arts // no. 8

theotherpress.ca

Arcade Fire's return to the Junos and more

> Nominations for the 2018 Juno Awards

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

he Juno Awards are coming back to
Vancouver, marking the first time
that the Junos will be here since 2009.

Burnaby’s own Michael Bublé
will be hosting this year, and if you
watched the previous times he hosted
the Juno Awards, you can expect that
he will do a great job this year. A lot of
Canadian musicians are famous around
the world today and the musicians
who are nominated this year consist
of both veterans and newcomers.

The nominations of the Juno Awards
were announced on February 6.

An important thing to know is that
the nomination count below includes
all the nominations, including the Fan
Choice Award, and is therefore different
from the official nomination count.

Jessie Reyez received the most
nominations for her mini album Kiddo,
with six nominations including Best
Breakthrough Artist. You might have
heard of Reyez when she performed
in the pre-show of the Much Music
Video Awards last year. She is also a
prominent spokesperson for Roots,
and is featured in many of their
storefronts. Many people are saying that
she is the next big thing in Canada.

The albums nominated for Best
Album this year are Arcade Fire’s
Everything Now, Johnny Reid’s Revival,

Michael Bublé’s Nobody But Me, Ruth B’s
Safe Haven, and Shania Twain’s comeback
album Now. Everything Now and Daniel
Caesar’s first album Freudian are tied
for most nominations, with five each.
While Arcade Fire’s next album
did not receive a lot of hype ast the
time it was released, it would not bea
surprise if it wins Best Album, and the
band could win a lot of awards like the
previous years they were nominated.
Daniel Caesar is very big in Canada
right now, although a lot of people
may not know his music. However,
Barack Obama is a big fan of Caesar
and has put his music on his iPod.
Abbotsford’s Hedley had four
nominations for their next album
Cageless, and one of the songs on it,
“Love Again,” sounds similar to The
Weeknd song “I Feel It Come In.”
However, given the recent allegations
of sexual misconduct against the band,
Hedley has been dropped from the show.
Safe Haven and Gord Downie’s last
album Introduce Yerself are both tied
with three nominations. Ruth B won
Best Breakthrough Artist last year, and
the rest of the album is great enough
that she could get Best Album this year.
Now received two nominations.
I thought that Now and Introduce
Yerself were going to get a lot of
nominations and that both stood
a chance to win Best Album.
The awards show this year will

   
 

contain a tribute to Downie, who
passed away last year due to brain
cancer. Also, the Barenaked Ladies
will be inducted in the Canadian
Music Hall of Fame with Steven Page
coming back to the group for the
occasion, which might lead to the band
reuniting and making more music.
The Juno Awards ceremony is not
the only event that will happen around
that time. Other events taking place
during Juno Week include Juno Fan

Fare, where
you can
meet your
favourite
musicians,

which is like the

event that the Canadian Screen Awards
does called Family Fan Day. Some of the
musicians that you might meet include

Grammy-winner Alessia Cara, Shawn

Mendes, and host Michael Bublé.

The Juno Awards this year in
Vancouver will celebrate Canadian
music and the show will feature
a West Coast look. The Junos air
March 25 at 5:00 p.m. on CBC.

Justin Timberlake's new album disappoints

> ‘Man of the Woods’ album review

Joshua Toevs
Senior Columnist

 

*

t has been a long time since Justin
Timberlake has released a full-

length project. He’s stayed relevant
since The 20/20 Experience - 2
out of 2 (2013) with “Can’t Stop the
Feeling” (2016), and people have been
clamouring for a new project.

The 20/20 Experience projects that
he released in 2013 were actually the
first two albums I decided to review
and post online. I enjoyed both projects
as they had interesting productions,
long track lengths, and beautiful vocal
harmonies. The question is: Can Justin
Timberlake recapture the imagination
and creativity on his new album?

In short, the answer is no. Man of
the Woods is bloated, campy, and lazy. A
lot of the songs bleed into each other in
terms of melodies, and everything sounds
dated. “Filthy” sounds like a first attempt
at industrial house mixed with rock. The
guitar work is reminiscent of terrible
’gos video game boss music. There are so
many electronic sounds going on that it is
really hard to find a groove for that track.

This is not an isolated problem for
the album. “Midnight Summer Jam”
features some of the most nauseating

drum loops of the past few years. His
vocals are nice and smooth, and when
Timberlake does his sing-rap, it usually
comes out well. “Sauce” sounds like
it was mastered in a basement using
GarageBand, while titular track “Man
of the Woods” sounds like a singalong
karaoke song that you only admit to
knowing after a few drinks in. The song
has an annoying siren sound effect
throughout and is mixed with a twangy
guitar piece. It is arguably the worst track
on this record, which is saying something.
There really isn’t much good that
comes out of this album. “Higher Higher”
is a sultry record with some jazz tones
that are very infectious, while the Alicia
Keys-featured “Morning Light” is breezy
and laid-back with a beautiful guitar
melody and island drums background.
Chris Stapleton’s soulful country
sound is the show-stealer from a vocal
standpoint on “Say Something,” and the
bassline on “Montana” is head-turning.
Overall, Timberlake sounds old and
out of touch. For an artist whose last
project was dense lyrically and forward-
thinking from a production standpoint,
he now sounds lost. The lyrics are surface
level and hollow, while production is all
over the place. Sometimes Timberlake
tries to be laid back, then transitions
into his more R&B side with the trap
samples, and finally switches into
country for the worst results of them all.
The record almost feels like

h \
I \nl OF THE Afespt

4

Timberlake realized he was performing
at the halftime show of the Super Bowl
and needed to rush out new music, so he
went into his vault and picked the best
of the worst that he had stashed away.

/

 

For the pretty-boy pop star, “Man of the
Woods’ is a terrible attempt at crafting
something new for his catalogue.

illustration by Cara Seccafien

‘Man of the Woods’ album cover