Every Single Album - New Music Corner: HAIM, Chappell Roan, Jennie, and Selena Gomez

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Nora and Nathan talk about a slew of new music that has been released, including HAIM's "Relationships" (5:26), Chappell Roan's long-awaited "The Giver" (21:25), Jennie's debut solo album 'Ruby' (39:45), and the latest single from Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco's forthcoming album, ‘Sunset Blvd’ (54:47). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, hey there. It's your girl, Bryn Whitfield. You might know me from a little show called The Real Housewives of New York City on Bravo. You are about to see a whole different side of me on edited, by the way. On my new podcast, please see below. Spoiler alert, it's not about passive-aggressive company emails. It's actually way juicier than that. Join me every week as we get down and dirty with my friends, celebrities, experts, even some of our exes. From dating, the highs and lows of reality TV, career sex, you name it.

And honey, we're not just going to spill the tea. I am here to smash the entire pot. Believe me, you're going to want to see and hear what's below. Please see below with me, Bryn Whitfield, is premiering soon. Available everywhere you love to listen to podcasts. Welcome to every single album. I'm Nora Pinciotti. This week, we've got a new music roundup.

We've got Heim. We've got Chapel Roan. We've got Jenny. We've got lots more than that even. And as always, I am joined by my friend Nathan Hubbard. Nathan, are you ready to talk about some new spring releases? I am. Does it feel like it's in the air?

I mean, I feel like Pop Girl Spring last year just sort of, it almost snuck up on us. I don't want to say it totally snuck up on us because I remember having a conversation where we were going, man, there's going to be a lot of stuff. But it just felt like, oh, you know, here's do a, here's everything coming week in and week out and all of a sudden we realized that we were in this sort of like really, really fertile period for releases. This one, I guess just because we've been talking about it for so long, I feel more like we're slotting things into the calendar and waiting for these artists, these albums, these songs. How about you? I think we're waiting for that like breakout moment.

For whatever reason a year ago, it was just one grand slam. after the next. And now we had Miley Cyrus announced that she's got an album that's coming soon today. That seems like that's going to be a big one. The Gaga one obviously has gone straight to number one. But there, it doesn't have to me the same feel as last year where it just was like we'd get on these pods and you and I would sort of look at each other. We'd start the pod and because we never talk about this stuff purposefully in advance. And about one sentence in, we were both like, oh my God, this is so good, right?

And listen, we felt good about the Gaga album for sure, but there was something magical a year ago. And I will tell you that there, after two years in a row where six of eight album of the year nominees were female, and seven of eight album nominees being female the year before this past one. There is this wide open lane for dude music. If any dudes want to step in and grab the mantra, and there are a couple of things coming that you and I talked about in our year preview

in these months ahead that might do it. Zach top. All Zach top. All Zach top all the time. We got a Mumford record coming. We've got a Youngblood record coming. We've got some. interesting stuff that lies ahead.

It does sound, though, Nora, like we do not have a Harry record coming. There was all that chatter this past week that maybe Harry was going to do a residency at the sphere. No, that's not what's happening this year. Do you think that was just, that was somebody pulled that out of their rear end and there was never anything to that?

Or do you think that anything happened there that we can glean info from? I think it would not surprise me if at some point Harry ends up at the street. sphere. Harry at the sphere to me makes all the sense in the world. Yes. And by the way, that will be the thing that gets me to the sphere.

Well, it is awesome and you should go. But the chatter would be because the Azoffs are very involved in the sphere. John Mayer and the Dead play there. They're managed by the Azov's. There's U2 managed by Jeffrey Azov, who also manages Harry, opened it up there. So there are some deep connections between Azov, Manif Man. management and the sphere. And so that is probably somebody got a little whiff of that. It wouldn't surprise me if there's already a discussion for that happening in 26. These things book out

quite literally that far in advance. And somebody just jumped the gun a little bit. But it sure feels like Harry Styles is running marathons right now, taking care of himself, not necessarily about to drop an album. But boy, that lane is wide open for him. Well, we'll find out if Harry feels that that lane. If somebody else fills that lane, if Harry goes to the sphere, you know we'll be all over it. But we're not talking about the boys today. We're talking about some new music. And let's start with Hime, who released a single relationship last Wednesday. It's the first single from their upcoming fourth album. What do you think of this song? I'm into it. I'm into the bass parts in particular. I knew you'd say that. And that's exactly my favorite part of it, too, when Esty comes in,

with the Bayes like three quarters of the way through, it totally takes off. Yeah. I mean, there's a little bit of like 90s, 2000s R&B in it. It isn't what I expected. And the first time I heard it, I was like, wait, do I like this? And then I listened back a bunch over the last week, actually, over the last few days since it came out, in parallel with Danielle's cameo on the Bonne Verre song. Yeah. If only I could wait. So I'm getting my fill of Heim new music.

