Singer-songwriter Sophie Jamieson has previewed her upcoming EP Release with a new single called ‘Concrete’. It arrives with a self-directed music video filmed on the roundabouts and roads of Stratford, Bow and Canning Town. Check it out below.
‘Concrete’ is described by a press release as “a neurotic imagining of her final tired, peaceful moments crawling along her local roundabout,” which ended with Jamieson getting knocked off her bike in that exact place shortly after. “When I was hit, I felt this intense relief as I flew through the air – the relief of being allowed to feel pain, having permission to cry, and a reason to be taken care of,” she explains. “It had a pretty serendipitous connection to the song I had already written, which is a song that fantasises about getting close to the ground – and being allowed to give up.”
Release, which was produced by Steph Marziano (Ex:Re, Hayley Williams, Denai Moore, Lazy Day), is set to arrive on December 1. It includes the previously released title track and ‘Forward’.
Foo Fighters have been announced as the musical guests for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live. Dave Chappelle will host the post-election episode.
The band, which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, have seemingly been teasing their 10th studio LP as fans have spotted the group’s ‘FF’ logo in various locations alongside an ‘X’, the Roman numeral for 10.
Foo Fighters have appeared seven times on the late-night show thus far. They last performed there in 2017, the same year they released their most recent album Concrete and Gold. This weekend will also mark Dave Chappele’s second time as host, following his Emmy Award-winning appearance in 2016, where he addressed Donald Trump’s electoral victory in his monologue. An announcement on Twitter on Wednesday (November 4) showed a snippet from that monologue, in which the comedian says, “America’s done it. We’ve actually elected an Internet troll as our president.”
Sam Smith’s third studio album begins with a declaration: “I want to be wild and young,” they intone, less a plea than a haunting evocation of a former self. Across 11 tracks – plus 6 previously released bonus songs – the British singer revisits the perennial theme of heartbreak, but does so in a way that hints at the deeper process of personal transformation that occurred in years since the release of 2017’s The Thrill of It At All, which Smith has called the “most experimental time” of their life. “Experimental” is probably the last thing you would call Love Goes, arriving six months later than planned after changing its name from To Die For for obvious reasons, but the album does mix a few different styles, oscillating between the disco-inflected euphoria of Smith’s breakout Disclosure collaboration ‘Latch’ and the stripped-back melancholy of the breakup ballads that catapulted them into stardom. That variation in tone is reflective of the internal conflicts Smith wrestled with in the aftermath of their “first real heartbreak”, but the boilerplate instrumentals and generic songwriting too often fail to adequately complement the emotional depths of what the singer so capably emotes.
Still, the versatility of Smith’s powerhouse of a voice allows them to glide through all of it pretty effortlessly. The spare, heart-wrenching opener ‘Young’ is followed by ‘Diamonds’, a solid dance-pop tune in which the singer reminds their former lover “how little I care/ how little I care/ how little I care” – unfortunately, it’s this sentiment that the track’s overly sanitized production clings to rather than underscoring the emotional nuance or potency of Smith’s impassioned delivery. Both ‘Another One’ and ‘My Oasis’ fall back into colourless, radio-friendly grooves, though the latter does boast an unexpected but lively feature from Burna Boy. A blocky synth line runs through ‘So Serious’, offering a moment of respite from the heightened sense of melodrama as Smith gleefully invites listeners to “put your hands in the air if you sometimes ever get sad like me.” It’s the singer’s self-conscious lyrics that really shine through here – rather than just another track about feeling sad, it’s a wonderfully understated song about the guilt that often comes with feeling any emotion too intensely: “God, I don’t know why I get so serious sometimes,” they lament.
Smith is then able to fully let go on the following track, ‘Dance (‘Til You Love Someone Else)’, where the intoxicating production courtesy of Disclosure’s Guy Lawrence and Two Inch Punch renders it a much more captivating version of the Normani-assisted early single ‘Dancing with a Stranger’. The album retreats back into familiar ballad territory on ‘For the Lover That I Lost’ and ‘Forgive Myself’ (thankfully, not that familiar), but reaches its most stirring moment on the Labirinth collaboration ‘Love Goes’, with Smith’s delicate voice pirouetting around the titular line over a crystalline piano that blooms into a lush, Coldplay-esque orchestral finish; the beat, however, feels somewhat stiff, as if unable to fully carry that expansive feeling of freedom that the song shoots for.
