Album Review: Hannah Diamond – Reflections

By Kiah Easton, Columns Editor [PC Music; 2019] Rating: 7.5/10  Key tracks: “Love Goes On”, “Concrete Angel”, “Fade Away” Hannah Diamond has been a driving musical force not only as a member of the PC Music label but also as a hyper-pop pioneer. She takes the elements of traditional pop and deconstructs them, transforming familiar…

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Album Review: Mount Erie –Lost Wisdom, Pt. 2

By Jonah Krueger, Staff Writer [P.W. Elverum & Sun, 2019] Rating: 8/10 Key tracks: “Belief”, “Love Without Possession”, “Belief Pt. 2” Phil Elverum’s last two years have been, to put it mildly, very unique. With the release of a Vanity Fair feature, he transitioned from an indie-music veteran to a tabloid subheading. Overnight, he became…

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Album Review: Earl Sweatshirt – FEET OF CLAY

By Kiah Easton, Columns Editor [Warner Records; 2019] Rating: 6.5/10 Key tracks: “MTOMB”, “EL TORO COMBO MEAL (feat. Mavi)”, “ TISK TISK / COOKIES” Following Earl Sweatshirt’s critically acclaimed masterpiece, Some Rap Songs, Earl’s latest EP FEET OF CLAY feels more like the B-sides of his previous project. However, being compared to the B-sides of…

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ACRN Celebrates: Sylvester, Queen of Disco

By Maria Lubanovic, Copy Editor Sylvester, the Queen of Disco, grew up in the Pentecostal church, where he found his passion for singing through a gospel choir. As an androgynous gay man, he had a difficult time feeling like he belonged and eventually found groups of gay men, trans women and drag queens to perform…

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Artist Profile: Austin Hitte

By Maddie Young, Contributor [Photo via Spotify] When hearing the phrase “SoundCloud Rapper,” a specific image comes to mind: a middle-school kid wearing Air Force Ones with rainbow hair rapping about a Louis Vuitton bag that they don’t even own. But a new generation of DIY rappers have taken over this new golden age of…

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Meet the DJ: KT

By Taylor Linzinmeir, Staff Writer  After an almost year-long hiatus, one of ACRN’s veteran DJs is about to hit the college rock airwaves once more. Sophomore Katie Hawkinson, otherwise known as DJ KT, will be back in the studio this week after studying abroad in Japan for the 2019 fall semester.  Read more: Meet the…

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ACRN’s Top 10 Disappointing Albums of 2019

10. Avril Lavigne – Head Above Water, [BMG; 2019] By Maria Lubanovic, Copy Editor If you told me Avril Lavigne would release an album with cover art of her naked behind a guitar as a way to show a raw and emotional edge, I wouldn’t have flinched. That’s a classic comeback move for a lot of…

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Album Review: blink-182 – NINE

By Mason Kereliuk, Contributor [Columbia, 2019] Rating: 6/10 Key tracks: “Pin the Grenade”, “Ransom”, “Hungover You” For years I have been telling people that I hate blink-182 and that the lead singer seemed like a real sonofabitch, even though his leaked nudes were kind of hot. It wasn’t until writing this review that I realized…

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Album Review: Counterparts – Nothing Left To Love

By Marvin Dotiyal, Features Editor [Pure Noise; 2019] Rating: 8/10 Key tracks: “Your Own Knife”, “Wings of Nightmares”, “The Hands That Used to Hold Me” Between the many intersections of metal and hardcore, melodic hardcore feels like a thing of a past. Early 2000s pioneers like Killing The Dream and Have Heart disbanded ages ago,…

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Album Review: Turnover – Altogether

By Lauren Patterson, Contributor [Run for Cover; 2019] Rating: 7/10 Key tracks: “Sending Me Right Back”, “Ceramic City”, “Plant Sugar” Imagine being sprawled across the backseat of a car as you stare into the area of the window that still remains in view. You cross your legs over one another, and the radio plays a…

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ACRN Celebrates: Bob Marley

By Tierney Carter, Contributor  Today, many hear the cool, smooth sounds of reggae music and have to take a moment to reflect on the king of reggae himself, Bob Marley. This Jamaica-born singer took the world by storm (or by a puff of smoke) and helped to establish the Rastafarian vibe that so many find…

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ACRN’s Oscars 2020 Recap

By Maria Lubanovic, Copy Editor and Ceara Kelly, Contributor This is our last official Oscars recap. It’s been a fun time, but we have to graduate and join the industry ourselves. This is our third annual recap, so if you want to see the previous ones, here are 2019’s and 2018’s. We will keep it…

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