When asked to start something—a new volunteer position at WIDR, for instance—the first project being about endings is almost cosmically coincidental. Jake Simmons’ “My American Dream” is not necessarily melancholy and morose about its endings, though, so it’s no depressing kickoff. Most tracks were released as singles, but the thoughtful chords, vocals, and lyrics revolving around circa-COVID loss of relationships stand out better with the different quality. As a collection of thematically similar works, too, the tracks work best together. Meanwhile, the EP’s cover looks lovely when scaled up, but when tiny next to tracks or even on the Spotify page, the rainbow colors and detailed crunchy black create a visual soup that doesn’t feel like it relates to the topic at all. This sets the pace for the EP itself—there’s interesting, skillful work, restrained by a lack of change. The titular track, “My American Dream,” lays the structural foundations for the positives of the EP. Clearly, Simmons closely studied ‘70’s rock, creating an anthem suitable for an open-air concert. Simmons’ brutal, wide-mouthed tone suits the protest style perfectly here. The guitar solos are brief and interesting, feeling punchy and powerful. However, the lyrics feel as though they have little to add to the conversation besides naming problems. Simmons drops “President Palpatine” at the end and laments bleach being suggested as medical treatment; he applies labels to make us mad, but doesn’t suggest a solution, like a protest song typically would. The following three tracks take similar topics with similar positives and negatives. “Killing Me Slowly,” the second track, emphasizes the flaws of nostalgia, utilizing repetition to show this theme. It remains gloomy and musing with a simple but pleasing rhythm. While the verses are clear, the choruses are muddy, making a fantastical, floating atmosphere until it finally releases with the repetition of “killing me slowly” with gentle vocal backing. This, however, leaves the verses much more prioritized, for better or worse. The album is not fast paced, but the third track, “Weeds,” slows it way down. Where “Killing Me Slowly” was 5:34 and I didn’t check the length once, by a minute in I was checking to see if “Weeds” was near finished. Perhaps, conceptually, this makes sense: “Weeds” is about having to explain the same concepts to people who refuse to learn. It still is a tad dull. The guitar solo achieves its annoyed, exhausted, exasperated content better musically rather than verbally. Despite this, I find it the most interesting song lyrically. Rather than listing off societal flaws, Simmons structures metaphors and calls to action, a personal favorite being “we’re not falling onto bad luck/someone put us here, we’re stuck.” Simmons effectively and quickly declares that what he laments is not a temporary issue, but rather built into the system. Particularly, he also juxtaposes imagery of poverty with wealth: “closer the sun better the tan/there’s no AC in the van.” This pits the privileged fetishizing of tanning, with all the free time it requires, against someone forced to live in their car, connected all by their proximity to the destabilizing nation characterized as heat. While “Weeds” is not necessarily my cup of tea, its best aspects stand out in a lacking space on the EP. The EP closes with “Them and Them and Us Again.” Growing up on country, this stood out most to me as the antithesis to recent radio country anthems about how boldly conservative they are, and sounded most like something I’d hear on the radio and sing along to a decade or so ago. Simmons laments the fact he must be pitted politically against family and friends simply because they refuse to open their minds. I prefer this song’s nuance to others’ bluntness—while, truly, I’d love to cut some people out of my life for their views, it still hurts. As a closer, it lets out a long breath held through some of the more aggressive lyrics set in other songs. Despite all this unrest, it suggests what Simmons wants is for his targets to understand so they can treat him and everyone else like people with the respect they deserve. The recording of “My American Dream” took place in 2020 despite its 2023 release, and conceptually it suits a mid- and post-COVID life. As a hardcore leftist myself, I am more predisposed to agree with Simmons’ pieces, but I doubt someone on the right side of the political spectrum could appreciate his tracks, unfortunately. For those who agree with Simmons, despite some sameness and corny lyrics, Simmons’ almost country-like EP provides great layers of ‘70’s rock-inspired enjoyment. Not rebellious enough to be punk but pissed in a common experience, its guitars, rhythms, and vocals stand out most, and Simmons doesn’t fail. The one thing it aches for is simply more variety.

It’s always a great time when you discover a band that has a sound that you can’t help but groove along to. And this is definitely the case for NYC-based indie-soul group Melt, who’s dreamy saxophones, keys, bass, and guitar are mixed with powerful vocals that you can’t help but vibe to. Melt, comprised of Veronica Stewart-Frommer on lead vocals, Eric Gabriel on keys and vocals, Marlo Shankweiler on guitar, Lucas Saur on bass, and Nick Sare on Sax, released their first single, Sour Candy, in 2017 when they were still in high school, and the song was a quick success. The song was filled not only with soul, but mixed in was jazz, pop, and rock, and the sounds all mix like Kool-Aid, crescendoing into the climax filled with vocals so strong I can’t help but want to sing along- despite not being able to reach the notes. After Sour Candy, Melt released more singles: Inside, Oh Brother, Stupid in Love, and Shy, which all prove to be great soul hits as well, though the next thing in store for the band was even better: an EP. Released in 2021 after 3 singles from it, West Side Highway comprised of 6 amazing songs of various tempos, all sharing the distinct soulful Melt sound. While Stewart-Frommer does vocals for most songs, Gabriel’s lead vocals on songs like Stupid In Love and Never Be Alone are just as soulful and fits the vibes of the songs so well. This is seen the most in the band’s latest single, Fade Into You, released this past September. The song is so fun and magical that it’s become one of my favorite songs of 2022. Melt calls themselves a live band first and foremost. Along with their original songs, the band covers classics like Neil Young’s Harvest Moon or Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, and they provide such life and youth to these already amazing songs. While I haven’t seen them live, their energy is so strong you can feel it just from the Reels they post to Instagram or the videos uploaded to YouTube. The band just wrapped up their fall tour, but are scheduled to appear at Summer Camp Fest in Chillicothe, IL this Memorial Day Weekend, an event I hope to not miss. Song Highlights: Sour Candy Fade Into You Brown Eyes Waves

