Music

Opening powerfully with the grandly produced No Idea, Blige puts on display a beautiful mix of fresh and old-school flows in the rap-sung verses and pre-choruses. The vocal layering, though questionable, is permissible considering the impact and groove of the rest of the song. Thematically, introducing the LP with a sense of confusion despite great volumes of experience is clever, and leads into the next track Love Will Never very well.

Love Will Never sees Blige grieving and coming to a twisted acceptance of a romantic loneliness. Being backed with more strings, Blige rides the instrumental wonderfully, giving my favourite chorus on the entire album and harmonies that I contagiously attempted myself.

The third track in the listing Here With Me warmly welcomes the first of a handful of upcoming features on the rest of Good Morning Gorgeous. Anderson. Paak and Blige meld well on the chorus, and their verses work beautifully in tandem with one another, with direct lyrical responses. All this considered, however, the track is too short to feel full and developed, and. Paak’s verse is painfully average, coming together to make a disappointing overall song, with fairly raised expectations from his and Blige’s collaboration.

The title track is a smooth, slow ballad, which has sentiments and a performance I can respect, but for a track defining the album, the chorus is incredibly weak. This plasticity and, dare I say, over-commercialisation – especially with knowledge of the existence of a ‘Target Exclusive’ version of the album – is prevalent in waves across the rest of the project’s runtime.

The repetitive production, bog-standard lyricism, and oftentimes forgettable melodies leave much to be desired. A shambles not even Fivio Foreign nor Usher could save on their respective tracks.

Working in competition with R’n’B artists of her generation such as Jazmine Sullivan, who had a phenomenal 2021 with her project Heaux Tales, Mary J. Blige crumbles. Despite the promising opening tracks, which I will continue spinning, I left the project with my spirit crushed, feeling not so gorgeous.

in. A few weeks ago the band officially announced their break-up (phrased by them as an indefinite hiatus) and entire tour cancellation, with the exception of their two London dates, February 7th and 8th, and Coachella. I was lucky to have bought tickets for London’s second night back in 2019 when the tour was first announced. After two years of postponed dates due to Covid-19, and after finding out I’d be attending their last gig as a group, I can say I was excited.

Olivia and I travelled down to London on the day by train, had dinner in Brixton, and headed straight to the venue. The first thing that caught my attention was the amount of young people queuing up around the O2 — and when I say around, I mean the queue went all the way around the block (it was sold out, and 5000 people had to enter the venue).

Once we made our way inside, my first thoughts were confirmed: the demographic was very young — 99% of people were between 20 and 25. Only after the gig did I see one man who looked to be in his 30s. In terms of the gender split, the audience was predominantly male, but with a considerable amount of women as well. It was a diverse crowd, at least to my eyes — I come from a predominantly white middle-sized city in Spain, and it was London after all.

As soon as we entered the venue, we bumped into a heavily crowded merch stall selling t-shirts, hoodies and caps from £35 to £70. Spenny, but the merch was pretty rad. For the first hour (doors opened at 7pm), most people spent their time buying merch, making use of the cloakroom, getting drinks and going to the toilet. I thought the venue worked really efficiently — queues moved fast, there were plenty of staff and security, and it was highly organised. Those most passionate about being at the front were, well, claiming their spot as close as possible to the stage.

Once we got all our things sorted, Olivia and I headed into the main venue. We were roughly around the middle, near the mixing desk. People were pretty spaced out at this point, and some people came to make conversation with us, asking about the band, how long had we been fans for, and whatnot. We quickly noticed people smoking weed in the venue. As a short girl, my favourite thing about the venue was that it’s tilted, so we could still get a pretty decent view. The architecture of the upper area of the venue had some sort of Roman colosseum design, something we were slightly confused about.

