Longtime collaborators Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O’Rourke have announced a new album, Pareidolia, which is set for release on August 29 via Drag City. The record weaves together music improvised on the musicians’ 2023 tour of Europe, and you can hear a wondrous snippet of it below.
According to a press release, the album’s titular word is defined as “the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern; to see shapes or make pictures out of randomness.” Earlier this year, Ishibashi released her latest album Antigone, which featured O’Rourke as part of her band.
Lifeguard is the Chicago indie rock trio of Kai Slater (guitar, vocals), Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals), and Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth), who have been playing together since high school. Case – whose father is in the experimental group FACS and also played Disappears and the Ponys – and Loweinstein – brother of Horsegirl’s Penelope Lowenstein – formed the band in 2019 while serving as the rhythm section for Horsegirl. Slater, who at the time was playing in another local band, Dwaal Troupe, soon came on board, and Lifeguard released their first EP, In Silence, in February 2020. A couple more releases and they were signed to Matador, the established indie label that reissued Crowd Can Talk along with an unreleased EP, Dressed in Trenches, in July 2023. Last month, Lifeguard came through with their debut full-length, Ripped and Torn, and just kicked off their North American tour in support of it. Produced by No Age’s Randy Randall, the record is buoyant, destabilizing, and incandescent, splicing together bursts of power-pop, dance-punk, dub, and concentrated noise with the playful, organic immediacy of a group constantly tuning into each other as much as their influences. Lifeguard’s music may occasionally sound unsettled or claustrophobic, but it’s never totally, well, guarded; as a collective and part of a broader DIY community, their goal is to keep opening it up.
We caught up with Lifeguard’s Asher Case for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about the response to Ripped and Torn, their ongoing tour, band dynamics, and more.
Your five-week US tour kicks off tomorrow in Chicago. Are you more nervous or excited?
I’m excited because of the bands we’re going on tour with. We’re playing with our friends, Parking and Autobahn, and those are bands that I really like. We did a tour a couple of years ago now with Horsegirl, and it was a similar thing where it was just really good friends that make touring in a group a lot easier than if it’s just the three people in your band.
Is it more the musical aspect or the practical realities of touring that’s stressing you out?
I think it’s more the length of it. It’s just gonna be a lot of time spent away from home. We’ve never had to play that many shows in a row. In terms of the musical and performance of it every night, I’m a little bit nervous, but I’m not feeling super stressed out about it. I think we’re gonna have a lot of ways of switching up how the show goes and making it exciting every night, because we are all pretty prone to getting bored easily with playing the same set every night, or playing songs in the same order, or even just playing the same songs every night. I feel like we’re gonna be really figuring out ways to make the set exciting for ourselves, whether that’s playing a bunch of covers or playing old songs or trying to write new songs while we’re on the road.
Ripped and Torn has been out for a few weeks now, and you’ve had the chance to to play these songs in Europe. Given that you had a very specific approach to recording it, do you feel like it started taking on a new life in those recent shows?
Definitely. It was interesting because we made that record over a year ago at this point. We recorded it last March, and last summer when we toured in Europe, we were playing a lot of those songs that ended up being on the record. It was interesting to see people who had seen both of those shows, the one from last summer and the one from this summer, and their response to the songs was completely different. I feel like since they’ve come out, the songs are coming across a lot better. I guess that could be a thing of, now they’re released and people can listen to them so they know what they’re hearing when we’re playing it live. But also, I think just for us, we’ve had a year to really dial those songs.
Another part of that record for us is that it’s different from how we’ve worked in the past because the songs were not really labored over before they were recorded. We tried to have it be a really immediate process, so we wrote them quickly altogether at the same time and recorded them pretty immediately. So all of the little tricks that you learn from your own songs as you play them on the road, and as they exist for multiple years at this point now, have all come out in the live show. They aren’t even in the recordings, but I think it’s perceptible by people even if they’re not tuned directly into the specific parts we’re doing. I think you can tell that we are more comfortable with those songs now than we were last summer or than we have been in the past.
I think you’ve said that the songs on this record were becoming “less live” as you were making the record, and I was curious how you were feeling they were now becoming more live.
Definitely. We also have all of these effects and layered harmonies and electronics that we’re figuring out how to do live too, which adds to that as well. It does sound different from the record, and the way you can make a live room sound is not gonna be so mono in that way that the record feels, but I like that contrast. In terms of instrumentation and using the baritone guitar, for instance, which is an instrument that we used for the first time on this record, we’ve been amping it through a guitar amp instead of just through the bass amp, so the actual way the stage feels is changing too.
The record does have this compressed element to it, which extends to the way you bring together different styles. Do you find yourselves letting loose some of that condensed energy in a live setting, or do you try to keep it airtight?
I feel more prone to let it out when we’re playing live shows, but I strangely don’t think we’ve been doing that. A big part of our live show, at least in the past, has been live improvising and making noise on stage that’s not exactly planned and having it fit in between these songs and contextualize them in a different way that is more, more noisy or more full of abstraction. On the record, we definitely did stifle that. It was going to be something that had more of those interlude parts; there’s a song called ‘Music for 3 Drums’, and it’s spliced together from some four-track recordings of Isaac’s drums and some recordings of guitar feedback. That’s hard to do in a live setting because you can’t recreate the fidelity, but we’ve been learning how to play those songs as our instruments. In that way, we are sticking to the record, at least the way the European tour went. Tomorrow, for instance, we’re playing our entire record in order in full, and we’ll be doing those songs as they sound exactly on the record. But I think with five weeks of touring, we will get a lot more into the abstraction again and improvising as a main part of the set.
