Issue 65: The Evolution of the Internet's Sad Girl

From Freaks to Tumblr Geeks | 18an Industry The Future Is Funky: A History of Afrofuturism in Music | 20 | 21 Everyone’s | 26 Traffic | 40 GetGroupie Along or Go Along Plant Circle 43

The Revival of Pop Music |

o N No52 65

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Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/ tastemakersmag Tastemakers Music Magazine 232 Curry Student Center 360 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 tastemakersmag@gmail.com © 2020 tastemakers music magazine all rights reserved

Staff Writers Jess Gwardschaladse Nora Holland Chelsea Henderson Neeloy Bose Grant Foskett Willa Shiomos Charles Stein Andrew Quercio Fisher Hunnewell Desmond LaFave Ethan Matthews Terrance Dumoulin Rachel Cerato Amy Oh Alexandra Sumas Hannah Lowicki Lucas Cooperman Bobby Hyland Katherine Miner Lacie Foreht Art & Design Catherine Terkildsen Haidyn Redmond Laura Mattingly Maia Fernandez Baigun

Maura Intermann Michelle D’Alessandro Nicholas Alonzo Vanessa Peng Caroline Stenzel Avery McMurtry Julia Aguam Jessica Xing Angela Lin Michelle Wu Sydney Tomasello Haidyn Redmond Promotions Angela Lin Alayna Thomas Alexa Rand Ana Sang Anita Shanker Anna Chalnick Caroline Horn Cerena Leaffer Chelsea Henderson Colton Williams Emily Greenberg Gabby Rinaldi Hannah Lowicki Jack Furci Jacob Kemp Jessica Gwardschaladse Kaitlyn Gagnon Karina Kageki-Bonnert Katie Dowell Kellie Woo Madison Alfonso Matthew Rose Michelle Pang Nandini Ghosh Noa Russo Patrick Arnold Remi Wiseblatt Rosie Scott Russell Zingler Sofia Maricevic Syd Tomasello Trevor Gardemal Vanessa Ashley Balin Photography Charlotte Hysen Alex Sumas Alekhya Rekapalli Sadhana Pakala Saakhi Singh Nicole Rubin Emma Lawson Cayla Hoang Olivia Leon Peyton Pollard Alex Chang Olivia Materetsky Brinda Dhawan Aurelia Valerie Irawan

Sam Tobin Emily Zakrzewski Sebastian Wicke Ana Sang Swasti Dadhich Reine Lederer Helen Cai Sidney Li Emily Greenberg Nicholas Alonzo Kristen Chen Julia Aguam Casey Buttke Matt Streibich Kelly Thomas Amanda Stark Angela Lin Christian Gomez Wagamini Wanja Njama Julia Finocchiaro Emily Kobren Coby Sugars Ashlynn Braisted Risa Tapanes Sydney Lerner Hang Nguyen Faith Nguyen Kimmy Curry Emily Gringorten

Meet the Staff

About Caroline Horn Position Promotions Major Media and Screen Studies and Political Science Graduating 2025 Favorite Venue MECU Pavilion, Baltimore MD Tastemaker Since Fall 2021

Coby Sugars Position Photo Major International Business with Photography Minor Graduating 2024 Favorite Venue Paradise Rock Club or TD Garden Tastemaker Since Fall 2021

Nora Holland Position Content Major Journalism and English Graduating 2023 Favorite Venue The Fillmore in DC Tastemaker Since Spring 2019

Listening to

Katy Perry One of the Boys Isaac Dunbar “Makeup Drawer”

Quote

“Regretting at-home curtain bangs.”

Christian Leave “you’re life your time”

Elvis Presley Elvis’ Greatest Hits

“Team Edward.”

Billy Joel The Stranger Jack Johnson Between Dreams

Pinegrove Cardinal Bedroom “Nothing Lasts”

“It’s never too early for the Charlie Brown Christmas album.”

Soccer Mommy “bloodstream”

Avery McMurtry Position Design Major Experience Design Graduating 2022 Favorite Venue Charles Gaillard Tastemaker Since Fall 2021

Kai Two Courtney Barnett “Hopefulessness’” Adolphe Adam “Giselle: No.21 Adante”

“That’s not my dog.”

H.E.R., Agganis Arena

Photo by Hang Nguyen (Digital Media)

Table of Contents Cover Story

24

The Evolution of the Internet’s Sad Girl: Lorde and MARINA’s New Directions: The Evolution of the Internet’s Sad Girl: Lorde and MARINA’s New Directions: “Lorde and MARINA dominated early 2010s internet culture,

Editorials

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“Country music’s modern political stance is often simple: don’t have one. But not taking a stance is often a stance in and of itself.”

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Features

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Concerts in Covid:

Everyone’s an Industry Plant: The main issue with the industry plant concept is that it conflates being connected to the industry with being created by the industry.

From the Top, Make it Drop: “High profile female collaborations in music were once few and far between and with limited success, but over the last few years that seems to be changing. ”

Get Along or Go Along: On Mainstream Country Music’s Cheap Centrism:

Etcetera

12

“Dive into the discography and evolution of one of the UK’s brightest voices in contemporary folk.

29

“Venues and festivals are finally starting to reopen, but in the wake of Delta, what are concerts like in the time of Covid-19?”

16 40

Tastemakers Dissects: Bjork’s Unison: “Fall into the uniquely moving and genre-defying display of emotion and beauty that is Bjork’s ‘Unison’”

31

In Defense Of: Ascension Millennium: “Is music’s equivalent of The Room really that bad, or was Corey Feldman actually ahead of his time in predicting the rise of hyperpop?”

Interviews

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Laura Marling: At the Heart of UK Folk

Makro Interview: The main issue with the industry plant concept is that it conflates being connected to the industry with being created by the industry.

Van Buren Interview: “Tastemakers talks to rap collective Van Buren records about touring, their process, and the future.”

Local Talent: Traffic Circle: “Tastemakers talks to local talent Traffic Circle about their music, backyard shows, and their duck.

Reviews

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Album Reviews Lil Nas X, Magdalena Bay, Tyler, The Creator, Still Woozy, osquinn

Calendar November Su

Mo

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7

2

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Fr

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Ashnikko

Jpegmafia

Smallpools

Beabadoobee

3OH!3

Paradise Rock Club

Royale

Brighton Music Hall

Royale

Paradise Rock Club

Andrew McMahon

Men I Trust

Men I Trust

JP Saxe

Royale

Paradise Rock Club

Paradise Rock Club

Paradise Rock Club

10

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Thundercat

Beach Bunny

Thundercat

Adrianne Lenker

Wolf Alice

House of Blues

Brighton Music Hall

House of Blues

The Sinclair

Paradise Rock Club

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Tennis

Beach Bunny

Royale

Paradise Rock Club

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Verite

Gus Dapperton

Olivia O’Brien

FINNEAS

Alexander23

Brighton Music Hall

Paradise Rock Club

Royale

House of Blues

Royale

Jeremy Zucer

24KGOLDN

Royale

Big Night Live

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Verite

Pi’erre Bourne

Pink Sweat$

Brighton Music Hall

Paradise Rock Club

Royale

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23

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lovelytheband

Milky Chance

Paradise Rock Club

House of Blues

Rockommend

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Adrianne Lenker Nov 10 @ The Sinclair

Playboi Carti Dec 7 @ Tsongas Center

You do not want to miss this solo set from Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker. Her Midwestern charm and soothing voice will captivate you on this lovely Wednesday evening. What more could you want than to hear some songs off of her latest release, “songs”?

King Vamp himself has decided to grace Massachusetts with his presence on December 7th at the Tsongas Center. Following Playboi Carti’s genre-bending latest release, Whole Lotta Red, he is currently on his Narcissist tour, which is the name of his album that was set to release 9/13 (where is it??) With or without this album, we know that his performance will be one you will not want to miss.

Emily Greenberg (Communication Studies)

Hannah Lowicki (Marketing)

December Su

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CHVRCHES

Yellow Days

Caamp

House of Blues

Paradise Rock Club

House of Blues

Noah Kahan House of Blues

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G Herbo

Destroy Boys

The Aces

Kaytranada

Kaytranada

Big Night Live

Brighton Music Hall

Paradise Rock Club

House of Blues

House of Blues

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MAN ON MAN

Playboi Carti

Middle East

Tsongas Center

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100 Gecs

Coin

Royale

House of Blues

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Coin Dec 14 @ House of Blues

Sleepy Hallow Dec 7 @ Big Night Live

Get ready to “Let It All Out” at Coin’s show at House of Blues on December 14th! After having to postpone the tour for their 2020 release Dreamland, the band has added their 2021 album Rainbow Mixtape to the setlist for the show. Don’t miss it, even if you “Don’t Wanna Dance.”

Sleepy Hallow is considered a pioneer in Brooklyn Drill and his concert is a must see. This niche subgenre is reaching new heights with rappers such as Pop Smoke topping the Billboard charts.

Sleepy Hallow recently released his new album “Still Sleep?” which is chockful of features from dancehall artists and Brooklyn rappers. If you love rap music, Sleepy Hallow must be on your radar!

Jess Gwardschaladse (History, Culture, and Law)

Alayna Thomas (Communications)

Interview

An interview w it h

For fans of R&B, Makro is certainly an emerging act to keep an eye out for. With five singles and one EP under their belt, cousins Eric Makapugay and Kris Ruaro have established themselves as exceptional musicians with a captivating vision.

Makapugay, who graduated from Northeastern in 2020, and Ruaro, a graduate from the University of Memphis, have been making music together since they were kids. Now in their twenties, they are making music that combines influences from R&B, pop, soul, and rock.

The Memphis-based duo, who got their name from the combination of the easiest parts of their last names, released their debut single “midnight” in 2019. Despite being in different states, Makapugay and Ruaro created their singles and EP by sending each other beats and traveling constantly, which Ruaro likened to “a long distance relationship.” Finally reunited after graduation, they can now make music together when the inspiration strikes and devote themselves to working on Makro full-time.

Tastemakers recently spoke with Makro to discuss their music, Memphis roots, and Filipino identity.

Mak r o Eric Makapugay (EM): Since we’re cousins, our families are super close. You know Filipino cousins – we’re like really tight. His family would come over to my place all the time when we were kids.

Kris Ruaro (KR): We’re pretty much brothers based off of how much time we’ve spent with one another. Their house was the hub for all the kids, especially during the summers when everybody was working. Everybody came here. We grew up together, essentially.

EM: We’ve always done music together throughout our lives, but we did it separately in the beginning. I had been doing music since I was thirteen, and he had been doing it even younger than I was.

KR: “midnight” happened right when you got your producer equipment because it was when you got it for Christmas.

EM: Yeah, it was like 2018 going into 2019. I mostly do guitar stuff, but I never really did laptop music stuff, producing, and then that was the first song that we produced.

KR: We literally were playing around. We didn’t even know what the hell we were doing. We were just hoping for the best.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Tastemakers Magazine (TMM): You released your debut single “midnight” in 2019 – how long was that in the works before it was released, and how did you guys start making music together?

TMM: I feel like Nashville gets a lot of credit in Tennessee for being the music capital of Tennessee, but Memphis has a lot of really incredible music too. Does that influence you at all – being in that environment?

Designer: Jessica Xing (Design)

EM: Yeah, I say definitely just because I love the soul music from here. There’s a soul to this city, a musicianship in this city too that is just different, even from Nashville.

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KR: We talk about this all the time, but the reason why we came back – because we’ve been doing the production side of things heavily for

the past four years, but we grew up doing live music here. As Makro, let’s get ourselves inspired by working with other musicians and instrumentalists and other artists here in general just to be rubbed off by that flavor of the South. There’s just that authenticity… people speak with their instruments here in ways that I don’t feel in a lot of places, and I think that’s where we’re influenced.

