EDM – Angelica Wallingford

‘Great Gatsby’ soundtrack brings a modern twist to the 1920’s

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year then you should know about Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby.” The film has been out in theaters for about two weeks and has been getting mixed reviews. The soundtrack, however? I guarantee it’s one of the best film soundtracks you will hear this year.

Development for “The Great Gatsby” had been going on for years. The idea of turning it into a Broadway play had even been tossed around, and in 2008 it was confirmed that Baz Luhrmann would be taking over as director. However, when it came to the soundtrack Luhrmann turned to his go-to composer Craig Armstrong and executive music supervisor Anton Monsted. Jay Z signed on as the co-executive producer and spent two years working with Luhrmann and his team to put out one of the best soundtracks that has been used in a Baz Luhrmann film.

The soundtrack as a whole is amazing. The producers managed to address the themes of decadence, love and excess that are in the story. Musically, the album is all over the place. It’s the music of the roaring 20’s with a modern twist. Elements of hip-hop, rock, electronic dance music; jazz and swing are blended together in a way that doesn’t make it sound cheesy or forced together.

One standout track on the album is “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey. Her vocals are haunting and emotional. The music has a somber sound to it that matches certain scenes in the film perfectly. Another thing that I liked about this song was that the instrumentation was simple and how the instruments were layered in the song. Overall, this song was a perfect fit for the film and one of the best songs on the soundtrack.

I’ll admit “Young and Beautiful” surprised me because I’m not a big Lana Del Rey fan. I thought that her last two releases were boring and frankly, her whole “daddy, hold me, pale, moonlight, Pepsi cola” thing didn’t really reel me in. However, if her next release is anything like “Young and Beautiful” then she will definitely have a place in my iTunes library.

Another standout track is “Over the Love” by Florence + the Machine. This song was written from the perspective of Daisy Buchanan, Jay Gatsby’s longtime crush. There are also mentions of certain things in the novel like the green light that appears on a dock outside of Daisy’s house and the yellow dress she wears. Musically, this song is a baroque pop ballad with hints of soul, which matches Florence Welch’s voice perfectly. The vocals on this song are powerful and emotional. The lyrics were beautifully written and really capture Daisy’s struggle between Gatsby and her husband, Tom. This song was a hit overall and one of the best songs on the soundtrack.

But of course, with the good always come the bad and this soundtrack only really had one thing that was wrong with it. That thing is the Andre 3000 and Beyoncé cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black.” This cover is just wrong on almost all levels. It is hands down the worst song on the album and the worst song that Beyoncé has ever been a part of.

“Back to Black” doesn’t need a down tempo EDM wobble, chopped and screwed beats, and weird vocal arrangements. I understand that they wanted this song to be emotional and reimagine it in a unique way but it just did not work in their favor. Instead, they turned one of Amy Winehouse’s best songs into a pile of emotionless EDM crap.

All the producers would have needed to do was slow down the tempo, slightly rearrange the music and let Beyoncé do her thing without Andre 3000. I can almost guarantee that if the producers did that they would have had one of the best songs on the soundtrack and not have the travesty that is on millions of iPods across the country.

All that being said, this was an excellent soundtrack. Baz Luhrmann has an awesome gift of picking out songs that perfectly fit his movies. Just like the songs from his “Romeo + Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge!” soundtracks, the songs on “The Great Gatsby” soundtrack perfectly enhances the story rather than take away from it. If you were to get any soundtrack from the summer movie season, then I highly recommend this one. You won’t be disappointed.

For even more tracks, check out the deluxe version of the soundtrack which includes an orchestral version of “Young and Beautiful,” a remix of “Over the Love” by SBTRKT and dialogue from the film; including one of Tobey Maguire reciting his lines over a brilliant instrumental.

“The Great Gatsby” is in theaters everywhere and the standard and deluxe versions of the soundtrack are available on iTunes.

Originally published in City Times, May 2013.

Justin Timberlake’s ’20/20 Experience’: Not worth the seven-year wait

After seven long years away from the music industry Justin Timberlake decided it was time to hang up his actors’ hat, slip on a tuxedo and get back in the studio with his longtime collaborators and some new ones, to give us his long awaited new album. Sounds like a recipe for an amazing album right? Well, think again.

In early 2013 Timberlake hinted at a comeback on his Twitter account by releasing a tweet that said “I think I’M READY,” along with a link to a YouTube video of him walking into a studio explaining why he hasn’t released anything in so long. In the video he said that he didn’t want to release anything that he doesn’t love. After months of recording, “The 20/20 Experience” was finally released on March 18. For his newest album, Timberlake took on the role of executive producer and head songwriter.

The main problem I have with the album is that some of the music tracks sounds like a complete rehash of Timbaland’s other work. At times it could feel like your listening to “FutureSex/LoveSounds” or “Shock Value II” rather then Timberlake’s newest release. On top of that, some of the songs, like “Spaceship Coupe,” easily sound like they could be a Robin Thicke song.

