Mollie's Feel-Good Feed: Squid Game, Bond and of course, Adele

A LOT of favourites making their return...

Welcome to Mollie’s Feel-Good Feed, a place where each month Mollie King shares her round-up of the things bringing her joy in these strange and uncertain times. Check back each month for uplifting music, self care tips and, hopefully, a smile being put on your face.

October has to be one of my favourite times of the year! I spoke last month about my love for autumn - the beautiful red and golden colours across the length and breadth of the UK. In my eyes, this time of the year brings a touch of sparkle to things. Whether it's pumpkin carving, Halloween trick-or-treating or fancy dress, there really is so much fun to be had. As the nights start to draw in, snuggling up on the couch and binge watching a new series becomes ever more tempting and this month I’ve got just the entertainment to feed that temptation. Let’s get stuck in.

Music

Pop fans unite - this month’s a big one. The queen of heartbreak anthems is back. Oh Adele, how we’ve missed you! After fans spotted the number 30 in various key spots across the globe - the Empire State Building, the Louvre, the Colosseum - they have been convinced it can only mean one thing: the return of the British hit maker with her fourth album. All of her previous albums have been titled after the age at which she wrote and recorded them - 19, 21 and 25. It seems only right that her next album would follow suit. Since then, she has teased her new single on her instagram account with the words “Easy On Me - October 15", and it feels that date can’t come soon enough.

In other pop news, today we see the launch of the first solo music from ex-Little Mix star, Jesy Nelson. Since departing from the band back in December 2020 we have seen glimpses of her in recording and dance studios, but finally the wait is over and the music is here. With her debut single entitled Boyz, Nelson is going large, teaming up with US superstar rapper Nicki Minaj and sampling Diddy’s 2001 hit Bad Boy 4 Life. She’s spoken about wanting the track to be a statement record and I think it’s safe to say with this one it certainly is, and I’m here for it.

Someone also singing about troublesome relationships is the UK’s very own pop superstar Charli XCX. From writing songs for Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello and Selena Gomez, to having hit after hit of her own and recently releasing her own podcast Best Song Ever, this is one girl who can do it all. Her recent release is one for the electro-pop fans and has a hypnotic chorus that doesn’t ever leave your head. Following on from huge hits like Boom Clap and 1999, Good Ones yet again certifies Charli as an unstoppable force in music.

Album

Hailing from the North East, Sam Fender is delighting me with the release of his second album, Seventeen Going Under. It's only been two years since the release of his debut album Hypersonic Missiles and continuing this momentum is no mean feat. Rising to fame with the immediate thumbs up at the Brits, winning the Critics’ Choice award back in 2019, it’s no wonder he has continued to shine. Fender’s sound and live production give you a glimpse back into 90s rock-pop and he’s a guaranteed favourite at any live event. I was lucky enough to see him live early on in his career at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and it’s safe to say he really knew how to deliver a performance. Sam’s laid-back personality almost contradicts the rate at which he is flying up the charts, and at this rate I don’t see it slowing down one bit.

TV

The show on everyone’s lips right now has to be Netflix’s Korean drama Squid Game. Set to beat Netflix’s biggest original series Bridgerton this drama has travelled around the world and is getting viewers absolutely hooked. The show tells the story of people competing to win 45.6 billion Korean wons (£29 million) over the course of six deadly games. Having drawn comparisons to The Hunger Games, I’m sure it’s the topic of a lot of dinner parties.

Following on from The Undoing, Nicole Kidman is back with another triumphant drama, this time based on the novel with the same title, Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. Set in California, this drama follows nine participants who all check themselves in to a retreat hoping to feel revived and transformed by the end of their stay. In typical Kidman fashion, this drama is shot so beautifully (and I don’t just mean that she looks gorgeous, which of course she does) that it's almost like watching a nature programme. One by one the darkest secrets of each guests is revealed during the 10 day stay.

Fashion

I was lucky enough to go to two of my closest friends’ weddings in the past few weeks, and if you hadn’t already guessed, I’m a sucker for anything romantic and an opportunity to celebrate love. I used to find weddings a slightly tricky one to dress for as it’s not quite evening wear, but more formal than a summers day dress. This was until I found the fashion brand Reformation. In typical me fashion, I had left it until the week before the wedding to decide what to wear and in a fluster ran into one of my favourite department stores, phone in hand, and actually ran an instagram poll on which dress to purchase. My followers, as they so often do when I come unstuck, came to my rescue and all voted for a beautiful navy floral dress, the perfect combination of summer and autumn. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a wandering eye for some of their beautiful evening dresses too - they manage to do sultry with such elegance and style. If I wasn’t already yearning for lots of social occasions, my relationship with Reformation has most certainly added to that.

Film

Let's get booking cinema tickets - aisle seat, a seat in the middle, right at the front or squashed in at the back - I’ll take any seat for this one. With this it already trumping every other UK film of 2021, it’s a must that we talk Bond, James Bond. The hugely anticipated No Time To Die has finally graced our screens and it’s no surprise that the premiere for this huge franchise saw the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walk the red carpet, as well as Billie Eilish and screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The wait couldn’t have been longer, after being repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic but it’s without doubt been worth the wait with Daniel Craig continuing to delight fans worldwide in his final appearance. With Craig starring alongside Rami Malek, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw, it’s Bond, just how I like it.

Beauty

I wrote back in August about a campaign I was working on with my skincare favourite, Simple, and Kindness.org, to try to encourage people to be kind to one another. With life offering up a lot of uncertainty at the moment, it’s easy to let small acts of kindness go by the way side as we all try to cling on to as much sense of security as possible. I for one have certainly found the past two years incredibly anxiety-inducing, which is one of the many reasons I have been so excited about trying to help spread such a positive message. I’m delighted and so proud to say that we had such an overwhelming amount of kind acts pledged, which we are hoping had a ripple effect for a while after. We received messages from people who had decided to drop-by their family member’s house just to say hello, others helping the elderly, people baking for one another, a real array of kind acts. I wanted to say a huge thank you if you got involved, it honestly means so much to me that so many of us were united by such a wonderful message and I hope it’s something that sticks with us now in our daily routine. There are few things that make us feel better ourselves than putting a smile on someone else’s face.