It’s been a… slow week for news, so I’m back again to bring you some of the best action films, a nostalgic trip back to the early 2000s, and a collection of love, death, and robots to entertain your week.
QT8: The First Eight – Amazon Prime Video
Tarantino (second from right) with some of the cast of Reservoir Dogs.
Stepping onto the film scene in 1992 with his unapologetic, blood-soaked, and influential Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino has risen to become one of the most popular and exciting directors in the last thirty years. From his Palm D’or winner Pulp Fiction, to his reimagining of history with Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Tarantino needs no introduction. When Tarantino mentions a new film being made, it is a BIG deal. QT8: The First Eight follows Tarantino from his beginnings working in a video store to the release of his ninth film, exploring the eight films he has made in between. With interviews from stars like Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx, frequent collaborator Samuel L. Jackson, producers, and close friends, the film takes a behind-the-scenes look at the unorthodox process and unique style that have made Tarantino an icon. Tara Wood does a great job interviewing those nearest to him instead of QT himself, getting a more honest overview of the director. It culminates in an entertaining and enjoyable viewing. It will make you grab the nearest Tarantino DVD you have. 3.5/5
Django Unchained – Blu-ray
Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained.
And grab a Tarantino DVD I did! Django Unchained was my pick of the Tarantino filmography. Starring Jamie Foxx in the title role, Django teams up with the endearing bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to find and kill the three Brittle Brothers for their bounty. What follows is an attempt to track down and save Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from the Candyland plantation, owned by the alluring yet cruel Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Filled with the usual boldness of a Tarantino picture, Django Unchainedpresents a hero’s story through the eyes of one man who will do whatever it takes to save his wife. It’s a clever satire that never dulls during its 165-minute runtime, and Tarantino has yet again made a historical film in his own style (like Inglourious Basterds) that should not be taken too seriously – have fun with it, be entertained by the excellent performances and the over-the-top shoot outs, and don’t get caught up in the inaccuracies. 4/5
Boyhood – Amazon Prime Video
Ellar Coltrane stars in Boyhood.
I’ve always been a fan of Richard Linklater as his ‘Before Trilogy’ is a work of art. Dazed and Confusedand Everybody Wants Some! are fantastic, while A Scanner Darkly and Bernie offer something fresh to his filmography. And, of course, School of Rock is a classic. Meanwhile, Boyhood is something unique and yet, not. Boyhood is a coming-of-age drama following the childhood of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from ages 6 to 18 as he grows up with his divorced parents (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke) and sister (Lorelei Linklater), all while trying to navigate the awkward stages of adolescence. Boyhood is a simple investigation into humanity, charting the moments that shape Mason’s life through the 2000s and early 2010s. As someone who grew up at that time, I felt myself growing nostalgic for my own childhood. Furthermore, when first released, the film was mainly known for its production that began in 2001 and lasted twelve years to coincide with the actual growing up of Coltrane, giving us a real feel of ageing alongside Mason. However, what Boyhood achieves over the 165-minute runtime is not something extraordinary enough to make me love the film. The film has fantastic performances from Arquette and Hawke, a down-to-earth script and perfect music to complement the visuals, but Boyhood lacks tension. It simply doesn’t possess a strong plot or character arc, making it difficult to fully engage with what is happening on screen. Weirdly enough, I still find myself liking this film. I was not angry at its flaws, but I did not celebrate its strengths. I feel that maybe in a year, five years or even twenty, I will re-watch this film again with new eyes and conclude a whole different opinion. But, for now, it was simply okay. 3/5
Love, Death & Robots – Season 2 – Netflix
Pop Squad quite literally fulfils part of the show’s title.
Season One of this show was a monumental hit, a collection of short films celebrating the variety of what animation can provide through multiple studios and stories. I covered the first series on Our Culture, praising it for its brilliant animation and the narratives explored. Season Two does not live up to what its predecessor gave with a lack of animation diversity and less comedic stories. Maybe that comes down to the episode number being cut down from eighteen to eight, or perhaps it’s because fewer studios were on board. In any case, I felt it was underwhelming. Not every episode has to have hyper or photo-realistic animation – the medium is there to create possibilities that live action has limitations with – but it just all seemed to fall a bit…flat. Also, spoiler alert, no yogurt.
My favourite episode was Pop Squad, which takes influence from Blade Runner (a personal favourite of mine so I am biased), and stars the great Nolan North. Significantly, it literally includes Love, Death and Robots. 3/5
Ranking list follows:
2ndAutomated Customer Service
3rdAll through the House
4thThe Drowned Giant
5thSnow in the Desert
6thThe Tall grass
7thIce
8thLife Hutch
Bad Boys – Amazon Prime Video
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith star in Michael Bay’s high-octane Bad Boys.
There really is no director like Michael Bay. Whether that is a good or bad thing is entirely up to you. Sure, his films are overtly patriotic, riddled with poor humour, and have endless product placements that will make your eyes roll… but his movies make billions worldwide. For better or worse, Bay has established himself as one of the most commercially successful directors ever; I don’t want to get into an essay on Michael Bay, but he does know how to make crowd-pleasing films. Regardless, his high-octane, stylised visuals and large-scale special effects have put him firmly on the map.
