‘Perverts’ and ‘Babygirl’ and ‘Scissors’ make for a pearl-clutching newsletter
I will be your newsletter figure, put your tiny hand in mine
Hi! Welcome to the first real edition of New Crush.
Ethel Cain released Perverts yesterday, an unconventional album release day.1 But please note, nowhere has the artist or her PR called Perverts an album. It’s a project! The confusion starts there. Drones and ambient sounds lead to more confusion and fear. This project is creepy. I urge you to consider it for your next haunted house. This project is very quiet. At one point during my listening, I thought my music turned off as I walked through freezing NYC. Once I was able to unleash my hands from my pockets, I learned that “Pulldrone” had been playing for 4 minutes.
This PROJECT is difficult to. That’s the point. This has been written about elsewhere, but Ethel Cain is frustrated with the relationship people have with her art. She wrote about our irony epidemic, calling out fans who make memes out of her most devastating songs. A short story “The Consequence of Audience” accompanies Perverts. (TBH I couldn’t get through it, but you get the point from the title alone.) She doesn’t want to end up on another Obama playlist. I thought naming something “Perverts” was a provocative choice, but someone on X/Twitter noted that you can’t say the word on TikTok. Perverts was always meant to be inaccessible.
Clearly, this isn’t for fans, or at least not fans whose favorite Ethel Cain songs are “Crush” and “American Teenager.” That’s what I find interesting. Who or what is this for? Will it go on tour? Will tickets sell? How does this impact the Ethel Cain narrative? Will she now join the ambient scene? I respect when a musician encourages her audience to have open minds, but how far are the obsessed, irony-epidemic victims and stans willing to go for Ethel Cain?
❤️ Love notes ❤️
Lucy Dacus broke [my side of] the internet when she performed a new song at Julien Baker’s October Brooklyn Steel show. This week, she put out a TikTok casting call for the song’s music video. Breaking news: She’s looking for a hot masc. I don’t know why this casting call is needed when she can give Julien a flannel and put her in front of a camera any day of the week. But I already love this song!
Looks like girl in red has already volunteered in the comment section. The Challengers score won a Golden Globe! I listened to this soundtrack so much that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross reached number 3 on my Spotify Wrapped. No regrets—It’s perfect background music for pushing through work. And “Yeah x10” simply slaps. Hopefully we will hear it at a club soon.
Speaking of soundtracks, Delia Cai wrote that Nicole Kidman’s “Babygirl” is worth seeing for the music alone. I agree. Is “Babygirl” going to do to George Michael’s “Father Figure” what last year’s “Saltburn” did for “Murder on the Dancefloor”? Keep an eye out for Michael’s return to the Hot 100.
Ever since Maren Morris shared that she’s “happy to be the B in LGBTQ+”, she’s embraced singing about how much she loves women (as she should). The MUNA-produced track “push me over,” one of my favorite songs of 2024, hints at it a few times. Something tells me her new single featuring Julia Michaels, “Scissors,” out tomorrow, will cover the same topic.
Samia has been teasing so much new music on a somewhat secret Instagram account for the last few weeks. Based on the latest post on her actual Instagram, it looks like we’re finally getting to hear one of those snippets in full on Jan. 14.
Two artists I LOVE put out new music this week.
Blondshell, one of my favorite artists to have come out of the last few years, has a new song out today, “T&A.” It stands for “Tits & Ass,” obviously. The chorus is so sad and so angry at the same time—it makes me want to give Sabrina a hug, then smash a glass coffee table with a guitar. Her album If You Asked For a Picture is out on May 2.
Japanese Breakfast put out a new single “Orlando In Love” and announced her fourth album For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women). As both a melancholy brunette AND a sad woman, I think I might like it here! This is JB’s first release since 2021, when she released both Jubilee and “Crying In H Mart,” and I’m curious to see how that plays into her press and marketing, if at all.
Through his Village Voice columns, Tom Johnson was one of the first critics to define and chart the rise of avant-garde, “minimal” music in downtown NYC, and he used some of his observations to create compositions of his own. He died last Tuesday at 85.
