"ME!" by Taylor Swift feat. Brendon Urie

Another long, stressful week where I haven't had much time to do anything except work, clean, and sleep. The lingering cold hasn't helped much, except to serve as an excuse to disappear for an hour when I'm feeling overwhelmed. I've accepted this is just how my Spring is going to be - a sprint until I get to Summer, possibly until I get to my birthday, which I'm considering taking a vacation for. Maybe. We'll see how things go. Anyway, this week hasn't been totally uneventful in the music world. As you may have heard, Taylor Swift dropped a new single on Thursday evening. It's been panned by the critics but in this world where literally no one listens to the haters, I think it'll probably do fine.

An "Atlantic" article has been making the rounds - "Taylor Swift's 'ME!' is Everything That's Wrong with Pop Music." Whenever you see a clickbait title with something that hyperbolic, you can tell the writer has no idea the level of work that goes into creating even the sickeningly sweetest of pop music and probably isn't even a member of the intended audience. Sure enough, the writer of aforementioned article is a 30-something white male who mostly writes what he thinks about pop culture. He makes a living off having "edgy" opinions but - let's face it - no one reads "The Atlantic" for its pop culture reviews. I certainly don't. His central lament is that it wasn't as interesting as her other work. And he didn't even fucking like any of her other work - the first paragraph is full of back-handed compliments. Let's set some expectations now - not everything an artist makes is going to be a masterpiece. Sometimes, you just have to pay the bills. And if T-Swift is a master at anything, it's at making it rain.

I know that I'm a handful, baby, uh

I know I never think before I jump

And you're the kind of guy the ladies want

(And there's a lot of cool chicks out there)

I know that I went psycho on the phone

I never leave well enough alone

And trouble's gonna follow where I go

(And there's a lot of cool chicks out there)

True story - "Me!" is not as introspective and revealing as some of her other songs. She's not baring her soul or coming to any deep conclusions about why she can be a crazy bitch sometimes. But it's also a collaboration and the Panic! at the Disco influence is incredibly strong in this track. In terms of a duet, I think it's very effective. Brendon Urie has easily one of the best tenors out there in pop music. The lyrics admittedly aren't the greatest - there are other troubled romance songs out there right now that do it better. But it's cute, catchy, and their styles complement each other very well so the sound is cohesive. The video itself is pretty over the top, which is to be expected - both Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie have flamboyant aesthetics. Also, Taylor Swift was credited with directing this one...Finally! Let's be clear - she envisioned and directed all of her music videos, it's just that someone let her take credit this time. For the record, if you follow Taylor Swift on Instagram (and you should - she's pretty brilliant at Instagram), she's been hyping the song for weeks with a subtle "4.26" in all her mysterious yet beautifully colored photos. She's clearly excited about it so - as a fan - I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that she's working on a really killer follow-up to "Reputation" right now.

Long story short: "ME!" is alright - I like it enough that it'll probably grow on me more with time but I know it's aimed at 20-something girls who have a love-hate relationship with their current boyfriends, which is kind of concerning. Listening to the lyrics, one could get the impression that they shouldn't break up because they can't find anyone better. This is simply not true. And if it is, they why are they treating each other so badly that they have to convince themselves to stay together with a catchy pop duet? So many questions.....

"ME!" Video