NO. 7 (ON VILLAINY)

2021 may have begun with Olivia Rodrigo controlling the narrative, but it may very well end with Joshua Bassett at the wheel.

I’ll put the usual disclaimers--I don’t know any of these children personally, and I don’t know what actually went down behind the scenes at the turn of the last decade when a supposed love triangle supposedly fractured the hearts and egos of all involved and led to some midlevel Internet drama which ultimately took a backseat to the genuine article--Sour, the 18-year-old Rodrigo’s record-shattering debut LP. In case you missed it: Rodrigo and Bassett started dating in secret while playing an onscreen couple in a Disney+ High School Musical spinoff, Bassett broke up with Rodrigo because of their age difference - he’s almost 21 - and in a suspiciously short amount of time began dating and cutely posting with 22-year-old Sabrina Carpenter, another artist and Disney alum. Teenage digital sleuths searched for Easter eggs in the style of Rodrigo’s biggest influence, Taylor Swift, while I became consumed with the parallel’s between Rodrigo’s experience and my own--feeling disproportionately large affection for men who can never reciprocate, drowning in insecurity over the Eurocentric beauty standard that makes being cast aside in favor of a fair-skinned blonde take on an extra sharp edge, splashing the thinly veiled narrative of my heartbreak across the web. That, instead of the logistics and timeline of the real people involved, was my Met Gala.

The culture-defining “drivers license” was Sour’s lead single, and its chokehold on the popular imagination has persisted even though it dropped way back in January. Perhaps the only narrative powerful enough to displace was the tale at the center of Taylor Swift’s Red rerelease, the storied ten-minute (and explicit!) version of “All Too Well” that did its own record-breaking and spawned an endless scroll of TikTok speculation about what the scarf really means and what Jake Gyllenhaal’s publicist must be doing right now. Again, I’m less concerned with what actually happened--it’s none of my business anyway--and more with what it means for every young woman who’s ever fallen for a withholding, condescending older guy. (Admittedly though I’m concerned with the scarf. I totally thought the scarf was a metaphor. Apparently it’s a real scarf and he actually stole it AND THEN WORE IT? AND WAS PHOTOGRAPHED IN IT? Dude. Major party foul.)

It’s worth noting that Taylor Swift, like many songwriters of her ilk of all genders, has dated fewer songwriters than non-songwriters. Even though John Mayer famously used “Paper Doll” as a late retort to “Dear John,” there are few examples of musical rebuttal to the Taylor Swift Cinematic Universe. Frankly, I don’t have strong feelings about that either way. While I’m ravenous for “Style (Taylor’s Version) (feat. Harry Styles),” I will be able to go on living if it doesn’t happen. I’ve come to expect that musical explorations of relationships will flatten and distort the facts; I accept them as autofiction rather than pure autobiography; I listen knowing I will never understand the story that inspired it completely.

Enter Joshua Bassett, on the precipice of dropping a three-song EP that seems to be the auditory equivalent of a “reply all.”

Bassett has been teasing each of the three tracks on TikTok; the first one I saw opened with the line “my label said to never waste a crisis.” Clearly he’s going for directness. The songs seem to tackle hate, regret, defiance, fear--it’s a sort of anti-apoplexy, choosing to write instead of fight or fly. It’s apparent that he wants to have this conversation on his own terms. When Saturday Night Live spoofed “drivers license,” Bassett took the sharpest line at his own expense and turned it into merch (if you look up “my bitch ex Gina is Joshua Bassett,” a link to a long-sleeve bearing the slogan on his website appears). But aside from that admittedly hilarious marketing move, and posting vague messages of support about Rodrigo’s success, he’s remained quiet. His own release earlier this year didn’t seem related to Rodrigo’s aside from timing, and his public persona has been more about Harry Styles than his relationship status. Sabrina Carpenter, the “blonde girl,” released her own confusing addition to the chaos with “Skin,” which, in addition to being bizarrely braggadocious, lacked the precision and pathos of Rodrigo’s work. But now, Joshua Bassett has decided it’s his time to speak.

