When it comes to finding the best clothes for you to wear, finding your style can be difficult. You might find you wear items that you think will look good, but when it comes to it, they just don’t hit the mark. Or maybe you are looking to venture out of your comfort zone and find some items to wear that are a bit different. It could be that you have always had the same style, such as a top and jeans and you want to wear something new, or you might want to inject some color and personality into your wardrobe. No matter what it is, finding your style is a great thing to do, you just need to take the leap. Here we have a few tips for finding your style and helping you feel more comfortable in the way that you dress.
Choose clothes that compliment your body shape
We all have completely different body shapes from each other and also our body shapes might have changed from what they used to be. It can be tempting to dress depending on how you used to look or based on someone else whose style you like. While this can be something you want to do, what looks good on one person won’t necessarily look good on the next person. Instead, when you are looking for new clothes, try to find inspiration from people who are similar to you. If you have a larger bust or smaller hips, find clothes that are designed to compliment these areas and flatter your figure. Trying to squeeze into smaller sizes can make you look larger than you are, so it’s better to get a bigger size and have it tailored to fit you, rather than forcing something that won’t work.
Find independent boutiques and stores
In the same way that second hand stores enable you to find new items that you wouldn’t find anywhere else, independent boutiques and stores offer this alongside a great customer experience. You can find stores such as this, like https://paisleygraceboutique.com/ online, or stores on the high street. These are great for experimenting with new looks and finding beautiful items to add to your wardrobe.
Look for inspiration online
There are so many sources online that can give you inspiration for your style, you’re spoilt for choice. Check out sites such as Pinterest where you can put together moodboards which you can refer to and find others that have similar style and taste to you, as well as similar body shapes. Other places to find inspiration for your style include Instagram, TikTok and fashion blogs. With so many to choose from, you’re sure to find plenty of inspiration.
Don’t be afraid to try new things
When it comes to finding your style, you need to not be afraid to try new things. One of the scariest parts of getting your look is stepping out of your comfort zone, but once you do it you might be surprised at just what suits you. There are many items you can choose that you might have never looked at before and it can end up being things you live in going forward. You need to consider what sort of activities you do in your daily life and how well they will fit in – for example you don’t want to start experimenting in heels if you do a lot of walking. Think practically but give other items a go and you could be pleasantly happy with what you end up with.
Find colours that match your complexion
There is a lot of research on your complexion and hair color and how this can make you suit certain colors. The general advice is that if you have cool undertones to your skin, you should wear colours such as green, purple and grey. If you have a warm tone, neutrals or bright colors work well and if you have a neutral undertone, you should opt for brighter colors.
Look for second-hand bargains
There’s no better way to find your style than with a second-hand bargain. This way you can experiment without having to spend a fortune and you can also find some amazing pieces that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. One of the best things about second hand is that everyone won’t be picking it up in the stores so you don’t need to worry about being seen in the same as someone else. After all, is there anything more socially awkward at a gathering?! You can also get a lot of designer and new pieces at a fraction of the price which can be a real blessing when you are looking to make some real changes to your wardrobe.
Invest in signature pieces
Signature items are great for your wardrobe as they are what you can model your looks around going forward. By having the right mix of staple items you can create a wide range of different looks and totally switch up the vibe you are going for. Some of the top wardrobe staple items include a little black dress, a well-fitting pair of jeans, a cardigan, a striped jumper and a white tshirt. Shoes should include a practical, stylish pair of flats, some boots, sandals and a pair of trainers for wearing with things like dresses or trainers.
These are just a few top tips for finding your style that should help you establish the way you dress going forward. It can be tricky to find just what clothes suit you and what you should be wearing, but once you have it established you’ll find yourself wondering just how you used to dress. By having things such as a capsule wardrobe it will be much easier to put together outfits and you can change them as the seasons progress without having to fork out for an entirely new wardrobe. Have you recently looked into changing up and finding your style? If so, what are some top tips you have for making it functional? Let us know in the comments below.
Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this best new music segment.
