Young Guv has released a new single, ‘Nervous Around U’, which will appear on his second album of 2022. GUV IV, the follow-up to GUV III, features the previously shared tracks ‘Change Your Mind’, ‘Nowhere At All’, and ‘Cry 2 Sleep’. Check out a video for ‘Nervous Around U’ below.
GUV IV is set to arrive on June 24 via Run For Cover Records and Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada.
The Smile have announced their first North America tour. The trek will kick off on November 14 in Providence, Rhode Island and wraps up in Los Angeles in December. Check out the band’s upcoming US tour dates below.
The Smile – the project of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and jazz drummer Tom Skinner – released their debut LP, A Light for Attracting Attention, last month. They’re currently on a tour of Europe, which included a stop at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound 2022.
The Smile 2022 North American Tour Dates:
Nov 14 Providence, RI – Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Nov 16 Boston, MA – Roadrunner
Nov 18 Brooklyn, NY – Kings Theatre
Nov 20 New York, NY – Hammerstein
Nov 23 Washington, D.C. – The Anthem
Nov 25 Montreal, Quebec – M Telus
Nov 26 Toronto, Ontario – Massey Hall
Nov 28 Detroit, MI – Masonic Temple Theatre
Nov 29 Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater
Dec 1 Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
Dec 3 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
Dec 4 Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
Dec 6 New Orleans, LA – Orpheum Theatre
Dec 8 Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum
Dec 10 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
Dec 14 Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Dec 16 Seattle, WA – WaMu Theater
Dec 18 San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Dec 21 Los Angeles, CA – Shrine Auditorium
The Beths have announced their next album: Expert In a Dying Field is set for release on September 16 via Carpark Records. Along with the announcement, the New Zealand band has shared a video for the lead single ‘Silence Is Golden’. Check it out below, and scroll down for the LP’s cover artwork and tracklist.
“The song is about stress and anxiety manifesting as an intolerance to noise,” the Beths’ Elizabeth Stokes said of ‘Silence Is Golden’ in a statement. “Where each new sound makes you more and more stressed.”
The Beths started recording the follow-up to 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio in Auckland towards the end of 2021, before being interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They finished writing the album remotely and completed recording in Los Angeles following a US tour.
Expert In a Dying Field Cover Artwork:
Expert In a Dying Field Tracklist:
1. Expert In A Dying Field
2. Knees Deep
3. Silence Is Golden
4. Your Side
5. I Want To Listen
6. Head In The Clouds
7. Best Left
8. Change In The Weather
9. When You Know You Know
10. A Passing Rain
11. I Told You That I Was Afraid
12. 2am
Harkin has shared the latest single from her upcoming album Honeymoon Suite, which is out June 17 via Hand Mirror. It’s called ‘Driving Down a Flight of Stairs’, and it follows previous entries ‘Body Clock’, ‘A New Day’, and ‘Here Again’. Check out its Dejan Mrkic-directed visual below.
“This video is the product of an accidental chain of pandemic collaboration,” Harkin explained in a statement. “During lockdown, my wife Kate Leah Hewett wrote a poem called ‘Driving Down A Flight Of Stairs’ inspired in part by IONE’s work and Pauline Oliveros’ deep listening practice. In response, I recorded a piece of ambient music for our Patreon which carried the same name and eventually became the final album version.”
“The director Dejan Mrkic heard the track and asked if he could pair it with some footage he’d shot in LA, which I thought was so beautiful and matched the expansive stillness of the track,” Harkin continued. “In his words, ‘we reverse engineered the more traditional way of making a music video’. I was seeking peace and communal experience when I composed this track in lockdown. The geographically remote collaboration of this video feels like my call for that has been answered.”
Mrkic added: “The film follows a 10-year-old child (played by newcomer Ava Zane) as she searches for her presumed father in Los Angeles before she is picked up by her mother. It’s a meditation on childhood. The fluid camerawork by cinematographer Hayden Mason is complimented by BAFTA-winner Livia Ruzic’s distorted diegetic sounds to give the audience a hyper subjective experience.”