The wistful closer, ‘Kids Again’, which Smith says is a hint of what’s coming on the next record, is held back by the same issue that waters down so much of the album: a naturally layered vocal performance, but a sonic backdrop that’s too bland to effectively sell it (with the notable exception of that weeping guitar solo at the end). Love Goes quickly loses momentum as you dive into the bonus tracks – none of which achieve anything the rest of the album hasn’t already done better – but as a whole, it proves that whenever Smith leans into that rawness and vulnerability with an instrumental that does them justice, the effect can be not only satisfying but also genuinely cathartic. Even without an accompanying instrumental, the record’s opening track is striking precisely because it allows Smith to embody their younger self as a commentary on fame and success, while ‘Kids Again’ gravitates towards a pure kind of nostalgia as it longs for the wildness of youth – even when striving for something new, Love Goes ultimately clings to the familiar.
Arcade Fire debuted a new song called ‘Generation A’ during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert‘s special live election night coverage on Tuesday (November 3). The host introduced the song by describing it as “inspired by the current climate of the country with a hopeful message to the youths.” Watch the performance below.
“Say wait until tomorrow/ ‘Cause today is always strange/ Say wait until you’re older and you will understand/ They say the generation’s coming/ I don’t think they understand that I am not a patient man,” Win Butler sang on the track.
‘Generation A’ marks the first taste of new music from the band since the release of their 2017 LP, Everything Now. Speaking to producer Rick Rubin on a recent edition of the Broken Record podcast, Win Butler revealed that he has written “two or three” new Arcade Fire albums during lockdown. Earlier this year, Will Butler issued his third solo album, Generations.
Kanye West officially conceded his run in the US presidential race early this morning (November 4). The rapper-turned-presidential-candidate took to Twitter to announce his withdrawal, posting an image of himself in profile against an election map alongside the caption: “WELP”.
Though West, who ran as a ‘Birthday Party’ candidate, failed to pick up any electoral college votes, he did earn at least 50,000 total votes in the 12 states in which his name appeared on the ballot.
Earlier on Tuesday, West had shared photos of himself voting in Wyoming, one of the states where he didn’t make the ballot. “Today I voted for the first time in my life for the President of the United States, and it’s for someone I truly trust… me,” he tweeted.
The rapper announced his intention to run for the president in July, writing on Twitter: “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States!” His held his first (and only) campaign event in South Carolina two weeks later, but missed the filing deadline in multiple states and failed to accrue enough valid signatures in others.
Despite his lack of success in 2020, West has vowed to try again in four years time.
After the release of their four-track EP Cat’s Pyjamas, Caro, an Indie Rock trio from Leeds, released their edited version of ‘Closet Lunatic,’ including a superb stop motion video to accompany the song.
Adam Pardey, the band’s frontman, talked about the project saying: “This video is the result of 5 months spent sitting alone in a small storage room with cardboard taped over the window to block out any sunlight, fuelled by pineapple flavoured energy drinks and a spiteful determination. All of which took place in 2017, before self isolation got trendy and totally sold out.”
Sofia Coppola’s work has often been accused of being overly stylish, culturally myopic, and generally void of substance. In what might appear to be a slight change of pace, the writer-director’s new movie, out now on Apple TV+, immediately presents itself as the her most conventional and accessible film to date, infused with a signature lightness of touch but running almost like traditional screwball comedy. And yet, it’s not long before one begins to sense the similarities between the film and Coppola’s previous directorial efforts: in addition to marking her creative reunion with Bill Murray, co-star of her 2003 masterpiece Lost in Translation, On the Rocks revisits the father-daughter dynamic that was explored on 2010’s underrated Somewhere as well as a hint of the adventurousness that powered 2013’s The Bling Ring. Following his excellent work on Coppola’s 2017 retelling of The Beguiled, Phillip Le Sourd’s cinematography is also once again unshowy but largely effective.
