From her near-naked album cover to the “La Flama” collaboration with The Weeknd, Rosalía is turning up some serious heat in the lead-up to her new album Motomami. Today, she just announced the album’s official release date of March 18th, and dropped a full-on reggaeton banger in “Saoko.”
The track title is a reference to Daddy Yankee and Wisin’s 2004 cut “Saoco,” an early reggaeton jam from two trailblazers in the genre. Rosalia samples their track in “Saoko” and presents it alongside a new music video set to a provocative biker gang of ladies.
“Naming my next track “SAOKO” and sampling Yankee and Wisin for me is the most direct homage I can make to classic reggaeton, a genre that I love and that has been a constant and great inspiration throughout the MOTOMAMI project,” Rosalía said in a translated statement.
The song has a break with a melodic piano giving space before Rosalia’s vocal assault continues. She said she wanted to add jazz touches to a reggaeton track and that the lyrics “revolve around the same concept: transformation. Each and every phrase is an image of transformation. Celebrating transformation, celebrating change. Celebrating that you are always yourself even though you are in constant transformation or even that you are you more than ever at the very moment you are changing.”
Watch the video for “Saoko” above.
Motomami is out 3/18 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.
New Glarus/Almanac/Short’s/Beachwood/istock/Uproxx
There are almost 9,000 breweries in the U.S. alone. That means that there are endless IPAs, stouts, porters, pale ales, lagers, pilsners, and any number of fruit-based beers. Today, we’re talking the latter — fruited IPAs, fruited sours, and maybe a fruit-based pale ale or pilsner thrown in there here and there as well.
Joe Connolly, director of Springdale Beer Co. in Framingham, Massachusetts has a particular style in mind when he thinks of fruited beer. “It’s got to be a fruit lambic from Belgium,” Connolly tells us. He continues, “two memories from a single trip stand out specifically. A thirty-plus-year-old bottle of cherry-fruited lambic from the Boon Blendery. Incredibly, it was still effervescent with incredible depth of cherry pit flavor. But on the same trip, we sampled fresh fruit lambic from Cantillon and a few other breweries, illustrating the fact that fruit beers are often at their peak at their freshest.”
But there’s more to fruited beers than Belgium’s amazing offerings, and many memorable fruited beers come from right here in the U.S. That’s why we asked a handful of our favorite brewers, brewing professionals, and craft beer experts to tell us their favorite crafty fruit beers of all time.
I enjoy a good, fruited sour and this one has a great balance of sweetness from the fruit and acidity from the culture. Plus, there’s a touch of complexity from the barrel, which I find intriguing given they added an additional element of lactose.
Sierra Nevada Wild Little Thing
Sierra Nevada
Cooper Asay, head of quality at BrewDog USA in Columbus, Ohio
The original Otra Vez from Sierra Nevada was amazing. Sadly, they don’t make it anymore. It was a fruited gose with grapefruit and cactus. If I was to pick a beer that it is in production from Sierra Neva, I’d pick Wild Little Thing, a sour ale brewed with guava, hibiscus, and strawberry.
New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb is probably my favorite. It’s a perfect balance between the tartness of the Wild Ale and the sweetness of the fruit. It’s not too sweet, not too tart, but it’s beautiful. I enjoy the wild fermentation and character that comes with it along with the effervescence. It’s a special one.
One of my favorite fruit beers is Short’s Soft Parade. No matter the time of year, the fresh berry aroma radiates summertime. Their use of real fruit shines through authentically and the fact that it’s so heavily fruited but not crazy sweet is a plus in my book. At the end of the day, my friends and I joke that if we aren’t as relaxed as the lady on the Soft Parade can, we’re doing it wrong.