Bassett is much harder to paint as a villain than Gyllenhaal. The main reason is that the couple split apart on Rodrigo’s Sour is comprised of two young people, whereas the narrative on Red is about an older man who should have known better than to get involved with a girl who was newly 21. Additionally, Sour seems to traffic in gray areas--“you didn’t cheat, but you’re still a traitor,” “and I just can’t imagine how you could be so okay now that I’m gone,” “I guess the therapist I found for you, she really helped.” Compare that, then, with the details unraveled by the ten-minute version of “All Too Well” - “I’ll get older but your lovers stay my age,” “you call me up again just to break me like a promise,” “any time now, he’s gonna say it’s love, you never called it what it was.” In my view, part of the enjoyment of Sour was how much pain you can feel even if the other person isn’t an outright villain. It’s about how there is no way good or fair way to break someone’s heart, how seeing your ex with someone new can sting no matter how much time passes. What’s compelling, then, is Bassett writing his half of the story, grappling with the guilt of breaking the heart of someone he genuinely cared for, the limits of grace when you, too, are a child trying to love and be loved, and the world is hell-bent on calling you the problem. Admittedly, I thought back to a failed almost-relationship of my own, when my subtweets about the grief wounded the person who left me. Time has passed and we are friends and we both finally see each other for who we are--not egomaniacs, not dreams or ideals, but people.

I don’t know what I’ll ultimately think of the new Joshua Bassett project. But I think its entry into the cultural zeitgeist will force a conversation about relationships that we’ve been unable to have. For so long, people--largely women--were manipulated, abused, and broken by traumatic relationships, and the people carrying out that abuse were left unchecked. With the #MeToo movement, it has become a lot harder to dispute the pain caused by those kinds of relationships. But now the collective consciousness is failing to imagine anything beyond the binary of abuse vs. not abuse, criminal vs. legal. There is pain outside of trauma; there is trauma at scale; there is regret and there is harm and there is heartbreak. Maybe, just maybe, one day we will have room in our hearts and our culture for people to fall and to fail and then, eventually, to try again. 

on the platonic & the romantic — king princess, “isabel’s moment” (cheap queen, 2019). salman toor, “four friends” (oil on panel, 2019). sandra jeppesen, “queering heterosexuality” (queering anarchism, 2012). rachel vorona cote, “the art of loving and losing female friends” (pacific standard, 2017). david crane & marta kauffman & brian buckner, “the one with ross’s tan” (2003, friends s10e3). indigo de souza, “take off ur pants” (i love my mom, 2018). abba, “the winner takes it all” (super trouper, 1980). rachel vorona cote (cont). kevin sullivan & joe wiesenfeld, “anne of green gables” (1985). co-star app. jensen mcrae @ribcagecarnival​, “immune” (who hurt you?, 2021).

hi sry I haven’t been active. every week I forget at least one social media account I have. my b.

anyway.

EP out June 22. it’s called “who hurt you?” and the presave link is right hereeeeee - https://radi.al/whohurtyou

NO. 5 (Lists, Part 1)

My Emotional Support Albums 1. Kaleidoscope Heart 2. Continuum 3. Stranger in the Alps 4. Little Voice 5. Punisher 6. For Emma, Forever Ago 7. Saves The World 8. DAMN. 9. CTRL 10. About U

Minor Inconveniences That Have Triggered Major Panic Attacks For Me 1. Any time I’ve ever been late 2. Plane delays 3. Having to pee really bad 4. The food I ordered taking a really long time and then not coming at all 5. Seeing the boy I secretly loved kiss his girlfriend outside the venue I’d just performed in 6. Loud, crowded restaurants 7. Concerts where I don’t know any of the songs 8. Not eating for an hour 9. Being told I’m trying too hard 10. Being told I’m not trying hard enough

Things I Dream About To Help Me Sleep 1. Performing on SNL 2. Being a guest on Seth Meyers 3. Being a guest on Pete Holmes’ podcast 4. Confronting my ex-best friend about why he stopped talking to me 5. Confronting the boy I dated for 2 months about why he stopped talking to me 6. Donald Trump going to jail 7. The United States finally getting a high speed rail system 8. Running into ✨him✨ in a coffee shop when we’re 30 and he realizes he wanted me all along 9. Chris Evans and I walking a dog together 10. Avan Jogia and I doing a 2000s-movie makeover montage