When it comes to messing with the order of the songs, is that something that affects your energy or contextualizes the songs in a tangible way for you?
Definitely. We try to change up the order every night; we write a new setlist before every show. To avoid doing the same thing every night, and because I think the feeling can get lost for us. But some sounds will happen on a set that’s like, “Oh, this actually feels really good.” It could be a really strange order that we wouldn’t have thought of when we were sequencing a record, but for this show, it really worked. And then sometimes that gets repeated. Usually, we’ll find a song that makes sense to start and then start every night with that song, same with the ending. But generally, it’s better for us to always be changing it up because it’s interesting and keeps it fresh.
What’s that ritual like of figuring out the setlist before a show?
It’s usually pretty rushed. It’s actually in the five or ten minutes before we go on stage. We’re sitting there, and we’re all very distracted, and it takes a lot of, “Come on, we have to write this or we’re not gonna have a set to play.” We never have the setlists from the night before, so we can’t really reference it. We just kind of throw out songs, and if people agree with that, they say yes. And if they don’t, they say a different song, and somehow there’s a set that’s made. It can be quite intense because it is a very small but still creative decision. Everybody’s interested in playing the set that they wanna play, and to make compromises with that is the same as anything else in our band that takes putting out an idea and having the other two subjecting it to their feedback and their criticism.
Sometimes it’s hard to get over yourself a little bit just because you want your thing to be what happens, and then people have different opinions, and you have to be okay with that. You still have moments of anger with each other or confusion at why someone would disagree with you, and with a setlist, it can seem so middling, but it’s just as important because you’re so focused on keeping up the energy and making sure that everybody is invested.
I see the dissonance you whip up on the record, these moments of disruption, like a fire breaking out that you quickly contain. Are you in any way visual or conceptual when it comes to structuring a record or a show?
The way that we write our songs and conceptualize our music is that it should not overstay its welcome by any means. We’re trying to make the point come across in the least obtuse way of doing it. We’re not trying to linger on long, slow, meaningless jams. Every part is supposed to feel like it has bite and a reason to be there. And it’s the same with those interludes in the middle, where those things could be obviously a lot longer than they are. I think it would be easier to lose the meaning of those little pieces, but it’s also meant to be like you’ve taped all of your fast punk songs over some weird found experimental thing. The way we write these songs is not meant to be stripped down by any means; it’s more that the actual length of time is meant to be stripped down, and we’re trying to pack in as much bite or memorable poppiness or noise or rhythm into short segments that leave an impression without being super self-indulgent.
It’s been six years since you first started playing with Isaac as a Lifeguard. Do you feel like your dynamic, in terms of the way you play or just communicate around music, has kind of solidified, or does it change from day to day?
It’s definitely changing. I think we want it to change. In some ways, it’s been very similar to when we started. We’re all coming from very different musical backgrounds, and I think the way that that comes across in our music is that we never try to go for something specific. In the past at least, it’s not like we’re trying to come up with concepts for our records – we are into what we’re into, and whenever we’re writing, we’re all pretty locked together on what we’re listening to and being inspired by. We improvise when we’re playing together, then we hammer it out into verses and choruses and song structures. And that has really not changed at all, which I’m grateful for.
But if you go into writing a song or writing music without any type of association for it or any type of direction to go in, it’s hard to feel close to that music, or like it’s really achieving anything when you play it live for people. And I think it’s important to be able to feel like your music is doing something for you or doing something for the people around you in order to make sure that it’s engaging and effective and has a purpose. I think when the three of us can get into our zone and just pump out some quick music that’s not super super outwardly different from stuff we’ve made in the past, it can get kind of cyclical, like, “What exactly is the point? What exactly are we trying to do with this?” That’s something we’re figuring out in terms of continuing to write, because we haven’t written a lot of music since this record was recorded.
You all have your own individual projects too, which are quite stylistically disparate. I know Kai’s work has seeped into Lifeguard on songs like the title track, but I’m curious, more broadly, what you feel like those outlets serve for you, not just individually, but collectively. Do they make the Lifeguard thing more concrete or easier to zone in on?
It’s definitely easier for us to focus on what we actually like doing when we’re in our solo projects, or what we’re inspired by in more of an everyday sense. With Lifeguard, we do have to put in the work of being together and finding things that we’re all interested in. I think the solo project thing is helpful because it’s kind of an immediate gratification, and it can give you this experience with writing songs or sequencing or putting together records without having to have the pressure of impressing the two other people – or not exactly impressing them, but fitting their opinion as well. You can just go straight to whatever the output is gonna be. And then with Lifeguard, it’s more of a compromise. We have those skills of writing, or of taking influence, but it has to be contextualized with two other real people. It can’t just be all in your head. I think of it as something that’s really helpful to a band dynamic, especially one that tries to be pretty even and split up fairly, just because you can let off steam with your interest and not have all the pressure be on this collective project.
What’s your relationship with your own project, Laurie Sara-Smith, at the moment?
