Taylor Swift - 1989: Album Review

Taylor Swift goes even more so into pop, with a better performance, but still lukewarm.

Release date: 27 October 2014

Genre: Pop/Synthpop

Best songs: "Style", "How You Get The Girl", "I Wish You Would", "Clean"

Worst songs: "Welcome To New York", "Shake It Off"

Rating: 6/10.

Let me start out by saying, I was a huge fan of Taylor Swift. I loved “Tim McGraw”, “Our Song”, “Love Story”, “Dear John”, “Mean”, pretty much her entire discography. She always had a knack for good hooks, so I don’t see why she had to turn to pop. She was successful enough in her previous genre.

So, 1989. The album that sold over 1.2 million in the United States in its first week alone. The review is obviously going to be contentious, so just respect my opinion here. I tend to talk about the singles first, so “Shake It Off”. While not being outright terrible, it honestly was a disappointment. I heard that Taylor was going full pop, and I didn’t mind that, if she could do it well. Sure, it has a catchy melody and the hook, while repetitive, sticks in your head well, the production is basic, and the “white-girl rapping” is not all that great. Also, I don’t tend to like anti-hater anthems, because making the song just shows how much it affects you. We do get a good follow-up with “Blank Space”, nice production, good hook, and it shows a more “adult” tone. Problem being, it doesn’t seem like her. It doesn’t seem honest, and that is what I always loved about her. She didn’t have to make a cover-up, she was herself, at least that’s the impression I got. Third single “Style” is a pure gem. It tells about how both partners are realizing that they screwed up, and they both have problems, shows a great deal a maturity. The 80s style guitar carries a very nice melody. Now we get to the polarizing “Bad Blood”, which honestly, I didn’t hate the album version, carrying a much more darker tone, it’s an alright song. Now the Kendrick Lamar featured remix, now I could go on about how bad that one is, but it’s not part of this album, so no bitching there. Then we get “Wildest Dreams”, a low-key sex song that really isn’t to my taste, though it could be, knowing Taylor as a teenager, I just can’t see her being 24 like she is here. It’s a good version of say, Lana Del Rey. It isn’t bad, but again, not for me. After is “Out Of The Woods”, which I like, but not as a single. The echoing vocals and 80s production works fine enough. Finally, we get the final and seventh single, “New Romantics”. I actually like quite a bit, with the synth and just being a feel-good anthem with the line “the best people in life are free” (though it should be pointed out she likely does not even know what the “New Romantics” is).

Now we have to get to the album tracks and… “Welcome To New York”, the opening track. Overproduced, cheesy, and just for the most part, boring. I had fun with it at first, but now… it’s just filler. Then we get “All You Had To Do Was Stay”, and really, it’s a pretty good song, but I will say the high head voiced “Stay!” on the hook… I’m going to paraphrase Shane Dawson here and say it sounds like someone is shoving something big up her ass. “I Wish You Would” sounds great, saying that she knows the relationship wouldn’t work, and she wish it did. Though the “You always knew how to push my buttons” line is kinda goofy, whatever. “How You Get The Girl” is a nice acoustic track that could’ve fit on her other albums. I like the heartfelt, stripped-back sentiment of giving advice to a guy who wants a girl back. “Clean” is a gorgeous cut as well.

All in all, this album could have been great, but it’s barely good. She’s playing a persona it seems and doesn’t seem too honest most of the time. She's playing off other artists rather than being herself and what makes her unique. It’s a strong 6/10 and I’m recommending it, but really it’s a modest one, and she could do better.

Your own rating of 1989?

Soma - Video Game Review

An emotional experience filled with horror similar in the vein of The Last Of Us.

Title: Soma 
Genre: Psychological horror
Platform: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Playstation 4
Developer: Frictional Games (Amnesia and Penumbra series) 
Good for gamers who: Are really into story, and is more into puzzles rather than combat.
Bad for those who: Are into more combat-filled gameplay, and are not into puzzles, or games where you can't at least fight back.
Rating: 8/10.

In 2015, protagonist Simon Jarett gets in a car crash in Toronto, Canada, that leaves him with severe brain damage. Because of his injuries, he agrees to a brain scan. While in that process, he passes out and wakes up in the year 2104, in a research facilty deep in the sea. A year before his awakening, a comet crashed into Earth. Humanity is in ruins. You seem alone in this world, but there are robots driven mad or monsters found in this post-apocalyptic Earth. You can't even fight back against these threats. Gameplay plays from a first-person perspective, and there is no combat whatsoever. You can only hide and run away. You can also possibly distract with thrown items. And enemies don't straight up kill you once you're caught. You lose some health, and you can stick your arms in these (what TFS Krillin calls "robot buttholes"), to restore your health.