Bad Boys is universally known to be one of his best films, with the charismatic leads of Marcus (Martin Lawrence) and Michael (Will Smith) as two detectives investigating $100 million worth of heroin stolen from their police precinct’s evidence room. Meanwhile, they’re also protecting a witness to a murder in connection to their investigation. Filled with the expected fast cars, explosions, and shoot outs, Bad Boys is nothing new when it comes to plot and story, but it damn well has all the ‘Bayhem’ you can handle. 2.5/5
Who had old New Zealand/Australia pop rock band Crowded House returning with a new album on their 2021 bingo card? Us neither. It’s been over a decade since we last heard from the beloved outfit, but that time hasn’t dulled their infectious spirit or keen ear for melodies. Nor has the public’s appetite for their pleasing sound disappeared: the band are currently on track to earn a top five finish in the UK album chart for their seventh studio album, Dreamers Are Waiting.
For a band who have been going in some form since 1985, listeners shouldn’t be expecting to be challenged by Crowded House, and most of the record is merely pleasant and amiable. Perhaps it comes down to them being a full-on family affair now: Neil Finn’s son Elroy is on drums, his other son Liam is on guitar and backing vocals; although not technically a Finn, Nick Seymour is also back on bass, the other remaining founding member. Their old producer Mitchell Froom rounds out the collective on keyboard. It’s why the songs bounce with enhanced harmonies and interplay, everyone feeling comfortable with who they’re surrounded by.
Now aged 63, Neil doesn’t sound ready for retirement just yet. He’s always possessed one of the most disarmingly sweet and soulful pop voices and it’s undiminished here. Whether finding a softness for lovelorn lines or delivering with gusto the more upbeat numbers, his voice is still resoundingly dependable. There are no outright failures in Dreamers Are Waiting. ‘Bad Times Good’ is a simple and understated opener, and ‘Deeper Down’ could have perhaps been a more memorable closing song. ‘Too Good For This World’ is also a bit timid instrumentally.
When Neil lets it all go though, relishing in the fun of playing with his family and friends again, the other songs take off. ‘Playing with Fire’ is relentlessly hooky, a stomping standout. The swaying ‘To the Island’ plays like a sly ode to New Zealand, famously the land of Neil’s birth: “The world is beyond us/ It’s too enormous/ But oh, the island is just right/ It’s the perfect size,” he insists; given how well PM Jacinda Ardern handled the coronavirus pandemic over there compared to certain other countries, he might actually have a point.
Elsewhere, the lyrics display the viewpoint of an elder statesman, a world-weary man. “The next generation’s talking/ We’re behind the wheel/ We’re driving straight into the wall,” Neil sighs in ‘Playing with Fire’; “This is not right, this man is a fake/ But they will follow him down to the edge of the cliff/ And if he tells them to jump/ They will jump right in,” he lambasts in ‘Whatever You Want’. It’s not gripping commentary, but it’s endearing in its attempted pointedness. Liam is given songwriting credits for two of the middle songs, ‘Show Me the Way’ and ‘Goodnight Everyone’, and the former is particularly solid, containing sweet words about backing up family in a time of crisis.
At this stage in Neil’s life, nothing Crowded House do is likely to reach the quality of their classic run of records from the late ’80s and early ’90s; pop has always been a young man’s game. But the innate understanding of pop aesthetics remains, the effortless melodies still pour out seemingly at will. Dreamers Are Waiting isn’t going to bring the band a wealth of new fans, but their return will be a welcome sound to those who have been following them all these years. “There’s a battle ahead/ Many battles are lost/ But you’ll never see the end of the road/ While you’re traveling with me,” they sang in their seminal 1986 anthem ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’; listening today, it certainly seems that way.
There are so many fascinating planets in the Star Wars universe. Some of them are more crucial than others, however, when it comes to the saga of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and the rest of the gang. So, let’s take a look at some of the planets where the main action took place.
Tatooine
The first planet that worth discussing is the one where it all began – Tatooine. Our hero Luke Skywalker first appears here, and a lot of the action in the first episode, A New Hope, takes place there as well. In terms of living conditions, things can be tough, but there are distractions in the form of pod racing. Just be careful when entering a cantina in towns like Mos Eisley, a hive of “scum and villainy.” Tatooine is not the best place to live, according to Betway, but you can do a lot worse. Of course, the story of Anakin Skywalker starts off here as well, which makes it a crucial planet for another reason entirely.
Alderaan
The home of the heroine of Star Wars, Princess Leia, Alderaan also became the unofficial headquarters of the Rebel Alliance. Unfortunately, this is one of the main reasons why a target was painted on it, and the Empire decided that it had to be destroyed, which is one of the most devastating events in the film series – but a vital one nevertheless.
Dagobah
On the surface, this remote and swampy planet does not really seem like the kind of place where great things could happen. However, it was vital in the Star Wars story in that it was where Luke Skywalker met Yoda, who trained him in the ways of the Force. Without this happening, our hero could not have been successful in his mission, so it certainly has to go down as one of the most crucial planets out there.
Hoth
After Alderaan was destroyed, the Rebel Alliance needed a new place where they could plan how to overthrow the Empire, and this became Hoth. While it is an icy and inhospitable place, this meant that it was not going to be such an obvious planet for destruction.
