Listen Up-Weekly Music Update

This week saw the release of A Tribe Called Quest’s sixth and reportedly last album entitled “We Got It From Here.” This album features all four original members as well as a plethora of guests including Kanye West and Jack White.

Late September gave way to Bon Iver’s newest album -the first in five years- entitled “22, A Million,” which had a new experimental sound full of intentional audio glitches and heavily synthesized vocals.

In other news, Leonard Cohen passed away at the ripe age of 82, but not before releasing one final album entitled “You Want it Darker.” Cohen seemed to know the end was near and he expressed it through his gravely voice accompanied by slow orchestral sounds. The lyrics talk vividly of loss of some kind and making peace.

This was also the week that Alicia Keys released her new album, “HERE.” The music seems to be a medium to tell stories from the perspective of not Keys but through the eyes of unnamed people experiencing varying struggles, often set to a hip-hop beat.

Metal band, Helmet, released their latest album “Dead to the World,” this past October. In their eighth album, lead singer, Page Hamilton, mixes things up and fills the album with classic metal sounds while experimenting with both vocals and instrumentals. All the while Hamilton delivers his signature hypnotic guitar riffs.