Music Review: 5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford goes solo on ambitious, pop-punk ‘SIDEQUEST'
But he doesn't just rehash the past. Rather, the colorful-haired musician adds his own twist on 'SIDEQUEST.'
Ten energetic, introspective tracks form a tight album that explores self-doubt, fame and romance. The songs are pop-punk in spirit but deviate from the formula with a stadium-sized production: experimental electronics, big synths and versatile vocals.
And it is an emotional journey. The lovesick opener 'Kill Me for Always,' featuring Porter Robinson, sets the stage, with its scintillating mix of electronica and bass.
The sound of 'Cool,' released as a single, acts as the strongest evidence of Clifford's former boy band roots. It's self-deprecating and self-aware. 'Confidence doesn't come so easily / When you're the guy who caught fire with the colored hair / From the band with the song about underwear,' Clifford sings, referencing the chorus of 'She Looks So Perfect.'
In an album stuffed with energetic songs juxtaposed with existential lyrics, the best track arrives at a midpoint high in 'Enough.' 'At 3 a.m. awake again / I can see all of the damage you've done,' Clifford sings through an evocative rasp. 'With friends like you who needs a loaded gun.'
'Remember When' and 'Fashion' maintain the swoony cadence of Clifford's 5 Seconds of Summer work; 'Eclipse' ends the album in a crescendo.
'SIDEQUEST' sets out to prove it's both a culmination of the last decade of Clifford's life and a deviation from it, as he steps into his own sound. Thankfully, for fans, it succeeds. The debut album reflects Clifford's maturation and self-agency, despite the insecurities and doubts that creep in throughout.
'All I've done / Is it ever gonna be enough?' Clifford sings, growing hoarser, in 'Enough.' Then the question changes: 'Am I ever gonna be enough?'
On 'SIDEQUEST,' the answer, quite simply, is yes.
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
An Australian artist is creating a massive mural in the middle of a small North Dakota town
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — High atop a massive grain elevator in the middle of Minot, North Dakota, artist Guido van Helten swipes a concrete wall with a brush that looks more appropriate for painting a fence than creating a monumental mural. Back and forth van Helten brushes, focused on his work and not bothered by the sheer enormity of his task as he stands in a boom lift, 75 feet (23 meters) off the ground, and focused on a few square feet of a structure that stretches over most of a city block. 'When you use these old structures to kinda share stories and use them as a vehicle to carry an image of identity, it becomes part of the landscape,' he said. 'I've found that people have really adopted them and become really super proud of them.' The work on the former Union Silos is van Helten's latest effort to paint murals on a gigantic scale, with earlier projects on structures ranging from a dam in Australia to part of a former cooling tower at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. Although he has created murals throughout the world, grain silos in the U.S. Midwest have been among his most frequent sites. 'I do enjoy the opportunity to uncover stories that are often kinda considered out of the way or flyover communities,' he said. Van Helten has been creating murals for years, working increasingly in the U.S. over the past seven years and around the world. The 38-year-old Brisbane native's interest in regional communities began in earnest after a mural he created years ago on a silo in an Australian town of 100 people. The new idea, he said, drew interest, and he began a series of commissions around Australia and the U.S. He uses a mineral silicate paint formulated to absorb and bond with concrete, and it lasts a long time. He mixes tones specific to the color of the wall and subtly layers the work so it blends in. 'I love the coloring of these buildings, so I don't want to fight with them, I don't want to change it, I don't want it to be bright. I want it to become part of the landscape,' he said. It's not a quick process, as van Helten initially meets with residents to learn about a community and then spends months slowly transforming what is usually the largest structure in a small town. He began painting in Minot in May with plans for a 360-degree mural that combines photography with painting to depict the people and culture of an area. The Minot elevator and silos were built in the 1950s and were an economic center for years before they ceased operations around the early 1990s. Van Helten isn't giving too much away about what his Minot mural will depict, but said he has been inspired by concepts of land and ownership while in North Dakota, from ranching and the oil field to Native American perspectives. Minot is a city of nearly 50,000 people and sits near the Bakken oil field and Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. 'It is really when you boil down to it in many ways about land and how different cultures interpret that and connect with it, and I feel it's really interesting in North Dakota because it is really such a big, open land,' the artist said. Much of the mural is still taking shape, but images of a barn and female figures are visible. Property owner Derek Hackett said the mural is 'a great way to take what is kind of a blighted property and be able to give it a facelift and kind of resurrect its presence in our skyline.' Soon the mural will be visible from almost anywhere in town, he said. The mural project is entirely donation-funded, costing about $350,000, about 85% of which is already raised, said Chelsea Gleich, a spokesperson for the project. 'It is uniquely ours, it's uniquely North Dakota and you'll never be able to find a piece just like this anywhere else,' she said.
