The name of this album is actually “Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales,” but I couldn’t resist the opportunity. The album is a deluxe edition of the most recent Jazmine Sullivan album “Heux Tales,” which came out at the very beginning of 2021. In a year where a lot of albums just ran right through me, “Heaux Tales” was one of the few that grew on me across 2021. Led by the R&B hit “Pick Up of Your Feelings” and built around a compelling concept, the album was killer. The concept is executed effortlessly without sacrificing the quality of a single song. I was pleasantly surprised to see it topping more than one publication’s top albums of the year, and even more pleasantly surprised to see it get such strong radio play for a independent release.
Around a year later, Sullivan has come out with a deluxe edition. So-called “Deluxe Editions” published incredibly soon after an album’s publications for streaming optimization are a trend that has worn thin incredibly fast. Lil Uzi Vert, who started the trend, did alright by effectively releasing a double album, but since then I’ve started instinctually tuning these out. I’m glad I broke that rule for Sullivan, because “Mo’ Tales” is an excellent exception to the rule.
The main album is built off of interwoven songs with testimonials from various women talking frankly about their sex lives. The extended edition is more rigid, with each new track having exactly one spoken section that reflects the topic of the song quite directly. This makes a direct front to back listen a little tiring since around a third of the new runtime is spoken word, which is presumably part of why the tracks were cut. The new songs are worth it though, each one feels like it was cut from the full album not because of its quality, but because it would interrupt the flow of the album. Seeing the incredible restraint Jazmine Sullivan used when building the track list really does inspire a new appreciation for the strength of the main album, which is an incredible thing for a deluxe edition to do.
Some songs were clearly cut for thematic clarity. While the song is a nice counterpoint in the extended edition, including “A Breux’s Tale” (I did not change that one, that’s the actual name of the song) and the intentionally callous song from Sullivan that accompanies it on the main album would have distracted from the overall progression. Anderson Paak’s brief feature was all the counterpoint needed on the original album. Same goes for songs like “Tragic,” which while fine in this context, wouldn’t have worked out as well on the main album.
If you listened to “Heaux Tales” and haven’t really returned to it, this deluxe edition is an excellent excuse to give it another listen. And if you’re entirely unfamiliar with Jazmine Sullivan, give the main album a shot, it’s an album that really appeals to everyone.
Wallows are an up-and-coming indie-rock band that have grown in popularity in the past three years. Their band consists of three members: Dylan Minnette, Braeden Lemasters, Cole Preston. The song “At The End of the Day” was released this Friday, March 4 and is a single that is part of their sophomore album titled “Tell Me That It’s Over”, which will be released on March 25.
From my initial impression, the song was a lot different than the songs we have seen from Wallows recently and had a much more mellow rhythm compared to their more upbeat single “I Don’t Want to Talk”. While “I Don’t Want to Talk” featured a more energetic tempo, “At The End of the Day” had a slower more steady tempo, matching the nostalgic feelings of the lyrics. What was teased as an acoustic song was released as a masterpiece.
Another refreshing aspect of this song was that the audience was able to hear a lot more of Braeden’s voice throughout and he was the main vocalist. Oftentimes, Dylan is the lead singer and his voice is accompanied by Braeden’s, though in this song Braeden was able to take center stage.
A few lines that stood out to me in the song were “Please just see | That you are not alone, you are not alone| I’ll never let you go| Unless you want me to” There is something just so sentimental about being afraid to end a relationship or let go of someone you love because you are afraid you’ll hurt them. This song encompasses this feeling all too well.
The meaning behind this song is as resonating as most Wallows songs are. This song describes the intensity of being in a relationship and feeling that the end might be nearing, though at the end of the day (no pun intended) you just want your significant other to be happy.
The aesthetics of the music video serve this immense nostalgia of summer nights and this is a song that you’ll be rushing to add to your late night driving playlist.
