Category: fall 2021

This episode, “Choose The Shoes”, of Real Ass Affirmations is from a collection of podcasts aimed at empowering others and giving them the power to empower themselves. However, this episode highlights some poor audio symptoms. First, there is a noticeable contrast in audio quality between the commercial advertisements in the beginning of the episode and… Continue reading Real A** Affirmations

Jaden Smith has released “The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story” in the fall of 2018. A separate project from his then current SYRE album series. This tape stood out to me because it is under shadowed by his larger projects and features a more experimental sound compared to previous work. On this tape, Jaden… Continue reading Distant – Jaden

Chapel Hill’s own Archers of Loaf kick off their 1994 EP “vs. The Greatest of All Time” with “Audiowhore,” a blistering, gigantic anthem defined by its dramatic shifts in dynamics. It opens with a semi-ambient one minute intro, offering scraps of found noises and distant, dissonant guitar sounds. This creates a foreboding atmosphere, contextually very… Continue reading Archers of Loaf – Audiowhore

The first story that I chose on StoryCorps was “The Things That Go Left Unsaid: Remembering A Son and Brother — The First U.S. Soldier Killed in Afghanistan”. I felt the need to listen to this story because of the recent events that have played out with our botched pull-out of the terrorist-ridden country. Throughout… Continue reading StoryCorps

The first story I listened to is “The next best thing could be around the corner” about a former child actor from Cuba turned refugee talking to his grandson about his journey. He had to flee Cuba during the revolution after being a very successful child actor, but his legacy lived on through his grandson,… Continue reading StoryCorps Analysis

Despite some variance among the different interviews, StoryCorps follow a fairly predictable and clean formula. It opens on light music with a narrator giving 10-30sec of background information, or it cold opens on an interviewee with no music, usually if its a particularly striking “hook.” While I initially thought that many of these were more… Continue reading Story Corps Analysis

This story is about the premature birth of Black babies in the context of rising Black maternal mortality in the United States. The segment is able to accomplish its goal of raising awareness by focusing on a very specific event that happened to specific, identifiable people. The recording includes not just one, but two interviewees… Continue reading Story Corps Analysis

Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend” (in all lowercase letters) released in 2019 is part of her debut studio album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (in all capital letters). The song was written by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell who also produced the song. The song combines many styles and… Continue reading bury a friend- Billie Eilish

Rain on me was written and performed by singer-songwriter George Miller, or better known as his stage name Joji. The song was released on July 19th, 2017 on his record label’s youtube channel and soundcloud, 88rising. The song was one of the first of Joji’s serious musical career, with his previous focus being on comedy… Continue reading Rain on me – Joji