Headphones: Prince is back, so tonight we're gonna party like it's 1989 {MotH Original}

{Originally appeared in Man of the Hour Magazine on November 5th, 2014}

Halloween has come and gone. The autumn foliage giving way to bitter chills and fireside evenings. The perfect time to find some new tunes, and this week’s got some great ones. From a rising star to returning royalty, 2014 appears to be ending in a much better place than it began, so get ready for the concerts to come and plug into this week’s Headphones.

Album: 1989- Taylor Swift

You don’t wanna like it. You really don’t wanna like it, I know. But you best be ready to pop some Swiftamine, because 1989 isn’t just the most consistent record of Swift’s career, its the best album of the year, hands down.

The infectiously catchy “Shake It Off” was just a warning shot before the blonde bard dropped a megaton pop record on the world, chock full of influences like Lorde and Lana Del Rey to craft something so undeniably enjoyable that even the most hardened of hearts will be jamming. Sure, the weakest track is unfortunately the opener, “Welcome to New York” which feels as though it was written by a wide-eyed teen on a school field trip, but its followed up by the best track of the record, and perhaps of Swift’s career, “Blank Space”. A lot has already been said about this very modern-sounding track, and more will likely be written when its made a single, gets an equally enjoyable video and inevitably wins a Grammy (mostly because what the hell else could win anything this dismal, platinum album-less year?), but it should be noted how enjoyable it is to hear Swift come into her own. Yes, she had albums before Fearless, but truly that’s her debut, her big hit, the one that established the idea of “Taylor Swift”, and idea recurred to less acclaim with the follow-up Speak Now, dodged and toyed with in Red and finally observed, accepted and almost lampooned on this track, with its mocking reference to a “long list of ex-lovers” who say she’s “insane”. She’s no longer trying to claim she’s not a serial dater, but rather that she “loves the players” just as her new intended target to fill the blank space on her list loves “the game”.

“Style” comes as close to a rock feel as she’s gotten thus far in her career (though that would be an interesting turn when the pop phase has run out), and while its not exactly single material, it’s a catchy car jam, and it makes a great bridge between “Blank Space” and the I’m-A-Grown-Man-And-Shouldn’t-Be-Half-Dancing-To-This beat of “Out of the Woods”. While a few tracks on the record can be a tad over-produced in a determination to break the mold of “girl with an acoustic guitar” (like the following track, “All You Had To Do Was Stay” which suffers from a painful, uncharacteristically falsetto chorus), “Out of the Woods” is masterfully mastered with a gargantuan sound that perfectly fits the composition. “Shake It Off” is a track we’ve tackled before, and its the most single-ready track on the record, catchy, simple and sing-along-able in a way few tracks on the record can match, and “I Wish You Would” is enjoyable enough (though you can already imagine the stripped down acoustic version buried beneath all the production, awaiting an MTV Unpluggedspecial), but it’s “Bad Blood” that stands out as an example of “new” Taylor.

Sure, “Bad Blood” isn’t the first angry Taylor song, but its the first to be embedded with something beyond impotent rage. Rather than lamenting some boy with a box of Kleenex and regret, “Bad Blood” is clearly directed at a former friend with a fierce bitterness, a sense of betrayal wrapped up in a “f--k you” so clear you’d swear the words were lyrics within the sponge itself. Lyrically, no, it isn’t “Positively 4th Street”, but that’s the closest song one could compare it to, so clenched fist/clenched teeth fury burns beneath the electric beat. “Wildest Dreams” feels like a lost Lana Del Rey track, filtered through Taylor’s optimistic Springsteen-esque vision of love as an escape, a runaway daydream in a fast car with the roof down to be treasured and buried within the abyss of memories long past. This sentiment is repeated and reversed in the narrative, pseudo-instructive “How You Get The Girl”, a track which feels the most in line with “old” Taylor Swift, the only track that could remotely feel like it fits on a bygone album, like a lost track from Red. “This Love” begins with a more acoustic tone, teasing us of how things were (and reminding us where all these heavily produced pop tracks were conceived by the “little girl with the guitar” we loved back in the Fearlessera) and keeps its mellow tone even with the electronic backbeat.

