Celeste
At Wit’s End, Mizmor Turns Inner turmoil Outward
Changing your sound rarely feels autobiographical. But for Liam Neighbors, a.k.a. A.L.N., the man behind Portland blackened doom band Mizmor (often written as מזמור, the Hebrew word for “psalm”), it is. Though not a strict, sober play-by-play of his life, Mizmor has largely been a journey of a man losing his faith. Albums like 2016’s Yodh and 2019’s Carin reflect that conflict through weighty black metal rendered through doom’s bigger scopes. They sounded hymnal, but not reverent, quite appropriate for someone struggling to leave God and his former life wrapped up in God behind. His latest EP Wit’s End, which came out last Friday on Gilead Media, does not represent a conclusion to his journey, but a point much different from where he started. For one, his belief, the thing he spent albums ...
Dua Lipa wins album of the year at Brit Awards
Dua Lipa won the coveted British Album of the Year prize at the Brit Awards on Tuesday, in a ceremony that saw female artists dominate the mixed categories. Around 4,000 guests streamed into London’s O2 Arena for the biggest night in British pop music, as the ceremony welcomed guests for the first time in two years as part of the government’s pilot scheme easing coronavirus restrictions. The Brit Awards have been criticised in the past for nominations seen as skewing heavily male, but this year almost all of the main prizes went to female artists. Little Mix won best British group — becoming the first female act ever to do so. Singer and poet Arlo Parks took the Breakthrough Artist award, and best international group went to the American band HAIM. In another history-making moment, Taylor ...