Miya Folick has released a new song, ‘Ordinary’, alongside an accompanying video directed by Noah Kentis. The acoustic track features singer-songwriter Gia Margaret on piano. Give it a listen below.
“This song is about slowing down, looking inward, taking time with the people you love,” Folick explained in a statement. “Things don’t have to be a party or a spectacle. They don’t have to be special to feel special. Rather than finding joy in rushing into things, I’m finding joy in patience, in quiet, in getting to know somebody slowly.”
“When I first heard ‘Ordinary,’ I felt moved by its sweet melody and the direct and simple sentiment of the lyrics,” Margaret added. “The piano parts effortlessly flowed soon after my friend (Miya) asked me to lend my part. It was fun and made me feel something.”
‘Ordinary’ follows Folick’s recent single ‘Oh God’, which marked her first new music in over three years.
Naima Bock has shared a new single called ‘Campervan’, the latest offering from her forthcoming debut record Giant Palm. The song, which follows earlier cuts ‘Toll’, ’30 Degrees’, ‘Every Morning’, and the title track, arrives with an accompanying video directed by Cassidy Hanse. Check it out below.
Speaking about the track, Bock explained in a press release:
‘Campervan’ is another collaboration between myself and producer Joel Burton. This is a song about the falling apart of a relationship and the bleak impact that it seems to have on us as humans and the renewal that it can provide afterwards. We thought it would be fun to approach the song from a more tongue in cheek perspective; Joel’s arrangements draw on western cowboy nostalgia as well as orchestral influences such as ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ by Joaquin Rodrigo and ‘Pure Imagination’ from the 1971 Willly Wonka film. The process of writing the song was a joyful and creative one, turning something depressing into something that doesn’t take itself too seriously whilst preserving the poignancy and melodrama of heartache.
Giant Palm is due out July 1 via Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction.
Well, it’s over. Last night marked the final day of the Barcelona edition of Primavera Sound 2022, and I can hardly believe I made it through. Despite being marred by organizational problems, the amount of incredible music – and I hope this is true of everyone that attended – went a long way in making up for whatever chaos they caused. Of course, it was also overwhelming. “I think if I went to this festival I would never listen to music again,” Julian Casablancas said during the Strokes’ set on Friday, which might end up being the case. But considering how much resilience being there for both weekends (plus the week-long Primavera a la Ciutat) required, I also found myself thinking, Damn, I must really like it. It was also a reminder that I enjoy hearing music live, too. Last night was one final test of endurance, to be sure, and there were, as usual, some unfortunate schedule conflicts, but it also featured plenty of unforgettable performances. Here, in chronological order, are six of them.
Tamara Lindeman walks on to the stage wearing a dress with different shades of blue: “I wanted to match the ocean,” she explained, referring to it as her “Halloween costume.” Beside her, the band (featuring OHHME’s Macie Stewart on violin) is dressed in white, like clouds; behind them the screen is showing footage of the sea, as still as the one that’s in sight. It seemed like the perfect environment to showcase the lush, quietly stirring tracks on the Weather Station’s 2021 album Ignorance (and perhaps this year’s How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars, though its intimacy didn’t suit the full-band setup), and they blended in seamlessly. My god, I thought.
There’s only one thing that was off about the whole performance: dance music throbbed ceaselessly from a nearby stage, disrupting each moment of silence. “I wanted to say all this stuff,” she said at one point, “but I’ll just keep playing.” Later, she quipped, “I wish I made music like this.” The propulsive nature of her own music shines through as much as its unguarded vulnerability, and her voice is as spine-chillingly beautiful as it is on record. ‘Robber’ and ‘Atlantic’ are both standouts, building with an intensity that leaves the audience in rapture; Stewart’s solos in particular were astonishing. You wished they’d just keep playing until the only sound you could hear was theirs.
