Tag Archives: Jared Murray

A&E

Rockers, pop stars fight for album of the year

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By Jared Murray

This year’s Album of the Year category is looking to be a battle between pop stars and alternative rockers, with the soulful Adele, bombastic Lady Gaga, synth-pop queen Rihanna, veteran rockers the Foo Fighters and the effortlessly cool Bruno Mars all battling for the coveted golden gramophone.

Adele’s nomination for her album 21 is a no brainer due to its unprecedented popularity. While popularity alone is enough to win a nomination sometimes, the sheer power and emotiveness of her voice helped to cement her nomination for this prestigious award. The album itself is a sometimes dark and brooding lament towards past love. Powerful ballads, thunderous break-up tunes and soulful vocals and arrangements make the album a refreshing a much needed break from the pop fodder found on the radio right now. Along with being the biggest selling album word-wide this past year, the album has received mostly positive reviews further strengthening Adele’s grip on pop music and chances of winning the award this year.

Chart-topper Bruno Mars’ album Doo-Wops & Hooligans also finds itself nominated for Album of the Year at this year’s ceremonies. The album has produced three top 10 singles including “Grenade,” “Just The Way You Are” and “The Lazy Song.” The album has received mixed reviews, but that has not stopped teenage girls from buying the singles by the truckload. The album mainly consists of bouncy and sometimes goofy pop songs with reggae and soul influences.

Although not the most acclaimed album of the year, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way certainly got people talking. The 14-track album can be an exhausting listen; Gaga manages to showcase almost every style of dance music imaginable all in the first half of the album, with all the songs being bombastic in their own right. It is when Gaga slows it down and allows both her and the listener time to breath that the album truly shines and allows her to prove she does have the substance to back up her style. The album was positively received by most critics.

The Foo Fighters have had a successful Grammy season, having garnered six Grammy award nominations this year for the album Wasting Light. The album was recorded without the use of a modern recording studio, but rather in frontman Dave Grohl’s garage. Many critics cited this as a daring but positive choice in the recording of the album. Sonically the album finds the band exploring a more raw and heavy sound found in their earlier work, along with more personal lyrics. 3 singles have been released from the album, with the lead single “Rope” one of two songs to debut at the top of the Rock Charts.

Another pop star receiving a best album nomination is Rihanna for her sixth studio album Loud. The album was better received by most critics than most of her earlier work, and spawned three number one singles, “Only Girl In The World,” “What’s My Name?” and “S&M.” The album is standard Rihanna; well-produced synthpop coupled with raunchy lyrics give most the album its substance with the occasional ballad to remind people that she can indeed sing.      

Who Will Win: Adele

Who Should Win: Adele

Dark Horse: Foo Fighters

A&E

Chart-toppers versus Indie rockers: 2012 Grammy Predictions

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By Jared Murray 

This year’s Record of the Year category is shaping up to be a battle royal between chart topping artists and indie folk bands. The coveted Record of the Year award goes to the producers of the song, whereas the Song of the Year award goes to the songwriters. Nominees for this award include Adele, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Mumford and Sons and Bon Iver.

Record of the Year marks one of three awards Adele’s gospel-tinged thumper “Rolling in the Deep” has accrued at this year’s ceremonies. The song opens with just Adele and a guitar, but soon transforms into a piano-driven, hand clap heavy musical behemoth. This, however, is all background to Adele’s powerful, scorn-ridden vocals, which add a sense of calamity to this excellent track.

Also nominated is Bruno Mars’ number one single “Grenade.” Lyrically, the song tells the tale of unrequited love between Mars and a lady friend, whom he is willing to risk his life for. Sonically, the song features strained, heartbroken vocals from Mars and pulsating synths that add to the emotional strain.

Bon Iver’s “Holocene,” the second single from his Grammy nominated album Bon Iver, Bon Iver, is one of the more indie songs to be nominated in this category. The song opens with guitar on a simple melody and is soon joined by Bon Iver’s idyllic falsetto.  Two minutes in and the song has grown into a wall of sonic bliss, with Iver’s vocals being supported by a march-like drum pattern and more guitars.

While not as popular as their breakout single “Little Lion Man,” “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons managed to nab a nomination for Record of the Year. The song showcases a horn solo that floats over the cascading background of bluegrass-style guitars and lead singer Marcus Mumford’s melancholy vocals.

Last and certainly least to be nominated is Katy Perry’s third hit single “Firework.”  The song starts off with Perry singing lyrics about feeling bad about oneself, but by the chorus the song has morphed into a pulsating, very danceable self-empowerment anthem tailer-made for teenage girls who enjoy singing into their hairbrushes while jumping on their Justin Bieber bedspreads.

My Predictions:

Who will win: Adele

Who should win: Adele

Dark Horse: Bon Iver

Features

Facebook stalking still worries students

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By Gwen P. Galeza and Jared Murray

Going through all of your status updates and looking through all of your pictures is not just for crazy relatives anymore. With people’s personal information just a click away, many people take this casual hobby too far, wasting hours on other’s profiles. The idea of getting to know someone without actually talking appeals to this generation’s socially awkward teenage population.

