Music Reviews
Taylor Swift: 1989
Music critics and the music listening audience as a whole have been heralding Taylor Swift’s latest record 1989 as the moment where Taylor fully embraces pop music and emerges as a truly mature artist. Both of these are unimportant points. 2012’s Red and even 2010’s Speak Now were essentially pure pop albums (albeit pop in a distinct style) and both also exhibited about as much “maturity” (this word effectively means nothing in this context) as Taylor ever needs to have. The important questions now with 1989 are, firstly, what kind of pop is this? And then, following that, is it good pop? Taylor transitions away from her pretty interesting, mildly country influenced, rock/pop hybrids and embraces full-on snyth-pop, taking cues both from the contemporary pop landscape as well as styles from the last several decades. The answer to
the second question is just “yes.” The style works. It’s catchy beyond belief. Every song has at least one “oh yeah this is cool” moment or element: the simplistically anthemic synths on “Welcome to New York,” the slick, cruising electric guitar lead on and simultaneously cutesy and questionable lyrics on “Style.” She drops most of her slower, acoustic laments but unless you’re my little sister you probably won’t care. The singles do what they need to do: “Out of the Woods” is kind of like Chvrches but less annoying, and just try tapping your foot along to the “sick beat” on “Shake it Off” and tell me it’s not a jam. Yeah the lyrics are pretty dumb sometimes but honestly who gives a shit. If you want well-written WORDS, go read a book. What you get here is plain-and-simple, well-written MUSIC.
-Lucas Rossi
Run the Jewels: Run the Jewels 2
Since the release of Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music in 2012, the duo of Jamie and Mike has been establishing itself as an innovating force in the rap industry and if RTJ2 is any indication, they have no plans of letting up any time soon. El-P’s production is top-notch from beginning to end, with a massive amount of variation within every track and an uncountable quantity of bone-crushing tempo changes-- the type only rappers as experienced and versatile as our jewels-running heroes can ride without getting bucked (case in point: the 2:30 mark of “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry”). Speaking of, let’s talk about the rapping on this album: holy fucking shit. Killer 4
Mike has been killin’ fools on the mic for years now and El has never been a slouch, but even experienced listeners can still be surprised by just how viciously and efficiently they lay down their screaming “fuck you” to the rest of the world. Of course, the question that inevitably hangs over the project must be addressed: does it live up to the first Run the Jewels project? It’s fucking better. I can’t listen to it in public without dancing a bit thanks to El-P’s insane production, and the wittiness and brutality of each line will follow every fuccboi to their grave.
-David DeMark
