Posted 1 day ago
Album Review: Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film “The Great Gatsby”
Artist: Jay-Z and others
Album: Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film “The Great Gatsby”
Label: Interscope
Release Date: May 6, 2013
Rating: 3.5
For a film taking place in the 1920’s, this album was probably the best possible outcome for a soundtrack including modern music. There is no doubt that Baz Luhrmann and Jay-Z working together on this project produced some amazing results. A good soundtrack is supposed to represent a film’s essence and stay with you after you leave the theater. Jay-Z was able to capture the core of Luhrmann’s version of The Great Gatsby. Whether or not Baz Luhrmann did a decent job with the movie is a topic for another review. This review deals only with how the soundtrack related to the movie.
The Jay-Z tracks were appropriate and not overbearing. “100$ Bill” captured Leonardo Di Caprio’s version of Jay Gatsby fairly well. There were parts of the film where there were too many Jay-Z tracks including “Church In The Wild” and it came off as more self-serving than artistic. Emeli Sande performing on “Crazy In Love” was chilling and it proved to be an excellent cover of the song.
Posted 2 days ago
Album Review: Vampire Weekend, “Modern Vampires of the City”
Artist: Vampire Weekend
Album: Modern Vampires of the City
Label: XL
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Rating: 4
For an album being released right before the summer, it does not get better than Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City. The songs are great, the music is beautiful, and the mood is soulful. Their last album Contra was received fairly well but overall with mixed reviews. This album is a departure from those sounds and each track was developed with a sense of care and accuracy.
“Obvious Bicycle” is probably one of the best songs of the album. It has meaningful lyrics, soft background music and the pacing of the song is spot on. “Unbelievers” which comes right after picks up the speed and the music doesn’t get away from them. The chords behind “Step” has the Pachelbel’s Canon vibe prevalent. The song is nice and has a harpsichord background behind it. The chorus almost sounds like a Beatles number as well.
Posted 2 days ago
Album Review: Daft Punk, “Random Access Memories”
Artist: Daft Punk
Album: Random Access Memories
Label: Columbia
Release Date: May 17, 2013
Rating: 4
…And Daft Punk fans everywhere rejoiced, for they listened to Random Access Memories, and they heard that it was good. Somehow, Daft Punk managed to put together an album that blows away most of the albums released in 2013 thus far. It packs a different punch than their last albums but in a way, that’s one factor that makes this album so great. Daft Punk is shifting away from electronic dance music but it is still the base for most of their creation.
The album couldn’t have started better than “Give Life Back To Music” and “The Game of Love”. These two tracks build so well and keep that momentum going for most of the album. The message behind “Giorgio by Moroder” is much more epic than the music itself. If the music wasn’t going to match up to Giorgio Moroders lesson, then it could have been shorter.
Social Music reviews new albums/mixtapes from all types of artists and genres, including (but not limited to) rock, hip-hop, country, cross-over, etc. Social Music looks at all aspects of an album from music, lyrics, producers, backing, and of course the puppet masters pulling the strings, the music label themselves.
