Did you know that Lana Del Rey likes exceptionally long titles BY: Ian Sherry 4/23/23 On March 24, Lana Del Rey released Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard. Lana is one of the strangest figures in music today. She made waves upon entry into the market and sparked backlash over her apparent status as an industry plant. While this rubs some people the wrong way, her fans are some of the most dedicated in all of music. They feed into her ever-changing and intentionally unique persona - and vice versa. The result is a catalog mix of inconsistencies, originality and creativity. For me, this is an overall positive characteristic, but it does complicate any quality-based judgments of her work. I generally believe that in cases like this (where the artist is weird outside the music, but not necessarily in it), it’s best to separate their public personas from the music to avoid over or under-crediting them based on personal bias. To be clear, her personality enhances the tone of the album, something that many artists struggle with. However, I don’t often find a significant alteration to the music itself. Yes, she has evolved as an artist, but the stylistic shifts from album to album have never been groundbreaking to me. Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard is easily better than her previous two releases, and while it isn’t a huge creative step forward, it innovates enough to please her hungry audience, and it includes some of her cleanest, well-rounded tracks to date. Lana’s atmosphere of choice on Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard is one of melancholy and nostalgia from the perspective of a woman intent on letting her emotional trauma fester through 77 minutes of painful memories. Her storytelling is, in short, unique. She carefully constructs emotionally raw narratives that the listener can feel. They’re often conversational, a dialogue between her and another person, sometimes an old friend, family member, or romantic partner, sometimes herself, and sometimes nobody at all. Lana’s storytelling, combined with her polished voice and attitude of comfortable familiarity, paints blurry images that must be clear to somebody - but we are not somebody. This atmosphere Lana constructed is present on all of her best songs on the record. I believe “Sweet”, “Kintsugi”, and “Fingertips” are some of the best examples, but excluding a select few, you can feel it in every song. In the past, Lana has struggled to lock into one really strong sound. On Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard , she does. However, her ability to mix things up without departing from her theme or comfort zone is what elevates this album. On “A&W”, the lengthiest song of the album at 7:13, Lana recounts short memories of past experiences, how they’ve soured her outlook on love and herself, and how she’s now a less worthy romantic acquisition. It’s a dark look into the troubled mind of someone lacking self-esteem and their subsequent inability to deal with emotions or even basic facts in a positive way. However, this outstanding narrative aside, what stands out the most to me is Lana sounding like Lorde. The first 4 minutes are a steady instrumental performance from a piano and acoustic guitar fronted by Lana’s meandering vocals, but the last three minutes break into something entirely different: the production suddenly switches to electronic, with base hits and a drum machine coming into play along with a buzzy finish on Lana’s up-pace vocals. It is very reminiscent of Lorde’s 2013 hit album Pure Heroine . From the building up and stripping down of the production to Lana’s repetitive lyrics and layered vocals, the finish to “A&W” is a shocking and well-executed finish to an emotionally raw song. This isn’t the only instance of Lana dipping into outside influences on her 2023 project. For instance, “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing”, yes that’s the title, reminds me of Kate Bush in a way. But what impressed me, even more than her incorporation of different sounds, was her use of features. Jon Batiste’s feature on “Candy Necklace” is the album’s first. I love Batiste, so I was excited to see how they would come together on this song. At first I was disappointed, as he only plays piano behind her fairly repetitive vocals. But by my third listen I changed my mind. Batiste is a genius with his hands on a piano, and his performance provides a unique backing to a straightforward, but enjoyable performance. They don’t always blend seamlessly, but there are successful moments when Lana changes pace or volume in unison with Batiste’s piano runs, which adds a very unique quality to the song. “Paris, Texas” feat. SYML, “Let The Light In” feat. Father John Misty, and “Margaret” feat. Bleachers are three of the strongest songs on the album. “Paris, Texas” features a simple instrumental accompaniment from SYML. His feature doesn’t add to the song as noticeably as the Batiste feature does, but it is one of the most well-done songs in Lana’s discography and might be my favorite on the album. “Let The Light In” is the most traditional feature on the album. Lana and Father John Misty duet on the chorus, adding to the fullness of a touching song while still allowing Lana to carry the personal and nostalgic narrative on her own. “Margaret” is similar to “Let The Light In”, but with a more dynamic performance from Lana. Bleachers plays a very similar role to Father John Misty, helping on the chorus and providing a point of return in the chorus for Lana to take the verses to different places. She shows more range on this one song than the rest of the entire album, and the instrumental is much more upfront in certain parts of the mix, elevating the song above the surrounding tracks. Without Bleachers holding down the chorus and providing a more mellow vibe, the exceptional contrast of “Margaret” wouldn’t have been possible. Lana Del Rey was clearly in a creative place for this album. While her creativity manifests itself in the album's best moments, it’s also evident in what I consider to be her biggest mistakes. The first shortcoming, “Judah Smith Interlude”, is an instrumentally backed rant that forces the listener to analyze it for any possible meaning before inevitably giving up before the 4:37 is up. I don’t know what she was getting at here, but I do know it doesn’t fit. Just two tracks later the “Jon Batiste Interlude” is a much better version. His piano backs up a distorted recording of his voice with some Lana vocals in the background. It feels like much more of an instrumental interlude than “Judah Smith Interlude”, and it’s a welcome addition to the flow of the album, unlike its predecessor. The second shortcoming comes in the last three songs. To be fair, I like Lana’s decision to shift from a mostly live recorded instrumental album to a more electronically produced finish starting on “Fishtail”. There are great moments of vocal distortion and sonic layering, but “Peppers” is simply out of place. As the second-to-last track on the album, it has a completely different vibe in the wrong way. In a different context it is a good song, which is why I wish she had released it as a sort of red herring single. It has a catchy chorus and some classic late 2000s vocals, which is exactly why it makes no sense here. Although I like “Peppers” on its own, I am baffled by its inclusion on Lana’s otherwise cohesive and focused 2023 project. A final minor critique: Lana’s verses don’t alway distinguish themselves from one another or the chorus because of the understated delivery. But, this is more of a preference issue on my part and a stylistic choice on hers. This album, in my mind, is an anomaly. Lana is overly-focused on a singular theme, something that has hurt, even delegitimized, some of her previous work. But, this time it is done perfectly. Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard combines some of Lana’s best songs with her most beautiful moments ever. Without “Judah Smith Interlude '' and “Peppers”, this album really flirts with perfection. Ironically, Lana Del Rey, who is often considered a semi-niche artist, has delivered an album I would genuinely recommend to nearly any audience. A simple rating can’t encapsulate how much I like this album. Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard is an 8.75/10.

