Roundup Review | Top streaming recommendations for April 3
Features and entertainment writer Josh Mandell breaks down his top music, TV and movie picks for the week: "Eve," "May I Ask," "This is 40" and "Normal People." Photo collage by ANGELINA HICKS, editor-in-chief
“Eve” | Caragan
This week I wanted to do something a little different. "Eve" is not an album, but a three-song EP spanning 10 minutes that manages to tell an effective story just as well as many albums. I often find myself revisiting this piece because the songs are very strong lyrically, which makes it feel like a large step in Caragan’s blossoming career.
The project consists of three songs: “Lullaby,” “Crushing” and “Forced.” They are each unique in their own right and manage to deliver soothing melodies and impactful lyrics. The project was released in 2021 and I don’t believe it got the flowers it deserves. Let’s go through each song.
The EP begins with a beautiful, slower song in “Lullaby.” The song plays with tones of a classic lullaby and intertwines it with themes of rejection and dealing with the end of a relationship. As a writer, a well-done framework of any story gets me excited, and this feels like a masterclass in articulation and masking the meaning behind the theme.
Following that song, we get the fan-favorite, “Crushing.” The song opens with a voicemail of a woman saying, “You’re gonna hate me for this but I can't make it tonight, okay, maybe I’ll just see you around,” which sets the tone for the entire song. It is complicated and messy, but so is having a crush on someone.
With lyrics likes, “Pin drops on the carpet hear it echo through the hall / That’s how tense it gets when I try to speak to you / Every word premeditated, thinking through each call / Any less than perfect I just feel so weak to you.” These lyrics present an interesting dichotomy between the pressure Caragan feels to be perfect and to be seen.
The second verse is full of amazing lyrics and relatable notions: “Loving you means peace to me I’ll do what that requires / But I shouldn’t have to fight for you to notice me / This is not infatuation, this is discipline and patience moving slow, until you’re comfortable / This is no exaggeration, but I could hold the weight of the world when I’m in your embrace.” First of all, beauty in words extends past songwriting here. This song just has a wonderful way of showing both sides to having a crush and feeling let down.
During an interview with Chic Daily, Cargan talked about “Eve,” calling it “a journal of all the stress I put myself through for a single person this last fall.”
“I was very anxious and worrisome, and I didn’t know where to put it. I thought I’d put it in three songs,” he said in the interview. “I hope people can understand that it’s tough being sad, and if you’re not always crying it doesn’t mean you’re not sad."
Caragan is an incredibly talented up and coming artist, I strongly suggest giving “Eve” and his work a listen.
“May I Ask” | Luke Chiang
Without a doubt, this song is a comfort song for me. The soothing vocals and beautiful melodies make all of my anxiety go away. This was Luke Chiang’s first song ever released in his solo career and began an incredible uproar in fandom for his music. Many people have compared his voice to people like Michael Bublé and his songs to Daniel Caesar. This song, which was released in 2019, has over 30 million streams on Spotify bringing diverse listeners to the 2.8 million monthly listeners he’s garnered over his young career.
"May I Ask" tells the story of a life post-breakup and the difficulties of dealing with that, along with seeing the other person become someone you don’t know. The song is clear in its message and the execution of the delivery is flawless: “May I ask you how you’ve been? / Would I have the words to say / I’ve forgotten how to feel, how to call you by your name / Barely recognize you now, all your words have turned to stone.”
Ouch. The song continues to talk about the hardships of loss and the aftermath of a failed relationship with such elegance. The song features Alexis Kim and the duo absolutely kills their performance on the song.
If you enjoy this song, I suggest you listen to the rest of his discography as each of his songs are crafted with the utmost detail and precision.
“This is 40”
Rarely do I feel like we get movies about already married couples, and while I am a sucker for the typical romance, “This is 40” is not the normal romance film. This 2012 comedy was written and directed by Judd Apatow and grossed over $80 million. The film is known as a spiritual sequel to Apatow’s prior 2007 film “Knocked Up.” Apatow announced in early 2022 that there will be a third installment at some point soon titled, “This is 50,” with the same stars coming back.
The film centers around a couple, Pete (played by Paul Rudd) and Debbie (played by Leslie Mann). Pete struggles to keep his record label afloat and manage the family’s money properly, while Debbie deals with an employee stealing money from the store she runs. The couple deals with all of that while trying to maintain a relationship and raise two young kids and not hate each other at the end of the day. It is truly a slice-of-life dramedy and some of Apatow’s best work.
The film is very self aware and has a wonderful balance of hilarious moments but knows when to take itself and its heavier themes seriously. It is so incredibly human and is a lovely display of a modern family trying to balance life. The film balances the idea of constantly comparing yourself to your parents and trying not to make the same mistakes but inevitably messing up in some way. The film is a family affair in that Apatow is married to Mann in real life and her two kids in the film are their real life children Maude and Iris Apatow.
“Normal People”
Every project I’ve picked this week takes an interesting look at love and has a different way of articulating a story within. This show is by far the most human, gut-wrenching and relatable one. It is an adaptation of the book "Normal People" by Sally Rooney, and it is one of my favorite projects of the last couple of years. This miniseries premiered on Hulu during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020 and has 12 episodes that span from the characters in high school to early adulthood, with no shortage of relatable real-life issues.
One of my favorite quotes from “How I Met Your Mother” is “Chemistry is easy, but timing is almost impossible." That quote encapsulates the show to a tee. The show follows young people in Ireland trying to find love and find their way in life. Connell (played by Paul Mescal), and Marianne (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones) explore their complex relationship in their painful lives, trying to find solace in one another.
While the show was nominated for lots of awards at the Golden Globes and Emmys, it sadly didn’t take home any. It is definitely a steeper climb for foreign media to win American awards, but this is definitely as deserving as the rest.
This is definitely one of the most grounded, heartbreakingly real stories I have ever seen, so be prepared with a box of Kleenex.