who has also composed the scores for many of his films. “The Dead Walk” is from an album due in 2021, “Lost Themes III,” of music without movies. It’s a martial, suspenseful, pumping, minor-key synthesizer melody, with a guitar overlay, that has its beat drop out midway through, for blurred piano arpeggios, only to resume with even more ominous intent. JON PARELESGeorge Coleman Quintet, ‘Sandu’In 1971, seven years after his tenure with Miles Davis’s famed quintet, the saxophonist George Coleman was revving up his career as a bandleader in his own right. On this newly discovered live recording, “The George Coleman Quintet in Baltimore,” Coleman — an inveterate weight lifter — drives the band like a personal trainer, while syncing up with the colorful trumpet phrasing of Danny Moore and the brawny Midwestern swing of Larry Ridley’s bass. On “Sandu,” a classic Clifford Brown blues, Moore nods to its author with a few upturned, pretty lines, but he’s working out his own shapes. On Coleman’s solo, his fits of circular breathing seem to call back to the old R&B saxophone hollerers of generations before. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOFunkmaster Flex featuring King Von, ‘Lurkin’The first single from the forthcoming Funkmaster Flex compilation — 1990s back! — is a taut example of the storytelling rap that made the Chicago rapper King Von, who was killed last month, such a compelling talent. JON CARAMANICABenny the Butcher, ‘3:30 in Houston’Benny the Butcher raps “3:30 in Houston” from a wheelchair — the result of getting shot last month in an attempted robbery. At first, he’s laughing a little — after all, he notes, he’s been on the other side of a robbery in his day. But midsong, as he relives the moment of the attack, the mood sours:Rolls-Royce truck basically stood outOnly one mistake, I ain’t have a lookoutQuarter in jewels, shopping at WalmartTake me out the hood but can’t take the hood outSoon, it’s a deadpan revenge tale, including the suggestion that someone’s “pinkie finger’s getting sent to me.” CARAMANICAKing Princess, ‘Pain’“Cheap Queen,” Mikaela Straus’s 2019 full-length debut as King Princess, was a relatively subdued affair, full of mid-tempo tunes that telegraphed laid-back cool. So the in-your-face energy of her latest single “Pain” is certainly a departure, but it works: The kinetic maximalism of the song’s early 90s touchstones — a “Freedom! ’90” keyboard riff; some “Tom’s Diner” do-do-dos — keep the song from wallowing in the muck of its moody subject matter. “I can’t help turning my love into pain,” Straus croons. The playful music video, directed by Quinn Wilson, conjures some cartoonishly masochistic imagery, with that titular word suddenly appearing like the bam and pows in an old “Batman” episode. ZOLADZSturgill Simpson, ‘Oh Sarah’“Oh Sarah” is a desolate Southern soul ballad on Sturgill Simpson’s 2016 album, “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth,” losing itself in the loneliness and transience of the road: “Too old now to learn how to let you in/so I run away just like I always do.” On “Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 2 (Cowboy Arms Sessions),” his second album of bluegrass remakes from his catalog, it’s far more reassuring, rooted in string-band picking. It’s a vow of enduring love despite the separations: “Don’t worry baby, I’ll come home.” PARELESElle King, ‘Another You’Bitterness seethes and crests as the string section swells in Elle King’s “Another You,” a knife-twisting response to a message from a despised ex. In the verses she details his failings, almost singing through clenched teeth; in the chorus, she belts with vindictive joy about a new romance, proclaiming, “It wasn’t hard to fill your shoes.” PARELESEl Perro del Mar featuring Blood Orange, ‘Alone in Halls’“I’m going through changes,” El Perro del Mar — the Swedish composer and singer Sarah Assbring — sings and speaks, again and again, in “Alone in Halls,” over two organlike chords that feel like inhales and exhales. She’s joined, now and then, by the voice of Blood Orange (Dev Hynes). Aren’t we all going through changes? PARELESMoontype, ‘Ferry’“I wanna take the ferry to Michigan,” Margaret McCarthy sings, buoyed by oceanic guitar distortion on the chorus of “Ferry,” the first single from the Chicago indie-rock trio Moontype’s upcoming debut album. “Ferry” marries the woozy swoon of Beach House with the rising sweep of a Galaxie 500 song, though McCarthy’s voice cuts through the haze with direct emotional lucidity. ZOLADZAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Dorian Electra, a Queer Pop Star Who Defies Genres