KID CUDI'S ENTERGALACTIC BY: Ian Sherry 10/12/22 Kid Cudi is a generational artist who has shaped the melodic hip-hop scene of today through his work in the trilogy of Man On The Moon albums and other releases over the last ten years. His newest project, Entergalactic, was released on September 30th in tandem with an animated Netflix series under the same name. The series has been received well by critics thus far while the album brings something different to his discography. The buildup for this dual release was immense. Cudi is an artist who has shaped generations of music listeners and musicians as well. He has saved lives with his relatable commentary on mental health struggles. The world’s number one Kid Cudi fan, Nino Dioso, can attest to this. In his words: “That man literally saved my life”, and “I would die for Scott Mescudi [Kid Cudi]”. Any artist with this kind of impact is bound to have heavily anticipated releases and therefore high expectations. I think Cudi delivered. This isn’t to say he delivered a perfect album – far from it. The high points are impressive, though nothing musically groundbreaking. However, there are some issues. The most glaring is the fact that it feels aimless. Cudi is known for his thematically brilliant albums. This album had a slightly different focus. The only real theme was love and its focus on supporting the animated series falls short. In order to be a chronologically strong album the listener has to understand the full narrative from start to finish. For example, Tyler The Creator’s 2019 experimental and genre-bending release Igor tells a complete story through lyrics and even the feel of the production. Entergalactic doesn’t come close to this level of coherency in its storyline. Kid Cudi also falls prey to the occasional boring song on this album. He has a tendency to overuse his trademarked moaning vocals and lock in on one flow for too long, sometimes an entire song. Both of these can be seen on the song “Can’t Shake Her”. It is repetitive and fails to ever hit the second level it needed to be a widely enjoyable song. It stays in a sort of melancholic rut for the duration of the track and wastes one of the two Ty Dolla $ign features which are at a premium. Songs like “Angel”, “My Drug”, and “New Mode”, all fall in the same category. They show bits of potential at times but ultimately fall flat. Kid Cudi never makes offensively bad songs like other artists, just boring ones. Once he hits his stride though, the good outweighs the bad. The good can be found consistently from the fifth to the tenth track with one or two before and after, however, tracks six through nine are perfect. “Travis Scott would not exist without Kid Cudi” -Nino Dioso. This is not an uncommon opinion, and there is no better example than “In Love”. It has the punchy drums, decisive autotune, rolling synths, and soaring choruses that are responsible for so many of Travis Scott’s hits, except Cudi does it better on this song. It is a fantastic example of how to properly use elements of pop music without selling out to a mainstream sound. Though Travis Scott can come close at times, nobody but Kid Cudi can make a song like this. In that same vein, “Willing To Trust” is another massive success. One of the two singles leading up to the release of Entergalactic, this track features the previously mentioned Ty Dolla $ign, who is known to be one of the best feature artists in the entire music industry. He delivers here. His relaxed yet vulnerable vocals blend perfectly with Cudi’s, and a couple well placed refrains pull the track together into a cohesive and complete Kid Cudi classic. As if these two emotional and vocally elite tracks weren’t enough, Cudi directly follows them with “Can’t Believe It”, featuring 2 Chainz. This song is a big change in tempo from the previous two. Though it poses a slight chronological discrepancy, I can’t complain. Its rolling baseline and higher-paced chorus are a nice change of pace and it leads perfectly into the next song. 2 Chainz delivers one of his signature playfully braggadocious verses to round out “Can’t Believe It”, and just like that it's ready to be sent into any era of Cudi’s music. The hot streak continues into “Livin’ My Truth”. This track, like many of the other successes on this album, feels like a newer spin on a classic Cudi formula. It is a perky beat with a catchy hook and poppy ad-libs. As “Livin My Truth” fades out to a spacy guitar riff, Cudi wraps up what I think might be his strongest four-song stretch on any of his albums. Entergalactic is by far Cudi’s best work of this young decade, though it may not stack up with the first two Man On The Moon albums or the 2018 collaborative album Kids See Ghosts. He put up some of his best solo work since 2010, even if the whole album doesn’t soar to those heights. To me, Entergalactic’s level of creativity falls in the same category as his 2013 project Indicud, but it is much more well-rounded and polished, not quite sinking to the level of Indicud’s weakest moments. Instead, Cudi’s worst efforts on this album just come across as conservative, inoffensive. He doesn’t run into any issues that he hasn’t encountered before other than the clumsy storyline. That said, it isn’t nearly as chronologically inept as fan-favorite albums such as Because The Internet by Childish Gambino. So, clearly, it is possible to make a classic album with a shaky storyline. I didn’t know what to expect heading into this album. I was almost afraid Cudi might start to regress after his 2020 project, which seemed to lack creativity and consistency. He proved me wrong and I’m glad. I didn’t provide a rating for my first review of the year. That is because, frankly, DJ Khaled’s God Did, didn’t deserve a rating. Cudi does. He overcame the oversights in his storyline, as well as some boring songs, by including several classic tracks of different types and a solid crop of songs to support them; all the while staying with himself, for better or for worse. Kid Cudi’s Entergalactic is a 6.25/10.

Eilish & Cameron in 3D BY: DAWSON SARCONA feat. ITS, 5/6/2026 Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) is the latest concert film/documentary from a cross-generational collaboration between Billie Eilish and directing legend James Cameron. While this movie falls into some of the concert movie genre’s formulaic pitfalls, it stands out as one of the most immersive and visually pleasing cinematized performances I've ever seen. Let’s begin with perhaps the most technically difficult portion of this movie, the cinematography. Coming into a world tour, months in, with the goal of branding new 3D camera technology is a tall task. Even more so when you consider that these cameras must be placed in functional areas that don't restrict the actual onstage performance but capture usable, visually pleasing footage. That being said, Cameron, Eilish, and their teams executed flawlessly. There are endless shots in this movie that felt like pieces of artwork. Further, what really impressed me was the ability to capture scale and immerse the audience. The mix of wide-angle, high-definition cameras with new “Lightstorm Vision” 3D technology made the concert feel physically impactful in theaters, and the clarity of the pictures captured via 3D was astounding to me. I have never once felt more immersed in a concert film, and at times, I forgot about the spectacle of watching “a 3D movie” as it rather tricked my brain into a more holistic concert viewing experience. All of the great visual direction and setups aside, there are some issues I have with this movie. I will say flatly, I am not typically a big fan of concert movies. They’re just not really my type of film and they often struggle to grab my attention. This movie follows the stereotypical format of all films in this genre, cutting between concert performance footage and behind-the-scenes documentary-style clips. My biggest issue is the way the behind-the-scenes footage was cut together. There seemed to be almost no pattern to it, and there were scenes intercut into the middle of the film that would have done much better setting the stage earlier in the movie (rather than an actual time lapse of stage set-up to begin the film). I also would have loved to get into the weeds of how this tour functions from the crew side. The crew has feelings too. As for the music, as a casual fan of Billie Eilish and her overall sound, I had a lot of fun seeing the hits performed in cool ways and learning some of her songs I hadn't heard before. I can say that I came out of this movie more of a fan of Eilish (and Cameron). That being said, my reviews mostly focus on movies, so I'll briefly hand you over to a writer with larger ears, Ian Sherry. ~~~ Billie Eilish’s minimal bandstand matched her minimalist pop sound. A large rectangle with two dugouts near center-stage housed a bassist, guitarist, drummer, and a pair of backup singing sisters. That, plus an omnipresent backtrack and a loop pedal for “when the party’s over,” was all Eilish needed to move her audience to screaming tears. She was vocally tight, physically fit, swagger-laced, and on a scripted mission to provide the audience with the ultimate “Billie Eilish” experience. - ITS ~~~ Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I had a lot of fun with it, aside from some confusing editing choices that might have hindered some of the momentum. For a concert movie, I thought it was one of the best I’d come across, and I know this will be a smash hit for all die-hard Billie Eilish fans. I’d give this movie a 6 out of 10 on the scale of regular movies. But, with a film genre like this, that's so vastly different from the story-based films I'm used to reviewing, I feel like a different scale is more suitable for this venture. So that being said, when compared to the other films from the concert movie category, my final review for this movie is a 9 out of 10, and I would highly recommend it to fans of Eilish, Cameron, and the genre at large.

