Middle-age looks great on Vampire Weekend. Singer Ezra Koenig has said Only God Was Above Us, their fifth studio album, contains "some of our most ambitious swings ever"—and it's fascinating to hear a band once known for being mannered, maybe even twee, really go for it. "Ice Cream Piano" initially taps into Beatles classicism with a dreamy melody and solemn piano, then kicks into Xanadu madness: shotgun spray drums, peppy keys, strings like a gossamer waterfall, and the gleeful racing rhythm that was a hallmark of VW's early work. "‘Fuck the world,'/ You said it quiet … ," Ezra Koenig sings. "Cynical, you can't deny it/ You don't want to win this war/ 'Cause you don't want the peace." But there is, blissfully, nothing cynical about Only God Was Above Us. The Flaming Lips' go-to guy Dave Fridmann is the engineer here and brings a signature sense of buoyancy to Koenig and longtime producer Ariel Rechtshaid's earthbound cool. On spacey "Capricorn," Koenig sounding like he's floating untethered through the cosmos amidst big, tumbling drums, Chris Baio's well-deep bass, and guitar like a streaking, shooting star. (Note the Easter egg of "too old for dying young, too young to live alone"—a seeming nod to 2013's "Diane Young" as the once-babyfaced members stare down 40.) There's a lot going on, and you can hear everything beautifully. Ditto the howling, yet elegant sax and '90s acoustic jangle guitar on "Classical," which also draws on the band's old-favorite Graceland influences. Free-range piano and slide guitar collide in "Gen-X Cops." And fascinating, maximalist "Connect" is otherworldly with its wild-prodigy piano, cartoon sci-fi bloops and bleeps, and jazzy rubber-band bass. It's orchestral mania that hops and skips all over the place, yet somehow feels cohesive. Koenig—who was influenced by raga and studied with composer Terry Riley in Japan in preparation for the record—sounds as youthful as ever (keep in mind, this is a guy who sounded a lot like Paul Simon at 22), and there are so many winks to now-classic VW flourishes. "Prep-School Gangsters" borrows the spiky, chime-note guitar of early records and complements it with sawing strings. Even though the band is now based in Los Angeles, their NYC home is still a major character. "The Surfer" references Manhattan's water system and its legendary role in pizza dough and bagel supremacy; it's also haunted by the city's '90s hip-hop moodiness. A song is named for iconic '80s Soho gallerist Mary Boone; daubed with ennui, it feels a lot like A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It." Album closer "Hope," the band's longest song ever put to record, gets woozy on slide guitar as Koenig wonders if we can ever learn to choose our battles: "The bull has gored the matador/ The US Army won the war/ The meaning died in metaphor … The righteous rage was foolish pride … Your bag fell down onto the tracks … The moving train accelerates/ It's always fast and always late … I hope you let it go." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

More than a decade since their last album was released, Sweden's The Hives sound as nihilistic and melodic as they did on their 2000 garage-punk classic Veni Vidi Vicious. "Mmm, stand to the side when my shit starts wrecking/ You're gonna think you gone blind," frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist wails on "Bogus Operandi," which starts off with grand dramatic pauses before the sparks start—and don't stop—flying.  From there, it's straight into "Trapdoor Solution," a breakneck minute and three seconds of garage fuzz that finds Amqvist as guttural as ever. But there are surprises and experiments here, too. "Stick Up" crashes together Cab Calloway vaudeville and horror punk. "Countdown to Shutdown"—with references to Ponzi schemes and Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid—cruises on a slinky groove courtesy of bassist The Johan and Only (Johan Gustaffson), who has toured with the band and played on 2020's Live at Third Man Records, but makes his studio album debut here. Almqvist plays it more louche—think Jonathan Fire*Eater—than fevered on "Rigor Mortis Radio" ("I got your email saying you wanted me/ I got your email, delete delete"). And he adopts a bluesman delivery for "Crash into the Weekend," a mondo rug-cutter fueled by frenzied handclaps and furious rockabilly guitar. "I'm going to crash into the weekend like a busted jaw/ Riding shotgun to a monkey on a circular saw … I’m going to crash into the bottom of a bottomless pit." Almqvist promises (threatens?). According to Hives lore, which has always been over-the-top, the album's title refers to their invisible "sixth member" and manager who mysteriously recruited each musician via letter and now, apparently, has led the band to an empty grave. (For what it's worth, the name is registered to Nicholaus Arson, a.k.a. Niklas Almqvist, band guitarist and Pelle's brother.) But don't get bogged down in the goofiness—just enjoy the ride. "Two Kinds of Trouble" stomps, "The Way the Story Goes" rides a fierce, sped-up Cramps groove and "The Bomb" is a hoot—all frenzied chanting, tight rhythm and playful call-and-response: "What do you want to do?/ Go off!/ What don't you want to do?/Not go off!" The album breathlessly wraps up with the punishingly fast and furious "Step Out of the Way," clocking in at less than a minute and a half because what human over 22 could keep up with this? © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

