Every Single Album - New Music Roundup: Charli xcx, Noah Kahan, Bleachers, and Lana Del Rey

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Nora and Nathan go through some new music releases from the past couple of weeks. They cover Charli xcx's first new music post-'Brat,' the 'Wuthering Heights' soundtrack album (7:40); "The Great Divide," Noah Kahan's lead single off of his forthcoming album (27:45); a new Bleachers release (36:02); and the long-awaited new single from Lana Del Rey, "White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter" (41:33).Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan HubbardProducer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to every single album. I'm Nora Prince Yaddy, and I am joined, as always, by my friend Nathan Hubbard, who I know is going to have a lot to say about the first thing that we need to just touch down on. We're going to go through some new music today from Charlie XX on the Weathering Heights soundtrack, from Noah Cajor, maybe from bleachers, a little bit of late-breaking Lana Del Rey. There's a lot going on in the music world. However, adjacent to the music world, many of our listeners really made sure that I was aware of a story that I think everyone really wants me to bring up to you, which is that I believe this happened over the weekend. I think you can probably fill me in on that a little bit. Travis did in fact hit someone with a golf ball.

You could tell that I was trying to manifest positivity. Yeah, but you jinxed him. It's positive vibes only on this podcast. Now, he jinxed himself. An 11 handicap is very capable of doinking someone. And the problem is, people thought Taylor was maybe going to be there. And so there were more people out following his group. You!

Well, you know what? Your ticket, as part of entry, you signed a... You signed a waiver of all... ability to sue if you get doinked by a golf ball. And unfortunately, the pros hit people in the crowd and the pro football player also hit people in the crowd. I feel so badly for that woman who got doinked in the skull. Yeah. You could see it coming. And I think apparently she's okay or okay enough. It's usually a survivable thing. Right. But it doesn't feel good. I got doinked in the back watching my brother play a couple weeks ago in Palm Springs

and left a nice little purple mark for a few days. That sounds really unpleasant. It's not great. I think I said this last week, but I just was unaware of how often this happens. And apparently Travis is actually... This has happened to Travis five times. What do you mean five times?

Well, you know, the New York Post. In 2024, he had two wayward shots on the same day while playing at the American Century Championship in state-line Nevada and Lake Tahoe. A young female spectator in her 20s was left bloodied when a Kelsey shot on the 16th hole struck her in the head, but she was okay.

And then earlier in the day, he'd hit someone in the arm. It's not great. In July 2025, Kelsey again, playing at the American Century Championship accidentally drove a ball into the neck of an onlooker during a booze-filled round.

Look, here's the thing. You can't be a professional football player and also married to someone or engaged to someone whose job it is to travel around the world and be very good at golf. I just... It's actually kind of comforting.

Yeah, the fact that he's done this a million times before, I'm very sorry for the lady. I kind of had a sense it was coming. and I tried to go positive vibes only. Mission not accomplished. Don't go watch Travis Kelsey golf. It seems like everybody's okay. And, you know, it does seem to be maybe not an occupational hazard,

but an observer's hazard. They got nets at baseball games to prevent this exact sort of thing. Right. They don't do that at golf. No, they got nets around the driving range, but it's not out on the course. There's trees and there's people taller than you are. Other than that, you got to, you really got to understand the distances and not stand

there. That's a good piece of advice. Bring your tallest friend to the golf tournament. Oh, you one, people hide behind me all the time. That's why I got doinked on the back. Yeah, that's why you're really focused on this. Now, it's all coming together for me now. Can I just, can I just make one right turn on that? Please. Which is that if you remember, there's some video that Taylor posted where she appears to be playing pickleball? Yeah. Or tennis? Yeah.

So in the, in the, um, it's like a lavender tennis skirt and it, it was kind of, it was not that expensive. So it like sold out immediately. Right. And she had, well, I don't know about the skirt. That's above my pay grade. But I did notice. We're about to experience one event through the way that it's lodged in my brain and the way

that it's lodged in your brain. Yes. I noticed that I think she had a chief's pickleball paddle branded, you know, the logo was on it. And so it does suggest that she's at least moving somewhere towards country club sports. And if this is a thing, the greatest thing about golf is that no matter how shitty you are, you could still play with my brother who's a pro. And you get some extra strokes and you could actually play head to head against him.

So you can A, be terrible or good. B, it's a great sport for men and women to play together, and people have all, like, anybody can play the sport. You know where I'm going with this. Like, Taylor does not fancy herself an athlete, despite the fact that she is an athlete, as has been well documented, by great athletes like, I don't know, J.J. Watt, Nora.

But if she is, in fact, if she is, in fact moving towards country club sports, including, of all fucking things, pickleball, surely she must be at least at some point she has swung a golf club with Travis Kelsey don't you think? Do you think that they could golf together to hyper hyper competitive people? I just don't know if Taylor actually has the golf swing

in her. But isn't that's, I mean, she's pretty tall. You'd think that she would have the leverage on. Oh, it's, really? Like Justin Thomas, who's like a great, a lot of these guys are super short. Rory, not tall. Okay.

I mean, the compact, now, there's big guys out there who, Scotty Sheffler's tall. But I'm just saying, like, there's a lot of, to pick it up Lane. I'd like to see Taylor Swift swing a golf club. I'm just not. I would too, because I would really love, like, the way that we could get an entire podcast out of you analyzing Taylor Swift's golf swing. We would have, I know Mark wants to come on the pod. Mark would be here. We would really go through it.

