Best: Music Deadbeat by Tame Impala – Alexandra Lasser Tame Impala’s latest album, Deadbeat, introduces hypnotic beats and bold electronic psychedelia. The album opens with “My Old Ways,” where Kevin Parker, the musician behind Tame Impala, laments his inability to progress and evolve, instead sinking into his old habits and[Read More…]
Articles by Annabella Lawlor
Learning to live and love through art
I cannot count the number of times I’ve remarked, “That changed my life.” It’s an exorbitant phrase, one that apparently—so I’ve been told—shouldn’t be used so casually when discussing art. I toss it around with nonchalance, proclaiming it at any mention of works that I adore. Accusations of recency bias[Read More…]
Decolonizing the Canadian museum
A reassessment of the curatorial practices for Indigenous art In the soft hours of a pristine morn, mountainous clouds greet the crags of Lake Superior’s rocky coast. A stark-white reflection of a young sun floats atop the smooth water currents in the tranquil scene. Reposeful rock mounds puncture the wet[Read More…]
The search for the perfect summer read
Soft gusts of breeze billow through loose hair as the sun reflects off bleached book pages. There is a prodding sharpness of salty seas and a deep odour of oak groves. A blow of wheat and pollen caresses overgrown fields; wind fights the fluttering pages of a book. The beginning[Read More…]
Romancing Medievalism in the modern world
Candlelight contours and illuminates the deep reds of opalescent stained glass, the candle’s bearer traversing the vacuous shadows of the castle’s towering walls. Its gothic portals and stone arcades stand overgrown in twirling vinery and moss. Inside hangs a pastoral tapestry of enchanting animals: Unicorns, leopards, and quails. Dress fabric[Read More…]
Best and worst moments from the 2025 Oscars
Daniel Blumberg wins Best Score for The Brutalist – Annabella Lawlor, Staff Writer A stark clanging of percussive metal counts two eighth notes and one whole note. The plucked guts of the piano’s strings shudder in the stark wind, amongst a wave of tremendous brass. Softly grazed piano keys twinkle[Read More…]
‘Baldwin, Styron, and Me’ is a contemplative exploration of converging identities
Cigarette smoke caresses the wooden beams of William Styron’s colonial Connecticut home. The piercing smell of whiskey drifts across the creaking pine floors. In the airy afternoons, one can hear the clacks of dueling typewriters, marking each side of the historic property as their own. But into these bristling nights,[Read More…]
FKA Twigs liberates the body to free the soul
Pounding electric bass. Neon lights strobing across the curvatures of moving muscle, flexing and softening in rhythmic tandem. Delicate and flowering falsetto melodies. Strangers coalescing in states of hedonistic dynamism. Violent snaps of the drum, spurting its vibrational heartbeats across the dancefloor. Choral pleas for unfamiliarity and euphoric authenticity pounding[Read More…]
David Lynch’s eternal worlds of surreal, torturous beauty
How does one memorialize a life? Through the images they have created or traces they have left behind? How can one encapsulate an entire legacy from the ashes of bodily presence? Treading in the wake of David Lynch’s recent passing, our world can reconstruct these traces from his transcendental cultural[Read More…]
What we liked this winter break
Squid Game Season 2 – Bianca Sugunasiri, Staff Writer Dec. 26 marked the release of director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s highly anticipated Squid Game Season 2. The show revolves around the titular “Squid Game,” which extorts the vulnerabilities of financially struggling Korean citizens by offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a fortune.[Read More…]
‘Witches: Out of the Shadows’ demystifies the resilient witch
The final room of Witches: Out of the Shadows is one of the most powerful exhibition endings I have ever witnessed. Kiki Smith’s bronze sculpture Woman on Pyre lies atop the centre pedestal, engulfed by a circular structure of distorted, geometric mirrors; it confronts the senses, inviting viewers to witness[Read More…]
The Tribune presents: The Best/Worst of 2024
Best: Pop Culture Moo Deng’s rise to fame As Gossip Girl’s Serena van der Woodsen once said, “Lipstick lasts longer, but gloss is more fun,” and 2024’s “It Girl” is the glossiest girl around. Some may tell you that the title belongs to Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter, but Moo[Read More…]
