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Artist Spotlight: Tasha

When Tasha made her debut album, 2018’s Alone at Last, she had only been writing songs for a couple of years. Though she was still figuring out the kind of songwriter she wanted to be, the Chicago-based musician’s wondrously gentle meditations on the self brimmed with confidence and a rare kind of intimacy, both qualities she has retained and cultivated on her newly released sophomore full-length, Tell Me What You Miss the Most. This time, however, she pays closer attention to the language of each song and its place in the context of the album, making for a listening experience that is not only warm and inviting but also richly rewarding. She brings in a full band and explores new territory on songs like the invigorating ‘Perfect Wife’, showcasing a musical growth that mirrors the personal journey the album relays, swaying from a wistful loneliness born from heartbreak to a peaceful, dizzying kind. One through-line between the two albums is the presence of “bed songs”, which bookend Tell Me What You Miss the Most and represent the symbolic resonance the object holds for Tasha. Take the time to check in with yourself in those quiet moments before the start and end of each day, she seems to say, and see where dreams take you.

We caught up with Tasha for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her songwriting journey, her new album Tell Me What You Miss the Most, and more.


This new album has been like a warm companion to me now that the weather is getting colder. I feel like it’s the perfect time for it to come out. Could you start by telling me what your relationship with the seasons is like? Are you consciously aware of how they affect you mentally or creatively?

I’m coming to realize that I think the seasons do really affect me or change the way I move through the world, and I think the way that I am creative. Because I’m not really someone who’s always writing or always recording, it’s just not the way that I operate; I never know when it will happen. But I think that I found colder months to be a little bit more inspiring to me. And I’m not totally sure why that is, but all of the songs on the record were written between October and February, except for one.

Which one?

‘Burton Island’ was written later in the year. It was written in September, in the middle of us recording.

It’s still not in the summer then. 

Yeah, I don’t think the summer is inspiring. [laughs] I think in my life, the way that I move through the world, it can be inspiring, but when it comes to writing, I rarely feel the urge to sit and write in the summer. And then something about when it starts to get cold – I think it maybe really brings me inside myself. I was nervous for whatever reason about the album coming out this late in the year, but I think it’s becoming clear that maybe it’s the perfect time for it to come out.

How does it make you feel more connected to yourself?

Well, if I think about specific moments when the songs came to life, for many of them, it was like at night, sitting alone in my room with the radiators kicking. And I think maybe colder months bring about a solitude, because when it’s warm you’re hanging out and you’re busy, and the winter really gives me an excuse to stay in. One thing that was different about this record, too, is I went on a little writing retreat in January 2020 because I specifically wanted to go somewhere and write some songs. I was in this house in this little studio in Michigan, just surrounded by snow, and I was going in there five days in a row to write and play guitar. And I’ve never done that before, but that was incredibly inspiring. Again, I think it’s something about the retreat that happens when it’s cold, and inside of that retreat, I don’t have anything else but myself.

Before we talk more about the album, since we’re on the subject of inspiration, I was wondering what it was that originally inspired you to start playing music and writing in general.

I’ve always been really interested in writing since I was a child. I would write stories for little writing competitions when I was in elementary school and middle school, and I loved doing that. And then in high school, I wrote a lot of poetry and I really loved to sing, but for whatever reason, I never considered myself a songwriter when I was younger. It didn’t come so naturally to me. And then through college, too, I was playing guitar and singing a little bit, but mostly, like, picking up a guitar in someone’s dorm but not really spending any time with it. It was after college around 2015 and 2016, I really don’t know what it was, but I think there was something that made me decide that I wanted to try writing songs.

My community at the time of musicians and the way that my life was, I was listening to a lot of like neo-soul and R&B and that world of music. And I had this friend who sent me some beats and I just wrote kind of silly little songs to these, like, lofi beats. [laughs] I feel very shy and kind of embarrassed about it now, but it was my truth at the moment. And then it was around 2016 when I started playing guitar more, and I think it kind of changed my life as far as the way that it made me want to write songs. I started teaching myself more songs on guitar, like covers I loved, and me being someone who could play guitar and sing and write songs, it became more of a reality as I started to just do it more and realize it was possible.

Do you mind sharing some memories of you enjoying music at an early age?

I’ve actually been thinking a lot about the music I used to listen to when I was young. When I was like 10, 11, 12, before it became, like, something I did to be cool, which was kind of how I related to music in high school. [laughs] But I was listening to the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain and Sheryl Crow, and I was thinking, I was listening to all of these really amazing women musicians and women songwriters and guitar players. And I think that while I maybe didn’t realize it at the time, I’d like to think that maybe it had a really strong influence on me, looking up to these very badass, beautiful, talented women. I loved their music so much, and I can recall birthdays and Christmases when I would ask for CDs of theirs and then just play them loud on a loop on my CD player in my room. And I used to  call my mom and my brothers in to watch me, like, perform, which was just me singing along to the song. I would just press play and sing along. [laughs] Maybe it has something to do with where I am.

