Record Rewind 2.0

One year ago, Apple’s romantic dramedy “Fly Me to the Moon” took the motto of “fake it til you make it” to its logical extreme. The film’s premise pokes fun at conspiracy theories that posit the moon landing in 1969 was staged by centering around a NASA team tasked with fixing NASA’s public image leading up to the Apollo 11 mission, later staging a backup moon landing, in case the real one fails. The project, codenamed Project Artemis, is led by marketing specialist Kelly Jones, played by Scarlett Johansson, who clashes with Apollo 11’s launch director Cole Davis, played by Channing Tatum, until they fall in love. When it comes to romantic movies, no matter how interesting the premise is, a main couple without romantic chemistry can bring the whole thing down. Luckily, Johansson and Tatum have great chemistry and play off each other very well. This is especially evident from their witty banter and more intimate interactions. Their individual characters are engaging on their own as w...

  For over 20 years, Avril Lavigne has toed the line between pop and rock across seven studio albums. But “Goodbye Lullaby,” her often-overlooked fourth album, toes that line the most of any in her discography. In recent years, however, the album’s singles have seen a surge in popularity among younger listeners discovering her for the first time. Does the album as a whole deserve a reappraisal? Lavigne debuted in 2002 with her pop punk-rooted “Let Go,” achieving mainstream success with the sound years before Fall Out Boy, Paramore and other bands would blow the lid off the genre. But by the time they had circa 2007, she had already begun turning her musical dial more toward pop with “The Best Damn Thing,” which divided critics but spawned her only No. 1 single so far, “Girlfriend.” Lavigne began work on her next album in November 2008. The focus this time around was to present a stripped-down approach to her sound, starting out with minimal instruments and adding more later. The in...

  While my favorite Jonas Brothers album has always been their self-titled album, rewatching their Prime Video documentary “Chasing Happiness” for the fourth time made me really consider the deeper layers to the lyricism and musicianship on display. Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas started out performing as young kids, singing and acting on Broadway and commercials. As the Jonas Brothers, they signed to Columbia Records and released their first album with them, “It’s About Time,” in 2006. But their slowly growing fame became detrimental to the Jonas family’s livelihood. Their father, Kevin Jonas Sr., was scrutinized at the church he was a pastor at for his sons’ secular practices. In addition, touring costs and medical bills for Nick, who had been diagnosed with diabetes, caused him to max out his credit cards. According to Kevin Sr., he informed the brothers one night that he would resign from the church, meaning the family would lose their home, and that Columbia had dropped them....

  The Backstreet Boys are gearing up for the 25th anniversary of their landmark album “Millennium.” While I plan to properly review that album closer to its actual release day, I figure now is a good time to cover what I think is their second best album. Picture this: it’s 2006 and you’re the four remaining Backstreet Boys; AJ McLean, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough and Brian Littrell. You took a four-year hiatus from anything boy band-related before returning with an intended “big” comeback album. But that album, “Never Gone,” veered too far from your classic dance-pop sound that it flailed, and now one of your bandmates, Kevin Richardson, has left to pursue solo ventures. What do you do? You return to the studio and to your roots, but with a slightly different, more personal approach. Out comes “Unbreakable,” the Backstreet Boys’ sixth album released on Oct. 30, 2007. With this album, the boys wanted to combine the teen pop sound they cut their teeth on with a more grown-up pop ...

After breaking into the mainstream in 2005, Panic! at the Disco have been held up as one of the most iconic emo bands and a core piece of the “Emo Trinity,” along with their contemporaries Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. This sentiment is not without merit, as evidenced by their strong debut album. Panic! started in Las Vegas in 2004 as a blink-182 cover band led by guitarist and songwriter Ryan Ross and drummer Spencer Smith, who attended high school together. Ross started out as primary vocalist, but after recruiting Brendon Urie and bassist Brent Wilson, it was decided that Urie would be the frontman. Eventually they got the attention of Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz and were signed to Decaydance Records, despite having never performed live. The next year, and after four months of recording, the band released “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” on Sept. 27, 2005. Almost 20 years later, it still holds up as a great piece of pop punk culture. Following an intro that mimics turning t...