A week before Turnstile unleashed Glow On, another band whose melodic breakthrough featured an eye-catching pink cover released their latest LP. Over the course of their careers, the Baltimore post-hardcore outfit and San Francisco’s Deafheaven have both polarized fans while pushing the boundaries of heavy music, but each of their newest releases point to a different strategy for achieving crossover success. On Infinite Granite, Deafheaven stripped their sound to its barest essentials, foregoing the cacophony of blast beats and black metal screams in favour of a cleaner, mostly dream pop palette. Turnstile also attempt to hold on to the core elements of their ever-shifting sonic identity – which, on their fourth record, includes plenty of dreamy or downright shoegaze textures to complement its gauzy artwork – but their way of injecting colour into the songs is to hone and amplify everything that made their previous experiments fascinating in the first place. Anyone listening to Glow On, regardless of musical taste, will have a hard time denying its visceral power, which comes as much from the band’s impassioned performances and immaculate production as it does from their unbridled positivity.
Turnstile make music that feels life-affirming because it has to. It’s the only way to lift the weight of discomfort that permeates their lyrics, which may not be the main attraction but whose heart imbues every cathartic breakdown and shout-along chorus with meaning. The same is true when the songs skew closer to pop, R&B, and funk than the loosely defined traditions of hardcore, as on ‘Dance-Off’, in which frontman Brendan Yates confronts a lack of emotional communication with questions like “You’re going your way I’m going mine/ But are we alive?” The need to shake off loneliness and find connection animates every corner of the record, from the relentless sonic assault of ‘T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection)’ to the bouncy, disco-inflected ‘New Heart Design’, but on ‘Blackout’, he sees that desire reflected in others, specifically his audience: “If it makes you feel alive!/ Well, then I’m happy to provide!” It’s Glow On’s most outstanding, vital moment.
There’s no doubt the album’s empowering qualities partly come from an understanding of the value of hardcore, but they’re also based on personal values and experiences. This allows Turnstile to fully lean into their various creative impulses: they don’t embrace genre fluidity simply because it’s in vogue, but because it’s part of their DNA. Yates didn’t even start writing songs like ‘Fly Again’ and ‘No Surprise’ with the intention of them being Turnstile songs – he was just messing around with the old piano his grandfather had gifted him a few years ago. While the experimentalism of 2018’s Time & Space left some feeling alienated, the band’s genre excursions here feel organic and seamlessly woven together. With 15 songs clocking in at 35 minutes, the album feels incredibly tight: “I can sail with no direction,” Yates exclaims on ‘Holiday’, and it’s exactly that ability that enables them to sharpen their focus.
Glow On was co-produced by Mike Elizondo, who co-wrote ‘In Da Club’ and ‘The Real Slim Shady’ and has worked on records by Fiona Apple, Maroon 5, and Avenged Sevenfold, and who helps make the record sound as bright and crisp as it can. Every song here is anthemic and catchy, and those that were intriguing as singles, like the Blood Orange collaboration ‘Alien Love Call’, work even better in the context of the album, confirming their place within a grander vision. You can’t really call much of Glow On a surprise – Turnstile previewed practically half of it ahead of its release – but for as digestible and hi-fi as it sounds, its polish comes with inventive and deliberate flourishes that are refreshing each time, like the reverb-drenched guitars on the strange ‘Underwater Boi’ (which also features surprise guest vocals from Julien Baker) and the frantic percussion on ‘Wild Wrld’.
Any discussion of Turnstile will include some mention of the band’s live shows, and so you might expect a line like “You really gotta see it live to get it” on ‘No Surprise’ to be some sort of meta-commentary. But the song, like much of the album, is more concerned with the nature of human existence than scene politics. I haven’t been to a Turnstile show, and though they look like a ton of fun, I can assure you the act of listening to the record is thrilling and comforting enough. As important as community is to the band’s ethos, Yates knows what it means to feel lonely in a crowd, and he knows the music can’t inspire an existential reckoning; it can’t force the realization, which he sings about on ‘New Heart Design’, that life’s real. But it’s there, in the realest way possible, whether you’ve reached that point or not.