This past August, indie-pop trio The Happy Fits released their third album, titled Under the Shade of Green. It follows the pattern of featuring a fruit on the cover, established in their previous two albums and EP (the orange-covered Concentrate, the grapefruit-themed What Could Be Better, and their first release, the banana-EP Awfully Apeelin’), with Under the Shade of Green featuring a pineapple. While the pineapple doesn’t relate to the themes of the album very much, the title, Under the Shade of Green, shares the more vulnerable and isolated tone that the album contains. It was a pleasant surprise hearing the lyrics to the album for the first time. Most of the band’s previous songs were all on the lighter songs, and while some tracks like the band’s most popular So Alright, Cool, Whatever, do tackle the subject of coping with being alone and broken up with, none went as deep as some of the tracks in UtSoG do. Dance Alone tackles that fear of being alone, while the lead single, Changes, deals with just how much our lives and world have changed the past few years, with so many life-altering events occurring. The lyric “in an alien world hanging by a thread” encapsulates the tone of the song the best, the feeling of barely being able to continue on when you don’t know everything that’s going on. I also enjoyed the songs on the other end of the spectrum, with Do Your Worst and the rare explicit track In the Lobby being more confrontational and assertive. The music of the album fits the upbeat Happy Fits sound, elevating the choruses of songs like the catchy and circular Around and Around to the tender upbeat bop Sweet Things. The band is comprised of just three instruments (and vocals), and they utilize the guitar, drums, and especially the electric cello to the fullest extent in the album. It’s not an instrument heard often, and The Happy Fits have incorporated into their songs in such a defining way. While a few songs do tend to blend together in the album, so many stand out and easily make up for those songs. Under the Shade of Green is a fantastic evolution of The Happy Fits, both lyrically and musically, and I cannot recommend it and the band enough.

One of the things I love about music is the many various ways you learn of music. On the radio, through streaming playlists like Spotify’s Discover Weekly, through friends and family, and of course in this modern age of technology and consumerism: advertising! Roanoke is one such band that I’ve found through advertising (thanks targeted Instagram ads), and the ad focused on their newest EP: Wolf Motel, released in November. While I did first listen to Wolf Motel, I then listened to their 2016 debut eponymous album. And comparing the two, it’s fascinating to see just how much of a leap the band has made in 6 years. They started out as an indie-folk band, and have plenty of good songs in their first album, but they’ve incorporated the rock genre into their sound to evolve their music, now referring to themselves under the genre of “Mystic Rock”. Wolf Motel is a solid EP, boasting 18 minutes of music within 5 songs, with some leaving much more of an impact on me than others. If You’re Gonna Leave, the first song on the EP, is a strong start, with a catchy chorus by frontman Joey Beesley and a pretty laidback beat, while still feeling like it can be a powerhouse of a song when played in front of an audience live. After I Go is another good song, with the vocals and instruments giving an even better chorus, with the folk-rock sound mixing with some country, which makes sense given that the band is based in Nashville. So Young tries to go a bit harder than the first two tracks, and it’s a nice song to listen to, but it doesn’t leave as much of an impression as the others on the album, feeling a bit repetitive and lacking identity. When the penultimate song, Reckoning, started playing, I was really excited for it. It starts slow and solid, with some drawn out vocals by frontwoman Taylor Dupuis that give out Chris Isaak vibes. However, throughout the song I was really looking forward to hearing the Reckoning. It’s the longest song of the EP, at nearly five minutes long, and the song never really leads to anywhere. It feels a bit like build up without the payoff. However, where I have some grievance with some of the songs of Wolf Motel, all grievances are set aside for the final song, Walk On By. This is the song that played on the ad I saw that got me to look up the band on Spotify, and the song is just a great rock hit. The chorus is strong, with Dupuis doing wonders, accompanied by the backing vocals that come in at the perfect moments. It’s the song that I got the most sense of “Mystic Rock” rock out of, and I’ve yet to skip the song when it comes up since first listening to it. Wolf Motel is a fun, short listen, and I’d recommend it, especially to anyone who is a fan of folk-rock or country-rock. Who knows, maybe mystic rock is the next thing for you?

Our podcasts are now being hosted on the "Series" tab on the website. This is a combination of both live and pre-recorded shows, the our pilot batch of series features three main shows... Behind the Scenes with Bella Hameed is a podcast that puts the spotlight on the local artists and musicians. Take the Journey with Bella, live at 5pm, Mondays, and whenever on WIDRFM.org. The Pop Effect with Paige, Emma, and Olivia is a pop-culture podcast focusing on current happenings. The Production Update with Ryan Misiak is our resident Production Director's foray into the podcasting world, explore the world of Production and the "state of the stu" at WIDR. Joined by guests, Ryan lifts the curtain on the world of Production for the station.