Is that something that you feel nostalgic about or that you find yourself missing?

It is. I feel nostalgic about it, and I also think about it in a way to remind myself that the thing that I’m doing now really is a dream come true. It sounds a little bit corny, but when I play on stage, it feels like that – it feels kind of indulgent in a way, but it feels so good to sing in front of people. And for it to be song that I made, it feels like such a treat. It’s my favourite thing. It brings me that same giddy feeling, of like: I am so excited to share this thing that I worked on and I really hope people like it. Being in that moment, that sense of power, I think is a similar kind of feeling.

It feels like there’s this arc that Tell Me What You Miss the Most goes through – it comes together more like a story than little vignettes. I was wondering if that’s something you were conscious about in terms of conceptualizing the album while keeping it honest to your experience.

I love that you asked that, because honestly, it wasn’t until the album was almost finished that I found all of these connections between the songs that I didn’t even really realize were there before, which felt really magical. The sequence of the album was very intentional, and as I started finishing writing songs and looking at them all, this story did start to take shape a little bit. To me, the arc it is partially the story, but it’s also the feeling, I think. I really feel like there’s a feeling that you get travelling through this record. All of that was really intentional, but it wasn’t clear at the beginning. I didn’t write the songs knowing what kind of story I would be telling or how they would be connected. But I had this sense of the feeling, and it really wasn’t even until it was finished and as I was listening to it through and I was reading through all of the lyrics that I was even discovering these points of connection.

I feel like the songs on the album are essentially about love, but more as a means of tracing your relationship with your own self. And I think that sort of self-awareness becomes an especially useful tool on a song like ‘Sorry’s Not Enough’. Could you talk about the making of that song?

That song actually had a really interesting life. That was when I went away for this little writing retreat I did, that was the very first song I wrote, like the first day, and it came out kind of quickly. If it’s not clear from the song, I was really sad, but I was also, I think, apart from the love-related turmoil I was in the midst of, there was a shift in self-awareness that was happening at the time that I started writing the songs. My view of myself was changing in this kind of dark way. I think up until that point, I had really been inclined towards, like, joy and hope and whimsy, and while that is inside the record too, I think this was me trying to understand a way to write and see myself in a lens that wasn’t so sunny.

And then the interesting thing about that song is, the second half of it, the “I’ll try again in the morning, I’ll be okay at the end,” I had a completely different part written for that. It was really loud and honestly really dramatic, and it was a little bit too on the nose and honest about what I was going through at the time. It was very bleak. And it was really satisfying initially when I wrote it, and it stayed that way for a year. We tracked the guitar and we tracked the drums, and it just didn’t feel quite right. When I write songs, I usually write them start to finish, and they pretty much stay that way, I don’t do a lot of editing and moving around. And so I hadn’t experienced this feeling of like, I think I need to change something but I don’t know how. I really didn’t like the song for a long time because of that, I didn’t feel connected to it and I didn’t think that we could make it sound good. And then one day with Eric [Littman, who co-produced the album], we put that section on a loop and took out the vocal part, and I just tried to come up with something different. And it took it took a long time, I tried different melodies and different lyrics, and I think I couldn’t have realized it without all of this time passing that I did want something more hopeful. I wanted there to be that moment of like, mostly for me, No, it’s okay, you’re gonna be okay, Tasha. You’re good.

Yeah, I don’t know if it would sound the same if you had tried to force that sense of hope without letting it breathe for some time. I think it’s sort of emblematic of the arc of the whole record, because it feels like when you tap into that darkness even a little bit, hope starts to take on a different shape. I feel like with this record, the idea of self-care and self-love is still very important, but because it goes into these darker places, they take on new meaning. So I wanted to ask, what has self-love and self-care come to mean for you?

I like that you noticed that. Because I’m older now and living is much harder and my relationships are more complicated, both romantic and with my friends and my family, and my responsibilities are more complicated and the world is more complicated, that inevitably brings more work that I have to do to care for myself. There’s just so many more variables at play as far as my general wellness. I think my self-care is more rooted in figuring out [her dog sneezes] – sorry, that’s my dog. [laughs] One second. [sits with her dog on her lap] It’s like, much more rooted in a responsibility to others. I don’t think in a bad way, I think youth just gives one the luxury of being able to be a little bit like more self-centred. And again, in a very positive way, but there was more luxury to think about everything that I needed. And I was growing, so I was like, How do I take care of myself? And now, it feels more rooted in, How do I care for myself in order to care for the people around me? How do I make sure that I am doing the work I need to do to be a good person to the ones that I love?

And ultimately, that means being good to myself as well. But it feels more serious. I think I had this sense that I would care for myself just because, and now I’m like, Wait, if I don’t care for myself, I’m like, not a good person. [laughs] This is necessary work, because I don’t know how to be a good person if I’m not doing the work to figure out what that looks like.

I think it brings a sort of newfound appreciation for things, not just other people but just the world in general. That’s something I think this record beautifully captures, from like, the seagull’s call to the blueness of the sky. I feel like lyrically, as you put more focus on yourself as a person, you begin to take note of those things around you.