Drake has released his new album Certified Lover Boy. The 21-track LP, Drake’s sixth proper album and his first since 2018’s Scorpion, was first announced last August and was originally set for release in January before being indefinitely delayed. As teased on a recent billboard advertising campaign, CLB features guest appearances from JAY-Z, Future, Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Ty Dolla $ign, Kid Cudi, Rick Ross, Lil Baby, and Project Pat. The album also includes spoken word from Nicki Minaj as well as samples of the Beatles, the Notorious B.I.G., Montell Jordan, and Right Said Fred. R. Kelly is credited as a composer/lyricist on the track ‘TSU’.
Little Simz has dropped her new album Sometimes I Might Be an Introvert. The follow-up to 2019’s GREY Area was produced by Inflo and features collaborations with Cleo Sol, Obongjayarm and Emma Corrin. Ahead of its release, the London rapper previewed the record with the singles ‘Introvert’, ‘Woman’, ‘Rollin Stone’, ‘I Love You, I Hate You’, and ‘Point and Kill’. “I know that I’m quiet, innit?” Simz said in an interview with the Guardian. “I’m just very to myself and I didn’t know how to really navigate that, especially coming in this industry where you’re expected to have this extroverted persona all the time. I wanted to just let people know like, yo, I’m actually this way inclined.”
Iron Maiden have returned with their 17th studio album, Senjutsu. The double LP, whose Japanese title loosely translates to “tactics and strategy,” was recorded in Paris with the band’s longtime producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Steve Harris. “We’re all really excited about this album,” lead singer Bruce Dickinson said in an earlier statement. “We recorded it back in early 2019 during a break in the Legacy tour so we could maximize our touring yet still have a long set up period before release to prepare great album art and something special as a video. Of course, the pandemic delayed things more — so much for the best-laid plans — or should that be ‘strategies’!? The songs are very varied, and some of them are quite long. There are also one or two songs which sound pretty different to our usual style, and I think Maiden fans will be surprised — in a good way, I hope!”
Spirits Having Fun have put out their sophomore LP, Two, via Born Yesterday Records. Recorded mostly in the summer of 2019 with Chicago engineer Dave Vettraino and DPCD’s Alec Watson, the album follows their 2019 debut Auto-Portrait and includes the advance singles ‘Hold The Phone’, ‘Entropy Transfer Partners’, and ‘See A Sky’. “There’s a lot more collaboration on this record,” guitarist-vocalist Andrew Clinkman said in press materials, “in terms of all of us letting stuff bloom a little bit more.”
NY-based multi-instrumentalist Giana Caliolo, who records under the moniker Calicoco, has released their sophomore full-length, Underneath, via Dadstache Records. The LP was recorded in Rochester in January 2020 with friends Phil Shaw and Stephen Roessner, who also handled engineering, mixing, and mastering. “I was trying to get the chaos of my brain into something,” Caliolo explained in a press release. “It was painful but it was also really important for sitting in my own skin.”
Other albums out today:
Big Boi and Sleepy Brown, The Big Sleepover; F.S. Blumm and Nils Frahm, 2X1=4; Manic Street Preachers, The Ultra Vivid Lament; David Ferguson, Nashville No More; DJ Seinfeld, Mirrors;SUUNS, The Witness.
allie is the moniker of Nashville-based musician Allie Cuva. After spending time in various musical projects and being recruited as the touring/session drummer for Cavetown, Cuva (who uses they/them pronouns) returned from touring with a sense of creative restlessness that inspired the 2020 EP Junior Coder’s Experiment, a collection of stripped-back but not quite lo-fi singer-songwriter music. Last Friday, allie followed it up with their remarkable full-length debut, Maybe Next Time, which was mostly written in the summer of 2020 and recorded in the spare bedroom of their home – Cuva jokingly calls it a “guest bedroom pop” record, but the vibrancy and dynamism of the record speaks for itself. Spanning 16 tracks that showcase just how well-versed the musician is in various strains of indie rock, the album documents the dissolution of a romantic relationship between two people and manages to balance its overwhelming density – of emotions, of textures, of earwormy melodies – with the warm intimacy that blankets even its most devastating, distortion-heavy moments. Having your debut album clock in at just over an hour is a bold choice, but allie doesn’t waste a second of it. Maybe Next Time serves as both a snapshot in time and a promise for the future, but when you put it on, it feels like the full picture.
