Reviews
Katy Perry’s Smile Makes Us Reconsider What We Want from Pop Music: Review
The Lowdown: Katy Perry has always seemed willing to be pop’s sexy clown: serving up effervescent anthems that don’t take themselves too seriously. When Perry did delve into her own a-woke-ening on 2017’s Witness, she was dismissed as politically tone-deaf and creatively off the mark. But on her sixth album, Smile, Perry manages to marry her “purposeful pop” with the big, uplifting production of her massive hit-making past. Perry is an entertainer who seems to sincerely want to make audiences a little happier; however, her album’s old tricks leave us wondering what we ask of pop music in 2020. [embedded content] The Good: This week, Perry marked two major milestones: She welcomed her first child, Daisy Dove, and celebrated the 10-year anniversary of her juggernaut album Teenage Dream. If y...
Nas’ King’s Disease Reintroduces the Legend to a New Generation: Review
The Lowdown: In 2018, Queensbridge-bred lyricist Nas released his 12th studio album, NASIR. In being a collaborative effort with Kanye West, this LP was met with high expectations. However, whether it was the album’s lack of cohesion, its poor timing, or the chaos surrounding its production and West’s antics, NASIR was deemed underwhelming by both fans and critics alike. After disclosing that he would be working with the Grammy-winning producer Hit-Boy on his upcoming project, some people were skeptical that this approach could help the rapper revert back to form and the high-quality work that had preceded NASIR. On August 21st, Nas and Hit-Boy succeeded in silencing critics and reintroducing the legendary emcee to a new generation of listeners with King’s Disease. By definition, “king’s d...
Artist of the Month Awich’s Partition EP Flaunts the Rapper’s Talent and Resolve: Review
The Lowdown: Trying to sum up the complex existence of Japanese rapper Awich is a losing game, but here are some basics: Born Akiko Urasaki, her moniker is short for “Asia Wish Child,” and she grew up on an island off mainland Japan called Okinawa. There, she grew up observing Okinawa both struggle for independence from Japan and the removal of American marine bases. It’s also where she fell in love with hip-hop — and learned English — with the help of Tupac’s All Eyes on Me. Entranced by the record and its depiction of struggle, she quickly began making music herself at age thirteen. Now in her 30s, Awich has no shortage of lived experiences to pull from for inspiration. In the years since, she moved to the US for college, got married, and had a child with an American man — who was then m...
The Killers’ Imploding the Mirage Goes All in on a Better Tomorrow: Review
The Lowdown: The Killers have always sounded like a band born to run. Living in the desert of Las Vegas will have that effect. For 16 years, Brandon Flowers and company have been running away down highway skylines, on the backs of hurricanes with Springsteen-like abandon. However, until now, they’ve always seemed to be running from what plagues them — fears, depressions, and the oppressive trappings of Small Town America — instead of toward what inspires them. Despite Flowers’ advice on Wonderful Wonderful single “Run for Cover”, The Killers have always seemed to have one eye looking back over their shoulder as they blow across an expansive wilderness, seeking some sort of escape from it all through romantic, heartland lyricism and rock and roll bombast. 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful caught T...
Bright Eyes’ Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was Dances Through Grief and Love: Review
The Lowdown: It’s been nearly 10 years since Bright Eyes released an album, and somehow everything and nothing has changed. Gone, this time for good — as Conor Oberst once declared — is the “rootsy Americana bullshit” that colored career-defining records like I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. Sonically, the reunited trio’s newest work has one foot in the stylized hyper-production of their last album, The People’s Key, and another in the Gothic, orchestral sweep of Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. Sure, some of the old emblems remain: the cryptic overture, the half-sentimental, half-ominous soundbites, Oberst’s brooding and beautiful lyrical histrionics. And yet, the album isn’t an outright gloomy one. In the past decade, the members of Bright Eyes have grown up....
Beyoncé’s Black Is King Seeks to Change the Way We See Ourselves: Review
The Pitch: “I can’t breathe.” These were some of the final words uttered by George Floyd, an African American man killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a result of police brutality. Due to the frequency of its usage by countless others during similar situations in the past, this phrase has come to be synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement. While the self-worth and regard for the life of a person of color has continuously come into question, the healing power of art (particularly music) has always been used as remedy in times of despair. Historically, the slaves residing on various plantations would receive momentary comfort by harmonizing hymns of perseverance, hope, and religion. To this day, artists are still sought out to deliver a message that is reflective of the times through...