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyUp NextDorian Electra, a Queer Pop Star Who Defies GenresThe singer recently released music that tangles together metal, dubstep and hard-core punk, “all these hypermasculine, testosterone-filled genres.”Dorian Electra released an experimental album, “My Agenda,” in October.Credit…Kevin Amato for The New York TimesDec. 11, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETName: Dorian ElectraAge: 28Hometown: HoustonNow Lives: In a spacious Victorian-style house in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, with nine roommates.Claim to Fame: Mx. Electra is a singer and producer known for genre-contorting pop songs and elaborate music videos. Mx. Electra’s 2019 debut album, “Flamboyant,” is a glittery confection of convulsive hyperpop. The video for the title track featured the performer, who is gender-fluid, with neon green hair and a penciled-on mustache, twirling around a candlelit manor.Big Break: In 2017, Mx. Electra met A.G. Cook, a record producer, through mutual friends at a DJ set at Sunnyvale, a nightclub in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Mr. Cook, who founded the electro-pop record label PC Music, was the executive producer behind Charli XCX’s breakout mixtape, “Pop 2, ”and suggested that Mx. Electra appear on the track “Femmebot.” “I was like, I’m working with my favorite artists, how is this even real?” Mx. Electra said.Credit…Kevin Amato for The New York TimesLatest Project: In October, Mx. Electra released a frenetic, experimental full-length album, “My Agenda.” The songs expand on the ideas that animated their first album, with some written from the perspective of incels — so-called involuntary celibates who blame women for their lack of sexual activity — to examine how internet culture fosters toxicity online. “My Agenda” tangles together metal, dubstep and hard-core punk, “all these hypermasculine, testosterone-filled genres,” Mx. Electra said.Next Thing: Mx. Electra plans to release a remixed version of “My Agenda,” inspired by the styles of artists featured on the project, and will work on new music next year. The singer has been livestreaming performances of the record on Twitch and posting them on YouTube. Mx. Electra is also supporting Planned Parenthood in a new campaign, as one of 200 artists pledging solidarity with the organization.Catwalk: Fashion plays a key role in how Mx. Electra conceptualizes songwriting; the singer will plot out what colors to wear in a music video before even finishing a track. Mx. Electra walked in a runway show in London Fashion Week in February for DB Berdan, a Turkish brand, and is eager to do more modeling. “For me, fashion has been a way to be like, this is the body I was born with,” Mx. Electra said. “But what can I do with it? Who can I be?”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Best Albums of 2020? Let’s Discuss

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyPopcastSubscribe:Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsThe Best Albums of 2020? Let’s DiscussAn absence of live music refocused attention on records, and work by Fiona Apple, Taylor Swift and Run the Jewels spoke loudly.Hosted by Jon Caramanica. Produced by Pedro Rosado.More episodes ofPopcastDecember 9, 2020The Best Albums of 2020? Let’s DiscussNovember 29, 2020Saweetie, City Girls and the Female Rapper RenaissanceNovember 18, 2020  •  More

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      Shawn Mendes's 'Wonder': Album Review

