Fantasy and history go hand in hand when it comes to Néro the Assassin, a French series streaming on Netflix. The combination works, given that the show gathered 3.3 million views during the last week and is currently at number 4 in the non-English charts.
At only eight episodes, the drama is a quick watch, and the ending raises a lot of questions. Naturally, you might wonder whether a sequel is on the way. Here’s what we know so far.
Nero the Assassin Season 2 Release Date
At the time of writing, Netflix hasn’t officially announced a second season. That said, the streaming service might wait to assess how the show performs before commissioning more episodes. Viewership numbers are strong, and the series isn’t listed as “limited,” which is a good sign.
As long as the powers that be give the green light, Néro the Assassin season 2 could arrive sometime in late 2026.
Nero the Assassin Cast
Pio Marmaï as Néro
Lili-Rose Carlier Taboury as Perla
Alice Isaaz as Hortense
Olivier Gourmet as Horace
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing as Rochemort
Yann Gael as Lothar
Sandra Parfait as Zineb
What Could Happen in Nero the Assassin Season 2?
As the name suggests, the historical action series centres on Néro, a seasoned assassin living in 16th-century France. He discovers that he has a 14-year-old daughter, Perla, believed to be the prophesied “last child of the Devil.”
When a one-eyed witch targets Perla, Néro must protect her from both supernatural and human threats. They embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary with the Archbishop of Ségur.
The show explores themes of vengeance, redemption, and fatherhood, which makes it particularly compelling. There’s also some dark humour here and there, while the fantasy elements keep things interesting throughout.
The end of this first batch of episodes is dramatic, featuring a bold sacrifice and an intriguing final twist. Without giving away too much, Néro the Assassin season 2 could follow the titular character as he grapples with the consequences of the explosive finale and continues his quest to keep his daughter safe.
Are There Other Shows Like Nero the Assassin?
If you liked Néro the Assassin, you might also enjoy The Witcher, as the two series have a few elements in common. Season 4 arrives on Netflix on October 30.
Are you looking for the best online casinos to access from the US? With our guide, you will discover the best American online casinos with the quickest payouts, impressive promotions, a wide range of high quality games, and several payment methods. We know how hard it can be to choose the best online casinos for US players. That is why we have done this research: to bring you a clear panorama of all the features online casinos offer. BetWhale is our favourite, discover why. Read all the information below and pick the best online casino for you!
The American online casinos that we listed here present impressive features like strong security features, a wide range of banking options, an extended game selection from renowned providers, and user friendly casino sites. Let’s get into each of the best online casinos for US players!
BetWhale is among the best online casinos for US players as it offers strong security measures like two factor authentication and SSL encrypted systems. This online casino provides 24/7 customer support, which can be reached via live chat and email.
Gaming Library
When it comes to the games offered, BetWhale presents several options. There is a wide range of slot games, crash games, casual games, game shows, live dealer games, and also poker games. All games are provided by the most popular software companies like NetEnt and Pragmatic Play.
Payment Methods
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Pros:
Welcome bonus of 250% up to $1,000
Other promotions like free bets and cashbacks on losses
Accepts several payment methods
Easy to navigate
24/7 customer support
Simple interface
2. Raging Bull – Great Online Casino, Wide Range of Slots
Raging Bull Casino stands out as one of the best online casinos according to cardplayer.com, offering a secure and user-friendly platform with 24/7 customer support via live chat and email. With an attractive design and easy navigation, it’s a great choice for those searching for online casinos for US players.
Gaming Library
The online casino real money presents an extended selection of games: slots, table games like blackjack, baccarat, and roulette, various poker variants, and a live dealer section. All games are powered by some of the best software companies such as NetEnt and Evolution Gaming, ensuring high quality graphics and gameplay.
Payment Methods
Raging Bull Casino supports a range of payment options. Deposits can be made via credit and debit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, as well as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Tether.
Pros:
200% welcome bonus up to $3,000, along with 50 free spins
Promotions like daily free spins, a loyalty programme and a VIP Club
Low wagering requirement
24/7 customer support
Multiple payment methods
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Lucky Red Casino is one of the best online casinos USA due to its secure and reliable destination for online gambling. Licensed by the Curaçao Gaming Authority, the platform offers a user-friendly interface, great customer support, and an appealing design.
Gaming Library
Lucky Red provides a diverse range of casino games that includes a variety of slots, table games such as roulette, baccarat, Keno, and scratch cards. Powered by well known developers like Pragmatic Play, the games present high-quality graphics and smooth gameplay.
Payment Methods
Lucky Red supports a variety of payment options such as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Tether, and credit and debit cards such as Visa and Mastercard. The casino also accepts eWallets and bank transfers.
Pros:
400% welcome crypto bonus up to $4,000, plus an additional $75 on the first deposit
Daily promotions, such as 65% match bonuses on slots, 70% matches on selected games, and free chip bonuses
Supports cryptocurrencies and traditional payment options
User friendly interface
Free chip bonuses
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Launched in 2011 and operated by Genesys Technology N.V., Black Lotus Casino is a top paying online casino that ensures reliability and trustworthiness as it holds a license from the Curaçao Gaming Authority.
Gaming Library
In regards to the gaming options, Black Lotus presents several games such as slots, video poker, classic table games such as blackjack, roulette, and poker, live dealer games, Keno, and many more. All games are powered by top notch software companies like Arrows Edge and BetSoft.
Payment Methods
This online casino real money supports a wide range of payment options like Visa, Mastercard, and bank transfers, and also cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tether, Dogecoin, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash. This variety ensures smooth and secure transactions for all types of players.
Pros:
200% bonus up to $7,000 and 30 free spins on selected games
Other promotions like weekly free spins, regular tournaments with juicy prize pools, and a VIP loyalty program
Since 2004, Slots of Vegas has earned a strong reputation among the best online casinos in the US. This casino presents a reliable license from Anjouan, offering secure online gambling for American players. It also works perfectly on both mobile and desktop devices.
Gaming Library
Slot Vegas presents more than 200 games where players can enjoy a wide range of slots, table games like roulette, blackjack, and video poker, and specialty games. However, this casino does not offer live dealer options.
Payment Methods
This online casino supports a wide range of banking methods, such as credit and debit cards like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, bank transfers, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Dogecoin, and Tether.
Pros:
Welcome bonus of 250% worth up to $2,500
VIP program with exclusive benefits for members and other promotions like free spins, deposit matches, and more
Simple registration process
Works on mobile and desktop devices
Has a VIP program
Strong reputation
6. Sloto Cash – Online Casino with Several Promotions
Sloto Cash Casino is one of the most reputable casinos for US players. It was launched in 2007, and it holds a license from the Government of Curaçao, which ensures a reliable and trustworthy gambling experience.
Gaming Library
This online casino features a wide selection of gaming options to cater to all players. Slots, poker, video poker, and live dealer games are some of the games offered. In addition, players can enjoy table games such as blackjack, baccarat, and roulette.
Payment Methods
When it comes to the payment methods, Sloto Cash Casino accepts eWallets, credit and debit cards like Visa and Mastercard, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Tether, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and bank transfers.
Pros:
Bonus up to $7,777 plus 300 free spins
Free spins, daily cashbacks and a VIP club with exclusive benefits for members
Simple to navigate
Safe gambling environment
Has a VIP club and several promotions
7. Vegas Casino – Excellent Casino with a Modern Interface
Vegas Casino Online has been in the business since 1999, offering a reliable and safe gambling experience. It provides 24/7 customer support and an intuitive interface.
Gaming Library
The game selection is varied and all games are provided by well known software companies like Evolution Gaming. Players can enjoy slots, table games like blackjack, baccarat, roulette, and poker, bingo, scratch cards, game shows, and live dealer games.