For the general public as well as for many of his fans, Harvest is the pinnacle of his rich discography from the 70s. Against a melancholic backdrop of country-rock and folk, Young’s songwriting shines brightly throughout this fourth album released in February, 1972. A sort of bucolic, rural and hippie Grail, the album laid bare his tumultuous relationship with the actress Carrie Snodgress, the mother of his first son Zeke. It also explored darker themes such as on The Needle and the Damage Done, a ballad about his guitarist Danny Whitten’s heroin addiction. Whitten died of an overdose in November that same year, just after Young kicked him out the band. Behind its peace & love façade (a principle that Crosby, Stills & Nash, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt still very much followed), Harvest is an incredibly rich, troubled and melodically perfect record. Within the flawless work we even find the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra (A Man Needs a Maid and There's a World), handled with care and good taste. This was a record that would go on to influence countless generations. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, is back with his anticipated fourth album After Hours, an intoxicating R&B record that feels like a natural progression from its predecessors. After 2016’s Starboy and the EP My Dear Melancholy 2 years later, the chart-topping singer made his acting debut in the Netflix thriller Uncut Gems alongside Adam Sandler. This may have been behind the inspiration for this new character the singer portrays with a broken nose, leather gloves and deep red tux in the album cover and the music video for lead single Blinding Lights, reminiscent of A-Ha’s Take On Me, the new wave from the 1980s and its synthwave revival. “I don’t like to leave my house too much. It’s a gift and a curse but it helps me give undivided attention to my work… It distracts from the loneliness, I guess”, confesses the Canadian. Unlike Starboy, there are no features on this album, The Weeknd choosing instead to invite a range of top tier producers to refine the music: Metro Boomin on the epilogue Until I Bleed Out, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker on Repeat After Me (Interlude), the loyal Illangelo, vaporwave pioneer Oneohtrix Point Never for Scared to Live and even hitmaker Max Martin (Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Britney Spears) for the pop-sounding Save Your Tears, resulting in 14 tracks that blend soul, R&B and new wave nuances. ©️ Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

The companion albums Carly Rae Jepsen issues shortly after her major releases don't just give her fans more music to love -- they let her go beyond the boundaries of the works that spawned them. On The Loveliest Time, she turns the title of The Loneliest Time, and its heartache, on its head. Jepsen can't stay down for too long, and aside from her moody, string-laden acknowledgment of former loves on "Put It to Rest," she embodies the joy she was searching for on her previous album. She's got a song for just about every kind of love: With its skipping rhythm and breathy vocals, "Weekend Love" lives up to its name. When shouting from rooftops isn't enough, there's "Stadium Love," where she backs the head-over-heels choruses with arena-sized beats and a sizzling guitar solo. Though Jepsen is known for her songs about love at first sight, she's getting her groove back on the slinky, whispery disco of "Shy Boy," one of The Loveliest Time's brightest highlights -- and one of her sexiest songs yet. She balances gorgeous, heart-tugging pop songs like the Rostam Batmanglij-produced "Shadow" and "After Last Night" with more daring moves like "Anything to Be with You." A fresh-sounding mix of hip-hop-tinged beats, spiky guitars, and saxophone, it's a reminder of how good she sounds when she steps outside of her '70s- and '80s-inspired comfort zone. As much as she changes things up, Jepsen always has one foot on the dancefloor, and The Loveliest Time boasts some of her most kinetic songs in some time. She injects synth pop drama into "Kamikaze" and delivers blissful filter disco with "Psychedelic Switch," one of many moments on the album where she makes The Loneliest Time's fantasies come to life. Never less than sweet and engaging, The Loveliest Time may not be as ambitious as its predecessor, but when it comes to Jepsen's lighter-than-air pop, it just might be more consistent.© Heather Phares /TiVo

