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An Introduction to Transitions Light-adaptive Lenses

Switching glasses between prescription glasses and sunglasses can be an everyday hassle if you spend a lot of time outdoors. This is where Transitions lenses come into action, making them a convenient choice.

The introduction of Transitions lenses has transformed the eyewear industry with its advanced technology. These lenses are deeply influenced by the lighting conditions. For instance, they transition to a darker tint when exposed to UV rays outdoors and return back to fully clear when indoors.

Initially, Transitions lenses were only available in grey colour. But later on, they became available in a variety of colours. Considering their versatility in various lighting conditions, you don’t need to spend money on separate pairs of prescription glasses and sunglasses. You can easily rely on Transitions both indoors and outdoors.

Explore the worth of Transitions lenses

Since a lot of people face challenges due to constant exposure to sunlight, these light-adaptive lenses can really make things easier.

Photochromatic molecules in Transitions lenses make them clear indoors and darken in response to UV rays, similar to sunglasses. As a result, the molecules change shape and absorb light when exposed to UV, creating a gradual transition from clear to tinted. This technology enhances comfort and cost-effectiveness by providing adaptable vision in different lighting conditions.

Hence, they are worth it because of their ability to protect you from harmful rays and you don’t have to keep changing different pairs of glasses frequently. In addition, they not only prevent UVA or UVB light from entering your eyes directly but also filter the blue-violet light that is emitted from digital screens like computers, laptops, mobile phones and so on.

Moreover, they come with free anti-reflective coatings and impact-resistance features.

How are Transitions lenses beneficial?

Transitions lenses have a set of pros that cannot be matched. They are as follows:

  • Cost-effective: These light-adaptive lenses tend to be very cost-effective because you don’t have to spend much money on two pairs of eyewear. In addition, they eliminate the task of buying and carrying two or more glasses and sunglasses to meet your everyday eyewear needs.
  • Reduced risk of losing glasses: Carrying two or more glasses can certainly make you more prone to forgetting or losing your glasses at some point in time. So, having these lenses can reduce this risk as you will not need to carry another pair.
  • Great from the fashion perspective: Transitions lenses consist of a plethora of options so you don’t have to worry about matching them for different occasions. They are the perfect fashion glasses available in multiple tints and you can match them with different outfits.

Exploring the special features of the Transitions – GEN S, GEN 8 and Transitions Xractive

Some of the popular variants of Transitions lenses include Signature GEN 8, GEN S, and Transitions Xtractive.

Transitions Signature GEN 8

Transitions Signature GEN 8 lenses are the most popular light-adaptive lenses from the brand for everyday use. They remain fully clear indoors and offer protection from harmful blue-violet light emitted from digital screens. The lenses turn dark when exposed to UV light and offer complete protection from harmful UV rays.

Transitions GEN S

Transtions GEN  S lenses are the newest generation light-adaptive lenses from the brand and are also the successor of Signature GEN 8 lenses. Diving deep into the latest GEN S Transitions, they have a faster transitioning period as they switch to a darker tint in just 25 seconds as per the intensity of the UV light. In addition, the fade-back time is also among the fastest. The GEN S Transitions offer an enhanced colour perception and a comfortable viewing experience. These lenses help block 4 times more blue-violet rays compared to clear lenses.

Transitions XTRActive

Transitions XTRActive lenses tend to offer protection and safety to individuals who are extra sensitive to light and have to frequently experience bright light. It is known for its quicker transition speed and the highest level of darkness outdoors. The fadeback time of Xtractive lenses is 35%compared to regular Transitions. The biggest benefit of XTRActive is that they don’t need UV rays to get dark which gives them the ability to react inside cars as well.

Now that you know the functioning of different variants of Transitions lenses, let’s look at the different tint colours. Transitions Signature GEN 8 comes in a variety of tints, including Amber, Amethyst, Brown, Sapphire, Grey, Emerald and Green. The Transitions XTRActive come in grey, Green and Brown tints, whereas the GEN S is available in Amber, Brown, Sapphire, Amythyst, Graphite, Ruby, Grey, and Emerald.

Finding the best price on Transitions lenses

Specscart offers you premium Transitions lenses at the best possible prices in the industry. The brand offers meticulously handcrafted frames in their state-of-the-art in-house glazing lab in Manchester, enabling you to try out the choices of frames to meet your fashion needs. With affordability as its core value, you can explore a myriad of eyewear options in Transitions lenses with distinct styles, patterns and shapes at modest prices. You can expect a hardshell case, a microfibre cleaning cloth, a cleaning solution, and a UV-light pen for each order.