Payment Methods
Payments accepted at Vegas Casino are several. Players can make their deposits using Visa, MasterCard credit and debit cards, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Pros:
Welcome bonus up to $10,000
Other promotions such as cashbacks on losses, loyalty benefits, and anniversary bonuses
Wide range of games
Excellent customer support
Modern design
8. BUSR – Great Choice for Engaging on a Community
BUSR stands out among the best online casinos for US players due to its News section, offering players the latest updates on the platform. It features a clean interface, generous promotions, and a wide selection of games, providing an excellent casino sites gambling experience.
Gaming Library
Players at BUSR have access to a diverse catalog of casino games, including slots, table games like blackjack, roulette, and baccarat, as well as various poker variants and a selection of live dealer games. All games are powered by excellent software developers, ensuring smooth gameplay and high-quality graphics.
Bonuses
The welcome bonus at BUSR is very interesting. Players can take advantage of a 100% match bonus up to $1,500 when they deposit at least $100 and enter the promo code LUCKYWAVE. This welcome offer comes with a 40x wagering requirement. In addition, BUSR offers a variety of promotions, including 10% weekly rebates, sports betting bonuses, and a Referral Program to reward users for inviting friends.
Payment Methods
This online casino real money supports a broad range of payment options, including credit and debit cards like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, and several cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ripple, Tether, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. In addition, the site supports wire transfers and eWallets. For any questions or issues, 24/7 customer support is available via live chat and email.
Pros:
100% match bonus up to $1,500
10% weekly rebates, sports betting bonuses, and a Referral Program
Referral program and other promotions
Accepts different payment options
Intuitive interface
9. Coin Casino – Top Online Casino with a Community for Players
CoinCasino stands out among the best online casinos for US players for its vast game selection, user-friendly interface, and quick, straightforward registration process. Licensed by the Anjouan Gaming Authority, it offers a secure and trustworthy environment. In addition, CoinCasino integrates with Telegram, providing a community where players can share tips and strategies.
Gaming Library
CoinCasino provides more than 4,000 games, presenting a well-organized gaming library. Players can enjoy slots, classic table games like roulette, blackjack, and baccarat, as well as live casino games and game shows. All games come from well known providers such as NetEnt and Evolution Gaming, ensuring high-quality graphics and smooth gameplay.
Payment Methods
CoinCasino operates exclusively with cryptocurrencies, supporting more than 20 digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Tether, Solana, Cardano, and Ripple. As a crypto-only casino, CoinCasino offers fast, secure, and anonymous transactions.
Pros:
Welcome bonus of 200% up to $30,000 and 50 free spins
Provides a community for players
Accepts more than 20 cryptocurrencies
Well known gaming providers
10. Lucky Block – Best Choice with a Loyalty Program
Lucky Block is one of the best American online casinos as it holds a license from the Curaçao Gaming Authority, guaranteeing a secure and trustworthy gambling environment, with SSL encryption and 24/7 customer support available through live chat and email.
Gaming Library
Its extensive game portfolio includes crash games, slots, live casino experiences, game shows, blackjack, roulette, poker, and baccarat. Games come from well known providers like NetEnt and Pragmatic Play, ensuring a superb gaming experience.
Payment Methods
Lucky Block supports a wide range of digital cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, Cardano, Tether, and Bitcoin Cash. It also features its own token, $LBLOCK, that can be purchased directly on the platform and unlocks exclusive rewards and bonuses for its holders.
Pros:
200% bonus up to $25,000 plus 50 free spins
Exciting tournaments and impressive loyalty program featuring 11 levels, where members unlock various benefits such as cashback and rakeback reward
Has its own crypto token, $LBLOCK
Wide array of games
SSL encrypted system
How We Ranked The Best Online Casinos
When it comes to choosing the best online casinos for US players, it is important to consider several key factors that make the experience a safe and enjoyable one. Some of the factors are the bonuses and promotions, security features, gaming library, payment options, and the overall usability.
Bonuses and Promotions
One of the most important factors is the bonuses and promotions that casino sites offer to their players. We evaluate if casinos online present generous welcome bonuses, and several other promotions such as VIP clubs, loyalty programs with exclusive benefits, referral programs, tournaments and contests, and rewards like free spins, cashback on losses, and rakebacks.
Payment Methods
We checked if US online casinos present several payment options that cater to all players’ preferences. We ranked online real money casinos that accept several cryptocurrencies, eWallets, bank transfer and credit and debit cards. We also checked if they offer fast payout and withdrawals, and anonymous transactions.
Security Features
We know how important it is that casinos online present strong security features to ensure a safe gambling experience. All casino sites that we listed here feature an SSL encrypted system and two factor authentication to safeguard all the financial and personal information. In addition, we checked the reliability of the licenses they hold. We chose those online real money casinos that hold licenses from reputable gaming authorities like Curacao, Malta, or Anjouan.
Interface and Usability
Another crucial factor is the interface they present, in order to make a smooth and simple navigation. We checked if the best online casinos feature a simple registration process, appealing and nice designs, and a well organized menu where users can find all the games they want to play. We also evaluated whether casinos online work on mobile and desktop devices, to cater to all players’ preferences.
Gaming Library
Last, but not least, we assessed whether online casinos USA offer a wide variety of games that cater to all players, such as table games like roulette or baccarat, slots, crash games, casual games, and live dealer options. Also, we checked if those games are provided by reputable software companies that ensure a smooth performance and high quality graphics, like NetEnt, Pragmatic Play, and Evolution Gaming.
Is it Legal to Gamble at the Best Online Casinos for US Players?
The legality of gambling at the best online casinos USA depends primarily on state regulations. While there is no federal law that outright bans online gambling, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 restricts banks from processing payments to unlicensed casino gambling sites, but it does not make it illegal for individuals to place bets online. This means that the responsibility for regulating online gambling falls to each individual state.
Several states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware, West Virginia, and Connecticut, have legalized and fully regulated US online casinos. Players residing in these states can safely play at licensed casino sites that meet local legal and security standards. These online real money casinos offer protections such as responsible gambling tools, secure banking, and verified game fairness.
However, in many other states, online casino gambling remains either restricted or unregulated. In these areas, some players turn to offshore casinos, which are licensed outside the US but accept American players. While many offshore platforms operate reliably, they lack US oversight, meaning players have limited legal recourse in case of disputes or unfair practices.
Types of Bonuses at the Best Online Casinos
The best online casinos offer a wide range of bonuses to attract new players and reward loyal ones. Below are the most common types of bonuses you will find at American online casinos:
Welcome Bonus
The welcome bonus at US online casinos is designed to attract new players and is usually the most generous offer on a site. It often comes in the form of a match deposit bonus, where the casino matches a percentage of your first deposit. Many welcome packages also include free spins on selected slots, giving new users a chance to explore online casinos for US players with extra value.
No Deposit Bonus
This type of bonus is offered without requiring a deposit, making it a favorite among cautious players. Typically granted upon registration, a no deposit bonus may include a small amount of bonus cash or a set of free spins. While these bonuses often come with wagering requirements, they provide a risk-free way to try out games and test the US online casinos’ features.
Reload Bonus
A reload bonus is available to existing players and works similarly to the welcome bonus but usually at a lower percentage. These offers are designed to encourage repeat deposits and often appear on specific days of the week or during special promotions. For example, a reload bonus might offer 50% extra on your next deposit plus free spins.
Cashback Bonus
Cashback bonuses return a percentage of your net losses over a specific period, such as daily, weekly, or monthly. For instance, the best casinos might offer 10% cashback on losses every Friday, helping to soften the blow of a losing streak. These bonuses typically come with low or no wagering requirements, making them a player-friendly option.
Free Spins
Free spins are a popular promotion tied to slot games. They can be included in a welcome package or offered as a standalone reward during special events or as part of a loyalty program. Some free spins come with wagering conditions, while others are wager-free, allowing you to keep what you win instantly.
