Luke's Music Reviews #5: Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande

Artists tend to evolve over the course of their careers. Whether it's just a natural development like growing up or a switching of record labels to state more of an independence, music styles could swiftly change and the singer, if they haven't had the chance before, could take a shot at writing some of their material.

One example of a person that shifted their career trajectory is Miley Cyrus, former Disney Channel darling who broke out of that mold (and out of the associated record company), chopped off all her hair and bleached it, and became associated with twerking and 'dancing with Molly' in the summer of 2013. It was an abrupt but not exactly unexpected swing, what with the more sexual imagery involved with her 2010 album Can't Be Tamed (which was pretty much just a typical Miley Cyrus album at the time, TBH) and the fact that Hannah Montana was ending, and with no hope of appearing on a future Disney show, it shouldn't be a surprise that something did happen. However, I was still shocked by these changes. I grew up watching and adoring Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus, and I guess I was still stuck in time or expecting that she would be the down to earth girl like Hilary Duff on Lizzie McGuire all those years ago. Besides, my 13 year old brain was baffled and confused by the idea of Miley Cyrus still being a role model for young girls when she was talking about doing drugs in the bathroom in "We Can't Stop" (which was fine until it was played to death at a camp I went to that summer; after that I wanted to scream every time I heard it).

Fast forward another two years, and Miley had established the non-profit organization The Happy Hippie Foundation (which sounds pretty cool, actually, although I'm not exactly sure what they do) and released a new album you could stream for free: Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz (yes, that is 'pets' with a 'z'). It was an experimental record that was panned by YouTube critics and baffled me from the little that I listened to on Soundcloud (although I have listened to almost all of "Dooo It!" and the entire "BB Talk", which will be eight minutes of my life that I unfortunately won't get back). While I understand the idea of Cyrus wanting to exert more creative control, that didn't help the album from being very uncomfortable to the bits I listened to and for me to cringe at the lyrics I read. It's a complete jump into the pool of debauchery, and while that might be fun for some people, I prefer my cereal without milk, thanks.

Let's step off the Miley train and start talking about the evolution of Ariana Grande instead. She first became popular on the Nickelodeon show Victorius as Cat (the redhead who progressively got dumber as the show went on) before skyrocketing onto Top 40 radio with her debut single "The Way" with Mac Miller (she had released her first debut single called "Put Your Hearts Up" in 2011, which she later scrapped because she felt it didn't represent the style she was going for and felt inauthentic). Her debut album Yours Truly was a pop-R&B crossover that was cutesy and fun but didn't really deviate much from its main template, even though her voice was easily one of the strongest points on the album (it was also a really consistent and strong record overall). Her next record that was released a year later, My Everything, showcased Grande hopping from genre to genre with the help of several different producers, including Zedd, Tommy Brown (who had produced some of the tracks on Grande's first album), and some of Sweden's hottest that have produced countless pop tracks: Max Martin and Ali Payami. Although that album wasn't nearly as cohesive in the production, Grande grew as a performer vocally and thematically, opting for more sensual material that really elevated her to the next level (plus, she had a couple more songs she co-wrote). Both records have their own strengths, and it's been really fun to re-listen to them in preparation for Dangerous Woman.

Originally titled Moonlight coupled with the lead-off single "Focus", the idea was scrapped ("Focus" wasn't included on any of the album editions except on Japan's deluxe) and Dangerous Woman came to life with the title song being the new first single. It was definitely an edgier style from Grande that I wasn't expecting, and it definitely made me more excited for the album to come, especially since it seemed she was taking one more step into making her material as mature as possible.

So how was Dangerous Woman? Was it the treat that I was expecting it to be? Or did it disappoint and made me view it as more of a trick?

Luke's Book Reviews #8: This Is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang

Do you ever have those authors who wrote a first book that you absolutely loved, and because of that, you wait for their next title with bated breath? That happened to me with Amy Zhang's debut Falling into Place, a skillfully written novel about the most popular girl in school attempting to commit suicide following Newton's Three Laws of Motion. Not only was the novel published when Zhang was only 18 (*applause*), but I remember sitting on the couch back in December 2014 and reading the last 100 or so pages while holding back tears/squealing because I loved it so much. The book was written in an interesting fashion, utilizing the nonlinear style and an interesting narrator to tell the story from multiple points of view. Although the subject matter itself had been seen before, it was done in such a unique way that I couldn't help but find it a gem.

