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Lorde’s long–awaited third studio album, Solar Power, is a patient record. No matter how many polarizing think pieces (including this one) try to tear it down, it's built to be tough and permanent like a castle. Except its castle is made of sand, and it’s surrounded by the crashing of beach waves and the clicking of cicadas.
There are only a few artists that can transcend genres, styles, and languages with their influence, and Aaliyah is undoubtedly one of them. From Rihanna and Monica to HAIM and Jessie Ware, Aaliyah has inspired some of the biggest names in the music industry today, whether they make indie pop or alternative R&B. Her distinguished reputation has been well–established, yet her legacy has been threatened due to tight control over her discography. After a 20–year legal battle between Aaliyah’s former label Blackground Records and her estate that is still not completely resolved, her diverse catalog is finally on its way to old and new listeners.
On July 23, 2021 the Foundry—the Fillmore’s “club within a club”—traveled back to the early 2010s. The intimate venue was mostly filled with a crowd of young women, some of them wearing shirts indicating which group of fandoms they belonged to: One Direction or the Jonas Brothers. As a self–proclaimed “Directioner,” I found the experience amazing, joining others living out their fandom dreams at the “Best Night Ever: One Direction vs Jonas Brothers Dance Party” event.
Earlier this summer, a white woman crowned herself the “Queen of Congee." Karen Taylor, founder of the Oregon–based company Breakfast Cure, sells prepackaged kits of congee, a rice porridge commonly eaten across Asia and the Asian diaspora. The staple dish is both culturally and historically significant, with a rich culinary legacy that can be traced back to the Chinese Zhou dynasty.
Rick Krajewski (E ’13) isn’t your typical politician, but perhaps that’s the point. The software–developer–turned–Reclaim–Philly–organizer went grassroots after a STEM curriculum he developed at a West Philly public school was shelved when the school morphed into privately run charter academy. Since then, he's helped elect District Attorney Larry Krasner, convinced thousands of Philadelphians to pay attention to judicial elections, and ousted a 35–year establishment incumbent to become West Philly’s state representative.
Amid the COVID–19 pandemic, the severity of the housing and rent crisis in the United States is only increasing. There's a dire lack of affordable housing and rent for tenants across the country. As the pandemic continues to unemployment and loss of income for many, the rent crisis has come to the forefront of our collective consciousness.
For the past two years, the Jack Antonoff blueprint has been inescapable. He appeared on everything from commercially successful projects such as Taylor Swift’s Lover to critical hallmarks including Lana Del Rey’s Norman F*cking Rockwell!. Antonoff made his presence as a respected producer loud and clear, joining the ranks of Max Martin, Timbaland, and Pharrell Williams as 21st–century prodigies. But hidden behind his renowned collaboration work is a solo discography just as large and diverse.
You can’t pin Billie Eilish down. The 19–year–old pop prodigy cemented herself as one of the most famous teenagers in the world with her 2019 debut album, the monumental WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? The LP was co–written and produced entirely by her brother Finneas O'Connell, who recorded it with Eilish mostly in her childhood bedroom of their parents’ home in L.A. The record was a collage of Eilish’s brain, effortlessly switching between genres: art–pop, avant–folk, R&B–esque ruminations on hell, something akin to Frank Sinatra, and a song that even sampled The Office. It was a can’t–miss spectacle from the rising wunderkind, humorous yet genuinely introspective, eclectic yet cohesive, eccentric but not uncomfortable. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? was a near–perfect thesis statement for everything Eilish stood for at the time. She was the soundtrack to your nightmares and your nights out. She was the bad guy, instantly recognizable in her oversized sweatshirts, black hair and green roots, and with her glazed ocean eyes aimed somewhere just beyond the camera.
Willow Smith (known mononymously as WILLOW) howls on her new poignant and brief album, lately I feel EVERYTHING. Star–studded and rippling with the voracious emotional life of a young woman in her prime, lately embodies a touching irony of sounding like a teenager venting her hormonal emotions in her dad’s garage, despite being backed by some of the biggest names in the industry and being distributed by Jay–Z’s Roc Nation Records.
What is the sound of the summer? The suburbs are populated with the drone of hissing lawns and kids running through front yards, but here in Philadelphia, you can hear the season blaring through the windows of cars. And for the rest of July and August, you’ll probably hear Doja Cat’s Planet Her enough times to get totally sick of it. The album’s booming bass, trap beats, and 808s are tailor–made for current radio play. But before the inevitable malaise sets in, Planet Her deserves praise for being a major label pop album that is risky, unapologetic, and blessedly free of bloat. Most unexpectedly, Doja Cat’s tailor–made–for–radio–play music is not beholden to current trends; instead, she’s a few steps ahead of the curve.