Hannah Frances’ ‘Keeper of the Shepherd’ is the most sincere record of the year
Softly strummed chords steadily resound beneath layers of swelling vocals, grief-stricken and tenderly sincere. In her song “Husk,” Hannah Frances explores the glacial vulnerability of death, expounding grief as an absent presence and a manifestation of immortalized love. For sorrow cannot exist without the chances taken by love, and death[Read More…]
MJ Lenderman ushers the spirit of Asheville into Montreal’s Théâtre Fairmount
Whirring guitars pierce through the night, sloshing through the cramped crowd of Théâtre Fairmount. The amps engulf the room in a communication of riffs, a call-and-response of rhythmic strums with the scalding guitar whistles and twang of the pedal steel. As the audience returns lyrical chants to the stage, shock[Read More…]
What we liked this fall break
Pretty Little Liars – Lily Dodson, Contributor Every fall, there’s little my sister and I enjoy more than sitting on our couch and binging episodes of Pretty Little Liars (PLL). Since discovering it on our parents’ Netflix account at the ages of 10 and 12, we’ve been hooked. The eerie,[Read More…]
PJ Harvey embodies all that she creates
Content warning: Mentions of sexual assault Echoing bass drums underscore the whirring guitars howling from the speakers. Every note engulfs the concert hall, transforming its industrial architecture into a mystical unknown of looming trees contorted over muddy paths, mutating its narrow aisles into a shadowy trail, flanked by a curling[Read More…]
Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools subverts time
Standing in the final room of Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools, I find myself transported into an era abundantly different from my own. My eyes glance over the drapery of richly pigmented paint layers, taking in the synthesis of colour, subject, and function. On the walls hang over 20 paintings,[Read More…]
The surrealism of ‘Problemista’ elevates its poignancy
Scored with futuristically unsettling synth melodies and interjecting choral staccatos, narrator and famed arthouse actress Isabella Rosellini relays the complicated and costly process of acquiring a sponsored visa in the United States in Problemista. What begins visually as a cramped, two-room equation expands into a maze-like structure of trapdoors, fluorescent[Read More…]
The Children’s Hour is going home
As the bouncy plucks and resonant acoustics of the nylon-string guitar line underscore “Going Home,” vocalist Josephine Foster joins in, crooning, “I am going home.” Her vocal inflections are sweet and sombre, resembling the warbling mimicries of a lark as a spidery electric guitar melody spins between the interweaving words.[Read More…]
2024 fashion is both futuristic and nostalgic
A threat of danger plagues the foggy underside of the stone bridge as a frenetic figure sprints into the audience’s view. The noir-like dimness of the cobbled structure conceals the silhouette, lit only by distant beams of pale moonlight over the bridge. The shadow stops abruptly, tripping over its feet[Read More…]
Concert films bridge the gap between music and cinema
As an aggressively straight drum line steadies watery synths, the members of Talking Heads cast dark silhouettes on a dimly lit red background. David Byrne’s robotic voice drones on as he comes into view, lying supine beside the drum kit. Cameras cut to a full view of the stage: Band[Read More…]
The intimacy of Black Country, New Road at Le National
On Saturday, Sept. 16, Black Country, New Road donned their denim shorts, jackets, and shirts, and played their first ever Montreal show in full Canadian tuxedo. This set of North American shows is the first following the release of their latest record, Live at Bush Hall, which features songs written[Read More…]
What we liked this summer break!
The summer season may be cooling down, but The Tribune’s Arts & Entertainment (A&E) section is heating up! Here is a breakdown of what the A&E enjoyed over summer break. Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004) By: Annabella Lawlor, Contributor In her first studio album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, Joanna Newsom[Read More…]