WRITTEN BY AIDEN ORANTES
Rated by Author: 5/5 On March 17, 2023, Hozier released his first extended play record (or EP) in several years. It's titled Eat Your Young, and is currently being met with critical acclaim, from both Hozier's fans, and from music reviewers alike. On Metacritic, a website that allows fans to rate music, he's currently rated a 79 out of 100, which is a favorable rating. This album is very inspired by folk music, as well as rock, alternative pop, and R&B. The varied instrumentation is refreshing to hear from Hozier.The thought provoking lyrics are sung in all 3 of the songs included in this EP. Starting off with “Eat Your Young”, the title references A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, in which he sarcastically suggests that the Irish should eat their young, in order to not starve. However, the lyrics in this song could be taken in a more literal sense, with lyrics such as “I’m starvin, darlin, let me put my lips to something, let me wrap my teeth around the world..” All in all, this song implies multiple forms of gluttony, from the gluttony of war to literal gluttony. With “All Things End”, the instrumentation at the beginning is mainly acoustic guitar, clapping, and piano. It follows the usual formula of a Hozier song, in which no harsh instruments are used (i.e, drums, electric guitar), and the lyrics are definitely full of yearning, talking about how people who go through life without their heart broken probably didn’t do it right. But, at the very end, he mentions how things can begin again, even though things can also come to a close. Lastly, with “Through Me (The Flood)”, it mixes R&B instrumentation and vocals, with a traditional Irish melody, since Hozier is Irish. The lyrics allude to the grief of losing people forever, as well as trying to get over the grief, knowing that the person you grieve is no longer with you, and to be willing to let go. This song uses harsher instruments, mainly a drum kit, which you can hear in the background, next to Hozier’s beautiful vocals, singing lyrics such as “With each grave, I think of loss, and I can only think of you, and I couldn’t measure it..” All in all, each song in this new EP flows beautifully, all having the same rhythms, vocals, and lyricism that Hozier is well-known for. This is just a taste of what is confirmed to be part of his upcoming album, Unreal Unearth, being set to come out sometime in fall of 2023. WRITTEN BY AIDEN ORANTES
Recently, on March 24th, 2023, Fall Out Boy released their most hyped album to date, So Much (for) Stardust. It clocks in at 44 minutes and 14 seconds, with 13 songs, and is currently rated a 81/100 on Metacritic, which is a music website where fans can send in their own opinions on albums and songs. It was also rated a ⅘ by Kerrang!, which is a music newspaper. The album starts off with “Love from the Other Side”, “Heartbreak Feels So Good”, “Hold me Like A Grudge”, “Fake Out”, “Heaven, Iowa”, and “So Good Right Now”, Each song has its own different feel, but you can tell that they still mesh together. The instrumentation of each song is wonderful, with some songs starting off with violins, while other songs start with drums, or guitars. Bass is mainly used for "Hold me Like a Grudge", but you can still hear the drums in the background. "Fake Out" starts with guitars, but the entire song is very peaceful, with the drums being used as a backing instrument, with acoustic guitar being the main instrument. "Heaven, Iowa" makes use of some different instruments, but it's mainly Patrick Stump’s voice, until later in the song, with drums backing his vocals. "So Good Right Now" sounds like a very 2010s pop song, since it is supposed to emulate some of Fall Out Boys earlier albums. The latter half of the album, which has the songs "The Pink Seashell (feat. Ethan Hawke)", "I am My Own Muse", "Flu Game", "Baby Annihilation", "The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)", "What A Time to be Alive", and "So Much For Stardust". "The Pink Seashell (feat. Ethan Hawke)", and "Baby Annihilation" are just nothing but talking, so they won't really be included. As for the other songs, starting with "I am My Own Muse", it starts with violins, but the trumpets and drums connect into the song, as well as Patrick Stumps vocals weaving the instruments together. "Flu Game" has very beautiful vocals, and starts off with the bass, as well as the drums, although the chorus is a bit repetitive. "The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)" almost didn't make it onto the album, but Patrick Stump described it as "..this will probably be a B-side. Everybody was kind of feeling that. And then when it was finished, it just