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAlbum ReviewShawn Mendes, the Lonely, Uncertain Pop HeartthrobOn “Wonder,” an album of largely bland pop-rock, the 22-year-old sings about the solitude of stardom.Shawn Mendes focuses on the painful parts of fame on his new album, “Wonder.”Credit…Glen LuchfordDec. 8, 2020Perhaps the most time-tested, shopworn but reliable pop star subject matter is “How did I get here?” followed by “Will they let me stay?” Megafame is lonely, leaving sensitive souls to ponder whether they’re worthy of all the attention showered upon them. And megafame is distorting, making it hard to assert your identity when the public-facing nature of your work defines you long before you can define yourself.From that resulting existential uncertainty, Shawn Mendes has made hay. His search — for himself, for love, for approbation, for confidence — has become the most vivid subject of his music. That was true on his self-titled 2018 album — his third full-length, which pulsed with theatrical dolor — and is even more so on his new album, “Wonder,” a maze of occasionally catchy songs about self-doubt and moroseness interspersed with breathless pleas of love.For Mendes, 22, who doesn’t have a firm musical ideology beyond up-tempo pop-rock, threading his album through with anxiety about the fan-star dynamic and the emptiness it masks becomes an aesthetic position. Lyrics like that are desolate, a little tragic; they necessitate a singing style that’s not overly effusive. “You have a million different faces/But they’ll never understand,” he sings at the beginning of the sweetly ponderous “Intro,” the album opener, rendered with torch-song sorrow. That’s followed by the stomping, stirring title track, the song with the most vigor here. He sounds most alive when in agony: “If I’m being real/do I speak my truth or do I filter how I feel?”[embedded content]That sort of loneliness recurs throughout this album: “Call My Friends” is about what happens when there’s no room for a partner on fame’s ride, and “Song for No One” is a blurry photocopy of the angsty songs Mendes leaned into on his last album: “I’m all alone/10 missed calls, a couple texts/None of them are who I’m looking for.”“Wonder” is, overall, much less polished than Mendes’s last album or the one prior, “Illuminate,” released in 2016 and still his best work, which featured oodles of tightly zipped and anxious teen pop-rock. (Though he works with some of the same collaborators, including Kid Harpoon, Nate Mercereau and Scott Harris, notably absent is Teddy Geiger, the songwriter and producer who gave those albums ballast and nerve.) Harry Styles might get the glamorous magazine covers and the thirsty memes, but Mendes in general has been a far more convincing avatar of this approach. Styles’s music suggests a perpetual ambient sonic vision quest, while Mendes at his best has tossed off a series of crisp hits with flourish.On this album, though, his lyrics meander and stop short of true sentiment, and his rhythmic deliveries feel less cohesive. He still has a way with swell, understanding how to inflate his voice from whimper to peal. But on this inconsistent album, rarely does his singing convey depth of feeling. The handful of dippy love songs — “24 Hours,” which chirps like Christmas music, or the sock-hop-ready “305” — don’t match the mood. The only exception is “Look Up at the Stars,” an ambivalent love song about the relationship between idol and idolizers. “The universe is ours/And I’m not gonna let you down,” Mendes sings tepidly, like someone who understands — and is resigned to — how much of that dynamic is beyond his control.The most famous male pop star of the last decade is burdened by a similar ambivalence about success. That would be Justin Bieber, who duets with Mendes on “Monster,” a smoky, smooth mope-off, with the two singers performing a kind of gut check for their fans. “You put me on a pedestal and tell me I’m the best,” Mendes sings, without a flicker of joy.Four years and a couple of lifetimes older than Mendes, Bieber has long been a performer for whom superstardom itself is the raison d’être, with music a distant second (or fifth, or ninth, at least up until this year’s “Changes”). His verse is more tart, more nostril-flare: “Lifting me up, lifting me up, and tearing me down, tearing me down.” He sounds exasperated, over it. An older brother letting his little brother know just how cruel the world can be. He understands he got here, and he’s looking for an exit.Shawn Mendes“Wonder”(Island)AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Bad Bunny’s New Album Is Billboard’s First All-Spanish No. 1

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe ChartsBad Bunny’s New Album Is Billboard’s First All-Spanish No. 1The Puerto Rican pop star’s latest LP, “El Último Tour del Mundo,” debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart. Miley Cyrus is No. 2.“El Último Tour del Mundo” is Bad Bunny’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard chart.Credit…Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SpotifyBy More

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      A Bittersweet Juice WRLD Team-Up, and 13 More New Songs

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe PlaylistA Bittersweet Juice WRLD Team-Up, and 13 More New SongsHear tracks by 24kGoldn, Beach Bunny, Kali Uchis and others.A Juice WRLD collaboration with Benny Blanco was released this week, on what would have been the sing-rapper’s 22nd birthday.Credit…Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for IheartmediaBy More