Pop Confessional: I'm in Love With Meghan Trainor (and Butts)

Meghan Trainor is bringing anal back.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Meghan Trainor is bringing anal back with her breakout single, "All About That Bass," and her debut album, which is pop coup despite it unfortunately being titled, yeah, Title. Meghan Trainor, Trojan horse, perverter of children; Kidz Bop will never be the same.

In bigger news from brighter stars, Mark Ronson's comeback album is funky and great, Fall Out Boy is back with a banger single, at least, and Purity Ring is winning me over with their second album, another eternity. So let's get to it, below; let's make this tape pop.

1. Meghan Trainor Title

Not Available Interstitial

Released: Jan. 9, 2015

A ditty-bopper who, by most initial assessments, was scheduled for just 15 minutes of fame has released a rather full-figured debut album. Trainor is charming, if parochial; sexy, if corny; just like me, if I'm being honest. "Looking for a late-night friend" on "3am," and scouting the real deal on "Dear Future Husband," she wouldn't even be out of place on an upbeat R&B cut with Jazmine Sullivan. Trainor is so hot and bothered, and times are strange. On her lead single the white girl sings figurative praises to bass; on "Bang Dem Sticks" she does it justice.

2. Fall Out Boy American Beauty/American Psycho

Not Available Interstitial

Released: Jan. 11, 2015

Fall Out Boy dropped "Uma Thurman" two weeks ago, and already they've got a remix featuring Wiz; so you know it's lit. This is vanity mirror dance music: "She wants to dance like Uma Thurman/Bury me 'till I confess/She wants to dance like Uma Thurman/And I can't get you out of my head." As a fan of, well, pretty much anyone or anything else, I hadn't been anticipating a new Fall Out Boy album in 2015, but here we are, losing battery life to the "Jet Pack Blues." 

3. MisterWives "Our Own House"

Not Available Interstitial

Released: Jan. 12, 2015

Fingersnaps and a saxophone over an arcade bass line and a flurry of drumsticks. I'm new to MisterWives, and they're rather new themselves; this indie band of cross-borough New York natives strums the line between cheerful, strobing pop and gluten-free guitar. "Imagination Infatuation" is their more popular single, but "Our Own House" is the funk.

4. Mark Ronson Uptown Special

Not Available Interstitial

Released: Jan. 13, 2015


The Brit pop genius is revived by the power of Bruno Mars and Jeff Bhasker, with Mystikal tagging along for the ride to the top of the charts. "Uptown Funk" and "Feel Right" aside, Ronson's Uptown Special's funkiest cuts are "I Can't Lose," a saxed-out jamboree with bold hints of Frankie Beverly and Rick James, and "Heavy and Rolling," a rink disco jam in the spirit of Soul Train, the O'Jays, and the BeeGees. I'm delighted, satisfied, and frankly impressed that Ronson could shove so many different retro hues into a single, cohesive LP. Like a goddamn jukebox.

5. Purity Ring "begin again"

Not Available Interstitial

Released: Jan. 13, 2015

I've got an ear to a full-length advance copy of the new Purity Ring album, and this is hardly my favorite track of them all; but more on that later. For now, with its splashing drums, looming piano, and Megan James' computerized alto, "begin again" and lead single "push pull" are two optimistic hints of another eternity to come. In the meantime, I'll be revisiting Purity Ring's debut album, Shrines, which is the sort of cold, trippy trap pop that could use a few Zaytoven and Mike WiLL Made It drops sprinkled throughout.

Latest in Music