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The wait for Taylor Swift‘s new album Midnights hasn’t even been that long. The pop star announced it the night of the MTV VMAs at the end of August as a surprise, and she slowly revealed the tracklist but without releasing any actual singles.

Fans, however, are impatient and don’t want to wait any longer. They’ve been finding copies on the shelves of Walmart already and have been trying to buy them. According to one TikToker, he was instructed to put it back.

About the album, she shared a message, “We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t — right this minute — about to make some fateful life-altering mistake.” She continued: “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching — hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve … We’ll meet ourselves.”

Midnights is out on 10/21 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

As the world reacts to British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigning after just 45 days in office, forever to be remembered as the woman who lost to a head of lettuce, a German reporter is going viral for her F-bomb laced report on the fiasco. During an ARD broadcast, Annette Dittert recounted the chaos that ensued leading up to and after Truss’s resignation. In doing so, Dittert repeated the words of Conservative deputy whip Craig Whittaker, who was not in the best of moods following the embarrassing moment for the Tories.

Dittert also revealed that “es kam zu Handgreiflichkeiten in der Lobby,” which roughly translates to, “There were fisticuffs in the lobby.” You can watch a video of Dittert’s broadcast below, and don’t worry, you won’t need to know German for the good part:

Via Mediaite:

Right in the middle of her German-language Tagesschau report, Dittert quoted furious Conservative deputy whip Craig Whittaker dropping a pair of F-bombs.

“I’m f*cking furious, and I don’t f*cking care anymore,” Dittert read in clear English. She quickly added in German, “I won’t translate that right now but this is a party where really every discipline has collapsed.”

After the report, English tweets of Dittert dropping F-bombs went viral on Twitter as the platform spent most of Thursday being captivated by Truss’s resignation and the ensuing chaos. However, what people did not appreciate was Piers Morgan suggesting he might be the new prime minister. Nobody needs that right now, Piers. Don’t make us go on television and cuss about this, too.

(Via Mediaite)

Top Gun: Maverick is 2022’s highest-grossing movie, and will likely remain that way. But there are two films that could top it: Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It’s unclear how James Cameron’s sequel to the biggest hit in Hollywood history will do (probably $well!), but Black Panther 2 is off to a good start.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is expected to debut with $175 million, which would be the year’s second highest opening weekend after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($187.4 million). Variety reports that “rival studio executives believe that figure could grow after reviews hit and word-of-mouth builds. Disney and Marvel still haven’t released the bulk of their marketing materials, which could also goose ticket sales.”

The original Black Panther opened to $202 million in 2018, ultimately grossing $700.4 million domestically and $1.3 billion globally. Advance ticket sales are already strong, and the initial word among the select few who have seen rough cuts of the movie is that the sequel delivers the goods.

If Rihanna does indeed do the end-credits song, that’s another $10 million right there.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Dominique Thorne, Florence Kasumba, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, and Angela Bassett, opens on November 11.

(Via Variety)

In case you hadn’t noticed, Jennifer Coolidge is finally getting her due, decades after bending-and-snapping in Legally Blonde and receiving a lot of “benefits” for her American Pie turn. Her boozy socialite will soon return as the connecting thread in The White Lotus, she’ll wield an actual shotgun in Shotgun Wedding, and she currently appears in Ryan Murphy and Netflix’s The Watcher. This is an atypical turn for her, too, and Coolidge acknowledged as much while speaking to IMDb about how she chased a Ryan Murphy role and finally has one.

The show takes inspiration from The Cut’s investigative report on the family who was terrorized with threatening letters after purchasing a mammoth house in Westfield, New Jersey. Coolidge portrays a realtor who sold the ill-fated home as the dramatized story begins, and no one ever found out who wrote the real life The Watcher letters, so the show takes a lot of liberties in imagining who’s responsible. Coolidge’s realtor may not as sincere as she seems (and she already knew the Brannock family in the show), and it’s a very different role than the messy, more forthrightly comedic roles played by the Emmy winner. As it turns out, Coolidge held out for a decade to score this part (even after renting him her home for a production), and she’s into it. Via IMDb:

“It was sort of a riveting thing that Ryan was asking me to do this. I never get offered these sort of scary parts. He rented my house and used it for American Horror Story down in New Orleans, but even if I was in the yard… he somehow made sure he wasn’t around to give me a little part. So here I am 10 years later, thrilled!”

Say what you want about the controversial tone that Ryan Murphy sometimes strikes in his career, but he’s got the golden touch. Between Dahmer and The Watcher, he managed to be responsible for Netflix’s top two shows at the same time. And Coolidge, as always, is a hoot and a delight, even though this series is a little bit scary.