And I'm into it. So I'm interested in what surprised you about this song because I was a little, I also sort of had to listen to it a few times before I felt like I could sink my teeth into it, in part because there have been. little dribs and drabs of speculation that they're really going to lean into the rock side of Haim with this upcoming album. As you said, there's a little bit more of an R&B feel to this song. It's not, there's nothing hard about it.

You know, it's very breezy and light and almost effervescent, which are things that I associate with Heim. But I think that's what the slight feeling of, oh, what is this was. was for me, was I was expecting something a little bit more heavy almost. Right.

Almost like the start of gasoline with the drums and the sort of genre. Yeah. Yeah. I think

you know, when you've been away for a little while from a new music perspective, sometimes the strategy is to lead with a single that just isn't your absolute number one punch,

but is warming back up the base and engaging people back in it. And I think this is a fairly easy song to get into. There's the cuteness of the fucking relationship. Like, it's a highly TikTokable song. You're gonna see little clips like that, I think, start to emerge.

At least that's probably the strategy, I would imagine. And I think what it means is there's music behind it. But to your point, we're not exactly sure, are we? Is this a rock record or is it going to be more of something that feels like a little bit of an evolution? I still feel like this song doesn't close off the rock lane for Hime for this album as a whole. Because of what you just said, you know, sometimes you don't open with your absolute strongest pitch. I think the song is very strong. But it's also, at the risk of sounding really dumb,

it's a very hemey sounding hym song. And maybe when you've been away from a little bit, it's just like what other band that's, that's, you know, in the ether these days could pull off this song, could pull off how sort of low-key it is, but still cool other than Heim. So to me it makes sense as this sort of return

testing the waters. It is also, it's TikTokable, but it's also about a subject that everybody has an opinion on. Everybody has feelings that relate to some sort of relationship, how important relationships are to human beings, why we spend so much of our lives worrying

and dealing with these things, but also needing them. So I think it's a pretty smart thing to come back with. Yeah, I mean, it's streaming almost a million times a day on Spotify, which is a pretty good clip. So I think it's being well received. I'm not sure that this was like intended to be the biggest hit they've ever put out, but it seems to be doing the trick right now.

I'm certainly intrigued. There's lots of Heim in the air. There's also a lot of lore with this song. It's something that can be a lead single that's going to get written up in a bunch of ways in a bunch of ways that are including some that are sort of extra musical. Because Ariel Rekshed is credited as a writer on this song, who is the former partner of Danielleheim, who's the protagonist sort of vocally, but also in the music video. they broke up in 2022.

Presumably those writing sessions, presumably by me, happened while they were still together because Alana, I think a few of them have said this, but Alana definitely in a BBC Radio One interview over the weekend said that the song took them seven years to write.

They have been working on this song for the past seven years. So... Well, that may be, Explain why it sounds like it's rooted in some older sort of our... Yeah, sounds like Olderheim, because in some ways it is Olderheim. Yeah, yeah. I also just think that's a fun way to...

You know, it's... It's tabloid-y. It's interesting. It kind of lends a sincerity to the theme of being in a relationship, wondering if you're in the right relationship, wondering why it matters to you so much, like the sort of... cyclical nature of all of that, which is what the song is sort of about. It rings very true if you know that one of, that the person singing it wrote part of it

when they were with someone that they are no longer with. Look, there's also another credited writer on this song, and that's Tobias Jesso, Jr., who we have covered in many ways from... Shout out to radical optimism by Duleepa. Nile Horan's slow hands. He wrote San Francisco. When we were young, the Adele song. And yes.

I say it again. Shout out to radical optimism by Dua Lepa. Radical optimism by Dua, among many others. That's it. You're just interested that Tobias Jesso worked on this song? I just think there's a, thread here. Look,

we're going to talk about some other songs from the second. Oh, I thought you were going to be like, and maybe Esty. No. Take me out of the gossip. I'm still recovering from your

Michael's Dong conspiracy theory from last week that seems to be resonating with, so no, I'm out of the personal stuff at the moment. Oh, okay. Well,

yeah, Tobias Jesso helped too. Good for him. My point is it's a high quality song and these kinds of songwriters don't engage on usually on bullshit. So here's my question for you because, look, I really like this song. I've been listening to it a lot. I love Heim. And I've loved Heim since their debut album.

I find them almost endlessly charming. And sometimes I think I feel just the tiniest bit almost self-conscious. about how much I like Heim. Because I think Heim makes great music. But I also think that Heim has this aesthetic thing. You know, they're the sisters. They're walking down the street. They dress in this very chic but sort of minimal way

that I think is very appealing to the 30-something- middle brow coastal woman. Okay. Okay. It's not quite you, but it's close. I think it is me. I mean, I guess I'm not 30 something. No, you're not.