Yola Shares New Song ‘Symphony’

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Yola has shared a new single, ‘Symphony’. It’s taken from her upcoming EP My Way, which was scheduled to arrive today but has been pushed back to January 17. The singer co-produced the new track, which follows September’s ‘Future Enemies’, with Sean Douglas and Zach Skelton. Check it out below.

Lil Nas X Shares Video for New Song ‘Light Again!’

Lil Nas X is back with a new song, ‘Light Again!’. The singer and rapper made the track with Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Take a Daytrip, Omer Fedi, and Jasper Harris. Framed as the beginning of a new era, it’s the first glimpse of an upcoming project called Dreamboy. Check out Andrew Donoho‘s video for it below.

In January, Lil Nas X released ‘J Christ’, which was meant to kickstart a new album cycle but was met with controversy for its use of religious imagery. His debut album, Montero, arrived out in 2021.

Arca Remixes Addison Rae’s ‘Aquamarine’

Addison Rae has enlisted Arca for a new remix of her recent single, ‘Aquamarine’. Listen to ‘Aquamarine / Arcamarine’ below.

“When I asked Arca if she’d be open or interested in remixing Aqua, I knew whatever she’d create would be pure magic,” Rae recently wrote on Instagram. “I haven’t stopped listening to it since I was sent the first demo.”

The artwork for the remix was done by Amber Wynne-Jones, who said: “I’ve been living in my own aquamarine fantasy world, discovering harmony and stillness amongst perpetual motion and movement. Navigating that world through paint. @addisonraee embodies the dreamlike, mystical fairyland of Aqua like no one else. And @arca1000000 teleports that mermaid to the divine, a place both rhythmic and hypnotic but also light. This song is mystical and magical and extraordinary and I couldn’t be more honored to be apart of its world.”

Freckle (Ty Segall and Corey Madden) Announce Debut Album, Share New Song ‘Taraval’

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Ty Segall and Color Green’s Corey Madden have formed a new band, Freckle, which will release its self-titled debut album on January 31. Today’s announcement comes with the release of a new song, ‘Taraval’. Check it out below.

Earlier this year, Ty Segall released the double album Three Bells and the all-percussion LP Love Rudiments. In July, Color Green put out Fool’s Parade, their debut for New West Records.

Freckle Cover Artwork:

Freckle Tracklist:

Paranoid
For the Last Time
Freckle
I Don’t Know What I Need
Silk
Who’s Sitting on the Moon
Taraval
Tea Brush/Millipede
Heavy
That’s All We Wrote

Julien Baker, Calvin Lauber, SOAK, and Quinn Christopherson Cover Belle & Sebastian’s ‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’

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Two new tracks from TRAИƧA, nonprofit production company Red Hot’s upcoming 46-track compilation, have been unveiled today. Julien Baker and producer Calvin Lauber have joined forces for a cover of Belle and Sebastian’s ‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’, which also features SOAK and Quinn Christopherson. Plus, there’s a new collaborative track from Yaeji and Teddy Geiger called ‘Pink Ponies’. Take a listen below.

On collaborating with Baker, Lauber said: “JB approached me with the idea to do this cover, and to bring in SOAK and Quinn Christopheron, both friends of ours and people we’ve played shows with, as guest features on the song. However we found ourselves all on opposite sides of the country (JB in LA, myself in Nashville, QC in Alaska, and SOAK in the UK) so this song ended up being produced totally remote Postal Service style, sending ideas back and forth over email. JB sent me her draft of the song and a rough arrangement and asked me to do my thing with it. I ended up playing drums, guitar, synth, pretty much everything laying around my studio. It’s a pretty dense track, I think we both wanted it to feel dynamic but big at the same time. We were both pretty inspired by 80s new wave and like, Interpol for this one.”

Speaking about ‘Pink Ponies’, Yaeji said: “When I heard the demo and lyrics Teddy sent for the first time, I was packing my bags to return to the US from another brief stay with my family in Korea and it brought me to tears. It’s rare to be invited into a space where I can fully let my artistry and intentions sing in this way. What Teddy laid down was a beautiful invitation that allowed me to flow exactly the way my soul intended. The artist’s role is that of a truth teller, and this song and project is one example of the power of music and collective artistry.”