(Via IMDb)

Martin McDonagh kind of poo poos the idea that reuniting himself with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, 14 years after the release of the beloved In Bruges had to be something truly special, kind of shrugging it off that his other movies in-between just didn’t call for anything like that. He also poo poos the idea that the plot of The Banshees of Inisherin – in which two friends, Pádraic (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson), have a falling out so severe it leads to bitterness, then violence, then irreparable harm – is a scene for scene metaphor for the Irish Civil War, which Banshees is set during. He does acknowledge those comparisons are there, and not unintentional, it’s just a little more broad than an eagle eyed viewer might think and, the ahead he tries to explain it, is just something that kind of worked out.

Though, I think McDonagh is being a bit modest here. This is one really terrific film and, sure, some themes in movies are happy accidents, but the metaphors here between two friends, compared with two sides of a war, work so well, it’s hard to believe someone as talented as McDonagh doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing with every frame of this movie.

Ahead, McDonagh gives us a sense of his process in making one of the best movies of the year. Which also features a donkey named Jenny that has become a favorite to anyone who has seen this movie, and McDonagh says Jenny somehow does know she’s a star. Also, I shared an anecdote with him about the ending of his last movie, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. In that I’ve talked to more than a few people about its ending – Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell driving from Missouri to Idaho with a harebrained plan to kill a presumed rapist and murderer – who didn’t realize how far Idaho is from Missouri (multiple days of driving), making the ending have a different meaning. But, first, McDonagh reveals the secret on how to get in one of his movies, which Barry Keoghan nailed…

I spoke to Barry Keoghan earlier, he mentioned he had a picture of you as his phone wallpaper and he had to delete it before he met with you…

That’s actually what got him the part.

So for future knowledge to other actors, have a picture of you on their phone as the wallpaper and that gets you the part.

Yeah, that’s all they need. They don’t even have to be good.

Well, then you’re lucky because Barry’s really good in this.

He’s brilliant. He’s fantastic.

The friendship between Pádraic and Colm ending is also a metaphor for the Irish Civil War. I’m curious, does every incident in this movie between Pádraic and Colm line up with some historical event? Or is it more broad than that?

Much more broad. I don’t think it really matches up with anything. What were you thinking?

There’s a scene where Pádraic sets Colm’s house on fire, but also gives him a warning that he’s going to do that. That sounds like something specific that may have happened.

No, no, no. It was all made up. I’m going to claim credit for that one.

I see. I didn’t know if there was a historical event where an army destroyed some facility, but gave a warning first…

I see what you mean. Not really, in truth. No, it was just all makey-uppy.

The way you frame their relationship, it’s such an interesting way to look at how hurt feelings lead to bitterness and then bitterness can lead to something unintentional happening, then things truly can’t be fixed. Between friends or between countries.

Yeah. It does feel that way in war especially, that if things aren’t solved, it’s almost the war becomes about the horrible things that were then done instead of the original dispute in some ways. And I think that’s what was interesting about this story, that things unravel and get worse and worse, sometimes without, oftentimes without intending to. And then become unforgivable and irreparable. And I guess that’s true of wars as much as is true of this little story about the two guys.

How does this story come to you? A story about these two guys, but it also plays along with almost every way a war starts in real life, too. It’s really remarkable.

Honestly, I just made it about the two guys. Everything else, I think just when you set the Civil War there as backdrop you know that things are going to sort of bubble through metaphorically. Apart from just setting it there with that back there, I just concentrated on the story of the guys and the truth of that breakup. Obviously, if it wasn’t set against that backdrop, it wouldn’t have the same resonance you’re talking about. But I sort of tried to write it at as if it could have been set today, in terms of just the detail and the sadness of the breakup. I just wanted to capture that as much as anything. I think the other stuff, I wouldn’t say it’s accidental… but I should claim credit from what you’re saying.

From now on when someone asks something like this, just say, “Well, you have to look at your history books, you’ll figure it out. Start digging,” and leave it at that.

[Laughs] Yeah, that would’ve involved research on my part. I’m not ever very good at that.

A lot of people have asked me how this is compared to In Bruges. And somehow I think this movie’s even funnier, yet it’s also darker. Darker than In Bruges, where both main characters probably die.

Me, too. I’m glad you find it that way. Our biggest fear was to do something that wasn’t as good as In Bruges. People have got a lot of love for In Bruges and we love that. People come up to us all the time and with such a passion about it. So you didn’t want to betray that – if that’s not too strong a word – but you also didn’t want to repeat any tricks from In Bruges.

