BROOKE THAMES, A&E Writer
Albums: “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” – Florence + The Machine
Florence Welsh is back! The prodigal Indie queen has finally returned with a single and a full-fledged album available for pre-order. Florence + The Machine’s new album titled “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” is scheduled to release first thing this summer on June 1. Until then, all of the fans who have missed the “Shake It Out” singer’s wonderful wailing can enjoy her single, “What Kind of Man”, via Spotify and iTunes.
Albums: “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” – Drake
On Friday Feb. 13, Drake (or Wheelchair Jimmy from “Degrassi” as I will always know him) dropped another compilation of songs titled “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”. The album contains 17 tracks featuring the likes of Lil Wayne asd PARTYNEXTDOOR. Although Jimmy is one my all-time favorite characters on “Degrassi”, Drake is not a character that I particularly like. However, if you’re a fan of this rapper who supposedly “started from the bottom (on a popular Canadian TV series)”, then enjoy.
Music Videos: “Style” – Taylor Swift
I danced along with Taylor in “Shake It Off” and awed over the genius of “Blank Space”, but with the newly released video for “Style,” I was just sort of disappointed. The video itself isn’t the problem. It’s beautifully directed, the graphics are amazeballs, and Taylor looks stunning. It doesn’t look like a video for a “effortlessly cool” song like “Style”. It’s as if there was an editing mistake and they put “Style” over the music video for “Out Of The Woods” or “Clean”. The video itself was good, but I was left desiring something… different.
In Related News: The 57th Annual Grammy Awards
LL Cool J needs to stop hosting the Grammys. Other than that, the night of awards was quite enjoyable. Highlights of the night included: Rihanna’s weirdly attractive dress; Jessie J’s voice; everything about Annie Lennox; Iggy not winning a Grammy; Paramore winning their first well-deserved Grammy; and John Legend & Common paying homage to “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” in their beautiful performance of their Oscar-nominated song “Glory”.
However, who produced the best moment of the night? Kanye West! The man is an absolute (insert profanity here) all of the time, but his blatant disrespect for anybody but himself served him that night. Charging the stage in a fake attempt to steal Beck’s Grammy away for Beyonce was priceless. What he had to say after-the-fact was not so great, but I still appreciated the moment.
Lowlights of the night included: Beck winning “Album of the Year” and Sam Smith. Who is Beck? How did Beyonce not win “Album of the Year” when she dropped an album that broke records when it was dropped without her telling anyone about it? Nobody else could release a surprise album and break the ITunes record for largest sales week. If that doesn’t speak volumes about her worthiness for “Album of the (bleeping) Year”, then I don’t know what does. On the topic of Sam Smith, I simply hate it when new blood sweeps awards just for being new. He can sing and all, but Sia can blow. That’s all I’m saying about that.