It would be really fun. Let's just be clear. If Taylor Swift ever actually goes out and plays in one of these things, do not go. You will get doinked. And to your point, she is very competitive. And because she is tall and has these long arms, she definitely has some swing speed. I just don't think she's going to have a whole lot of coordinated control. And lacking coordinated control plus swing speed is a recipe for painful doyks on the golf course.

Swing speed. Wow. I feel like I'm guessing on Fairway Roll and it's really fun. That's all I wanted to know. I think Taylor Swift has swung a golf club, and that tells, you know what that is? That's real love. Wow. That's beautiful.

All right. Shall we get to our regularly scheduled non-golf programming? Yeah, what are we doing today, Nora? So let's go through some of this new music because there have been quite a few releases of the non-album variety. I think that we should start with... With the album? Yes, although not traditional album, by which I mean we should start with Charlie X, X, X.X.

What do you think? So, first of all, I want to know how deep into the Wuthering Heights universe you are, because the soundtrack that she did for Emerald Fennell's movie came out along with the film. I went to see the movie over the weekend. You did? I did. Yes. And Nora's On Nora's 10 star scale, what did it get from you?

So the Charlie soundtrack would get... No, not the Charlie soundtrack. The Wuthering Heights movie. Not a lot of stars. Maybe one to two stars. I thought it was a pretty bad movie. Really? Yeah.

And I'm usually not that hard to please at the theater. Okay. So does your disdain for that spill into the way you think about the music? So I think that's like that is one of, if not the central questions of this to me. Because like, recall that this is Charlie XX's follow up to Brat in a sense. And I think there's a lot about this that is her kind of trying to avoid that and trying to take enough of a left turn so that it's not held up in that way. But it factually, it is. This is the next album that she's done.

I liked the soundtrack. I did too. I thought it was very good. I thought the score to the movie, which she didn't do, was also pretty good. So just musically, sonically, it was a pretty good experience overall. This filmmaker is good at aesthetics. She's good at creating a very hyper-realized visual world and can also do a, you know, through partnerships, I think, a certain version of that with music. So that was definitely my favorite part of the movie was...

It's cool that we've turned this into a movie in Golf Pod. I know. But I did, but that's, that's just me saying that like, it was a substantial part of the movie. It was the things that you hear during scenes and these songs were played at, they weren't throwaways. it felt like part of the experience of watching it was listening to the Charlie songs and also the score. So I don't want that to sound like a throwaway of like, oh, I hated every second of it,

but also, yeah, these songs are good. I thought it was pretty good and I thought it was additive to the movie. So forget the movie. Can you divorce the album itself from the movie? And I mean, I watched it while like cooking for 12 people. It's a very funny tonal contrast.

Sorry, I listened to it while cooking for 12 people. And so I had a, I had no sort of like visual ick to get from listening to the music. And like my foundational takeaway was, man, Charlie is really good with melody. Yeah. Like there are, you're right. This is different, and I think intentionally so. But it is, their through line is, I don't care, right? Like, she writes great melody, and it is present on this.

And I thought that it was a soft landing from Brat and that I could hear some of the melody that I really liked from Brat. without the edge and with more orchestration and again a softer landing here I didn't I mean there's some stuff that like really

can fuck off house can I'm sorry I know like I know it's supposed to be cool and I know we're supposed to like it by the way this no one can see this Nathan like has his hands over his eyes like he can't even bear the thought of it

Kai, you can cut and paste everything I'm about to say and just replay it when we talk about the Lana song. I know I'm supposed to like House and I know that it's like cool and the people involved in it are really cool. But it's fucking terrible. It sucks. But there is other stuff on this album

that is not fucking terrible and that does not suck and that it's actually really cool. I really like my reminder. I really like always everywhere. I like always everywhere a lot too. Yeah. And I think this is generally outside of house a really good interesting listen

that from a credibility standpoint she's maybe getting massively over-exposed right now with all these fucking movies. I mean, who could be in so many movies? But this is a nice little off-ramp. In the way that I think Harry probably was struggling is the wrong word, but Harry had to make a choice about what he's going to do after Harry's house. Like, yeah, Grammy winning album. Like, where do you go? Do you do Harry's House part two?

No. So we're getting a dance record that is more about vibes than melodies. Here, Charlie's, and by the way, that's because Harry Styles is great at vibes. He's greater at vibes than he is at melodies. Charlie, I think, is great at melodies, and that's the consistency that we're getting here. And so I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it more than I thought. And I'm just glad I didn't see this stink-ass movie. House. Most of this does not sound like House. There's a version of this where that was kind of a good tonal clue for what she was going to do here. And House feels of a piece with the movie, I would say. say more so than, more so actually than a lot of the songs I felt, even though I thought

that they mostly worked. Like, Chains of Love, which is the big one, has more, it has more, I could even say it has more feeling than the movie does. And I remember sitting there in the moment that. it plays, which is a big moment. And it felt almost like schmaltzy by contrast, but I think because I found the movie to be so bloodless, that was really nice because there was something that, like, the song made me feel something and the movie was not really making me feel a whole lot.

