Not in love with don toliver’s love sick

By Ayushi Kashyap Staf Writer

Skyrocketing to fame with his unique vocals, singer and rapper Caleb Zackery Toliver, popularly known as Don Toliver, released his third album Love Sick on February 24 following two past stellar albums, Life of a DON and Heaven or Hell. e work was touted as a futuristic R&B and soul work with multiple big-name features including partner Kali Uchis, Future, and Justin Bieber. While Toliver carries out the futuristic R&B feeling throughout the album, most tracks feature forgettable and synthetic sounds accompanied by equally forgettable and surface-level lyrics. With mid-highs and low-lows, Toliver fails to capitalize on his growing momentum in the music industry.

Toliver opens strongly with the album’s title track “LoveSickness,” a mumbling amalgamation of the pitfalls of a girl being in love with a boy that she doesn’t really know. Lyrics such as “Falling in love / Is the one fall you don’t get up from / Guess we’re love sick” wrap up the song and are perhaps some of the most profound lyrics in the entire album, setting a whimsical and unimaginative tone for future tracks.

Following the album’s strong opener, James Blake sings on the next track “Let Her Go (feat. James Blake).” With heavier drums to start out the song and lighthearted nature, the track is one of the highlights of the album as a whole. Blake’s crooning vocals mesh surprisingly well with Toliver’s sharper insertions creating an immersive feeling with several layered tracks.

However, Toliver delivers a disappointing performance on one of his most anticipated tracks of the album, collaborating with partner Kali Uchis. Despite his obvious synergy with

Uchis on “4 Me (feat. Kali Uchis),” the track takes repetitive lyrics and combines them with a piece that does not challenge their potential together at all. Uchis belts out “If I could be your girl” a little more than 5 times throughout the track, while Toliver responds with “You’re the only girl for me” over and over again backed up by soft instrumentals that only highlight how monotonous the resounding experience is.

Toliver’s lackluster lyrics barely communicate anything past supercial wording showcasing his infamous broken heart, on-brand with his past projects. His rich voice has so much more promise to go further with his projects, especially considering the large backing he has with singer and songwriter Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack Records record label. However, with his current projects, he struggles to step out of the shadow of his past projects and move forward.

As an easily digestible listen, Love Sick’s redeeming quality is Toliver’s unique vocals, but they are ultimately ruined by the over-addition of synthesizers and autotune. His voice steals the show with its uniqueness, but past that, his music is bland and forgettable.

Grade: C+

Cocaine bear’s highs are few and far between

By Vedesh Kodnani Staf Writer

A social media phenomenon, Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear was met with substantial anticipation based on its trailers and title. Although the lm undoubtedly delivers on its promise of drug-fueled violence, a cluttered plot and lack of real depth leave it feeling spread thin throughout repetitive, albeit funny, sequences. Very loosely based on the true story of a bear ingesting cocaine in the 1980s, Cocaine Bear is an interpretation of what screenwriter Jimmy Warden “wish[es] actually happened after the bear did all that cocaine,” according to Variety. In reality, after consuming 75 pounds of the drug, the bear overdosed and died. But the lm intentionally chooses to not take itself seriously, with each character’s death more ridiculous than the last.

Similar to real-life events, the movie opens with drug smuggler Andrew ornton (Matthew Rhys) dropping a shipment of cocaine over the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in Georgia before falling to his death. Meanwhile, a 500-pound black bear consumes some of the cocaine and begins its rampage. roughout the lm, hikers, environmentalists, and rangers are gruesomely attacked all while Sari (Keri Russell) looks for her missing daughter Dee Dee (Brooklyn Prince) in the forest.

In Cocaine Bear, horror and comedy complement one another e ectively. is is not only due to the absurdity of the lm’s premise, but also because every person on screen is wholly dedicated to the joke. ere is an overt sense that the cast was having an absolute blast while lming in scenes like the stando between Detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.). From conceited and inexperienced Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) to sleazy drug kingpin grandfather Sid (Ray Liotta), characters and costumes are exaggerated, playing into common tropes.

Unfortunately, because characters are reduced to a good laugh or scare, viewers have no reason to feel attached to them. e somewhat humorous and creative ways characters are killed underline that they are not meant to be complex. Particular segments such as the car chase involving paramedics are thrilling in their own right, but the surrounding storylines are dull and do nothing to drive the plot forward. While attempting to weave many di erent subplots together as more characters like European hikers Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra) and Olaf (Kristofer Hivju) cross paths with delinquent teens, the movie becomes increasingly convoluted. Its punchline, a bear on cocaine, is monotonously drawn out over the 95-minute runtime, making a boring and repetitive lm.

Cocaine Bear does not pretend to be an Oscar-contender or even based in reality. If it has one thing going for it, the lm is initially entertaining, playing a delicate balancing act between humor and horror. Still, the lack of substance and repetition leave much to be desired from its amusing premise.

Grade: C-