6 days ago
How an anti-porn lobby on payment processors censored thousands of video games
Video game developers are speaking out after two popular PC games stores made it harder — even impossible — to purchase thousands of games and other digital artworks, as a result of pressure exerted by an Australian anti-porn advocacy group. The takedown came after Collective Shout successfully lobbied payment networks and processors to stop facilitating financial transactions from storefronts Steam and until games with certain content were removed. But developers say the range of affected works goes well beyond games with explicit sex scenes. Also caught in the sweep are a teen-rated romantic comedy game (new window) , some LGBT-themed games by award-winning developer Robert Yang, and a 1920s alternate-history art book that has no sexual content (new window) . This is incredibly worrying, said Adrienne Bazir, a Toronto-based game developer and artist who makes LGBT games. Even just queer people holding hands is seen as not safe for work. CBC spoke to over a dozen Canadian games developers, creators and industry watchers who say the situation highlights the power held by international financial institutions in determining what kinds of art is deemed acceptable for others to consume, and frequently forces LGBT content and narrative into the darkness. What's happened so far? In July, Collective Shout published an open letter (new window) saying Steam and Itch hosted games with rape, incest and child sexual abuse content. About a week later, Steam removed hundreds of games with adult or sexual content from sale. Steam, the world's largest storefront and management platform for PC games with a reported 132 million active monthly users, said in a statement that certain games on Steam may violate the rules and standards set forth by our payment processors and their related card networks and banks. It has the effect of shrinking the space available for diverse sexual expression. Jean Ketterling, University of Saskatchewan Payment processors include credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard, and other companies that can facilitate purchases like PayPal and Stripe. Those games were removed from sale to ensure customers could purchase other titles and game content, the statement added. On July 28, Itch, a relatively smaller player, deindexed all games and other works on its site with the NSFW (not safe for work) tag. That means you can't find those works on the site unless you know the exact name of the creator or game. According to Game File reporter Nicole Carpenter, searching the NSFW tag on Itch before July 28 brought 7,167 results. Today, it surfaces five or fewer. Enlarge image (new window) Video game developers are speaking out against Visa, MasterCard and other payment companies for blocking the sale of certain adult content on gaming stores Steam and Photo: Maxim Zmeyev Itch's creator Leaf Corcoran said (new window) the site's staff is conducting a comprehensive audit of content to ensure we can meet the requirements of our payment processors. He later said (new window) Itch is seeking other payment processors that are willing to work with platforms hosting adult content. CBC reached out to several payment processors for comment. In a statement, Stripe said, We do not support adult content, while PayPal replied that it will take action on anything that violates the law, our policies, or the policies of our partner banks and card networks. Risky business? Collective Shout is an advocacy group that describes itself as a movement against the objectification of women and the sexualization of girls. Its director, Melinda Tankard Reist, told CBC that her group reached out to payment processors after receiving no reply to about 3,000 emails sent to the Valve Corporation, which owns Steam. Tankard Reist said the group was not seeking to have Itch deindex all its NSFW gaming content. However, developers, artists and other supporters say the campaign has affected works with sexual content that don't cross the line into abusive or illegal behaviour. Enlarge image (new window) Jean Ketterling is an assistant professor in political studies at the University of Saskatchewan's women's and gender studies program. Photo: Submitted by Jean Ketterling That statement doesn't ring true for Jean Ketterling, a University of Saskatchewan assistant professor who specializes in the study of sex and video games. This is a tried-and-true playbook. It has the effect of shrinking the space available for diverse sexual expression, she said. Ketterling pointed to a long history of anti-porn or anti-sex work organizations campaigning against content they deem to be obscene, immoral or illegal. Similar recent cases involved lobbyists targeting payment processors for OnlyFans and Pornhub. WATCH | When pressure from banks almost led to OnlyFans banning sexual content: We're seeing a lot of LGBTQ content come up. We're seeing a lot of stuff that's not even pornographic, but that is just exploring sexual violence or exploring the trans experience, she said. Val Webber, a postdoctoral researcher at the Sexual Health and Gender Research Lab (SHAG) at Halifax's Dalhousie University, says high-risk categories for payment processors typically include items with a potential for fraud or that contain potentially illegal content — such as adult content, firearms, gambling and some medications. But the processors' terms of service aren't always clear, leading to a wide interpretation of what kinds of content can be considered high-risk, she said. They're effectively in charge of creating de facto obscenity law without ever naming specific sexual acts or fantasies or content that is, in fact, not allowed on the platforms, she said. Several Canadian developers and artists are frustrated that an Australian lobby group and U.S.