2017 was overall, the best year for albums; hands down. Let us give you a rundown of the best albums of 2017.

At number one we have Drake, More Life. On this 22-song project, we see many of Drake’s sides: a variety of friends (old and new), local and global, heartbreaks, solo, and features. With features such as Young Thug, Giggs, Kanye West, etc. Drake really put out his best in this album.

Next, is a new artist who featured on Rihanna’s Anti album: Sza. Sza unravels through largely improvised meditations on love and sex, and all the promise that both endure. Fans went crazy when she dropped her album Sza, because she talked about self love, and the confidence a woman should have. From working 9 to 5 and being his “weekend,” Sza flourishes in her own way.

3) 4:44, Jay-Z, the 47 year old multi-millionaire, dropped the year’s self confessional. Jay-Z confronts his own failings as a husband in “4.44” and being a public figure in “Kill Jay-Z.” With multiple samples of music from the 60’s, Jay-Z gives publicity to his own wealth, which his daughter will inherit in the future.

Number 4 is rap’s most powerful voice, at the top of his game, Kendrick Lamar. With his album Damn, one of the number one albums of the year on the charts, he talks about his deepest feelings, world problems, and a lifetime of battling anxiety. With slow jams to upbeat jams, and 50 lines without a break in one stretch, his creativity really made this album perfect.

An unforgettable album that’s still played in many people’s cars, is SweetSexySavage by Kehlani. Kehlani dropped this album mid January, after her mixtape was released in 2016. The album was attracting and appealing to many of her fans, because she wrote all of the songs on the album (aside from the “Intro”). It debuted number three on the U.S. Billboard 200. On her album, Kehlani mentions her previous boyfriend Partynextdoor, who is also a singer/songwriter. She talks about growth, as a person and as a singer, and also how she’s learned from her past. She embraces change, and writes to her young fans to accept how they are.

By Natalie Braga, Piper Gallivan, Alivia Arredondo

Agra Culture is a new restaurant in Highland Park (721 Cleveland Avenue) that offers healthy and delicious food for everyone. Our experience there was positive, comfortable, and filling!

This restaurant has a very fresh and exciting feel to it. The colors were all either white or black, giving it a clean and vibrant look. The whole front wall was windows which allowed lots of natural lighting. The whole experience is a perfect mix of fast food and fine dining. It is an order at the counter system, so when you walk in you are immediately greeted by friendly employees ready to take your order. You can take as much time as needed because there are menus to take near the door. After ordering, they give you a table number and about 10 to 15 minutes later a waiter will bring your food. There is a wide variety of options for seating: you can choose between 2 types of booths, tables, and where to sit. If you want to feel even closer to nature, you can sit near a wall of leafy green vines. This restaurant has a very “LA lifestyle” vibe, which adds a fun, new, and unique addition to Highland Village.

The customer service was also very pleasing. When you walk in the door and start to order your food, the workers there all seem to be happy and seem like they genuinely want to be there. They greet you with a smile as they welcome you to the restaurant and politely ask for your order. This really helps the cozy, and nice, feeling of the restaurant. When you are ordering, the workers there are very patient with you, and also, if you’re not sure what to get, they will gladly give you suggestions on what they think is good. Once you get your food and are seated, they will come up once or twice during the meal to make sure everything is going well, or if they see you are done with something they will politely take the empty plate away.

Take a look at the menu and it is clear that this restaurant focuses on healthy and nutritious ingredients to create delicious dishes. One major positive with the menu is the inclusiveness for all diets with the use of helpful icons informing customers if a dish is vegan, gluten free, etc. Though the prices may be slightly higher than your average restaurant nearby, the quality and freshness is clear when you get your plate. They offer breakfast options all day, alongside their usual salads, sandwiches, and trademark Agra Bowls.  Between the  three of us, we ordered three separate dishes, one smoothie, and pita bread and hummus. Each was unique and tasty in their own way, and here are our reviews.

The Chicken Harissa sandwich was quite a delight. The avocado really helped balance out the flavor of the red onion and the chicken. The chicken itself was a well proportioned, perfectly done chicken breast that was grilled (having the chicken crispy was also an option), and it had just the perfect amount of flavor.

Then came the smoothie which was very refreshing. The flavor of the fruit was very noticeable and it went well with the smoothie being cold. There was a variety of choices for smoothies and we highly recommend trying one.

Pita bread and hummus was our side dish and we thought it was really tasty. However, the portion of hummus to pita bread was a little off. It was still really good though. The bold flavor of the hummus was very well complimented with the bread, and it was a great kickoff to the meal.

The Mediterranean Bowl is from the breakfast selection and would be perfect for breakfast, lunch, or brunch! It was filled with scrambled eggs, spinach, tomatoes, and olives. You have the choice of adding quinoa, brown rice, or whole wheat toast on the side. I added a pinch of salt after my first few bites to enhance the flavors a bit more. The portion size seemed pretty small at first, just because we are used to huge American portion sizes, but it was actually very filling. The taste was very good and left me feeling very refreshed and healthy.

