Playlist

MUSIC

Gorgeous

Anyone hoping that Taylor Swift's new album Reputation will be a cold blade of revenge will be surprised by the gooey romance of her new single, Gorgeous. Released on Oct 20, the song is a hard turn from the angry, slightly unhinged electro-rock of her latest releases. Instead, it's a maudlin pop ballad about falling hard for a super-hot dude despite some minor reservations. It's built with modern subbass and synth pings. But the drippy, devotional lyrics and Swift's delivery are weirdly indebted to the kind of teen pop heard on mid-2000s TV shows such as The Hills.

It's not quite what we expected from the new, supposedly more coldblooded Swift we recently heard on Look What You Made Me Do.

The song returns Swift to Swedish producer Shellback and songwriter Max Martin, who helped design much of her pop crossover album, 1989.

APPS

For photos

We're shooting more photos with our smartphones than ever, and they're getting better and better each year.

Camera+ lets you set exposure, white balance and focus, for those times when automatic just ain't cutting it, and lets you use your iPhone flash for fill-in, instead of those overbearing, washed out images we've come to associate with smartphone flash. Slow Shutter is fun for night shots, when you need to let in more light, or times when you just want to have fun.

Speaking of editing, the best all-around editing app is Snapseed. You can crop, rotate, add a vignette, add contrast, drama or vintage film looks to your smartphone shots.

BOOK

Life in the wild

If you're in a city but you live in a van, or a trailer, or a tent, you are deemed homeless. But if you're in the desert or the forest, you're camping. Rationalizations such as these are what make Nomadland such a compelling look at a weirdly camouflaged swath of society that's more entwined around us than we realize. Author Jessica Bruder, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, immersed herself among those who move between seasonal jobs at a time when they'd imagined contemplating retirement, but life went haywire. These nomads are not necessarily to be pitied. They are inventive and savvy, frugal and generous. When they gather at a campground for bring-your-own-topping baked potato night, they are, as one put it, "hiding in plain sight".