Then there are the lyrics. Timberlake is a pretty good songwriter that is responsible for some of the catchiest hooks in pop music. However, some of the lyrics are corny and border on literary porn. The most blatant use of these types of lyrics is the song “Strawberry Bubblegum,” which appears to be a metaphor of some kind for a woman’s vagina. In the song, Timberlake sings the lines “your mouth emotion gets me so high” and “we’re making love like professionals.” Wait a minute: professionals? What does that even mean? No passion with a contractual agreement? No one would want to be apart of that, no matter who was singing it.

Another thing that I didn’t initially like was that most of the songs are extended mixes that are seven to eight minutes long. The perfect example of this is the opening track “Pusher Love Girl.” That song could have ended at the 4-minute fifty-four second mark and be a really strong opener but then the song goes into this remix like breakdown. This however, is a very minor flaw that listeners will get use to after listening to the album a lot.

All those cons being said, this is actually a decent album. It’s not Timberlake’s best release, but it’s far from his worst. The one thing that I absolutely love about this album is that it’s not a straightforward pop album. As soon as I heard of his comeback I thought he was going for a pop sound, like many people did. I was wrong and this was one instance where I’m glad I was. There are influences from all across the musical spectrum. The mixture of old school ‘60s R&B;, ‘70s funk, neo-soul, hip-hop, jazz, pop and much more make this album worth listening to. The album stays away from any of the cliché dubstep bass lines and other EDM musical styles, which is a nice change up since that seems to be the norm for pop artists today. There are also a lot of artistic influences on the album as well, such as Prince, Quincy Jones, and Michael Jackson. The flow on this album is another thing that I liked. It makes going from one track to another almost seamless, even with the typical four-second gap time. His voice is also a major plus. Each song compliments his tenor voice almost perfectly, which makes for pretty sweet ear candy.

Highlights include the first single “Suit & Tie,” the high energy Timbaland produced “Tunnel Vision,” the raw soulful throwback “That Girl,” the Latin influenced track “Let the Groove In,” the minimalist track “Blue Ocean Floor,” and the sweet shout out to his wife “Mirrors.” The worst track on the album has to be “Don’t Hold the Wall.”

Even with its flaws “The 20/20 Experience” has a more mature and grown-up sound then Timberlake’s previous releases, manages to stay true to his artistic aesthetic and makes for an interesting listening experience that his longtime fans will love.

“The 20/20 Experience” is available in stores and on iTunes.

Originally published in City Times, April 2013.

‘Kawaii’ metal goes viral

When most people think of typical Japanese pop music they think of cute outfits and sugary sweet pop songs. At first glance, BABYMETAL fits that description perfectly. Then you put on their debut, self-titled album and boy, are you in for a surprise. The group’s sound is unlike anything you’ve ever heard, in the best possible way.

Not only has BABYMETAL been gaining worldwide recognition through their music videos on YouTube but they have even been featured on the Internet clip show “RightThis Minute” on CNN’s sister network HLN. They are also the youngest group to grace the stage at the world famous Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo.

BABYMETAL is made up of vocalists Su-metal, Moaetal, Yuimetal – real names Suzuka Nakamoto, Moa Kikuchi and Yui Mizuno respectively — and their supporting band Full Metal Band. The group started off a sub unit of the popular idol group Sakura Gakuin but quickly rose up as one of Japan’s best new artists.

The album is a mixture of varying genres including pop, rock, heavy metal, electronic dance music, industrial and symphonic death metal. On paper there is no way that these genres can work together and have it sound good. BABYMETAL mixes these genres to create a unique genre of their own, called “kawaii metal” or cute metal.

“Megitsune” (translation: female fox or vixen) is undoubtedly the best song on the album. It perfectly captures the aesthetic that is BABYMETAL, a killer mix of high-energy idol pop music and melodic power metal. Lyrically, it’s an analogy between the Japanese folklore that surround women in society today.

“The song relates women and foxes. People think that foxes deceive or disguise. People also think that women wear makeup to disguise themselves and people think ill of foxes as they disguise themselves,” said lead singer Su Metal in an interview on the Japanese TV show “Hot Wave.”

The vocals are another major focal point. It’s not everyday that you find a young vocalist like Su-metal with a strong vocal range. Her vocals combined with Moametal and Yuimetal’s idol vocal style and the growls and screams from the backing band make for an interesting listening experience.

The flow from track to track is seamless. Each song has its own unique sound, changing from genre to genre in an instant giving the listener a whole new experience with each passing song.

Highlights on the album include the cute hip-hop influenced “Ii ne!!,” the dark and heavy intro to the album “BABYMETAL DEATH,” the upbeat synth pop driven “Doki Doki Morning,” the high energy power pop influenced “Headbanger” and the melodic album closer “Ijime, Dame, Zettai.”

BABYMETAL’s self-titled debut is a testament of just how far you take music and experiment with it. Metal is versatile; it isn’t just brutal, hard in-your-face rhythms and melodic guitar riffs. It can be cute, fun and youthful too.

Originally published in City Times, March 2014.