Loyalty and VIP Rewards
The best online casinos reward consistent play with loyalty programs or VIP clubs. These programs often include tiered levels, where players earn points for wagering and unlock increasingly valuable perks such as exclusive bonuses, faster withdrawals, personal account managers, and invitations to special events. The higher your status, the better the rewards.
Refer-a-Friend Bonus
Many online real money casinos offer a referral bonus when you invite friends to join and they make a deposit. These bonuses typically come in the form of free cash or spins, and there is usually no limit to how many friends you can refer. It is a simple way to earn extra rewards while sharing your favorite casino.
Signing up with the Best Online Casino
We will now let you know all the steps for signing up with the best online casino: BetWhale. Let’s get into it!
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Our Final Thoughts About the Best Online Casinos
When it comes to the best online casinos for US players, it is important to take into account several factors in order to ensure a smooth, safe, and enjoyable experience. Security features, bonuses, gaming library, and payment options are crucial. All American online casinos that we mention in this article present impressive features, so you can rest assured that any of them will provide a reliable and great gambling experience.
BetWhale Casino is our top pickthanks to its lightning-fast payouts, generous welcome bonuses, and user-friendly interface tailored specifically for US players. It stands out for offering a wide range of crypto and traditional payment methods, making deposits and withdrawals seamless.
Remember to gamble responsibly and if you encounter any issues, do not hesitate to ask for help. The best online casinos that we listed present responsible gambling tools and several options to get through it. We hope we have helped you! Have an enjoyable time playing at the best online casinos.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Best Online Casinos
Is It Legal to Gamble in the US?
Online gambling is legal in some parts of the United States, but its legality depends on state law. There is no federal ban on online gambling, but each state has the authority to regulate or prohibit it within its borders. However, all casinos online listed here are offshore casino sites, which means that you will not have any issues playing at them.
Which Are the Payment Options Accepted at the Best Online Casinos?
The best online casinos accept several payment methods. They support a wide range of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, Tether, and more, and even some casinos online introduce their own crypto token with exclusive benefits for holders such as Lucky Block.
Which Are the Bonuses I Can Find at the Best Online Casinos?
At the best casinos online, you can find a variety of bonuses to enhance your online gaming experience and reward both new and loyal players. Common bonus types include welcome bonuses, no deposit bonuses, reload bonuses, cashback bonuses, free spins, loyalty and VIP programs, and refer-a-friend bonuses.
Digital culture is really changing course. The internet’s obsession with youth and novelty gives way to something more grounded: confidence, experience and a creative voice that doesn’t fade with age.
In an attention-addicted world of fast trends and fleeting fame, maturity can really seem invigoratingly scarce. Aging creators redefine influence by speaking truth and prioritizing substance over style.
Their narratives really refresh audiences with the understanding that real presence online isn’t because of photo edits or fans, it’s about knowing yourself, your values and how you decide to present them. Such confidence cannot be replicated or taught; it’s earned through time and experience.
In today’s attention culture, groundedness has become the most potent influence.
Redefining Influence Through Experience
The speed of internet culture bred a hunger for realness. Established creators really satisfy those pangs of hunger through substance and consistency. Influence derives not through gleeful self-aggrandizement but through enduring, relatable story-telling.
Rather than seeking viral trends, these content creators bring viewers into an experience-based world, not an experimental world. They post on purpose, not impulse. They get that people are really looking for connection, not grandstanding.
This shift heralds something significant: creativity no longer gets shelved by age. It gets turbocharged.
The Rise of Milf Models and Their Quiet Cultural Shift
In the adult-content space, milf OnlyFans models have really redefined visibility and self-expression. What was once a stereotype has become a statement of independence and control. These women aren’t just performers but entrepreneurs shaping digital intimacy on their own terms.
Their confidence attracts not just attention but respect. They appropriately challenge how age and sensuality are viewed, proving that allure doesn’t expire; it evolves. Their online communities are built on trust, humour and authenticity, creating spaces that feel human rather than transactional.
Through these creators, maturity becomes art, a form of expression defined by self-awareness rather than rebellion.
The Discovery Role of Fans Central
Meanwhile, discovery platforms like Fans Central have become very essential gateways for audiences exploring diverse profiles and creative identities. The platform doesn’t just curate; it connects. It offers visibility to creators across generations, reshaping how digital artistry is found and valued.
For many artists, this kind of exposure is transformative. It turns overlooked niches into vibrant communities, allowing mature voices to coexist with younger counterparts rather than compete against them.
Fans Central points out how algorithms might be utilized to amplify, not shut out and highlight those previously disregarded in digital culture.
Maturity as Style, Confidence and Craft
To be “mature” online is no longer an afterthought; it’s a statement. It’s the aesthetic of knowing what matters and filtering out the rest. Older creators use tone, composition and restraint as their creative language. Their presence is measured but magnetic.
They post for meaning, not metrics.
They speak with clarity, not clutter.
They build depth, not dependency.
This balance has become rare currency in digital spaces. In an era of constant noise, holding attention through calm confidence feels revolutionary. The mature creator doesn’t chase relevance; they embody it naturally through honesty and self-assurance.
The Emergence of the ‘Hot Moms’ Archetype
Hot mom imagery has become a talking point of popular culture throughout lifestyle and entertainment sites. These producers inject humor, intelligence and courage into previously youth-defined spaces.
They have no performative tone, just intelligence. They accept imperfection of identity and humor of armor. Whatever topic they cover, wellness, beauty or domestic life, they demonstrate that femininity and aging are not antonyms but complements.
What speaks most powerfully to everyone is emotional realism. They don’t pose perfection; they document the balance of progress. That vulnerability seems fresh, even revolutionary, in a world founded upon highlight reels.
Why Maturity Matters Now
As the digital ecosystem evolves, maturity has become its most authentic trend. People are tired of scrolling past sameness. They want voices that feel lived-in, not manufactured.
Mature content creators and artists bring something algorithms can’t measure: depth. They really build trust, not just engagement. Their stories remind audiences that creativity doesn’t fade; it transforms with time.
The rise of older creators isn’t nostalgia; it’s the internet’s evolution, a space where confidence replaces competition and experience finally earns the spotlight.
In a Nutshell
Maturity style does not negate youth but celebrates truth. Established content producers are behind the proof that truth never goes out of style; it only gets better. With their craft, self-assurance and narratives, they’ve rewritten digital relevance and creativity does well not because of time but because of time, informed by lessons, patience and insight.
In a world of too-quick internet, their presence is a timeout that counts, a reminder that substance will always win over speed. The new face of internet culture isn’t the beginning of something new. Still, the arrival of a fully grown, purposeful and plain-spoken internet really reminds all that experience is its own art form.
In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on October 24, 2025:
Lily Allen, West End Girl
Lily Allen’s first album in seven years, West End Girl, has arrived. It’s a bold, brutally honest dismantling of a picture-perfect marriage. In a statement, Allen said: “I’m nervous. The record is vulnerable in a way that my music perhaps hasn’t been before—certainly not over the course of a whole album. I’ve tried to document my life in a new city and the events that led me to where I am in my life now. At the same time, I’ve used shared experiences as the basis for songs which try to delve into why we humans behave as we do, so the record is a mixture of fact and fiction which I hope serves as a reminder of how stoic yet also how frail we humans can be. In that respect I think it’s very much an album about the complexities of relationships and how we all navigate them. It’s a story…”
Eliza McLamb reunited with illuminati hotties’ Sarah Tudzin to record her wry, incisive sophomore album, Good Story, at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with guitarist Jacob Blizard, bassist Ryan Ficano, keyboardist Sarah Goldstone, and Death Cab For Cutie drummer Jason McGerr. “I was having a really hard time mentally and emotionally the year after Going Through It came out. I started having these questions and thoughts about narrativizing your life or presenting yourself as a person with a legible story – or even internally feeling that way,” McLamb explained in our Artist Spotlight interview. She found herself asking: “How helpful is it to have this narrative that you cling to so tightly? How helpful is it to constantly be constructing this version of yourself inside your own head?”