Things I Have Done For Boys I Loved Who Did Not Love Me Back 1. Attended concerts at houses with sticky floors and moth-eaten couches on the front porch and bathrooms that don’t lock 2. Held one while he cried over a girl that wasn’t me 3. Flown across an ocean 4. Pretended to like beer 5. Pretended to like Wilco 6. Read books I otherwise would’ve quit halfway through and given away 7. Laughed off remarks that offended me deeply 8. Taken beautiful pictures of them when they weren’t looking 9. Stayed up long past when I wanted to be asleep 10. Let them go

THIS IS THE YEAR OF

Forgetting is a privilege I won’t indulge this time. There is plenty to excavate, but I won’t. Once I thrust my hands into the wet flesh of a plum and got dark fruit under my nails. It took weeks to get the stains out. Every day of my adolescence I prayed to a god I only half-believed in to disappear. Felt sinful to take up so much space. Thought the holiest thing I could be was gone. Now mind you my hands still shake when I bathe in perfumes and dress in my finest, I’m still not crushing it, Haven’t turned the pill of my pain into powders yet, Still don’t understand the mechanics of swallowing it, Still don’t even know what that will do. But this is the age of expanding, This is the age of blooming and knocking over valuables with my petals. This is the age of volume and depth, When I am beholden to no one and can feign ignorance for what the painted glass was even worth. I want to remember this year by the mouth of it, I want to know it by tongue. The heart shudders and gasps, Collides and collapses, A bird in an airport, A bird in an airport, And I cup it in my hands as it beats and it thrashes, A wild thing long since jailbroken from its cage.

~ J.M.

KISSING KANYE WEST

Kanye West wrote and recorded his first single “Through the Wire” after a car accident that left him with his jaw wired shut. I kissed you back even though my heart was still leaking through its stitches. Even though you could still smell the gasoline on my breath. His track was hailed as a brilliant debut, Vibe magazine called it “teeth-clenching” and “gut-wrenching,” Pitchfork said it was “chock-full of clever,” The New York Times declared him “a wounded hero beating the odds.” Before you kissed me, I had anxiety dreams about the logistics of lip movement and tongue placement but it turns out your body figures out how to open when it needs to. Your kiss was lousy with wit, Brave and beautiful and clumsy like a savior with a drinking problem. You tasted just like a protagonist should. Did you know that Kanye was nominated for Best Rap Solo performance at the 2005 Grammys but lost to Jay-Z’s “99 Problems?” Does she know that her love story is the B-side to my blackest of records? That there’s an arena full of people still rooting for the girl who tastes hospital grade steel every time she swallows?

ADMIT ONE • NOSO

I met Abby Hwong, professionally known as NoSo, on Facebook. It was 2015, and USC’s newly admitted class of 2019 was scrambling to figure out who was cool. Abby was one of the only members of the pop program I could find online, so I added us plus a couple other stragglers to our own private Facebook group, eagerly awaiting our IRL meeting. That early meeting was sweaty and awkward—we clung to each other at a terribly uncomfortable orientation lunch—but when I heard her sing during a songwriting class, I was stricken. Her voice is warm and low and light, like a campfire, and her lyrics are some of the most surprising, witty, memorable lines I’ve ever heard. She’s also one of the best guitar players I’ve ever heard, full stop. Everything about her is one-of-a-kind, and she is also the funniest person I know. It has been a joy being best friends with Abby, whether we’re sending each other memes or having synchronized existential crises about our careers or planning the inevitable tour of our inevitable duo, Token Minority. I love NoSo, and you should too. Here is her ticket to the Carnival (plus some explanations behind her selections). She is a frequent guest of honor.

1. Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush (Kate Bush was truly ahead of her time with production choices and I can hear her influence on so many newer artists I love)

2. Everywhere - Michelle Branch (I! LOVE! THIS SONG!!!! It makes me feel like a character in an early 2000s movie (I would realistically be the token minority best friend to the protagonist 💓)

3. Eugene - Arlo Parks (The lyrics truly represent the adolescent queer experience. I love how blunt and straight forward the song is; it calls someone out in a gentle way that shows residual hurt and longing.)

4. Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac (this song makes me feel like a sneaky witchy bitch in the best way possible. I love Rumors but Tango in the Night is also one of my favorite albums)

5. Little Red Corvette - Prince (my parents are obsessed with prince and showed me clips of Purple Rain when I was a kid, but I didn’t get it at the time. Then in college while studying his music I fell in love with his discography and understood how brilliant he was)

6. I Was Tired of Being Alone - Patrice Rushen (Patrice is the dean of the program Jensen and I were in at school so her music always brings me immense joy, but also the arrangement on this album is CRAZY. Every instrumental part is so good)

7. Box of Rain - the Grateful Dead (this is my favorite song to walk to. It makes me want to lay in the grass and eat triscuits and fig newtons or something old men like)

8. Conrad - Ben Howard (probably the most beautiful guitar recording I’ve ever heard. he’s one of my favorite artists because his songs usually have unconventional structure and build in a cinematic way)

9. Peekaboo - Red Velvet (yes this is kpop and I LOVE THIS GROUP! I’m so thrilled that a small country like Korea has dominated a part of the music industry. It makes me proud to see people who look like me breaking into mainstream culture)

10. So Into You - Tamia (this is one of my favorite songs ever. I saw kehlani at pride where she performed a cover of it live and I still haven’t recovered)

11. Limp - Fiona Apple (the arrangement and production is SICK. Fiona Apple is one of my favorite vocalists because it’s almost like she’s singing through gritted teeth and you always believe what she’s singing)

12. Heart Like a Wheel - Linda ronstadt (this song is gorgeous, it made me want to learn piano because the melody is so lovely. I’m a sucker for a good ballad)

13. Prom - SZA (this is my favorite song off of Ctrl. That album was the soundtrack to a year where I experienced drastic and necessary life changes; that seems to be a universal experience also)

ARIES Babylon

I can't recall the last time I took advice from anyone

TAURUS Wavy (Interlude)

Easy bake, easy wake up on / just give as much as you take

GEMINI Go Gina

Picking up a penny with a press on is easier than holding you down

CANCER The Weekend

Knowin' it's selfish / and knowin' I'm desperate / gettin' all in your love / fallin' all over love

LEO Drew Barrymore

Is it warm enough for ya inside me?

VIRGO Normal Girl

I really wish I was a normal girl

LIBRA Supermodel

I could be your supermodel if you believe

SCORPIO Garden (Say It Like Dat)

Love me even if it rain / love me even if it pain you / I know I be difficult / you know I be difficult

SAGITTARIUS Broken Clocks

Why you still talking 'bout me like we together? / I moved on for the better / you moved on to whoever

CAPRICORN Prom

Fearin' not growin' up / keepin' me up at night / am I doin' enough? / feel like I'm wastin' time

AQUARIUS Childs Play

Ripping the heads off all my Barbie dolls / toss them to the side, give them convertibles

PISCES Julia

Dying of daydreams in your bedroom

TOMORROW - MARCH 2 - 9:30AM PST - “Starting To Get To You” is premiering on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music radio show! http://apple.co/zane DON’T MISS IT

Jensen McRae // “Wolves” (Official Video)

NO. 4 (Obama the Gleek)