Endor
Of course, we have to put Endor on the list of the most important Star Wars planets as it was where the last battle in Return of the Jedi took place. However, it was another one that the Death Star put in their sights for destruction. The other main thing that the planet is known for is its furry and potentially murderous creatures, the Ewoks.
There we have just a few of the most crucial Star Wars planets and the reasons why they played such a central role in the franchise and the events that took place within them. Of course, there are plenty more locations in such a rich universe!
The opening track of Japanese Breakfast’s new album, Jubilee, is named after Satoshi Kon’s surreal anime film Paprika, but it also calls to mind another one of the Japanese director’s masterpieces, Perfect Blue. A haunting meditation on the violent consequences of fame and celebrity culture, the 1997 thriller follows a 21-year-old pop idol who finds herself stalked by an obsessed fan and starts to lose her grip on reality. While not nearly as gory or complex as that film, Japanese Breakfast’s ‘Paprika’ also kicks off by blurring the line between fantasy and reality as Michelle Zauner sings about trying to connect with people through her music: “How’s it feel to stand at the height of your powers/ To captivate every heart?/ Projecting your visions to strangers who feel it, who listen, who linger on every word,” she sings before quickly answering her own question: “Oh, it’s a rush!”
And sure, it’s meta, and a little bit messy, but it also is a rush. Rather than hinging on the lingering threat of creative stagnation hinted by the previous lines, Zauner leans fully into the pure euphoria of the moment, capturing the cathartic joy of collective attention: she reaches a higher register as if to project those triumphant words into the sky, her vocals soaring over an ebullient horn and string section reminiscent of early Beirut. This sprawling canvas stretches out over the rest of the record, which retains that buoyant energy while zeroing in to explore the nuances of these big, sweeping sentiments. There’s a touch of that ambivalence on the following track and lead single, the infectious ‘Be Sweet’, but that’s not enough to overshadow the fact that it’s a straight-up disco tune (if ‘Paprika’ was inspired by Susumu Hirasawa’s Paprika song ‘Parade’, then this is more in line with ‘Angel of Love’ from the Perfect Blue soundtrack).
Zauner co-wrote the song with Wild Nothing’s Jack Tatum with the intention of having someone else sing it, but unlike a certain pop hit written by another high-profile indie artist, it’s now impossible to imagine someone else performing it. Though far from a flawless vocalist, Zauner’s inflection here is perfect, and the song takes on a powerful resonance in the context of her discography. There’s one thing she does in particular – and it’s not ground-breaking, or revelatory, or even slightly strange by pop standards – but the way she goes from “I wanna believe in you” to “I wanna believe in something” is utterly captivating; sidestepping the I, landing on believe, then taking a leap on something, as if her plea for affection and understanding invokes in her an almost cosmic yearning.
In 2014, Zauner lost her mother to pancreatic cancer, and her first two albums, 2016’s Psychopomp and 2017’s Soft Sounds from Another Planet, grappled with the effects of her grief and PTSD, something she further explored in her debut memoir Crying in H Mart. Jubilee, then, marks a new chapter in her artistic trajectory: Zauner has said it’s about “the joy of creation,” but the more fitting part of that quote is that it’s “a record about fighting to feel.” It’s that fight I hear ballooning in significance on ‘Be Sweet’. On ‘Slide Tackle’, the best the 1975 song not by the 1975 since last year’s ‘I Know Alone’ by HAIM, Zauner directs those demands expressed on ‘Be Sweet’ inwards, battling her demons so she can embrace that desire to feel – and essentially, be – good. By comparison, it feels like an enormous task.
The laidback instrumental cleverly belies the heaviness of the song, but as those synth textures unspool on the lush ‘Posing in Bondage’, that loneliness becomes inescapable. At this point, the colourful spark of the opener is starting to look more like an ominous cloud. Then, ‘In Hell’ uses the contrast between sound and subject matter to devastating effect: Originally a bonus track on the Japanese deluxe edition of Soft Sounds, the song was written about having to put down her family dog, but also reflects the darker feelings of helplessness that come with watching a loved one die a slow and painful death. “Hell is finding someone to love and I can’t have you,” she belts, and the synth melody that follows feels not jubilant but jarring. For a song with such a steady build-up, its dissolution feels like a moment of early defeat.
In between those strikingly earnest and personal moments, Zauner grounds her writing by delving into fictional narratives that give the album an air of playfulness. ‘Kokomo, IN’ is a tender and nostalgic song about adolescent love, reveling in a sweetness the rest of Jubilee has a tendency to complicate. On the other end, ‘Savage Good Boy’ sees her assuming the role of some kind of capitalist villain; it would feel a little bit out of place if Zauner wasn’t such an expert at conveying complex relationship dynamics through fantastical scenarios, the kind that – in this case – obliquely mirror the psychotic violence of those Satoshi Kon films.
In fact, if Zauner wanted to craft a convoluted, self-referential narrative about the dark underbelly of stardom or really anything else, the rest of her discography (andself-directedvideos) proves she easily could. Even the guitar solo that takes up half of the closing track, ‘Posing in Cars’, is a story unto itself. Hell, if you really wanted to pick the record apart, you could draw a line between ‘Be Sweet’ and the first song on Psychopomp, ‘In Heaven’ (to say nothing of the title), in which she cries out: “Oh, do you believe in heaven like you believed in me?” But Jubilee’s greatest achievement is that it evokes a layered struggle without undermining the celebratory power of simply carving out your own path. It has everything Zauner knows a third album should – confidence, ambition, perspective – without drowning in its own glory, and the result is her richest, most rewarding work yet.