Right, which this doesn’t.

I just wanted to capture a sad story and I think knowing that’s what was at the heart of this. I mean, In Bruges is kind of sad in places, too, but there’s something crazy and sexy and dangerous about it, too. This isn’t sexy and dangerous. Always dangerous, but definitely not sexy.

And a lot less references to the movie Time Bandits.

Exactly.

I’m curious why it took this long to work with Brendan Gleeson again. Was it if you were going to reunite he and Colin, it had to be something truly special?

I wouldn’t say it was necessarily that. I think this is the first idea for a story that I thought they would be perfect for together. I don’t think when I did Seven Psychopaths, I wasn’t trying to shoehorn Brendan into that. It just would’ve seemed weird because it was an American set thing. Having one Irish guy would’ve seemed like plenty…

And it definitely wouldn’t make sense in Three Billboards.

No, no, exactly. Yeah. But with this, I mean it was written for them and that kind of helped with the writing of it. Brendan is a musician and a fiddle player…

Yeah, he just played for the world on SNL.

I know. I know. It was brilliant. And he composed the tune that we hear in this movie, too. I think, sometimes, there are actors, I don’t know if you call them character actors, that people love when they see things, but don’t automatically think of them, definitely not as the lead. Sam Roche is probably another one. Everyone loves and always loved all of his work, but somehow it needed the one part to push through to get him in movie star status somehow. And, hopefully, this does the same for Brendan, but as you know, Brendan’s been brilliant in everything for years.

Does the donkey realize it’s going to be famous?

[Laughs] The donkey knows it’s a star.

Okay.

The donkey was a diva on set too. Would barely come out the trailer, always late, needed massages constantly.

I mean, you know what you’re doing. You knew that people were going to love the donkey.

We did try to find literally the most beautiful, donkey we could find. Her name is Jenny in real life, too.

Oh, that would make sense that you would want to call it by the name it probably responds to.

Exactly. Jenny is happily bounding around fields and living the life of a former movie star now and hopefully she’ll get an Oscar vote.

So here’s something I’ve realized about Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The ending, I’ve talked to at least three or four people who thought Missouri and Idaho were somewhat close to each other. When I explain New York City is closer to Missouri than Idaho is, they rethink the whole ending. That’s like a three-day drive and they thought it was a few hours.

It’s a big cross-country trip!

Right, they have three days to think about this plan of theirs.

That’s hilarious. Don’t they teach geography in American schools?

On the coasts, I’m honestly not entirely sure. But I heard, “Well this changes the ending completely and now I feel different about it.”

Damn, if they’d got it sooner we might have won the Oscar.

You should ask for a re-vote now.

We should have had one of those things when the map comes in and there’s a little car going sort of across…

Yeah, like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Maybe in the Director’s Cut.

You just pop up, “Hello, I’m the director of this movie. I just want to point out for everyone, Idaho is nowhere near Missouri.”

Exactly.

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ debuts in theaters this coming weekend. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Bourbon doesn’t have to be expensive to be good. But a whole hell of a lot of it is very expensive these days. Expensive bourbon whiskey is everywhere, from the top of the shelf to behind glass cases in liquor stores to behind the bar at your favorite watering hole. There’s so much of it that $100+ bottles are slowly becoming a sort of norm in the industry, to the point where complaining about the price basically falls on deaf ears. Suffice to say, bourbon whiskey isn’t going away any time soon, so I figured let’s taste some blind and see which actually justify the price tag.

Of course, that sounds easier than it is. This blind tasting was great. These whiskeys were all stellar. Ranking them, on the other hand, was nearly impossible. Each of these whiskeys has a deep and complex flavor profile that might simply speak to one mood over another or time of day or pairing ability. There are no faults in these whiskeys. But there are some major differences in those flavor profiles. So I did rank these according to which bottle I actually wanted to drink instead of just taste. That’s the only way I could find a way to differentiate these.

Going a little deeper, I also made sure these are actual expensive whiskeys and not simply expensive because of a secondary or aftermarket price hike thanks to hype. These are all whiskeys that have an MSRP between $100 and $500 before they hit secondary retail shelves and get that markup. So a $40 bottle of Weller 12, which retails for a few hundo (at least) didn’t make the cut. Sorry, Weller heads.

