the monday roundup

Tate McRae and Julia Michaels were here

Hi, happy Monday! Wasn’t sure I’d get anything out this week, but would you believe me if I said I was suddenly inspired by Tate McRae?

I was apprehensive about Tate McRae back in 2023; I’m always apprehensive about the latest viral girlie. But Tate won me over when it became clear she was a Pop Star in the tradition of 2000s Pop Stars: she’s a dancer first so the music is simply a means by which to justify the dancing.

Tate’s latest album, So Close to What, came out this past Friday. It’s not perfect (15 tracks is simply too many here!), but I generally like it! I can’t understand a word of what she’s saying, but that barely matters because the lyrics barely matter. This is for fun and for vibing!

One of the album standouts is “Sports car.” Once again, I was skeptical of this song when she released it as a single a couple weeks ago, but she won me over with the music video. She just wants to dance and wear a bunch of different outfits! There aren’t enough current pop stars doing that!

I was not surprised to look at the song credits for “Sports car” and see Julia Michaels among the list of cowriters. Julia Michaels is one of the most reliable contemporary pop writers, having cowritten some of my favorite songs by Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter, and Janelle Monáe. Maybe most importantly, Julia has also had a hand in every single good Selena Gomez song [and ok, some bad ones - she’s credited on the new Selena Gomez x Benny Blanco x Gracie Abrams track that sounds like it was rushed to release] and I love a good Selena Gomez song.

Motivated by “Sports car” I rounded up my favorite Julia Michaels-written songs. A solid mix of pop heavy hitters!

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I’m not the only one coming around to Tate McRae -

Ira Madison III

summed things up perfectly in his latest newsletter:

Get in, we’re stanning Tate McCrae.

And if you want to know more about Julia Michaels, Switched on Pop has a great episode on (and with!) her:

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