We caught up with Allie Cuva for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about opening up through songwriting, the process of making Maybe Next Time, the importance of self-love, and more.
How do you think the musical projects you’ve been involved in over the years have shaped you as an artist?
I don’t think about it a lot, but I think one of the main things that’s helped about playing with people and being a collaborator is that it’s a bit of a necessity to be aware of what’s happening around you. And so even though I have been making more solo stuff recently, especially with this project, it’s given me a sense for giving attention to all the little elements and noticing how that assembly of each singular element can create something greater than the sum of its parts, if done with enough intention. I never used to give thought to, like, basslines [laughs] – you know, I’m like, the bass plays the roots. But the ways that the instruments interact with one another can create a sort of harmonious existence or a dissonace. And either of those can contribute to form an emotional palette that can communicate something indirectly, and then you throw lyrics on top of that and it can be a lot more direct, if you want, or abstract.
How did you decide to focus more on this project?
I think the isolation of the pandemic just sort of allowed me to do what I was already naturally leaning into. I probably would have had a hard time just being like, “Alright, everyone, I need to set aside time for my solo project and step away from the bands a little bit.” I had been doing so much of that for so many years. [laughs] As if I’m like 50. But the more I was really confronted with a lot of psychological turmoil centered around my gender identity and things like that, and therefore my intimate relationships with other people, there was just a lot that I felt like I had to get out and express and externalize, because it was just accumulating to kind of a stifling degree. I could recognize that music was one avenue that I had to be able to go and get it flowing and be able to communicate with myself better, and so I just recognized that that had to be something I was going to prioritize if I was gonna [laughs] just keep being a person, kind of? It was just too much to hold in otherwise. So yeah, there was never any point where I recognized that I was going to shift as much, but it just came from impulsively just making stuff and realizing that I’m carrying these songs from beginning to end.
On the title track of your debut EP, Junior Coder’s Experiment, there’s the line, “I hope there’s a secret lesson in every experience.” Did you know at the time that you were writing that song what the secret lesson of the EP would be?
No, but I love that question. I think I had a sense that maybe something was coming towards the end of making it, but I was actually largely oblivious to what was [clicks fingers] about to happen. I was really in the throes of just being depressed and having sorts of gender dysphoria and body dysphoria that I didn’t quite have a vocabulary for. And maybe I wasn’t willing or aware enough to look at that more directly, so a lot of the EP centres around what had just happened in my life before this next chapter. So I was like, “I need to first look at the last few months and report on that in order to have any sense of orientation about where I’m going.” And then this new record is like, “Oh, shit, okay, here’s where I’m going. [laughs] And here’s what this all means.”
Did songwriting play a significant role in this process of externalising what was so internal?
Yeah, it did. Especially with matters of the romantic relationship that I was in. It was a pretty long-term relationship; I basically had been with this person for like six years, just over that, and so being like 25 at the time, that was a majority of my adult life, having known this one person very closely. And that was incredibly disorienting, to sense that fundamental shift in our relationship as I learned how to actually love my deepest self and acknowledge that I needed to make changes and prioritize my own self. So the relationship started to fundamentally shift and evolve, and I think songwriting was absolutely a means of making sense of it all. Because it was very, very scary, just the notion of, you know, potentially not being able to be partners with this person who I had planned on staying together with. As scary as that all was, just being able to grieve and cry about that via singing [laughs] showed me certain things that I didn’t maybe know that I thought or felt about the relationship. It just allowed me an avenue to express some of those harder meditations on what the relationship has all meant to me, and just grappling with that huge shift in going from, like, dating someone to being like, “I guess we can be friends now?”
