Album Review: Little Machines

I believe that this is the first album review that I've ever done on my blog, and so I figured that I would start with a really good one. The album that I'm reviewing is called Little Machines, and is by the Canadian musician Lights. I have been familiar with much of her music for a while, but it was only until recently that I began listening to some of the songs on her newest album.
I was not disappointed; several of the songs on this album became stuck in my head (in the best way possible) after only listening to them a few times. One aspect of Little Machines that I really find pleasing is the mix of well-written and heartfelt lyrics put to catchy, electronic-pop music. I find that most lyrically deep songs today are often quite melancholic while upbeat songs are often very lyrically shallow, but this album forms the perfect bridge between the two. You can lyrically relate to the songs, but the music provides a catchy and upbeat accompaniment to them.
I really do like all of the tracks on this album, but I would say that my personal favorites are Speeding (track 5), Muscle Memory (track 6), and Lucky Ones (bonus track 13). If you are at all familiar with this album, or the artist Lights in general, let me know what your thoughts are in the comment section.

Artist: Lights

Genre: Pop/synthpop

Number of Songs: 11 (plus 3 bonus tracks)

Release Date: September 19, 2014

My Rating: ★★★★☆

Movie Review: Divergent

I guess I should begin this review by saying that I have never read any of the Divergent books, which this movie is based on. I don't know if reading them would have made me enjoy this movie any more or less, but putting this fact aside I do know exactly how I felt about the film.
To begin I'll give a quick synopsis of what the movie Divergent is about. Basically, it takes place in a future society where five different factions exist. The main character of the film, Beatrice, does not fit into any of the five factions, thus making her a divergent. Ultimately her identity as a divergent is compromised and her life is in danger due to this. The climax of the movie occurs when the leader of one of the factions, Jeanine, attempts to overtake the entire society by taking control of the members of Beatrice's faction and controlling their actions. Since Beatrice is a divergent, she is unaffected and must stop Jeanine.
Okay, now for the review itself. The movie Divergent failed on so many levels for me, from the sub-par and predictable plot to the hardly formidable villain that Kate Winslet portrayed. The entire time I was watching Divergent, I was conscious of the fact that I was always waiting for something else to happen that would really pull me into the story line or the characters in some way, but this never happened. None of the characters seemed to click, and their relationships with each other were not believable to me as a viewer. Even the main romance between Beatrice and the character Four seemed very unnatural to me, and was also very predictable.
I feel like I basically spent 2 hours waiting for more to happen. Even during the action scenes in Divergent, it never felt like enough was going on. To sum up all of my feelings about this movie, I would say that it's a stagnant story line featuring unconvincing character relationships, all put to a really bad-ass soundtrack (my one praise for this movie). Overall I would not recommend Divergent.

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Science Fiction/Action

Run Time: 139 minutes

Release Date: March 21, 2014

My Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

How Time Has Changed

I am sitting at my desk right now, pondering what to write. My last blog post was a week and a half ago, and I really want to stick to my New Year's resolution of posting once a week to this blog. So far I think I've done pretty well in fulfilling this goal, so I want to see it through at least until 2015 rolls around.
I suppose I will write about time. Time is a funny thing, isn't it? It exists, but it is not a tangible object that us humans can take over and control. When you step back and think about what time is, the only thing that comes to my mind is a bunch of numbers and units of measure that don't really seem necessary. Yes, our modern world of today completely revolves around time as we know it, but for life to continue to function, time is meaningless.
The human rhythms of sleeping, eating, hunting and gathering; essentially everything that our ancestors did, used to be based on when it felt right internally. When an individual was tired, they slept. When someone was hungry, they ate. But today, we seem to make a clock be the center of all of our natural actions. We assign bedtimes for our kids, we eat at specific times of the day, and we start classes and jobs at the same time each morning. Our modern technology, although they are absolutely incredible inventions, are also causing humans to become even more detached with their "internal time" too. You could say that it started with the light bulb, which began to interfere with the natural darkness that parallels with when our bodies should be going to sleep.
I guess to end this long ramble of a post, I will say this: what time is today is most certainly not what it was during Neanderthal times. We have changed from using the natural timing of the sun, stars, moon and our physical instincts to a modern system of days, hours, minutes, etc. Which is better? I don't know if there is an answer to that question. What I can say is that in our world today, we place such an emphasis on time, when if you really step back and look at the big picture, it seems almost ridiculous. Anyway, these are just some thoughts of mine. Give your own thoughts and opinions on time in the comments!