Early in her performance, Arooj Aftab remarked on how beautiful the view was from where she was standing at the Ouigo stage on Saturday evening. “We’re trying to reinvent sad music,” she explained, her set serving as a captivating showcase of her 2021 record Vulture Prince. “Make it sexy, you know?” Her songs of longing and melancholy – or, in her words, being “drunk and in love” – took on a transportive quality live, her stunning voice supported by two incredible musicians – “monsters,” as she called them – harpist Maeve Gilchrist and bassist Petros Kampanis, both of whom were given time in the spotlight on nearly every song.
There were occasionally some issues with the sound, which had an unsettling effect on the atmosphere; at times, though, the feedback almost unintentionally gave the songs a haunted edge. Whatever darkness they hold was also balanced out by Aftab’s endearing sense of humour. “Shit, the moon is now in the clouds,” she said, hilariously, before astounding us with her rendition of ‘Last Night’. Whenever I listen to Vulture Prince, I always envision a late-night summer scene, and it seemed to me like the performance might have benefited from being scheduled a bit later. It wasn’t necessary, though. Aftab knew exactly how to take us there: How beautiful, indeed.
Sky Ferreira has a reputation for her shaky, incoherent live shows. It’s something she’s self-conscious about, apologizing at the end of a song and calling the performance a mess. (It often was.) But they don’t exactly happen very often. Her set at Primavera Sound Barcelona on Saturday was only her second in three years, following a recent performance at NOS Primavera Sound in Portugal (which reportedly began 20 minutes late), so you wouldn’t want to miss out on a chance to see her live. This performance wasn’t exactly an exception. She was late again (after her set time had already been changed at the last minute, moving closer to nighttime), skipped the opening ‘Boys’ after a false start and never returned to it, and her vocals often sounded off. The fact that it didn’t always have the effect of ruining the experience made me question how much of it is an aesthetic choice.
Fortunately, the songs from Night Time, My Time that people yearned to sing along to – including ’24 Hours’, ‘You’re Not the One’, ’I Blame Myself’, and ‘Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay)’ – sounded pretty great, as did the new single ‘Don’t Forget’. I wasn’t exactly floored by the unreleased ‘Innocent Kind’, which she had played for the first time a few days earlier, or another one called ‘All My Lovers Die’, which got its live debut here – at least in part, because she decided to abandon that one, too. After begging for extra time, Ferreira gave fans what they wanted with a rendition of ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’. It might have been a mess, but it certainly wasn’t forgettable.
A lot of festivalgoers were pretty frustrated when Sky Ferreira’s set time change meant it clashed with part of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and her going overtime didn’t exactly help matters. This meant I only managed to see only about half of the band’s headlining performance, but I’m glad I did – it was also one of their first shows in three years, arriving in anticipation of the recently announced Cool It Down, their first LP since 2013. I didn’t get to hear the great new single ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World’, but after back-to-back performances of ‘Gold Lion’, ‘Maps’, ‘Y Control’, and ‘Heads Will Roll’, I could hardly complain. It was equal parts exhilarating, euphoric, and defiant, and I was convinced Karen O is one of the most electrifying performers alive (at one point, she devoured that microphone). I’ve only recently started getting more into their discography, and it’s not hard to see why they’re known as one of the best live bands in the world. If you have a chance to see them on any of their upcoming tour dates, do. Even if you get to watch the whole thing, I’ve no doubt it will leave you wanting more.
Jessie Ware had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and so, clearly, were her fans. Just before she came on to the Cupra stage on Saturday night, it seemed to me like one of the most hotly anticipated performances of the festival – which really says something – and ended up being one of the most euphoric. It was a chance to finally showcase What’s Your Pleasure?, one of many albums released mid-pandemic that leaned into the escapism of disco – and also the best. Wearing a turquoise gown and joined by a group of incredible dancers and singers, she delivered a performance that was at once elegant and scintillating, even campy, but also strangely moving – with the full participation of the audience, it was hard to ignore the emotionality of these songs as much as their danceability. It’s why the gorgeously evocative ‘Wildest Moments’ – one of only a couple of older songs she performed – still suited her set, a reminder that there was a fierceness to her music even when she was mostly known for making laid-back R&B. But it was time for the pulsating beats and restless longing of What’s Your Pleasure? to shine, and they couldn’t have hit with more force.