Around 8pm the opener act came out. It was Christian Alexander, a young boy I had never heard of before. As a first impression from a few songs, the guy seemed pretty bland and novice, playing songs with a singer-songwriter style to it, switching between playing chords on an acoustic and electric guitar, or just singing. He was backed by a drummer, and a keyboard player on one song, from what I got from my view. I assumed everything else was played as a backing track. I have to give him the fact that the sound was quite shit — the guitar and voice sounded flat and the drums overtook them. I was surprised he was the opening act to a hip-hop group. By the end of his set, I was pretty sleepy.

We had to wait until a bit after 9pm for Brockhampton to come out; that was standard timing. I was worried I wouldn’t feel hyped enough as I felt pretty tired. But then the guys came out, and oh boy, did my energy take a 180 turn as soon as they did. ‘BUZZCUT’, from their last album Roadrunner, started playing and the energy in the room instantly went up immensely — the crowd got packed, it was hot, people cheered and sang at the top of their lungs, and everyone was very engaged in the performance.

The energy kept on going up and as soon as ‘STAR’, the second track, came on, the crowd went so mad Olivia and I were pushed around and lost each other, and I got beer spilled over my head. While surrendering to the mercy of the crowd, we were able to miraculously spot each other and reunite. The setlist was pretty spread between all their discography — covering 7 albums on a 90-minute performance is no easy task. In their harder songs, like ‘GUMMY’ and ‘JUNKY’, the crowd was hyped (as expected in a hiphop gig),

Image: YouTube

Frank Turner

The album starts with an explosion of punk rock energy in a new, yet, familiar direction in Frank’s solo career in what will turn out to be his most raw and emotional album yet. In this fourteen track, forty-two minutes and thirty second long album, he explores being depressed and suffering from anxiety.

On top of this, Turner comes to terms with his father’s transition to becoming Miranda and their fractured relationship healing and the process towards feeling great after undergoing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (previously explored in the song “Little Changes”). Leaving his home in London after getting married and ready to settle down is also discussed by Turner.

One of the stand out lines on the album which follows such a great series of “Break up albums” is the line in ‘Untainted Love’, “The only thing I hadn’t accounted for was love” in reference to his binging and addiction problems which feature a lot on this album. He credits his wife Jess with helping him bring to an end by encouraging him to go to therapy. He deals with growing up without a father figure and being “shipped” off to Eton aged 8 in 'Fatherless'. This has one of the best lines on the album for me, about meeting Jesus, having a whitey, and talking about judgemental fathers.

The latter half of the album includes some of FT’s best work, this includes “Punches” which has a punchy (sic) riff and great lyrics about that one day when everything goes to plan and you feel absolutely awesome. The last few songs are about his leaving London and starting a new quiet life in Essex with his wife. These make it seem like this album is the start of a new chapter in Frank’s career and life.In summary, I think this is one of Frank’s best albums and signals a new and positive direction in his music and life and I really look forward to the future!

Best song: Punches

Power of the Dog, Jane Campion’s western which swept up twelve nominations, made an appearance in this category. Composed by Radiohead’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the track evokes a disturbed introversion, mirroring that of the film’s main character. Traces of Western can be heard everywhere; from the opening track 25 Years where the picking of guitar strings takes centre stage to Detuned Mechanical Piano that sounds like a piano player running amok in a saloon, it certainly is a strong contender. Less impressive, however, is the soundtrack to Don’t Look Up. There are two main motifs to the soundtrack, which became repetitive over the listening of the album. What stood out to me, however, was its main title theme which featured blaring trumpets that felt vibrant and fun. What many may remember from the movie would probably

jumping, cheering, singing, and forming the classic mosh pits, often encouraged by the band themselves, asking to ‘open it up’. Several times, the show was stopped due to someone passing out or some sort of other misfortune. No one was surprised, due to the nature of the crowd, and the band handled this really well, prioritising the well-being of their fans.