There’s obviously that conflict of “Do I want to open up about this in my songwriting?” and then there’s the conflict that comes with essentially making these thoughts available to the public. Was that something you were especially conscious of, and did it ever make you want to hold back in what you wanted to share?
I think that’s a really, really good question. I really didn’t think about it much at the time, because making music in general for me has always been a very personal process and something that’s cathartic and allows me to get in touch with how I feel about things. So that had to exist first as an outlet for me to process what was going on. I didn’t plan on necessarily releasing anything in particular, and it only came became clear as the months went on and I started to see a collection of songs that could be assembled as a record that I started to realize, like, if I’m going to share any of this and put this out, I want to be very intentional in how I represent everything that I’m experiencing. Just because these are big themes that a lot of people experience in their own ways, I think, especially with breakups.
I just wanted to make sure also that I represented my relationship with my partner fairly, and even though I was hurting so much, and sometimes that bias of pain can be super narrow – you know, maybe you’re angry with the other person, whatever it is, you want to lean into just the “What the fuck?” element of this all. I had basically unlimited time to say or make whatever I wanted in this pandemic, and so I definitely realized that I wanted to make it clear that, you know, I really care about this person. And even though we’re sort of parting ways, and it’s changing, that like, love is what enables this to happen, right? Because I love myself, we have to change the way our relationship is. And I wanted to build something that felt like it was acknowledging all the aspects of our relationship and the fact that this was all done out of love, even if there’s a lot of pain caused initially.
In terms of sharing that, I didn’t really plan on that until a lot later. But now, since it’s all about to come out, there is definitely a bit of like, I know I don’t have to put it out, no one’s making me and I want to do it, but it is honestly a bit scary, just being that vulnerable with whoever comes across it.
What is on the other side of that fear for you, that makes it worth it?
One thing I come back to, which was what I realized as it started to become a collection, was that this is an opportunity for me in however small of a way to not only be honest about my own personal experience, but the highest goal for any of this stuff is that it could be helpful to someone else. And a lot of the stuff that I’ve been faced with, especially around my gender identity, comes from – at this stage of my life, being 26 now, it’s like, my life could have probably looked a lot differently if I had had a vocabulary around gender identity and gender variance, and just being aware of any of that. And I had no education about any of that stuff when I was growing up. And so, if this could be helpful to younger people or people my age or any age, especially in that regard, that makes all the vulnerability and the scariness for me personally worth it. Because I just don’t want anyone to have to kind of do it the way I did it, in some ways, you know?
I think the ways in which all this comes through lyrically are pretty clear, but I was also curious about the musical side of it, or the musical vocabulary that you use to evoke that experience. For example, there are references to feeling strange or like your body belongs to a stranger, and I was wondering how much you wanted the sound of the record specifically to reflect that feeling.
I think sonically, I veered into whatever it was that causing me to – whether it was angst or confusion, or just a general dissonance with what’s going on in my body and in my mind – it kind of just furthered my desire to have things sound dissonant at times and to create sonic tension. So, like in that song where that lyric resides [‘quinn’], there’s this fucked-up synth line that is kind of pitchy and not very pretty. And I feel like elements like that throughout the record helped me feel comfortable in some of that – well, it’s a discomfort, but it felt like an honest representation of the experience. And then also just through distortion and the rock element of things – whenever that does shine through, that also is meant to be a cathartic sort of release. I feel like rock in general has given me an outlet just to let your soul scream a little bit, even if you’re not literally doing it. It’s like, there’s so much shit in everyone’s life and collectively and it can be really overwhelming, and it probably is productive in just a primitive sense to let it go. And sometimes that looks like an exclamation mark in the sonic format.
‘ghosts’ is the song that comes to mind, because it is one of the heavier moments on the album. Was that song specifically cathartic for you to record?
Yeah, I think so. Just a big yes. I was like, this needs a huge sound because it’s a tidal wave of emotion for me. That’s an instance where I leaned more on the instrumentation standpoint than maybe a lyrical one.