“I Know Places”, the penultimate song on the album, has a weird vibe to it. It’s near feral in its wooden imagery, with breathy vocal, orgasmic choral wails and a pulsing beat that gives the song a passionate, animalistic and admittedly almost sexual tone, a maturity that has never been present in any of Swift’s tracks before, even on this record, as though this track (with its inclusion of the uncharacteristic swear “all the damned time”  ) was Taylor fully maturing past the juvenile country starlet to the woman she intends to be, a towering pop icon, and closes out the album with “Clean”, stripping it back down and highlighting her lyrical imagery “You’re still all over me like a wine stained dress I can’t wear anymore” as though to prove she’s inching ever closer to the compositional comparison proposed by Brad Nelson of The Atlantic back during the dawn of the Red-era, Leonard Cohen.

No, nothing on 1989 reaches the heights of Songs of Love and Hate or I’m Your Man, but then she wasn’t trying for that at all. She was trying to break free of her prior image while still staying true to who she is (or her public persona, as she seems to smart and crafty to truly expose all of herself to the world), and there she succeeded. She was trying to craft an exquisitely catchy pop album, and there she succeeded to an impressive degree. It’s all the more remarkable that her lyrical flair and personally poetic imagery managed to shine through even on an album so intent on avoiding the introspective. 1989 is a must hear, must own album that closes out a dismal year on a remarkably high note.

Single: Sure, normally we at Headphones like to highlight a track that’s out on iTunes, one you can track down, pop on your iPod and blast in the car. This week, however, scoring that sweet tune will be a bit harder, but we couldn’t not highlight this insanely killer cut from an otherwise dismal SNL. His majesty, the once and future Prince took the stage to deliver a searing, astounding 8 minute medley in lieu of two singles, and he and his backing group tore it up for every second of it. Click play and bask in the master, baby.

Music Videos:

Electronic: “Dare You 2 Move ft. Problem”- Destructo

This 8-bit video game sounding track is accompanied by a bizarre video that riffs on rap cliches, driving montages and even the cult-classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Hip-Hop: “My Own Parade”- Mayday! x Murs

Its hard to define a video that seems at the same time minimalist (or at least cheaply achieved) yet in line with the absurd artistry of Odd Future’s typical visual output. Either way, well worth a watch.

Pop: “Beyaz Sevda”- Kendi

It’s weird, oddly Priscilla Queen of the Desert-esque with an element of Jodorowsky and a hint of “Perfect Drug”. It’s in another language. Yet “Beyaz Sevda” is strangely engaging, as though through watching the actions of the darkly dressed women you might begin to understand what the woman in pink so passionately sings about, like trying to unravel the mystery of the spanish “Crying” singer in Mulholland Drive.

R&B: “Life”- Efya

Efya uses her newest, aptly titled video “Life” to explore her own, utilizing dramatized sequences, concert footage and home movies to chart her trajectory from unknown to engaging R&B performer.

Rock: Kim and the Created- Dead to Me

A fun little lampoon of old B-horror flicks, the grit of the indie band is perfectly accompanied by the grainy footage and the Troma-esque fascination with smoke and slime. Indeed, the video could well be a Nuke’Em High sequel all its own.

The Buzz: Dear Black Panther, The Life and Death of John Wick and Mike Tyson (MotH Original}

{Originally appeared in Man of the Hour Magazine on November 1st, 2014}

It’s been a crazy week as we gear up for Oscar season. With films like Interstellar and Into the Woods on the horizon (as well as stills from and a plot for a new Terminator movie that looks, well, catastrophic), this week we here at the buzz wanted to check out some smaller, lesser known titles before the big names hit the screen. This week brings us some helpful tips for white people, we find out what a boxing champ does in his spare time, meet Tommy Chaos and Stacey Danger and find out why you shouldn’t mess with Neo’s pet. Plus, another week of big Marvel news. So climb on in, cause it’s time for this week’s Buzz.

