Friday Five: Taylor Swift's Folklore love triangle, Drake teams with Headie One, and more
Christopher Polk/Getty Images; Universal Music; Florian Ebener/Getty Images; Bao Ngo; Sarah Morris/Getty Images
Every Friday, EW's music team runs down the five best songs of the week. In today's edition, Taylor Swift drops an f-bomb, Kylie Minogue is back for more disco, Flo Milli takes a page out of the Plastics, Drake raps in Arabic, and Bartees Strange evoke 2000s rock.
"Betty" — Taylor Swift
Part of a trio of songs that Taylor Swift describes as the Teenage Love Triangle on Folklore, "Betty" is just masterful fan service. Not only does Old Taylor come back to the phone to deliver an evolved version of one of her Fearless-era story songs, she says “f—” now, and has a harmonica to back her up. The song is narrated by James, who many would presume to be a boy, but true fans know Swift is closely tied to more than one woman with that name, making this new track the crown jewel of Swift’s canon of supposedly sapphic songs like “Dress” and “It’s Nice to Have a Friend.” —Marcus Jones
“May I”—Flo Milli
It’s probably not a mistake that this beat is reminiscent of Missy Elliott’s “Pass That Dutch,” a song immortalized in Mean Girls, when Flo Milli makes music for Plastics. The Alabama rapper has an empowering delivery, making her the maven of music for fancams (those videos that serve as a highlight reel of a celebrity looking their best). However, if a line like “I'm wit' your daddy gettin' nasty like the 2 Live Crew” is directed at you... well, then Flo Milli’s songs are absolutely devastating. —MJ
"Say Something" — Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue? Doing disco? Groundbreaking. The crown jewel of Australian pop royalty is no stranger to the dance floor, but after months of being stuck in quarantine isolation, the 52-year-old’s latest mirrorball anthem — the lead single from her upcoming album Disco — feels like a refreshed jolt of adrenaline straight to the heart. And Minogue knows your body is starved for a good grooving because hers is, too: “Love is love, it never ends. Can we all be as one again?” she coos over icy synths and warm strings that recall the euphoric arrangements on her 2000 classic Light Years. But “Say Something” is more than an ode to the lust for human connection in dark times, it’s a poetic, surprisingly deep step forward for an artist familiar to the masses for featherweight bops. Here, the longing in Minogue’s song knowingly engages with the turmoil of the world while simultaneously begging us to close our eyes and let the music take us far away from here. —Joey Nolfi
"Only You Freestyle" — Headie One and Drake
Last week's middling Drake-DJ Khaled collabs can be swiftly tossed aside with the arrival of this bold one-off freestyle from Drizzy — who raps a few lines in Arabic — and U.K. drill star Headie One. Over sly production from M1 on the Beat, the two MCs trade quick-fire verses as they tackle everything from fashion to gun violence. —Alex Suskind
"Mustang" — Bartees Strange
The triumphant new single from Bartees Strange feels like the final blow to the long-crumbling wall between indie-rock and emo. On “Mustang,” the D.C.-based artist finds an equilibrium between the songwriting finesse of 2000’s indie pillars like Arcade Fire and TV On The Radio, the urgency of pop-punk expats-turned-alt-rock-savants the Wonder Years, and the towering emo-rock of early Manchester Orchestra. Strange himself has a smoky vocal timbre and a soaring range that would sound great in any setting, but feels particularly impactful in this one. He lets rip over iridescent synths, curly-cued emo licks, restless drums, and an anxiously screamed outro that verges on artful post-hardcore. The title of the song suggests only one horse is present, but this thing hits like a stampede. —Eli Enis
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