I actually did want to dig into the lyrics of the song a bit. I apologize that this is going to be a long-winded question, but in a statement about the song, you said that writing ‘ghosts’ came with the realization that you are and will always be enough, even though the lyrics suggest that you feel the opposite. And the track ends with line “You’re treading water, staring back at me,” which made me think of a song called ‘I Tread Water’ by an artist called Fell From the Tree, from their album ENOUGH, which is about transitioning during the pandemic. One part of that song goes, “Tread water haven’t thought about tomorrow/ I’ve tried but I won’t be enough.” And so, making that connection had me wondering how much, for you, realising that you are enough was a result of seeing outside of yourself and seeing how many people share those feelings – and also seeing outside the future or the past to focus on the present, if that makes sense.
Yeah, absolutely. A willingness to look at what’s going on now and realise that that’s worthy of attention.
First of all, this song, I’ve never heard of or seen this, but I just saved it to my monthly playlist so I’ll definitely listen to it. That’s fascinating – those parallels are really interesting. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
That sentiment [of being enough] even is one that I learned from the outside world, and then was like, “Oh, what if this is true for me?” [laughs] And honestly, just having it not mean anything or just be too confusing to understand, which is sad, because it shouldn’t be a difficult thing to understand. But from where I was at, it really was hard to believe that about myself. I’m still working towards internalizing that sentiment in a really deep, foundational way. And I think I’ve come a long way in even the last year in doing that, but I have a long way to go. And that reminder, being able to see that in the external world and see people lead from a place of self-love, and how further-reaching that can be in terms of the impact that you can have with another person, how connected your relationships can be – that’s been pretty eye-opening. It’s like, I thought I knew and understood a lot before this last year and a half, but since then I feel like one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that you have to start with yourself first. It still feels counterintuitive, especially if your goal is to connect with other people, serve others, be there for others. But truly, you cannot show up for others in the fullest sense without having a deep understanding and relationship with yourself, and that sense that you are worthy of being here just as much as everyone else. These things are very new to me [laughs].
It’s been inspiring to connect myself with people – whether I’ve been lucky enough for that to come in my life directly or I’ve sought out queer communities especially, where there is a priority on having a relationship with oneself as a starting point to be able to connect with others. I’ve identified as queer for over 10 years, but I didn’t realize there was such a community in the external world for that sort of philosophy and way of living. That’s just been my take on a lot of queer philosophy and activism especially, is like, it has to start at the individual level – the attention, the care, the concern, the maintenance – and that’s something I’ve absolutely learned from other people who have come before me.
And that philosophy, I think, also makes its way into the album. I’m thinking, for example, of the line “Love is not a question/ It’s the answer that’s keeping us alive,” which relates to a specific situation but also feels part of a universal framework. Were you thinking about those things when writing that song, ‘first time’?
Yeah. That’s such a good pull, too, that you just thought up. [laughs] I think I recognized that going through this inquiry of self, in terms of my gender identity, was from a place of actually wanting to have a deeper relationship with myself for the first time ever. And there’s different kinds of suppression and self-denial before that point, where I wasn’t even willing to ask the question – it’s not like I’d figured a lot out and been like, “I don’t like the results, so I’m not going to go with this.” It’s like, I wouldn’t even spend the time to ask myself what I wanted for myself. Because I guess it just conflicted with certain ideals, cultural and societal, that I’d sort of just absorbed. And when I realised that core elements of my identity were not actually in line with what I had maybe envisioned for myself, and especially what the outside world was telling me and messaging to me that my role was – largely as just a cis person, based on my appearance – realising that that actually was not consistent with how I felt at a deepest level about who I am, was something to really reckon with.
But over the course of the record and making all these decisions based out of self-love, I recognized that like, “Wow, this is a lot of shit to blow up in your personal life and change and I don’t want to lose this relationship and I don’t want people to have to adjust and address me differently and it’s gonna be harder for them.” But all of that, all of those asks and those modulations of my reality were coming out of a place of finally just being willing to give myself the attention and love that I had been also giving to the people I loved the closest for years. So I think I definitely was realizing like, oh, this is what self-love looks like. And this pain that’s caused from this relationship ending, it really could not be coming from a better place. And that song was especially meant to remind myself and my ex-partner of that. It’s kind of like a thank you, and like, “I love you. I will always love you. I love you, and this is what it looks like now.”