And so that way... Yeah, there's the concept of anchoring. Like, she set our expectations so low that we're like thrilled to accept the poo-poo sandwich because it doesn't, it isn't as awful as... That's not what I'm trying to say. Oh, okay, sorry. I don't, I find house kind of unlistenable, but I also don't hate it in the same way that you do. Like, I just sort of get that it's doing a different thing.

Like, die with a smile? No, it's like a haunted house soundtrack. It's practically not even a song. No. It sounds. Neither is the Lana Del Rey thing. Yeah, we'll get there. Good Lord.

I don't know what's going on. if anybody tries to tell me no no you just don't understand Louisiana I'm gonna go fucking insane I spent a lot of time in Louisiana I've spent close to no time in Louisiana but if that's get the fuck out of him with that shit

just get the fuck out of here with that shit are there other songs on this record that you're particularly drawn to I really liked Chains of Love so okay I really want to tell you that I totally love Eyes of the World because I think it's pretty badass

that Charlie got Skyfriere to be on a song in the year 2026. I think it's fine. But I still think it's cool that she did that. I do think that a big part of this conversation is the people Charlie XTX is currently aligning herself with because even though I like this,

I think this is a successful soundtrack and I can see myself coming back maybe to my reminder and maybe to Chains of Love, but I don't think in general this is an album that is going to be revisited in any kind of capacity similar to something like Brat, similar to something that is released just as music and now to soundtrack.

But it's an interesting background track when people are showing up at your house and you're cooking for 12 people, I can tell you that. It's a conversation starter, I'm sure. Yeah, it's a bit, I don't know, Maybe a bit like the Rosalia record or... I mean, there's culture in it. Yeah.

And I think... You just don't start with house. You skip house. It's nice that it's at the beginning for you because you can just go past it. I think the thing that's that, to me, is the most engaging from it is just where she is right now

in terms of, okay, this movie, I think some people like it more than I do, certainly. It did commercially pretty well. A lot of people went to go see it over the long weekend. And that's certainly not nothing in this environment, right? Like she is attached to a project that a lot of people consumed

and got a lot of people talking and engaging with. I think it helps with the world building. Right. And even if you don't think that it's a successful movie, Charlie's part in it I don't think is being looked at as certainly the issue at the core and even unsuccessful in and of itself. It's also a week after the moment went into wide release. I don't think a lot of people, I think the people who were going to see the moment,

for the most part, saw it when it was in limited release. And so the numbers over the past week, I think, have been very bad, but they were pretty good when it was, oh, buy a ticket in New York or L.A. there's going to be a Q&A afterwards. Like it was, it's a niche project. You have to get a lot of in jokes. I think it's been somewhat polarizing, but people at the ringer like Amanda Dobbins,

I was really excited to see have a very positive review of it. Oh, she did. Yes. Yes. And I still, I've been trying, like, mad to go see this movie, and I haven't been able to, and I'm really excited to see it.

Because I think it would actually be a really interesting thing for us to talk about given the subject matter. but Charlie has spent the last, like, it was kind of Charlie X-E-X week at the movies. And it's been a mixed bag. But I think at least for her part,

at least a little bit more positive than anything else. And that's, that's quite a feat. Yeah. Yeah. Because these are the movies, right? I mean, less so the moment. This is the movie right now that people are talking about.

And she has very rapidly, and I would say pretty successfully, made herself a part of the movie world. It poses a pretty interesting question, I think, for what, like, when does Charlie, how long is this sojourn? This is gone from, Charlie took her moment at the center of the zeitgeist and said, I love movies. I want to do a movie project and see how you. goes to she's really doing it. And she's really got a lot of stuff going on. And I wonder what that means for the music. Obviously, some of this stuff she's in as an actor and other things she's doing music for. She and Jack Antonoff are doing the music for Mother Mary, which is a film about a pop star starring Anne Hathaway that's coming out this year. That I think will be really, really interesting.

but I just am sort of finding myself zooming out to the big picture and feeling a little bit surprised by how quickly she has gotten so many fingers into so many corners of movie making. Well, she kind of turned herself into the cool kid with Brat, didn't she? Yeah. And there's a cinematic universe that's now actually split off. She was part of the Taylor one, sort of, and then there was the schism. that happened out in the open on Brat that Lord handled one way and seems like Taylor maybe handled another. And now we have an alternate universe that is assembling sort of like dark black leather underground clubby people. And there we've got a few clearly some crossover folks,

right, in Jack Antonoff, I guess. Yeah. I think he might have, I think there might actually be two things that she's currently involved and that he also is. But again, there are 600 projects. Right. He also tweeted today that this Lana song is his favorite thing he's ever worked. I just don't know what to do with any of it. I think to the

extent that there's a lesson, it doesn't need to be about there being a lesson, but I do take a little bit of a lesson from this, which is like taking swings can really be worth it. Like, she would be willing to fail. She's willing to try making a weird mockumentary about what it is to be a pop star right now and how bizarre that is and try to figure

out how to do that and make it work. And I think people are responding to that with some generosity towards the moments in which it doesn't because there's a respect for, well, yeah, that's cool. It's cool to see you try. It's cool to see how this turns out and what this looks like. Do you think I have always thought about her as a writer and as an underground pop star, but even with Brat, I wasn't sure. Do you think that there are kids who would say she's their favorite? Like, are people getting tattoos on their forearms at 17 years old with Charlie lyrics? Yes, but it's not, look, I do think that she has a certain type of privilege of a more niche audience even still. because most of the people who seriously engage

come to it with an understanding of who she is and what she does and what she's trying to do. And therefore I think... Club kids? Yeah, or just, you know, people who are... I also think now she has, to some extent, you know, she has some of the film nerds. She has the certain type of pop culture obsessives.