Movies: An inflammatory, racially charged title for an indie directorial debut from a young, black gay director? This promised to be a skewering, vicious piece of angry satire from the get-go, and its incendiary trailer only reinforced the expectation that this would be like Spike Lee’s School Daze with more bite. You could feel the controversy and the Conservative whining already about the anti-White America sentiments, and a rally of fans gathered to celebrate the satirical slaughter of racial politics. Hell, that’s what we signed on for. Those of us that followed the film on Facebook and Twitter, that championed the trailer, that watched director Justin Simien on Colbert and lined up on opening day, we awaited (even those like me, who are so white american-looking we resemble a Captain America who gave up and discovered doughnuts) that classic American art form, that Twainian pageant of cliches dissecting other cliches to expose the harsh truth to stereotypes and ignorance.

But that’s not what we got. Oh no. We got something so much better.

Dear White People is the kind of film whose trailer already commands adjectives like “bold” and “vicious”, but you wouldn’t expect to call it “beautiful”. And yet here it was. A strikingly beautiful coming of age story, about the age that matters. Not Stand By Me-esque childhood nostalgia, but the search for identity that comes with college life. Dear White People isn’t populated with cliches and stereotypes, but rather 3 dimensional characters brought to life with subtle, nuanced performances from extraordinarily gifted actors (many of whom, because of the lack of quality roles for black actors, have never gotten to show such range), particularly the transcendent Tessa Thompson as the defiant fire starter Samantha White, a film student who crusades for equality who’s like “…if Spike Lee and Oprah had a baby”, but whose bitterness masks a wounded and vulnerable woman trying to find her place in the world. Her story runs concurrent with, amongst others, Tyler James Williams, a young gay black man wondering which “group” he belongs in, the “gays” or the “blacks”, feeling he’s not truly either nor truly accepted by either one (despite one black student assuring him “I’m listening to Frank Ocean right now”. 

In the end, there is still a great deal of racial conflict and satirical skewering in Dear White People, but it takes unexpected sides at times, refusing to point fingers at anyone in particular, and making no true “bad guys”, like a more light-hearted Do The Right Thing. However, the crux of Dear White People isn’t really about black or white, its about identity, of which “being black” being about more than just skin color is sadly a factor in today’s society as exemplified by Teyonah Parris’ somewhat tragic “Coco” Conners in her lust for fame. It’s a film well worth checking out, both thought provoking and life affirming, and hands down the best directorial debut this year.

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Keanu Reeves is back, and better than anything since The Matrix (in fact, acting wise, this might be his best role ever). John Wick is an insane, all out action fest with gorgeous cinematography and a script that keeps on giving if you’re a fan of the genre. True, the film hinges on whether or not the viewer can digest the insane premise that because Keanu’s John Wick has a dog which gets killed, he proceeds to murder approx. 80 people, but on the other hand: John Wick has a dog which gets killed and so he proceeds to murder approx. 80 people. How are you not at this movie already?

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TV: If you’ve got a strange idea for a TV show, Adult Swim is probably the place to go. Talk show hosted by a bad Hanna-Barbera cartoon? Greenlit. A Law & Order style legal show based around a different bad Hanna-Barbera character defending other Hanna-Barbera characters? Sure. Hell, no Hanna-Barbera characters at all, just some talking food and a guy from Jersey? F*** it, why not? In fact, “f*** it, why not?” appears to be an overture for the entirety of the new series Mike Tyson Mysteries. In the premiere episode, Mike Tyson (voiced by the boxing legend himself) sits poolside with his friends, a posh ghost, a talking pigeon (who was once a man) and Mike’s adopted asian daughter checking his pigeon coop for distress messages. As the supporting characters all explain their origin (and Mike stands by both the hesitance of a song called “Ain’t Got No Time for Bird Sex” and that his adopted daughter, as a baby, told him to “stop living for himself”, Mike receives a message from acclaimed author Cormac McCarthy (whose name Tyson cannot pronounce) asking for help to finish his book, before the gang has to square off against a chupacabra (which Tyson also can’t pronounce). Animated in the style of classic cartoons like Johnny Quest and scripted in that Simpsons/Family Guy humor of smart people writing dumb jokes (just wait till you see who the chupacabra is), Mike Tyson Mysteries may be one of the strangest things to appear on any other channel, but by Adult Swim standards its fairly tame, more in line with the more straightforward humor of The Boondocks and Black Dynamite (unlike, say, Mr. Pickles, where the less said about it, the better). While the show could fall off from here, the pilot shows a great deal of promise, and could admittedly be off-putting to some. For this critic, it was a good little distraction, well worth returning too. However, you can decide for yourself, as Adult Swim graciously uploaded the premiere to Youtube.

