When you have a family, of course, you’re always going to want the best for them. But this doesn’t always look how we think it’s going to. Sometimes, you have to step outside the box of what society says is best for your life and do things your own way. At the end of the day, every family is different and what is best for you might not be best for another family. But you have to pick what works best.
That being said, there are always going to be general things you can do and work on. The idea of leading a healthy lifestyle, making sure that they are cared for and protected, and growing up supported knowing right from wrong is important. But what else can you do to make sure you create the best life for your family? Let’s take a look at the things you can do.
Choose The Right Education
First of all, you’re going to want to think about choosing the right school and what you can do to make sure that they get the best education. Whether this is free or paid for education, you still have choices. And there’s scholarships too. So bear this in mind and make this a proactive decision.
Choose The Right Location
At the same time, it’s always going to be important for you to make sure that you’re actually in the right place. This can sound like something that is really easy to do, but it’s not. Where you’re born or where you were brought up doesn’t always have to be the right place. You may also want to reunite your family by looking into uk spouse visa requirements too. Just be sure that you do your research and choose the best possible location for your family’s lifestyle.
Focus On Your Own Goals
It’s not always going to be right for you to follow the steps that society takes in life. It’s okay to have your own goals and views on how you want to raise your family. So be sure to keep this in mind and take your own path in life. You can ask a life coach to help you focus on your goals.
Do Things That Matter To You
When it comes to doing the things that you love in life, you definitely need to make sure that you plan activities that suit your family. You can totally do what matters to you, even if others don’t want to join you. Raise your kids how you want to and create a fun life for them.
Create A Loving And Supportive Home
Finally, you’re then going to want to make sure that your home environment is loving and supportive. Again, this is one the basic needs that you’ll want to tick off, but it’s still incredibly important. By having this in place, you’ll find that it’s just so much easier to keep your children happy and loved. The right atmosphere makes such a difference, so check your attitude and the energy you give off as a person.
A lot of people are excited by the thought that they can spin the reels of a casino slot or play live poker. However, the majority of them are even afraid to try. There are several reasons for this. Some have heard the stories of people who bankrupted because of online gambling, while others have just deposited money, and have not even liked the chosen game. Undeniably, these facts affect the reputation of web casinos. So, let us find out if there is a chance to play online casino games without being cheated.
Make Use of Competition
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic and numerous restrictions and quarantine it has led to, the gambling business has moved online. And the competition among web gambling platforms is fierce. Thus, a lot of TOP no deposit mobile casinos offer such perks as:
sign-up bonuses,
extra spins for downloading an app,
additional chips for inviting a friend, etc.
Therefore, if you are willing to play and not spend too much money, be sure to regularly check what online casinos offer to their players, both new and loyal. In this way, you will be able to make use of these deals. Casinos are struggling to win the attention of players, so make use of it.
Your Experience and Psychological Health
Talking about losing money in casinos, it is impossible not to mention these crucial aspects. First of all, a player should objectively evaluate one’s own skills and experience. If you lack an understanding of the rules of poker and the peculiarities of the game, do not make high bets and do not play with seasoned players.
Besides, if a person is experiencing not the best period in life, for instance, one has just broken up with a partner, divorced, or lost a close relative, gambling is not the best solution at this moment. Being sad or depressed, a person is likely to make unreasonable decisions. So, losing a lot of money is, unfortunately, quite risky in this situation.
Select a Site to Play Carefully
Another crucial aspect of the protection of one’s finances is the reliability of an online casino. Beginning players are especially prone to the selection of a gambling platform unreasonably. The Internet is nowadays full of information. Everything from feedback and reviews on a particular casino site, as well as guides on how to recognize scams, is available on the Net. So, not to be cheated, prepare yourself and spend some time searching for an online casino you can trust your financial information to. If you need a recommendation, head on over to this site for secure and verified Bingotastic bonuses.