Okay. Everything else the shoe fits. Nora loves Heim. I love Heme. I love Heme so much. There's been a lot of Heim conversation this spring. I've been trying to even to cover so much time so badly. And this is why I want to bring this up because I love them so much.

All of my friends love them. We're all talking about Hymn. And you have posed questions to me that I do think are really, really have gotten me thinking and have me thinking about what's sort of at stake with this upcoming Hime album, which is what kind of trajectory can they set themselves on with this music that advances the ball from where we are, which is this is a really cool sister band that a lot of people like me and my friends think is really cool

and we want to go see them play shows and we want to put their records on when we have our friends over. And that's been true since 2013 and it's true now. Yeah. What opportunity do we have to kind of, whether it's grow the tent

or just like move something forward? It's a conundrum. Because Heim opened for Taylor's in 2014, and they opened for Taylor Swift in 2024. And there's been some really strong music put out over the course of that decade. And so the question is, why aren't Heim bigger? That's really what you're asking. And what would it take with this record?

So can I say that I'm not quite, I'm not just asking why aren't Heim bigger? I think that's part of it. But this question for me is not purely, why will Heim probably play aren't aren't stadiums? You know, like, that's, I don't think they have ever operated in a way where it feels like they are grasping for that scale. They don't put out that much music that rapidly. It's not difficult music by any means, but it doesn't seem so hook driven that it's just about how do we make sure that this is not only beloved by people, but also playing in the CVS and ubiquitous to the point that you can generate, like, such massive scale. I think it's more about

should we be expecting a musical evolution? Is it a narrative evolution? It's just what is at stake with this album? Where are they trying to go? And as big of a fan of this band as I am, you sort of posed that question to me. And I'm telling you that I haven't fully come up with an answer that I've found satisfying,

which I think is interesting. Well, you've got to wait to hear the rest of the album. That's all I'm going to say to you. and once you have processed it, I think where they go will become clear. But I do think that there is a moment and an opportunity for this band to inject themselves more broadly into the consciousness

and not just be for the coastal elite females like Nora Principiati, I guess. But I do think that, you know, broadly speaking... I think men like Haim. Listen, I like Haim. I mean, to put a... finer point on it. I think there's a lane for rock. And I think it's why the Youngblood evolution that's coming by the time this podcast is out is going to be a very interesting window into

his album. I think there is a, like, there's just a opportunity for rock to not be about 70-year-old, 80-year-old Paul McCartney playing Abbey Road, the back half of Abby Road on SNL, but a next generation of people who've been influenced by some of those artists to pick up the ball and run with it. And so it would not surprise me at all if there's this interesting lane for Hime

to go grab that. Now, if they become smooth R&B, maybe smooth poppy R&B like relationships, maybe they've decided that this is where they go. But I think just as a general art form, they maybe are in a really, interesting space in a moment in which I think you're going to see fans gravitate to something

that's not necessarily the pop that we've been so deep into over these last two years. I'm rooting for that. I'm rooting, even though I love the poppy stuff, I'm rooting for them still to be going in a rock direction. If only one, because I think, it would be interesting to see how that plays because of that open lane that you're talking about. And two, I want to go to that live show. I want to listen to that album, but I really want to go to that show. Well, and three, it makes it more likely that Beyonce will release the rock record. But, yeah, Himes Live Show is a rock show. It just is. Like, they're crushing it on the drums. Like, it's about that energy. And I think it would be wholly consistent with them.

if this record sort of fit into that live show. Hymme shows are fun. And even that little taste of Esty on the bass that is my favorite part of relationships, I think is... I can just see her up there doing that, and it's cool, and it makes me really psyched. No one makes weirder faces

while playing an instrument than Esty Hymn. I love it. I absolutely love it. I mean, again, like, it's part of the whole... They just have this thing down where they're like polished in some ways and not polished in other ways. And they seem cool as fuck. And I want to hang out with them. Wheelhouse event diagrams of targets. Look, I'm honest about my.

Nor Princiotti. I'm honest about my biases. And one of my biases is to be incredibly pro-heim. So this is me saying that I'm in the fucking bag for Hym. And I'm just going to be forthright about this whenever we talk about. about them this right? You and one Taylor Allison Swift. You just can't quit. Yeah. Fighting to be the fourth hym sister, even though they don't know who I am. Well, they might after today. All right. Well, you want to talk about chaperone? Yeah, the giver. The giver.

Let me ask you this. Is the marketing campaign and all the, like photography and the like advertising the lawyer. Dental dams are back. Construct all that stuff. Your wife's hot. Is that more fun than the song itself? So interesting. Interesting thing to lead with.