Do you feel like self-love has kind of been the lesson of this whole experience, or do you think that there’s also a secret lesson that hasn’t maybe hit you yet?
I think that the latter is entirely possible. Sometimes it can be really hard for me to make sense of everything that’s happened, and I’m still totally processing, healing, and grieving from that relationship ending, all the while I’m learning how to exist in the world now as a more authentic version of myself. So maybe the secret lesson lies somewhere in how to most authentically keep growing, because I feel like I’m just on the start.
Is that something that you relate to the album title, Maybe Next Time?
Yeah, absolutely. I like that title because it was something my ex-partner actually caught in my lyric and was like, “That’s what you have to name the record.” I liked it because it can be interpreted in multiple ways and it just feels so evocative to me emotionally, but now that I’m out of it a little bit and I have a better understanding of what it all meant, I think the most important interpretation that I have of that phrase is that, now that I get this is all based on self-love and pursuing a deeper relationship with myself, I have good reason – and I’m not naturally optimistic, but I have good reason to think that this is a fundamentally good way to be operating in the world and interacting with other people. And so therefore, I have good reason to believe that relationships that I make in the future, and just connections and experiences I have, will be as full as they could possibly be. It’s like, we never hit that enlightenment point, but it’s all in pursuit of that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Charli XCX is back with a new song called ‘Good Ones’, her first new solo single since last year’s how i’m feeling now. Produced by Oscar Holter, the track arrives with an accompanying music video co-directed by Hannah Lux Davis and shot in Mexico. Check it out below.
Charli XCX shared the following statement about ‘Sweet Dreams’:
Today, I, the inimitable Charli XCX, am releasing a brand new single ‘Good Ones’, accompanied by a twisted, dramatic and quite frankly electrifying music video.
The first single of my new chapter embraces all that my life has to offer in today’s world – fame, glamour, inner demons and global hits. ‘Good Ones’ was produced by Oscar Holter of Max Martin’s Wolf Cousins entity, and laments my inability to keep hold of healthy relationships, instead being endlessly drawn back to the dysfunctional and toxic.
Filmed in Mexico and co-directed by my new favorite director: Hannah Lux Davis, the ‘Good Ones’ video sees me dramatically mourning the untimely loss of my partner as I battle with the realisation that once again I’ve abandoned the goodness in my life, in favour of the sinister, with a visual aesthetic that marks a new era of me: Charli XCX.
Charli XCX has shared several collaborations this year, including ‘Out Out’ with Saweetie, Joel Corry, and Jax Jones, ‘Spinning’ with the 1975 and No Rome, and ELIO’s ‘Charger’ remix.
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And while more rewards are great for the players, finding the ideal casino offering the highest rewards is a pain. Special thanks to Olivia from Newuk.Casino for painstakingly testing new casinos and comparing the rewards for punters to analyse. The website reviews and ranks the best casinos worldwide and segregates operators based on several parameters.
Types of Casino Bonuses in 2021
Modern casinos offer several interesting types of bonuses. Let’s glance at the top variations that the players love the most.
Welcome Bonus
Newuk.Casino ranks operators based on the welcome bonus. Although most casinos reward players for signing up, the trick is to find the biggest offers. The top online casinos offer 100% cashback or match deposit bonuses as part of the sign-up program. Newuk.casino ranks and compares the top online casinos offering the biggest bonuses.
No Deposit Bonus
Several casinos reward players with a no deposit bonus just for signing up. Players can simply register and claim the free prize without making an initial deposit. No deposit bonuses can come in the form of free spins or free casino chips, depending on the operator.
Cashable Bonus
These bonuses can be cashed out easily once you’ve met the basic playthrough requirements. For instance, if a casino is offering a $100 cashable bonus, players can cash out the entire amount as soon as they fulfil the wagering terms.