Destination Unknown Orange You Glad We Brewed An IPA
Destination Unknown Orange You Glad We Brewed An IPA
Dave Lopez, co-managing partner at Gun Hill Brewing in Bronx, New York
ABV: 8%
Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
I’m not sure if this is the best fruit-based beer I’ve ever had, but it’s probably the one that I’ve enjoyed most often. It’s an IPA made by Destination Unknown and Big Alice Brewing called Orange You Glad We brewed an IPA, a double IPA with blood orange and grapefruit. What I enjoy about this beer is that the blood orange and grapefruit really just compliment and then accentuate the hop character of the beer. As a result, the beer does not truly taste like you’re drinking a ‘fruit-based beer,’ which is generally the way I’d prefer it.
Beachwood Blendery Come in Grape, Your Time is Up (Grenache)
I don’t think most people know that Beachwood Brewing’s funky side makes some of the best mixed-fermentation beers around. Beachwood Blendery’s Come in Grape, Your Time is Up is made with an insane amount of Grenache grapes and truly pushes the amount of fruit character you can get in a beer. It’s like a fruit-forward Lambrusco with some amazing mixed-fermentation funk.
Raspberry Tart by New Glarus Brewing Co. is a spontaneously fermented framboise that is out of this world good. There is so much raspberry flavor and aroma to the beer, yet it is balanced and not overly tart. It’s also a gorgeous ruby red color that almost forces you to drink it when it’s poured.
Westbound & Down Metaberry
Westbound & Down
Lauren McCaffrey, packaging technician at WeldWerks Brewing Co. in Greeley, Colorado
ABV: 6.7%
Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
The best fruit-based beer I’ve tried was Metaberry from Westbound & Down. It’s a tart barrel-aged golden sour with blackberries. I love the tart beers, and this one had a rich berry flavor with some fun barrel characteristics.
Hoosier Chubby Bunny Hot Mango
Hoosier
Garth E. Beyer, certified Cicerone® and owner and founder of Garth’s Brew Bar in Madison, Wisconsin
Hoosier Brewing Co. brewed a Chubby Bunny sour. Their best version to date is the mango, habanero, chocolate, and marshmallow version. It’s loaded with mango puree to give it a heavier body and tropical sweetness on the front end and then they add a light touch of chocolate, the bitterness of which balances out the sweetness of the fruit. It’s finished with habanero peppers and marshmallows, again, at such a perfectly balanced amount that you get citrus harmony from the habaneros with the sweetness of marshmallows, and it’s finished with a very subtle taste of sweetened habanero smoke. That might come off as a tropical S’more description that might not sound amazing, but boy is it.
I have to go with Fruit Bat Disco from Fonta Flora in Morganton, North Carolina. This is a clean fermented saison with locally-harvested strawberries. This is one of those rare fruit beers that is released when the fruit is actually in season. While strawberries are notoriously challenging to work with, this beer delivers that perfect taste of summer sweetness right out of the field.
Despite the fact that head coach Ty Lue threw cold water on the idea that Kawhi Leonard will be able to return some time this season from knee surgery, the Los Angeles Clippers have reportedly made a trade to bring a pair of productive wings to Los Angeles. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Clippers will acquire the duo of Norman Powell and Robert Covington from the Portland Trail Blazers with less than one week until the trade deadline.
Wojnarowski reports that the Clippers will give up a package that includes a pair of veterans, a future second-round draft pick, and the player they took in the first round of the 2021 NBA Draft, Keon Johnson.
The Clippers are trading Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and future second-round pick to the Trail Blazers for Norman Powell and Robert Covington, sources tell ESPN.
“We know Kawhi’s probably not gonna come back,” Lue said on Thursday night after the Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers. “We don’t know the status of [Paul George], but these guys continue to keep fighting. Every single night.”
Despite the fact that Leonard hasn’t played this year and George has not suited up since mid-December due to elbow surgery, Powell and Covington are the kinds of battle-tested veterans that give a team with postseason aspirations a boost. The Clippers sit in eighth place in the Western Conference, 2.5 games back of the Denver Nuggets and the six seed, which would guarantee a berth in the playoffs without needing the play-in tournament.
On the year, Powell — who signed a 5-year, $90 million extension last summer — has averaged 18.7 points per game while connecting on 40.6 percent of his threes for the Blazers, who acquired him for Gary Trent Jr. last year at the deadline. Covington, meanwhile, has struggled from deep this season, connecting on 34.3 percent of his triples, and is an unrestricted free agent after this season.
