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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.

Many musicians are reacting to the resignation of British prime minister, Liz Truss, who spent only 44 days in office. One of them is the frontman of Radiohead and The Smile, Thom Yorke, who used the lyrics of his own song, “No Surprises,” from his classic album OK Computer, to convey frustration.

“bring down this UK government, they do not speak for us, right the f*ck now,” the singer wrote on Twitter. “they have no authority, no mandate, no clue, cats in a bag tearing themselves to pieces while the country suffers in extreme distress. enough of this sh*t. shame on them. #GeneralElection2022”

Yorke has never been afraid to speak up about what bothers him. In a 2016 interview, he complained about feeling pressured to find new, unorthodox music release strategies because it was what Radiohead had been known for: “Whatever. Enough of that now I’ve entirely had enough of that,” he said. “Just put it out, man, no more fuss, just put it out. I’m getting too old for that bit. It takes away from things a bit, it is sometimes frustrating. […] The energy of trying to figure out how to do it differently and circumvent the monsters … Whatever, whatever.”

Following Liz Truss‘s failure to outlast a head of lettuce by = serving as Britain’s prime minister for only 45 days, Piers Morgan may be throwing his hat in the ring. Whether he’s joking or not, the country has been through enough right now and people are not here for whatever the heck Morgan is doing.

Shortly after the news of Truss’s resignation broke, Morgan tweeted, “It may be time,” along with a photo of himself standing outside the prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street. If Morgan looks noticeably different in the photo, that’s because it’s 12 years old.

Morgan’s little joke did not go over well, but he should be used to getting roasted on Twitter by now. His obsession with Meghan Markle has been constant fodder for jokes on the social media platform, so you can believe people had strong opinions at just the mere thought of Morgan becoming the next prime minister. Let’s just say, the British did not mince words.

You can see some of the reactions to Morgan below:

As part of his obsession with Markle as well as his conservative leanings, Morgan has routinely fawned over the Royal Family. He has a known history as a fetishist for the inhabitants of Buckingham Palace, so naturally, his ascent to prime minister (humorous or not) is going to get dragged on social media where people are more free to share their real thoughts about the Windsors. The death of Queen Elizabeth II being a recent example of that phenomenon.

(Via Piers Morgan on Twitter)

The Watcher is not an objectively good true-crime dramatization. Let’s get that out of the way upfront. There’s no way that I can pretend that the Netflix series is something on par with HBO’s The Staircase, even though that dramatization effort made some risky moves, particularly in reimagining Kathleen Peterson’s gruesome manner of death. The Staircase pulled such moments off without offending people (other than Michael Peterson), but that was part of the mastery of the show, which carried a deconstructive air. With The Watcher, however, no such sleight of hand exists. This show is presumptuous and ridiculous and full of red herrings that eventually — and anyone who’s read The Cut’s investigative report on this case can guess — go nowhere.

This infuriated viewers, but surely, you’re aware of Ryan Murphy’s recent work. Especially in the case of Dahmer, he’s well-versed in the art of upsetting people, and at least this show doesn’t inappropriately tag itself and knows what it is: The Watcher dramatizes a very bad situation, in which someone (or someones) terrorized the Broadduss family with threatening letters after they moved into a home that they hoped would be a refuge from city life. Eventually, they had enough and sold the home, and no one ever figured out who sent those letters (which stopped after they moved). The Netflix series (which renames the family as the Brannocks) takes a lot of liberties in doling out imagined possibilities while not-assigning responsibility.

And it’s easy to see why people grew upset, given that (unless a show is titled Unsolved Mysteries) after so many wild scenarios posed by the narrative, viewers wanted a resolution. That’s a normal desire and a comforting one. We want to know who (invisibly) does awful things because it makes us, as an audience, feel a little bit safer before drawing the blinds at night. This show offers no such hand-holding, but it’s also somehow an engrossing story. You know, despite the dead ferret business.