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News: Dear White People, you aren’t the only superheroes in the game anymore.

A lot of big announcements came from Marvel’s big impromptu panel in LA this past week, some long rumored (Cap 3 will be Civil War, the popular marvel story, there will be a Doctor Strange movie, etc.) but the biggest revelation was about a character well likely unknown to most. In addition to announcing Avengers: Infinity War in two parts, as well as a Captain Marvel movie (the female version, Carol Danvers) and an Inhumans movie, we got the big reveal when not only did the announce a Black Panther film was in the works, but that they’d already cast Chadwick Boseman (the extraordinary talent from Get On Up) and revealed concept art for the costume.

For thos unaware, Black Panther is the alter-ego of T’Challa, a fierce and noble ruler in the African nation of Wakanda. He earned the title of Black Panther from his father, T’Chaka, who was murdered by Ulysses Klaw over Wakanda’s stockpile of vibranium (the metal used for Captain America’s shield). The story of Black Panther is a complex and dramatic one, almost Homeric in its tensions and dynamics, and will make an extraordinary edition to the Marvel line-up. It’s expected release date is November 3rd, 2017.

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Short Film: Let’s get this out of the way: The story doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s a love story, plain and simple. Well, not so simple. It’s actually the most visually inventive short we’ve reviewed here in a long time (and genuinely almost infuriating its a student film, for how inventive and delightful it is). Everything from its art design to its score fill the heart with joy and delight, indeed, delightful is the perfect word to describe TheLife and Death of Tommy Chaos and Stacy Danger. It’s an utter delight with its quick cuts and cute moments, that feels both universal and personal. Plus, when lines like “he thought of the women he smoked like cigarettes” are so well written they send viewers to google to see if its a literary quote, you know you’ve got a good thing on your hands. The film is a must watch that will fill your heart with joy and a swell of affection for that person in your life you may have drifted from (plus, it will make up for all the disturbing horror shorts from last month).

The Buzz: Viral Fury in Vienna

{Originally appeared in Man of the Hour Magazine on October 25th, 2014}

After an action-packed New York Comic-Con and Halloween fast approaching, the Buzz has everything you need to get through the week. Demons? Check. Robots? Check. Tanks? Whole lotta check. We swap out a look at some Blu-Rays for some good ol’ fashioned V/H/S (with a twist), some TV and a final horror short to ring in this most chilling of seasons. So bust out them candy buckets (and UNICEF boxes if you were an overachiever like me), cause its time for this week’s Buzz.

Movies: When stills first came out for David Ayers WWII drama, everyone expected an Oscar frontrunner. After all, period pieces are always an Oscar darling, and war movies (especially ones with a “war is hell” angle) tend to get voters all giddy. Yet, upon its release, reviews were positively mixed, with most saying “It’s alright”, and some declaring it’s “changed the war movie forever”. So what did we really get from the guy who gave us Training Day and a forgettable Schwarzenneger movie?

In truth, he gave us a really good distraction. No, Fury didn’t “reinvent the war movie”. In fact, its pretty much your standard Vietnam “the first casualty of war is innocence” set up for the first half before a triumphant battle in the second. Spoiler alert that’s also the only reason to see the film: It ends in the most brilliantly thrilling tank firefight ever filmed. The introduction of a scrawny newbie joining a tank full of two-dimensional supporting characters whose actions for the entire film you can predict from their brief introductions ought to tell you what you’re getting. It feels as though Ayers had great action sequences in mind and needed a story to make them happen, so we get the Perks of Being A Wallflower kid as the poor man’s Charlie Sheen fromPlatoon, refusing to kill Germans (who the film makes great pains to completely vilify until its final moments, confusing what its message actually is). Brad Pitt does a fine ob as the tank commander, if his motives are a bit unclear. In truth, the biggest distraction to the more avid filmgoer is how it feels as though Brad Pitt had already played the cartoonish parody of his Fury role 5 years ago as Aldo Raine, especially when he conspicuously calls all German soldiers S.S., as though telling Logan Lerman’s Norman his “job” is killing S.S. as though saying “Nazi” would lead him to start demanding scalps and talking about the Bear Jew.

