With streaming seemingly taking over the world, everyone has something for themselves. Movie lovers have Netflix. Anime fans have Crunchyroll. And sports enthusiasts have Release Sky. But sports heads don’t have it easy because this website faces issues of legality and reliability. Even so, their case is not hopeless. There are many Release Sky alternatives. Both paid and free.
This article highlights the top options for streaming sports programs. It also touches on available mirrors and helpful Reddit info.
Five Recommended Release Sky Alternatives
ESPN+
ESPN+ should be the first pick for a legal and premium sports streaming experience. For only $11.99 per month, users can already access every stream of exclusive live sports events. Particularly, it covers tennis, football, UFC, and many more. Plus, viewers can find original content.
Fubo
Fubo is another paid sports streaming platform. Its price starts at $9.99 for the first month. Then, it can go up to $14.99 for the following months. The streaming service features football, NHL, NBA, MLB, and international leagues. Also, it has around 185 live channels.
DAZN
DAZN features several sports events that are ready for streaming. It’s also a subscription-based platform. Although a bit pricey at $19.99 a month, its list of content makes it worth the price. Specifically, it includes the FIFA Club World Cup, the Ansgar Fighting League, MMA Naciones, OKTAGON MMA, the World Series of Darts, RWS Muay Thai, and a lot more.
CricHD
CrichHD is a free alternative to Release Sky. It mainly focuses on live streaming of Cricket games. At the same time, it says it also offers streaming of other sports events. Particularly, there are football, soccer, F1, Rugby, NBA, NFL, and more. It’s the closest to Release Sky, so it can also be risky.
Sportsurge
Sportsurge provides streaming services for sports matches around the world. Viewers do not even need to pay anything to access a variety of sports programs. Likewise, the website includes football, baseball, Formula 1, boxing, MMA, WNBA, NBA, soccer, CFB, hockey, and WWE.
When dealing with sites like this, be aware of malware, data theft, and legal problems.
Reddit News About Release Sky
There is currently no latest news about Release Sky. Communities for streaming are also quiet on available alternatives. Still, Reddit remains a hub where users can find informative discussions and updates.
Final Notes
If you are unable to access Release Sky, there is no need to panic. There are several options, including paid and free platforms. Make sure that you choose the safe and legal Release Sky alternatives. Official options may cost more, but they offer better quality and zero problems.
Films make us feel alive. The science behind it is more of an art, thanks to cinematographers like Los Angeles-based Shuang Qin, who is embarking on a unique trek into the wild world of visual storytelling.
Qin is armed with a piqued understanding of how images can transmit subtexts and emotions across various cultures. Originally hailing from Suzhou, a small town in Anhui, China, Qin’s journey into filmmaking began with a fascination for the unspoken language of cinema. He describes the “emotional grammar” of cinematography as “the set of visual choices—light, color, composition, movement—that silently shape how an audience feels about a scene.”
It’s like a visual style of grammar that triggers deep-seated emotions. “There is a meaning through structure and rhythm, guiding emotions through space and timing,” Qin explains. This philosophy underpins his approach into every project, from short films to vertical mini-TV series.
Qin’s career launched with his contributions as the director of photography for “Egg Man,” a short film directed by acclaimed director Hsiao-Hsia Huang, released in 2022. He further concreted his reputation with “On Wings of Song,” a 2024 short film that garnered significant recognition. He has also lent his talents to numerous vertical mini-TV series, including Kalos TV’s “Vampire’s Remedy” and “Breaking the Cue,” starring rising actors Jordan Kennedy and Thomas Garner. Qin has a versatile background studying film, with a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from Chapman University and a communication degreefrom Wuhan University, blending artistic output with a technical proficiency to craft compelling narratives.
One of his most successful ventures in the mobile-native vertical format is “Surprise! Baby Daddy Is the CEO,” which captivated audiences with over 41 million views on the DramaBox streaming platform. Recent endeavors include projects such as “I Can Never Be Yours” (2024), “Billionaire Marries the Wrong Wife” (2024), and the upcoming “Uncle, I Love You” (2025).
Qin accentuates the power of subtle visual cues into molding the audience’s emotional experience. “For example, a slow push-in can create intimacy or tension.