All eyes are on Generation Z to play their part in preventing the spread of COVID–19. Even though the vaccine is currently widely available, less than 40% of those under 24are vaccinated. While this number may be surprisingly low, some important factors can explain this statistic; for instance, minors must have parental approval to get the vaccine, which they weren’t even allowed to get until May.
Two weeks ago, Halsey (née Ashley Frangipane) revealed the cover art for her new album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power with an extravagant 13 minute YouTube video of the unveiling at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the video, Frangipane walks barefoot around the Met wearing a strange yet elegant get–up with her pregnant stomach prominently exposed, looking at paintings of the Virgin Mary. There is no music. Only the whooshing vacant sound of the air conditioning and traffic outside can be heard while she silently walks around the museum, ominously looking at the camera every so often.
Before Instagram, TikTok, Myspace, or Facebook, there was no such thing as a hashtag or a virtual timeline. The internet was dominated by forums and instant messaging programs where people with similar interests congregated. As tech companies began to shift the focus toward the individual, more and more personalized services populated the increasingly crowded social media market. YouTube and Twitter began to recommend videos or tweets that they thought the users would enjoy rather than forcing people to actively search for content they preferred. Hashtags were created that allowed people to promote their content to a specific market. With more and more users engaging with these suggestions, Big Tech finally had the data to create something unprecedented at the time: algorithms that could mimic human behavior.
Vince Staples is a rapper of the highest caliber, well on his way to a Pulitzer à la Kendrick Lamar. That being said, it’s disappointing that his new self–titled album is so artfully reserved that it lacks the passion that his previous projects had.
When one thinks of disco, clubs and endless dancing immediately come to mind. A complex layer of instruments is needed, involving everything from heavy synths to playful violins to create that indescribable magical feeling. Careful attention must be paid to every measure since one misplaced note could ruin the entire musical atmosphere. Under the producer pseudonym dj blackpower, MIKE merges the rules of disco with cloud rap, successfully using samples to make his point clearer. With the precision of a surgeon, MIKE crafts a world on Disco! where every beat plays a meaningful role.
If you said the name Olivia Rodrigo just seven months ago, only a few heads would have turned. Rodrigo, who at the time was known only for her appearance in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and for her semi–viral hit “All I Want,” quickly became an overnight sensation. After she released her first solo track “drivers license,” all the stars aligned to create a hit unlike any other. A massive TikTok following, viral memes, and endless praise catapulted the song to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for not just one but eight straight weeks. This feat would be impressive for any song, let alone for an artist’s debut single. “drivers license” seemed like a once–in–a–lifetime combination of word of mouth and public interest, but Rodrigo would go on to be even more successful. Besides landing eight songs from her album SOUR in the top 10 of the Streaming Songs chart, Rodrigo also placed every track from SOUR in the top 30 of the Hot 100. Based on these statistics, it would seem that Billboard accurately represented Rodrigo’s trajectory from a Disney star to a global pop sensation.
When many people hear "Victoria’s Secret," the brand name tends to conjure up images of the retailer's iconic, yet controversial, so–called Angels. This elite group of tall, thin supermodels is famous for donning extravagant wings, G–string thongs, and jewel encrusted push–up bras while strutting down the runway in the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Their photos are plastered on the walls of all of the company's stores.
From humble beginnings performing at open mic events to winning a Mercury Prize for their sophomore album Visions of a Life, alternative rock band Wolf Alice has always strived to reach greater heights. They continue to push the envelope on their third album Blue Weekend, the culmination of all the best work the band has produced so far. Although the band opts for a poppier sound, straying further from the rock and punk that blasted them into the indie mainstream, they don’t lose their signature knack for storytelling.
Jack Antonoff is sort of a jack–of–all–trades when it comes to pop music. Well, at least he tries to be.
What songs exist at the core of your identity? I’m not talking about your favorite music, your most played album, or your yearly Spotify Wrapped. Maybe this song is your parents’ favorite, so you heard it growing up. You may not know every lyric and be able to sing along; it’s about feeling every chord change and melody in your body, or experiencing the music somewhere deeper than in your conscious mind. These aren’t the songs that form the soundtrack of your most formative memories—they’re the songs that become memories themselves. You might not even be able to name one off the top of your head, since they’re not the songs you remember unprompted, but the feeling of auditory deja vu is unmistakable.
Solutions by The State News