On this week’s list, we have ‘Vampiros’, a grimy, thumping standout from Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro’s joint EP RR; Bully’s crunchy, cathartic new single ‘Days Move Slow’; ‘Scaring the Hoes’, the noisy, abrasive title track from JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown’s new collaborative LP; the title track from Geese’s next album, 3D Country, which fuses country and rock before reaching a euphoric finale; Lana Del Rey’s lovely yet haunting ‘Paris, Texas’, which is backed by waltzing piano from SYML; Mega Bog’s danceable version of ‘Love Is’, a pleading love song originally written by Austin Jackson of Dragons; ‘TV in the Gas Pump’, the closing track off Wednesday’s new album, a song about the queasy way life blurs when you’re on the road; and Lucinda Chua’s ‘Something Other Than Years’, a heart-wrenching piano ballad featuring Yeule that answers its own plea with an ethereal kind of warmth.
Whether you’re only just starting out as a performing musician or supporting someone who is, it’s important to know that freelancing requires dedication, patience, and a strategic outlook. It’s not always easy to feel optimistic, but once you’ve learned the best tips for building opportunities.
Starting out: Building a portfolio career
Every freelance musician should build a portfolio career. It’s a term that might sound lofty and far-reaching for newer artists, but it’s just used to describe earning money through various sources of income.
With a portfolio career, you’ll never rely entirely on one sole line of work. For a musician, a portfolio career could look like solo performing, private tutoring, lecturing, composing, and many more. For self-employed musicians, building a portfolio career is essential for a few reasons:
Freelance work isn’t guaranteed
You can work remotely
You won’t be tied to one location or employer
Getting to grips with taxes
Once you’ve committed to a few roles as a freelance musician, you might start earning enough to necessitate paying taxes. If you’ve never had to deal with HMRC before, try not to panic. Even though the admin. can feel overwhelming, support is readily available.
Opportunities can be harder to come by if you’re just starting out. In previous years, this might’ve meant hanging out at local gigs and events, music shops, and taking every live performance opportunity available.
Busking and open mic nights can still lead to opportunities, so don’t count them out completely. However, connecting online is invaluable for upcoming musicians. If you frequently share new work on Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube, or other streaming services and outlets, you’ll be able to continually reach new audiences.
If you’re open to general or commercial work, you could offer your skills to create personalised songs, and jingles, or as a musician to hire for events. The most crucial thing is to constantly stretch yourself to expand on your experience, knowledge, and skills.
How to increase your income as a musician
Don’t just limit yourself to playing live performances and gigs. Instead, you should look at gaining streams of income from as many sources as possible. A few sources of income could include:
Despite such a chaotic environment for musicians, you’ll need to incorporate both old and new promotional methods to gain and keep fans. Traditional press outlets – including radio or PR campaigns – might expose your music, but it might not reach the people who’d connect with your sound the most.
You should take a proactive approach to self-promotion. Use social media to your advantage and don’t overlook traditional marketing either – but try to mingle and build a network of professionals, friends, and fans to support you.
Concluding thoughts
Working as a freelance musician comes with its challenges and you’ll need to be prepared for an unpredictable schedule. However, if you’re a motivated, headstrong individual with a powerful desire to succeed and make your music known, you’ll always have potential.
With Spotify, YouTube, and other popular streaming services, the modern music industry presents new avenues for sharing your sound – so with the right support, perseverance will be rewarded.
Chat Pile have announced a new split EP with Kansas City’s Nerver called Brothers in Christ. The four-track record is out April 14 via Reptilian/The Ghost Is Clear. Today, Chat Pile have shared the first single from it, ‘Cut’, which frontman Raygun Busch says was inspired by Stephen King. Listen to it and check out the EP’s artwork and tracklist below.
“‘Cut’ is an homage to the short fiction of King, particularly ‘The Man Who Loved Flowers,’ ‘Strawberry Spring,’ and ‘The Jaunt’,” Busch explained in a statement. Bassist Stin added, “These tracks were written and recorded after we tracked God’s Country. We wanted to use this release as a deliberate excuse to switch gears and fully lean into our more indie and alt-rock tendencies. Slint, Sonic Youth, Guided By Voices, and Starfish’s Stellar Sonic Solutions were certainly on our minds at the time.”