Harsh side light can isolate a character, while soft, diffused light can make a moment feel tender or dreamlike, he explains. “A static frame suggests stillness or entrapment; handheld motions can evoke chaos or vulnerability,” said Qin. “These are not just technical decisions—they are emotional signals.”
He believes that the most effective form of cinematography doesn’t always explicitly state emotions but allows the audience to experience them viscerally. “When I design a shot, I’m thinking: What is the character feeling? What does the audience need to feel with them? That’s where emotional grammar begins—beneath the dialogue, beneath the action.”
Qin elaborates on the potent combination of lighting, lens choice, and camera movement in evoking unspoken meaning. “Lighting, lenses, and movement are like the emotional subtext of cinematography—they shape what the audience feels, even when nothing is said,” notes Qin.
He explains how each element contributes to the overall emotional landscape: “Lighting sets an emotional tone. A single overhead source can feel oppressive, while soft side light can suggest vulnerability or longing. I often use shadow not to hide, but to suggest what a character is not ready to face.”
Choosing the right camera lens plays a critical role in determining the level of intimacy between the viewer and the subject. “A long lens can create emotional distance, isolating the subject in their world,” he said. A wide lens, used close, can pull the viewer into a character’s internal space—sometimes uncomfortably so. It’s not just about what you see, but how you feel seen.”
Camera movement adds another layer of emotional depth. “A slow dolly inward can feel like a quiet revelation. A handheld camera can introduce instability, making the audience physically feel tension or fragility.”
Qin’s background in communication studies has profoundly impacted his approach to visual storytelling, instilling within him a deep awareness of how images can transcend cultural boundaries and convey nuanced emotions. His fieldwork in Hubei, a rural part of China, exposed him to the lives of farmers struggling in silence and children growing up without their parents, experiences that structured his understanding of visual storytelling as a form of power and privilege.
“That experience conveyed how I understand visual storytelling,” Qin reflects. “I saw that many people live in a kind of ‘voiceless’ state—not because they have nothing to say, but because no one is listening. I carry that with me every time I pick up a camera.”
He believes that his communication studies background has made him acutely sensitive to the way emotion moves across cultures through image, rhythm, and silence. “It made me sensitive not just to how a frame looks, but to who it’s representing—and whether they’ve been seen before.”
Qin’s dedication to capturing unspoken emotions is prominent in his acclaimed work on “On Wings of Song,” which earned him the Gold Remi Award for Best Cinematography at the 58th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. The film explores the themes of childhood trauma and family pressure through a visually restrained and emotionally nuanced outlook.
“As the cinematographer, I used cold, desaturated lighting and restrained compositions to reflect the boy’s emotional suffocation,” Qin explains. “We framed spaces to feel rigid and isolating, with subtle movement to highlight the tension between external order and internal chaos.”
He adds, “Through cinematography, I tried to make that form of silence visible.”
Another key project in Qin’s career was “Double Bliss,” his first short film as a writer, director, and cinematographer after college. Inspired by his fieldwork in rural China, the film dives into themes of emotional absence and cultural silence, ultimately paving the way for his acceptance into Chapman University’s MFA program in cinematography.
Qin’s work has also graced prestigious events like the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner and the Meiho International Youth Visual Media Festival.
When asked what makes a project poignant, Qin underlines the importance of emotional honesty and the opportunity to shed light on overlooked experiences. “For me, a project becomes highly noteworthy when it reveals something that is emotionally honest—especially about people or experiences that are often overlooked.”
He concludes, “What makes a project meaningful is not just the story—it’s the opportunity to reveal what’s usually hidden, and to give a presence to people and feelings that deserve to be seen.”
“R is for Rocket is about relationships, the most important part of life; relationships with your friends, your parents, your girlfriend or boyfriend, and most importantly your relationship with yourself,” the band shared. “‘Wide Awake’. is the perfect balance of all the elements of this record, after years in the making and countless versions, we’re excited to finally share it.”
Rocket released their Versions of You EP in 2023. By the time they started working on the album in early 2024, they’d been on a relentless touring schedule, opening for the likes of Ride, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Silversun Pickups. “All of the touring led to the songs changing for the better, because we got to play them for so many different kinds of audiences and hear what worked and what didn’t,” singer/bassist Alithea Tuttle said.