“b?” is a concept album released in 2022 that deals with the idea of ‘being’. Created by the Texas-based indie pop band HOAX, the 17-track project is quite a feat of an idea. Each song is written from the perspective of a different character, each of whom copes with ‘being’. Taking the mask off that we wear in public, pulling back the curtain to our true selves, and finding peace with who we actually are, these are all questions pondered by the different songs that make up “b?”. The idea to take each song as a different character’s internal monologue and stitch them together into a quilt of an album is a really good and interesting idea that comes with both negatives and positives. With each song representing different people, it’s likely that some songs will do nothing for you as the listener, because if you don’t relate to the narrative of that person, the message and song weakens. However, even those songs that don’t work for you, still add to the conglomerate of perspectives of the word ‘being’. Struggling with identity, your place in the world, and the feeling of belonging are common ideas and things that most people struggle with at least a little bit. An aspect that I believe is present in a lot of concept albums is that a lot of songs struggle to work on their own, as a single. And this is present for the first quarter of the album, which, other than the first track “trees” kind of blend together and I don’t find myself wanting to listen to again on their own, although its entirely possible that that opinion of mine might change with future listens of “b?”. And for a 17-track album, of course not every song will reach the same level of high. However, even with the weakest tracks they add to the overall narrative and none of them detract from that message, and in-fact strengthen it. For example, the song “bleach” comprises of an AI voice, similar to those you’d find narrating TikToks, reprimanding you, the listener, for doing things for other people. Posting your life on social media, making goals just to make yourself look better while still feeling empty, and to instead just be. Don’t do, just be. It’s the defining struggle of the album, the battle of doing vs being, and its message is strong, but as a song as itself, I doubt anyone would go out of their way to listen to an AI voice criticizing and swearing at you. However, that’s part of the essence of concept albums. Sometimes one piece of the quilt is beautiful and whole on its own, but other pieces might need to be sown together to fully realize the bigger picture. However, “b?” does contain a good number of tracks that work as beautiful pieces of fabric in their own right. “drew”, the song that made me want to review this album, is one of the best songs that came out last year in my opinion and has made it into my On Repeat for a few months now. It’s the perfect blend of melody, production, and catchiness that still takes on the message of the album. The only thing I would change about the song is to make it longer. And “drew” is by far not the only amazing single from the album. “more than you know” is a nice slower tempo track about wanting to belong with someone else. “western medicine” takes common idioms and transform them into a catchy chorus in a song about wanting to distance themselves from their partner. And there are even more songs: “goldeneyes”, the aforementioned “trees”, “unamerican dream”, and the title track “b?” are all great songs. “b?” is a really novel and brilliant album that makes you question just what it is to ‘be’. The songs slowly build up in tempo before slowing back down, providing a nice, thorough listening experience, one that I highly recommend to anyone.

A new song from Kalamazoo-based alternative emo band saturdays at your place called ‘it’s always cloudy in kalamazoo’ reps the band’s home city and does it justice. The song was released on December 30 th ahead of the release of their new EP ‘Always Cloudy’ on January 20 th . One of three singles released before the EP, the track comes after the release of the single ‘Tarot Cards’ in September which found itself some virality in the second half of 2022, amassing 250,000 plays on Spotify and far surpassing any previous saturdays at your place song. This project comes after the band’s debut album in 2021, and the success of the singles means that the project is poised to put up some big numbers. So go stream it when it drops! ‘Always Cloudy’ drops on January 20 th from No Sleep Records, a reputable indie record label associated with another Michigan-based emo band, Hot Mulligan. Saturdays at your place also have merch for the album that you can buy through the No Sleep records website featuring the chanting lyric from ‘its always cloudy in kalamazoo’ saying “I Don’t Want to Go Home Yet”. Listen on streaming services or on the band’s bandcamp page.

With Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden hitting modern platforms mid-January, I thought now is as good a time as ever to talk about one of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time: Persona 5. The Persona series is renowned for its music: 3 had a cocktail of Japanese R&B, hip-hop, and melancholic sounds that fit the darker tones of the story well, and 4 contains J-pop and J-rock hits that match the upbeat and vibrant colors of the game while still blending with the murder investigation plot. Persona 5, and its enhanced re-release Persona 5 Royal, are flashy and stylish, and just taking a look at the title screen gives a sense of just how nice the game’s UI looks, and the music matches these visuals perfectly. P5 goes for jazz as a genre, and within the over four hours of in game music, they reach to various subgenres of jazz: from acid jazz tunes that play over the streets of Tokyo to jazz rock hits that blast as you fight enemies. In Persona 5, you play as a team of Japanese high schoolers who rebel against society and awaken to their Personas, their inner selves, and use their powers to become thieves, stealing the hearts of corrupt people with distorted desires in order to make them confess their crimes, while pretending to be normal high school students. This mix between high school life and the other reality is a key part of the Persona series, and the music within 5 splits the two lives really well, with different music scores for laidback moments, tense moments, classroom moments, exams, bonding with friends or other people you’ll meet in the game, different shops you’ll visit, and more when you’re just a high school student. However, when you assume the role as a Phantom Thief, the music scales up in terms intensity. Each dungeon, called a Palace, has its own theme and in Royal there is a song for different types of ways you enter battle. Shoji Meguro is the composer of all of the Persona series, and he does a brilliant job creating the tracks, and just like in Persona 3 and 4, a Japanese artist was brought in to provide vocals in English for all versions of the game. In Persona 5 that vocalist is Lyn, and she works well with the jazzy beats to provide not only cozy vibes when you’re walking around Tokyo, but also providing powerful singing to the battle themes and some of the Palace themes. The definite standouts are Life Will Change, which plays during heists, The Whims of Fate, the theme to the Casino-based dungeon, filled with lyrics all about giving into temptations, Last Surprise, the