If you haven’t spent countless hours working as a bartender or barback, you might not know what a “house” bottle is. In the simplest terms, it’s the bottles that bartenders keep under the bar (not on the wall behind them). There’s usually one bottle of rye, scotch, vodka, gin, tequila, rum, and bourbon (plus a few others) that they use as their house brand. It’s the bottle they grab to pour you a shot, something on the rocks, or a simple cocktail/highball if you don’t specifically tell them which brand/expression to use.
Intuitively, it might seem like a bar would just pick the cheapest booze for this purpose, that would be a big mistake. While the house pour does have to be well-priced, its real purpose is to impart the flavor of the bar itself. You want your guests to enjoy it and ask for it again. That’s why the price-to-value is extremely important. You don’t want it to be too expensive, but you also want it to taste good. It’s not an easy job to pick the house bottle, especially a house bourbon that’s going to be ordered a lot.
How do they do it? We asked a few noted bartenders and mixologists to tell us the house bourbons they pour at their bars. Keep scrolling to see all of their answers. You might be surprised by what you learn.
We use a lot of Bulliet Bourbon as our house bourbon. I like to use Bulliet because it has a very well-rounded flavor profile and makes a very good cocktail whiskey. It’s reasonably priced and has a depth of flavor that helps it stand up in cocktails.
Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon is our house brand. We chose Woodford Reserve’s flagship whiskey due to its broad appeal among bourbon drinkers. Woodford’s flavors are rich and smooth with hints of citrus, cinnamon, and cocoa.
Our house bourbon is Buffalo Trace Bourbon. It was a no-brainer to have this for our “well” bourbon considering our unique relationship with the distillery and Sazerac, their parent company. What makes this special is that many restaurants are struggling to even secure a bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon these days. We recently visited Kentucky and purchased a new barrel. That will yield us approximately two-hundred damn good Buffalo Trace barrel pick bottles in the coming weeks! It is simply an easy-drinking, smooth, classic Kentucky bourbon with soft, easy notes of vanilla, caramel, and spice.
Old Forester 86
Old Forester
Eric Johnson, beverage director of The Waverly in San Diego
Old Forester 86 Proof is our house brand. This bourbon has some roasted oak, sweet caramel, and vanilla notes. Its 86-proof body holds up well in a cocktail but still can be a delicious drink, neat or on the rocks.
Jim Beam White Label
Jim Beam
Josh Curtis, bar director at Malibu Beach Inn in Malibu, California
Jim Beam White Label Bourbon is our house whiskey. It was picked because it has corn flavors all day to remind us of what bourbon is made from. It also carries vanilla, caramel, and oaky flavors that accentuate any cocktail it’s used for.
Angel’s Envy
Angel
Christopher Devern, lead bartender of Red Owl Tavern in Philadelphia
Angel’s Envy has notes of vanilla, maple, toasted oak, and bitter chocolate, making it the perfect house pour. This may not be your typical or traditional bourbon but that’s another reason it’s one of my favorites. It’s a special tasting bourbon that is great neat or on the rocks. Also, give their rye a taste if you get the chance.
Four Roses
Four Roses
Emily Lawson, bartender and founder of Pink House Alchemy in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Four Roses Bourbon is my favorite house bourbon for mixing, but it’s often overlooked. It’s just as complex and smooth as a Woodford Reserve and is affordable without compromising any integrity. It’s also not overly sweet, so it holds well in a cocktail. I love incorporating it with Pink House Alchemy’s Mexican Chile Syrup for a delicious Kicking Mule Highball.
We use Old Forester 100 as our main house bourbon. It was chosen because it is a classic. It’s also one of the very first bourbons to be mass-produced. Its flavors are rich and complex, but it isn’t overly aggressive from its overall taste profiles, making it an easy match for a house program.
