Pop star takes Swift revenge

MUSIC TAYLOR SWIFT “Look What You Made Me Do”

This much-hyped single (the first release from her “Reputation” album, due in November) is really less a song than a tabloid story with Auto-tune. The album's title and cover (with Swift on a wall of newspaper headlines) suggest that her own celebrity is much on her mind, and the single is about settling high-profile scores. Since the lyrics are so specific — the song assumes that you're as invested in Swift's feuds with Katy Perry and Kanye West as she is — that you'll feel empowered when she sings about getting “harder, smarter in the nick of time” and that you won't notice that the mid-song spoken bit —where “the old Taylor can't come to the phone because she's dead” — sounds a little clunky (Seriously, Taylor Swift still has a landline?). Musically it's a giant step from country/pop into EDM, but borrowing music from Right Said Fred's “I'm Too Sexy” hardly makes it sound cutting-edge. The song is nearly saved by Swift's near-obsessive vocal, which gives it a certain voyeuristic appeal. But there's been no lack of pop divas making striking-back records lately, and this one hits like a watereddown “Lemonade.”

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE “Villains” (Matador)

Queens of the Stone Age's 20th anniversary finds Josh Homme and his merry crew sounding the same, but different. The new wrinkles come from big-name producer Mark Ronson, who adds more electronic sheen to their guitar-based sound: “Feet Don't Fail Me” is snappy electronic funk, and “Un-Reborn Again” nods to “Heroes”era Bowie. What hasn't changed is Homme's flair for a lighter-waving anthem, his twisted humor and his love for classic rock: With its falsetto vocal, “Hideaway” sounds like something Cream might have done if they'd formed in the '80s. Only the closing “Villains of Circumstance” takes the cross-references and the electronics too far (Lou Reed fans will recognize its borrowed bassline). The rest is the usual decadent fun.