Final Words
The question of losing money during gambling is not always the fault of an online casino. Unreasonably high bets or too fast selection of a web casino are among the top reasons that lead to losing significant amounts of money. That is why if you are willing to gamble, be cautious when you select a site to gamble at, as well as evaluate yourself objectively. Are you really ready to play at an online casino?
Jilian Medford started recording music under the name IAN SWEET in 2014, when she moved from Los Angeles to Boston to study songwriting at Berklee College of Music. On her first two albums, 2016’s Shapeshifter and 2018’s Crusher Crusher, she dove into varying indie-pop textures in search of a dynamic that felt honest enough to match both her ambitions and the earnestness of her songwriting. Though it’s not hard to trace her artistic growth throughout these records, it wasn’t until her latest release, Show Me How You Disappear, that Medford was fully satisfied with the result: Written after the singer-songwriter had completed a two-month outpatient program following increasingly severe panic attacks, the album grapples with internalized trauma in an attempt to chart a path towards self-acceptance. With help from a number of handpicked producers, including Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Empress Of) and Andy Seltzer (Maggie Rogers), she sharpens and amplifies her approach in ways that not only evoke the overwhelming intensity her emotions but are marked by a towering confidence that seems to transcend them. That newfound clarity cuts through a haze of synths on the final of the album’s many transformative mantras: “I see it now, I see it/ So much more than before/ I see everything.”
We caught up with Jilian Medford for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight Q&A series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
What are some of your earliest musical memories?
Playing Avil Lavigne’s ‘Complicated’ on my bright blue electric guitar at my 5th grade talent show is one of my earliest memories of playing an instrument. But also, my dad would blast Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush constantly when I was really young and I think that really stuck with me.
How has your approach to songwriting changed since you first started creating music?
I don’t think it has changed too much. My songwriting always comes from a place of yearning, reflecting and wanting to grow. What has changed over time is just being more self-aware and honest with myself so in turn the songs have become more truthful.
You made your new album during an especially pivotal period in your life. How does it feel to now be putting these songs out into the world? Does it change the way you reflect back on that time?
I feel so proud of this album and it is amazing to see how much I’ve grown through the process of telling my story. Putting the music out definitely continues to give me more perspective and insight into what I was feeling and going through during that difficult period of time. Each listen through or each interview I give about the record I gain some new insight into my emotions, it’s very cool that this record continues to help me heal.
Many of the album’s lyrics were written during journaling sessions while you were in therapy. Could you talk about the process of then assembling and refining the songs? What were some of the challenges of deciding what should go on the album?
There was definitely lots of gibberish and nonsense in those journals that I had to sort through, but on the days where I really wanted to connect with the writing I would write lots of mantras, things I wanted to forgive myself or others for, goals, ambitions etc. These mantras stood out to me the most as jumping off points for songs and lyrics. ‘Get Better’ is a song that is an example of this. I remember writing in my journal I wanna get better better better over and over again until it just a chicken scratch on the page and I knew I wanted to run with that and make it into a banger!
While making Show Me How to Disappear, you also revisited the discography of your “forever favorite band” – Coldplay. What is it that inspires you about their music?
It’s hard to explain the way I feel listening to Coldplay but it’s just this overwhelming bliss. Parachutes was the first CD I ever rented from the library. I just fell in love and have seen them live about 5 or 6 times. I just love them, they do that sad/hopeful thing to you that I also try to achieve with my songwriting.
Instead of working with a single producer for the record, you collaborated with a few different ones. How did you go about deciding which producers to work with, and what do you feel they each brought to the recording process?
As I was writing the songs and demo-ing I started thinking about which friends of mine or producers I wanted to work with would be good for which songs and that’s just sort of how that developed! I wanted to work with people who wanted to experiment and try new things.
I have been a fan of Milagros’ work for a long time and knew I wanted to have them make the cover. Each time I look at the artwork I see new things and that’s my favorite part about it – it feels infinite!
