Music

Music

Weekender: 10 years later, analyzing 'Femme Fatale' as Britney Spears' zenith

By Christopher Panella | March 25

“Femme Fatale” came at a significant moment in both American music and Spears’ career. Riding on the early rise of electronic dance music, the singer’s seventh album had one overarching desire: to commemorate Spears’ new era after her rise, fall and comeback in popular culture. Of course, that’s a simplification of what might be her greatest work to date. But at the time, “Femme Fatale” acted as a turning point.

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Music

Revisiting the impact of Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' 50 years later

By Geoff Tobia Jr. | March 19

Inspired by The Beatles, Jethro Tull formed in the U.K. to write music and cashed in on sounds that progressive rock bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin and King Crimson were pioneering in the mid-to-late 1960s. As lead singer Ian Anderson explained in a 2018 interview with Decades TV, “It was the beginning of that improvised music slipping into the popular format. It came via blues, it came via Black American blues and it had impacted a whole generation of young, middle-class, white British boys, most of whom went to art colleges.” 

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Column

Soundtrack to the end of the world: Psychedelic pseudonyms

By Jessica Blough and Kristina Marchand | March 19

When asked about my music taste, whether during an awkward first date or during pre-orientation duck, duck, goose, my answer was always the same — “Anything but country, really.” But through the haze of the last year (carrying my clothes in trash bags and dozens of pies out of Latin Way), I found my music taste through much trial and error, not understanding what I liked, and chasing the goosebumps. So now, when asked what music I like listening to, I answer, “weird … psychedelic … funky.” I like my music to not sound normal, to put you on edge as much as it soothes you.  

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Column

Beyond the Underneath: A world in the bomb shelter

By Ramona Meng Xi | March 18

The place is also much bigger than I imagined. It's not just a single room but almost a maze. The hallway connects several rooms together. From roaming in and out of rooms, looking at the style of the arches and the bricks on the wall, I was drawn to its structure. It's like a part of a bigger picture.

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TV

How COVID-19 has affected the arts, locally and globally

By Christopher Panella, Stephanie Hoechst, Sadie Leite, Drew Weisberg, Devina Bhalla, Yas Salon and Phoebe Wong | March 15

While larger artists have stayed afloat, beloved venues have felt the impact of the end of live shows. In Boston, multiple local venues have been forced to close doors due to economic losses following the cancellation and postponement of live music. One such venue is Great Scott, which has hosted shows in the greater Boston area for more than 40 years.

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Column

Soundtrack to the end of the world: In case of emergency

By Jessica Blough and Myshko Chumak | March 12

I like nervous music, music that’s unsettled and unsettling, even when it’s in a major key, and this seems somewhere between pablum and dread. Over the last 12 months, I’ve found myself falling into repetitive music and listening loops. Maybe read this as my way of rocking back and forth, my sonic self-care at best or anesthetic at worst.

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Music

'Framing Britney Spears' and the movement to free America's biggest pop star

By Christopher Panella | March 11

It seems like an understatement to call the media and music industry’s misogyny, harassment and deliberate destruction of Spears as “struggles.” But “Framing Britney Spears” comes at a moment when American culture is finally deconstructing this euphemism. We’re now grappling with just how terribly Spears was treated.

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Music

'The World's a Little Blurry' pulls back the Billie Eilish curtain

By Stephanie Hoechst | March 8

The lore of Eilish’s wildly successful album is well known among fans: Eilish and Finneas wrote and recorded it in Finneas's tiny bedroom in their parents' home in Los Angeles. “The World’s a Little Blurry” keeps this intimacy at the core of its filmmaking style, eschewing any “Miss Americana”-style sit-down interviews to instead capture the relationship between Eilish and her family.

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Music

'Tyron' is a two-headed dragon of emotions, hard-hitting rap

By Geoff Tobia Jr. | March 2

The release of “Tyron” (2021) was on every fan’s radar, and Slowthai has once again delivered an excellent piece of work. A two-part album, Frampton’s sophomore record is chock-full of life-spilling details and streams of consciousness over a wonderful array of instrumentals.

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Music

Weekender: Revisiting Daft Punk's immeasurable impact as the duo retires

By Christopher Panella | February 25

To celebrate the duo’s 28-year career — including perfectly pounding albums, gorgeous visual storytelling and live concerts that fans were chomping at the bit to get into — let’s take a deep dive into their music. It’s a great opportunity to “Lose Yourself to Dance” (2013), as the duo would want.

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Music

'Chromatica' Oreos are a tasty, colorful eating experience

By Christopher Panella | February 16

The line of limited-edition cookies is inspired by Lady Gaga's latest release, “Chromatica” (2020), a dance-pop album exploring mental health and healing. Gaga’s Oreos are a spin on the classic sandwich cookies, with pink cookies and green icing in the middle.