Disney Plus’ Muppets Now Survives on the Strength of Classic Characters: Review
State of The Muppets: It’s been a minute. That might sound strange to those who have tuned in to the recent mini-Fraggle Rock revival on Apple TV+ or binged last year’s critically acclaimed Dark Crystal reboot on Netflix. While it’s been wonderful to see these properties get new treatments, it’s worth noting that those productions have flown under the banner of the Jim Henson Company, which controls certain archival content and owns rights to some of the more “cult” properties left over from the entertainment empire that Henson created. The Muppets that multiple generations around the world grew up on, including characters like Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, and Gonzo the Great, are currently owned by Disney. That distinction may not matter to most, especially with Henson produc...
Alanis Morissette’s Such Pretty Forks in the Road Shines Light into the Depths: Review
The Lowdown: Alanis Morissette is back! After an eight-year hiatus, one of the ’90s pinnacle pioneers of alt rock is sweeping back into the spotlight with her ninth studio album, Such Pretty Forks in the Road. After four years of work and a three-month delayed release due to COVID-19, the album applies a trademark Morissette treatment — cutting lyrics and a voice that howls and croons and whispers as deftly as an arrow — to questions of adulthood, responsibility, and creativity to greater and more complete effect than what we’d last seen from her. The resulting album is extremely haunting, immaculately polished, and complexly kind. The Good: Such Pretty Forks in the Road finds Morissette exploring the tenuousness of fame, youth, and passion but in a way that thwarts that tenuousness in its...
The Psychedelic Furs’ Made of Rain Is a Confident, Trippy, and Wonderful Comeback: Review
The Lowdown: Few British post-punk/new wave acts made as big a splash in the 1980s as The Psychedelic Furs. Led by the illustrious vocals and bass playing, respectively, of bothers Richard and Tim Butler — and with tracks such as “Pretty in Pink”, “Heaven”, and “Love My Way” becoming huge hits — the group was as much a part of that zeitgeist as any of their genre peers. Sadly, they went on hiatus following the release of 1991’s World Outside, and although the pair continued to create with Love Spit Love prior to a Furs live reunion at the turn of the millennium, fans have been clamoring for a proper new record for nearly three whole decades. Thankfully, it’s finally arrived, and it’s as exhilarating and charming a return as anyone could’ve wanted. [embedded content] Joining the main duo th...
folklore Is Taylor Swift’s Smoldering Pop Rebellion — Finally
The great fascination enveloping folklore, Taylor Swift’s mossy, surprise eighth LP, lies not within the album’s steadfast execution but the attempt itself — that during a global crisis which has paralyzed entire nations, a pop monolith would venture to swerve from her honey-soaked Lover’s lane and rumble deep into the forest, fixated on sonic reinvention. Hell, Swift’s fans would’ve been satisfied with a simple music video for her 11-month-old synth-bop “Cruel Summer.” Instead, she’s written furiously in isolation, launching an organic rebellion far beyond the pseudo-defiance of Reputation (nine Max Martin co-writes don’t exactly scream disobedience) and churning out the quickest album turnaround of her career. For studio expertise, she tapped the National’s indie-rock svengali Aaro...
Taylor Swift’s folklore Dismantles Her Own Self-Mythologizing: Review
The Lowdown: Born of isolation, Taylor Swift’s eighth album, folklore, interrogates the pop star’s self-mythologizing and turns her gaze outward. Created during the ongoing pandemic, Swift collaborated remotely on 11 songs with Aaron Dessner of The National, who shared orchestrations composed inside his own quarantine. The results lean toward modern folk and glitchy experimentation, abandoning pop bombast but not the drama of swelling strings or anxious percussion. The accompanying visuals depict a gloomy summer, and listeners can imagine Swift watching storms barrel across the Atlantic horizon and wandering old-growth forests in half-done braids, alone or with a companion socially distanced beyond the frame. Dropped on 24 hours’ notice without her typically painstaking roll-out, the 16 mo...
Courtney Marie Andrews’ Old Flowers Finds Growth in Moving On: Review
The Lowdown: Old Flowers, Courtney Marie Andrews’ fifth full-length LP, is an album about heartbreak and growth. After a nine-year relationship that began at the tender age of nineteen, Andrews realized it was time for her to move on and grow on her own. In her own words, “Anytime I felt like myself, I was alone and wandering, and I knew that was a sign that it was time for change.” This is a tale as old as time for many, when you realize the love you share with someone cannot grow anymore. As Andrews puts it herself in the title track, “You can’t water old flowers,” meaning, you can’t force something to grow that’s already dead. Andrews understood it was time to take the reins of her life herself, as scary as that would be, and she does this with as much grace as possible on her new album...
