Handled with less care and empathy, some of Arlo Parks’ attempts at providing comfort in times of crisis might come off as familiar platitudes. Following a string of highly successful EPs and singles, the London singer-songwriter’s hotly-anticipated debut is filled with such affirmations of hope: “Just know it won’t hurt so/ Won’t hurt so much forever,” she promises on ‘Hurt’; on a track simply titled ‘Hope’, she intones, “You’re not alone like you think you are/ We all have scars, I know it’s hard.” Typical of Parks’ songwriting, both songs are marked by a stark specificity in the verses that gives way to a more universal framing in the chorus: ‘Hurt’ introduces us to the character of Charlie, who “drank it ’til his eyes burned/ Then forgot to eat his lunch,” while the latter is about a friend, named Millie, who “tried to talk the pleasure back into being alive/ Reminiscing ’bout the apricots and blunts on Peckham Rye.”
Being pegged as the voice of a generation certainly has its drawbacks, but the reason Parks’ songs resonate so widely comes down to her ability to invite the listener into what appears to be an intimate conversation and make them feel seen. You can come up with a myriad ways to undermine or subvert cliché, or you can take the more useful path of imbuing it with meaning and affect – which Parks does by treating her words more like gestures of generosity. ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’, the title track that also opens the album, is a spoken-word piece that not only establishes Parks’ poetic lyricism, but also reveals the way she tends to approach her subjects: she starts by establishing her point of view (“I see myself…”), before bringing others in (“We’re all learning…”) and ultimately utilizing the unique power of the second person: “You shouldn’t be afraid to cry in front of me,” she says, then mutters, “I promise.”
Collapsed in Sunbeams is populated by an assortment of different characters, but their struggles – often relating to issues surrounding mental health, queerness, identity, and body image – bear at least some resemblance to those of Charlie and Millie. Most intriguingly, Parks is equally adept at relaying the experiences of those close to her as she is at harnessing the poetic gift of writing about strangers: with its gentle simplicity and candid songwriting, ‘Black Dog’ is among the best of the first category, while ‘Caroline’ – a song about watching a couple argue while waiting for the bus – stands out in the latter. But even when trying to spin a narrative out of a 30-second conversation, she pauses briefly to call attention to the moment we can all relate to: “I saw something inside her break/ Everybody knows the feeling.”
Though Parks’ perspective is never quite distant, the songs that center more on her own experiences possess a different kind of emotional directness. Over a lilting instrumental, ‘Green Eyes’ recounts the story of a queer relationship that quickly falls apart due to societal pressures, highlighting how those pressures can in turn erode one’s sense of self-worth and disrupt the process of self-discovery. Meanwhile, ‘Eugene’ is one of the few points on the record where Parks’ voice can be seen as carrying a hint of bitterness: “You play him records I showed you/ Read him Sylvia Plath, I thought that that was our thing/ You know I like you like that/ I hate that son of a bitch.” But even then, Parks’ conversational tone is laced with the kind of sensitivity that makes it feel more like an ode to friendship than a pang of envy.
In terms of its production, the album is at its best when it gives Parks’ lyrics room to shine, or when the reverb-heavy guitars and spacious synths accentuate the warmth that underlies her soft delivery rather than dampening it. Even if the influence of Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Portishead’s Dummy, and The xx’s self-titled debut is prominent on many of the tracks here (Parks is interestingly not the only rising Gen Z star whose debut heavily draws from that particular Radiohead album, but she even goes as far as to reference Thom Yorke directly), it’s a sound that she and producer Gianluca Buccellati incorporate tastefully throughout the LP. In fact, it’s mostly when Buccellati is absent from the production – like on the groovy but flavourless ‘Too Good’ or the laid-back electronica of ‘Bluish’ – that the music lacks the texture and depth of feeling Parks so aptly captures in her lyrics. Indeed, the fact that the deluxe edition of the album comes with “lo fi lounge” renditions betrays the album’s occasional tendency to convey more of a vibe than a compelling sonic vision.