TMM: I saw in the behind the scenes video for your latest single “One” that Kris you were wearing a barong tagalog [traditional Filipino formal shirt] in the photoshoot. Do you guys take a lot of inspiration from Filipino culture for your music?

EM: Honestly, a lot. I didn’t really think much about it in high school to be honest until I joined the Filipino club in Northeastern.

It was a good moment of accepting it as part of who I am. It’s who I am – tan, that’s why we have the food that we have, that’s why we have the culture that we have. As an artist, it’s important to love yourself, and the heritage and even just the sounds of our country. It has a huge influence on maybe not right how I make music, but more on how I represent myself.

KR: I think our goal is we want Filipino people to have something to celebrate and be proud about and be like, “Oh my gosh, I see myself represented in that.” Even like in Asian culture, as far as overall, Filipino people aren’t represented in the arts as much. We really

just want to break through that barrier, and I think totally just have something to celebrate. We just love being Filipino so much, and we want to be able to yell that from the top of our roofs and be like, “Our heritage is the shit. I know nobody’s been talking about it, but now we’re here.”

TMM: What can we expect to see from you guys in the future? Do you have another EP in the works or maybe a full-length album?

EM: We’ve got some new singles coming. We have lots of new music coming. Lots of live shows in the area coming up too. Lots and lots of new music coming.

KR: I think we’re honing the presentation part of things because I think during COVID times, we were able to really perfect the sonic side of things, but now we’re trying to kind of level up and work on the full storytelling aspect of it, and not just in music.

As far as the styles though, we definitely just want to do things differently. We wanted Makro to be the big picture. We’re taking little parts of everything and kind of aggregating it into one focused piece of art. It’s something new and it’s refreshing, and I think that’s what kind of drives our art these days. We just want to put something new to the table that nobody’s really seen before.

• Chelsea Henderson (Journalism and Communications)

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Editorial Editorial

From the Top,

Make it Drop

Fall 2020 Fall 2021

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Designer: Avery McMurtry (Experience Design)

All-Female Collaborations in Pop Culture Late last summer, the ground once trembled under the weight of a DJ Frank Ski sample. The aptly named “Whores In This House” was embodied into the very heart of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s monster smash, “WAP,” in a bold declaration of female sexuality and unity among Black women. As a high-profile collaboration between two artists entering into their primes, the song was practically guaranteed to splash onto the charts. But beyond debuting as the biggest song of the month with well over 100 million streams globally, “WAP” was a phenomenon embedded into the cultural lexicon, even upon release. Hailed as one of the most controversial, yet criticallyacclaimed, records of the decade so far, “WAP” also became one of the most dominant No. 1s of the past 30 years. Though it may not have been the first all-female collaboration to make a dent upon the charts, its release, as well as its subsequent reception, was emblematic of the larger cultural shifts that allowed for a song like it to be embraced by the general public.

Last year saw four all-female collaborations hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. For reference, there were five of these collaborations to reach the summit over the entire 61 year run of the chart prior to 2020. And to cast aside any doubts that this was some quarantine-induced anomaly, this year alone saw all-female hits, from the likes of Doja Cat, SZA, and Saweetie, ascend into the upper echelon of the charts—just to name a few. Yet in a time before “WAP,” the media regularly materialized baseless feuds between female artists. And even

when these superstars did collide, which they rarely did, they barely seemed to scrape the heights that their own individual conquests would soar to so effortlessly. Namely, the 1998 Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston duet, “When You Believe,” peaked at No. 15 despite heavy promotional efforts, which was a disappointing feat for two of the most renowned hitmakers of all-time. With endless tabloid drama, alongside unreliable returns, female collaborations were a gamble that most labels tended to shy away from.

When an all girl-powered collaboration did manage to climb to the top of the charts, it was a rare feat reserved for records that were truly ground-breaking. “Telephone” by Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé comes to mind, as well as “The Boy Is Mine” by Brandy & Monica and “Lady Marmalade” by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and Pink, the latter two of which were representative of the larger, more collaborative nature of hip-hop and R&B in general. While the Top 40 stratosphere of the late 2000s and early 2010s was largely indebted to solo pop stars with DJ assists or the occasional rap feature, megastars in hip-hop were much more likely to cross paths with one another. As established acts in the arenas of pop and hip-hop, acts, like Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, were early pioneers for female collaborations in the mainstream. Between A-list collaborations with Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Ariana Grande, the frequency of women charting on tracks with one another had risen steadily, proving to labels that female collaborations were worthwhile investments. And

“As the ever-glaring eyes of social media are locked onto these artists for continuous streams of content, collaborations provide an outlet to keep fans satiated, while also branching their fanbases outwards and generating digital hype for their releases.”

in the streaming age, where these singles can be rapidly relayed onto playlists to hundreds of thousands of loyal followers across the globe, singles can now be geared directly towards the audiences that are the most receptive to them.

With the rise of a new generation of female rappers in the mainstream concurrently, the potential for—as well as the appeal of— crossovers has grown exponentially. As the ever-glaring eyes of social media have been locked onto these artists for continuous streams of content, collaborations can keep fans satiated while also generating digital hype for new releases. Oftentimes, these collaborative efforts kindle more conversation than either artist could give rise to of their own accord, and the intersection of streaming services and social media means that maintaining a constant presence in the cultural conversation is key to an artist promoting their music. As female partnerships began to blossom on the charts, they garnered mainstream recognition from award shows, with Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé’s “Savage [Remix]” winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, while Lady Gaga’s “Rain On Me,” with Ariana Grande, became the first female collaboration to win the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the same ceremony.

With the predominance of female-led collaborations in popular music, labels took note. The string of these massive hits entering the mainstream created a blueprint for advertising records, especially those with greater label investment behind them. After all, why pay for

promotion if you can get rabid fans to do the pricey legwork for you?

And with this, labels found a new way to capitalize on the profitability of all-female collaborations. After weeks of hovering outside the Top 10, Ariana Grande’s “34+35” shot to #2 with the release of its remix featuring Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion. The remix, pieced together from old scrapped demos with garbled mixing to match, was almost universally ignored after its release week. Yet, the demand for this content has created a market for similarly shoddily-crafted reworkings of hit singles with female guest stars, which are created with the sole intention of boosting the chart performance of the original track by reigniting the interest of online fanbases. With stan culture reaching a fever pitch, labels can formulaically manufacture collaborations for the consumption of fans without any of the creativity that made the pioneering tracks so culturally relevant.

Though somewhat depressing, it’s still a good thing that female artists have garnered enough respect in the industry to drop cash grabs in the same way that their male counterparts can do so frequently. Indicative of the cultural capital of any trend in pop music is the tendency of labels to mass produce lookalikes for profit, and in that case, the stock for female collaborations must be rising faster than GameStop.

• Neeloy Bose (Bioengineering)

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Editorial

Laura Marling At the Heart of UK Folk First breaking onto the UK folk scene at 18 with the immediately successful album Alas I Cannot Swim, Laura Marling has become a mainstay of contemporary folk at large, releasing a total of seven solo studio albums, as well as two albums under the LUMP moniker, the result of a highly fruitful collaboration with Mike Lindsay of Tunng.

Her music walks the line of delving into deeply personal anecdotal fragments and appealing to universal situations concerning love and relationships. A Laura Marling track can be equally empowering as it is soul-wrenching, speaking to the vast conceptual and performative range that she commands. While many artists work over many projects to hone their musical skill, Laura Marling started out strong and has improved with each subsequent release.

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Designer: Nick Alonzo (Architecture) Designer: Nick Alonzo (Architecture)

Alas I Cannot Swim Marling released her debut album in 2008, two years after moving to London with her sisters. Alas I Cannot Swim is an album characterized by lively and driven vocals. It deals with a recurring set of themes in Marling’s work concerning love, longing, and relationships. Lyrics, nearly all of which are written by Marling herself, are delivered with an intense energy that almost seems as if she sped up her vocals post-recording. Instrumentals are composed almost entirely of keyboards and guitars, preventing any serious attention being drawn away from her lyrics and superb storytelling. Marling permits listeners a front row seat to a record that mimics a demo in its modest production, but still showcases a powerful vocal presence expressed particularly through tracks such as “Tap At My Window.” Her voice is crystal clear, and the range she navigates effortlessly throughout much of the album provides an exceptionally concise debut project, especially for an artist so young.

Unsurprisingly, her performance on Alas I Cannot Swim earned her a nomination for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. Other standout tracks on the release include “My Manic And I” and “Night Terror.”

2008

I Speak Because I Can I Speak Because I Can is a greater creative leap into a sophomore album than most artists would dare to attempt. The opening track, “Devil’s Spoke,” is far more intense and built up than any song on Marling’s previous album, with a faster instrumental tempo and richer vocals. The themes of the album focus primarily on the societal roles and relationships between women and men, resulting in poignant lyrical commentary on tracks like “What He Wrote.” Marling plays the part of both male oppressors and women fighting against injustice.

Her tone is still steeped in the acoustic folk of her musical origins, but there are songs more adjacent to folk rock such as “Rambling Man” and “Hope In The Air.” I Speak Because I Can would go on to be one of Marling’s most successful records in her discography, and provided ample validation for later stylistic experimentation.

2010

A Creature I Don’t Know

2011

Released just a year and half after I Speak Because I Can in September 2011, A Creature I Don’t Know sees Marling settling into an approach reminiscent of both her debut and sophomore albums. The record in some ways synthesizes the sonic landscapes of previous albums, but still pushes the envelope to prevent any dull repetition. While there is not a particularly pointed exploration of new themes other than those in Alas I Cannot Swim and I Speak Because I Can, they are approached from different angles. One such example is the motif of men as archetypal wild creatures on the tracks “The Beast” and “Rest In The Bed.” More significant than any other element of the release, Marling’s voice and sonic presence is far more natural and sure of itself than ever before, especially on the track “Night After Night.” If there was doubt in Marling’s commitment to her craft before A Creature I Don’t Know, it dissipates with this album, leaving listeners with great expectations.

Once I Was an Eagle

2013

After a solo tour following the release of A Creature I Don’t Know, Marling announced and released her fourth studio album, Once I Was An Eagle, in 2013. The album stands significantly apart from any previous output, opting for a single, central theme to pick apart in intense detail rather than separate thematic components which fit together to form a whole. Once I Was An Eagle delves into the anger and frustration of love, as well as the inner peace found once intense emotions have passed. Marling clearly has more to say than on previous releases, with the record coming in at twenty minutes longer than any previous studio album. Vocals utterly control the tone on each track despite more intentional and cohesive instrumental backings than seen before, especially on “Take The Night Off” and “Where Can I Go?” While this effect is certainly bolstered by the record’s superior production in showing off Marling’s fantastic voice, the songwriting does lend itself to a master vocalist performing the tracks. Once I Was An Eagle also marks an important transition in Marling’s oeuvre with the introduction of drums for the first time on the tracks “Devil’s Resting Place” and “Pray For Me.” This record would go down as one of Marling’s best, as it shows a cohesive idea and clear attention to the craft of actually making music.

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Short Movie

2015

Editorial

Short Movie was born from Marling’s experiences living in Los Angeles, but was mostly reworked and recorded back in London with her bandmates. The result, released in March 2015, serves as a slightly odd compilation of songs stuck between continents. While there is clearly LA influence on tracks like “False Hope” and “Walk Alone” with American indie rock and folk sensibilities, there are still highly visible elements of the Nu-folk that Marling emerged from. The record is not particularly thematically developed, reading more as singles lumped together than a standalone album. However, the album does mark a significant development with the first use of electric guitars on songs, finally allowing for true folk rock tracks such as “Don’t Let Me Bring You Down.” Marling had always been adjacent to folk rock, even performing with the band Mumford & Sons, but had never actually synthesized her own unique take on the musical style.