"Blinding Lights" artistically and commercially was so optimal for Abel Tesfaye that it quickly became his signature song, and was only two years old when Billboard announced that it had rocketed past Chubby Checker's "The Twist" to claim the title of all-time number one hit. For the follow-up to "Blinding Lights" parent album After Hours, Tesfaye delves deeper into the early- to mid-'80s pop aesthetic. He resurfaces with a conceptual sequel designed as a broadcast heard by a motorist stuck in a purgatorial tunnel. The primary collaborators are "Blinding Lights" co-producers Max Martin and Oscar Holter, plus fellow After Hours cohort Daniel Lopatin, whose airwaves-themed 2020 LP Magic Oneohtrix Point Never was executive produced by Tesfaye. Instead of scrambled voices like those heard on the OPN album, Dawn FM features recurrent announcements from Jim Carrey as a serene and faintly creepy character, or maybe himself, intonating end-of-life entertainment and counsel. The other unlikely appearances -- Quincy Jones with a spoken autobiographical interlude, Beach Boy Bruce Johnston somewhere in the cocksure "how it's going" outlier "Here We Go...Again" -- are ostentatious. In the main, this is a space for Tesfaye to fully indulge his frantic romantic side as his co-conspirators whip up fluorescent throwback Euro-pop with muscle and nuance. Tesfaye's almost fathomless vocal facility elevates even the most rudimentary expressions of co-dependency, despair, regret, and obsession, and he helps it all go down easier with station ID jingles and an amusingly hyped-up ad for "a compelling work of science fiction" called (the) "After Life." The set peaks early with a sequence of dejected post-disco jams that writhe, percolate, and chug. Most of these songs surpass the bulk of Daft Punk's similarly backward-gazing Random Access Memories, projecting the same lust for life with underlying existential doom as Italo disco nuggets such as Ryan Paris' "Dolce Vita." Toward the end of that first-half stretch, Tesfaye reaffirms his R&B roots and affinity for Michael Jackson with a cut built from Alicia Myers' 1981 gospel boogie classic "I Want to Thank You." After that, it slows down and stretches out a bit to varying effect, dipping into Japanese city pop for the bittersweet and remorseful "Out of Time" and edging ever so achingly toward Latin freestyle with "Don't Break My Heart." Just before Carrey's epilogue, Tesfaye and company pick up the pace with "Less Than Zero." Rather than use the title as a prompt to sink back into detailing debauchery, Tesfaye makes the song this album's "Scared to Live," a sentimental ballad that's hard to resist. © Andy Kellman /TiVo

After the album-tour-album cycle of Script for a Jester's Tear, Fugazi, and the subsequent Euro-only release of Real to Reel, Marillion retreated to Berlin's Hansa Ton Studios with Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey to work on their next opus. Armed with a handful of lyrics born out of a self-confessed acid trip, Fish came up with the elaborate concept for 1985's Misplaced Childhood. Touching upon his early childhood experiences and his inability to deal with a slew of bad breakups exacerbated by a never-ending series of rock star-type "indulgences," Misplaced Childhood would prove to be not only the band's most accomplished release to date, but also its most streamlined. Initial record company skepticism over the band's decision to forge ahead with a '70s-style prog rock opus split into two halves (sides one and two) quickly evaporated as Marillion delivered its two most commercial singles ever: "Kayleigh" and "Lavender." With its lush production and punchy mix, the album went on to become the band's greatest commercial triumph, especially in Europe where they would rise from theater attraction to bona fide stadium royalty. The subsequent U.S. success of "Kayleigh" would also see Marillion returning to the States for a difficult tour as Rush's support act.© John Franck /TiVo

A seventh studio album from Chris Martin’s & Co.! So, how does one approach a new album when your name is Coldplay and you’re about to celebrate your twentieth anniversary? The answer comes to us in the form of ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’, and what a response it is! Coldplay may surprise many with what is an exciting, colourful, even festive effort here, with the group leader insisting it's a record apart from attempts. "It’s our seventh thing and the way we look at it it’s like the last Harry Potter book.” He explains to the BBC Radio 1. “That’s not to say there won’t be another thing one day, but this is the completion of something ... I have to think of it as the final thing we’re doing, otherwise we wouldn’t put everything into it.” And indeed they have – featuring Noel Gallagher, Avicii, Merry Clayton, Beyoncé, Gwyneth Paltrow (former Mrs. Martin) and even a certain Barack Obama (sampled on a title), ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’ moves through pop ballads, dancefloor tracks and even almost crosses over into R&B. © CM / Qobuz

