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…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Lena Dunham’s new book offers insights, few surprises
Fans of Girls will rejoice that Lena Dunham’s recently published book, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned,” offers readers the same self-deprecating humour, laugh-out-loud one liners, and stories almost too erratic to be true that made its author’s popular HBO show a megahit.[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…]
The Great Meld of Art and Sport
When you mention football in Europe, you set yourself up for a conversation about the sport played with a black–and-white ball, instead of the one most North Americans are more familiar with. While football-soccer terminology difference is pretty common knowledge, a less-known part of the game is the common ground[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…]
Theatre Review: Oh, What a Lovely War!
It’s commonly said that “comedy is tragedy plus time,” and few shows can capture that saying in as much of a literal sense as Oh, What a Lovely War! does. Originally created in 1963—well after the dust had settled on the horrors of both world wars—the production was intended to[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a film franchise!
After months of speculation, DC Comics has released its five-year superhero film line-up, answering hundreds of assumptions, expectations, and unrealistic hopes in one succinct press conference. The films include the sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel, which will focus on Batman and Superman’s first meeting while simultaneously featuring multiple Justice[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…]