Music
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Not a Teen Choice – Starboy Review
Say what you want about The Weeknd, but he is an incredibly hardworking, prolific artist. The R&B singer-songwriter recently released his third studio album this past weekend after much anticipation (and extensive promotion). The Weeknd claims that his influences for Starboy were The Smiths, Prince, Talking Heads, Bad Brains, and DeBarge – quite an eclectic combination of 1980’s artists to influence a 2016 R&B album, showing the exciting future that is in store for the genre. Upon first listen, the album seemed to be slightly scattered in terms of genre, something that seems to be a trend this year. Are the aforementioned influences clearly heard in the album? Here and there……
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The New MTV
Yes, another piece about how the ‘M’ in MTV should not stand for ‘music’ anymore, and should instead stand for ‘millennial.’ But the fact that so many people are writing on this shows that it is an issue. The MTV VMA’s are probably the one time of the year that MTV actually attempts to showcase music. Sometimes they succeed in doing so, but other times, it just feels like a pop award show, with the music coming in second to the scandalous events sure to take place that evening. I have had less and less interest in watching the VMA’s in the past few years, but this year I decided; why…
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For What Would Have Been Michael’s 58th
I don’t know if there will ever be an artist that had as much of an impact on me as Michael Jackson. I can’t even tell you the first time I heard an MJ song, how old I was, or what song it was. I can’t remember because I feel like his music was always there, even though I was born in the mid-nineties. By the time I could say that I consciously remember listening to him, he was well past his prime. This definitely says something about the legacy this man was leaving even while still alive. When I first started using Youtube in 2006, I would spend hours watching…
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Young Thug Revolutionizing Hip hop… Unintentionally
Young Thug has recently dropped his newest mixtape Jeffery. The mixtape is a great one and I can already picture myself hearing many of these tracks in the club while sipping on my rum and coke. Although full of bangers, the tape is somewhat strange as well. Firstly, the songs are all named after idols of his, which apparently include Wyclef Jean, Kanye West (which features Wyclef), Riri, and Harambe. Why is Harambe one of Young Thug’s idols? I doubt that we’ll ever know because the lyrics to the song have nothing to do with Harambe or gorillas. However, the aspect of this mixtape that has drawn the most attention is the cover.…
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BLM: Critical Review of To Pimp a Butterfly
Yesterday, Tumblr acknowledged that it’s been two years since the Ferguson protests began, which had me start thinking of Black Lives Matter, a movement I stand by closely. Last semester, I wrote a critical review on my favourite album of 2015, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly for my pop culture class in reference to the current social turmoil. Here it is. Rapper Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly, was a favourite to win Album of the Year at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, topping many critics’ “Best Albums of 2015” lists, including Rolling Stones magazine’s (2015). Described as a “masterpiece of fiery outrage, deep jazz and ruthless self-critique” (Tate, 2015, n.p),…
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Song of the Day – “Luv” by Tory Lanez
This is a song I’ve been hearing all summer and been digging, but had no idea who sang it. I was also never curious enough to Shazam it or anything. Being the Caribbean girl that I am at heart, I love mainstream songs with Caribbean influence, and with releases like “Work” and a good portion of Drake’s Views, 2016 seems to be the year for it. Although not an amazing dancehall tune, I know that when I’m drunk in the club at 1am and Tory Lanez’ “Luv” comes on, I am feeling that island fantasy. Listen to the song below.
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Song of the Day – “Hometown Girl” by Zhu
Chinese-American electronic musician Zhu recently released his debut album, Generationwhy, on July 29th. Although the album as a whole has received mixed reviews, it does includes some moderately impressive electronic tunes. I am definitely not an electronic dance music expert so I usually try to stay out of conversations surrounding the genre, but I checked out Zhu’s album and, personally, I thought it was good. This song, “Hometown Girl,” featuring vocals from Jaymes Young is a song that I would not characterize as one of the best electronic tracks that I’ve ever heard, but it’s one that I do enjoy. It contains a laid-back beat, a catchy hook, and simple lyrics reciting a…
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“Sluggish, Lazy, Stupid, and Unconcerned”
Who else could blatantly read a whole generation like that and be praised? Thank God Endless was released at the beginning of this weekend to absorb part of my overly ecstatic reaction to Frank Ocean finally dropping his new album. But for some reason, what I wasn’t prepared for is how perfect this album would actually be. *listens to #Blonde one time* pic.twitter.com/iduMLdaflU — Wantickets (@Wantickets) August 20, 2016 As I have mentioned of Ocean before, he is able to have the listener reflect on their own self while listening to his inspired tracks. Blond has substance; the overall subject matter of the album is able to have every listener rationalize with Ocean’s own thoughts and emotions.…
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Frank Ocean Re-emerges
Since first hearing about Frank Ocean getting back in the studio in 2013, I, just as many other fans, have been anticipating his crawling out from under that rock he retired to after channel ORANGE. I looked forward to him gracing the world with more evocative tracks from his inspired soul. At first I was patient, because I understand that art takes time. But after a handful of pushed release dates continuously giving false hope, I began praying that that channel ORANGE money would run out quickly (he wanted to be petty, well I had to play the game too). Well, no longer must I be petty, Frank. Although the visual album Endless is not the album that we are waiting for, it…
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The Resurgence of Vinyl (That I blindly didn’t see coming)
Fact: I (still) collect CDs. Crazy right? I do this for several reasons, but in short, I simply like having physical copies of my music, and I appreciate the sound quality of a CD playing from my stereo. I usually purchase new CDs from HMV or order new or used from Amazon, but at the beginning of this summer I realized that there was a more obvious option – used record stores. So the first time I entered one of these stores it was amazing. It was so exciting to me finding all of these CDs, some of which I had previously had trouble finding in HMV or online. I…