I can bring more confidence to writing songs generally because of the Laurie stuff. It’s easier for me to hear stuff that Kai or Isaac would bring as parts of a song rather than just this part that I can then plug my own thing into. In terms of conceptualizing things before you just start blindly adding music to them, I think it’s definitely helpful. When I write for Laurie, it’s all pretty improvised and quick, and they’re not exactly pop songs. They have weird, sparse vocal parts that are not super melodic, but it’s all directly from inside of me. When I think about my influence for that stuff, I’m not coming up with specific references. It’s just, what do I naturally gravitate towards? What am I able to just put out quickly that makes me feel good about it?
There’s also a big element of it that is the live show, because it’s a guitar and saxophone duo when it’s live. Some of the time, I’ll go over parts with Seamus [Moore], who plays saxophone, and we work out the notes he’s gonna play. But a lot of the time, the songs open up into these longer sections, and we can both just improvise together and listen to each other. It’s not very rhythmic, it’s not very melodic, but it is also very melodic. It revolves around the main idea of the song, but he is also able to get pretty percussive and strange with his instrument in a way that I think works really well with a delayed guitar. That’s a totally different sort of process to anything with Lifeguard.
You mentioned contextualizing the songs with other people in the band, and part of that on Ripped and Torn are the vocal harmonies. What did you enjoy about fleshing out that part of your sound in the studio, and what’s it like embodying it onstage?
When we were recording it, I don’t think I was nearly as developed of a singer as I am now. It wasn’t super theorized or planned out in terms of what makes sense with how vocal harmonies work in intervals – it’s more so just what feels good and fits the part. For a song like ‘Under Your Reach’, pretty much the entire vocal part is a harmony, where our voices are distinctly differently sounding, differently pitched, but they’re still saying all the same words. That type of thing, I think, is really interesting especially in punk music, because so much of doubling vocals is just singing the same thing or having it be kind of atonal. But then you can make these really subtle changes to it where you are keeping a consistent pitch, but the two voices make it more of a chord. To me, that really changes how that part sticks in your mind, and it makes it more hooky.
What do you hope you take away from this upcoming tour?
I hope that I can kind of get a more complete understanding of what these songs do for people. I feel like the best results of releasing this record for me is just seeing how people respond to it. I want it to make people dance. I want it to make people feel comfortable in that space and feel close to us. It’s hard when there’s bigger crowds of older people that are less engaging to to to see from the stage and reacting to your music, but then you have conversations about it, and you have all of this connection with people that really makes the music make a lot of sense This is part of that thing where you can’t really feel it being objective until you get out of yourself completely and you see it from other people’s perspectives. I just hope that by the end of the tour, I can really see this record as something that is different than just a record that we’ve made or a record that is super internal. I want to be able to disassociate from it, almost, and to watch what people are thinking about it as it’s happening. The way that songs generally feel to me is very impenetrable and guarded or clouded and confusing, just because I’ve labored over them so much, especially with Lifeguard. That has an effect that really strips meaning from them. Now that these will be much more present in my life again, I can hopefully have new associations.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Although it may seem that fashion and home design mostly operate in separate spheres, in reality, they share an interconnected star system under the silent yet very graphical conversation-aesthetic colossus. Just as the latest collections are displayed on the runways in Milan and Paris, interior design cues from color and texture to furniture form and test concepts are carried from one source to another. This is what embodies the shared heartbeat: working alongside cultural shifts, technological advancements, and the common yearning for understandable aesthetics and self-fulfillment. Appreciating how a fashion trend realizes inspiration for home design can allow a deeper, textured interpretation of making a living space that really speaks contemporary language.
One of the most immediate and in-your-face relationships between the runway and the room is indeed the color palette. New colors usually fall into the hands of fashion designers and come out of the mouths of celebrities each season. Trending colors whether bold like Pantone’s color of the year or subtle living earth neutrals will eventually seep into home décor. Who can forget the rise of millennial pink in fashion circles a few years ago that went and gently put blush-toned sofas, throws, and even accent walls into the homes? Jewel tones like emerald green and sapphire blue being worn today in the highest echelons of fashion are also translated in the interest of decorating with velvet upholstery, statement lighting fixtures, and boldly painted bits and pieces. Observing the colors trending at the top level of designers will give homeowners and decorators useful clues about the forthcoming trends that will form the expression of interior design in Inđija and elsewhere.
On the other side of the color spectrum, though, fabrics and patterns form yet another critical tryst for fashion and home interiors. On the runways, we see an array of silhouettes with varying levels of intricate weaves and luxurious textures to the starkest of prints and designs that often turn out to be inspirations for upholstery, curtains, cushions, or even rugs. With the rise of bouclé in fashion, its nubby texture has found its way into rich plush armchairs and throws, inducing tuttorial interest into interiors. Similarly, geometry-imbued patterns, or delicate floral motifs gracing dresses and blouses, find themselves integrated with wallpaper, bed linen, and decorative finishes. The interplay of textures and patterns enables a home’s atmosphere to enter into a stylish and quirky conversation with one’s sense of fashion.
Moving even further, silhouettes and shapes offer a more subtle type of inspiration for furniture design. That is to say, the clean lines and minimalistic approach often found in contemporary clothing could very well be the inspiration behind sleek, uncluttered furniture. On the other hand, the revival of more voluminous and structured shapes in fashion may find its expression in grand-armchairs of exaggerated curves or high-end intricately detailed headboards. This influence rarely always goes with a straight one-to-one direct approach, but rather is a shared concern of form and proportion show’s from both disciplines. Wanting to redecorate or give their homes a makeover will find paying attention to these silhouettes a much more fashionably conscious option for homeowners in Inđija.