As a whole film, the narrative lacks the impact of more personal accounts, and those looking to feel a connect with the boys on the battlefront would benefit more from seeking out The Thin Red Line, Saving Private Ryan or most especially a film that far more effectively conveys the “war is hell” mentality Fury tries to fit between its fight scenes, The Big Red One. Honestly, they need only wait a few months for not one but two emotionally powerful WWII period pieces whose trailers run before Fury and pack more honest humanity into their 2 minute spots than Ayers film does in its whole run time, The Imitation Game and Unbroken.

Yet make no mistake, Fury is a hell of a good time at the movies. Like the uber-masculine version of a rom-com, it hits all the story beats you want it to, the ones you know it will and see from a mile away, the story existing solely to link between memorable sequences. When all hope seems lost and the men decide to stand their ground aboard their tank, the titular Fury, the film launches into the most thrilling battle on the big screen this year. Admittedly, the first hour is essentially filler building up to this moment, and the film’s only true shot at Oscar gold is in the sound mix category (in a year where Fincher dropped the mic like a true frontrunner with his murder drama, the typical shoo-ins ought to start quaking in their period accurate boots), but when it finally hits, its enough to make you glad climbed aboard.

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From The Twilight Zone to Creepshow, horror has always worked well in the anthology formula, and Magnet Releasing’s recent success with the V/H/S franchise is proof that short scares in the hands of skilled directors send better chills than any killer with a chainsaw and a feature run time can. The premise, introduced as a framing device in the original 2012 film V/H/S, is a group of young men break into a house and discover old VHS tapes, each one filled with found footage horrors. The shorts, directed by indie horror figures of little note (with the exception of Ti West who had made some waves with The Innkeepers and House of the Devil), range from hauntingly effective to frustrating miss, but the remarkable thing is how fans of the film bicker over which segments fall into which category (The only segment routinely agreed upon as a success appears to be “Amateur Night” by David Bruckner). The follow-up, V/H/S 2, brought out bigger names like Hobo With A Shotgun director Jason Eisener, Blair Witch Project’s co-directors (and reinventors of the found footage genre) Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale, and The Raid helmer Gareth Evans. While the segments in the sequel proved overall weaker than the first, the all out insanity and scope of Evans’ segment, “Safe Haven”, stand out as the highlight of the entire franchise thus far (its a must see this Halloween season).

Now the franchise is back with the upcoming V/H/S Viral. The premise of the framing device appears to be different from the previous installments, described as “A police chase after a deranged ice cream truck has captivated the attention of the greater Los Angeles area. Dozens of fame-obsessed teens flock to the streets with their video cameras and camera phones, hell-bent on capturing the next viral video. But there is something far more sinister occurring in the streets of L.A. than a simple police chase. A resounding effect is created onto all those obsessed with capturing salacious footage for no other purpose than to amuse or titillate. Soon the discovery becomes that they themselves are the stars of the next video, one where they face their own death.” The film will feature segments by Dance of the Dead’s Gregg Bishop, Resolution’s Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead, Deadgirl’s Marcel Sarmiento and most intriguingly, Oscar nominee Nacho Vigalondo, whose low-budget brilliance Timecrimes is a must see for any genre fans.

The first two V/H/S films are available for streaming on Netflix, and V/H/S Viral is currently available on VOD services.

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TV: Constantine has already been discussed to some degree in our New York Comic Con coverage, but with the official air date of the supernatural comic book drama looming, it felt best to advise our readers as to the inevitable “to watch or not to watch” dilemma. Yet, after seeing the fate of comic book shows like Arrow,Smallville and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (among countless other programs), the best advice that can be given with a pilot like Constantine’s is “wait and see”.