Throughout the game, you have several decisions that seem bad regardless of what decision you actually make. You can leave the robot to get killed by the monsters or you can at points, kill them yourself. The problems I see with these is, they actually don't affect the story in the end. But I don't think that was point. The point was, these robots are essentially humans downloaded into the robot. You have to decide if you can kill a machine who really believes they're human. Do you believe they're actually human? It's definitely a very emotional experience that will definitely deliver some scares along the way, though the story may run a little long at 10+ hours. Definitely recommended.

Miranda Cosgrove - Sparks Fly: Album Review

The Nickelodeon actress gives us one of the best pop albums to come out in 2010, and the best of what teen pop has to offer. 

Genre: Pop/Teen pop/Pop rock

Best songs: "Disgusting", "Kissin U", "Hey You", "Adored"

Worst songs: "Oh Oh"

Rating: 9/10

If you see the score, this will probably be one of my most biased reviews I’ve ever done. I will probably overrate this. I was raised on Nickelodeon, and I’ll admit, I had a crush on Miranda Cosgrove from the younger girl during her Drake & Josh days, to iCarly, and even to the woman she is today. I mean, she always had the charisma, the looks, and cute, albeit, more immature of a persona. I even attended a concert and met her. So yeah, celebrity crush territory. You were warned.

Now, while she got bigger push for her music than her fellow Nickelodeon stars like Drake Bell and Victoria Justice, she still didn’t do stellar. This album debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200, with 36,000 copies. While it sold more than Drake Bell’s It’s Only Time (23,000) in its debut week, the latter album eventually sold more, even with her hit songs like “Kissin U” and “About You Now” (the former of which was certified Gold). Now, this album was a guilty pleasure for me as a kid. I couldn’t admit to people I was listening to the iCarly starlet. It was girly pop music. But, listening to it today, I can appreciate it more.

But enough background, let’s get into the actual album and while critics underrated it, I’m going to give it a fair shake. Let’s start with Miranda herself, who, on the verge of her 17th birthday, sounds great on this album, and makes up for her limited range, with tons of charisma and presence on the microphone. The album opens up with the lead single, “Kissin U” (one of the two songs Cosgrove wrote), which basically tells of how Cosgrove feels when kissing a boy. Simple premise, but it doesn’t come off as sensual or sexual in any fashion, it’s cute, and actually appropriate for the demographic, which is why it works. The second song is “BAM”, which has a very EDM feel, but at the same time I had a feeling of pop rock. Another love song, and how much she loves this guy. Again, simple, but that’s what pop is for. Now, we get the best single on the album, the Kesha-penned “Disgusting”, which was left off her debut album Animal. It definitely sounds like a Kesha track, something Cosgrove does on her later EP High Maintenance, with the song “Dancing Crazy”. This song has a different take on hating that she loves him. Another EDM sound with the bass, and has a good hook that doesn’t heavily emphasize the percussion. And I can’t help not liking it, especially with how cute she sounds on the bridge leading up to the final chorus. Then we get to “Shakespeare” which is a very pop rock track which names drops Jeff Buckley of all people, who died when Miranda was only four. What follows up, is the amazing, feel good ballad, “Hey You”, which is telling a friend or lover that she sees that person in the best ways, and “if you would only see yourself the way you see everyone else” and thinking it’s wrong for them to be “hiding in the background thinking you’re not pretty”. Which, I have personal reason to love this track that I won’t get into, just that it makes me feel good about myself. We also have the Avirl Lavigne-penned “Daydream”, another pop rock song that fits very well with Miranda and this album. The two other tracks I’d like to talk about on the positive side (since this is getting long), are “Adored” and “Brand New You”. “Brand New You” plays a similar theme to Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable”, telling the guy she can find someone just like him, even with the same anatomy, talking like them, walking like them, etc. It shows a different side to her, a stronger side. Now, “Adored”, Miranda also wrote, which is telling the guy to show her that she’s “adored”, not just saying “I love you”, but showing that he loves her.

And now, we have to get into the negative side. “Oh Oh” reminds me of Ariana Grande’s “Focus”. Annoying male vocals that ruin the song. Yeah, it shows the stronger, and more mature side of her. Her vocals sounds slightly attitude filled, which I actually don’t like her voice that way. She fits better with softer sounds. “I look so hot, the boys forgot that after N comes O”. Great, now I’m thinking of Meghan Trainor’s “No”. Also, I wish they had Miranda wrote more tracks. She’s like Hilary Duff, a very strong songwriter. I’d like to see return to music. Like I said, one of the best pop records of 2010, and the best of the teen pop genre.