The Weeknd's career deserved a best of. Shortly after the release and the worldwide success of After Hours in 2020, and without a doubt one of his best projects, The Highlights is a synthesis of ten years of music, ten years spent defining modern pop. So, let's say it right away, there are no surprises here in terms of the track list. We find The Weeknd's hits, including the latest phenomenon, Blinding Lights, but also I Feel it Coming , a duet with Daft Punk, or The Hills, which truly transformed him into a global pop star in 2016. With no new material, this Greatest Hits allows you to retrace the Canadian's discography, but also to make some detours through projects other than his albums, in particular thanks to Earned It from the soundtrack to the film 50 Shades of Grey, to Pray For Me from Black Panther, or Love Me Harder, featuring Ariana Grande and released on the album My Everything by the latter in 2014. © Brice Miclet/Qobuz

Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, is back with his anticipated fourth album After Hours, an intoxicating R&B record that feels like a natural progression from its predecessors. After 2016’s Starboy and the EP My Dear Melancholy 2 years later, the chart-topping singer made his acting debut in the Netflix thriller Uncut Gems alongside Adam Sandler. This may have been behind the inspiration for this new character the singer portrays with a broken nose, leather gloves and deep red tux in the album cover and the music video for lead single Blinding Lights, reminiscent of A-Ha’s Take On Me, the new wave from the 1980s and its synthwave revival. “I don’t like to leave my house too much. It’s a gift and a curse but it helps me give undivided attention to my work… It distracts from the loneliness, I guess”, confesses the Canadian. Unlike Starboy, there are no features on this album, The Weeknd choosing instead to invite a range of top tier producers to refine the music: Metro Boomin on the epilogue Until I Bleed Out, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker on Repeat After Me (Interlude), the loyal Illangelo, vaporwave pioneer Oneohtrix Point Never for Scared to Live and even hitmaker Max Martin (Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Britney Spears) for the pop-sounding Save Your Tears, resulting in 14 tracks that blend soul, R&B and new wave nuances. ©️ Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

As much for the wider public as for his great many fans, Neil Young's Harvest represents the pinnacle of his rich discography from the seventies. Founded upon country-rock and melancholic folk, the so-called loner's art shines ever brightly throughout this fourth album, released back in February 1972. It is a gold mine full of bucolic, pastoral gems, recorded with a new group of brilliant musicians called the Stray Gators: Ben Keith on steel guitar, Kenny Buttrey on drums, Tim Drummond on bass, and the great Jack Nitzsche on piano and arrangement. Harvest, which frequently displays Young's tumultuous relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress (mother of his first son Zeke) also incorporates some impressive somber moments, such as in "The Needle and the Damage Done," a stunning ballad about his heroin-addicted guitarist Danny Whitten, who died of an overdose in November that same year, just after being kicked out of the band.But behind the "peace and love" bliss enhanced by contributions from David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, as well as James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, Harvest remains a rich, tormented and melodically flawless work—one on which the violins of the London Symphony Orchestra ("A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World") are handled with care and taste. It is an album that will influence many future generations, and which celebrates its 50th birthday with this luxurious edition decked out with an additional 17 tracks. The solo concert at the BBC on February 23, 1971, will surely be a gem among collectors of Neil Young bootlegs. As a bonus, there are alternative versions of three tracks ("Bad Fog of Loneliness", "Journey Through the Past" and "Dance Dance Dance"). This 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is surely a must-have. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