And it's... Golf fans, yeah. Totally. but I think, do you know what I'm saying? Like, I think there's a, I think that can help because I think then you have an audience that is genuinely engaged. Well, they, I mean, the early ticket sales versus the mainstream public release of the movie tell the story. Yes.

Which is that there is this, this group of people who, for whom, look, I thought the same thing about Noah Kahn, who I know we're going to talk about. I you know the great divide to me sounds like Perth it's I mean there's so much boni vera through it all and he's working with Aaron Dessner and it you know I don't know I mean it's it's fine it's good it just sounds you know was he the big thing and all of a sudden like he blew I mean the on sale for his tour was massive just by any measurement and a baseball stadium is not a normal football stadium like selling out Fenway Park is not selling out Foxborough. Like those are two very, very different things. Not even, is it half? It's not even half. Four fucking Fenways is a lot. And just based on

inside the industry chatter around what was going on in that queue as people were, like, there were a lot of people in line to see Noah. And so do I think, the point is Noah has some diehards. And it's out there for everybody to see in the on sale. Charlie has some diehards. It's out there for everybody's see in the sales for the cities. I think there's a little bit of a distinction in that Charlie is like weirdly, it's almost like she has a moat around her. Because she is kind of a niche pop star underground club kid, because she has that and there's a little bit of an abrasiveness,

I think there are a certain amount of people who just will not engage. and don't want to and aren't interested and just say no thank you. And I think that if she wanted to be the biggest artist in the world, that would be a difficulty for her. And Brat, for all of its cultural salience, didn't stream like crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. And so, like, that's her limiting factor. The beauty of that is that everybody inside the moat, I think, is more generous to her and allows her a little bit more artistic freedom.

I mean, guess featuring Billy Eilish is at 800,000 streams, but I mean, yeah. Yeah, she's had big, she's certainly had big songs and that became a big cultural moment. Your point is there's no billion dollar ones or billion stream songs, and I think your point really holds there. Yeah. And I just think that when she goes and does things like this, it helps because it limits the amount of people who sort of go, what the heck is going on here?

This is weird. I don't like it. I just think she sort of doesn't deal with so much of that. And I wonder if that's sort of freeing. That is the last point that I needed to make about Charlie. And I am interested to keep talking about Noah Kahan. So I would move us back to there unless there's anything that you want to get off your chest. Do you like the Great Divide?

I do like it. I will say that Noah Kahan is not totally my cup of tea. And I wanted to talk about him in part because of that, because I know I get, and I'm sure you do too, a ton of messages asking for us to talk about him. Because he is one of these male artists who I think has somewhat crossed over into, at least having a fluency and an appreciation from the pop girl universe.

And I think he's very talented. Sad boy songs are generally just not my cup of tea. And so I never want to hold that against him. But it just becomes something that I'm not particularly compelled by. But I do think, like, I thought the song, even when I saw it and heard it for the first time in a MasterCard commercial, I think that it builds in a way

with the instrumentals that was sort of compelling. I do think that he's really good at nostalgia. I don't know if it helps that I grew up in the exact same part of the country as him, but like I do think that... Yeah, that's the thing. I think he has a real talent for... Talking about Vermont.

Your northern attitude. Yeah, I mean, he does. Six seasons got 1.7 billion streams. Yeah. It's a big song. It's a big, big song. Well, and I wonder if a little bit of the situation with this tour is, if I recall correctly,

that really blew up, maybe after his last tour was announced or something, or sort of during. I wonder if there's a little bit of overflow demand where some people who really got into that song or really got into him through that cycle didn't get a chance

to go to the last one and therefore really want to go to the next one. Because I agree with you that I do feel a little bit of this sort of cocking my head to the side like a German shepherd going, is Noah Kahan really that big? And no shade, but it

surprises me. Yeah. I think it's hard to overstate the extent to which stick season... Her firm on, I pinnets the season of the sticks and I saw your mom, she forgot that I exist. Dial drunk. I don't like to wear... And Northern Attitude disseminated through the ranks of college kids. Like, these songs got really...

really big in those demos, particularly in the Northeast. It's a little bit Dave Matthewsie. Right. And it was a hidden secret in the Northeast. And then it penetrated the frats in the South too. Before you ever saw Noah Khan, he sounded like I would have expected based on Dial Drunk that his vibe, his public persona vibe would have been more like Zach Brian is. Like more like outlaw, like ready to fight you. Instead, he's this sort of like.

bubbly, his eyes get really big and shit and he's got the braids. And I don't know. I almost wonder if there's a onstage joy that he gives off that is not dissimilar from what is attracting people to Olivia Dean. And that that's just what it's about. His music, I like, I heard a lot of Bonne Verre in this track. And that's okay. But it, it, um, You know, there are some grates and giants that hang over this genre right now that feel like the godfathers of it. And it is, it is BoniVair. It is Mumford and Sons. That stuff is out there for all to see. And I think these people were undeniably influenced by it. And I think that's why Aaron is on the console here producing this record. I'm interested to hear more of it because I think it's probably really freaking hard to follow up. that record.