The word unsee appears twice on Jubilee, first on ‘Posing in Bondage’ and then on ‘In Hell’; both times, it’s negatively charged, about how we’re forced to bear the weight of our experiences all our lives. On ‘Posing in Bondage’, it comes right before what might be the album’s most quotable line: “When the world divides into two people/ Those who have felt pain/ And those who have yet to,” but it’s the “I can’t unsee it” that stings the most. No matter which camp you fall into, you might find yourself in a similar situation after listening to this record – whatever it actually is. Jubilee may start out with a song about the pressures of being “at the center of magic,” but Zauner makes you feel a part of it, seen regardless of how much you’ve endured or where you’re coming from. Now, that’s a rush.
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 Friday saw the release of two of 2021’s biggest albums so far: Wolf Alice’s Blue Weekend, whose final single ‘How Can I Make It OK>’ is an anthemic highlight, and Japanese Breakfast’s Jubilee, whose glossy opening track is filled with wonder and infectious energy. Also last week, Samia returned with news of an upcoming EP, led by the soaring and emotive single ‘Show Up’; Billie Eilish served up another single from her sophomore album, the minimal yet infectiously breezy and confident ‘Lost Cause’; IDER’s ‘BORED’ is a driving, bold single from the duo’s second album, delivered in a stream-of-consciousness style; Martha Skye Murphy released the chilling yet entrancing ‘Found Out’; SPELLLLING builds on the elaborate, fantastical world of her latest singles with the title track to her forthcoming LP, The Turning Wheel; DARKSIDE have a new track out from their long-awaited sophomore album, the proggy and intriguingly fractured ‘Lawmaker’; and finally, Jessie Ware unveiled another track from the deluxe edition of What’s Your Pleasure, ‘Hot N Heavy’, an unsurprisingly great and kinetic dance-pop tune.
We’ve all played a scratch card or 12 at some point in our lives. They’re easy and affordable options for those looking for a fun and instant way to gamble with minimal effort. What’s more, they provide some exciting opportunities to win real money.
Bingo scratch cards have been around for many years and are incredibly fast and easy games to enjoy, both in real life and at online casinos. This game format is also incredibly prevalent and accessible and ranked as the fifth most popular way to gamble in the UK. But let’s take a closer look at what are online bingo scratch cards and how they compare to their real-life counterparts.
Online versus regular bingo scratch cards
There are many similarities between online and regular bingo scratch cards, and a few differences. When we talk about what are online bingo scratch cards, we look at what makes these types of games so convenient, fun and attractive to new and seasoned players alike. We will also be comparing them to regular versions of the game to see why online bingo scratch cards may be the best option for players looking for fast rewards at the click of a mouse.
Using your mouse to scratch
With online versions of this game, your mouse is used to scratch the required places on the card (or your finger when using a device with touch capabilities) to show the result. Depending on the type of scratch card you’re playing online, you may need to scratch off the entire card or a specific area online, so make sure to check the instructions beforehand.
Opportunity to play for real money
Just like regular scratch cards, playing online provides the opportunity to win real money. Players need to join an online casino and make a deposit to play for real money. There are also options to play for free, which require no deposit but eliminate the opportunity to win. As scratch cards are typically games of chance, playing for free simply provides players with all the fun of scratch cards without any risk.
Online bingo scratch cards are more convenient
When playing a regular scratch card at home, you will need to return to the shop to claim any winnings. With online scratch cards, there is no need to leave the comfort of your home, as is the case with all virtual games. If you win by playing an online scratch card, you are instantly rewarded into your preferred account without any effort on your behalf.
Fun and easy games of chance
By law, a player’s chance of winning must be clearly stated on a real-life scratch card. When playing online, this is shown as the game’s return to player (RTP) percentages. While bingo scratch games are based on luck, the general rule of thumb is that the higher the RTP, the better your odds of winning are.
Potential to win big
It just takes one card at a price of just £1 to win smaller, more frequent amounts. Other times, players can walk away with six-figure rewards. This makes bingo scratch cards the perfect game for both low and high rollers. Some bingo scratch cards even feature progressive jackpots. And because all games are based on chance, there is no skill required, and anybody can win if luck is on your side.
Play anytime, anywhere
Like most online casino games like bingo slots, card and table games, and classic games, you can play online bingo scratch cards whenever the mood strikes, anytime and anywhere, from your desktop or mobile device. Games are optimised for smooth and seamless gaming on the move, adding to the convenience of your playing experience. Playing online means all your favourites games are accessible at the click of a mouse or the touch of a button.
Fun and dynamic themes
Scratch cards are famous for their fun and engaging themes, ranging from your favourite TV shows to sports, and more. Some online scratch cards even feature unique and niche themes to take your experience to the next level.
There are many reasons to give online bingo scratch cards a try the next time you’re online. These games are not only fun and affordable but offer some exciting winning opportunities that are instantly credited to your account. Players looking for new chances to win will be pleasantly surprised at what these types of games have to offer.