Guitarist Desi Scaglione, who helmed the album’s production, added, “Recording the second half of the album eight months after the first half gave us a lot of time to think about what we were doing. We ended up re-recording three songs because we felt like we could just do better.”
R Is for Rocket Cover Artwork:
R Is for Rocket Tracklist:
1. The Choice
2. Act Like Your Title
3. Crossing Fingers
4. One Million
5. Another Second Chance
6. Pretending
7. Crazy
8. Number One Fan
9. Wide Awake
10. R is For Rocket
Jay Som – the project of Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and producer Melina Duterte – has announced her first new album in over six years, Belong. The Anak Ko follow-up is set to land on October 10 on Lucky Number. It finds Duterte enlisting guest vocalists for the first time on one of her solo records, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Jim Adkins (of Jimmy Eat World), and Lexi Vega (of Mini Trees). Adkins features on the soaring new single ‘Float’, which is out today along with the more contemplative ‘A Million Reasons Why’. Take a listen and find the album cover and tracklist below.
“This song is about desperately trying to hold on to past versions of yourself for self-preservation,” Duterte said of ‘Float’. “The fear of the unknown is so overwhelming that sometimes the best solution is to sit with it instead of fighting or running from it.”
Adkins added, “Melina is an absolute professional in all aspects of music creation. I am honoured she had space in her vision for me to contribute. And it was a lot of fun to work on. Great song!”
Duterte wrote, composed, performed, produced, engineered, and mixed Belong, which also features contributions from Joao Gonzalez (of Soft Glas), Mal Hauser, and Steph Marziano. “When you try something for the first time, you’re always going to hold some type of fear, but I had to come to terms with the fact that I had to let go of some control,” Duterte explained. “This record is essentially still me, but a lot of choices were made by friends who helped me, because I trusted them.”
Since releasing Anak Ko, Duterte has released music with Palehound as Bachelor, joined boygenius as a touring band member, and collaborated alongside the likes of Troye Sivan, Living Hour, Fashion Club, and more.
Belong Cover Artwork:
Belong Tracklist:
1. Cards On The Table
2. Float [feat. Jim Adkins]
3. What You Need
4. Appointments
5. Drop A
6. Past Lives [feat. Hayley Williams]
7. D.H.
8. Casino Stars
9. Meander/Sprouting Wings
10. A Million Reasons Why
11. Want It All
Is art created in a state of suspension, on the threshold between possibility and uncertainty? It may be in this space that lens-based practices begin to develop. This in-between zone becomes a point of intersection for different ways of seeing, where relationships form between individuals and collectives, humans and nature, the inner self and expression.
Guided by the exhibition title Half Cadence, I became attuned to the rhythm of the visuals. The interplay between color and monochrome, presence and pause, raises questions about how personal expression can operate within a shared visual language and how situated perspectives might be seen. This aligns with Vilém Flusser’s reflection on photography as an act of coding and decoding the world through technical apparatuses and cultural programs. Photography, then, becomes a system of signs, shaped by the photographer’s choices to make the image legible.
Zhou Zhang’s portrayal of intimacy frames the male body as landscape. The juxtaposition of two naked male bodies disrupts the “familiar” gaze shaped by representations of female nudity. From the bedroom we enter Xuan Feng’s poetic space of relational intimacy—a private fantasy nestled within public space, where breath and memory linger in the air.
Yizhou Li departs from documentary approaches, using black-and-white darkroom printing to reveal images embedded in past times and places. Here, the darkroom process becomes a site of spatial construction. Landscapes emerge as projections of inner states, while reprinting allows even unintended images become reconstructions of memory.
Xinyuan Yan’s use of fabric and projected videos challenges the static nature of traditional imagery. It compresses perceptions of time and space, holding memory within the tension between the tangible and the ephemeral. By manipulating Google Street View, she blurs the boundary between external dialogues and internal reflections.
In Yuxuan Zhang’s work, situated in modern Chinese society where black hair is the norm, dyeing and bleaching hair in unconventional colors becomes a distinctive expression of individuality. Young women, connected by luminous colors, form bonds through hair and carve out their own space within nature. Dyeing hair shifts from an aesthetic choice to a political act.
