The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 5
Losing my (and
your) religion
Barely escaping
the 'Drought'
let fo
betwe
Englis
in the
It's ab
Tha
we ha
Golde
pass,"
based
book
by
atheis
Pullm
in th
"The
tles o1
by C.
laced N
Wit
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about
ideas
respo
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hates
a little
Je
ha:
m
uess what Hollywood's and Mr. Tumnus = I don't know,
latest controversy is? let's say the Apostle Peter.
No, it's not a star- And on the other side, if
und shooting up heroin you think the entire religious
en her toes. No, it's not an upbringing of your child can
hman playing Superman be undone with two and a half
"Justice League" movie. hours of magical dust and fight-
out armored polar bears. ing polar bears, your belief
at's right - in one corner system must be a little shaky.
ive "The Especially now that any sem-
In Com- blance of religious references
a movie has been stripped from the film,
on a 7 there's nothingeven leftto com-
series plain about. Now it's just going
notable tobe a shitty fantasy movie star-
t Philip ringthe cast of "Casino Royale"
an, and and Nicole Kidman just like
e other PAUL "Chronicles" was a shitty fan-
Chroni- TASSI tasy movie starring four British
f Narnia" kids and a giant CGI lion. But for
S. Lewis, 8-year-olds, both will probably
with Christianthemes. be their greatest experience of
:h the impending release the fall, so let them have it.
ie Golden Compass," con- This debate extends far past
d parents are up in arms these two movies. Remember
the books' anti-religious how "Happy Feet" was sup-
(the series is allegedly a posed make us want to come out
nse by Pullman to Lewis's to our parents as gay? Remem-
nicles," which the author ber how "Charlie and the Choc-
passionately). Apparently olate Factory" was supposed to
e girl goes on a quest for make us want to experiment
with LSD? Remember how the
feathers spelled out "SEX" in
"The Lion King"? All right,
sus has long maybe that last one is true, but
the problem of stupidity in par-
ir, lions have ents is reaching new and epic
heights lately.
Lanes. Don't The "Compass"-vs.-"Narnia"
debate just highlights the fact
you see? that people like to fight just
for the hell of it. Does anyone
really believe their kid is going
to start professing his love for
magic powder and has to Jesus after Aslan rises from the
y the evil Magisterium, dead? If you're a Christian and
is supposed to represent want to explain the whole story
urch. Parents are calling to your child to reinforce your
oycott of the film because beliefs, that's great. But if you're
e books' anti-religious an atheist, just leave it alone -
s, although all religious trust me, your kid won't figure
nces have been stripped it out by himself.
the movie amid fears of As for "Compass," there's no
ution from said parents. need to boycott it. Just because
s sum up this debate: It's one old English guy hated
another old English guy doesn't
en are parents going to mean the message is going to
that subliminal themes translate when a Hollywood
affect the minds of chil- screenwriter massacres the
When atheist parents original book with a Sharpie.
ained about the religious Unless you're going to see the
s in "Chronicles," did they film in a bizarre world, chances
think their 4-year-olds are good will still be fighting
oing to have the under- evil, and there's no reason to
ng to grasp the complex read any more into it than that.
ian allegory? Your kids won't renounce
e there is nothing overtly their faiths. I promise.
Lil Wayne keeps
repackaging the
same, albeit solid,
material
By ANTHONY BABER
Daily Arts Writer
Lil Wayne has been hustling
all summer, but instead of push-
ing rocks, he's been pushing mix-
tapes. Da Drought 3 should've been
enough to keep
any Weezy fan *
hooked on his
hypnotic flows W
and far-fetched Lii Wayfle
metaphors until The Drought
Tha Carter 3 is Over Part 4
was released, The Empire
but thanks to an
unexpected leak
of the long-awaited album, things
changed. Not only did Wayne
release Tha Carter 3 Sessions with
tracks set to be on the album and
announce he would be recreating
the whole album, but he followed it
with The Best Rapper Alive and The
Carter Meets The Cartel.
And just whenthere were enough
Lil Wayne mixtapes to make your
head spin, he raises the stakes with
The DroughtIs Over Part 4.
The big question on this latest
collection is how much more con-
tent can the man release? With so
many mixtapes and a prospective
album still in the works, how much
can you say without getting repeti-
tive?
It's still the Lil Wayne you know
and love. There isn't much new to
the style and flow of the Louisi-
ana native. It's rife with screwed
and chopped production as well
as modified verses from Ludacris
on "Fatty Girl" and Wayne's own
lyrics from "Fireman." Though
these cookie-cutter mainstream
beats should be getting old by now,
Weezy has somehow been able
to maintain fanatical interest by
using totally unlikely samples, like
Beyonce's "One Night Only" from
"Dreamgirls."
Using tracks intended to be on
a studio album is a double-edged
sword because he has to make Tha
Carter 3 from scratch, but he also
get some excellent collaborations
out of it. "Burn This City" is a hard
and destructive track featuring
Twista contributing his swift lyr-
ics over the heavy guitar riffs and
sample ripped from Franz Ferdi-
nand. A surprise triumph is "Get
Too Comfortable" with veteran
R&B soothsayer Babyface. Kanye
West loops the closing string
ensemble on Alicia Keys' "U Don't
Know My Name" for a smooth
and catchy beat that makes up for
Wayne's scattered lyrics.