I was going to lead us in a maybe similar direction. It might be. I like it better than the time I heard it live. Interesting on SNL. You didn't respond well to the SNL performance. It's not that I thought it was I just thought the song was kind of, okay. I'm a little bit more drawn into the hooks and the melodies on proverbial tape or digits, as it were, than I wasn't.

I get it. I appreciate what she's doing. So just to fill anybody in who needs it, this is Chapel's first real release since Good Luck, Babe. It's still not entirely clear if this is leading to an album. if it's leading to something else, if these are just sort of one-off releases. She performed the song on S&L in November, so a long time ago. There were videos of that performance that were briefly on YouTube if memory serves, but then they got pretty quickly taken down.

They're now back up again. You can watch that performance if you want. Since then, there have been all of these billboards that are basically chapel dressed up as a dentist, as a plumber, as an HVAC installation purpose. A lawyer. A lawyer. And they all have cheeky slogans that refer to the fact that this is a winking song about queer sex in the guise of a sort of old-timey, very country country song. And I, it sounds like maybe.

like you, that is so, like, that's so fun. It's so, it has so many opportunities for silliness, for things that approach camp. And then when I heard the song, especially the non-SML version for me, actually, the very polished up studio recording, I had almost two reaction, two separate reactions. Reaction 1 is like holy mackerel, she has really arrived, hasn't she? Why? Because there's a part of me that listens to the song and goes, this could be, this could just be such a huge hit. It sounds like these massive, massive like Shania Twain country absolute absolute absolute

smashes that have so much crossover appeal and could catapult, you know, it's hard because Chapel got so big, so fast. And obviously there was a lot of consternation that came with it. But part of me heard this song and went, oh, she now exists on a plane of trying to appeal to everyone in a way that she hasn't before. And then the other part of me heard it and goes, okay, yes, there's something. there's obviously a double meaning here, and that's interesting and engaging. But if you just listen to this song, it does sound like some of the edges have been sanded off.

And in that sense, yes, I think the concept, I think the billboards, I think the jokes, I think the punchlines, I think the spoken word bridge that she did on SNL that's not in the recorded version. All you country boys saying you know how to treat a woman right. Well, only a woman knows how to treat a woman right. Yes, I think there's a little bit more personality in that than I think there is in the recorded song. What I think they gained from that is like, I do think that this song is going to be really, really big for her. Well, it's basically since Friday done like 13 million streams.

So it's like for almost 5x what the hym song has done. And I don't think, I think that's definitely a career result for her having just released a song. Now, in some ways that makes sense, just because, again, we're relatively early in her trajectory as like a mainstream pop star, so more people are just tuned in. But I just think that she, and I think intentionally with this song, is trying to pull in more people.

You do? Yeah. I don't. Okay, tell me about that. Well, I think she's just trying, I think this is a bridge. I don't think there's an album that's close. And I think they're just releasing songs.

Can I drop one conspiracy theory just in case people are screaming for someone to mention it? Sure. There's a theory because at the very beginning of the lyric video, it shows a little drop-down menu. And there are five titles that look like they could be song titles that include Good Luck Babe and The Giver on that menu. So people think that that could be an Easter egg. there is a five-song EP. Right. Somewhere on the way.

I think their strategy right now is just release music. Let's keep her in the front of people's minds. And to that end, I think this accomplishes that because it gives people something to talk about, which is, ooh, is this country, although she was very clear that she's not going country. She just thought... Okay, but this is a country song. Yeah, no, it is. This is not a pop star doing a country song.

This is a country song for someone who is talking about how that is the music that she heard growing up in the Midwest in the grocery stores when she rode the bus and that that's very close to her. But she did say all the country girlies can keep doing their country stuff. Like she declared that she was not entering this as a genre as a direction. She's trying this on for size. Sure. Yeah, I don't think that Chaparone is. is going to go be a primarily all the way country artist. No.

I do think that she is, I think that she feels an authentic connection to that world. Yeah. And I bet this is her only experimentation in it of meaning. Okay. That's all. Let's say, but even if that's true, even if that's true, do you think they're going to play this song on country radio, for instance? Hmm.

I hadn't thought about that. My answer is that I don't know that country radio is particularly excited to support a song about queer love. And a song who's, you know, the line of the refrain is, I ain't no country boy quitter. There you go. On the flip side, this sounds to me like a musical dare. to not play it and to not get some amount of traction in that world.