Even the very practical aspects of fashion trends may have their impact on home design. For example, as sustainability rises within fashion, with concerns about natural materials and ethically sourced production, it equally seems there are movements with similar objectives embracing eco-conscious alternatives in home décor. Organic cotton bedding; reclaimed wood furniture; and professional window installation to maximize natural lighting to decrease energy from artificial lights; go along with installing environmentally-friendly heating and cooling measures. The driving values behind consumers’ choices in both fashions and home décor are finding themselves increasingly in unison.
In summary, as an ever-changing dynamic, the relationship between runway fashion and home design is interdependent. By watching the color, texture, and pattern, in fact, the basic values under-lying the fashion world, the homeowners and designers in Inđija, Vojvodina, Serbia, find invaluable sources of inspiration that will lead them to create living spaces that look appealing, stand on the pulse of contemporary trends, and speak their very own style. This conscious transfer of ideas between the realms therefore allows the modern expression of stylish living to become one entity, with homes that can be interpreted as thoughtfully “dressed” as we are.
In an advertising landscape increasingly hungry for authentic connection, Carlos brings a rare combination of multicultural perspective and award-winning creative vision to his role as Creative Consultant at Twisted Hammock, led by Aryan Gupta. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and shaped by globe-trotting parents who exposed him to diverse cultures worldwide, Carlos has developed an exceptional ability to weave humor and cultural authenticity into brand narratives that resonate far beyond traditional market boundaries.
His unique background, growing up immersed in rich Mexican storytelling traditions before making his way to Los Angeles, has given him an instinctive understanding of how to make the unexpected feel universally relatable. This perspective has proven invaluable in creating work that doesn’t just capture attention but builds lasting emotional connections between brands and their audiences.
Carlos’s approach to brand storytelling centers on finding the human truth that transcends cultural barriers. “I want to tell unexpected stories,” he explains, whether crafting campaigns for global giants like Amazon and Levi’s or luxury brands like Prada and Calvin Klein. His work consistently demonstrates how humor rooted in authentic cultural experience can create more meaningful brand relationships than traditional advertising approaches.
The results speak for themselves. In 2024 alone, Carlos has accumulated an impressive collection of accolades, including gold and silver wins at the American Advertising Awards, bronze at the prestigious CLIO Awards, and recognition at international festivals from London to Berlin. His Amazon “We Go Places” campaign earned Best of Show, while his work on Shazam’s “Unleash The Beat” garnered multiple gold awards, proving that his multicultural approach resonates with judges and audiences alike.
Working alongside industry legends like photographer Matthew Rolston and collaborating with acclaimed directors such as Charles Stone III and Matia Karrell, Carlos has established himself as a creative force capable of elevating any brand narrative. His portfolio spans from automotive (FIAT) to fashion (Calvin Klein), from tech (AT&T) to lifestyle (Grey Goose), demonstrating remarkable versatility while maintaining his distinctive voice.
For the U.S. advertising market, Carlos represents something invaluable: a bridge between cultures that brings fresh perspectives without sacrificing commercial effectiveness. His ability to inject authentic humor and multicultural insights into brand storytelling offers American companies a pathway to more genuine global connections. In an era where consumers increasingly demand authenticity from brands, Carlos’s background and proven track record make him an essential voice in shaping how brands can build lasting, meaningful relationships with diverse audiences worldwide.
Deerhoof have announced that their entire catalog will be removed from Spotify. “‘Daniel Ek uses $700 million of his Spotify fortune to become chairman of AI battle tech company’ was not a headline we enjoyed reading this week,” the band said in a statement. “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”
In addition to being the CEO of Spotify, Ek is also a chairman of Helsing, a German defense tech company that’s been developing software that uses AI to inform military decisions. Deerhoof added:
We are privileged that it was a pretty easy decision for us. Spotify only pays a pittance anyway, and we earn a lot more from touring. But we also understand that other artists and labels do rely on Spotify for a bigger chunk of their income, and don’t judge those who can’t make the same move in the short term.
AI battle tech is clearly emerging as the hot new big ticket item for the super-rich. It’s increasingly clear that the military and police exist primarily as the security detail for the billionaire class. The more of the killing you can get computers to do, the better your bottom line.
The band also criticized the platform’s music discovery aspect, data practices, and royalty system, writing: “One of the claims often made about Spotify is that it theoretically makes one’s music discoverable by anyone who signs up, no matter how remote they may be from the self-proclaimed centers of hipness. But just because someone is far from Western gatekeepers does not mean they lack culture, or need to hear our band. Deerhoof is a small mom and pop operation, and know when enough is enough. We aren’t capitalists, and don’t wish to take over the world. Especially if the price of ‘discoverability’ is letting oligarchs fill the globe with computerized weaponry, we’re going to pass on the supposed benefits.”
Deerhoof, who most recently released Noble and Godlike in Ruin, noted their music won’t immediately disappear from Spotify. “We aren’t sure exactly how soon the takedowns can happen, but it will be as soon as possible. We want to thank our various labels for their support on this tricky decision. The grunt work of pulling content off of Spotify is something they’re now tasked with, and they are sharing the financial hit. We know we are asking them to make a sacrifice, and it means a lot to us.”