That’s so cool that you noticed that.

I was wondering if you could share one thing that recently brought you joy that maybe wouldn’t have in the past or that you wouldn’t have paid attention to in the same way.

That’s a good question. What’s bringing me joy… Man, I feel like it shouldn’t be so hard for me to answer. I feel like a lot of things bring me joy. Let me think about it for a second…

I mean, this isn’t the most interesting thing, but this dog is actually my girlfriend’s dog, and I’ve been taking more care of him since we moved in together. She was out of town for a couple of days the other week and I was taking care of him alone, which I’d never done before. And we went on a long walk this one day, and I’ve never really gone on a long walk with him by myself, only us together. And it was actually really special. I’m not someone who – I like to walk, but it’s not something that I often choose to do, and I’ve never particularly liked it that much. [laughs] But this walk was really special, and it was one of the first chilly days we had here, and there was something about it that made me really happy. It put me in a really, really good mood, and I don’t know if it was me having this new responsibility for this little dog and being the only one who could take him out every day, I’m not sure. But now we go on a lot of walks, I’m taking him out around the neighbourhood all the time, and I wasn’t really doing that before. There is some kind of new appreciation I think I have for being out walking that I just didn’t have before.


This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Tasha’s Tell Me What You Miss the Most is out now via Father/Daughter Records.

Albums Out Today: Taylor Swift, Silk Sonic, IDLES, Courtney Barnett, and More

In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on November 12, 2021:


Taylor Swift, Red (Taylor’s Version)

Continuing her re-recording project, Taylor Swift has released Red (Taylor’s Version), out now via Republic. Following Fearless (Taylor’s Version), the 30-track project features new recordings of every track from her 2012 album, including nine ‘From the Vault’ tracks and collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Chris Stapleton, and Ed Sheeran. “Musically and lyrically, Red resembled a heartbroken person,” Swift said of the album in a statement. “It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feelings that somehow all fit together in the end. Happy, free, confused, lonely, devastated, euphoric, wild, and tortured by memories past. Like trying on pieces of a new life, I went into the studio and experimented with different sounds and collaborators. And I’m not sure if it was pouring my thoughts into this album, hearing thousands of your voices sing the lyrics back to me in passionate solidarity, or if it was simply time, but something was healed along the way.”


Silk Sonic, An Evening With Silk Sonic

An Evening With Silk Sonic, the debut album from Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s new project, has arrived via Aftermath Entertainment/Atlantic. The record includes the early singles ‘Leave the Door Open’, ‘Skate’, and ‘Smokin Out the Window’ and features contributions from “special guest host” Bootsy Collins as well as Thundercat, drummer Homer Steinweiss of the Dap-Kings, Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, James Fauntleroy, and more. “A good song can bring people together – you don’t really have to sing the words ‘Everyone is coming together’,” Mars told Rolling Stone. “Sometimes it’s hard to really do it. You don’t have to say ‘Everyone raise your hand’ – sometimes it hits you just hit the chord and it happens. So that was our mindset with the whole album.”


IDLES, CRAWLER

IDLES have followed up their 2020 album Ultra Mono with CRAWLER, which is out now via Partisan. The 14-song LP was recorded at Real World Studios in Bath during the COVID-19 pandemic and was co-produced by Kenny Beats and guitarist Mark Bowen. The band previewed the album with the previously released singles ‘The Beachland Ballroom’ and ‘CAR CRASH’, both of which arrived with accompanying music videos.


Courtney Barnett, Things Take Time, Take Time

Courtney Barnett has released her third studio album, Things Take Time, Take Time, via Mom+Pop Music/Marathon Artists. The singer-songwriter wrote the follow-up to 2018’s Tell Me How You Really Feel over a period of two years and recorded it towards the end of 2020 and early 2021 in Sydney, Northern NSW and Melbourne alongside producer/drummer Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint, Cate le Bon, Kurt Vile). The record includes the previously released singles ‘Rae Street’‘Before You Gotta Go’, and ‘Write A List of Things to Look Forward To’.


Damon Albarn, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows

Damon Albarn has issued his latest LP, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows, via Transgressive. Following 2014’s Everyday Robots, the album was originally conceived as an orchestral piece inspired by Icelandic landscapes. “I took some of these realtime, extreme elemental experiences [of Iceland] and then tried to develop more formal pop songs with that as my source,” Albarn said of the album in a statement. “I wanted to see where that would take me. Sometimes it took me down to Uruguay and Montevideo. Other times I went to Iran, Iceland or Devon. With travel being curtailed, it was kind of nice to be able to make a record that put me strangely in those places for a moment or two.”


