Reviews
Glitterer’s Life Is Not a Lesson Is an Existential, Idiosyncratic Party
The opening lyrics to Glitterer’s sophomore studio album Life Is Not a Lesson sound as if they’re straight from an old philosophical text written in miniature poems: “In between a thought and being / Try to rid myself of feeling / Want to be objective, true / A body’s got nothing to prove.” But that’s just how Ned Russin — the face behind the whole project, and the ex-Title Fight member — is, especially after getting his Master’s in creative writing at Columbia University. Even the title Life Is Not a Lesson reads like a chapter from an antiquated novel. It’s a funny phrase, especially coming from someone in his early 30s. Glitterer, in many ways, seems to follow Russin through his contemplations, and this record transparently communicates his current confusion. “I’ll never know / Just how...
Naira Marley: Finds Love That Might Reform Him – “Chi Chi”, The Review
Marlians president, Naira Marley, finds himself on a special sonic path that leads the way as a character in between, finding the love of his life after he settled for-long term street creations. He finds love in between and goes emotional, off his regular explicit-y. Marley has released and performed highly contagious records that replicate not even an atom of manner from a presentation that strongly stake and cakes in average Nigerian youth’s mind in their mass, and have totally driven them both male and female, to cling n*ked fun, embracing vanity in folds and hedonistic lifestyle at its maximum height, relatively. Naira Marley, deliberately shoves down records that makes the average youth who might strongly connect his art, want to partake like in his explicit music visuals and so...
Julien Baker Embraces the Darkness on Little Oblivions
When Julien Baker toured in support of 2017’s delicately devastating Turn Out The Lights, her audiences stood suspended in time. No cheers or sing-alongs, just several hundred bodies frozen in arrest, observing the solo songwriter as she wailed tunes of broken love, tattered faith and crumbling mental health. While much of Baker’s new LP, Little Oblivions, hits similarly soul-ravaging notes, its accompanying stage show — whenever it comes — will be forced to liven up, emboldened by the ripe drum samples and swirling synth that drive the Memphis artist’s new sound. Hell, people may even dance! The robust arrangements, plucking from modern rock and Americana, do well to mask what is easily Baker’s most candid, heartrending lyricism yet — an unflinching gaze into the mirror, with ...
BTS Bring the Fire and Set the Night Alight on MTV Unplugged: Review
Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: Recently, there’s been a growing divide between millennials and gen-z: side parts and skinny jeans are out. Different emojis are in. End up on the wrong end of the divide, and you’re in a tough spot. MTV Unplugged feels much more associated with the millennials, first airing in 1989 and rising to prominence in the ‘90s, ushering in many performances that have since become the stuff of legend. In 1992, Eric Clapton’s Unplugged album became the best-selling live album of all time. Mariah Carey’s episode marked a shift in her public reception and launched her cover of “I’ll Be There” to No. 1. MTV as a whole now often feels associated with a nostalgic time of TRL, flannels, and Blockbuster, but rest assured, millennials — if BTS is doing it, it’s still cool. The m...
Sean Tizzle’s Sonic Viscosity Is One Of A Kind, “Where You Been EP” Review
Sean Tizzle’s “Where You Been” EP, is a project that substantially surprises Tizzle’s detractors, and perhaps his core listeners; he took them to a place like a museum in my imagination that houses beautiful self-made artifacts of his art that he carefully refurnished and called in-his core fans to witness and left detractors as he awes them unapologetically. “Moving Forward EP” in 2017, was Sean Tizzle’s laid-back project that almost generally accompanied outstanding features in the delivery of the classic African pop records. Sean Tizzle fast-tracked from 2017 to 2021 as he delivered 2-Extended Play in which his most recent project dives in-between “Moving Forward EP” and his debut studio album, “The Journey” in 2014. RELATED: Teni & Davido Are Meant For Each Other “For You” Review “...
DHQ reorganises operations to tackle security challenges
The Defence Headquarters has said it is reorganising operations across theatres toward tackling security challenges in the country. Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this while giving update on the operations of the armed forces across the country yesterday in Abuja. Enenche said the recent changes in the leadership of the armed forces would usher in new modus operandi for tackling security challenges in the country. He said the service chiefs on assumption of duty, immediately hit the ground running, by conducting operational visits to the North East. “In line with the re-organisation of the armed forces of Nigeria with the appointment of new service chiefs, the operations of the armed forces are equally being reorganised to tackle security challenge...
