When I heard Neil Young would be putting out an album on Nov. 4, the same day that Bruce Cockburn was set to release his autobiography, along with a nine-disc collection of career-spanning music, it got me thinking about how the two artists relate to one another. Young needs no[Read More…]
Music
Album Review: Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels 2
Stop whatever you’re doing and go download Run The Jewels 2. Screw your essays and midterms—sit down, hit play, and feel yourself melt into the beats of the fellows who are slaughtering the game. Run the Jewels—consisting of New York rapper/producer El-P and Atlanta rapper Killer Mike—started up officially in[Read More…]
Album Review: T.I. – Paperwork
If T.I., known as the King of the South, has accomplished anything with his latest album, Paperwork, it has arguably been nothing more than demoting him to the title: “Prince of the Disjointed.” The album features a broad spectrum of techniques and musical genres culminating in an uneven sound that[Read More…]
Deep Cuts: Joyful Hip-Hop
Eye Know Artist: De La Soul Album: 3 Feet High and Rising Released: March 3, 1989 This is perhaps the most unabashedly romantic song in the history of rap. De La Soul, the original hippies of hip-hop, crafts a song that tracks the trajectory of a relationship from courtship to[Read More…]
Album Review: Caribou – Our Love
Canadian composer Daniel Snaith has followed the success of Swim (2010) with his sixth studio album, Our Love. Snaith, known by his stage name Caribou, continues to push the edges of experimental electronic music. Upbeat hip-hop vocals overlaid with gritty beats creates a Drake-meets-James Blake vibe that pushes listeners to[Read More…]
Album Review: Taylor Swift – 1989
The rumours about Taylor Swift’s latest release are true—the album has absolutely no hint of her usual country twang, with all of its production grounded in electronic, synthesized rhythms and layered with energetic claps, snaps, snares, and poppy, self-aware lyrics. The change pays off, and aside from a few missteps,[Read More…]
Carriere keeps moving as Royal Tusk settles into its own
How does Daniel Carriere—lead singer and guitar player for Edmonton rock band Royal Tusk—relax after a stressful day on the road? It’s simple—he doesn’t. “I don’t unwind as much as I just crash [and] like, pass the fuck out,” said Carriere. “It is exhausting. People think you play a show[Read More…]
Album Review: Jessie Ware – Tough Love
Just under a month ago, Jessie Ware, the Brixton-born singer and master of restraint, performed at the iTunes Festival where she showcased a vastly improved confidence in not only her stage presence, but in her vocals as well. Ware stated in a 2014 interview with The Guardian that her new[Read More…]
Album Review: Rich Gang – Rich Gang: Tha Tour Part 1
On each of their releases, Rich Gang mixtapes and albums have featured a different assemblage of rappers associated with Birdman’s Cash Money Records. Riding off the success of this summer’s chart-topping single, “Lifestyle,” Rich Gang: Tha Tour Part 1 is a promising and well-crafted development of the single’s sound, serving[Read More…]
Album Review: Hey Rosetta! – Second Sight
When its previous album Seeds (2011) was being recorded, Hey Rosetta! was coming out of a phase where the band had been touring extensively for the first time, and—quite fittingly—planting musical seeds in the towns and cities it performed in. The album, with its oscillation between boisterous anthems and measured[Read More…]
