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Album Review: Kendrick Lamar, ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’

How do you return from nearly five years of off-the-grid remoteness after a string of instant-classics, a Pulitzer prize, and renown as an infallible wordsmith? Kendrick Lamar’s reputation is larger-than-life. In his absence, it’s only bubbled to newer heights, sculpting a mortal man into a messianic figure. Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, the long-awaited follow-up to his 2017 victory lap DAMN., reckons with his newfound status as savior figure. Unfolding as a 73-minute therapy session, the album incorporates strokes of genius, blandness, and baffling misguidedness into a self-portrait equally moving and frustrating. Both deliberately and incidentally, Mr. Morale is a refutation of Kendrick’s purported immaculateness, capturing him as a flawed human and artist.

Mr. Morale fuses classical instrumentation with hip-hop production. Melancholic piano stretches and dramatic string sections mingle with hi-hat patterns. The opener ‘United in Grief’ sets an exhilarating tone with sudden beat switches and jarring collisions between disparate elements, shifting from jumpy drums to minor-key piano chords. An unpredictable energy persists into the next couple songs: ‘N95’ showcases constant flow switches and ‘Worldwide Steppers’ finds Kendrick listing every white woman’s he’s had sex with. Unfortunately, Mr. Morale doesn’t maintain its early exuberance. Plenty of songs feature largely anonymous production and some of Kendrick’s laziest verses to date (e.g. ‘Die Hard’, ‘Rich Spirit’, ‘Silent Hill’).

Overall, Kendrick’s lyricism is blunter than ever. Whereas To Pimp a Butterfly mixed direct addresses with cryptic metaphors and narratives, Mr. Morale flocks towards the former. On ‘We Cry Together’, Kendrick re-imagines Ice Cube’s back-and-forth, battle of the sexes-type dialogue with Yo Yo on ‘It’s A Man World’s’ as a domestic altercation. Kendrick and actress Taylour Paige (in her rap debut) hurl insults at each other. Petty and venomous disses swirl around until the argument extends beyond a quarrel between two individuals, into a gendered dispute. In the end, the volatile argument deflates into sex (a resentful “fuck you” becomes a lustful “fuck me”). The performances are a little histrionic and the final note of bathos undoes some of the dramatic resonance. Though awkward in delivery, it’s a welcome change of pace in the tracklist’s driest stretch.

On ‘Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst’ off good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick narrated as side characters from his personal odyssey. In one verse, he raps as a female sex worker detailing the minutae of her work. She critiques Kendrick’s own ‘Keisha’s Song (Her Pain)’ from Section.80: a didactic tragedy about a sex worker, ending with her abrupt rape and murder. ‘Sing About Me…’ marked growth in Kendrick’s storytelling, exploring peripheral characters and even using their voices as self-critique without reducing them to icons of his own maturity. On the other hand, Mr. Morale’s ‘Auntie Diaries’ is a full regression, posturing his trans relatives as vessels for a personal journey towards acceptance. It’s a terrible song, devoid of ‘Sing About Me…’’s decentering of the self. Sprouting from a Macklemore-ian cocktail equal parts well-intentioned and tone-deaf, Kendrick wrestles with his long-delayed understanding of his trans uncle and cousin’s struggles. Rhyming through a minefield of deadnaming and misgendering, he treats his arrival at baseline compassion as a revelation. The undeserved, climactic orchestral swell does no favours, positioning his feeble gesture of acceptance as a roaring act of courage.

The album finds its emotional zenith on ‘Mother I Sober’, the penultimate track. Here, Kendrick traces reverberations of violence and abuse across his life, his family, and larger Black communities. The song’s intimate yet epic in scope, punctuated by a tearful chorus from Beth Gibbons (of Portishead). Mr. Morale is a personal album, its therapeutic framing device allowing Kendrick to speak freely of guilt and traumas. This is hardly different from his other albums (To Pimp a Butterfly’s ‘u’ is a particularly volcanic and eruptive confessional). Yet here, there’s a directness to the autobiographical elements: a need to be understood. Fearful of metaphors’ tendency towards abstraction, Mr. Morale uses them sparingly. As a standalone song, ‘Mother I Sober’ is a towering achievement rivaling Kendrick’s best work. Yet as a track within a larger album, its earnestness and meditations on sexual abuse are muddied by rapist-and-rapper Kodak Black’s presence throughout the album, in both features and allusions alike. Kendrick’s incorporation of Kodak Black is a hamfisted rebuke against “cancel culture,” ultimately eroding the empathy of songs like “Mother I Sober”.

