STACK #199 May 2021

FEATURE MUSIC

PORTER ROBINSON S ince breaking through in 2014 with debut album Worlds , Porter Robinson has struggled with stardom. Thrust into depression and creative paralysis shortly after his introduction to the limelight, Robinson has spent the years since flirting with various projects – an anime/song collaboration with Madeon and A-1 Pictures, an alter ego as Virtual Self – in an attempt to find himself in music again. Nurture describes

that process. Unlike the J-Pop-meets-disco mashup influences of Worlds , Nurture has a more consistent identity that stands on its own, representative of Robinson’s newfound clarity. Marked by sentimental and buoyant synth-pop, the lyrics wrestle to find reason against hopelessness. It’s most explicit on Mirror , Robinson debating his self-doubt incarnate, but it plays out across the album – verses of introspection giving way to choruses of revelation. In weaker hands, that thematic consistency could start to repeat itself, but Robinson draws out each facet of the way one’s raison d’etre can turn against them and the devastating struggle to claw it back. "I

D escribing if i could make it go quiet is a bit of a poetical challenge. Quixotic and intimate, this record is also splashed with 22-year-old Marie Ulven's frank ruminations on sexual negotiations and mental health, GIRL IN RED

if i could make it go quiet by girl in red is out now via AWAL.

feel overwhelmed with gratitude that [my favorite artists] do what they do. I think being able to give people that experience through sincere songwriting is what makes

delivered in the unapologetic, sometimes contrary, loyal-to-her- own-truth style of artists like Sky Ferreira before her. Dipped in electric guitar, electronic beats daubed with real kit, piano, and computerised details, the album was envisioned over the repeated seven-hour drives Ulven took between her home city of Oslo and the coastal town of Bergen (Norway) to record; during these trips Ulven would have conversations with herself which eventually became "a big, boiling pot of thoughts and things I haven’t said." Now they are born, and they've revealed a truly instinctual talent poised to upend indie-dream-pop. ZKR

it worthwhile," Robinson said with the release of single Get Your Wish . With Nurture , he pays it forward. Jake Cleland

Nurture by Porter Robinson is out May 28 via Mom + Pop.

We have all loved Gerry Beckley’s Music as part of legendary group ‘America’. Bringing us timeless songs like ‘Sister Golden Hair’ & ‘I Need You’ ‘Keeping The Light On’ features a varied and melodic selection of 20 songs from his past solo albums, including 5 previously unreleased tracks.

See why Gerry Beckley is one of the greatest songwriters of his generation.

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