But on the whole, Collapsed in Sunbeams is a deeply affecting and delicately crafted debut. One can easily imagine how utilizing more of her diverse range of influences might have led to a somewhat more eclectic and distinctive-sounding effort, but in retaining her focus, Parks has managed to preserve the emotional impact and simple optimism of her message. On the closing track, ‘Portra 400’, she recognizes the beauty in “making rainbows out of something painful,” which echoes an Audre Lorde quote Parks has often referred to: “Pain will either change or end.” Here, none of the characters’ pain seems to really change or end. But through her incisive observations and mellow, unshowy vocals, Parks is capable of articulating its looming presence in a way that, if not powerful enough to alleviate it, can at least make the air feel a little bit lighter.
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.
This past week, UK post-punk outfit Squid previewed their upcoming debut album with a phenomenal, shape-shifting single featuring Martha Skye Murphy; Xiu Xiu announced a duets album with a surprisingly accessible collaboration with Grouper’s Liz Harris; Charlie Hickey tapped Phoebe Bridgers for the evocative ‘Ten Feet Tall’, from his forthcoming debut EP; Sophia Kennedy delivered the sparkling, infectious ‘Cat on My Tongue’, while Porter Robinson returned with the lush, uplifting progressive house cut ‘Look at the Sky’. And finally, just a day before the music world was shaked by the tragic news of SOPHIE’s death, we got to hear a previously unreleased B-side from the PRODUCT era, ‘UNISIL’, which serves as a testament to how ahead of its time SOPHIE’s boundary-pushing, futuristic production sounds even all these years later. RIP.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still on-going, we’re all spending much more time at home than usual. Fortunately, there’s a wide range of entertainment options on offer. However, if your bills are racking up and you want to cut your spending, expensive subscriptions aren’t so attractive. To keep yourself occupied without blowing your budget, take a look at these five tips for finding free entertainment online:
1. Take a Virtual Tour
Visiting major attractions or traveling to new cities might be off the agenda for now, but you can explore the world without leaving your home when you take a virtual tour. Experience different countries, see the latest exhibitions at world-class museums, or simply watch a live webcam streaming what’s going on in your corner of the world.
2. Try YouTube
YouTube has an endless range of videos to enjoy, and you don’t need to be a premium user to make the most of them. From full-length movies and TV shows to documentaries, influencers, and skits, you’ll find every form of entertainment you can think of on the world’s biggest video platform. If you want to listen to music, why not convert YouTube to Mp3 and enjoy hit songs at any time? Whether you’re into pop, RnB, soul, trance, techno, dance, or swing, your favorite tracks of all time are sure to be there.
3. Download Free Games
If you’re into gaming or you want to try something new, you’ll find plenty of new and classic games available to download for free. Both iTunes and Google Play offer free apps, while sites like GOG have made a selection of DRM-free titles available for no charge on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Lots of developers are offering free games to keep people entertained throughout lockdown, so keep your eyes peeled for the latest promotions.
4. Free Classes
Sites like MasterClass give you the opportunity to learn anything you like from high-profile industry figures, such as Dan Brown, Martin Scorsese, and Gordan Ramsey. While you do have to pay if you want to enroll in an entire course, introductory sessions are available free of charge and with no obligation to sign up. Try a taster session and make the most of the chance to learn from the greats without parting with your cash.
5. Become a Conservationist
If you dream of traveling the world, saving endangered species, and exploring unchartered territory, now you can. Wildwatch Kenya is inviting volunteers to help them review images from 100 motion-activated cameras and identify and count the animals. This provides valuable information to researchers and helps to create effective conservation strategies to protect species, so you can keep yourself entertained and protect endangered animals at the same time!
Make the Most of Being at Home
It won’t be long until life returns to normal, albeit a ‘new normal’. Until then, you can make the most of being at home by taking advantage of the free entertainment that’s available online. No matter what your interests are, there is a ton of content for you to stream, download, and enjoy.
Norii, a rising San Diegan artist, released her latest single ‘Exocoetidae’ — just yesterday. To talk about the song, and her journey into music, Norii joined us for an email interview.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, I’m doing well. the “t” on my keyboard is broken, so I have to copy and paste the letter every time I wanna use it. A vibe, I guess.
