Vampire Weekend,
Modern Vampires of the City,
Ian Benson
The most remarkable thing about Vampire Weekend’s third album might be its existence.On their debut record in 2008, they made a big show of their influence and their charm, but they never seemed to be in it for the long haul. They seemed far more likely to release a follow-up album that sounded exactly the same as before fading, away like countless buzz bands. Instead, they matured their craft, improving upon their sound with 2010’s Contra. Now, they’ve eclipsed that with Modern Vampires of the City. If their first album started the party and their second was its peak, then this one deals with the silence after everyone has left. Weighty topics like death, love and religion are all handled with surprising deftness by Ezra Koenig, who has matured by leaps and bounds as a lyricist. Rostam Batmanglij, ever the hyper-competent sidekick and true brains of the band, has kept stride with the front man and created ornate and often moving arrangements, with “Ya Hey,” “Step” and “Hannah Hunt” as the standouts. “Hunt” in particular represents the emotional high point of a record so concerned with emotions. It’s a character study as a song, painted in just a few brush strokes. Focusing on the tale of a relationship that’s gone sour during a cross country road trip, it’s the bones of a great short story, an Updike-esque tale of an upper-middle class love story. But when Koenig sings that last verse, “If I can’t trust you, then damn it Hannah, there’s no future, there’s no answer,” as the music swells, all of that is forgotten, and the focus is on the emotion. And that emotion breaks your heart in what is undoubtedly Vampire Weekend’s finest song.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Dominic Piacentini
For me, 2013 was a whirl of giant robots, demigods, wizards and aliens mixed up in some kind of grudge match, fighting in a clock-shaped arena of death for the award of biggest blockbusting blockbuster. Although many of these films were great, notably The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire, it all got very tiring; however, Martin Scorsese’s newest film, “The Wolf of Wall Street” was a refreshing treat.
Although The Wolf of Wall Street starred big A-list actors, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Matthew McConaughey and its vulgarity and promiscuity attracted a lot of attention, it lacked the characteristics of recent blockbuster trends. “The Wolf of Wall Street” contains no super powers. It doesn’t heavily rely on CGI techniques and it is neither an adaptation nor a sequel. Everything that made this movie different also made it interesting.
The Wolf of Wall Street chronicles a drug addict’s rise and inevitable fall in the world of stockbroking. The energetic nature of the movie kept me interested for the full three hours—a feat Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was unable to accomplish. The amount of fun the actors were having portraying their zany, outrageous characters was palpable. In one scene, the protagonist, Jordan (DiCaprio) has two too many expired quaaludes and loses control of his speech and limbs. At this extremely inappropriate time, Jordan is forced to make his way into a car and back home in order to maintain a business relationship. In this scene, and many others, DiCaprio’s enthusiasm translates to pure unadulterated hysteria for the audience.
Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels
Travis Marmon
El-P is my favorite producer in hip-hop today. When he manned the boards for Killer Mike’s solo LP R.A.P. Music last year, the unlikely collaboration became the best rap record of 2012. The combination of El’s futuristic sci-fi beats with Mike’s southern drawl was a rousing success, especially on lyrically biting songs like “Reagan.”
Now, El gets to split MC duties with Mike over 10 of the wildest beats he’s ever created. What Run the Jewels lacks in diversity compared to R.A.P. Music, it makes up for in pure fun. It’s just over half an hour long, which is more than enough time to get you amped up on neck-snapper after neck-snapper.
Although both rappers often have critical lyrics about society and politics, Run the Jewels is pure, distilled braggadocio. There are also a couple of solid features—Big Boi shows up at the end of “Banana Clipper,” which should whet your appetite for the upcoming OutKast reunion. And De La Soul’s Prince Paul appears on the comically lewd “Twin Hype Back.” Run the Jewels is the most fun I’ve had listening to a hip-hop album since the first time I listened to Enter the Wu-Tang. And oh yeah, it’s free via Fool’s Gold Records.
Frozen
Maddie Petersen
Yes, I want to build a snowman. After seeing Frozen three times in the last week, I understand why it has been in the theaters steadily since Thanksgiving. The songs and one-liners will get stuck in your head day after day.
The story begins in the Kingdom of Arendelle. Sisters Elsa and Anna face challenges after they are left in charge when their parents, the King and Queen, are killed at sea. Elsa possesses the ability to create ice and snow, but does not know how to contain her powers and locks herself in her room.
Princess Anna, unaware of her sister’s secret, is quickly learning about the world outside the castle and is eager to explore it. After Elsa’s powers are revealed at her coronation party, she is accused of sorcery and flees to the mountains of Arendelle, leaving her kingdom frozen.
Anna sets off to find her sister to unfreeze the kingdom and picks up a reindeer, a talking snowman and an iceman along the way. Frozen is different from many of the Disney movies, poking fun at the old Disney classics with lines like “you’re engaged to a guy you just met TODAY?” It also focuses on the bond of sisterhood.
While other Disney films have focused on the horrors of stepsisters or evil parents, Frozen highlights that sisterhood is a bond of true love and that you don’t always need that knight in shining armor to save you from evil.
With the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad and Jonathan Groff helping out on the songs and adult humor, I promise you this is the best way to spend two hours of your life. Frozen is a hilarious, refreshing film from Disney and is well on its way to being considered a classic.
Inside Llewyn Davis
Jesse Tiffen
Few filmmakers combine beautiful articulate cinematography with true deadpan absurdity as charmingly as the Coen Brothers. Inside Llewyn Davis, a finely honed window into the American folk music scene in Greenwich Village, is brutally honest and void of clichés. Though intended to be a heartfelt tribute to the music of the ‘60s, the film serves to remind us that for every successful singer-songwriter, there are hundreds of people that never made it.
Llewyn a talented-but struggling artist has the unique gift of pissing off everyone in his life. A very intentionally disagreeable and socially poisonous protagonist, he is relentlessly told he is a failure. Llewyn serves to remind us that so are we. The universe is random and swerving and likely doesn’t regard you as any more important than anyone else. The other characters are certainly no more saintly than Llewyn. Carey Mulligan’s character, Jean, is perpetually in a state of seething rage and John Goodman plays Roland Turner, a morbidly obese and ludicrously offensive jazz musician.
For those unfamiliar with the Coen Brothers, the seeming meaninglessness of the end left much of the plot resolved. However, the unsteady story of a road to nowhere and back is as old as the narrative itself. In many ways it mimics James Joyce’s Ulysses, for you “think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”