Lizzo has enlisted SZA for a new remix of ‘Special’. Listen to it below.
Lizzo recently performed ‘Special’ at the 65th annual Grammy Awards, along with another track from her album of the same name, ‘About Damn Time’, which also won Record of the Year. In December, SZA came through with the much-anticipated CTRL follow-up, SOS, which features an uncredited appearance from Lizzo.
Whenever indie veterans like Yo La Tengo return with a new album, fans and critics alike will be eager to contextualize it within their revered catalogue. It’s fun work – you can go on and on comparing new and old songs without even really touching on themes, simply marking directional shifts. Four decades into their career, Yo La Tengo have such a sprawling and versatile discography that it’s no surprise their most beloved records, from 1997’s I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One to 2013’s Fade, are ones that make an effort to streamline their sound while eloquently fusing different styles. Aside from it being their first album of wholly new material since 2018’s There’s a Riot Going On, that’s another reason why This Stupid World feels like another pivotal moment in a career full of them. But you can’t talk about it the way we’re now used to relating to most releases in the genre. “There’s this pressure to come up with a narrative… and it certainly doesn’t exist in our case,” Ira Kaplan said in a recent interview, emphasizing that the point is to just enjoy getting together and playing music. Whatever comes out, comes out; what you hear is what you get.
What we get this time just so happens to be both hauntingly familiar and (modestly, of course) astounding. On paper, a lot of This Stupid World sounds doomful, or at least weathered by the passage of time. “Prepare to die/ Prepare yourself while there’s still time,” Ira Kaplan sings on ‘Until it Happens’; “You feel alone/ Friends are all gone,” his wife Georgia Hubley admits on ‘Miles Away’. Together with James McNew, they open the record by ushering in a steady, electrifying groove on ‘Sinatra Drive Breakdown’, where each observation feels bigger than itself, a growing premonition: “I see clearly how it ends/ I see the moon rise as the sun descends.” They could be singing about winter, or winter could be a metaphor for widespread destruction; the song sounds raw and already on the verge of a breakdown when Kaplan’s extended guitar workout tumbles over and eventually trails back, unable to change its course.
Amidst the chaos, the songs on This Stupid World don’t feel disorganized but rather in dialogue with each other. ‘Fallout’, a song I’m tempted to call an instant classic, flows in a similar vein as the opener, driven by a bracing riff that towers over the wall of sound. McNew’s ‘Tonight’s End’ handles strangely playful lyrics by dialing up the distortion; just when the droning noise seems like it’s just about to relent, the song bounces back again before finally reeling into ‘Aselestine’, a warm, pensive acoustic cut sung by Hubley. And then there’s the understated mid-album run of ‘Until It Happens’ and ‘Apology Letter’, the latter of which manages to live up to the promise of its title without feeling petty. Kaplan, earnest in his delivery, makes up for the clarity that gets lost in language by drifting into a lovely solo that stays faithfully on track until the end.
So what about the end? This Stupid World is, all things considered, not actually a dispiriting listen, but one that’s thrilling in its aliveness. ‘Brain Capers’ charges the record back up, whirling into a violent frenzy that prepares us for the wondrous catharsis of the title track. “This stupid world, it’s killing me,” goes its enveloping mantra. “This stupid world is all we have.” Rather than drowning under its own immensity, the feedback has the effect of amplifying its power and heart. Unlike most of the livelier songs on the LP, the group remains locked in for a full seven and half minutes, which whiz by in what feels like a flash – as they do on ‘Miles Away’, a final tender embrace. “Ease your mind/ Bide your time/ Hold those thoughts for now,” Hubley suggests, making it sound almost easy. There doesn’t have to be a story – certainly no simple resolution. None of this has to make sense. And yet somehow, when you play it back, it kind of does.
M83 has released six new songs, billed as the first chapter of their forthcoming album Fantasy. The record was led by the single ‘Ocean’s Niagara’, which made our Best New Songs segment. Anthony Gonzalez has also announced a run of European tour dates; find those and listen to Chapter 1 of Fantasy below.
Fantasy, the follow-up to 2019’s DSVII, will be released in full on March 17 via Virgin Records.
