Strange recently announced a new album produced in part by Jack Antonoff (who has worked with Taylor Swift, Lorde, St. Vincent, and Fordham grad Lana Del Rey, among others). Due out in February, Horror is inspired by his experiences growing up Black and queer in Oklahoma.

“Sober,” the incredible new single from the album, is Strange at his best: honest, raw, and vulnerable. In his own words, “This song is about falling short in a relationship, over and over, and drinking because of it. Being in love but not being the best at showing it or feeling successful within it.” Falling musically somewhere between Fleetwood Mac and the War on Drugs, the song is a culmination of the immense talent Bartees Strange has shown in such a short period of time. I, for one, cannot wait to see where the new music takes this amazing musician and songwriter.

WFUV Discovery is a new music recommendation from Russ Borris, music director at WFUV (90.7 FM, wfuv.org), Fordham’s public media station.

Del Rey was nominated for five awards, including Album of the Year for her 2023 release, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. That award went to Taylor Swift’s Midnights, which featured Del Rey as a guest vocalist and co-writer on the track “Snow on the Beach.”

Swift brought Del Rey on stage with her after winning that final award of the night, and during her speech, she praised her friend and collaborator: “I think so many female artists would not be where they are and would not have the inspiration they have if it weren’t for the work that she’s done,” Swift said. “I think she’s a legacy artist, a legend, and in her prime right now.”

Along with Album of the Year, Del Rey was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, Song of the Year and Best Alternative Music Performance (both for “A&W”), and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (for “Candy Necklace,” which featured Jon Batiste). In addition, Jack Antonoff took home the Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) award for his work on both Del Rey’s and Swift’s albums.

The kind of fellow artist support Del Rey received from Swift harks back to an interview and performance she recorded at Fordham’s WFUV in late 2011—just before the release of Born to Die, her major-label debut. Speaking with host Rita Houston, she called herself naturally nervous but said that praise from peers at open-mic nights and early shows helped boost her confidence.

Now, with peers including some of the biggest music stars in the world, Del Rey’s impact as an artist only continues to grow. You can catch her headlining Coachella in April, and she recently teased that her next album, Lasso, will be released in September.

NFR!
by Lana Del Rey

Lizzy Grant, FCRH ’08, is better known as Lana Del Rey, her professional moniker as a singer, songwriter, and musician. Del Rey’s sixth album, Norman _______ Rockwell! was released in August 2019 to wide critical acclaim, with The Guardian, NPR, Pitchfork, and others naming it the best album of the year. The record is both personal and outward- looking. Del Rey describes intimate relationships and the increasingly precarious state of the world with the same biting wit and cool, deadpan vocal delivery, all over some of the most lush and intricate melodies she’s ever written. While her early work was sometimes described as “detached” or “ironic,” on NFR! the listener is plugged in to the funny, profound observations of an artist watching the world around her warp at high speed. As she croons on album highlight “The greatest,” “If this is it, I’m signing off … I hope the livestream’s almost on.” —Adam Kaufman

The Hunt
starring Betty Gilpin, FCLC ’08

Fordham Theatre alumna Betty Gilpin has had a big couple of years, earning Emmy nominations in 2018 and 2019 for her role as wrestler Liberty Belle in the Netflix series GLOW. But in The Hunt, she takes on what may be her biggest role yet. The film, described by its director and producers as a satire of the left-versus-right divide in American politics, sees Gilpin play Crystal Creasey, one among a group of captives who are kidnapped and hunted for sport. The film attracted a good deal of controversy, and its release was delayed in the wake of mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso, but it is now available on streaming services after a theatrical release in March. “It’s supposed to be a movie that you can [watch with]your family member who you can’t make eye contact with at Thanksgiving and you … laugh at each other and laugh at yourselves,” Gilpin recently told The New York Times. Katie Walsh of Tribune News Service wrote that the movie “is worth the price of admission for [Gilpin’s] performance alone,” and Vulture’s Alison Willmore wrote that Gilpin plays Crystal “with the kind of delectably unflappable timing ’80s action franchises were once built on.” —Adam Kaufman

Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century
by Blythe Randolph and John Loughery, FCRH ’75

In his last book, John Loughery focused on Fordham’s founder, Archbishop John Hughes, a key figure in 19th-century U.S. history and tireless advocate for struggling Irish immigrants. In his latest book, co-written with Randolph, he chronicles the life of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, outspoken pacifist and advocate for the poor, and critic of institutions both left and right. Judging by the reviews, Randolph and Loughery have provided the definitive biography. Writing in The New York Times, Karen Armstrong called it “precise and meticulous” and a “vivid account of her political and religious development.” The authors have revived a “voice for our times,” Samantha Power wrote in The Washington Post, noting Dorothy Day’s stances that have modern-day resonance—her attacks on corporate influence on public policy, her advocacy on behalf of refugees, and her “suspicions of an overzealous federal bureaucracy,” among others. —Chris Gosier