Orla Gartland Isn't Just a Woman on the Internet

It was impossible not to immediately fall in love with Orla Gartland’s music when I first heard her angsty, self-blaming “Did It to Myself” on an episode of Normal People. Like most of Gartland’s earlier work, the song cuts deep without revealing too much of herself (as she says, she’s a big fan of using metaphors and abstract language). Her February 2020 EP, Freckle Season, includes five songs that play into that idea of ambiguity — most notably one titled “Oh GOD,” the meaning of which she finally revealed on Twitter earlier this summer. But now, Gartland is ready to show the world who she really is. The 26-year-old Irish artist drops her debut album, Woman on the Internet, today under her own label, New Friends.

One woman’s five-month mission to coax a cat out of her ceiling and into her arms. Student debt is so inescapable that even those who made payments during the pandemic freeze still owe more money than they originally borrowed. So far this year, at least 18 states have enacted 30 laws to make it harder to vote, but young people aren’t taking it lying down. Breaking news: This man was forced to face the consequences of his own actions. And two interesting long reads for the weekend: the culture war over the dark colonial history behind Britain’s idyllic country houses and the unlikely allies fighting to preserve the Gulf of Mexico’s spectacular coral reefs.

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