Melissa Kacar

Hayley Williams ' "True Believer" is a powerfully  deeply poetic and painfully relevant to the moment in history we are currently living through. She tackles many heavy and personal topics, especially her complicated feelings toward the South, the place she has lived for most of her life, but has also seen transform into something she wishes it wasn't.  Beneath the disillusionment, though, is still a very distinct hope and belief that the people who remain good and believe in the merits of what it means to be an American will prevail. It is such a brutally honest and chilling song, with a message that is more American than the owner of the racist country singer's bar could ever dream of writing. Especially in this period of political history, for her to lay out all of her beliefs and advocate for the future of this country is so powerful, inspiring and serves as a reminder of what it looks like when an artist uses her voice with intention. Hayley vividly paints a ...

Greetings from The Crux Hotel! 🐭🗝️☆  Back in August 2025 when I visited Los Angeles , one of the biggest highlights of the trip was getting to take a tour of Paramount Studios. Of course tons of iconic movies and TV shows were filmed there, but one of my personal favorite parts of the tour was seeing the building facade used on the cover of one of my favorite albums ever - The Crux by Djo !! I absolutely love Djo 's music and this was so cool to see in person. Not to mention, this is also one of my favorite album covers of all time too! The cover was shot on Paramount's outdoor cityscape backlot. It's a part of a massive set that's been used in countless projects, meant to mimic the look of New York or Chicago. The tour guide drove through this part of the lot really quickly because they were actually filming something there that day, but I'm so glad I got to get a few pictures of it. Hopefully one day I get to go back and take pictures in front of it!  The Cru...