Artist Review: Laptop Funeral

Recently while surfing the web I came across a Slovakian cassette label called "Z Tapes" releasing lo-fi bedroom music on the self-publishing music platform Bandcamp. Amongst several other amazing, underrated, underground artists that Z Tapes works with (that will, no doubt, get their Twelve Rolling Stones spotlight article in time), the electronic bedroom artist Laptop Funeral shares a a taste of soft electro-indie-pop from suburban Florida, and narrates "a story of a broken boy trying his best to get better and trying not to lose his relationships in the process."

In their newest, most popular album, The Closer To You, The Safer I Feel, Laptop Funeral bears their soul, yet again, with a compilation of mellow and enticing electronic beats to keep the mind at ease. With songs like "when i look into your eyes" and "break yr mirror," Laptop Funeral establishes its distinct style as a musical presence in various ways. First, it is imperative to study the particular aesthetics of Laptop Funeral's image. This artist makes it clear through its album covers and passively lower-case titles that Laptop Funeral is a casual, unconventional, and underground force. Purposely shifting their syntax to lower case letters, Laptop Funeral makes the statement that their music is meant to feel like bedroom music. Here, the artist intends for its listeners (and viewers) to have an almost intimate relationship with the music and band itself, and, swiftly, they succeed. Additionally, with album covers that strike as indie and home-produced, Laptop Funeral's covers take various film-like images and procure them into covers that feel like they tell stories. In example, The Closer To You, The Safer I Feel designs the album cover with a sloppy filmy picture of a backyard, and adds a small ripped piece of paper that reads, "i want to get better" as a personal anecdote. Here, although prospectors that are heavily saturated in the commercialized music industry would argue that this album cover appears to "try too hard to be artsy," I would argue that the musician's artistic choice is an effective one. Laptop Funeral appears to understand here, through their artistic choices, that their music both only applies to and attracts a certain auditory demographic of listeners. Closely following more renown alternative electronic bedroom artists such as Julia Brown and Teen Suicide, Laptop Funeral emulates these artists while simultaneously succeeding in taking their own unique spin altogether.

Shifting the focus to the artist's musical style, Laptop Funeral's grainy vocals and almost nursery-like electronic pitch feels like it creates a cold room and lets you sit in it for a while. This is not to say that they create a frigid or even unwelcoming tone, but I would argue that the artist creates icy notes and beats that make a listener feel refreshed, while also reminding their listeners of something comfortable and familiar. Laptop Funeral has mastered the ability to stimulate a personable mood through their music. Comparing this artist's productions to that of Teen Suicide, although both artists share their unique lack of interest in preserving distinct timbre, it can be noted that Laptop Funeral focuses more heavily on the high-pitched electronic notes in their music, and feels less depressive/muted. Adding a more energizing and bittersweet twist to the rather melancholy scene Laptop Funeral seems to affiliate with, this artist brings an inspiriting new comfort to the bedroom music genre.

The Closer To You, The Safer I Feel by Laptop Funeral: Full Discography Lyrics and Audio Link

Analysis: Donald Glover/Childish Gambino

As everyone should be well aware of by now, 2016 belongs to Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino.  In this marvelous year, we have witnessed his rise in television and the mainstream media with his socially driven show, Atlanta.  This one season long controversial expression not only was critically claimed, but it gave Glover a chance to change his perception to his audience.  Even though he stared as the protagonist in the show, he displayed his impressive talent for writing and directing.  No longer was Gambino, the average rapper who acted on the side, the center of his persona.  For the first time, Donald Glover gave us a glimpse at what could be.  At approximately 8:00pm on the first night of December, Glover shined through as he rightly should.  Releasing his 3^rd studio album Awaken, My Love! under his surname Childish Gambino, Glover completely transitions from that rapper he once was.  As it will come as a surprise to the average Gambino fan, the album is not classified as Rap, or even Hip-Hop.  In fact, he doesn’t rap one line in the 11-song effort.  Instead, Gambino created one of the most immersive R&B/Soul albums of the year.   Three years since his last studio LP, Glover completely innovated a new identity.  In this business, changing your whole character when you have an established following is almost impossible.  Glover did this effortlessly, and quite beautifully. Not only was this transition done smoothly, it was premeditated.  As explained in a recent interview with Power 105.1’s the Breakfast Club, Glover states “I don’t want to be a rapper.”  He goes on to explain that he thinks the title is so restricting, and knows he can do so much more.  It is seen that Glover really was speaking truthfully, as the rapper we once knew is hidden under this soulful effort. 