battle theme from the original game, and Take Over, a new battle theme added in Royal. On the high school side of the game, Beneath the Mask is a wonderfully relaxing song, especially the version that plays when it rains, which just matches the mood of a window with rain tearing down the side amazingly. With the re-enhanced version, Royal, came new content, dungeons, battles, and of course, music. While none of the new tracks are better than anything in the original game in my opinion, all of the new tracks, particularly the ones from the new, final Palace and boss fight, are superb tracks featuring even more of Lyn’s vocals. Persona 5’s soundtrack is the kind that doesn’t come around that often, especially for a video game. It has enough music to fill five albums, has its own dedicated vocalist to provide connection between all the tracks, and the music is great on its own, you can listen to some of the songs without ever having played the 130+ hour game and still fall in love with the soundtrack. And so, for those interested in getting a taste of the sound of Persona 5, I’ve included a mix of some of the stand out songs in the soundtrack to give a listen. Tracks to listen to: - Life Will Change - Last Surprise - Take Over - The Whims of Fate - Price - Layer Cake - Rivers in the Desert - Beneath the Mask (Rain) - Gentle Madman

Before the new year ended, Michigan-originating funk band Vulfpeck graced us with a new album. The band is known for its minimal, groovy sound where instruments harmonize instead of compete, as well as some humor mixed in. Both attributes are the groundwork for the band’s sixth studio album, Schvitz. The album hits it off the back with the nonsensical-vocal song, Sauna, the first single of the album. It’s immediately catchy and sets the tune for the entire album. However, each song in the album is clearly distinct, with half of the tracks featuring Michigan R&B vocalist Antwaun Stanley. His vocals work well with the beats provided by Vulfpeck, resulting in a soulful and strong sound. His best contributions are seen in New Guru, Simple Step, and Serve Somebody (A Bob Dylan cover that sounds completely reinvented for Schvitz). Vulfpeck member Theo Katzman does provides vocals for one of the tracks, All That’s Left of Me is You, a simple yet catchy song that is one of the album’s slower tracks. Romanian Drinking Song is the only instrumental song of the album, and it is just four minutes of straight grooving, and is a blast of a time. However, the album does have some lower points. Earworm is a song that I know is one that will not be for everyone, by any means. It’s a great example of the humor of Vulfpeck, being a song about earworm songs with a chorus that’s meant to stick your head for hours, but with the interesting to say the least vocals, I don’t think I will be itching to revisit this song again (but that chorus probably won’t leave me alone for a while.) The last song of the album is another weaker entry on the album, with it feeling very barren in terms of personality, and if not for one verse, I don’t think I would have remembered it much at all. But when Vulfpeck started randomly singing about Charmander and other Pokemon, I almost spat out my breakfast just in sheer confusion. While calling Charmander “a nasty boy” over and over is random, its totally in line with Vulfpeck’s humor and it helps to add to an otherwise forgettable song. Schvitz is a great way for a great year of music to have concluded, and is yet another solid entry is Vulfpeck’s impressive catalog of music.

As the new year begins, I’d like to take my hat off to 2022. I graduated. I graduated! And the amount of movies I saw in that second semester--when my nose was like a block away from the grindstone--was crazy. What a year for movies that was. As Cully Cooper, my Reel Live co-host, can attest, every month there was something incredible dropping. From the shockingly great Scream reboot right off the jump, to box-office juggernauts, Top Gun: Maverick and the long-anticipated Avatar: The Way of Water, this year had no shortage of stories the world was excited to see. Even on the indie side, household names were being born: Jenna Ortega and Mia Goth found mainstream prominence in the X series (the former--I need not tell you, college student--is already slashing her way to icon status headlining Netflix’s Wednesday Addams series) and Everything Everywhere All At Once stamped its flag in the ground as perhaps the defining movie of Generation-Z, as if it were as easy as breathing. On top of these films--these two films that might only come out once in a generation--another might have impressed me even more from an historical perspective. Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2 may well be the microbudget hit of the decade--just like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project were before it. Never before has a sequel to a VOD sleeper-hit such as Terrifer been… not only openly crowdfunded, but also found itself going toe-to-toe with every October release and staying there until it was ready to leave. It was downright inspiring seeing something so niche and repulsive up there. That’s the future of movies to me. Not streaming services, but the harnessing of the internet to give people the choice of what they want to see. But as much as I’d like to say that any of these movies made my favorites list this year, I must disappoint the lot of us. A year this good begged me to look below the surface and watch as much as humanly possible. I watched an obscene number, people. Upwards of 100. So this prior smattering of titles should serve as a list of “Honorable Mentions,” though I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention the brilliant Funny Pages, which touched me greatly as someone who loves comics and anything disgusting; Stanleyville, which felt tailor-made for weirdos; Prey, which was a very creative twist on a formula I embarrassingly loved already; Vengeance, a solid comedy/mystery; and Barbarian which is one of those new favorites that’s going to be so fun to watch with people who’ve never seen it before. Without further ado, here’s my favorite movies of 2022. 10. Do Revenge So many people are clicking away right now--but those people haven’t seen Do Revenge. Maybe you’ve seen the little Netflix poster, or flipped past it in the “Teen Movies” category... but how could this movie be better than Everything Everywhere?! Well, first of all, it’s just my opinion, and secondly, this movie is simultaneously both the finest teen movie in recent memory and also a send-up of the genre operating at Scream-level. I kid you not, man. This is it. The socialite main character trying to get into Yale (and it is always Yale, isn’t it?) and survive teenage politics at a preppy institution has never been a sympathetic heroine to me, but the assumptions I gleaned from its trailer were satisfyingly correct: this movie knows how horrible the archetype really is. Knowing its heroine is a bad person gives Do Revenge a clever leg-up. The issue becomes smartly not, “how does she overcome some trite adversity during her senior year?” and instead “how does she spin an actual traumatic experience into self-betterment?” And that may sound like I’ve blown the whole movie, but the way Do Revenge sticks this landing is hilarious, tense, touching, and unpredictable. Everything the film seeks to do it does, and does so with flavor and a wholly up-to-date spirit. The plotting is ace, the soundtrack is ace, and the casting is incredible. Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke have great chemistry as our two Strangers on a Train-esque co-conspirators; Austin Abrams’ Max Broussard is a teen-movie villain for the ages; and Sarah Michelle Gellar even takes inspiration from Henry Winkler’s bit part in Scream to become the new one-time teen-icon cum torch-passing principal. Move over, Booksmart. This is how it’s done. 9. Kimi HBO Max is going to be remembered as the only streaming service, really, that was any good. They’ve got the crowd-pleasers, sure, but they also seem to very much care about film. Case in point, Steven Soderbergh's Kimi, which dropped on the service in January to relative acclaim and to minimal fanfare, and still the movie was released (legally) on DVD. It’s a shame that not many eyes were on it though, because it’s as solid a thriller as they come and in any other year it would likely be higher. As a divine piece of social commentary, Kimi doesn’t talk down to its viewer--and as a contemporary thriller, it is one of few films I can think of that not only addresses the COVID-19 pandemic, but also utilizes the setting of the lockdown to craft a nailbitingly suspenseful yarn. Angela (a perfectly cast Zoe Kravitz) was an agoraphobe before the world locked up, so now she’s screwed. She lives in an apartment in the city and spends her days logging hours as a worker for an Amazon-like company listening to commands made to Kimi (the film’s Alexa stand-in) and correcting Kimi’s responses to said commands, or she does, anyway... until she hears a murder. Soderbergh clearly has a passion for every story he takes on, and how he manages to keep you on the edge of your seat during this one--a narrative that unfolds almost-entirely in one studio apartment--is bonkers. One little woman becoming a billion-dollar company’s target isn’t a story I’ve seen done before, and I think it’s because it would take a deft mind to even think of how that woman could turn the tables. It’s not an easy thing to fathom in today’s culture and with today’s technology. The dismantling of a corporate entity trading on the NASDAQ seems downright impossible, but as Kimi proves, all you need is more smarts than the people who own you. 8. All My Friends Hate Me Sometimes my hobby of renting movies digitally for six dollars pays off. There are so many great films out there that are never released in theaters, and All My Friends Hate Me is a must-see for anyone who loves their comedies on the uncomfortable side. The set-up is simple: Pete has just returned from a humanitarian venture in Africa to spend his birthday weekend with a group of friends, and over the course of this weekend, through a series of misunderstandings and blunders, he starts to get the impression that they all hate his guts. It’s a brilliant movie--and a textbook example of a great script salvaging the most innocuous idea. Tom Stourton is fantastic here--Pete's a wonderful guy, by all accounts--and Barbarian’s Georgina Campbell is (as always) great too. But this isn’t your standard British comedy. It’s not dry, it’s not awkward… it’s claustrophobic and nasty. It’s described as a Comedy/Horror movie, and though I might not go that far, this should give you some idea as to what you’re getting into. You’ll laugh, but your throat will seize up. You’ll get goosebumps and maybe even hives. This film rams you so deep into Pete’s shoes that your toes will curl and you’ll wonder if you ever knew anything. It’s ninety minutes of unbearable anxiety, which I say because I know that this isn’t a movie for everyone. For those who love to be uncomfortable though… this is one of the absolute best. 7. Master Here’s a general criticism for the film-review community: Jordan Peele is not the only Black director to ever do horror, and implying so is detrimental to the creators of stories by Black directors who don’t have his name to fall back on. It may have been easier for Miriama Diallo to make her film, Master, after Get Out’s success, but by comparing it to the films of Jordan Peele, critics have burned the movie worse than a thousand Rotten reviews could. It’s got a 37% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s pushing the 4-5 range on IMDb. It’s not trying to be a Jordan Peele copy. Diallo’s film is darker. Significantly more mature, and more gut-wrenching than any Peele has done or would want to. It’s a miserable movie--a scary one with an ambiguous script and a twist I’m still thinking about. Regina Hall is one of my favorite actors, and her role here as Gail Beckman is another hard-won feather in her cap. The woman just keeps killing it, and with hardly any recognition (perhaps this one even proved detrimental) but it’s cool as hell that she is always going for it. Maybe Master is a ghost story. Maybe it’s not. That’s by design. What we do know is that it’s a story of microaggressions and how these compounding incidents can grow into something altogether less “micro”. On top of that though, it’s just freaky. It’s very open to weirdness (my favorite) and veers rather often into post-Lynch surrealism and nasty, nasty subtext. It’s unpredictable as hell and you couldn’t find a laugh with a metal detector, but this movie pulls you in like a riptide. It screams. It provokes. It dares to poke at weirdly-unquestioned institutions, and anyone who’s seen it won’t quickly forget it. This is my public service announcement though: not all horror is the same, and that can certainly be said for Black horror as well. This is not Jordan Peele--and in fact it’s a richer flavor than his brand of horror. This is the one horror movie that has stuck with me for months. 6. The Northman Robert Eggers’ first major studio production is less strange, to be sure, but it’s sacrificed none of his underlying vision. From folk-horror to psychological… cosmic… whatever we’re calling The Lighthouse, he’s proven that dedication to your craft is a surefire ticket to immersing your viewer in the world. And his move from horror to sweeping Nordic epic is a trajectory that isn’t all that surprising though if you’ve been paying attention. He loves bygone worlds and the thrill of the creeping unknown as well as shooting in remote, natural locations. It’s still a grotesque feature though, and while it was produced by Focus Features, it’s hardly mainstream. Eggers trades Puritanism for Pagan mysticism this time around, and over the course of those dirty two hours we’re treated to a marvelously dour tragedy rife with dismemberment, incest, farting and hallucinatory forays to the otherworld. It’s a one-of-a-kind watch, and one I’m glad to have seen in theaters. In terms of casting, Alexander Skarsgard was the only choice for this prodigal son coming home to avenge his father’s death by his uncle. He becomes a slave in his uncle’s kingdom, and worms his way in--all the way causing strife and fostering distrust--until a final showdown that’s way, way too gnarly to spoil, and in doing so out-Revenant's The Revenant. Anya Taylor Joy is always great as well, Nicole Kidman goes nuts, and Bjork makes a fun cameo as an oracle. Eggers though, as always, is the star of the show. No one does a period piece like him, and The Northman is just another high-water mark. 5. Glass Onion But what could be said about Glass Onion that hasn’t