Lastly, the Stir Fry Bowl seemed to be a perfect balance of rice, vegetables, and protein, and was also dairy free, which was something we were looking for. It came with cilantro brown rice, organic peppers, onion, Thai sauce, and chicken (which could also be swapped for tofu). When it arrived, it looked wonderful with many different colors, textures, and flavors on the plate. Though it looked a little small at first, it also was very filling and satisfying by the end.

Overall, Agra Culture is a fun new restaurant for those who want tasty food that won’t make you feel guilty afterwards. We give it 4.5 out of 5, and recommend trying it out!

★★☆☆

***Article Contains Spoilers***

Before watching Blade Runner 2049, I had never seen the original Blade Runner. To many who had, Blade Runner 2049 is the sequel to a science-fiction classic and defining movie of a generation. To me, it is just another Hollywood film.

Blade Runner 2049 has received mostly excellent reviews from Blade Runner fans old and new, and it’s not hard to see why. The new film does what the original did and more, and to fans, that’s a miracle. But to me, it’s a disappointment.

To be certain, Blade Runner 2049 is a stylish, smart film, but it’s neither beautiful nor profound. It has been called “visually stunning” by a multitude of critics and “deep” by most. But glossy, realistic graphics are not beautiful by that virtue, and simply bringing-up philosophical concepts is not profound.

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, now over 90 years-old, with its grand Futurist city and equally-grand capitalism, is the obvious predecessor to the original Blade Runner. The new film proffers the same apparently imminent, bleak vision of the future we have been fed for the past century. The city is updated, shinier now, but it is still the same city. Suffice it to say, the vision is no longer fresh, compelling, or believable.

The original Blade Runner score, composed by ambient-electronic music pioneer Vangelis, has been replaced in the new Blade Runner by a bombastic and overwrought orchestral score composed by Hans Zimmer. Vangelis’s score was forward-thinking and remains fresh; Zimmer’s is another score by Zimmer. How is it that, as time draws on, sci-fi becomes less inspired in all aspects?

At 163 minutes, for a film with an absurdly sociopathic comic-book villain, action-movie violence, a holographic girlfriend, and a secret that could “break the world,” Blade Runner 2049 is also a remarkably boring and drab drama. K (Ryan Gosling), the film’s protagonist, is not unsympathetic because he’s (spoiler alert) a replicant (robot), but because he has zero charisma. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is now old and bitter, no longer the romantic hero he was in the original, and plays a smaller role in the film than one wished or expected. Our villain, arch-capitalist Niander Wallace, played by the ever-intimidating Jared Leto (I kid), is more of a parody than a genuine terror, with his casual gratuitous cruelty and incessant Biblical allegory. There is also Mariette, possibly the film’s most intriguing character, a street-urchin prostitute and, as we later find out, a replicant revolutionary. Her role in the film is minimal, but I would gladly watch Blade Runner 2049 again if it were written from her perspective.

Every other character is forgettable, except Joi, the aforementioned hologram. She (it?) is cute, bubbly, and completely devoted to K (she was programmed, after all). But she is, as the film ceaselessly emphasizes, just a hologram. It’s hard to care very much about a character who can be “played” and “paused” at any time by her master, err, boyfriend. It’s not hard to see why some critics have pegged this Blade Runner as misogynist.

Despite its flaws, it would not be fair to dismiss Blade Runner 2049 entirely. As previously stated, it is undeniably stylish and smart. There are a few particularly exhilarating moments, such as when K and Deckard duel in front of a holographic Elvis. They trade witticisms and the action is entertaining in the most authentic way. It is a pastiche, but a worthy one. If Blade Runner 2049 worried less about being seen as so serious and embraced this side of its personality more, maybe it wouldn’t be so frustratingly middlebrow. The film’s big twist near the end also felt remarkably genuine and affecting. However, it killed all the momentum the film had, leaving it to end with an awkward 40-minute epilogue.

Although they are undeveloped, and at this point tired staples of smart sci-fi, the philosophical concepts Blade Runner 2049 brings up are certainly worth discussing. They are “What are the socioeconomic implications of modernization?” and, “What makes us human, with respect to AI?” Blade Runner 2049 makes three claims; modernization will further the social divide between men and women concurrently with the rise of AI, and this will inevitably lead to the oppression of the lower classes (the former, which is apparent in the modern world, is more intriguing than the latter, which thus far history has proven to be false). Also, the defining characteristic of humanity is that it is self-sacrificial, not necessarily that human women can give birth. The last claim would be more interesting if it didn’t result in the protagonist sacrificing himself for what is the most contrived, sappy ending I have seen in a film in years.

At first glance, Blade Runner 2049 appears to me to be a film unsure of what it wants to be; an unabashedly lowbrow sci-fi flick, or a lofty philosophical drama. But, I know that’s false; Blade Runner 2049 set out specifically to fill a certain niche (The Matrix, The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight, etc.) of thoroughly entertaining movies that keep you thinking throughout. It’s a shame it couldn’t live up to those standards.