Debby Friday is a singer-songwriter, producer, and multidisciplinary artist who was born in Nigeria and grew up in Montreal, moving between different cities before finding a home base in Toronto. After immersing herself in Canadian rave culture, she got into DJing but quickly started producing her own music, releasing her first EP, BITCHPUNK, in 2018, and following it up with 2019’s DEATH DRIVE. Now signed to Sub Pop, Friday has today put out her debut full-length, GOOD LUCK, which she co-produced with Graham Walsh of Holy Fuck. It’s an album that exudes fiery confidence at every turn, but if Friday’s intensity is the first thing that strikes you about her music, what’s most impressive is her versatility in channeling it – from the brashness of the title track to the soft vulnerability of ‘SO HARD TO TELL’ to the religious fervor of ‘PLUTO BABY’. Even as it plays as a sort of personal exorcism, GOOD LUCK showcases an artist capable of fluidly jumping between perspectives, who approaches sound, narrative, and character – in this case, a portal to her younger self – as forms both malleable and hybrid. What feels like a shadow of emotion, then, can come into the light.
We caught up with Debby Friday for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about getting into songwriting, coming of age, the making of GOOD LUCK, and more.
How do you feel about the response to the new songs?
I’m happy with it. I feel like when I’m playing live, it’s always a really positive response. I always hear from people after, they’re like, “Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that.” But I think that’s a good thing, I think that it kind of opens up their minds a little bit. I love performing live, that’s what made me fall in love with being a musician in the first place. Playing my first live show, I was like, “Yep, this is it. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” So I love that aspect, and I also love when you release music and people hear it and they tell you what you think, whether it’s good or bad. As long as I can make somebody feel something, then my job’s done.
I know it can be hard to trace back, but is there a moment when you felt convinced that making music was where wanted to devote your energy?
I would say it’s more amorphous. I started off as a DJ before I started making my own music, and DJing in itself is a kind of performance. It’s a very technical skill, but it is a kind of performance. I was like, I like sharing music like this and performing in this kind of way, but I felt like I wanted something more intimate and something that was more from myself rather than playing other people’s music. From there, I started to make my own music, and it was when I started performing my own music is really when the love of this as a career started growing. I understood, like, “Oh, I can do this. This can be my career. This is what I can do for my life, and I want to do this.”
You started out with these personal writings before teaching yourself production and honing in your skills as a storyteller. What did you feel was the power in turning those personal reflections into music?
I think part of it was being able to express myself, and to express myself however I saw fit. If you’ve lived a life where your own self-expression has not been celebrated, or it hasn’t been welcome, or if people have reacted negatively, to be able to express yourself fully is so liberating. It’s so freeing. It feels better than anything else. And I think that’s what I got out of it, especially at first. I could be creative with it, too, because I was always creative – even as a child, I was always up to some weird thing, and it pays off when you get older, I think, if you were a little bit odd as a young person.
Are there any early memories that come to mind of that creativity?
I wrote all the time, I have boxes upon boxes filled with notebooks of things that I’ve written throughout my life – stories, poems, games, characters, all sorts of stuff. I used to pretend to have my own radio show with me and my brother and I’d be like, “Hi and welcome to…” [laughs] I wrote a lot of fan fiction when I was in high school, and I started writing original fiction, but it was these very graphic, crazy stories. I would write a chapter every week, and every week people in the class would literally pass the books around, and they would read a chapter every week, of these very juicy stories.
Do you ever feel the need to turn more to fiction and channel different perspectives into your songwriting now?
Yeah, for sure. I think I had to get the personal album out of the way first. It just wouldn’t leave me alone. I know that my next album going to have a different context. I love fiction, like I made my audioplayprojects, which was essentially like a fiction podcast but it was a musical fiction podcast. It had this whole story about this dystopian future world, and there were all these characters. I would love to explore more of that in the future as well, and not just through music, but even through filmmaking. I’m always writing a script or something, and I’m working on so many things all the time. Now that I’ve gotten the more personal stuff out of the way, I feel like it’s freed me as well, too, so now I can do other things. I don’t have this need to be like, “Should I tell my story? Should I not?” I’ve already told it. And I’m sure that as I make more fiction things, there’s other parts of my story that will come into that, but it’s not the main focus.
