Lips Are Movin

Meghan Trainor's follow-up to "All About That Bass," and a sharper piece of craft than its reputation suggests. Kevin Kadish's production is doo-wop pastiche done with real affection: finger snaps, a walking upright-sounding bass, handclaps on the two and four, and a bright horn-flavored top end that recalls early-sixties girl groups filtered through modern compression. Trainor's vocal is all attitude and diction — she chews syllables, drops into a Boston-inflected sass, and delivers the title as pure accusation, the melodic equivalent of an eye-roll. The lyric is a kiss-off to a serial liar, structured as a list of tells, and its wit comes from the mismatch between the sunny arrangement and the contempt in the words. That retro-cosplay formula defined the mid-2010s' brief appetite for pre-Beatles pop shapes on Top 40, a lane Trainor essentially built alone before it closed. Culturally it cemented her as a songwriter with a signature rather than a novelty act, even as the pastiche drew fair criticism. Best deployed while cleaning your apartment after a bad breakup, or in a car with someone who also wants to say something petty and true out loud.