Its a flawed pilot, not nearly the out the gate great like The Flash, and not the fumbling failure of a show likeThe Cape (that was a thing. Ask Abed). It’s bland, feels tired, and lacks a lot of the spark and the grit of the original source material. It’s introduction of a female foil to, I’d assume a network note requested, “soften his [let’s just note, non-existent] edge” is painful, and will likely drag the narrative down the longer she remains a part. The actor playing the titular role is admittedly a much better John Constantine than Keanu Reeves (this guy at least tries to maintain an English accent, even if it is all over the place sometimes), and you sort of hope NBC will give him and the show runners room enough to breathe, and moves the punk elements it shoves in the background of shots into the foreground of the show. Get dark, get dirty NBC. Then folks will have a reason to tune in. As for you, dear reader, don’t write it off just yet. If you need background noise for aCandy Crush game, this will do fine, and then you’ll be all caught up if (and hopefully when) this show finds its footing, gets its wings, and goes nuts.

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News: After months of waiting, word finally came along when we’d see footage from everyone’s most anticipated superhero movie (well, except those firmly planted on team Cashgrab vs. Superman), Avengers: Age of Ultron. During next week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, those willing to endure the underwhelming TV spinoff would be treated to a first look at the next Marvel movie. Then, lucky for those of us with less time on our hands, some intrepid internet dweller released the footage early on various video sites before Disney shut it down. To their credit, rather than let bootlegs circle for a full week, Marvel released an HD version of the trailer on Youtube themselves, saying nothing of the leak except a tweet: “Dammit Hydra” (Hydra is the evil organization within the MCU).

The trailer gives us a first listen and two first looks at James Spader’s villainous and chilling Ultron, in the comics invented by Hank Pym (also known as Ant-Man) but in this film appears to be at least part a Tony Stark creation, as he laments the Avengers unwillingness to do what must be done to protect the planet. He describes them as puppets tangled up in strings, before a haunting rendition of Pinnochio’s “I’ve Got No Strings” scores a sequence of shouting and destruction (anyone who had any issues with the Disney/Marvel merger can now relax and bask in this brilliant mix of intellectual properties). The full trailer can be seen below, but the most striking images include a thankfully no longer hypnotized Hawkeye running through snow, a close up of character actor Andy Serkis and a shot of ballerinas. All the other images within the trailer were to be expected, as we knew well in advance about the Hulkbuster armor, or Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlett Witch. But in a film whose concept art has also shown the humanoid Vision (to be played by Paul Bettany), why show the yet unnamed character Andy Serkis plays in the film? What role does he play, so crucial that we need see him so early? The same can be said for the inexplicable ballerina shot. Joss Whedon isn’t one for MacGuffins, so one can only imagine when we finally see the film, such shots will make perfect sense, like stray pieces from a puzzle, the rest of which will come together in time. No matter what, this is a brilliantly cut, intensely intriguing trailer for what promises to be the biggest film of the year. Check it out below:

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Short Film: Our final short for horror movie month is more in the vein of Sam Raimi than Wes Craven. Yes,Vienna Waits For You is a horror comedy (which is interesting, since Ryan Murphy apparently just invented the genre) one that delights in its silliness while still trying to maintain a creeping sense of dread. In the first part, the film succeeds fairly well, taking on a Jeunet-esque sensibility of the strangely mundane. As for actual scares, the film lacks any at all. So whether or not Vienna Waits For You is worth your time depends, really, on whether you prefer Evil Dead 1 or 2. Those who enjoyed the disturbing, gory scares of the first film will be disappointed in the bland predictability of the short, but those who preferred the zany lampoon of Evil Dead 2, and those who like the ambience of horror films without any of the real scare will delight in Vienna Waits For You’s tone and delivery. It’s not a scary movie for the hardcore horror fan, but maybe for their middle aged mother.

Headphones: Cohen and Kinney Came Back {MotH Original}

{Originally published in Man of the Hour Magazine on October 22nd, 2014}

October is almost over, the leaves are changing color and fluttering from the trees. Its is a time of death, and a time of rebirth, best rung in with the somber intonations of Canada’s greatest poet and the resurrection of one of music’s greatest girl groups. Without furth ado, let’s get to this week’s Headphones.