BEST TRACKS: “F-ck You” “Chinese” “Everyone’s At It” “Not Fair”
FCC: Explicit
Like quite a few of the pop artists of the day, then 22-year-old Lily Allen rose to fame on MySpace. This album was an absolutely massive hit, but I find it, along with Allen herself, is often forgotten in conversations about pop albums of the 2000s.
This album touches on quite a few subversive themes for a woman pop artist to speak about in the 2000s. For example, “Not Fair” is about not being pleased by a partner in bed, “Him” makes quite a few overt political and religious statements, and “Everyone’s At It” is explicitly about the copious amounts of drug use in the music industry. Allen touches on all of these subjects in the same upbeat manner from song to song.
Greg Kurstin assisted Allen in the songwriting and did all of the production on the album. Track nine, “Who’d Have Known” also gives songwriting credits to members of Take That because of the melodic similarities in the chorus. Notably, “Who’d Have Known” was later sampled by T-Pain in his song “5 O’Clock” in 2011 and was a massive hit.
There’s nothing spectacular about her vocal performance (although, she is one of those British singers who sings in a British accent which I find extremely charming), but her delivery is blunt and almost comedic at times.
This album, in my opinion, is a perfect pop album. Clocking in at 43 minutes with 12 songs, it’s short, sweet and to the point. There’s no dead air, every song is thoroughly enjoyable, and it’s nostalgic. This was one of the first albums I ever truly fell in love with and jump started my interest in discovering new music. I think we, as a culture, need to give Lily Allen credit where credit is due and recognize her as one of the defining pop artists of the 2000s.
Coming into college this year, one of the things I looked forward to the most was going to local shows. Now that I’m in college, I don’t have to worry about my parents’ schedule, so I can go to concerts whenever it works for me. And on Feb. 25, it worked for me.
My friends and I hadn’t been to a show at The Trailer Park yet, so we had no idea what to expect. We arrived at 8 p.m. when the concert was supposed to start, and we were a little bit worried to see that the crowd was sparse. However, when By George finally took the stage around 8:30, the yard was packed with people.
By George’s performance was incredibly energetic and entertaining. They played a mix of covers and originals, sprinkling some brand new, unreleased music throughout. My favorite song of the night was “Klep” off of By George’s recent album, “The Life of Guy.” The energy was through the roof, and my neck still hurts from headbanging.
By George Performing (photo by me)
If I thought that the crowd was delighted by By George, then they were beyond thrilled for Late Notice. As the band walked out of the house, the crowd began pushing forward. Luckily, my friends and I were in the front so we were able to use the front porch/stage as support, but I made the mistake of lifting up my hands, so that’s where they stayed for the rest of the night.
Late Notice mostly played covers, but they also played a couple of unreleased originals. Sadly, the concert ran late, so the cops came and cut off Late Notice’s set halfway through. Even with an unfinished setlist, Late Notice did an amazing job.
Late Notice Setlist that my friend got
All around, the concert was an incredible experience. The bands did an amazing job performing, and the atmosphere at The Trailer Park was amazing. All of the people were incredibly nice, so despite almost falling over several times, I felt the safest I could possibly feel at a concert. If you ever get the chance, I would definitely recommend attending a concert at The Trailer Park; it’s an experience that you won’t forget.
March contains many of my close friends’ and family members’ birthdays, St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras, and spring break. One underrated March holiday is Pi Day, your local math-nerd’s favorite day. I love Pi Day because it’s existence poses the question: “What is the most insignificant thing we can make a holiday out of?” Pi (𝜋), if you’re unfamiliar, is an irrational number that is equivalent to the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It’s a cool math concept for a lot of reasons, one of which is that pi’s decimal form (3.142592…) never ends and it never falls into a repeating pattern. Thus, Pi Day falls on March 14 (3/14) to celebrate this phenomenon.
As someone who is more English/ History/ Humanities and Social Sciences inclined, this concept is something I still have trouble wrapping my head around. But, I love that we celebrate this number, and in order to contribute to the festivities, I compiled a playlist of 15 songs that (Spotify says) are 3 minutes and 14 seconds in length.