Jonny Greenwood, Spencer (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Jonny Greenwood‘s original soundtrack to Spencer, the Pablo Larraín-directed Princess Diana biopic starring Kristen Stewart, is out now via Mercury KX. It marks the Radiohead guitarist’s ninth film soundtrack and includes the previously shared single ‘Crucifix’. “I explained to Pablo that there’s lots of baggage attached to classical music in films about the royals,” Greenwood said in an interview with NME. “You either use actual Handel or pastiche Handel. I watched a few royal films, which were full of sweeping shots of Buckingham Palace, with fanfare horns and tinkling harpsichords on top. I wanted instead to emphasise how chaotic and colourful Princess Diana was, in amongst all that baroque tradition. It’s what the film does too.”


Claire Cronin, Bloodless

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Claire Cronin has released her new LP, Bloodless, via Ordinal Records. It marks the Los Angeles-based writer and musician’s third LP, arriving after 2019’s Big Dread Moon and her 2020 memoir Blue Light of the Screen. Cronin recorded it alongside her collaborator and husband Ezra Buchla, with Deerhoof’s John Dieterich handling the mixing. Of making the album in near-total isolation during one of the worst wildfire seasons in California history, Cronin said: “I felt trapped and hopeless and terrified — of the virus, of the fires, of what was going on in American politics. In some ways, death felt far away — numbers of fatalities on the news — but it was also a constant threat.”


Irreversible Entanglements, Open the Gates

Irreversible Entanglements – the alt-jazz collective featuring Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, double bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Tcheser Holmes – have released a new record. Open the Gates is out now via Don Giovanni/International Anthem. Following last year’s Who Sent You?, the LP includes the previously released single ‘Key to Creation’ as well as the title track.


Pip Blom, Welcome Break

Pip Blom, the Dutch four-piece led by the titular Pip Blom, have dropped their sophomore album Welcome Break via Heavenly. The band self-produced the follow-up to 2019’s Boat and recorded it in three weeks at Big Jelly Studios in Ramsgate, England. “This was the second time we were at the same studios so it made it a bit easier for us to make the decision to continue doing it ourselves,” Blom told Gigwse, adding: “I think it’s definitely more polished, and maybe a little bit less DIY. There are probably lots of people who don’t like that choice that we’ve made, but to me, it’s like we are really letting the songs speak for themselves instead of hiding behind lots of distortion and weird noises.”


Jon Hopkins, Music for Psychedelic Therapy

Jon Hopkins has a new album out titled Music For Psychedelic Therapy (via Domino). His first full-length release since 2018’s Singularity, the record was inspired by a creative expedition he went on in 2018 at Tayos Caves in Ecuador. “It felt like time for a reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place,” Hopkins stated in press materials. “What grew from this experience is an album with no beats, not one drum sound, something that is closer to a classical symphony than a dance / electronica record. Something that is more like having an experience than listening to a piece of music. Maybe something far more emotionally honest than I had been comfortable making before – a merging of music, nature and my own desire to heal.”


Other albums out today:

Makthaverskan, För Allting; Gov’t Mule, Heavy Load Blues; Lionlimb, Spiral Groove; Aesop Rock & Blockhead, Garbology; Rod Stewart, The Tears of Hercules; The Dodos, Grizzly Peak; Amanda Shires, For Christmas; Little Mix, Between Us.

Grimes Forms New AI Girl Group NPC, Releases New Song ‘A Drug From God’

Grimes has launched a new “AI girl group” called NPC. According to press materials, the group features infinite members that “can be voted in or out, except for core members such as the baby Warnymph.” Today, NPC has released their first official single, ‘A Drug From God’, which is a collaboration with British house DJ Chris Lake. Check it out below.

The project serves as “a vehicle for experimentation in new technologies as they become available such as generative characters and music, diff types of animation, ai assisted art as well as spiritual technology in that Grimes can create as other people in order to reduce the psychic pain of being in the public eye,” the press release continues. “NPC will hone the concepts of Art Angels and Miss Anthropocene, finally manifesting the endless characters in Grimes’ head. NPC can do all the things humans cannot. NPC will eventually be playable, customizable, and able to cater to each individual listener’s unique desires. Decentralized Popstardom. Made, not Born.”

Listen to Beyoncé’s New Song ‘Be Alive’

Beyoncé has released ‘Be Alive’, the song that soundtracked the King Richard film trailer. The movie stars Will Smith and centers on Richard Williams while he coaches and raises his daughters, Venus and Serena Williams. Listen to ‘Be Alive’ below.

Last year, Beyoncé shared the single ‘BLACK PARADE’, which earned her a Grammy for Best R&B Performance. She also released the visual album Black Is King, featuring music from 2019’s The Lion King: The Gift.

King Richard is out in theaters and HBO Max on November 19.

Album Review: Emma Ruth Rundle, ‘Engine of Hell’

For some listeners, Engine of Hell might sound like the calm after the storm, the kind that isn’t peaceful but dreadfully eerie. Coming off the heels of her recent collaborations with sludge metal band Thou – the 2020 opus May Our Chambers Be Full and this year’s The Helm of Sorrow EP – and despite its similarly grim title, Emma Ruth Rundle’s latest is not only a departure from the merciless grandiosity of those projects, but also from most of the prolific singer-songwriter’s own solo work. Fans of 2016’s Marked for Death or 2018’s On Dark Horses will be quick to note the absence of the reverb-soaked, full-band arrangements and atmospheric textures that fleshed out her gothic brand of folk, even if the reasons behind the shift aren’t fully accounted for. On a handful of the songs, she trades guitar for piano, returning to the first instrument she learned as a way of accessing some of her earliest and most traumatic memories. Rundle has understandably refrained from discussing these experiences at length, and for all its musical intimacy, the record feels less like a conversation between her and the listener than simply with herself. Yet for anyone who cares enough to listen, it opens up the same portal.

