So when something falls outside of these strict, market-tested bounds, it tends to jump out at you. Almost everything that shows up looks like it would easily fit on a stylish Instagram feed, featuring usually either a slightly off-kilter image of a face (like this week’s releases from Beyoncé, Cage the Elephant, and Gus Dapperton ), a striking photo of the artist in some stage of undress (the art for Tyga’s single “Goddamn” finds him sunbathing on a Lamborghini Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You features a body-positive nude and Shy Glizzy’s Covered N Blood features the rapper squatting shirtlessly behind a tiger while covered in blood), or something made by a computer ( Beck’s “Saw Lightning,” Sech’s Sueños, and “Earth,” the star-studded single by the odious joke-rapper Lil Dicky).

There’s a consistent visual continuity among album art these days.

Though I rarely listen to more than a few tracks, it’s a comforting ritual, a compulsion that I cling to even as I age out of the target audience for basically all songs released on a label with enough marketing clout to earn a spot on the Spotify New Music page. Every Friday, I spend a few minutes scrolling through Spotify’s collection of notable new album and single releases on my phone.

Boss baby movie soundtrack