Geiger added: “Pink Ponies grew out of a little harp improvisation and a melody/title from my friend, Danny Parker. From there, a few words and phrases began to hang around—one about meaning something to a pearl at the bottom of the sea. At that time, I was spending a lot of time with a new friend whose name meant “pearl”. Halfway through the process of working on the song, that friend passed away, and working through that grieving process, I completed the first 2 verses. Yaeji wrote the closing verses, the first time I heard her singing them I cried happy soft tears! I’m so happy we got to collaborate on something so meaningful together. It was an honor to be asked to contribute to the album and be a part of the story of TRANSA.”

TRAИƧA is set for release on November 22. Last month, Sam Smith and Beverly Glenn-Copeland shared their contribution to the compilation, which also features Sade, André 3000, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Adrianne Lenker, and many more.

Saint Etienne Announce New Album, Release New Single ‘Half Light’

Saint Etienne have announced their twelfth studio album: The Night is out December 13 via Heavenly Recordings. The follow-up to 2021’s I’ve Been Trying To Tell You is led by the single ‘Half Light’. Check it out below and scroll down for the LP’s cover art and tracklist.

The British trio produced The Night in collaboration with composer and producer Augustin Bousfield. The LP was recorded across two locations in Saltaire and Hove, from January to August 2024.

“It was great to all be in the same studio together again up at Gus’ in Bradford,” Pete Wiggs said in a statement, continuing:

We realized that it had been several years since we’d actually done that, sprawling out on the carpet, mugs of coffee in hand, sheets of lyrics and half ideas for titles lying around us.

We wanted to continue the mellow and spacey mood of the last album, perhaps even double down on it, but it’s a very different album, not based on samples; Songs, moods and spoken pieces drift in and out whilst rain pours down outside. It’s the kind of record I like to listen to in the dark or with my eyes closed.

‘Half Light’ is about the edge of night, the last rays of the sun flickering through the branches of trees, communing with nature and seeing things that might not be there.

Sarah Cracknell added: “It was so good to be back in the studio together after recording the last album remotely. One of my favorite songs on the record is ‘Preflyte,’ it made me cry when I sang it for the first time.”

Discussing the album as a whole, Bob Stanley had this to say:

We wanted The Night to be a calming album, warm and serene, but at the same time we wanted to create something gorgeous and dense.

We were trying to find the state that’s between being awake and asleep, that dream space, with half forgotten thoughts drifting in, bits of TV dialogue, place names, streets, or football grounds you’ve never even been to. You feel very receptive to sound and half-covered memories when you’re in that state.

Rain noise runs right through it. It was designed to gently wash away the stuff in your head that keeps you awake at 2am.

I think The Night sounds really three-dimensional. A lot of that is down to Gus Bousfield who played the guitars and did a wonderful production job. Recording it in his studio, with so much light and space, has helped to shape it too. The three of us brought in our own songs, but lyrically we were all in tune with each other without having to swap notes first.

You could think of it as one continuous, single track. It’s definitely a headphone album.

The Night Cover Artwork:

The Night Tracklist:

1. Settle In
2. Half Light
3. Through The Glass
4. Nightingale
5. Northern Counties East
6. Ellar Carr
7. When You Were Young
8. No Rush
9. Gold
10. Celestial
11. Preflyte
12. Wonderlight
13. Hear My Heart
14. Alone Together

Beirut Share Video for New Single ‘Caspian Tiger’

Beirut has released a new song titled ‘Caspian Tiger’. The track was originally written as part of the soundtrack Zach Condon composed for Swedish circus company Kompani Giraff’s touring production A Study of Losses. Along with the release, Condon has announced his first tour since 2019, a European trek that includes shows in Utrecht, Brussels, and London. (The musician cancelled shows in 2019 to recover from recurring acute laryngitis.) Check out director Jan Pivoňka’s video for ‘Caspian Tiger’ as well as the list of dates below.

“When I was first approached about writing a soundtrack for a circus, a certain amount of Elephant Gun era trauma initially came rushing up,” Condon said in a statement. “I had been pigeon-holed for years as a whimsical circus waif, full of sepia-toned images of penny farthings and perhaps lion tamers with handlebar moustaches. It couldn’t have been further from how I pictured the music I was making. I had been quietly avoiding the subject for years.”

