Tag: review

'For a student work the topics discussed are close to home. It’s why the promise of a grounded and tender depiction of undeniably important years works so well. The piece made me feel like that time could be a bit more real, and so a bit more manageable.'

"Listening to 'Chinatown' and '45', the first two singles from Bleachers’ latest album Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night takes me right back to eighth week of my first term at Oxford. I spent that week wrapped up in a big grey coat and scarf (channelling Dark Academia as best I could), taking Main Character walks around the city, reading in the cafes that had finally opened again, and, most importantly, dealing with a lot of messy emotions that had been building up all term."

"Monsters takes the listener on a whirlwind tour of raw human emotion. Whether you love or hate Odell’s marmite exposition of various moods, the album clearly provides something for everyone."

"Lost Connection, as a production, effectively memorialises the issues and troubles that lockdown caused all of us, whether in the world of performance or not."

'Spencer’s script never tries to be overly clever or conceptual, instead relying on its innately heartfelt character development and engaging humour.'

"I didn’t sit back and enjoy the show. And I ended up with a lot more opinions than I had ever expected four pieces of 21st-century choreography to evoke." Patrick Gwillim Thomas discusses the Royal Opera House's newest choreography project.

"The energy is less mosh pit, headbanging, and more vulnerable. There’s talk of heartache and relationships crumbling" Poppy Atkinson Gibson finds a different side to the Australian trio, Chase Atlantic, in their latest release, "Beauty in Death".

""Great Spans of Muddy Time" finds Doyle in new realms of abstraction, with a record that can feel formless, sometimes almost messy." Frank Milligan ruminates on William Doyle's latest release.

"The Arnolfini Portrait was an intricate, sophisticated project with a controlled yet bold execution. Every element of sound was carefully considered, and I took great satisfaction in being guided along Jean’s journey through the various mediums of sound." Beth Ranasinghe reviews the audio production of "The Arnolfini Portrait" by The Industry Magazine Podcast.

"The lack of interaction prescribed by the online format forbids conversation between Lana and her audience, a blockage that’s mirrored by the cited words’ failure to offer clarity on Lana’s lost life events". Eleanor Zhang reviews the online production of These Quicker Elements.

"The potentially risky decision to produce a Spanish album to a predominantly English-speaking fanbase reflects Uchis’ consistent commitment to be authentic to herself." Ellie-Jai Williams explores Uchis’s brave Spanish new album, "Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)."

"The intense and nuanced performances, the queasy mix of fear and fury palpable with a small glimmer of hope, made Oxford’s Orestes a very capturing play." Marietta Kosma reviews The Oxford Greek Play's production of Euripides' tragedy "Orestes".

"Howard has somehow transformed the usually significant divide between the ominous and the amusing into a fine line." J Daniels takes a look into folk singer Ben Howard’s latest album.

"Production is not the greatest sin ‘Holy’ commits. Indeed, I actually really like the gospel piano that kicks the song off, and Justin’s opening verse (“I know a lot about sinners/guess I won’t be a saint”) and pre-chorus (“the way you hold me… feels so holy”), while nothing special, definitely fit and set the mood. Yet, this is immediately ruined by the lyric “Oh God/Running to the altar like a track-star”, which, accompanied by the muddy-too-modern pop bass farting through the timeless instrumentation preceding, wrecks the song beyond all recovery." Raman Handa reviews 'Justice', the latest offering from Justin Bieber.