The 21-year-old Connecticut-based producer and artist, ericdoa, electrifies on his latest album,“DOA.” Following previous success as an emo-rap, hyper-pop artist, ericdoa decided to blend more of a pop-rock soundscape in “DOA.” Opting towards more rhythmic tracks rather than experimental bass lines, ericdoa tends to trade memorable songwriting for a catchy mixtape.Songs like “lastjune” and “dancinwithsomebawdy” make you want to get up and dance, while also showcasing a slower, more emotional side with tracks such as, “biga**bearman” and “crisisactor.”

For a while now, Morgantown has fostered creativity and artistic freedom. While we see new artists emerging all the time, this town’s recent wave of musicians shows promising security for the revival of the DIY scene. To name just a few of the bands that have contributed to this scene, and sparked my interest in it, there’s American Boxer, The BedHeads, Wizards Is Crazy, PorchCouch, Where Wolf, and so many more. As the scene continues to flourish, Morgantown’s sense of community and innovation will only grow too, as it has over the past few years. The ball’s rolling, we just have to keep pushing it, and at U92, we intend to do so. This one goes out to the bands keeping this town on top.

“Wisecrack” is Haley Blais’ confessional sophomore album released back in September of 2023. The album is dark and emotional and covers themes such as nostalgia, anxiety, morality, and ego. The Vancouver based singer-songwriter has just released the deluxe version of the album earlier this month with the newly added songs, “Somebody’s Son”, “Concrete 2”, and a live version of “Survivor’s Guilt”. 

The album starts off with the song, “Soft spot for monarchs” which is a repetitive yet captivating song with haunting harmonies. It uses many echoing and overlapping effects to represent what’s to come in the album. The opening song then leads into one of the singles, “Survivor’s Guilt”. The title itself tells us what the song is about, the feelings of guilt we face when dealing with loss. The song uses vivid imagery to evoke the same feelings of grief she has. The next song, “Coolest f****** b**** in town” is one of the other singles released for this album. The song talks about her emotions following her parents divorce and her ego. The line “Coolest f****** b**** in town” is repeated over and over again at the end of the song and in her live performances she has the crowd scream this line with her. It is a powerful moment that promotes self-love and confidence. 

On April 26th, The West Virginia Mountaineers will begin a three game set against the Baylor Bears at Kendrick Family Ballpark in Granville, West Virginia. The Mountaineers hold a 23-16 record overall with a 11-7 record in conference play. 

The Mountaineers are coming off of a series sweep at the hands of Texas Tech. Prior to that series the Mountaineers were 7 of their last 8 with the only loss being to Marshall in extra innings. 

Fresh off the heels of the latest blockbuster release for producer Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department, I am convinced that the only creative music Antonoff is capable of producing is for his own group Bleachers. His trend, not only with Swift, but with every pop artist he's collaborated with including The 1975, Lorde, and Lana Del Ray, involves stripping away everything from music and refusing to play into the musician's strengths to create a generic, a-melodic, spoken word poetry album. This approach is guaranteed to only further jeopardize the jobs of other musicians since he has made it a hundred times easier for AI to write a pop hit now. This is not to say that Antonoff is unoriginal, uncreative, or a disservice to music: just to those he collaborates with. 

His latest release with his group Bleachers, the January Bleachers album, features more of the creativity than can be heard on the 90+ minutes of Swift's Midnights. My first listen of Midnights came on a drive home from Ohio with my sister in tow. I was vastly underwhelmed, almost asleep at times from the ambient, tonal background with little instrumentation and trackable melody. Swift's early music has power for a reason: it can be sung. 

Despite opening with a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking”, Meet the Residents" was neither the project of a Louisiana pop combo nor a release by a band in the traditional sense.  Instead, Meet the Residents is a dissonant avant-garde construction by a California-based collective of presumably rotating individuals who would protect their identities by performing in elaborate costumes, often in elaborate eyeball masks, under the tutelage of the mysterious and possibly non-existent composer N. Senada. The Dadaist mockery of the Beatles on the album cover gives some idea of what is contained inside, but if you come in expecting pure parody you’ll be disappointed. This is home-produced, featuring tape recordings cut with razor blades and spliced together, distorted horns, bizarre lyrics, and even weirder vocals. And it was ignored… mostly. The Residents were unphased and would go on to continue to produce albums and tour up to this day.  Retrospectively this album would garner critical acclaim for its challenging nature and willful deconstruction of Western music. This would be followed to an even greater extent in 1976’s Third Reich N’ Roll’s savage parodies of rock and pop music, but Meet the Residents shows pop, classical, and rock influences and then takes them to strange places.  

