Tenet (Review)

Watching Tenet is like playing a game of chess. Except you’re playing it in reverse. And halfway through you’re told it’s not chess. And someone starts explaining completely different rules, that you’ve never heard of, but explains them in a way that they seem to think is obvious and you’re too embarrassed to do anything but nod. You will not understand Tenet the first time you see it. There is simply too much to process in such little time. At one stage the protagonist is told to try not to think about the contorted time-travel concepts being thrown at him. That’s a bit harder for the audience; when almost the entire movie feels like a vomit of exposition about what is going on and why.

Lil Uzi Vert Rides His Winning Formula on “P2”

There were plenty of reasons to believe that Lil Uzi Vert, every bit a creation of the Soundcloud wave, wouldn’t still be around these days. He seemed to keep bagging co-signs and leaping on big-time tracks, not least of which the Migos’ “Bad and Boujee”. But he often seemed like an odd star. Objectively, he was a lazy, unimpressive rapper and a painfully nasally singer. Frankly, it shouldn’t have worked.

Dark Waters (Review)

Dark Waters, a movie based on the true story of a lawyer who successfully sued an American icon, follows admirably in the footsteps of countless other ‘legal conspiracy’ films – those films where a lone, seemingly misunderstood man sees and knows something others don’t and develops a maniacal need to get to the bottom of it. This film hits most of those satisfying beats and has its own brooding atmosphere to boot, and while it isn’t perhaps a classic in this genre, it is a mostly enthralling tale of persistence in the face of corporate greed.

El Camino (Review)

An impossible follow-up; El Camino precedes perhaps the greatest television series of all time. The slow-simmering world of Breaking Bad never really seemed like it would slot well into a 2-hour movie format, and El Camino proves that theory somewhat true. But it also carries all of the best features of that series – beautiful scene structure, lived-in characters and a desperate, beloved protagonist searching for something, and running from everything.

Ad Astra (Review)

In the pantheon of science-fiction movies, where will Ad Astra stand? That’s a difficult question to answer. Despite boasting Brad Pitt as the lead, this film hasn’t been billed as a sci-fi blockbuster and hasn’t really tried. It feels destined to be swept underneath a sea of upcoming mega-films, not least of which Gemini Man. That would be a shame, because this Apocalypse Now-in-space saga is a thoughtful piece on how we shape our own legacy, and is oddly appropriate at a time when our planet truly feels in transition.

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Nilüfer Yanya: “Miss Universe” (Review)

The term ‘indie rock’ is thrown around a lot, often meaning everything and nothing, and often being associated with that horrible sameness and the image of a guitar-wielding quasi-weirdo trying very hard to be different-but-not-too-different. That’s part of the reason London-based artist Nilüfer Yanya is such a breath of fresh fucking air. How do you stand out in a sea of guitars? Whatever it is, Yanya’s cracked the code with a deep British cadence and a mastery of paranoid, head-spinning love ballads on her debut album Miss Universe. If you listen to one new artist in 2019, you should make it her.

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Joey Purp: “Quarterthing” (Review)

Chicagoan Joey Purp was the quiet breakout star of 2016 with his debut album iiiDrops. Listen to any track of his and you’re not surprised he used to be in the SaveMoney crew – he has all the writing ability of Chance The Rapper. Quarterthing proves he’s no fluke. It’s not only consistent, but it packs a few sneaky surprises that show Purp is much more than the barking struggle rapper he might’ve seemed at first.

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BROCKHAMPTON: “iridescence” (Review)

How do you become a phenomenon? Right now in music, no one knows quite how to do it like Brockhampton. Like Odd Future before them, they’ve become a full-blown THING – more an idea or a vibe than a mere ‘group’ at this point. Their latest album, iridescence, has got all that same manic energy that made them so eye-catching in the first place. This isn’t a concept album or deep dive into the Brockhampton members’ personalities. This is just combustible energy releasing from a bunch of creative, confused twenty-somethings.

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Noname and Saba Sound Miles Away From Home On The Loungy “Ace” [Click To Listen]

Two rappers rooted deeply in the new-ish wave of ponderous Chicago music are Noname and Saba. Both came up around Chance The Rapper’s Acid Rap-hovering orbit in 2013 with respective eye-opening verses. But the great find was that both of these artists are brilliant in their own right, no qualifiers needed. “Ace” isn’t an earth-shattering single, but it’s further proof that these are two of the better, more thoughtful writers in hip-hop.

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Mac Miller Had Just Figured Out Music – And Life – When He Left

[Editor Note: We wrote a review for Mac Miller’s Swimming a month ago. Click here to read our review. We really liked it.]

Back in 2011, a white, very-Eminem-looking rapper released Blue Slide Park. That album sold a preposterous number of copies considering it was an independently distributed LP. In the SoundCloud/Spotify age, it’s the sort of thing that could be done easily. Back then, it signalled a phenom. And so, Mac Miller became a thing.

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