The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Various Artists
Various Artists | Republic | Release Date: November 17, 2014 | Review Period: November 30, 2014 - December 17, 2014
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Member Score
Universal Acclaim
based on 2 Reviews
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Experimental Top Critic Score
Not Reviewed
based on 0 Top Critics
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Summary: The soundtrack to the third Hunger Games film was curated by Lorde and features contributions from Diplo, Miguel, Charli XCX, Kanye West, and Lorde.
Record Label: Republic Genre(s): Various genres
Member Reviews
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Negative: 0
Top Critic Reviews
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Negative: 0
Overall Score (members + top critics): 81.5 (2 reviews)
If pop culture were a pool of gasoline, Beyoncé’s self-titled fifth studio album would be the burning match that was dropped on the night of December 13th, 2013. Combining audio and visuals, the BEYONCÉ album was a reminder of the multi-faceted way in which we interpret music and all the organic emotions and reactions that ensue. It was a master class in both marketing and artistry, with Beyoncé accomplishing a record which conveyed sex, jealousy, maternity and matrimony in one of the most compelling and authentic ways we’ve seen in recent memory. In contrast, 7/11, the lead single off the album’s re-release, represents something completely contrary – an ego-stroking, overly processed industry machine that the original album sought to defy.
Even at its most subversive, the original self-titled album was assertive. Long, meandering ballads like Rocket knew their direction; Haunted was captivating in structure. On the contrary, 7/11 sounds considerably more slapdash than the songs on the original LP. As little as it lacks structure, it also lacks direction. It’s discernibly an offcut from the original self-titled album, possessing less structural integrity than a poorly-cooked soufflé. Beyoncé’s vocals have never felt more processed, and the beautiful, sparse minimalism of the original album’s production has been displaced by a stuttering urban beat that sounds more predictable than it does visionary. Coming right off the bat from eclipsing all her other peers, Beyoncé manages to deliver a first draft concept demo for the ratchet moments on Rihanna’s Unapologetic.
At its worst, 7/11 represents something a lot more obnoxious to the whole self-titled album campaign. While the original release was a grand, audacious statement of the artist connecting directly to the fans, 7/11 and the remainder of the More EP contextualise BEYONCÉ as a product. They break the charade and remind us that commercial albums are products, designed to be sold by singles, maybe even a re-release conveniently placed in the holiday period. As a standalone work, BEYONCÉ was a stunning artistic statement. It was a beautiful creative fantasy which even for the smallest amount of time reminded us of the beauty of music; now, in all its numerical and auto-tuned glory, 7/11 reminds us that – as opposed to souls – albums are for sale.
Yeezus is Kanye West's sixth album. It's a play on words between Yeezy (Kanye's nickname) and Jesus.
Kanye who the general public sees as a selfish and arrogant rapper takes things even further in this album and proclaims himself as a God as he obviously doesn't care about what people think of him. The album gives us a glimpse in what makes Yeezy Jesus. For him, it's his money, his cars, the girls he sleeps with, the alcohol and the drugs.
Overall the album is very well crafted and continues to position Kanye as the biggest visionary of our generation.
The album is filled with distorted sounds, great one liners and racially charged lyrics that make the listener uncomfortable like in opener On Sight or New Slaves. In Black Skinhead, Kanye takes us in a Marilyn Manson fantasy but with responsible and protest like content and it showcases Kanye's flow. Yeezy was once criticized for not having a great rap delivery, people said he relied too much on autotune and Pop sounds but with Black Skinhead and I Am A God, he puts all the critics to shame.
Speaking of I Am A God, my favorite song from Yeezus, this song is just perfection, the beat is flawless and the lyrics are beyond. When you say that you're a God in a song, you better make sure that it's an undraggable song and oh boy, Kanye delivered. One of his best in years and I just don't have enough superlatives to describe it.
In New Slaves, the e-drum that leads the song is haunting and catchy and the lyrics are amazing with Kanye denouncing the government's shady business and racism in capitalism. The song or should I say masterpiece ends with an obscure sample and with Justin Vernon from Bon Iver singing beautifully. The juxtaposition between the hard racial tones at the beginning and the sweet ending would've been a mess if it was done by anyone else. This kind of unpredictability can also be noticed in I'm In It. Kanye layers his voice with his own autotuned voice and it's amazing. Then a nasty (in a good way) reggae verse kicks in before the song goes back to Kanye and Justin. On paper, this sounds like all over the place but only Kanye can pull something like this off and he does it brilliantly. This is just another example of how Kanye is ahead of everybody else and how he's pushing music boundaries further and by default making it better. And to whoever says that Kanye isn't ahead of his time just have to listen to his 2008 album 808 & Heartbreak to realize that's what Kanye contemporaries are doing now. Speaking of the Heartbreak album, Blood On The Leaves sounds like it comes straight from that album.
