Author: Alicia Ardelli

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Music Quickspins

Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me

Demi Lovato – Tell Me You Love Me (Island, 2017)

Demi Lovato’s sixth studio album, Tell Me You Love Me, delivers all of what we expect from the 25-year-old pop-princess: captivating, powerhouse vocals laced with soulful spunk strewed across 12 R&B-inspired tracks. Contrary to Lovato’s fifth album, Confident, this LP falls flat with the lack of booming, energetic tracks. They’ve been substituted with slow, entrancing beats, such as “Lonely” and “Only Forever.” The second half of the album features mostly laidback, deep-cutting ballads, such as “Concentrate” and “Hitchhiker.” Nevertheless, Tell Me You Love Me will have you snapping your fingers and bobbing your head along to the music, whether it’s to the fast-paced, unapologetic “Sorry Not Sorry” or the emotionally-charged melodies of “Only Forever.”

Trial Track: “Tell Me You Love Me”

8.2/10

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Quickspins

The National – Sleep Well Beast

The National – Sleep Well Beast (2017, 4AD)

Four years since their last album release, indie-rock band The National is back with their seventh and most progressive album yet, Sleep Well Beast. While there are tinges of optimism weaved throughout much of the tracks, The National stays true to its signature gloomy vibe, due in part to lead singer Matt Berninger’s smooth, baritone voice. Aside from the group’s usual use of sleek guitar riffs and steady drum beats, Sleep Well Beast dabbles in electronic experimentation, adding to Berninger’s despairing lyrics of fear and anxiety. “I’ll Still Destroy You” explores much of this new electronic sound, while “Day I Die” displays the uncompromising nature of the band. The complexity and cutting honesty flowing from the LP creates a stone-cold yet soulful concoction of pleads and hopes for the future.

Trial Track: “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness”

8.2/10

Categories
Music Quickspins

Aquilo- Silhouettes

Aquilo- Silhouettes  (Island Records, 2017)

Aquilo’s debut album, Silhouettes, is the vessel that will send you sailing through dreamland with its lush, melancholic melodies. The British indie-pop duo mends and shatters hearts with smooth falsettos and cool electronics. The opening track, “Silhouette,” has a nostalgic vibe and serves as a reflection on the duo’s past, as they think through doubts about their future. “All I Ever Wanted” and “Human” deliver enchanting harmonies fit for those misty evenings spent reflecting on the wrong paths taken in life. Written as a love letter, “Waiting” is sung with a heavy heart but with a great deal of hope for a reunion with a lost lover. The tempo of the album picks up a little with “Complication” and “Never Hurt Again” which reverberate a sentimental but uplifting kind of funk. In its entirety, Silhouettes is a beautiful ode to the broken-hearted and the hopeful.

Trial Track: “Silhouette”

Score: 8.5/10

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