Tortoise keep subtly evolving their sound on first new album in nine years. Touch, the Chicago post-rock legends’ eighth album, is full of hypnotic grooves and textural experiments; Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, McEntire, and Jeff Parker wrote them all together but tracked them in the three cities where they now reside: Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland. It was recorded and mixed by the band’s own John McEntire.
The Portuguese guitarist and composer reimagines a series of jazz standards in his exploratory ambient style on Traveling Light, the follow-up to last year’s exquisite Spectral Evolution. It features clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado (whose playing is wonderfully spotlit on ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is), flügelhorn player Yaw Tembe, and flautist Clara Saleiro each appear on one track. The rendition of ‘My Funny Valentine’, more than just wistful, is woozy and almost downcast, distilling its essence into something bigger than a recognizable melody. It’s well worth immersing yourself in.
As snarky as it is vibrant, RUDE is the latest LP from Bay Area band Spiritual Cramp, who broke through two years ago with their self-titled debut. Like Nasvhille punks Snooper, who recently released their sophomore album, it finds them working with legendary indie producer John Congleton, though these hook-filled songs have more in common with upcoming tourmates The Hives. “When you focus on yourself and the people around you, you can keep your side of the street clean,” vocalist Mike Bingham shared. “And when I see the opposite of that, I get kind of offended, which is what a lot of these songs are about.” Today’s focus track is the groovy Sharon Van Etten collaboration ‘You’ve Got My Number’.
Dundalk quintet Just Mustard revel in fuzzed-out, anthemic noise on their latest effort, WE WERE JUST HERE. “I was trying to put myself in places of physical joy to try and get that euphoric feeling,” frontwoman Katie Ball explained in press materials. Featuring the early singles ‘POLLYANNA’, ‘ENDLESS DEATHLESS’, and the title track, the follow-up to 2022’s Heart Under was produced by the band, mixed by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, FKA Twigs), and recorded at Dundalk’s Black Mountain studio.
Hannah Jadagu expands her palette on her second album, Describe, which explores the personal tension between craving connection and needing space. Following the release of her 2023 debut album Aperture, the singer-songwriter’s career steered her away from her blossoming relationship in New York. “I was feeling love and gratitude, but also guilt about being away for my job,” she shared. “Being a musician requires sacrificing time – and one thing about me, I’m a quality time girlie.” Jadagu added: “A lot of this album is me trying to figure out how to express ideas that aren’t always so concrete. It’s just a flow of things that I’m feeling and going through and expressing.”
Machine Girl expand the conceptual world of last year’s MG Ultra with Psycho Warrior (MG Ultra X). “I’d been reading analytical psychology and the writings of Joseph Campbell and Jung,” Matt Stephenson explained in a statement. “There’s a concept of the collective unconscious and these archetypes that we innately have. We adopt different personae in order to get through the day. In essence, you complete yourself by facing your shadow self. To do so, you must accept the less savoury aspects of who you are. There’s a lot of validity to these theories. Right now, we’re a very psychologically damaged culture and society. We’re being pushed over the edge with social media and technology. Any chance of resistance against these systems starts in the mind, so this was the genesis of Psycho Warrior (MG Ultra X).”
Montreal producer and multi-instrumentalist Ouri has unveiled a new album titled Daisy Cutter. She mixed, mastered, and engineered the record herself, enlisting contributions from Mobilegirl, Oli XL, Bby Eco, Charlotte Day Wilson, Bamo Yendé, Cecil Believe, Duncan Hood, Jonah Yano, Sea Oleena, and Cowboy Lansky. “All these trusting miles in the dark led me to these 13 songs,” Ouri explained. “Daisy Cutter is music but it’s also the leader of a militia, a part of me. Like a rotor, I started a practice that brought all this album to life and it’s gonna keep spinning even when I let go of the wheel.”
fanclubwallet – the project led by Hannah Judge – has dropped her sophomore album, Living While Dying, via Lauren Records. The follow-up to 2022’s You Have Got to Be Kidding Me was written during a period of profound isolation while Judge was living with Crohn’s disease at its worst; a surgery briefly eased her pain, and the contradictions of illness and normalcy, despair and recovery, form the record’s emotional backbone. Still, the band’s process was more collaborative than ever. “We were actually sonically talking to each other,” Judge remarked. “It felt so beautiful and easy.”
Meric Long, Kablooey; Carrier, Rhythm Immortal; The Lemonheads, Love Chant; Jim White, Inner Day; Miguel, Caos; Bruiser Wolf & Harry Fraud, Made by Dope; Demi Lovato, It’s Not That Deep; Alice Phoebe Lou, Oblivion; Sigrid, There’s Always More That I Could Say; Adeline Hotel, Watch the Sunflowers; E.R. Visit, my children will ignore you, my children will type amen; Natural Information Society, Perseverance Flow; Joe Westerlund, Curiosities From the Shift; Daniel Caesar, Son of Spergy; Jennifer Walton, Daughters; DAVE, The Boy Who Played the Harp; Brandi Carlile, Returning To Myself; Buddy Ross, K We’re Here; Major Stars, More Colors of Sound; Daniel Caesar, Son of Spergy; Julianna Riolino, Echo in the Dust; Low Girl, Is It Too Late to Freak Out; Erika Dohi, Myth of Tomorrow; Jessica Moss, Unfolding;
Eliza McLamb is a singer-songwriter who grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was a student at George Washington University when the pandemic forced her to move back to her childhood home, which she then left to work on farms across the country. She homed in on her incisive, conversational songwriting on her first two EPs, Memos and Salt Circle, before releasing her Sarah Tudzin-produced debut LP, Going Through It, last year. It wasn’t until this summer that McLamb decided to leave her podcasting job co-hosting Binchtopia – though she maintains a Substack – to fully pursue music. She reunited with Tudzin to record her sophomore album, Good Story, which is out today, recording it with guitarist Jacob Blizard, bassist Ryan Ficano, keyboardist Sarah Goldstone, and Death Cab For Cutie drummer Jason McGerr at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios. Written after McLamb relocated from Los Angeles to New York, it’s as wry and introspective as her debut while leaning into feelings of absurdity and chaos; not just taking stock of the changes in her early 20s, but unpacking the self-narrativizing patterns behind them. “Writing it down and making it real/ Skipping the step where I remember to feel,” she sings on the title track, reconciling by holding the stories lightly and reminding herself the present is all she has: boring and difficult, sacred and eternal.
We caught up with Eliza McLamb for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about home as a shifting star, self-narrativization, recording Good Story, and more.
I read that a lot of the new songs came to you while on the subway or during walks. What changed about the way you wrote after moving to New York?
I had not spent that much time on public transportation before I came to New York, and I was in LA before then, which I felt very atomized in. There was something about being on the subway, in this sort of collective energy, but also without any cell service [laughs] that made it seem conducive to writing. Something about the motion as well – weirdly, a lot of those songs were written on the train. For my last record, a lot of it was sitting down to write the songs. I had an express goal going into it, and I would have moments where I would really think about it. With this one, it definitely came spontaneously. At least half of the songs were written on literally the 10-minute walk from my subway stop to my house, just feverishly writing. It’s been an interesting inspiration, where I’m getting woken up in the middle of the night and being like, “I gotta write this down.”
Is it literally just typing, or is it also voice memos sometimes?
