🎵 Taylor Swift Is a Pop Artist Again

Plus, the return of Kelela. UK rapper Loyle Carner’s masterclass in storytelling.

Glass Animals’ 2020 single Heat Waves has spent 91 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100, breaking the previously-held record of 90 set by The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.

Click here for a Spotify playlist with the songs mentioned in this article.

BIGGEST Songs of the Week 📈

Taylor Swift released zero singles ahead of the release of her 10th studio album, Midnights, making it impossible to guess what the album was going to sound like. Would Midnights be a return to Swift’s Fearless country roots, the pop rock of Red, reputation’s fierce electropop, or the indie folk of 2020’s folklore and evermore? Perhaps Swift would take her diverse sonic palette in a completely new direction. It turns out, Midnights picks up where 2019’s synth-driven Lover left off. Though it marks Swift’s return to pop, Midnights is a subdued record, much like her previous two.

In a perfect world, the album’s opener, Lavendar Haze, would’ve been the lead single, the biggest song of the week, and an indication of what’s to come on the rest of the record. Unfortunately, it’s not. The rest of Midnights leaves much to be desired. The album is Swift’s first to be…