Hello.
The other day I went to a gallery opening and saw a show that I did not like.
I really liked this song I heard the other day.
Today I decided it might be time to ball out...
As a result of my natural hater instincts I'm historically more articulate when critiquing as opposed to singing praises, but I think that the imbalance has grown too great. That's why I've decided to write about a song I like for this blog post.
I also wrote about some different stuff that I didn't like for good measure.
Atlgrandma's first track in nearly a year, released following his departure from Atlantic Records, is a classic pop song about the trials and tribulations of a not-quite-perfect relationship. The bouncy drum track and bright guitar melody create the perfect backdrop for a series of ironic spoken word verses about two people that are too cool for each other. As he so eloquently states in the chorus, "If there's nothing better to do, I'll spend my life with you." If you're feeling a bit of angst this week, I'd recommend throwing this track on.
Beyond the lyrics, Thin Ice finds strength in a few non-traditional pop moments that appear in its otherwise standard pop composition. The arpeggiated guitar melody which first cuts through the poetry let the audience know that grandma is coming with more than just a catchy chorus.
The video is also cool.
My favorite lyric: "No NDA comes between us when we talk through the speakers/ It's taxing/ Move it offshore"
Ryan Whelan at Pt.2 Gallery, The River Can Run:
I found The River Can Run to be overcrowded with works that did not deliver enough substance individually to be worth their presence. The shows primary theme, the cyclical and continuous nature of time, is wielded like a crude cudgel which beats the viewer to death as they are shown the same image over and over again. As much as this approaches the tongue in cheek act of forcing the audience to experience the aforementioned theme, there is nothing to indicate that the artist is in on the joke. A print where the same text repeats three times placed in a room with five identical rotating spirals lead us only to a feeling of intense heavy handedness.
This show's upsides were a few disparate aesthetic victories; there were a handful of tastefully rendered impressionistic vignettes, as well as a funny machine which piloted a mannequins head around a short track. Unfortunately, many of these pieces felt disconnected from the works that most drove the artist's intent forward, leaving them feeling more like clutter than contribution.
If I was to bestow a Manhattan Art Review-style rating to this show, I would give it 2.5/5 stars.
Ok. Bye.
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