So, how did you journey into the music world begin?
Whenever I felt lost in other aspects of my life, I always found solace in music, so eventually I started imagining the possibilities if I practiced being more intentional with how I listen to other people’s projects, and began learning how to make my own songs that I liked. that half is all cerebral, but what kicked off my music journey in real life was when these two producers (supperclub sounds) found a Little Dragon cover I produced on youtube, and reached out to ask if I had any originals. I sent some, they liked one of them, we got coffee, we clicked, and then we recorded our first worktape!
‘Exocoetidae’ is your next single, what was the inspiration for the song?
I found this video from BBC Earth where a bunch of flying fish were being eaten from the birds above and the bigger fish underneath. Me, being pretty sad and isolated at the time, made up a bunch of parallels between my hopelessness and the doomed life of flying fish, aka, “exocoetidae.” Once I ended up revisiting the song after going through a family tragedy, it went from essentially being like, “I’m depressed sometimes, will stay this way, and that’s that” into being about how despair and exuberance depend on one another. It’s about accepting both of those inevitabilities, and even feeling empowered by them. the silver lining of rock bottom is that it’s humanity in its purest form, which is worth appreciation. And yeah, flying fish can swim and fly. that’s two things. that’s duality.
Did you have any challenges creating the song?
I did have challenges creating the song. I originally wrote the first verse as me asking my dad for advice, and the second verse as him giving me the advice I needed. Between the time I pitched the song and when we were scheduled to record it, my dad and I had a permanent falling out. that’s to say that I obviously couldn’t write the song as I’d originally intended. It ended up being a blessing in disguise, because it made me realize I had the perfect advice within me from the start! I mean, I wrote it. Once I realized that I was all I needed, the song changed into the meaning it has now.
As such a personal piece, how does the song reflect your wider discography?
Lyric-wise, my songs tend to be a linear train of thought about way-too-specific experiences or emotions that I’ve got backlogged in my brain. Exocoetidae included. I’m a big believer in specificity making everything universally relatable, so I’ll be testing just how far I can push that. In terms of the production, the common theme of the songs I’ve got in store is that they all kinda require active listening. In other words, they’re not songs to just sit back and drink your tea to. they’re in-your-face and demand attention. I like it that way. In terms of the production, the common theme of the songs I’ve got in store is that they all kinda require active listening. In other words, they’re not songs to just sit back and drink your tea to. they’re in-your-face and demand attention. I like it that way.
What do you hope to achieve with the song?
I hope that Exocoetidae encourages anyone listening to start viewing pain and displacement as a chance to learn and fly.
Our final question, what are your plans for 2021? Any potential albums?
No albums coming in 2021, unfortunately, but I’ve got three more songs coming in the first half of the year! I’ve been sitting on them for the longest time, so it’ll be so exciting to finally let other people listen.
‘Exocoetidae’ is now available to be streamed via all major platforms.
Spoiled Love marks the debut full-length album from Buzzy Lee, the moniker of Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sasha Spielberg, but it’s far from her first foray into music. She and her brother Theo have been making music with their indie-folk project Wardell for over a decade now (following the release of their debut EP, Brother/Sister, a New York Times article advised readers to ‘Forget Their Dad; Just Listen to Them’). Around the same time, Spielberg began collaborating with her college friend and renowned producer Nicolas Jaar, resulting in 2018’s somber and ethereal Facepaint EP. They’ve teamed up once again on Spoiled Love (out today via Future Classic), an album that feels like a natural evolution for Spielberg as musician, songwriter, and collaborator. Conceived in the aftermath of a break-up, the LP format affords the songs, as well as the reflective sentiments they tend to encapsulate, the necessary space to breathe and swell, with Jaar’s minimalist production serving as a guiding presence as it moves from melancholy piano ballads to more spacious and expansive compositions. If Facepaint saw Lee coming into her own as a songwriter, then Spoiled Love feels like a reaffirmation of her talents as an evocative storyteller, capable of not just crystallizing a memory but also turning it into something bigger than itself.