Bad Bunny went on the New York Times Popcast. I didn’t have that on my 2025 press-cycle bingo card.
Bonnaroo released their lineup and I need to know more about “Remi Wolf’s Insanely Fire 1970’s Pool Party Superjam/”
I’m sure we will see a lot of stories like this over the next several weeks. The jazzy electronic duo Brijean lost their house, music studio and all of their instruments and belongings in the Los Angeles fires. They have a GoFundMe here. It’s devastating to think about just one percussionist like Brijean Murphy who drums and tools and noisemakers that are all gone, and there are hundreds of stories like hers. It’s all so horrific and I’m sending love to everyone in LA.
🚨 VIBE CHECK 🚨
What the people are actually listening to:
One of my party tricks is informing people of which artists are topping the Billboard charts. It blows their minds. Yes, I’m really fun at parties!
Billboard Hot 100
The latest charts reflect listening from Dec. 27 to Jan. 2, when many households toned down the Christmas tunes. Who replaced Mariah Carey and Andy Griffith? Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars! Their “Die With a Smile” is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I haven’t listened to this song since it came out in August, but it previously peaked at No. 2 in November. However, I now love this song because it’s continuing to keep Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”(No. 2 this week) from breaking the record for the most weeks at No. 1 for a single ever, a record I simply can’t fathom and would prefer to avoid.
Meanwhile, SZA’s SOS has reached its 12th non-consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, thanks to the record’s deluxe edition release.
SOS Deluxe: LANA contains enough songs to form an entirely new album, but I’m glad SZA kept them within the SOS universe. This is what Taylor Swift could have done with Tortured Poets Department and The Anthology. Instead of overwhelming fans with 30+ songs in one night, give the projects some space and spend more total time at No. 1!
🔥 Old Flames 🔥
Almost every month, I make a playlist full of songs I’m loving. Once the month is over, I start a new one. This has allowed me to create monthly time capsules, and now I’m sharing them with you because I love you! 2
Last January I was listening to…Eliza McLamb’s Going Through It, “Passionate Kisses” by Lucinda Williams, “I Wouldn’t Mind” by He is We (The tumblr-era track had gone viral on TikTok. I think I watched this particular TikTok from my fave veronika_iscool upwards of 100 times…)
In January 2023 I was listening to…Blondshell! The first singles from boygenius’s the record, Girl Scout, Lisa Marie Presley (RIP. Has anyone read her memoir that Riley Keough put out?).
In January 2022 I was listening to…Dijon, “Amateur” by Nada Surf, “New Sensation” by INXS.
In January 2021 I was listening to… “Drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo—I will always remember that release day! “The Leanover” by Life Without Buildings (thanks again, TikTok), “Hard Drive” by Cassandra Jenkins (See below!)
In January 2020 I was listening to…The solo project from Frances Quinlan of Hop Along and the solo project from Hayley Williams of Paramore! “Me & You Together Song” from the 1975, “circle the drain” by Soccer Mommy.
In January 2019 I was listening to… Hatchie, Stella Donnelly, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it” by Lana Del Rey.
There are only two things you actually need to know about me. My name is Natalia and my favorite podcast is Las Culturistas. They end every episode with a song. I end every newsletter with a song.
I don’t typically enjoy super experimental or spoken-word centered songs, but “Hard Drive” by Cassandra Jenkins hit me at the right place at the right time in 2021. The uncertainty Jenkins sings about and the encouragement she offers herself and her listener to count and breathe…it’s become meditative for a busy girl who simply cannot get into the Headspace app. After a workout I’ll put this on and stretch for the full length of the song.
Tyler, the Creator released his most recent record on a Monday. It should be interesting to see if any other artists choose to change up their album release days this year.
Usually these playlists aren’t this thorough. I think I get particularly ambitious every January! When we get to July, you’ll see what I mean…
father figure would be a MUCH more deserving renaissance receiver imo. death to murder on the dance floor