Reviews
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Is Completely Oblivious to Its Own Plight
On “Trouble In Town,” the third track on Coldplay’s 2019 LP Everyday Life, the band places a rather disturbing sound clip of a police officer rudely interrogating someone — this comes after Chris Martin’s solemn lament on unequal power structures and how they always “add more police,” and before a full-band psychedelic freak out of an outro, which is not necessarily what you’d associate with Coldplay. This was not an anomaly on the record; Everyday Life featured Coldplay at their most experimental, their most vital, and playing the riskiest music they’ve made in years. But what’s more, is that it sounded like Coldplay had changed, that over a span of 20 years as a band, they were almost more weathered and rugged. Fast forward to two years later; Coldplay have released their ninth studio al...
With Juno, Remi Wolf Signals That the Future of Pop Music Is Already Here
“Remi Wolf is a crazy bih but is also hella nice and sweet sometimes but also likes to yell at people but has figured out that maybe instead of yelling at people she can just sing.” This is the description that greets users who visit Remi Wolf’s official Spotify artist page. It’s not an inaccurate first impression for people who might be new to our October Artist of the Month, Remi Wolf. She’s arrived on the indie-pop scene in a neon and rainbow-drenched burst and has become something of a festival darling over the past year. Active social media users probably heard her track “Photo ID” on TikTok, but Wolf’s budding discography is much more than the viral hit may have suggested. Juno, her debut full-length album, is an odyssey through a world of oddities. In a recent interview with Consequ...
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Mixes Anthems With Space Junk
A weary voice actor steps into a Hollywood studio soundbooth. Maybe it’s Will Arnett. It’s probably Will Arnett. Will Arnett sips his coffee, slides his headphones on and speaks into the microphone, addressing his producer: “Alright, Frankie, what are we hawking today? More Reese’s cups?” “No, Will, we’ve got something new for ya. It’s, it’s … a Coldplay ad.” Will Arnett closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I know, they got a new record or something” Frankie says. “Let’s try a take. Maybe do it like a ‘90s movie trailer guy. You can even do the LEGO Batman voice!” “Jesus Christ,” Will Arnett mutters, glancing at his watch. “Okay, let’s do this.” The tape rolls, he begins. “Coming this fall: THEY are the most successful pop-rock band of the 21st Century. HE’S produced ...
St. Vincent’s Daddy’s Home Finds Its True Place at New York’s Radio City Music Hall: Review
A St. Vincent tour always carries with it a sense of the theatrical. Everything is delivered with considered planning and plotting, from the lighting cues to the set design to the dance moves. It’s not surprising the “Daddy’s Home Tour” once again brings a carefully crafted presentation to the rock gig, but it’s interesting how deeply it leans into it. Fans aren’t coming out to a St. Vincent concert this time around; they’re catching the Daddy’s Home touring production. That’s what rolled into New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, October 12th. Some moments are pure Broadway, like the trio of backing singers milling about with drinks in their hands “peas and carroting” in the background during “…At the Holiday Party.” Instead of the typical, “How you doing tonight, New Y...
Austin City Limits 2021 Weekend 2 Photo Gallery: Duran Duran, Jon Batiste, Megan Thee Stallion and More
Austin City Limits was back at Zilker Park this past weekend for Weekend 2 — and so were we. After providing daily live galleries from Weekend 1, Consequence photographer Amy Price returned to capture all the going-ons of the three-day event. The glory of a two-weekend festival is that on the second go-around, you can capture the sets you missed the first time, like the legends Duran Duran. Weekend 2 also saw performances from Jon Batiste, Marc Rebillet, Leann Rimes, Trixie Mattel, The Hu, and yes, Machine Gun Kelly again. Revisit it all in the extensive gallery below, which includes some backstage portraits with the likes of Claud, Dayglow, Tate McRae, jxdn, Heartless Bastards, and more. Then, make sure you read our complete recap of Austin City Limits Weekend 1. Advertisement Relate...
NYFF Review: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Is Spectacular — And Spectacularly Underwhelming
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel Dune gets its second big-screen treatment. The first was a notorious misfire directed by David Lynch, who famously disowned the final film; the newer version is from Denis Villeneuve, who has experience with sci-fi both emotionally intimate (Arrival) and storied in its nerdy history (Blade Runner 2049). Though the politics and world-building of the Dune world can seem obtuse — the names alone present a challenge for the less sci-fi-inclined — its story will also have a familiar ring for anyone who’s absorbed a few of the many works the novel influenced. Advertisement Related Video In other words, yes, it’s a chosen-one narrative: Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a young...