On ‘Dumb Driver’, you sing, “Once you complicate the earth it can’t be undone.” What was the inspiration behind that line?
Good questions haha! My relationship with someone had gotten so complicated and toxic at that point, it was abusive and caused me to have PTSD. It felt like my world/ my earth was coming apart and couldn’t be fixed or put back together.
What are some things you’ve learned from making Show Me How You Disappear that you think you’ll be applying in your future projects?
I think I need to believe in myself more and trust my instincts!
And finally, what do you hope listeners take away from the album?
Neve is becoming a sought after name in the world of drum and bass music with a peculiar fun style that has shaped his wider discography. With an EP already released in 2021, we are proud to premiere Neve’s upcoming release Softcore, a two track EP featuring Samurai Breaks.
Chatting about the release and his music Neve said: “I’m a perfectionist; I’m never satisfied. I’m not satisfied about 99% of my songs. But it keeps me going to the next level. I believe I’ve achieved some of my best work with the Softcore EP. It was on January 2nd, 2020, in Leeds with Samurai Breaks, a day I will never forget!”
Sonically speaking, Softcore opens up with a self-titled track featuring Samurai Break that springs out to you from the first drop. It’s an authentic rave piece that brings back a pre-pandemic club vibe with its potent skittering drums and unbowed structure. Moreover, we hear a similar style applied in ‘Swheat,’ which, like ‘Softcore’, is held by the hurried drums and its bludgeoning intensity throughout. Certainly, both pieces are club essentials; they are joyous, more than profound — perfect for people who love the nightlife and need something to take over.
Softcore will be available via all major platforms tomorrow, but for now, stream our exclusive premiere of the EP below.
Even with the craze going on with modern gaming consoles, gaming laptops have not been left behind when it comes to appealing, even for the most avid gamers. This is especially because of technological innovations that have resulted in fierce competition among rivals such as Asus, Dell, and Razer, among others, to create powerful gaming laptops, which is welcome news for gamers. This has meant that modern-day gaming laptops come with a variety of powerful components and longer battery life conducive for gaming. The fact that you can double up your laptop as a workstation and be able to play your favourite games at a legit casino such as casino Suisse, which offers a wide range of titles, makes investing in a gaming laptop a wise choice. Here are some pointers to help you when choosing a gaming machine convenient for your needs.
What is the best CPU for gaming?
Whether you choose an Intel or AMD processor, an ideal gaming laptop should have four cores with support for multithreading. If you are into hard-core gaming, a laptop with 6-cores will be more ideal. While a processor is not the most important component for gaming, it allows users to enjoy games at higher resolutions. A fast CPU will give you better performance and allow you to meet the requirements for most of the modern games being developed. It would help if you also considered investing in a processor with high clock speeds to boost performance.
The best graphics cards for gaming
The most important component to consider when choosing a gaming laptop is its graphics card. The best graphics card will allow you to play your favourite games at their highest resolution. It will also ensure higher frame rates and images that contain more details. High frame rates also mean you can get smoother animations with lower lag rates, especially in multiplayer and esports competitive games. Some of the graphic cards with impressive frame rates are the Nvidia GTX 1650 series or its latest RTX 3000 series. You may also find decent performing gaming laptops with AMD processors, but they may not be adequate for high-end gaming.
Choosing a screen
When it comes to gaming, the larger the screen, the more immersive the games and the wider field of view one gets, which helps in visual clarity. However, when it comes to laptops, the size of the screen matters a lot. This is because a wider screen sacrifices the portability of the laptop. One of the reasons for wanting a gaming laptop is that you will be able to go whenever you want it. Therefore, a 13-inch laptop, which is lighter and more compact, will be more versatile for those travelling in tight places such as trains, buses, or planes, among others. While they use less battery power, they are not very powerful, and their small-screen do not display as much detail. The best gaming laptop would be to go for the 15-inch that is not as heavy as the 17-inch screen but has more powerful hardware gaming components than the 13-inch screen.
