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Record Review: Magnet

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Sure, Paul Simon had to make Graceland, Nick Drake had to sing breathy, Andrew Bird had to whistle and Rufus Wainwright had to croon in vibrato for this record to be made. But Magnet is not so simply an equal division of these parts. Magnet — really just Even Johansen — loves exotic rhythm (Simon), hyper-mellow singing (Drake), whistling and crooning. He also digs spacey sounds and slithering melodies. What results is The Simple Life. No, actually, just a simple life: a sugary and dreamy reverie. Yet because of all the goodness, Johansen makes even Conor Oberst seem like a badass. Luckily, the heavy rhythm — often synthesized and pulsing — gives the album an edge. The Simple Life is Magnet more revved up, leaving less empty space than before.

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Roll Over, Beethoven; Student Composers Rock Out

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Never mind the Beethoven, here’s the Contrapunkt!.
Tuesday night at Barnes Hall, six undergraduate composers premiered brand new compositions at the first ever Contrapunkt! concert.
“Contrapunkt! is an alliance between people who love writing music and those who love playing music,” Co-President Julia Adolphe ’10 said.
On Tuesday night, the blend of styles, sounds and influences meshed together like the colors of a Pollock: diverse and complimentary. In fact, the word contrapunkt means counter-point in German — indeed, the wide spectrum of talents and songs that were showcased formed an assorted and exciting program.
Still, Adoplhe said that she liked the name because it could be “a punk rock band or something.”

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Record Review: Jesca Hoop

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Although at times intimate, Jesca Hoop is never alone. Her voice is constantly doubled. Despite honest lyrics (“beautiful/ alone with my enemy/ and share a bitter cup of poisoning/ beautiful to see his face in mine/ and follow every line back to my enemy”), the production is an unnatural and annoying barrier. Hoop’s voice is lush and should do fine on its own.

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Shhh … Whatever You Do, Don’t Tell!

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Since 2004, Frank Warren has been violating the fundamental law of secrets: whatever you do, don’t tell!
By scanning anonymous secrets written on postcards onto his community art project/blog, PostSecret.com, Warren has shouted out over 150,000 secrets to the world.
A Lifetime of Secrets is his newest compilation of over 100 never-before-seen postcards, with secrets ranging from charming to frightening, from depressing to deeply moving.
The overarching theme of time unites this collection — topics explored include: growth, age, maturity, youth, adolescence and adulthood. Ultimately, the anonymous secret-tellers expose a complex relationship with change, an issue that affects us all — illustrated (literally) by the hundreds of cards in the book.

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Record Review: Ryan Adams

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Whether it is restless, weathered, gloomy or trendy, Ryan Adams has perpetuated a wide array of personas throughout his career. He has also whipped out a large catalogue of records to match. His inconsistencies, a result of his uninhibited passion, have always made him shine. Conversely, Follow the Lights is a surprisingly tidy collection, featuring only three new songs. By re-recording old material, Adams has finally settled down with the Cardinals as his glue and filter — allowing time with the band to reflect and polish. “If I Am A Stranger” proves this process worthwhile, as the new version is better than the original, while “Follow the Lights” nears disaster — but not the wild kind. The song is neat, clean, packaged and dull.

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Chasing Dreams: From Court Jester to The Crowned Prince

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Alex Kresovich ’08 smiles like a Cheshire cat. But after spending his summer dancing with Rihanna, chilling in the studio with Jay-Z, meeting twice with artist relations magnate Lenny S. and executive producing a full-length hip-hop album, it is no wonder why Kresovich’s grin is so wide.
Kresovich, a lanky, blue-eyed, Ithaca native, started rapping when he was in high school. As a rapper, Kresovich was a self-proclaimed “court jester.” “I used to be more self-deprecating in my music to protect myself from the criticism of my peers,” he said.
But now, as a senior in college, Kresovich has developed into a respectable — and self-respecting — artist, confirmed not only by the fact that he has spent time in the studio with hip- hop legends and has had his favorite underground rappers “gush” over his beats, but by his stellar new album, The Crowned Prince.

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Record Review: Foo Fighters (1/3)

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“Reduce, reuse, recycle” are three words in a campaign — and chorus — that helped Jack Johnson propel his music career forward. But, unfortunately, the Foo Fighters have misinterpreted this slogan, and have churned out an entire album’s worth of trash — and no, not the type that could be mistaken by another man as treasure.
1996’s “My Hero” worked well because it subverted the conventions of arena rock — with a tremendous drum introduction sounding like Animal soloing on The Muppet Show, and a wall of guitars larger than that of China’s greatest, the song not only rocked, but also had lyrical depth. Here, however, the Foo Fighters have lost this humbling — and necessary — sense of scope.

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Fled From Home; Now Going Back

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Writer, director and Cornell physics professor Robert Lieberman has spent much of his career thinking about the places he has lived.
“You’re supposed to write about what you know,” he said. Indeed, Lieberman has pondered his home through fiction: He has written over a dozen books, many of which are based in Ithaca, where his feature film Green Lights is also based.
But with his most recent film, a documentary, Lieberman decided to kink with the old adage and venture back to a place he left behind over 55 years ago: Kew Gardens, New York.
The result is a feature-length film, Last Stop Kew Gardens, which chronicles Lieberman’s journey back home and the rediscovery of the Holocaust survivors’ children he grew up with.
Nestled within the bustling Queens metropolis during the 1940s and ’50s, Kew Gardens was a neighborhood composed almost entirely of German and Austrian Holocaust refugees.
“Our parents recreated a Europe that had disappeared,” Lieberman said.

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Record Review: Kate Nash

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Kate Nash sings in hip-hopping hiccups. This (heavily London accented) Brit is definitely a flirt. Although she is anything but a sweetheart. In fact, she’s so critical of her ex-boyfriends that she quite honestly scares me. But only just a little.
On the first track, “Foundations,” Nash traces her failed relationship with a continuous first-person narrative — a style similar to some rappers, such as Mike Skinner aka The Streets. But maybe with her cute, almost campy style she’s a bit more like old-school goofballs DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince.

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Mysteries of an Ancient Game

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Chess is a game with a serious public relations problem. Too often mystified, the game’s image has been blurred by historic wunderkinds, peculiar Russian Grandmasters, hustlers in Washington Square Park and, well, how can I put this … math majors. But I for one am intrigued by the elusive art, and decided to play a few games with the Cornell Chess Club this past Monday.
“He’s pretty, umm,” started Chris Beyers ’10, chess club president.
“Bad,” I finished, as I completed what Beyers meant to say about me. Beyers chuckled as he described my abilities to club member Sierra Hooshiari ’11.
Beyers had just beaten me in about 10 minutes. I was a little anxious and sacrificed my queen too early; and then went my rook, both bishops, a knight and sooner than I expected it was Checkmate.