June 28, 2019

Leave It to Gay Icon L Devine to Write a Song About Being Horny

“Naked Alone” is the perfect soundtrack to the last weekend of Pride.

L Devine

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This week: “Naked Alone” by L Devine (Warner Records, 2019)

Why we’re into it: Groovy and sexy, Devine’s newest single is a reminder of the pop star’s talent for finding universality in the specifics.

When she made her Mother Jones debut back in January with her heart-wrenching—and very gay—track “Daughter,” Olivia Devine proved to us one thing: She could find the universal in even the most particular of experiences. The song was partly a confession and partly a love letter. Devine dived into one of the most sacred queer experiences—coming out—and delivered her fans a formidable message of love and tenacity. In her latest single, “Naked Alone,” Devine again locates the universal in a specific impulse: horniness.

The song kicks off with what I can only call an incredibly extraterrestrial jive, before quickly moving into the groovy heartbeat that pulses through the song. “Satisfied,” she sings, “the only feeling I ain’t felt for time.” But it’s not long before she launches into the raunchiness that truly makes this song the “horny summer anthem” it is. “Well I hit up every name in my contacts, but I can’t even get one text back, all I really need is some sex, ya feel me?”

But Devine shines most as the chorus hits. “No,” she sings, her voice aching. “I can’t take another night on my own, need another body here to keep warm, always hated sleeping naked alone.” The keys behind her voice rise and fall as the percussion picks up, turning the already singable chorus into a danceable one, too. 

There’s nothing more personal than the internal stirrings of someone trying to get laid, but Devine makes sure to lay down a beat we can all move to. Horny as hell, with nowhere to go with it but right into the bassline, Devine has produced an undeniable song of the summer.

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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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.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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