Hulu is making a run with its list of successful series this year. Specifically, Nine Perfect Strangers is joining the list. It’s an adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s The New York Times bestselling book. As of now, it has two emotionally gripping seasons on the streaming platform. While the second season is still rolling, the door is wide open for more transformation, mystery, and psychological twists. Similarly, fans are awaiting news of a third installment.
Explore this article to find out what could happen next, who might return, and when a third season might premiere.
Nine Perfect Strangers Storyline
Based on Hulu and IMDb, the series follows the story of nine city dwellers. The group of individuals goes on a 10-day retreat at a boutique health-and-wellness resort. Also, resort director Masha (Nicole Kidman) guides the strangers through the journey. Specifically, she has a goal of helping and transforming the minds and bodies of the group. However, the nine strangers don’t know what is about to strike them.
Will There Be a Season 3?
As of writing, season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers is just about to end. As per a Deadline article, the second installment of the series adaptation started last May 21. Similarly, the final episode will drop on July 2.
Considering the status of the show, the creators might take some more time to assess how it would perform. Specifically, they could be looking at viewership, audience reception, and feedback from critics. These aspects could be the determining factors of the final decision.
At the same time, a report from ELLE indicated that Hulu did not make any announcement regarding the renewal of the show Nine Perfect Strangers.
What Could Happen in Season 3?
Aimee Lutkin of ELLE highlighted that the location and cast of Nine Perfect Strangers changed from season 1 to season 2. Besides that, the series basically follows the same formula. For that reason, season 3 could be the same. However, viewers can find a different tone, themes, and cast dynamics.
Potential Cast of Nine Perfect Strangers Season 3
Nicole Kidman could reprise her role as Masha Dmitrichenko if a third season gets green-lit. Aside from that, the names of who will play the new set of strangers are still a mystery. Seasons 1 and 2 of the show feature a very different ensemble besides Kidman. So, fans can expect new faces.
For your reference, here are the cast members of season 2:
Annie Murphy
Dolly De Leon
Christine Baranski
King Princess
Henry Golding
Lucas Englander
Lena Olin
Maisie Richardson-Sellers
Aras Aydin
Murray Bartlett
Mark Strong
Potential Release Date
There is no news regarding Hulu creating another season of the show. But if there is a third season, it could take years before it premieres. Especially since Nine Perfect Strangersseason 2 came out about four years after the first season.
Hulu is absolutely crushing it with so many hit series. One of them is the reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. After a successful season 1 premiere in September 2024, it immediately got a follow-up season earlier this year. With the current season filled with shifting friendships and explosive scandals, fans are eager to know what’s next.
Stay until the end of the article to learn about the returning cast, the next season’s rumors, and when new episodes might air.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Storyline
According to the show’s description on Hulu, it is about the controversial world of a group of swingers. At the same time, this group of mom influencers happens to be Mormon wives. However, they made international headlines after getting caught in the middle of a swinging sex scandal. The issue will test the group’s faith, reputation, and friendship.
Will There Be a Season 3?
As per OK Magazine and USA Today, Hulu wanted 20 more episodes weeks after the release of season 1. Similarly, they ordered the release to be in the spring of 2025. With the second season having released only 10 episodes, fans can expect another 10 soon. However, there has not been a formal announcement from Hulu that a third season is coming. That means the next 10 episodes can either be a part 2 of the second season or the start of season 3. Either way, viewers are getting more!
What Could Happen in the Next Episodes?
Based on a Cosmopolitan article, the nature of the show hints that the next part will be about tons of drama. It’s either going to be about who’s staying married or who’s breaking up.
Likewise, the OK Magazine report says that new episodes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives could be about the scandals and affairs of the cast. Also, Jessi Ngatikaura might address the speculations on her rumored affair with Marciano Brunette of Vanderpump Villa.
Potential Cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Next Part
While Jennifer’s marriage issues make her return questionable, most cast members are likely to stay. The next episodes could still include Demi Engemann, Ngatikaura, Miranda McWhorter, Taylor Frankie Paul, Whitney Leavitt, Mikayla Mathews, Layla Taylor, and Mayci Neeley.
Potential Release Date
There is no official confirmation from Hulu regarding the release of the upcoming 10 episodes.
So, if the additional 10 will commence season 3, then fans can expect the third season before 2026. But if the next 10 is simply a part 2 of the current season, then we’re looking at a year to get The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 3.
David Balfe has announced the second For Those I Love LP: Carving the Stone arrives August 8 via September Recordings. The follow-up to the project’s 2021 self-titled debut features the early single ‘Of the Sorrows’, as well as a gripping new song called ‘No Scheme’. Check it out along with a live performance video below.
“No Scheme is the spiritual successor to Top Scheme, the only track on the new album with a direct link to the old,” Balfe explained in a statement. “Anchored by the same chaos as Top Scheme, No Scheme trades some of its anger for despondency, it’s rage for reflection, while never fully leaving that original fire behind. Like much of the album it comes from, whenever it points the finger outwardly, it points it back inwardly too. Hypocrisy, complacency, and culpability are all present, but so too is a search for justice or meaning in an increasingly confusing time. A great deal has changed since I wrote it, but I feel as committed as ever to sharing it with you all.”