We caught up with Buzzy Lee for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her earliest influences, collaborating with Nicolas Jaar, perfumes as a means of time travel, and more.
I read that watching Almost Famous was part of what made you want to be in a band. I don’t know if that’s true,but I recently rewatched the film, so I’m curious to hear more about your experience with it.
Oh my gosh, that’s so funny, I recently re-watched it too! I think I was sort of joking when I said that, but I also wasn’t. I was obsessed with classic rock when I was in sixth/seventh grade, and I was listening to like, Led Zeppelin and The Who and Rolling Stones, and I was just obsessed with collecting vinyl. I had a record player and I would just play every classic rock record I could find. So when I saw Almost Famous for the first time it just really fit; I mean, it was sort of mind-blowing to me, because I had been listening to all these artists and I almost was so possessive over the names, even – if anyone said they liked Led Zeppelin, I would almost get possessive over the bands that I was listening to. And I’d never felt that with music. And when Almost Famous came out, you know, they used all the bands that I’d been listening to, so I was just was blown away by it.
I don’t know if it made me want to be in a band; I feel like it made me want to be Penny Lane and be following a band. But because there weren’t any female characters who were in a band or musicians in the movie, really, and the females were just groupies, you know, it was hard to imagine. I wish I had seen a movie that was like Almost Famous but with female musicians, and then I think that would have made me want to be on stage.
At what point do you feel you grew out of it and classic rock in general, if at all? How did your music taste develop over time?
It’s really developed. I mean, I will forever love 60s and 70s music. I think that it grew in that I was so obsessed with classic rock, but my brother across the hall, he was two grades older – two years older, I still think in grades – he was listening to a lot of indie bands like The Strokes, and so then my music tastes pivoted to sort of the indie world of music when I was in ninth grade. And then I started really discovering independent artists through blogs. I was looking at, you know, My Old Kentucky Blog was one of them, Gorilla Vs. Bear, I was always on that. I was on these blogs, like, you know, downloading every new artist, and then I would see them in LA, if the shows allowed under 21. And then I got to college and I met Nico, who produced my record, and his music taste was so expansive, so he introduced me to a lot.
I was wondering if you could talk a bit about your collaborative process. Whether you’re working with your brother Theo with Wardell, or with Nicolas Jaar for your solo project, what do you feel makes for a good collaborative relationship?
For me, I think that I have to obviously know the person very well to feel comfortable and safe. Nico I’ve known, you know, 12 years, my brother I’ve known for 30. I think knowing someone really well opens up – you know, even one of my closest friends, her name is Greta Morgan, she’s an amazing musician and she also plays in Vampire Weekend. And she and I are so close and we collaborate. And so I find that the people I collaborate with are all just best friends, really. And that intimacy, the intimacy of best friendships, is unbeatable. You really can’t get better than that in a room.
How do you feel that those collaborative relationships have evolved over time, especially with Nicolas Jaar on this new project? Has the process changed at all?
Yeah, definitely. The EP was sort of more off the cuff, like, “Why don’t you come to New York and let’s record the songs that you’ve sent me.” And we did, and it was so fun. It was very relaxed, you know, I was staying somewhere else and he was living in the city. So we would go to his place at 10am and leave at 10pm and then go to the place I was staying. And you know, I was drinking, I was having fun, it was like, fun summer in the city. And this experience was way heavier – it was really just us in northern Italy, like we were even staying in the studio. You can’t get closer than that, so it was really, really close. And I think what comes out of that is just a really intimate record, because you have no choice but to really just be with each other and be with the music and then be with food. That’s it, that’s all.
The songs on the EP were already quite personal, but in many ways, Spoiled Love to me feels even more intimate. Not just in terms of the lyrics, but also just the presentation and some of the more stripped-back songs. Do you feel that’s come as a result of becoming more comfortable with vulnerability?