LIL YACHTY'S LET'S START HERE BY: Ian Sherry 2/14/23 My go-to word when asked about Lil Yachty’s music has always been “fine”. That’s exactly what it is. To be fair, he does some things really well. His production is often compelling and he showcases versatility in his delivery when he is at his best. He also has been a part of a few fun pop crossovers. But, those songs are just that: fun. He falls victim to repetitive flows and occasionally leans too hard on autotune, but these problems aren’t unique. That is probably my biggest issue with Yachty: he is very talented in multiple facets of music-making, but he still makes mistakes that every other mediocre mainstream rapper does. So, as much as I like Yachty as a person, prior to this release, I would describe him simply as “fine”. The last few years have been interesting for Yachty. He’s gained a sizable media presence, mostly because he is a genuinely entertaining personality. He also has expanded musically. For example, in 2021, he decided to come to Detroit to make his album Michigan Boy Boat. The album featured some of the biggest artists in the Detroit scene -Tee Grizzley, Sada Baby, Babytron, YN Jay, RMC Mike, and Rio Da Young OG, to name a few- and his deep dive paid off in what felt like an authentic Detroit Rap project. As a Detroiter, I can attest that although for some people Detroit Rap can be an acquired taste, it is unique and hard to duplicate just for a given album. For the most part though, that is exactly what Yachty did, embracing the punchline-focused delivery that makes Michigan artists great. On top of his time in Michigan, over that last year or so, Yachty has reportedly been a part of studio sessions for several rap projects, and he’s written songs for other artists as well. He also released his single “Poland” recently which immediately blew up because of its show-stopping autotune, even though it was admittedly one-dimensional. There was some buzz over his upcoming album, but, even with the knowledge I had, I still wasn’t convinced it would be more than just a slight improvement over the previous Lil Boat albums. Simply put: I was wrong. Let’s Start Here is essentially an alt-rock/hip hop crossover, and it's good. The album could not have started out with a better track. “The BLACK seminole.” starts with heavy base and drum hits, immediately diving into the unique atmosphere of the album. Then, after the first verse, the guitar comes in. Not just a guitar riff or sample, a guitar solo. Not only does this speak to his immediate commitment to this new concept album, it shows his confidence in his musical expertise and versatility. After a somewhat lengthy tension release (something Yachty does well on this record), “the BLACK seminole.” finishes with the moaning vocals of Diana Gordon, who is brilliant throughout her multiple appearances. Once again relieving some tension, Yachty rolls right into the second track “the ride-”. It’s a relaxed, upbeat track that feels like Yachty’s version of what Steve Lacy does often on his 2022 album Gemini Rights. And, guess who is featured! Steve Lacy. Steve’s feature is simple and enjoyable, even though simplicity is not Yachty’s style on this album. Upon closer listen, “the ride-” has plenty of complexity to it. The baseline which roams throughout the song, keeps pace and bolsters the song’s personality. The third song “running out of time” is very easy to listen to, as is the fourth song “pRETTY” which features autotune reminiscent of “Poland” and a solid feature from Foushee. Unfortunately track five raises my first big issue with the album. “:(failure(:” is an interlude that consists of Yachty reflecting about his failures in a roundabout way. Here’s the thing: Yachty has a great personality. The problem is the placement. He led off the album with four great tracks but he then broke up the momentum with an interlude that could have slotted in anywhere. “THE zone” and “WE SAW THE SUN” come next. Both have their strengths. The first features, possibly, his best songwriting on the album, and the second includes more great autotune and a perfectly done mini-interlude. The interlude reminds me of some of Kendrick Lamar’s best. It simultaneously entertains and leads into the next song, as the bass kicks in towards the end for a seamless and satisfying transition. “drive ME crazy” and “IVE OFFICIALLY LOST VISION” mark the last two Diana Gordon features. Her impact on this album is probably greater than it appears on the surface. Her voice is a familiar mix between Alanis Morrisete and Tracy Chapman, and it adds completeness to the album by tying songs together stylistically, in a way miscellaneous features could not have. “sAy sOMETHINg” flirts with Yachty’s habitual repetitiveness but avoids it by pushing the limits of autotune and leaning into it heavily from the bridge throughout the conclusion of the song. “paint THE sky” opens with a muffled sample of the Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears”. Yachty does a mild stylistic Weeknd impersonation for the remainder of the song and executes it tastefully. “sHouLd i B” and “The Alchemist” combine for the weakest pair of songs on the album. Both are fairly repetitive, and though they stay within the niche of the rest of the album, they are missing the palpable creativity on every other song. “The Alchemist” has a nice finish that leads into the album’s final song. But aside from that, I could do without them, especially on such a strong and reasonably lengthy (57 minute) album. “REACH THE SUNSHINE” is the final song on the album. Although it doesn’t reach the heights of the opener, it brings in some of the same elevated vocals. Daniel Caesar has a great feature, adding to the atmosphere of the album’s conclusion with great vocals. Yachty decides to ride out the album on a wave of synths and sound effects, the same synths and sound effects that create the exotic sonic world that is Let’s Start Here. Lil Yachty’s Let’s Start Here is a musically alternative take on mainstream music industry style. It has its flaws, namely: the occasional grating vocal performance, incoherently high decibel combinations of instruments, and Yachty’s repetitive flow. But, it is a triumph nonetheless. Let’s Start Here sits in a strange yet surprisingly common set of circumstances, where the album can easily rub a given listener the wrong way. Yet, it would be a mistake to miss the genius behind it regardless of personal taste. Other albums that share these circumstances, especially within alternative hip-hop, are: Tyler The Creator’s Igor, Danny Brown’s Atrocity Expedition, JPEGMAFIA’s Veteran, even Death Grips’ The Money Store. If you’re familiar with those, I think Let’s Start Here is on its way to their level. Yachty is young, talented, and after this album it seems he’s poised to start making timeless albums. Lil Yachty’s Let’s Start Here is an 8.5/10.

Tabs On Tigers: Harris Oversleeps Alarm 8/1/2025 BY: IAN SHERRY The trade deadline was July 31st, and in a display of confident mediocrity, the Detroit Tigers addressed just one aspect of a battered playoff-bound roster. Tabs On Tigers Vol. 4 Well, it was bound to happen. Our first-place Tigers hit a rough patch. It has been 10 years since the Tigers had more than 2 all-star players, which makes it laughably ironic that the moment Detroit secured 7 (yes the number seven) all-stars, their skid began. Sparked by the consecutive shellings of Tigers rotational leaders Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize (both named all-stars), the team’s tailspin ran into the break and only picked up speed through a shoddy ASG showing and 3 series losses to begin the second half (2-9). This properly grateful fanbase was patient, though the grouchiness was palpable in public spaces across the city (especially National Coney Island). But soon, the elusive Kerry Carpenter returned to the lineup, Riley Greene shaved his beard, and the Tigers were back. Their dominant sweep of Arizona was fueled by nonstop touching of Greene’s new stache, a big game from the sorely missed Kerry Bonds, good team pitching, and a dazzling bat retrieval by the American League’s premier bat-boy, Frankie Boyle. Nothing more satisfying than a righted ship – a return to form. These Tigers have a secret formula. AJ Hinch’s mad-scientist managerial style took tireless, borderline excessive balancing across several years to take root, but they’re dug in now, and it’s the league’s puzzle to solve. Puzzle: Detroit’s roster continues to fit that description all too well. Upon the gracious return of Carpenter, Reese Olson’s season ended with a shoulder strain and Parker Meadows hit the IL with a hamstring injury (which again calls into question the necessity of the hamstring – domestic pigs come stringless and sustain far fewer injuries). To his credit, Scott Harris immediately addressed the Olson shaped hole in the starting rotation, squishing the 6’-4”, 29-year-old Chris Paddack into his place. A day before the trade deadline, the former Twin took the mound to seal a series sweep with 6 great innings where he showed off a Chris Fetter-friendly arsenal, filling the strike zone with a good changeup, some loopy curveballs, and a mid-90s fastball with a bit of run. However, the puzzle is not yet complete. Heading into the Trade Deadline, The Tigers had undeniable needs, and as the dust settled at 8 PM on July 31st, those needs are still standing. First, the average age of the Tigers’ starting lineup falls under 30, and their playoff experience, aside from Javy Baez, Gleyber Torres, and Matt Vierling, is limited to their brief visit last season. And, while the slugging took a much-needed jump this season, teamwide, the individual power threats are still limited in stock and consistency. The allegedly aggressive pursuit of Alex Bregman this past offseason proves an awareness of this issue, and the submissively-swept Diamondbacks had the solution. Over the past 5 years, few players have hit more home runs than the