On ‘Mirror’, the album’s bouncy finale, Kendrick reveals a decision. He renounces the fantastical expectations leagues of fans constructed around the image of Kendrick Lamar. He’s neither a Christ figure nor a revolutionary; he’s a father and a husband. “Sorry I didn’t save the world” and “I choose me, I’m sorry”, he remarks: a half-hearted apology to preachers of his mythological status. His dismissal of political duty is confused by the album’s fixation with commenting on major events transpired during his self-imposed isolation (from COVID to Kanye/Drake beef). Yet, ultimately, Kendrick’s concluding admission is an act of shattering delusions. On Untitled Unmastered’s ‘untitled 01’, Kendrick spoke of profound obligation: “I made To Pimp a Butterfly for you/Told me to use my vocals to save mankind for you”. On ‘Mirror’, Kendrick confesses that he’ll never live up to this duty. Mr. Morale is a product of his coming to peace with this acceptance.

Album Review: The Smile, ‘A Light for Attracting Attention’

If you’re a Radiohead fan, you don’t need to be persuaded to listen to A Light for Attracting Attention. Though the Radiohead extended universe has only been expanding since the release of A Moon Shaped Pool six years ago, the debut album from the Smile marks the first time Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have worked together on a full record outside of their main band. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the response to the new LP isn’t that everyone seems to agree that it’s the best album by a Radiohead side project, but the fact that it sounds the most like Radiohead. Yorke and Greenwood have been carving their own unique lanes with solo projects that yield increasingly resonant and innovative results – Yorke’s last solo LP, ANIMA, is his best to date, while Greenwood’s profile as a progressive film score composer has only risen in recent years – and it’s becoming easier to imagine a world where their future releases, however collaborative, carry almost as much weight as a Radiohead album once did. If one of the implications of A Light for Attracting Attention is that we have to contend with the possibility that there never might be another Radiohead album, they’ll have to be seen as more of a significant event than a side project.

Since making their debut appearance at the 2021 Glastonbury livestream, there was something different about the Smile, but it was precisely because it felt like an offshoot rather than a solo endeavor with a group of esteemed collaborators. It’s pretty much impossible to talk at length about the Smile without turning the discussion to Radiohead – though, if you’re a Radiohead superfan, you’d probably have no issue writing thousands of words unpacking the cultural prescience of Yorke’s lyrics, Greenwood’s intricate performances, the spaciousness of longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich’s production, or the new dynamism brought forth by the group’s third member, Tom Skinner, best known for his work with the London jazz quartet Sons of Kemet – all as if it has no connection with anything that came before it. But if we’re being honest, a huge part of what the trio is offering here comes down to the thrill of familiarity, without the same burden of expectation. It’s what makes so much of A Light for Attracting Attention almost fun, despite the characteristically miserablist bent of its lyrical content.

Yet it’s also unfair to describe the album as a lifeless attempt to recreate a specific era or aesthetic associated with Radiohead – if anything, it’s about injecting those sounds with a new sense of vitality and fluidity, about seeing what happens when you let the connections emerge naturally. Certainly, there is a thread from A Moon Shaped Pool to this album: you can hear it in the tendency to imbue the songs with an orchestral elegance, as in the hypnotic ‘Speech Bubbles’, or in the way ‘Open the Floodgates’ seems to follow on from ‘Daydreaming’, casting the same glow even as it revolves around a different subject. But it also serves as a bridge between records: ‘Waving a White Flag’ blends the ornate instrumentation favoured on A Moon Shaped Pool with the sinister arpeggios of ‘A Wolf at the Door’ from Hail to the Thief, the Radiohead album that has the most in common with A Light for Attracting Attention. Then there’s also ‘Pana-vision’, which recalls Amnesiac’s ‘Pyramid Song’, while the striking ballad ‘Free in the Knowledge’ seems to go back even further, like something from The Bends that’s been carefully preserved for the present moment, in the vein of ‘True Love Waits’.

