Smash Cut

Brian Litterer

  • Track Review: “Glass & Patron” – FKA Twigs

    Track Review: “Glass & Patron” – FKA Twigs

    Glass and Patron 2FKA Twigs recently released a music video for her track “Glass & Patron” earlier this past week for the YouTube Music Awards (YTMAs). I will start this review by stating something that I found to be overtly obvious – this song and more importantly this video are not for every viewer. This alternative music video and track take an extremely artistic standpoint that may not sit well with every viewer. I personally found myself left with both negative and positive sentiments towards this music video after the screen went black.

    This song is enigmatically enchanting in my own opinion. The dark imagery paired with Twigs’s lustful voice evokes a mysterious yet endearing quality that I particularly enjoyed. I have heard mixed reviews of this music video and track simply because music is and forever will be a subjective art. But I want to reiterate that even if you view this music video or track negatively, it is art nonetheless.

    I will admit that at first I found this video to be a little ostentatiously overwhelming, but I recognized that there are numerous positive things that come from this music video. Firstly, it is rather refreshing to see an artist truly stick with her own artistic views even if they may be misconstrued by the general public. Secondly, I have to say that Twigs and her dancers were quite fantastic with their choreography, and I certainly enjoyed that aspect.

    On the other hand, I feel as though her music video may have been a touch too busy in the sense that it seemed to distract you from the track itself. This may have been her intended goal as she did direct this video, but I felt like sometimes I was too distracted by the avant-garde tendencies of the video to truly listen to her lyrics. But ultimately who am I to dissect and critique another individual’s artistic vision without fully understanding her intentions while directing the music video.

    “Glass and Patron” has an ethereal sound to it that ultimately lead to my auditory entrancement, but my first viewing of her music video basically left me with a sense of confounded befuddlement diluted with just a modicum of “What the hell did I just watch?” But after watching the video a few more times I looked beyond the overtly avant-garde persona, and I started to actually enjoy it for what it was – an artistically charged video which transfuses dark, frenetic art with a truly mystifying song.

    Ultimately, I am glad that I was introduced to this song, artist, and music video by a friend of mine Courtney who is truly appreciative of the potentially veiled beauty within this music video and song. At first I was skeptical of the track when he played it, but I certainly found myself humming the lyrics long after the video ended. I look forward to hearing more of Twigs’s musical stylings and to see where her career goes because I truly can see that she is a talented visionary with an artistically idiosyncratic flair.

    While I don’t think you will be finding this song playing on every popular radio station, I do believe that this song and music video have a strong and rightful place in the hearts and music libraries of an individual appreciative of art that may not particularly suit every listener. If you are a proponent of avant-garde musical styling, dark art (not the Harry Potter kind), impressive dancing, or vogue-ing, then I certainly think “Glass & Patron” and FKA Twigs may just fit within your musical arsenal.

  • Me Before You Book Review — Jojo Moyes constructs a perfect tearjerking romance

    Me Before You Book Review — Jojo Moyes constructs a perfect tearjerking romance

    I could not help but be drawn to the novel Me Before You after a barrage of positive reviews from family and friends, and I was even more drawn to the novel when a movie adaptation was announced. The author of Me Before You, Jojo Moyes, conjures an idiosyncratic story that revolves around a protagonist, Louisa Clark, who has recently found herself unemployed. Edging closer to thirty, Clark finds a peculiar job as a caregiver to William Traynor who is a C5/C6 quadriplegic in his mid-thirties. Traynor suffered an accident in which he became predominately paralyzed throughout his body. He suffers to efficiently adapt to a life in which he has fallen from his career, lover, and independence.

    Moyes creates a story that is capable of filling your heart with pleasant optimism whilst simultaneously tugging on the old heart-strings with a fervor. I constantly found myself jostling between the humorous wit of the protagonist and the maudlin tones within the story. I found myself overcome with quite a few emotions ranging from contentment to heartbroken empathy. This novel sheds the light on the melancholy topic of what life is like for a quadriplegic, and how his accident not only drastically changes his life, but the life of those who love him.

    15507958I deeply admire a novel and author that is capable of instilling within the reader a sense of empathy and admiration towards the plight of an individual that society does not fully understand. A young man in the prime of his life is struck down from his good fortune, and he is sentenced to a life battling infections, immobility and, most difficultly, himself. We are personally transported into the home of a man who is now a recluse invalid and shown every private and painstaking facet of this man’s personal life.

    This story may not be for each and every reader, but I certainly recommend this novel to an individual who is appreciative of a medium-paced novel that can truly alter the way you view your daily life. I mean, how would we all feel if tomorrow we were incapable of even doing the most intimate tasks with autonomy? How embarrassed and self-conscious would we all feel if the admiring glances we once knew turned only to pitiful sympathy and eyeing curiosity? Moyes addresses on a fundamental and personal level what it is truly like to live a life where you are a prisoner in your own body. Robbed of his independence, Traynor traverses the emotional trauma he has endured since his accident, and we truly are exposed to a heartbreaking novel that explores the shattered pieces of a man’s life.

    I enjoyed reading this novel, and I even found myself smiling like a fool at some points of the story. I think Moyes deftly handles macabre subject matter with a sense of ease, and she is so capable of turning the story on a dime. I truly was unable to predict what emotion Moyes would evoke within me next. Therefore, I constantly found myself oscillating from jubilation to apprehension to sympathy while I read this story.

    Finally, what truly struck me as an amazing facet of this novel was the decision that ultimately all the characters were faced with. Following the idiom of “If you love something, set it free,” Moyes leaves the reader with one question. What should you do if what makes the person you love truly happy completely destroys your own happiness and heart? I found this philosophical question to be truly engaging and entertaining throughout the story simply because I would not know what I would do. Is it better to instill happiness in a loved one by going without, or shall you be selfish as long as you are content? It may seem to some like a simple answer, but I truly enjoyed the journey of one woman coming to her own conclusion on this emotionally charged question in Me Before You.