The setlist also contained some more laid-back tracks like ‘FACE’ and ‘GOLD’. At these points the crowd was more relaxed, but equally engaged — dancing, listening, singing, myself included. The energy in the crowd throughout the gig was what absolutely made the experience for me. The energy, the engagement, and the overall vibe — a group of tall guys in front of me showed concern about whether I could see, and offered to let me go in front of them. I made occasional eye contact with people, and there was a general sense of fandom and community. The setlist also covered their most popular songs, such as ‘SWEET’, ‘SUGAR’, ‘NO HALO’. I was buzzing when I heard ‘DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY’ start playing. Brockhampton’s live set consisted of their main artists — Joba, Kevin, Dom, Matt, Bearface, Merlyn, and Jabari — singing and rapping on stage, wearing their own merch. Their interaction seemed mostly unchoreographed, which gave them a more relaxed and ‘less staged’ presentation than a traditional boyband. Joba, Merlyn and Matt stood out to me from their energy and performance, but I must give it to Joba especially - he was incredible. Bearface seemed to take a more ‘background’ role, as we didn’t hear him and didn’t seem to want the attention on him. I was concerned about there being a bad vibe on stage as we don’t know the reason for their break. Fortunately, I didn’t sense a particularly bad vibe, but they also didn’t seem to feel fully together. They had some stalls and chairs on centre stage to give them some levels to perform, and the lighting consisted mainly of a back screen that matched their visual abstract and modern style and changed slightly with every song.

Their interaction with the audience was quite limited, occasionally hyping the crowd up and showing concern for people being crushed at the front. The sound quality was still pretty shit throughout the whole set, with the mix feeling pretty muddy and the highs and vocals getting often lost, which made it hard at times to recognize the song that was playing. This happened with ‘THE LIGHT’, which is one of my favourites. They closed the gig with ‘SUMMER’, followed by a big ovation from the crowd. As soon as they went off stage, the crowd started to cheer for the encore non-stop. The guys gave us some form of speech in which they thanked their fans for their support, expressed their love, and thanked Kevin for changing their lives. They did this while offstage, and I wish they would have done it on stage. I supposed they were setting up their encore — ‘BOOGIE’, which ended the gig on a high note.

After the gig was done, everyone was highly sweaty and out of breath. People started slowly walking out of the venue, and the general feeling was of bittersweetness (I even overheard a guy saying this to his mates). It was a great gig — with some faults from the band and venue, it still was a pleasure to experience their last ‘exclusive’ performance, especially with a crowd as passionate about them that absolutely made the experience for me. I wish for every gig I attend to have an audience like this.

Over a period of roughly 5-6 years, Brockhampton have given us 7 records with a DIY approach that I absolutely adore. And it just isn’t me – despite the bittersweet goodbye, they leave a great trajectory and discography behind that’ll make them unforgettable, and this was proved to me last night.

be Ariana Grande’s “Just Look Up” featuring Kid Cudi which, while displaying Ariana’s powerful vocals, was nothing particularly innovative.

On the topic of songs, how could we not talk about Bruno? Encanto’s soundtrack was a real delight to listen to. While it may be remembered for its Latin American beats and witty lyrics, it was also a roller-coaster of emotions notably from Luisa’s cry for help to Abuela Alma’s anguish at the loss of her husband, the soundtrack to Encanto truly elevated the film. It truly is another feather in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s cap.

Also making an appearance among the nominations is Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias orchestral score for Parallel Mothers. Strings feature prominently in this score, switching between melancholy and rage and thus creating a juxtaposition of sounds. For what it is, however, it isn’t a particularly memorable soundtrack.

Last but not least, we have Dune, composed by the maestro Hans Zimmer. Among the nominees, props have to be given to Dune's soundtrack for being the most innovative. It weaves seamlessly in the epicness of the film, but when listened to on its own what you will find is a collection of motifs and sounds. Atmosphere takes forefront in this score where recurring devices like drums, pipes and choir instantly transports you to the harsh planet of Arrakis. In conclusion, Zimmer has truly achieved epic world-building with his soundtrack.

In the end it all comes down to who is the favorite to win, I would have to go with Zimmer’s Dune. Is it due to my bias for Zimmer’s music? Probably, but Dune’s score is a testament to experimental musical invention and displays his knack to create evocative pieces of music. If anything else, its sheer creativity deserves the highest accolade possible in film music.