Another album highlight for me is Send It Up which is a super catchy club banger and as I've found out, a great work out song.
Pure Heroine is the debut album of Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor), co-written and produced with Joel Little and released in September 2013.
Following the release of The Love Club EP on Soundcloud in November 2012, Lorde planned to record a second EP.
With the interest in The Love Club EP growing, the plans for another EP grew into plans for a full album and Lorde ended up taking time off school to complete Pure Heroine. The album continues and expands on the sounds and themes from Royals and other tracks on the EP, with layered vocals and minimal instrumentation. The album is the creative work of just two people, Lorde and her producer who also co-writes and plays all the instruments. Lorde described her goal for the album was to create a “body of work that is cohesive”.
The album begins with the line “Don't you think that it's funny how people talk” on Tennis Court and ends with the line “Let 'em talk”, on A World Alone.
On the way, the songs cover themes of teenage life, fears of growing up, the desire to fit in, the role of the internet in culture and the joy of simple pleasures, like driving home through empty streets at sunrise, in 400 Lux and time spent with friends vs the emphasis placed on the symbols of wealth in pop and rap in Royals.
The focus on fear of growing up is also a metaphor for Lorde's own specific fears on what will happen when she has to perform in front of a larger audience, a fear she already addressed in Bravado on the The Love EP. But now the expectations are greater and in Still Sane she wonders what fame will do to her, whether she can still “stay good”?
This is a theme also mentioned in Tennis Court where she tells us she can remain true to her values. "Getting pumped up from the little bright things I bought. But I know they'll never own me".
There are minor weaknesses. The album could of have benefited from a greater sonic variety while still meeting the goal of creating a cohesive album.
There are some weaker lyrics too, such as the tumblr reference in White Teeth Teens, but this track makes up for it with one of the album's better lines in the bridge, “'ll let you in on something big: I am not a white teeth teen. I tried to join, but never did”. Other singers talk about joining the party with the cool kids, but Lorde tells us it's o.k. if we're not.
The stripped back production by Joel Little, puts the emphasis on vocals and lyrics. The main instrument here is Lorde's voice. This is a welcome change from the overproduction seen in some albums.
Now over a year later, this album is still a favourite and still a joy to listen to from beginning to end. This is one of the few albums where I'm not tempted to skip a track. If anything, my enjoyment has increased from listening/viewing her different live versions of the songs in concerts such as the Coachella festival and and her performance at Lollapalooza Brazil.
Lorde can produce an even better album in the future, but with Pure Heroine she has set the bar extremely high.
"I've never seen a diamond in the flesh," Lorde coolly intones over sparse beats and finger-snaps, on her now iconic chart-topping debut single "Royals." The first line of "Royals" is all you need to now about 'Pure Heroine' one of the most fully realized debuts from 2013. Lorde tosses out her line about diamonds without flinching or seeming to care at all; a move that immediately putting her at odds with the majority of the wealth and status obsessed nature of the majority of mainstream music. She establishes herself as an outsider from the get-go and goes on to use her debut to make pop music for people who don't like pop music.
Lorde's sparse beats most mimic hip-hop music, a genre well known for it's celebration of material success, the "gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom" alluded to on "Royals," or at the very least, Miley Cyrus's cheap approximation of hip-hop from her limp 'Bangerz.' Although Lorde uses hip-hop beats and pop structure on her debut to criticize those genres and how unrealistic they are, 'Pure Heroine' is still a pop album, filled with radio friendly songs like "Royals," "Team," and "400 Lux" that allows Lorde to speak directly to pop fans. The album excellently portrays Lorde as a unique artist, articulately and poetically singing about status or growing up or other issues the average teenager may be concerned with, with a well-defined voice and style, which contrasts from the typical generic pop debut. 'Pure Heroine' stands with other great debuts like 'The Fame' or 'Animal' that also lampoon the materialism of mainstream pop by using it as a backdrop for their songs and just like those albums 'Pure Heroine' has some weak points. "Team" while being a catchy pop song, suffers from being a catchy pop song about teamwork that comes across as just a little too sweet for the sound the majority of 'Pure Heroine' is going for. The occasional misfires are fine, Lorde is still a teenager, and as streamlined as 'Pure Heroine' is, there is still room for growth. It's a great debut, filled with excellent highpoints: "Buzzcut Season," :Glory and Gore," "Royals," "400 Lux," that established Lorde as an artist to look out for, but it is also a debut, one that can be improved upon and promises that there is much more to come.