renowned yet underrated Eugenio Suarez. The former Tigers prospect would’ve been an iron-clad edition to the Tigers patchwork infield at the hot corner, but Scott Harris wasn’t able to move Detroit past the ‘name-in-a-hat-phase’ of trade discussions, and Suarez escaped to Seattle (along with my dreams of an additional slugger). Second, the Tigers feature zero 100+ MPH arms in their bullpen, and just one on the whole roster in the reigning Cy Young winner. In today’s MLB, particularly against amped-up playoff competition, well-located pitches and matchup-seeking only go so far against pro scouting reports and hitters who’ve faced 90+ MPH pitching since high school. Will Vest is the Tigers’ hardest chucker and the closest thing to a closer Hinch’s play-it-by-ear bullpen strategy will concede. Vest has generally delivered on his end of the bargain this season, but, his go-to flat-flying 97 MPH fastball is a caliber bellow the weaponry of a Major League closer. It’s not about velocity, it’s about stuff, and the Tigers bullpen doesn’t have much. Still. In a series of conservative moves, Harris compiled a scrapheap of arms who may not have earned roster spots on their respective franchises next season. Paul Sewald is a former SEA/ARI closer who found open pasture in Cleveland this season and settled comfortably on the IL at the age of 35, where he’ll remain for Detroit. Rafael Montero is a journeyman reliever, most recently of Atlanta, whose 5.40 is a reflection of his lacking control. The 11-year vet keeps securing roster spots because of his swing and miss upside, but has only mustered 2 good complete seasons to date. Charlie Morton is a well-respected and well-loved starter who, at the age of 41, has posted a meager 5.42 ERA so far this year. While this season hasn’t been his strongest by any means (due in large part to his playing for Baltimore), and the end may be near for Uncle Chuck, his is a lefty who may offer Hinch’s bullpen flexibility in the forecasted playoff run. Kyle Finnegan rounds out Detroit’s additions. The former Nationals closer is having the worst year of his career with a 4.38 ERA, and while his previous seasons imply the ability to perform closer to a 3.50 ERA, he’s always allowed an unintimidating .250 BAA – much too high for a closer. Scott Harris had a big opportunity last month: to not only strengthen his roster for a deep run this season but stamp his name on some of the Tigers’ recent success. He proved the opposite. AJ Hinch is the leader of this organization. His idiosyncratic strategies and ability to get the most out of a utility roster have defined this new brand of Tigers baseball, and while Harris has been a stellar collaborator, no-doubt, he’s failed to provide any significant improvements to this savantly reorganized roster. Significant improvements were proven available. Suarez could’ve taken a short walk from dugout to dugout. Instead, he’s trekking to Seattle. As far as big-name relievers go, Mason Miller, Ryan Helsley, Jhoan Duran, David Bednar, Camillo Doval, Dustin May, and Griffin Jax all moved to towns not named Detroit. The silver lining lies in the Tigers’ undamaged farm system, but the solvable challenges this young, injury-riddled squad may face in October outweigh that moral victory. If I had to sum up this Deadline performance in a word? Flop.

Quadeca Has Finally Arrived On I Didn’t Mean To Hau nt You BY: Ian Sherry 11/ 25/22 On November 10, 2022, Quadeca released his newest project I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You. Quadeca is 22 years old. In those 22 years, he has been very busy. He started a YouTube channel in 2012 which has accumulated 1.95 millions subscribers. In 2015 at age 15, he released his first album. His rapping until recently was a sort of side hobby, but in the last few years his focus has shifted to his music - so much so, that when you google Quadeca, aka. Benjamin Lasky, he is listed as an American rapper. His music has always been mildly compelling, clearly drawing from different inspirations at every turn. But ultimately, it wasn’t very good. He mostly employed basic rapping flows and his wordplay, though occasionally clever, was clunky and often interfered with the rhythm of his verses. It felt like his many ideas were constantly stepping over each other to the point that he failed to produce cohesive projects. Something changed in 2021. From Me To You marked Quadeca’s first push at a laser-focused album. Though it still had many of the same issues, the album featured more unique production, new delivery styles, and a more vulnerable approach that allowed him to focus on a more singular theme. It wasn’t impressive overall, but it was a big step in the right direction for Quadeca. That being said, coming into 2022, he had not proven himself. I heard murmurs heading into the rollout of I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You that Quadeca had stumbled into something. There were minimal details, but the consensus of those in-the-know was that something special was in the works. I was interested, but not convinced-- until I heard “born yesterday.” This first single of Quadeca’s 2022 project set the tone for what has become one of my favorite releases of the year. I’ll do my best to explain it, but the truth is you ought to hear it for yourself. “born yesterday” brings raw emotion that he has never communicated before and does it in an epic way. It tells the story of a broken love and it feels like catharsis. One that was long overdue. The pain in his voice is beautiful and it mixes perfectly with the production’s highs, lows and moments of chaos to create a strong candidate for song of the year. “sorry4dying” is a great introduction to the narrative and production style Quadeca chose for his album. It's followed by the second single “tell me a joke”, and the two combined set the tone perfectly for the rest of the record. Their scratchy production is very unique, at its best balancing minimalist styles with an organized clutter to create the intense environment in which Quadeca thrives. The anger and pain is evident in every lyric and his delivery only adds to it. It's easy to see what I mean on these first two songs, and it's clear he feels most comfortable when he is able to replicate this sound throughout the album. The three most unique songs on the album show up successively with “house settling”, “knots”, and then “fantasyworld”. While none of them are perfect, I am thrilled that he tried each of them, and in my opinion, this is the stretch that really cements this album. “house settling” includes the first and most important feature of the album in Danny Brown. The first half of the song is admittedly a little bit messy but its energy does the job of mimicking a moment of intense emotion which Danny Brown puts into words around the halfway mark. His verse is perfect. He shouts out an emotional yet targeted summary of his side of a breakup and provides a nice break from the continuous metaphor with his brutal honesty. It's messy but effective. “Knots” follows it with a continuation of the energy Danny Brown brought to the song before. It's essentially an electronic punk song. It's loud, incoherent, entertaining, and the furthest Quadeca has ever ventured from his comfort zone. The third member of this trilogy, “fantasyworld”, is a complete directional switch. After the sonic intensity of the previous songs, Quadeca returns with his slowest paced song of the album. It's long but doesn’t feel that way. He portrays his pain in the opposite light, instead of the vengeful attitude of the previous songs he just puts his vulnerability on display. It's touching, but more importantly, it is a blatant display of the versatility that I think could fuel a long career for Quadeca. Quadeca finishes the album perfectly. This is a difficult task, especially when trying to complete a narrative like he has on this record. With “fractions of infinity” he returns to a similar vein as “tell me a joke” except this time he has a choir. It has all the same minimalist production and a similar delivery, but this time, it has background vocals and a chorus reminiscent of some of Beach House’s best songs. It finishes with a stripped down instrumental break and a full feature from the Sunday Service Choir. “fractions of infinity” shows not only that Quadeca is comfortable collaborating with yet another style of musician(s), but that he is capable of making it feel like a Quadeca song. The album ends with “cassini’s division”. It is a spoken piece delivered over a collection of different sound bites that come together perfectly to create an eerie atmosphere in which Quadeca can leave his audience. Quadeca decided to finish I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You with nearly three minutes of static on the back end of “cassini’s division”. Though it's an artistic choice that may not please the ears, I think it's a perfect way to show how he felt cut short, and there’s no better way to complete an album than on the artist’s own terms. I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You is the story of a man who’s love meant so much to him that when it was taken, his life ended. The album is everything he left unsaid, told from the perspective of someone who ran out of time. Quadeca put everything into this album in an attempt to fully embody his character and it shows. He even has an hour long video to coincide with the album on his YouTube page if that interests you. I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You is admittedly messy at times, and Qudeca’s vocal performances and lyrical abilities show a clear room for improvement, but ultimately, it's a success. It is entirely written, produced, and performed by Quadeca and his hand selected features. To me, it’s evidence that hard work, talent, and passion are the key ingredients to any masterpiece. In this case it's Quadeca’s masterpiece. Quadeca’s I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You is a 7.75/10.