Nashville Film Festival Review: Spencer Is a Devastating Portrait of the People’s Princess
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Nashville Film Festival. The Pitch: Over the course of three days, Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Spencer) is faced with a decision that will inevitably change her fate: continue living in near agony among the royal family, or separate from her husband? History already knows the answer, leaving an air of tragedy even in moments of small victory and stolen joy for Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart, as striking in her portrayal as early reactions indicated). “It’s three days,” Diana whispers to herself early in the film. Those three days prove to be a trial more difficult than even she had anticipated. Advertisement Related Video Heavy Is the Head That Wears the Crown: One of the first shots of Pablo Larraín’s film takes place in a massive ...
Moor Mother Time Travels Through Black Encyclopedia of the Air
On her fifth album, Black Encyclopedia of the Air, Camae Ayewa (better known as Moor Mother) paints a world where time is broken, a shifting wasteland where she explores issues of violence and identity on a generational scale. This catastrophe is a familiar setting for the Philadelphia artist, who blends her poetry and music in a way that harkens back to the proto-rap of Gil Scott-Heron, but also meshes with the avant-garde quality of contemporary hip hop. But genre, like time, is transcended and shattered within Ayewa’s body of work. Her debut LP, 2016’s Fetish Bones, blended growling synths and overbearing static with paper-thin gospel samples and the haunting chant of chain gang songs — and ever since, Ayewa’s music has combined the old and new in ways that blur the difference between t...
NYFF Review: Joaquin Phoenix Gets Avuncular for the Warm, Low-Key C’mon C’mon
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: Every five years or so, Mike Mills — not the one from R.E.M., though, confusingly, he is a music video director and graphic designer for some of their contemporaries — releases a sensitive, heartfelt drama about delicate but deceptively strong family ties. C’mon C’mon is the 2021 model, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a documentarian who must unexpectedly spend several weeks taking care of his nine-year-old nephew. I’ll Figure It Out: “Nobody knows what they’re doing. You just have to keep doing it.” That’s advice given late in C’mon C’mon by Viv (Gaby Hoffman) to her brother Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) as he struggles to figure out how to substitute-parent her nine-year-old son Jesse (Woody Norman). Viv has been c...
Halloween Kills… The Franchise, To Be Specific: Review
The Pitch: It’s the late hours of Halloween night 2018, and Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) house is still aflame from trapping Michael Myers in a flaming prison she’s spent decades building. But even that’s not enough to kill the soulless demon monster with a penchant for homicide; he escapes with nary a scratch on him, save for some scorch marks on his William Shatner mask. As daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) rush an injured Laurie to the hospital, the rest of Haddonfield learns of the asylum bus crash that led to Michael’s escape, and a mob forms to try to catch the killer. But will strength in numbers be enough to vanquish pure evil? Halloween Persists: In the age of “legacyquels,” followups to nostalgic hits from the ’70s and ’80s that...
HBO’s Succession Turns Its Family Feud Into All-Out War in Season 3: Review
The Pitch: When last we left the backstabbing, mega-wealthy Roy family, prodigal son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) finally plunged the dagger in the back of his imperious father, Logan (Brian Cox), by holding a presser in which — rather than acting as the “blood sacrifice” Logan wants to throw to the wolves — he publicly laid bare incriminating accusations of malfeasance within Waystar Royco’s Cruises division. It’s a ballsy act, one born of two seasons’ worth of tension between them, the latest move in their perpetual chess game. But the question remains: What now? Well, fresh off his impulsive gamble, Kendall rallies the troops: Initially, he’s just got Greg the Egg (Nicholas Braun) on his side, having snuck him the Cruises documents he needs to support the accusations. But what of Shiv (...
SNL Season 47 Premiere Recap: The Highlights and Lowlights
This past summer felt like a tumultuous one for Saturday Night Live, despite (or possibly because of) its usual between-season silence about major changes to the show—broken, as per tradition, shortly before the start of a new season. Season 46 ended with what felt like possible sendoffs for several long-tenured members of a record-sized cast—and then word flew around over the summer that SNL impresario Lorne Michaels was trying to convince some veteran players to stick around for not just the next season, but several more after that, dangling a more flexible work schedule in front of familiar faces like Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Cecily Strong. The Michaels Plan seems to have been put into motion with Season 47: McKinnon, Bryant, and Strong are all back, at least according to the ope...