already been said? I’m sure you’ve seen it by now. It’s a bold, audacious movie that, with any luck, does for the comedy what Knives Out did for the mystery--and it is a mystery, mind you, but this one is a comedy first and a mystery second, while the preceding film switches that order. Maybe that’s due to Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig's southern-fried, bumbling genius who takes up a much greater amount of screen-time than he did the last outing. Daniel Craig is hilarious here, and his co-stars are show-stealers too. Kathryn Hahn is perhaps the funniest woman alive, Janelle Monae confirms she can do anything well, and Edward Norton’s role as Miles Bron--a thoroughly daft Elon Musk pastiche--is his best showing in years. Where did he go, Edward Norton? Why did he go away? Regardless--and this will only make sense once you see it--what makes Glass Onion’s twists so smart is their stupidity. It’s a geniously stupid story that unfolds like a magic trick, making fresh and outrageous use of distraction and misdirection. It shows you everything you need to know, and it’s confident that you’re too dumb to put it together (or, rather, I was. Others I know saw the end coming immediately). The first watch and second watch are facepalmingly different. Where it really veers off from its predecessor though is its ending. It ties up in a way so satisfying--so ballsy--that its final buckshot satire will surely turn off some of those who were sold to begin with. Just take the ride though. Trust me. This is the first studio comedy in ages that felt like a movie, and it convinced me, a skeptic, that there’s still gas in the Benoit Blanc tank. 4. Petrov’s Flu A Russian film probably won’t fare well in 2022’s greater round of “Hot or Not,” but I don’t think that Kirill Serebrennikov’s Petrov’s Flu is thrilled with Russia either. This was one strange movie. It’s a mesmerizing and funny one. A touching one, and a horrifying one. Semyon Serzin plays Petrov, a man in post-Soviet Russia going about his day-to-day life with the flu. We follow him, his wife, and his son over the course of a night or a week or a month (it’s an epidemic, who knows?), and in that time we learn the ways they’ve made peace with the (almost dystopian) world around them. In Petrova’s (Chulpan Khamatova) case, she murders self-obsessed poets and leering drunks; while in the case of their son, he’s wasting to death with his own flu. Petrov himself is something of a dreamer (or, “observer” might be more appropriate), and his stumbles through the metropolitan underbelly take the viewer from birth to death, childhood to old age, to rebirth and to alien abduction. We see entire lives (some only tangentially related to Petrov) unfold. We see his childhood. The last night alive of an acquaintance real or imagined. And however strange my description sounds to you, it’s stranger. The whole film’s effect is that it is a fever dream, that while you might not be able to describe what it meant coming out of it, you’ve been struck with a revelation. Through its careening camera angles, its long takes and its allergy to a standard plot, the viewer is rendered as delirious as its sickly protagonist. The best I can come to the ethos of Petrov’s Flu is that it’s the hallucination of a nation. Their swirling subconscious, drunken into submission and returning only when it all crumbles down and they’re left standing naked. 3. Triangle of Sadness One of the many indies to have buzz before its release only to be actually released to lukewarm reception, Triangle of Sadness is a scathing social satire that knocks it out of the park. In this one, the viewer is situated on a ridiculous luxury cruise that caters to the super-rich. We get to know the staff and clientele and remain in this buoyant prison with them while their world falls apart and the power dynamic shifts in hilarious ways. Spoiling anything about this movie would be a great disservice to anyone who hasn’t seen it, but what I will tell you is that what separates this film from other social satires is the unpredictable and daring ways in which it makes its points. It’s foul in the ways it knocks its one-percenters down. It’s cruel and it’s absurd and it’s unique, and secretly--bravely--taking no sides all the way but that against the system itself. Every character in this movie is either a scumbag or is an inch away from becoming one. Harris Dickinson for example is a great protagonist here as Carl, is a fashion model who’s gotten by entirely on his good looks, and the slew of people he meets on the journey are equally dumb. Pay attention to him though, because although he may seem relegated to the sidelines in the beginning, he might eventually prove the key to the entire film's takeaway: we’d likely all be bad people if we could afford to be. Rest in peace, Charlbi Dean. 2. Something in the Dirt Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead are the Teenage Fanclub of moviemaking. Over the last ten years, they’ve somehow stuck the landing of understated and grandiose; of punk rock and high-brow; and despite the B-movie budgets they operate with, the two have dug their own--might I say, rather classy--niche in the horror-sphere. Something in the Dirt, a hate letter to contemporary L.A., is probably their best. In it, two neighbors (Moorehead and Benson themselves) are forced into a friendship of convenience as they shoot a documentary about paranormal goings-on at one of their apartments. Things float, lights appear in a closet with no bulbs, and codes begin popping up that the two take it upon themselves to solve. It alternates between mockumentary and mumblecore presentation, but Something in the Dirt proves to be their most ambitious and soulful work yet. It’s cosmic and intimate, hilarious and heartbreaking, and despite its insistent science-fiction veneer, what it’s really about is much simpler. This one felt like it was made for me. 1. Nope Nope is mindblowingly good, and just... a testament to the power a film can have over its viewer. It’s pretty handily Jordan Peele’s best movie, and it isn’t hard to see why. I mean, the concept is creative, the world is immersive, the sound design and mixing are all stellar, and it all adds up to what has to be the best movie-theater experience--and movie--of the year. I saw this one at a drive-in, and that enormous screen and its wide-open flatland made for the perfect place to witness an alien abduction story. For those unfamiliar, Nope takes place on a horse-training farm outside of Hollywood. The Haywood siblings are dealing with their father’s death, so It’s this ensuing desperation--coupled with the bizarre circumstances of his demise and a curiously unmoving cloud over the farm--that forms the crux of a wild, wild, genre-hopping tale. Horror, sci-fi, adventure, fantasy and comedy are all part of the mix, and Peele’s cast is more than capable of lassoing it. The character work is great, the script is great, and the creature-design is a marvel. I’ve been ready to write this list for ages, but I kept flipping my first and second-place movies around. Both are staggering, immensely creative sci-fi/horror yarns, but only one gave me hope for the future of the movie theater. It’s a hugely original take on a well-worn genre, and its storytelling and design are masterful. Everything--everything--coalesces in Nope. Nothing is out of place. For my money, it’s perfect.

