We asked the newsroom what they’re currently jamming to. We got a range of responses, from sad indie rock to hyped-up hip-hop.
Natalia Kolenko, Campus Editor:
“My favorite song right now is ‘Green Light’ by Lorde. When her first album came out, she pretty instantly became one of my favorite artists, and so I have been dying for her new album for three years. The song is different from her old stuff but still really great. I love that it’s a song that makes me want to cry a little but also dance. And I feel like it kind of applies to my life right now in terms of graduation: I’m trying to let go of college and what my life has been like up to this point and move on to the next chapter.”
Mitch Westall, Sports Editor
“Kendrick Lamar’s new album that’s coming out soon because that s— is gonna be fire. I like it because he spits real s— in an aggressive tone that’s easy to get hype to.”
Fareeha Rehman, Online Editor
“I’ve been listening to the band No Doubt on repeat lately, which I haven’t done with music in a while. Gwen Stefani’s unique, sultry yet powerful vocals are amazing, and I just love the genre mix they have going on in their songs; with reggae, pop and punk all kind of intertwining to form the unique sound that is No Doubt.”
MacKenzie Reagan, Co-Editor-in-Chief
“I want to listen to the new Mount Eerie (nee Phil Elverum) album, ‘A Crow Looked at Me,’ on repeat for five hours and also never again. The album was written immediately in the wake of Elverum’s wife’s death from cancer last summer. It’s so, so unflinchingly sad, but so, so beautiful as a requiem for love lost. I would quote the lyrics, but I don’t want to make anyone cry in the middle of the JC. Only listen to it if you’re in a stable mental state and with tissues nearby. It makes ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ sound like ‘1989.’”
Basma Humadi, Staff Writer
“This semester I’ve really had only two moods in terms of the music I want to listen to. I’m either listening to Carly Rae Jepsen’s explosive, sunshine-y pop album ‘EMOTION,’ or Solange’s meditative and personal album ‘A Seat at the Table.’ I think most of the time, though, I tend to lean towards listening to Solange. I like the way her songs are about heavy topics like identity, anger and pain but are dealt with through soft melodies and Solange’s pretty voice and lyrics. I like to listen to her while I do my homework and pretend it fixes the broken pieces of my life together. Her songs like ‘Mad’ and ‘Cranes in the Sky’ feel really authentic, introspective and overall reflective of my feelings with 2016, which was a mess of a year in the world.”
Todd Gonda, Copy Chief
“Lately I’ve been fascinated with Mars Argo’s ‘Using You.’ It’s not just a weird song with an unsettling music video, it’s part of a whole saga of art installations directed by this guy named Titanic Sinclair. He’s moved on from (broken up with?) Mars Argo, and now he’s making cryptic videos with a girl known only as That Poppy. Poppy’s videos are a little more refined, with less of Mars Argo’s overt seediness and more pagan/illuminati imagery. Sinclair seems to have graduated from Mars Argo’s one-sided depiction of the listener as a puppet dangling on corporations’ strings; with Poppy, the audience is complicit in their own brainwashing because they’re charmed by her contradicting images. They want to add to the weirdness, not just stay passive observers. It’s an art installation that couldn’t exist before social media.”
Sosan Malik, Co-Editor-in-Chief
“I have had the song ‘Electric’ by Alina Baraz featuring Khalid on repeat for weeks. Alina Baraz’s voice has always touched my soul. The combination of Baraz’s voice and the music puts me in a deep trance. Listening to this track helps calm my nerves after a long day. Her catalog is so vast that I could listen to it for days and never get bored. ”
