24 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(03/07/17 2:43am)
Rating: 5/7
Previously thought to be just a part of the brain where memories are formed, Hippo Campus is a fresh indie band out of St. Paul, ready to make their mark on the world. With two EP’s already under their belt, the group has masterminded an album to showcase themselves to the public. This is Landmark.
“Sun Veins,” a track standing at barely a minute long, sets the album off to an ominous tone, but carries the backing vocals and guitar to create a perfect transition into “Way It Goes”.
Originally released as a single, this track brings back the musical cohesion of the group from their previous works, but in a more mellow tone.
“Degenerate, counter-culture, crying socialist
Hip-to-lazed crazed abstractionists
We’re weird, but Lord knows we’re trying”
This song perfectly captures what the band has been up to. They’re simply just a couple of young musicians trying to make a name for themselves, and of course have some fun in the process.
On a song like “Vines”, the combined vocals of Jake Luppen, Nathan Stocker, and Whistler Allen, deliver somewhat unsettling lyrics in an overjoyous manor. This song is a lot like their older work, just an easy-going song that’s fun to sing along to.
“Epitaph” is nothing but a perfectly executed track. The intertwining of distorted vocals, blissful guitars, and an ever-so-subtle percussion backing creates a melodic ecstasy. The alteration of the vocals is reminiscent of Bon Iver’s 22, A Million. Even though they change their sound quite a bit, the underlying pop sound they’re known for is still heard here.
“Poems” has standing as the longest track on the album and shows just how much the band has grown since their last EP. This song sounds nothing like their previous work; there is no catchy chorus, there isn’t even much of a structure to it, but they execute it perfectly. The softness of the whole thing makes it sound as more if The Temper Trap released this song rather than Hippo Campus.
With songs like “Vacation” and “Monsoon,” the group shows that they’re not only capable of creating high-paced hits, but mellow tunes as well. “Monsoon” especially stands out as one of the greatest parts of the album. A heart-wrenching track written about the death of a family member, it comes and goes leaving you torn open, just as the song name suggests.
The album ends perfectly with the final track, “Buttercup.” Making use of probably the most written song topic ever, a girl, the band has created one of their best songs to date. They take everything they’ve learned since their debut in 2013 and put it into this song, creating something above anything else they’ve done.
Overall, Landmark is a solid album. The songs on it don’t seem to blend together, but rather all have a bit of a distinct sound that flows nicely from one to another. While they do have experience from two EPs going into their debut album, the band has gone above and beyond with this. For Hippo Campus, Landmark is just that, a statuette showing the bands arrival to the main stage. Hippo Campus has made a lot of great music before, but Landmark gives them the validation they need to make it to the top.
(12/12/16 7:06am)
Released 12/2/16
Rating: 6/7
Donald Glover is a jack of all trades. Making his debut as a writer for the NBC comedy, 30 Rock, Glover has since toured as a standup comic, acted in several movies, made several albums under the name Childish Gambino, and most recently, created a hit TV-Show on FX by the name of Atlanta. Glover is taking a break from acting and coming back to his musical career with the release of his newest album, “Awaken, My Love!".
Gambino gave the public a first look into his album this past June when he held an event called “Pharos” in Joshua Tree, California. With that came a smartphone app that lets those who weren’t in attendance still get an inside look at the event. Gambino then gave another slight taste of the album when he secretly hid the cover art for the album in the “Juneteenth” episode of Atlanta.
His previous work, Kauai, showed Gambino’s interest in breaking away from his fast-paced rapping career, and instead focusing more on experimentation with solo voices and mellow beats. In the weeks leading up to the album's debut, Gambino released two of the tracks as singles, “Me and Your Mama” and “Redbone." The funk and soul influence of these two tracks confirmed the suspicion of Gambino’s transition, and from then on we knew, “Awaken, My Love!" would not be a rap album.
“Redbone," possibly an homage to the Native American soul/funk/rock group of the same name, is a perfect encapsulation of what Gambino is all about now. A fusion of soul and funk, of a mellow beat accompanied by wavy melodies--the entire album is captured in this single track.