felt so great. We collectively looked around like, “We need to do this song, right?”" With "What a Time to Be Alive", it's once again very pop-influenced, as well as having a lot of synthetic vocals in the song. Lastly, "So Much (for) Stardust" sounds like it would be in the credits of a movie, and Patrick Stump's voice compliments the electric guitar and drums used in the background. It's also filled with a bit of synthetic sounds, but you can't really hear it, and the lyrics call back to the first song on the album. Overall, this new Fall Out Boy album is one of their best yet, with a mix of tunes, and yet returning to the same point as one of their earlier albums. WRITTEN BY JILL LUNA AND AIDEN ORANTES
Rated by Author: 4.8/5 On March 22, 2011, Panic! At The Disco's third album, Vices and Virtues, released to both critical acclaim and of course, criticism. It received a 62/100 on Metacritic, which is a website that rates music based on reviews by people. Let's start off with the first 5 songs on the album, which are called "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", "Let's Kill Tonight", "Hurricane", "Memories", and "Trade Mistakes". These first five songs all have a very pop-punk sound, which is what Panic! At The Disco was known for, and it mixes the beats from their previous two albums, while having new sounds included as well. Most of the songs are themed around love, as well as the fallout from said love. They use a variety of instruments, such as the violin, piano, drums, and guitars, with Brendon Urie's beautiful vocals. The second half of the album consists of “Ready to Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind),” “Always,” “The Calendar,” “Sarah Smiles,” and “Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met…)”. These songs have a mix of traditional sounds. With instruments such as kick drums, electric guitars, harmonicas, bass, and acoustic guitar, it uses a mix of more modern, techno sounds. At first listen, the songs seem to be hopeful and about deep love for another, but after observing beneath the initial impressions of the songs, the deeper meanings can be interpreted in the lyrics. The lyrics in question describe a bittersweet type of love, where loving someone else may result in getting hurt with the absence of their presence, or how much they have impacted their life, for better or for worse. Even without paying attention to the lyrics, the music itself is just a great listen, since it ranges from more relaxed sounds, with "Always” and choir sections in “Nearly Witches,” to upbeat and fun with songs like “Ready to Go” and “Sarah Smiles”, making the listener want to get up a dance. The main writers for this album were Brendon Urie, John Feldmann, and Butch Walker, with one song being attributed to Pete Wentz, of Fall Out Boy. We rate this album a 4.8 out of 5, which would have been a 5 if it was the Deluxe version of this album, though this album is still solid. WRITTEN BY AIDEN ORANTES
My Chemical Romance is one of, if not, the most influential pop punk and emo bands of the 21st century. With 4 albums currently under their belt, multiple tours with people such as Mindless Self Indulgence, Thursday, and Bon Jovi, it's no wonder that people were upset when they broke up in March of 2013, but they came back in 2019. In honor of their recently finished reunion tour, I decided to rank their current albums by my own criteria: Cinematic Universe (comic books, music videos, Twitter accounts), album sales (UK), outfits during each tour, and the cohesiveness of each album, as well as CD album designs. Ranked 4th is Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, which was released in 2004. It’s the least cohesive album because you can’t pick up the main theme of it, and it’s sort of all over the place. In the UK, it was 34th in the weekly charts, which is less than Bullets (the album in 3rd place), even though this was the album that got them major acclaim. Although the single “Thank You For The Venom” was good, it couldn’t do anything to bump up the abysmal score. Not even the CD design, which consisted of a drawing of the demolition lovers on the front, the pamphlet containing all 5 members of the band, as well as a rosary on the disc. Next, in third place, is I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, which came out in 2002. It barely has a story to speak of; it's considered an unofficial concept album, although fans do often connect it to Sweet Revenge. There’s more cohesiveness to this album than Sweet Revenge. Within the UK, it ranked 31st on the weekly charts, which was a higher ranking than the album after. It has my favorite single out of all of MCR’s discography, with “Vampires