Well, it’s really easy to become comfortable with vulnerability when it’s just you and a piano. And so I find that that’s not the hard part. When I first write down the songs, they’re just for me. So the hardest part is then playing them in front of someone else. And then you realize, “Oh god, I’m gonna have to play this in front of – ” well, hopefully, one day, but you know, crowds of people, and then, “Oh, god, this is going to come out and people are going to hear what I’ve written.” So up until the part where it comes out, I’m actually fine with being vulnerable, because no one’s hearing it except Nico and me. So this is the time where I’m the most anxious a bit in anticipation, and I’m feeling so seen. I don’t know, it feels very naked.
There are moments where I write lyrics that just sound good with the melody, and that’s when Nico will challenge me and push me further to actually write lyrics that mean something. And so with Spoiled Love, that’s what happened. There were totally different lyrics there that were sort of just easy, like I wrote them when I was on tour in Europe, and I just wrote them at a cafe really quickly, because I was like, “I have to write these before I go to record with Nico.” And he could immediately tell that they were just swiftly written. So he looped ‘Spoiled Love’, the piano part, and I wrote for like, two hours, I just sat and wrote new lyrics.
What’s going through your head, when you’re in that process of, “Okay, this doesn’t really work, I’m going to have to try to write something that feels more thoughtful”?
I put a lot of pressure on myself and then I become perfectionist. I don’t think I was very happy with the lyrics that I wrote, and I kept writing new lyrics and scribbling them out and then I start to get really frustrated. And in that frustration, I think, comes the emotion, which almost doesn’t make sense, but it does, and then I’m able to write really simple lyrics. Like, ‘Spoiled Love’ is pretty simple. It gets pretty direct. But it’s not about a partner or breakup, it’s actually just me cradling my own neuroses and singing them to sleep. So it’s actually not about any person.
I wanted to ask about the sound of the album as well; there’s kind of more of a cinematic feel to a lot of the tracks, especially the instrumentals, like ‘Brie’ and ‘Mendonoma’. What inspired you to go more in that direction with this album?
I think sometimes songs with no lyrics paint a brighter picture than songs with lyrics. I’ve always believed that, and I think growing up with just being inundated with movie scores, I found that because I started picturing – you know, if I heard a composition that had no lyrics, I would just paint the picture myself. And so I feel like sometimes I can get more across through instrumentals than through my own lyrics.
Another thing that I love about the album is the progression of it, especially from the first few tracks to ‘Strange Town’ and then when that groove kicks in on that track. Could you walk me through, if you remember, the process of making that song, and how you decided it would build like that?
So, we were having trouble with that one because it’s a big song, it’s a journey in itself. And Nico had to kind of conceptualize how to record that, because we tried doing the introduction. And then Nico was like, “You know what, no, let’s go to this little room, off the studio.” It’s like a tiny little room, there are all these synths. And he took out the Hammond. And he was like, let’s start with the melody, that piano melody. So that’s what we started with. And then he put a beat to it. So we actually started with the drop, and then around it recorded the softer parts. And that took a different day. So one day was dedicated to the choruses, and then one day was dedicated to the more emotional sides. And that was an interesting one, because I did a take where I did the opening very emotionally, where my voice was almost breaking, because I was, like, reliving it again. And he said, “Okay, we got the emotional take, beautiful, you can do that. You can do that 1000 times, you’re great at that. Now, let’s do a take where you’re just telling a story to your grandchildren of this great love you had, and this weird little town you’d go to with him. And just tell the story, no emotion, just tell it.” And I did that. And that’s the take we used. And so that was sort of the motto of the whole record, which is not to get lost in the emotions again, and not to get overnostalgic where I lose myself in my past, the ghosts of my past, but it was more just, “Here’s what happened. Here’s what I felt. Here’s what I feel now. And I’m gonna continue to grow.” So it’s sort of like a cliffhanger, almost. There’s not even an ending, really.
Which, I mean, you finished the record in 2019, so it’s kind of already or even more in the past for you.
Yeah, and I went through another breakup over quarantine, and now I’ve met the love of my life. [laughs] So I don’t even – so much has happened since.
Do you still feel attached to the songs, though?