Loyalty and VIP Programs
The top-rated casinos have a VIP program for their elite patrons. It’s the casino’s way of showing gratitude. Players accumulate greater points or rewards for playing for extended periods. While every casino plans the bonuses differently, the basic rewards are the same.
How to Find the Best Casino Bonuses?
While most operators offer similar bonuses, players must keep a lookout for several factors when searching for the best casinos. The list includes two major parameters.
Wagering Requirements
Every casino has a distinct set of rules and criteria that must be met for the players to withdraw their winnings. This varies on the casino as well as the games on offer.
Verification Procedure
The best casinos will have state-of-the-art security systems to protect user credentials from unauthorised access. New players are asked to submit their details for thorough verification before being allowed to wager on the site. Newuk.casino takes a special note of every security measure enforced by individual casinos while issuing a rank.
Cashback offers are an interesting bonus several elite sportsbooks regularly hand out to the punters. As the name suggests, the bookie returns a certain percentage of your lost wagers as cashback. This helps minimise losses to a certain extent, which is why it’s used by both recreational punters and high-rollers.
Cashback offers maintain a steady cash flow even while you’re losing and this helps retain a positive wagering balance. However, not every bookmaker has a cashback policy. Therefore, you must dig around a bit to uncover the best deals. Usually, experts recommend bettors to find a British brand as they’re among the handful of bookies that have a lucrative cashback policy and offer the highest returns.
How to Find the Best Cashback Offers?
Finding a reliable sportsbook can be a challenge. Although there are countless online bookmakers, not every operator has a cashback program. So, the first task is to shortlist online bookies offering cashback.
Luckily, several top bookmakers have a money-back program. You’ll find the details on their terms and conditions page. Compare a few websites to find the best deal and create your account. If you’re looking for more information, you can read the FAQs or contact the customer support team.
This not only gives you first-hand information on the operator’s policies but also helps analyse the response time. With that out of the way, it’s time to create your betting account. The process is quite straightforward. Simply follow the guidelines and your account should be ready in a few minutes.
Once your account is live, it’s time to make a deposit. The top bookies accept several payment modes, so pick a method that you’re most comfortable with. Your options are bank transfer, debit/credit cards, mobile banking, and eWallets.
Also, different operators have different promotions. If you follow the guidelines correctly, you can claim a cashback when you lose a wager.
Types of Cashback Offers
There are several types of money back offers that you can choose from. The list includes cashback after losing a bet, free bets, and more. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common offers.
Cashback After Losing a Bet
The most common type of cashback program that you’ll find today. Most bookmakers will return a part of your lost wager when the stakes are high. The promo returns a certain percentage of the betting value after settlement. So, you must wait for the selections in your bet slip to finish before asking for the cashback.
Risk-Free Bets
These are quite similar to the standard cashback program but with a minor difference. Aimed specifically at new users, punters can place their first bet up to a certain amount without losing a dime. However, such bets come with wagering requirements. As evident, the higher the cashback, the higher the wagering requirements. So, don’t forget to read the terms of use before signing up.
iGaming is a rapidly developing industry with millions of gamers worldwide. According to the Tech Jury, it will amount to $180 billion in 2021. Interestingly, it is becoming a challenge to attract players’ attention to new products because of the repetitive and boring marketing tactics. New games are being released almost every day, but iGaming businesses need a good understanding of consumer behaviour and performance assessment to help them reach potential customers.
The growth in technology and smartphone technology, in particular, continue to boost the industry. As the market increases, numerous brands and firms should have plenty of space to split this pie, but this is not precisely true. The business is more competitive, and corporations have now made it public that retention of players is equally as essential as new customers. This is evident in how many gamblers are holding accounts with various websites to make sure they obtain a welcome bonus first, and secondly, the most value for money. But what are the other ways to increase engagement in this sector?
Fortunately, Casino Bee tells us how the iGaming industry increases engagement with players in this article.
Loyalty programs
Although users are usually encouraged to start playing the most popular promos, they are just the tip of the iceberg. Casino operators also offer various loyalty programs that create ties with players to make gamers remain and spend their money in a game or casino.
