June '25 ins/outs
My #1 album of the year so far, planning our (much delayed) honeymoon, & an update from queryland
Are we really only halfway through 2025?!??! Gulp. June brought me one finished first draft of a new novel I’ve been working on since March, one funeral, one mental breakdown, one heatwave, one recipe for strawberry spoon cake from The New York Times (I don’t subscribe to ‘Cooking’ but my friend Rachel does, this shit is SO good) way too much rain, zero concerts (BANKS got postponed to October, whomp), and somehow, a renewed energy and readiness for summer to officially begin. There are so many new albums to listen to that came out this month, too – Lorde, Haim, Addison Rae, Miley Cyrus, and Benson Boone all released new music to varying degrees of deliciousness in my ear holes (my thoughts on a few of these are below).
Listen, we all know Taylor Swift is queen songwriter of our generation. And I love smart/dumb pop music as much as the next person (perfect example: Addison Rae’s new album, which I’ll talk more about below), but there is something entirely magical about heart wrenching, messily authentic poetry in pop music. When someone who can really string a sentence together can also make music that hits the right auditory vibes, there’s truly nothing like it. (Hello BRAT summer!!!!!)
Lorde is back with her fourth album, Virgin, which just came out a few days ago. Charli xcx was right about Lorde when she said “you’re all about writing poems” and that feels so incredibly true on this album. Tell me you don’t feel something when you read this:
After the ecstasy, testing for pregnancy, praying in MP3
I'm scared to let you see into the whole machine, leave it all on the field
Your metal detector hits my precious treasure, I'm nobody's daughter
Yeah, baby, I'm free, I'm free
But deep in my matter, you're changing my patterns
Your helix is right through me
Bars on my windows, you bust them wide open
'Til clearness is all I see
I'll try letting the answer be part of the dance as I trip and I stumble
Yeah, baby, I'm free, I'm free
Lips 'round your halo, you asked where I came from, I lied and then I came clean
There's broken blood in me, it passed through my mother from her mother down to me
I feel you answer, my hips moving faster, I rode you until I cried
How's it feel being this alive?
Oh, where did it go?
Hah
Wish I'd kept the Clearblue
I'd remember how it feels to be so bare in the throes
Oh, I wish I'd kept the Clearblue
I'd remember how it feels to be
This is not my favorite album of the year so far (that’s below along with more thoughts on Virgin) but I’m so glad Lorde is back 🥲
1. Shockingly, Instagram? – On a whim I made a return to Instagram Stories last week and did an AMA. These usually take a lot of time and energy and you never really know what’s going to happen in the DMs, but this time it was mostly people being absolutely shocked that I’m only 5’5 (apparently I have “tall person energy”) 😂 Honestly just very wholesome lol
2. Planning our (much delayed) honeymoon – The time has finally come to escape the U.S. for a bit. I spent way too much of June researching hotels in and around London (this matters to me more than the average traveler, I think – I’m a Cancer, I CARE ABOUT THE VIBE OF WHERE I STAY!), and I’ve just started to think about what I’m going to wear on our trip, including all the best ways to wear sneakers with cute outfits in the heat of summer. I haven’t been to London in 16 years when I was a broke ass study abroad student. This trip is long overdue in more ways than one.