Well, an interesting thing that I’ve been doing with this record that I never did before was writing lyrics first. Usually I would write everything at the same time; I would always write with an instrument in my hand. I would never just write lyrics. But, actually, most of these songs, I would say I wrote lyrics first, while I was out somewhere, and then would come home. I wouldn’t have a melody in my mind when I was writing it, but I would have a meter, like a poem or something, so I would get a sense of the rhythm of the song and how I wanted to build out the structure, and then I could tweak it. Which helped me, I think, because sometimes if you’re writing with an instrument in hand, it feels like you get stuck in a structure, and you might leave a line in there that you don’t love because it works with the structure that you had. But when you write without an instrument, you always have to change something, so it’s okay to change things.
It started with ‘California’, and I wrote that in the van on my phone. And that one, I barely had to change. I got back to the Airbnb, and I was like, “Can I borrow someone’s guitar and just put it to music?” And it ended up working out.
That predates ‘God Take Me Out of LA’, right? Was that ever considered for the record?
Yeah. I think with ‘California’, I knew I was leaving, and I was feeling really fond of it. ‘God Take Me Out of LA’ was, like, kicking and screaming – I only recorded it because we ended up having studio time, and we were already there. The song wasn’t even totally done, but I was about to leave LA, and I had just written the song two mornings ago, and I was like, “I’m really feeling this way.” And I thought, let’s just put it out as another single with ‘Lena Grove’, and just have it be this thing that stands alone as a point in time to mark how I felt. But I’m glad I get to have ‘California’ on the record in a more formal way, because my feelings about LA and California in general are more complicated than the song that I wrote when I felt like I really needed to get out of there.
All of the material that ended up on the record was post-moving, then? Were you writing during that transitional period?
Yeah. A lot of it I wrote that summer after I moved in May, and then I wrote a lot of it that summer, and then at the end of the summer I went upstate New York with Sarah [Tudzin], my producer, and Jacob [Blizard], who plays guitar on the record. I tried to flesh out some of the songs that I had started working on and then wrote everything else pretty quickly after I got back and before we recorded. At the time, I was kind of oscillating – if I had a record out and I was focusing on the music while I was touring, I was doing that, and if I wasn’t, then I was working at my podcast job. It was in this period where I realized I had this balance that I wasn’t actually a big fan of.
I was having a really hard time mentally and emotionally the year after Going Through It came out. I started having these questions and thoughts about narrativizing your life or presenting yourself as a person with a legible story – or even internally feeling that way. When I got to New York, I felt like I could sort of breathe again, and I felt really unstuck, in a way. In LA, I mean, physically, I was not moving very much, it was hard for me to be active, I was in the car all the time. New York is just sort of a generative place, because you’re constantly constantly around so many other kinds of people, exposed to so much energy, you’re in transit. When I was getting back into writing, everything flowed pretty easily. I know some people are really like, “I must sit down for an hour every single day and work,” and I really respect that kind of work, but as a person, I’m just so cyclical, and my cycles are long. I just have to respect that if I don’t write a song for a few months, it’s okay, and I will get back to a place where I’m writing a song every day.
Your lyric “home became a shifting star” got me thinking that sometimes you have agency over it, and sometimes you don’t. And maybe the more you grow, the more agency you have over it.
I definitely feel like I moved to New York as a way to reclaim some part of my life. Los Angeles, for me, was just an amazing container for a long time. I moved there when I was 19. I had a lot to settle from a pretty tumultuous childhood and dropping out of college and all of a sudden starting this business, and I needed that place where – and I know this is not true for everyone – not a lot of stuff happened. And that was great for me, because I was doing so much internal processing. It was a similar question, actually, to what sparked a lot of the themes of the record, which is: I have this life in LA. I like where I live, I have friends, I have a job. I’ve checked off all the boxes, but now what? Now what does this do for me?
I realized I still was not happy in LA. The reason, I think now, is because I was very disconnected from the world around me, and I was actually feeling so insular and thinking about myself way too much. My own story, or my own arc. I was like, “I kinda gotta get out of here. I have to be in a place that makes it easier for me to not think about myself.” That was a big impetus of the move, and that was also a similar question to what had me writing about these themes. How helpful is it, actually, to think about yourself all the time? And how helpful is it to have this narrative that you cling to so tightly? How helpful is it to constantly be constructing this version of yourself inside your own head?
Was it freeing when you started exploring these questions in songwriting, or did you start feeling self-conscious about getting into this pattern of writing about yourself?
Totally, yeah. Obviously it’s funny now doing press about the album, and they’re like, “So what’s the story?” And I’m like, “Well…” [laughs] For me, when I realize something has to change, my impulse is to go to the other end of the spectrum. If I realize, “Hey, I think this whole narrativizing everything about my life actually has some drawbacks,” I think probably the first thing I did was swing all the way to the absurd and just be like, “Nothing matters, and everything is chaos, and there’s no story to anything.” I think that’s where I started writing the record – ‘Good Story’ is full of all those sorts of contradictions. In one moment, I’m accepting that there’s no mystery to me, I’m everything you see, but then I’m like, “But then I’ll change it if you don’t like it” – there’s this tense confusion about it. I think throughout the process of writing the record, I kind of slid back to the middle.
‘Every Year’, for me, is sort of the thesis song of the record, that verse about “the story is a lifeboat” – when I was really struggling, when I needed to make sense of my life and the things that had happened to me and how I was gonna metabolize it, I really needed it. And I needed to tell myself that it was true and it happened. But then after that, I didn’t need to be stuck there. But that doesn’t mean I have to then throw away everything that was meaningful to me. I’m still an artist and a writer and a musician at the end of the day. If I didn’t like stories anymore, I’d quit my job and never take in art ever again, but that’s obviously not true. So I feel like I arrived at a place where stories are so valuable and I love them so dearly, and also, what are the limits of that? How can I, being cognizant of those limits and respecting those limits, make my interaction with those stories richer and more meaningful and less, you know, graspy – I talk about holding it lightly a lot. The story is something that I sort of hold lightly.
You talked about these contradictions in ‘Good Story’, and one thing I latched onto was that you sing “I don’t care care about sacred,” but in a post announcing the record you said you still love to “work the magic of storytelling.” Are there times when it does feel like the thing you’re grasping towards has that sacredness to it?
I mean, let me not show my living in LA for 3 years too much, but whatever you think is happening is what’s happening, you know? Let me stop generalizing, because it really is just my personal experience, but for me, if I’m saying to myself I’m having a horrible period of my life, I’m a failure, and every day it’s really hard to get up and do what I’m doing – everything about that’s gonna be true. [laughs] I think realizing that storytelling also can go in this profoundly creative, hopeful direction, where I’m like, what if I do embrace a little bit of that absurdity, of nothing really means anything? If I do need these physical things to latch onto in my world, this idea of truth, let me see if I can be a little fun and creative and optimistic. Let me see my life as this interesting creative project. Let me try to toe over some of the boundaries that I thought existed for me of, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t be this type of person. Boundaries that existed because of other old stories that I had for myself. And in that way, that feels incredibly magical and sacred. Because the story, if you allow it to evolve, becomes something that actually frees you a little bit. I don’t know if that answers your question exactly, but that’s what it made me think of.
It ties into this idea of stories about stories, but there’s also stories in conversation with older stories. The more songs you have in your catalog, the more inevitable it becomes to begin framing things around what’s publicly out there. I don’t know how conscious you were of how some of these songs may relate to ones on your first record or your EPs.
I wasn’t conscious of the songs in relation to other songs until a few of them had come together, and I realized that I was sort of circling around similar ideas over and over again. I haven’t thought about it too much in conversation with the first record, only that I’m astounded at how old the first record seems to be now, even though I didn’t write it that long ago. But I also do think, I’m 24, and the record came out last year, so this is a time for a lot of people that involves a ton of personal growth. In my mind, the way it works in conversation is that the first record was very much me being like, “I need to tell my story. This is all the stuff that has been circulating around my brain from my childhood, and I need to put it down and make it real, so that I can…” And I didn’t know at the time that the end of that sentence was gonna be, “so that I can move on from it.” When I was writing that record, I was like, “I kind of feel like the most interesting thing that ever happened to me in my life is that I had a mentally ill mother, and that really shaped everything about the way that I grew up. And if I write this record about my childhood and that experience, well, then it’s over for me.” [laughs] I thought that the second record would take me much longer to write, and I would have no idea what to write about. Turns out that very train of thought ended up being what I was writing about.