Atcertain pointsyou realize that
Lil Wayne's metaphorical index
is running low when he's saying
Old lyrics, new beats, same Wayne.
things like "I'm still spittin / Like
I ate a grenade," or that same old
hook where he repeats "I'm a beast
/ I'm a dog." He's definitely getting
repetitive since half of the songs
sound like old lyrics strapped to
new beats.
And whoever told Lil Wayne he
should sing - and not only that,
but add a synthesizer to his vocals
- should've kept his mouth shut.
On "Rider," "Money, Cars, Clothes"
and "I Like It," Wayne attempts
to give rapping the backseat and
try to croon his way through the
COURTESY OFTHE EMPIRE
tracks. It doesn't work. It might for
T-Pain or Chris Brown and even
Lloyd who can get away with it, but
Weezy just needs to stick with the
flow.
The Drought Is Over Part 4 is
really nothing special - just anoth-
er Lil Wayne mixtape. But the good
thing about Weezy's mixtapes is
that they're always solid. He's been
working his ass off in the studio
producing quality music, and he
shows no signs of stopping. Is his
style completely worn out? I'll tell
you after Da Drought 86.
some r
destro
which
the ch
for a b(
of th
theme
referer
from
retribs
Let'
stupid
Wh
learn
don't
dren?
comply
theme,
really
were g
standi
Christ
Sinc
preach
book),
have to
on the
who st
Jesus,
Prefuse's creativity marred by excess
y about the movie (or the
even full-grown adults
tread far into it to pick up
analogy. For those of you
till don't get it, Aslan =
the White Witch = Satan
- Tassi needs someone to
help him decode "The Land
Before Time." Someone said it
was pro-Darwin. E-mail tassi@
umich.edu and have at it.
By GABRIEL BAKER
Daily Arts Writer
On his fourth studio album
under the Prefuse 73 moniker,
Guillermo Scott Herren attempts
to recreate the exhilarating, chaot-
ic smorgasbord he
found on the fan- **
tastic One Word
Extinguisher, but PMefuse 73
the end result is
so bloated it's not Preparations
digestible. Warp
For the past six
years, Herren has
been at the forefront of the glitch-
hop genre, weaving bent-circuit
drums and digital signals through
a hip-hop framework. Since mak-
ing a name for himself with a jazzy,
sample-heavy debut, Prefuse has
produced a string of albums that
have helped define glitch hop.
Unfortunately, this album shows
the genre's potential for disaster.
What makes One Word Extin-
guishersosatisfyingishowsurpris-
ing its fragmented vocal samples
and synth spurts are. Just listen
to the awesome segue from "The
Wrong Side of Reflection (Intro)"
to "The End of Biters - Interna-
tional."
The intro to Preparations
doesn't surprise or lead to a banger.
Instead, it fast-forwards, rewinds,
puts vocals on top of vocals and
then deflates - and all of this in
32 seconds. The album follows
suit; songs swell up with clashing
drums, high-pitched synths and
indistinguishable noise resulting
in a total lack of surprise.
Take the track "Frog Version
Slowly Crushed," which begins
with clicks that sound like elec-
tronic raindrops before swelling
so much the muted melody gets
lost in the wall of sound. It's there,
but it isn't allowed any space to
stand out. Likewise, "Smoking
Red" throbs with pounding drums
and random reversed vocal loops,
forgoing any kind of isolation that
would help organize the songs
jumbled elements.
The strongest moments on the
album are when Herren stops
cramming as many ideas as pos-
sible into one track and just lets
the rhythm dictate its own direc-
tion. On "Girlfriend Boyfriend,"
the steady beat and glitch-inserts
saunter together. The track is
simple and directional. Unfortu-
nately, its appeal might just stem
from its dissemblance from the
rest of the album.
2005's Surrounded By Silence
could easily be considered a
Prefuse-produced mix tape. On
that album, the 14-odd guest
spots keep Herren's overflowing
creativity at bay. Here, Prefuse
invites several cameo perfor-
When there's
just too much
creativity for
one album.
mances with varying success. "The
Class of 73 Bells" features indie-
psyche trio School of Seven Bells
adding eerie vocal mantras to Pre-
fuse's dramatic composition. Else-
where the guest contributions are
hardly discernable. I can't exactly
tell what electronic artist Tobias
Lilja adds to the track "17 Seconds
Interlude,"unlessthegoal istomir-
ror Prefuse. The truth is that none
of these guest spots can compare
to previous ones - from the indus-
trial taunt "Hideyaface" featuring
Ghostface and El-P on Silence or
even his surprisingly good col-
laboration with Sam Prekop on his
debut album.
With Prefuse, it's never a ques-
tion of artistic creativity. Each
track on the album bustles with
instrumental exploration and
melody jumping. But this time
it doesn't work. The result is us
grappling to his first great albums
while pleading for him just to keep
it simple. After all, the dude has
four bands - you'd think that'd be
enough.
SAY GOODBYE TO LATE-NIGHT
WE WANT YOU.
Actually, we want your opinions, you dirty-minded kids.
E-mail klein@michigandaily.com for an Arts application.
AP PHOTO
"Saturday Night Live" head writer Seth Meyers (right) and "SNL" alum
Tina Fey (who currently works on "30 Rock") were among the picketers in
New York yesterday for the Writer's Guild of America's first strike since 1988.
Though it's unclear how long the strike will last and how much production it
will affect, many networks put their late-night shows - including "The Daily
Show" and "The Colbert Report" - on indefinite hiatus beginning last night.
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