When MGMT were asked by their record label for a list of their dream producers, with low expectations they sarcastically replied: Prince, Nigel Godrich, Barack Obama, and "not Sheryl Crow." Columbia returned with Dave Fridmann, the producer extraordinaire best known for his work with Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. In typical Fridmann fashion, Oracular Spectacular is a glamorous mega-production through and through. Drums are massively distorted and shimmering keyboards are articulately layered as he takes the reins, leading the duo through his daisy chain of onboard compressors, delay units, and whatever other mysterious studio gizmos and gadgets he uses to get his trademark sound. Expectedly, the 14-karat polish enhances MGMT's blend of psychedelic and indie-electro to a shiny sonic gleam, resulting in some of the catchiest pop songs to come from N.Y.C. since the turn of the millennium. The tunes sound classic and new all at once, paying homage to Bowie, the Kinks, and the Stones, while updating traditional progressions with flashes of Royal Trux, Ween, and LCD Soundsystem. It's a wonderful mess of musical ideas, ranging from the dancy disco thump and Bee Gees falsetto of "Electric Feel" to the gritty acoustic-based "Pieces of What," to the grimy synth groove on the anthemic "Time to Pretend." With tongues planted firmly in cheeks, sardonic wit is as abundant as Andrew Van Wyngarden and Ben Goldwasser spoof the stereotypical rock & roll lifestyle with lines like "Lets make some music, make some money, find some models for wives/I'll go to Paris take some heroin and fuck with the stars." Despite the ever-present irony, the songs never feel insincere and the record is inherently strong throughout, making it a solid start to their career.© Jason Lymangrover /TiVo

The extent of the 2015 Weeknd commercial rebound, symbolized by platinum certifications for Beauty Behind the Madness and all four of its singles, didn't merely embolden Abel Tesfaye. On this follow-up's fourth track, a blithe midtempo cut where Tesfaye takes a swipe at pretenders while boasting about drinking codeine out of one of his trophies, the level of success is a source of amusement. He notes the absurdity in taking a "kids' show" award for "Can't Feel My Face," in which he was "talkin' 'bout a face numbin' off a bag of blow." The track actually lost to Adele's "Hello," but it clearly, somewhat comically, reached an unintended demographic. It comes as no surprise that Tesfaye, on his third proper album, doesn't attempt to optimize the reach of his biggest hit by consciously targeting youngsters. He sings of being a "Starboy" with access to a fleet of sports cars, but he's a "motherfuckin' starboy," one who is 26 years old and proud to observe his woman snort cocaine off his fancy table. While Starboy often reflects an increased opulence in the personal and professional aspects of Tesfaye's life -- from more upscale pronouns to expensive collaborations with the likes of Daft Punk (two) and "Can't Feel My Face" producers Max Martin and Ali Payami (four) -- the dark moments of vulnerability are pitch black. Lines like "I switch up my cup, I kill any pain" could have come from Tesfaye's mixtape debut, yet there are new levels of torment. In "Ordinary Life," he considers driving off a Mulholland Drive cliff, James Dean style, wishing he could swap everything for angel status. It's followed with "Nothing Without You," a ballad of toxic dysfunction. He asks his lover if she'd feel guilty for not answering his call if he happened to die that night. It's not all dread and depravity. There's some sense of joy in a one-night stand, and an echo of "Say Say Say" Michael Jackson, on the Luomo-ish house track "Rockin'." Contrition is shown in the slick retro-modern disco-funk of "A Lonely Night." Ironically enough, in the aching "True Colors," Tesfaye sounds a little insecure about a lover's past. The album's lighter, comparatively sweeter parts -- the Tears for Fears-sampling/Romantics-referencing "Secrets" and the breezy and only slightly devilish "I Feel It Coming" among them -- are all welcome highlights. When pared down to its ten best songs, Starboy sounds like Tesfaye's most accomplished work.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