Bingo has always been one of my favorite games to play in person, but very few people actually play it online. Maybe they are uninformed about what goes into the game, or perhaps just too shy to play, but their loss. The environment is respectful and welcoming for players of all levels of experience.
In order to make sure that everyone has a great time when playing online bingo, I’ve put together this list of 7 unforgivable mistakes that people make when they play bingo online.
Don’t Know How to Play Bingo Online
People love to play online bingo by sitting at home. But if you do not know how to play bingo online, then it may be a big mistake that you make. You should read about the rules and the moves of bingo first. This can be a recreational activity that one can engage in alone or with oneself.
But the most important thing to remember when playing bingo online is that the game is played on high-quality software, so if you want to play bingo online, then read about it first before you start playing it.
Don’t Play Bingo Online for Real Money
If you are new to Bingo online games, you highly recommend that you play with real cash. This way, you will be able to have some fun while learning the basics of playing online bingo games.
If you want to test the online casino first, then play with free money, but if you are serious about playing bingo through the Internet, start with real cash. The great thing about bingo online is that you can play for free and win real money bingo.
Don’t Play on High-Quality Software
It’s important to know the safety and security of an online bingo site before you start playing. Check out reviews to see if it has a good reputation. It requires the essentials that it is necessary to have in order to play bingo online on the Internet. It should have great customer service, excellent software, and high payouts, which are important for playing bingo online.
A good sign of the best casino sites is when they offer high payouts and bonuses. The most important thing to keep an eye out for is how secure the software is. It should too provide customer support in case any problems arise while playing.
Don’t Read the Rules Carefully
Every game has some rules, and bingo is not an exception. The rules for bingo are different from site to site, so you should read the rules of every online casino before you start playing it.
It may be a very small mistake that you make, but it can put you on a losing streak which could be very embarrassing after the game is over. If you want to have a better chance of winning, then make sure you read the rules before you start playing.
Don’t Use a Strategy
Bingo is a game of luck and skills, and you should take advantage of both the parts while playing it. You have to keep your eyes out for any patterns that may give you a clue about where the balls will be falling in order to make sure that you will be able to get bingo before anyone else does.
The best way to play bingo without making any mistakes is by using a strategy that works for you. Even though you won’t fully understand the strategy, it will at least keep you off of the losing streak that you could be facing.
Don’t Memorize the Numbers
This is one mistake that I see very often. People tend to memorize numbers, and they even try to write them down before playing bingo online games. This is a big mistake because they cannot use those numbers when playing.
If you have to memorize the numbers, then the best way to do it is by writing them down on a piece of paper and keeping it with you in case they are needed. But for some people, keep the numbers in their heads; this works best when playing bingo online.
Don’t Play With Friends and Family
Playing bingo can be a great time to spend with your family and friends. Always play online with different friends. If not, your games may be too similar. You should try playing different games and go for new things that you haven’t done before so that it will be more exciting for everyone in the game.
If you have family members who love to play bingo online games, don’t make them uncomfortable by constantly asking for their phone number or email address. Just invite them to play with you online and keep the relationship in a normal way. If they want to contact you, they will probably do it discreetly sometime later on.
Don’t Compete With Your Friends
Another thing you should avoid while playing bingo online is competing with your friends or family members. This could make them feel uncomfortable and will put a bad feeling between you both. Instead of competing, try to raise the amount that you earn in the game so that everyone in the game can win something and have a great time.
Starting to Play Online Bingo without Preparing for it
Many people enjoy playing bingo. But in order to play bingo, you have to have a little training first. This is because if you do not have any experience playing bingo, you will not know what to do, resulting in a lot of mistakes.
If you want to play online bingo, then I strongly suggest that you start with a bingo training course. Furthermore, there are many different kinds of bingo schools for you to choose from. You can choose one according to your own experience and what you are looking for in a bingo training course.
Final Thought
Bingo is a great game to play because it can help you earn some extra cash while having fun. There are many different kinds of bingo, all of which are wonderful. Make sure that you know the basic rules of bingo; there are too many people who stink at bingo just because they don’t know the games and the rules. You should also not take it too seriously; make sure to have fun and relax while playing online Bingo games!
Hildegard is the project of singer-songwriter Helena Deland and multi-instrumentalist/producer Ouri, neither of whom are strangers to collaboration: before releasing her debut album Someone New, Deland notably teamed up with JPEGMAFIA (who called her the “Young Thug of indie rock”), while Ouri dropped a self-titled EP with Mind Bath in 2017. But with Hildegard, the Montreal artists allow themselves to get lost in an entrancing world full of possibilities: if there’s an air of mystery to their respective solo work, here their shared sensibilities collide and meld into one endlessly malleable piece. Each song on their debut self-titled LP, out now via section1, is named after the eight days they spent together in a studio, and the fluctuations in mood and tone are a reflection of their state of mind: there’s a nocturnal thrum and a pure magnetism to the electronic production, but Deland and Ouri are just as capable of commanding the shadowy, in-between spaces whose lingering glow can be just as hypnotic. Drawing inspiration from Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century nun, healer, and composer who became a symbol of nurturing strength and has influenced records by Grimes, Devendra Banhart, and countless others, the duo developed the visual and conceptual language for the project, opening the door to a realm where anything can happen.