Semper Femina

2017

Released almost exactly two years after Short Movie, Semper Femina takes cues from Once I Was An Eagle in its central thematic format, but falls short on the success that the 2013 record garnered.

This album explores the personal relationship with and between women that Marling has observed and experienced, resulting in fairly intimate tracks like “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Next Time.”

Songs are far calmer than those on recent releases, and move back towards acoustic and string instrument reliancies that had been hiding under layers of production for some time. Despite all these changes, Semper Femina feels scattered and unsure of itself at points, with odd vocal mixing that subdues Marling’s voice when it should be in the foreground of every track. With this being said, the record was still released to critical acclaim, with strong tracks also including “Soothing” and “Wild Fire.”

LUMP

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2018

Marling showed exactly how wide her musical range was with LUMP, a collaborative release with composer and fellow musician Mike Lindsay. LUMP has wildly different sonic qualities than any other project Marling worked on, with electronic overtones and a total integration of synths into the music.

In fact, there is not a single track incorporating a guitar, typically a mainstay of Marling’s solo work.

While the album acts more as an EP than a full-fledged record, the ideas and sonic concepts explored garnered much critical acclaim, especially given the entirely new pairing of musicians. The songs are invigorating experiences by themselves, but are far weaker than the project listened to as a whole. This idea is supported by instrumental ties between tracks, such as the transition from “May I Be The Light” to “Rolling Thunder.” LUMP is far from perfect, but it has a lot of life, making it a fun listen more than anything else. Other standout tracks include “Late to the Flight” and “Curse of the Contemporary.”

Song For Our Daughter

2020

Released in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown, Song For Our Daughter is a painfully intimate approach to songwriting and performance that focuses heavily on small, personal moments without any direct storyline. The album becomes a loose mood board from song to song, centered around the idea that Marling is writing directly to her own (imaginary) child. There is no hint of the drums or electric guitars that bolstered Once I Was An Eagle and subsequent releases, with a return to acoustic guitar instrumentals and masterful vocals that few artists ever achieve. The record in many ways reflects the pandemic that it was released within, but offers a light during an otherwise dark time with hopeful tracks such as “Hope We Meet Again” and “Strange Girl.”

These tracks are lively, and references all the way back to Alas I Cannot Swim in tone—with an exponential increase in maturity and skill. There is not a weak link in the entire tracklist, resulting in wide critical acclaim and the best overall reviews Marling has received on an album yet. Despite not following any direct path, the album holds together flawlessly, with other standout tracks including “Song For Our Daughter,” “The End Of The Affair,” and “For You,” the last of which appears in its original laptop demo format.

Animal

2021

The latest release from Marling, and the second studio album under the LUMP moniker, Animal is a sonically jubilant yet thematically somber follow-up to LUMP in 2018. Lindsay controls much of the production and instrumental choices on the record, leading to an abundance of electronic influence with perfectly toned synths and well placed drumlines alongside Marling’s crisp voice and genius songwriting. The beauty of Animal, similarly to LUMP, is that Marling and Lindsay can explore totally different genres than they would release by themselves. The lack of stylistic expectations again led to highly successful experimentation, serving as a clear maturation from their first collaborative LP. The album covers a range of emotion, with slow tracks such as “Red Snakes” and “Oberon” expressing sorrow through darker tones, to “We Cannot Resist” and “Phantom Limb” soaked with light and playful instrumentals. The thematic dichotomy between tracks is present in Marling’s other projects, but the freedom of LUMP brings it fully into the light.

• Terrance Dumoulin (Civil Engineering and Architectural Studies)

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Feature

Interview With

VAN BUREN RECORDS Van Buren Records is a music collective from Brockton, MA made up of 13 members whose roles range from rappers and producers to graphic and fashion designers. Conceived in 2014 by a group of hometown friends and peers, the collective has grown quickly due to its collaborative spirit and DIY-approach. After releasing a dozen solo albums over the past two years, Van Buren Records turned inward at the beginning of 2021, putting out their debut album, Bad For Press, and follow-up EP, BLACK WALL STREET. Tastemakers recently spoke with assorted members of Van Buren Records about touring, Brockton’s rap scene, and their creative process.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Tastemakers Magazine (TMM): You guys are on tour right now. How do these shows compare to shows you’ve played in the past?

Luke Bar$ (LB): For me, the most important part was that the shows are closer to one another. In the past, shows would be like once a month, or once every two weeks, and we just did three shows in like five days. I had to really learn to protect my voice, don’t wear it out, make it sore, whatever. You gotta really be healthy when you’re doing back-to-back shows. Especially right now with COVID. You really just gotta make sure that your body is up to shape, or you’re gonna screw yourself over. So that was something that I really learned.

RLouie (RL): I’m gonna say, from the watching standpoint, it only gets cleaner and cleaner every show, so. We have rehearsals before, but actually being on stage and seeing them perform, it really gets better and better every time. It’s kinda like on-court chemistry really.

They really start to build it over time. But if just getting better with each show, for real.

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TMM: Is there a song you’ve enjoyed playing the most?

LB & RL: “Cult” LB: I like the Bad For Press “Outro” too. We play the “Outro,” and everyone expects “Alright it’s the end of the show.” And then boom, we go into “Cult,” and it’s fun to see the reactions.

really a lot of critiques of the music. And who knows what the next one will feel like. There’s no formula to how we move.

Invada (I): I feel like Foxy Brown is where it’s at, that’s just energy.

AR: Sometimes a song is literally just in the studio, but some songs somebody sends in a verse, then next thing you know two other people added a verse and you didn’t even know about it, then it’s gotta be put together.

TMM: Any albums you’ve been listening to recently?

TMM: How do you know when a song is done?

Andrew Regis (AR): I’ve been listening to Westside Gunn’s HWH8.

I’ve also been playing a lot of Mozzy, he just dropped.

Eercocet (E): You never know when it’s done till it’s done

I: I’ve been listening to strictly Youngboy since he dropped.

TMM: Van Buren does seemingly everything in-house, and you have released all your work independently. What are some of the driving forces behind that decision?

LB: To me, it’s trust. I know if I tell Shelby “Do this for me,” it’s gonna get done. And also, it’s gonna get done to the vision I have for it. We spend a lot of time with each other, I’d say we really know each other fairly well. It’s a lot of chemistry, working with one another. And it’s not like we intentionally keep everybody out. We just know one another so it’s just brotherhood.

TMM: I can imagine that it can get a little hectic with so many people contributing ideas, is there any guiding methodology for how a Van Buren Records song is made?

LB: I would say it’s different each time. Like, the making of Bad for Press was completely different from BLACK WALL STREET. Making Bad for Press, there were a lot of critiques and like, “Yo! Fix this. Do that!” But I feel like BLACK WALL STREET was just all energy-based.

Everything happened in the studio, in that moment. There wasn’t

AR: What was that song we had that was done for like a month or two, but then out of the blue Felix and Meech both added a verse? I think it was Foxy Brown, and it ended up making the song better.

TMM: Could you go a bit more into the difference in approach between Bad for Press and BLACK WALL STREET? E: Totally different. Bro no bullshit, I feel like BLACK WALL STREET in all reality was done in like three to four days.

LB: Yeah. We did “Cult” and “Jumpstreet” the same day, and “Fingerprints” the day before.

E: The vibe was already there; we knew the feeling we were going for.

We were all in LA so the vibe was already set.

LB: We kinda just matched the energy of the song and would just go with the flow.

Meech BOLD (MB): Of course Aziz [producer AzizTheShake] was another voice too, compared to Bad for Press.

TMM: What was it like working with AziztheShake? Is there anything specific he brought to the group?

BLACK WALL STREET BLACK WALL STREET BLACK WALL STREET BLACK WALL STREET BLACK WALL STREET BLACK WALL STREET

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Feature LB: For me? I feel like being in the studio with Aziz was really freeing.

E: I think he was just 100% transparent from the very beginning. We just meshed well. The connection was just there automatically.

E: I wouldn’t say it’s a responsibility but it’s something that’s a focus of ours. I mean, I’m not gonna say that anybody is responsible for any other person’s career, but it’s good that Van Buren are in the position that we’re in. We’re definitely individuals who want to help out up-andcoming artists.

LB: He was just a good dude. He made you comfortable.

MB: That’s the biggest thing about VB is, like, if we rock with you on a personal level, it’s all love.

LB: We do our best, but at the end of the day it goes back to the person, how badly they want it, but we definitely give a push. It doesn’t matter about followers or any of that.

TMM: Could you briefly go into the title BLACK WALL STREET? Could you go into the meaning of this title in the context of the group?

E: If your shit’s fire, your shit’s fire. That’s all that matters at the end of the day.

MB: We liked BLACK WALL STREET because Black Wall Street was like, a bunch of Black people who lived in their own community, circulated their own dollar, used their own resources, built their own wealth. Like VB is. That’s us.

TMM: When it comes to the label itself, do you see Van Buren Records staying as a tight collective, or growing and bringing on other artists.

E: I mean it’s not set in stone, but like we say, anything is possible.

E: Well, it also helped out that it’s the name of one of our group chats.

So, when someone suggested the name it was like, yeah this makes sense. Go with it.

TMM: On the topic of community, you guys are one of the biggest acts to come out of Brockton, MA in a long time. Are there any lesser-known Brockton artists you want to shout out?

LB: MTS Mitch, MonaVeli.

Jiles (J): 508gee, that’s a young kid who’s on the come up right now who’s really really talented

LB: We haven’t really talked about it.

J: I mean, me personally? I don’t see anyone else being added.

Specifically rappers.

TMM: Shifting the focus to the future, is there anything in the works right now? Either as solo artists or a collective?

E: I mean at the end of the day, everyone here is a solo artist, so solo work is always going to happen. But it’s more about the vibe and the energy that everyone’s been going off of. Like we said, with BLACK WALL STREET, that shit just happened. So, there could be another situation where shit just happens. We can’t really put our finger on that at the moment.

I: Shoutout my son JayMontana.

J: Stay tuned… stay tuned.

LB: Producers too. Brockton as a whole is really doing it right now. It’s beautiful to see.

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Designer: Laura Mattingly (communications/design)

TMM: Do you feel any responsibility to lift up Brockton artists with you as you grow as a group?

• Fisher Hunnewell (Management and Finance)

COLOR THEORY

Designer: Laura Mattingly (Design) Photo by Kimmy Curry (Design)

09.03.21

T

PARADISE ROCK CLUB PARADISE PARADISEROCK ROCKCLUB CLUB PARADISE PARADISEROCK ROCKCLU CLU

Phoebe Bridgers 09.27.2021

Designer: Michelle Wu (Design) Photo by Emily Gringorten (Design)

Leader Bank Pavilion

Get along

or

go Along On Mainstream Countr y Music’s Cheap Centrism “Can’t walk down a street And smile at a stranger Heart on your sleeve And love thy neighbor No matter what shape No matter what color Break bread instead of fighting each other Slip on a pair of another man’s shoes You’ll see by the time you get back This old world would be a whole lot better place If we’d all just embraced the fact That people are different”

Taken together, these songs encompass the prevailing sentiment towards politics in the modern Nashville machine, which is to say: don’t have any. “Shut up and sing,” an oft repeated colloquialism originally hurreled at the disgraced (Dixie) Chicks is now status quo, the fable casting a dark, unrelenting shadow on the industry lest anyone decide to open their mouths. So, as the rifts between the left and right in America widen beyond repair, the mainstream country music industry has opted to brand itself as an astute utopia, a supposedly apolitical “family” where love (for country music, what else) conquers all.

