Socks can be an essential part of your outfit, especially if they stand out from your outfit. When it comes to suits, we love to wear plain black or grey socks, but sometimes it can be fun to mix it up with some funky patterned socks or socks that remind us of something we love. With this ever-growing trend of business people wearing funky socks reaching new heights, we have made a list of 5 eye-pleasing socks you can wear with a suit.
Polka Dot Socks, Reiss
Polka dot socks can be a great way to bring more life to your outfit. They can be matched with a polka dot square pocket — if you fancy. Polka dot socks do come in various colours, most popular are navy and black, but can also look great reversed with the dominant colour being white and dots being in blue/black.
These socks won’t make you look crazy but will bring a flow of colour to your look that will adapt nicely with your overall outfit. In terms of combinations, you can mix this with a classic navy suit for more blend, or go with a lighter suit to bring a more dynamic look.
We cannot forget our best friends — dogs. With these superbly designed socks, Barbour keeps us closer to our pets than ever before. It’s quirky, and we love it.
This stylish pair of socks is brought to us by Ted Baker, a respected British clothing company known for some superb designs over the years. These socks utilise a quirky and beautiful design that incorporates dragonflies, making it a bookmarked product for the shopping list.
With the summer weather being present, sometimes it’s nice to think of refreshing fruit when you’re on a business call. These watermelon socks will help you do that; in fact, they will make you stand out from the crowd.
Phoebe Bridgers and Courtney Barnett joined forces for a cover of Gillian Welch’s 2001 song ‘Everything Is Free’. The performance was part of Newport Folk Festival’s virtual event, which took place over the weekend. The historic festival, which started in Rhode Island in 1959, was cancelled back in April due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bridgers and Barnett tuned in from their homes in Los Angeles and Melbourne respectively. Check out a clip of their performance below.
Both artists have covered ‘Everything Is Free’ before; as Stereogum notes, Bridgers performed the song at the very same festival in 2018. Released as part of Welch’s 2001 album Time (The Revelator), the track was originally written about the arrival of Napster and the effects it would have on musicians, but takes on a new resonance today following Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s controversial comments about the streaming platform’s business model.
Last week, Bridgers unveiled the video for ‘I Know the End’, the apocalyptic closing track from her most recent album Punisher. Barnett is currently working on the soundtrack for the upcoming documentaryBrazen Hussies, about the Australian Women’s Liberation Movement.
Taylor Swift‘s folklorehas debuted at the number one spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, making it the biggest debut for an album since her last album, Lover, came out a year ago. It’s also the bigggest debut of the year, taking the place of Juice WRLD’s posthumous album Legends Never Die.
The album sold over 846,000 equivalent album units in the first week since its release on July 24. According to Billboard, those album units consist of 615,000 album sales, 218,000 streaming equivalent albums (racking up a total of 289.85 million streams), and 13,000 track equivalent albums. Swift’s eighth studio album is her seventh to debut at the top of the Billboard chart, breaking the record for the most No. 1 debuts among women (Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, and Britney Spears all hold 6, while Jay-Z holds the record for most No. 1 debuts with 14). It also marks the first time an artist has had seven different albums sell at least half a million copies in one week (Swift was previously tied with Eminem).
Folklore is this year’s best-selling album, replacing BTS’ Map of the Soul: 7, which has a total of 574,000 sales since it was released in February. It’s also had the largest streaming week of the year for an album by a woman with a total of 289.85 million on-demand streams. It’s worth noting that Swift achieved this without a traditional album roll-out, announcing the album a day before its release, and despite the fact that the album finds her straying away from her pop-friendly sound to a more indie aesthetic. Read our review of the album here.
The Martian is a 2016 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Mara, Jeff Daniels, and others. The film is based on Andy Weir’s 2011 novel of the same name.
Damon portrays Mark Watney, a botanist who ends up stranded on Mars while his crew, believing he’s dead after an accident in a storm, is heading back to Earth. Watney must figure out how to survive on Mars long enough to wait for the next mission to bring him back home. Little does he know that millions of people on Earth are rooting for him, and NASA is working tirelessly to organize a rescue mission while Watney’s crew devises a daring mission of their own.
Here are fifteen brilliant stills from The Martian.
Tom Leighton, a superb photographer out of London, U.K, has presented an excellent series in which he explores and brings the beautiful, eye-pleasing architecture of the modern London to its minimalist features.
When Logic announced his retirement, it was hard not to be at least a little bit sceptical – rappers make these sort of statements all the time only to make a grand comeback just a few years later. But the Maryland rapper sounded both serious and determined: having recently become a dad, he wanted to focus on spending time with his family. Of course, he also struck a seven-figure deal with streaming platform Twitch, where he will be streaming a set amount of hours per week. “I’m not this rapper guy, man,” he said in an interview. “I’m just a nerd. I love video games.”