We caught up with Hildegard’s Helena Deland and Ouri for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about how they formed the project, the process of making their debut album, and more.
What was your impression of each other when you first met?
Helena Deland: We met at a café – we had met in parties and social situations before so we were familiar, but I remember going for lunch and it being so funny and silly already.
Ouri: We exchanged music, it was super chill, super fluid.
Helena: And I remember not being stressed by it at all, which I feel like maybe I would be if… [laughs]
Ouri: Yes, me too. If I do a session with this artist I would be super stressed, like try to prepare stuff.
Helena: The lack of preparation was definitely rewarding in this situation.
You’d both collaborated with other artists in the past, but was there something that immediately struck you as different about working with each other?
Ouri: We just shifted roles all the time, resonating, exchanging ideas. It was just this constant ping pong of ideas all the time. Sometimes you have separate goals and it’s a bit more structured, and this felt very alive – minimal, but very much going in all directions.
How did the historical figure of Hildegard enter the conversation, and what does she mean to both of you?
Ouri: I was taking composition classes at university, and I discovered this composer, Hildegard, discovering the Canticles of Ecstasy, and I showed them to Helena because I thought they were super inspiring. They were less dark than all the other channts I was analyzing in my classes, and her figure just became so interesting, fascinating, so many aspects of her – all her ideas, her relationship to faith and female identity.
Helena: She seems to encompass so many different things, and it’s interesting because she’s such a rare woman to have survived the erasure of women in history in medieval times. And she seems to have had so many roles, like the healer, the visionary, the powerful head of an abbey. And wrote so much and had visions too, which I think is something that resonated with us in the context of this experience of inspiration which you can’t really plan. It’s very hard to describe and explain, and even the vocabulary I use to describe inspiration can quickly meld with more mystical vocabulary.
Was it something that came after you had spent these days in the studio?
Ouri: It was after. We really went to the studio with no intention, some club and pop common references that we shared in a playlist but nothing extremely deep. Eventually, after finishing the tracks we talked about names and stuff and we had a lot of very bad ideas, and then we started to go in the direction of Hildegard.
How do you see the relationship between the idea of Hildegard and your music?
Helena: I think she’s become very symbolic on a personal level for us. It is definitely like a hot projection spot because she was alive such a long time ago, and in such a diverse manner, that she’s kind of a malleable figure. We bring her up a lot in the environments that we try to create for ourselves. She’s so inspiring even in – this is a concept that’s definitely modern, but in a feminist approach, in an ecological approach, and it feels very pertinent these days to bring those values to the forefront.
Ouri: There’s also something – viriditas – encompassing a very strong and luxurious…
Helena: Life energy.
Ouri: Life energy that I think we tried to express in the music. Kind of vegetal but still very strong and unstoppable, like you cut the roots and it continues to grow.
What was the atmosphere in the studio like those eight days that you were recording?
Helena: I think every song kind of mirrors what it was like. The first night was very excited, very energetically charged. It was the evening, we were having a drink, smoking cigarettes on the balcony, just chatting, and we started making this track it just kind of fed into itself. And then that had a repercussion on how we felt the next day, which is very raw and vulnerable and a bit sad, maybe. I don’t want to reduce it to a hangover, but maybe it had something to do with what had happened the night before. [laugher] And then the next day was really silly. And yeah, it follows the chronology of discovering each other and our friendship. So every day feels very different, and it’s so interesting to have that document of that first collaboration.
That’s something I noticed as well, there’s this clear emotional progression throughout the album. And maybe that’s just me, but I felt like it’s a clear progression at first, but then it becomes just a little bit more ambiguous and hazy, around the fourth track. What do you think that’s a reflection of?
Helena: I think it’s kind of like a slump in the clearness of the first couple of days. There was definitely a slow down in rhythm, and the songs around the half of the record were worked on over more time. Like, we started the idea every day but then developed it to its final form over more time, and maybe it has less… instantaneity. And I feel day 8, the last day, it really wraps it back together and then it’s like back at this very vivid, clear message.
Do you mind sharing some of the strongest memories that come to mind when thinking of those eight days?
Helena: After ‘Jour 3’ – we had just written ‘Jour 1’, Jour 2’, ‘Jour 3’ – and I remember talking to my manager about it for the first time since we had started, and being like, “Oh, we wrote one song per day, and yesterday we wrote a song about… I think masturbation, and it’s like, really playful and fun.” [laughs] And then I remember becoming aware of how easy it had been and how inspiring it was to work together. Long evenings spent in the studio, finishing out one and biking up the hill and going to a party and just being so energized.
Ouri: I think for me it was ‘Jour 2’.
Helena: Yeah, that broke us open.
Ouri: Yeah, it was just ego death and changing roles with such as soft energy. I never experienced that before.
Helena: And that song is so mysterious to us still. It was kind of channeled without us even trying to summon it. And it’s kind of comforting, in a really existential way, that that could have happened.
I wanted to ask you about the lyric-writing process, because with the music it was so intuitive, so I was wondering if it was a similar situation with the lyrics.
Helena: Same thing, yeah. And it was kind of undiscussed. We would take turns going up to the mic and saying things, just kind of bouncing off each other. Day two is a good example, the first voice you hear is Ouri’s, and you wrote that just arriving at the mic saying that, which inspired what I say next.