I don’t know about everyone else, but the recent release of Spotify Wrapped was a much needed source of joy. I love how detailed the presentation is, playing your favorite songs out loud while flashing different shapes and colors. It’s interesting and hilarious to compare with friends and celebrities online, especially if ‘sleep sounds’ or The Glee Cast makes it into your Top 5 again. It almost seems like Spotify employees understand the stress that college students are under right now as the fall semester comes to an end. All in all, the announcement really was a gift, but it left me wanting more. Thankfully, the Internet is full of fun programs to get to know your music taste even better. These stats can be accessed at any time of the year, and you can find new artists as well. In addition to the apps Last.fm and TuneTrack, try out these websites in the little free time you have these next couple of weeks, or fiddle with them over break! It's as easy as ABC. 1. https://www.gnoosic.com/ Self-described as ‘A search engine for music you don’t know about’, Gnoosic contains hundreds of thousands of artists. Input three of your favorite bands or artists and enjoy a lesser-known artist based on that combination! You can input whether you enjoy their music or not and move onto the next one. 2. https://www.instafest.app/ Create your own festival lineup by signing in with your Spotify or Last.fm! Choose the stats you want Instafest to pull from (the last 4 weeks, 6 months, or all-time). Choose a theme and name, and share with friends! 3. https://receiptify.herokuapp.com/ Log-in with spotify, last.fm, or Apple music. Choose the stats you want Receiptify to pull from (the last month, 6 months, or all-time). Feature your top tracks, artists, or genres on a receipt, and share with friends! 4. https://www.hotdropapp.com/ This one’s an app, basically Tinder for music. While hearing a sample of a song, you are given the option to like or dislike. Liked songs are saved to your library. You can also check out what’s trending and upload your own music. 5. https://obscurifymusic.com/login This website begs the question; ‘How obscure is your music taste?’ See your most obscure artists and tracks before comparing them with users in your country. View the different moods and decades that are reflected in your music taste. 6. https://pudding.cool/2021/10/judge-my-music/ Instead of showcasing underground music, this project by The Pudding asks; ‘How bad is your streaming music?’ This one is interactive, and if you don’t get enough criticism from your parents or siblings for your favorite tracks it’s perfect! All jokes aside, it’s fun to make fun of yourself every once in a while. 7. https://pokeplaylist.herokuapp.com/ Pokeplaylist turns your top three artists into Pokémon cards! Sign into your Spotify and select stats from the last month, 6 months, or all-time. That’s it!

It feels insane that 2022 is already over. So much has happened this year that it feels impossible to remember half of it. Looking back at my apple music replay playlist, the songs I listened to throughout the year bring back all the memories. Over the summer I went through a yacht rock phase so Steely Dan was higher up on my top artists list than I cared to admit. Despite what my replay says, my favorite album of the year has got to be Carrie and Lowell by Sufjan Stevens. I discovered Sufjan’s music through the movie “Call Me by Your Name” and have been a huge fan ever since. This album is both sad and relatable. The album was inspired by both the memories he has with and the death of his mother Carrie and his stepfather Lowell. The songs all tell such specific yet relatable stories and have such a homey and comforting vibe to them. My favorite track on the album has got to be Death with Dignity. The song is named after the Oregon act sharing the same name. Steven’s who often uses full orchestras in songs, chose to use soft guitar and piano for this song to put an emphasis on the lyrics. My favorite song of the year has got to be Wot’s… Uh the Deal? by Pink Floyd. The chill instrumental paired with David Glimor’s layered vocals makes the song so unique and so chill. The song gives off Mazzy Star vibes with some rock influences. The song is about looking for purpose as you grow into adulthood and feeling like the odd man out. I feel like songs about this subject matter often go a more direct route and end up sounding repetitive and even ingenuine at times. This song does not have that feeling though, by using metaphors the song feels different and more genuine than others. Lastly, my favorite artist this year has got to be Role Model. Normally I gravitate towards either really soft music or really alternative rock music, but Role Model has more of a pop vibe so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed his music. I like more of his newer music like Blind and Forever and More. The positive lyrics and pop beats definitely give off a more summer vibe, so it is the perfect remedy for the winter/holiday blues and serves as a reminder that summer is around the corner.

Disney animated films are renowned for their music, from classics like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast to modern 3D-animated motion pictures like Frozen or Moana. However, what’s often overshadowed by these more musical flicks are the soundtracks of the other animated movies. There are great hits from these films, such as Fall Out Boy’s Immortals from Big Hero 6, John Travolta and Miley Cyrus singing together on the soundtrack to Bolt, and who can forget the Cars films and their fantastic soundtracks: Real Gone by Sheryl Crow, Our Town by James Taylor, and there’s even a Weezer cover of a song by The Cars. But we aren’t talking about Life on the Highway today, instead we are going to the future with one of the most underrated soundtracks from one of the most underrated Disney flicks out there: Meet the Robinsons. In Meet the Robinsons, an orphan travels to the future where he meets a zany family and tries to reclaim a time machine from a man in a bowler hat. The film’s soundtrack matches the fun and whimsy of the movie to the tea. The film’s two highlight tracks are Another Believer by Rufus Wainwright and Little Wonders by Rob Thomas. The former is played during a montage towards the beginning of the film and is filled with the chimes that is persistent throughout the film and are an iconic attribute to the film’s design. It’s a great track that highlights the main character Lewis’ desire to meet his birth mother. Little Wonders bookends the movie and once again brings the chimes and the charms that the movie is filled with. It captures the imagination and inventiveness of the characters and story of Meet the Robinsons really well. Both tracks have made my monthly playlists many times in the past year and I am always happy to play them. Also included in the soundtrack are two songs by Jamie Cullum, which are used diegetically within the movie via a singing frog, which about sums up the wackiness of the movie. The songs are jazz-pop as the frog is a part of a jazz ensemble. Both songs are good, chill listens that any could enjoy. Other tracks included on the soundtrack include The Future Has Arrived by the All-American Rejects, which plays during the credits, which is a fun, albeit simple song that definitely isn’t one of the band’s strongest outings. There is also There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, originally from Disney’s Carousel of Progress, performed by They Might Be Giants, and Kids of the Future by the Jonas Brothers, which definitely sounds like a 2000’s Jonas Brothers song, and is another fun listen. The rest of the soundtrack comprises of Danny Elfman’s score, which is filled with chimes and fun-filled futuristic wonders. Meet the Robinsons has a great soundtrack and its disappointing how I never hear anyone talk about it. Go give a listen, and if you’ve never seen the movie, experience the music through the film, it’s an underrated gem.

