Foster the People's Supermodel

Most of the songs on Foster the People’s new album, Supermodel, sound like they came from their debut, Torches. But this isn’t a bad thing.

There’s the same layering of different sounds – the electric synths, catchy guitar riffs, and most notably, lead singer Mark Foster’s trademark high-pitched falsetto. And just as the first album did, Supermodel puts all of these elements together to create a string of delightful, radio-friendly songs, most of which could serve as the album’s lead single. It’s also a concept album, which admittedly, I had no idea of before reading the Wikipedia article. Even so, Foster attempts to bring the sound of Torches to a more mature set of lyrics. These lyrics aren’t always audible, and there’s a lot of “Oooohs” and “Na Nas,” but that’s okay, because the songs all sound really good.

Supermodel begins with “Are You What You Want to Be,” which sets the tone for the songs to come. You can’t hear what he’s saying in the verses, but the noise around them is so catchy that this hardly matters. There’s layering of sound that all compliments the song – the acoustic riff, the synths, and the falsetto all come together to create a wonderful pop song.

Foster slows the pace a touch with “Ask Yourself” before arriving at the album’s actual lead single, the third song, “Coming of Age.” It’s a song that also uses the same template to build – starting with a brief, twenty-second introduction of a slowed electric riff, before exploding into a dance song. Foster sings, “my fear pulls me out to sea / and the stars are hidden by my pride and my enemies,” a rather cumbersome lyric. But you wouldn’t know it, because the music is pretty damn happy.

Foster’s falsetto glides through the next two tracks, “Nevermind” and “Pseudologia Fantastica,” before arriving at an interesting bridge track, “The Angelic Welcome of Mr. Jones.” It’s only thirty seconds, and it’s only a simple layering of vocals, but it reminds the listener that the album is, in fact, an album, and not just a collection of could-be radio singles.

It’s also well placed, because after the track comes the finest song on the album, “Best Friend.” Like “Coming of Age,” the song is rather dour in subject, discussing living and dealing with a drug addict. But again, it’s so catchy that you wouldn’t know it. There are a few bars of slower electric guitar riff (sensing a pattern, anyone?) and then the breakdown of the song into that great, familiar falsetto, on top of electric synths, and whistles, and horns.

And this is how the songs on Supermodel go. As much as a lot of them sound alike (as well as those on Torches), they still sound great. Mark Foster knows that he’s doing – he clearly knows the definition of “catchy” through and through, and his talent is undeniable. He covers about three octaves with his voice, and the album’s production is impeccable. There’s only three people in Foster the People, but the lead singer has the talent of five men, and sometimes, that’s all you need in the music business.

Pharrell Williams's Happy and it's Delightful Music Video

Why is the music video for Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” so great?

It’s not simply because the song accompanying it is undeniably catchy, or that it’s a revolutionary, mind-bending video which we’ve never before seen.

It’s a pretty simple premise – Pharrell’s song plays while the video cuts to a random person clapping and dancing, and lip syncing the words to the song. There’s plenty of people shown – white, black, men, women, short, tall, young, old. There’s a guy folding sheets and then there’s Jimmy Kimmel.

But the music video is great because it doesn’t actually tell us why any of the people depicted are happy. They just are. Pharrell isn’t telling anybody why they should be happy, or what to do to achieve this happiness. He’s just happy himself, and so are the rest of the people in the video.

And these people are all placed on the same level with each other. Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t get any more screen time than the non-celebrities in the video just because he happens to host a television show. He’s grouped in right along with everybody else, because being happy isn’t something that’s reserved just for celebrities or the rich and famous. Pharrell shows that anybody can be happy – it doesn’t matter how, or why, or even if this happiness is going to stay for a long period of time. He just shows that it exists, and when it comes, maybe it’s worth stopping for a little bit to smell the roses before going back to the grind.

On the Shocking Turn of Events in last week's Game of Thrones

The second episode of the fourth season of HBO’s flagship ensemble series, Game of Thrones, entitled “The Lion and the Rose,” was a classic example of the epic surprise that the show enjoys pulling on its viewers. The surprises in the previous seasons, however, almost always came in the ninth episode of the series rather than the second. This made the (SPOILERS from here on out) death of repugnant, hated King Joffrey all the more shocking in the context of the show itself.

We, the non-book readers, were expecting some sort of grand showdown in the latter seasons of the show – whether it be from a Stark challenger, or Daenerys from across the Narrow Sea. But the showrunners, who have proven time and time again that they refuse to bend to traditional television norms, pulled a fast one and knocked off the villain halfway from the show’s finish line. It’s a bold move, because Joffrey was one of those characters that viewers loved to hate.

But as much as the character was hated, he was still a fantastic character – a to-the-bone example of evil, sociopathy, and vanity all tied together effortlessly by Jack Gleeson. Yes, we all wanted him gone, but with his removal, a crucial element of the story is now gone. Who is left to moan about on social media on Sunday nights? The second most worthy character of hatred is Ramsay Snow, but as much as he has proven to be a complete psychopath, he isn’t the king, and he doesn’t directly affect the lives of the characters we love – at least not yet.

I suppose we will just have to wait and see where the show goes from this point forward.