Not only has this album surprised his fan-base with the lack of singing, but the altering of his voice on his tracks is far more apparent than any of his previous works. On songs like “Zombies” and “Boogieman” the voice effects are done perfectly to communicate an eerie sound to them – reflecting on the names of the tracks themselves. However, on “California," Gambino’s voice altering is completely overdone, almost to the point where it is barely recognizable–but regardless of that, the track is meant to be more a fun and lighthearted song, to which the effects help in such a way to communicate that.
Once you get past “California” the album takes an immediate drop in tempo, and stays that way until its end. “Terrified” continues the ‘creepiness’ of tracks from before, but with a slower beat and far more melody. “The Night Me and Your Mama Met” seems to be an instrumental continuation of the beginning track.
“Baby Boy” and “Stand Tall” are soulfully inspired ballads that give a strong finish to the album, even if it wasn’t the ending many of us were hoping for.
“Riot” is the most energy-driven track on the album, and the closest thing we are getting to the old Gambino. However, it lasts barely two minutes, and without any raps, even this shows just how much Gambino has changed in these few years.
“Awaken, My Love!", to put it bluntly, is straight up strange. The album gets far more enjoyable with multiple listens, and once you realize that this is who Childish Gambino is now. Gambino has always had tremendous production value, but this is in a league of its own--it's outstanding. This is by far his most mature album-–but “Awaken, My Love!” isn’t just an album, it’s an experience in its own right.
(11/10/16 5:11am)
One of Chicago’s fastest growing bands, Twin Peaks, has just crossed back over from the Atlantic, spending a couple weeks in Europe, and has decided to bring their musical talent back to the Midwest. Twin Peaks will be playing this Thursday at the Bishop – touring with their latest album, Down in Heaven.
The group from Chicago will be accompanied by Tweens, from Cincinnati, and Bloomington’s own, Plateau Below.
Tickets are available online for $13, or at the doors for $15; the show will start at 9:00pm.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25xez6urA5c[/embed]
(11/08/16 1:02am)
Rating: 4/7
It’s been a long 4 years since Two Door Cinema Club (TDCC) has released a full length album. Originally releasing their first album, Tourist History, in 2010, they were able to keep up with their momentum by releasing Beacon in 2012, and then Changing of the Season EP in 2013, but since then the productivity of the band has been stagnant. However, in early 2016 the band said their 3rd studio album would be out sometime in the year, and on October 14th it finally was.
Starting off with “Are We Ready? (Wreck)”, Gameshow, puts us into a fast-paced motion from the start, much like Tourist History had done. The following track, “Bad Decisions”, continues the themes of reminiscence from their previous works. Both of these songs had been released previously during the summer, and so it’s really only up until “Ordinary” where you get to really listen to Gameshow, but upon hearing that and the following title track, “Gameshow”, you begin to realize that these songs become monotonous and vaguely sound the same.
“Invincible” offers a different sound to the album, slowing down in pace, and sounding much more like their previous work on Beacon. However, where Beacon’s execution of the simple beats and mellow voice worked nicely, here it seems rather forced. The latter part of the album especially overuses synth beats, and what could’ve started out as just a curious experiment, ended up hurting the overall sound of the album.
Song such as “Surgery” have seemingly meaningless lyrics, and the vocals seem to lack feel.
Coffee
Eyebrow
Change in my pocket that I forgot about
This is not so much a song but rather a list of things the band had seen lying around in the studio. Some artists can make lyrics such as these work out, but from TDCC we expect a different syntax, and one sang with more appeal.
The saving grace of Gameshow is in the form of one of the bonus tracks, “Gasoline”. Featuring heavy guitar riffs mixed with synth beats, it shows of the great production value that the band has had on previous works.
Gameshow has some great songs on it, and overall is a quality album, but it definitely has room for improvement. TDCC has been a groundbreaking band in the past, and considering their previous works, this album is a letdown for them. Gameshow can be summed up in the title of it’s first track “Are We Ready?”, because it’s more of a question among the band themselves if they were ready to release this album, and in my eyes, they weren’t.