I sometimes say that I like December because it is the only socially acceptable time to listen to accapella music. And I stand by that. For this list I have tried to limit myself in terms of accapella, and think back to what I enjoyed as a child, or on the radio as a teen because overall, I don't really care for Christmas Music. Please enjoy my top 10 holiday songs (in no particular order): "The 12 Days of Christmas" - Straight No Chaser is a classic Christmas song for me. We always listen to this album while we put up our tree, and my family has gone multiple years to see Straight No Chaser around the holidays. Live, this song is even more enjoyable than the recorded version. "A Sailor's Christmas" - Jimmy Buffet is included because my father is a huge Jimmy Buffet fan. "Christmas Island," Jimmy Buffet's Christmas album, is my father's favorite Christmas album, and a staple for any long car ride around Christmas time. "Mary, Did You Know?" - Pentatonix had to make the list. Since the first time I heard this song, I loved in. Although Straight No Chaser has an arrangement, I do prefer this version by Pentatonix. The harmonies really itch my brain just right, and I really enjoy it. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman/We Three Kings" - Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlen; both of whom I grew up listening to make some great music together. I knew I wanted to include a Barenaked Ladies song on this list, and when I realized they teamed up with McLachlen on this song, I knew it was the one. I love the barenaked Ladies tight harmonies throughout the song. "Santa Clause is Comin' to Town" - Bruce Springsteen is probably my all time favorite Christmas song. My mom loved Springsteen, which I'm sure affects my opinion on this, but it really is just a fun song to listen to. I love the emotion in his voice, and love singing along anytime I hear it. "The Christmas Can-Can" - Straight No Chaser is another classic for me. (Not sure if you are sensing a theme, but Straight No Chaser is my favorite accapella group) I love this original by them. It's super fun, and I really appreciate them making fun of the craziness of the Holidays in this song. "Little Saint Nick" - The Beach Boys is one that I heard all the time on the radio growing up this time of year. I don't have much to say, other than it's just a vibey song. The bells bring a smile to my face, and I can't help but bop along. "Do They Know it's Christmas Time" - Band Aid is one I had forgotten about, until I started working on this list. I was ready to skip it until about 1:30, which is when I realized what song it was. This song is super 80s, but nonetheless, I enjoy it. I also appreciate that this song has a message. Fun Fact: growing up I did not realize it said "feed the world' and instead thought they were saying 'sneadville'(idk why). "Wonderful Christmastime" - Paul McCartney is another Christmas radio classic that I don't hate. He keeps it moving, and I enjoy the synth. This is another one that I can't help but sing along to when I hear it. "Carol of the Bells" - Straight No Chaser is the final song on my list. As a choir student through middle and high school, I sang this song almost every year. Despite this, I still really love accapella versions of this song, especially this arrangement. I actually tried to find a different arrangement I liked to include on this list, BUT none compared to this one for me. I really enjoy how the different parts weave in and out of each other. Hope you all enjoyed a holiday hater's, top 10 Christmas songs!

Released on January 28 th of just this year, Seeing Double released their first single Leah (along with its B-side Don’t Wait), and it did not take long for the song to gain traction, garnering over 400k streams in just a month. The song was prominent in TikTok and Instagram, and now has over 3 million streams on Spotify. And with the release of their fourth song, Bygones, last month, Seeing Double has become one of my favorite bands to listen to. Seeing Double is a NY-based band formed in March 2021, comprising of Allie Sandt on vocals and bass, Ali McQueeney on vocals, Dylan Travison on drums, and Mike Aaron and Zach Torncello on guitar. The band has influences from the 70s such as Fleetwood Mac and ABBA mixed with more modern indie influences like Hippo Campus, and the mixture of all different kinds of inspiration creates a unique sound for the band. Leah was the first release by the band, the title itself being a reference to 70’s rock songs with female names as the title (such as Derek & the Domino’s Layla or Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon and Sara). The song is filled with mystical instrumentals and twin harmonies that make the song the perfect debut for the band, showcasing their sound and lyrical prowess to the highest extent. Released alongside Leah is Don’t Wait, a simpler more rock-sounding song, though just like its A-side, it’s hard to resist getting up and singing along with the chorus. This summer saw the release of Take It or Leave It, an up-beat rock hit that has every word hit hard no matter how fast. It’s a significant departure from the band’s first release, as they further define their sound, but it is just as easy to listen to over and over on repeat. Their latest song, Bygones, which released last month, expands what it means for a Seeing Double song to sound like, and it might just be the best one yet. Starting with a slow piano solo before a strum of a guitar transports the listener to the dark vibe of the drums and vocals which persist throughout the verse. As the drumbeat and vocals continue, other sounds are meticulously thrown into the refrain, building up to the chorus. Everything from the Clue-inspired cover art to the harrowing guitars paint the song to be a noir-thriller of a song. It did not take long for the song to reach the top of my most listened to tracks of the month. With each new song, Seeing Double further makes a name for themselves and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for them.