GOOD LUCK revolves around adolescence, and it creates this almost uncanny feeling that you’re speaking to your younger self. Looking back, was there a difference in the way you experienced certain feelings back then – freedom, confusion, loneliness – compared to how you perceived that time while writing about it?
For sure. I think that when you’re young and you’re in the turbulence that comes with – basically, you’re becoming a person, you’re becoming an adult, you’re becoming yourself – and when you’re in that stage, it’s so overwhelming, it’s so all-encompassing, it’s hard to have any kind of understanding of it or to see anything outside of it. So you don’t really get the full perspective until you’ve moved out of the thick of it.I’m still in it, you know, I’m still young, so I’m still going through things, but the real thick of it – when I was deep, deep inside of it – it was really hard to see what my life could look like when this is over, because there was no conception of this being over. You’re almost in this place where you feel like, This is it, and this is all there ever will be. And then I think you get older, you get perspective on stuff, and you can speak to things and you have a different kind of understanding. Because you already went through the stuff, so you give it meaning, you contextualize it for yourself.
What parts of yourself or your experience did making this album illuminate for you?
Something I learned while making this album is that I am a sensitive person. And I don’t think I ever really thought of myself as a sensitive person, because I like to joke around and make jokes, and I’m very – I would say I’m tough, just because of my life circumstances. I’m a tough girl, and I never thought of myself as overly sensitive. But through making this I was like, “Oh my god, I am very sensitive.” And I have this gentleness that’s inside of me, and I think the tougher outer exterior is a self-defense mechanism, and I understand why I adopted that as my self-defense mechanism. But yeah, I’m a softie on the inside.
Was that realization part of the reason you decided to lead with ‘SO HARD TO TELL’ as a single?
Yeah, I think so. You know what, it actually took convincing from other people – my friends and my manager, everyone I showed the song to, they were like, “We love this song, it’s amazing.” I was like, “Are you sure?” I felt shy about it, because it was vulnerable – it was so obviously vulnerable. You hear the song and you can feel it, and I wasn’t used to expressing that side of myself. But I think now, I look back and I have perspective, and I’m like, “This is exactly what I should have led with.” Because part of the point of this album, too, is expressing myself in ways that I hadn’t before, expressing myself fully as an artist and a human being. And what better way to do that than to just jump right into it?
Around the release of your first EP, you summed up your music using the word “thunder.” I still hear that on GOOD LUCK, but it’s definitely evolved since then – I hear fire in ‘Hot Love’, and hurricane, too, all these natural forces. What appeals to you about this sort of language when it comes to self-expression?
I think a lot of that is instinctual, almost. I think that the way that I create is, I always liken it to these natural phenomena that are almost like a deluge, so it’s like a flood, a hurricane, thunder – these great natural phenomena that are almost like acts of God, so it’s something that’s outside of the self. And it’s something that’s so connected to nature, just the primordial nature of Earth and being. You can’t explain it, really, in words – you can try, but it’s just what it is. And that’s the way that I think of the way that I create: It is what it is. I can’t help myself. I feel like I can’t really do anything besides that.
Were you conscious of the album being wide-ranging not just in terms of style, but in how those different energies and emotions were represented?
I definitely wanted to have a range of emotion, range of feeling, range of genre. I really see GOOD LUCK as a holistic album. It’s pretty much all of me – I tried as much as I could to put as much of myself into it, and I think that’s reflected when you hear the album sonically, but also the feelings that it gives. I think before, when I was more afraid to show other things – there’s nothing bad about that, you can choose what you want to show, but I think in order to be honest, you have to let yourself show all of you. And I wanted to be as honest as possible on this record.
I was struck by the goth rock influences on tracks like ‘WHAT A MAN’ and ‘LET U DOWN’, which to me seemed to land somewhere between, like, Ethel Cain and PJ Harvey.
Yeah!
What made you want to lean that hard in that direction?
It’s music that I liked for years, like I’ve always been a fan of the Runaways, Janis Joplin. I love women who sing with raw emotion – there’s something about emotionality that connects with me in the way you use your voice. A lot of rock and roll history, especially stuff from the seventies, it just has that kind of functionality – it’s so hard to describe, it’s just that feeling. And I listened to it as a child of the internet, and so it came out in this record for sure.