These are the lyrics to the 2019 cut “People Are Different” by bombastic, chart topping country duo Florida Georgia Line, a decidedly saccharine, guileless song about everyone just getting along. For the past couple of years, country radio, in between its tales of endless fields and emptied beers, has been peppered by toothless songs a lot like this, where civility is a nearly romantic notion and no difference, especially political, is too significant. There’s the modest optimism of Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind,” and the broad sunniess of Kenny Chesney’s “Get Along.” There’s Carrie Underwood’s “Love Wins,” which is triumphant to no real end (cheekily borrowing a slogan of marriage equality, though not exactly committing to the reference), Little Big Town’s “Happy People,” which posits everyone just do what “puts a smile on [their] face,” and Luke Bryan’s smarmy yet sincere “Most People Are Good.” And currently, Zac Brown Band’s kitschy single “Same Boat,” which as the title suggests, is about how we’re all in the “same boat” no matter our worldviews, continues to steadily climb the charts.

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This is, of course, an impossible feat, for a number of reasons. For one, country artists have never been encompassingly silent or partisan from either side. Much of early country music is about work and the working class; in the 1940s, folk-aligned artists such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger were writing socialist, pro-union protest songs. When Richard Nixon attempted to leverage the rural white fanbase of country as part of his “southern strategy,” Merle Haggard cozied up to him and his support (see unintentional conservative anthem “Okie From Muskogee” or pro-Vietnam war “The Fightin’ Side of Me”), while others in the outlaw country scene, like Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson, continued making songs with left leaning, anti-establishment sentiments.

And even as The Chicks controversially denounced the Iraq War, Toby Keith was making overtly nationalist songs in support of it. Despite any number of intentions, country music has never been the apolitical entity Nashville would like to assert it is, and to defang and rebuke it of its historically political inclinations is a disservice to the most compelling and prevailing work of the genre which, for better or for worse, is explicitly political.

But moreso, the cracks in Nashville’s supposed insularity — to the rest of the music industry, to the less than allegiant consumer, to the demands of the larger culture — are more than crystal clear in its own fractured reflection. When tasked with anything bigger than itself, time and time again, country music has failed to meet the moment. Back in 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a Las Vegas country music festival, marking the deadliest mass shooting in American history, journalists predicted the country industry might be faced with a long overdue reckoning, that an event so tragic directly in their sphere might force them to at least reference the idea of gun control. Instead, the genre doubled down on their incredible allegiance to believed apoliticism, opting to send along their ever precious “thoughts and prayers.” Meanwhile, singers quietly cut ties with the NRA (who once boasted a webpage full of 37 “partnered” artists, including everyone from Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton to Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line), and began to only sparsely reference firearms in songs outside the context of deer hunting.

And over the past year especially, Nashville has been marred by its chronic relationship to racism. The very roots of the genre are in fact, built upon segregation; country, then “hillbilly music,” was originally a distinction drawn to market the category in opposition to the jazz, gospel, and blues “race records” of the time. In the midst of the larger racial protests of last summer, it was country group Lady Antebellum changing their name to Lady A, citing the prior term’s connection to the confederate South, only to end up suing the black Blues singer who had been going by the name for decades. Some months later, country’s newly crowned golden boy, Morgan Wallen, was caught on camera hurling the N-word after a drunken night out. During the soft launch of his redemption arc, an “apology” interview on Good Morning America in July, Wallen was asked whether he believed “there is a race problem in country music overall.” His response?

That he “hasn’t really sat and thought about it”. For all his months of “reflection” that he claimed had “really inspired [him] to dig deeper on how to do something about this,” it’s insulting, but nearly expected, that Wallen never once glanced at the tumor lodged in the heart of the industry’s diseased, decaying body, or believed that the tumor was even there, or realized that he was a problem specifically of country music’s own, decades in the making. And clearly, Wallen is a problem the industry is more than interested in continuing to make: just a few weeks ago, he was nominated for Album of The Year at the inaugural Country Music Awards.

It’s particularly the racial context of country music that leaves its strong pivot towards spineless centrism more than sour.

However accurate, country music today has come to represent, and perhaps even sound like, a certain type of whiteness. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that often, that type of whiteness is partly constructed by country music itself. Country has a grand tradition of songs about wishing to return to the good old days, of an imagined sentimentality for bygone ritualistic, simple times.

Those “get along” songs, that encourage everyone, the left and the right, the black and the white, the rich and the poor, to come together in carefree unity, aren’t exactly nostalgia-bait songs,

Designer: Haidyn Redmond (Business and Graphic Design)

but they do hit a similar nerve: one that assumes the myth that there is, and has always been, an equal sense of freedom to begin with. After all, the civility of “both sides” only serves to benefit one of them, to allow a climate of continued oppression to command and conquer — which in the country industry, is simply business as usual.

And so, Nashville has entirely failed to understand that not taking a stance, is in fact, a stance in and of itself, and a dangerous, pathetic one at that. Who exactly are these “get along” songs for? Perhaps, it’s a message for the industry itself, where recent polls showed a near even split between Republican and Democratic support among its constituents.

But more likely, it’s profitable: the risk of alienating fans on either side is far too great, and the residuals on capturing a growing, broader listener base are far too high. The songs, like the industry’s relentless push for an ongoing “apoliticism,” are built upon complete delusion; it certainly didn’t work for Florida Georgia Line, who even after all their talk that “People Are Different,” temporarily broke up because of their political differences. But, there are glimmers of hope on the horizon. A rising number of mainstream black artists are now populating country playlists on streaming services, and even getting spins on the notoriously conservative country radio. The alternative country and Americana scenes, full of socially progressive artists, are continuing to thrive outside traditional industry formats. And the possibility of streaming opening up new avenues for artists who refuse to play by the rules of Nashville’s archaic games is more than an imminent reality. But for now, country music remains stuck in its markedly resistant ways, a dog chasing its own tail around in endless circles. The question, partly, is whether the cycle will ever be broken, but the better question? Who’s going to be around to clean up all that shit.

• Willa Shiomos (Computer Science and Design)

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Cover Story The women of the alternative pop music scene dominated internet culture in the early 2010s, with artists like Lana Del Rey, Sky Ferreira, Melanie Martinez, Lorde, and Marina and the Diamonds amassing cult-like followings in online spaces. Their music spoke to a generation of teenagers disillusioned by feelings of sadness and loneliness in their youth. But the early 2010s have come and gone, and these former Tumblr icons have found themselves on diverging paths in their careers. Lorde and MARINA (who dropped “The Diamonds” from her name in 2018), have paralleled each other in the thematic intents of their albums. They have grown out of their original roles as figureheads of the depressed teenage girls of Tumblr, and have come into themselves as women who are content with their lives and have managed to find peace despite the pressures of stardom.

MARINA’s sophomore album, Electra Heart, grew immensely popular on social media sites upon its release in 2013. The concept album chronicled the emotional experiences of a titular character, Electra Heart, who shapeshifts into glamorous caricatures of different archetypes assigned to women in pop culture: the housewife, beauty queen, homewrecker, and idle teen. Electra’s old Hollywood glam style and singular heart drawn onto a tear-stained cheek was iconic in its imagery, and had a gravitational pull on internet culture at the time. Though MARINA intended Electra to be a criticism of the way society treats women, many young girls saw themselves within the character’s stories. It was not at all uncommon to find lyrics from “Teen Idle” – a lament for years of wasted youth – juxtaposed in bold typography over “aesthetic” images of glitter and beautifully despondent girls. Electra Heart propelled MARINA’s career, garnering a following that admired her for her visuals as well as her music.

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Lorde released her debut album, Pure Heroine, just one year after the release of Electra Heart. Lorde not only captivated the niche internet audiences who were infatuated with the likes of MARINA and Lana del Rey, but the mainstream music scene as well: “Royals” was an enormous radio hit and was nominated for several Grammys.

Only seventeen years old and dressed head to toe in black with dark cherry lipstick to match, Lorde personified the teenage angst and grunge-inspired style of her fans. She was awkward in the spotlight and sang about adolescence and her fear of growing up, all which made her relatable to her audience. Four years after her debut, her sophomore album Melodrama expanded on these themes. Lorde was older and her sound had matured, but many of the themes still paralleled those of Pure Heroine. She was still growing up, and songs like “Writer in the Dark” and “Liability” encapsulated the melancholy aches of finding yourself and moving on. The same audience who had worshipped Lorde for the emotions evoked on Pure Heroine could still find relatability in her music.

Nearly a decade after the albums that earned Lorde and MARINA their original audiences, the two acts have significantly altered their original styles. Both have found peace and happiness within their connection to the natural world, which has given their music a renewed sense of purpose.

MARINA’s care for the environment, among other topics, is vocalized as a call to action on her 2021 album, Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land. The album is a reclamation of MARINA’s power as a musician and woman who has spent over a decade forging her way in the Hollywood music scene. “Venus Fly Trap” stands as a testament to this, and is powerful in its message: that MARINA has achieved her

Designer: Syd Tomasello (Graphic Design)

desired success on her own accord. It’s an answer to the question a younger and more insecure MARINA posed on the first track of her first album: “Are You Satisfied?” MARINA’s growth and maturity as a person is evident, and it’s clear she feels she has beaten the Hollywood machine she once so feared.

However, her album falls apart where her broader references to the environment and state of the world begin. In “Purge the Poison,” which could best be described as a girlboss take on “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” MARINA speaks from the perspective of Mother Earth as she watches humans ravage the planet. She references issues ranging from Harvey Weinstein and the “Me Too” movement to Britney Spears’ mental health crisis in 2007. It feels strangely disingenuine, as none of the pop-culture references made are personal to Diamandis, yet she takes highly emotional moments of other people’s lives and boils them down to snappy one-liners to drive home her hot take of “humans are bad.” It’s a shame, because much of MARINA’s earlier discography was also political and occasionally misanthropic in theme, but better executed as she focused on one topic instead of spreading her message thinly across several large talking points in a singular three minute song. While she is well-intentioned, the theatricality of songs like “Purge the Poison” make her critiques of society feel disconnected. Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land was appropriately greeted with less fanfare than her more popular albums, and MARINA has faded from being the forefront of internet icons.

Lorde’s most recent album, Solar Power, also draws inspiration from the current state of the world, but the message is much more delicately crafted and pointed in delivery. Her third studio album was preceded by Going South, a memoir and photo book detailing the musician’s time spent in Antarctica during the winter of 2019. While in Antarctica, Lorde claims to have been awakened to the severity of climate change, a realization that she cites as inspiration for Solar Power. From the title alone, Lorde’s affinity for the environment and its influence on the album is abundantly clear. She incorporates sounds of nature itself into the music, with cicadas humming in the background of “Oceanic Feeling.” Her concern for the environment materializes in the background of the “Solar Power” music video, when Lorde directs the camera away from a pile of trash that has accumulated on an otherwise pristine beach.

For Lorde, including thematic elements of nature not only serves to represent her care for the environment. It is also an ode to her home in New Zealand, and reconnecting with her roots is another strong theme in Solar Power. Like MARINA, Lorde asserts herself as a woman who has been through the Hollywood gambit and maintained her sense of self. “California” is a blatant rejection of the lifestyle she found for herself in Hollywood, with a hook consisting of the lyrics “Don’t want that California love.” Lorde also speaks very humbly on Solar Power, rejecting the god-like status her devout fans have given her. She directly addresses the people who have idolized her for years, telling them “if you’re looking for a savior / Well that’s not me,” on her opening track “The Path.” The gentle acoustics of the album emanate a feeling of surety that was lacking from her previous albums, and act as a reflection of the peace that Lorde has found for herself.

Unique to Lorde is the hostile reaction long-time fans had to her change in theme and sound. The first single released from the album, the title track “Solar Power,” fell victim to the lazy, copy-and-paste internet insult of sounding like “Target commercial music”. Posts stating how the old Lorde would have been disappointed by the new Lorde circulated on social media sites, and so Lorde’s relatability to her fanbase seems to have decreased with Solar Power. While

MARINA’s fans seemingly accepted her changing vision, Lorde fans were still caught up in the world that had been built for them in Pure Heroine and Melodrama.

By no means is Solar Power a perfect album; it’s somewhat monotonous in sound, and there is a much lengthier conversation about class and privilege to be had about the fact that Lorde’s wakeup call was a costly trip to the most remote part of the world when people are already dying from the devastating impacts of climate change. But the largest point of contention for many long-time fans had little to do with these issues or the actual substance of the record itself. Complaints that Lorde’s music was bad simply because she is now happy come with the underlying belief that musicians create music as a service to their fans, when Lorde has made it clear this is not the case for her. Lorde goes on hiatuses that span several years between albums, and when she finally does release music, each record is meticulously crafted to represent her current state of being. It would have been odd for Lorde to record another album thematically driven by sadness and teen angst when she is clearly at a different point in her life now. It’s a strange standard that she is being held to, and one that does not speak well to the complexities of Solar Power.

MARINA and Lorde’s popularity within internet culture has elevated them to the status of icons in the eyes of their audiences.

With such status, it becomes easy for dedicated fans to forget that the person behind the art is just human, and not a machine built to produce songs tailored exactly to their listener base. With varying degrees of success, both Lorde and MARINA’s latest albums demonstrate their intent to maintain creative control over their sound, and experiment with different themes and sounds. While the albums that led to both artists’ initial rises to fame will always be revered by fans for their sound and imagery, their new music should not be expected to sound the same. It would have been disappointing if either Lorde or MARINA had tried to reproduce the sound of their • Jessica Gwardschaladse (History, Culture, and Law)

Editorial

EVERYONE'S AN

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The main issue with the industry plant concept is that it conflates being connected to the industry with being created by the industry.

Tramp Stamps. The girl group gained attention in the spring of 2020 on TikTok where they were torn apart. They had an edgier look with brightly dyed hair and dark eyeliner, and they sang about being fed up with guys who didn’t treat them right. Except: all of it was a little too perfect and a little too saturated. Their hair was impeccably dyed, with none of the color uneven or faded and all of their roots were the same length. And their single, “I’d Rather Die,” featured the lyrics, “I’d rather die than hook up with another straight white guy / I’d rather die than fake it like I’m having a good time.” They then listed off 10 “average white guy” names. At every turn, there was something off about them, something that screamed that someone over the age of 25 looked at TikTok and thought “this is what the kids want.” Internet investigators took on the case and quickly discovered that all three girls had previously been solo artists with their natural hair colors, and a member is even ironically married to one of those straight white men that they rag on about in their song. It was glaring and awkward proof that this ____ was a reality. But the Tramp Stamps never got big.

Currently, they have under 25k followers on Instagram and only come up in conversation as the butt of a joke. While it could be argued that Tramp Stamps proves manufactured industry plants exist, the band poses a greater argument for why they cannot. They were seen as being frauds as soon as they started circulating on social media. Their ​​

Designer: Vanessa Peng (Business Administration and Design)

Lizzo is an industry plant. Billie Eilish is an industry plant. Your second-grade teacher is an industry plant. My succulent is an industry plant. These days, who hasn’t been accused of being an industry plant? By colloquial definition, an industry plant is an artist or band that has been created and curated by a label, then dropped into the market with the intention of making as much money as possible.

The industry plant, in these critics’ eyes, is the equal of Frankenstein’s monster; someone built in an evil lair by a mad scientist — except this time, we can’t see its nuts and bolts. Discussions of industry plants are always accompanied by a layer of hurt and distrust. This is because music is personal and often private: you turn to your favorite artists when you need to cry and when you want to celebrate. You find the words you could never articulate written in their lyrics. You follow their careers, wait for their albums, and buy tickets to their shows.

They become entwined with your memories, a song comes on and you are transported back in time. There is vulnerability and trust there. It’s why artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Kid Cudi are so beloved they dropped their guard first, giving you the space to follow suit. The fear with industry plants is that you are being deceived, or betrayed. Industry plants are believed to be a calculated move. They will say whatever they need to say in order for you to stream their music and buy their merch. They don’t care about you, they care about the security code on your credit card.

Sure, that’s a valid fear, but for having so much weight, the word is thrown around rather haphazardly.

The main issue with the industry plant concept is that it conflates being connected to the industry with being created by the industry.

People have tried to “cancel” artists like King Princess and Billie Eilish because they were born into families associated with the industry.

But, that’s no reason to believe they were put through some cryptic musician bootcamp during their childhoods that crafted them into the artists we were introduced to. Just like in any industry, networking matters, and having those connections was surely beneficial in getting them into the right rooms. However, gaining access that can help market and promote you isn’t something that’s conniving, it’s vital.

While the music industry guides artists so they are marketable, the artist isn’t completely stripped away in the process.

There is one exception to this, however. The one recenttrue example of this infamous industry plant is the pop-punk trioThe

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disingenuity radiated off of them. Even if an industry plant was able to establish themself among listeners, it’s only a matter of time before their facade starts to crack.

The only artists who are safe from being accused of being industry plants are independent artists, usually ones that are still on the rise. There’s a belief that unsigned artists are the truest, most authentic versions of themselves, and there’s a blind trust placed in them. However, that’s proving to be untrue. Rock band Sunrose Band, which consists solely of male models, took to social media over this past year and amassed a following of 20,000 followers on Instagram before even putting out a single. Frontman Jaxon Rose seems to be the reincarnation of Lenny Kravitz, bassist Tripp Kilpatrick has a shaggy mullet and cheekbones that could cut glass, and drummer Jax Kemp and guitarist Stephen Swanson both have thick, shoulder-length hair resembling that of Steven Tyler and Robert Plant respectively. Together, they look like what you would get if you put every archetypal rockstar from the past century into a blender.

While their appeal to pre-Y2K music and fashion is what brought

them their following, it’s also their downfall. The band seems to have been founded, not on a love of music, but through a calculated assessment of what would bring them to the likes of Mick Jagger the quickest. Even though their look is initially convincing, everything falls apart at their lyrics. “Cigarrettes and sex on the scene she ain’t waste no time / She said she loves the band beause they make her feel right at home,” sings Rose on “Hollywood Harlot.” This groupieridden fantasy they’ve created is just that, a fantasy. They formed during the pandemic, and so they couldn’t have played a show even if they wanted to, nor do they seem stacked with past experience.

This hyper-focus on “correctly” building a rockstar image has robbed them of any real substance or innovation, which is what brought most bands their fame in the first place. It’s always assumed that the industry executives are doing the manipulating, not the artists themselves. This paranoia over industry plants is misdirected and stands without any real foundation.

• Alex Sumas (Journalism)

Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk’s fourth album, Vespertine, shapes a more intimate tone than its predecessors. It is inspired by a new relationship, with the closing track “Unison” perfectly tying this theme together upon a backdrop of lush yet icey instrumentation. Lyrically, Björk finds herself welcoming her new lifestyle, united with another person despite her introverted personality and individualistic past.

Musically, “Unison” features a diverse range of both acoustic and synthetic instruments, including celesta, harp, synthesizers, glitchy electronic percussion, a choir, and a string section, all underpinning Björk’s distinctly emotive vocals. A composition of this nature challenges conventional genre boundaries by pulling from both chamber music and electronic music, with elements of pop, folk, and psychedelia. Such a variety of styles plays to Björk’s strengths of crafting a uniquely expressive sound palette, grabbing hold of the listener and guiding them through the non-traditional musical paths she takes throughout the song’s seven-minute runtime.

The song begins subtly enough, with a soft and slow a capella soon joined by a simple plucked bass line and a synthetic drone. They form a slow and eerie start, and one could be forgiven for anticipating this haunting mood to continue for the remainder of the song. But when the celesta joins in, the atmosphere instantly feels looser and more uplifting due to its delicate sound and upbeat rhythm, shifting the tone despite the other instruments continuing in their original fashion. Björk sings about her independent nature: “Born stubborn, me / Will always

be / Before you count one, two, three / I will have grown my own private branch / Of this tree.” From here, the song continues building through the remainder of the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, progressively adding more layers — synthesizer, harp, percussion, then choir and strings. As these layers build, she starts to shift lyrical focus away from her independence and towards her partner: “You, gardener / You, discipliner … I can obey all of your rules / And still be, be.” The pre-chorus is marked by a harp guiding in the percussion, finally arriving at a steady beat after almost a minute and a half. Here, Björk’s new vocal melody repeats “I never thought I would compromise,” signaling that she is going against her nature by compromising her independence to share her life with this person. In this way, not only does the pre-chorus musically lead to the chorus, but thematically as well. The initial build completes with the addition of the string and choir arrangements during the chorus, as Björk declares her acceptance of her new reality: “Let’s unite tonight / We shouldn’t fight / Embrace you tight / Let’s unite tonight.”

These lyrical themes reinforce the contrast between the soft, cold, and minimal instrumentation in the verse (during which Björk sings about being independent) and the rich, warm, and layered arrangement in the chorus (during which Björk sings about being united). The form continues during the second verse as the instrumentation is stripped back and Björk again contemplates her independent nature: “I thrive best hermit style / With a beard and a pipe ... But now I

All the song’s layers melt away until nothing is left but the choir wandering through various melodies and the harp repeating a line that never resolves.

“Unison”’s masterful progression is a result of Björk’s captivating songwriting fusing perfectly with the chops of Vespertine’s experimental electronic producers including Matmos and Valgeir Sigurðsson, along with arrangers Guy Sigsworth and Vince Mendoza.

The song seamlessly shifts through different moods, raising and lowering intensity and instrumental complexity in order to strengthen the ultimate climax. Due to this compelling structure, closely tied to Björk’s lyrical themes, the song is uniquely expressive and moving — a genre-defying display of emotion and beauty.

• Chuck Stein (Computer Science & Music)

Designer: Maura Intemann (English and Graphic and Information Design)

Dissects

can’t do this without you.” This last sentiment leads again to the more “united” pre-chorus and chorus, as the instrumental layers return.

A new string arrangement takes the focus in place of the vocals as an outro to this chorus, beautifully resonating like the closing soundtrack to a 1940s romance movie or a live orchestra playing in an extravagant ballroom.

The final chorus is twice as long, and the second repetition builds even fuller and louder than the song has so far, with this new string arrangement returning but this time as another layer underneath Björk’s increasingly emotional and powerful vocal delivery. The crescendo continues as the vocal pattern deviates from previous choruses by repeating a wordless melodic riff with increasing tension. At the song’s dramatic climax, Björk belts out these vocal riffs, echoing from one ear to the other over the goosebump-inducing instrumental peak. She holds the last note while the choir rises out of the rest of the instrumentation. From here the intensity releases as she softly repeats “Unison.” All the song’s layers melt away until nothing is left but the choir wandering through various melodies and the harp repeating a line that never resolves. In this way the song returns to similar levels of minimalism and tension as its uneasy beginning, perhaps hinting at some reservations about being in a relationship still remaining.

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Designer: Jenny Chen (Business Administration and Design) Photo by Emily Gringorten (Computer Science)

Designer: Caroline Stenzel (CS & Design)

In Defense of: Ascension Millennium It’s September 16th, 2016. Viewers countrywide unassumingly tune into the Today Show for some light news, weather, and a familyfriendly performance. However, this morning is a bit different from regular programming. There is a hunched, black-cloaked figure staring menacingly through the camera, his slicked-back hair seemingly greased with motor oil. Four blonde “angels” are playing keyboard, bass, and guitar. The black figure contorts himself into odd formations while delivering vocals reminiscent of a drunk, off-key Michael Jackson. Witnesses were lucky enough to have observed one of the only live performances by Corey Feldman from his critically panned release Angelic 2 The Core: Angelic Funkadelic / Angelic Rockadelic.

Angelic 2 The Core: Angelic Funkadelic / Angelic Rockadelic is music’s equivalent of The Room, the cult-classic disaster of a film directed, written, and produced by mysterious figure Tommy Wiseau. This connection goes beyond the fact that both artists have long, (unwashed?) black hair. Angelic 2 The Core was conceived and developed by Feldman alone, released by his own record label CiFi Records. A nauseating conglomeration of dance-pop, dubstep, nu-metal, and a Snoop Dogg feature make this project’s direction confusing at best and vomit-inducing at worst. While there are countless unforgivable moments on this record, like with any work of art, time can change tastes and flavors of public opinion. With the recent rise in mainstream popularity of hyperpop, some portions of Angelic 2 The Core bear similarities to the genre. Hyperpop artists like 100 gecs tend to draw from the same nu-metal and dubstep influence as Feldman does, although undoubtedly more artfully. It’s clear that Feldman had a vision when constructing this release, and while other musicians have come along to execute it in a more refined way, there are some moments of accidental strength.

A song that has aged well in particular is “Ascension Millennium.” High energy and heavily-autotuned, this first track

serves as one of the most well-designed songs on the record. Verses of “Ascension Millennium” are reminiscent of hyperpop breakout hit “Thos Moser” by Food House. Oscillating autotuned vocals, a steady synth-drum beat, and layered vocal tracks make for an interesting, somewhat intricate soundscape. Although production across the album is inconsistent, “Ascension Millenium” highlights Corey’s vocals in a way that brightens and levels them rather than creating the Michael-Jackson-esque monstrosity lent to the rest of the album. While Angelic 2 The Core’s lyrics as a whole tend to be cheesy and forced, reading as an AI trying to foster some sort of dance to each track, “Ascension Millennium” is able to hide this well due to most of its lyrics being incomprehensible. Not to mention that its chorus, where the song’s title is repeated for about half of its length, is extremely catchy. Feldman’s intention to create a track that is danceable actually works in this case, the infectious repetition of the phrase “/Ascension Millennium/” providing a steady and recognizable beat along with the synth-drums.

How does “Ascension Millennium” match up to most current day hyperpop tracks? Admittedly, Feldman doesn’t hold a candle to songs created by extremely talented artists like SOPHIE, Dylan Brady, and A.G. Cook. But for a basic, straight off of SoundCloud producer with hyperpop in mind- “Ascension Millennium” wouldn’t be something to be ashamed of.

Despite all this, it’s still not difficult to say how Angelic 2 The Core: Angelic Funkadelic / Angelic Rockadelic would be received in 2021. Its erratic production, strange vocal styles, song structures, and lack of conformity make it a less than comprehensive release. Nevertheless, its interesting to note the parallels between Angelic 2 The Core’s influences and between what many hyperpop artists cite as influences themselves. In the mess of this 2016 release, there are undeniable moments of hyperpop foreshadowing, shown most prominently on “Ascension Millennium.”

• Hannah Lowicki (Marketing)

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Faye Webster, Sinclair

Photo by Emily Greenberg (Communications)

The Unlikely Candidates, Sonia Live Music Venue

Photo by Ashlynn Braisted (Computer Science)

Samia, Brighton Music Hall

Photo by Kimmy Curry (Design)

ROLE MODEL, Paradise Rock Club

Photo by Emily Gringorten (Computer Science)

Lil Nas X Montero

Designer: Catherine Terkildsen (Behavioral Neuroscience)

Album Reviews 10 9 Released September 17, 2021 Label Columbia Records Genre Pop/Hip Hop Tasty Tracks “MONTERO,” “DREAMING,” “DOLLA SIGN SLIME,” “THAT’S WHAT I WANT” Since the drop of his first single in April, Lil Nas X has kept a large internet audience on the edge of their seats, awaiting the drop of his debut album, MONTERO. Although most know him as Lil Nas X, the debut album is self-titled under his full name, Montero Lamar Hill. After months of Twitter controversies and TikTok scandals — everything from the release of satan-themed Nike sneakers that accompanied the drop of the lead single to a careful defense against angry parents attacking his explicit lyrics — MONTERO finally dropped.

Hill’s savvy internet skills were clearly successful — the album quickly received platinum streaming status and Hill is now the most streamed male rapper on Spotify.

Shifting between angst, joy, promiscuity, and reflection, Hill weaves an intricate tale of complicated family dynamics, queer experiences in religion, failed relationships, and struggles with fame. He tells his story over approachable pop melodies, bumping 808s, A-List features, and a playful confidence that sparkles throughout.

The record’s controversial rollout began with the drop of the title track, “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),’’ in late March.

The accompanying music video features Hill giving Satan a lap dance in hell, and its lyrics commentate on the complicated intersection of homosexuality and Christianity. He rejects the shame often associated with queerness in Christianity in a tweet: “i spent my entire teenage years hating myself because of the shit y’all preached would happen to me because i was gay.” Receiving enthusiastic approval from millions of queer Gen Z TikTokers and severe criticism from parents and other popular rappers alike, “MONTERO” began Hill’s effective virtual marketing strategy, and initiated the ocontroversial humor he employed throughout the rollout.

From the release of a satirical, Drake-inspired album cover, to participation in ironic social media trends about the reactions of straight men to his music videos, to creating an entire

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sub-storyline of himself being “pregnant” with the album, Hill has used his following to generate increased conversation about the album.

Nas’ maturity and growth can clearly be seen since the release of his first single, “Old Town Road” and debut EP, 7 EP. MONTERO represents Hill’s transition from a kidfriendly popstar to a serious artist, unafraid to address intense themes and write explicit lyrics. On Twitter, Nas defends his artistic growth and explicit content by simply telling parents: “I am not gonna spend my entire career trying to cater to your children.” Hill also references a development in the external pressures that he feels has mounted since “Old Town Road.” On “DEAD RIGHT NOW” and “DON’T WANT IT,” Nas raps about this growth and the impacts of his fame on his own mental health, with even the brighter spots on the record carrying hints of the exhaustion that certainly comes with being the controversial fronting figure of an entire generation. Hill continues to elaborate on his coming-of-age story through collaboration with Doja Cat on breakup anthem, “SCOOP” and an idealistic desire for teenage love in “THAT’S WHAT I WANT.”

Hill then collaborates with rapper Jack Harlow in the Kanye West co-produced song “INDUSTRY BABY.” The Harlow feature and production credit from Kanye creates a more complex conversation around themes of intersectionality, sexuality, and forgiveness on the album. While Hill oftentimes stands for increased representation and visibility of both the Black and queer communities, Kanye has been critisized for his views on racism and

sexuality in recent years. This collaboration has the potential to create cognitive dissonance, and Hill has been criticized for upending his values in favor of selling out.

However, through his work with Kanye, Hill rejects simplistic ideas of cancel culture and the image of a “good” or “bad” celebrity. The “INDUSTRY BABY’’ lyrics and music video reject oppressive stereotypical ideas of Black male masculinity, and Kanye’s participation in this creative vision adds a layer of lived experience. Hill also frequently discusses the impacts of fame on mental health throughout MONTERO, and this collaboration is very connected to those themes.

In an industry that profits off of binaries in multiple forms, Hill breaks the industry mold by playing with femininity and masculinity in new ways, and bends pop, rap, and punk together in the process. MONTERO finds him creating space for queer Black male joy in the music industry in a way that couldn’t be imagined even a few years ago. Hill creates music that benefits him and his fans, rather than forcing himself to fit into a widely palatable pop star format. Ranging from a big chorus and choreography in “MONTERO,” to a pop ballad over acoustic guitar featuring Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X tackles a lot of subject matter in his debut, signifying both artistic and personal growth.

Myself, along with millions of other fans, look forward to seeing what boundaries he breaks next.

Katherine Miner (Music)

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Magdalena Bay Mercurial World Released October 8, 2021 Label Luminelle Recordings Genre Indie Pop/ Synthpop Tasty Tracks “Mercurial World,” “Secrets (Your Fire),” “Chaeri,” “The Beginning” Magdalena Bay is an enigma within pop music. The LA-based duo of vocalist Mica Tenenbaum and producer Matthew Lewin began crafting their own niche with their 2017 debut single “Neon,” and ever since, they have been cultivating a diverse catalogue of mixes and EPs drenched in transcendence.

They refuse to be categorized; toying with poptimism, rock-infused bubblegum, and synthpop, while not sacrificing a lawless cyberspace iconography. This constant experimentation and genre-bending has culminated in their debut LP, Mercurial World, an exploratory yet cohesive work proving the duo’s whimsical innovation.

Magdalena Bay’s branding refines a sense of nostalgia and internet culture through conspicuous excess. An anarchic Y2K-esque website is the nucleus of their creations, weaving together dozens of GIFs and themed physics diagrams into a complex web of satire and referentialism. A flaming purple 3D monster character named “Fluffy” and interactive sound clips, featuring both spoken word tidbits and synth arrangements, overlaid on random psychedelic arrays enhance their world building. The “You Lose!” music video, where Tenenbaum and Fall 2021

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Lewin search for the lost Fluffy, orchestrates this chaos into a thriving digital whirlwind, complete with a custom online Space Invaders video game where players are tasked with achieving the lowest score possible. Countless surreal TikToks and weekly Twitch streams only bolster the multiverse they craft. The duo fine-tunes all of this relentless imagery to transform a distinct online culture into a timeless dimension, without sacrificing their spontaneity and playfulness.

The music of Mercurial World is embedded within these mystical cosmos.

The infinite time loop alluded to by the duo manifests in the paradoxical opening track “The End” and closer “The Beginning,” with the two tracks blending into one another in both directions. The entire album similarly flows within itself, ebbing and flowing as tracks morph together into a continuous assemblage. But the meticulous engineering within every song differentiates them enough to thrive independently, while still contributing to the overall tenacity of the record.

“Chaeri,” a slow-building club banger that fuses 80’s synthpop and modern psychedelica, is emblematic of this fluency.

Twinkling synths fuse with its predecessor “Something for 2,” and a steady crescendo culminates in a throbbing cliffhanger that satisfyingly builds into the “Halfway” interlude.

“Secrets (Your Fire)” and “You Lose!” similarly cohere, with staticky video game-like snarls linking the two singles. Amidst this scrupulous composition, clever moves throughout the record create unexpected singularities. A chord shift in the “Dawning of the Seasons” outro, a saxophone solo in “Secrets,” and a custom vocaloid effect in “Follow the Leader,” among countless others, contribute to the record’s strength as a cohesive compilation of successful tracks. Even the brief opener “The End” and interlude “Halfway” are intensely volumetric, enhancing the thematic richness articulated throughout Mercurial World.

Magdalena Bay’s lyrics are as diverse as their production, ranging from consoling a former friend and their depression in “Chaeri” (“It’s only that bad / If you tell yourself you’ll never get out of bed”) to wistful daydreaming in “Dreamcatching” (“Meet me in the Swiss countryside / I saw a picture of it today”).

Existentiality in “Hysterical Us” and sarcastic pessimism about always losing in “You Lose!” cover even more ground. The duo still

manages to relate these disparate themes through a sense of uncanny, as if all of their work exists within a simulation of their own making where they reflect on their doubts.

“No stopping, too much to do,” Tenenbaum ominously chants in “Dreamcatching.”

Repetition and layering of similar lines across the track transform an otherwise onedimensional theme into a duality between idealism and entrapment. They escape the physical world into this multiverse, and the songwriting across the record is so self-aware that it transcends into the ethereal.

Mercurial World is referential without being derivative, perfectionist but not overthought, trascendental without detachment. The duo expertly weaves together 80’s synthpop, contemporary electronica, and elements of glitch core and hyperpop into a distinctly Magdalenian blend.

