Major Album Releases In The Fourth Quarter, 2013: Reflektor -Arcade Fire October 29th, 2013 Artpop -Lady Gaga November 11th, 2013 Live on the BBC Vol. 2 -The Beatles November 11th, 2013 •New -Paul McCartney •Beyoncé -Beyoncé •Matangl -M.I.A. •Because The Internet QUADROPHONIC NEWS •Shangri La -Jake Bugg -Childish Gambino Quadrophonic News December 2013 Issue 7 In This Month’s Issue: Female Artists: A Reflection There's a lot to be said for any vocalist with a truly amazing • Album Reviews: Reflektor, Yeezus, Centipede Hz, voice, but there's undeniably something special about a woman with a MMLP2, Live Through This, Bleach, Night Time, powerful voice and monumental skill in writing. So in this article I hope My Time to pay tribute to some of the best female vocalists/song writers out there. It's a big category so, unfortunately I won't be able to get to every one • Insight On Famous Female Artists I’d like to, but I hope to cover three of my favorites. • December/January Music Event Calendar First up is Patty Griffin. Patty is a powerful song writer from Old Town, Maine. her musical style is hard to pin down but it lands somewhere between folk and rock. Her voice is one of incredible range, Arcade Fire’s Reflektor Review her voice can convey every emotion you can imagine, softly or loudly, Achtung Baby. OK Computer. Sound of Silver. sweetly or harshly, and this amazing voice is accompanied by her Elephant. All of these albums are special. You remember indomitable talent for song writing. Her lyrics are powerful and clever, the first time you listened to each. I remember 10 years ago and it's all topped off by her skill as both a guitarist and pianist. For a when the White Stripes' classic Elephant came out and my good sample of her style I recommend her 1998 album "Flaming Red" cousin played "Hardest Button to Button" for me. I was so in which she covers topics such as rape, death, love, promiscuity, taken by the simplistic, yet so powerful bass line, hearing suicide and abusive relationships all with a few (Continued On Page 3) Jack White’s screeching lyrics and my whole perception of music changed. Listening to Achtung Baby and hearing "Zoo Station" for the first time after worshipping classic U2 Photo Of The Month: Tame Impala Live albums War and The Joshua Tree, and hearing that unexpected electronic roar from The Edge, forever cementing its place in the creation of alternative music. I remember the first time I heard “All My Friends,” the hook of “If I could see all my friends tonight” has been stuck in my head since. OK Computer was the album that made Radiohead who they are, one of the great bands of all time. And now, we can all add an album to these immortal few. Arcade Fire, the most important rock band of the last 10 years, has released their best album to date, Reflektor, and it is as good as any since Sound of Silver was released in 2007. (Continued On Page 4) Hole Has Got Credit In The Strait World: A Animal Collective: The Nature Of Their Beast Review Of Live Through This Fans questioned the Collective's recent album You don’t have to listen closely to hear the Centipede Hz (2012): “the songwriting here can't always revolution in Courtney Love’s voice as she belts out lyrics keep pace amid all the percussive clatter and synth-noise like “Was she asking for it? Was she asking nice?” on Live splatter jacked up in the mix.” But how else could Animal Through This (1994), Hole’s sophomore album, but if you do, Collective have possibly followed the acclaimed pop album you will find an entire world full of pain, beauty, and that is Merriwether Post Pavillion? The band's accessibility aggression. The magnum opus of Hole is such an accurate reached a high in MPP and so did its popularity. A situation representation of Love’s life that listening to it almost feels as like this tends to be destructive to a band's future. So, they if you are invading some sort of private space, like you have followed a pop album with an industrialized, schizophrenic stumbled upon her diary that is too compelling to even think one, a brave move. This move is partially responsible for the about putting down. negative feed back Centipede Hz has received; there is not something there for single-track consumers. Even as a super fan, I feel that the new album fell short in how listenable it is. Albums like Feels and Strawberry Jam are of the nature where one can press play on the first track and not pause until the album is over—all this without becoming just one muddle of sound. The popular Merriwether Post Pavillion as well is listenable all the way through, but the album stands off from the rest in that many of its tracks could succeed as pop songs separate from the whole. So, applying these critiques to Centipede Hz, I would say that there is a great lack in listenability as an entire album, as well as in the strength of each song alone. The band over-compensated for this lack by stringing together each track with segments of radio fuzz and/or tweaked oscillations; the result was a sloppy-joe. I have listened to a solid group of songs off the Courtney Love’s voice can go from a raw scream album countless times, but not in the (Continued On Page 5) (“You should learn how to say NO” in “Asking For It”) to a soft whisper declaring, “When they get what they want, then MMLP2: Best Hip Hop Album Of 2013? they never want it again” in less than a second. No matter Eminem has released another genius album, this one how quiet her voice gets, however, she always manages to titled MMLP2. The album starts off with the track “Bad rattle your bones with her words; with every song, it feels Guy,” which sounds like a continuation of one of his earlier more and more as if she is the only one in the world who can hits, “Stan.” This time “Bad Guy” goes into the mind of sing the lyrics with such conviction. Her place as lead singer Stan's brother, Matthew. Eminem explains that “Bad Guy” is and guitarist of Hole is obvious; each word pulls the listener the intro to the whole album. “Bad Guy” has a theatrical and deeper and deeper into her framework, past the baby-doll comical vibe to it, which is what makes listening to dresses and smeared bright red lipstick and into the unfiltered Eminem's works enjoyable. Eminem on the second track, realness that no manufactured-by-a-corporation-for-the- titled “Parking Lot,” takes a creative turn and turns this track masses album could ever come close to producing. Even into a comedic skit. One of my least favorite songs on the though this album is a more polished version of the ugly MMLP2 album is “So Much Better,” Eminem seems to reality Hole presents in their first release, Pretty on the Inside, degrade women very often on this track. Some of the lyrics this does not make it any less effective. on this track include "aaahhh, I hope you hear this song and The autobiographical lyricism of Live Through This go into a cardiac arrest. My life'd be so much better if you is striking and apparent, from the anthem of insecurity just." Eminem basically just explained that his life would be “Plump” (which, like all of the songs, is full of unforgettable better if this woman died. Another misogynistic lyric from quips such as “Like a liar at a witch trial, you look good for “So Much Better” would be "I got 99 problems and a bitch your age”) to “Rock Star”, a supposed summary of Courtney ain't one, She's all 99 of 'em; I need a machine gun. I'll take Love’s feelings towards to Olympia, Washington music 'em all out.” He continues talking about his joy for the death scene. This isn’t to say that the instrumentals on the album of women. Although I'm pretty sure Eminem doesn't mean it, don’t deserve any credit; they (Continued On Page 5) it's still (Continued On Page 5) PAGE 2 QUADROPHONIC NEWS 2 PAGE Kanye West’s Yeezus Review Bleach: Never Going To Fade Away Yeezus is Kanye West’s new controversial album that Nirvana’s Bleach (1989) was the first album that the was released on June 18th. Kanye fans are split on this album. band released, and it is often disregarded as just that: an attempt So, without further ado, lets begin. at dipping their toes into the music world before coming out with The first track “On Sight” is a personal favorite of their most recognized album a few years later in 1991, mine, and a good beginning of the album. However, the lyrics Nevermind. However, their freshman album has, essentially, what of this song are downright stupid, especially for Kanye, the man all their others have, yet with a more simplistic honesty who wrote College Dropout. The ending seemed a bit rushed unaffected by being the focus of the public eye: tracks that have and premature. found a happy medium of slow and fast paces, lyrics that will “Black Skinhead”, in my opinion, is the highlight of bounce around your mind days after you listen to them, value in this album.