In the politics of seeing and being seen, Yan Yang’s photographs of the zoo during the pandemic portray a condition between gaze and counter-gaze, between the caged and the free. During lockdown, the distance between humans and animals seemed to vanish. This recalls Hiroshi Sugimoto’s series ‘Dioramas’, where the line between the real and the fabricated is blurred. One starts to question the nature of photographic truth.
These moments of mediated looking invite a deeper reflection on what is visible and invisible in photography. What remains unseen often forms the connective tissue of meaning. This elastic and relational field is what holds the fragments together.
How can we create space that exists outside the framework of societal norms? True visibility may only arrive when the space no longer requires comparison, justification, or special attention— when what exists at the periphery no longer needs to be named as such. When the anonymous and the seen are held in the same frame, the face no longer needs to be foregrounded.
Nothing reaches closure in half cadence. What photography offers here is not the certainty of fixed meaning, but a space where new temporalities and spatialities can unfold.
Curated by Sara Chyan—a jewellery designer, artist, alchemist of volatile materials, and coach on the Innovation programme at the Royal College of Art—the group exhibition Echoes of Presence was presented as part of London Craft Week 2025. Sara has long worked with thermally unstable metals like bismuth and gallium, cultivating an intuition for rupture and transformation. Within this thematically charged context, Lin Dong, working under the name Cloudslin, enters the scene not with declarations, but with hesitation. His triptych, Homing the Celestial Unseen, doesn’t depict a memory so much as it stages a crisis in return.
The structure of Cloudslin’s work suggests a familiarity we cannot quite place. A window. A mirror. A pigeon mid-flight. These aren’t metaphors, nor narrative cues. They’re residue—what remains when context collapses. The mirrored surfaces don’t reflect; they interrupt. They withhold. The viewer doesn’t encounter a story—they stumble into a delay. A refusal. In Lacanian terms, what appears to mirror is in fact a fissure. You don’t see yourself. You see where the image used to be—before the self was asked to perform.
Fig. 2 – Exhibition view at Blackdot Gallery, LCW 2025. Courtesy of the artist.
This triptych finds its roots in Lin’s years in Paris, where pigeons—messengers of the sky—drifted quietly through daily life. More than incidental, they became stand-ins for human presence: familiar yet distant, communal yet estranged. They populate the panels not as symbols but as interruptions—echoes of a shared yet unstable reality. The first iteration of the work was executed in watercolor, interweaving Dunhuang-inspired motifs and Miao textile palettes with washes of color that bleed and settle. Reimagined later in oil, each bird now emerges from a shadowy, ambiguous field. A curved band of blue arcs across the triptych, evoking a cosmic pull—part memory, part longing—for what remains out of reach.
Anchoring the work is its frame: a meticulously 3D-printed construction modeled after the gilded mirrors and windows of Lin’s Paris apartment, where reflection—both literal and emotional—was woven into daily life. This is no decorative border; it’s structural thought. On the back, a mirrored surface folds the viewer into the act of looking, blurring observer and image. The object becomes recursive: shaped by private domestic memory, inscribed with Chinese antiquity ornamental language, and built around a conceptual architecture of rupture and self-inspection. When unfolded, the triptych doesn’t narrate—it suspends. It opens not outward, but inward, like a portal carved inside the habitual.
Fig. 3– Initial watercolor sketch (2021). Courtesy of the artist.
The initial draft was rendered in watercolor, blending traditional Chinese ethnic motifs, including patterns from Dunhuang murals and Miao textile palettes. These forms were later reimagined in oil paint on canvas, where the background palette subtly channels a longing for distant family and a quiet confrontation with the unknown cosmos. The work does not recall memory as narrative—it compresses memory as form, layering displacement into surface tension.
The central panel, a dense black void, doesn’t mourn. It absorbs. A curved incision cuts across the dark, echoing Francis Bacon’s spatial violences—yet where Bacon wounded flesh, Lin incises awareness.
From this scar emerge pigeons, their bodies assembled not from abstraction, but from lived repetition. They aren’t symbols of peace. They’re interruptions of certainty. Sketched from life and repeatedly revised, they hover between becoming and undoing.