Hurry Up Tomorrow : Monday Is Looming By Ian Sherry 3/8/2025 The Weeknd released Hurry Up Tomorrow on January 31st, 2025. Abel Tesfaye searches for end-of-era-defining songs on what is rumored be the final album released under his present moniker. The Weeknd rose to prominence in the early stages of last decade when his trio of mixtapes, Trilogy , caught listeners’ ears with the shock-toxic club-pop he pioneered. Now, after releasing a decent debut, 2 consecutive smash hit records, and the first 2 records of his highly successful and allegedly final trilogy, the Toronto superstar entered this record evidently shorter on inspiration than he’s been in a long time. The reception of The Weeknd’s latest has been the increasingly typical mix of middling to high scores and mild to moderate enthusiasm. With the world’s top sound engineers at his disposal and having the knack for delivering sonically enticing soundscapes that he does, a certain level of critical success is all but guaranteed. The Weeknd will always provide a song like “Baptized In Fear” to scratch the hifi itch. But, if the repeated achievement of sonic standards is akin to success in your view, consider the remainder of this review a dissenting opinion. The Weeknd is out of gas. Fueled in his early days by the nightlife, Abel Tesfaye seemed to know his lifestyle wasn’t sustainable. So began his journey to pop stardom. His now 15-plus-year career has been marked time and time again by well-executed shifts in identity, ultimately bridging the gap between toxic trainwreck and cynical celebrity, but on Hurry Up Tomorrow he was too slow to pull the plug. The sound has reached its expiration date. The Weeknd’s identity, which was always a poignant feature of his artistry, is currently reduced almost singularly to his star status. The result is a hit-driven approach to the majority of tracks. With his mind perpetually set on the high point, the instrumentals have become electronic clouds of ambient ambiance. Take “Reflections Laughing.” The track begins with The Weeknd singing alongside a meek guitar playing no discernable melody, then with the help of a chipmunked sample hook and someone sitting on the bass button, he begins to build to the climax just 1 minute into the 4:51 song. He even drops an interlude into the middle of the song before a painfully lethargic Travis Scott feature accounts for the last 1:37. The song relies so heavily on audience buy-in that it is held together more by the robo-popstar personas of Tesfaye and Scott than any legitimate musical structure. “Wake Me Up” kicks off the album with artificially anthemic energy that is essentially typical for a record chock-full of musically hollow moments of sonic cinema. Because The Weeknd’s voice is so piercingly clear, it lacks texture. This can be positive when belting out pop choruses, clarity plays well to general audiences, but like any other form of delivery, there’s a time and a place. The wider variety of vocal stylings on his early mixtapes occasionally put The Weeknd in uncomfortable vocal pockets that were a more challenging match for his performative skillset. It was not uncommon to hear the strain in his delivery, but it only added to the already edgy sound. That edge is gone. “Timeless” is a jam and the perfect counter to last paragraph’s claim. Playboi Carti settles into the atmospheric Weeknd-style trap beat like he was born there and brings a couple flows along with him. The Weeknd steps up to the plate next and handles the later majority of the track like he can and should, effortlessly delivering multiple delivery styles, rhythms, and rhyme schemes. Unfortunately, while performances of that caliber aren’t singular to track 13 of the 22 total, the average vocal performance is much more pop formulaic - fine but nowhere near the displays of talent and skill he’s achieved. Instead, he gets outperformed by both Future and Lana Del Rey and milks a third of the songs for minutes longer than nature would’ve allowed. 22 songs is a somewhat ridiculous number, but exceptions can be made. That’s a status The Weeknd has certainly earned. Likewise, he’s earned a few electronic pop flops. Acts that categorically raise the bar in certain areas of evaluation can perhaps be allotted modified expectations in select areas that are less favorable given their skillset or style of undertaking. But this year, there were just too many lapses. I’d return to just 4 songs: the hifi success “Baptized In Fear” (7), the prompt, washy “Opening Night” (8), the aforementioned “Timeless” (8), and the a1 trap-pop “Niagara Falls” (10). There was a smattering of excellent transitions, and of course, the soundscapes were on point. Hurry Up Tomorrow is a 5.8 .

Tabs On Tigers 2/18/2025 BY: IAN SHERRY Forward: The Issue of Immediacy Greetings sports fans. You’ve heard about the Luka Doncic trade. The 25-year-old Slovenian star, formerly of the Dallas Mavericks, was traded to the Lakers within the first 24 hours of February for Hall of Fame Swiss cheese slice Anthony Davis and some change. Within those same 24 hours, like clockwork, Shams Charania’s early-bird tip was broadcasted to Americans nationwide via ESPN alert. The result, then, was a media-fueled and interpersonally experienced hellstorm of unkempt sporting enthusiasm and perplexed fandom that has yet to fully cease. The bone I’d like to briefly pick with the phenomenon above doesn’t concern the aforementioned hellstorm nor the reliability of the American sporting news system. It’s the pace. Mainstream sports journalism, because of its constant active, proactive, and reactive content stream, tends to skew in an emotional, argumentative direction that intertwines with fandom and biases to the point that the coverage becomes lost in the sport itself. With media being as conclusive and invasive as it is in today’s age, the lines between your couch at home and an pro locker room are more blurred than ever. While there certainly are benefits of this arrangement, I’ve been more aware of the dangers recently. I think it suffices to say, and this reflects across most genres of journalism to an extent, that the competitive rush to be lead opinion on a subject you’re passionate about can be blinding, and its tangible in the mosaic of bad takes that we’re meant to recognize as authority in today’s reportorial landscape. Resistance to that is The Culture Gyre’s angle indiscriminately. Now please join me in embarking on coverage of a subject I was born to discuss: Tigers Baseball. Tabs On Tigers Vol. 1 Alex Bregman’s 3-year 120-million-dollar contract became official Thursday, February 13th. In that moment he became the third highest annually paid position player, behind just Ohtani and Soto and tied with Judge, and in that same moment, a bullet was dodged in southeast Michigan. That came following the Tigers’ months-long pursuit of the veteran third baseman. General manager Scott Harris and the majority of the fanbase felt that Bregman would be a concrete solution for a currently uncertain foundation at the hot corner. Harris went as far as to offer a 5-year 170-million-dollar contract that most closely resembled the 7-year 200-million-dollar deal Bregman thought he was worth, but that was not to be. Now, the discussion surrounding Tigers team improvement has shifted to the trade market, but we’d like to offer a more complete synopsis of the most recent developments and current condition of this 2025 Tigers team. The most pressing concern of fans headed into free agency was the left side of the infield. While the starting pitching staff was alarmingly thin on paper last year, it’s hard to argue with the hodge-podged late-season results, plus having the reigning Cy Young offers a certain level of security. Harris addressed it anyhow with the thrifty signing of the veteran (and already inured) Alex Cobb, who’s quietly carried a sub-4 ERA for four consecutive years, and the recent readdition of the flourishing Jack Flaherty. Add a pair of bullpen arms, (one great and one solid) in Tommy Kahnle and John Brebbia, and an assortment of sub-30-year-old starting pitchers – plus Kenta Maeda - competing for a spot at the end of our rotation (2 until Cobb returns) and suddenly this pitching staff feels legit. But still, no signings on the left side. The left side of the infield – the carrot on a stick. Gleyber Torres used to play there, but not since the arrival of better fielding prospects on the Yankees infield. From there, the former 38-homerun all-star’s relationship with his former team began to wash away, and as the impact of that process began to show itself on the field over the past couple seasons, the stream carried him to Detroit. The Tigers front office locked him up for a season at $15k, just half the yearly offering we placed on Alex Bregman’s table. While Torres will have to earn his play in a platoon-heavy infield like he got tired of doing in New York and his overall game doesn’t compare to Boston’s most recent overspend, his offensive upside is that of a player with equivalent homerun power to Bregman. He is admittedly a notch below in most other