Despite a record-setting government shutdown, tear down of the east wing, mass layoffs across Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, the pop princesses keep us afloat. Zendaya walking her mini schnauzer, Noon, gracefully guides us from October to December (photo cred deuxmoi) with the latest tracks blaring in our headphones:

The Title Track: Chains of Love, Charli xcx’s newly released single from her upcoming album Wuthering Heights, which accompanies the new movie adaption by Emerald Fennel starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. I must pause here. That sentence was too powerful. Yes, this trio: Charli, Margot, and Jacob. Set to release on Valentine’s Day 2026. I shudder. To no one’s surprise, this song is awesome. It still feels like Charli but with a different kind of spin. Who better to explain that difference than Charli herself, directly from her substack: “I was in London at the time, it was freezing and miserable and getting dark at around 4pm, which felt fitting. I began to sink into this reimagined world of Wuthering Heights and I suddenly began to feel… inspired,” “I wanted to dive into persona, into a world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, British, tortured and full of actual real sentences, punctuation and grammar. Without a cigarette or a pair of sunglasses in sight, it was all totally other from the life I was currently living. I was fucking IN.”

Well Charli I am locked in for Q1-26.

The Headliner: The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift released her 12th studio album with Republic Records, on October 3rd, 2025. This album features acclaimed musical producers Max Martin and Shellback. It’s no surprise these Swedes teamed up with Taylor at this moment in time. She is the most dominant and lucrative force in music. Billboard estimates Taylor earned $135m in one week from this album release. With every Swift release there is a split population: overly obsessed Swifties churning out endless streams vs quiet critics of her talent and consumerism schemes. I fall directly in the middle and can appreciate both points of view. What I cannot deny, however, are the tracks on this album that make for an addicting pop dance experience:

1. ‘The Life of a Showgirl (feat Sabrina Carpenter)’ – This is a BOOM CLAP anthem that celebrates the showmanship of Taylor and Sabrina. It’s a curtain call to their solo and combined careers over the past 3 years, and its pretty iconic.
2. ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ – G minor, D minor, F major x3 is having a Pavolv’s effect on me that causes an immediate serotonin boost. As this song surges on Tik Tok, I can’t deny the effect feels like it was by design… a strategic commercial design.
3. ‘Ruin The Friendship’ – A nostalgic track amidst the Travis Kelce palooza that is the entire album. Taylor makes a call back to Abigail from ‘Fifteen’ while reminiscing on chances she didn’t take. It’s a coming of age song from a mid-thirties pop-star celebrity dater, and even in this irony its a bop.

The Dark Horse: West End Girl, Lily Allen dropped on October 24th, 2025 with nearly no promotion or marketing from BMG. Lily Allen? I haven’t thought of her since 2009, when the top track on my silver ipod mini was ‘The Fear.’ I listened to this song from her album, It’s Not Me It’s You, incessantly back then and its a shame I never returned back to this fandom… until now. West End Girl is a true canon event in music. Lily Allen has designed a completely authentic and chronological musical telling of what it feels like to have a cheating psychopathic husband. This, mixed with her attempt to embrace modern ‘non monogamy,’ and her deep rooted embarrassment that she still loves her husband and seeks his praise is utterly soul crushing. I leave this album distrusting all men, everywhere. This is unfair, I know. But that is why we also have the Life of a Showgirl, to keep the equilibrium in balance. This album is certified NO SKIPS, but here are the tracks that must be acknowledged:

1. ‘Pussy Palace’ – banger doesn’t capture the full force of this song. I listened 25 times on repeat in one day (waiting for the Spotify wrapped stats to verify). It plays a movie in your head with a beat that moves your body. Once I verified that a “dojo” is a martial arts training space, and the opening instrumentals ARE meant to mirror the Stranger Things theme song, everything locked into place at the pussy palace.
2. ‘West End Girl’ + ‘Ruminating’ + ‘Sleepwalking’ + ‘ Tennis’ + ‘Madeline’ – these 5 tracks feel like an audiobook, yet they are all fantastic standalone. I love the fact that each melody is attune to it’s lyrics; Tennis sounds like a back and forth match, Ruminating sounds like you’re going in neurotic circles, etc.
3. ‘Relapse’ – This track is the feeling of reality crashing down. The opening tracks have created a playful annihilation of David H with gunshots, name drops, and catchy melodies, but we now shift inward into something more raw and deeply depressing. I need a drink.
4. ‘Let You W/In’ – This is Lily’s call to action track. It’s her answer to: why did I release this highly detailed and embarrassing album exposing my ex-husband and the innerworkings of our relationship. And I agree Lily, you could not let him win.

The Never Been Done Before: LUX, Rosalía released on November 7th via Columbia Records is shattering the status quo in music. This album is a melting pot of pop fused with spiritual instrumentals. Rosalía sings 13 different languages throughout this album, and yet there is no language barrier… proving that music is a universal language and we don’t have to explicitly understand something to feel it. This album is a bowl of soup that never ends and after 5 listens through it still feels like there is more to be discovered. Here is each track translated in English:

1. ‘Sexo, Violencia y Llantas’ (Spanish) | Sex, Violence, and Tires (English)
2. ‘Reliquia’ (Spanish) | Relic (English) – my personal favorite track on the album
3. ‘Divinize’ (Catalan)
4. ‘Porcelana‘ (Spanish, Latin, Japanese) | Porcelain (English)
5. ‘Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti’ (Italian) | My Christ Cries Diamonds (English)
6. ‘Berghain‘ (German, Spanish)
7. ‘La Perla’ (Spanish) | The Pearl (English)
8. ‘Mundo Nuevo’ (Spanish) | New World (English)
9. ‘De Madrugá’ (Spanish, Ukrainian) | At Dawn (English)
10. ‘Dios Es Un Stalker’ (Spanish) | God is a Stalker (English)
11. ‘La Yugular’ (Arabic, Spanish) | The Jugular (English)
12. ‘Sauvignon Blanc’ (English, Spanish)
13. ‘La Rumba Del Perdón’ (Spanish) | The Rumba of Forgiveness (English)
14. ‘Memória’ (Portuguese, Spanish) | Memory (English)
15. ‘Magnolias’ (English, Spanish)

The Let’s Rock Let’s Rock Today: Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party, Hayley Williams released on November 7th. The credits behind the album are written as “Post Atlantic,” which is a nod to the fact that her 20 year contract with Atlantic Records has ended and she is now releasing a solo album under her own label… rock on. I don’t think its fair to call this an indie rock album because it leans pop, but regardless it rocks.

1. ‘Parachute’
2. ‘Glum’
3. ‘Ice in My OJ’

The Throwback:

The Honorable Mentions:

• Wicked For Good
• Florence and the Machine
• Del Water Gap
• sombr
• Olivia Dean
• Goth Babe
• Amber Mark
• Night Tapes
• Anna of the North
• Blood Orange