In an interview with Billboard the day after the nominations were revealed, Q-Tip said, “I was pleased, [but] I wish my man [Phife Dawg] was here.”
Phife Dawg, a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, died in 2016 at 45 years old.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Q-Tip spoke about how he believes A Tribe Called Quest helped bridge the gap between rock and hip-hop for many people, especially white listeners. He said, “I was just saying to LL Cool J the thing about Tribe is we played in front of more rock audiences than rap audiences. Just being on tour with Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Green Day, Beastie Boys, and our first show we opened for Big Audio Dynamite — at our time, we kinda helped bring white audiences to hip-hop. So it’s overall good. I feel like the story of music and music’s evolution can’t happen without hip-hop artists.”
Lawrence Stackhouse was among the thousands of MAGA rioters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and in true Scooby-Doo fashion, he might have gotten away with it, too, if he occasionally shut his yap about Donald Trump.
The Philadelphia Inquirerreports that the Chester, PA resident “told a federal judge that he illegally entered the Capitol, took photos, and wandered into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office as hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6.” He was outed after, well, you know how there’s a Borat-impersonating funny guy in every office? Stackhouse was like that, except he was the Trump guy (and probably a Rudy guy, too).
A Delaware County man whose vociferous support of President Donald Trump at work prompted his coworkers to turn him into the FBI [pleaded] guilty Friday to Capitol riot charges… Though prosecutors have not identified where Stackhouse worked, they have said at least two of his coworkers helped pick him out of Capitol surveillance footage based on the distinctive Trump beanie and Proud Boys T-shirt he wore that day.
Stackhouse claims he doesn’t support the Proud Boys “after [knowing] what they are about,” but the day after the attack on the Capitol, he texted a friend, “Don’t regret one thing. F*ck the government.” Stackhouse faces up to six months in prison.
After Neil Young and fellow music legends like Joni Mitchell began pulling their music from Spotify in protest of the platform allowing Joe Rogan to spread COVID misinformation, CEO Daniel Ek held a town hall with concerned employees this week. Unfortunately, the answers Ek provided did not sit well with employees as the CEO repeatedly touted Rogan’s presence on Spotify as key to the company’s success. Ek also said that Spotify doesn’t own Rogan’s content, they license it, so they have no control over his words. (Although, they can choose to pull certain episodes, as they’ve done in the past.)
Despite agreeing with employees that many things Rogan says are “very offensive,” Ek was clear at the town hall that The Joe Rogan Experience brings in a substantial amount of subscribers and Spotify has no interest in rocking that boat. Here’s how Ek responded after frustrated employees asked how the company can reconcile its commitment to diversity while Rogan says things like only people who 100 percent African can say they’re Black. Via The Verge:
“If we want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with,” he says. “Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad.”
If that sounds familiar, it’s the same approach Netflix took when Dave Chappelle was embroiled in controversy: As long as the views and listeners are coming in, everyone should be happy because the company is making money.
Clearly, the employees on the ground are starting to feel differently.
Red Hot Chili Peppers already had plans for a stadium tour in 2022 and now they’ll have a new album of songs along for the ride. Today, the band have announced that their 12th studio album, Unlimited Love, is coming out on April 1st.
Back on board are guitarist John Frusciante and producer Rick Rubin. This is their first time working with the band since 2006 and 2011, respectively. Frusciante said in a statement, “For me, this record represents our love for, and faith in, each other.”
The band have also dropped the first single from the album in the California-inspired (of course) “Summer Love.” Frusciante’s guitar licks are a welcome sound once again alongside the rest of the band and singer Anthony Kiedis in unwavering in his delivery.
The band also shared a statement on the album:
“Our only goal is to get lost in the music. We (John, Anthony, Chad and Flea) spent thousands of hours, collectively and individually, honing our craft and showing up for one another, to make the best album we could. Our antennae attuned to the divine cosmos, we were just so damn grateful for the opportunity to be in a room together, and, once again, try to get better. Days, weeks and months spent listening to each other, composing, jamming freely, and arranging the fruit of those jams with great care and purpose. The sounds, rhythms, vibrations, words and melodies had us enrapt.