About the album as a whole, Balfe remarked, “This was partly my emotional response to what feels like a ‘cultural death,’ a strangling of a city and a generation.”
Carving the Stone Cover Artwork:
Carving the Stone Tracklist:
1. Carving The Stone
2. No Quiet
3. No Scheme
4. The Ox / The Afters
5. Civic
6. Mirror
7. This Is Not The Place I Belong
8. Of The Sorrows
9. I Came Back To See The Stone Had Moved
“I’m ready to feel like I don’t have the answers,” Lorde sings on Virgin’s opening track, ‘Hammer’. That doesn’t mean she’s not searching, but on the pop star’s first album in four years, she embraces that feeling. When she sings of the “peace in the madness over our heads,” it’s not reflective of the kind of healing journey that polarized listeners on 2021’s Solar Power so much as beginning to accept it in messy, sometimes subdued, occasionally blissful fashion. While Lorde’s shortest album to date, it is far from her least impactful, mirroring the fluidity she’s discovering in her gender expression and carrying wounds both self-inflicted and relational: hazy yet thorny, guttural yet ambiguous, that self glitching in and out of view yet somehow sounding impervious in its vulnerability. More than stoking the flames, she’s stuck in her thoughts and staking her ground over every heartbreak, fear, and false image thrust into its orbit.
1. Hammer
If Virgin’s earlier singles simmered with frustration while sweating it out, its final preview and opening track effectively frames the whole album as a euphoric release. Though just thirteen seconds over the three-minute mark, ‘Hammer’ feels like its most fleshed-out track, the production getting thicker when you expect it to dissolve and Lorde’s voice reaching higher up for transcendence. She is immediately in the zone, threading poetry between nouns that set the stage – heat, love, ovulation – before putting the same emphasis on a simple string of verbs: “I burn, and I sing, and I scheme, and I dance.” But there absolutely are sentences that serve as declarative thesis statements, far more than flowery missiles. “When you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” “Some days, I’m a woman, some days, I’m a man.” And the most biting: “I jerk tears and they pay me to do it.” She won’t stay holed up, she seems to say, but she’s not content to play the part either. In between, always, is the real deal.
2. What Was That
I’ve already written a fair bit about Virgin’s lead single and played it many times leading up to the album’s release, but was still curious how it’d fare in the context of the record. With its placement after ‘Hammer’, I hear ‘What Was That’ as: now let me jerk those tears; invoke post-adolescent devotion in the shadow of trauma; send those Melodrama shivers down your spine with a single pulsating synth. Of course Lorde knows it is no ‘Green Light’ – don’t you hear what she sings as her own backup? “When I’m in the blue light, I can make it alright.” ‘What Was That’ doesn’t conjure the ghost of a masterpiece so much as it stands as a rebuttal, and haunted double, of the it is what it is mindset pervading today’s carefree, complacent pop, perturbed even in its catharsis. At the end of the day, really what I hear is: Here’s me all over again. Are you actually listening?
3. Shapeshifter
Up until this point, Lorde has mostly been singing over punchy, kinetic production; ‘Shapeshifter’ is the first moment they really fold into one (and the one that most sounds like the album cover.) Jim-E-Stack’s shuffling beat is familiar and dusted like a good old piece of paper – down to his use of the OP-1 synth, there’s something skeletal about each texture – so Lorde leans into it, unraveling patterns of compulsive behaviour without the need to cast away or resolve them. She may be back to making bangers, but not without allowing herself an anthem of disaffection: “Tonight I just wanna fall,” she sulks, Rob Moose’s strings swooning in like a kind of permission. Nothing more, nothing less.
4. Man of the Year
TikTok drama aside, ‘Man of the Year’, like its predecessor, hits harder on Virgin than as a standalone single. “You met me at a really strange time in my life,” Lorde sings, but there’s a present-tense groundedness to the track, owed in part to that lone bass guitar; aren’t the rest of us only now meeting this person – this “someone more like myself”? The singer keeps her vulnerability intact, her language somatic and light on metaphors; but the strangeness sweeps into the production, which slowly gives the climactic ballad a distorted, discomfiting edge. The catharsis isn’t always satisfying, but it is ripe with yearning. We better lean in, too.
5. Favourite Daughter
In total admiration and empathy for her poet mother, Sonja Yelich, Lorde strips any poetic ambiguity off the lyrics of ‘Favorite Daughter’, streamlining her message of always chasing maternal validation. Even the instrumentation calls as far back as the Pure Heroine era, so you have to trust it as an artistic throughline rather than a piece of revisionist history, casting her every word and performance as a line of communication. What most instills fear in her, though, isn’t any resemblance to her mother – “the blueprint for me,” Lorde told Zane Lowe – but her uncle: “You told us as kids/ He died of a broken heart.” Stardom as an inherited dream – that’s one thing; snuck in there is a cautionary tale that’d make anyone lay their hearts open.
6. Current Affairs
At the torn, complicated heart of Virgin is ‘Current Affairs’, which boasts elements of several other songs on it. The placement feels correct, as the bravery Lorde seeks to model suddenly disintegrates: “Mama, I’m so scared.” A nod to the friends talking current affairs in ‘What Was That’, doubling its meaning – could be your current affairs. The promiscuity of ‘Shapeshifter’, zoomed in: “He spit in my mouth like/ He’s saying a prayer.” Even an older song, Dexta Daps’ hit ‘Morning Love’, curiously and hypnotically sampled, rolls in like a cloud. Lorde isn’t seeing it all drift by in a haze, though; the entanglement is sharp and devastating. Her moans on the chorus recall ‘Hammer’, but her voice is wounded and coiled, not ecstatic. It’s not the messiness that renders it beautiful, but both qualities are undeniable.
