This week I’ll do my usual roundup of what I’ve been listening to and reading before letting you know about a new side-project I’ve been working on that may be of interest for those who are enjoying these pop culture posts.
Roundup
Music
New music releases are seriously drying up for the year. The only real highlight for new album releases for me has been the Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time by Jessie J. I definitely didn’t have a good and relevant album from her on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are. It stands out for its honesty, with heartbreaking stories about breakups and miscarriages. Particularly touching is the song “Complicated,” in which she opens up about the past fifteen years and how she came to sort of disappear when it seemed like she was going to be the next pop superstar.
Songs
- “Know This (feat. Miley Cyrus),” by Braison Cyrus
- “Orlando,” by PAWWS
- “I Got a Feelilng,” by Wintersleep
- “COMES IN WAVES,” by Jessie J.
Albums
- Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, by Jessie J.
- The Breakup Variety Hour, by Ariana and the Rose
Reading
As much as it seems the music and publishing industries have already wound down for the year, my reading brain seems to be winding down too. I haven’t read nearly as much as I usually do, and little is hitting. But some recent highlights include:
- Buckeye, by Patrick Ryan (2025)
- Beowulf, tranlsated by Maria Dahvana Headley (2020)
- Ruth, by Kate Riley (2025)
In Focus: Musical Retrospectives (A New Project)
I’ve gone through phases in my adult life of being alternately deeply invested in new music and being completely uninterested. This has meant my knowledge base has been patchy. For whatever reason, towards the start of this year, this became unacceptable to me, and I started to go through each year systematically, to see what was released when, to see the rise and fall of styles and subgenres, and to create personal playlists for each year. I started this with the 2020s, then did the whole of the 2010s and just recently started the 1980s.
But, being me, and therefore, thinking way too much about things, I wanted to do more than just have these playlists for myself (and the few of my friends who are gluttons-for-punishment enough to be interested). And so, I decided to resurrect my dormant bookish blog, rebrand it as a books and music blog, and talk about each year in detail.
So, if you’re at all interested in this project, feel free to follow along at Matt’s Books and Music, and see my introductory post for the project.
Matthew Root 