Dear Gossips,

I’m sorry, I can’t stop. Last night before bed, Jacek was watching the news and I had my headphones in, cranked up loud. He was asking me something and I couldn’t hear. Then he tapped me and I still didn’t react. He finally had to shove his face into the side of my head before I noticed.

“Are you creeping Brandon Flowers again?”

What?

I’m obsessed with this album, not unlike how obsessed I was with Taylor Swift’s 1989. Because both are so unapologetically, gleefully POP. The thing with pop, and my relationship to it, is that it came first for me. It was mine. I grew up in an immigrant home. My Chinese parents didn’t have a music library. They didn’t, couldn’t, introduce me to whatever it is you want to call “classic rock”. Pop was on the radio. Pop was what was there for me to discover. Pop was the first love. And it was a door too. Because pop isn’t snobby. Pop doesn’t tell you that you can’t go and learn about punk afterwards and then move on to soul, folk, metal, and on. I’ll never not have an iPod without New Order on it. Or Duran Duran. And in this new interview Brandon Flowers just addressed rumours that he might be collaborating with one of the bands, or both. OMG.

Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night. Photos and recap on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Yours in gossip,

Lainey