We yearn to shine a light in the world, to uplift, connect, and bring people together. Each of the songs on our new album UNLIMITED LOVE, is a facet of us, reflecting our view of the universe. This is our life’s mission. We work, focus, and prepare, so that when the biggest wave comes, we are ready to ride it. The ocean has gifted us a mighty wave and this record is the ride that is the sum of our lives. Thank you for listening, we hope you enjoy it.
ROCK OUT MOTHERF*CKERS!” – Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, John Frusciante
Listen “Black Summer” and watch the video, which is directed by The Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow, above. Below, check out the Unlimited Love album artwork and tracklist.
red hot chili peppers
1. “Black Summer”
2. “Here Ever After”
3. “Aquatic Mouth Dance”
4. “Not The One”
5. “Poster Child”
6. “The Great Apes”
7. “It’s Only Natural”
8. “She’s A Lover”
9. “These Are The Ways”
10. “Whatchu Thinkin’”
11. “Bastards of Light”
12. “White Braids & Pillow Chair”
13. “One Way Traffic”
14. “Veronica”
15. “Let ‘Em Cry”
16. “The Heavy Wing”
17. “Tangelo”
Unlimited Love is out 4/1 via Warner. Pre-order it here.
Red Hot Chili Peppers is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
To say that I was mildly disappointed in Jackass Forever is true. To say that I spent the entire movie screaming, stomping my feet, covering my face with my hands, and squealing with joy, and would’ve happily sat through another 90 minutes of it is also true. Did we really need for this Jackass to be the “best Jackass ever?” This merely reveals the basic truth that Jackass is still Jackass‘s only competition. I was more than content for the new Jackass to merely be what Jackass has always been: a good hang.
My standard review of Jackass, which also applies here, is “yes.” I have basically an unquenchable appetite for skate bros pranking each other and hurting their dicks, to the point that even when I’m vaguely dissatisfied by a bit, or have nitpicks, my general reaction is a desire for more bits. Do it again! Do it better! Just keep doing it!
It’s been 20 years since the first Jackass movie and a few things have undeniably changed. Ryan Dunn is dead, killed in a fiery car crash in 2011, leaving the gang without a member who would try more or less anything (getting shot with an anti-personnel mine, sticking a toy car up his ass) as long as he could bitch about it the whole time (no one could kvetch quite like Ryan Dunn, just like no one can howl in agony quite like Dave England, who now looks like Tom Petty after a hockey brawl). Dunn’s pal Bam Margera is also gone, falling off the wagon and becoming estranged from the crew. One feels their absence in Jackass Forever, especially in the dearth of Delco accents. But does it make Jackass any less relatable? Any less an expression of the American male id? Who hasn’t had friends die or spiral since 2010?
Johnny Knoxville, who always had a finely tuned cultural antenna, correctly surmised that keeping the Jackass inner circle entirely white and male wouldn’t play in 2022 (even if that perception itself was a bit a of generalization; the gang always had black minor characters and guests). Thus we have some new additions to the gang this time around. There’s Jasper, an ebullient, chubby black guy whose ex-con father, Darkshark, helps fill in the gaps where pranks on the Margeras would normally go. There’s Rachel Wolfson, a cute girl comedian who seems up for anything and wears her smile like a surgical mask. There’s Poopies, a real-life Jeff Spicoli who got his nickname by pooping in the street and seems to have an IQ of around 90. There’s Zach Holmes, aka Zackass, a jolly fat guy who combines Preston Lacy’s girth with Johnny Knoxville’s appetite for masochism. Holmes, raised in a fundamentalist Christian household, throws himself into cacti harder than Ryan Dunn ever did and seemingly without even a moment’s regret. Last but not least there’s Eric Manaka, the crew’s first Englishman.
