Reviews
Alex Wheatle Is A Rare Stumble for the Small Axe Anthology: Review
The Pitch: Before he was an award-winning author of books like Brixton Rock and Island Songs, Alex Wheatle (Sheyi Cole) spent a short time in prison following his involvement in the 1981 Brixton riots, an explosive confrontation between the police and the neighborhood’s Afro-Caribbean community. There, with the help of his Rastafarian cellmate Simeon (Robbie Gee), Alex looks back on his life — a childhood marred by mistreatment in foster care homes and bolstered by his budding career as a DJ in Brixton — and tries to figure out what to do, and who to be, next. Short But Sweet: Of the five films in writer/director Steve McQueen‘s anthology about the West Indian communities of London from the ’60s to the ’80s, Alex Wheatle is by far the shortest (clocking in at 65 minutes). Th...
Rico Nasty Expands Her Repertoire on Debut Nightmare Vacation: Review
The Lowdown: Rico Nasty has always been a powerhouse, existing on the edge of Soundcloud rap in the mid-2010s while still finishing high school. Her infectious, aggressive-yet-bubbly style made waves on the Internet early on, attracting the attention of Lil Yachty in 2016 to remix her song “Hey Arnold” and being featured in the hit HBO series insecure in 2017. Combining her eclectic fashion sense with spitfire raps that effortlessly bounce between sex and violence makes her one of the biggest pieces in the growing mosaic of this new era of female rappers. Her long-awaited debut album, Nightmare Vacation, takes a fine-tooth comb through the style that has made her one of the most influential rappers of the past few years. With seven mixtapes under her belt, Rico sounds like a seasoned veter...
Clearbody Up Their Game With One More Day
North Carolina’s Clearbody are starting fresh. Formed as Dollhands in 2019, the band shed their gritty sound, went through a lineup change and renamed themselves. The songs became fuller, the production richer. One More Day, their first album as Clearbody that will be released on Smartpunk, shows a band that took the necessary steps to get to the next level and establish their talent in the heavy shoegaze scene. The first single, “Blossom,” received positive feedback from listeners on social media. Released in October after Narrow Head’s 12th House Rock and shortly before Nothing’s The Great Dismal, the song resonated. Audiences who’ve been riding this wave of grunge-infused shoegaze that pays homage to My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and even the more punk Helmet could identify with the ra...
Miley Cyrus’ Plastic Hearts Lovingly Mashes Up Rawk Influences: Review
The Lowdown: For her post-divorce album, Plastic Hearts, Miley Cyrus deploys big synth energy in full ’80s-rawk drag. Over six uneven albums, Cyrus has dabbled across pop genres, but she’s always held a penchant for the era and attitude of mainstream glam, new wave, and hair rock, dropping covers of Joan Jett and Blondie in live sets and covering Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” as early as 2010’s Can’t Be Tamed. Now 28 years old, Cyrus leans fully into these influences, enlisting heroes like Stevie Nicks to have a blast with her while ripping themselves off. Even without her current incarnation’s spunky sneer and platinum shag, Cyrus still has teeth, though this algorithmic “rock” can filter out her bite at times. Still, this might be Cyrus’ most successful pastiche yet. [embedded...
The Smashing Pumpkins’ CYR Treads Water in a Sea of Excess: Review
The Lowdown: Twenty-five years ago this fall, The Smashing Pumpkins released the most essential double album of the 1990s. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness used every second of its 120-plus minutes to redefine the artistic possibilities of Billy Corgan and his band, moving away from the grunge comparisons that always chafed the mercurial frontman and towards something more expansive, stately, and baroque. That was 1995. One break-up, seven albums, and a Diamond certification later, The Smashing Pumpkins are once again presenting a double album for consideration. In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Corgan described the new record (named for early Christian child-martyr St. Cyricus) as a reflection of the “spiritual dystopia” that haunts 2020. Sonically, that translates t...
