How Drunk Do You Need to Be to Enjoy Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra”?
A Waste or Taste debate on the state of millennial pop girlies and Doechii’s post-Grammys victory lap
Talking about music with your friends, trying to make them laugh, and playfully arguing about albums and songs—these are some of the best parts of working at a music website. With our podcast Waste or Taste, we capture that kind of unfiltered banter between longtime critics and friends, and invite you to listen along.
The concept is simple: Every episode, three Hearing Things founders each bring a new song to the table and debate whether it’s Waste or Taste. Sometimes we will reach a critical consensus; other times it will be fisticuffs, absurdity, or both.
This week, our host Jill Mapes sits down with Julianne Escobedo Shepherd and Andy Cush to decide whether new songs by Lady Gaga, Doechii, and the Weather Station are Waste or Taste. They also bust out recommendations of music that could help you escape the winter doldrums (but really might just make you more depressed about colonialism). Side quests include a dissection of Doechii’s braggadocio, the likelihood of a Gaga-Chappell Roan collaboration, and the secret to making tasteful music that doesn’t sound too fussy.
If you like what you hear, please subscribe to Waste or Taste wherever you get your podcasts. And keep an eye for our next episode, which will be recorded live at On Air Fest in Brooklyn, later this month.
Waste or Taste is a co-production of Hearing Things and 3dB. We’re produced by Mark Yoshizumi and Elia Einhorn. The show is recorded at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in Downtown Brooklyn.