Actually, I can’t find any definitive report on The Watcher not killing a ferret, which makes me a little punchy. Yet here’s why The Watcher is still worth watching, and I’ll try not to spoil too many twists:

1. Although I feared being triggered, it didn’t happen: I cannot stress how loose this adaptation seems in relating actual incidents that took place. The Cut article does receive a late-game shoutout and becomes part of the show, and yes, letters did surface with unsettling statements like this: “It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out.” From there, a lot of The Watcher appears to be fictionalized, and it’s unsettling stuff but not involving specific triggers (unlike Luckiest Girl Alive) other than general unease. Nor is this show particularly spooky, since it enters camp territory.

In short, Dean Brannock (Bobby Cannavale) and his wife, Nora (Naomi Watts), are initially rattled by The Watcher’s enthusiasm for “young blood” now residing in the house. From there, they kind-of (and it’s mostly Dean) lash out at other people, instantly becoming disliked by neighbors. They dive into an endless sea of speculation over the person who claims to have been overseeing this house, from afar, for decades. Countless dead leads and (probably) false accusations against neighbors abound, and the thought of this all being a hoax eventually surfaces. Not even Dean is immune from becoming a suspect! I hate to say that people should lighten up and let it flow — because harassment and intimidation is real-life hell — but this series takes such a balls-out approach to the whodunnit that it’s hard to resist the spectacle of it all.

2. The supporting actors are delightful menaces: The neighbors are one giant cluster and include a pair of tracksuit-lovers played by Richard Kind and Margo Martindale, and they’re not friendly. So much for peaceful suburbia! And Mia Farrow plays a pastry-happy lady (she could have stepped out the haunting subtext of the American Gothic painting), who’s married to a dude who loves to (for some reason) hide in the dumbwaiter of the Brannocks’ new house. There’s talk of a historical preservation society and secret tunnels, and it’s nuts. Mia clearly relishes the role, and this project’s a piece of apple pie (shout out to Justified fans) for Margo. These characters don’t appear to be facsimiles of real-life people, but they keep everyone on their toes.

This brings me to the biggest attraction of The Watcher…

3. Jennifer Freaking Coolidge: She’s not only having a moment but has been having one all this time, and her realtor character is a piece of work. She’s the embodiment of the commercialization of tragedy, and the show dangles it in our faces. She doesn’t portray the real-life realtor who publicly talked about having a hellish time selling the joint after The Cut article surfaced. Rather, Coolidge’s realtor finds herself embroiled in the initial and ongoing mystery. She is pure melodramatic excess, which I’m convinced couldn’t be carried out by any other actor today in the same way as Coolidge does.

4. The law enforcement aspect is actually fascinating: This ain’t Law & Order: SVU. There’s no Detective Olivia Benson (or Sergeant Fin Tutuola) to swoop in and immediately solve nefarious deeds in less than an hour. Instead, we see something that resembles the hurdles that real-life harassment and stalking subjects must deal with in order to be taken seriously. If there’s no body (or grievous injury), it’s hard for victims to find any sort of relief. I’m not saying that there’s any profound commentary here, but let’s just say that the system is overworked, and human error (and weariness) litters the criminal justice system like it does with any institution. Also, the laid-back stance of the police chief gives the show the opportunity to bring in Noma Dumezweni as a P.I. hired by Dean. Following a performance full of both empathy and frankness, Noma eventually delivers one of the show’s oddest twists, one that grinded some viewers’ gears.

5. The unexpectedly unified theme that arises: What I took away from The Watcher is that, basically, people grow so fascinated by true-crime stories these days that they feel the need to pull themselves into and explain these situations (even sometimes nabbing the blame for themselves) however possible. The show points the finger at so many characters, and one of them even mockingly declares, “I’m The Watcher!” This person was not The Watcher, but this silliness is a way for the show to make some sense of the subject. Since there are no real answers to this mystery, the show at least attempts to illustrate the lengths that humanity can go to in order to explain the unexplainable. It’s more preposterous than what appears to have happened in real life, but then again (in the original article from The Cut), Derek Broaddus actually wondered if The Watcher was inspired by the Keanu Reeves same-named movie, in which Keanu portrays a detective stalked by a serial killer played by James Spader. (Whoa.) People want answers at any cost, and this show digs into that urge.