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Overall, the record embodies an art-rock sound that characterizes the band. The instrumentation is slightly more minimal and traditional than in their previous records, especially their debut An Awesome Wave. Perhaps there is a slight return to a more alternative rock sound and departure from such present electronic influences.

Thematically, nostalgia and a return to childhood events, and navigating faith and relationships stand out, all expressed through abstract and post-modern lyrics.‘Bane’ opens the record with a repeating guitar line that initially reminded me of their debut, but that quickly departed from it. We can hear delicate voices juxtaposed to occasional bursts of energy, and an incorporation of flutes and electronically manipulated sounds (one of the few times this occurs throughout the record). ‘U&ME’, the first single, picks up a more traditional indie rock sound, and ‘Hard Drive Gold’ is a satire of hustle entrepreneurial culture that has convinced 15-year olds to get into crypto unaware of what neoliberalism means. ‘Happier When You’re Gone’ introduces strings, and achieves a melancholic sound by layering simple instrumental lines that make a textured whole. The chorus of the track is delivered with sadness in the voice, sadness from having to accept the reality of the title. ‘The Actor’ narrates the story of an

aspiring actor in LA who is hooked on cocaine. ‘Get Better’ is the most personal moment of the album – the acoustic instrumentation lets the voice and lyrics shine, feeling intimate and raw, expressing the fear of losing a loved one to an accident. ‘Chicago’ takes a different direction, adapting more of a hip-hop production in the use of a heavier kick drum and sharper hi-hats. ‘Walk A Mile’ touches on religious existentialism through spaced out guitars and organs, and ‘Losing My Mind’ and ‘Powers’ look back at childhood trauma, with the latter including a minimalistic and clean Blues-inspired guitar solo. The record takes on a minimal and alternative sound to explore different issues through often abstract, sometimes detailed lyrics, and through a simple and textured ambience. At some points I wanted more from the tracks, but I can appreciate the band trying different sounds and pushing their music forward without falling into the same formulas.

Years and Years

Despite the sonic and thematic cohesiveness of the record, it feels slightly underdeveloped, and it lacks the subversion and overall vision of their previous albums such as Palo Santo. The vocals are heavily processed and often artificially manipulated. In addition, multiple songs fell under the 3-minute mark, which made them feel unpurposeful and lazy.

These faults make the record feel like the singer’s attempt to fully push him into mainstream stardom. Despite this, the record still fulfills Years and Years' promise of fun and danceable music with slick production and beautiful vocals. 'Consequences’ opens the album with upbeat dance pop and funky backing vocals, which make a strong introduction. ‘Starstruck’, ‘Nightcall’ and ‘Sooner or Later’ all use busy and layered synths, leaving space for the vocals to stand out. ‘Intimacy’ and ‘Make It Out Alive’ follow a ballad style, but still keeping consistency in their sound by using softer synths, minimalistic production, and falsetto vocals. ‘Sweet Talker’, a collaboration with Galantis, is the lowest point of the record – building a predictable sound that breaks into an instrumental electronic chorus. ‘Crave’ has a darker tone and addictive chorus; ‘Strange And Unusual’ is led by a textured bass synth on the background that softly builds the sound; and ‘Immaculate’ has a dancehall-inspired beat. ‘A Second To Midnight’ is a collaboration with Kylie Minogue, a feature that perfectly suits Olly’s aesthetic. The song is fun, disco, and catchy.

In Disc 2 we can find a compilation of Years and Years previous hits, such as the classics ‘King’, ‘Shine’ and ‘Desire’, as well as Olly’s collaborations with Elton John on ‘It’s A Sin’ and Jax Jones on ‘Play’. Disc 2 could be a recollection of the band’s greatest hits, or a cheap effort for Olly to scratch more streams on this record, perhaps to balance out the lack of effort in promotion and construction of a more welldeveloped vision for this new era. Overall, despite the record falling short and feeling underdeveloped and lazy at times, Years and Years put out another fun record that will make people want to get up and dance.