Our lineup today is:

• Bomberger’s Declaration 2022
• Knob Creek 18
• Kentucky Owl Takumi
• Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 1st Edition Aged 17 Years
• Barrell Craft Spirits Gray Label Bourbon 15 Years
• Bardstown Bourbon Company Chateau de Laubade
• Michter’s Single Barrel Bourbon Aged 10 Years
• Rare Hare 1953

Okay, let’s dive in a taste some seriously amazing whiskeys that come at a steep cost.

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months

• We Blind Tasted A Whole Bunch Of $30-60 Bourbons To See If Any Could Beat Weller
• We Put A Whole Bunch Of Bourbons To A Giant Blind Test And Discovered Some Absolute Gems
• We Blind Tasted Classic Bourbons And Were Shocked By The Winner
• The Best-Known Basic Bottles Of Bourbon, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• All The Double Gold-Winning Straight Bourbons From This Year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

The nose opens with a hint of sourdough mashed grains next to well-spiced sticky toffee pudding with black-tea-soaked dates and plenty of good cinnamon and nutmeg, old leather tobacco pouched, orange oils, dark chocolate, and old broken-down oak staves. The palate is super supple with a creaminess like a crème brûlée next to creamed honey, tons of wintry spices, more of that orange and dark chocolate with a flake of salt, and an underlying sense of dried chili pepper flakes. There’s warmth on the mid-palate that slowly fades toward rich marzipan and more dark chocolate next to meaty and leathery prunes and dried figs with a touch of hot tobacco spice.

This was a tad hot, all things considered (I’m really stretching for things to ding here). That said, there’s so much good going on, it didn’t matter. It all made perfect sense and was delicious.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Dark molasses and pecan clusters with salted dark chocolate lead to brown butter, old figs, and salted caramel with a woody sense of cherry and apple bark next to cinnamon-laced cedar sticks with burnt orange. The palate is full of lush vanilla notes next to singed cherry bark and apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks, star anise, salted black licorice, and dark chocolate-covered espresso beans with a hint of dried red chili spice turning up the heat on the mid-palate. The end has a floral honey sweetness that balances everything toward orange blossoms and bruised peaches, cherry tobacco, and clove tobacco.

This is really nice, well-rounded, and just freakin’ tasty. Though I would say it was more “interesting” than just “delicious.”

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

There’s a nice leatheriness to the nose that leads to rich salted caramel sauce, old pear skins, peach pits, Mounds Bars, and a hint of candied cherry next to cinnamon-laced tobacco leaves with a hint of root beer. The palate leans into some rye sourdough vibes as lush vanilla and caramel lead to fresh grapes and apples with a hint of pear and plum in there. The end has this wonderful fruitiness that’s almost like an ambrosia fruit salad with heavy vanilla cream and fresh mixed fruit with a sweet sense of fruity Jell-O gelatin.

Wow, this got so fruity at the end. This doesn’t really feel too much like bourbon, to be honest.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

The nose opens with a sense of old garden gloves next worn out oak staves, dark cherry syrup, old woody winter spice barks and berries, and a mild sense of umami with a hint of tartness — think tomato paste cut with citrus. The palate leans into cherry-infused maple syrup over pecan waffles with a dash of blackberry jam over raisin scones with brown cinnamon butter and sticky toffee pudding-flavored chewing tobacco in an old cedar humidor. The end has a nice warmth on the mid-palate thanks to that mild spice and tobacco that leads to rich and buttery toffee with cedar bark, cherry bark, and old porch wicker braided with black cherry pipe tobacco and drizzled with plum and fig syrup.

This is an incredible pour of whiskey.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

This is obviously a Tennessee whiskey from the jump, with honey-dipped Graham Crackers next to cherry Necco Wafers and vanilla wafers with a hint of nougat, pear candy, and a minor salted note. The taste is cherry-forward with a mix of berry multivitamins next to woody winter spice, wet brown sugar, and Earl Grey tea bags. The end leans into the blackness of that tea with a hint of salted dark chocolate next to figs mixed with pinenuts and dosed in olive oil and orange oils with a hint of old pine boards and woody pear tobacco lurking at the very end.

This is pretty good. It feels like there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye, it needs some water to open it up a bit, I think.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

The nose opens with a limber sense of old leather tobacco pouches next to older oak barrels in a cellar, toffee covered in crushed almonds, sultanas, whole nutmegs, mace, cardamom pods, hot cinnamon, and dried wild sage with a hint of hazelnut shells. The palate opens with a luxurious vanilla base layered with rum-raisin, dried fig, meaty dates, gingerbread, and prune brandy spiked with mulled wine spices and a hint of grape must. The end has an orchard bark vibe next to soft winter spices, more dried dark fruits, and a feel of old natural tobacco leaves drying in a barn on a drizzly day.

