Luke Goldstein's Blog

Kate Moore, the fantastic author of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, returns with another true story of women…

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This book will serve those well who put their phone down long enough to read it.

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Illenium proves that he is more than your ordinary EDM artist.

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Catapulted to fame in the mid-90s, Live and Bush prove they have stayed the test of time.

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Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church is a powerful statement from a genuinely battle-tested cult survivor.

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Music is one of the few things in my life that can take me to places I forgot how to get to. Listening to Ascend by ILLENIUM (aka Nick Miller) was like getting a booklet of free frequent flyer miles and an upgrade to first class. From power-pop laced ballads to pounding EDM techno tracks, Ascend will put ILLENIUM’s name on playlists around the world.

People sometimes are hesitant to try listening to new EDM music and rightfully so. With the prevalence of digital music creation tools on everything from your laptop to your phone, more people than ever before can toss a hook and a loop together and call themselves a DJ or producer. It takes more than that to make an excellent track, and it takes a lot of excellent tracks to make a breakout album. I believe Ascend is worthy of such a title.

“Hold On (feat. Georgia Ku)” leads off, setting an electric emotional tone. It’s a bass-drop ballad about life after love. Following that is “Good Things Fall Apart (with Jon Bellion),” which arguably could be the most radio-single primed track on the album. It’s an instant Top 20 standard with its folk/pop infusion and an insanely catchy chorus about coming to grips with unplanned endings. From that point on, Ascend relentlessly delivers high-quality song after song, building an album deserving of repeated playback.

ILLENIUM crafted a musical experience that should reach fans from a wide variety of genres, especially those who’ve never given EDM or techno a second glance. He also enlists a bevy of collaborators, ranging from X Ambassadors on “In Your Arms” to Foy Vance on “Blood.” The latter is already a genre-breaking dance floor clarion call racking up massive views on YouTube.

One of the hardest things about reviewing this album is picking which songs to spend my time raving about. “Crashing (feat. Bahari)” can go toe-to-toe with any Taylor Swift #1 single and I mean that with the highest respect for the reigning Queen of Pop. I can also visualize the entire crowd singing and clapping along to his team-up with The Chainsmokers on “Takeaway (feat. Lennon Stella),” an upbeat admission about the fear of heartbreak. ILLENIUM manages to infuse every song with emotion and electricity in a way that keeps listeners saying, “No wait, this one’s my favorite.”

Ascend by ILLENIUM is more than worthy of being on your permanent playlist. It also exists as an incredibly enjoyable example of how one artist can cross genres without changing a single thing about who they are.

*Reviewer’s note: The album was sent to me for free, but it in no way affected the content or tone of my review.

Music Review: ‘Ascend’ by ILLENIUM was originally published in Gobs of Reviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

These days the phrase “Live-action manga” brings with it well-deserved groans and cringes. So, when I saw it connected to the new movie, Kingdom, I was understandably concerned. There exists an awful tradition of translating animation and manga into the real world via the removal of anything that made the original exciting and enjoyable.

Kingdom happily avoids those pitfalls.

Directed by Shinsuke Sato (the visionary behind 2018’s Bleach, another anime-turned-live-action film), Kingdom doesn’t lose itself down familiar fantasy rabbit holes. Rather than spending time and energy on making the unrealistic elements look realistic, he spends time developing the relationships central to the story.

The story centers on two slave boys, Li Xin (Kento Yamazaki) and Piao (Ryo Yoshizawa), who dream of rising out of their lower-class futures through the power of swordsmanship. They don’t just dream of freedom, but of becoming the greatest generals in the world. Their paths fork when Piao is summoned by a royal Lord to work at the king’s fortress.

Years later Piao returns suddenly to Li Xin to warn him about a coup against the king. Using his dying breaths, Piao gives Li Xin a map and makes him promise to find help for the exiled king.

When Li Xin finds out Piao died as a body-double for the king (also played by Yoshizawa), he sinks deep into a rage. But he has to ask himself what the best way is to honor and avenge his fallen brother. Is it to kill the person who used him as a decoy, or destroy the person who made the decoy a necessity?

A delicate dance begins as the characters learn to trust each other and believe they are all working towards the same end. All this character development doesn’t mean there is a lack of fantastic swordplay and martial arts action. Some well-choreographed sequences will satiate those viewers anxiously awaiting the meeting of blood and blade.

One element I uniquely enjoyed was the world-building. Beyond the armies and clans directly involved in the conflict, Sato wonderfully captured the Mountain People, a mysterious and deadly race with their own tangled history to unravel. Their costumes were insane, and even their fighting style was specific to their character traits. Details like that always make me appreciate the time the creative team put into it.

Kingdom delivers action and adventure while not skipping out on high-quality performances.

*Reviewer’s Note: I was sent a screener link to watch the movie, but that in no way affected the content or tone of the review.

