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(04/26/17 4:00am)
Takes on modern noir are so prevalent this decade that the entire genre is borderline rote. Masterfully done projects such as the TV version of “Fargo,” “Gone Baby Gone” and “Gone Girl” combine a sense of formal classicism, pulpy material and an attention to character detail that elevate themselves from a morass of lesser entities. Aaron Katz’s new film,“Gemini,” is one of those lesser entities. Stars Lola Kirke and Zoe Kravitz gamely try to give their underwritten characters life, but the movie mires them in a sea of wan genre clichés.
(04/19/17 4:00am)
Picture This is an alternative rock band from the small town of Athy, Ireland. The duo, composed of guitarist-vocalist Ryan Hennessy and drummer Jimmy Rainsford, formed in 2015 and soon skyrocketed to international success and a major label deal with Republic Records. Their first single, “Take My Hand,” has amassed almost 1 million streams. The Chronicle spoke with the band during their tour of South by Southwest. The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
(04/05/17 4:01pm)
South by Southwest is full of label showcases, typically devised for a label’s up-and-coming artists to get a platform for good press. You don’t really see superstars at this level; indeed, artists like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry eschew SXSW altogether. In a way, it’s a canny facsimile of SXSW’s increasingly irrelevant “indie” ethos. These showcases are designed to show off the relative unknowns, the young upstarts whose careers either skyrocket from here or fizzle out into obscurity. It’s easy to expect far more of the latter than the former. Austin is riddled with obscure bands playing cheap bar shows, desperately trying to regain a shot at their former glory. This isn’t really a playground for superstars, and the whole week can feel like one big version of “American Idol.”
(03/29/17 3:55am)
Everyone says I’m way too analytical about pop culture. People say I obsess over basic or trivial stuff, and that mindless fluff does not need to be overthought. I can’t really deny it. I love pop culture, and even more than that, I love talking about pop culture. I’m just as likely to start a conversation about Orson Welles’ films as a chat wondering what Mischa Barton is up to these days, and I’ll devote the same amount of fervor to each.
(03/08/17 5:00am)
Last week, Stereogum published an article that declared, "Ed Sheeran is the king of pop." There must have been some mistake; surely, the fair people at Stereogum weren’t discounting better, more entertaining male pop stars like The Weeknd or Bruno Mars. Even Justin Bieber in all of his inconsistency must lay a better claim to the title of king of pop. However, Sheeran’s influence is undeniably pervasive. His particular brand of treacly, earnest acoustic folk-pop has spawned a litany of imitators like Shawn Mendes and James Arthur. Significantly, he wrote Bieber’s execrable 2015 hit “Love Yourself,” one of the most lyrically malicious pop songs of the past decade. Terrible as it is, “Love Yourself” would be a top five song on Sheeran’s latest album “÷” (pronounced “divide), a tuneless, problematic slog that easily rates as both his worst album and one of the worst major pop releases in a long time.
(03/01/17 5:00pm)
For many Duke students, Ninth Street is an off-campus haven. Home to Harris Teeter, various apartment complexes and popular restaurants such as Burger Bach and Happy + Hale, it’s a thriving mecca of food and commerce conveniently situated right at the nexus between East and West Campus. Ninth offers diverse cuisines from Mongolian to Vietnamese, Italian to good old-fashioned diner food, yet one cuisine stands above it all—Mexican. Renowned among Duke students for their satisfyingly tasty food and low prices, Chubby’s Tacos and Cosmic Cantina are mainstays of many Blue Devils’ off-campus dining options. But which is better? Whose cooking is king on Ninth Street?
(02/08/17 4:59am)
Migos is not a joke. That’s the main takeaway from “Culture,” their stunning, vital new album. The group, composed of members Quavo, Offset and Takeoff, built their sizable empire on hits like “Versace” and “Fight Night” that condensed rap into a series of viral, meme-able catchphrases built for club chanting, and they’ve been nigh-on inescapable among rap fans since a breakout 2013. The intervening years saw a rise of imitators aping their staccato flow and hazy beats, and subsequent songs like “Look At My Dab” prospered more as memes than effective songcraft. Commercially and critically, they never reached the same meteorite heights as their initial onslaught—until now. “Culture” is an album that cements Migos’ status as more than a joke; they’re the best rap group out of Atlanta since OutKast.
(01/25/17 4:59am)
On Dec. 19, 2016, Camila Cabello left Fifth Harmony. The world was—as the kids are saying—“shook” by the news. “How could Camila leave the most popular girl group in the world?” people cried. “Is the band through?” “Are they going to change their name to Fourth Harmony now?” The latter two questions are easy to answer. Fifth Harmony will continue as Fifth Harmony, despite missing their most famous member. In all likelihood, they will release one more album. Maybe it will be slightly hollow, a desperate attempt to capture the group at its full majesty. Whatever the case, after its release, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane Hansen, Ally Brooke, and Lauren Jauregui will scatter to the corners of the Earth to craft their own solo material. As for Cabello—well, that’s the fun part.
(01/18/17 5:00am)
For many Duke students, the first few weeks of the spring semester are synonymous with one word: rush. Hundreds of freshmen and sophomore students descend upon IFC, Panhellenic and SLG organizations to mingle with upperclassmen in hopes that they will be admitted to these exclusive organizations. It is a busy, trying time that affects most people on campus. For some, it is one of the most stressful experiences Duke has to offer.