M83 2023 Tour Dates:
Apr 9 2023 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
Apr 10 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
Apr 11 – Albuquerque, NM – El Rey Theater
Apr 13 – San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theatre
Apr 14 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
Apr 15 – Houston, TX – The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall
Apr 16 – Dallas, TX – House Of Blues
Apr 18 – Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works
Apr 19 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
Apr 21 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
Apr 22 – Washington, DC – The Anthem
Apr 23 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
Apr 25 – New York, NY – Terminal 5
Apr 26 – New York, NY – Terminal 5
Apr 28 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
Apr 29 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
Apr 30 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
May 2 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
May 3 – St. Paul, MN – Palace Theatre
May 5 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
May 6 – Salt Lake City, UT – Ogden Amphitheater
May 8 – Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
May 9 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
May 10 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
May 11 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
May 13 – Pasadena, CA – Just Like Heaven Fest
May 14 – Paso Robles, CA – Vina Robles Amphitheatre
May 16 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
May 17 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theate
Jun 7 – Sigulda, LV – Sigulda Castle
Jun 8 – Vilnius, LT – Lukiškės Prison
Jun 10 – Helsinki, FI – Sideways Festival
Jun 17 – Neuchatel,CH – Festi’Neuch
Jun 19 – Milan, IT – Magnolia Summer
Jun 243 – Prague, CZ – Metronome Festival
Jun 27 – Paris, FR – L’Olympia
Jun 29 – London, UK – Roundhouse
Jul 6 – Bilbao, ES – BBK
Jul 7 – Hérouville Saint Clar, FR – Festival Beauregard
Aug 12 – Pezinok, SK – Grape Festival
Aug 13 – Budapest, HU – Sziget Festival
Aug 19 – Biddinghuizen, NL – Lowlands Festival
Depeche Mode have revealed the release date of their new album, Memento Mori. The follow-up to 2017;s Spirit comes out March 24 via Columbia Records. They’ve also shared the album’s first single, ‘Ghosts Again’, which arrives with a visual from the album’s artwork designer Anton Corbijn. Check it out below.
“To me, ‘Ghosts Again’ just captures this perfect balance of melancholy and joy,” Dave Gahan said in a press release. Martin Gore added, “It’s not often that we record a song that I just don’t get sick of listening to – I’m excited to be able to share it.”
Memento Mori Cover Artwork:
Memento Mori Tracklist:
1. My Cosmos Is Mine
1. Wagging Tongue
2. Ghosts Again
3. Don’t Say You Love Me
4. My Favourite Stranger
5. Soul With Me
6. Caroline’s Monkey
7. Before We Drown
8. People Are Good
9. Always You
10. Never Let Me Go
11. Speak To Me
Burt Bacharach, the legendary composer and performer who wrote hits such as ‘I Say a Little Prayer’, ‘Walk On By’, and ‘What the World Needs Now Is Love’, has died at the age of 94. The Washington Post reports that Bacharach died at home in Los Angeles of natural causes.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1928, Bacharach soon moved to New York, where he would sneak into 52nd Street nightclubs as a teenager to hear such greats as Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. “They were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before,” he wrote in the 2013 memoir Anyone Who Had a Hear. “What I heard in those clubs turned my head around.” After studying music at schools in Montreal, New York, and California, Bacharach served in the US army, during which time he met the popular singer Vic Damone. He spent the next three years working as a pianist and conductor for Damone, and later accompanied singers such as Marlene Dietrich, the Ames Brothers, and Paula Stewart in a similar capacity.
In 1957, Bacharach met lyricist Hal David at the Brill Building in New York. Their first breakthrough came that same year with the song ‘The Story of My Life’ by Marty Robbins, followed soon afterwards by ‘Magic Moments’, which was recorded by Perry Como and reached No. 4 in the US. These were also back-to-back No. 1 hits in the UK, making Bacharach and David the first songwriters to score consecutive No. 1 singles in the country. The majority of Bacharach and David’s hits were written specifically for and interpreted by Dionne Warwick, whose output together included 22 Top 40 hits, among them ‘Walk on By’, ‘Do You Know the Way to San Jose?’, ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’, ‘A House is Not a Home’, and ‘I Say a Little Prayer’.
Bacharach went on to write material for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, the Carpenters, and many others, while his songs were covered by artists including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Costello, Alicia Keys, and the White Stripes. In addition to being an eight-time Grammy winner, Bacharach received three Academy Awards: best musical score for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the song ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’ in 1970, and best song for ‘Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)’ in 1982. ‘Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)’ was one of several hits he wrote in the ’80s with songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, whom he married in 1982.
In the 1990s, Bacharach made appearances in the Austin Powers movies and collaborated with Elvis Costello on the album Painted From Memory. In 2020, he released an EP with multi-instrumentalist Daniel Tashian called Blue Umbrella.
Esther Rose has announced a new album titled Safe to Run. Following 2021’s How Many Times, the 11-track LP will be released April 23 via her new label home, New West Records. Today, the singer-songwriter has shared its lead single, ‘Chet Baker’, alongside a video directed by Joshua Shoemaker. Check it out below, and scroll down for Safe to Run‘s cover art and tracklist.