Beyond their flawless execution, there’s something fascinating about how the record freely explores these stylistic fusions where previous efforts might have sought to break new ground. This makes a song like ‘A Hairdryer’ harder to trace back to any particular album; there’s a bit of The King of Limbs, a bit of Yorke’s The Eraser, and maybe something distinctly the Smile about it. If you’re not a Radiohead fan, you’d have to figure out if you like any of these albums before listening to A Light for Attracting Attention; I can’t think of a way it towers any one of them, except maybe Pablo Honey – and even then, that album achieves the kind of immediate impact this one continuously, and probably deliberately, eludes. As much as I appreciate the Smile’s insistence on teasing out but denying the simple pleasure of a memorable hook, I can’t help but wish all the uneasy tension found some sort of release.

Yet this is a great debut because it reaches for more than the kind of beautiful complexity its members normally excel at; the songs are as knotty and layered as you’d expect, but they also sound refreshingly looser and spikier than they would in the context of Radiohead. This is especially true of the more rock-oriented cuts – you could compare ‘You Will Never Work in Television Again’ to something off Hail to the Thief or even Pablo Honey, but it’s the perfect debut single because Radiohead have never made post-punk sound quite this visceral, and you can hear Skinner’s influence driving the track. ‘The Smoke’ is similarly surprising, riding a mesmerising groove but twisting itself into something funkier than anything in the band’s discography.

Perhaps this is the true and simple appeal of A Light for Attracting Attention: listening to talented musicians discover new territory in what has long been understood as theirs. It begins without any drums or additional instrumentation, just Yorke and Greenwood exchanging ideas, eliciting dread as only they could. Instantly evoking ‘Everything In Its Right Place’, ‘The Same’ builds a dystopian atmosphere any Radiohead fan will recognize, but Yorke in particular seems more comfortable lingering in that uncertain space, that familiar numbness: “When we realize that we are broke and nothing mends/ We can drop under the surface,” he sings on the final track. Yet by observing the present and looking back on the past, the Smile keep searching for a path forward – or, at least, eerily anticipating it.

Automatic Release New Song ‘Skyscraper’

The Los Angeles band Automatic have shared a new track, ‘Skyscraper’, the latest offering from their forthcoming record Excess. “It’s about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job,” the band’s Halle Saxon-Gaines said in a statement about the song, which follows early singles ‘New Beginning’ and ‘Venus Hour’. “Kind of like going to LA to live your dreams,” Lola Dompé added. Give it a listen below.

Excess, Automatic’s sophomore LP, arrives on June 24 via Stones Throw.

SOAK Releases New Single ‘swear jar’

SOAK, the project of Irish singer-songwriter Bridie Monds-Watson, has released a new single called ‘swear jar’. Following previous cuts ‘last july’ and ‘purgatory’, the track is lifted from their forthcoming album If I Never Know You Like This Again. Check it out below, along with a video for an acoustic solo rendition of the song.

SOAK’s new LP will be released on May 20 via Rough Trade Records. “This record is the most accurate picture of me. I felt no pressure at all, it was almost like I was ranting as I was writing,” Monds-Watson explained in a statement.“When I was looking to the past, it was as though I had a big lottery ball of all my recent memories and I would just randomly select which one I wanted to unpack. It helped me to process my past.”

How to choose the best TV shows on streaming services

Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, NOWTV, BritBox. The list of streaming services available in the UK keeps growing and the astonishing range of programmes available on demand can be daunting. So, what is the best way to find the TV equivalent of a needle in a haystack? Let’s take a look at the best options.