All bets regarding Abel Tesfaye's career arc were off once Trilogy, material previously released at no (financial) cost to the listener, went platinum. For a period after that, it seemed like the singer had peaked just short of pop-star status. His eager congregation pushed Kiss Land, the proper debut, to number two in the U.S., yet none of its singles, not even the one that featured Drake, reached the Hot 100. "Love Me Harder," a duet with labelmate Ariana Grande released in 2014, proved to be a masterstroke. It put Tesfaye in the Top Ten for the first time and began a streak of similarly effective singles that preceded -- and are included on -- Beauty Behind the Madness. "Earned It," a ballad recorded for the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, showed that he could adapt to a traditional pop backdrop. That cut a path for "The Hills," in which Tesfaye alleviated his "day one" base with a typically degenerate slow jam, co-produced by Illangelo, that affirmed "When I'm fucked up, that's the real me" while taking the toxic narrative a step further with lines like "Drugs started feelin' like it's decaf." And then "Can't Feel My Face," a sleek slice of retro-modern disco-funk produced by Max Martin and Ali Payami, landed in June 2015. An obvious pop move, it worked -- it went to number one in the U.S. and several other territories. Tesfaye skillfully delivered his biggest hooks as he sang about dependency in that part-anguished, part-euphoric fashion derived from Michael Jackson. Like its advance singles, the rest of Beauty Behind the Madness is R&B and pop as drug-den paella: chemical and sexual abasement, self-loathing, and self-absorbed belligerence over narcotized sludge and less expected moves that peak with the wholly sweet "As You Are" and crest with a big-band diversion on "Losers." Collaborations with Kanye West, Ed Sheeran, and Lana Del Rey add star power; the last of that pack contributes to a moment where Tesfaye turns another corner by acknowledging a dead end through the fog, "addicted to a life that's so empty and so cold." The commercial strides are obvious. The creative advancements are less apparent, but they're in there.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

In a little more than a decade, Vampire Weekend has taken it slow. After the eponymous Vampire Weekend (2008), Contra (2010) and Modern Vampires of the City (2013), Ezra Koenig’s band took a six-year break punctuated by the departure of the very influential Rostam Batmanglij who released an excellent solo record Half-Light in 2017. Their last album to date, Modern Vampires of the City, was a distinctive evolution in the works of the New York combo. The Talking Heads influence had been abandoned for a more refined and polished pop sound, found as much in the melodies and harmonies as in its style.Koenig, now the main creative force left in the group, has left New York and relocated to LA. Father of the Bride confirms his artistic ambition. His central style remains inherently pop, but each of the 18 songs in the album offer a different outlook. There is a bit of everything in this copious record; The Beatles, Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, Paul Simon, Wilco, Grateful Dead and hundreds of other influences can be noted. The collaborators on the album are equally diverse: the pedal steel and impressionist guitars of Greg Leisz, the voice of Danielle Haim of HAIM, the guitar of Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors, Steve Lacy of the Internet and even Rostam enters the fold on two titles. While listening to the record, one might ask themselves if Ezra Koenig has made a White Album (the most eclectic album by the Beatles) all by himself… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Not long after her last album, 2019's Dedicated, was released, Carly Rae Jepsen revealed a change of heart. It was originally going to be a very different collection of songs: "I had an album I named Disco Sweat that will probably never be released, and shouldn't. I started off with a very strong intention to make an understated disco, living room dance party thing," she said in an interview, jokingly (?) adding it "will be buried in my backyard." We may never know if she dug up the evidence, but the singer's fifth studio album has plenty of disco influence. "Shooting Star" is sassy stuff, with Daft Punk-style synth, space-laser zoomies and Jepsen trying on an animatronic baby-doll voice: "I might sleep with you tonight … I still believe in my New York City … we could turn it on." "So Nice" goes for loose and easy chill-disco beats. Cool "Joshua Tree" applies big, bouncy bass as Jepsen purrs, "I need it … I feel it … I see it … I know it … I own it … I show it." "Talking to Yourself"—which Jepsen has called "not not a revenge song," about leaving someone wanting more after it's too late—has fun whiplash glitches and an icy bridge. And "The Loneliest Time" is a disco-goddess duet with Rufus Wainwright—a delicious pairing glorified with a five-piece string section. (It also begs the question: Why doesn't Wainwright make a whole album like this?) "Beach House," meanwhile, is a Eurobeat lark: playful, winky and pure camp; Jepsen plays it cool, like Dua Lipa with more personality. The song was inspired by the perils of dating and features dudes delivering creepy lines to a slinky beat—"I've got a beach house in Malibu/ And I'm probably gonna hurt your feelings … I've got a weekend in paradise/ And I'm probably gonna never call you … I've got a lake house in Canada/ And I'm probably gonna harvest your organs." There are surprises, too, like the sultry island breeze of "Sideways" and "Far Away," a jittery ballad with a Terence Trent D'Arby feel. Breezy "Western Wind" was produced by Rostam Batmanglij and you can hear him all over it, bringing world-beat conga to Jepsen's California dream. The former Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist also produced "Go Find Yourself or Whatever," an '80s-centric ballad with folky guitars and a Broadway heroine delivery from Jepsen. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz