ALBUM + TRACK REVIEWS
With PRINCESS OF POWER, MARINA is ushering in a bold new era of her career – one defined by personal liberation and the radiant strength of self-love. After parting ways with Atlantic Records following the release of her fifth studio album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, the Welsh singer has reclaimed her autonomy, releasing her latest album under her independent label. This newfound creative freedom pulses through every track, reflecting an artist fully in command of her vision and voice.
At the core of Florence + The Machine’s sixth studio album, Everybody Scream, is unembellished catharsis. In classic Florence Welch fashion, her voice becomes a vessel to create a project that revolves around the idea that sometimes survival itself can be a form of rebirth. The English singer and songwriter navigates some of the most emotionally charged landscapes of her career with newfound clarity. Instead of fighting off the darkness, Welch lets it speak.
Mayday Parade have released their new album, What It Means To Fall Apart. The record is full of feel-good tunes that testify to the band’s quintessential sound.
Amyl And The Sniffers have successfully come to the fore of today’s punk scene and made it their own. Within the five years that the band have been in action, they have unrelentingly proven that the ethos of punk is still thriving in the 21st century.
For 5 Seconds of Summer, reinvention has always been second nature. Their latest single release, “Telephone Busy,” finds them ushering in a new, gritty, and glamorized era while paying homage to their pop-punk roots, evoking all of the high-energy and bravado that has defined their image since their formation in the 2010s. Both nostalgic and forward-facing, the new track is a reminder that the Australian quartet continues to evolve without losing sight of what made fans fall in love with them in the first place.
A new era of Suki Waterhouse is upon us. With her second full-length album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, on the horizon and a recently announced headline tour, the British singer and actress has been busy showcasing her multifaceted talent. Her latest retro-tinged single “Supersad” captures a more candid side of her life, proving that doom scrolling and bed rot can get the best of anyone sometimes.
ARTIST PROFILES
Nicky Youre is no stranger to writing anthemic music set to a soundtrack of upbeat melodies and bright guitars. Rooted in storytelling, Youre’s discography is the embodiment of who he truly is as a person: breezily carefree, an avid lover of life, and a positive and uplifting force that is needed in modern music today. Driven by boundless ambition and creativity, Youre’s recent single, “Eyes On You,” puts his glowing personality on display alongside his passion for crafting feel-good, radio-ready bops.
Rooskin are here to make every day feel like summer. Hailing from Southend, Essex, the five-piece outfit specialize in creating psychedelic-tinged music that momentarily transports you out of the mundaneness of reality into a dream-like state of mind. They radiate all of the summertime joie de vivre, which audibly translates across their entire discography. Listen to any Rooskin song and you’ll hear warm synths, dripping with hazy tones for a sound that is as dreamy as it is a reflection of their passion for music.
The Austin-based identical twin R&B duo THEBROSFRESH may be on the verge of stardom.
Torrence and Thurman Thomas, 34, have yet to sign a deal with a record label, but they regularly fill popular Austin music venues such as C-Boy’s and Continental Club, and they have inked contracts as brand ambassadors with Nike and Volkswagen.
Torrence, who plays bass and sings, envisions achieving success as a staircase. At the very top of it sits their goal of selling out stadiums and mentoring others to do the same.
The Point don’t start their sets with a bang – they kick off with little-to-no introduction, luring you into a transcendental ride through their genre-defiant imagination.
“When we play as the Point, we play dangerously,” drummer Nico Leophonte explains. “We have no net. We just go for it every time. Sometimes we fail, but most of the time – now that we’ve been working together a while – we fail less and less because we just take chances, and we surprise ourselves.”
LIFESTYLE STORIES
Dim lighting illuminated the grunginess of The Parlor in Hyde Park on a recent Saturday, shedding slivers of light on a book release party for “A Curious Mix of People.” The scene was more akin to a high school reunion that united old friends and bandmates – which is exactly what authors Greg Beets and Richard Whymark aimed to celebrate with their new book.
In the early hours of a Saturday in April, a lengthy queue of dedicated music enthusiasts stretched beyond the corner of Waterloo Records for its’ yearly observance of Record Store Day. As the doors unlocked at 8, patrons were ushered in small batches to browse through the store’s esteemed collection of records, CDs and other physical media.
From a booth on the east side of Zilker Park, a husband and wife from Ohio exceeded their dreams of helping to save lives by distributing 6,000 doses of overdose-reversing drugs.
“We thought we were gonna do a couple of festivals in the Midwest; that’s all we hoped for,” William Perry said of his lifesaving operation called This Must Be the Place. “This year, we went coast to coast and now we’re here in Austin.”
If you’ve ever scrolled through “cottagecore” or “witchcore” content while perusing TikTok, there’s a chance you may have stumbled upon “whimsigoth,” another trend in fashion and interior decor that’s currently casting a spell across social media. Equal parts whimsical and gothic, the enchanting style often features rich earth tones that evoke a lighthearted playfulness, flowing layers, celestial iconography, and feels resonant of something Florence Welch, Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, or the cast of 1996’s The Craft might wear.