Juliana Covino
Staff Writer
After time away from the spotlight country singer Carrie Underwood resurfaces with her sixth and most personal album so far.
The country pop star is back with her newest studio album, Cry Pretty, making history as the first woman to bring four country albums to Billboard's Top 200 Chart. Within the 13-song collection, Underwood shares songs about private battles (“Drinking Alone”), emotional wreckage (“Love Wins”), and upbeat sing-along tracks (“Southbound”). Underwood also teamed up with Ludacris to co-write a new song, "The Champion", which opened the Super Bowl on Feb. 4, 2018.
The album was released on Sept. 14 and surpassed Cardi B’s album, Invasion of Privacy, in sales which launched at No. 1 with 255,000 units. The album streams on all music services and can buy be bought for $10.82 or single tracks for $1.29.
Underwood says to her fans that, "The title refers to when emotions take over and you just can’t hold them back...It really speaks to a lot of things that have happened in the past year and I hope when you hear it, you can relate those feelings to those times in your life."
Underwood has been through a lot the past year receiving more than 40 stitches on her face after an accident outside her house. She has been quite silent on social media for the majority of the year until she announced the new album on her Instagram in April.
The Cry Pretty Tour 360 starts in Spring 2019 and will kick off on May 1 in Greensboro, NC, and will play 55 arenas across the U.S. and Canada. Tickets for the Cry Pretty Tour can be found on numerous ticket websites or Carrie Underwood’s official website.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Quavo’s solo album was a let down
Dan Flavin, Nate Donohoe, and Roberto Escamilla
Staff Writers
Member of popular rap group Migos, Quavo, takes matters in his own hands and goes solo with his new album Quavo Huncho.
After an underwhelming release of Culture II nine months earlier that didn’t receive good feedback, Quavo is back. He started off strong with “Biggest Alley Oop” as the intro track. The track had a well produced unorthodox beat that set the album off on a strong foot. The other noticeable tracks were, “Rerun (feat. Travis Scott)” and “Lose It (feat. Lil Baby).” “Rerun” had an ominous vibe that has become a trademark for Travis. They used an immense amount of auto-tune, but they used it well. It didn’t sound like they needed it. It sounded like they used it as a tool to expand the sound. The track with “Lil Baby” was an okay track until “Lil Baby” came in and elevated the song to be one of the highlights of the album.
The album is far from perfect. Most tracks just sounded average, if not worse. Most songs in the middle of the project just sounded like he copy pasted the same line over and over again. The unique sound that the Migos started, largely in part to Quavo, was lost and he just sounded like a mediocre artist with a good production team. He sounded like he didn’t try to make good music he tried to make good money. If that was his goal he achieved it. Quavo Huncho sold 99,000 copies and charted second on the Billboard Top 100 list.
Quavo’s solo debut Quavo Huncho was a bottom tier album of the year. Other than some highlight features that carried their songs it wasn’t good. A repetitive flow and lack of creativity made the album feel flat. The album receives a 4/10.
Staff Writers
Member of popular rap group Migos, Quavo, takes matters in his own hands and goes solo with his new album Quavo Huncho.
After an underwhelming release of Culture II nine months earlier that didn’t receive good feedback, Quavo is back. He started off strong with “Biggest Alley Oop” as the intro track. The track had a well produced unorthodox beat that set the album off on a strong foot. The other noticeable tracks were, “Rerun (feat. Travis Scott)” and “Lose It (feat. Lil Baby).” “Rerun” had an ominous vibe that has become a trademark for Travis. They used an immense amount of auto-tune, but they used it well. It didn’t sound like they needed it. It sounded like they used it as a tool to expand the sound. The track with “Lil Baby” was an okay track until “Lil Baby” came in and elevated the song to be one of the highlights of the album.
The album is far from perfect. Most tracks just sounded average, if not worse. Most songs in the middle of the project just sounded like he copy pasted the same line over and over again. The unique sound that the Migos started, largely in part to Quavo, was lost and he just sounded like a mediocre artist with a good production team. He sounded like he didn’t try to make good music he tried to make good money. If that was his goal he achieved it. Quavo Huncho sold 99,000 copies and charted second on the Billboard Top 100 list.
Quavo’s solo debut Quavo Huncho was a bottom tier album of the year. Other than some highlight features that carried their songs it wasn’t good. A repetitive flow and lack of creativity made the album feel flat. The album receives a 4/10.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Banksy painting shredded after being sold for 1.4 million
Caroline Donado
Editor-in-Chief
The street artist identified exclusively by his pseudonym, Banksy, is known internationally for his spray-painted social commentaries. One of his most famous works depicts a small girl reaching towards a heart-shaped balloon--a painting that was auctioned for $l.4 million on Oct. 5 at Sotheby’s in London, England. As the winning bid was confirmed, the painting proceeded to shred itself to pieces.
Banksy, short after, posted a video on Instagram, beginning with the caption: “A few years ago I secretly built a shredder into a painting in case it was ever put up for auction...” He shows himself constructing the shredder and the crowd’s reaction when the painting self-destructed. Sotheby’s has denied any involvement despite some believing that it was a promotional stunt.
