St Vincent offers solid advice on building your confidence

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Perfect Places by Lorde
In a recent interview, Lorde sang the praises of Robyn. In Perfect Places the admiration shows: the potent mix of happy-sad and the strange sensation of regretting the fun you're having while it's still ongoing. Lorde sings about endless nights out, searching for the zenith, before realising "what the f*** are perfect places, anyway?" It's the comma that seals the deal, a syncopated shrug as she raises another glass and puts her hands up on the air to carry on.

Hero of the week: St Vincent gave some good life advice on the Rookie Podcast: "I think the faking it till you make it thing is very real. If you don't have confidence, pretend to be a person who does, and eventually you will have confidence 'cause you'll see the fruits of your reaching out to people, but mainly no one's looking at you and no one cares 'cause they're all thinking about themselves."

Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran told Billboard that he always wants to have a stamp on songs he has worked on. "As many times as I can, if there's a song I have a writing credit on, I try to have some sort of element of me on it, just as a kind of signature. Even if it's me doing the backing vocal or me playing the guitar, I just like having that element on songs I've been involved in."

Zeroes of the week: People who don't use their voices, according to Katy Perry, who told the Observer that she has lost campaigns for being outspoken. "I think it's actually quite selfish: if you're all about 'the people' but you don't want to help 'the people' because you don't want to say things when things get tough, then what are you about? Protecting your brand? Making sure you don't lose zeroes in your bank account?" She went on: "Basically, corporations are like, 'Don't have an opinion', and I'm like, 'So if I was vocalising for the other side, you'd still get letters, you know that right?' "