One year later, Yeezus is Kanye West's most polarizing record. It's experimental brilliance to some and an abrasive disappointment to others, with very little middle ground. When listening to the record, it's easy to see why. The album is overloaded with shrill, borderline industrial beats, the sonic equivalent of frayed wires sparking and bleeding electricity during a power surge.
Rarely does a pop artist like Kanye have the following and backing to allow him or her to let loose and experiment on record to the extent that Kanye did and still have that album be released. The whole album is charged, violently, politically, and sexually. Nothing about the album is toned down and the album is all the more stronger for it. The relatively short period in which it was recorded and finished (Kanye was working on the album until the very last minute) helps to give the album a frantic and urgent environment as Kanye muses on race, social class, his love interest, and everything in between. Like the (nonexistent) cover and packaging, the whole album is stripped: of good taste (that line about sweet and sour sauce); of self-censorship (that whole stream-of-conscious bluntness on "Bound 2"); of any filter that would block whatever is on Kanye's mind or his huge ego from coming out.
'Yeezus' is not easy listening and not for everybody, but it is Kanye stripped down to his core, his "primal scream" as his collaborators, Daft Punk, put it and one of the most interesting, and best, albums of 2013.
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Few doubt that 2014 was anything less than stellar for Beyoncé. Her surprise release caught not only the general public off guard, but that charts as well as her self titled effort stormed the charts with hundreds of millions of copies in just days. This momentum carried through the early months of 2014 as lead single Drunk In Love powered up the charts to a #2 peak behind only Katy Perry's megasmash Dark Horse. Then the buzz faded. Follow up singles failed to make a dent on the charts as the novelty of the surprise release began to wear off. And now, a year later we're left with the aftermath of the phenomenon that was BEYONCÉ; a few bonus tracks and remixes. Tracks such as the Flawless Remix and Ring Off point only at a career that continues to spiral upward. Unfortunately, 7/11 is not one of those songs. Bey chants party-like lyrics over a tired dance beat in a way that never really climaxes or reaches a fantastic point. I was left tired of the track before my first listen was even complete, instead gravitating towards more satisfying songs such as the aforementioned Ring Off. To be certain, this song's future success will rely almost wholly on it's feel-good video and club power, and not on it's quality as a track like previous Beyoncé singles.
When I saw that atrlcritic was doing a throwback review for Pure Heroine, I just had to get in.
This album is beautiful, and I've been using as the backing track for my life since its release.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the project is its sonic aesthetic.
The production is stellar. I love that the arrangements are done over minimalist beats because the songs are a story.
The lyrics are a journey and the music matches that perfectly. Joel Little's production is to Lorde's writing what Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were to Janet Jackson, or William Orbit to Madonna.
They bring out the best in one another and can do no wrong together.
This is one of my favorite instrumentals from the album. It's so elegant and cinematic. I want it to play at the end of my biopic when I die from hearing Zayn's debut solo single for the first time.
It's also important that we touch on Lorde's songwriting, cause this lil heifa slayed.
She has the inept ability to take themes as supposedly vapid as ~fame or the ~teenage experience, and make them sophisticated with deft, poetic lyricism. Given the artist's age and background, and given the subject matter at hand, it's funny to think that if someone else of the same archetype had made this album it would've been another generic pop project that monotonously uses basic guitar chords and nursery rhyme schemes to talk about puppy love.
This could have been a Taylor Swift album, guys.
*I'll only write about my favorite tracks cause this is already a long ass review,
and I could literally talk about this album for decades.
It starts off with Tennis Court, a song which talks about her come up and offers the listener insight into her perception of what it means to have fame and fortune, contrasting it with her experience as a high school teenager growing up in the suburbs.
It's the perfect way to open up the album.
My favorite track (and Lorde's best song to date), Ribs, is about the thrill of being young and the idea that getting older is something that we look forward to (because we're afraid to die young) but also one that scares the **** out of us because in order for there to be growth and change, there has to be loss. My favorite part of the song is the outro because it perfectly encompasses the main idea of the song about clinging to innocence and does so without being wordy or pretentious. You're the only friend I need
We'll share our beds like little kids
and laugh until our ribs get tough,
but that will never be enough
Glory and Gore is a song that creates a kind of satirical contrast with being a teenager and being a gladiator. It ****ing slays. It's essentially the bad bitch anthem of the album. Lorde, her We Will Rock you, her Bow Down, her Clique. I mostly like this song for the production and the grittiness. Joel Little kinda thrashed my body with the breakdown and Lorde morphed into MC O'Connor for a second to spit a quick few bars on you hoes. Where does this leave Trina?