offensive categories, but just one notch, and the optimist in you might expect a jump in plate discipline given his more veteran role on this team as well as an increase in RBI production assuming he finds himself more central in the Tigers lineup, which still boasts zero established major league left-side infielders. The Torres addition, of course, means a move for the Tigers’ long-term commitment Kolt Keith, but not to third base, his former position. Instead, Spencer Torkelson drew the short end of the stick this winter. The former number-one pick has had obvious struggles at the major league level, showing flashes at times on both sides of the ball, but ultimately scraping his way to replacement level over his first three seasons. With Jace Jung and Trey Sweeney being a part of the miracle Mudhen formula that propelled the Tigers to last year’s post-season and Matt Vierling working in at third, it seems Scott Harris decided the direst situation on the infield was at first base. At least, it was the most easily solvable. The fact is, problems remain unsolved headed into Spring Training, but Baez, McKinstry, Maeda, Hinch’s musical chairs batting order, the hitting coaches, and the away uniforms are for another day. For today, we have a minor leaguer, Trey Sweeney, attempting to prove himself a pro at shortstop. We have an ultra-scrappy yet questionable three-man platoon at third base among the switch-hitting Jung, versatile and athletic Vierling, and lefty-killer Ibanez. That goes with a right side manned by Torres and Keith (perhaps Torkelson against a lefty) to round out a blatantly poor defensive infield. Luckily, they’re backed up by what could prove to be an excellent outfield with premium left fielder Riley Greene, thoroughbred center fielder Parker Meadows, and the looming power threat, Kerry Carpenter, in right field. We also have a rotation book-ended by the lefty Cy Young Tarik Skubal and the potential of a Hinch chaosball platoon in the 5th slot, which will, in theory, allow Cobb to rehab and settle into the middle while Flaherty picks up where he left off and Reese Olsen continues to grow into one of the leagues most underrated young arms. We have a full bullpen and a decision to make at closer. We have a coach with the team’s faith. We have an active front office led by a diplomatic and measured GM with at least some of the owner’s attention and a willingness to trade. We have a lot to look forward to.

ENOUGH CHEER: ONE BRAVE MAN'S FIGHT AGAINST SEASONAL SONIC SUFFERING 12/25/23 BY: IAN SHERRY I am Scrooge (in the Groot voice). I don’t like Marvel movies, nor do I like Christmas music. One of the most hotly contested seasonal debates, I always take the side of grumpy opposition, and I have reasons. While I plan to lay them out in an organized fashion momentarily, I have one question for fans of this genre: Do you truly believe, in your merry little hearts, that ‘jingle bells’ are both a tolerable instrument and viable lyric? If so, you're wrong, but allow me to further provide reasons to shut off the radio. I’d like to begin with the disclaimer that there are some acceptable occasions. For instance, you can listen to Christmas music to put you in the so-called spirit within 72 hours of the big day , the same way you listen to a sweatily angsty R&B song to get you in a romantic mood or an mind-numbingly bland Mac DeMarco song to go to sleep. However, it is absolutely required that, somewhere in the back of your mind, you are open to the fact that a creatively negative adjective must accompany your cheer-filled opinion of a given song. Unfortunately, many ignore that requirement. Backtracking: Genres have a traceable and consistent formation process. I’d describe them as ⅓ influence, ⅓ innovation, and ⅓ capitalism. It starts with an artist or group of artists that are influenced by the sound around them. This could be what they’re raised on, what they come to love, or what they’ve grown to despise. As a result, they’re inspired to put their own spin on it, innovation. Once these two key ingredients come together and a new sound is born, capitalism takes care of the rest, packaging and selling their art to the public in droves until a new genre is born . It’s a symbiotic process that combines the beauty of creativity with the necessity of money. Christmas music is certainly a genre, however, it’s unique in its formation. Holidays are rooted in tradition. Tradition is a powerful binding factor. It brings together generations, races, nations; whatever the division, if there’s a shared tradition, there’s a bridge. Because it is such an obviously powerful social phenomenon, money-makers worldwide continually seek to take advantage through the most evident and reliable manifestation of our traditions: holidays. America (where I live, if that wasn’t evident) was founded, populated by, and constructed in favor of Christians. Christ-ians are very interested in Christ. So, in this rich Christian-empowered nation, Jesus Christ’s birthday has become more than a religious day or season. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. That goes particularly for those on the production end of our beloved nationwide money-making arrangement. Naturally this means money flowing into the pockets of the producers. That stretches beyond the small businesses, malls, even Amazon. Yes, it stretches to music. Hence Christmas music. Hence this article. Christmas music, as a genre, is ¾ capitalism and ¼ everything that’s important to music. Is it morbidly naive to assume all artists who have produced Christmas music are focused solely on selling records? Yes. But, even those whose focus lies elsewhere, like the religious aspect of the holiday or joy of the season, still feed 100% into the powers that be. When Donny Hathaway slipped “Th is Christmas” into his 1971 self-titled masterpiece that includes “A Song For You,” among other classic tracks, he probably didn't analyze its profit potential. However, 50 years later, it nearly doubled the streams of any other song on the album, by far holding the number on his Spotify page. Is it a good song? Sure, by Christmas standards. It flourishes big horns at the beginning, before settling into a loungey early 70s groove fronted by one of the purest vocalists of his era, and it’s supported by poppy drums and a piano solo. However, sitting at the end of one of the most emotionally raw, underrated, and era-defining albums of all time, the source of its popularity (October-December) is all too evident. I won’t pretend it's a realistic expectation that an artist’s best music would be Christmas songs, and it’s no mystery why those songs are so popular, but what bothers me most about Christmas music is that, the majority at least, is bad. Unlike my previous set of mostly surface level market-based connections, this phenomenon is more complicated. It all starts with identity. Good music, in every single case, is infused with the artist’s identity. The lack of identity deprives the art of something that, although it may be hard to describe, gives the audience something to attach to. A good, and incidentally similar, example is Christian rock or rap. The artist is so focused on passing the religious identity and putting their faith/faith figure in the forefront, it seems they forget to be themselves. The fact is, your art has to come from you, otherwise it isn’t yours, otherwise it’s not art. Jesus didn’t make “God’s Not Dead (Like A Lion)” by the Newsboys (the first Christian Rock song that popped up on Google). He might’ve made What’s Going On , but he didn’t make that . Pardon my digression. Because identity is so essential to art, artists who have it go further, even if that identity is the embodiment of the mainstream (Taylor Swift). However, the American Christmas has a very strong identity as well. It has its own themes, schemes, even classics. For an artist to enter this space, they often feel the weight of this identity, and the pressure to adopt it. A Christmas album by any artist, we can use Taylor Swift, is sure to have multiple if not all covers. The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2008) is four Christmas classics with two Swift originals mixed in. Her originals play as average 2000s Taylor Swift songs, basic structure with an emphasis on the vocals and lyrics that cover the different angles of a past relationship, but wait, It’s also Christmas! This is common in original Christmas songs, the artist attempts to bring Christmas into their world, their sound, but it often takes over and the focus of the song settles in no-(wo)man's-land. What interests me more is the covers. There have been a select group of original songs over the years that struck gold. Someone wrote “Jingle Bells”. That select group has been covered relentlessly and will continue to be every December forever. Very recently (January 2, 2023 ), some awfully wise i ndividual wrote that ‘When done well, cover artists pay homage to the original song while offering their own spin or twist.’ I believe the problem with Christmas covers is this: there are absolutely no faces or names to the original songs anymore and absolutely no pressure to do something significantly individualistic with your own version. Cher’s Christmas is doing quite well this year. She brought in Stevie Wonder, Darlene Love, Michael Bublé, Cyndi Lauper, and of course, Tyga. In a recent interview, she claimed that “It's not your mother’s Christmas album”. I listened (yes, I listened), and I can confirm that it is indeed your mother’s Christmas album. Not my mother, she has great taste. It’s a lot like any other Christmas album, lot’s of jingles, choruses, and opportunities for my cynical eyes to roll. The most unique thing about Cher’s album: the volume. She’s pretty loud. Despite mistakenly naming the album ‘Christmas,’ instead of ‘Cher’s Seasonal Exercise In Mediocrity,’ her fun little features and reliance on the classics will serve her mightily and buy her truckloads more of those sparkly jeans (edgy) she’s wearing on the cover. That’s the formula, plenty of covers, a few originals folks can skip, and an angle for sales. Cher knows it, her label does, the radio does, and if you’re honest, you do too. As I’ve alluded to (or maybe I hav en’t, I never read these things back), not all Christmas music is bad, the concept just sets its participants up for failure. Few can overcome it, but as I ease towards a conclusion allow me to be momentarily positive. I would be remisced (hunted down) if I didn’t bring up Mariah Carey. When you look up Carey on google, aka The Queen Of Christmas, snowflakes fall down your screen. No joke. She completely dominates the season, and I can’t lie, I do enjoy this part. Here’s why she’s been so successful. Mariah Carey came up in a unique pop landscape. As hip-hop and pop collided, lots of effort went into blurring the lines. This era birthed trend after trend. Saggy jeans were sported by rappers emphasizing their streetness and r&b divas (Carey included) straddling the lines of sexy and cool. With the trends came pressures to be adaptable. Carey’s adaptability led to hit after hit. R&b, pop, hip-hop features, you name it, she nailed it. However, Mariah Carey didn’t define the era, it defined her. She embodied it, she took its identity on as her own. So, come December every year, she does the same with Christmas, and she does it better than anyone else. Mariah Carey was the 2000s and Mariah Carey is Christmas. Unfortunately for this seasonal genre, nobody can quite do what Mariah Carey does. There are other success stories in which an artist successfully strikes a balance. The Temptations were able to apply enough of their own identity on “Silent Night” and Stevie Wonder’s “Someday At Christmas” is popular because of how it repackages his social justice lens to fit the holidays. But, at the end of the day, they can’t touch “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” or “Love’s In Need Of Love Today” . The balance isn’t sustainable. Here’s what I suggest in place of Christmas music: music at Christmas. Someone close to me insists that their favorite song is a Christmas song despite its complete lack of thematic relevance. I whole-heartedly agree. FKJ’s “Die With A Smile” is a perfect exercise in sonic minimalism. It mesmerizes the listener with a lonely guitar, the occasional snare, synths, and an amplified bass drum. The vocalist repeats one line a few times, and creates a warm environment that no audience could resist. It’s my favorite Genius page ever and I use it to tune my speakers, but what I love most about it is the tone and minimalism which allow it to mean whatever you want it to. To this person it means warmth, joy, and memories. It means Christmas. Merry Christmas! -The Culture Gy re CHALLENGE 1: Listen to this posthumous disasterpiece: "Silent Night" by DMX CHALLENGE 2: Listen to the worst song I've ever heard on WDET: "Shopping" by Joseph Washington Jr.

WALK WITH ME (2) 9/17/2023 BY: IAN SHERRY I Don’t Know If I’m A Dog There’s this rapper named Drake , and he’s reached my last nerve. I woke up this morning to finish off my Teezo Touchdown review. Unfortunately I was sidetracked by the news regarding Drake’s upcoming album For All The Dogs . A few weeks ago, the second most streamed Canadian artist of 2023 announced he’d be releasing his eighth studio album on September 22. The excitement was, of course, evident all over social media. Drake has remained in the center of the industry for a decade now. He has leveraged the perfect mixture of palatability, swagger, industry firepower and occasional skill to amass one of the most widespread and dedicated fan bases in the world. So, what does he give those fans? A delayed release. The new date: October 6. Well, at least this gives me room to knock out my top priority articles before deciding if I’ll give Drake the time of day. I recently wrote about the importance of album releases in my review of Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist ’s Voir Dire . Allow me a brief call-back (to this article ). Album releases are the trendiest way to energize a fanbase for new music. The rollout of a new music release should be tailored by the artist to appeal directly to their unique fanbase, and it should fulfill one objective: adding value to the fan’s experience. For a true artist, making art is the foremost pleasure, followed by setting the stage for its reception. Now let’s compare that approach to Drake’s For All The Dogs. I don’t hang out with Drake much these days, so from an outside perspective this doesn’t feel artistic. His line of reasoning, which is logistically reasonable, is that he needs to finish his tour with 21 Savage to allow more time in the studio. He doesn’t want to deliver a substandard product. My question is this: was he planning on releasing a substandard product on September 7 when he announced the original date? I’m reviewing Teezo Touchdown’s debut on my other browser tab. I could expect this kind of indecisiveness from him because he’s never released a full length album before. But this is Drake’s 8th studio album. Number eight. Drake is the most popular rapper in the world, and he certainly knows what he’s doing. If he really thought the original date would work, he wasn’t considering quality. If he didn’t think it would work, he just crossed a line by stirring up the public and his die-hard fan base, only to postpone for the sake of grabbing some headlines and building more suspense. By manipulating his audience in this way Drake has violated the purpose of the album rollout. Either way, Drake knows better. Now that my bone’s picked, I'd like to address the music. I’ve been labeled by some as a ‘Drake hater’. I disagree. I think he just does a lot of things I don’t like. In fact, I’m hoping and praying that this album will be great - I want to be won over. Drake’s albums often feel rushed or bloated, which is understandable when you’re under pressure to satisfy an audience so large and hungry. The last Drake album I enjoyed was 2017’s More Life , but I drew the line at 2021’s Certified Lover Boy . First of all, what kind of a title is that? The cover wasn’t any better, and shockingly, neither was the music. Too many features, too little effort. Drake was looking to do big numbers, and he did. He always can, from his Virgil Abloh-dedicated record that he dropped unannounced, to the 21 Savage collab that he’s touring on right now. What I need from him this year is to lock in, ignore the hype, forget about the charts, and make great music. His lead single doesn't give me a lot of hope: “Slime You Out” features SZA and is a typically unconvincing and formulaic performance from a rapper who knows he’s safe. However, there’s still a lot to be excited about for this record. For me, it starts on Travis Scott ’s Utopia . “Meltdown” is one of the better songs on Scott’s latest record, due in large part to Drake’s verse. He delivers it in an aggressive whisper, providing a convincing level of intensity that we’ve been missing for years. But his audience deserves more. I also need more L il Yachty production, he’s on fire in the studio these days, and he’s a member of the production crew on For All The Dogs . If you’re familiar with Yachty’s 2023 album, or his growing list of production credits, you should be excited like me. For All The Dogs should also benefit from the relationship between Drake and Nicki Minaj . The long time friends and collaborators have produced some of their catchiest work together: “Only” , “Truffle Butter” , and “Make Me Proud” come to mind. Drake’s reunion with Travis Scott went very well, I expect his reunion with Nicki Minaj to hit hard as well. I expect a good album, I expect fans to receive it on the 6th of October, and I expect Drake’s son’s drawing skills to take leaps and bounds forward in the upcoming years. (For All The Dogs cover art by Adonis Graham) The stage is set - it just keeps moving. Stay tuned for more insights next month… Cover art for Drake's upcoming album For All The Dogs , by Adonis Graham