To give a brief sample, “Boots” is Nancy Sinatra if interpreted by a barbershop quartet of ghouls with ahooga horns added for good measure. The most pop-friendly song might be “Smelly Tongues” which features guest vocals by a high-school friend of the group and would be covered and released as B-side by Snakefinger, another friend of the group, later. “Spotted Pinto Bean” features soaring female vocals, resembling a him before devolving into percussive piano, and thunderous sounds while the lyrics focus on the coming of a bean. At nearly ten minutes, the closing track, “N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues)” truly sounds like nothing else with snippets of the Human Beinz, the horns from before, what sounds like recorders and toy pianos, more nonsense lyrics, and vocals that sound like Mel Blanc as a neanderthal. 

An underground hyperpop/rap/glitchcore/pop artist from Indianapolis Indiana known as Midwxst may have dropped an album in 2023 that flew under the radar of many. The album starts off with the song “lost” which has influences of Kanye West and others with the gospel chorus vocals throughout the song. However the lyrics on the song are still that of the angsty teen that Midwxst still is with the lyrics “Time has changed me/But I don’t think you cared.” This angst is seen all throughout the album as with the second song “pretty girls” Midwxst is both singing and rapping to a lost lover. With lyrics such as “So gone, I’m wasted/I still miss the way you tasted” and “Pretty Girls will drive you crazy.” 

The album itself feels as though it is just another teen angst album, however with a deeper listen the time and technique put into the production of the album may push it to another level. From the Kanye gospel, to the shades of glitchcore and hyperpop mixed with Midwxst’s raspy singing voice create a soundscape that entraps you within the sound created by the blending of multiple genres. 

To those who know me, you’ll know that my least favorite question of all time is, “What’s your favorite album?” It’s a cruel question. Instantly, my mind runs to at least a hundred albums that I’ve once considered the best, mostly leading with whatever I’ve listened to last.

But after some deliberation, I usually end up with the same answer: “Faces” by Mac Miller. An hour and twenty five minutes of some of the most dope beats and bars I’ve ever heard. Mac Miller has always been my favorite rapper (I’ve even got a tattoo inspired by his music!), and to me, this was his magnum opus. However, as great as this project is to me, I technically can’t give it as an answer. “Faces” isn’t an album at all: it’s a mixtape.

On Sunday April 14th the West Virginia Mountaineers face the #17 Central Florida GoldenKnights at 1:00 pm at the Kendrick family Ballpark as they look to earn the sweep in this pivotal Big 12 series.

The Mountaineers who moved to 21-13 in last night's matchup are coming into Sunday's game after rallying late in Friday's opener to take game one. Kyle West led the late comeback with a game tying two-run HR in the 5th and a go ahead RBI triple in the seventh. 

Dolly Parton’s album ‘Jolene’ turned 50 this past February. On February 4th 1974, Dolly Parton released the iconic album ‘Jolene’. This was Dolly Parton’s thirteenth solo album. While the song ‘Jolene’ is one of Dolly’s most celebrated songs, this album also holds another one of Dolly’s notorious songs, ‘I will always love you’. Most people recognize Whitney Houston for this beautiful song but it was actually originally written and released by Dolly Parton. Dolly said in an interview that she actually wrote ‘I will alway love you’ and ‘Jolene’ on the same day. 

A countless number of artists have covered ‘Jolene’ as well as ‘I will always love you’. One of my favorite covers of ‘Jolene’ is when Miley Cryus and Noah Cryus performed this song at Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party on NBC in 2022. Both Noah and Miley are so talented and their voices together while singing this song is truly breathtaking. The most famous cover of ‘I will always love you’ is for sure when it was sung by Whitney Houston.