Color in Lin’s work functions like memory: layered, compressed, occasionally eruptive. Pigments drawn from Dunhuang murals and Miao textiles don’t appear as citation—they pulse through the surface as sedimented time. His practice doesn’t remember in the narrative sense; it compresses, folds, thickens. These are not paintings of culture. They are painted through culture—through exile, exposure, adaptation. The images drift. They don’t claim ground. Instead, they generate it.
Fig. 4 – Detail view of side panel.Courtesy of the artist.
What Lin builds, above all, is a space of refusal. The triptych doesn’t unfold in sequence. It disorients. There is no horizon to stabilize the gaze—only interferences. Movement becomes recursive. Time slips. Every panel performs a break, a pause, a vertigo. Diaspora, here, is not background. It’s architecture. The paintings are structured by displacement itself, and thus demand not empathy but instability. The viewer is never safely outside the image. They’re folded into its disturbance.
The mirror, usually a promise of recognition, becomes a betrayal. Instead of likeness, it delivers fracture. Instead of continuity, it multiplies interruption. Lin doesn’t theorize this process—he enacts it. The paintings behave as mirrors misaligned, catching the viewer not in reflection, but in suspense. Every surface delays. Every form reconsiders the terms of visibility. The image doesn’t stabilize—it resists completion.
Homing the Celestial Unseen is not a painting. It’s an event—of seeing, undoing, disorienting. The viewer is not invited to understand, but to endure. Meaning flickers, then disperses. In that dispersion, Cloudslin doesn’t offer revelation. He holds us inside the question.
Big Thief have released ‘All Night All Day’, the second preview of their sixth studio album, Double Infinity. It’s extremely easy on the ears, delighting in Adrianne Lenker’s unique language of devotion: “Swallow poison swallow sugar/ Sometimes they taste the same/ But I know your love is neither/ And love is just a name/ It’s a thing we say for what pulls through/ ‘Til we come together.” Give it a listen below.
For fans of streaming, movies, and TV series, Soaper TV surely rings a bell. It was a popular streaming destination. But it hasn’t been the most stable — just like many unofficial platforms. Whether the issue is a temporary downtime or a full-blown shutdown, it’s always nice to have a backup website. So, viewers are also looking for solid Soaper TV alternatives.
This article lists streaming options that are worth checking out. Also, it tackles the latest on mirrors and Reddit communities.
Five Recommended Soaper TV Alternatives
The Roku Channel
The Roku Channel is an ad-supported streaming service. So, that means it’s free. At the same time, it shows that the site is legal. The platform also offers a wide selection of content. From movies to TV shows and originals, Roku has it all.
YouTube
YouTube also offers movies and TV shows. Yes, it’s not only for vlogs, tutorials, and reviews. Believe it or not, this famous platform has some of the best movies, series, and soap operas. Likewise, most producers and film owners now upload their work to maintain relevance. Also, they do this to introduce their projects to modern audiences.
UWatchFree
UWatchFree is a movie streaming website that delivers content to online audiences for free. Similarly, users can find films and shows in full high-definition. But viewers should expect pop-up ads. So, it’s best to install an ad-blocker.
TwoMovies
TwoMovies works as a streaming platform that is flexible for users. Specifically, it allows users to stream many movies and TV episodes easily. At the same time, its content ranges from classic to modern releases. It’s a great addition to the list of Soaper TV alternatives.
HydraHD
HydraHD is another reliable streaming option. Although it’s not that popular, it does provide thousands of movies and TV series. Also, users can access its collection of content without registration. Plus, it updates regularly. That means you can expect the trending titles here.
Available Mirror Sites for Soaper TV
Most streaming platforms have duplicates that appear whenever the main site is down. If the original link is unavailable, try to visit the following mirror sites:
Threads like r/Piracy on Reddit revolve around the same concern. Most users are asking about the status of Soaper TV. For sure, you can relate to some of their comments — like this one:
UnluckyShamrock_: “I’d been using this for like 2 years, and it’s finally down. What can I use alternatively?”
Final Notes
For users who love Soaper TV, there is no need to be sad. There are still several streaming alternatives to explore. You can always continue your movie and series marathon. But be mindful of where you stream. Unofficial sites can expose you to pop-ups, malware, and copyright issues.