The flow of Going Through It had a very clear trajectory in terms of the arc of the album. I’m curious if you were drawn to trying a looser approach in terms of the concept and sequencing of the record.
It’s not as clear as the first record, where it is that down-then-up motion. But it’s interesting, and I didn’t even think about this while I was ordering the tracklist, but I pretty much, in a loose way, wrote the songs in chronological order. Obviously, ‘California’ was the first song I wrote, but all the side A songs I wrote before the side B songs – except, weirdly for ‘Suffering’, that was one of the last ones I wrote. As I say, I’m holding it loosely. I was having trouble with the tracklist, and I was like, “Oh, wait, the whole thing is kind of about how this is a framework that has diminishing returns at a certain point.” It was hard to make the tracklist, too, because I think there’s a lot of different sounds on the record, and something was gonna sound a little bit out of place, no matter where we put it. But I was like, “I’m pushing through that discomfort, because that actually works structurally for the thing that I’m trying to do.”
When you were talking about leaning into the absurdity a little bit, I was thinking about the middle stretch of the record, from ‘Promise’ and ‘Mausoleum’, which strikes me as a kind of blurry representation of that metaphor in ‘Every Year’ of tying your story to the dock when you find land.
That’s the chunk of the record that I wonder how people are gonna respond to. ‘Mausoleum’ is that absurd chaos – that’s the real breaking down of the story. It’s almost a song about grieving – that you have to take down this grave, basically. And ‘Water Inside the Fence’ is also this totally chaotic thing. I hadn’t even really thought about the fact that they’re in that same little section with each other, but I do think ‘Water Inside the Fence’ and ‘Mausoleum’ are the two Dark Knight of the Souls on the record. When concrete things stop serving you, you have to get a little absurd and out there. To me, it made sense to have both of those things be in the middle of the record on either end of these cleaner, more legible songs.
You mentioned having the rhythm of a song in mind – obviously, part of what’s so disarming about ‘Mausoleum’ is the drums and the additional instrumentation feeling slightly out of time in this very intentional way. How was that tracked?
So, I sang and Jacob played the guitar part. ‘Mausoleum’ is one of those songs that I wrote fully on paper, basically, and the demo sounds so, frankly, bad and different. But we got into the studio, and Jacob and I figured out a better guitar part. Jacob and I sang and played it, but then I just told everyone to come into the live room. Actually, Jason [McGerr], who played drums on the record and is in Deathcab for Cutie – brilliant guy – had this idea. We all walked into the room, put on headphones, and around the chorus, you can actually hear everyone stepping into the room and closing the door and moving around. It was the first time that Jason and Ryan [Ficano] had heard the song. I told them to just jump in on the second verse, and just try to figure it out. I’m sort of conducting from the side; I’m on the piano, and you can hear me actually, right before the last chorus, count them in – 3, 4 – because they didn’t know the chorus was coming.
Weirdly, we tried it two more times after that, but I think we ended up using the first take. I think we could only get it that way because no one had heard the song before. That’s a magic moment. When you were asking me about sacred and magic and stuff – when we landed on that last chord, and then you can hear me actually sigh in the recording, I was like, “I can’t believe we did that.”
It’s almost like the opposite of the sigh at the end of ‘Suffering’, which is kind of sarcastic.
That’s really true. I actually didn’t even realize until now that there’s two sighs on the record. [laughs]
The production on the record also feels like it’s mirroring whether the song is more in the present or the past, looking back or feeling in the moment. Were you thinking about how to sonically represent time?
Yeah, that’s a really great observation. I will say that’s probably more Sarah’s wheelhouse than mine. I do think that present moment is, to use that word again, those more legible songs, and then when everything sort of blurs together – when it’s past, present, future, everything – then I feel like it can get a little fuzzier. ‘Better Song’, for instance, is a pretty reflective song, but then at the end explodes into this big thing that really brings you back into the raw feeling of the moment. I hadn’t thought about it specifically in those terms.
Do you have memories of recording that guitar solo at the end of ‘Better Song’?
We did “Everybody Gets a Guitar Solo” night. [laughs] It was at the very end of tracking, and we were kind of burnt out because we had maybe 11 days, and we recorded 17 songs. Most everyone had gone home, we started the week with a bunch of people, and then it was just me, Sarah, Jacob, and Lawson, our engineer. It was so late, and Sarah was like, “I think we should all try a guitar solo,” because it’s distorted and crazy. Maybe it’s some Frankenstein combination of all of our guitar solos, but I have all these videos just turning the lights red in the studio, and everyone went in there and ripped this distorted guitar solo.
That was actually a last-minute addition. I wanted to end it, almost like everything pulls out at “Well, I love you and I don’t regret it,” but I was having some realizations about the feeling I was having with that song. That is one of the tricks you can do with narrative: “I know you hate me and now you’ve said it/I love you and I don’t regret it,” and on this placid little note, wow, isn’t she the bigger person? This other person looks like they really did some bad stuff, and she realized that the relationship just wasn’t serving her anymore, and she just calmly stepped away. And then I was like, “That’s so not fucking true.” [laughs] There’s so much emotion in that situation for me. It was a situation where I sort of felt like I had to be “the bigger person,” but wasn’t in reality. I wanted something to represent the real truth of that situation. I was like, “I actually just need to go fucking crazy.” It almost feels like when you have a tough conversation with someone, and you’re really composed, and you’re good – and then you hang up the phone, and you’re just like, “Urgh!” That’s exactly what that was.
What was it like being back in Asheville, and specifically at Drop of Sun, to record the album?
I’m still working on being comfortable in the studio, actually. Being around the band has made it a lot easier, but also, anyone’s energy in the room can affect how comfortable I feel making a suggestion. It was really important to me that the environment felt really right, and part of that was every single person in the room I knew and loved deeply, pretty much. Except for some new faces who I now know and love deeply. But having Lawson, my friend of many years, be the engineer and have Sarah producing was amazing. We were mostly inside all the time, we did not get to see so much of Asheville. But it was really nice to be there, and to be around even just vegetation and forestry that I recognized. Actually, that was a really hard thing about being in LA – not being able to see a tree that I recognized. For the last record, we recorded at Bear Creek Studios in Washington, outside of Seattle, which was absolutely beautiful. But still, Pacific Northwest is not where I feel home. So, Asheville was really wonderful. I could definitely see myself recording another project there.
Speaking of home, I love the line in ‘Talisman’ about it being like a talisman you hold when it gets dark: “It’s as real as anything that has and hasn’t happened.”
There’s that line, and there’s “home became a shifting star” – I didn’t realize that that was actually a through line in the record. There’s a great quote by Catherine Lacey – God, I feel like I’ve brought up this quote in every interview I’ve done, but it always feels relevant, where she says, “I always finish writing a novel, and then I read it back and notice that I’ve revealed something.” Something huge about me has been so plainly clear, and has been revealed through the process of me writing this novel that I was not aware of at all during writing it. I always feel that way about records, and that was a moment where I was like, “Wow, I am talking about this idea of home as more of a concept and something that you can create and take with you and hold in non-tangible ways.”
Do you think the record reflects your relationship to home in a way that maybe wasn’t as clear when you were writing it?