(12/07/16 5:00am)
For hardcore hip-hop fans, hearing that rapper Victor Vazquez―also known as Kool A.D. from musical group Das Racist―is now writing fiction novels is like receiving a birthday gift but not on your birthday. One makes the assumption that his superior lyrical ability will translate into stellar prose. “OK,” his first novel, is not an excellent debut despite some of its strengths. Readers accustomed to traditional literary standards of excellence must proceed to reading Kool A.D.’s “OK” with caution.
(11/30/16 5:00am)
Nicola Roberts. Cheryl Cole. Sarah Harding. Nadine Coyle. Kimberley Walsh. You probably don’t know who these women are. You might say to yourself, “Why should I care? I prefer the cold ease of ignorance, and I’m going to stop reading.” You could do that, but you’d be a fool. These women are geniuses of pop music, and together they form the greatest pop group of the new millennium: Girls Aloud.
(11/02/16 4:00am)
I have deep thoughts sometimes. We live in a world of wonder, and there are so many things out there that provoke the senses and stimulate the mind. As an experiment, I wrote down every deep thought I had this week. Join me as I explore and analyze our world.
(10/12/16 4:00am)
I love Rihanna with every fiber of my being. She’s the only modern pop star who has successfully maintained “coolness” in every facet of her deportment, and her discography contains more jams than a Harry & David gift basket. What Rihanna isn’t, however, is a talented fashion designer. Her “athleisure” collaboration with Puma, Fenty X Puma By Rihanna, is a cornucopia of bad decisions. The style brief is as follows:
(10/05/16 4:00am)
Solange Knowles’s searingly powerful and meditative new album “A Seat at the Table” opens with “Rise,” a smooth jazz opus that packs a major punch in its two-minute run time. Delicate harmonies croon, “Fall in your ways so you can crumble/fall in your ways so you can sleep at night,” a mantra of rebuilding one’s identity to achieve a sense of catharsis that comes recognizing the self. “A Seat at the Table” addresses myriad heavy topics, specifically the racial and gender violence and inequality that have pervaded 2016, but it is a fundamentally optimistic body of work committed to trying to heal the soul rather than castigate it. The album marks a massive leap forward for Knowles as a songwriter and as a musician, and it is undeniably one of the best albums of the decade.
(09/21/16 4:00am)
You shouldn’t have to wait to watch horror movies until October. There are only so many films you can actually fit into 31 days, and why would you want to wait when we’re in the midst of one of the absolute best decades for new and inventive horror movies since the 1980s? The 2010s are a veritable renaissance of horror, and I’ve curated a list of a few films to start adding to your typical canon. Why wait until October when you can have Spook-tember?
(09/14/16 4:00am)
It’s an easy pun, but “AIM,” the latest and possibly last album by the Sri Lankan pop provocateur M.I.A., is a little aimless. The supposed coda to one of the most fascinating, exciting, and frustrating careers of the past fifteen years, “AIM” is just what you’d expect from a latter-day M.I.A. album: innovative production, charismatic rapping and singing, and trenchant social commentary. So why does it all feel so rote?
(09/07/16 4:00am)
Like most college students, I almost exclusively use streaming services as my method of music consumption. Specifically, I use Spotify on my laptop, Apple Music on my phone and Tidal absolutely nowhere because who has time for that. You can see cliques that form around each service, clusters of likeminded people devoted to a common platform. Spotify is for the casual music listeners. Apple Music is for aggressive curators. Tidal is for the Beyoncé fans who desperately wanted to listen to “Lemonade.” I even know someone who uses Google Play—we get it, you’re hipster!
(08/31/16 4:00am)
2016 is a strange time to be Ms. Britney Jean Spears. It’s the seventeenth year of a storied career, the turbulent likes of which haven’t yet been replicated in the twenty-first century. In today’s pop landscape, the 34 year-old Spears is an elder stateswoman, and her songs and moves have been scrutinized and studied by the new guard of singers as pop gospel. The industry’s reverence makes it easy to overlook that Spears herself hasn’t had a bona fide hit in almost four years and hasn’t put out a halfway decent album since 2011’s inconsistently classicist “Femme Fatale.” The less said about 2013’s will.i.am-produced snore “Britney Jean” the better, and advanced singles like “Private Show,” “Make Me…,” and “Clumsy” haven’t reached the commercial peaks of her heyday; all the while, Spears has stuck to her Vegas residency and laid low in the public eye. Overall, the past few years have been a relative fallow period, which begs the question: is Britney Spears even relevant anymore? The answer: yes. Her ninth studio album “Glory” is a resoundingly successful artistic statement that stands out as an exceptional pop album in a year full of them.
(06/22/16 4:00am)
By now, it’s old news that Netflix is absolutely crushing its foray into original television content. Shows like “Orange Is the New Black,” “House of Cards” and “Narcos” have captured the public’s attention with their strong acting and devotion to cliffhangers. However, their comedies have garnered less attention than their dramas, which generally lend themselves better to binge-watching due to their structure.
(06/06/16 4:01am)
Now that Duke students are free for the summer, they’ve scattered to all corners of the globe to work, be merry and take advantage of these beautiful months. However, some people are sticking around Durham and the Triangle Area, to which we at Recess say, “Lucky you!” The Triangle Area is one of the best places to see concerts in the US, and this summer has an awesome slate of artists that you won’t want to miss. We’ve taken the liberty of picking the best concerts of this summer so, if you’re around Durham, go check one out! It’ll make your summer totally not a bummer.
