“Little Sleepwalker,” Born Gold’s sophomore effort, borrows from hip-hop and club music to create an introspective and personal song collection. Moving away from the bright hyperpop of “BODYSONGS,” Born Gold created an album that is less outspoken but equally intricate — one best enjoyed in the dark, in the dead of night.
The contemporary music scene is the world’s truest democracy. Together, we created Justin Bieber — let’s not forget that his debut was a YouTube video uploaded by his mother, and the denizens of the internet (preteen girls and skeptics alike) catapulted him into international stardom. This type of crowd-sourced A&R is extremely empowering. The question is: will we use this for good or for evil?
The music world has been generous this summer as more and more artists have turned to free releases. Mixtape culture, previously a rap phenomenon, has expanded to include a variety of genres that can use online releases to establish new artists or please old fans. Here are some of the summer’s most interesting happenings in rap, hip-hop, dance and dubstep.
To all those who have been patiently waiting since 2009, Passion Pit’s “Manners” was a faulty compass. The album promised youthful, hedonistic abandon, but “Gossamer” instead addresses fear, anxiety and drug abuse, even enlisting the help of a minor chord or two.
Frank Ocean is 24 years old. It’s easy to forget this given that he has written for Beyoncé, sung on “Watch The Throne” and released the most important and critically acclaimed mixtape of 2011. The youthful ambition of “channel ORANGE,” however, gives him away. It’s bold, both musically and thematically, and the enthusiasm with which Ocean throws himself into each of his songs–sometimes in vain–is a pointed reminder that this long-awaited album is a debut, albeit an excellent one.
Complete with gratuitous 3-D, CGI villains and magic science, “The Amazing Spider-Man” is just the movie that America needs around the Fourth of July. Shedding the thematic darkness of the comic books’ previous incarnations, Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man takes a younger, fresher and cleaner take on the tale.
Bon Iver’s first album “For Emma, Forever Ago” is a tough act to follow, and his eponymous sophomore album is a testament to this fact.
“Our spring show was the capstone to our year as a group,” said Derek Ouyang ’13. “We’ve sung many on-campus and off-campus gigs, been on tour through Texas and recorded 13 tracks for our 25th album, so this show was an incredible way to wrap up all the work we have done and treat our friends to some fun music.”