By Marvin Dotiyal, Features Editor [Darkroom/Interscope; 2019] Rating: 7.5/10 Key tracks: “xanny”, “you should see me in a crown”, “listen before i go” When Finneas O’Connell first wrote “Ocean Eyes” for his band The Slightlys, the future of the song was beyond the scope of his expectations. It was when his younger sister breathed life…
Category: Reviews
Movie Review: Five Feet Apart
By Jessica Jones, Staff Writer [Lionsgate; 2019] Rating: 4.5/10 Five Feet Apart, the latest teenage sob story to hit the big screen, is nothing more than average at best. The film takes every opportunity to make the viewers cry while also taking advantage of today’s heartthrob Cole Sprouse, who plays the main love interest, Will….
Album Review: Wallows – Nothing Happens
By Kwase Lane, Staff Writer [Atlantic; 2019] Rating: 7.5/10 Key tracks: “Are You Bored Yet?”, “Scrawny”, “Ice Cold Pool” On their debut album, Nothing Happens, Wallows dyes their colorful, upbeat instrumentation a dark gray with their moody vocals. The project is filled with songs that make for excellent background music, but it rewards close listeners…
Movie Review: Us
By Ceara Kelly, Staff Writer [Monkeypaw Productions; 2019] Rating: 7/10 Jordan Peele continues his transition from comedy king to horror god with this year’s release of Us. The unsettling film leaves even the most mundane things threatening. The genre has experienced a resurgence in the past few years, and this wonderfully unique nightmare is another…
Album Review: Lena Raine – One Knowing
By Kiah Easton, Staff Writer [Self-released; 2019] Rating: 7/10 Key tracks: “Tsukuyomi”,”Insomnia”, “Trance State” After widespread critical acclaim from her release Celeste OST, Lena Raine has used her momentum to release a debut album, One Knowing, that stands alone as a sonic experience, unaccompanied by partnered media. While the OST for Celeste is a perfectly tailored…
Movie Review: Shoplifters
By Andrew Breazeale, Staff Writer [GAGA; 2018] Rating: 8.5/10 Shoplifters introduces us to the Shibatas, a poor family of six living together under one tiny roof, scraping money together any way they can. As the title implies, shoplifting is one way they make a living, teaching their children to steal from local stores in Tokyo…
Album Review: American Football – American Football (LP3)
By Lane Moore, Reviews Editor [Polyvinyl; 2019] Rating: 8/10 Key tracks: “Silhouettes”, “Heir Apparent”, “Mine to Miss” Like a half-conjured memory, one that might’ve been a dream, American Football’s third self-titled record begins with an ambiance that immediately sets it apart from the band’s previous work. American Football’s 1999 self-titled debut record focuses on the…
Album Review: Avey Tare – Cows on Hourglass Pond
By Kiah Easton, Staff Writer [Domino; 2019] Rating: 7/10 Key tracks: “What’s The Goodside?”, “Eyes On Eyes”, “HORS_” David Portner of Avey Tare, most popularly known for co-founding Animal Collective, released a new, full-length project entitled Cows on Hourglass Pond. Clearly a driving force within Animal Collective, this project reminisces his softer, narrative tracks within…
Movie Review: Climax
By Jon Fuchs, Music Director [A24; 2018] Rating: 9.5/10 In one of the opening scenes of Gaspar Noé’s latest spine-chiller, Climax, the viewer is treated to a montage of interviews from the cast of the film, endlessly describing their passion for dance. The characters describe dancing as an otherworldly experience where they feel truly free,…
Movie Review: Captain Marvel
By Ceara Kelly, Staff Writer [Marvel; 2019] Rating: 7.5/10 Just when Marvel was getting dull, they found a way to keep casual audiences coming. Sure, Captain Marvel follows a lot of the recycled story structure of past Marvel films, but it’s much more fun to watch a woman shoot sexist nerds with lasers instead of…
Album Review: The Japanese House – Good At Falling
By Kayla Chanthavong, Contributor [Dirty Hit; 2019] Rating: 6/10 Key tracks: “Maybe You’re the Reason”, “Follow My Girl”, “Worms” British solo artist and indie pop icon Amber Bain, also known as The Japanese House, follows her experience with life-changing events by releasing Good At Falling, her first full-length album. This time around, Bain gives us more…
Album Review: Marianas Trench – Phantoms
By Kayla Chanthavong, Contributor [604; 2019] Rating: 7.5/10 Key tracks: “Echoes Of You”, “I Knew You When”, “The Killing Kind” Three years after the release of Astoria, Marianas Trench grace us with another full-length album, Phantoms. Before this album release, they teased us with three singles: “Echoes of You”, “I Knew You When”, and “Only…
