Top Stories
Stories in Beat that you'll love, handpicked by our team.
Review of David Browne's "Talkin' Greenwich Village". Top Story - January 2025.
If ever there was a time-travel ticket to a past and a place that you knew so well you could still see the sun glinting through the tree leaves, hear the din of the eateries as you walked by, and, most important, still hear the music that actually defied any given time or place, it would be David Browne's book, Talkin' Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America's Bohemian Music Capital. That's because Browne has a way of writing, an eye for detail, a penchant for commentary, that draws you in to fill the background you in one way or another actually experienced, or, what Marshall McLuhan called "cool".
By Paul Levinson2 years ago in Beat
Ethel Cain's New Album 'Perverts' is Cinematic, Skin Crawling Excellence. Top Story - January 2025.
When I first wrote about Ethel Cain in July 2023, her debut album Preacher's Daughter was reaching its crest of viral fame, garnering millions upon millions of streams on Spotify and, in turn, a newly expanded fan base that seemed to be slowly turning her dark, twisty, pioneering concept album into meme fodder.
By Erin Latham Shea2 years ago in Beat
Standing up . Runner-Up in The Soundtrack of Your Year Challenge. Top Story - January 2025.
Lemonade never tasted so good- photo by M. Dion The hotel lobby is busy. I slip through the bustling throng of guests to the bar. Raising my voice above the din, I ask my friend Pam for a simple lemonade. I've dreamt of this moment all year. I quickly add one additional request and hand her a glass I produce from my bag.
By Meagan Dion2 years ago in Beat
Song for a New Year. Top Story - January 2025.
A BRIEF POINT OF NOTE: I must say from the outset of this that the following is NOT an entry to either the "Soundtrack of the Year" challenge, nor the brand new "New Year, New Projects" challenge! I most unfortunately have not had time to work up a submission for the former, and have only just moments ago learned about the latter. I certainly intend to write something for the new challenge, which I find SO cool - perhaps even pertaining to the subject of this piece!
By Gabriel Huizenga2 years ago in Beat
Sounds of the Cottage. Runner-Up in The Soundtrack of Your Year Challenge. Top Story - January 2025.
The evening that my best friend Julia texted, I was having a glass of wine with my husband. The dogs were sprawled all over us like live rugs, the windows and sliding door were open to let in the spring breeze and we were having one of those ‘intellectual masturbation’ sessions where you randomly discuss nothing and everything about life, including its meaning.
By Marlena Guzowski2 years ago in Beat
The Splashback. Top Story - December 2024.
A Sandwich Short of a Picnic My ears ring. Alarm in perpetuity. The hammer and pluck of too many questions. A fighting chime of chords made from clashing notes of doom and discombobulation. They flow along staves of shady tidal waves, scouring open wounds with salt as they bite down to chew on the rot of my grey matter. Above and below, the moon swims limp and flat, leached of purpose and offering no destination. I howl into its mirror as my gilt- edged tears slosh down my cheeks in rivers of orange. Ironclad life rusting out of me in heavy metal groans—a tinman of brittle bones and weight. My mouth is dumb, filled with a pink marshmallow tongue that has spent too long licking saccharine walls, ceilings, and floors. Searching for doors. My teeth have melted in the constancy of the candyfloss storm clouds that spin, unending, in my lipstick-stained walk of shame sky. Once, I was one note in the dark beating a solitary and expectant rhythm—an incubated womb dweller dreaming of life—reverberating with diastolic and systolic ebb and flow. Harmony, my primal beat, my yin and yang. Then, the orchestra of joy and fear began. As the conductor tapped the baton, I screamed. Will humanity ever fill its void? The auditorium has grown so big, globalised and homogenised. It hums with white noise and hankers for syncopated beats. I cannot find my feet. The light fantastic has tripped out, and I keep falling over in the dark. It has a lot to do with this beige straight jacket of civility. It isn't me. I may drown in the sweat that pours as I try to wriggle free. It's either that, or I will throttle myself trying. Choke holds where blood should flow. Pedal to the metal. A hyperventilated state. Hope has anarchised into a four-letter word. I have tattooed it on my head because no matter how much I pack it with ice into my heart, it thaws its way out of me. A dose of salts seeping from my pores, leaking from my eyes, crusting on my lips. Bittersweet and antiseptic. My heartstrings are soggy. They play loopy tunes that nobody can sing along to, and my picnics are always one sandwich short. I used to know how to make a meal of it. One day, I will have a gathering where everyone laughs at themselves. I shall attend, and I shall arrive naked.
By Caroline Jane2 years ago in Beat
A Bittersweet Symphony. Top Story - December 2024.
Counting down from December (right now, as at the time of writing) to the beginning of 2024. The beginning of the year that is about to end (2024) is way different and significant than the ending. This may be true to form for some people, where the next holiday season leaves off from the last one somehow. In other words, you are revisiting any unfinished business from the previous holiday season in the current one, whatever shape or form that comes across for yourself.
By Justine Crowley2 years ago in Beat
Folk, Love and Hope. Top Story - December 2024.
The soundtrack of my year started off with the song Alaska by Caiola , an indie-folk singer. I had a new relationship starting to grow, but my fear of commitment to something more was creeping in. One of the lyrics is about resisting the urge to add another affirmation to the list on his lover's wall. Because that meant adding to their life and he asks if they were leaving or just coming home. I resonated with that greatly since I was always asking myself if I was coming or going. Whether I was going to finally stay this time, and had I found my home. He sings about being terrified to let the relationship mature, and wonders if they even should. That became a reoccurring line in my life, and in everything I did. I used to tell myself I was doing the right thing by leaving by hoping to spare them the pain of staying. I wondered if I was worthy of adding another line to their life. Always afraid that I might want to stay for once so I resisted.
By Matthew Mccahey2 years ago in Beat