The new crew fill in wherever a young body feels necessary to a bit, body surfing down massive slip and slides or deliberately wrecking mini bikes and kite surfing rigs, but on balance their presence seems less noteworthy than how intent the almost and actual 50-somethings from the original Jackass crew seem to be on doing their own stunts. There are plenty of times where it feels like if things had gone just a tad differently we might’ve had to watch one of our substitute friends die — usually Danger Ehren, who gets his crotch sniffed by a hungry bear and his crotch stomped by a pogo stick (among other things), but also Johnny Knoxville, who gets his umpteenth concussion from a bull; or really any of the rest of the crew, who all risked death and castration at some point, to varying degrees.
During the run of the original Jackass, we mostly all probably assumed it would be sad to watch 50-year-old men perform these stunts, if we imagined it at all. Yet if anything I wish Jackass Forever had leaned more into the fact that these guys are getting older. There’s one planned stunt, the details of which never become clear, that Preston Lacy spoils through the rather mundane mistake of trying to let slip a fart that turns into a shit. “I guess I shouldn’t have had that Indian food last night!” Lacy yells, which sounds sort of like shtick but I’m pretty sure wasn’t.
I enjoyed this brief foray into more dad-centric stunts, like trying to eat spicy Indian food and not shit your pants, and wished they would’ve done more deliberately rather than relegated them to outtakes. What other foods can’t these guys eat anymore? Who’s taking Lipitor and which of them are on blood thinners? What parts of them are sore now just from sleeping? Just because the stunts are different now doesn’t make them less of daredevils. Show the swelling! The “prestige” of a Jackass bit was always the medical bill
Walking into Jackass Forever was probably the first time I ever genuinely considered a movie being “the movie the world needs right now.” Watching dudes hurt themselves does bring demographics together like few things do these days, and it’s perhaps the only genre of movie or show during which I’ve never paused to look at my watch. And yet Jackass Forever, like virtually everything made during and after the pandemic, doesn’t quite work as pure escapism. Age, it turns out, isn’t nearly as much of a limitation as world events. In the era of COVID protocols, man-on-the-street bits are out, which robs Jackass of a key facet of its appeal. What would the original Jackass have been without rental car workers, uptight golfers, or people just walking by while an impish man in a devil costume exploded from the ground shouting “keep God out of California?”
The square world was always the foil for Jackass pranks. In Jackass Forever that world can only really be hinted at and represented symbolically, and Jackass was never much for hints and symbolism. It feels like they were sort of trapped in a bubble, like the rest of us, forced to play the pranks mostly on each other. In Jackass 3D, the concept evolved more towards elaborate sight gags than stunts specific to pain and danger. Yet even that is slightly muted in Jackass Forever, which I have to imagine was a limitation related to the same supply chain problems affecting everything else. Making Jackass, more so than just about anything, really does take a village, and that village has had staffing issues of late.
Which is sort of a bummer, but as always the gang perseveres, and to watch them do so is no less a triumph. They make do, mostly through more penis and ball trauma than ever before, and literal buckets of pig semen. It doesn’t feel sad or any less potent, and it’s true to the spirit of what Jackass always was: man’s dadaist attempt to find primitivist joy amidst the constraints of modernity. That’s still true, even with some transparent growing pains. When a scorpion lands on Rachel Wolfson’s breast during a bit called “scorpion botox,” Chris Pontius screams that he doesn’t know whether he’s allowed to bat the thing away. “I consent, I consent!” Wolfson howls.
Being afraid to touch a woman’s breast is hilariously Victorian for the Jackass crew, but it’s endearing and somehow cathartic as well, to hear these characters literally shout the mundane confusion we all have about the often blurry rules of interpersonal conduct, on pain of a scorpion sting. Someday maybe they’ll be able to take a power tool to Rachel Wolfson’s labia the same way they make a mini speed bag out of Preston Lacy’s ballsack, and that will be a great day. For now it’s understandable and weirdly sweet that they’d be a little cautious, a necessary transitional stage. The Jackass boys are changing and so are we, and that’s okay.