Are you looking for some of the best novels out there about prisons? Whether you’re simply curious about what it’s like to be incarcerated, or you’re trying to learn more about what an imprisoned friend or family member is going through, these stories can offer a powerful insight into life behind bars.
Before we get into the list, take a moment to think about any relatives or friends of yours who are currently in prison. A letter, postcard, or phone call from you could make a huge difference to how they’re feeling.
If you’re not sure how to find a family member, you can search for an inmate by state, e.g. Tennessee. This lets you find contact details and get in touch. Or you can simply visit the best website inmateslookup for searching data and inmate records etc.
Here’s our list of the most powerful novels about prisons: why not give them a try?
The Green Mile, Stephen King
Told by death row supervisor Paul Edgecombe, this story of John Coffey is about a man sentenced to die – but who has supernatural healing powers and empathic abilities. The events take place in 1932, but the story’s being told in 1996, when the narrator is an old man in a nursing home.
Affinity, Sarah Waters
This novel, set in Victorian England in 1874, is the story of Margaret Prior, an upper-class woman who is visiting women in Millbank prison. She becomes increasingly fascinated by and drawn to inmate Selina Dawes, who was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly wrong. It’s been described as a “gothic psychological novel” and has a Dickensian feel.
On the Yard, Malcolm Braly
This novel, written in the 1960s, was heavily drawn from Malcolm Braly’s own experience of being incarcerated in San Quentin prison. Reviewers praised the characters as realistic, astutely observed, and well-rounded. This is a true insider look at life behind bars in the mid-20th century.
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
This classic novel by Alexander Dumas, first published in French in serial form in the 1940s, was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment. The protagonist is Edmond Dantes, who’s framed at the age of 19 and sent to prison for 14 years. He then escapes and seeks revenge. It’s a long novel, but a worthwhile read.
The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris
You’ve almost certainly heard of Hannibal Lecter, the villain of The Silence of the Lambs. He’s a cultured genius … and a cannibalistic psychopath. Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, needs his advice to help her track a serial killer. This thriller by Thomas Harris is a fast-paced read with richly developed characters.
The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner
This novel is about Romy Hall, a woman imprisoned for two consecutive life sentences for murdering her stalker in front of a child. She has a useless lawyer and she’s also the mother to a 7 year old son. Reviewers describe it as “dark but gripping” and “no sugar coating”, dealing with issues like poverty, abuse, and addiction.
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King
This novella by Stephen King was adapted for the screen as Shawshank Redemption. The novella is set in a fictional prison in Maine and narrated by the prisoner Red, who tells the story of fellow inmate Andy Dufresne – falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit. It’s a moving story about the human spirit and the enduring nature of hope.
All of these novels are not only entertaining reads, but also books that will help you understand more about the reality of life behind bars.
Much as I like Mystery Science Theater 3000, an unfortunate fate awaits the films featured, forever destined to be thought of as cheap and bad. Many of the films Mike, Joel, Jonah and the bots have lambasted are indeed less than stellar (Manos the Hands of Fatemay not be a contender for preservation in the Library of Congress), but a great deal more are actually very good. The Amazing Colossal Man(1957), The Black Scorpion(1957), Earth vs The Spider(1958), Reptilicus(1961), and Godzilla vs. Megalon(1973) all range from good to superb, though their MST3K inclusion may have stunted public interest beyond “let’s watch a bad movie!” Such is the case for 1958’s The Trollenberg Terror, which featured on MST3K’s first season under its American release title, The Crawling Eye.