Wasn't that Cowboy Carter? No. Cowboy Carter was released with Beyonce saying this is not a country album, this is a Beyonce album. This is... So Chapel used a backing vocalist

on this song, or maybe Dan Nigro called him up. Who knows? I don't know. His name is Wes Heightower. On his Instagram, which, trust me, this is the Instagram of a Nashville man, it says that he has sung backing vocals or harmonies on 163 number one country singles since 1997. She's going to that well. She is trying to make this sound as authentic as possible.

But so was Post Malone. And in some ways, so was Beyonce as probably. part of her history lesson. I don't know for me that this feels that different. I'm, I am completely with you that like her motivation was to reconnect with her Missouri roots and create a song that a country song that authentically represents her identity. Great. But I just don't know that this is a pivot. To me, this just feels like she put a, she put a costume on. And that's totally cool. And it works. And it's authentic. It doesn't mean it's not real. But that it's probably not representative of a direction and that it's more a let's keep chapel in the news. Let's keep

chapel on TikTok. Let's keep chapel in the conversation as a bridge to a summer in which she's going to be touring larger places. So I don't hear it as a direction as in whether it's an AP or an album. It's all going to be country. What I hear it as is almost a statement of there's no I can't appeal to. Oh, you think I can't get the country hardos? Here's a song that sounds like so many, you could put it right up next to so many of their favorite songs. And we're going to use like this very deep Nashville sounding,

she gets the job done in the background. And it's almost daring one audience not to like it. And then maybe the next one she'll go to somewhere else. I just, I, Chapel had a stratospheric rise where so quickly we were talking about her as one of the biggest pop stars working right now. And that's obviously true. But it happened so fast that you had the experience of her getting to those stages while

still having like all of the quirks, all of the rough edges. Obviously in the extra music. stuff. There's been some ups and downs with that. And I did, I like this song. I like this song a lot, but I hear a sanding of the edges, at least musically, that I wasn't sure what to do it. Yeah. I would argue that this was not an ambitious song designed to grow audience and watch me go get the country fans too. I don't think she has that bone in her body. I think in her mind. And that she's still in the pink pony club and that this is still music

for the queer community and that's really who she's playing to what's become difficult for chapel is that she's way bigger than that and that she does have an audience that is more broad than that and that she's struggled to get her head around what that means.

So I don't see her making art yet for everybody and I'm going to go get. I think she's very protective of where she started and that that's been some of the tension that has been exposed through the fragility that we've seen over the last six months. I am with you, though, in the aggregate, this is not good luck, babe, as a song. And let's watch it.

Because now, you know, in a lot of ways, we looked at the duo stuff, and we looked at the Katie Perry stuff. Like, every artist has a floor in this moment. Like Gaga stuff, right? And, and abracadabra, but really disease in particular, showed you, if Lady Gaga just goes and, like, actually eats her own nachos and, you know, farts in a microphone for two minutes, how many people are actually going to listen to it?

Well, yeah, you'd say gross, but, like, it's pretty much the number of people who streamed disease. Like, she's got a floor. And this song for Chapel is not tooting in a microphone by any stretch. It's an enjoyable song. I don't think it's a stratospheric hit, but it's going to give us a pretty good sense for what the baseline of her fan base is right now. And it's pretty fucking big. It's funny that you and I, I think, both like, don't love this song, but have different reactions to how big we think it's going to get. I think this is going to be a big song. Well, great if it is. I think it's going to be a big song and I think it's going to be interesting to watch how she continues to navigate her star, which has already been an up and down ride.

I'm not saying that I think that this is exactly what happened. There is chatter that the spoken part that she did on S&L where she said, you know, all you country boys saying you know how to treat a woman right, but only a woman knows how to treat a woman right, that that was taken out or that that's not in the recorded version as a way to make it easier to overlook what the song is actually saying.

Yeah. And I do think that that kind of tension is, I feel that tension in, this song, whether I think that that specific example is right on or not. Well, let's find out. I think what we do know is there's not a chapel album coming on the horizon just yet. So for now, this is about keeping her in the conversation because she may not need to put out albums. She may be the kind of artists who can just be because she is, she's at fashion week. And she's at, you know, she's now this icon. She just,

is. Yeah. And so does she need an album? Yeah, I think albums matter. But right now, again, good luck, babe, is her only billion plus streaming song. It's not on an album. So I don't know that all this stuff needs to lead to an album. She just needs to create and put out music. And this is going to be a different kind of artist with a different kind of career. She is not going to be the cookie cutter pop star. She is too fragile for that. She cannot withstand the rigors of that. And she also has a wonderfully endearing problem with the authority that you have to submit to have that kind of career. Or that she's testing whether you really truly have to.

She's going to go outside the lines. I don't think that she has the same North Star on the Hill drive career controlling ambition that somebody like Taylor Allison Swift has. I do think that she has, yeah, I mean, she's got an aversion to being controlled by others. She is a nonconformist, and that's going to play out through the course of her career. I'll tell you where this song really does work for me. I think the musical answer for what made me feel like they're. it's sanded down the rough edges a little bit, is that I do think that her voice sounds kind of processed on this

in a way that I'm not used to it sounding. And towards the end of the song, she goes on that vocal run. And it goes all the way to the end where she goes, you know, you're welcome. And in that section, because they're really letting her sing and she's doing some vocal tricks,

all of a sudden, I feel like when I get to that part of the song, I go, oh, there's Chapel. There's the person who I think has punchlines and jokes and the person who I can imagine, you know, in the meeting coming up with all the different ideas for the billboard and how to do that and whose creative vision I'm really excited about. I don't feel like she's present throughout the whole thing. But at the end, it's all happening. Well, let's watch it. We'll revisit over the course of the spring and see just what this means for chapel.

Again, if nothing else, it's going to bridge to the summer festival and touring season. And I just let's wait and see if there's more behind it. All right. We will do that. So another release that you really wanted to talk about is you had mentioned that we never got a chance to talk about the Jenny album, which came out a little over a week ago or a little bit more by the time people are hearing this. Talk to me about Ruby.

Well, I'm interested in your take. I mean, I don't totally 100% understand this artist yet. And there's part of me that feels like you're either into the K-pop thing or you feel extremely like the K-pop thing is being pushed on you. Well, because it's like, because you know what it is? It's the fans who have the sort of Marvel thing where there is an attitude of

if you don't know everything and you don't know everybody's life story and you don't know every piece of black pink lore, then there's going to be a pop quiz. Right. And I will say that like I even, you know, I try to be as voracious of music consumers as I can be. I can find that a little alienating because it does come across as, well, if you're never going to be the 11 out of 10 superfan, what's the point of trying? Says woman who started a Taylor Swift podcast.

Fair. Fair. who has gone for over 50 hours with some guy on tape talking about Taylor Swift more. Maybe that's the answer. Maybe somebody needs to do the every single album version of this and then I can have my full syllabus and that'll be great. Well, that might be our job. But for the purposes of this album, I come in not deeply ensconced in the cinematic universe of Black Pink. Do you? I'm not, I would definitely not describe myself as deeply ensconced. I'm medium ensconced at best. I'm, I'm mildly ensconced. I come in with a slight, a slight understanding of her,

mostly from the show, The Idol, which, I think... No one on planet Earth, other than maybe the weekend, brings up the idol as much as you, bring up the idol. It's, it needs to be talked about more than we do. Why? The show was bad and the vibes were weird. Totally. But she was in the show and I think that she came out of it, maybe one of the few who came out with a slightly higher brand than going in. The Lady Gaga of House of Gucci. Yeah. But the reason that I'm talking about that, sometimes I feel like the K-pop thing is being pushed is because I feel that way through the course of some of this album. Like, I feel like, this feels like a spaghetti album to me, where they throw a bunch of stuff

on the wall to try to see if something sticks without necessarily doing the full crossover bridge to the non-indocrinated K-pop community, right? You don't think that that's what, like Jenny is supposed to do? Yeah, but I think like Jenny, it is. But like there's a lot of things on this album that feel like it's a try. But what is Jenny? Because between like Jenny and handlebars, I don't know. Like I like Love Hangover.

I like damn right. Shout out to radical optimism by Duolipa. For sure. I like FTS. Uh, I fucking... I like mantra. Mantra's really catchy.

Yeah. This that pretty girl mancha, this that flange, you just touched down and a way. Pretty girls don't do drama. Unless we want it'll be depending on a day. I fucking love handlebars.

Featuring Duolipa, written by Amy Allen. And it's really the only song on this album that is that way. And that it just feels like a stitched together potpourri of stuff more so than like a cohesive album.

It's like we've got somebody who has talent, who has a fan base from the K-pop cinematic universe. Let's see if we can get something to break. And I came in of this album through the vehicle of handlebars, which I think is my favorite pop song of the year so far. I think I like this song better than anything on the Gaga album and that sang something.

I really love the Selena and Gracie song. Call me when you break up. So I think it's between handlebars and call me when you break up right now. I love this song. And I have to say coming in, I got nothing like it on the rest of the record. And so it was a little jarring for me to be drawn in and be like, what the fuck is this? I'm listening to this over and over and over again. And way to go Dulepa. You sound like Jesse J singing on this song.

Well, so that's what I was going to say. Do you get more Jenny from this song or do you get more Duleepa from this song? Yeah, fair enough. But it's what brought me in to explore her as an artist. And the rest of the album, you know, borrowed Jennifer Lopez and borrowed, and borrowed, like, you know, and it's kind of interesting, but it didn't help me understand

who this artist is as somebody who is not ensconced in the Black Pink lore. Well, and I think we should say that the other solo albums from the other members of Black Pink in general haven't, like nothing has super, super taken off.

