This Week’s Music is a column that discusses the week’s best, worst, and most interesting songs. We try to select songs of different artists and genres to keep things interesting and to please a variety of music fans.
This week’s column is all about pop, featuring the return of two of the biggest players in the game, Madonna and Taylor Swift, and one of the oddest stars in the music industry. Check them out:
Pop
Madonna and Maluma – Medellin
It’s hard to think of something Madonna wouldn’t do, seeing as her whole career is built upon that foundation, but I did find myself surprised at her partnership with Maluma. “Medellin” is a strange hybrid, a song that tries to have some Latin and reggeaton influence but that never strays from the pop formula. It feels like a reboot of “La Isla Bonita” only with more auto-tune and none of the original’s charm and evocative mood. Madonna is a good storyteller – at least she used to be – so it’s a shame that “Medellin” is such a shallow and forgettable effort. All the pieces are there for a better song.
FKA Twigs – Cellophane
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FKA Twigs looks and sounds like an artist. No matter your opinion on her style and her songs, whenever you hear her music you get the feeling that there’s a lot going on underneath the surface, something more than mere entertainment and the need to produce a hit. All of this is good, but it makes her music hard to access. “Cellophane” finds her touching on entertainment and depth, delivering a song that’s vulnerable and beautiful. It’s the first time I felt like I should trust her and dive into her work.
Taylor Swift – ME! (Ft. Brandon Urie)
Taylor Swift has a knack for words. Despite the fact that she relies on fairy tales to an annoying degree, she’s capable of bringing out the hopeless romantic in all of us, whether you want to or not. “ME!” is not that song, even if it’ll stay in your brain after just a quarter of a listen. Earworms come as easy as breathing to Swift, so it’s hard to settle for something like “ME!” which exposes her worst traits in one fell swoop. We all know that she’s capable of more layers, more sounds, yet we’ll still settle for this epileptic song. Why?