Yes. I think my biggest crux in life is that I am attached to memories in such a crazy way that I have a perfume collection of 80 bottles of perfume, because every three to six months, I assign a new scent to that period. So that when I’m 90, I can time travel, so I can smell it and say, like, that was the summer of 2013, that was when I fell in love with this person. I’m like a memory hoarder. So these songs still mean so much to me. I mean, it’s impossible for them not to.
I don’t know if I’ll steal that idea, but it sounds amazing.
Take it! It’s time travel. It’s setting us up for time travel.
At the same time, do you feel eager to pursue new projects and explore different sounds and ideas once the album is out?
Yeah, oh my gosh. I start recording my second album in three weeks.
Wow, so it’s already –
Yeah, it’s already happening. Because also, I came to Nico with about 25 finished songs. And we could have picked 12 and made a 12-song album, but we were really, really picky about what would breathe on this album and then what can go on the next. My plan was to do the next album immediately after, but then COVID. So I was going to tour this album and then record immediately and then tour that, you know, so it was going to just keep going. But hopefully if all goes well, I’ll be recording in three weeks.
So these are songs you wrote at the same time as the ones on Spoiled Love?
It’s funny, there’s still some remnants of Spoiled Love. And I don’t know if I’ll change the lyrics, I don’t think I want to – again, it’s like my perfume collection. The songs that I didn’t record with Nico, if they exist in that time capsule, it’s okay that I pull them out like my perfume collection. It really is the same. So I don’t mind that I’m going to be singing about, you know, an ex who already had a baby in quarantine. [laughs] You know, it’s okay that that’s happening.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Hideaki Anno, creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion and co-director of 2016’s Shin Godzilla, is producing and writing, with Shinji Higuchi (special effects director for Shusuke Kaneko’s ’90s Gamera trilogy) in the director’s chair.
Footage in the trailer will surely excite fans of the 1966 series with its updated designs of classic monsters (Neronga and Gabora), along with what appears to be a redesigned Science Patrol badge. Most of all, the familiar look of Ultraman (sporting his C-Type mask) is a sight to behold.
Both the monsters and Ultraman are rendered in CGI, a departure from the practical special effects which not only brought the original characters to life, but which also put the series and its creator, Eiji Tsuburaya, on the map. Nevertheless, the digitally-rendered Godzilla of Shin Godzilla managed to dazzle and impress – so hopes are high for Ultraman’s new look.
Shin Godzilla is also brought to mind by the visual style shown in the trailer, with vivid urgency from striking close-ups and gliding movement.
Tsuburaya Productions has also released two new posters for the film, one of which is featured below. This particular poster seems to feature a redesigned Beta Capsule – the device Hayata used in the original series to transform into the titular hero.
We anxiously await more news, footage, and the film itself. Shin Ultraman is set for a summer 2021 release.
Property of Tsuburaya Productions and Toho Company Ltd.
Palberta know their way around a hook. This might sound like a strange thing to say about one of the scrappiest and most experimental punk groups around, but knowing your way around a hook means more than just being able to craft it: when the New York City trio covered Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’ all the way back in 2017, they dismantled everything that makes it the sleekest of disco tunes and warped it into a minute of harrowing cacophony. With their fifth studio album, Palberta5000, they bring together their natural propensity for dissonant guitars unconventional song structures with a sincere appreciation for mainstream pop artists like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, two names you’d probably never expect to come across in a Palberta review.
But if the primary purpose of a pop collaboration like Grande and Bieber’s ‘Stuck with U’ is to get a hook, well, stuck in your head, the members of Palberta – Ani Ivry-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser – seem more interested in joining forces with the intention of drilling as many of them into your scalp as possible. That is certainly the case with ‘Big Bad Want’, which is one of the longest cuts here yet consists primarily of the lyric “Yeah, I can’t pretend what I want” repeated dozens upon dozens of times. Unlike other tracks on the record, Palberta offer virtually no twists and turns or subtle embellishments; the repetition becomes less of a musical tool than a weapon aimed back at oneself, less an affirmation of the narrator’s presence or desire than a reflection of the kind of perpetual anxiety that grows harder to ignore the more you try. Even as the prime candidate for the most frustrating song on the album, the way it manages to creep under your skin is a testament to the group’s ingenuity.