‘Jackass Forever’ is in theaters now. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Three is a very common and important number in Amber Mark’s life. In a 2017 interview with NME, she explained how that number has constantly made itself present in her life. “My mother was born in 1953, my brother was born in 1983 and I was born in 1993,” she said. “Then, my mum passed away on June 3, at 10:23 pm in 2013. Since then, I’d see three’s everywhere.” In 2017, she released her 3:33am EP. Nearly five years later, she returns with her debut album, Three Dimensions Deep, and a riveting tale that follows her through a journey of searching for the deeper meaning for her life and the world that surrounds her.
Three Dimensions Deep presents a well-executed blend of R&B and funk used in different ways throughout the album. Sometimes it’s a 50-50 split, and other times, either genre sits in the driver’s seat while the other makes its presence felt just enough so that the 17-track project remains cohesive. This varying production helps to add a second dose of life to the listener’s experience with the album, one already boosted by Mark’s enthralling vocals. Her search for life’s meaning arises on the wistful “What Is It,” where she questions the point of the bad in her life with an emotional plea into the empty skies. “So there goes my heart,” she sings with disheveled spirits on the song. “I fell apart / Trying to love.” She later questions the source of faith as she’ll need it moving forward. “Is it love that proves in our faith? / Or how we move, spiraling?”
As often as Mark questions the ways of the world, she also stays true to what she’s previously learned. Her wisdom propels her far enough to leave her with a moderate and slightly frustrating, but solvable, amount of puzzle-piecing for her to do. She rightfully distrusts the “trifling” ways of men on “Most Men,” while begging for a friend to seek better than the insufficient companion she’s currently with. Mark acknowledges the difficulties behind healing and moving on both “Healing Hurts” and “Bubbles” while overcoming the temptation to fall for old tricks and back into her old pains. Following these anecdotes of hurt and heartbreak, Three Dimensions Deep transitions into a second half that’s both energized by a new wave of happiness and gracefully presented through a worthwhile romance.
Amber Mark won’t find all the answers she’s looking for in life. That’s a feat that goes unaccomplished even by the oldest souls of the world, never mind a 28-year-old. She soon realizes that a life driven by constant searches will leave her feeling incomplete at the end of the day. “FOMO” places this discovery on wax through funky and reinvigorating production that finds Mark high off life as her feet sweep the dancefloor. “Fill up my cup, made up my mind,” she sings. “Won’t miss out on living happily / It’s about time, I’m gon’ lose control.” There’s a time and a place for self-reflection and wallowing in sadness about life’s dealings, but Mark realizes that she should at least make sure to live life through it all.
This leap of faith, which also doubles as a discharge from life’s ankle weights, adds vibrancy and excitement to her life and the album. It also makes her an irresistible magnet to what she craves the most from life. Three Dimensions Deep swings upward from a contextual standpoint during its back half. Mark is consumed by a love that’s far too good to be true in her eyes. She details this behind haunting production that accentuates her disbelief on “Out Of This World” while also comparing the new love to finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. “Pull all this weight kept me out of sight / I close my eyes,” she sings. “And with surprise / I saw the light.” Mark goes above and beyond to describe the beauty of this new romance as she places herself amongst the stars and constellations on “Cosmic” to relay the “otherworldly feelings” it gives her. “It takes me to another planet / It’s all so cinematic,” she sings with a heart bleeding of gratitude as angelic harmonies rain behind her. “Is this some sort of magic? / It seems so automatic.”
Three Dimensions Deep is a testament to letting go and trusting that what is meant to be, will be. While watching Amber Mark get swept off her feet with a perfect love is a heartwarming aspect of the album, seeing her end the album on a high pedestal and free of some of the things that held her down is just as satisfying. Mark’s official debut album is truly Three Dimensions Deep as we watch her confidence grow, her insecurities fade away, and a path open up for her to experience at that’s meant to be in her world. Mark achieves this by letting herself freefall into life’s core where she discovers what to value the most day in and day out. It’s here that she also tackles her most-inner emotions with equal parts grace and feistiness for a riveting and magical album.
Three Dimensions Deep is out now via PMR/EMI. Get it here.
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