It is difficult to call the new HBO film “Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream”—which debuted February 15—a documentary. More than anything, it comes across as self-promotion instead of an objective or illuminating take on its subject’s life. Beyoncé is … Read More
Julia Holter’s music has always suggested a crossroads between what is accessible and alienating; what is pop and what is confident, modern composition. In Have You in My Wilderness, she has sought to directly accommodate both styles, and to move away from the aural and thematic structures that characterized much of her earlier albums.
The following is a blow-by-blow of my impressions of the songs on the album, with some comments from my step-grandmother, who admits that she is a Kid Cudi neophyte.
Philadelphia, PA It’s the middle of the night in a packed venue in downtown Philly. With one high-heeled foot on the piano bench and another on the piano itself, Lady Gaga puts her hand on her heart and rasps into … Read More
Perhaps it makes most sense to analyze it in the context of Yeezy’s artistry: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) and Yeezus are reaches, exemplars of a bravado unparalleled by Kanye’s contemporaries; The Life of Pablo is a revision.
“The dead linger after their passing in the memories of those who knew them; this poem, however, lingers only on my hard drive, contextless and adrift in the sea of my thoughts and memories.”