The global popularity of anime streaming continues to surge. Similarly, platforms like Aniwave have built dedicated fan bases. But the problem with sites like this is they operate in gray areas. For that reason, takedowns are becoming more common. So, viewers usually scramble for better alternatives whenever Aniwave goes down. With that said, anime fans are searching for solid options to turn to.
This article explores some standout alternatives to Aniwave, with mirror sites info and Reddit news.
Five Recommended Aniwave Alternatives
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is for those who want paid and legal streaming sessions. Particularly, its premium plans start at $7.99. At this price point, users can already watch over 1,000 anime titles. Some plans also include early simulcasts. Try its free trial to see what awaits you!
Anime Freak
Anime Freak ensures free streaming of anime content. Also, fans can expect to find titles of shows and series in high-definition quality. Plus, each content has subbed and dubbed options. Viewers can also choose from titles across different genres. While it can be ad-heavy, it is known for updating regularly.
KissAssAnime
KissAssAnime is one of the best Aniwave alternatives when it comes to anime streaming. It’s a website where users can stream English-subbed anime shows. Similarly, the site has a library of high-quality content. Specifically, it offers both current titles and classic series.
AnimeZ
AnimeZ caters to anime fans who want smooth performance and minimal pop-up ads. However, it still does not have that much anime content. As of now, it focuses on newer anime titles. But it compensates for its shortcomings with a sleek interface.
AnimeOwl
AnimeOwl is one of those underrated anime-streaming gems. It mixes a clean user interface with regularly updated content. At the same time, it provides both dubbed and subbed titles in high-definition. On top of that, it delivers a streaming service with fast loading speeds.
Available Mirror Sites for Aniwave
When the original site goes down, proxy sites often pop up. While these are not official, they can provide temporary access. With that said, the working domains for Aniwave are https://www.aniwave.se/ and https://aniwave.com.pl/.
Reddit News About Aniwave
Communities on Reddit like r/animepiracy and r/aniwavebutdead share constant updates on working domains and safety tips. With the current situation of the website, it seems that most users have the same question — take a look:
ElijahChahine:“Do you guys think there will ever be another site as perfect as Aniwave…?”
unfunnysaim: “Is aniwave down for good?”
Final Notes
Aniwave may be gone or unstable. But anime fans are surely not left hanging. With exciting options, streaming anime content lives on. Just remember to be cautious where you watch because unofficial sites come with risks.
There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
Geese – ‘Taxes’
Geese are back with news of their next album, Getting Killed. The follow-up to 2023’s 3D Country is set for release on September 26. Lead single ‘Taxes’, produced by Kenny Beats, is eerie and rattling before turning radiant. If Cameron Winter’s solo LP Heavy Metal won you over, this might be up your alley, too.
Neko Case – ‘Wreck’
Neko Case has announced a new album, Neon Grey Midnight Green, her first since 2018’s Hell-On. The self-produced record is led by the delightfully orchestral ‘Wreck’. “There are so few producers who are women, nonbinary, or trans,” Case commented. “People don’t think of us as an option. I’m proud to say I produced this record. It is my vision. It is my veto power. It is my taste.”
Hot Chip – ‘Devotion’
Hot Chip have announced their first greatest hits album, Joy in Repetition, arriving September 5 via Domino. To accompany to news, they’ve shared a resplendent single called ‘Devotion’, which is true to its title. The band’s Alexis Taylor calls it “a celebration of the devotion to doing this project together,” adding, “I think of Joe [Goddard] as being like Brian Wilson, with this huge dedication to finding how to make the most amazing pop music.”
Danny L Harle – ‘Starlight’ [feat. PinkPantheress]
“’Starlight’ reaches for a kind of euphoric melancholy — a guiding light in all of my music,” Danny L Harle said of his new single, a balance perfectly struck by guest vocalist PinkPantheress. “It’s shaped by my love of the melancholic songwriting traditions of Europe from composers like Monteverdi and John Dowland, all the way to 90s Eurodance and the uplifting trance of the 2000s — artists like Gigi D’Agostino and Alice Deejay. PinkPantheress is the dream collaborator for this song, her love for ornamental melodies and hypnotic lyricism fit perfectly into my sound world.”