FX’s Hip Hop Uncovered Is a Powerful Watch: Review
The Pitch: Far too often, the history of hip-hop is condensed to make its origins more palatable for younger fans. Black folks in New York — downtrodden by systems that perpetuated poverty, racism, and police brutality — pioneered a form of creative expression meant to give a platform to their pain. However, FX’s Hip Hop Uncovered explores the genre’s complexity. More importantly, it analyzes rap music in a sociopolitical context. From slavery to the destruction of Black Wall Street to the war on drugs to the Black Lives Matter movement, Hip Hop Uncovered reminds viewers of the brutal American history that has always worked to violate and abuse Black people. It also demystifies some of rap’s most prominent figures who were pivotal in the careers of artists like Nipsey Hussle, Nicki Minaj, ...
On TYRON, slowthai Looks in a Cracked Mirror
TYRON, the sophomore album of UK rapper Tyron Frampton—aka slowthai—takes the scathing perspective of his debut, Nothing Great About Britain, and turns it on himself. Even as he searches through a turbulent childhood and a sudden rise to fame for jewels of wisdom, slowthai keeps his brash satire and disregard for public standards. Also returning are his broad ear for production along with the diverse talents of Kwes Darko, Kelvin Krash, and SAMO. Ty enters the album as a familiarly chaotic figure: “45 SMOKE” is a hard-edged opener on a sinister-sounding beat reminiscent of the disembodied chanting on Big Sean’s “Control,” and he closes its first verse by declaring “The world is mine.” This much cockiness is to be expected from the artist who, since the release of his first album in 2019, h...
Hayley Williams’ Flowers For Vases/Descansos Is Her Saddest, Quietest Music Yet
With her surprise LP, Flowers For Vases/Descansos, Hayley Williams has forgone further pop experimentation, instead clinging to a raw recitation of profound, suffocating sadness. The Paramore singer’s sophomore solo effort, released on Friday, employs little more than austere acoustic guitar and piano interludes across its 14 new tracks, which lament well beyond the waves of Williams’ past emotional wreckage. This time, the 32-year-old star is hopelessly set adrift between shores: At one edge, the luring memories of lost love, moments both soul-affirming and earth-shattering from which she cannot fully escape. At the other, forgiveness, catharsis, moving on — none of which she can seem to firmly grasp. Back and forth she floats. While eloquently arranged, Flowers’ uniform anguish mak...
Apple’s App Store hosting multi-million dollar scams – developer
Mobile app developer Kosta Eleftheriou has a new calling that goes beyond software development: taking on what he sees as a rampant scam problem ruining the integrity of Apple’s App Store. Eleftheriou, who created the successful Apple Watch keyboard app FlickType, has for the last two weeks been publicly criticizing Apple for lax enforcement of its App Store rules that have allowed scam apps, as well as apps that clone popular software from other developers, to run rampant. These apps enjoy top billing in the iPhone marketplace, all thanks to glowing reviews and sterling five-star ratings that are largely fabricated, he says. Up to now, I’ve been in the “Apple *wants* to do the right thing” camp. My viewpoint is starting to change. How to spot a $5M/year scam on the @AppS...
Hayley Williams Lays It Bare on Intimate Sophomore Record FLOWERS for VASES / descansos: Review
The Lowdown: Hayley Williams has never been afraid to use her voice. Since exploding onto the pop-punk scene in 2004 as the frontwoman of Paramore, her name has been synonymous with expansive, acrobatic vocals. She’s also not afraid to use her voice in another sense, though — ask anyone in Nashville and you hear some variation of it: “Hayley Williams is a real one.” Since being discovered at just 14 and spending the majority of her life in the spotlight, she’s become a confident voice in music, present in conversations around mental health and aligning herself with groups like Teens4Equality. On her sophomore solo effort, FLOWERS for VASES / descansos, that growth is reflected more personally and intimately than ever before. She strips it all down: every part of the record was written and ...
BLACKPINK Light up the Sky Again with THE SHOW: Review
To paraphrase Wendy Williams: BLACKPINK? They’ve got a point: they are legends, and they are the moment. The pop quartet — made up of Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa — made a joyful return to the stage Saturday with their livestream concert, “THE SHOW”. It was just October of 2020 that the group released their debut full-length album (aptly titled THE ALBUM) following years of chart-smashing singles and EPs. Having already conquered international markets and ascended to unparalleled heights for a South Korean girl group, it’s easy to forget that, in terms of releases, BLACKPINK have only started to scratch the surface. Streamed through YouTube by the band’s label, YG Entertainment, “THE SHOW” was a spectacle indeed, involving a live band, a legion of backup dancers, and performance premieres...