Yeah, I think so. There’s this song I wrote when I was 18 called ‘Lena Grove’, and there’s a line, “How can you call it home if you can’t take it with you?” When I wrote that, I was traveling across the country, and I was literally just in the middle of nowhere and feeling actually homesick for a spot, a home. But also, as I’ve grown older, the thing that has really improved my life and brought me a lot of peace is cultivating this sense of belonging within myself that’s not rooted in anything, that doesn’t depend on me feeling a certain way or being in a certain place – almost like the Buddhist idea of eternal, present, meditative self.
I think that’s what allowed me to hold these stories lightly, is to be like, “If I let go of this, it’s not like I’m gonna disappear.” I have this other grounded sense of being here and of belonging, internally with myself. It’s intangible and hard to put into words, but that certainly was a huge part of feeling as though I could let these things go a little bit, feeling that groundedness – and that is, to me, a sense of home. Home to me is belonging, feeling like you are somewhere where you are safe and welcome. I had to make that space inside myself for myself in order for it to feel safe for me to let go of these other things that I was holding onto.
Something that felt like an expression of that meditative self to me was your piece ‘The easiest thing’. It’s been almost a month now since you posted it, so I’m curious how it’s sat with you in relation to what you’re saying about feeling grounded.
Yeah, I wrote that in a period where right after I made the announcement that I was leaving the podcast. I experienced this really crazy spiritual clarity; I really don’t know how to describe it any other way. I felt like a newborn baby for three weeks, in the best way possible. I was in an incredible environment for that, because I was at this farm. Things just started feeling really clear to me, and I felt that it became simpler for me to see what are the things I’m doing because it feels truly grounded and true and real to me, and what are the things that feel like they are covering up for other things. I wanted to write that piece also as a way to immortalize that spiritual clarity because I knew everything comes in phases. There would be a time when I didn’t feel that way anymore, and it would feel a little muddled again.
That piece reminds me, too, of ‘Girls I Know’, and what I was writing about in that song, which is that having actually just a normal, functional life is so hard and boring sometimes, you know? There are moments of this beautiful spiritual clarity, and you feel so grounded and you’re connected to everything, but mostly, it’s brushing your teeth at night, buying produce at the store, and remembering to do the dishes – it’s this series of, it can feel like, depressingly arduous tasks. I think there’s a challenge, when you have a brain that is used to chaos and maybe drugs or substances, having to find peace and joy and meaning in these mundane things, and needing then to imbue those things with the sacredness, which I think has always sort of been there.
So it’s a matter of recognizing that, and that has been really important for me to clear away the other stuff – to just feel more present. Because when you’re making up a story, you’re not present. One way to practice holding that story lightly for me has been to practice presence, and that is what that piece was about, too. There’s all these things I was doing when I wasn’t present. I’ve been vegan for the last you know, month and a half, and that’s something that requires me to be present in every single meal. Every single meal I have to think about it, because it’s not easy to eat that way and I’m still learning how, but I have to recommit to my principles and be present with a decision that I made every time. And that is actually very rewarding for me.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Hayley Williams has released a new single, ‘Good Ol’ Days’. The playful, R&B-inflected track was co-written by Williams and Daniel James, the latter of whom also produced it alongside Brian Robert Jones. “Who knew the hard times were the good ol’ days?” she sings, nodding to the lead single from Paramore’s 2017 record After Laughter. It will appear on the physical edition of her new album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party along with ‘Parachute’ and one more unannounced song. Give it a listen below.
Megan Thee Stallion has dropped a new single called ‘Lover Girl’. Following April’s ‘Whatever’, the track samples Total’s 1996 R&B hit ‘Kissin’ You’. Check it out below.
Megan Thee Stallion latest studio album was 2024’s Megan, which was followed by the deluxe expansion Act II.
The line between reality and virtual worlds keeps getting blurrier. Players now expect game environments that breathe, light that behaves naturally, and characters whose expressions feel genuine. Meeting these expectations used to require massive budgets and years of development. Not anymore.
Unreal Engine has fundamentally changed what’s possible in game development. According to Epic Games’ 2024 State of Unreal report, over 7.5 million developers worldwide now use the engine, creating everything from indie darlings to AAA blockbusters. Studios leveraging Unreal Engine development services are producing visuals that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.
The Visual Powerhouse Behind Modern Games
Revolutionary Rendering Technology
Unreal Engine’s rendering capabilities set new standards for visual excellence. Nanite virtualized geometry technology eliminates painful compromises that developers once faced. Games can now feature film-quality assets with billions of polygons without crushing performance. Detailed environments rendered with microscopic detail become possible without traditional optimization headaches.
Lumen, the dynamic global illumination system, transforms how light works in game worlds. Instead of painstakingly baking lighting into static scenes, Lumen calculates realistic lighting in real-time. When a player opens a door in a dark room, light spills in naturally, bouncing off surfaces and creating authentic shadows.
Physically-Based Materials
The rendering pipeline handles materials with sophisticated accuracy. Surfaces interact with light realistically—metal reflects differently than fabric, wet surfaces glisten appropriately, and subsurface scattering makes skin look convincingly alive. These details create the visual coherence that makes virtual worlds believable..
Beyond Graphics: A Complete Development Ecosystem
Visual Scripting and Accessibility
Blueprint visual scripting democratizes game logic creation. Designers without deep programming knowledge can prototype gameplay systems and build complex mechanics through an intuitive node-based interface. This accessibility doesn’t sacrifice power—Blueprints can handle sophisticated systems while keeping logic visual and understandable.
Streamlined Workflow
The Marketplace ecosystem offers thousands of ready-made assets, plugins, and tools. Rather than building every system from scratch, developers can leverage community-created solutions. Cross-platform deployment becomes straightforward when developing with unreal engine, with platform-specific optimizations handled largely by the engine itself.
Real-time iteration speeds up the creative process. Changes appear instantly in the editor without waiting for lengthy compile times. This rapid feedback loop encourages experimentation that elevates final quality.
Technical Advantages That Shape the Future
The technical foundations of Unreal Engine position it uniquely for emerging technologies and evolving player expectations. These advantages compound over time as the engine continues advancing.
Here’s how Unreal Engine’s technical capabilities compare to traditional development approaches:
Feature
Traditional Engines
Unreal Engine
Impact on Development
Asset Detail
Requires aggressive optimization
Nanite handles billions of polygons
Artists create without technical constraints
Dynamic Lighting
Pre-baked, static scenes
Lumen real-time global illumination
Flexible environments, faster iteration
Visual Scripting
Limited or non-existent
Comprehensive Blueprint system
Designers work independently, faster prototyping
Platform Deployment
Manual porting per platform
Unified cross-platform support
Reduced development time and costs
Performance Optimization
Manual, time-intensive
Automated systems with profiling tools
More time for creative work
Performance and Flexibility
The C++ foundation provides performance and flexibility for teams that need it. When Blueprint performance hits limits, Unreal Engine developers can drop into C++ for optimal efficiency. This dual-layer approach offers accessibility for rapid development and power for demanding scenarios.
Source Code Access
The engine’s source code access provides ultimate flexibility. Unlike closed engines where developers hit hard limitations, Unreal Engine’s available source code means teams can modify, extend, or optimize any system to meet specific needs.
Industry Adoption and Ecosystem Strength
Talent and Community
The future of game design isn’t just about technology—it’s about industry adoption. Unreal Engine’s widespread use creates a self-reinforcing ecosystem. Job markets overflow with experienced developers, making hiring significantly easier than with proprietary engines. The knowledge base and community support are unmatched, with solutions readily available in documentation, forums, and tutorials.
Professional Services
Professional unreal engine development services have matured into a robust industry segment. Studios that need specific expertise can tap into specialized service providers who know the engine deeply. This support ecosystem enables projects of any scale to access expert knowledge when needed.