You’re experimenting with your vocals on this record too, especially on ‘SO HARD TO TELL’, where you reach that falsetto. What was it like exploring the range of your voice in that way?
It was illuminating because I didn’t know that I could like sing like that. I didn’t realize that I even had that in me. And I think also humbling, in a way, just the fact that I could surprise myself. You know, you think you know yourself so well, but you probably don’t know yourself as well as you think, and this showed it to me. I was like, “Where did that come from?”
One of the themes of GOOD LUCK – and I feel like it’s come up in this conversation, too – is how hard it is to communicate certain ineffable feelings or feelings that aren’t entirely conscious. For you, does writing music feel like an effort to articulate reality as accurately as possible?
I think that for me, it goes back to this thing of self-expression. I want to express something, and it’s not so much pointed about, like, I want to talk about my life or I want to articulate something clearly. It’s more about feeling, it really is. So much of it comes down to feeling and to emotions, which are things that are actually impossible to truly describe with words, because they’re intangible. They’re not things that you could hold in your hands. Like, what is sadness? It’s not something that you can look at or see. What is joy, what is anger? What are all these emotions? So I think for me, when I think of music, it’s like I’m trying to translate – yeah, that’s what it is, it’s like a type of translation. I’m trying to translate something that is intangible into something a little more concrete. Because music itself is also not totally tangible, right? It’s sound waves and all this stuff – you can’t see it, can’t really hold it in your hand. But it’s a way of almost trying to concretize feelings and put them into songs, but then also to connect with other people. Because that’s the other thing about music, I think it’s the greatest connective mechanism that we have, across all art. You can listen to a song, you don’t even have to speak the language of whatever the singer is, but you get the feeling. That’s the true power of music.
The album will be accompanied by a short film, which you co-directed with Nathan De Paz Habib. How does it tie into the story of the album?
The short film is also called GOOD LUCK, and I wrote both the film and the album at the same time. I always saw the project as both a film and an album, it was never one or the other. The film tells the story of this young woman and her masked beloved, he’s her little boyfriend, and his face is a mask. it’s about their tumultuous relationship, and I based a lot of it on just pieces from my life. For example, the young girl in the film, she goes to an all girls school, and I went to all girls school for my high school.The way that time works in the film is not the way regular time works – it’s very nonlinear, elliptical, cyclical – and I use it almost as a metaphor for so many things. I wanted to talk about the relationship between the anima and the animus, our subconscious and our conscious minds. That way, I think that when people see the film they can project what they need to project onto it. They can get what they need to get from the story.
Do you now see the album and the film as companion pieces, or do they also exist separately?
I think I see them as companion pieces. Yes, you could enjoy either or separately, but you wouldn’t be getting the full story. I feel like in order to truly understand the album, you gotta watch the film, and in order to really understand the film, you have to listen to the album. They inform each other so much. And I think it’s also the way that I think about art in general: everything is hybrid. Audio and visual have a very distinct relationship to each other that I try to honor in the way that I make things.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Lana Del Rey is back with a new album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. Following 2021’s Blue Banisters, the album features production by Mike Hermosa, Jack Antonoff, Drew Erickson, Zach Dawes, and Benji, as well as collaborations with Jon Batiste, Bleachers, Father John Misty, Tommy Genesis, and SYML. In a cover feature with Interview Magazine, Del Rey told Billie Eilish that “this album felt totally effortless. When I did Norman Fucking Rockwell! it was about world-building, whereas this was straight vibing.” Ahead of its release, Del Rey shared the title track, ‘A&W’, and ‘The Grants’.
Depeche Mode have returned with their latest album, Memento Mori. The follow-up to 2017’s Spirit marks the band’s first album since the passing of founding member Andrew Fletcher. “We started work on this project early in the pandemic, and its themes were directly inspired by that time,” Martin Gore explained. “After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning.” The LP features the singles ‘Ghosts Again’ and ‘My Cosmos Is Mine’.
