Music: Taylor Swift: Folklore

I’ve been waiting for T. Swift to turn indie since she released Red in 2012, and on each LP since, she’s inched closer, layering her signature heartfelt lyrics with rosy, alt-washed electro-pop. Swift dropped surprise album Folklore on July 24, and it’s been garnering praise as her most artistic work yet. Enlisting The National’s Aaron Dessner as a co-writer, along with a feature from Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Swift taps into the Americana roots that kick-started her country career, molding softer edges likely to appeal to a wide cross section of fans. Folklore finds the 30-year-old Swift evolving and introspective, bigger and bolder than society’s preconceived pigeonholes. –Leslie Ventura

Comic Book: Paper Girls

Written by multiple Eisner-award author Brian K. Vaughan (of Y: The Last Man, Marvel’s Runaways and ABC’s Lost) and winningly illustrated by Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls slots neatly between Stranger Things and Doctor Sleep as a story of young fearlessness and adult disillusionment. It follows the route of four newspaper delivery girls as they get caught up in a time-travel war—both as preteens, and again (concurrently?) in middle age. Idiosyncratic and gripping, Paper Girls boasts Christopher Nolan-like twists and the quiet emotional power of an indie film. Amazon has optioned this one, so do yourself a favor and read it now. Three volumes on Image Comics. –Geoff Carter

TV: Norsemen

Travel to eighth-century Europe, where bloodthirsty Vikings are … as polite and socially awkward as an Ikea employee on his or her first day at work. That’s the hilarious gambit behind the Norwegian sitcom The Guardian called “Monty Python meets Game of Thrones.” With blundering warriors, a Roman captive-turned-creative director and gory jokes, Norsemen manages to satirize both past and present. First three seasons on Netflix. –C. Moon Reed

Film: Relic

This horror film, from first-time director Natalie Erika James, starts out as a mystery of a missing octogenarian living by herself in the rural country. Kay (Emily Mortimer), with her daughter, Sam, goes in search of her mother, Edna, who turns up days later, feet muddied and with no explanation for her whereabouts. Which is more terrifying—the sinister things lurking about in Edna’s old house, or the tendrils of dementia closing in on her mind? You decide. Prime Video. –Genevie Durano

Music: Yo La Tengo: We Have Amnesia Sometimes

If you’re the sort of Yo La Tengo fan who’s forever replaying droney mid-’90s tunes like “I Heard You Looking” and “Blue Line Swinger,” the indie survivors’ latest project was made for you. Well, actually, it wasn’t really made for anyone, starting life as a one-mic recording of a quarantine jam session by the trio, before being sent out into the world, complete with pandemic-perfect track names like “James Gets Up and Watches Mourning Birds With Abraham” and “Georgia Thinks It’s Probably Okay.” Calming, instrumental goodness. yolatengo.bandcamp.com. –Spencer Patterson