Usually, VIP programmes, which consist of many tiers, come with many benefits and incentives. These benefits encourage users to stay on the site and regularly spend money on collecting prizes every day, weekly and monthly. Players usually have access to cash prizes, personalisation tools, VIP tournaments, closed venues and much more by earning loyalty points.
Advertising
It may be tough when it comes to gambling because of the stigma attached to it. Yet, the most frequent forms of publicity are:
Promotion on social media platforms, cooperation with bloggers and niche influencers, Commercials and Banners.
Personalised offers
An excellent promotional approach makes gamers feel unique. These can be individualised character goods, anniversary presents, non-generic mailings, a personal manager, etc. With these offers, iGaming businesses show that they appreciate each player and increase their loyalty and retention considerably.
Promotions
The fact that hundreds of gaming locations and game suppliers are struggling for player attention shows how essential it is to remain competitive in the iGaming industry. That is why each market player should have an arsenal of efficient promotional techniques like loyalty programs, mobile applications and frequent updates. And if you are a player, it might enable you to choose the platform and profit from the game the most.
Regular updates
The iGaming business is growing steadily; therefore, brands might find maintaining current technology and trends difficult. The proprietors must focus on the content and provide the gamers something they’ve never tried to sell a product. For example, only the finest software developers should be selected, the user interface improved, and the latest technology used. Competitor inspections are an infinite motivation for development and improvement, and most firms regularly utilise this technique.
ABBA are back. The Swedish pop icons have today announced their first new album since 1981, Voyage, which arrives on November 5 via Capitol. Along with the announcement, ABBA have also shared two new songs, ‘I Still Have Faith in You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’. Check them out below, and find the LP’s cover artwork and tracklist further down.
In addition to the album, ABBA have also announced a new concert that will see digital versions of the group’s original members (previewed in the music video for ‘I Still Have Faith in You’) performing with a live 10-piece band. ABBA Voyage will open May 27, 2022 at the ABBA Arena, a 3,000 capacity arena located at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
“We simply call it Voyage and we’re truly sailing in uncharted waters,” Benny Anderson stated in a press release. “With the help of our younger selves, we travel into the future. It’s not easy to explain but then it hasn’t been done before. It’s hard to say what’s been the most joyful thing for me with this project. If it’s the involvement in creating the concert together with everyone or being back in the studio together again after 40 years. I think hearing Frida and Agnetha singing again is hard to beat. When you come to the arena you will have the four of us together with an absolutely glorious 10-piece band. And even if not in the flesh, we will be right there, thanks to the work of the creative team and ILM.”
Anni-Frid Lyngstad added: “Those first sessions back in 2018 were such fun and when Benny called and asked if I’d consider singing some more I jumped at it! And what songs!! My respect and love go out to these exceptionally talented, truly genius songwriters! Such joy it was to work with the group again. I am so happy with what we have made, and I dearly hope our fans feel the same.”
“When we got back together in the studio I had no idea what to expect…” Agnetha Fältskog explained. “But Benny’s recording studio is such a friendly and safe environment, and before I knew it I was really enjoying myself! I can hardly believe that finally, the moment has come to share this with the world!”
Björn Kristian Ulvaeus commented: “They’re such amazing singers those two, I was completely floored by the way they delivered those songs. They’re true musicians; totally unimpressed by pop star glamour but still having a great time being creative in a recording studio. The ‘Voyage’ project has injected new life into us in more ways than one. So, again, thanks for waiting! We hope to see you in the ‘ABBA Arena’ and yes – see – because we have infused a good deal of our souls into those avatars. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we’re back.”
Voyage Cover Artwork:
Voyage Tracklist:
1. I Still Have Faith in You
2. When You Danced With Me
3. Little Things
4. Don’t Shut Me Down
5. Just a Notion
6. I Can Be That Woman
7. Keep an Eye on Dan
8. Bumblebee
9. No Doubt About It
10. Ode to Freedom
Drake
Little Simz
Spirits Having Fun
NY-based multi-instrumentalist Giana Caliolo, who records under the moniker 