If you were to see me bearing witness to one final show at Primavera around 2pm last night, you’d think the headliner was Bon Iver, not Megan Thee Stallion. After ten days of non-stop live performances at the festival, I was struggling to keep myself up, let alone move my body in the way that Megan’s forceful, energetic one-hour set demanded. But everyone else certainly did. As she ran through hits like ’WAP’, ‘Body’, ‘Hot Girl Summer’, and ’Savage’ – as well as the recent ‘Sweetest Pie’, though not bringing fellow headliner Dua Lipa on stage was a missed opportunity – the performance exuded body positivity as her self-confidence spread across the crowd, which in turn hyped her up and bounced to every song like it was the first and possibly last hot girl summer. It was a powerful way to close out the festival – it felt like the season had only just begun. Maybe next time it won’t look like i,i is my idea of a “crazy energy” summer record.
Brit Bennett’s second novel The Vanishing Half has made waves across the online literary fiction reading community since its publication in 2020, particularly through what is now colloquially known as BookTok and BookTube. The story follows a pair of twins who originate from the small, fictional town of Mallard, Louisiana. Stella and Desiree have been exposed to racial discrimination from a young age, even though they themselves can “pass” as white. As they grow up, the girls’ paths diverge; Stella decides to lead the life of a white woman, while Desiree returns to her hometown after a brief stint in Washington, D.C. Her return is a significant event in Mallard, a place to which few return – if they’re lucky enough to get out in the first place.
The Vanishing Half is well-paced, skipping around between timelines (spanning the decades between the 1940s and 1990s) but remaining grounded by the characters’ experiences and their connection to Mallard. The story’s true themes shine through the veil of mystery and lies. Bennett explores colorism, identity, domestic abuse, and class. Supporting characters also help to communicate these themes and their underlying messages, making for a well-rounded and engaging read.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet was the name of William Shakespeare’s son, who died at the age of eleven. Though not much is known about Shakespeare’s family in real life, O’Farrell’s Hamnet sheds a light on the life his wife and children may have led. Shakespeare himself is never named, only referred to as the “husband” or the “father”. In this way, the novel pays tribute to the members of his family who have been all but erased from history and gives them a chance to shine instead of remaining in the playwright’s shadow. Hamnet is also interchangeable with Hamlet, which is the name of one of his most well-known plays. Though Hamnet takes place several centuries before The Vanishing Half, fans who enjoyed the dynamic between Stella and Desiree will likewise be intrigued by Hamnet and his twin sister Judith. They, too, consider themselves to be each other’s halves, and the death that separates them is the focus of O’Farrell’s novel.
O’Farrell’s interest in writing this story stemmed from the lack of knowledge and acknowledgment of Shakespeare’s family, who were, undoubtedly, influential in his work and his life. She paints Hamnet and Judith in a beautiful light, illuminating the almost sacred bond between them and contrasting their two personalities – Hamnet’s wonder and curiosity against Judith’s more mature and introspective nature. The twins also have an older sister, Susanna, and a mother, whose name in the book is Agnes. Hamnet skips between the present, when Hamnet falls fatally ill, and the past, when Agnes meets her future husband and grapples with strained family dynamics and being a social pariah in Stratford. This is a novel of many layers, written exquisitely, and the poetic prose along with its emotional impact make it a memorable read.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng’s second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, is a compelling story about an artist named Mia who moves to Shaker Heights, Ohio with her teenage daughter Pearl. Mia has spun a web of ambiguous stories about Pearl’s absent father and her own mysterious past, as well as their on-the-road lifestyle. At Shaker Heights, Pearl becomes fast friends with the wealthy, well-established – and white – Richardson family. Mia is suspicious of them, but Pearl is growing up and becoming more curious about Mia’s past, encouraged by Elena Richardson. Elena is the one renting out the property Mia has just moved into, and she’s also the one to offer Mia a job as her housekeeper. Mia and Pearl’s race is never made explicit in the novel, but it’s implied that they’re not white. Race is explored more through a slew of other characters, like Lexie Richardson’s boyfriend, and Mia’s coworker at a Chinese restaurant.