Because the song titles are in French and you’re both native speakers, I was curious if you considered having the lyrics be in French, too.
Helena: Not really. I think our way of making music has been integrated by an English musical culture far more than the French one. And it’s hard to change that, because they’re so enmeshed, you know. If you’re used to writing lyrics in English, even though we speak in French between each other, for some reason it’s hard to take that language into the music.
Ouri: It creates dissociation in the experience and makes it less personal. It’s easier to step into some sort of universal mindset.
‘Jour 6’ is the only instrumental on the record. Do you remember the day you made that track?
Ouri: It was just a jam that we made. I think I was looking back into folders and I found this, and I was like, “That should be on the album.” It reflects perfectly the sixth day. [laughs]
Helena: It’s kind of when we had decided that every day was going to have, like, a jour. But we have come to love it, I think it makes so much sense in the pacing and it makes sense on its own. It’s a nice constraint to weave something out of every day we jammed and spent in the studio, just because it forces us to be less self-conscious and less paranoid, to some extent, and more like, “This is what happened.”
Ouri: I think we both really love instrumental music too.
Helena: Absolutely.
Ouri: We were just playing that day, you know, for hours on the synth and the piano. It’s always nice to just create instrumental music.
Were you listening to a lot of music together during those days?
Ouri: Yeah, we were partying, we were listening to music, or meditating…
Helena: [laughs] And it’s so fun to just – if we were friends and not collaborators, we would still exchange as much music because it’s so much part of what interests us. I remember my birthday was shortly after those eight days and we had just arrived at the place where my birthday was taking place, and you plugged in your iPhone and just played all the songs that we had.
Can you offer an indication of the sorts of things you were listening to and how they affected your headspace?
Helena: It’s not so much of a genre. The music that we like in common reflects what we make together in some indescribable way. There’s just atmospheres that we relate to both very strongly that kind of make it through in our own music, but it was all over the board, really, and it still is. But I remember with Bendik Giske, Ouri introduced me to this musician and I feel so deeply about it. We both share this intense attachment to some songs.
Ouri: I feel like I’m constantly in a love-and-hate relationship to electronic music, because this is where I started my own sound. And I feel like Helena brings me back to loving electronic music and just finding it fun.
I wanted to go back to the final track, which as you said before is kind of more instantaneous. To me, it also feels like the most direct expression of anger, which is something that permeates the whole record. Did you go in with the intention of ending the album on that note, or was it again inspired by the mood of that day?
Helena: That one is kind of an exception because we started with lyrics that I had written before. It was a way of trying to stimulate inspiration. I just sang the lyrics, and I remember we were both kind of tired by that point and a bit discouraged. But then I remember we both had our coats on our backs, ready to go take a break outside, and Ouri just stayed, sitting at the computer, looping voice moments for like 45 minutes. [laughs] Again, it wasn’t a decision before, but I think the anger it expresses is definitely part of what we share, unfortunately. And also fortunately, because we have each other to express it with.
How much did the project change shape after those days in the studio?
Helena: It became conceptual, with the visual, the name of the band – everything came after the music creation. But the music itself was pretty fleshed out by then.
Ouri: ‘Jour 1’, the first song, we reworked a little bit the structure not long ago, right before doing the final masters. But everything was kind of set in stone, like we changed and enhanced some songs, but the structure, the direction – it was anchored.
How much did the conceptual and visual side that came later affect the way you perceived the music?
Helena: The person we worked with is called Melissa Matos. She’s extremely rigorous and inspiring and goes deep into research to develop visual ideas, which definitely helped us understand what we were going to propose with this whole project. I think it’s going to be brought forward into future pieces of work.
Ouri: She just added a dimension. It’s as if we were in 2D and suddenly she just created something else. It made so much sense, we could never have thought about it. It was an essential pillar, but it didn’t change the perception of the songs, it just enhanced it.
Did you feel that that rigorousness came into contrast with the fluid approach that you had while making the songs?
Helena: Yeah, definitely. It balanced it out in a nice way. Our energy together is often super silly and we’re hard to tame – we’re very, like, childish together, I guess. And to have someone be like, “This is how it’s gonna work,” is actually super helpful.
Ouri: If we stayed in that unidimensional point of view, it wouldn’t have had the same depth, the same…
Helena: Reach.
Ouri: Yeah.
What future do you see for Hildegard as a project?
Helena: We already have so many new songs that we’re really excited to work on. We kind of go by bursts, like periods of time that we totally devote to that. We have a second album title and ideas about… [laughs] It’s probably gonna change a million times, but we’re very much thinking about it.
Ouri: It was a challenge, because the first day we were in the studio we made a track again like the first time, and after that it was completely different.
In what ways was it different?
Ouri: We have expectations, we have things that we like about working together, so instead of trying to discover and document what’s happening between us, sometimes I feel like we want to bring back the spirit that we had in the first album, which is not something that we should ever do.