“Ironic then, that I found Kompani Giraff’s project so enticing, and writing something for acrobats to perform so enjoyable,” he continued. “Caspian Tiger was one of the first songs I wrote for the new album, with images in mind of the poor animals caged or fighting in Roman colosseums. They had been taken from the Asian steppes around the Caspian Sea and from as far east as Tashkent, an area I’ve been fascinated by for years. The sonic influence came in large part from choir music that I was obsessing over at the time. Perhaps I subconsciously aimed to embrace and even improve on the imagery I had been originally written off for.”

‘Caspian Tiger’, released via Condon’s own Pompeii Records, follows the 2023 Beirut record Hadsel. Read our interview with Beirut about the inspirations behind the album.

Beirut 2025 Tour Dates:

May 1 Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg – Grote Zaal
May 2 Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg – Grote Zaal
May 5 Brussels, Belgium – Cirque Royal
May 6 Brussels, Belgium – Cirque Royal
May 8 London, England – O2 Academy Brixton

FKA twigs Releases New Single ‘Drums of Death’

FKA twigs has released a new single, ‘Drums of Death’, taken from her upcoming album EUSEXUA. Produced by Koreless, the song was previewed in the video for the album’s title track. Check it out via the accompanying visual below.

Koreless originally created the instrumental for ‘Drums of Death’ while on a flight to Berlin to perform at Berghain before being mixed at the venue’s PA during soundcheck. FKA twigs then collaborated with Tintin on the song’s lyrics.

EUSEXUA is set to arrive on January 24. Along with ‘Drums of Death’ and the title song, the LP features the already-released single ‘Perfect Stranger’.

Top 6 Decor Trends to Refresh Your Vacation Rental

The vacation rental business is quite competitive, with many people investing in it to meet growing demand from travelers. One of the best ways to keep your rental houses fully booked is to refresh them periodically. Even repeat customers will appreciate a new look and feel when they return.

Fortunately, there are many décor ideas to refresh your vacation rental. Some are expensive and time-consuming and require good planning, while others are simple and can be done at any time.

If you want to learn how to make money on Airbnb without owning property, it’s important to understand the business of subletting and consistently refreshing vacation properties. With this in mind, let’s look at the top décor trends to refresh your vacation rental today. Keep reading to learn more.

Repair, Remodel, Repaint, Retouch

Giving your vacation rentals a rejuvenated feel starts with renovations, such as repairs or remodeling, repainting, and doing retouches on various parts. Some of the projects might be larger, such as remodeling, but the effort is worth it as it will increase the ROI of the property. Some minor repairs should be done as needed to ensure that the house has a new feel every time.

Add or Alter the Art

For most people, décor starts with wall art or any other type of art. In this case, you can do wonders to your vacation rentals by adding trendy art or changing the position of the art you have at the moment. Art can be quite expensive, but a good plan when refreshing your property will make a major difference without a lot of investment. In fact, you can try DIY projects for art if you are daring.

The Furnish and Furniture Fulfilment

A few furnishings and furniture here and there will make your vacation rentals feel new every time a client visits. If you have many properties, you can swap some furniture and furnishings to keep each of them refreshed. Items such as mirrors, sofas, shelves, curtains, and the like will make a major impact.

Going Green

You can never go wrong with plants and flowers. When you have stand-alone rental properties or apartments, you can introduce trendy plants for your balcony and patio or even inside of the rental house. Both outdoor and house plants add natural beauty and life to your vacation rental, and clients will definitely love them.

Lighting the House Up

Regardless of the lights you have at the moment, you can do better. If you are not sure of the new trendy lights to bring a new theme to your vacation rentals, let your interior designer do the work. The perfect lighting can bring in a new theme and enhance the rental properties perfectly. Choose your outdoor and indoor lighting appropriately.

Patch It with Pillows

If you are looking to wind up your décor project with bright and colored décor, patch it with pillows. You have the option of couch pillows, bed throw pillows, outdoor pillows, bed pillows, and many others to play with. Again, your interior designer can help you to color match or even advise on where to add a pillow to make your vacation rental warmer and more attractive.

Conclusion

You can play around with many trendy ideas to keep your vacation rentals refreshed at all times. As mentioned, some are simple and can be done every other day while others are detailed and need planning, especially if you have sublet the property. Stay on top of the game and have trendy vacation rental properties that generate decent income at all times.