REVIEW
✓
music review // SPOON - 'TRANSFERENCE' KJHK's weekly guide to sonic consumption. (MERGE)
Transference is Spoon's seventh studio album.
I'll start off by admitting that I'm not all that familiar with most of their previous releases, but I have to say that this album is awesome. I like everything they do from the somber piano melodies in "I Saw The Light," to the modulated guitar in "Got Nuffin," all the way to the dance beats and experimental reversed audio in the last track "Nobody Gets Me But You."
Track four. titled "Who Makes Your Money" is ridiculously entrancing with its minimalist musical approach and great use of stereo effects.
Britt Daniel's voice is spot-on every time and will keep your buzz going throughout the whole album.
★ ★ ★ // ADAM RYDELL
music review // VAMPIRE WEEKEND — 'CONTRA KJHK's weekly guide to sonic consumption. (XL)
This second studio album from Vampire Weekend was pretty much a pleasant surprise. I've been waiting for new stuff by them for about two years now and Contra didn't let me down.
The first two tracks have very little guitar at all and, as the album unfolds, it proves to be a lot more exploratory than their previous work which is really interesting, "California English" has some crazy digital modifications to the vocals which is interesting, but I'm glad they only did it on that one track.
I really enjoy all the keyboard and electronica elements incorporated overall.
My favorite track is "Diplomat's Son." The strings chords and the spiritual singing reminds of the Dirty Projectors. I love the progression in the percussion and how it just builds, builds, and eventually winds down.
Contra has that familiar old Vampire Weekend sound but expands to greater heights with a wide variety of fun sounds.
★ ★ ★ // ADAM RYDELL
movie review // 'THE LOVELY BONES'
Hollywood hits, indie flicks and everything in between.
Peter Jackson knows how to adapt movies. From his famous take on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy to the resurrection of the infamous King Kong, the director knows how to translate books and old classics onto the modern silver screen.
The Lovely Bones, based on the 2002 best-selling novel by Alice Sebold, tells the delicate story of a girl whose life was taken prematurely through brutal measures. Soairise Ronan, who you may remember as the precocious younger sister in Joe Wright's adaptation of Atonement, brings 14-year-old Susie Salmon to life.
Before the first image on the screen filters through your mind, Susie's voice fills your ears. She narrates her life to you from "the in-between," which isn't earth and nor heaven. Think of it as a limbo-sque wilderness sprinkled with young teenage imagination and a hint of psyche-delic 1970s fusion. Susie has been murdered, and instead of going towards her path onto heaven, she is stuck watching her family crumble and deal with her death.
Susie's grandmother, played by Susan Sarandon, brings much-needed comic relief into the film at times. Grandma Lynn moves into the Salmon's home after both parents fail to truly embrace the death of their oldest daughter.
Jack Salmon (Mark Wahlberg), Susie's father, becomes obsessed in finding his daughter's killer when the detective on the case, Len Fennerman
(Michael Imperioli), does not live up to Jack's expectations. Susie, realizing that her father cannot put the pieces together, guides him to their neighbor and her killer. George Harvey (Stanley Tucci).
Tucci gives an Oscar-worthy performance with his subtly creepy character and Rachel Weiss, who plays Susie's mother, gives a perfect portrait of a grieving mother.
15