Emerging Technologies and Future Readiness
Next-Generation Features
Game design’s future includes technologies just beginning to mature. MetaHuman Creator democratizes character creation with photorealistic digital humans. What once required months of work now happens in hours. Path tracing delivers the next level of visual realism for high-end hardware, providing film-quality lighting and reflections in real-time.
Cloud and Collaboration
Unreal Engine’s infrastructure supports distributed teams working simultaneously on the same project, version control integration, and cloud-based asset management. These capabilities become increasingly critical as teams become more geographically distributed.
Practical Considerations for Adoption
Understanding why Unreal Engine represents the future matters, but practical adoption considerations determine whether studios can leverage its capabilities effectively.
The learning curve exists but has gentled considerably. While mastering every system takes time, getting started and being productive happens faster than ever. Blueprint visual scripting allows non-programmers to begin creating immediately, while comprehensive documentation and tutorials support learning at any level.
Hardware requirements deserve consideration, particularly for smaller studios or solo developers. Unreal Engine’s cutting-edge features demand reasonably powerful development machines. However, the engine scales well—projects can target mobile devices or lower-end hardware while development happens on more capable machines.
Project scope matching matters for success. Unreal Engine excels at 3D games with visual ambition, but might be overkill for simple 2D projects or text-based experiences. Studios should honestly assess whether the engine’s strengths align with their project’s needs.
The licensing model provides accessibility while maintaining fairness. Unreal Engine is free to download and use, with Epic taking a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first million dollars. This structure removes upfront barriers while aligning Epic’s success with developer success.
Real-World Applications Across Game Genres
Unreal Engine’s versatility extends across virtually every game genre, each leveraging different aspects of the engine’s capabilities.
First-person and third-person action games benefit from precise controls, advanced animation systems, and stunning environmental detail. The engine’s heritage in shooters means these mechanics are particularly refined and well-supported.
Open-world games leverage streaming systems that load massive environments seamlessly, dynamic lighting that brings worlds to life across day-night cycles, and scalable performance that maintains framerate across diverse hardware.
Racing games utilize physically-based rendering for realistic vehicle materials, dynamic weather systems, and performance optimization that maintains smooth framerates at high speeds.
Role-playing games combine the engine’s storytelling tools, complex UI systems, and flexible combat mechanics to create deep, immersive experiences.
Horror games exploit atmospheric lighting, sound design integration, and performance capture for unsettling character performances.
Why Visual Excellence Matters
Graphics aren’t everything in game design, but they’re far from superficial. Visual presentation communicates mood, guides player attention, reinforces narrative themes, and creates the immediate emotional connection that draws players into experiences.
When environments look believable, players suspend disbelief more readily. When characters express emotion through subtle facial movements, storytelling becomes more powerful. When lighting creates atmosphere, tension and wonder emerge naturally from the environment itself.
Unreal Engine’s visual capabilities serve gameplay and narrative, not just screenshots and trailers. Dynamic lighting affects stealth gameplay. Detailed environments provide navigation cues. Character expressiveness strengthens emotional moments. Technical excellence enables creative ambition.
The Path Forward
The future of game design demands tools that can keep pace with rising player expectations while remaining accessible enough for diverse creators to realize their visions. Unreal Engine’s combination of visual excellence, technical sophistication, and practical usability positions it uniquely for this future.
Studios that invest in developing with Unreal Engine now build on a foundation that will remain relevant and powerful for years to come. The engine’s continuous evolution means today’s projects benefit from tomorrow’s improvements without fundamental overhauls.
The democratization of visual excellence changes who can create compelling games. Small teams can achieve visual quality that once required massive studios. Solo developers can realize ambitious artistic visions. This accessibility expands the range of voices and ideas in game development, ultimately enriching the medium for everyone.
As technology advances and player expectations evolve, engines that combine power with accessibility will define what’s possible. Unreal Engine doesn’t just respond to the future of game design—it actively shapes that future through capabilities that transform creative ambition into playable reality.
Helldivers 2 has just launched a new update for October. This latest patch brings much-needed changes in the game. It also answers issues faced by players after the Into the Unjust update in September. Specifically, version 4.1.0 focuses on balance, bug fixes, stability, and gameplay design improvements.
These changes make the game feel more polished and rewarding for players. It also lines up with the developer’s goal.
“This update focuses on what matters most right now: making HELLDIVERS 2 feel better to play,” reads a statement in the official announcement.
At the same time, the creators said that they have changed their way of patching. This move helps them target the root of the problems.
Weapon and Combat Improvements
According to Arrowhead Game Studios, the patch brings adjustments to the game’s arsenal. This tweak balances weapons, sidearms, throwables, and stratagems. It makes the weapons feel more effective and distinct. For instance, SMGs and pistols now deal higher damage at closer range. In the same way, melee weapons and throwables have been tuned for impact and uniqueness. Plus, the changes now stop players from climbing the resupply rack.
Enemy Adjustments and Balances
Based on the patch notes on Steam, enemy encounters no longer offer an unfair experience. Light and medium armor-piercing weapons are now more consistent against foes. The developers also wanted players to level the playing field by adjusting the traits of enemies. In detail, the affected characters are Illuminates, Terminids, and Automatons. As a result, the game now creates an experience that rewards players. But it does not fail to maintain challenging missions.
Quality-of-Life Fixes and Optimizations
Arrowhead Game Studios also fixed many technical issues. The update resolved rare crashes, weapon animation, and stratagem errors. All of these improve the overall stability of Helldivers 2.
There are also visual and sound optimizations to make gameplay smoother on different platforms. These include better shader performance, reduced stuttering, and refined particle effects. In the same way, the update introduces enhancements in various areas. AI behaviors, asset distribution, and the physics were improved to boost performance. Likewise, players can expect better responsiveness during fighting moments.
Availability and Looking Ahead
Version 4.1.0 of Helldivers 2 is now available to all players across supported platforms.
Meanwhile, Arrowhead Game Studios said that new features will be coming in the game soon. But for now, this latest patch is already a big step forward. With more changes ahead, Helldivers 2 continues to evolve into a satisfying third-person shooter title.
To see the full list of changes in the game, check out the official patch notes.
In recent years, social media has become one of the most influential forces shaping how we see ourselves. Platforms that began as creative outlets now play a major role in setting beauty standards and influencing how people feel about their bodies. From the rise of fitness influencers to the flood of “before and after” posts, the online space has created both inspiration and pressure in equal measure.
The tension between empowerment and expectation is at the heart of today’s body confidence culture. While many creators promote self-acceptance and the idea that health can look different for everyone, the constant visibility of others’ progress can make comparison almost unavoidable. Research suggests that frequent exposure to idealised body images can negatively affect self-esteem, especially among younger audiences who are still forming their sense of identity.
Against this backdrop, more people are starting to talk openly about weight, health, and how to manage both responsibly. Conversations have shifted from purely aesthetic goals toward long-term wellbeing and sustainable lifestyle changes. Medical approaches, such as clinically approvedweight loss treatments, are now entering mainstream discussion. These treatments are not seen as shortcuts, but rather as one option among many for people trying to regain control of their health with proper guidance and support.
The arrival ofWegovy in the UK has sparked debate about what responsible weight management looks like in the age of social media. For some, it represents progress—a medical advancement that helps individuals address obesity and related conditions more effectively. For others, it raises questions about how society measures success and whether medical intervention might unintentionally reinforce the very standards many are trying to challenge.
Ultimately, the discussion around body confidence and health is becoming more nuanced. True progress may lie in finding a middle ground—acknowledging that self-acceptance and self-improvement can coexist. It is possible to seek better health outcomes without falling into the trap of comparison or perfectionism.
As culture continues to evolve, so too will our collective understanding of what it means to be healthy. Online conversations, scientific progress, and responsible healthcare providers such asHappy Pharmacy can all play a role in supporting a more informed and balanced approach to wellbeing—one that values both mental and physical health in equal measure