In Awaken, My Love!, Glover gives us a storyline just like his show Atlanta.  In Atlanta, Glover portrays a struggling father who tries to follow his true passions in the music industry.  Earn, Glovers character, falls upon his cousin who was just starting to breakout as a rapper by the name of Paperboi.  Over the course of the show, they go through trials to try and get more recognition for the up and coming rapper, but each new trail becomes a tribulation.  However, in the ten-episode season there are some bright moments, and Earn never looses his passion.  What was most interesting about this show was not the story itself, but the way it was portrayed.  In a non-linear fashion, it is portrayed that Earn always came close to truly succeeding, but always missed the mark.  Instead of focusing on the storyline, character development was the most important part of Atlanta. Earn is just a man trying to attain his dreams, but the realities of life always seem to catch up to him.  Weather those realities are supporting his family, or the issues he faces with being a member of the African American community, it becomes the norm for Earn to come closer to his goal, but fail in each episode.  Not only is the non-linear storyline a great way to develop characters, but also there is not an established time in the show.  It is never revealed to the audience if these ten episodes take place in a month, one year, or more.  This adds to each characters story, as Earn could be chasing his dream for a very long period of time.   With each new episode, we are filled with many emotions, and Glover manages to put each one in Awaken, My Love!. 

The album starts off with Me and Your Mama, and Have Some Love. These two songs are filled with sentiments of affection.  In each song, we see Glover with a passion for something.  Whether it be the girl he is referencing in Me and Your Mama, or the notion of family in Have Some Love, he has true feelings for these two entities.  This can be paralleled to Atlanta, in each new episode Earn still has this love for music.  As the album continues on it becomes less joyful with each new song, with the exception of the light hearted, 70's feel of California. Each song is titled with some sort of negative emotion, that is highlighted by the lyrics.  In Terrified, Glover explains his mistrust with society as a whole, also seen in his television show.  As he explains in the song, “catch a n**** creeping behind you, people watching underground.”  This sense of paranoia that Glover is feeling is rooted in his identity as a whole.  Like each episode of Atlanta, Earn always gets out of his situation somehow, to wake up the next day and do it all over again.  This perseverance that he has so much of is perfectly captured in Glover’s last song on the album, Stand Tall.  In this song, Glover seems to have overcome all of his previously displayed fears, and ends with the perfect sentiment to “keep all your dreams, keep standing tall.”  It seems as if Glover and his character Earn are truly one, especially in this masterpiece.  Three years was a long time to wait, but Donald Glover/ Childish Gambino did not upset.  For the first time, he has proven that he can sincerely do it all.      

Song Review: Marceline by Willow

In Willow Smith's album of December 2015, ARDIPITHECUS, the artist strikes a resilient and unexpected chord within listeners while emulating a feeling which most resembles the style of the artist Sia. In track 9 of her album, entitled "Marceline," Willow shows the mainstream music world that she is not merely here to blend in to the overexploited electro-rap-pop scene that many viewers can tune into 102.7 KIIS FM and saturate themselves with. Although it appears, upon further study, to have a lack of depth in lyrical meaning, "Marceline" is the kind of song that would catch your ear in a typical Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. However simple it is, though, "Marceline" proves catchy, even if it does not prove to be relatable lyrically.

Willow begins by confiding in her audience that she is sick of living in a world riddled with violence, and she wishes only to be surrounded by positivity, community, and love, and seems to find these qualities in Marceline and Adventure Time. She wishes to escape the world around her and finds almost elementary-like solace in escaping to this fictional reality. In this song, Willow sings of the character Marceline Abadeer from the popular show Adventure Time. On the show, Marceline is a half-demon/half-human vampire aging over a thousand years old. Through referencing Marceline in the chorus, Willow voices that she wishes to be alongside this fictional character, "flying so high," and riding a "Lady Unicorn." Although goofy and playful, this proves as only comic relief for Willow's greater distresses as mentioned in this song's verses.

Although this song lacks emotional depth as well as complexity of thought, musically Willow produces an auditory quality that feels more intimate than the lyrics seem to lead on. "Marceline" provides a simple beat with a rhythm that proves easy to not only catch onto, but feel drawn toward. Here, Willow's voice has a reeling and almost compelling draw on its audience, and here, Willow shares this resemblance to Sia. The auditory aesthetics of Willow's voice throughout "Marceline" almost counterbalances her lack of lyrical depth, therefore somehow compelling her audience to sing along to her trivial lyrics. Without even knowing who Marceline Abadeer is, without even understanding the presence of a reference to Adventure Time, a passive Spotify listener is suddenly drawn to this song.

lyrics to "Marceline" by Willow Smith