7. Clearblue
Though he doesn’t contribute to the record until its final moments, Bon Iver’s influence (I’m thinking ‘Awards Season’) looms over the vocoder-laced ‘Clearblue’, whose sparseness feels like an extension of the previous song’s emotional and sexual reckoning. “I rode you until I cried/ How’s it feel being this alive?” she intones, but really seems to be asking: What comes after this feeling of aliveness? A pregnancy scare inspires a meditation on openness, freedom, and intergenerational trauma (her mother comes back into the frame), in a way that seems to blur and tie them altogether.
8. GRWM
The track eases the tension of the album by way of simplification, its message a recurring theme: “Since ’96, been looking for a grown woman.” Jim-E Stack’s productions hark back to Melodrama, this time without much of a twist. In a playful and obviously childish manner, ‘GRWM’ just hammers its point home. “A grown woman in a baby tee” is Lorde’s version of “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby” and you can argue about how purposefully awkward or funny it is, but it’s certainly not the best that Virgin has to offer.
9. Broken Glass
Minimal and metallic, the song’s production may not be the most inventive on the album, but it gives way to one of Lorde’s most elastic and devastating performances. Melodrama certainly had bangers like this, but were they delivered with the same teeth-baring specificity? Were they this powerfully blunt and unromantic? “Mystique is dead” is the first line on this track about battling an eating disorder, which focuses less on stereotypes or obsessing over looks than the cruel arithmetic and shame that pound onward. Rather than letting the questions echo in the chorus, as in ‘What Was That’, the singer directs them back to herself in an attempt to break through. “I wanna punch the mirror/ To make her see that this won’t last.” It’s more than a shrug, the “huh, all of the above” more than a sigh. It’s laying out the shards and hoping others will still find themselves reflected, understanding that it – like a good pop song – can only last so long.
10. If She Could See Me Now
Interpolating Baby Bash’s 2003 hit ‘Suga Suga’, ‘If She Could See Me Now’ is catchy but a little muddled, speaking of emotional exorcism but delivering way less of it than most of Virgin. As an indictment of the music industry and a toxic relationship that was inextricable from it, it works just as well, but the clunkiness of lines like “I’m a mystic/ I swim in waters/ That would drown so many other bitches” detract more than underline the point.
11. David
Like ‘Clearblue’, the closer peels back the production to focus on, and pointedly distort, the intimacy of Lorde’s voice, this time petering out instead of swirling in a choir of its own. And while ‘Clearblue’ zeroes in on one incident, ‘David’ zooms out, circling back to the dissolution of a relationship that permeates, but hardly dominates, Virgin. “Who’s gon’ love me like this?” becomes “Am I ever gon’ love again?” Yet its proclamation of independence (“I don’t belong to anyone”) entails adding myself to that question and having enough faith to answer in the affirmative, all while recognizing that everyone else is looking in the same mirror – or at the same hole in it. That’s the darkness we’re staring into, at the end of the day, and Lorde’s here to remind us it’s still alive with possibility.
Walk into any open-concept home and you’ll witness a peculiar phenomenon: people instinctively gravitating toward the edges. Not because the center isn’t functional, but because something about vast, undefined space feels… unmoored.
We’ve been conditioned to think that open floor plans equal better living. Bigger is better, fewer walls mean more freedom, and expansive spaces create expansive possibilities. But here’s what the design magazines don’t tell you: humans actually crave definition within openness.
The Great Open-Concept Paradox
The modern love affair with open-concept living has created homes that look stunning in photographs but often feel challenging to inhabit. These spaces promise flexibility and flow, but they frequently deliver something unexpected: a kind of spatial overwhelm that leaves us feeling like we’re camping in our own living rooms.
Sometimes we operate on autopilot without realizing it. When faced with a large, undefined space, we unconsciously push furniture against walls, cluster seating into tight groupings, and create islands of comfort in seas of emptiness. It’s our brain’s efficient shortcut – a way to impose familiar patterns on unfamiliar vastness.
But this defaulting strategy often leaves us with spaces that feel fragmented rather than flowing, disconnected rather than unified. We end up with beautiful square footage that somehow doesn’t translate into beautiful living.
Rugs as Invisible Walls
Here’s where washable rugs become something more than floor coverings – they become invisible architecture. They’re the soft walls that create definition without division, the gentle boundaries that organize space without confining it.
Think of washable rugs as stage directors for your living spaces. They don’t steal the show, but they orchestrate how the performance unfolds. A strategically placed rug can transform a cavernous great room into a collection of intimate conversation areas, each with its own purpose and personality.
The magic happens in the blocking – not the theatrical kind, but the spatial kind. When you use rugs to block large areas, you’re creating invisible rooms within rooms, defined spaces that maintain the openness while providing the psychological comfort of boundaries.
The Conversation Cluster: Creating Intimacy in Vastness
Large living areas often suffer from what designers call “shouting distance syndrome” – spaces so expansive that normal conversation requires raised voices. A well-placed washable rug can cure this immediately.