Tenenbaum and Lewin have crafted their own DIY experientialism found nowhere else in pop music, and they have clearly had fun doing it. Only the beginning of a vibrant career, Mercurial World’s inventiveness and thematic complexity makes it an essential indie pop Ethan Matthews (Architecture)

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Tyler, The Creator CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST Released June 5, 2021 Label Columbia Records Genre Hip Hop Tasty Tracks “ CORSO”, “HOT WIND BLOWS”, “WUSYANAME” When Tyler, the Creator’s seventh project, CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, was released, it seemed like Tyler had everything he had ever dreamed of — money, fame and finally the mainstream recognition of a Grammy win.

This level of success is reflected throughout the project, from the opulent instrumental on “HOT WIND BLOWS” to Tyler bragging, “Catch me in my other, other, other, other crib, that’s my AKA/Hurricane-proof all the views, shit like ‘A Bay Bay!’ (bang)” on the explosive hip-hop banger “CORSO.” But as Tyler surrounds himself with exotic vacations and the cars, real estate and jewelry that comes with fame, CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST finds Tyler in an extremely vulnerable state.

In the aforementioned “CORSO,” Tyler raps, “Remember I was rich so I bought me some new emotions/And a new boat ‘cause I rather

cry on the ocean,” showing Tyler’s relationship with materialism and sadness. This conflict comes to a head on the lengthy narrative track “WILSHIRE,” where Tyler details a situation where he fell in love with his friend’s girlfriend, who showed similar feelings, only for the woman to choose Tyler’s friend over him. This mix of exterior wealth and internal sadness add a fascinating dynamic to the project overall.

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST also features a stylistic conflict between Tyler’s older and more recent projects. “LUMBERJACK” mixes grimy synths with a cold flow from Tyler as he reflects on his unlikely success. The gritty production sounds like an updated take on the beats from Tyler’s early albums, like Goblin or Wolf. “MANIFESTO” features a similarly gritty instrumental with a prominent Nas sample and finds Tyler, along with fellow Odd Future member Domo Genesis, delivering socially conscious bars, “I feel like anything I say, dawg, I’m screwin’ shit up (Sorry)/So I just tell these black babies, they should do what they want,” a far cry from the shock-rap found in the early days of Odd Future. On the other end of the stylistic spectrum,“WUSYANAME,” which features some exquisite 90s R&B instrumentation similar to that found on Igor, finds Tyler charismatically pining after a woman, using a charmingly odd pickup line of “Aw, you look malnourished” to woo this woman. The track also features an uncharacteristically sweet feature from NBA Youngboy, whose soulful performance matches perfectly with the production’s energy. The grittier tracks of the album, along with the presence of sweeter songs like “WUSYANAME” and “SWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE,” show the turmoil between Tyler’s older and newer styles and keeps the listener on their toes throughout the tracklist.

While CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST does continue Tyler’s streak of artistic greatness, the tracklist suffers from some weak tracks

and an awkward flow in the back-half. “RUN IT UP” feels half-baked with an underwhelming Teezo Touchdown feature and some irritatingly repetitive backing shouts of “We gon’ run it up.” “RISE” has great verses, but it centers a weakly sung hook from Tyler paired with a cliché horn sample and dry synth-line that leave much to be desired. The second half of the project then has two roughly minutelong interludes and two tracks nearing the ten minute mark. This uneven balance makes the listening experience very choppy in its closing legs. The DJ Drama “Gangsta Grillz” interjections do add a lot of character, but they get stale by the album’s final few tracks.

While CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST is not as consistent of a project as Igor or Flower Boy, Tyler’s creativity shines as brightly as ever with fantastic production and some of Tyler’s most introspective lyrics.

Harrion Jumper (Computer Science)

Designer: Megan Lam (Architecture)

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osquinn drive-by lullabies Released September 17, 2021 Label Dismiss Yourself Genre Electronic Tasty Tracks “from paris, with love,” “12/25/18” There is a real divide among the scenes of artists that rose to popularity off the back of the Spotify Hyperpop playlist in the past year. The glaives and ericdoas of the scene strive to major label dominance and glitzy pop simplicity. osquinn, on the other hand, is content in the abstruse. She has spent the better part of the year recoiling from the success of her single “i dont want that many friends in the first place” and her placement on the cover of the Hyperpop playlist, retreating into further corners of the internet with each passing day. Her music is scattered across Soundcloud aliases, from user-574126634, where she posts unreleased quinn demos and mashups, to ambient experimentations under cat mother, Trench, rifleman, and more. But if there’s anything that’s consistent, it’s that quinn is one of the most exciting young artists in music right now, and she keeps getting better.

drive-by lullabies comes at a point in the hyperpop timeline where many of the non-genre’s biggest names are trying to put together cohesive albums in a heavily single-dominated landscape. From the aforementioned glaive and ericdoa, to more comparable contemporaries like dltzk and kurtains, a wave of young artists have had mixed success in longer formats. There’s Fall 2021

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something about digicore and related scenes that no one has quite been able to translate yet, but if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be quinn.

Sadly though, the same issues befall drive-by lullabies, which is at its best, eclectic, and at its worst, a mess. quinn’s approach is certainly more endearing than just unfocused, however, indicative not of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, but more of someone who just hasn’t figured out how to piece it all together yet. And although that is the most glaring criticism of the record, it’s worth noting that quinn is still just 16 years old. She is an undeniable musical talent and a voice worth paying attention to — even if her art is currently held back by a degree of immaturity.

And as much as I’d love to overlook that immaturity at times in favor of her spectacular production choices, there are too many moments of glaring naivety to ignore. The longest track on the album, “birthday girl,” is four and a half minutes of “ASMR alone in your room during a rainstorm while your parents argue downstairs” followed by a psychiatrist’s monologue on depression. It’s just a bit too obvious and a bit too juvenile; it’s something you would expect a 16 year old to make. Another criticism that may apply more to quinn’s scene as a whole is the tendency towards short and occasionally sweet non-songs. There’s an abundance of these on drive-by lullabies, from “coping mechanism” to “i’m here for a good time, not a long time,” built on singular refrains and fizzling out before they reach two minutes.

These are additional moments where a lack of experience holds the main ideas back. These songs aren’t bad, but they lack the structure and context they need to thrive.

When quinn succeeds though, it’s hard to argue that she doesn’t feel like the future.

“12/25/18” builds itself on a cover of Kid Cudi’s iconic “Pursuit of Happiness” intro (“Crush a bit, little bit, roll it up, take a hit), over which quinn freestyles in her best Earl Sweatshirt impression: “I was way, way better than my mom told me.” “from paris, with love” incorporates a bro-step breakdown with fantastic, textured, post-industrial noise.

These are revelatory moments on the record that speak to quinn’s immense talent as a producer, but ultimately fail to truly overcome drive-by lullabies’ deeper flaws. Despite all

that, the album reaffirms my excitement for quinn and my belief that more focused efforts will come from her with time.

Grant Foskett (Computer Science)

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Still Woozy If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is Released August 13, 2021 Label Interscope Records Genre Indie Pop Tasty Tracks “Rocky,” “Drake,” “That’s Life” The rise of TikTok brought exposure to numerous dancers and artists, and while Still Woozy probably wouldn’t be seen dancing, his music catapulted into the spotlight as a popular audio for videos on the app. Still Woozy’s success on TikTok is reflected in mainstream media, as he’s released six individual hit singles and one EP since 2017.

After four years of keeping fans waiting for a complete album, Still Woozy, a.k.a Sven Gamsky, made his own video on TikTok to promote the release of If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is. Fans went crazy in the comments, excited that their long wait for an album was coming to an end, and that they would finally get to hear more of Gamsky’s unique sound. Still Woozy has a particular, irreplicable production style—when a Still Woozy song is playing, Gamsky’s smooth voice on top of his rhythmic mixes is immediately recognizable. If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is is no exception, with Gamsky’s reputable “bedroom pop” sound staying consistent throughout the album.

The constant echo on Gamsky’s vocals, accompanied by light and airy background tracks brings a refreshing cohesiveness to this debut album. If listeners like one track,

they’re likely to appreciate the next.

Despite a unified sound to the album, If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is still provides a diverse blend of genres. Gamsky explained that the record took inspiration from his favorite artists, ranging from The Beatles and their rock vibe, Marvin Gaye and his funk music, Drake with his older R&B, to even The Weeknd with his R&B pop. Gamsky’s affinity for classic rock is heard on the first track of the album, “Woof,” beginning with pulsing guitar chords at a faster tempo than his leisurely paced singles. The song’s percussion takes inspiration from the simple, steady beats held throughout entire songs during the classical rock era of the 60s and 70s, with Gamksy’s touch added through an emphasis on the cymbals. The song “These Days” brings a slower, more peaceful end to the album, featuring layers of raw acoustic guitar strums. This track is reminiscent of early-2000s acoustic alternative rock, which Gamsky modernizes by adding some synthetic notes and echoes.

The seventh track of the album, “Drake,” again begins with an acoustic guitar, yet this time with a more solemn, folk-like sound.

This rendition of the acoustic guitar brings a taste of country to the album and initiates a newfound unification of indie and country spearheaded by Gamsky. By integrating his favorite musical influences and more with his signature style, Gamsky has proven he can be a pioneer in the musical space of indie fusion.

Gamsky has said that this album was “super cathartic to make,” because to him, creating music is a coping mechanism; how he brings his feelings to life. Each song in If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is speaks about a different aspect of life and mental health, with lyrics detailing various thoughts he’s had when managing difficult times. The beauty in these lyrics is that they achieve a great balance between vagueness and excess specificity. Because Gamsky’s lyrics focus on his thoughts, rather than his actual struggles, the lyrics aren’t too personal, allowing the listener to apply the lyrics to their own lives. The third track and lead single on the album, “That’s Life,” is a perfect example of this lyrical balance.

The song begins with “Well, that’s life/Why would it change now?/I wanna, I wanna

(yeah)/I wanna go back but…”—Gamsky wittily uses sarcasm with these lyrics, begrudgingly referencing life and his desire to turn back the clock. While there aren’t any specific scenarios mentioned, the existential thought of feeling exhausted with life and wanting to turn back, yet accepting that ultimately life isn’t changing, is oddly specific and relevant to many.

Gamsky releases his sentiments through this album, giving listeners an opportunity to do the same through hearing and, more importantly, feeling the music.

Gamsky is able to successfully fuse his “bedroom pop” style with the sounds of his other favorite genres, without losing the integrity of his usual motifs: echoing vocals, light background instrumentals, and flowing tempos. With the release of If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is Gamsky is able to tell a longer story than his previous singles and EP allowed, and listeners can relish in his admittance of and sarcasm towards mental health struggles. This debut album’s lyrical prowess and diverse production does not disappoint, and hopefully fans won’t have to wait another four years to see what Still Woozy combines with his signature lighthearted sound next.

Amy Oh (Finance and Pyschology)

Designer: Jenny Chen (Business and Design)

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Local Talent

Traffic Circle Local Talent

Tastemakers recently spoke with Zack, Gianni, Sydney, Ryan, and Ethan of Traffic Circle about their music, backyard shows, and their duck.

safely while following COVID protocols. Everybody loved those shows, so once everybody started to get vaccinated we were like “Well we’ve got the perfect place to have a real outdoor backyard show.”

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sydney (S): Because everyone was kept up inside for so long, the reaction to these shows was so overwhelmingly positive. Our first show, they went absolutely nuts. One girl threw her bra at Zack and was like “Oh my god your drummer is so cute!”

Tastemakers (TMM): Where did the name Traffic Circle come from?

Zack (Z): We knew this was coming, and we don’t have a good answer.

There was a period of time when we were picking random names and having that be our name for like three days, and if we hated it we would just change it. We just did that a few times, until eventually we just came up with Traffic Circle. At the end of the day, I think we kind of just leaned into the traffic theme at some point. So now we collect traffic signs, and we bring them on stage and stuff like that.

TMM: Speaking of things you bring on stage with you, what’s the story behind the duck?