Few filmmakers are as adept at capturing a pervasive sense of loneliness and melancholy as Coppola, and in that regard, On the Rocks could almost be seen as a kind of spiritual sequel to Lost in Translation. The film centers on Laura (Rashida Jones, who also collaborated with Coppola on A Very Murray Christmas), a thirtysomething writer and mother of two who starts to suspect that her husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), might be having an affair with his assistant (Jessica Henwick). She decides to ask her dad, Felix (Bill Murray), for advice, despite the fact that he’s a relentless womanizer with outdated and frankly chauvinistic views on love and marriage (“He’s man. It’s nature. Males are forced to fight to dominate and to impregnate all females,” he muses when Laura insists that her husband is not like other guys). When Felix suggests they take action, the two hunt for answers as they pursue Dean around New York City, and eventually beyond.
If the plot of the film sounds thin, it’s because it mostly is. But Coppola, as usual, is less interested in advancing a story than exploring the peculiarities of human behaviour, even if it’s less obvious this time around. Though it quickly becomes clear that On the Rocks is not really an interrogation into Dean’s potential infidelity as much as Felix and Laura’s relationship, the intricacies of that relationship are concealed underneath a more straightforward narrative formula. Felix’s intentions for helping his daughter, for instance, are uncertain – he treats Laura’s anxiety as an opportunity to impart her lessons about life, toeing the line between protective and possessive, but not always crossing. As for Laura, who appears to be close to her dad and even miraculously tolerant of his absurdist attitudes on sex, it soon becomes evident that the real reason she went to him in the first place was not to find out the truth about Dean, but to get answers from him – about his own infidelity and the effect his constant absence had on her and the rest of her family.
Rather than playing the irony of that situation for laughs, Coppola lets those unresolved tensions bubble under the surface. If On the Rocks is her most direct film to date, it’s not because it lacks nuance or sensitivity, but because she injects more of a personal touch to the story. From The Virgin Suicides to The Bling Ring, Coppola is known for adopting a detached perspective on her sometimes problematic subjects; with films like Lost in Translation, that post-modern detachment was part of what allowed viewers to project their own feelings onto the characters. Almost the exact opposite is true of On the Rocks, which takes cues from the director’s own life in a way that feels more intense than any of her previous films. Drawing inspiration from her experience growing up in the male-dominated spaces of Hollywood, the film cuts back on some of the ambiguity that’s characterized her past work, favouring a more heartfelt approach that allows for both empathy as well as critical self-reflection.
Rashida Jones and Bill Murray in ‘On the Rocks’ (Courtesy of Apple)
Not unlike The Virgin Suicides, which told the story of the Lisbon girls from the point of view of its voyeuristic male narrators, On the Rocks opens with a voice-over from Felix, who tells a younger version of Laura not to give his heart to any boys. “You’re mine,” he says over a black screen. “Until you get married. Then you’re still mine.” To which Laura responds: “Um, okay, Dad.” Merely by being about the male gaze, The Virgin Suicides was also about ownership, and that same idea foregrounds On the Rocks. But where The Virgin Suicides proved to be less the story of the Lisbon girls than the narrators who were obsessed with them, On the Rocks clearly belongs to Laura, who, unlike the Lisbon girls, has her own voice, and is quick to use it to dismiss Felix’s outmoded theories (including one about women being men’s property). In addition to expressing her embarrassment at his inability to refrain from flirting with everyone from a waitress to his granddaughters’ ballet teacher, Laura is also open about the ways his behaviour personally impacts her: “You have daughters and granddaughters,” she reminds him after he suggests he’s growing deaf only to female voices, “so you’d better start figuring out how to hear them.”
It’s the kind of emotionally potent moment that forces you to rethink just how harmless Felix’s sensibilities really are, and it’s not the only example where Laura confronts her father throughout the film’s relatively short running time. Not only does she obviously reject the idea that he has any kind of authority over her, but she also refuses to accept that he doesn’t have control over his own behaviour, which is basically his excuse for the hurt he’s caused over the years. Even when Felix, who normally exudes an unbreakable aura of cool, explains why he left all those years ago with an earnest kind of vulnerability, Laura jumps back by saying, “You’re such a baby.” And just as Murray brilliantly renders the character more pathetic than genuinely charming, Coppola, who knows a thing or two about the world of Hollywood, avoids inadvertently upholding the masculine ideal that Felix represents and that the movie industry she grew up in helped shape. By stepping away from her highly stylized visual aesthetic, she instead renegotiates her own relationship with that system and attempts to chart a new path forward.
