Arts & Culture

XU | It’s a Lovely Day for alt-J

By |

I have been hunting for a specific kind of lyrical, melodic, soft electronica. I went through Sufjan Steven’s The Ascension (think “Video Game”), Jamie xx, a bit of Tame Impala and lots of Joji before remembering alt-J. The British band combines elements of electronica, rock and pop to create the distinct texture of their music. I knew their most popular song, “Breezeblocks,” but I had never really listened to their albums seriously up until now. It was down this lane of rediscovery that I stumbled upon alt-J’s version of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.”

Alt-J peaked around 2015.

Arts & Culture

Below Ocean Blvd and into the Mind: Del Rey Guides Us Through Her World on Latest Album

By |

“When you’re good, it’s gold,” Lana Del Rey reminds us on the track “Margaret” from her ninth studio album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, released on Friday, March 24. The singer-songwriter Del Rey’s ability to convert singular, diaristic stories into beautiful folk-pop melodies — and some surprise hip-hop-influenced tracks harkening back to her Born to Die era — underwrites this proposition: When Lana is good, emotionally and spiritually, she’s gold. 

Del Rey’s early albums, too, felt like a storybook, but one that was ultimately a deliberate creation. Listeners became accustomed to her tales of  “facin’ time again at Rikers Island” in Born to Die (2012) and “dying by the hands of a foreign man” on Honeymoon (2015). Yet, since her critically acclaimed 2019 album Norman F*****g Rockwell, there has increasingly been a convergence between “Lana Del Rey” and Elizabeth (Lizzy) Grant, the real life New York-raised artist who caught fame at the dawn of the Instagram era. 

Her latest release marks their long-awaited unification. She directly addresses her now decade-long struggle of managing both the public’s and her own perception of herself on tracks such as “A&W” and “Grandfather Please Stand on the Shoulders of my Father While He’s Deep-Sea Fishing” (yes, that’s the full title).

Arts & Culture

Slowthai’s ‘UGLY’ Is Anything But

By |

On March 3, after a two-year wait, British rapper Slowthai finally released his third studio album UGLY, the successor to 2021’s Tyron. With its raw, introspective content and meshing of hip hop with a punk-focused sound, UGLY checks all the boxes for a hard-hitting, genre-bending record that will undoubtedly and deservedly draw critical acclaim for its ambition and emotionality. By the time Tyron dropped in early 2021, I had only vaguely heard of Slowthai from rumblings that had started from his debut album Nothing Great About Britain. That project was highly regarded right off the bat, so Tyron had a fair amount of hype behind it, which I would say it lived up to. Throughout its runtime, Tyron fairly consistently stays in the mold of a conventional, trap-influenced project, but this element of mainstream conformity doesn’t take away from it being a high-quality album.

Arts & Culture

Are Hippo Campus’s Best Days Behind Them?

By |

On Feb. 21, Hippo Campus released their new single “Kick in the Teeth,” a quick bite of a song that is less than three minutes, yet feels too long. The single comes in anticipation of the indie rock band’s new EP Wasteland, which will be released on April 14. “Kick in the Teeth” feels lazier than the band’s usual summer sound; could it be Hippo Campus ready to try a new style, or a sign that they’ve run out of creative steam? “Kick in the Teeth” sounds like it was written in a class on how to write a song — I got sick of it after only getting through the first half of this article.

Arts & Culture

It’s Music for Chickens

By |

Some indie music is made in bedrooms, but Tall Travis’s new EP Chicken Music is made for a barn. On Jan. 5, the Vermont-based band released their third project, a quick 19-minute listen that is crunchy and energetic. The six-song project starts strong and finishes honestly, putting forth an effort that may not be groundbreaking but is astonishingly authentic. Tall Travis originated at the University of Vermont’s folk music club in January 2021.