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Showing posts from November, 2018

“We Appreciate Power” [ft. HANA] by Grimes Review

, Download New Movie Grimes sees the future once again and shocker: it’s bleak. Nü metal’s back and artificial intelligence reigns supreme. Propaganda songs are our best hope of making a good impression on the robots now. But the loaded nature of “We Appreciate Power,” the first single off Grimes’ currently untitled fifth album, isn’t necessarily its initial impression. The self-produced song, which features Grimes’ ongoing collaborator HANA, is an immediate onslaught of mutilated noise—distorted metal guitar chug, bloody screams, a guitar loop that conjures fear and demands worship. Flashes of Nine Inch Nails ’ Pretty Hate Machine reverberate through the drum programming and synths. Though Grimes’ late-1990s shock-rock sound is less skeletal than what Trent Reznor offered with his 1989 debut, there’s still a parallel: Like Reznor, Claire Boucher knows exactly how to manipulate the machines to conjure the sounds she hears in her nightmares and fantasies. She also has a keen ear for p

“Flicker” by Rina Sawayama Review

, Download New Movie People of color are constantly stigmatized for their names, whether from biased hiring managers or teachers who butcher pronunciation while reading attendance sheets. These moments are often demeaning, like one of the most fundamental elements of someone's identity is burdensome or atypical. But on “Flicker,” the latest single from the Japanese-British artist Rina Sawayama , such experiences are transformed into an ecstatic, self-assured pop song meant to uplift people who, in her words, are “misunderstood for who [they] truly are.” “Flicker” reflects on Sawayama’s experience of having a “difficult” name herself; in the process, she subtly critiques social constructs that dictate what a “normal” name is. Over fluorescent synths and jittery drums, she urges listeners to take pride in their names and remember that they are better than the homogeneous faces on TV screens. “They flicker but they ain’t gonna shine like us,” she croons in the catchy, jubilant chorus

“Oodles O’ Noodles Babies” by Meek Mill Review

, Download New Movie Oodles of Noodles isn’t a sensible dinner choice if you have more than a few dollars, but when it’s all you can afford, instant ramen might as well be five-star linguini. It's a meal that has come to represent the struggle of low-income families, but when revisited during better times, it can taste like nostalgia, a feeling that Meek Mill mines lovingly and completely on his new single “Oodles O’ Noodles Babies.” Taken from his upcoming album Championships , “Oodles O’ Noodles” takes a poetic, haunting look at Mill’s tough beginning and road to success. Mill recalls his hardships over a smooth sample from “Love Changes” by Mother’s Finest, touching on everything from the memory of his father to one judge’s keenness on keeping him behind bars . He’s uncharacteristically calm, with his usual fiery resolve replaced with tranquility. Though his emotions threaten to break after the first verse, he eases into an interlude about his relationship with law enforcement