Movie Review: ‘Kingdom’ was originally published in Gobs of Reviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This Throwing Copper 25th anniversary package is a must have for fans of the band and a must listen for those uninitiated to it.

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There are bands that reach a mythical threshold of no longer needing to be named. You hear one guitar lick, one chorus, or even the distant tones of a song redone only on a clarinet as elevator muzak, and you know immediately who they are. U2 is such a band, which makes reviewing this anniversary vinyl reissue of No Line on the Horizon a bit of a twist because you can already imagine what it sounds like before I begin (if you happened to miss listening to it until now).

For those already familiar with the album, feel free to jump down where I talk about the actual vinyl itself. Don’t worry, I won’t be offended.

From the opening notes the album unfolds like an empty highway of freshly paved blacktop. No distractions, no obstacles. It’s free reign for anyone and anything to travel as fast and loud as they want. U2 ignites track after track with the charging momentum of a classic muscle car, one with a big enough hood for the entire band to stand on, belting their music into the wind.

“No Line on the Horizon”, “Get On Your Boots”, and “Fez/Being Born” are grinding tracks, pushing listeners harder and farther than they were likely ready for. They follow a solid pattern from this quartet of songs that inspire and lift, albeit the album may also just toss you forward after the oh-so-gentle lift.

“Magnificent” growls at the edge of sight, like a neighbor’s new dog, you don’t know whether it will bite you or lick your entire face. Yet, in case you’re worried about too much musical momentum without a break, there are plenty of tracks to calm those rattled nerves.

“Moment of Surrender” is a floating, dreamy track that would be just as comfortable playing on a jukebox in Twin Peaks. “Cedars of Lebanon” is quiet, haunting, and gives a vibe of a smoke-filled dive bar.

Now that we’ve gone over the music, let’s talk about the package itself. Double LP 180g that comes in two variations, black vinyl or ultra-clear vinyl. It has a beautiful heavyweight outer cover and plastic sleeve to keep everything in pristine condition (a bonus for those whose kids love to grab things off your office desk). Of course, since we sadly don’t have record players in our cars, it also comes with a digital download card so you can listen to these open road tunes actually out on the open road.

No Line on the Horizon was not one of the U2 albums I was previously even aware of before this review, but I can honestly say it’s now on rotation in my home office.

Reviewer’s Note: This box set was sent to me for the purpose of writing a review, but neither the publisher or the box set being sent to me affected the outcome of the review.

Music Review: U2 — No Line on the Horizon (Vinyl Reissue) was originally published in Gobs of Reviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There are bands that reach a mythical threshold of no longer needing to be named. You hear one guitar lick, one chorus, or even the distant tones of a song redone only on a clarinet as elevator muzak, and you know immediately who they are. U2 is such a band, which makes reviewing this anniversary vinyl reissue of No Line on the Horizon a bit of a twist because you can already imagine what it sounds like before I begin (if you happened to miss listening to it until now).

For those already familiar with the album, feel free to jump down where I talk about the actual vinyl itself. Don’t worry, I won’t be offended.

From the opening notes the album unfolds like an empty highway of freshly paved blacktop. No distractions, no obstacles. It’s free reign for anyone and anything to travel as fast and loud as they want. U2 ignites track after track with the charging momentum of a classic muscle car, one with a big enough hood for the entire band to stand on, belting their music into the wind.

“No Line on the Horizon”, “Get On Your Boots”, and “Fez/Being Born” are grinding tracks, pushing listeners harder and farther than they were likely ready for. They follow a solid pattern from this quartet of songs that inspire and lift, albeit the album may also just toss you forward after the oh-so-gentle lift.

“Magnificent” growls at the edge of sight, like a neighbor’s new dog, you don’t know whether it will bite you or lick your entire face. Yet, in case you’re worried about too much musical momentum without a break, there are plenty of tracks to calm those rattled nerves.

“Moment of Surrender” is a floating, dreamy track that would be just as comfortable playing on a jukebox in Twin Peaks. “Cedars of Lebanon” is quiet, haunting, and gives a vibe of a smoke-filled dive bar.

Now that we’ve gone over the music, let’s talk about the package itself. Double LP 180g that comes in two variations, black vinyl or ultra-clear vinyl. It has a beautiful heavyweight outer cover and plastic sleeve to keep everything in pristine condition (a bonus for those whose kids love to grab things off your office desk). Of course, since we sadly don’t have record players in our cars, it also comes with a digital download card so you can listen to these open road tunes actually out on the open road.

No Line on the Horizon was not one of the U2 albums I was previously even aware of before this review, but I can honestly say it’s now on rotation in my home office.

Reviewer’s Note: This box set was sent to me for the purpose of writing a review, but neither the publisher or the box set being sent to me affected the outcome of the review.

Music Review: U2 — No Line on the Horizon (Vinyl Reissue) was originally published in Gobs of Reviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.