Palberta’s ability to convey such primal experiences partly comes down to the fact that it feels like the three women “share a brain in a lot of ways,” as Konigsberg put it in a 2018 interview. Besides taking turns on bass, drums, and guitar, the way they trade vocal duties on the album also leads to some of its most vivid and layered harmonies, which feel not so much like agents of chaos as much as the only unified force capable of navigating it. The conditions under which Palberta5000 was recorded also help amplify the group’s dizzying intensity; the 16-track album is the result of a four-day recording session at engineer Matt Labozza’s Hudson Valley studio, with no track captured in more than three takes.
That the album contains Palberta’s tightest arrangements and most accessible songs to date should thus come as no surprise, but it’s also a point that also does little to describe the actual music. Clocking in at almost four minutes, ‘Big Bad Want’ is one of the record’s obvious outliers; the three-piece still specialize in short bursts of unruly energy, even if this time its thornier edges are tempered by a more straightforward pop immediacy (‘Corner Store’, ‘Red Antz’). But the track is also an example of how the album’s longer cuts tend to be its most impactful, not just because of the fact that they take up more space but also because they find more interesting ways to explore it. ‘All Over My Face’ pulses with scuzzy, offbeat defiance, while ‘Fragile Place’ melds delicate melodies with a propulsive heaviness, and ‘Before I Got Here’ brings the album to a close with a militaristic kind of splendour that seems to carve out diverse paths for the group going into the future.
It’s when Palberta push their sound to its outermost limits that the result feels not just playful but also challenging and evocative. If pop songs strive to present a firm case for the structures that uphold them, a song like ‘Fragile Place’ works because the way it builds tension serves to underline the brittleness of those same structures to disqueting effect. Unfortunately, some of the album’s absurdist lyrics often do more to alienate the listener than leave a lasting impression or meaningfully contribute to those dynamics. But when it spends less time paying tribute to hot breakfast dishes (like on the sonically dextrous ‘Eggs n’ Bac’) than it does approximating the messiness of the human mind, its more difficult qualities can feel like an extension of sympathy: “I will be there with my hand on your chest,” they sing on ‘Cow’, “I feel your rumbling internal mess.”
Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood is scoring Spencer, a new biopic about Diana Frances Spencer, better known as Diana, Princess of Wales. The film is directed by Pablo Larrain and stars Kristen Stewart in the titular role. According to IndieWire, the film is expected to arrive this fall, just before the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death in 2022.
Spencer is set at Christmas 1991 and focuses on Diana’s decision to leave Charles during the royal family’s getaway to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. “Spencer is a dive inside an emotional imagining of who Diana was at a pivotal turning point in her life,” Stewart said in a statement. “It is a physical assertion of the sum of her parts, which starts with her given name; Spencer. It is a harrowing effort for her to return to herself, as Diana strives to hold onto what the name Spencer means to her.”
In addition to scoring four films for Paul Thomas Anderson, including his Oscar-nominated score for Phantom Thread, Jonny Greenwood also recently soundtracked 2018’s You Were Never Really Here. Pablo Larraín’s 2019 film Ema was scored by Nicolás Jaar, while his last English-language film, the 2016 biopic Jackie, was soundtracked by Mica Levi.
If you are a fan of a particular book, you cannot stop thinking of it. You start playing slts about it on Bet22, search for news and movies. And these 6 series are books adapted on Netflix.
Cursed
A unique interpretation of the legend of King Arthur by a world-renowned graphic novel and comic book author Frank Miller. The series premiered in 2020 on Netflix.
Nimue is connected to dark forces, which is very frightening to those around her. As the years go by, the girl grows up. Her village is attacked by the Red Paladins, and destroys all dreams and hopes. In search of revenge, the girl meets the mercenary Arthur. And this meeting changes their lives forever.