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Music

The 'Man on the Moon' returns

By Maeve Hagerty | February 3

Two massive albums dropped on the night of Dec. 11, 2020. Though many may have gone straight to Taylor Swift’s “Evermore,” “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen” was the true gem. 

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Columns

Philosophy in Focus: All wrapped up

By Caroline Depalma | December 9

In “A Theory of Justice,” John Rawls discusses societal progress through collective creativity and labor. Rawls is correct that we gain strength and innovation by participating in the collective, but I would rather think of this idea as relevant to our lives and relationships on a smaller scale — reflected in 2020 Spotify Wrapped.

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Music

The best music of 2020

By Christopher Panella | December 7

It’s certainly easy to list all the ways consuming music changed. But plenty of our normal listening activities remained. We still take walks around the neighborhood. We continue to listen while studying or ignoring our roommates and families. And as always, the shower is still the stage for our world tour performances.

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Music

Miley Cyrus reborn as rock diva in 'Plastic Hearts'

By Christopher Panella | December 2

Cyrus’ seventh studio album explores who she’s been and who she is. But that’s fairly difficult for an artist who’s always changing, especially sonically; it makes “Plastic Hearts” a statement of self-reflection.

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Music

Revisiting Gaga’s ‘ARTPOP’ 7 years later, with ‘Chromatica’ in mind

By Christopher Panella | November 13

“ARTPOP” became a larger-than-life era, even for pop’s most outrageous and concept-focused musician. That’s important context for revisiting the album seven years later and questioning its status.

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Music

Revisiting ‘Turn Off the Light’: Kim Petras' hauntingly good Halloween album

By Christopher Panella | October 1

There are ways to enjoy Halloween and “Turn Off the Light” this holiday season. Petras made the perfect soundtrack for the entire month’s festivities — that fun won’t stop given the current circumstances.

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Music

2020 summer music roundup

By Christopher Panella | September 8

It’s easy to close your eyes and imagine — or idealize — summer. Our mouths flood with the tastes of ripe, juicy fruits and our noses smell backyard barbecues. Our minds fill with nostalgic images of childhood bike rides in suburban neighborhoods and deep sunburns. Our skin aches for the touch of the sand and the feel of the ocean. Our lips long for a summer love. During any other year, these textures and ideas might come to us in May and be gone by August (when we’re sick of the heat and ready for pumpkin-flavored everything). But 2020 has robbed us of these experiences.

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TV

From the Arts Editors: Our quarantine consumption

By Christopher Panella, Stephanie Hoechst, Drew Weisberg, Devina Bhalla, Tuna Margalit, Colette Smith and Elizabeth Sander | September 8

To be more deliberate with my time and help diversify my literary world, I committed to only reading authors of color during my quarantine time and throughout 2020. I first read April Sinclair's“Coffee Will Make You Black” (1994) and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” (1965). Two very different books, but both so important to read. The first is a fictional story told from a young girl's point of view as she examines colorism and her own femininity and sexuality. Malcolm X’s autobiography paralyzed me with the knowledge that I did not actually know anything about this crucial and complex man before, and I am so glad that I was able to really learn about him now. I journeyed from Malcolm X to James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” (1963), a perfect follow-up to the autobiography as Baldwindiscusses Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam in this short nonfiction piece. Staying on the nonfiction side of things, I read “Between the World and Me” (2015), a striking and important letter written by a father to his son about holding on to his Black body. Ready for some fiction, I consumed “Kindred” (1979) by Octavia E. Butler and “A Mercy” (2008) by Toni Morrison both in a span of two days. Most recently, I have read “Girl, Woman, Other” (2019) by Bernardine Evaristo which was a simply stunning composition weaving together so many non-male Black lives and experiences into one complete and breathtaking story. Celeste Ng's“Little Fires Everywhere” (2017) is currently on my bedside table, along with “In the Castle of My Skin” (1953) by George Lamming and “On Beauty” (2005) by Zadie Smith. 

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Music

The Weeknd’s 'After Hours' is his most self-aware album yet

By Jesse Rogers | April 23

Who is The Weeknd? I’ve always felt that this vowel-snubbing vocalist was somewhat of an enigma in modern music. This isn’t only because of his rare and almost unparalleled ability to blend hip-hop, R&B and pop (whatever that means) into an expressive finished product; it also comes from his unique capacity for self-awareness. This isn’t to say that The Weeknd is the only popular artist of our day to exhibit this quality. I think many SoundCloud-rappers-turned-breakout-stars like Lil Uzi Vert and NAV are actually quite self-aware, just not in the same way. I enjoy listening to the artists mentioned above from time to time (my housemates can attest), but eventually it gets to a point where it’s just too much for me, and I’m left having to forcefully resist the desire to yell, “enough already” at the moody picture on NAV’sSpotify page while I simultaneously queue up 10 more of his songs, hoping that somehow those droning, auto-tuned vocals and hypnotic trap beats will push me to finally finish the essay I’ve been putting off.

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