At one of the points in which Engine of Hell leans away from poetic ambiguity, we get a relatively straightfoward explanation for the album’s stark presentation: “So quiet, the melody I sing that’s just mine/ Is the center of my troubles,” she sings on ‘The Company’. Consisting mostly of her voice and chosen instrument, you could say the songs are stripped down to their purest form, but then it feels like this is just how they’ve always existed. You can even hear her fingers sliding up and down the fretboard, little imperfections left in, “the breath between things no one says” – all delivered not with the blurry distortions of a lofi recording, but with suffocating clarity. These are mostly live takes, unfiltered and raw. When additional embellishments do creep in, like the violin on ‘Citadel’, they are subtle, lone, and evocative.

But there is nothing cautious, uninspired, or weightless about the music. One of the most remarkable things about it is the way Rundle can conjure heaviness using the simplest and often unconventional tools. Though it sits at a fascinating crossroads between the styles of Tori Amos, Phil Elverum, and Sibylle Baier, Engine of Hell appears to spring from a place of unflinching vulnerability and isolation all on its own. Not only does it forego the layers of instrumentation that would add heft to her personal, reflective lyricism, it also eschews the kind of direct confessionalism that would normally stand in their shadow. You don’t connect to the songs so much as you become immersed their impeccable flow, ricocheting between a few scattered details (“Down at the methadone clinic we waited/ Hoping to take home your cure/ The curdling cowards, the crackle of china/ You say that it’s making you pure”), references both biblical and ancient, labyrinth-like recollections of the past.

Wherever it comes from or takes her, Rundle uses her rich, poignant lyricism less as an interpretive canvas than an avenue for emotional expression, and the way she dances through it is utterly mesmerizing. Music journalist Emma Madden put it best in her interview with Rundle for Stereogum, a description I can’t seem to escape: “It sounds like your voice is being born.” Her voice is naked and exposed, yes, but it goes beyond that; it often sounds like it’s forming itself through the words, exploring the confines and possibilities of stretching them this or that way. “Straight to the hangman’s noose, are we born this way?” she ponders on ‘Blooms of Oblivion’, “Handing down a fistful of sorries you will never say/ I love you.” Then, she commands an arresting performance by pushing around the edges of two of the most common words in the English language: “See? Say.” She does this throughout the record, stressing the core refrain not for dramatic effect but in search of some kind of release.

This is only one way in which Rundle maintains tension throughout Engine of Hell. Another is the way she applies the musical fluidity that has marked her discography to the record’s minimalist framework. This might be a spare singer-songwriter album, but it has little in common with the acoustic folk of Rundle’s 2014 debut Some Heavy Ocean. Even the traditional structure of some of the tracks tends to fade out of view as you follow the movements within a song, which, on songs like the harrowing ‘Body’, align vividly with Rundle’s storytelling. There are a couple of exceptions in the album’s second half: ‘Razor’s Edge’ has an almost adolescent warmth to it that comes into contrast with Rundle’s sharp lyricism, while ‘Citadel’ most closely echoes her earlier work. Unlike most of the songs here, they could easily be reimagined through the language of heavy music, but their power stems from Rundle’s frail, solitary presence.

So when that aloneness is broken through the occasional backing vocal or the haunting echo of an unfamiliar instrument, you might find yourself wondering what lies on the other side. And when tenderness does shine though, even devastatingly so, these moments are hard to miss: the delicate ‘Dancing Man’, the way the piano on ‘Body’ mirrors the embrace the singer is grieving. But when Rundle sings about how you “leave knowing nothing’s resolved,” you take it as given. You don’t expect a way out. She isn’t playing by the rules, after all, but turns the aimlessness of the journey into something gripping. Yet something of a miracle happens at the end, on the outwardly redemptive ‘In My Afterlife’. The catharsis is explicit: “And now we’re free” are the last lines on the record. But her voice, so far floating through the ether, spins upward in a way that gestures towards transcendence of the simplest kind: letting the light in, taking in air. Returning.

Rosalía and the Weeknd Join Forces on New Song ‘LA FAMA’

Rosalía and the Weeknd have teamed up for the new single ‘LA FAMA’. The track, which features a cameo from Danny Trejo and the Weeknd singing in Spanish, arrives alongside a video by Director X. Check it out below.

“I wanted to write, in my own way, a bachata with a little story around ambition,” Rosalía explained in a statement. “Taking as a reference the lyrics of Ruben Blades or Patti Smith and the songs of Aventura, I ended up writing a story of romance with fame.”