Helena: Yeah. We’ve become more unrealistic. We had such a beginner’s mind the first time, we were just like, “Whatever happens, happens.” And it’s fun. And it hasn’t become not fun, it has only become more – there’s more layers of judgment within ourselves just because we know that we’re able to do it, so we expect to do it, so then if we don’t, ‘cause that day doesn’t work out, we’re disappointed. [laughs] And we become stressed…
Ouri: [laughs]
Helena: You know how it goes.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
“I’m your biggest fan,” the first line heard on Doomin’ Sun – the debut album by duo Bachelor – blooms with sincerity.The song, ‘Back of My Hand,’ is carried by upbeat rhythms and playful guitar hooks that are nonetheless draped in the bedroom aesthetics listeners have come to expect from the projects of members Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and Ellen Kempner (Palehound). The song could easily be mistaken as a surface-level telling of an adoring child fan, but it’s clear the duo are working on a deeper level. Lines like “Do I wanna be you or be your friеnd?”, delivered with sweet yet restless energy, make that clear.
As Bachelor, the duo work on this plane throughout the album, exploring relationships and love – and the pain that can come from them – from a perspective that’s all their own. They examine the similarities between love and friendship, and question if they’re mistaking one for another. The single verse of ‘Sand Angel’ blurs the lines between closeness and feeling suffocated, even trapped (“As you toss me, turn me/ And I’m sweatin’ through the sheets”). The duo up the ante on the sparse ‘Went Out Without You,’ where the twinkling and anxious guitar strums that run through the song reflect the uncomfortable dynamics of internalized insecurity (“I fear what would happen if you didn’t care”). Yet Bachelor play and sing through the song with a level of vulnerability that demands nothing but empathy.
And despite the occasional heaviness of its lyrics, Doomin’ Sun remains a cozy album at heart that also expands on the aesthetics that Duterte and Kempner are known for. ‘Anything At All’ plays like the duo’s take on a track by The Go! Team; the song slides from crunchy guitar lines to glistening guitar plucks, while the chorus is delivered with a teasing playfulness. Album highlight ‘Spin Out’ rumbles with layers of dreamscapes and hazy vocals that successfully evoke the song’s title. The strings and piano give the ballad ‘Aurora’ an extra layer of sentimentality that compliments Bachelor’s examination of a particular night with a friend (“Mid October, bored in North Conway/ Startin’ up a ball game”). Yet the verse’s final line – “And I took the joke too far again, again” – calls into question their relationship with their memory.
This isn’t the only track that puts particular moments under the microscope. The pop-punk-tinged ‘Stay in the Car’ is the loudest track on the album, and one that precisely captures how those in love dramatize the littlest moments (“Pop the trunk, slam my door, peel off/ Cloud of smokе while she just smokes”). Yet no matter the speed, Bachelor capture a very real truth: people can’t predict which moments are the ones that will stick with them.
UV-TV tap into something familiar yet consistently exciting. Since releasing their first demo in 2015, the New York City power trio, founded by songwriters Rose Vastola and Ian Bernacett in Gainesville, Florida, have developed their DIY punk sound by sharpening their songwriting and bringing more of their melodic and pop sensibilities into the fold. Their growth is palpable across their first two LPs, 2017’s Glass and 2019’s Happy, but the appeal remains largely the same: they might call to mind a number of late-‘80stoearly ‘90s influences, but the nostalgic pull of those reference points doesn’t matter nearly as much as the music itself, which is effortlessly catchy, often thrilling, and pretty much always solid.
Always seems to be the key word here, though UV-TV probably aren’t acknowledging that consistency by naming their third full-length album Always Something. It’s one of those rare albums that’s hard to build a narrative out of, which feels both refreshing and oddly comforting: the gist is that it’s their first LP to be completely written and recorded since the band’s relocation to New York, and the first with drummer Ian Rose as a full-time member. There’s also the fact that it was made against the backdrop of a global pandemic, with a press release stating that the band sought “to recreate the throbbing rhythms, pulsating vibrations and grinding monotony of the day-to-day hustle that existed before Covid.” Indeed, Always Something doesn’t offer a time capsule of early 2020 as much as it captures the sense of malaise and boredom that can pervade our lives beyond this period of imposed isolation.
There’s nothing listless about the way the album sounds though, as the band channels those feelings through kinetic and propulsive power pop. Rose’s drumming is crisp and flavourful throughout, but especially on tracks like ‘Wildflower’, ‘Back to Nowhere’, and ‘Superabound’. Vastola’s voice has an air of disaffection to it, but she’s capable of packing an impressive amount of nuance into her delivery when the song calls for it. Take ‘Plume’, one of the album’s most downbeat and languorous moments, a necessary breather right in the middle of the record; as heavy bass and lethargic acoustic guitar hang around the mix, Vastola carries the track with her affecting, earnest vocals, calling out, “I can’t take it all on my own.” A sweeping electric guitar punctuates the sense of loneliness before the song reaches a gigantic, devastating climax.
Always Something has plenty such moments of pure impact, from the hook-laden ‘Wildflower’ to the shoegaze frenzy of ‘Distant Lullaby’ and the infectious solos on ‘Back to Nowhere’. Even if it lacks some of the raw energy of the band’s previous allbums, it’s an irresistibly fun listen from start to finish, and the production brings a certain amount of richness to the already layered and dynamic performances. With nine tracks clocking in at less than half an hour, if there’s one thing that keeps the album from being remarkable, it’s that it isn’t really trying to be. There’s a pulse to these songs, but not always a ton of heart. Yet there’s always more personality and attitude to UV-TV’s music than almost any other guitar band coasting on those same influences, and that’s certainly something.