What propels the story – on top of the drama between characters sustained throughout – is its intriguing opening. The first page opens with a description of a fire at the Richardsons’ house. The cause of this fire is hinted at and readers’ ideas of what really happened shifts as the story progresses. This element of mystery, as well as the way racial discrimination is explored, will appeal to fans of The Vanishing Half. Like Stella, Mia is a woman who has tried to bury her past and hide her identity from those around her – even her own daughter.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Gone Girl also explores the disappearance of a woman. In this case, the story is told primarily from the perspective of her husband, Nick Dunne. He is the prime suspect in his wife Amy’s disappearance, though he begins to suspect that she has somehow planned this as a sinister wedding anniversary gift. Nick becomes the center of the media’s attention, while the police find and read Amy’s diary, further reinforcing their suspicions about him. Though Gone Girl is more of a crime thriller than The Vanishing Half, it does explore similar themes through its setting (upper-class suburbia) and the truths revealed by Amy’s vanishing. Like The Vanishing Half, Gone Girl is a story woven with secrets and lies, featuring familial drama and lovers who don’t properly know each other.
Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan
Sarah Crossan is an Irish author who writes primarily in verse, but not exactly poetry. Most of her novels are written for young adults, but Here is the Beehive is her first foray into adult fiction. The novel begins after the death of a man with whom the narrator, Ana, had an affair. Ana was also his solicitor, and must now deal with his wife, who did not know about the affair. The writing, while not poetry, is very poetic and engaging. Crossan’s use of white space on the page makes for a quick, easy read, though the story is not without depth. Ana shares similarities to the characters in Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half; she is embroiled in a web of lies that she can’t unravel, and she pries into the lives of others. Class is also a recurring theme in Here is the Beehive, though the main thread is Ana’s secret. Much like the characters in The Vanishing Half, Ana is living a lie and holding onto the secret of her past like her life depends on it.
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Set in the upper-class seaside town of Sydney’s Northern Beaches in Australia, Big Little Lies is a mystery novel focusing on the lives of four mothers whose lives overlap. Jane is a young single mother who is new to the area and quickly taken under the wing of Madeline, a mother with a child in the same class as Jane’s. Madeline’s daughter spends a lot of time with Bonnie, the new wife of her ex-husband. Also in their circle is Celeste, whose twin boys are friends with Madeline’s daughter. When Jane’s son is accused of bullying a girl in his class, Jane refuses to believe this is true and sets about finding the real bully. What she discovers causes some awkwardness between the mothers. As Jane confronts her own traumatic past, she realises that Celeste, Bonnie, and Madeline may be hiding their own secrets about their lives.
Like The Vanishing Half, Big Little Lies is focused on female characters and their relationships with each other. Both stories feature children and adults, and how motherhood plays into each woman’s life. Readers get a chance to compare the different mothers and each child’s development as they grow, and what effect the surroundings have on them. Class plays a major role in both stories, and readers will find themselves questioning the way privilege can shape a life, and whether or not the characters deserve their privilege – or lack thereof.
In the world of athletic footwear, New Balance is a brand that often flies under the radar. The brand is very underrated, especially in comparison to some of the bigger players in the industry. This is despite a legacy in sportswear as big as any other and a history that includes some very iconic shoes.