2:05 to get ya LIFE
Lastly I wanna touch on A World Alone just briefly. This track is kinda emotional for me (I'm corny, mmk) because it reminds me of someone I'm very close with. This one is pretty straightforward. It's about feeling outcasted by your peers but still having that one person who you share everything with and makes all of the bull that comes along with being a teen not seem so bad. It's the perfect way to close the album off, and it's tied with Ribs for my fave.
I was really excited to year Yeezus when it debuted last summer.
Kanye West has always been one of my favorite rappers and I was eager to hear what his
return to the music scene would bring. I shouldn't have been.
This album was a disappointment.
Dis. A. Pointment.
I had faith that he would come through with something amazing.
Something to get the bad taste of the disaster that is Cruel Summer out of all our mouths,
but no. He didn't.
He just gave us... this.
Kanye has always been a better producer than a rapper, and that is evident here in a way that it hasn't been before, and thank God because the only real saving grace of this value menu mixtape is the production. The synths, the drums and the effects he uses on his voice make for a really interesting dynamic and help distract from the corny rhymes.
The only songs on this album that are arguably good are the ones with the best production;
Black Skinhead, New Slaves, I'm In it, Blood On the Leaves and Bound 2 honorable mention to Hold My Liquor and Send It Up
Listening to this album for the first time, for me, was the equivalent of plugging your headphones into an electric pencil sharpener. The first track pretty much let's the listener know what they're in for and sets the tone for the storm of feces that awaits on the other nine tracks. Kanye West, sir. How dare you. After giving us musical genius on beats like Mercy, Flashing Lights, Barry Bonds, Hell of a Life and all of Watch The Throne... how dare you open up an album with the loud, tuneless insult to the concept of song that is On Sight. This is the absolute worst song that you have ever released in the course of your career. I'm almost offended that you played it back and thought to yourself "Damn, that's a dope ass track. My fans gon' go hard for this ****."
I just needed to get that out of the way. But , naw, I can't sit up here and act like I didn't get my coon ass life to about five out of these ten tracks. Once you learn ignore the contrived nature of Kanye rapping about "new slaves" while simultaneously feeding into the propaganda he's "exposing," or the ever present try-hard-to-be-intelligent shtick that fails miserably in lines like "keep it 300, like the Romans," the alberm really isn't so bad.
I'm In It is my favorite track at the moment because of that crisp production I was talking about earlier. This song is it. It bops, it's sexy and it makes you wanna jig like Bey in the DIL video.
The best part of the song without a doubt is at 2:10
Unh, picked up where we left off
Unh, I need you home when I get off
Unh, you know I need that wet mouth
Unh, I know you need that reptile
Before I jump on into this review, I wanna address all you uppity ass people out here with your invalid ass, unwanted ass opinions regarding this honey roasted bop. All y'all out there talmbout "This is garbage! It makes no sense!"
UM. MAYBE BECAUSE IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO?? "The lyrics don't go anywhere!" They aren't supposed to "It's repetitive!" It's supposed to be "It sounds ratchet!" It's supposed to
Now that we've all exercised basic comprehension skills and come to the realization that Beyonce clearly did not go into the studio and yell over this trap beat thinking she was about to create a groundbreaking piece of music let's review.
If someone asked me to describe this song with one word, I would say fun.
I knew from the moment the snippet leaked that this was gonna be one of those wild, nonsensical uptempo tracks that I would be running around in my socks acting a loon to, and the fact that the theme of the video is that exact same thing just makes it so much more enjoyable. I LIVE for this kind of buffoonery.
When you listen for this song and simply take it for what it is, you can start to fully enjoy it,
and if you pay close attention you can hear that there's so much going on.
This beat is TEA, first of all, and then there's so much happening in the background with Bey emphasizing random different parts by shouting them a second time and all the "oohs" and "aahs."
Which leads me to my favorite part of the song.
What is it, you ask?
The part where she puts up? Her foot up?
Where she stands up? With her hands up?
Where she didn't drop that alcohol?
Where she kicked it with ya?
Where she spun?
No. The best part of the song starts at 2:35 when Mrs. Carter lets you hoes know that SHE KNOW YOU CARE and then proceeds to slip into a sultry vocal harmony which adds to her earlier point about her knowledge that you care and the beat makes a seamless transition into a smooth, ethereal outro
Then she went and spit a nasty 16 on you gals
Ooowee Bey be freaky deaky
Think me see she pink bikini
Rock that groovy dye dashiki
Nefertiti, edges kinky
Sweatin' out my blow out
Sweatin' out my press
Trick about to go off
Mad cause I'm so fresh
Fresher than yoooooou
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