Roundup Review | Top streaming recommendations for May 8
Features and entertainment writer Josh Mandell breaks down his top music, TV and movie picks for the week: "Beauty Behind The Madness," "What We Had," "Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3" and "Seinfeld." Photo collage by ANGELINA HICKS, editor-in-chief
“Beauty Behind The Madness” | The Weeknd
Being a mainstream artist comes with its perks, but needless to say, it also comes with its downfalls. “Beauty Behind The Madness” unfortunately was met with the fate many other mainstream albums deal with… high-volume radio play. While that is a good thing for a little while, it becomes a detriment during the following years.
This 14-track album had five singles that were practically being played on a loop on radio stations, moving audiences away from the album. Despite The Weeknd being one of the most successful artists of this generation, the album faced its ups and downs.
The album was released in 2015 and within the first week, debuted at number one on Billboard and would become the most streamed album of the year. That is largely due to its five singles, “Often," “The Hills," “Can’t Feel My Face," “In The Night" and “Acquainted.” Since 2015, the songs and the album have not touched the Billboard Top 100.
Many fans have not listened to much of the album past those five songs, and dare I say the other songs may be better. In the time since then, the nine other songs have received much love and are even called some of The Weeknd’s favorite songs.
Kicking off with the devastating song “Real Life," the lesson of the song is that the reality of life is hard and painful, but even through struggle, the hard times will pass. The Weeknd shares his struggle and his mother’s advice when he was younger.
The album features an Oscar-nominated, Grammy-winning song, “Earned it," a beautiful song written for the “50 Shades of Grey" soundtrack. The song helped garner much attention and played a pivotal role in helping The Weeknd launch his career. After all, this was just his second studio album.
There are no bad songs or skips on this album. Every song is constantly topping the next. My favorite song from the project is “As You Are," since it has the deepest meaning, strongest lyrics and prettiest melodies. The song is about young love and accepting the other person no matter their scars, even though it will end in heartbreak. It is almost as if he is saying he knows what will happen, but is willing to deal with it anyways.
“What We Had” | Ethan Lawrence
“What We Had” has a special place in my heart. It’s a small artist’s only song, and it is a wonderful listen. Turn your speakers all the way up and absorb this song like a sponge. Four minutes of an incredibly smooth voice, a heartbreaking reality and a bridge that makes you want to scream as loud as you can.
The song was released in 2021 and has not accumulated the love and attention it deserves whatsoever. Lawrence has not released anything since then, much to my dismay. The song is about missing the feeling of love but not missing the person. Lyrics like “I admit I miss, what we had / Wouldn’t be the same if we tried / It’s far too late for that, now I’m lost on the road, with no heart left to guide” and “I miss our love, but I’m over you / Call me sentimental / To find love again I need something new” makes that message abundantly clear.
The song is beautiful and can be on a loop for an extensive amount of time. Support a small artist, give it a listen.
“Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3”
Go see this movie as soon as you possibly can. Hands down, it’s the best Marvel movie in years. This is some of the most fun I have had watching a movie in a really long time. It will make you laugh until your stomach hurts and then cry until you want to puke. From the beginning to the end, there are no weak spots, which is why the final installment of The Guardians of The Galaxy is one you don’t want to miss.
As of recently, Marvel has been in a bit of a dry spell, with audiences complaining they have bitten off more than they can chew. The universe has gotten too big, and the computer-generated images look bad, among other complaints. This movie defies all expectations and brings audiences back to the golden age of Marvel.
It manages to do what every Marvel movie has been failing at, keeping it contained. The issue with the universe is that it is infinite and now that we know that, there are no real consequences. Well, that, the bad writing and non-congruency of the stories intertwining together. This movie stays in its own realm and focuses on its own characters, keeping it grounded.
Surprisingly, the movie has not done stellarly well critically, receiving an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 66% on Metacritic. That being said, the audience score has been through the roof with a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie made $18 million on opening night and is expected to make roughly $120 million on opening weekend.
The trend in the industry is when a movie sucks, people find out very quickly and when a movie is good, it makes money. Sounds simple, but my guess is that “Guardians” will make much more than most of its phase five competition.
For the first time in a while, Marvel is funny again, shining a bright light on the talents of director James Gunn and the entire cast of the film. The writing and structure of the film are brilliant, forcing audiences to constantly guess what comes next, but never truly know the answer. Not only are the humor and the writing top-notch, but the action and special effects are just wonderful. The fight scenes are new and inventive and are so specially stylized to the characters.
“Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3” is my favorite of the trilogy and is a perfect send-off and conclusion to the MCU’s most dynamic and well-written characters.
“Seinfeld”
It’s known as the best comedy of all time for a reason, and that’s because it is. Whenever someone tells you that something is the best all time, we constantly look for reasons to prove why it’s not, which is almost entirely why I started this show. What started as trying to find a reason to hate a show quickly turned into an undying love and a new favorite show of all time. Just my luck.
“Seinfeld” began airing in 1989 with just three episodes — one of the shortest deals in television at the time. No one knew whether it was going to be picked up by NBC or not, but after the highly rated first episodes, it was picked up and given another season. The show was different than anyone had ever seen before, “A show about nothing” and audiences slowly discovered and began to rave about it. The show ran for nine seasons and many people were shocked when it ended, famously, in its prime.
“Seinfeld” really is a “show about nothing,” as it follows the main characters in their everyday life, just showcasing the day-to-day situations they encounter. The show was one of the first shows to be meta and make fun of itself in many different ways. Going to lengths such as the characters literally creating the show within the show.
The show follows Jerry Seinfeld, a small celebrity comedian living in New York. His best friend George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander), his next-door neighbor Kramer (played by Michael Richards) and his ex-girlfriend (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) all complicate Jerry’s life as they deal with everyday life awkwardness.
The impact of “Seinfeld” is still felt today as it has unconsciously been part of our pop culture for a long time. Many of the episodes are so iconic that people will make references to it and have no idea it originated from “Seinfeld." Much of the humor is in the absurdity, but also in the everyday observational comedy that many people can relate to. I like to call it “The Seinfeld Effect," where if you watch the show, you will say “Hey something just like that happened to me” or it will happen to you and you’ll think, “This is just like that episode of Seinfeld." It sounds ridiculous, but trust me, it will happen.
The show was created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, two of my favorite comedians of all time, so be ready to laugh. It’s a classic that deserves some love, if you haven’t already seen it, the entire series is now streaming on Netflix.