Nick Jonas - Last Year Was Complicated: Album Review

The pop singer faces an identity crisis with his third studio album.

Genre: Pop/R&B

Best songs: "Chainsaw", "Close" (ft. Tove Lo), "Under You"

Worst songs: "Good Girls" (ft. Big Sean), "Bacon" (ft. Ty Dolla $ign)

Rating: 6/10

If we say for the sake of this review, that the Jonas Brothers are a boy band, we've had plenty of artists break from their vocal groups to make great music, and successful music, too. We have Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, and others. And then we have Nick Jonas, who hasn't had massive success, and his music was never exactly stellar.

I assume he called this Last Year Was Complicated for two reasons: his relationship problems and because he didn’t release a full studio album last year (he re-released his self-titled second album from 2014), and that he was planning to release albums every year like he’s Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty. So, if we take these assumptions, how did it turn out?

Well, not that great. The album opens with “Voodoo”, a very dull track, that isn’t impressive vocally, instrumentally, or lyrically. Sure, his falsetto is pretty good like usual, but it’s not pronounced here. And the basic drums machine and synth infused chorus just don’t do it for me. And the pitch-shifting at points in the song just urk me. Then we get the EDM-filled “Champagne Problems” (Side note: What is up with all the songs called “Champagne Problems” this year?). It’s a pretty decent track I’d say, though it’s better as a background track, and you just drown out the lyrics (like most of Justin Bieber’s Purpose). What follows is great. We first get the lead single, “Close”, which features vocals from Swedish singer Tove Lo, who also co-wrote the track. The steel drums sound great, and Jonas and Tove Lo have amazing chemistry. Lyrically, it’s nice too. A song about wanting to be closer to your lover, because why wouldn’t you? After, maybe being “close” didn’t work for them, because we get the breakup song, “Chainsaw”, which is the album’s follow up to “Close” as a single. It’s a deeply personal track telling of Jonas after the breakup, and taking out his anger on anything that reminds him of his ex.

A lot of the middle of this album seems pointless to be here, almost filler. “Touch” is an acoustic track for the most part, and allows Jonas vocals to shine, but it does sometimes sound difficult to understand him, and “touching you with no hands” sounds more disturbing than sexy. Then we get “Bacon” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, which I already get low expectations when I see Ty Dolla $ign as a feature. He’s becoming one of those rappers who will feature with anyone, seems like they have a spinning wheel they throw darts to tell which rapper is going on the next pop song. And “One thing I love more than being with you is date night”... what? And his extended “ohh ohh ohh” makes him sound like Rich Homie Quan. That aside, the rapper is tolerable I suppose (granted he compares a woman to Bacon), certainly better than what we get from Big Sean on “Good Girls”. Also, who believes Jonas wants “Good Girls”? Not me.

Look, he seems really, “bipolar” on this album, all over the place, and sorry, I can’t recommend it, maybe to only Nick Jonas fans. 6/10.

Fifth Harmony - 7/27: Album Review

The girl group does change for the better, but not by a huge margin. Album: 7/27 - Fifth Harmony Genre: Pop/EDM Best songs:  "Write On Me", "Squeeze"                                     Worst songs: "Work From Home" (ft. Ty Dolla $ign), "This Life", "All In My Head" (Flex) (ft. Fetty Wap) Rating: 4/10.

7/27 is the sophomore album from American girl group Fifth Harmony. The album was preceded by the lead single “Work From Home”, which features rapper Ty Dolla $ign. On this album we see the girl group maturing, but not by much.   Let’s actually talk about the lead single, because it’s probably one of the worst songs on this record. Blatantly ripping off the chorus “Work” by Rihanna, which features Canadian rapper Drake, and while “Work”, to be honest, is not great, at least it’s not a rip-off. If you’re going to do that, at least do it better than this. The girls aren’t even likable on this song, and it’s sad to say Ty Dolla $ign of all people is the only (barely) redeeming quality of this song. While the snapping is a nice aesthetic, it reminds me too much of the snapping in Selena Gomez’s “Same Old Love”, which again, a much better song. Then we get into “This Life”, which has pitch-shifted chipmunks that I just can't stand here. Why is it becoming so common in pop music? It only works good if it’s actually Alvin & The Chipmunks in almost all cases. Next comes “All In My Head” (Flex), which features, ugh… Fetty Wap. His voice is pretty intolerable on this song like always. He only works well over trap, and even then, it’s not much. I can’t even understand what he’s saying half the time. And I can’t stand self-indulging songs like this. They’re “flexing”, good for them. At least be believable in your bragging. And then we get into the production and instrumentation. Which I’ve talked about already with the chipmunk vocals and such. But basically (pun intended), it’s all pretty basic instrumentation and production and it’s not at all complex. And deciding to give Camilla Cabello the most attention when she’s clearly the weakest vocalist just doesn’t work.   But is there any redeeming qualities here? Well, they do have slightly better harmonies, and they gave the other girls more time in the spotlight. Which they should, and do it much more. The vocals from the girls are tolerable most of the time, and they don’t have a single as bad as “Worth It” at least.   It’s obviously not for me, but 4/10. Fans will probably eat it up and love it. But, really only fans. If you want to tell me how wrong I am, Harmonizers, you can do so in the comments. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next review.

Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman Review

We see the young pop starlet/actress taking on her more sexy image.

Album: Dangerous Woman - Ariana Grande. 
Genre: R&B/Pop.
Best songs:  "Bad Decisions", "Dangerous Woman", "Be Alright", "Into You"
Worst songs: "Let Me Love You" (ft. Lil Wayne), "Leave Me Lonely" (ft. Macy Gray) (not on its own, but bad in the context of the album) 
Rating: 7/10.

Preceded by the promotional single "Focus" and the lead single, "Dangerous Woman", American pop star/actress Ariana Grande's third studio album, Dangerous Woman, sees the starlet taking on a more sexy image, but not to the same degree as her peers like Miley Cyrus. You may laugh at Grande for calling herself dangerous, but when she has songs like "Love Me Harder" and "Get On Your Knees", she's seems like a very.. dominant person, to say the least. She's not trying to throw her Nickelodeon image away. She still tries to maintain the cute image with the bunny mask, but it's clear it's not (especially with the latex outfit), and it takes it one step further. She had hints of this, but never anything this explicit.

In October of 2015, Grande released what was intended to be the lead single, "Focus". The single was very reminiscent of 2014's "Problem" with Iggy Azalea, and featured shouting vocals from Jamie Foxx that just... didn't work well. It still debuted at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. But with average at best sales and mixed reviews, Grande had to take a step back and try again. And she did by scrapping "Focus" from all versions of the album but the Japanese Deluxe Edition. In March of 2016, she returned with the now lead single, the title track, "Dangerous Woman". With this, she achieved another Top 10 hit, having the lead single of all of her albums hit at least the Top 10. The R&B/pop track is a song of empowerment, and how the feelings for this guy makes Grande feel like a "Dangerous Woman". The song has nice buildups, and the guitar solo on the bridge is pretty sweet. The second single "Into You" is one of the catchiest songs on here. The EDM banger shows the sexy side of Grande this album is trying to represent. It talks about Grande being so addicted to her lover. Like the title track, it was written by hitmaker Max Martin, who you might know for writing with Taylor Swift and Adele. This is where I see Grande as a little more authentic than some of her other songs, due to the fact she has a writing credit here.

Promotional single "Be Alright" is an extremely catchy track that's just about being optimistic and thinking everything will be fine, that is always gets better. Her vocals on here are great, showing some range going from F3 to C5. The snapping, it was a nice aesthetic as well. Then there's "Let Me Love You" featuring Lil Wayne that does nothing and could've just been left off the album. Or at least taken Lil Wayne off. All he does on this track is pretty much saying he wanting to bang Ariana. And to quote Mark Grondin from Spectrum Pulse here, "it comes across like he's playing the Svengali taking advantage of a girl right after her breakup." Which, no. It's isn't good, it isn't sexy, or anything of the sort. It kinda just makes me dislike Lil Wayne, even more so than he's been for a while.

Now we get to the non-single songs on here. And there are great ones here. We get "Leave Me Lonely", the ballad that features Macy Gray. The track definitely shows Grande and Gray have good chemistry, and Grande can have less dramatic bombast and just strip it down, where Grande sings about how this love is no good for her, and that he should just leave her, cause he's a bad influence. Then we get the very fast paced "Bad Decisions", which pretty much shits on the theme of "Leave Me Lonely". It Has good tempo changes that don't feel sudden and flow well. Grande's vocals are here are decent. The lyrical content, tells of a girl not caring that she's with a "bad boy", that makes her do "stupid things" and make "bad decisions". And those lines about "not fucking with the good boys", and "a'int you ever seen a princess be a bad bitch", while I think those lyrics are in bad taste and she obviously has a lot of growing up to do, hey, the song sounds great, what can you do? But, that's only if looking at the song and not the album as a whole, it contradicted "Leave Me Lonely", and either of them could have been left off, cause it seems like she just gives up on leaving that guy and just says "fuck it, I like the bad boys", even though a few tracks before she says he's not good.

While it's an improvement from My Everything, she can definitely do better. Very strong 7/10. Definitely recommending this for anyone who likes good pop music.