The New Balance faithful will say that this is actually a good thing, as it keeps the shoes anonymous. New Balance footwear does not really suffer from the insane hype wars and crazy price markups that other popular shoes have. However, in recent years, New Balance has released some very special shoe lines that have captured the attention of the public. They are the 327 and the 550. This article will discuss why these shoe lines are so great.
The New Balance 327 line is one of the brand’s most successful modern lines. Fans love it because it combines two of any shoe lover’s favorite things: comfort and retro styling. The 327 is such a great throwback that it is hard to tell it is actually an ultramodern line released just 2 years ago in 2020. The design contains nods to a few of New Balance’s older lines, such as the 320 and 355. It has a classic 70s silhouette that is really ageless.
The old-school vibe does not carry over into the material quality, and that is said with no shade towards older shoe lines. The 327 is made to the highest modern standards of quality and comfort. Designed as a running shoe, the 327 is durable and lightweight, which is important for rigorous activity. The heritage-inspired yet ageless design means that a pair can be used as a great match for any casual, summertime outfit. The 327 offers a winning combination of high craftsmanship, durability, versatility, and an iconic, distinctive design. It would be a great addition to any wardrobe.
Where the 327s are a retro-inspired throwback, the New Balance 550 line is an actual resurrection of a shoe line from the past. This 2020 release of the 550 line is a continuation of the original 1989 line that has been given new life. The shoes never took off back in the 80s and early 90s. They were unable to break into the basketball arena, which was New Balance’s intention. They couldn’t compete with the other brands that already had a firm hold on that sport. At the same time, it strayed too far from New Balance’s usual running crowd.
This new take on the original has absolutely none of those problems. They are absolutely trending right now, and have gotten rave reviews. The loss of sporting pretensions has allowed the shoe’s other great qualities to stand out. Those qualities include a really great design, with leather uppers and a premium build quality. A favorite of celebrities, they are flying off shelves and are getting hard to find anywhere.
This article was not written to tell you about shoes that are out of your reach, however. In fact, both the 550 and 327 are currently available. This is the best time to get your hands on a pair or two of these great shoes.
If I had to pick one day out of the two weekends of this year’s Primavera festival, it probably be the second Friday of the festival. Not just because Lorde was set to headline – though that was certainly a big factor for a lot of people who booked tickets early – but because some of the most iconic artists in rock, pop, and hip-hop would be taking the stage. Even with the incredible range of acts I’d gotten to see over the last ten days, and despite the unfortunate cancellation of Clairo’s performance, my excitement still hadn’t diminished. It was enough to carry me through the day, which ended up more than meeting my expectations. In chronological order, here were six highlights from Primavera Sound 2022 Friday, June 10.
When I arrived at Parc del Fòrum on Friday evening, the sun was still burning bright, and the music of Hurray for the Riff Raff echoed all the way through to the entrance. Alynda Segarra and their band had just started their set – announced at the last minute following the cancellation of Clairo’s performance – and hearing LIFE ON EARTH highlights ‘POINTED AT THE SUN’ and ‘ARROWS’ as I made my to the Pull & Bear stage was even more memorable than being close to the front. Segarra gave a stirring, beautiful performance that focused heavily on songs from the band’s latest album, whose resonance was amplified in a live setting. Though I’m sure many were bummed about not seeing Clairo, and others were there early waiting for Lorde to come on, there was a group next to me who couldn’t be more excited to be watching Hurray for the Riff Raff. Singing along to songs like ‘SAGA’ and ‘RHODODENDRON’ with them was a joy, and the performance came to a strong conclusion with the album’s title track and ‘ROSEMARY TEARS’. Life on earth might be long, but the band’s set felt all too short, ending a quarter of an hour ahead of schedule. It won’t be hard to hold onto the memory of it, though.