For anyone who’s been following Logic’s trajectory, this statement doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise. Though most would rather forget it, it was only last year that he put out an entire album of alternative rock songs that were both painfully derivative and completely forgettable. Its follow-up, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, was another stylistic pivot that didn’t quite pan out. But there’s no denying that Logic – aka Sir Robert Bryson Hall II – loves rap; he proves as much on this album, titled No Pressure and billed as a spiritual successor to his great full-length debut Under Pressure, which is filled to the brim with well-placed nods and tributes to a number of hip-hop artists. Even as far back as 2014, when that album was released, he found himself wrestling with the same kinds of questions: “Do you really wanna be famous?/ Do you really wanna be a superstar?” he asked himself on ‘Buried Alive’.
The way Logic conflates the rap game with rap as an art-form on No Pressure can be seen as somewhat odd; worse still is the veiled implication that there’s no space in hip-hop for fathers or for nerds who love video games. But it doesn’t take much digging to realize these criticisms don’t really hold ground, as Logic convincingly unpacks the effects fame has had on his mental health. Sure, you can’t help but roll your eyes a little when he delivers platitudes like “money don’t complete us” or “money ain’t the key to happiness” considering how much of it he’ll still be making, but when he centers his focus less on the entertainment industry as a whole than on his own mental state, his tone is unmistakably sincere. “Been addicted to money, been addicted to fame/ Addicted to arenas and people screamin’ my name/ But it’s time to let go, it’s time to make a change,” he raps on the hard-hitting ‘Hit My Line’.
But perhaps the most poignant aspect of Logic’s self-reflective lyrics is the way they reveal how fame has affected his creative process: “Nowadays it’s hard to get in the zone/ Writin’ rhymes was easy before the fame/ Now I’m constantly overthinkin’ every line, it’s a shame/ Rap used to fill me with joy, now it’s nothin’ but pain,” he admits on ‘Dark Place’. He sounds genuinely broken, and at this point, you can no longer doubt he’s made the right decision. And yet it’s hard not to point out that despite those insecurities, his flows haven’t been this consistently good in years; same goes for the album’s songwriting and vibrant production. Aided by legendary producer and previous collaborator No I.D., the songs here are infused with the kind of old-school, boom-bap influenced sound that makes them stand out more than any of his trap-inflected efforts.
While the production on No Pressure is far from original, it manages to execute these sounds so well and with such an infectious appreciation for the genre that it doesn’t really matter. Thalia, a fictional character/ computer program dating back to Logic’s The Incredible True Story, makes a return here, and while her references to influences such as Kanye West and MF Doom are pretty redundant at this point, the way Logic tips his hat to other rappers throughout is part of what makes the album so entertaining; from his nod to Erykah Badu on ‘GP4’ to his interpolation of Outkast’s ‘Elevators (Me & You)’ on the very same track or Kanye West’s ‘Heard Them Say’ later in the tracklisting, making for some of its most memorable highlights.
Clocking in at nearly an hour, No Pressure is probably going to be too long for most listeners, but the abundance of Easter Eggs and callbacks to his earlier work renders it the perfect yet bittersweet goodbye for longtime fans. There’s not much of a concept tying things together here, either, but this is also one of the album’s charms; Logic treads through a wide range of topics, his demeanour laid-back and relaxed. The title’s no coincidence – with a lot of that weight off his chest, he sounds comfortable doing just what he does best. “I remember makin’ music alone, just a pen and a microphone,” he reminisces on ‘Dark Place’. If Logic does ever make a comeback, one can only hope that his approach is as back-to-basics as this album, and as untroubled by what the world thinks of him. If it’s half as fun as him rapping about making sure his son eats his greens on ‘DadBod’, it’ll be well worth the suspense. No pressure, though.
Earlier this week, Lana Del Rey released her new spoken word album Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. Featuring music from producer Jack Antonoff, it serves as the audiobook version of her poetry collection of the same name, which is available for purchase through Google Play and Audible. She previously shared sample track from the album (which is not available on streaming services), and has now posted a vintage-looking, low-quality video of her reciting the poem ‘Salamander’ in her backyard, filmed by her brother Charlie Grant. Check it out below.
“I love you, but you don’t understand me, I’m a real poet!” the poem goes. “My life is my poetry, my love making is my legacy!/ My thoughts are about nothing, and beautiful, and for free.”
First announced back in December, the album is one of two spoken word poetry projects the singer is planning to release this year, the second of which is titled behind the iron gates – insights from an institution and has no release date as of yet. del Rey reportedly also has another LP in store, titled White Hot Forever and scheduled for release on September 5th.
