Welcome to “Cut Through the Noise,” an entertainment column from the St. Louis Park Echo covering new music releases. Every week, a different Echo staffer takes on the role of writer, reviewing recent single releases from a variety of artists.
Omar Apollo — ‘Live For Me’ ★★★★☆
With the release of another album from Omar Apollo, “Live For Me,” both an album and single, shocks people with its meaningful lyrics. I had low expectations with this EP but he didn’t miss with this single. The lyrics in “Live For Me” show his feelings so well and represent the pain he’s feeling with such passion. He shows blunt honesty with lyrics such as “you told me you won’t live too long and I wish I could say something to change.” It’s not often that you see artists talk about mental health struggles so bluntly and it is a nice change of pace to see and hear this. Not only does he show his feelings with such devotion but the rhythm of the song fits the lyrics and meaning of the song perfectly. “Live For Me” has a slow, meaningful rhythm that demonstrates a yearning pain that he shows in the lyrics. The rhythm has a slow presence but an upbeat that keeps the song hopeful. This song and EP came out at the perfect time as it fits the turning weather — the cold weather pairs perfectly with the yearning, melodic song.
Claire Rosinkranz — ‘Wes Anderson’ ★★★☆☆
Young artist on the rise Claire Rosinkarnz has released her first album after five years of releasing only singles and EPs. After rising to fame after her famous single “Backyard Boy,” she continued to produce music and now has a 13 song album. The first song on the album I listened to was “Wes Anderson,” and it gave me a load of different emotions. My initial reaction was that I didn’t like it at all. The beginning of the song is very whiny and the vocals felt very forced. However, as I continued to listen, the song grew on me. The first thing I noticed that I really liked was the lyrics. She titled the song “Wes Anderson,” but only mentioned him in the opening line “now let me set the picture like Wes Anderson.” At first, I thought this was weird because usually the title is in the chorus, but then I understood what she was doing. In the rest of the song she made comments that are common characteristics in Wes Anderson films. For example, later in the song she says, “give yourself a moment, count one, two, three. Moments are fleetin’.” Wes Anderson films commonly have uncomfortably long pauses which I believe is what the song was talking about. I thought these connections were very clever and it raised my enjoyment of the song despite my dislike for the vocals early in the song. I also enjoyed the steady beat throughout the song. It flowed well with the lyrics and kept the song lively. It did get a little boring as the song continued, as it’s the same beat over and over and there’s nothing new that gets introduced. Overall, I did enjoy this song but small things made it annoying and repetitive.
Drake Feat. J. Cole — ‘First Person Shooter’ ★★★★☆
After a highly anticipated wait for Drake’s new album “For All the Dogs,” there have been some good surprises and some disappointments. One of the bigger surprises that I found within the album is the song “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole. As a fan of J. Cole, I feel like he really shined in this song. The Drake and J. Cole duo really does work well. It would be hard for one to take the backseat of his own song but Drake did exactly that, while J. Cole took the reins on this one. The beat in this song was really good as it flowed well throughout the song, giving Drake and J. Cole their times to shine. Within the single they made many shoutouts, such as mentioning the Super Bowl, which I’m assuming is a homage to his upcoming performance in the Super Bowl party. He even mentions the feature in the song, J. Cole, which I feel is necessary as he carried “First Person Shooter.” Despite some small connections within the lyrics, they felt rushed and meaningless. The message of the song was unclear and erratic. In the end I did really enjoy “First Person Shooter” but I wished that the lyrics would convey the message more clearly.