It’s hard to leave the audience in awe when they already expect a world-class performance, but that’s exactly what Britanny Howard did at the Estrella Damm stage late on Friday evening. Along with her band of virtuoso musicians and backup singers, the Alabama Shakes singer’s set was stirring and rapturous, her voice radiating joy and love . Even if her storytelling doesn’t have the same resonance in a festival setting, Howard’s restless energy vibrated through the crowd as she showcased her powerful and uplifting fusion of soul, synth-rock, and funkadelia. She was just as confident covering other people’s songs, which more than suited her message: her take on Jackie Wilson’s ‘(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher Higher’ landed perfectly after the Jamie highlights ‘Stay High’ and ‘Georgia’. “My spirit,” she proclaimed towards the end, “will never be stopped.” In that moment, it was impossible not to feel the love.
Back in my first recap of Primavera 2022 – man, it feels like a lifetime ago – I wrote about the pandemic having essentially wiped out all memory of what live music could do. Well, Lorde was the exception to that. Seeing her on the Melodrama tour a few years ago was the most transcendent live experience I’ve ever had, and even when live music seemed to have become a thing of the past, I hadn’t forgotten how that show made me feel. Lorde (who also played Primavera in 2018) has kept a habit of introducing ‘Liability’ with a somber monologue, and the one she delivered that night honestly crushed me – and that was before she sang what is easily one of the most heartbreaking songs of the century. I’m already largely basing these reports on my subjective experience, but the context here is too personal to ignore.
‘Liability’ is, quite simply, a song about loneliness. I went alone to that London concert in 2017, and I was alone at Primavera last night, when Lorde gave another speech about what the song means to her. “When I sing it in front of crowds like you,” she said earnestly, “I don’t feel alone.” I was reminded of that night, and realized how many things have changed since then. For a long time, whenever I felt nostalgic or emotional, I would sometimes get flashbacks to that moment of shared vulnerability. It stirred something in me. Now that it was happening again, that first time felt so distant that I could only identify what I was experiencing as deja vu. But I didn’t feel alone, either.
Despite my mixed thoughts on Lorde’s third album, Solar Power, I wanted her performance to give me back that feeling – of being completely overcome by emotion, no matter where you are in life, how lost or hopeful or well-adjusted you might be – because at the end of the day, it’s still life. Somehow, it’s easy to forget how much that means. Even with the overwhelming amount of great music I’d heard over the past week, I didn’t think any artist other than Lorde was capable of doing that. I just hadn’t realized it was something I needed until I was there, a few feet away from the stage, and I didn’t realize I’d been needing it since Lorde was announced as one of the festival’s headliners in May 2021, when Solar Power was just a rumour.
Having heard the album multiple times, I knew that if there was a time for those songs to really shine, it would be in a festival like this. Lorde herself reiterated how good it feels to be playing summer festivals again, to be singing these songs in a beautiful place by the ocean. “I write a lot of songs about summertime,” she admitted. “Always have, always will.” She played four tracks from the album, opening with ‘The Path’ before performing ‘Secrets From a Girl (Who’s Seen It All)’ and ‘Mood Ring’ and concluding with ‘Solar Power’. The reaction they drew still couldn’t rival the songs off Melodrama and Pure Heroine, but they all sounded more at home in this setting, aided by a chorus of passionate fans. Even the voiceover part originally delivered by Robyn in ‘Secrets’, spoken here by Lorde, made more sense as part of an actual show that also featured a unique, shimmery stage design. Halfway through, she even indulged in a cover of Bananarama’s ‘Cruel Summer’, a song that probably comes closer to evoking what summer means to her than any of the ones on her own record.
Except, of course, for ‘Solar Power’ itself. Before performing the song, Lorde started talking about the summer, how it tends to bring out a side of you that’s a little bit more out there and makes you do things you’d probably regret, and how the song is an attempt to recapture that spirit at any given moment. (I wondered how many more times Lorde giddily uttered the phrase “by the ocean” in the last 24 hours.) It was very different from the ‘Liability’ speech – less somber, but also no less genuine. Essentially, it boiled down to this: as time goes by, things seem to be getting a little bit better and a little bit crazier at the same time. I’m not concerned about the same things I was five years ago, but I’m still the same person. The same is probably true of Lorde. I just know the songs better now, and I know myself better. For me and anyone who sang and danced along last night, that could only be enough.
