1. To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar It’s rare to see an album as tightly woven together into a perfect story as Kendrick Lamar’s second full-length album, To Pimp a Butterfly.
Since her breakout hit, “Lights,” in 2010, Ellie Goulding’s indie-dance tracks have consistently topped international music charts. The British singer’s third album, Delirium, demonstrates yet another shift toward EDM. With the help of a wide array of producers and collaborators, Goulding’s simple ballads are transformed into dance-floor anthems.
There’s few emotions rawer than rage. It’s an easy emotion to relate to—how often have some of us broken down against some misfortune or against someone who crossed all the wrong wires at the perfectly wrong times? Of course, most of us bury it and move on with our lives, since respect rarely follows bloodshot eyes and swollen veins.
Electrifying pop hooks. A dreamy voice of smooth gold. The vibrations of pulsating synthesizers. All are recurring themes on Garrett Borns’ first studio album, Dopamine.
Ben Folds’ new album, So There, is essentially two albums in one.
As I sat down on autopilot to listen to my weekly assigned album, I pressed play on the first track of the album and something happened: I began to smile. In the midst of an extremely frustrating, stressful day, the voice of Marina Lambrini Diamandis, accompanied with a simple piano track, filled me with joy. I realized that in the middle of College Library I was sitting alone with a huge smile across my face, as if I had just won a thousand dollars. The simplest track on the album made me remember all over again why I fell in love with music in the first place.
While scouring the internet for background on Pearson Sound’s self-titled debut, something stuck out to me. Reviewers had an interesting habit of dividing the record into two categories: club music and experimental music. It was as though one couldn’t be the other; “Glass Eye” was clearly the minimalist grind for the club, while “Headless’s” warbled echo swirls with the kind of antipathy that wouldn’t be caught dead on a dancefloor.
The three-time Grammy winner and American Idol icon Kelly Clarkson returned to the music scene last Tuesday after the birth of her daughter with the release of her eighth album Piece by Piece. The album is Clarkson’s first original album since her 2011 Platinum record Stronger.
The hip-hop scene has been on the rise as of late, with new tracks dropping left and right from some of the genre’s top artists. That being the case, it’d only make sense that Drake got in on the action as well, releasing his pseudo-mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late last Thursday. Complete with a price tag and over an hour of content, IYRTITL feels like a traditional release, but with Drake having already picked out the name for his next full feature album, Views From The 6, it’s safe to say this is just a prequel to something bigger.
Anthony Sanders and Hailing from Iceland, Björk is the original “melancholy hipster singing chick,” a group of artists also inhabited by such stars as Lana Del Rey, FKA Twigs, and SZA. Her most recent release, Vulnicura, takes a page out of the book of modern pop music by arriving on the doorstep of many fans without much warning.
With little experience in the punk music genre I wasn't sure what to expect from Caféïne's upcoming album, New Love. After listening through the 11-track album I was pleasantly surprised. A playful, energetic and hopeful tone is established during the first track, “New Love,” and the album rarely deviates from this likable formula. Although the melodies are fun and grab your attention, I wish there were more tracks like “Black Swans” to provide something with a different tone from the rest of the album. If the fast-paced “Love is a Riot” ever has a music video it could only be visualized as items being smashed in slow motion. It’s a good time.
Dream Police recently released their first album Hypnotized, and it is a physcadelic trip full of electronic riffs and strong bass, which propels this album into a place all its own. With that being said, it unfortunately lacks an identity due to the album’s overambitious attempts to cover too many different sounds within an eight track album.
Minus the Bear burst onto the scene in 2001, with the release of This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic, an electrifying EP featuring seven quirkily titled songs with lyrics about beer, women and little else. Since then, the band has evolved and matured, releasing five full-length LPs across their 13-year career, along with an assortment of EPs, bonus tracks and B-sides. It is from those bonus tracks and B-sides that Lost Loves came to be, an “odds and ends” compilation containing unreleased material from the band’s past three full-length albums.
Fear of Men’s debut full-length album, Loom, proves there can be too much of a good thing. After establishing an inventive and unique sound, it becomes frustrating to listen to the British group continually repeat themselves on their 11-track record.
What do you get when you combine a modest indie pop star and a pop-less alternative punk star? Aimee Mann and Ted Leo’s The Both comes to mind. The two music veterans joined forces in the last couple of years to find the right harmony between their starkly different voices and make an album reflecting the results. The self-titled debut album combines the gritty, distorted punk sound Leo is all too familiar with, and the niche feel-good acoustic pop sound Mann has grown to master. While some of the songs blend into one another, the album as a whole sounds refined, polished and what one would expect from two people who have been writing music their whole lives. However, their age might be catching up with them, as this album offers nothing new. It’s a safe, easy-sounding record that differs from their individual work, which embodied traits of painstaking effort and all-out emotional commitment.
Future Islands have packed their bags to leave their past home of indie rock limbo and are getting ready to move to the top with their brand new album Singles. Riddled with songs of lively themes and foot tapping beats, this captivating assortment of tunes has made the sound of Future Islands well worth listening.
Vertical Scratchers’ debut Daughters of Everything delivers an album packed full of energy, soothing vocals and enough garage-band aura to get listeners pumped up for each and every song.
Exhausted from studying the past week, I wearily plugged my headphones into my computer to listen to Rebel Era—GRiZ’s newest album. I like GRiZ so I was excited to listen to it, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to hear. My exhaustion dissipated. My feet felt suddenly disconnected from my body and started to move on their own accord. My mouth waivered into a grin that likely unsettled those sitting near me. Even better production than his last album, Mad Liberation, Rebel Era surges forward as the young producer attains a comfort zone with his signature sound—one that has come to revolutionize electronic music. Incorporating glitch bass, soul, funk and tight grooves, GRiZ’s style is a breath of fresh air from the music dominating the electronic scene, rampant with predictable drops and a near universal sound.
I have 40.5 days, 95.22 gigabytes, of music in my iTunes library—and that’s only what iTunes has accounted for.
Eric Hutchinson’s knack for connecting with fans may transform his show tonight at the Majestic Theatre from just a fun, upbeat singer-songwriter performance to a counseling session of sorts.
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Solutions by The State News
