The Best Work of Vérité’s Career Is Coming. Get Excited.

Each new single hints at what may be the most complex work of the artist’s career.

Vérité

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If there’s one thing Vérité—née Kesley Byrne—knows, it’s hard work. The independent artist (and former Times Square Applebee’s waitress) has worked since 2014 to release music on her own terms, own time, and with her own vision—documenting the ups and downs of traversing the music industry as a fully independent artist to a small, yet devout, following of more than 100,000 social media followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The millions of streams from her fans have allowed her both to tour as a solo artist and to support large acts like X Ambassadors. Something’s connecting.

That something isn’t just anything, however; it’s the heart and soul of who Byrne has been since she released Echo EP in 2014: inhibited vulnerability. As I wrote in May after the release of the first single off her upcoming sophomore album new skin:

In her 2016 cover of The 1975’s “Somebody Else,” for example, she unleashed a desire which was intended in the original, but completely missing there. It’s a letting go of  “Control,” the ability to own and express her deepest emotions—sometimes contradictory, sometimes brutal, sometimes tragic—that set Byrne apart from her alt-pop peers.

In her first new release since then, “gone” delivers on everything she was before and more…And just as the narrative turns for the worse, the production ramps, tinged with rage and regret. “Leave the clothes and mess we made up all on the floor,” she sings, “cause when we put them on we’re not in love anymore.”

Byrne has always projected a fearless connection to her emotion and experiences and tied that to her words and production. But after a solid debut with Somewhere in Between, it was only realistic to fear that new skin wouldn’t live up to the reputation Byrne had built as a connoisseur of emotion and vulnerability. 

No need to worry. Byrne has dropped four singles so far from the upcoming album: “gone,” “youth,” “ocean,” and now, “good for it.” With each track, her voice becomes a bit more sure of itself—even when delivering the self doubt of lyrics like “I wanna be everything I promised when I swore I was honestly” and “Is the best better without you?” The production behind the tracks is simpler than those of her past, relying on the clear sound of keys and guitar instead of the synthy reverb that was at times distracting on Somewhere in Between.

Each song is built upon Byrne’s established strengths and sounds, but the tracks are also an indication of what’s to come when the full album drops on October 25: her strongest and most complex work yet.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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