Netflix roulette

Netflix roulette via the website Reelgood is a very simple but ingenious way to choose a film or TV show. All you have to do is enter the genre you want to watch, be it action & adventure, horror or science fiction, and decide whether you want to watch movies or TV shows. Then choose whether you want the programme to have achieved a certain score on IMDB or Reelgood and press spin to be given a random selection. You can also cast your net wider by adding additional subscription services to the search, such as Prime Video, Dish TV, and Apple TV+, which would include TV shows like Ted Lasso, a popular Apple TV+ offering.

Review sites

Review sites are an excellent way to find out which films or TV shows are worth watching. Rotten Tomatoes gives each movie and TV show a percentage rating and provides lists of popular streaming movies and the best series on Netflix, with season 4 of Ozark proving popular. Visitors to the website also have the chance to watch the latest film and TV trailers in order to get a feel for the show.

Another area of the entertainment industry provides potential customers with useful information in a competitive market. The iGaming industry benefits from review sites such as Bonusfinder Canada, which provides players with a thorough review of betMGM with information about the games available on the site, the Loyalty Program: M Life Rewards and the various payment methods. These review sites allow players to gain an impression of the products and services on offer before they commit.

Streaming service algorithms

Of course, you could always leave it up to the streaming service to choose your next show. Streaming services like Netflix know what you have watched and liked in the past, so the algorithm will suggest various possibilities based on your previous preferences. If you enjoyed watching The Staircase documentary on Netflix, which has also been developed into a drama by HBO Max, the streaming service would perhaps recommend watching Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez. The recommendations will not always suit your tastes, but you will receive suggestions that generally reflect your preferences.

Streaming services also allow you to search for films and TV shows based on genre, which will narrow down the extensive selection to a more manageable number of options.

There are various ways to choose your next film or TV show on the wide range of streaming services on offer. Reviews are an excellent way to separate the wheat from the chaff and your next port of call could be websites such as Reelgood, which will do the hard work for you by selecting a random film or TV show based on your personal preferences. If this all sounds a bit too much like hard work, there is also the option of letting the streaming service algorithms select your next film or TV show for you!

Design Case Study – Minimalistic & Luxury Bedroom Interiors

In this post, we are talking about luxury master bedroom designs. We are going to pick one of the best ideas from a famous interior designer, dissect it, see what works and what doesn’t, and hopefully, you can learn a little something to make your own master bedroom look luxurious.

One of the most important highlights of a designer bedroom is high-quality materials and luxurious accents. While incorporating quality and luxury items in your bedroom, you must also ensure that you choose a bed that could support such levels of luxe. Not only will it complement those features but also provide the durability that enables you to experience these benefits for years to come. 

For instance, divan beds are known for their simplistic engineering, strength, functional qualities, and value for money. On top of that, if you look at various options, such as divan crushed velvet beds, you’ll understand how it supports the level of comfort, sophistication and luxury that certain interior designs require. 

Okay, now let’s dive into the master bedroom design mentioned above. 

Here, we will be talking about Hollywood hairstylist Jen Atkin’s master bedroom design done by Erick Garcia from Maison Trouvaille. This is a bedroom style that invigorates a peaceful, calm and ready to go to sleep environment. 

The highlight of this bedroom design is the Pacha lounge chairs from Gubi. They are spectacular pieces of furniture on their own. Who doesn’t love plush, minimalistic, curvy, light-coloured, and low bedroom seating furniture? Designing such a seating area in front of your bed is key. You could use it to relax or read a book at the end of the day.

Also, the sheer curtains used in this space compliments the overall tone and texture of this bedroom design. It spans all the way up into the ceiling, which is a great way to make your room look even larger. The pleats add an unexpected textural element to a very neutral space. The bed itself features a very low and minimal headboard. This is a very popular look according to the prevailing interior design trend. 

One thing that all of these bedroom designs have in common is a heavy focus on natural materials. These materials include linens, cotton and even silk. The use of such materials also offers a ton of health benefits. 

For instance, sleeping with silk pillowcases can help maintain skin health. This antibacterial material is very good for your skin. Not only that, but it actually helps with wrinkles. When you sleep on a pillow for long periods, your skin rubs against it, which leads to the deposits of dead skin cells and bacterial build-ups. Silk helps by mitigating these issues with its antibacterial qualities.