Glee premiered in May 2009. I was about to transfer to a new middle school and Obama was four months into his first term. At just shy of 12 years old, I considered that pilot episode to be the best episode of television I’d ever seen. In seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, my mother and I watched the show religiously every week. In 2010 and 2011, we attended the concert tours—at one of them, we foolishly purchased VIP tickets that gave us virtually no perks, but through a cracked door, we saw Cory Monteith, and he waved at me before security shuffled him away to what I presumed was the actual VIP room, where he would participate in a real meet-and-greet. Monteith died in July 2013, the same day that George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin. By 2015, when the show ended, I hadn’t watched for years, and Donald Trump was entering the presidential race. And now, in early 2021, two more members of the original cast have died, Trump went from joke candidate to fascistic president to twice-impeached private citizen, and the entire world is in the throes of the worst viral pandemic in just over a century. Obviously I spent part of 2020 rewatching Glee. All art is a product of its time, either reflecting it back to us directly or functioning as a vision of what’s to come. Glee belongs firmly in the former camp. The progressive aspects of the show would not have been possible in the conservative pre-Obama era of American media, but plenty of premises and plot lines that passed for merely transgressive at the time would be shut down by contemporary cancel culture. Kurt’s coming out storyline in season 1 was a heartfelt, tender portrait of teen sexuality and coming-of-age that felt unprecedented and nuanced in 2009. But having an able-bodied actor play a wheelchair-bound teen (Kevin McHale) would have brought the full force of the online mob if it happened a decade later. A moment that has come under scrutiny on Twitter and TikTok comes from season 1, when Mercedes (Amber Riley) asks Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison) if the club can perform more Black music, to which Rachel (Lea Michele) snaps that it’s “glee club, not krunk club.” There are countless memes joking that in spite of the dizzying number of romantic pairings on the show, the OTP of Glee is Mr. Schue and jail—his bizarrely intimate relationships with his students were only ever called out by the show’s antagonist, Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), and it was always played for laughs. The most heartbreaking episode of Glee is Season 5, Episode 3, “The Quarterback,” which is a tribute to the late Cory Monteith. But it is arguably more difficult to watch a moment from the following season, in which a group of McKinley alums crash an adolescent Tea Party Patriots meeting in order to recruit members for the rebuilding glee club. The episode is from 2014, but the remarks made by the student attendees are downright depressing when you know that 2 years later, Donald Trump would be the president-elect of the United States. In season 4, when a new cheerleader named Kitty (Becca Tobin) is introduced, she makes remarks about the “lame stream media” that are snuck into a litany of insults as rapidly as machine gun fire. The audience never has a moment to meditate on the significance of these jokes, because pre-2016, we didn’t have to. At the time, having characters parrot the fringe commentary of Sarah Palin and Fox News commentators was a shorthand meant to indicate that said characters would either undergo a change of heart or be permanently vanquished. Glee’s run spanned Obama’s time in office, and the Hope & Change candidate’s ascent did not make room for the victory of villainy. We had entered the Liberal Gilded Age. One thing I forgot about Glee was how often it mentioned the failing economy. As we all know, Obama inherited a broken economy from his predecessor, and the entire country was wracked by home foreclosures and unemployment. But as a preteen, all those references were lost on me in favor of glittery show choir competitions and the Finn/Rachel romance. The constant mention of budget cuts seemed more like an arbitrary plot device than a grasp at historical accuracy. Watching the show as an adult, however, the economic currents underpinning the show are impossible to ignore. Sue Sylvester often mocked the glee club for having a warped, rosy, show-biz view of reality, but they always prevailed. Even when they were temporarily down, they would rebound, and they would eventually win. But Sue, the comically evil opponent to the superficially valorous glee club, was right. You could not fix the evils of the world by simply celebrating diversity, accruing celebrity guests, and singing a feel-good song. Yet this has been the Democratic establishment’s strategy since 2009. And it hasn’t worked for a long time. The secondary characters, much like real American citizens of the time, were desperate for real change and real solutions. This is not an Obama Exposed essay—of course, he made progress on certain issues. But most of what the country got were charming late-night appearances, secret concessions to conservativism as the Democratic establishment shifted further to the right, and an increasingly divided populace that left both the progressive wing of the Democratic party and the growing alt-right movement increasingly agitated with the state of the union. I loved Barack Obama when I was a teenager. But over the course of the Trump presidency, I became radicalized. I saw the flaws in his administration that wreaked havoc both domestically and internationally, and that ultimately enabled Trump to carry out much of his hateful agenda over the last four years. Just as I have outgrown the version of myself that watched Glee uncritically as an adolescent, I too have outgrown the fractured politics I parroted before I was of voting age. Glee characters are prone to flights of fancy, acts of supposed altruism that often wind up harming themselves or others, and inspirational speeches that are ultimately meaningless. Mr. Schuester is offered the opportunity for a transgender student to have private access to a single-stall bathroom in exchange for a moratorium on student twerking. At first, he refuses. It takes the full length of an episode for him to realize that this thing is not worth fighting for. And even then, it’s seen as some huge sacrifice for the club! This, to me, is a perfect allegory for the Democratic party—an institution that is purportedly invested in betterment and equality, but in reality was more concerned with optics and symbols. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Schue would have wept seeing BLACK LIVES MATTER murals being unveiled, and likely would have said that instead of looting the protestors should’ve just knelt and sang a Journey medley to the cops. Rachel Berry would have gone to a protest for a photo op while carrying a sign that said IF HILLARY WON I’D BE AT BRUNCH RIGHT NOW. I know this as deeply as I know that Spongebob Squarepants is gay and Daffy Duck is Black. Some things are just TRUE. In 2009, simply having queer and PoC characters centered on television was groundbreaking. In 2020, this is no longer enough. Simply acknowledging that marginalized people exist is not sufficient activism. In media, we deserve nuanced and complex stories that don’t subject them to even more of the stereotyping we’ve been experiencing for decades. And in politics, we deserve more legitimate structural change—reparations, secure voting rights, anti-discrimination laws, a livable minimum wage, universal healthcare that includes access to safe abortions—and less empty virtue-signaling. Glee is a tremendous way to escape from the horrors of our current state of affairs. But it is not merely a camp masterpiece. It is a cautionary tale. The circumstances that gave us Glee—an Obama presidency, decreasing voter turnout, the rise of the social internet, increased representation for queer and PoC and disabled people—are the same circumstances that gave us Trump. We don’t merely need our lives to be visible, we need them to be viable. We need to weaponize our passion and empathy against tyranny. We need to rebuild the world for the versions of ourselves that first loved Glee, without reverting back to who we were when it first aired.