And it's really hard. It's even without the context of K-pop specifically, which is its own, its own universe with pieces of how those artists come up through that system that I think add additional challenges. It is just hard in general for the members of a girl group boy band to figure out how to make their own path, particularly when people start young. I will say that I've found this one to be the most successful that I've heard. I just think that you can hear a personality on these songs. And there is this throwing spaghetti at the wall element to the number of features that are on here. And let's try this. For sure.

Here's Jocci. Here's Childish Gambino. Here's duo. And it feels like they're showing up hoping to bridge to the K-pop fan base. and she's bringing them in hoping to bridge to their fan bases. Yeah, no, everything is a merger, right? And it just doesn't feel like there's enough consistency across this album that if you like one, you're going to like more.

But I think for the relatively uninitiated, you don't necessarily come away with the sense of who Jenny is musically, with a clear vision of that, but she has personality that comes through. And I do think that some of the features help accomplish that

because it's a little bit, there's a little bit of this on the Tate McRae album too. It works to sound good with someone else. It works to be able to hold your own next to a Dochi,

although I don't actually totally know that I think that that happens on that song, but next to a Duolipa with Childish Gambino. it makes someone sound legit. And I do think that that, I think that worked. And I get why that would be an important thing as you're sort of trying to convince different audiences.

Okay, if you're not already a super K-pop fan, why should you care? Why should you be it on Jenny? And I do think that placing her with some of these other artists and having her hold her own is meaningful to that. Well, it's worth watching because there's no doubt that she's got a very passionate fan base. There's no debate about that. I think she is an interesting artist, and there is some stuff on here that's really interesting and worth giving some time to. I'm still not sure, you know, let's see.

I think if people aren't listening to this album and want to check it out, If you haven't been listening to Handelbars, go listen to Handlebars. Yes, listen to Handlebars. Go listen to Like Jenny. I do think that song's cool, you know, or borrowing from JLo. But there's an attitude, which is, I think, part of what I'm articulating here about what I think works. That's very present there. And yeah, mantra's been out, but mantra's really, really catchy.

So go listen to those songs. And maybe that'll make you listen to the rest. Is she a rapper? She has flows. she can deliver lines in a rap adjacent cadence in a way that I think is convincing.

Yeah. She's interesting. She's an actress. She's a singer. She's a rapper. She's a multi-hyphenate creator coming to trying to really break through in the U.S. as a solo artist. And it is an interesting test of the K-pop machine and some of the business integrations that have happened,

Hib, working with Scooter Braun, is an example of one of those business integrations that was intended to sort of port over music that was happening there. And the question is just like, does it have boundaries? Does it fully translate culturally? Can you take an artist and it's hard to break in America?

It is. We'll be watching. All right. That's sort of all. had in terms of the actual already released new releases. There were a couple announcement tidbits that I wanted to mention. One, there's going to be an Ariana Grande deluxe album. That's going to come out March 28th. We'll definitely be listening to that. Two, Miley Cyrus has officially begun teasing her new album, new era, the Something Beautiful

era. She changed all her social media stuff. So we will be watching that. As well, any thoughts on Ari or Miley, Nathan? Well, Miley in particular, you've seen it coming. She started to surface in more places. Saar on SNL, you've seen her doing some award show presentations on and on. So this is, we're going to talk more about this. The Miley album is going to be very interesting. She is at a kind of an important moment of her career.

and she's still very early on. I mean, people, we start to think like, hey, this, you know, she's been around for, she's 32. So she's still got a lot of runway in front of her. And I think this is an important one. There's been a lot of thought, as I understand it, that's gone into this. It's come with purpose. And like I said, when Miley does something, it's supposed to. to matter. She makes appearances it's supposed to really matter. So it's a big one for her.

Last thing I want to ask you, did you see that story about what happened with the Charlie XX vinyl? The fake cocaine? What are we talking about? Somebody posted their delivery of the limited edition brat vinyl, which is filled with the white powder. And whatever customs, I think this was a broad. But whatever customs people had dealt with it had opened it and there was a note in it that was like, we needed to check out this white substance. So unfortunately, we had to crack open your vinyl and make sure that it wasn't actually drugs. And I really got a kick out of that. So I just wanted to tell you about it. It's a great. It just, it's extremely brat is what it is. We love you, Charlie XX.X.

Thank you for all that you do. All right. I think that's it. I think that's an early spring new music roundup. More coming. We have lots more coming. And we have lots more. Look, Nathan, I feel like I've denied you the full runway you want to talk about the

Selena Gracie Benny. Song. But we're going to get there. Because... Wait a minute. Yes. There's one other song. that came out that we have not talked about.