La Dispute – ‘Self-Portrait Backwards’, ‘The Field’, ‘Sibling Fistfight at Mom’s Fiftieth / The Un-Sound’, ‘Landlord Calls The Sheriff In’, and ‘Steve’
We recently named La Dispute’s nine-minute track ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’, which serves as the second act of their new album No One Was Driving the Car, as one of the best songs of June. Today, the entirety of Act II is out, featuring five new songs. Frontman Jordan Dreyer expounded:
the next act encompasses in more focused detail the narrator’s look backwards down the path, beginning at their shared home in the present day, where the dissociation introduced in act one as almost entirely a self-inclosed thing trickles outward and troubles the comfort outlined in the last section of the song preceding it. he examines his own life through imagined self-portraits, in various sequences of time (fractions of days first, then weeks, months, years), and through multiple specific events. from there, four critically influential events from his earlier life are detailed in four songs:
first, a story from his early teenage years, where he and his brother—up north hunting with their father in the area where he and his own brother (the boys’ uncle, who has long lived far away elsewhere), and their father (who died when they were young)—stumble upon what they believe to be an abandoned paramilitary compound. in the middle of the field beside it they come to a hole dug in the ground full of deer carcasses. the narrator becomes fixated on the bodies below, unable to break his gaze from them, while the brother continues on toward the compound, a metaphor both for their diverging paths and for the obsessions/explanations that motivated them to take which ones they did.
the second song happens a few years later, at their mother’s fiftieth birthday party, where several siblings—drunk and airing internal grievances—fight on the basement staircase while their mother contemplates what role her own actions as a parent played in their arrival at that moment and in the conflicted history that led up to it. in the second half of the song, the siblings are gathered at the parents’ house again, years after the fight, for a quarterly group birthday celebration for several of their own children.
the third song occurs years on from there, with a pitch made to the partner of the narrator—working through undergrad at the time—from purveyors of a multi-level marketing company central to the history of grand rapids, and in some ways inextricably entwined with the christian reformed church mentioned earlier on the record (somewhat importantly, the rapture is invoked at the very end of the song, in a section discussing extraordinary wealth).
the final song centers around the friend whose funeral appeared earlier in act two, and is presented as reflections of their shared experiences together in youth, chiefly a snowy night drifting in a car together across an empty church parking lot, and the crash that occurred when the car spun on ice to slide sidelong into a curb and embankment. the end of the song harkens back heavily to the second section of act two (the song “Environmental Catastrophe Film”) and represents a full-circle consideration of the control dictated to him via exposure to calvinist teachings in childhood.
NewDad – ‘Roobosh’
Irish rock band NewDad have announced their second album, Altar, with the propulsive ‘Roobosh’. The song “is just about being fed up,” frontwoman Julie Dawson explained. “I wanted to write one song for the album that allowed me to shout, to get out all my frustration. Women get angry and we are expected to contain our rage but on this song I just allowed myself to go there. I wanted a song where I could moan and scream cause we all need to do that every once in a while and honestly it was just a bit of fun, letting myself get angry when I never allow myself to.”
Hand Habits – ‘Jasmine Blossoms’ and ‘Dead Rat’
Hand Habits has unveiled two gorgeous, meticulously crafted songs from their forthcoming album Blue Reminder. “This song really conjures for me the room and the time that I wrote it in—I was living in Mount Washington in LA, which is just such a beautiful, lush neighborhood,” Meg Duffy said of ‘Jasmine Blossoms’. “And there were (and are) these sort of unthinkable contradictions, between the beauty of the flowers and the trees and the birds around me, and then just being blasted with so much horrifying information and footage of war, death, and greed on the news and social media. This song is definitely not an answer to how to integrate those things, but I just wanted to try to sort of depict that experience, that one reality doesn’t negate the other. I come from a family where we don’t typically talk about the tragic or dysfunctional, which I think partly led to me being a songwriter who talks about pain and grief a lot, and at the same time, to being a person who tries to cultivate some joy, while everything falls apart.”