You just don't write two stick seasons, I don't think. Right. Right. Well, and it doesn't, so he does have wrinkles, right, that are present here that we're not involved in stick season. In particular, Aaron Dissner is co-producing this upcoming album that's going to come out April 24th. He's not credited on The Great Divide, the single.

Right. But you do, as you said, you know, you hear some BoniVair, you hear artists who are kind of part of the same solar system as the national in Desner. So maybe there are some wider influences that make sense and are involved in even the songs that Desner's not working on. But overall, it doesn't feel based on this song like what he's trying to do with this fall. follow-up is completely zag, right? No. That's right. No, these are still acoustic-driven, sing the chorus in a field songs. I think there's something to be said for the last album.

He did this sort of re-release with a bunch of features. Yeah. And he had Gracie, and he had Post Malone, and he had Casey Musgraves, and Lizzie McAlpine, and Sam Fender and Joy Laudacun. Yeah. And that, I think, here we talked about being in a he put him as the main character

or a central connectivity you know figure to all of these people and brought in some audiences and he just was in Mexico with the Mumford guys playing a show in in January so he's done a good job of locking in to a lot of those

different you know different tangential audiences do you think of him as part of do you think of this spring in the next few months as like, oh, we're getting a Noah Kahan album and we're getting a Harry Styles album. And do those two things feel like they're part

of the same universe? They don't to me. Me neither. And Noah's playing right where he should. Noah's outside summer venues, it's a Dave Matthews kind of thing. And it's completely different music. Don't get me wrong.

But it's like... That's another thing is I think that some of the... like again, I'm not like super, super into his music personally, but I think the idea of going to a Noah Cahan concert sounds really fun because I do think that he chooses, like, it's smart that he plays baseball parks. Like, that's where you want to see Noahana. You want to see him on a summer afternoon. You want it to be light out at least at the beginning.

He's not taking his shirt off and like showing off his awesome tattoos and doing like McJagger dancing. moves. Like, that's not what, that's not, that's not, that's not the same show. Right. Right. But it's, but I think there's wisdom to that, right? It was sort of like knowing what the, what the right way to have the music compliment the experience and, and have it all make sense is. And I wonder if that's, that would be part of the appeal for me, for sure. Yeah. Well, it's hard to, it's hard to look at near two billion streaming song on Spotify in the face and not be pretty damn impressed with the weight of the audience around it. So shout out to Vermont. Do you want to touch down quickly on bleachers

because we have a new bleachers single as well? What do you think of it? I like it. I quite like it. The single is called You in Forever. The music video came out Friday. I can't quite wrap my head around the music video, although Margaret Qualey looks amazing in it. Yeah. But I, I, I, I, I, you know, it is a typical bleachers single. It is very, it's very dense musically. It really builds. It didn't like rip my heart into pieces. No.

But I enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, there are some bleachers songs that turn me inside out. Don't take the money. Like, I just can't. Modern girl I love, stop making this hurt. I love tiny moves. I love... There's just a lot in the catalog at this point that I think is...

I want to get better as like a run-through-a-wall type of song, I think. Call Me After Midnight is great. So I am a fan of... Sounds like you think this one was okay. I think it's okay. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting the way that the song builds. Like you almost hear...

It's almost Jack giving a class in how he builds up in layer songs, right? Starting with his voice and then sort of the way he pieces. it all together. And I thought it was okay. I think it, um, I listened to the single a bunch and then Spotify just started feeding me more bleachers songs. And I was like, okay, it doesn't sit at the top of the canon for me, but I'm really excited and interested to hear the album. And the way that it, in particular classic jack, by the way, as a part of that, I listened to the, um, the Taylor song that she did with bleachers. What? Help me.

Anti-hero. Oh. Anti-hero. Featuring the bleachers. Underrated, don't sleep on that. I mean, I love the Taylor. Taylor, you'll be fine. But, like, actually, the build of it is really good.

I enjoyed it a lot more this go-round with a little bit of space from it. So, again, a long-winded way of saying, I'm excited to hear the rest of the record. I'd find his stuff really compelling. and this song I thought was just okay. Yeah, me too. It feels worth saying that of the things that we've talked about other than Travis playing golf,

Jack has featured into or will feature into all but the Noah stuff, basically. Like, he's very busy. And that can be good. That can mean that someone's in a great creative space. It can also mean that you're, stretched a little thin. Yeah.

And it just, again, it just seems like he has a lot of projects. Yeah. This song gets better as it goes. Yes. Which is usually true of, that's a pleacher signature and that's a jack signature. Yeah. And at the end, there's some melodies and some lines that get fed in that I'm super into. So by the end of it, I'm into it.

But I, yeah, let's see. All right. I think we should talk about Alana Del Rey. Oh, man. So first let's just go through kind of how this went down. So Lana has been teasing an album, new music, various things for months, years. Just like never really like puts a clear date time place who went when we're why on it. Earlier this month, she posted a series of Instagram stories where she said that today, the day that we're recording this, which is February 17th, she was going to have a single out.