You, Season 2
It’s a sequel to the exciting story of the most romantic serial killer. Lifetime adapted the first part of the novel. And in 2020, Netflix released a second season.
Bookstore salesman Joe Goldberg continues to search for his true love. The previous four attempts have been unsuccessful. But he’s sure he’s not wrong this time, and this girl is just the right one for him.
Ghost Bride
The Lim family is one of the richest in Malacca. When Li Lan Pan is asked to become the bride of the deceased heir of Lim Tian Ching, the fate of the 17-year-old girl from a poor family seems to be sealed. In her dreams, she plunges into the world of the dead, but in reality, she meets in the noble house of Tian Bai, a cousin of her betrothed. But an affair with the living instead of a marriage to the dead is an entirely different story.
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares
Dash hates Christmas. But he loves books and on the eve of the Christmas holidays doesn’t get out of the bookshop. On one of the shelves, he unexpectedly finds a red notebook. In it, a mysterious stranger has left some fascinating puzzles. This stranger turns out to be Lily. She will spend the New Year vacations all alone. So, she is looking for a friend.
Thus, an exciting game begins. Dash and Lily solve riddles and share their secrets in a notebook they hide in different places in New York City.
Stranger Things
The 1960s, U.S., the main events are moon landing and the Vietnam War. Student Terry Ives sets out to change the world for the better. She becomes a participant in a large-scale government experiment. But behind the walls of the National Laboratory, something strange is going on. And the girl is determined to find out what’s going on.
Here is the first official novelization from Netflix on the acclaimed series. Here are new details about the characters of the series, and at the same time, you will see an independent intriguing story.
Trinkets
It seems that the reclusive and quiet Elodie, the well-to-do school queen Tabitha, and the cheeky honor student Mo have nothing in common. But they don’t. They attend the same school and go to the same kleptomaniac anonymous meetings. Attending court-ordered group therapy because of the charges of theft, the girls unexpectedly become friends. It’s up to them to help each other cope with their problems and curb their addiction to stealing everything they can’t get their hands on.
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Dark Souls
The Souls series has become famous for its complexity. Are you used to that in modern blockbusters the rules are explained to you, you can change the difficulty settings and save yourself at any moment? Things are different in Dark Souls.
Here even the simplest enemies can kill you with one or two blows, and you can only save yourself at the campfires. As a result, you’ll have to search for them while you’re chased by hordes of fierce undead and severe warriors in heavy armor. The amount of healing options is limited, and traps and ambushes lurk at every turn.
Bloodborne
Bloodborne resembles Dark Souls mechanically, but there are significant differences: the pace here is much faster. You get caught up in a frantic and aggressive battle with crowds of opponents, where you have no chance to retreat. Your Hunter only has a melee weapon, a nearly useless musket good only for parrying enemy attacks, an overcoat and a triangular hat.
The developers of Bloodborne were obviously inspired by the Van Helsing movie. The action is off the charts, the imagination of the developers who created the monsters knows no limits, and the level design is a real delight.
Demon’s Souls
Despite its considerable age, Demon’s Souls still looks interesting and fascinating. You become a nameless warrior who must free a distant kingdom hidden by mists from evil demons and a possessed ruler.
Many players will tell you that Demon’s Souls is more difficult than the following Souls games. There are only two save points per level, the ability to heal is limited, enemies are strong and are reborn after each of your deaths.
Demon’s Souls remains one of the most addictive games on the PlayStation. Grim Middle Ages, dragons, evil undead, and huge dangerous demons will appeal to fans of dark fantasy.
Cuphead
Here you will control two cup-headed brothers, who have lost in the casino to the devil and now have to extort debts from other like-minded troublemakers. But the latter are not going to part with their souls. So, it won’t be easy for the brothers to complete their mission.
Cuphead is mostly the boss fights. Here they are so tough, that you will need to react fast, have a solid keyboard, and a lot of patience to fight them. And of course, you’ll need a lot of luck because the enemies are often attacking in an unpredictable order. Make no mistake and don’t hesitate, or you will have to start the fight all over again.
