Tag: review

Album Review: Parannoul – After the Magic

By Ethan Hofer, Staff Writer
[POCLANOS; 2023]
Rating: 8/10
Key tracks: “Polaris”, Parade”, “After the Magic”
Shoegaze, known for its popularity mostly in the European scene, has truly shown how artists and bands internationally interpret the genre. Anonymous South Korean musician Parannoul has set the standard for modern-day shoegaze, especially on their debut record To See the Next Part of the Dream, known for its noisy, maximalist instrumentals. After the Magic follows a similar pattern to great effect.

Album Review: Obituary – Dying of Everything

By Nicholas Kobe, Contributor [Relapse Records; 2023] Rating 7/10 Key Tracks: “Barely Alive”, “The Wrong Time”, “My Will To Live” Legendary death metal band Obituary kicks off 2023 with Dying of Everything. This is their first LP since 2017’s self-titled release. Fans of Obituary will be pleased that Dying of Everything is not an incredibly…

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Album Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard –Laminated Denim

By Nicholas Kobe, Contributor 
[KGLW; 2022]
Rating: 6/10
Key tracks: “The Land Before Timeland”, “Hypertension”
A new project has dropped from King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, which is frankly a miracle. King Gizzard’s fans had been waiting an agonizing five days since the release of their last album. Sarcasm aside, King Gizzard has one of the most insane output schedules in all of music. 22 albums deep, just over 10 years into their career. The band’s sound has ranged from psych, prog, electronic, metal, punk, acoustic and literally everything in between. The most recent leg of their career has been dominated by experimentation. This can be clearly seen in their first album from October, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, an album of seven songs, all based on each of the seven musical modes. 

Album Review: Bladee – Spiderr

By Ethan Hofer, Staff Writer
[YEAR 0001; 2022]
Rating: 8/10
Key tracks: “I AM SLOWLY BUT SURELY LOSING HOPE”, “BLUE CRUSH ANGEL”, “HAHAH”
Bladee is arguably one of the most creative music minds of this generation. From the bizarre, yet intriguing album covers to his ever-changing sound with his Drain Gang collective, there has always been something unique about Bladee. Spiderr’s fascinating cover which features a deified picture of Bladee with a spider in his hand and a Hebrew symbol meaning “truth” on his forehead. The cover truly is as captivating as Spiderr’s sound.

Single Review: Samia – Kill Her Freak Out

By Helena Karlstrom, Staff Writer
[Grand Jury Music; 2022]
Rating: 7/10
Samia Finnerty is an up-and-coming alternative singer/songwriter who specializes in expressing feelings like yearning, pain, and loneliness. After releasing a few singles in 2017, Samia debuted her first album, The Baby, in 2020. She recorded an EP, titled Scout, as well as covers of songs by When in Rome and The Magnetic Fields the following year.

Movie Review: Don’t Worry Darling

By: Amy Szmik, Copy Editor
[Warner Bros. Pictures; 2022]
Rating: 6/10
Don’t Worry Darling has had a whirlwind of press surrounding it before anyone even saw it. From the drama surrounding Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde, to the supposed “spitgate”, all of the media frenzy drowned out, for many, what the actual plot of the film is. The story follows Alice Chambers (Florence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Harry Styles), a supposedly happy couple in an idyllic suburb in California. The film is stylized as if it were in the 1950s, with the women cooking and cleaning while the men go to work for the mysterious “Victory Project.” The women are left completely in the dark as to what their husbands do when they go to work. The one woman who doesn’t trust Victory anymore, Margaret (Kiki Layne), is left ostracized by her community. The story follows Alice cracking mentally while slowly starting to question what is really going on. Alongside Pugh, Styles and Layne, the film stars Olivia Wilde, Nick Kroll, Gemma Chan and Chris Pine.

Album Review: Alex G – God Save the Animals

By Rocco Prioletti, Contributor
[Domino Recording Co; 2022]
Rating: 6/10
Key tracks: “Mission,” “Ain’t it Easy,” “Miracles”
Predictability is a vice dreaded by most every creative individual. The fear of succumbing to a seemingly predestined path, to not exceed expectations. Given the now nine full-length records, alongside a vast plethora of loose unreleased hits, Alex G has remained unscathed by the claws of predictability. From the first moments of lead single “Blessing”, all expectations of a folk-adjacent follow-up were blown completely out of the water. We’re unexpectedly presented with the grating growl of an exceptionally dated synthesizer, along with Giannascoli’s almost Criss Angel-like attire in its accompanying music video.

Album Review: Björk – Fossora

By Cody Englander, Contributor
[One Little Independent Records; 2022]
Rating: 9/10
Key tracks: Fungal City, Victimhood
Björk makes her triumphant return with Fossora, five years after her previous Utopia, and this new album does not skip a single beat. Fossora differs from Utopia with darker themes, and goes on a more personal journey than usual. The album is a blend of genres as Björk has done previously, but the psychedelic background vocals and instrumentals really separate this work from her others, elevating it. Accompanied by her powerful vocal performances, these elements make for an album that is certainly worth checking out. 

Album Review: BLACKPINK – BORN PINK

By: Amy Szmik, Copy Editor
[YG Entertainment; 2022]
Rating: 5/10
Key tracks: “Yeah Yeah Yeah”, “Hard to Love”, “The Happiest Girl”
Disappointing is one word to describe BLACKPINK’s new album, BORN PINK. Superstar KPOP group BLACKPINK released their sophomore album in September, two years after their debut album, aptly titled THE ALBUM. The four member group features Jennie, Rosé, Jisoo and Lisa, and debuted under famed KPOP company YG Entertainment back in 2016. Despite being in the industry for a long time, there is no noticeable growth through their music. It’s especially evident in BORN PINK. While the eight-song album has some good and memorable tracks, many of them are repetitive and could be easily chalked up to empty noise. Blackpink can make good music; they obviously have a discography of good and popular songs, but for an album that was so highly anticipated, it feels like a let down. 

Album Review: The Mars Volta – The Mars Volta

By Adrian Woods, Contributor
[Clouds Hill; 2022]
Rating: 6/10
Key tracks: Blacklight Shine, Flash Burns From Flashbacks, No Case Gain
The Mars Volta have finally made their long awaited return with their seventh studio album, The Mars Volta. After the duo of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala had broken up ten years ago, fans weren’t sure if the two would ever make music again. Evidently, they wanted to, and when The Mars Volta announced their newest single with an album to follow, fans were eagerly awaiting the release in September. 

Single Review: Bladee – DRAIN STORY

By Liam Syrvalin, Contributor
[year0001; 2022]
Rating: 5/10
Let’s address the elephant in the room right now: if you are a Bladee fan, you probably think I am insane for giving this single a 5. Sure, there’s absolutely no attempt to stay onbeat. Sure, the lyrics are beyond dumb and don’t really make any sense. Sure, the cover art looks like 30 different, very loud images slapped on top of each other in Photoshop. This single is also, though, a love letter to the goofy, carefree style and niche of media Drain Gang falls into, and it is a reminder of why “drainers” obsess over the collective.