‘LA FAMA’ is set to appear on Rosalía’s upcoming album Motomami, the follow-up to 2018’s El Mal Querer. She previously joined the Weeknd on a remix of his single ‘Blinding Lights’.

 

Jack White Announces Two New Albums, Shares New Video for ‘Taking Me Back’

Jack White has announced two new LPs, Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive. Fear of the Dawn drops on April 8, 2022, while Entering Heaven Alive will follow on July 22, both via White’s Third Man label. Along with the announcement, White has shared a new video for his recent single ‘Taking Me Back’. Check it out below, and scroll down for the albums’ cover art and tracklist.

White shared ‘Taking Me Back’, the opening track on Fear of the Dawn, in October as part of the rollout for the Call of Duty: Vanguard video game. He also released a stripped-back version of the song, ‘Taking Me Back (Gently)’, which will serve as the closer on Entering Heaven Alive.

White’s last solo album, Boarding House Reach, came out in 2018.

Fear of the Dawn Cover Artwork:

Fear of the Dawn Tracklist:

1. Taking Me Back
2. Fear of the Dawn
3. The White Raven
4. Hi-De-Ho (w/ Q-Tip)
5. Eosophobia
6. Into the Twilight
7. Dusk
8. What’s the Trick?
9. That Was Then (This is Now)
10. Eosophobia (Reprise)
11. Morning, Noon and Night
12. Shedding My Velvet

Entering Heaven Alive Cover Artwork:

Entering Heaven Alive Tracklist:

1. A Tip From You to Me
2. All Along the Way
3. Help Me Along
4. Love is Selfish
5. I’ve Got You Surrounded (With My Love)
6. Queen of the Bees
7. A Tree on Fire From Within
8. If I Die Tomorrow
9. Please God, Don’t Tell Anyone
10. A Madman From Manhattan
11. Taking Me Back (Gently)

How to Watch Matrix 4 in Canada

Matrix 4 is not on Netflix Canada and probably won’t ever be! But that doesn’t mean you cannot watch the movie. Here I will guide you how to get Matrix 4 in Canada.

HBO Max has picked up the rights for the movie in the US. So, if you happen to be in the US you are in luck, if not a VPN will help you.

How to Watch Matrix 4 in Canada via VPN

Follow these steps to watch Matrix 4 in Canada:

  • Get a VPN to watch HBO Max.
  • Connect your VPN to a US server.
  • Now go to HBO Max.
  • Search and start streaming Matrix 4 in Canada.

What is Matrix 4 About?

Plagued by strange memories, Neo’s life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself back inside the Matrix.

Matrix 4 Release Date in Canada

Matrix 4 aired on HBO Max on 22 December 2021 in Canada.

Watch Matrix 4 Official Trailer

Here’s the official trailer of the movie!

Matrix 4 Cast

Here’s the cast for Matrix 4:

  • Keanu Reeves
  • Christina Ricci
  • Carrie-Anne Moss
  • Priyanka Chopra Jonas
  • Jessica Henwick
  • Jonathan Groff
  • Ellen Hollman
  • Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
  • Jada Pinkett Smith
  • Neil Patrick Harris
  • Daniel Bernhardt

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Sex Education Season 3: The Best And Worst Relationships

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Sex Education‘s third season recently premiered to positive reviews. The latest season of the Netflix series takes its characters in a new direction; for one, Moordale gets a makeover when Mr. Groff is replaced by Hope Haddon. Hope brings shame upon the students of Moordale, leaving them questioning their identities and sexualities.

The third season of Sex Education may have a different, darker tone, but it doesn’t lose its sense of humor. The characters continue to grow, and their progressing individual arcs are clearly the focus of this season, but it is, after all, a show about relationships. These aren’t limited to romantic or sexual pairings; Otis’s bond with his mother is one of the core relationships of the series, as is his friendship with Eric. Both of these relationships remain strong and steady throughout season 3, having resolved prior conflicts in season 2. Thus, here are some of the best and worst relationships introduced in season 3, or reintroduced with new conflicts.

BEST – Maeve and Otis

Season 2 ends on a cliffhanger when Isaac deletes the voicemail Otis leaves on Maeve’s phone, telling her he’s loved her all along. In season 3, the missing message is the elephant in the room for the few interactions Maeve and Otis share in the first few episodes. However, the two characters can’t dance around the issue forever – by now, they both know they have feelings for each other, regardless of the message.

Eventually, Isaac tells Maeve the truth, and she confronts Otis, demonstrating her strong sense of self-worth, courage, and honesty. Still, she’s not willing to throw herself into his arms. Maeve takes the time to consider if she really wants to be in a committed relationship with Otis, who has just broken off a casual fling with Ruby. Between their romantic drama, Otis and Maeve manage to inspire the students to take action against Hope, whether they realize it or not.