What are we missing? You don't know about the song Sunset Boulevard? Okay, talk to me. Go. Well, I mean, just last week, you came with this grand conspiracy theory about how the beast on Lady Gaga's mayhem is about Michael's package. And then, like, the next day,

Salina Gomez puts out a song that is absolutely about Benny Blanco's package. In a really uncomfortable way. I was going to wait to talk about it. Why? I want to talk about it right now. Okay, okay. Well, because we're going to talk about this album next week. It's horrible.

Do you, I think I feel, I'm starting to feel self-conscious about how much the way that they present their relationship publicly, a noise. me. What is happening? And like, I just feel, I feel that I can't, I don't want to be a hater, but I also do hate it. And call me when you break up is awesome. And if you just do the exact opposite of that, it's sunset boulevard. Call me when you break up is, I like Call Me When You Break Up quite a bit.

I think it's a very good song. I feel like I don't. feel that it has made up for the sins of Sunset Boulevard and the other one. And the other one. I do feel that there is this narrative. It's the other one. That's how people talk about boy genius when they call. I would never.

I would absolutely never. Do not invoke Julian Baker in this conversation about this absolute travesty. What is going on? first of all, in the grand tradition of Nathan's fear of mouth trash, nobody shows off his

chewing gum more than this guy. What is the deal, man? You might as well throw straws at me. I get the fucking ick. I've said this before, I believe, maybe several times. So,

Kai, I just cut this out if I'm repeating myself. He at one point sold a lock of his own hair on his website. website. Like, Benny Blanco is weird. Beni Blanco is really talented, but Benny Blanco is a weird guy. Yeah, and that's the point that I want to make, because I think there was a lot of, like, originally when they started dating, people were basically saying he's too ugly to date Selena

Gomez. And what I want to say is very clearly, they're deeply in love. And he seems to be a great partner for her. And it's probably his weirdness. Selina Gomez is weird. Let me tell you that because you're not a billion dollar brand owner plus TV star plus music star. Like, there's some weird ass shit. Can I say that I wish them the best, but I'm not willing to co-sign the statement that I'm sure that everything is great because I don't trust either one of those people's decision making. Okay. Fair. I'm not like, I'm not calling them like, you know, the, the, you're not saying this is the great romance of our time. I'm not calling this. John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Bessette.

No, this is, what a weird reference I just made. But the point is I'm weirded out by this whole situation, and I don't want to pile on the, you know, Princess and the Frog bullshit. I really think that's kind of like... No, hold on, hold on. But I just don't want him to chew his gum in my face, and I do not want to hear this song.

I'm also not doing this thing where some, subset of people have been shitty to them online and therefore all criticism of what they're doing is invalidated. Right. This is unhinged behavior and I'm not going to sanction it. Selena Gomez responsible for some of my favorite songs. Selena Gomez has it in her. But Selena Gomez is a moving target.

And right now, I don't like the direction it's pointing. Really? You think, you think this is not going well. I don't think that there's a rational force behind the way that they are choosing to combine their musical lives and their romantic lives. Okay, so that I get. I mean, the way that they are going about this makes the Michael executive producer of Mayhem seem like incredibly quaint. I just am not a big fan of this song. Do you think they actually like did it in a car on sunset?

No. No, this whole thing seems made up to me. Like this whole, there's something incredibly performative. And I don't usually like that word because pop music is a performance. But there is something where I just feel like, I feel like it's shock value. I think they're making choices to generate attention. by making people go, whoa, what the fuck? And I don't understand why these two people who have really significant acumen at making

really good pop songs are choosing to do that. And then in the middle, just to prove that they still can do it, they do the song with Gracie, which again, I think is just good enough to prove that they absolutely could do this good thing if they wanted to, but not quite transcendent enough to me to make up for the other two. Well, it's been a whip-sawing back and forth of emotions for me around this because I really, really loved Call Me When You Break Up and I was not as off put, even by the Nacho Cheese Bath, but this song was off- How can you not be put off by the Nacho Cheese Bath? It's just so upsetting. Well, it's not as upsetting as this song.

The song was upsetting. Okay. I'm going to cut us off there because we are going to talk about their album next week. And I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to be doing too much. You don't want to reheat the nachos. I don't want to reheat my own hater nachos. I will be listening with an open mind. I like Selena Gomez's music.

Certain recent entries excluded very, very much. So that's what we'll be up to. All right. I think we go out on that. We go out on Sunset Boulevard. This has been every single album. As always, I'm Nora Princiotti. He's Nathan Hubbard.

Thank you to Kaia McMullen for producing this episode. And we'll talk to you next week.