Miley Cyrus Embraces Her Rock Star Destiny on Plastic Hearts
“It was ALL erased,” Miley Cyrus wrote in a letter to fans last month, explaining how the 2018 wildfire that destroyed her Malibu home took with it her unreleased seventh album. The LP would have slotted in around a trilogy of EPs, the first of which, She Is Coming, dropped in May 2019. But Miley being Miley — a chameleonic mega-star who’s never made the same album twice, pinballing between pop, hip-hop, country and psychedelia — she chose to redefine her sound yet again, abandoning both her lost songs and forthcoming EPs in favor of her latest obsession: rock royalty of a bygone era. Plastic Hearts, Cyrus’s incendiary new record, punctuates the 28-year-old singer’s greatest sonic reinvention yet — a retro-charged tribute to no-nonsense frontwomen: Debbie Harry and Heart’...
Shkodran Mustafi: Folarin Balogun very strong, intelligent
Arsenal defender, Shkodran Mustafi, was full of praise for Folarin Balogun after he struck in their Europa League win at Molde. The teenage striker scored with his first touches of the ball to open his account for the club, and earned rave reviews from his German team-mate. “He’s a very strong and intelligent player,” Mustafi told Arsenal.com. “He’s a good striker and he’s hungry. “I think at this age in strikers you can always see that hunger to score and they always want to do something in the box, and I think for him it was really nice. He came on in the last game as well and this time it was his first touch he scored with, so I’m very happy for him because I think this is something that is very important. “We all started as young boys and everyone knows the feeling of how difficult it ...
Santana’s Abraxas Still Casts a Mystical Spell Half a Century Later: Review
Consequence Podcast Network and Sony’s The Opus is back for Season 11 with a new host and a new classic album to explore. Click here to listen as host Jill Hopkins (The Moth Chicago, Making Beyoncé podcast) conjures the enduring legacy of Santana’s landmark Abraxas. Also, after you read this article, scroll below to enter our exclusive Santana giveaway or score some original Opus swag. — The story of Carlos Santana and the band that bears his name has been one of near-constant evolution. Critics and fans have attempted to tame Santana’s catalog over the years by sorting the group’s 25 studio albums by era, style, or lineup. That’s not a totally fruitless exercise. Nobody, for instance, will mistake the frenetic jam session that is Santana’s seminal 1969 debut for, say, the earthy jazz-fusi...
Bowie Biopic Stardust Commits Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide: Review
The Pitch: It’s 1971 and David Bowie (Johnny Flynn) is about to make it big. Well, actually, he already kind of had. He’d just released “Space Oddity”, which would have become legendary even if he’d never released another album. We’d still be hearing it in commercials like we do Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” regardless, so the “what if?” at the center of the movie isn’t quite as pulse-pounding as writer-director Gabriel Range and his co-scribe Christopher Bell seem to imagine it to be. Anyway, Bowie’s about to be famous, but he’s concerned that the US doesn’t like or get him and that the record label doesn’t know what to do with him. So, they send him to the US to introduce himself, which is about all he can do because his visa doesn’t allow him to play shows. So, he just ...
The Christmas Chronicles 2 Completely Wastes the Magic of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn: Review
The Pitch: It’s been a couple of years since Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy (Judah Lewis) helped save Christmas, with the help of a bedraggled Saint Nick (Kurt Russell). This time around, they’re twiddling their thumbs on a beach resort Christmas vacation hosted by their mother Claire’s (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) deeply-vanilla beau… Please click the link below to read the full article. The Christmas Chronicles 2 Completely Wastes the Magic of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn: Review Clint Worthington You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and hel...
Megan Thee Stallion Delivers the Good News on Deft Debut: Review
The Lowdown: Megan Thee Stallion’s 2020 was one of turbulence with moments of immense triumph thrown in. She celebrated the two biggest hits of her career: “Savage” (which was accompanied by an epic Beyoncé remix) and her Cardi B collaboration, “WAP”, a song that dominated the cultural discourse for months.… Please click the link below to read the full article. Megan Thee Stallion Delivers the Good News on Deft Debut: Review Candace McDuffie You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Hulu’s Animaniacs Returns Prettier, Glossier, and Shinier: Review
The Pitch: Twenty-two years after their last escape from the Warner Brothers water tower on the Burbank studio lot, Yakko, Wakko and Dot are back for more slapstick comedy, more hijinks, more political commentary, more pop culture dissections, and more absurdity. Also returning to the fold is executive producer Steven… Please click the link below to read the full article. Hulu’s Animaniacs Returns Prettier, Glossier, and Shinier: Review Ryan Larson You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