The pair no longer runs the clinic, but they use any opportunity they get to spread empowering messages surrounding sex positivity and autonomy. In this way, their journeys are still very much intertwined, and it’s clear that they’re meant for each other – at least at this stage of their lives. At the end of the season, Otis tells Jean that Maeve is “[his] person”. Maeve, on the other hand, decides to take the opportunity to study in America, but she reassures Otis that this isn’t goodbye. While she cares about him, she’s not going to sacrifice her own future prospects for him.

WORST – Otis and Ruby

Unlike Otis and Maeve’s relationship – romantically and platonically – nothing about the dynamic between Otis and Ruby is healthy. From the get-go, Ruby tries to change Otis and essentially transform him into one of the Untouchables. He doesn’t put up with this for long and tells Ruby he won’t see her anymore if she doesn’t learn to accept him as he is. Ruby reluctantly agrees, but she still doesn’t treat him with the respect he deserves. She believes herself to be above him, and Otis’s patience with her and his disregard for social status is a sign that he’s matured since season 2.

For the duration of their relationship, it’s clear that Otis’s feelings for Ruby aren’t as deep as they are for Maeve. Nevertheless, he tries to get to know Ruby and understand her behavior. When Ruby confesses her love for him, she assumes that he’ll reciprocate the sentiment. This assumption speaks to who Ruby is and calls back to the moment the pair shares in season 2 when she tells Otis that she likes “nerdy boys” because “they think they’re in love with [her]”. Even then, Otis reassures her that he doesn’t think he’s in love with her, but she carelessly dismisses this claim.

When Otis is unable to echo her confession of love, Ruby’s reaction is understandable, but also reveals qualities in her that make the pair incompatible for a serious relationship. She treats him with cruelty, which Otis expects and brushes off. While she doesn’t transform completely, Ruby does grow a lot in season 3. In the final episode, she stops Hope’s attempts to sabotage the student protest. This moment seems to come from nowhere, but fans who read between the lines can infer that she’s driven more by her personal feelings for Otis than her desire to stand with the other students. Along with the other Untouchables, she continues treating the rest of the students like she’s above them. Overall, Ruby never makes the effort to get to know Otis the way Maeve and Eric do, and thus, she can never truly accept him.

BEST – Adam and Rahim

The friendship between Adam and Rahim is one of the most unexpected dynamics to come from season 3 of Sex Education, but they make a surprisingly delightful pair to watch. Now that Adam is dating Rahim’s ex, the two bond over their shared affection for Eric. They may not want to spend time together at first, but they find themselves being paired together during the French trip when Eric isn’t around.

The two boys have little in common apart from their relationship with Eric, and it’s their differences that lend their scenes a natural comedy. Their differences are also something the boys discuss themselves. When Adam wonders how he can make Eric happy, Rahim turns up asking for his poetry back. But when Adam asks for advice, Rahim recites an insulting poem about Adam and his “head shape: so average”. Adam recognizes that he’s no poet, but he’s willing to try anything if it means impressing Eric. However, as his friendship with Rahim develops, Adam begins to realize he shouldn’t be in competition with someone Eric didn’t love in the first place. For his part, Rahim helps Adam understand that he should be himself with Eric.

One of Adam’s final scenes of the season is after the dog show, where he only scores an honorable mention, which makes him feel like a disappointment. Afterward, he comes out to his mother and tells her that Eric was his boyfriend. This is where viewers hear his poem to Eric through voiceover while a touching montage of the main characters unfolds. They may not be a romantic pairing, but Adam and Rahim help each other grow and overcome inner obstacles in season 3.

WORST – Eric and Adam

Eric and Adam’s relationship begins promisingly, but cracks begin to appear early in the season. Referring to his confidence in his identity, Eric says he’s ready to fly but Adam is only just learning to walk, which frustrates him and makes Adam feel insecure and inadequate. He constantly compares himself to Rahim, who appeared much more confident in himself when he was with Eric.

Though this couple’s dynamic in season 3 makes sense, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Eric is usually depicted as a caring, understanding person, but he doesn’t have the patience for Adam in season 3. Adam tries very hard to better himself as a person and a romantic partner, but it’s never enough for Eric. Given Eric’s own past with shame surrounding his identity – especially in the context of his relationship with his own father – viewers might expect him to be more patient with and supportive of Adam.

In the end, Adam is worthier of sympathy than Eric is, even if his reasons for breaking up with Adam are understandable. Having built up the romance between these two characters for so long, seeing them happy together is a promising start to the new season. Adam and Eric have both suffered a lot over the course of the show, and they aren’t granted a happy resolution in season 3.

BEST – Isaac and Maeve

Though it’s clear from the beginning that Isaac and Maeve aren’t going to work out romantically, the development of this pair’s bond is pleasant to watch. Season 3 sees them grow closer as friends, which makes sense for both of them. These interactions are fun and lighthearted, and Maeve could certainly do with more of those. The transition to a romantic relationship feels natural. Rather than being an obstacle in the way of Maeve and Otis’s relationship, Isaac is a person with his own conflicts and desires, and his time with Maeve is sweet, if short.