This is beautiful whiskey.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

There’s a leathery sense of sweet cedar bark next to tart berries, burnt orange, salted caramel, and a big slice of sticky toffee pudding with a dollop of brandy butter on the nose. The palate has a mix of vanilla tobacco spiciness next to salted dark chocolate, rich marzipan, and the cream from the top of a well-made espresso. The end has this whisper of black peppercorn next to dark chocolate pecan nut clusters with blackberry jam and minced meat pies alongside soft tobacco leaves pressed into an old cedar box with the faintest hint of lightly singed marshmallow on the very back end.

This is just a classic pour of pretty much perfect bourbon.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of dark fruit leather on the nose with brandy-soaked raisins, tart cherry, and plenty of Tennessee graininess, kind of like old Biscoff crackers. The palate holds onto that Tennessee vibe with a sweet sense of cinnamon candy, Starbursts, and black licorice ropes next to vanilla and cherry Necco Wafer. The end has a sense of dark chocolate-covered espresso beans with a hint of eggnog next to peach pie, which ultimately ends up very fruity/sweet on the finish.

This was nice but really sweet by the end.

Part 2: The Ranking

8. Rare Hare 1953 — Taste 8

ABV: 55.5%

Average Price: $500

The Whiskey:

The juice in the bottle is a blend of 17-year-old bourbons from undisclosed sources. Those 17-year-old barrels were blended and then re-barreled into XXO Cognac casks (barrels that held brandy for at least 14 years in Cognac, France) for an additional 12 months of mellowing. Finally, that juice is vatted and bottled as-is into 1,953 bottles.

Bottom Line:

I really liked this until the end when it just got too sweet — for me. If you’re looking for a sweeter bourbon with a bit of patina on the palate, then this might be your exact jam.

7. Kentucky Owl Takumi — Taste 3

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $126

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is a collaboration between Kentucky Owl Master Blender John Rhea and Nagahama Master Blender Yusuke Yahisa. Kentucky Owl whiskeys were sent over to Yahisa to create a blend that bridges Kentucky bourbon and Japanese whisky. The final blend ended up being a mix of four, five, six, and 13-year-old barrels with a four-grain mash bill that was just touched with water before bottling.

Bottom Line:

This was really nice. The only reason it’s lower is that it was the least “wow” whiskey on the list. It has a fruity vibe that was nice. But if you’re looking for a stone-cold classic bourbon profile, you might be a little irked to find all that fruit salad on the flavor profile.

6. Barrell Craft Spirits Gray Label Bourbon 15 Years — Taste 5

ABV: 52.5%

Average Price: $250

The Whiskey:

Barrell Craft Spirits is another craft blendery that’s sourcing some of the best barrels in the game and expertly marrying them. This expression blends 15-year-old bourbon from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee into a final product that reaches new heights for blended bourbon.

Bottom Line:

This is another winner. I really like these releases as they’re so bold and deeply hewn. There’s so much going on with the flavor profile that you really need to take your time tasting — which can be a turn-off for someone looking just to have an easy-sipping time with a nice whiskey.

5. Bomberger’s Declaration 2022 — Taste 1

ABV: 54%

Average Price: $110

The Whiskey:

This whiskey heralds back to Michter’s historical roots in the 19th century before the brand was even called “Michter’s.” The juice in the bottle is rendered from a very small batch of bourbons that were aged in Chinquapin oak, which was air-dried for three years before charring and filling. The Kentucky bourbon was then bottled in an extremely small batch that only yielded 2005 bottles this year.

Bottom Line:

Okay, now we’re in quintessential classics territory. This whiskey is just delicious. It’s simple and straightforward with a great bourbon flavor profile.

4. Knob Creek 18 — Taste 2

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $170

The Whiskey:

This limited-edition release celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Knob Creek, which started back in 1992 during the darkest days of bourbon. The juice is Beam’s standard mash bill that’s distilled at a slightly different temperature and treated with a little more care during aging by placing barrels in very specific locations throughout their vast warehouses. After 18 long years, the best of the best barrels are small batched, and just proofed before bottling.

Bottom Line:

This was a shock, I thought this would be number one for sure. I really, really like this. Yet today, it just didn’t pop quite as much as the next three.

