ALBUM: Midnights When I think of Midnights, I think of going out drinking with friends in sparkly outfits until 2am. It’s a moody, sultry, luxurious album in both sound and in visuals, so I knew I was going to play off her music video vibes for the cocktail shoot. Songs like “Bejeweled” and “Lavender Haze”…
ALBUM: evermore evermore is folklore’s depressed older sister in pretty much every possible way. The color scheme is darker, the lyrics are more traumatic, and the overall vibe is very much “haunted old barn in the middle of nowhere.” Taylor’s photoshoot for this album is one of my favorites of all time, so I wanted…
ALBUM: folklore folklore is a hopeful album to me; yes, it deals with some intense lows, but the overarching feeling is anticipation and eagerness. The album is reminiscent of past times, but still looks forward to new ones and shows that we can appreciate what we once had while still being open to progressing and…
ALBUM: Lover The Lover cocktail couldn’t be anything other than pastels and candy and lovey-dovey vibes, and I think I really hit the nail on the head with this one if I say so myself. I wanted this drink to taste as candy-coated as this album looks and these songs sound, so this cotton candy…
ALBUM: reputation I will be totally honest here, guys–reputation took a while to grow on me. It was a very polarizing album when it came out at the height of Taylor’s beef with Kim and Kanye, and it felt like a total divide: either you loved it or you hated it. But the longer it’s…
ALBUM: Red (Taylor’s Version) No other album perfectly embodies a season like Taylor Swift’s Red embodies autumn. Through not only the imagery in her lyrics (falling leaves, cozy scarves, coffee in cafes) but the production of the songs themselves, Red has always made me feel like bundling up in a sweater and driving with the…
ALBUM: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) For the most part, I’ve always found Speak Now to be a very whimsical album. It’s filled with a range of emotions put into songs with titles that are very on the nose: “Sparks Fly” is peppy and upbeat, “Haunted” is powerful and passionate, and “Enchanted” sounds fit for a…
ALBUM: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) The Fearless album is, to me, the epitome of being a young, carefree teenage girl. It covers first loves, first heartbreaks, high school crushes, growing up, and becoming the person you were meant to be (or at least trying to figure it out). It’s still youthful and fun, but with some…
ALBUM: Taylor Swift Taylor Swift’s debut album puts her early teenage years on display through twangy guitar strums and a peppy faux-southern drawl in every note–it’s juvenile in the best way, and it’s a relatable reflection of being a young girl trying to find her place in the world (no pun intended). She bookends heartbreaking…
ALBUM: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) While 1989 is pretty much a total deviation from Taylor’s previous albums in terms of sound, there’s one piece of imagery that’s constant through much of the album: red lipstick. It was the first thing I noticed when listening to the album, and the first thing I thought of when envisioning…
Before I saw the movie Rocketman, I’d only really known a few of Elton John’s biggest hits–but after watching, “Take Me To The Pilot” quickly became my favorite song of his. It’s just an all-around feel good song that makes you want to sing and dance without being overly energetic, and I knew I needed…
This song is the epitome of how it feels to be overly confident, drunk, and rowdy at a bar with your friends–and so is this cocktail. It’s brash, it’s strong, and it’ll get the party started (if not a bar fight). I knew it was going to be a beer cocktail right away, if not…
(Truthfully, I don’t think I could ever make a good enough cocktail to actually do this song justice, but this is my attempt.) If you’re like me, you can’t hear “Tiny Dancer” without thinking of Almost Famous. You know the scene: the entire gang gets on the bus after Russell’s acid-trip-induced pool dive. The vibe…
I had a hard time choosing the sixth song in this collection, mainly because there are so many more Elton John songs I love and wanted to make cocktails for. Once I was able to gather my ideas for the other five cocktails, I began to get a sense of what I wanted this one…
Elton John’s Farewell tour is named after this song, and it’s one of his most classic ballads ever, so I wanted this cocktail to be simple, letting the flavor and appearance speak for itself. Something classic but not necessarily basic–it needed to match Elton John’s uniqueness while still paying homage to this gorgeous song. I…
The Bitch Is Back – Elton John Honestly, just the title of this song says it all. This is one of my all-time favorite Elton John songs, and trying to plan out a cocktail that could do it justice in both taste and appearance was tough. It needed to be fruity, flamboyant, and pack a…
Let’s Dance – David Bowie When you think of David Bowie, you think eclectic and upbeat and vibrant. His music is unique and catchy and so many other adjectives that don’t do it justice. But when I think of “Let’s Dance”, the title couldn’t be more fitting to the vibe of the song itself. It’s…
Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple It’s one of the most iconic guitar riffs in rock history… you knew this one was coming. Everyone knows and loves this song, and when I was deciding which cocktail to pair with it, I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like right off the bat–the…
Layla – Derek & The Dominos You know it, you love it, you wanna drink wine and run the mob to it. Layla is one of my favorite songs of all time to play at the bar, so it was well-deserving of an inspired cocktail in this collection. I can’t hear this song without thinking…
Seven Wonders – Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night is an underrated album in my eyes, if not only because it’s home to my favorite song in existence. “Seven Wonders” was the song that inspired this entire concept, and the feeling I got when I heard it for the first time was transportive,…
Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix I knew I wanted a classic rock-inspired cocktail that made me feel like the epitome of “cool” when I drank it, so naturally I turned to my many playlists and just listened for the right song. The second “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix came on, it clicked for me. Now,…
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy – Queen Queen is my favorite band of all time, and “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” off the album A Day at the Races is arguably my favorite song of theirs. It’s upbeat but a little bit jazzy and funky, feeling coolly sophisticated but not pretentious. I wanted to create a cocktail…