Each week, the staff here at The Anchor give their recommendations on an album, book and movie to enjoy. Here are our recommendations for the week of 1/20-1/26.
Album: Wolf by Tyler the Creator (2013)
The story in Wolf shows lots of emotion and the struggle of familial and romantic love as well as hate as it follows Wolf Haley, Sam and his girlfriend Salem in Camp Flog Gnaw; Wolf and Sam both being Tyler the Creator’s alter egos. Wolf is Tyler’s third studio album and was released April 2nd, 2013. This album shows Wolf’s hate for his fath
er due to his absence in Wolf’s life and Sam’s hate for Wolf as soon as he arrived at Camp Flog Gnaw. While in the beginning Sam didn’t hate Wolf for any particular reason, Sam came to loathe him after he fell in love with Salem. Tyler the Creator makes albums that reflect his life through the characters as well as adding onto it to create a different story. This helps the listener actually understand Tyler as he reveals more about his life story throughout every album. While Wolf may not be Tyler’s best album, it was definitely the start to his new music style that we know now.
Book: Looking for Alaska by John Green (2005)
Looking for Alaska is a coming-of-age novel that covers love and the grief of a friend’s death. This novel is based in a boarding school and follows a friend group which consists of Miles, Alaska, Chip, Lara and Takumi. This friend group always is getting into trouble such as sneaking out of campus. Eventually, one night on the anniversary of Alaska’s mom’s death, Alaska leaves campus in the middle of the night to go visit her moms grave after realizing she forgot to. This is the night that Alaska dies in a car crash. Miles is devastated and does not know how to handle her death. He decides to investigate because he is in denial. Later on, he and the friend group finally accept her death. This book is great for people who enjoy emotional coming-of-age novels.
Movie: Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle (2014)
Whiplash tells us about perfection and how achieving it isn’t always what you expect. Whiplash was directed by Damien Chazelle and was released in 2014. This story is about a drummer, Andrew, who attends a music school in pursuit of success. After being seen practicing by the main jazz instructor of the school, Fletcher, he was accepted into the band. Throughout the course of the movie, Fletcher put immense pressure on his students and would psychologically abuse them. If someone played something wrong in the music, he would kick them out of the band. Fletcher did not believe in telling his students “good job” because he thinks it is the weakness of perfection. While Fletcher’s band was “perfect” it was because he went to the extremes and never let his students feel good about their performances. This movie is perfect for anyone who enjoys psychological dramas.
