"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

"High Hopes" by Panic! at the Disco

This song was released in May and, finally, it's circulating the airwaves in a big way. I woke up this morning with this song stuck in my head. As someone who survives on hope (for the most part), its like this song showed up just in time. The Universe speaking to me through song, like always. More on that later this weekend. We are going to talk a little bit about magic today - specifically, we're going to talk about manifestation. It's tricky magic, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it work. And hope is the fuel, my friends, so let's jump down the rabbit hole.

I've been reading a lot about manifestation lately. Only kind of on purpose, though. I've been on this "following my intuition" kick, which includes jumping in when certain topics keep showing up in random places. Like in book recommendations or on podcasts I listen to. You know....following the signs. Because - pro tip! - the Universe fucking hates it when you don't follow the signs. As I said, from what I've been reading, it's tricky magic. Because you can want something too much, which just fucks everything up. Mama said, "Don't give up....it's a little complicated." It is complicated because you have to fundamentally understand the philosophical concept of non-attachment. When you want something too much, you start attaching expectations to it - how the outcome will look, how it will happen, when it should happen. When things don't go the way we expect them to, we start to get upset and negative and give up on it. Because if it doesn't look the way we want, it's not going to happen - and with that attitude, it won't. If you have a rigid plan for what you want, you close yourself off to the possibilities, which kills the magic.

Based on my research, I've identified some key things for manifestation magic:

1. Be specific - you have to know exactly what you want your end result to be. You can't have a muddled, half-baked idea of what you want to achieve. You can't want "everything" because not everything is going to be possible at the same time. You have to have a vision. And you can't be lukewarm and ambivalent about it, either. If you want something, you have to want it with your whole heart. This is what they're talking about when they mention your True Will.

2. Believe - This is by far the hardest part and where everybody (including myself) usually fucks up. Because to doubt is human. However, for manifestation to work, you have to develop an unshakable faith that what you want is on the way. No matter what obstacles show up along the path, no matter how things look from the outside, you have to know deep in your soul that it can and will happen. Even if your current circumstances make it seem like this deep desire is impossible now, you have to keep believing that things can change. Don't give up. Maybe this sounds like delusion, but the world was built on delusions. That's a limiting idea and I'm over it.

3. Take inspired action - Remember those signs I told you about earlier? Follow them. If something in your gut is telling you take an opportunity or try something new, take the leap of faith. Even if it seems like a detour from what you think will get you to the end goal, it's not - the Universe works in mysterious ways. And I feel like a say it a lot but.....you gotta do the work. You want to be a writer? Write every day, even if it sucks, even if no one reads it. You want to be a dancer? Go to dance class. You want to be a rockstar? You gotta put yourself out there. Everyone wants these big dreams to happen with the least amount of effort but if you don't put in the effort, you don't want it that much. That's just a fact. So if you want something, put in the work. No one is going to do it for you.

So yeah, build a "vision board," visualize, meditate, pray, do spellcraft, or whatever. This helps build and sustain the "believe" part I was talking about. But when you're done with all that, let go of what you're expecting and be ready to accept what shows up along the journey.

Had to have high, high hopes for a living

Shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing

Didn't have a dime but I always had a vision

Always had high, high hopes

Had to have high, high hopes for a living

Didn't know how but I always had a feeling

I was gonna be that one in a million

Always had high, high hopes (High, high hopes)

As you can see, the chorus for "High Hopes" follows the above guidelines. Brendon Urie said the lyrics were about the dream he had as a kid and the weird journey he ended up on that ultimately led to his dream coming true. Obviously, it's Panic! at the Disco, so the song is super high energy. A good song to listen to when doubt comes trickling in. Anyway, I know this post was a little rant-y but I hope it was informative.

"High Hopes" Video