Debby Friday has released her debut album, GOOD LUCK, via Sub Pop. Following the artist’s 2018 EP BITCHPUNK and 2019’s DEATH DRIVE EP, the 10-track effort was co-produced with Graham Walsh at Candle Recording Studio in Toronto and mastered by Heba Kadry in New York. It includes the previously unveiled singles ‘SO HARD TO TELL’, ‘I GOT IT’ (featuring Chris Vargas of Uñas), and ‘HOT LOVE’.
Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA’s long-awaited collaborative LP, Scaring the Hoes, has arrived. The record features a lone guest feature from Redveil as well as track titles such as ‘Steppa Pig’, ‘Jack Harlow Combo Meal’, and ‘Run the Jewels’. Ahead of its release, the two rappers previewed the album with the single ‘Lean Beef Patty’ and the title track.
Caroline Rose has unveiled their new album, The Art of Forgetting, through New West Records. The follow-up to 2020’s Superstar was preceded by the songs ‘Love / Lover / Friend’, ‘Miami’, and ‘The Doldrums’. Threaded throughout the LP are voicemails from Rose’s grandmother, who was struggling with dementia at the time of the album’s creation. “It got me thinking about all the different ways memory shows up throughout our lives,” Rose said in a press release. “It can feel like a curse or be wielded as a tool.” They added, “Every time I make an album Iʼll come out of it learning a lot about myself. Now I look back and see the healing of a wound. I feel like a new version of myself. I think one for the better.”
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily, Love in Exile
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily have issued a collaborative record titled Love in Exile, out now via Verve. Recorded live in a New York City studio, it features Iyer on piano and electronics, Ismaily on bass and Moog synth, and Aftab on vocals. “Vijay and Shahzad were so locked into each other, and it was unclear whether they were doing what I was doing or I was doing what they were doing. We were like a school of fish,” Aftab commented in a statement. The trio released ‘To Remain / To Return’ along with the album’s announcement.
YIAN is the debut full-length by the London artist Lucinda Chua, following up her EPs Antidotes 1 and Antidotes 2. Out now via 4AD, the LP was previewed by the singles ‘Golden’, ‘Echo’, ‘An Ocean’, and the Yeule collaboration ‘Something Other Than Years’. “The record echoes my search for an ‘unknown’ part of myself, something I inherited but didn’t fully understand,” Chua said in a statement.
Brooklyn-based experimental outfit Liturgy dropped a new LP titled 93696, which follows 2020’s Origin of the Alimonies, via Thrill Jockey. Along with the album’s announcement, the group shared its title track, which was accompanied by a four-track EP featuring a three-movement alternative version of the track – ’93’, ’36’, and ‘696’ – plus the song ‘संसार’. Earlier this year, they shared another single called ‘Angel of Sovereignty’.
Kate Davis has followed up her 2019 debut Trophy with a new record, Fish Bowl, via her new label home, ANTI- Records. It includes the advance singles ‘Monster Mash’, ‘Consequences’, ‘Call Home’, and ‘Long Long Long’. Of ‘Monster Mash’, one of the first songs written for the album, Davis said: “This is the moment where the character is abandoned by everything that she knew. And there’s this feeling of isolation in living your life up to a point where you’re like, ‘This is what I’ve chosen.’ But when you transition into a different phase of life, it’s easy to feel like a monster, to feel like you’re harmful to people, or that people are fearful of you.”
Kele Okereke has put out a new LP, The Flames pt. 2, following 2021’s The Waves pt. 1. The Bloc Party frontman shared the tracks ‘Someone to Make Me Laugh’, ‘Vandal’ and ‘True Love Knows No Death’ ahead of the release. “Like The Waves it was important that all the sounds of the record were made by my electric guitar,” he explained. “Writing and recording a record within these parameters has forced me to become more creative as a musician, from the looped ambient textures to the brittle drum machine rhythms. It’s all made by my guitar and my loop pedals, and that’s how it will be performed.”