S: That got us excited about being a band again.

Z: So our first public show was over the summer and we were releasing our single “You Want Love.” We played with our good friends, like Eli Olson, who also goes to Northeastern as well as– G: Maya Lucia–

Z: Ethan the duck! Does Ethan want to explain it?

TMM: Oh, she was in Tastemakers.

Ethan (E): So Ethan the duck used to be a real duck. He died, someone taxidermied him, and was selling him at a yard sale.

Z: Yes, a Tastemakers alumni!

Z: So I guess we just started bringing him to our shows– Ryan (R): He’s the good luck charm.

Z: Now every time we go to a show people expect to see him.

TMM: We were talking about this a bit before the interview, but I would love to hear more about the Turnpike and how that all started.

R: We moved into this house during the pandemic, so we were kind of in like a year and a half long period of not doing any shows. We were worried that our neighbors would be mad about noise, and one night we were out in the backyard when someone yelled down “Hey are you guys the musicians?” And we were like “Uh oh we are about to get our comeuppance for making noise in the neighborhood.” We followed with “Are we too loud?” And they were like “no we love it, you guys should play a show in the backyard!” And our other neighbors who were outside agreed, so we did that.

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Gianni (G): I don’t know about that…

Z: We asked them for song requests, and set up on the patio. They have porches that overlook our backyard, so they were able to watch us

G: And Lip Service.

Z: Yes Lip Service from Berklee. We spread the word on social media, and we turned the Ethan the Duck Instagram account into the Turnpike Instagram account. We were completely blown away by the amount of people that came to that first show.

S: It was wild.

Z: We definitely want to book local Boston acts. We kind of want to be a hub for local musicians to be heard.

TMM: What’s the songwriting process like for you guys?

Gianni: It really depends on the song.

Zack: Sydney mainly writes the lyrics.

E: Well a lot of our songs are written by different people. Like our song “Attack of the Clones” was written by Ryan.

S: “Evan’s Way” started because I was in “Intro to Songwriting” and I

Traffic Circle, Afterhours

Photo by Olivia Leon (Writing and Communications)

R: Everyone kind of writes the part for their instrument. Someone is like “I have an idea, here’s my idea for the structure.” And everyone else will just take that and run with it.

S: I think the best example of the process right now is “You Want Love.” Ryan had the original idea for that song, and then we took a trip to my parents’ house in upstate New York and we worked on it for two days straight. I was kind of in my own hole writing lyrics as I was hearing them play. I think that’s closest to what we do now.

Z: When we went to New York, it was probably our most productive writing session we’ve ever had because we were able to focus purely on that with no distractions.

G: We got three songs out of it.

Z: They’re all coming out on an EP in late October/early November.

TMM: I do have one song in particular to ask you about, which is “Bug Facts.” Do you switch up the facts each time?

S: Oh yeah.

Z: The rule is that if you repeat a fact...

G: You immediately die.

E: I don’t want to find out what happens.

Z: The song is based on the Cool Bug Facts meme from like 2019.

Ethan wrote this metal riff and we all thought it would be funny if we said a bunch of facts about bugs and half way through the song the facts stopped being about bugs.

R: Every single show we have a discussion of like, do we stop playing “Bug Facts?” The answer is always no because people like it.

TMM: So you’ve got a brand going, with Ethan the duck and “Bug Facts.”

S: I didn’t really think about us having a brand but at our July show, my friend told me “You guys are just so eclectically curated.” And I was like “That. That is exactly what it is.”

G: Eclectic curation… that’s good.

TMM: Is there anything you guys are really looking forward to doing as a band?

S: I’m really excited for all of these shows, and then for the spring when we will make some new music. We were thinking of going on a bit of a tour in the summer, more of a DIY type thing.

• Jessica Gwardschaladse (History, Culture, and Law)

Designer: Maia Fernandez Baigun (Communications and Design)

needed to interview someone for a prompt. I interviewed Ethan and he was playing guitar while I asked him questions. I just kind of wrote the lyrics around his words.

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Feature

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CONCERTS IN COVI D It’s hard to social distance in a mosh pit.

After surviving through a pandemic for more than 17 months, concert and festival venues are starting to reopen their doors for artists and music lovers to enjoy the art of live music once more. Many artists who had albums that were released during the thick of the pandemic are kick starting their national tours, and music festivals like Firefly and Governors Ball are preparing for the weekends ahead. It seems like the music scene in Boston and across the country is finally coming back to life; however, just because tour tickets are being posted does not stop Covid from continuing to flourish.

According to a June 2021 article by Vox, “the recovery for the event ecosystem is happening faster than expected.” Many professionals believed that the nature of live events would be damaged significantly by the pandemic, but it just made people more excited to go to stadiums and concerts than ever before.

Around April of 2021, all American adults became eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. With the influx of vaccinated citizens, the pandemic suddenly seemed less daunting than before. Cities around the country, including Boston, relaxed their mask mandates and people jumped at the opportunity to have a Covid-free summer. Shops, bars, and restaurants fully reopened with indoor seating, and movie theatres and music venues started producing tickets for upcoming events.

This summer also introduced an overwhelming amount of new music. Big artists like Tyler, The Creator, Doja Cat, Kanye West, Billie Eilish and Lorde released albums for the first time in years, and with these releases came word of large national and international tours. In addition to the tours for new releases, popular names such as Phoebe Bridgers and Harry Styles announced their tours and festival appearances for the music that was never able to travel due to the spread of Covid before or during the time their albums came out.

According to TIME Magazine, around 485,000 people attended Lollapalooza to see artists including Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Jack Harlow and Megan Thee Stallion. Despite the pandemic, the volume of people was barely less than it had been in previous years, with the tickets sold in 2019 being around 500,000. In addition to solo tours, music festivals all over the country released lineups ranging for the end of 2021 through 2022.

After over a year and a half of living by the rules of Covid, people jumped at the opportunity to see their favorite artists once again and mosh without the need to socially distance. After a year of silence, it almost feels like 2021 has marked the revival of live music.

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However, life without masks was fairly short lived.

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According to the CDC, the newest varant of Covid nicknamed the Delta variant is “more infectious” and leads to “increased transmissibility,” even among vaccinated people.

On July 27, the CDC reissued guidelines for people to start wearing masks again, no matter their vaccination status. The Delta variant came from India and eventually swept through the U.S. with tremendous speed, soiling the idea of a Covid-free summer. The Delta variant proved to be as contagious as chicken pox and more deadly towards the unvaccinated, bringing all grand openings to a halt. Large gatherings were no longer safe, and cities have since returned to mask mandates and maximum capacity rules.

The City of Boston website cites that about 64.5% of the Boston community is fully vaccinated, but even though the vaccine is recommended as the best form of protection against Delta, precautions have to be taken. Boston has adopted a five point plan for the delta variant, which includes a mask mandate for all public spaces and improved air ventilation for schools.

Although Delta has impacted many new rules and guidelines, it has yet to cancel any concerts or festivals. Protocols have been taken at many venues in order to put safety as a priority and make sure that the number of Covid cases stays at a minimum.

At indoor venues like the Royale in Boston, masks are required unless actively eating or drinking, and either a proof of vaccination or a

negative test must be presented in order to get in. Some venues will let patrons bring a copy or picture of a negative test or vaccine card; others will only accept physical copies or not allow any kind of access at all.

Artists also have opinions on vaccine proof at their shows. In preparation for Lucy Dacus’ tour for Home Video, she posted on her Instagram stating that she is going to try to have as many of her shows require vaccinated proof only. As a result, a large number of her shows state that unvaccinated people will not be allowed inside, no matter if they have a negative test or not.

Other artists have changed their plans entirely. Phoebe Bridgers had originally put out information about the Reunion Tour for her 2020 album Punisher on July 12, but changed her tune a month later after Delta cases started to sky rocket.

She changed most of her scheduled venues to new venues that were outdoors, and postponed shows to different dates in the interest of safety.

However, not all artists and venues are so cautious in the eyes of the pandemic. Lollapalooza, a large annual music festival in Chicago, Illinois, caused a lot of outrage because of the size of the crowd and lack of social distancing.

According to an August 2021 Block Club Chicago article, photos of “massive, tightly packed crowds on the CTA and around the downtown area” circulated around the internet. However, reports that came back after the event from

it may become a new normal due to unavoidable circumstances.

Although Covid still lingers on for the foreseeable future, the fact that tours and festivals have gotten the same amount if not more customers willing to be safe in order to experience live music is a sign no virtual event will ever replace the experience of in-person concerts. Despite all that can go wrong, people are still drawn to seeing their favorite artists live because of the powerful feelings it provides.

•

Nora Holland (Journalism and English)

Designer: Julia Aguam (Communications)

sources like CNN and NBC Chicago stated that there were only 203 Covid cases that resulted from the weekend. Nevertheless, festivals still pose a much bigger threat than concerts to the spread of Covid-19. Some artists, such as Stevie Nicks, have even cancelled, postponed, or pulled out of performances because of health concerns.

In the words of Nicks after she cancelled her performances at multiple festivals including ACL, BottleRock, Jazz Aspen, and Shaky Knees, “I want everyone to be safe and healthy, and the rising COVID cases should be of concern to all of us.”

There have also been cases where performers or their band members have contracted Covid during their tours, and as a result have had to cancel multiple upcoming shows. Artists such as Still Woozy, Aminé, and Lucy Dacus had to postpone concerts as close as the day before due to positive Covid results.

After testing positive, Sven of Still Woozy posted on his Instagram, announcing that his Los Angeles shows have been postponed until 2022 even though they had “implemented all the safest protocols at the venues” and encouraged people to get vaccinated. Such a last minute cancellation would have been a big deal pre-pandemic, but now

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CROSSWORD ACROSS 2. What artist settled for copyright infringement for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Won’t Back Down”?

4. Samia’s mom was in which movie?

8. What was Britney Spears’ first song to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 200?

9. Who is the most streamed female artist of all time on Spotify?

DOWN 1. What group are Bladee, Ecco2K and Tha a part of?

3. What is the real name of the artist Role Model?

5. What astrological sign is SZA? 6. Before Bleachers and fun., Jack Antonoff fronted what band?

7. Which artist wrote “Windows Down” by Big Time Rush?

ZOOMED Can you tell which six album covers we’ve zoomed in on?

7. kesha 6. steel train 5. scorpio 3. tucker

Arlo Parks Collapsed in Sunbeams Wallows Nothing Happens

1. drain gang

Lorde Melodrama

Down:

2nd Row: 9. billie eilish Julia Michaels Inner Monologue

8. baby one more time

Remi Wolf I’m Allergic to Dogs!

4. hocus pocus

Sami The Baby

2. sam smith

1st Row:

Across:

LOCAL PHOTO

Christian French, Brighton Music Hall

Photo by Amanda Stark (Behavioral Neuroscience)

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST We’ve put together some of our favorite Lorde and Marina songs!

Find the playlist at open.spotify.com/ playlist/5aNjN2b46SwxoUPA7wTojh • Sofia Maricevic (Finance and Marketing)

1. “Teen Idle” — Marina 2. “Royals” — LordeI 3. “Bubblegum Bitch” —Marina 4. “Buzzcut Season” — Lorde 5. “How to Be a Heartbreaker”MARINA 6. “Ribs” — Lorde 7. “Are you Satisfied” —MARINA 8. “Writer in the Dark” — Lorde 9. “Happy” — MARINA 10. “Liability” — Lorde 11. “Orange Trees” — MARINA 12. “Supercut” — Lorde

FIND JUSTIN

13. “Handmade Heaven” — MARINA 14. “Homemade Dynamite” — Lorde 15. “Purge The Poison” — MARINA 16. “Oceanic Feeling”— Lorde

FOLLOW US We’ve hidden Justin somewhere in this issue. Find him and maybe something cool will happen...

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