Lil Uzi Vert and Future have shared a pair of new singles, ‘Over Your Head’ and ‘Patek’ (not to be confused with Uzi’s 2018 song ‘New Patek’). Listen to both songs below.
The two rappers first teased their latest collaboration on July 21 by posting a video directed by Hype Williams on social media – 10 days later, it was looking like the new songs might not actually drop, but the pair finally came through, releasing both tracks under the title Pluto X Baby Pluto.
The pair’s last collaboration was ‘All Bad’, a cut from Future’s latest album High Off Life, following ‘Wassup’ from the deluxe edition of Uzi’s Eternal Atake called LUV vs. The World 2. Both rappers have dropped new albums in 2020: Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake was released in March, while Future’s High Off Life dropped in May.
We don’t usually cover a lot of punk rock on this segment, but this changes today – The Unfit’s ferocious, no-frills approach to the genre, infused with just the right amount of indie and noise rock influences, makes for the perfect antidote to today’s turbulent climate. The band – consisting of Seattle musicians and old high school friends Jake Knuth, Michael Lee, T.J. Johnson, and Tyler Johnson – formed all the way back in 2012, posting scattered tracks online and playing sparse shows here and there. Eight years later, they’ve finally come through with their self-titled debut via Share it Music, and it’s nothing short of thrilling: ‘Caged Rats and Hamster Wheels’ kicks things off with a propulsive rhythm and riotous energy that never quite fades throughout the album, while the anthemic ‘No Culture’ boasts a classic-sounding, 90s-inspired pop punk riff juxtaposed with Jake’s unfettered delivery. The frenzied ‘The Living’ opens up about mental health with unrelenting detail: “They’re always talking/ They’re always judging/ You can’t escape it/ You’re just a loser/ A social failure,” he sings, encapsulating the whole ethos of the band in a fearlessly honest way. “But you remember/ That you’re alive,” he hollers as every instrument bursts alongside him. It’s that sense of catharsis, of raging against the worst that life has to throw at you and proclaiming your own humanity, that makes the Unfit stand out.
We caught up with Jake and T.J. of the Unfit for this edition of our Artist Spotlight series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
How did you form the Unfit?
Jake: I met TJ and Tyler in high school when the band that Michael and I were in played a battle of the bands with their punk band. We became friends and later all lived together where we played music pretty much every day. So, about eight years ago or so when I was feeling the need to start a new thing, it made sense to ask these guys if they wanted to join. It was just for fun. It was a means to vent.
What was the inspiration for the band’s name?
Jake: It was the idea that if being the best adapted to survive in the world is to be dishonest, selfish, shameless, and cutthroat, then I’m ok with being unfit.
Are there any influences outside the world of punk that inform your music?
TJ: Family and life. Music-wise anything with raw energy.
Jake: Outside of the world of punk, I guess I would say a lot of alternative music of the 90s influenced me as a kid, and that probably comes through. Collectively our interests are all over the map.
Was there a specific moment where you decided you were going to record a debut album?
TJ: Jake just wanted to record and didn’t know how it would turn out. It turned out pretty good so we kept it going.
Jake: For me that moment was when Cayle (from the label Share It Music) asked me last year if we wanted to do a release. He had a collection of songs that we had shared with friends years ago and was interested in releasing something. We had basically moved on from the idea of making and selling a record, but Share It seemed like a great fit, since Cayle has a relatively easy-going, charity-driven operation.
What were some of the ideas that went into the making of the album?
TJ: The challenges of not being exactly what the world wants you to be and how that fits into existing in it.
Jake: We’ve always intended to keep everything fairly simple, raw, and to the point. Nothing that felt like we were trying too hard. As far as the ideas behind the lyrics, there are some common themes and ideas, but it’s always about catharsis. This whole thing is about catharsis for me.
What was the recording process like?
TJ: Fast. Just a few takes and some were the first one.
Jake: The album is a mix of old and newer tracks recorded over the years when we could squeeze recording time in with our friend Geoff Ott. We tracked almost everything live. Some songs required some fixing, overdubbing, and all that, but a lot of the songs are essentially one live take. And several of the mixes were done the same day as recording.
Spanish indie rock outfit Hinds have covered The Clash’s classic tune, ‘Spanish Bombs’. Check it out below.
Writing about the band’s decision to record their own rendition of the song, Hinds’ Carlotta Cosials said: “We’ve always loved doing covers. Maybe ’cause it’s the way we started, or maybe because there are so many good songs in the world already that we wish we had written! And we really enjoy hindsifying them heheh.”
She added: “The Clash were my mom’s forever favourite band and ade’s parents also, so it is always beautiful to connect generations through music. As spaniards, we don’t usually get shout outs in songs, like “new york” or “london”, so the clash writing a song about our civil war made us feel honoured. We recorded it the last day of studio, pretty much live, while recording our third album.”