And it is called White Feather Hocktail Deer Hunter, which is mouthful. And so then, you know, midnight rolls around last night. there's no song. People go to sleep, they wake up in the morning, go look for a Lana Del Rey song, there's no song. Eventually she releases a snippet of it.

And then her brother-in-law is like in Instagram comments somewhere saying, oh, it's going to come at 9 o'clock. Doesn't give a time zone so people still don't really know. That means central time. That means Louisiana. Sure.

And then eventually, In the middle of the day, I think, this song goes up and gets released. It is produced by Jack, who as you said, tweeted about it and said that it was his favorite with Lana. He's also a co-writer, along with her husband, the guy who was the airboat captain, Gator Tor guy, her sister and her brother-in-law. It's a family affair. It is a family affair. I tried, man. I tried.

And I... It's really weird. It's weird and it's pretty bad. Yeah. That's what it is. I agree with you that there's going to be a chorus of actually this is genius. And I'm not going to be a part of it. No.

People are going to try to bend themselves into knots to be like, no, you don't get it. And I'm going to say, you are right. Yeah. What are we doing? Was it whoopsie-daisy-you-hoo that was the last straw for you? Whoopsy-daisy, yu-ho, yelling I love you, out to my white feather, I'll get a turn. Correct.

It was just the repeated whoopsie-daisy. No, actually, it might have been the snake charmer music, but was the last straw for me. I have a lot of affection for Lana, and I might have hung up. in there through the first whoopsie daisy youhoo but then the snake charmer music hit and i was i was no longer engaged with the premise yeah i also can appreciate like being like i don't want to put out a song that sounds like another jack antonoff thing i wanted to be my own and i'm in a new phase in life and you know you could have just done like a youtube like just make me a real that says the shit that you

like about your husband. That's cool. Like all, I, I have no, but as a piece of art to be listened to as music, it's not landing in that way for me, Lana. I'm sorry. I want to be into it. I want to get into the world and be all about this and get stoked about the alligator hunter. But I just, I can't, I have too many other things. I think that's, really fair. Look, we'll give her a whole album to see where else this goes. Lana Del Rey is someone who loves to make an impression and loves to push people's buttons and I can certainly see this being part of it. But I didn't get my buttons pushed here. I just got bored. That's how I felt about Wuthering Heights. Do you think that that's because, but sometimes I get bored because once

you have the sensation so clearly of there is an attempt being made to push my buttons, it does become boring because there's no there's no reaction to it, there's no surprise. Right. And I guess that's how I felt more so than she's not trying to push my buttons, but that's honestly coming from a place of my listening to it and going, okay, well, this can't be serious, right?

Like, she can't actually think that this is, that this works as music. The thing that I got so excited about in 2024 with all of those albums that came out that we refer back to all the time is one of, I think, what will go down historically as one of the great years in pop music was that one after another, they felt like meaningful evolutions of the art form. They each had their own lane and they were advancing. It's not like these were chords that had never, ever been strung together, but there were sounds that we hadn't heard together. There were... You could feel a conversation that was evolving with each release. They were teaching us, by the way, in the way that I think Lana maybe is trying to do here, but there was an authenticity writing about themselves that mattered.

Like, I got to understand the human being and the artist behind the music. Like, all of those things were happening. I hear this, and it sounds like an attempt... By the way, this fall, we had two interesting albums. We had the Lily Allen album and we had the Rosalia album neither of which I think are like gonna give you

you know espresso or 360 but like they had interesting points of view they felt like works of art and they were sort of meaningful

evolutions of the female pop category that's not Lana's job to do that I'm just saying that I I heard it and I just was like, whoa. Yeah. Come on, man. And Lana, Lana has done that, right? She's seriously done that.

I think she's someone who, to me, it's almost like her legacy is less about her own music and more about the way that other pop artists. Yeah. Taylor Swift. She's a lot of your favorite artists, favorite artists. Totally. And maybe that's hard, right? Like maybe it's sort of hard to figure out when like everybody is kind of, everyone's taking their steps, kind of doing your thing a little bit. It's hard to figure out how to chart your own course maybe.

But like, I don't know. I just this is, I think she's really talented and capable of doing really interesting things. And this doesn't feel like one. She hasn't been the same since she got totally consumed in that crowd in the suite at the Super Bowl. You think there's something going on? under that dog pile. You think something, you think like she got Avalhene body doubled?

I don't know. Like it's not a lot anymore? It's a new one? Yeah, it might have been a body snatch situation that happened after the chiefs won in overtime. Something happened. It's a lot to consider.

Can you tell me how you feel as someone with more, more ties to Louisiana than I do, certainly about the Louisiana of it all? I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it as an excuse. I don't want to hear it as some sort of like cultural... This is not Paul Simon with Graceland, you know, teaching us all about the wonders of South African music,

albeit, you know, through some cultural appropriation. That's not what's happening here. Don't try it on me. Do you... How much of this do you hang on, Jack? Oh, if not for the tweet, it would have been very little. Yeah. She's heard all the noise about her husband and people being like,

what's she doing with this guy? What's all that, right? So I understand coming back with like a arrow to the heart, like a, this is, fuck you, it's us against the world. This is my guy. Like, I get the angle and perspective. But that's also not new perspective for her. Like, there's really nothing about this that's new for her. Like, this sort of, you know, Americana, either valorization or cosplay, depending on how.

the engaging you find it, that is not at all new for Lana Del Rey. The, nobody gets my man, but I love him and we're together. That is not new for Lana Del Rey. It's a new guy, and he has a background

that's surprising to a lot of people, but it's not like she's taking that and spinning it into something that hasn't been a part of her catalog. It's this is her shtick. This sort of always has been. It's just usually a lot more effective than this. Yeah, I agree.