On the Trollenberg mountain in Austria, mysteries abound: hikers have disappeared or turned up decapitated; the locals fear something on the mountain; and a strange, immovable cloud remains on the south side. Forrest Tucker plays Alan Brooks, a UN scientist on holiday; he decides to pay a visit to his friend and colleague, Professor Crevett (Warren Mitchell). As it turns out, Crevett’s encountered something on the mountain that Alan’s seen before in the Andes. That unmoving cloud is radioactive, and there may be something inside it. Whatever it is, it’s making its way down the Trollenberg, killing anyone in its way…
This is a great creature feature, with a fabulous script by none other than Jimmy Sangster. If The Trollenberg Terror feels akin to a Quatermass film, it’s no coincidence. The film was adapted from a six-part television serial that was made in the same vein as Nigel Kneale’s BBC science-fiction series. Hammer Films made a name for themselves with their graphic adaptations of Kneale’s teleplays in The Quatermass Xperiment(1955) and Quatermass 2 (1957). A third Quatermass film between them had been proposed, though Kneale refused the use of the Bernard Quatermass character, and it eventually became the unconnected (but equally horrific) X The Unknown(1956), with a script by Jimmy Sangster.
Sangster would go on to write many of Hammer’s finest horrors, including The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Revenge of Frankenstein(1958), and The Mummy(1959). From his work on X The Unknown, Sangster was a good choice for The Trollenberg Terror‘s adaptation.
Quad poster for Distributors Corporation of America’s US release, retitled as The Crawling Eye.
The film’s first act may be its best. Sangster’s script teases out context and exposition, making for very engaging entertainment. Of particular note is a fabulously taut conversation between Alan and Professor Crevett. Through very believable dialogue, we learn about Alan’s recent history and how it connects with Crevett’s, as well as some startling facts about the cloud. That we learn all this just as two men hike their way up the mountain – toward the cloud – is a wonderful bit of dramatic editing.
That said, several plot points are raised with no resolutions. Alan carries a gun with him, which admittedly helps him later on, but it’s unclear why he brought it on holiday. It’s also explained that the creatures inside the cloud have a psychic connection with a handful of people, but why is unknown. These questions might be answered in the full six-part serial, and they could simply be casualties of the adaptation process. In any case, the pace is so tight and the story so packed that you never really have time to get hung up about it.
While other critics haven’t been kind to the film’s special effects, I’ll break the mould and say I quite like them. A few shots are a little less than convincing, but most of the time you’re so taken aback by the sheer otherworldliness of the monsters that the quality of their execution isn’t a big consideration. In turn, I think that says something about their effectiveness. They’re bizarre creatures that you can’t take your eyes off of, and the grunting sounds that accompany them are deliciously creepy. The special effects were crafted by Les Bowie, who not only worked on Hammer’s Quatermass, Frankenstein, and Dracula series, but won a posthumous Oscar for his matte painting and composite work on 1978’s Superman. Bowie passed away in January 1979.
The Trollenberg Terror is an underrated SF chiller. Despite a handful of unanswered questions, Sangster’s script is carefully constructed and very engaging. By the time we finally see the film’s monsters in the climax, it comes after a satisfying build-up of edge-of-your-seat tension. Despite its inclusion on MST3K, The Trollenberg Terror is worth a closer look.
The most heartwarming moment on the bracingly intimate Billie Eilish documentary The World’s a Little Blurry arrives when the 18-year-old singer meets her childhood crush: Justin Bieber. When he gives her a lengthy hug at Coachella 2019 while Ariana Grande performs onstage, Eilish breaks down in tears as she collapses into his arms. Even if you’ve mostly been put off by Bieber’s music over the past decade, it’s hard not to feel touched by the intensity of that interaction. “It feels like yesterday I was 15 singing ‘One Time’,” he texts her afterwards. “It flew by in a flash. Now I’m 25. Embrace it all, Billie. You are great but not greater than anyone.” Bieber, now 27, is one of the many celebrities who offers Eilish words of advice during the documentary, which charts her rapid rise to superstardom, but none hit as hard as Bieber’s. Respectful and honest, he stays in touch, even FaceTiming her on her big night at the Grammys, and the excitement has all but worn off.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that Bieber’s ‘Lonely’, the second single off his sixth album Justice, was co-written and co-produced by Eilish’s brother and close collaborator FINNEAS, which is partly why the sparse production cuts so deeply. A raw ballad grappling with the weight of fame, on its own the song borders on self-pitying, but tucked at the end of his most earnest and solid offering in years – one that’s not afraid to let his vulnerabilities show, even if they don’t always paint him in the most flattering light – it feels appropriate. The same can’t be said of the album’s opening, however, which is impossible not to mention yet too perplexing to even attempt to rationalize – surely, hearing a Martin Luther King sample at the beginning of a song that’s basically about being horny, and then another one in the middle of an album that has virtually nothing to do with social justice, should ruin any chances the album had of being at the very least tolerable.
