Reviews
Lana Del Rey Delivers Stark Americana With Blue Banisters
Blue has always been Lana Del Rey’s color. Since her 2012 debut Born to Die, it’s been the singer’s blanket descriptor for the literal (jeans, pills, skies and oceans) and the emotive: serenity, joy, melancholy and vulnerability. On Blue Banisters, Del Rey’s candid and captivating eighth studio LP — and her second album in seven months — the color is again omnipresent as it brushes broken promises and rebirth across the 36-year-old songwriter’s sullen heart. “Said he’d fix my weathervane, give me children, take away my pain / And paint my banisters blue,” Del Rey laments through the wistful title track, referencing her 2020 split from Tulsa, Oklahoma cop and LivePD reality TV star Sean Larkin. However, Banisters isn’t a breakup record. It’s an observational project, perhaps Del Rey’s most ...
Let It Be – Super Deluxe Version Repaints the Beatles’ Final Album
The controversy that surrounds the album Let It Be down the years makes it the most intriguing release by The Beatles. Many observers consider it ill-conceived, a slapdash affair and a sad ending to a great legacy. It is doubtful any band (of any longevity) had as much influence as The Beatles in their seven-year recording career. McCartney still peppers his live setlist with the title track. Some call it a very weak album, but with three No. 1 singles, it certainly warrants the current attention. The story is fairly well known. McCartney hatched the idea of capturing on film the band creating, rehearsing and performing entirely new songs. In the cavernous and dank Twickenham film studios the band gathered on the second day of 1969 (“like playing table tennis in a football stadium”). The f...
The Rolling Stones Paid Tribute to Charlie Watts and Dusted Off an Old Favorite in Los Angeles: Review
“This is our 49th show in Los Angeles,” Mick Jagger was shouting. In a flash, the 70,000-capacity SoFi stadium quickly responded with a harmonious yell, building a call and response that even after 60 years, The Rolling Stones have stayed as the undeniable spearheads of rock ‘n’ roll — even if just for the night. Straight from the American leg of their rescheduled “No Filter Tour,” Sunday (October 17th) marked night two of the sold-out ring of Southern California shows, and it was anything but filtered. For roughly 120 minutes, the Stones secured their crowns as the “kings of rock.” Guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood plumped the evening with hard-hitting riffs, typical Jagger catwalks, and soul-infused backup vocals bringing a tight punch to classics like “Gimme Shelter” and “You Ca...
Rolling Stones Play ‘Wild Horses,’ ‘All Down The Line’ During Raucous L.A. Show
There’s a line in Almost Famous where Stillwater’s manager (played by Jimmy Fallon) proclaimed: “If you think Mick Jagger will still be out there trying to be a rock star at age 50, then you are sadly, sadly mistaken.” I couldn’t help thinking about how unbelievably wrong that character’s prediction was last night, watching the three septuagenarians take the stage on the second of two shows in Los Angeles’ $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium just weeks after the devastating loss of drummer Charlie Watts. But them British Bad Boys carried on, with Steve Jordan filling in on drums. INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 17: Ronnie Wood, Steve Jordan, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards perform onstage during the “No Filter” tour at SoFi Stadium on October 17, 2021 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Kevin Ma...
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Is Completely Oblivious to Its Own Plight
On “Trouble In Town,” the third track on Coldplay’s 2019 LP Everyday Life, the band places a rather disturbing sound clip of a police officer rudely interrogating someone — this comes after Chris Martin’s solemn lament on unequal power structures and how they always “add more police,” and before a full-band psychedelic freak out of an outro, which is not necessarily what you’d associate with Coldplay. This was not an anomaly on the record; Everyday Life featured Coldplay at their most experimental, their most vital, and playing the riskiest music they’ve made in years. But what’s more, is that it sounded like Coldplay had changed, that over a span of 20 years as a band, they were almost more weathered and rugged. Fast forward to two years later; Coldplay have released their ninth studio al...
With Juno, Remi Wolf Signals That the Future of Pop Music Is Already Here
“Remi Wolf is a crazy bih but is also hella nice and sweet sometimes but also likes to yell at people but has figured out that maybe instead of yelling at people she can just sing.” This is the description that greets users who visit Remi Wolf’s official Spotify artist page. It’s not an inaccurate first impression for people who might be new to our October Artist of the Month, Remi Wolf. She’s arrived on the indie-pop scene in a neon and rainbow-drenched burst and has become something of a festival darling over the past year. Active social media users probably heard her track “Photo ID” on TikTok, but Wolf’s budding discography is much more than the viral hit may have suggested. Juno, her debut full-length album, is an odyssey through a world of oddities. In a recent interview with Consequ...