3. Michter’s Single Barrel Bourbon Aged 10 Years — Taste 7

ABV: 47.2%

Average Price: $216

The Whiskey:

The juice in this bottle is a little under wraps. Michter’s is currently distilling and aging its own whiskey, but this is still sourced. The actual barrels sourced for these single barrel expressions tend to be at least 10 years old with some rumored to be closer to 15 years old (depending on the barrel’s quality, naturally). Either way, the juice goes through Michter’s bespoke filtration process before a touch of Kentucky’s iconic soft limestone water is added, bringing the bourbon down to a very crushable 94.4 proof.

Bottom Line:

This is a perfect bourbon.

2. Bardstown Bourbon Company Chateau de Laubade — Taste 6

ABV: 53.5%

Average Price: $160

The Whiskey:

This bourbon is a blend of 12-year-old, low-rye bourbon from Kentucky and 10-year-old, very-low-rye bourbon from Tennessee. The whiskeys were re-barreled into Armagnac casks from the famed Chateau de Laubade. One set spent two years mellowing on the bottom floor of the rickhouse while another set spent 16 months mellowing on the top floor. After that, the barrels were vatted and bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

This really hits well. It’s a great bourbon that’s finished with a barrel that really elevates everything that’s going on with the palate already. It just works.

1. Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 1st Edition Aged 17 Years — Taste 4

ABV: 59.1%

Average Price: $275

The Whiskey:

The base of the spirit is Heaven Hill’s classic bourbon mash of 78 % corn, 12% malted barley, and a mere 10% rye. This particular whiskey is built from several barrels from four warehouse campuses in the Bardstown area. In this case, three different ages were pulled with 17 years being the youngest. The whiskey is made from 28% 20-year-old barrels, 44% 19-year-old barrels, and 28% 17-year-old barrels. Once those barrels are vatted, the bourbon goes into the bottle as-is, without any cutting or fussing.

Bottom Line:

This shit is wildly delicious. It feels both vintage and fresh. This is going to really hard to beat as one of the best of 2022.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

If you want to spend some serious cash on bourbon whiskey, you can’t go wrong with any of these pours. Seriously. Just find the tasting notes that speak to you and go with god.

If you want my recommendation, the Michter’s 10 and Knob Creek 18 are going to be the easiest to find on this list (but only barely). If you can, at least try the Bardstown Chateau de Laubade at a great whiskey bar. It’s divine.

As for the Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 1st Edition, it’s really special and rare plus it tastes really good. That’s the perfect storm for the hype machine to take over. That means that the price is going to be outrageous ($1,500 range) if you do find it on a retail shelf these days.

I have a half-baked, easily-debunked (but please go with it) theory that the last song on a Taylor Swift album is occasionally a clue for her next album. For instance, the triumphant “Change” from Fearless is a preview of the crossover pop-success of Speak Now, while Reputation, an otherwise heavily produced and moody album, ends with the lovely piano-and-acoustic guitar ballad “New Year’s Day,” previewing better days (and nights) to come for Swift on Lover. The last song on the deluxe edition of Evermore, her most recent non-Taylor’s Version album? “It’s Time to Go,” emphasis on the word time.

Midnights, which comes out this Friday, is Swift’s 10th studio album and first without a pre-release single. Little is known about what it sounds like, other than it’s inspired by “13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life,” Swift said. (It always comes back to 13.) Time has been a recurring theme throughout Swift’s discography, from middle-of-the-night dances ’round the kitchen in the refrigerator light in “All Too Well” to the haters takin’ shots at her like it’s Patrón at 7 a.m. on “You Need to Calm Down,” and it’s at the forefront of the discourse about the new album. But like a dry, hungry mogwai who wants to turn into a gremlin, is midnight her favorite time of day?

Let’s begin with every lyric of hers that mentions midnight.

“22” (Red)

It feels like a perfect night
For breakfast at midnight
To fall in love with strangers

“Style” (1989)

Midnight
You come and pick me up, no headlights
A long drive
Could end in burning flames or paradise

“You Are in Love” (1989)

No proof, not much, but you saw enough
Small talk, he drives
Coffee at midnight

“New Year’s Day” (Reputation)

I want your midnights
But I’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year’s Day

“The Last Great American Dynasty” (Folklore)

They say she was seen on occasion
Pacing the rocks, staring out at the midnight sea
And in a feud with her neighbor
She stole his dog and dyed it key lime green

“Happiness” (Evermore)

In our history, across our great divide
There is a glorious sunrise
Dappled with the flickers of light
From the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind
And there is happiness

If you extend “midnight”/”midnights” to “middle of the night,” there are even more options, but it’s unclear whether, say, Taylor is wishing her former-lover was a better man at 11 p.m. or 12 a.m. or 3 a.m. (Matchbox Twenty O’Clock). No other time appears in Swift’s catalog as much as midnight, but there’s another hour that makes multiple appearances.