Speaking about ‘Chet Baker’, Rose said in a statement: “Someone sent me a DM, asking ‘do you remember me.’ I was transported into a decade-old memory; a weird weekend with a crew of dangerous college preps, a car crash. What came out is this short study of my townie life in Ann Arbor. As I was writing this song, it occurred to me how lucky I was to have survived that time of willful recklessness. I wanted to empathize with my younger self, like, ‘it’s alright, you were 23. You were out of control. I got you now. You’re okay.’”
Safe to Run was produced by Ross Farbe in New Orleans, LA and Placitas, New Mexico. It features Rose’s longtime collaborators Farbe and Lyle Werner, as well as the New Orleans-based band Silver Synthetic, Cameron Snyder of The Deslondes, and Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff on the title track.
“My challenge every time I picked up the pen was: not another heartbreak song, look around you,” Rose explained. “Writing from depths never explored and feeling sometimes like I was losing my mind, a softness unfurled. I’ve moved out of a chaotic, transitional place. I’m not running anymore. This album feels different to me than everything I’ve made before it. But who knows? I’ve traded hurricanes for wildfires.”
Safe to Run Cover Artwork:
Safe to Run Tracklist:
1. Stay
2. Chet Baker
3. Spider
4. Safe to Run (feat. Hurray For The Riff Raff)
5. St. Francis Waltz
6. New Magic II
7. Dream Girl
8. Insecure
9. Levee Song
10. Full Value
11. Arm’s Length
Jessie Ware has announced her much-anticipated fifth album: That! Feels Good! will be out on April 28. The follow-up to 2021’s What’s Your Pleasure? is led by the new single ‘Pearls’, which was co-written with Stuart Price, Clarence Coffee Jr., and Sarah Hudson. Check it out and find That! Feels Good!‘s details below.
“‘Pearls’ is a record that doesn’t take itself too seriously but demands you to have a dance,” Ware said in a statement. “It’s inspired by divas like Donna Summer, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Teena Marie and Chaka Khan and I guess attempts to show — in lightness — all the hats I try to wear (usually at the same time). It’s the second song you will hear from my collaboration with Stuart Price and Coffee — with the wonderful addition of Sarah Hudson — and hopefully gives you a taste of the fun we have working together…”
Of the new LP, She added: “That! Feels Good! stems from over 10 years of understanding who I am, and who I enjoy being as an artist and the thrill of performance.”
In April 2021, Ware released the deluxe edition of What’s Your Pleasure?, which featured six additional songs. The British singer returned last summer with the single ‘Free Yourself’.
That! Feels Good! Cover Artwork:
That! Feels Good! Tracklist:
1. That! Feels Good!
2. Free Yourself
3. Pearls
4. Hello Love
5. Begin Again
6. Beautiful People
7. Freak Me Now
8. Shake The Botle
9. Lightning
10. These Lips
Nicholas Allbrook has announced a new album, Manganese, which is due out June 9 via Spinning Top Records. Along with the announcement, the Australian singer, best known as the frontman of Pond, has shared a video for the new single ‘Jackie’. Check it out below.
“This song is about my friend (whose name isn’t Jackie) who died in 2021,” Nick shared in a statement. “She was fantastic and the news left me with familiar feelings of guilt and regret and ‘why didn’t I do more or know better’. I don’t usually get hit with creative bolts while running, but by the canal once in London I was struck with the hopeful image of her rowing away from the earth that had been so hurtful and hard, on a black lake surrounded by stars, finally finding peace and silence. It felt nice to think about death like that, bathed in pale silver light rather than just cold. I got lots of instrumental help from Nathaniel Hoho, who bizarrely and brilliantly put in the nature documentary voice about the giant panda which should never work but somehow does.”
Manganese Cover Artwork:
Manganese Tracklist:
1. Commodore
2. Babbel
3. Manganese
4. Jackie
5. The Endless Jetty
6. Vale the Chord
7. Mazda
8. Round Round the Moon and All
9. The Night Before You Flew
Aging is a natural process, and you should be thankful for it. People may accept aging gracefully, but certain aspects of aging no one likes. For instance, who wants their skin to sag or look paunchy? No one! Or you can deal with the wrinkles and dark circles that come with age.
Fortunately, you can take steps to ensure you don’t look 50 while you are 50. Yes, even in your fifties, you can look and feel younger by following a few simple tricks. To name a few, exercise, correct skincare practices, and nutrition play an imperative role in helping you look younger. This blog talks about such practices only to ensure you don’t look like you are 50. Ready?