23 today 🎂virgo szn continues

1000 Followers HELLO

thanks for 1000+ followers on here my babies !!!!! tell me what other fun stuff you wanna seeeeeee

NO. 3 (Joy, Jacob Collier, & Maximalism)

If you are a professional musician, you have heard of Jacob Collier. You might not like him, you might not even listen to him, but you definitely know who he is. He is the sort of extraordinary talent that draws equal measures of envy, confusion, and obsession from the swaths of society that come into contact with him. Non-musicians marvel at the big picture; musicians marvel at the details. He is shocking to everyone for different reasons. Collier is a 26-year-old musician from London who cites Stevie Wonder as one of his biggest influences, and the musical genealogy is delightfully obvious. Collier plays, it seems, every single instrument, and he plays them all prodigiously well. He has a rich, unusual vocal tone. He mixes his own records with gleeful attention to detail. A YouTube comment I saw on one of his Tiny Desk performances described his style as that of “a funky weird wizard's apprentice in an old 90s point and click adventure.” That is a direct quote, and it is an accurate assessment, with his love for oversized shirts in outrageous patterns, often paired with Crocs or no shoes at all. All of this combines for a musical experience uniquely suited to the current cultural moment. Maximalism is back. Now, Collier has been enjoying success both critically and commercially for years. It’s not as if he suddenly appeared on the scene as the product of 2020 Weirdness. But I personally am embarking on a deep dive into his oeuvre right now, and it wasn’t until I’d been watching his interviews and live performances for a couple weeks that I realized why. While Collier is capable of delivering stripped down acoustic performances with remarkable delicacy and intimacy, his unique trademark is the infinite layering of vocal and instrumental harmonies. He has a band that he performs with, but he also has a one-man multimedia concert machine that he constructed with a PhD student at MIT. And he shines particularly brightly in the video projects he began his career with that have proven presciently effective during the pandemic, where he makes a band entirely out of clones of himself. The Tiny Desk I linked above is one such visual experience. Who needs to risk respiratory infection when you’re a musical jack of all trades and some sly movie magic can turn your one-man band into a four-piece with ease? Collier doesn’t perform with the stoicism that his virtuosity might suggest, and his persona is not that of a Serious Artist. He is clearly Online, and he enjoys it. And in interviews, his energy is always enthusiastic but humbled, a childlike appreciation for the opportunity to make music for people who want to listen. If his attire wasn’t enough of a clue, Collier is a goofball. He is human sunshine, elated at the prospect of doing basically every task he is endowed with. Now, I don’t know him personally, so I don’t know how much of that is a persona. But I doubt that kind of happiness is sustainable if it’s false. I don’t mean to suggest that he’s happy 100% of the time. I just think he’s one of those lucky people whose once-in-a-generation talent did not come with the price tag of boundless sadness. The 2010s began with Katy Perry’s saccharine belt on “Teenage Dream” and ended with Billie Eilish’s morose whisper on “everything I wanted.” You can never sum up an entire year of music with a single style, but it is not a hot take to point out that pop music got sad by the end of the decade. In addition, that musical transition was accompanied by an aesthetic transition toward minimalism. Tiny houses were all the rage and Marie Kondo’s philosophies were regarded as gospel. Economic uncertainty and environmental urgency spurred us, Millennials and Gen Z, to curb consumption (though I’m not a data scientist and I don’t know if these ideals were popular outside my liberal echo chamber). The color palette of pop culture went neutral. But now a new decade has dawned, and it has gotten off to a shatteringly terrible start. The last thing we want is white walls and emptiness. That’s not to say that our ethical concerns about consumptions have disappeared. But spending so much of our time indoors has meant that nesting has a renewed significance, and it’s a lot easier to spend time in your bedroom if there are decent posters on the wall and a plant or two to brighten up the place. And while some people are clinging stubbornly to monochrome color palettes, many people are leveling up to include the whole rainbow in their wardrobes and home décor—or at least adding some greenery. In my opinion, Jacob Collier is the maximalist king of the Anxious 20s (unlike the Roaring 20s of the previous century—although maybe after this pandemic is over we’ll get our chance to properly roar?). Some people think his devotion to harmony is taken to excess, that his arrangements can be cluttered or that his musical ethos is pretentious. But I find it impossible to watch Collier perform and come to that conclusion. His joy is so unabashed and unstudied, and his gratitude for his gifts is so apparent, that to me he comes across as authentic as any flannelled singer-songwriter with only an acoustic guitar and a I-IV-V progression to their name. Collier’s current project is a four-volume mega-album called Djesse, and while I haven’t listened to all the available material, what I’ve heard so far is delightful. I’m a self-proclaimed wordgirl, and words are almost beside the point for what Collier does, so it might seem counterintuitive that I’m such a fan. But in this era of wall-to-wall darkness, there is nothing I need more than the sonic abundance of the Jacob Collier Cinematic Universe. I’m intimidated by the idea of ever collaborating with this artist I admire so deeply, but I know my fears are misplaced. If I’m ever lucky enough to cross paths with him, I know he’ll be nothing but generous. He’s just a kid on the playground, and everyone is welcome in his sandbox.