Additionally, investing in a bamboo mattress can also provide numerous health benefits such as relief from allergies and improved blood circulation. Plus, bamboo is a sustainable and eco-friendly material, making it a great choice for those who value sustainability in their interior design choices.

Finally, the minimalism extends to the decor accents used in the rest of the bedroom space. There’s nothing intricate about these items but the touch of luxury they provide is incredible. The simplistic yet moderately sized lamps and the indoor tree in the corner complement this space so well. It’s hard to find any room for improvement.  

To Conclude

Although every element in this bedroom is intentionally minimal, one would wish that there was something above the bed, just to give this space an elevated look. Maybe a floating shelf with a couple of decor accents or a higher headboard with textures that matches the overall design theme would do the job. 

Nonetheless, it is a great and overall simple design without any clutter. Definitely, a concept that screams less is more. It’s a perfect example that proves how minimalism can look stunning if you do it right.

Gorillaz Announce 2022 North American Tour

Gorillaz have announced a run of North American tour dates set to take place in the fall. Kicking off in Vancouver on September 11, the trek will mark the group’s first US and Canadian live shows since 2018. Tickets go on general sale at 10am local time on Friday (May 20). Check out the band’s full schedule below.

Gorrilaz 2022 Tour Dates:

May 18 Curitiba, Brazil – Curitiba Side Show
May 21 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Mita Festival
Jun 2 Paris, France – We Love Green
Jun 4 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound
Jun 9 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound
Jun 11 Porto, Portugal – NOS Primavera Sound
Jun 15 Vienne, France – Theatre Antique
Jun 17 Nimes, France – Arenes de Nimes
Jun 19 Rotselaar, Belgium – Werchter Boutique
Jun 22 Cologne, Germany – Tanzbrunnen
Jun 24 Berlin, Germany – Kindl-Bühne Wuhlheide
Jun 26 Esch Sur Alzette, Luxembourg – Rockhal
Jul 2 Beuningen, Netherlands – Down The Rabbit Hole
Jul 5 Verona, Italy – Arena di Verona
Jul 22 Byron Bay, Australia – Splendour in the Grass Festival
Jul 24 Melbourne, Australia – John Cain Arena
Jul 26 Sydney, Australia – Qudos Bank Arena
Aug 4 Stockholm, Sweden – Skansen
Aug 6 Skanderborg, Denmark – Smukfest
Aug 10 Oslo, Norway – Øyafestivalen
Aug 17 Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena
Aug 19 London, England – All Points East
Sep 11 Vancouver, British Columbia – Rogers Arena !
Sep 12 Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena !
Sep 14 Portland, OR – Moda Center !
Sep 17 Las Vegas, NV – Life is Beautiful Festival !
Sep 19 Salt Lake City, UT – Vivint Smart Home Arena !
Sep 21 San Francisco, CA – Chase Center !
Sep 23 Los Angeles, CA – Kia Forum !
Sep 26 Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center !
Sep 28 Denver, CO – Ball Arena !
Sep 30 Austin, TX – Moody Center !
Oct 1 Irving, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory !
Oct 3 Chicago, IL – United Center !
Oct 5 Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena !
Oct 6 Toronto, Ontario – Scotiabank Arena !
Oct 8 Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre !
Oct 11 Boston, MA – TD Garden !
Oct 12 Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center !
Oct 14 Philadelphia, PA – The Met Philadelphia !
Oct 17 Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion !
Oct 19 Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheater !
Oct 21 Orlando, FL – Amway Center *
Oct 23 Miami, FL – FTX Area *

! with EarthGang
* with Jungle

Follow Your Dreams With the Help of a Personal Loan

The dream of starting a business is something that many people share. Whether it be the next big thing in the NFT space or a local mom and pop restaurant, one thing remains the same across the board: it takes money to make money.

