Album Review: Pure Heroine, Lorde

By: Chris Hope On October 12, 2013, Miley Cyrus’ then-controversial “Wrecking Ball” lost its two-week streak of topping the Billboard Hot 100 to a New Zealander relatively unknown to the United States named Ella Lani Yelich-O’Connor — Lorde. “Royals” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a consecutive nine weeks, though its impact and what it …

Album Review: IGOR, Tyler the Creator

By: Wylie Feaster One of the more fascinating artistic evolutions of our current generation, Tyler Okonma, better known as Tyler, the Creator, presents us with IGOR, his fifth studio album, hastily following Music Inspired by Illumination & Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, the 10-minute, six-song EP released last November. After the mutinous, uncompromising sounds of his earlier work …

The Beautiful Elements of Bon Iver’s Self-Titled Record (AKA The Pieces That Speak to My Soul)

By Ilene Frances The 2011 self-titled record by Bon Iver is one of the few records that I return to numerous times throughout any given year. The heavenly hymns flow so gracefully from one song to the next and tell a story of resurgence from long winter (as described in the debut record For Emma, …

Album Review: Apollo XXI, Steve Lacy

By: Wylie Feaster Apollo XXI by Steve Lacy Before jumping into the nine-minute long “Like Me,” Steve Lacy, claiming full control of his first solo debut album, one that was written separately from his actual band The Internet, addresses the listener directly: “This is about me, what I am. I didn’t wanna make it a …

Album Review: Channel Orange, Frank Ocean

By: Wylie Feaster A quick confession to help move this review along: Frank Ocean is my favorite musical artist of all time. I have a laptop sticker with his face on it, a Blonde hat, and his first album, Channel Orange, the one that we will be dissecting today, was the first piece I posted …