Right before The Strokes came on to the stage on Friday night, the Beatles’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ started playing through the speakers, which I found to be pretty hilarious. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the band whose headlining performance the first week had to be canceled didn’t show up the second time? When they did, of course, Julian Casablancas couldn’t help but follow his apology by joking that he was the member of the band’s crew that got COVID before proceeding to cough at the audience. (If only I had a dime for every time he was “just kidding, obviously.”)
I could sit here and give you a detailed report about the musical component of the show, but that would be boring – their set was predictably solid and included enough of their hits (with the exception of ‘Last Nite’) to leave fans satisfied. I love a lot of those songs, too, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t mostly waiting for them to end to see what words Casablancas would use to fill out the next moment of silence. Allow me to offer a sample: “I was told I would be speaking to my Catalan people. Bullshit!” “Do animals find us cute? That’s the question of the night.” (They then launched into ‘Reptilia’.) My favorite ones were about how much endurance it takes to be at Primavera: When he said, “I think if I went to this festival I would never listen to music again,” I felt that. But there was still plenty to look forward to.
I was expecting the Smile set to be chaotic. If you knew that the band is a Radiohead spin-off consisting of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood plus Sons of Kemmet drummer Tom Skinner – or at least cared enough to look at their picture on the Primavera app (if it worked) and were like, “Hey, that looks like the guy from Radiohead” – you had a good enough reason to be there. Because of that, I thought putting them on the Cupra stage rather than one of the main stages was a bad decision. It certainly didn’t help that Julian Casablancas announced that’s who he’d be checking out later (“you know, Thom Yorke’s band”). Not only was the place not too packed, but it also ended up being a pretty ideal environment to hear the band’s music. Though it would have been nice to be able to watch Greenwood on the side screens, the presentation turned the focus almost solely on the music itself.
Seeing them live confirmed my suspicion that the project serves as an opportunity both to preserve what Yorke and Greenwood have built their name on and experience the thrill of something new – of performing under a new name, to potentially (if not that many) new fans. It all felt so new, in fact, that if I hadn’t already read reports of earlier live shows, I wasn’t sure how they’d be able to fill their set with only an album’s worth of songs (a couple of unreleased songs plus a rendition of Yorke’s solo track ’Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses’ were enough). Walking on to William Blake’s ‘The Smile’ – not, confusingly, the Ted Hughes poem they take their name from – the Smile gave a captivating performance that even those not yet familiar with their music would have been mesmerized by. The rawness and frenzied intensity of the punkier, more fidgety songs – by far the most refreshing part of the project – shone through, but of course, the more Radiohead-like songs sounded gorgeous, too. I’ve seen Radiohead live, and it felt a lot like that, but it also had that newness about it. I don’t think many people were silently begging for them to play at least one Radiohead song. The Smile more than sufficed.
I wasn’t there when Run the Jewels last played Primavera in 2017, but Killer Mike and El-P still managed to make last night feel like a comeback. The group took a moment to reflect (maybe not in the same way as Lorde) about how we’ve all changed in the time since. It’s been over two years since they released their fourth album, Run the Jewels 4, in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, and the music remains as blistering and pertinent as ever. Like that album, Run the Jewels’ show was also a reminder of how things haven’t changed, including the group itself, whose energy was as riotously fun as you’d expect. What made the performance so potent was the fact that, even when the heavily political and incisive nature of their lyrics didn’t land with quite the same impact, Run the Jewels were more than capable of channeling its spirit of defiance, using even the more somber cuts to spread a message of positivity. They had no issue riling up a crowd that, as Julian Casablancas put it earlier, was probably “music-ed out” by that point. “You’ve just watched the best rap group in the motherfucking world,” Killer Mike exclaimed at the end of the show. And honestly, who could argue with that?
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