Of the more wistful ‘Dead Rat’, Duffy added: “There was an actual dead rat rotting in my wall. It was disgusting and I was living with the smell and couldn’t get to it, so there was truly nothing I could do but wait it out. It just became this metaphor for me on a number of levels: There are definitely things that I’ve done or been through that a part of me would rather put behind the wall and never think about again… but that’s not the way the psyche or healing works, and things will find their way out, whether it’s through a wretched smell or through acceptance or an open window, or all three.”
Hannah Frances – ‘Falling From and Further’
Hannah Frances has released a piercing new single, which serves as “a door into my next musical chapter, achieving the poignant vulnerability, grounded whimsy, and measured experimentalism that I strive for in my work,” according to the artist. “This song was a breakthrough for me in contending with the roots of my relational past, and holding space for the fragmented parts of me that are learning to trust through fear of abandonment.”
Shame – ‘Quiet Life’
Shame have previewed their upcoming album Cutthroat with the rockabilly-inspired track ‘Quiet Life’, which is “about someone in a shitty relationship,” according to vocalist Charlie Steen. “It’s about the judgment they receive and the struggle that they have to go through, trying to understand the conflict they face, of wanting a better life… but being stuck.”
Sex Week – ‘Lone Wolf’
Sex Week’s latest single, taken from their forthcoming Upper Mezzanine EP, is spooky yet vulnerable. “‘Lone Wolf’ is about communication and testing the limits of a relationship,” the duo of Pearl Dickson and Richard Orofino commented.
Marissa Nadler – ‘Hatchet Man’
Marissa Nadler has unveiled a stark, doomful new single from her self-produced LP New Radiations. “’Hatchet Man’ is about a sinister character bringing a woman home — not for romance, but to murder her –while the narrator, his partner, is made to witness it unfold,” she explained. “Ultimately, the storyteller escapes, adrenaline flooding her veins. The sweet, lilting melody of the chorus offers a stark contrast to the verses, where much of the tale is told. I enjoy twisting narratives, subverting tropes, and playing with perspective in my songs. The rest of the details are all in the song.”
mei ehara – ‘Kanashii Untenshu (Sad Driver)’
Tokyo-based artist mei ehara has announced a new album, All About McGuffin, due September 12 via KAKUBARHYTHM. It’s led by the slinky and hypnotic single ‘Kanashii Untenshu (Sad Driver)’ and keeps her music relatively stripped-down. “Even if I felt uneasy about whether it was enough, or whether people might say it wasn’t enough,” ehara remarked, “I was aware that I didn’t have to add anything. It was like I was naked.”
Google Earth – ‘meow meow’
Google Earth – the duo of songwriter and producer John Vanderslice and his longtime collaborator James Riotto – have announced a new album, Mac OS X 10.11, to follow up last year’s Street View. It’s out August 29. Gimmicky as it may sound, lead single ‘meow meow’ is sincerely vulnerable and wonderfully atmospheric. “I think Jamie and I are better now at the typical Google Earth process of starting with nothing and ending with something but who knows how that translates in the end,” Vanderslice shared. “GE seems to be good at confounding us, I still find the journey to be difficult and unsettling. It’s easier when you’re just writing a song with a verse/chorus.”
Michael Hurley – ‘Fava’
A posthumous album from the outsider folk legend Michael Hurley has been announced: Broken Homes and Gardens is out September 12 via No Quarter. Today, we get to hear one of its 11 tracks, the delightful ‘Fava’.
Indigo De Souza – ‘Be Like the Water’
I highly recommend you dive into ‘Be Like the Water’, the anthemic new offering from Indigo De Souza’s upcoming LP. “It’s about listening to your inner self and respecting your gut instinct,” De Souza explained. “My favorite lyric in the song is ‘you can leave if you want to, and you don’t have to say why.’ Whether it’s leaving the room, leaving the conversation, or leaving a toxic relationship, you have the power to make a change and life is too precious to waste your spirit.”
Legss – ‘909’
London outfit Legss have announced their debut album Unreal – out September 12 – and shared ‘909’, which is appropriately uneasy. “‘909’ has existed in various forms for a few years now,” the band explained. “There’s a 10-minute disco version somewhere. It’s a song that has developed with us and been rewritten at every stage, and now it’s in its final form: a stark, cubist, bass-driven day in the life of a nine-to-fiver addicted to radio podcasts.”