There were also questions whether Banksy himself was present since his Instagram video is taken by an individual in the crowd. After the painted was shredded, some witnessed a man with sunglasses and a hat leaving the premises. However, the speculation that the artist was at the auction remains a mystery.
Alex Branczik, the senior director of Sotheby’s, stated that this was “the first time in auction history that a work of art automatically shredded itself after coming under the hammer.” This is argued to be a piece of art history and will cause this painting and all of Banksy’s future paintings to increase in value. Although the artwork remains shredded, the buyer has decided to go through with their purchase for the offered $1.4 million.
Editor-in-Chief
The street artist identified exclusively by his pseudonym, Banksy, is known internationally for his spray-painted social commentaries. One of his most famous works depicts a small girl reaching towards a heart-shaped balloon--a painting that was auctioned for $l.4 million on Oct. 5 at Sotheby’s in London, England. As the winning bid was confirmed, the painting proceeded to shred itself to pieces.
Banksy, short after, posted a video on Instagram, beginning with the caption: “A few years ago I secretly built a shredder into a painting in case it was ever put up for auction...” He shows himself constructing the shredder and the crowd’s reaction when the painting self-destructed. Sotheby’s has denied any involvement despite some believing that it was a promotional stunt.
There were also questions whether Banksy himself was present since his Instagram video is taken by an individual in the crowd. After the painted was shredded, some witnessed a man with sunglasses and a hat leaving the premises. However, the speculation that the artist was at the auction remains a mystery.
Alex Branczik, the senior director of Sotheby’s, stated that this was “the first time in auction history that a work of art automatically shredded itself after coming under the hammer.” This is argued to be a piece of art history and will cause this painting and all of Banksy’s future paintings to increase in value. Although the artwork remains shredded, the buyer has decided to go through with their purchase for the offered $1.4 million.
Friday, October 12, 2018
‘Drip Harder’ Review: The long-awaited album from two artists just getting started
Dan Flavin, Roberto Escamilla, Nate Donohoe
Staff Writers
The long-anticipated collaborative album between rappers Lil Baby and Gunna, Drip Harder, released on Oct. 10 and it is worth the listen.
The positives of the album undoubtedly outweigh the negatives. Highlight tracks like “Business is Business” and “I Am” have a bouncy beat and smooth flow that we have all come to love about the duo. The lead single “Drip Too Hard”, released a month before the full album. It is a song of the year candidate because of its catchy chorus and how easy it is to put on repeat. The duo pulled the biggest feature in the rap game with Drake on the outro track “Never Recover” produced by legend Tay Keith.
Of course there are negative that come with any album. “Drip Harder’s” downfall was production. The mixing on the album was not good with tracks sounding muddy or too quiet. “Never Recover”, for example, was well mixed during Drake's verse, but when Gunna started it felt like something in the song was clashing and the vocals no longer sounded clear. The bottom tier tracks were “Deep End” and “Style Stealer.” Both tracks felt forced and off from the usual style.
Drip Harder Sold 130k charting fourth on the billboard top 100. Compared to other albums that dropped on the same day like Mudboy by Seck Wes(29k) it did really well.
Overall, the album was great, most songs were above average, but there was not a song to push it over the edge. The top songs, “I Am,” “Business and Business,” and “Never Recover (feat. Drake)” make one forget about most of the project’s negatives. The collaboration of Gunna and Lil Baby is just getting started and is exciting to see how they can improve, but for now their first collab will receive a 8/10.
Staff Writers
The long-anticipated collaborative album between rappers Lil Baby and Gunna, Drip Harder, released on Oct. 10 and it is worth the listen.
The positives of the album undoubtedly outweigh the negatives. Highlight tracks like “Business is Business” and “I Am” have a bouncy beat and smooth flow that we have all come to love about the duo. The lead single “Drip Too Hard”, released a month before the full album. It is a song of the year candidate because of its catchy chorus and how easy it is to put on repeat. The duo pulled the biggest feature in the rap game with Drake on the outro track “Never Recover” produced by legend Tay Keith.
Of course there are negative that come with any album. “Drip Harder’s” downfall was production. The mixing on the album was not good with tracks sounding muddy or too quiet. “Never Recover”, for example, was well mixed during Drake's verse, but when Gunna started it felt like something in the song was clashing and the vocals no longer sounded clear. The bottom tier tracks were “Deep End” and “Style Stealer.” Both tracks felt forced and off from the usual style.
Drip Harder Sold 130k charting fourth on the billboard top 100. Compared to other albums that dropped on the same day like Mudboy by Seck Wes(29k) it did really well.
Overall, the album was great, most songs were above average, but there was not a song to push it over the edge. The top songs, “I Am,” “Business and Business,” and “Never Recover (feat. Drake)” make one forget about most of the project’s negatives. The collaboration of Gunna and Lil Baby is just getting started and is exciting to see how they can improve, but for now their first collab will receive a 8/10.
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