Valentine’s Day is a day to put yourself out there, so here we are risking rejection with another heart-shaped box of picks for ya.
LISTEN
Artists trying something new
It’s always a little risky when you’re an established artist or band that’s known and loved for a particular style of music and you decide to pull a “Bob Dylan goes electric”-type move and try something different on your next album. Here are a few such releases that nevertheless hit all the right notes for me, even if it took a little while:
Panic! At the Disco - Pretty. Odd.
Still one of my favourite albums, chock full of quirky and catchy retro-tinged pop-rock decorated with strings and horns aplenty, from a band who made their debut with a much more generic collection of the emo rock that was so popular in the mid-2000s.
Taylor Swift - 1989
Probably don’t need to say too much about this one. Country music star ditches the acoustic guitar and goes full pop, becoming a global phenomenon in the process.
Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Justin Vernon followed up his acclaimed debut of sparse indie folk with an 80s synth-infused masterpiece—it just took a few listens to shed the expectations of more campfire-crooner tracks like “Skinny Love” and realize it.
Radiohead - Kid A
At the tender age of 10 I wasn’t culturally attuned to the original release of this album like I was for the proceeding three, but as I dug into Radiohead’s discography later on it was hard to miss the monumental musical shift they made with this turn of the millennium classic. A snarling guitar opened up OK Computer, their fantastic rock album from three years previous; it’s replaced by a chilling keyboard on this one, but somehow, still, everything is in its right place.
-JB
What was that we tried to say?
Ask us in the comments below.
WATCH
Five different flavours of thrillers
Gotta love watching folks engage in risky business on the big screen from the comfort of your safe little life. What’s your favourite kind?
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Escaping from prison?
Good Time (2017)
Running around the seedy underworld of New York?
Night Moves (2013)
Blowing up a dam?
Margin Call (2011)
Playing with (other people’s) money?
Cliffhanger (1993)
Rescuing thieves from on top of a mountain?
-JB
READ
The risks worth taking for freedom in Percival Everett’s James
I will say, before I say anything about James, that you should definitely read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn beforehand. Everett assumes you have from the get-go, and so half the fun of read his new novel is seeing many of the same scenes from a different angle.
But besides the novelty of that, the thing that really drives the plot, the question you want the story to answer, is how far Jim/James is willing to go to secure freedom for himself and his family. The answer I’ll leave you to find out for yourself. I’ll simply finish by telling you that the read is worth the ride.
Thanks for risking a few minutes with us this Friday. Clock in with us next time as we take on