September 15, 2014

Lia Ices’ Newfound Urgency


Lia Ices
Ices
Jagjaguwar

Ices

After displaying her mastery of mesmerizing dream-pop on 2011’s Grown Unknown, Lia Ices adds a shot of energy to the mix on this charming third album. Though recorded piecemeal at studios around the country, Ices feels focused and cohesive, with the leadoff track “Tell Me” setting the tempo, setting a typically lush melody to a thumping party beat. Ices is still happily indebted to Kate Bush—witness the meditative seven-minute “Waves”—but jaunty songs like “Higher” show she has the confidence to play around with her sound and not settle for ambient-music clichés. If this bracing newfound urgency indicates a willingness to court a larger audience a la Lykke Li, more power to her.

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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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