If you’re ready to take action, now’s the time to turn your attention to the costs associated with starting a business. Most importantly, you must decide how much money you need to get your new company off the ground, including exploring options with financial institutions such as Gordon Simmons Service Credit Union. That allows you to determine what to do next, which may entail borrowing money or using funds that you have already saved.

A small personal loan is one of the best ways to secure the money you need to follow your dream of starting and owning a business. Should you agree, here are some of the many questions you should answer. Doing so will help you decide what to do next.

  1. How much money do you need to borrow?

If you need to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a business, a personal loan isn’t what you’re looking for. In most cases, a personal loan is a loan in the $100k or less range. Knowing how much you need to borrow allows you to decide if a personal loan makes sense.

  1. What is your credit score?

Check on your credit score and credit history before you apply for a personal loan. Doing so will ensure that you have a firm grasp of your financial circumstances. It also tells you if you’re likely to qualify.

Remember, if you don’t have a strong credit score and history you’re unlikely to get approved. This is due to the fact that a personal loan is unsecured. Your lender is taking on all the risk, so they want to make sure that you have a history of making on time payments.

  1. Do you have the means to pay back the loan?

Don’t take out a personal loan if you don’t have the means to pay it back. Doing so is only going to result in trouble down the road. It’s essential that you have a plan in place for paying the money back in full, on time, and based on the terms and conditions of your agreement with the bank.

For instance, if you’re quitting your current job to start a business, you need another source of income to pay your loan back. You can’t rely on the fact that you’ll generate enough income from your new business to make full and timely payments.

  1. What term are you interested in?

Most banks offer personal loans in the range of 12 to 84 months. A lower term allows you to pay off the loan sooner. It also positions you to secure the lowest possible interest rate. It also leaves you with a larger down payment.

A longer term is often better because it gives you a smaller monthly payment, and that may be helpful when you’re getting your business off the ground.

Ask your loan officer to provide information on all available terms. You can then compare the finer details to decide which one best suits your current financial situation and future.

  1. What are your other options?

A personal loan isn’t the only place to turn for funds to start a business. You should look into other options such as a home equity loan, home equity line of credit, or business credit card. Just the same as a personal loan, there are pros and cons associated with all of these.

Take as much time as necessary to compare the finer details of all your options. You’re making a big change in your life, so you don’t want to put unnecessary stress on yourself by choosing the wrong type of loan. That’s not what you need when starting a business.

Final thoughts

Now that you have answered all these questions, you can more confidently decide if you should use a personal loan to follow your dream. There’s no shortage of benefits, so this may be just what you’ve been searching for.

What makes a personal loan a good choice in your eyes? Are there any risks associated with this financial product?

Phoebe Bridgers Shares New Video for ‘Sidelines’

Phoebe Brigers has today shared the music video for ‘Sidelines’, which we named our Song of the Week upon its release last month. Watch the clip below.

The track, which Bridgers co-wrote with her bandmate and collaborator Marshall Vore and Ruby Rain Henley, is taken from the soundtrack to Hulu’s TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends. According to a press release, it will be Bridgers’ only original new single of the year.

Cola Unveil Video for New Song ‘Fulton Park’

Cola – the new project from former Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy and US Girls/The Weather Station drummer Evan Cartwright – have shared a new single from their upcoming debut album Deep In View, which is due out this Friday via Fire Talk. ‘Fulton Park’ follows previous entries ‘Blank Curtain’, ‘So Excited’, ‘Degree’, and ‘Water Table’. Check it out below.

“Ben and I had a flow writing this record where we would send each other demos every Friday,” Darcy explained in a press release. “It was a really motivating way to write, as I would spend the week working on something but then get the bonus of hearing what Ben had written when I sent him my track. I heard ‘Fulton Park’ and was immediately excited to work on vocals for it. It’s such an interesting instrumental. These lush almost psychedelic guitars in the intro and chorus are paired with this really stripped down almost honky tonk verse. It conjured in my mind this kind of old west imagery. I suppose looking back on the lyrics now, that same kind of juxtaposition is present. Similar to ‘Landers’, it takes a look at the natural world and then the odd, magical, sometimes empty things that humans do on that landscape.”