Really, just what IS time? . . .

The Narcissism Of Humanity

Humanity is narcissistic. We all seem to have an obsession with our own endeavors and achievements as human beings. A great example is the thousands of tourists that each year flock to places like the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, or even more modern icons like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Even the cities that we build over generations have come to be revered as magnificent feats of the human race.
Okay, let me back up a little bit. What got me thinking about this topic in the first place was a recent article on National Geographic (read it here), which was about how tourists are flocking to Pripyat, a city located in Ukraine. For any of you that do not know, this city was located very close to the Chernobyl power plant that suffered a catastrophic nuclear accident in 1986. Due to this, Pripyat was evacuated and subsequently became a ghost town, where no one returned due to the lingering radiation in the area. But now, apparently, tourists are starting to trickle back into this town.
So, I got wondering why this was happening. Why exactly do so many people have a hankering to go see a town that was destroyed by a terrible disaster? I think that it is directly related to what I was talking about in the first paragraph of this post. Along with our utter fascination of human glory and achievement, we are as equally, if not more fascinated by the downfall of humanity as well. Ghost towns, disaster zones, and other similar locations are becoming tourist destinations because we can't seem to bring ourselves to look away. Anyway, let me know what you think about all of this in the comment section.

What Makes A Great Movie?

What element can move a film beyond the point of being simply good and bring it to the point of amazing? There are obviously a ton of elements that help to make a good movie, such as the acting, special effects, story line, and even just the overall organization of the movie. But I really think that for me, the music plays an especially huge role in launching a movie to another level.
The music is what sets the mood for each and every scene within a movie; suspense, action, emotional moments, everything. When you think about it, a movie with no soundtrack would be void of most of the emotions that come along with watching a movie.
I'll give you some examples: the first is the 2013 science fiction movie Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise. As a movie in general, it's pretty good but in my opinion nothing out of the ordinary. It's the visual effects and, for me, the music especially that really make this film great. If you want a great example of how music can influence a movie, give Oblivion a watch sometime soon.
A second example of the influence that music has on a movie can be heard in virtually every horror/suspense thriller ever made. Just think about how the music always begins softly and builds in intensity as the climax of a scene is about to occur. It's this precise manipulation of sound that makes us as viewers jump out of our seats when something unexpected or scary happens on-screen.
Yet another example is in the form of movie trailers. In order to market a movie well and make it appeal to people, trailers always feature an epic song that accompanies the best scenes taken from the film. In many cases, I've found that the trailer for a movie is actually a lot better than the film itself. Take this trailer for the 2014 film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, posted below. I've seen this movie, and it wasn't half bad, however the trailer builds it up to be an epic masterpiece. This is done by using the song I'd Love To Change The World by Jetta that, combined with the clips taken from the film, creates a certain epic intensity that forces you to become sucked into what's happening on screen. Just think how you would respond to this trailer if it didn't have music. It would probably be pretty boring, right? Anyway, take a look and see what I mean:



This all being said, music clearly plays an incredibly massive role in making a movie great, and also in marketing it to viewers. I don't at all want to demote the other facets of a film, because in a way they are just as important as the music. But I think that the soundtrack to a film is what puts the life, soul and emotion into a motion picture. Anyway, these are my thoughts on music in movies. Let me know what you think in the comments.