Due to my love for her debut, Zhang's second release was eagerly awaited by me, and although all it had was a title for nine months, I was excited nevertheless. When the cover came out, I was more excited than ever because a) LOOK AT THE PRETTY! and b) the synopsis sounded amazing. However, reviews for the ARCs started rolling in a couple months later, and a lot of people had mixed feelings about it. For one thing, they said that the synopsis actually had a huge spoiler in it (you might be able to guess it from the cover), and that although the writing was good, they didn't seem to like our characters and found them really unlikable. I was surprised by these reviews, most notably because I wasn't getting any particular predictable vibes from the novel, and the fact that Zhang had made Liz sympathetic in Falling into Place even though she could be incredibly cruel to her fellow classmates and even her friends. I had some mild hesitation going into this, but I still had high hopes, and once this came into the library on hold for me, I swooped it up and immediately dug in.

So, how was This Is Where the World Ends? Was it on the level of Amy Zhang's debut novel, or were there some pieces missing to make everything complete?

Luke's Anime Reviews #2: DRAMAtical Murder

DRAMAtical Murder is perhaps one of the most well known video games of this decade. Originally released in March 2012, this BL (abbreviation for boys' love) R-18 (not for the kiddos) visual novel catapulted to the tops of Tumblr blogs and wedged a way into the hearts of fangirls everywhere. Following a young man named Aoba Seragaki, players were put into his shoes as he tried to take down a utopian society. However, that wasn't what was on everyone's minds while they were playing it or watching walkthroughs on YouTube.

The choices that the player makes as Aoba in the game also influences which of four guys could be his lover for life. You have the token best friend character who's very protective, the seemingly cold and aloof guy, the adorable and upbeat guy who calls Aoba by a nickname, or the tough and actually cold older man who doesn't seem to care about anything. Besides trying to figure out the best way to take our villain down, Aoba will also kiss and have sex with all of the guys at some point during the routes while dreamy music plays in the background and pixelated penises appear on screen (because Japan censors genitalia due to a complicated reason I don't know). Depending on additional choices you make, you can also have a happy ending or a bad ending for each character, and then there's a hidden route where you can become lovers with Aoba's dog AllMate who's actually something more but I can't reveal spoilers, and then there's the sequel game where there's extended good endings, and then there's the drama CD's....

Yeah, it would be an understatement to say that DRAMAtical Murder took off. It shot up to the moon and back exponentially, so it came as absolutely no surprise when an anime adaptation was announced in the spring of 2014. I didn't watch it while it was airing, but I did get the series for Christmas after Sentai Filmworks licensed it (with a dub, much to my brother and friend's frustration) and released it on DVD. I've been wanting to see this for a while, and I was expecting something good.

What did I find in DRAMAtical Murder? Was it an entertaining and exciting show? Or did it end up running on empty?

Luke's Music Reviews #4: All I Need by Foxes

Foxes has easily become one of my favorite artists of all time. I can't keep track of how many times I've listened to Glorious ever since I came back to it last summer, and I've been waiting for this album with bated breath ever since Foxes unveiled the tracklist in July. I couldn't believe that just when I became attached to an artist, they had new music coming that I could be excited about.

When Foxes said that All I Need would be more personal, I was intrigued. Most of Foxes' songs come across as mystical and otherworldly while still having that raw edge, so having her stripping back the cover even more was definitely an experiment worth waiting for, Three singles and four pre-order instant grants were released before February 5th, so much of the album's sound had already been established beforehand. I was in love with pretty much everything, the only worry I had being that the toxic relationship material would become way too repetitive, especially since most of the songs were shaping up to be in that vein.

However, the instrumental choices were still wonderful, and Foxes' writing and vocals were amazing, so I had incredibly high hopes going into this record. Were those met?

The Best of 2015

Another year, another chapter of the book of life completed. Although there were some awful events that occurred (all the mass shootings, the aftereffects of Leelah Alcorn's suicide, the tsunamis and earthquakes that occurred around the world), there were still great moments, and a big one was the legalization of same sex marriage in the United States. I don't know about you, but in my opinion, 2015 was a fantastic year, one full of happy and sad moments, finding identity, of reading/listening to music/watching anime that made me emotional, but most importantly, of just finally gaining some of the confidence needed to stay true to myself.

This post is going to highlight some of the greatest things to come out of anime, books, and music this year. All of these things are held on very high pedestals in my brain, and they'll definitely be remembered for their excellence for years to come. We might as well get started, shall we?