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Showing posts from January, 2023

Who is Mr Morale?

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Who are Mr Morale and the Big Steppers? Out of all the questions asked online about this album, out of all the discourse surrounding the varied choices, I believe this is the most important question to understanding this incredible double album from Kendrick Lamar. Released on Friday the 13th (my birthday, thanks kung fu kenny), Kendrick's latest covers a wide range of topics, such as the grieving process, wealth and it's corrupting influence, cancel culture, rap culture, toxic masculinity, and love as retribution for the sins of the past. Did I mention that's just the first 5 tracks? Mr Morale is a dense album thematically, but at no point do we ever get a clear answer for who Mr Morale and the Big Steppers are. Well, kind of. We'll get to it. Before we can properly examine this album, we must first look at the prequel track, "The Heart part 5". Here, Kendrick essentially presents a thesis statement/abstract for the album. It's a dense 5 1/2 minutes, cove

Revisitation Nation: Wonderful Wonderful by The Killers

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The Killers are usually defined as a singles band. The Las Vegas based band's debut Hot Fuss produced indie classics "Mr. Brightside" and "Somebody Told Me", among others. Their follow-up. Sam's Town, was seen as a stronger record overall, with the track "When You Were Young" becoming a staple. Day & Age was less well received, but still produced a huge single in the memeable "Human". Battle Born however, possessed little of note on the charts and critically. After this, the band took a 5 year hiatus, returning in 2017 with Wonderful Wonderful. Since it's release the band have gone from a singles band to an album band, with follow-ups Imploding the Mirage and Pressure Machine receiving glowing reviews, strong sales, and exceptional fan responses. Wonderful Wonderful, in the context of the band's trajectory as a whole, reads as an abberation. Sure, Battle Born had no hits and wasn't particularly well reviewed, but it's

An Analysis of the Analysis of The Godfather in "The White Lotus"

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The White Lotus is an anthology series produced by HBO, written, directed, and produced by Mike White of Mr Schneebly in School of Rock fame. As a series, it devotes itself across the two currently produced seasons to the inner lives of the rich and powerful, using the opportunity of a holiday destination and a chain of hotels (the titular White Lotus) to examine why these people who ostensibly possess everything capitalist society works towards, are so miserable. Season 2's Di Grasso family, made up of exceptionally horny grandfather Bert, his equally horny but better at hiding it son Dom, and Dom's son Albie, who is also horny, but in a nicer, more digestible form. The three men are in Sicily attempting to find long lost relatives from when Bert's mother left the old country to put up roots in the land of opportunity. As a side quest however, they spend episode 3 going on a sightseeing tour of Godfather filming locations. Nice-guy Albie invites Portia, a personal assistan