But though On the Rocks eschews the ambiguity of Coppola’s past work, its simplicity is deceptive. Far from a surface-level study of old-school sexism, the film not only delves into the complexities of the father-daughter relationship at its center, but also scrutinizes how Felix’s privileged position allows him to abuse his power. Crucially, though, Coppola treats both her subjects with empathy and nuance; Laura puts her father in his place, but it’s implied she does so not just out of anger at him, but also because she’s conscious of the ways in which his flaws are reflected in her own behaviour. Even when it comes to Felix, Coppola is less interested in mocking or dehumanizing the character than breaking that façade and exposing the real fragility (and, naturally, loneliness) behind it. Where other films would tend to overdramatize any animosity between the two characters, On the Rocks gives them space to co-exist, which leads to some genuinely refreshing interactions. After Laura tells Felix that he’s “such a baby”, for instance, she doesn’t just get up and leave, and neither does Felix try to change the subject; instead, what follows is an unusually honest conversation where both parties seem equally interested in hearing one another.
Some may criticize On the Rocks for its abrupt and somewhat predictable ending, but as previously noted, the film’s ostensible plot matters much less than the father-daughter relationship at its core, and Coppola is careful not to give that narrative thread an unrealistic conclusion. It might not end up being as iconic as the final scene in Lost in Translation, but On the Rocks offers a similar kind of poignant moment as the two characters say goodbye, even if you don’t need exhaustive theories about what Murray’s final words are. After all, the film isn’t Coppola’s most mature work to date because, say, its soundtrack trades the wistful shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine for the cool jazz of Chet Baker and Bill Evans (thankfully, Phoenix haven’t changed all that much), but because it sees the dreaminess in Laura’s own adventure – one of motherhood, domesticity, and the complexities of modern love – and decides it’s just as wonderfully exciting as any.
Oscar Lang has announced a new EP titled Antidote To Being Bored. It arrives December 4 via Dirty Hit and includes the newly unveiled title track. Check it out below, and scroll down for the EP’s tracklist.
“I wrote ‘Antidote…’ to be an absolute blow the roof off stadium rock banger and I think it lives up to that,” the singer-songwriter explained in a statement. “I wanted to get a little darker with this EP but continue with the sound of the previous one. I feel like with the last one that I really found a style of music that I love and am just excited to play. So this EP was all about developing that sound further.”
Antidote To Being Bored will mark the follow-up to this year’s Overthunk and Hand Over Your Head, which were released in March and September respectively.
Antidote To Being Bored EP Tracklist:
1. Antidote To Being Bored
2. That Wasn’t What I Said
3. Pretty Princess
4. Red Cherry Chapstick
5. Something Has Changed
Hailing from New Zealand, Molly Payton is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter currently based in London, where she moved a few years ago with her family. It’s there that she met and became friends with Oscar Lang, who encouraged her to share her first recording on SoundCloud and went on to co-produce her first EP, Mess, which was released earlier this year. It’s a poignant collection of songs that deals in the same kind of intimate songwriting as beabadobee‘s early releases (which Lang also produced), but augments those melancholy, introspective qualities with emotive vocals reminiscent of artists like Julia Jacklin and Angie McMahon. She retains that striking vulnerability on her recently released second EP, Porcupine, but expands her sound to cover a wider sonic palette, from the entrancing indie rock of opener ‘Warm Body’ to the grungy, 90s-inflected melodies of ‘How to Have Fun’ and ‘Going Heavy’. Even when wearing her influences quite prominently on her sleeves – the languid, reverb-soaked tones of the devastating closer ‘Rodeo’ echo early Lana Del Rey with a hint of Angel Olsen – Payton is carving out something uniquely her own.
We caught up with Molly Payton for this edition of our Artist Spotlight series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
What drove you to pursue songwriting?
I don’t think it was something I was driven to pursue, it’s just always been the most natural form of self expression for me. Sometimes it’s almost like I don’t know how I feel about a situation until I’ve sat down and put it into words and music. I didn’t even think about uploading anything I’d written until I met Oscar Lang at school and he helped me to record something and put it up on SoundCloud.
Who is an artist that changed the way you think about music?