Album: Popular Problems- Leonard Cohen

The remarkable thing about Leonard Cohen is that his music always has enough of a current feel to not rob it of its timelessness. Like Dylan, you can simply listen to the track and know what decade its from, and not just from the painfully (in the most beautiful way) deteriorating voice. The master songwriter/poet was once known for his work’s inclusion in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, but now at 80 after a stellar Buckley cover and one to many American Idols’, he’s now “the Hallelujah guy. It’s a shame, because tracks like “Dance Me to the End of Love”, “Famous Blue Raincoat” and “Dress Rehearsal Rag” are equally if not more profound and embed with a perfect pain (which perhaps might be why they aren’t as well known. “Hallelujah”, a song about sex, at least has some optimism in it, unlike most of his catalogue, which was once described as “music to eat a gun to”;). This new album kicks off with “Slow”, whose synth-y electric blues beat fits perfectly with Cohen’s low grumble. As it has been since around Natural Born Killers, his voice has changed from the wounded young man of The Songs of Leonard Cohen to a haunting etherial whisper, accompanied by a disembodied choir, and “Slow” despite its lyrical simplicity, packs a vicious bite that feels both personal and universal (a remarkable quality to Cohen’s lyrical writing). “Almost Like The Blues” gets much more vivid, and more grim, in its imagery and burns with an incendiary bitterness. “Samson in New Orleans” has an introspection in its melody that speaks to a far deeper hurt than its saddened lyrics let on. The truth is you could go song by song on this (unfortunately short) album, and save a few compositional issues with “Did I Ever Love You”, whose backing track is a bit too bluegrass for the pained music (hopefully, like “Hallelujah” someone strips it down and finds the beauty at its heart), all you could discuss is how exquisitely hurt every beautifully composed track was. Cohen has succeeded where even Dylan has faltered, by still retaining the same level of poise, control and emotional honesty in his songwriting today as he did back when he first put pen to paper. Long live the true poet laureate of the Great White North, and of every broken heart that ever sought comfort in song.

Single: “baby Don’t Lie”- Gwen Stefani

After the smashing success of Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (which truly feels like forever ago), it seemed like Gwen Stefani could do anything. And apparently what she chose to do from that “anything” was disappear off the face of the earth. Thankfully, the former No Doubt singer decided to come back with a catchy pop track. The track itself we shouldn’t be so thankful for, because as catchy as it is, it’s not the right song for her, and her punk-y vocals feel kind of clunky against a Latin beat more befitting a J-Lo or a Shakira, but thankful because its ear-worm quality should get enough airplay Gwen’s more self-aware stylings can come back and bring back some of her trademark humor to pop radio.

Music Videos:

Electronic: “Slow Acid”- Calvin Harris

Kicking off with a tracking shot that looks fresh out of The Purge: Anarchy, we’re instead treated to a silver faced figure and flickering lights leading us down a rabbit hole that feels as though we’ve taken a bad hit of acid thats sinking in slowly.

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Hip-Hop: “Hennessey Angels”- Federal X

Yes, it does have two-thirds of the trifecta of rap cliche: hot girl and car. Yes, the rhymes can be weak (Why…why did we just name drop Alec Baldwin). The real appeal is the flickering light scenes in the parking garage that show the director can do some interesting things when he doesn’t have to just focus on an admittedly attractive woman.

Pop: “Speak in Tongues”- Ferras

Frequent readers know I’m a sucker for a good piece of black and white cinematography in a music video. Even if the track itself is sub-par, the visuals (including a burning heart wrapped in barbed wire) are stunning and well worth a watch.

R&B: “Call My Name”- Morgan James

Not every video needs a high concept or an epic story. Sometimes just a striking shot, a woman singing on the sidewalk, staring ahead at a silhouette which may or may not be the man she’s singing to is enough to enthrall before the video reveals its conceit (a world frozen save Morgan James herself). Even without the frozen time visual, Morgan’s pained eyes gazing into the lens is enough to engage the viewer.

Rock: “Bury Our Friends (feat. Miranda July”) - Sleater-Kinney

You guys…you guys…Sleater-Kinney is back. The riot grrl indie rock act from Olympia, which split up back in 2006 (sad, yes, but it helped give us Portlandia, which vocalist Carrie Brownstein stars in) is finally back with a new single, and it still has the brilliant drive which fueled every album in their discography. It’s a bizarre type of lyrics video comprised entirely of one person moving in a mask, but really, it could have been anything because, hey, you guys? SLEATER-KINNEY IS BACK!