-based payment processors have impacted their income. What we have is a situation where American financial institutions are able to do de facto censorship on a global scale against content that isn't illegal, said Ash Krieder, an independent romance writer based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., whose works were deindexed from Itch. This is hampering freedom of speech in our country. Enlarge image (new window) An image by Vancouver-based artist Aurahack. She says her profile was delisted from Itch search following pressure from payment processors. CBC has agreed not to print Aurahack's real name for reasons of safety. Photo: Aurahack Tankard Reist said location is irrelevant. The internet has no borders. Women and girls everywhere are impacted by male violence against women and misogyny in general which we believed these games perpetuated. The counter-campaign Affected developers and their supporters have started phone campaigns and petitions to pressure payment processors to reverse their actions. One site lists several email addresses and phone numbers for people to lodge their complaints with Visa, MasterCard and other payment companies. "What we know about Collective Shout is that they managed to put pressure on those payments processors with only 1,000 calls (new window) or emails," said Bazir. And we're like, well, there's more than 1,000 of us, so we can beat that.
Vancouver Sun
6 days ago
- Vancouver Sun
Leopard seals sing 'otherworldly' love songs akin to nursery rhymes, study finds
When male leopard seals dive down into icy Antarctic waters, they sing songs structured like nursery rhymes in performances that can last up to 13 hours, scientists said Thursday. The Australian-led team of researchers compared the complexity of the songs composed by the big blubbery mammals to those of other animals — as well as human musicians like the Beatles and Mozart. Lucinda Chambers, a bioacoustics PhD student at Australia's University of New South Wales, told AFP that people are often surprised when they hear the 'otherworldly' hoots and trills sung by leopard seals. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'It kind of sounds like sound effects from an '80s sci-fi' movie, said the lead author of a new study in the journal Scientific Reports. During the spring breeding season, male leopard seals dive underwater and perform their songs for two minutes before returning to the surface for air. They then repeat this performance for up to 13 hours a day, according to the study. The researchers determined that all leopard seals share the same set of five 'notes' which are impossible to distinguish between individuals. However, each seal arranges these notes in a unique way to compose their own personal song. 'We theorize that they're using that structure as a way to broadcast their individual identity, kind of like shouting their name out into the void,' Chambers said. The researchers believe the males use these songs to woo potential female mates — and ward off rivals. 'Songbirds of the Southern Ocean' The team studied recordings of 26 seals captured by study co-author Tracey Rogers off the coast of Eastern Antarctica throughout the 1990s. 'They're like the songbirds of the Southern Ocean,' Rogers, who is also from the University of New South Wales, said in a statement. 'During the breeding season, if you drop a hydrophone into the water anywhere in the region, you'll hear them singing.' The team analyzed how random the seals' sequences of notes were, finding that their songs were less predictable than the calls of humpback whales or the whistles of dolphins. But they were still more predictable than the more complex music of the Beatles or Mozart. 'They fall into the ballpark of human nursery rhymes,' Chambers said. This made sense, because the songs need to be simple enough so that each seal can remember their composition to perform it every day, she explained. She compared it to how 'nursery rhymes have to be predictable enough that a child can memorize them'. But each seal song also needs to be unpredictable enough to stand out from those of the other males. Leopard seals, which are the apex predators in Antarctic waters, swim alone and cover vast distances. They likely evolved their particular kind of song so that their message travels long distances, the researchers theorized. Varying pitch or frequency might not travel as far in their environment, Chambers said. Female seals also sing sometimes, though the scientists do not know why. Chambers suggested it could be to teach their pups how to sing — exactly how this talent is passed down is also a mystery. But she added that this behaviour has never been observed in the wild. The females could also just be communicating with each other, she said. © 2025 AFP Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
