NOSTALGIC NEWS 5 YE A R S A G O
1 0 YE A R S A G O
LEMONADE Becky Davies
THOR Louise Chase
To say that Lemonade was anything other than revolutionary feels like an understatement. This album, released with no prior notice, was accompanied by a sixty-five minute film divided into 11 chapters: Intuition”, “Denial”, “Anger”, “Apathy”, “Emptiness”, “Accountability”, “Reformation”, “Forgiveness”, “Resurrection”, “Hope”, and “Redemption”. It encompasses themes of feminism, race, family and infidelity - with the whole world infamously becoming detectives and trying to work out who exactly ‘Becky with the good hair’ is, and what happened between her and Jay-Z - and ranges across a multitude of genres from country to gospel to R&B. Lemonade has gone down in history as Beyoncé’s best album for many reasons, and it isn’t difficult to see why. From her incredibly empowering collaborations such as ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself ’ with Jack White and ‘Freedom’ featuring Kendrick Lamar to her impeccable vocals on heartfelt ballads like ‘Pray You Catch Me’, ‘All Night Long’ and ‘Sandcastles’, this album embodies strength. It also cements Beyonce’s position as one of the greatest innovators in the music industry and is credited as reviving the album format after such a long time being dominated by singles and streaming, as well as for reinventing the themes of storytelling and breakups in modern music.
Back when the MCU was still in its infancy, and before we had The Avengers as one collaborating team, we had Asgard. In 2011, the first of the Thor films (directed in this instance by Kenneth Branagh) was released, introducing Chris Hemsworth as the titular God of Thunder, and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki amongst others. “Magic is just science that we don’t understand yet” - and just how right they were. Thor saw the Marvel Cinematic Universe take a leap into the realm of gods and far away from Billionaires and World War Two. As with Guardians of the Galaxy in Phase Two, Thor changed the status quo of the MCU. Ten years and still credit Thor as the film which got me into the franchise, and as the last character origin movie before Avengers Assemble in 2012, it placed the final building blocks in place for one of the most talked-about cinematic pieces that year.
15 YEARS AGO WHO THE F*** ARE THE ARCTIC MONKEYS Georgie Holmes
Arctic Monkeys are most well known for iconic singles like ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ and popular tracks from AM (2013). However, their second EP Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys is something which every AM fan should listen to, as with just 5 tracks it satisfies every component of the band’s talent.‘Despair In the Department Lounge’ is the slowest of the EP, capturing the softness of Alex Turner’s voice, which is followed by equally soothing ‘No Buses’. The percussion in this track is perfect, and the song concludes in the most typical Arctic Monkeys fashion. Although each song is flawless, undoubtedly the best on the EP is the title track, which is impossible to listen to on any quiet volume. The guitar riffs which open are instantly intriguing, but it is the song’s break down that follows Turner’s call “bring on the backlash” which is what makes Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys so memorable.
Images courtesy of Parkwood/Columbia/HBO and IMDb 05