Let's put a pin in this, because if we had judged the Charlie album based on House, shame on us, because there's some really good stuff on the Charlie Weathering Heights album. So let's- You hate when I'm negative. I hate when we are negative because I think we work very hard to lift up art that we love and to celebrate it and to get it heard. And I don't want to prejudge.

But I also, unlike many other music forward podcasts in this universe, am not going to come out here and say things about music that we don't actually believe. There are times when criticism is an act of love, I think. Well, it is in this case. It is. And in the same way that we felt like some artists that we talk about did something that was okay, but could be better,

we're going to say it. When somebody does something that's really great, we're going to call it out and say that. We are not the final arbiters of it, but our job is to react to it. And my reaction was, whoopsie Daisy. Pooh-pooh!

All right, well, here's two things that I'm very positive about, especially this one. Miley Cyrus has announced a 20th anniversary Hannah Montana special that will go on Disney Plus on March 24th. Alex Cooper is hosting this? Alex Cooper is hosting. They did a Call Her Daddy episode, however much of a while back that was fun. There's a very, very short trailer that is basically just a healed bootie. stepping out of a car with the Miley music vamping in the background, or the Hannah music vamping in the background that is out.

But I'm just psyched about this. There's obviously so much nostalgia right now for this era and, you know, this era of Disney and that stuff. And I'm glad that Miley is, it feels like she's made her peace with Hannah. And that's what makes me happy about this. I think that's a great way to think about it. And she better play the shit out of the climb. Yeah, she better play the shit out of the climb.

You hear that, Miley Cyrus? I know you've listened to this podcast before. We want to hear the climb. Can I ask you one more question before we go, Nathan? Let's do it. I've been wanting to ask you about this for a couple of weeks now, actually. Which is just to loop back on the Harry Styles residency tour, ticketing

experience and hear what your take on how that went was? I mean, I don't it's too early, is what I'm going to tell you. Okay.

So this is, because that was what we talked about before. And I was curious especially because something that I, an experience that I had as a ticket purchaser, was this question. of you're going through it and you're trying all the different pre-sales. And if you get in,

there's this question of, is this kind of a moment when some people get suckered a little bit? Or where you just sort of feel the, oh my God, oh my God, how am I going to get a ticket? I really want to get a ticket and go, should I buy the VIP package? Should I just do that? And is it going to be like this the whole time? Or over the course of, you know, between now and when these shows are, are there things that change? And that I was, my friends and I eventually did get tickets at a price that we were very happy with. So ultimately, like, it worked out. But I still came out of that experience, sort of feeling that open question of, is this mad dash a true reflection of the demand when there are this many shows? Or is there still a moment to come

where you feel the amount of supply? I don't, I mean, you feel the amount of supply in, I mean, the problem is when you have, you know, 100,000 pieces of unique inventory that 10 million people want and that you're trying to distribute at the same time. The concept of the on sale definitely is designed to create excitement and generate interest and to create FOMO so that there's a cultural move to go do it

and I'm going to make the decision to allocate some portion of my disposable income to acquiring these tickets. But from a pricing perspective, man, I would so much rather that the money go into the pocket of Harry Stiles and have him do whatever he wants to do with it than into the ticket broker pocket,

who, you know, the scalper pocket, who's creating a bunch of money, of bots and multiple accounts and multiple credit cards and basically taking these tickets only for the purpose of reselling them. So I think the answer is that it is a very, very hard e-commerce problem to solve. And I think when there is that much demand and there is limited supply and there was for these shows, that's the environment that you get. Now, I would say somebody who didn't get a ticket, you know, you look in the secondary market right now and the prices are super high, that is somebody trying to take advantage of you. That is somebody who has the ticket.

They are hoping to make a buck and they're fishing for suckers. So in that situation, the right thing to do is wait because you're not spending $20,000 a ticket. So just wait and wait until things start to get real. Like half, I don't know what the stats are fully right now, but about half of the buying that happens for a show or a game in the secondary market happens in the last 48 hours. So stuff really starts to get real. You saw it at the Super Bowl, right, where tickets really started to come down as you got closer to game.

Now, there are times where the event is so valuable, and the Taylor Tour was like this, that those ticket prices don't come down because there's a buyer for every single one. But some portion, no matter how hard the artist tries, some portion of the tickets get grabbed up by speculators who are trying to make a buck. And they're going to hold on and fish for $20,000, $10,000, $5,000, $2,000, until the real signal of demand comes through and says, no, no, I'm not paying those prices. And then the secondary market prices will start to fall.