Other albums out today:
Fall Out Boy, So Much (for) Stardust; Angel Bat Dawid, Requiem for Jazz; Black Country, New Road, Live at Bush Hall; The HIRS Collective, We’re Still Here; Lankum, False Lankum; Purling Hiss, Drag on Girard; Nickel Creek, Celebrants; Luke Combs, Gettin’ Old; The Reds, Pinks & Purples, The Town That Cursed Your Name; 03 Greedo, Halfway There; Yours Are the Only Ears, We Know the Sky; Cécile McLorin Salvant, Mélusine; Cruel Diagonals, Fractured Whole; Sophie B. Hawkins, Free Myself; BABYMETAL, The Other One; Stefano Pilia & Valerio Tricoli, Cantor Park.
The Who’s Pete Townshend has shared his first solo single in nearly 30 years. It’s called ‘Can’t Outrun the Truth’, and it was composed and produced by Townshend’s partner Rachel Fuller under the name Charlie Pepper. All proceeds from the track’s vinyl sales, as well as a portion of every download, will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Listen to it below.
Discussing the origins of the song, Fuller said: “We’d just moved house and Pete was as happy as Larry up in his studio, working every day, and I put my back out, I was just climbing the walls, I couldn’t do any creative work and obviously, we couldn’t go anywhere. And I really started to think about how unbelievably difficult this period of time was going to be for so many people. I wrote lyrics and then I sat at the piano and wrote the music, and then I thought, Oh, I really would like to record it, because it’s really not a bad song at all – and my singing days are long over. So, I asked Pete to record the demo.”
“I’ve helped Rachel make the demos for several of her theatrical projects,” Townshend commented. “She’s a really a fast worker, it’s not that you say to me, let’s go into the studio for two weeks and work on this project. We do it two hours later, or an hour later, it’s done – so it’s easy to work with her.”
He added: “The pandemic years were terrible for charities; the Teenage Cancer Trust was created in order to take the money from a series of concerts at the Albert Hall every year and various other things and that had all dropped out. So, the idea of doing this, which is it’s something that has sprung out of Lockdown about mental illness, but also for this particular charity. If you’ve got a scenario in which somebody in your family or a teenager has got cancer, they’re being treated, Lockdown hits, and you’re not allowed to go and visit them. There’s a poignancy to the whole thing about the song.”
Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro have released a new three-song EP called RR. It opens with ‘Beso’, which arrives with an accompanying music video that confirms the couple’s engagement. Check it out below along with the two other tracks, ‘Vampiros’ and ‘Promesa’.
“For us it’s always love first and everything else later, but we skipped that this time so we could finish RR and share it with the world,” Rosalía said in a statement. “After more than three years these three songs are here and each one of them belongs to a different stage of love.”
“We always knew we wanted to do music together. However, with our relationship being the focus, we had to find the right time,” Alejandro added. A long time has passed by now and finding a way to fit all my feelings for her in three songs has been nearly impossible. This means I will be spending my days writing and writing many more songs about and with her. We’re thrilled with this project. RR forever!”
Since releasing her third album MOTOMAMI last year, Rosalía has shared a remix of ‘Despechá’ as well as the English-language track ‘LLYLM’.
Red is widely recognized as a symbol of passion and vitality, representing the dynamic range of vibrant colors. Over the years, the bold and striking use of red in fashion design has captivated and inspired countless designers to push its creative boundaries. With her latest collection, Yuyao Wang sought to showcase the endless possibilities, the versatility and boundless possibility of this color.
The inspiration for the newest collection and the choice of red stem from Yuyao Wang’s personal experience. In 2019, she was diagnosed with mild arthritis in her knees, which initially left her feeling daunted. Wang’s passion for fashion design dates back to her childhood, but her knee condition made standing for long periods a painful ordeal. This experience drove Wang to explore how she could create a line of clothing that was both stylish and comfortable, without compromising on design aesthetics.
In addition, Yuyao Wang explains, “Red is the color of blood.’ She goes on to emphasize the importance of prioritizing health and the significance of wearing appropriate clothing for different weather conditions. For Wang, it is crucial to raise awareness about this and encourage people to make informed choices about their wardrobe, rather than blindly following fashion trends that could potentially compromise their well-being.”