Will Never Hurt You”. Although the album CD art is a bit basic, with a man hanging by his ankles, and some text mentioning how Gerard will suck your blood out, if you pirate this album, it’s more experimental than the albums after it. In second place is Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys, coming out in 2011. It has the best cinematic universe, with a set of comics, Twitter accounts for two of the characters, and music videos. In terms of cohesiveness, it's a little less cohesive than the next album on this list, since there are technically two timelines presented by the music videos and album. In the UK weekly charts, this album's highest place was 14th, which is pretty impressive, considering this is the last album before the breakup. For the tour, the outfits were a little basic, but when they did have outfits on stage, it looked decent. Out of all the singles for Danger Days, the best one was “SING", but not enough to dethrone “Vampires Will Never Hurt You.” The album's CD design is interesting, because it looks like an overplayed vinyl record, with the iconic spider on it. The pamphlet inside has multiple pictures of different characters from the album. In first place, there’s The Black Parade, released in 2006. In terms of cohesiveness, it tells the story of The Patient as he dies from cancer, and goes through meeting everyone in the Black Parade, from the Conductor to Fear and Regret. On tour, the band also ends up wearing their outfits representing the Black Parade, and even went as far as wearing skull makeup for some of their shows. For the cinematic universe, there isn’t as much as Danger Days, but there are videos to show the recording of the “Welcome to the Black Parade” video. In the UK weekly charts, it ended up ranking 1st place. The album's best single has to be “Famous Last Words”, because of the rawness of the vocals, the intensity of the video, and the fact that Gerard nearly broke his leg, and the drummer burned his leg from the fire in the background. The album’s CD has the rest of the cast of the Black Parade, including The Patient, Mother War, and many others in the case, while the disc has the band’s logo at the time. WRITTEN BY: ZACHARY BUENAVENTURA
Rated by Author: 5/5 "The Heart Part 5" by Kendrick Lamar is the fifth installment of Kendrick’s “The Heart” series. Throughout his career, he releases these “The Heart” songs leading up to each album. These songs often signify a new era or new sound to Kendricks' music. All five songs feature long, intricate verses, which give us a first look at the overall vibe of what the album is going to be like. These songs provide an image of what has been occupying his mind. For example, "The Heart Part 5" focuses on the idea of perspective and the culture right now. This song is expressive, reflective, meditative, and perceptive. It and its accompanying video show him rapping from various angles, and Lamar makes full use of deepfake technology ("a deep fake is a photo, audio, or video that has been manipulated by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to make it appear something it is not" Aware.com) to change his appearance to resemble celebrities like Kanye West, OJ Simpson, and the late Nipsey Hussle. The first verse talks about the risk of growing up as an African American in the "hood" and living in such a hostile environment. The second verse talks about the dangers of culture and how he is the spokesperson for his culture. He claims to represent infidelity, incarceration, gun violence, and poverty. Kendrick refuses to accept these facets of life as an inevitable part of the culture. These kinds of contradictions are what Kendrick experienced during his life and are now what he's expressing through his music. The third verse talks about Kendrick Lamar focusing on himself. He talks about what it’s like to be an affluent and influential celebrity, and his understanding of what that means. However, now he wants to take things to the next level. He says that he's ready to “‘sacrifice his personal gain over everything” in order to uplift his people. Kendrick then concludes the final verse, continuing to speak and express to those who have passed on from this life but died for “the culture”. From this song alone, I fully understand why it took Kendrick Lamar 5 years to release a new album. If I were to go fully in-depth about this song down to the wire, this article would be ten pages long. I’m grateful enough to be writing this review in the first place: a review of a song that talks about some of the most powerful and important topics of our generation, all spoken through rhythm and poetry. Rap. |
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