THE BADABOOK

How is your self-quarantine so far? I always hope that you all are in good condition, stay at home and don't forget to wash your hand, and also don't forget to maintain your mental health because it is as important as your physical health, too. It’s been two months I’ve been stuck inside my house because of course I obeyed the PSBB rules and I’ve been doing a lot of stuff like working at home, writing thesis, writing reviews, watching films, listening to music, playing games, reading books, and rebahan. What else to do? I don’t know. Just stay at home, do something fun, learn a new skill, make a new habit, or something that makes you feel good and useful during the quarantine. Long story short a couple of days ago, I stumbled upon one independent horror-thriller/black comedy film that really intrigued me. It’s called VIVARIUM. It actually released last year, maybe for film competition admissions or something and finally it is widely released on 27 March 2020. Starri...

I want to make a confession: Neither I actually ever heard of this artist before nor knowing her previous discography. I found this album accidentally on my Spotify and I thought I might need to spice up my 2020 album playlist. At first I thought this would be that generic pop/R&B album made by an indie artist in order to get into the mainstream music. I know I was so wrong! Little research: this is a debut album from Rina Sawayama. It was released on 17 April 2020 through Dirty Hit Label. it has 13 songs with total duration of 43 minutes. I really didn’t know what to expect from this album, but I could sense that it would be an experimental album. The album starts with “Dynasty”, a pop song blends with nu-metal concept like something Evanescence would make. The intro starts with strings, a horn – it sounds really oriental then shifts to rocking sound and it really fits with her soprano vocal. The lyric mainly talks about the issues of the family – internal conflicts, how pain ...

One of the most anticipated albums of 2020, Dua Lipa finally released her sophomore album Future Nostalgia . It is actually quite tragic and heartbreaking to find out that the album was released a week earlier because it was leaked by her fans in terms of “we really need that album ASAP!”. That was a disrespectful thing to do to your favorite artists. Aside from that, the album was also released during the mass-quarantine to prevent COVID-19 outbreak much further, and indirectly, it will certainly impact the physical album sales. Be strong, Dua! The concept that Dua offers with this album is simple: to feel nostalgic by bringing the disco back but with all new, fresher sounds. I can say that she truly delivered this concept pretty great throughout the album. All 11 songs have their own personalities and references to certain singer’s signature sounds like Outkast, Prince, and even Madonna. It is such a fun album to groove to or to dance to, especially during the time like this...

From “she never need a man, she what a man need” to “never need a bitch, I’m what a bitch need”. From a tale of  Snowchild  in a mission to reach a dream to  Escape From LA.  The Weeknd is back to give us that specific feeling of promiscuity, loneliness, and excessiveness with his new album  After Hours . It is the follow-up album of his extended play,  My Dear Melancholy  which was released in 2018 with  Call Out My Name  as the first single of the EP. After Hours is primarily produced by The Weeknd himself with some help from other producers like Metro Boomin, DaHeala, and Ilangelo. There are several things that I noticed. The first thing that I noticed from listening this album was the change of direction that The Weeknd took. The R&B elements are still there with a little bit touch of new wave which will remind you of 80s era and back to his darker sound. The other thing that I also noticed was that he brought a new persona i...

2019 was a great year for music. You named it, Billie Eilish and Sigrid released their impressive debut album, FKA twigs came back with her second album, James Blake's love album, and even Ariana Grande paved her way as the 2019 pop culture with her groundbreaking Thank U, Next . Then, came Lana Del Rey with her newest album, Norman Fucking Rockwell! dropped on the last day of August. She actually teased us with a couple of songs before the album release, including the cover of Sublime's Doin Time and we knew the album would be her best yet and turned out, it was her best work so far and one of the best albums that released on 2019. The question would be, why is it so good? Wait, good is an understatement. Let's change that into what makes it so great?  The album consists of 14 songs clocked at one hour and 7 minutes. It's not her longest album (Lust For Life has 16 songs, can't you believe that?!) yet it has this distinctive sound that differs from he...