A&E
I Can’t Explain That For You, Dave
Blather on all you want about what rosebud really represents or how “Avatar” is a giant metaphor for American imperialism, but sometimes a good movie is just a good movie. We can spend all day trying to figure out what that top is doing at the end of Inception, and in this internet-filled age of [...]
All Silver Lining, No Cloud
From the beginning—the peaceful, sunlit streets of Columbia—it was clear that “Bioshock Infinite” wasn’t an ordinary first-person-shooter (FPS) game. Where was the violence? The wanton destruction? The faceless enemy to oppose me? All absent for the first 30 minutes, at least on the surface. In their place were cheery pedestrians strolling about and discussing current [...]
Infinite’s Failed Challenge
Following a 10-month-long hiatus, Infinite made their comeback amid much hype with their fourth album “New Challenge.” Last year, Infinite stunned the K-pop world after releasing “The Chaser,” the title track of the group’s third album “Infinitize,” in which the restrained, subtly fierce voices of L, Sungyeol, and Sungjong offset Woohyun’s and Sunggyu’s belting notes. [...]
The Beginning of the Monster Rookie
In a genre where artists fade in and out of the spotlight quickly, Lee Hi remains relevant after her debut success with the first half of her latest album “First Love: Part One.” With confidence backed by talent and effort, Lee Hi tops her previous pieces with this striking compilation. These songs reflect on common [...]
Suspense to a Fault: Sigur Rós’s MSG Flop
A soft whine sounds from the stage. Surrounding bright green lights begin to fluctuate in intensity, their hum creating a pulsing effect. A lone voice, a startling falsetto, warbles from the stage. The volume escalates as other ethereal sounds stack up against a clouded monochrome foreground until—finally—the first drumbeat resounds through the stage, a blinding [...]
Don’t Look, Just Listen
After losing one member to college in the August of 2011 and wrapping up 2012 with a full-length album, four EPs, five digital singles, nine music videos, a DVD, and tour around Japan, Korean idol group U-KISS made a comeback on March 7, 2013 with their new Korean album “Collage.” Featuring 10 songs and two [...]
Accepted and Rejected on the Big Screen
March is riddled with stress and anticipation for high school seniors. From the middle of the month until April 1, applicants find out whether they have been accepted, rejected, or waitlisted from their ideal colleges. Among those nerve-wracking dates is today, Friday, March 22, or the day when seniors can step out of the [...]
Anatomy of a Murder
Jazz legend Duke Ellington made a cinematic appearance in 1959, composing and orchestrating the entire original soundtrack to Otto Preminger’s 1950s courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder.” Ellington’s masterful jazz orchestra (featuring Johnny Hodges, Ray Nance, and Paul Gonsalves, among others) provides a more than adequate background for the onscreen action, which revolves around the [...]
Atonement
When director Joe Wright works with Dario Marianelli, the two make sweet, sweet music. Marianelli, who had composed for Wright in “Pride and Prejudice” (2005) and would go on to do so again in “Anna Karenina” (2012), is at his most evocative in “Atonement.” The movie is hyper-dramatized and stylized; it is often shot in [...]
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Ennio Morricone is the Wild West. No other piece of film music has become so synonymous with a genre as his score for Sergio Leone’s 1966 spaghetti western, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” It whoops and hollers as it tracks gunman Blondie across the desert, coloring in the western backdrop by using periodic [...]