（Winter Collection 2022, by Lis Yuyao Wang)
Rather than being discouraged by the prospect of her design career coming to a premature end, Yuyao Wang drives her energy into creating the inaugural collection of Lis Yuyao Wang. Her goal was to bring positivity to others grappling with health issues by showcasing that fashion and comfort can coexist. Wang’s determination to overcome her physical limitations and create something meaningful demonstrates her resilience and commitment to her craft.
Meanwhile, Yuyao Wang’s hard work paid off. Her dedication and talent earned her an incredible opportunity to showcase her collection on the runway at the start of her career, thanks to Pratt Institute. However, the most exhilarating moment was yet to come. Wang’s designs unexpectedly made it to Vogue after the show, further propelling her career in the fashion industry.
Yuyao Wang recalls being told at a young age that she wasn’t suited for her dream career. “Years ago, a designer informed me that I lacked the natural talent for fashion design since I didn’t possess any foundational painting skills,” Wang shares. However, she didn’t let those negative comments discourage her. Today, she has proven those doubters wrong and achieved success through hard work, dedication, and perseverance.
In the past few years, online gambling in the UK has increased and players are always seeking enjoyable slots to pass the time and win payouts. As most gamblers already know, themed slots attract the most attention. They offer a topic that players can relate to and provide added entertainment. The best providers in the industry have created some of the most thrilling music-themed slots, all offering amazing soundtracks, top-notch graphics and animations, and some of the best paying bonus rounds.
Developers have partnered with various musicians to create games that honor their work. The result has been games that are captivating and offer fans another way to enjoy music while engaging in the excitement of online gambling. Want to know about the best rated slot games that focus on music? Check them out right here! Together with casinogambler.co.uk we prepared a list of the best music slots for this year .
These games can all be played for various bet amounts or can be previewed in a demo mode, allowing UK gamblers to get a taste of the sights and sounds before wagering.
Microgaming’s Deadmau5
As one of the most trusted slot providers in the UK, Microgaming continues to thrill players with themed games and top returns. The release of Deadmau5 in 2020 is a perfect example of a music slot that is packed with action. Microgaming took all steps to ensure this would be a unique game as it incorporated background instrumentals as well as spectacular laser light shows.
The goal was to introduce players and music fans to the world of EDM. The resulting game has been a huge success and continues to be a top choice for UK gamblers online. Offering top songs from Deadmau5, wilds, scatters, and a great Drop Wild feature, this is still one of the best music games to play in 2023.
The Phantom of the Opera
While many music fans and slot lovers want to combine the excitement of spinning reels with the sounds of rock music, other musical genres have been featured in games. Another hit from Microgaming is The Phantom of the Opera, featuring the immortal tunes from Andrew Lloyd Webber. This 243 ways to win game is unique and offers an engaging atmosphere.
Microgaming is not the only provider to pay tribute to the Phantom. There is also a branded slot from NetEnt under the same name. This game offers innovative features like free spins with a Masked Phantom, a Pick-and-Click bonus round, sticky wilds, and re-spins.
Rock Series Slots by NetEnt
Perhaps the most popular games that focus on music are the rock series games from NetEnt. These games have won multiple awards and continue to provide UK players with gambling excitement. The Guns N’ Roses game won the Game of Year Award at eh EGR Operator Awards and is one of the top played games online.
Following the huge success of Guns N’ Roses, NetEnt added three other rock games to the series including Jimi Hendrix, Motorhead, and Ozzy Osbourne.
Lana Del Rey is back with a new album, 
Depeche Mode have returned with their latest album, 
Debby Friday has released her debut album, 
Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA’s long-awaited collaborative LP, Scaring the Hoes, has arrived. The record features a lone guest feature from Redveil as well as track titles such as ‘Steppa Pig’, ‘Jack Harlow Combo Meal’, and ‘Run the Jewels’. Ahead of its release, the two rappers previewed the album with the single 
Caroline Rose has unveiled their new album, 
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily have issued a collaborative record titled 
YIAN
Brooklyn-based experimental outfit Liturgy dropped a new LP titled 93696, which follows 2020’s Origin of the Alimonies, via 
Kate Davis has followed up her 2019 debut Trophy with a new record, 
Kele Okereke has put out a new LP, 