ADMIT ONE • NELL MESCAL

I’ve met a lot of new people in 2020, all on social media. Even though Instagram has the capacity to send us all on downward spirals about the state of our abs or our eyebrows or our plant collections, it’s also a decent place to connect with people who share your interests. That’s how I found Nell. There’s an old stereotype about Irish people having angelic voices, and in Nell it rings true. I find her voice incredibly soothing, with just the right amount of cry in it, and she has a way of making the piano sing just as beautifully as she does. I was obviously biased—Nell covered my song “Wolves” on her Instagram story once, and I fully wept—but there’s no doubt that even at a young age, she has the capacity for emotive, compelling musical performance, no matter what she’s singing. The original songs she already has out are so special, and I look forward to seeing what she does next. Here is Nell’s ticket to the ribcage carnival. Good for as long as she wants it.

ARIES Beach Baby

Once a time put a tongue / in your ear on the beach

TAURUS Blood Bank

You were rubbing both my hands / chewing on a candy bar

GEMINI Hey, Ma

Let me talk to ‘em / let me talk to ‘em all

CANCER Flume

Sky is womb and she’s the moon

LEO Skinny Love

If all your love was wasted, then who the hell was I?

VIRGO Holocene

And at once I knew I was not magnificent…I could see for miles, miles, miles

LIBRA Calgary

You know that all the rope’s untied / I was only there to die beside

SCORPIO 715 CR∑∑KS

Goddamn, turn around now, you’re my A team

SAGITTARIUS For Emma

For all your lies / you’re still very lovable

CAPRICORN 29 #Strafford APTS

Threw the meaning out the door, there’s no meaning anymore.

AQUARIUS Woods

I’m up in the woods, I’m down on my mind

PISCES Re: Stacks

Your love will be safe with me