“Mary’s Song (Oh My My My)” (Taylor Swift)

Take me back to the creek beds we turned up
2 a.m. riding in your truck
And all I need is you next to me

“Breathe” (Fearless)

It’s 2 a.m., feeling like I just lost a friend
Hope you know it’s not easy, easy for me

“Enchanted” (Speak Now)

The lingering question kept me up
2 a.m., who do you love?
I wonder ’til I’m wide awake

“I Wish You Would” (1989)

It’s 2 a.m. in your car
Windows down, you pass my street, the memories start

There’s also the 2 a.m. adjacent, “And I remember that fight, 2:30 a.m. / As everything was slipping right out of our hands” from “Mine” and, “I still remember the look on your face / Lit through the darkness at 1:58 / The words that you whispered for just us to know / You told me you loved me / So why did you go away?” from “Last Kiss.”

Other specific times to get a shout-out in Swift songs include 3 a.m. (“3 a.m. and I’m still awake, I’ll bet you’re just fine” from “I Bet You Think About Me”), 4 a.m. (“I wish it wasn’t 4 a.m., standing in the mirror” from “Better Man”), and 5 a.m. (“I call, just checking up on him / He’s up, 5 a.m., wasted” from “Forever Winter”). Interestingly, I believe there is not a single song of hers set during the p.m., at least not one with “p.m.” in the lyrics.

Swift has always prided herself on making personal experiences feel universal — it’s arguably the reason for her chart-topping success more than anything else. The a.m. over p.m. preference is an example of this. I can’t remember what I did yesterday at the boring hour 4 p.m. But I can recall a month ago, which was the last time I was awake until 1:30 a.m. It wasn’t pretty. But it was memorable.

As for Swift, it’s clear she has a lyrical preoccupation with midnight and 2 a.m. The difference between them is that she sees midnight as a time for romantic affection, for eating pancakes with friends, for dimly-lit drives filled with possibilities. 2 a.m. only brings sadness. It’s an hour of regret, reflection, and questions asked alone in the dark. Or as Future Ted astutely once noted on How I Met Your Mother, “Nothing good happens after 2 a.m.” If Midnights is “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams,” as Swift wrote in the album announcement, midnight is the sweet dreams; 2 a.m. is the terrors.

Further proof that Swift prefers midnight to 2 a.m.: it’s when Midnights comes out.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Ice Spice finally spills the tea on the meaning behind her viral hit song, “Munch.”

The Bronx rapper revealed that the drill-inspired track was meant to add some fun to the music game and describe the heaps of “desperate men” who can’t stop thirsting after her. Spice said it was also a shot at her critiques and the men who had been sex-shaming her online.

“Because a munch is also being a hater,” she said. “It’s not just being a eater. They need to just get some money and worry about them.”

The “Name of Love” rapper urged the “eaters” to focus on themselves but admits they can prove helpful when necessary.

Spice also noted how people “switched up” once the song became a viral sensation.

“A lot of people switched up on the song,” Spice said. “At first they were like, ‘This is trash, whatever.’ And then the next day they’re like, ‘I can’t stop thinking about it.”

With Spice’s hit song gaining momentum and her 2019 single “No Clarity,” which samples Zedd’s “Clarity,” going viral on TikTok, the Gen Z rapper said she has big plans for herself, including a full-length project before the end of 2022.

Future is really making sure to wring every last ounce of content posssible out of I Never Liked You. His latest breakout from the April album is the video for “Massaging Me,” which truly lives up to its title. The video is heavily fiiltered in blue and red, with a fuzzy, lo-fi aesthetic that really lends itself to his bleary-eyed, substance-fueled raps; throughout, he’s surrounded by women who just can’t keep their hands off of him. The festivities movie outdoors from the stripper pole-equipped TV room to the pool, where the ladies swim around and twerk on each other for Future’s entertainment.

“Massaging Me” makes a total of seven videos from the 16-song album, which also featured the No. 1-selling “Wait For U” featuring Drake and Tems, the Kanye West-featuring “Keep It Burning,” the inebriated “Puffin On Zootiez,” the laid-back “Holy Ghost,” the heartbroken “Love You Better,” and the hedonistic “I’m Dat N****.”

2022 has been another big year for Future, who has headlined multiple iterations of the Rolling Loud Festival including in Miami and in New York, trended multiple times on TikTok (truly a feat for a non-Gen-Z, non-legacy act), and sold his publishing catalog for a huge payout.