Leonard Cohen was a really important discovery I made when I was younger. His music was the first music I’d heard where the beauty is found in the lyrics rather than his voice or the production. It really made me rethink how I write music. My favourite Leonard Cohen song at the moment is ‘The Stranger Song’, the lyrics are so beautiful and every time I listen to it the meaning develops a little more.
You wrote your Porcupine EP during your first summer post high school. How did that backdrop inform the writing of these songs?
That time of my life was so emotionally charged. The combination of uncertainty about my future and the feeling of experiencing complete freedom for the first time meant I was making a lot of reckless choices. I think you can hear these feelings in the EP, especially songs like ‘Going Heavy’, ‘Warm Body’ and ‘How To Have Fun’.
How does it feel putting out the EP now that we’re well into autumn? Do you see any of the songs in a different light?
I think when it gets cold I tend to like my music slow and sad, so ‘Rodeo’ has become the most relevant song on the EP to me. I wrote that song earlier than the rest of the EP at the end of my first relationship. It’s about knowing that someone’s going to leave and trying to figure out what went wrong and how to make them stay.
What was your favourite song to record?
Probably ‘Rodeo’! We recorded it live (except for the slide guitar) in the dark in Oli’s cozy studio in Peckham, and because of that I think we really captured the emotion in the song.
Who would be your dream collaborator?
If I had a time machine I’d want to work with Jeff Buckley. I’ve been listening to him since I went to Dublin for the first time a few years ago and the only record in my hotel room was Grace. There’s just something about his voice and the way he sounded in his live recordings that really hooked me in and made me care about what he was saying, and that’s what I want people to feel when they listen to my music.
What are your plans for the not-so-distant future? Anything you’re particularly excited about?
Obviously it’s hard to make any plans with what’s going on in the world at the moment, but I am off to New Zealand for a couple of months to do a few gigs out there.
We love to take photos and post them on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Photos and Photography now are not just limited to an interest. It’s now become a social trend, and most of us are following this trend.
For women, taking a photo is more delicate than men because women have to look for so many things while taking photos. If you are worried about whether you look gorgeous in photos or not, don’t worry, you don’t always need natural bbl surgery. We bring you the top beauty hacks for Photoshoot that help you to look spectacular in photos.
Vaseline makes your eyes look bigger
If you dab some clear lip balm or Vaseline in the centre of your eyelid, it makes your eyes catchy. It creates an illusion and makes your eyes look bigger. You should just put some Vaseline on the eyelids, and the rest is magic.
Go matte
You can show the skin tone vibrant and vivid in the photos if you reduce your skin’s oil. The oil from the skin often reduces the glow of makeup, and hence you look due. Make sure you use a matte to reduce this oil from the skin and look vibrant in the photos. You can also use waterproof and oil-free makeup that allows you to look vibrant for a longer time.
Ensure you’re color-matched
If you want to look great in real and in the reel, Color-matching is everything. Color-matching and lighting can change your appearance. You should use foundation and concealer to look perfects in the house; however, this will not work correctly if you go out.
In the natural lights, you need to select makeup accordingly. You should choose the color as per the occasion, and you should look for the camera also. You can’t just choose any color to match; you should try them and look in the mirror to choose the perfect color-matching.
Smudgy Eyeshadow makes your eyes look bigger
If you want your eyes to get noticed in photos, you should try smudgy eyeshadows. These beautiful eyeshadows make your eyes look more significant and impressive. If your face cut is big or rounded, you should try this beauty hack because it will change your photos.
Go a bit heavier on cheek products
Sometimes cameras tend to washout the color, and if you want to look gorgeous in photos and videos, you should use heavy makeup on your cheeks. It will enhance the shape of your cheeks and makes it glow. You can use blush and bronzer to lit it up. It works perfectly fine on the cheeks.
Vaseline makes your lipstick look brighter
Never underestimate the use of Vaseline. There is more than one reason that advocates to keep Vaseline in your purse. When you apply Vaseline on your lipsticks, it makes the lipstick’s color brighter and glowing. These look amazing photos.
Conclusion:
These are the top 6 beauty hacks that you should apply to look elegant in the photos. If you feel tense, you should use ecig to make your mind relax and never forget to smile in photos. Comment below if you have any questions.