The thought of one’s pictures, statuses and information being readily available to complete strangers does not unnerve as many FC students as one would think.

Many FC students are taking advantage of some of the more lax security settings on the peoples profiles, whether to just waste time or mock.

“When you talk about it at school like you go ‘I saw that on Facebook’ then that’s when it becomes weird,” said junior Stephen Schraffenberger.

Even when students are confronted with the realization of being stalked, some do not bother changing their security settings.

“If I knew the person stalking me I wouldn’t change my settings, but if it was some creepy guy I definitely would,” said senior Holly Cobb.

Despite having various views on Facebook stalking itself, the students interviewed generally agreed on when Facebook stalking becomes too far.

Sophomore Savannah O’Brien said that when they start “liking” all your picures, commenting on a wall post, a status and messaging you that’s when it goes too far.

For those who are frightened by the thought of unfamiliar persons being able to stalk you for their own viewing pleasure, Facebook does offer security options to make you invisible to other Facebook users.

“If I knew someone was stalking [me] I’d probably log off and never get back on again,” said senior Nicollette Westbay.

A&E

Rocking to the beat: 2012 Best Dance/Electronica Album predictions

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By Jared Murray

This year’s nominations for the February 12th Grammys’  Best Dance/Electronica Album showcase the many equally
wonderful variations found in dance music today: Cut Copy’s 80’s tinged summer-sounding goodness;
the relentless and sometimes aggressive house music of Deadmau5; Robyn’s forward-thinking, sassy
dancepop; the bleeping dubstep of Skrillex; and the Eurodance stylings of David Guetta.

Having recently becoming popular riding the wave of dubstep, electronic dance music with
overwhelming bass and tight percussion samples, Skrillex may be the first to come to mind after hearing
all of the nominees. The nine-song EP consist of well-produced and always energetic dubstep with influences from house music. Despite the music producer’s large teenage fan base, Skrillex’s EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites remains an unlikely winner of the coveted gramophone.

French music producer David Guetta is no stranger to the Grammy Awards, having won two
Grammys in the past two years. His two-disc album Nothing But the Beat serves up a heaping portion of
Top 40-friendly hits. Being primarily a music producer, Guetta leaves the singing to more capable people,
with the vocals being contributed by artists such as Nicki Minaj, Sia, Will.i.am and more.

While certainly no media darlings, Australian electronic band Cut Copy has been getting lots of
positive attention for their latest album Zonoscope. The 11-track album showcases the band’s newfound
sound; the guitar work often found in their last album In Ghost Colors has been replaced almost entirely
with handclaps and 80’s style synthesizers, and only shows up to add to the texture of a song.

Deadmau5 fifth studio album 4×4=12 continues his trend of hard hitting house music fused with
electronics and synthesizers. The album is mostly instrumental, leaving Deadmau5’s melodies and beats
to do all of the talking. However exciting that may sound, Deadmau5’s real appeal lies in his energetic
and light-filled live shows.

Swedish pop-sensation Robyn finished off her critically acclaimed series of Body Talk mini-
albums with Body Talk, Pt. 3. The songs found off the 5-song EP exhibit a mildly futuristic tone in
regards to dancepop. Robyn’s expertly controlled and always emotional vocals compliment the
sometimes icy and mechanical sounding Eurodance and help to emphasize the occasional melancholy
lyrics.

My predictions:

Who should win: Body Talk, Pt. 3 by Robyn

Dark horse: Zonoscope by Cut Copy

Who will probably win: Nothing But the Beat by David Guetta

A&E, Alyssa Book

Winter Fantasia puts on final show Thursday

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By Alyssa Book and Jared Murray

Winter Fantasia is an annual performance put on by all the musical art departments at FC. On Thursday, Dec. 8, students will showcase their talents by performing classic holiday pieces such as “Sleigh Ride” along with some more Christmas songs with a modern twist. This is a joint performance which includes the orchestra, band, choir, and handbells.

Winter Fantasia has taken a lot of preparation and freshman look at this as new and exciting, but still a challenge. Freshman Madison Eickholtz said she is eager to see what Winter Fantasia is like. She added lots of practicing and getting into the Christmas spirit is helping preparing her for today and Thursday. Eickholtz is a first violinist in the symphony orchestra.

This program is a culmination of all the musical departments at FC. Each program gets their own time on stage to perform several songs. At the end of the program all of the groups join together on stage and perform classics such as “White Christmas” and “Do You Hear What I Hear.”

Students use this performance to share in the holiday spirit with their community. This is an annual showcase that has freshmen through seniors eager to show talent to friends in family.

Senior Robin Fearheiley plays the bassoon in the symphony orchestra, concert band along with playing the saxophone in the Jeff sax choir. She likes Winter Fantasia because she gets the chance to appreciate the other musical groups at FC.

Orchestra director Doug Elmore, band director Harold Yankey and chorus/handbells director Angela Hampton are the excavators of this ambitious yet rewarding concert. They have prepared their students to give great performance; Thursday audiences will get to experience the show for themselves.

Both concerts will take place in the FC auditorium at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday night.