Watch Future’s “Massaging Me” video above.

By the time Lil Baby releases his next album, he’ll most likely be 30 years old with nearly a decade worth of experience in the rap game under his belt. What’s left of his youthful exuberance will most likely be gone and replaced with aging wisdom. He may even dim his flashy and braggadocious demeanor just a bit as he approaches somewhat of an elder statesman status. It’s something we saw with Schoolboy Q as he transitioned from Oxymoron to Blank Face to Crash Talk. The accuracy behind this forecast for Lil Baby remains to be seen, but on his newly released third album It’s Only Me, he arrives as an approaching rap veteran who long settled into his position as one of hip-hop’s most sought-after names.

Lil Baby secured that position in 2020 with the release of My Turn. His chart-topping sophomore album begins with the Atlanta native as aggressive as ever. Baby races against the beat on “Get Ugly” while he foreshadows the downfall of his opposers in sinister quips. The opening of My Turn schemed for chaos too much for it to be only grand and triumphant, and it sought to warn of Baby’s entrance as much as it signaled the beginning of new times for past crown bearers. Two years later, “Real Spill” kicks off It’s Only Me with a reflective, rather than aspirational Lil Baby. Timid production with a pitched-up sample of Sade’s “The Big Unknown” injects a pinch of emotion that weaves itself into Lil Baby’s account of his successful lifestyle, one he painfully worked hard for. “You can say whatever but if I change it’s for the better,” he professes. “That sh*t was painful but I ain’t let up, I left a stain in the ghetto.” He ends the second verse with an honest reaction toward these riches. “I bust out cryin’ and I wasn’t sad, it’s just a little feelin’ you get when you make it.”

With It’s Only Me, Lil Baby swaps his flare and flash – the qualities that made My Turn and his other projects magnetizing for the eye and infectious to the ear – for polished precision. Close-minded to any disagreements with his third album’s title, Lil Baby just wants you to listen to every word he’s saying. Following the moment of reflection on “Real Spill,” Baby uses his next at-bat, “Stand On It,” to animate the morals and values that serve as chisels in constructing the man he is today. Records like “California Breeze” and “Waterfall Flow” work to capture Baby’s carefree approach nowadays as both songs come as a result of his present-day comfort. Sure, the grind continues, but the hustle of yesterday allows for a moment to enjoy an exotic destination away from home. So as “California Breeze” soaks in the coastal sun and as “Waterfall Flow” graciously absorbs the dazzling lights of a new city, it becomes more and more clear that Baby is content with his shine so long as it comes.

Let it be known that despite it being a more timid body of work, It’s Only Me is far from boring or uneventful. For starters, guest acts splattered throughout the project provide little jolts of energy that perk the ear up. Lil Baby and Future are a mischievous duo on the prowl on “From Now On” while Young Thug, a voice we haven’t heard something new from in months, opts to match Lil Baby’s militant stature on “Never Hating.” Lil Baby and Rylo Rodriguez’s “Cost To Be Alive” joins the growing list of strong collaborations between the two rappers and the album’s most unique moment comes earlier on “Forever.” It bleeds with emotion, thanks to a haunting hook from singer Fridayy and verses from Baby that pour out his heartbreak to linger like the song’s thundering bass that rattles between the ears for prolonged periods. That record strikes as a much better attempt at speaking about love than the Jeremih-featured “Stop Playin” which would’ve been much better if Baby approached it on his own like the 2018 fan-favorite “Close Friends.” That slip-up is made up for through solo entries like the high-octane “Never Finished,” the reinforcing “Double Down,” and “Top Priority” which rests on a penthouse floor above the clouds.

For Lil Baby, It’s Only Me seems to be the result of peace and a more settled lifestyle. The Atlanta star doesn’t have to scrap and fight for his position and respect because he’s already earned it. We can’t fault him for taking his foot off the gas to enjoy the view up in the hills or by the coast. Hustle culture may tell you otherwise, but there are days when one can pause the work and rest their feet. The flash and flare of My Turn and Harder Than Ever was certainly missed this time around, but there’s still promise that it’ll be back at a future date. The reduced spectacle and glamour of his third album don’t necessarily result in a bad project. As mentioned, there are plenty of pockets to enjoy from top to bottom. However, the change in speed does result in less memorable moments compared to his last two albums and we can only hope they make a return the next go around.

It’s Only Me is out now via Quality Control Music/Motown Records. You can stream it here.