GOD DID NOT WANT THIS BY: Ian Sherry 9/19/22 DJ Khaled is one of the most polarizing figures in the music industry. His albums often read more like who's who in popular music than a regular old track list. His newest album God Did is no different. A music tycoon known for producing hits with established stars and dominating the billboard, DJ Khaled is a master of marketing if nothing else. He makes this clear in his newest album which has produced 10 songs that graced the billboard hot 100 including the 47 second intro from Drake. Big numbers and recognition on the billboard unfortunately don’t guarantee good music. In this case they certainly do not. DJ Khaled has a habit of ruining songs that had a real chance of being good with repetition and drawn out verses which he doesn’t bother getting trimmed. Perhaps it is because he relies so heavily on features and is hesitant to step into the other artists’ world. A reliance that is completely unnecessary by the way. It is possible to make a great album as a producer without overloading on features. Kenny Beats did so already this year with Louie, an album I highly recommend. Speaking of good beats DJ Khaled showcases his best one on the second track of the album. The title track “GOD DID” includes an interesting beat and a great verse from Rick Ross. Unfortunately, it also includes an extra thirty seconds of Jay Z which feels purely unnecessary. Perhaps the greatest torture on this song though, is the well executed feature from John Legend at the end. DJ Khaled didn’t stop there though. He also includes the track “KEEP GOING” which includes several decent verses from Lil Durk, 21 Savage, and Roddy Rich respectively. Unfortunately it also includes a repetitive beat that demands the same flow from all three rappers and by the time the third feature rolls around it is unbearable. These songs were close to being good, in a way that's sadder than a completely awful song because the potential is obvious. That being said, it only gets worse from here. There are plenty of songs on this album that aren’t worth listening to, in fact it's the majority, but there are also songs that are ludacris in general. The first is “USE THIS GOSPEL” which features Kanye West and Eminem. This song was released in 2019 on Kanye West’s hip hop gospel fusion album Jesus Is King, which received mixed reviews at best. Admittedly the original release of this song was excellent. It had a feature from one of the greatest rap duos of all time in Clipse and a sultry saxophone feature from Kenny G. This re-release is bad in comparison. It has a painful feature from Eminem and anyone listening, having heard the original, would be tempted to listen to the first one. The most annoying part is DJ Khaled had no hand in the original song, essentially defeating the reasoning for its new version. Kanye himself has released songs over beats he made for other artists following the original release, but at least he made the original beat. There is also a postmortem song from Juice WRLD called “Juice WRLD DID”. The entire song is Juice WRLD and it feels more like DJ Khaled flexing the fact that he has a song with the beloved SoundCloud sensation who passed away in 2019. Suffice to say there's a reason this song wasn't released while Juice was alive. The song is lyrically weak and the hook is repeated far too often because the verses themselves are short and lacking. If it weren’t for the tone of Juice’s voice it would be impossible to listen to. There are a few highlights on the album. There better be with this much talent. DJ Khaled has so many connections that he often slips into different styles of production within hip hop. “THESE STREETS KNOW MY NAME” is well executed even if it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It has a beat that continually switches up and exciting features from Jamaican artists Bounty Killer, Skillibeng, Sizzla, Buju Banton, and Capleton. “IT AIN'T SAFE” is another good song. In this case he imitates the current southern rap style with hints of modern Detroit production. Nardo Whick and Kodak Black have solid features and the song glides as well as it can considering the style of production and lyrical flows that the pair of Florida rappers chose. “BEAUTIFUL” featuring Future and SZA and “BILLS PAID” featuring Latto and City Girls are probably the most palatable songs on the album. They don’t do anything groundbreaking but they are solid and I wouldn’t be surprised if they achieve the biggest streaming numbers in the long run. The first benefits from a smooth feature from Future and a perfect chorus from SZA. The second includes fun verses from Latto and City Girls over an upbeat soul sample from Eddie Kendricks. Overall this album is another bloated and overdone example of the pop rap DJ Khaled is able to reproduce every single time. Of course it has its high points, because of the sheer amount of talent, but it is ultimately dragged down by the repetition, ridiculous and cringy themes, and lack of musical creativity. I am sure it will make lots of money and be heard around the US for the next six months but it is important to separate the idea of commercial success from the essential resource that is good music. Someday I hope DJ Khaled can make this distinction. 1/10

Eilish & Cameron in 3D BY: DAWSON SARCONA feat. ITS, 5/6/2026 Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) is the latest concert film/documentary from a cross-generational collaboration between Billie Eilish and directing legend James Cameron. While this movie falls into some of the concert movie genre’s formulaic pitfalls, it stands out as one of the most immersive and visually pleasing cinematized performances I've ever seen. Let’s begin with perhaps the most technically difficult portion of this movie, the cinematography. Coming into a world tour, months in, with the goal of branding new 3D camera technology is a tall task. Even more so when you consider that these cameras must be placed in functional areas that don't restrict the actual onstage performance but capture usable, visually pleasing footage. That being said, Cameron, Eilish, and their teams executed flawlessly. There are endless shots in this movie that felt like pieces of artwork. Further, what really impressed me was the ability to capture scale and immerse the audience. The mix of wide-angle, high-definition cameras with new “Lightstorm Vision” 3D technology made the concert feel physically impactful in theaters, and the clarity of the pictures captured via 3D was astounding to me. I have never once felt more immersed in a concert film, and at times, I forgot about the spectacle of watching “a 3D movie” as it rather tricked my brain into a more holistic concert viewing experience. All of the great visual direction and setups aside, there are some issues I have with this movie. I will say flatly, I am not typically a big fan of concert movies. They’re just not really my type of film and they often struggle to grab my attention. This movie follows the stereotypical format of all films in this genre, cutting between concert performance footage and behind-the-scenes documentary-style clips. My biggest issue is the way the behind-the-scenes footage was cut together. There seemed to be almost no pattern to it, and there were scenes intercut into the middle of the film that would have done much better setting the stage earlier in the movie (rather than an actual time lapse of stage set-up to begin the film). I also would have loved to get into the weeds of how this tour functions from the crew side. The crew has feelings too. As for the music, as a casual fan of Billie Eilish and her overall sound, I had a lot of fun seeing the hits performed in cool ways and learning some of her songs I hadn't heard before. I can say that I came out of this movie more of a fan of Eilish (and Cameron). That being said, my reviews mostly focus on movies, so I'll briefly hand you over to a writer with larger ears, Ian Sherry. ~~~ Billie Eilish’s minimal bandstand matched her minimalist pop sound. A large rectangle with two dugouts near center-stage housed a bassist, guitarist, drummer, and a pair of backup singing sisters. That, plus an omnipresent backtrack and a loop pedal for “when the party’s over,” was all Eilish needed to move her audience to screaming tears. She was vocally tight, physically fit, swagger-laced, and on a scripted mission to provide the audience with the ultimate “Billie Eilish” experience. - ITS ~~~ Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I had a lot of fun with it, aside from some confusing editing choices that might have hindered some of the momentum. For a concert movie, I thought it was one of the best I’d come across, and I know this will be a smash hit for all die-hard Billie Eilish fans. I’d give this movie a 6 out of 10 on the scale of regular movies. But, with a film genre like this, that's so vastly different from the story-based films I'm used to reviewing, I feel like a different scale is more suitable for this venture. So that being said, when compared to the other films from the concert movie category, my final review for this movie is a 9 out of 10, and I would highly recommend it to fans of Eilish, Cameron, and the genre at large.