By some heavenly miracle, though, Justice turns out to be more than that, largely because Bieber goes through most of it sounding like himself. Judging from the overall tone of the album, you’d have to guess his intentions were pure, and not some veiled attempt to stir up controversy (“I don’t do well with the drama,” he assures us on ‘Holy’). But while his previous full-length, the painfully bland Changes, tried all too hard to prove his adeptness at a single genre – he and Eilish were rivals at this year’s Grammys, but Bieber insisted he should have been nominated in the R&B categories instead – here he tries his hand at various pop stylings without straying too far from the mainstream. He goes as far as to enlist artists who helped popularize the sounds he emulates, including SoundCloud rapper Kid LAROI on the candid ‘Unstable’, Dominic Fike on the synth-driven pop-rock of ‘Die for You’, and Afropop star Burna Boy on ‘Loved By You’. At worst, like when he teams up with Chance the Rapper – who notoriously also made an entire album about loving his wife – on the gospel-inflected ‘Holy’, the result is merely serviceable, but at best, like on the Daniel Caesar and Giveon-assisted ‘Peaches’, it’s colourful and organic in its warmth.
Justice is unmistakably a pop album, and a carefully crafted one at that, which comes with its own trappings. Its sleek professionalism can sound overly clean and palatable, even if it attests both to Bieber’s agility as a vocalist and the experience and skill of those behind him, none of which could apparently prevent the MLK controversy. But as much as it safely picks up where 2015’s Purpose left off, the album also refreshingly finds him playing with new sonic territory; the 80s-inspired synthpop experiments ‘Hold On’ and ‘Anybody’ are among his most dynamic. And even when he sticks to his formula, like on the obligatory acoustic guitar ballad ‘Off My Face’, he sounds entirely sincere and enraptured. His message might be muddled and the songwriting undercooked, but enough genuine heart seeps through Justice to render it an endearing listen, whether you’re inclined to buy into Bieber’s schtick or not.
The debate that Lana Del Rey sparked since her arrival ten years ago has largely been one of authenticity, and it wasn’t until 2019’s critically lauded Norman Fucking Rockwell! that the world at large started taking her more seriously. The reason it worked so well had less to do with the impression that she was no longer projecting a persona – sincerity had in fact always been a quality she could pull off, but shaking off the excess and refining her songcraft pushed it further into the foreground. Her lyrics, more cutting and introspective than ever, were given a chance to shine against Jack Antonoff’s delicate, minimalist production, which matched the cinematic splendor of her performances without overshadowing them. Two years later, it’s still hard to deny the songs’ uncompromising power, even if a number of controversies further complicated the public image of a woman whose art already seemed riddled with contradictions.
Her latest, Chemtrails Over the Country Club, once again reveals a fascination with the act of myth-making, a reminder that those contradictions are part of what defines her and the problematic history of a country she’s been accused of glorifying. The word the singer keeps coming back to, the only one that seems to contain that complexity, is wild: “If you love me, you love me, because I’m wild at heart,” she sings; the album’s biggest declaration, possibly aimed at the same people who “took my sadness out of context,” arrives on the title track: “I’m not unhinged or unhappy/ I’m just wild.” Though many of the tropes – or even just vibes – that have pervaded much of her discography are more prominent here than on NFR!, the album is far from a regression, and still feels like the next step in her artistic trajectory. It just happens not to be the same kind of leap that its predecessor was, and rarely brings out the wild spirit she keeps referring to.