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Mixes Anthems With Space Junk
A weary voice actor steps into a Hollywood studio soundbooth. Maybe it’s Will Arnett. It’s probably Will Arnett. Will Arnett sips his coffee, slides his headphones on and speaks into the microphone, addressing his producer: “Alright, Frankie, what are we hawking today? More Reese’s cups?” “No, Will, we’ve got something new for ya. It’s, it’s … a Coldplay ad.” Will Arnett closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I know, they got a new record or something” Frankie says. “Let’s try a take. Maybe do it like a ‘90s movie trailer guy. You can even do the LEGO Batman voice!” “Jesus Christ,” Will Arnett mutters, glancing at his watch. “Okay, let’s do this.” The tape rolls, he begins. “Coming this fall: THEY are the most successful pop-rock band of the 21st Century. HE’S produced ...
St. Vincent’s Daddy’s Home Finds Its True Place at New York’s Radio City Music Hall: Review
A St. Vincent tour always carries with it a sense of the theatrical. Everything is delivered with considered planning and plotting, from the lighting cues to the set design to the dance moves. It’s not surprising the “Daddy’s Home Tour” once again brings a carefully crafted presentation to the rock gig, but it’s interesting how deeply it leans into it. Fans aren’t coming out to a St. Vincent concert this time around; they’re catching the Daddy’s Home touring production. That’s what rolled into New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, October 12th. Some moments are pure Broadway, like the trio of backing singers milling about with drinks in their hands “peas and carroting” in the background during “…At the Holiday Party.” Instead of the typical, “How you doing tonight, New Y...
Austin City Limits 2021 Weekend 2 Photo Gallery: Duran Duran, Jon Batiste, Megan Thee Stallion and More
Austin City Limits was back at Zilker Park this past weekend for Weekend 2 — and so were we. After providing daily live galleries from Weekend 1, Consequence photographer Amy Price returned to capture all the going-ons of the three-day event. The glory of a two-weekend festival is that on the second go-around, you can capture the sets you missed the first time, like the legends Duran Duran. Weekend 2 also saw performances from Jon Batiste, Marc Rebillet, Leann Rimes, Trixie Mattel, The Hu, and yes, Machine Gun Kelly again. Revisit it all in the extensive gallery below, which includes some backstage portraits with the likes of Claud, Dayglow, Tate McRae, jxdn, Heartless Bastards, and more. Then, make sure you read our complete recap of Austin City Limits Weekend 1. Advertisement Relate...
NYFF Review: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Is Spectacular — And Spectacularly Underwhelming
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel Dune gets its second big-screen treatment. The first was a notorious misfire directed by David Lynch, who famously disowned the final film; the newer version is from Denis Villeneuve, who has experience with sci-fi both emotionally intimate (Arrival) and storied in its nerdy history (Blade Runner 2049). Though the politics and world-building of the Dune world can seem obtuse — the names alone present a challenge for the less sci-fi-inclined — its story will also have a familiar ring for anyone who’s absorbed a few of the many works the novel influenced. Advertisement Related Video In other words, yes, it’s a chosen-one narrative: Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a young...
Nashville Film Festival Review: Spencer Is a Devastating Portrait of the People’s Princess
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Nashville Film Festival. The Pitch: Over the course of three days, Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Spencer) is faced with a decision that will inevitably change her fate: continue living in near agony among the royal family, or separate from her husband? History already knows the answer, leaving an air of tragedy even in moments of small victory and stolen joy for Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart, as striking in her portrayal as early reactions indicated). “It’s three days,” Diana whispers to herself early in the film. Those three days prove to be a trial more difficult than even she had anticipated. Advertisement Related Video Heavy Is the Head That Wears the Crown: One of the first shots of Pablo Larraín’s film takes place in a massive ...
Moor Mother Time Travels Through Black Encyclopedia of the Air
On her fifth album, Black Encyclopedia of the Air, Camae Ayewa (better known as Moor Mother) paints a world where time is broken, a shifting wasteland where she explores issues of violence and identity on a generational scale. This catastrophe is a familiar setting for the Philadelphia artist, who blends her poetry and music in a way that harkens back to the proto-rap of Gil Scott-Heron, but also meshes with the avant-garde quality of contemporary hip hop. But genre, like time, is transcended and shattered within Ayewa’s body of work. Her debut LP, 2016’s Fetish Bones, blended growling synths and overbearing static with paper-thin gospel samples and the haunting chant of chain gang songs — and ever since, Ayewa’s music has combined the old and new in ways that blur the difference between t...