So if you're a fan out there who bought tickets, I suspect that by the time all is said and done, you're going to be happy that you paid the price that you did because the alternative, look, the alternative was not going. And if you've spent money that you shouldn't have, then I'm sorry for you. But I would much rather, first of all, that the money go to the artist instead of to the secondary market. And I also think that there is a hell of a lot of demand for this artist. And so, I mean, are you surprised by that at all? That there are, when he is doing 30 nights in New York City, and it did not feel, I mean, it was a blood bath for every single one of them. Yeah. No, I'm not. But I also think if you've noticed what's happened after that on sale,

he's doing the little festival for 20 bucks. He's doing the listening party in Manchester. I'm not saying that. I'm not, I don't hold it against him. I, I, I, I, I don't hold it against him. I, I, I, I, I'm impressed, honestly. Yeah. Well, we talked about how fertile that ground was for Harry. Like, a lot of people made a run at the crown for four years. And it didn't, it didn't make a difference. people are ready to embrace him. Look, even as this song is not, like, taken the world by fire, and that's okay, because I don't know that that was the point. Like, people are still going to want to go and be a part of that experience.

I think I'm not so much surprised at that. And I do think that what you're seeing in the aftermath of people sort of going, wow, okay, these tickets were expensive. Well, were they? I'm not so sure if you really compare it. What I would just say is, I think they're also going to make him accessible in ways that don't require you to spend that. Now, you won't get the same show necessarily, but he's going to get out there, and I think that's all part of the plan. This is an extraordinarily well-managed artist.

The way that Harry's career has been crafted from day one when he left one direction is the reason why he's here, and they're going to make pretty good choices, I think. And by the way, they're also going to listen and respond in the event that, you know, you don't bat a thousand. But I think it's very clear the demand for this artist exists and the way that you make sure that those tickets go into the hands of fans. The worst way to get tickets to fans is to just do an on sale with tickets that are basically, you know, dollar bills being sold for 50 cents because capitalism is like water and it finds the cracks and somebody's going to snap those up and resell them on the secondary market for way more money than you would have paid out of the gate. And so trying to

find that intersection of supply and demand is the right thing for the artist. And then it's up to the fans to decide, hey, can my wallet afford this? You know what I mean? You could feel it happening to a certain extent because, you know, everybody got to sign up for five. And I think mine were on three different days. Most people I knew were on kind of similar days. And I remember the first one, when I clicked in right on the dot and I'd been in the waiting room it's you are number

230,000 something something something in the queue. I'm like, okay, well, this isn't happening. I've been to Madison Square Garden. Then the next one, it's you're number 68,000 or something in the queue. And then you went along and by the end of it where it wasn't me, it was a friend of mine, but we're all texting.

Yeah. And someone's like, wait, guys, like, I'm 3,000. I think I might get this one. I'm going to get it. Yeah. And so you could, you could feel clearly people got their tickets and got out of, out of that mix. I just, like, I'm 30 concerts is a lot of concerts.

He's a really, really, really popular artist, but I think it's impressive. It is, it is really impressive. And I think, I think there, I mean, it looks like they're going to, also bring him out. He's not just going to only show up 30 times at MSG. There's going to be these other ways that fans can get rewarded at different prices. So good on them. Do you think there will be another single from that album before the album itself? It's a great question. That's the one I've been thinking about. I think I think that's one where there must be some conversation beforehand. And they'll watch what this single does. I don't, can I be like totally on? I don't think they care.

Like, why do they... It doesn't feel to me like this album's objective is to... It feels like the opposite of what Taylor did with Showgirl. Yeah. Like, I don't think they're trying to go make all the records and put the final, you know, trophies on the case that he doesn't have. I think they're trying to...

It's hard to come off album of the year. Yeah. when you haven't done it. It just is. And I think they're trying to protect his credibility. Yeah. I think they're trying to protect his credibility above all as an artist and not try to replicate it and keep him moving forward.

And is everybody going to like rave about the melodic composition of this album? I don't know. My guess is not as much as they did about the last two. Is there a watermelon sugar on this record? I don't know. I have no idea. I'm guessing no, but I'm guessing it's going to be alive. And I would say that if the album comes out and we haven't heard another single,

then I think the answer is no. Because whether or not it's the intent, and I agree with you, I don't think that they're chasing anything like that, which is cool. If it's there, I feel like you would put it out. Like, if there just so happens to be a song of this album that feels like it has the potential to be kind of an as it was or something like that. Yeah. I think you'd put it out into the universe and see what happens.

If this is something else, certainly I don't know, but that's just my feeling. If this is something else, as you're saying, and it is about curating a vibe and it's about the beats and the music but not the melodies so much and something that Harry just is really interested in doing and speaks to where he is. and that's best experience as a whole project, then it probably comes other than aperture out all at once. Yeah. Well, the thing about Harry Styles is that he doesn't need it, and that's what the demand from the tickets tell us. And so as we think about all these artists that we've talked about today,

Noah Khan, no Khan, like, does he, you know, does the Great Divide need to get higher than 13? It seems like people are in this guy because they want to go, stand in the field and sing, you know, I love Vermont, but it's the season of the sticks, more so than they necessarily care about the individual, you know, components of what's coming out. We'll see. A lot of states coming up on this pod. All right.

Well, and a final whoopsie-dazy-you-hoo to you, Nathan. I think we can end it there. This has been every single album. As always, I'm Nora Prince Yati. He's Nathan Hubbard. Thank you to Kaya McMullen for producing this episode. And to you for listening. We'll talk to you next week.