Picture your oversized living room. Instead of pushing all seating against the perimeter walls (the default response to overwhelming space), pull furniture toward the center and anchor it with a generous rug. Suddenly, you’ve created a conversation cluster – an intimate gathering space that feels intentional rather than accidental.
The washable aspect becomes crucial here because this central placement puts your rug in the path of maximum traffic flow. It’s where coffee gets spilled during animated discussions, where pets claim their favorite spots, where children naturally gravitate for floor time. Traditional rugs in this position become stress points – beautiful but fragile islands requiring constant vigilance.
Washable rugs eliminate this anxiety entirely. That gorgeous oversized rug that perfectly defines your seating area can handle whatever life throws at it, then refresh completely in your washing machine.
The Dining Zone: Floating Formality
In open-concept spaces, dining areas often feel like afterthoughts – furniture groupings that exist in the shadow of more dominant living spaces. A strategically sized washable rug can transform this dynamic entirely.
Instead of letting your dining area blend invisibly into the larger space, use a rug to create what designers call a “floating room” – a defined area that feels separate while remaining connected. The rug becomes the foundation that says “this is where we gather for meals” even when there are no walls to reinforce the message.
The blocking effect works on multiple levels. Visually, the rug creates a clear boundary that helps organize the overall space. Psychologically, it provides the definition that makes the dining area feel intentional rather than incidental. Practically, it protects your flooring from the inevitable spills and scrapes that accompany dining.
The Reading Retreat: Carving Out Solitude
Large living spaces often struggle with providing options for solitude within sociability. Everyone needs a space to retreat without retreating entirely – a spot to read, think, or simply observe the household’s rhythm from a comfortable distance.
A washable rug can create this retreat by defining a quiet corner or window nook as distinctly separate from the main social areas. It’s not about building walls – it’s about using textile boundaries to signal “this space has a different energy.”
This kind of spatial blocking requires confidence in your design choices. You’re essentially saying that not every square foot needs to serve the same function, that variety within openness creates richness rather than confusion.
The Play Zone: Containing Chaos with Style
For families with children, large living areas present a particular challenge: how to accommodate the reality of toys, games, and kid-centered activities without letting them overwhelm the entire space.
A washable rug can create a defined play zone that contains the beautiful chaos of childhood while maintaining the adult aesthetic of the broader space. It’s a boundary that children intuitively understand and respect – their designated territory within the family’s shared domain.
The washable element becomes essential here. Play zones are ground zero for art projects, snack time, and the general wear that comes with young lives in motion. A rug that can survive finger paints, juice boxes, and the occasional craft disaster becomes a practical foundation for family life.
The Workflow Highway: Directing Traffic Flow
Large spaces often suffer from poor traffic flow – unclear pathways that lead to awkward navigation and wasted square footage. Washable rugs can function as subtle traffic directors, creating visual pathways that guide movement through space.
This is invisible architecture at its most sophisticated. A runner that connects your entryway to your kitchen doesn’t just protect high-traffic flooring – it creates a visual highway that organizes movement through your space. Secondary rugs can branch off this main pathway, creating logical stopping points and gathering areas.
The blocking effect here is more about flow than boundaries. You’re using rugs to suggest how space should be navigated, creating an intuitive logic that makes large areas feel more manageable and purposeful.
The Seasonal Stage: Flexible Definition
One of the most powerful aspects of using washable rugs for spatial blocking is the flexibility it provides. Unlike permanent architectural elements, rugs can be repositioned, replaced, or removed as your needs evolve.
Summer gatherings might call for a large central rug that encourages casual floor seating and relaxed sociability. Winter months might favor smaller, more intimate groupings that create cozy conversation nooks. Holiday entertaining could inspire temporary reconfigurations that accommodate larger groups.
This seasonal flexibility transforms your large living space from a static stage into a dynamic environment that can adapt to life’s changing rhythms.
Breaking the Perimeter Prison
Recognizing when you’re ‘defaulting’ to perimeter furniture placement can be the first step toward more intentional space planning. It’s about creating space between automatic responses and conscious choices, between familiar patterns and new possibilities.
Those comfortable patterns of wall-hugging furniture can become invisible walls themselves, blocking the full potential of your living space. Small interruptions to our usual spatial habits – like pulling furniture toward the center and anchoring it with a beautiful rug – can lead to remarkable transformations in how we experience our homes.
The Psychology of Defined Openness
There’s something profound that happens when large spaces receive gentle definition. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by vastness, we begin to feel oriented within it. Instead of defaulting to the edges, we’re drawn to inhabit the center. Instead of feeling like we’re camping in our own homes, we feel like we’re truly living in them.
Washable rugs make this psychological shift practical. When your space-defining elements can handle the wear and tear of actual living, you’re free to create the spatial relationships that serve your life rather than protect your belongings.
The art of invisible architecture isn’t about hiding space – it’s about revealing its potential. It’s about using soft boundaries to create hard functionality, textile elements to organize spatial experiences, and washable practicality to enable beautiful living.
In large spaces where definition can feel elusive, washable rugs offer something precious: the power to create rooms within rooms, intimacy within openness, and intentional living within architectural vastness. They prove that the best boundaries are often the ones you can’t see – they’re simply felt, experienced, and lived within.