Too much of anything is bad for you, right? It includes alcohol too. You don’t have to cut down completely on your favorite wine. A glass or two a few days is fine. But overdoing it can damage your skin and even dehydrate it.
Pro tip: If you overdo it at a party, hydrate yourself with water, coconut water, or electrolytes.
Women in and over their 50s don’t have to dress shabbily. You can look great and younger if you wear the right clothes. Fashion for women over 50 includes striped trousers, long cardigans, suits, long dresses, and more. Wearing baggy clothes to hide your belly pooch doesn’t have to be your go-to outfit. Take inspiration from celebrities over 50 and dress to kill (but wear clothes in which you feel comfortable).
After some time, coloring your gray hair seems like a waste of time. And you don’t have to because gray hair looks incredible. However, you do need to protect them from yellowing because yellow-gray hair doesn’t look good. Start with your products to ensure you use the best ones. Products with UV filters and shine enhancers work amazingly for your gray hair.
Fish, like mackerel, are high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for heart health and skin. Women should include fish in their weekly diet to stay healthy and look young. If you don’t eat fish, try taking fish oil supplements, if you can, to enjoy all the benefits.
Yes, making sunscreen a part of your daily routine at an early age helps combat signs of aging. Sunscreen not only helps protect your skin from UV rays but also helps with premature wrinkles, fine lines, and more.
A few toxins are unavoidable due to living or working conditions. However, make conscious efforts to eliminate toxins from your diet and environment for our efforts to eliminate toxins from your diet and environment for healthy, young-looking skin.
Exercise everyday
Looking younger in your 50s is not just about sagging skin or fine lines. It is also about your physical health. You don’t want to be 50 and unable to walk a few km or have tons of chronic diseases. Right? Therefore, including physical activity and eating the right nutrition for your body is imperative. The best way to start your fitness journey is to walk every day. Or do a few stretches every day, swim, or dance, but include physical activity in your daily routine.
You spent long nights working to make a career in your early years. In this situation, your sleep suffers, which makes your skin and body age years before you even reach that year. In your 50s, start prioritizing your sleep if you are not already doing so. Sleep for eight hours and focus on quality sleep.
To conclude, wearing the right clothes that suit your body and personality, following a sleep schedule, and more can help. However, if you are about to join the fifty-something club, use these tips immediately to look like a million bucks.
Squid have announced their sophomore LP, O Monolith. The follow-up to 2021’s Bright Green Field lands on June 9 via Warp. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the lead single ‘Swing (In a Dream)’, which is accompanied by a Yoonha Park-directed video. Check it out below, and scroll for the album’s cover artwork, tracklist, and Squid’s upcoming tour dates.
‘O Monolith’ was inspired by a dream singer and drummer Ollie Judge had about the Jean-Honoré Fragonard painting The Swing. “In my dream, I was in the painting but it was flooded and everything was floating away,” he explained in a statement.
Squid recorded Monolith at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios. Longtime collaborator Dan Carey produced the LP, which was mixed by Tortoise’s John McEntire and features contributions from Martha Skye Murphy (who appeared on the Bright Green Field highlight ‘Narrator’) and Roger Bolton. “There’s a running theme of the relation of people to the environment throughout,” the band’s Louis Borlase said. “There are allusions to the world we became so immersed in, environmental emergency, the role of domesticity, and the displacement you feel when you’re away for a long time.”
O Monolith Cover Artwork:
O Monolith Tracklist:
1. Swing (In A Dream)
2. Devil’s Den
3. Siphon Song
4. Undergrowth
5. The Blades
6. After The Flash
7. Green Light
8. If You Had Seen The Bull’s Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away
Squid 2023 Tour Dates:
May 5 – Wrexhman, WS – Focus Wales
Jun 18 – Wicklow, IE – Beyond The Pale
Jun 30 – Werchter, BE – Rock Werchter
Jul 2 – Lars, DE – Fusion
Jul 21 – Hertfordshire, UK – Standon Calling
Jul 22 – Oxfordshire, UK – Truck Festival
Aug 16 – Portugal, ES – Paredes De Coura
Aug 18 – Brecon, WS – Green Man
Sep 2 – Vlieland, NL – Into The Great Wide Open
Oct 13 – Bristol, UK – SWX
Oct 14 – Bristol, UK – SWX
Oct 16 – Birmingham, UK – Town Hall
Oct 17 – Leeds, UK – O2 Academy Leeds
Oct 19 – Manchester, UK – New Century
Oct 21 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland Ballroom
Oct 22 – Newcastle, UK – Boiler Shop
Nov 1 – London, UK – Troxy
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