Again, I will stop short of saying that this show is enjoyable because stalking (of a house, of people, of everything) shouldn’t be a laughing matter. And god only knows that there are more than enough Ryan Murphy projects on Netflix. I’m not sure how he does it all, but The Watcher is an easy enough ride to climb onto and spend several hours on. The ending isn’t satisfying, but it is fitting, all things considered with the real-life situation, and although I’d also love to know who The Watcher is, human imagination can probably take us to a scarier place than this project could ever (realistically) deliver.

The Watcher is streaming on Netflix.

If there’s anything Marjorie Taylor Greene has shown she has an actual talent for over the past near-two years she has spent in congress, it’s mangling the English language on a regular basis and making up American history as she goes along. Her latest blatant act of stupidity? Not knowing a damn thing about the Civil War.

As The Daily Beast reports, Greene — who thinks her reputation for being an idiot is “unfair” — decided to pay tribute to America’s Confederate soldiers on Wednesday night (amazingly, that in and of itself wasn’t even the most embarrassing part of the evening). She did it while visiting Georgia’s Wilder Brigade Monument, which was erected as a tribute to the Union Army’s Lightning Brigade. But know-it-all Marge posted a message to her TRUTH Social followers, complete with photos and a video of her climbing the monuments 136 stairs, and wrote: “Tonight, I stopped at the Wilder monument in Chickamauga, GA, which honors the Confederate soldiers of the Wilder Brigade” and noted, “I will always defend our nation’s history!” Except that the monument celebrates the Union Army, a.k.a. The guys who fought against the Confederate soldiers.

Greene has since deleted the post, and did not return The Daily Beast’s request for a comment.

(Via The Daily Beast)

In all the talk about whether or not “R&B is dead” lately, it seems that the defenders of that rather questionable position have been overlooking the contributions of Canadian R&B duo DVSN for the past few years. Since making their arresting debut in 2015 with Sept. 5th, Daniel Daley and Nineteen85 had carried the torch for traditional R&B, illustrating the full range of the genre from heartbroken anthems to wholehearted declarations of love with their albums, Morning After, A Muse In Her Feelings, and Cheers To The Best Memories, a collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign.

They’re back now with a new album for cuffing season: Working On My Karma, which they’ve been teasing for some months since releasing the controversial “If I Get Caught.” Today, the duo revealed the cover art, release date, and title, promising their return for the cold months on October 28. While it’s unknown if “If I Get Caught” will actually appear on the album after its (ahem) divisive reception from fans, one thing is for sure: R&B is alive and well as long as DVSN continues to pop up as the leaves start dropping to get us in our emotions.

Working On My Karma is out on 10/28 via XO Records/Republic Records. Pre-save it here

Wheel of Fortune is a game show where contestants can win fabulous cash and prizes and live in constant fear of making a mistake big enough to go viral on social media. It’s a hard game! Played under intense pressure and filmed under bright lights (and lasers) that can disorient even the most puzzle-savvy contestants.

Which is why you have to feel for Ashwin, a contestant who made it all the way to the bonus round, only to get roasted by Pat Sajak for missing a puzzle YouTube commenters have subsequently called “easy.” You can see the final puzzle play out here, but here’s what Ashwin was looking at after giving his letters a try with a puzzle in the Person category.

Not exactly a slam dunk, but it’s doable if you know the last word. Which he does! He just can’t get the first one down within the 10 seconds.

“Mechanical expert, principal expert, whimsical expert,” Ashwin says before time, unfortunately runs out. It’s then revealed that he missed out on a car, but not before Sajak gets in a biting line at his expense.

“Well you certainly disappointed your financial expert,” Sajak says, getting a laugh out of the audience and the contestant alike. While some thought the line was a bit brutal, which Sajak is known for being at times, Ashwin seemed to take it in stride.

It’s important to note that he had already won more than $22,000 in prizes, so not a bad day at the office to say the least. But it’s not great when Sajak gets to land a joke at your expense when you’re recovering from an unfortunate 10 seconds of drawing a blank.

[h/t Yahoo!]