Chemtrails is a lighter and less ambitious affair than NFR!, lacking the swell or grandeur that made the latter such a staggering listen. But the decision to pare things back feels appropriate, allowing both Del Rey and Antonoff, who returns as producer and also co-wrote most of the songs, to hone in on the finer details. Del Rey has to work on making her delivery cut through without relying on layers of instrumentation; Antonoff is forced to operate outside his glossy trademark style. The album’s opening track and third single, ‘White Dress’, embodies that approach to riveting effect: Del Rey reminisces on a time before she was famous, throwing in references to White Stripes and Kings of Leon for context, and her voice rises to a throaty, near-squeaky falsetto on the chorus: “Down at the Men in Music Business Conference,” she whispers in a rush, “I only mention it ’cause it was such a scene/ And I felt seen.” The words carry an electric charge that’s unlike anything Del Rey has done before, the seen hinting at both nostalgic reverence and discomfort. The song stretches out to 5:34 minutes but avoids any dramatic finish that might have marked the previous album as Antonoff keeps the tension on a light simmer with lightly brushed percussion and subtle touches of piano.
None of the songs that follow reach the same level of greatness, falling back on familiar ground and taking fewer risks in the process. But even if Lana’s lyrics aren’t as quotable or compelling as they have been in the past, the songwriting is still generally solid if at times forgettable: ‘Let Me Love You Like a Woman’, ‘Dark But Just A Game’, and ‘Not All Who Wander Are Lost’ are pleasant enough as they luxuriate in a familiar kind of languor, but fail to offer a twist or detail that would sharpen their impact. Thankfully, the album quickly picks up after that: the spare ‘Yosemite’ is a love song as exquisite as any, while the second half of ‘Dance Til We Die’ finds Lana leaning into funkier, more dynamic territory. “I’m covering Joni,” she sings on the latter, then does just that, teaming up with Zella Day and Weyes Blood for a gorgeous rendition of ‘For Free’, from Joni Mitchell’s 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon.
By closing the album with a cover, Del Rey concludes the loose narrative that began with her alone and ends with an artist who’s found her place among her peers and the wider cultural landscape. Chemtrails itself is a mix of Lana’s more modern trip-hop stylings and the traditional America she’s always been influenced by, but her voice often fades into the background, and ending with another singer’s voice seems to be as much an acknowledgment of that as it is a sign of sisterhood. Though more hushed than its predecessor, her wildness still occasionally comes to the fore, assuring us that even if the ideas she embraces veer closer to myth than reality, she still engages with them from a place of earnestness. Constructing her own world is just part of what she does, and no one does it quite like her. With another album already set to come out later this year, it’ll be interesting to see how much of it she decides to tear down and rebuild.
Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this segment.
Lana Del Rey released her seventh album last Friday, and ‘White Dress’, the seemingly autobiographical opening track that sees her looking back at her early years when she “wasn’t famous, just listening to Kings of Leon to the beat,” is one of its strongest highlights. Channeling a not-too-dissimilar, Mazzy Star-esque kind of splendor are Lightning Bug, who unveiled the shimmering lead single off their debut album, ‘The Right Thing Is Hard to Do’; not to stretch the Lana comparisons too far, but it’s not hard to trace her influence on Ethel Cain’s latest single, the shoegazey ‘Crush’, either. Sorry returned with their first new music since their debut LP last year, and ‘Cigarette Packet’ is propelled by skittering, nervous energy, while Laura Mvula served up an infectious, 80s-inspired synthpop jam with ‘Church Girl’. Finally, Squid previewed their upcoming debut album with another promising single, the unsettling yet ultimately cathartic ‘Paddling’.