Even if representation is one of the only reasons they share an intimate scene, it’s a huge step in the right direction for authentic disability representation onscreen, especially in the context of a show like Sex Education. Giving Maeve and Isaac a chance proves that he’s a real contender for Maeve’s affection rather than an opponent to Otis. The two boys share a few immature but very much in-character scenes where they bicker over who deserves Maeve more. However, Maeve’s own storyline in season 3 proves that she isn’t just some prize to be won, and ultimately, she chooses herself over any boy. Her romance with Isaac comes to a natural but amicable conclusion when she moves out of the caravan park. It’s clear that neither character will forget the other anytime soon, as they’ve both shared some tender experiences and have impacted each other in unique ways.

WORST – Adam and Michael

Michael Groff spends most of the season separated from the other main characters. Unemployed, he lives with his arrogant brother, where Michael is able to reflect on their childhood. Viewers get an insight into why Michael is the way he is, and though it doesn’t excuse his actions, it allows him to grow in a more natural way.

But disappointingly, Michael doesn’t get even a single scene with his son. The only moment they share together is a brief glance through a window. Throughout the season Michael attempts to make amends with Maureen, but despite her encouragement, he never speaks to Adam, who feels rejected by his father. Adam could really use his love and support in season 3, but instead, he only worries that he’s disappointing him. At the dog show, he even asks Maureen not to tell Michael that he didn’t win anything.

By the end of season 3, Michael is a completely different version of himself, and perhaps he feels too ashamed to speak to Adam. On Adam’s part, he’s also changed a lot. He now seems to better understand himself and his desires. Hopefully, these two characters’ journeys will align in season 4.

BEST – Aimee and Maeve

Aimee and Maeve’s friendship has remained strong and steady from the very first episode of the series. In season 3 they have their first argument, which proves to be a real test in their relationship. It reveals flaws in both of their characters; Aimee realizes that she’s a people pleaser, and Maeve tries to open up more emotionally. Seeing them overcome their fight and try to work through their flaws together is very empowering.

Unlike Eric and Otis in past seasons, Aimee and Maeve have always been capable of treading their own paths. In season 3, they continue to have their own individual storylines outside of their friendship. However, this doesn’t mean that they can’t support each other. In fact, when Maeve leaves for America, Aimee isn’t at all upset at her departure – she’s the one who encourages her to go. This leaves Aimee without any real friends, but she’s so happy for Maeve’s success that she hasn’t even stopped to consider this.

Maeve, on the other hand, hasn’t forgotten about Aimee’s trauma in season 2. She organizes for Aimee to see Jean, a real therapist, where she begins to work through her experience. In the end, both girls are mature enough to set aside their differences to remain supportive friends. Season 3 allows them room to grow together and individually, which is a refreshing perspective for onscreen female friendships.

WORST – Jean and Jakob

Despite the drama surrounding their relationship, Jean and Jakob don’t get quite as much focus as the teens in season 3. Most of their scenes focus on the lack of trust between the pair, particularly when it comes to Jean’s pregnancy. Jakob believes that the baby may not be his – an accusation that Jean feels is unfair. The couple sees a counselor, but the sessions only highlight the differences between the two.

Jakob grows closer to Otis, but Ola rejects Jean’s presence in her family. She’s still mourning her mother and feels that Jakob has forgotten this. She also doesn’t think that Jean is right for him, given the amount of conflict in their short history. Jean, too, points out the cracks in their relationship, even though she’s the one to approach Jakob about getting back together. She tells Jakob that they don’t actually know each other very well, which is true.

This season leaves the future of Jean and Jakob’s romance in the air, after proving that though they’re attracted to each other, they may not be right to love each other. The season also ends on a note of suspense – though the clues aren’t too hard to follow – that Jakob might have been right about the baby’s paternity. Though this couple keeps trying to make things right, perhaps they’re only meant to be co-parents – at least, that’s the impression left after this rocky season.

Let’s Eat Grandma Announce New Album ‘Two Ribbons’, Share Video for New Song

Let’s Eat Grandma, the duo of singer-songwriters Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth, have announced their next album. Two Ribbons, which was co-produced by David Wrench and Let’s Eat Grandma, arrives April 8 via Transgressive. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the album’s title track, alongside a music video directed El Hardwick. Check it out below, and scroll down for the LP’s cover artwork and tracklist.

“‘Two Ribbons’ is a song I wrote to, and about, two of the closest people in my life, and how my relationships with them shifted over time through loss and life changes,” Hollingworth explained in a press release. “It touches on the isolating experience of grieving, our powerlessness in the face of death, and the visceral emotions of grief.”

‘Two Ribbons’ follows the previously released single ‘Hall of Mirrors’, which landed on our Best New Songs list. Let’s Eat Grandma’s last album, I’m All Ears, came out in 2018.

Two Ribbons Cover Artwork:

Two Ribbons Tracklist:

1. Happy New Year
2. Levitation
3. Watching You Go
4. Hall Of Mirrors
5. Insect Loop
6. Half Light
7. Sunday
8. In The Cemetery
9. Strange Conversations
10. Two Ribbons