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Posts tagged as “music”

(Archive December 2016) December Music Preview

By editorialteam on September 4, 2024

By Jason Greenough | Web\Social Media Editor

With September, October, and November bringing some of the most anticipated albums of the year, December comes in a bit thin with the amount of music coming out, but the content is nothing to scoff at. With the majority of the releases coming on December 2nd, There is a good mix of hip-hop and and rock to make everyone happy.

With Comedian and Actor Donald Glover’s hip-hop alter ego, Childish Gambino’s Awaken, My Love! When it lands on the shelves, it will mark the first full-length release from Gambino since 2013’s Gold-Certified record Because The Internet. While his last effort was certified gold earlier this year, the overall reception of the album by critics such as Pitchfork and Spin were less than favorable.  read more

(Archive November 2016) Local Benefit Music Concert

By editorialteam on September 4, 2024

To Raise Awareness and Empower Women

By Byron Harris | Observer Contributor

Sylvie Abate is a local musician out of Fitchburg. Along with being a multi-talented musician, Abate also shares a passion for helping others and creating a stronger community. Abate will be putting together a benefit music concert to celebrate and empower women.

Abate is managing the Out of the Fog Festival to raise awareness for domestic and relationship abuse. The term Out of the Fog come from patterns of behavior associated with emotional abuse which promote Fear, Obligation, or Guilt (F.O.G). The Out of the Fog Festival will be an all-inclusive, feminist fundraising event for musicians, friends, families, and supporters of all genders.  read more

(Archive May 2016) “Workin’ eight days a week…”

By editorialteam on September 3, 2024

Song: Eight Days a Week/
Artist: The Beatles/
Writers: Lennon-McCartney/
Album: Beatles for Sale/
Release Date: 4 December, 1964

“Eight Days a Week” is one of my favorite Beatles songs during their “pre-Rubber Soul” era. It maintains a somewhat-unique composition and a possible double-meaning.

On the album of origin, Beatles for Sale, it is the first song on the B-Side, or back, of the vinyl long-play, alongside seven other original compositions, and pitted against six covers. This may have been done to illustrate just how exhausted the band was after being in the spotlight for all of 1964. read more

(Archive April 2016) Shorthand 03: The Beatles & Beach Boys Edition

By editorialteam on August 28, 2024

“Eight Days a Week”
Lennon-McCartney – Beatles for Sale – 1964.12.04

It’s definitely a good song, even if the band isn’t too fond of it. It’s the ‘dark-horse’ of The Beatles’ fourth UK album, with its brighter composition in comparison to the rest of the original compositions’ darker overtones, as well as the possible double-meanings that are present. All of that makes this one a favorite of mine. [8/10]

“A Day in the Life (Anthology Edit)”
Lennon-McCartney – Anthology 2 – 1996.03.18 read more

(Archive April 2016) Shorthand 02: Coming Attractions Edition

By editorialteam on August 28, 2024

“Do You Like Worms”
B. Wilson-Parks – The Smile Sessions – 2011.10.31 [iTunes]/2011.11.01 [Worldwide]

Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ original mostly-instrumental, when presented in this collection, seems to still be in its unfinished condition. While the individual pieces by themselves sound good, they do not really benefit each other as a comprehensive composition, especially owing to the fact that few of the couplets that Parks wrote for this song were known to have been recorded. It would later be completed as “Roll Plymouth Rock” for Wilson’s SMiLE 2004 album, but even that version has its own share of problems. [4/10] read more

(Archive April 2016) “Probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever listened to.”

By editorialteam on August 28, 2024

By Patrick J. Miller | Observer Contributor

Title: Our Sweet Love/
Artist: The Beach Boys/
Writers: Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson & Al Jardine/
Album: Sunflower/
Release: 31 August, 1970

The Beach Boys are a group of five, maybe six young and cute Californians composed of brothers Brian, Carl & Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, childhood friend Al Jardine, and later on, Bruce Johnson. Together, these six lads would compose many high-hitting compositions that would end up as hit singles [California Girls, Good Vibrations]. They would be best known for their brilliant harmonies and their work leading up to their monumental “Pet Sounds” album. read more

(Archive April 2016) “An interesting mess.”

By editorialteam on August 28, 2024

By Patrick J. Miller | Observer Contributor

Song: A Day in the Life [Anthology Version]/
Artist: The Beatles/
Writer: Lennon-McCartney/
Album: Anthology 2/
Release: 18 March, 1996/
Recorded: 19-20 January & 10 February, 1967/
Label: Apple

Anthology 2 is the second of three compilation albums dedicated to Beatles outtakes. They mainly hosted a large set of studio outtakes, home demos, and even live performances that were either bootlegged in large numbers before, or making their debut here.

`Overall, I felt that the compilations helped tell the story of the band’s rise to the top, and their descent towards their last few days. However, my main problem with this set is its gratuitous need to combine certain outtakes in order to form a “complete” product, especially when this uses otherwise unavailable outtakes.

“A Day in the Life”, an already great song that would really benefit from a progressive look at outtake-wise (one outtake at a time), it is instead represented by a smörgåsbord of Takes, numbered 1, 2, 6 & an orchestra outtake, all compiled to form a “complete” version. However, I can’t really complain too much, because both Take 2 and the orchestra piece is available, consumer-wise, for the first time. read more

(Archive April 2016) “Rock, rock, roll Plymouth rock, roll over”

By editorialteam on August 28, 2024

By Patrick J. Miller | Observer Contributor

Song: Do You Like Worms/
Artist: The Beach Boys/
Writers: Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks/
Album: The Smile Sessions/
Release: 31 October, 2011

I promise you that not every Beach Boys review that I’ll do first will originate from the now-”finished” SMiLE project, but this song has been stuck at the back of my head for some time, that I had to give it a closer look.

Do You Like Worms, better known since its reinvention in 2004 as “Roll Plymouth Rock,” is another song that was considered for the SMiLE album. It was meant to be a lyrical journey across the United States of America, from coast to coast by means of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion, but in its original 1966-1967 state, it feels more like a journey half-recorded. read more

(Archive April 2016) Mackelmore’s This Unruly Mess I’ve Made Review

By editorialteam on August 28, 2024

By Jason Greenough | Arts & Entertainment Editor

This Unruly Mess I’ve Made.
Macklemore.com

They’ve done it again. My God, the Seattle Hip-Hop superstar duo known as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have done it again.

With the February release of sophomore effort This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, Macklemore has broken down more barriers in not just Hip-Hop as a genre of music, but one of social and political awareness, as well. From the opening horns of Light Tunnels, the Seattle native begins to share a chronicle of success following his debut smash-hit album, The Heist. In the four years since that release, there have been many dips and turns in the road for Macklemore, and he says that to you, upfront and unfiltered. Unprecedented fame and notoriety, the ups and downs of that fame, a relapse in sobriety, learning he was going to be a Father, and being cited and approached for political and social advice are all covered and discussed in this new record, and quite artistically I might add. read more

(Archive March 2016) “Mother should I trust the government?”

By editorialteam on August 23, 2024

Song: Mother/
Artist: Pink Floyd/
Writers: Roger Waters/
Album: The Wall/
Release: 30 November, 1979/

The problem with reviewing these kinds of tracks is that, in a narrative, there are going to be multiple parts that aren’t going to make sense in context, which is usually delivered at the beginning of the story. On the Wall, “In the Flesh?” starts the story going and “The Thin Ice and Another Brick in the Wall Parts 1 & 2” continue building onto the narrative. Mother is the first track on the album that I really feel that the overall story really took off. read more