Monday 14th July 2025
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How to: Lecture Note-taking

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How to: Lecture Note-taking

You’re sitting in a cavernous lecture theatre, laptop open in front of you and hands poised above the keys, ready to type. What did the lecturer just say? Shaking your head you stare back over your notes — a second ago they seemed to be talking about something completely different! Maybe you shouldn’t have checked your messages after all. Tuning back into their monologue, you type down everything verbatim, fingers flying 100 miles per hour to catch each syllable. After all, how else will you remember so much information?

Lectures can seem very different to A-level classes when you first arrive at university, and it’s normal to take a couple of weeks to adjust to the change. Everybody has a different way of taking notes, and that’s fine: it’s important that you avoid the situation described above, and find the way that works best for you. To make the first few weeks that bit easier, I’ve compiled a few top tips for taking notes so that those initial lectures are as useful as possible.

Laptops

Most people tend to take notes on their laptops because typing is generally faster than writing. If you’re keen to use your laptop in lectures, then firstly close all of your other tabs. It’s easy to flick onto Facebook for a second and the next thing you know you’re in a full group-chat debrief about what you were doing last night! So close off Messenger, resist the temptation to scroll through Facebook, and actually pay attention to what’s going on. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Once you’re concentrating on the lecture, try not to take down every word that your lecturer says, as you can often end up falling behind. Take concise notes in bullet points rather than paragraphs, and paraphrase where necessary. It’s easier to go back over notes after lectures and flesh sentences out than try to take it all down and accidentally miss the important parts.

If you are typing notes, then it’s always useful to share notes with friends. Unlike at A-level, you’re not competing for the best grades (there are no set percentages of students who will get an A*, but the top grades go to anybody who the university thinks deserves them). Different people will naturally note down different parts of a lecture, so establishing a google drive or emailing notes to people in your subject can help you all out.

Writing

Plenty of people also write notes by hand. If this is our preferred method then buy a refill pad and take your notes here rather than in a notebook — lectures can get moved around, notes can look messy, and it’s often easier to organise a folder than a notebook of jumbled pages. If you’re keen on your notebooks, however, then try to keep a different notebook for each section of the course: that way you won’t get confused.

As with typing your notes, don’t try to take down every word. Pick and choose carefully, and only write down the important parts. This can make your job a lot easier. Alternatively, notes scribbled in lectures can often be pretty scruffy. When I write notes I often rush to write everything down and then type or write them up in neater versions after. This can save the problem of attempting to decipher your own handwriting months later when it comes to exams. The sooner you write your notes up in neat, the better — this way they are fresh in your mind when you do so.

Using lecture slides

Some subjects make the lecture slides available to download in the 24 hours before the lecture begins. This can really useful for note taking because it means that the important parts have already been written down for you. Students who like typing notes often download the slides before the lecture and add anything extra to the comments section under each slide. Others take separate notes on a split screen and use the powerpoint as useful revision aids.

For those of you who like hand-writing notes, it can also be useful to print off the lecture slides and add any extra pieces of information to those by hand. That way it gives you more time to listen to what the lecturer is saying, rather than rushing to take it all down and not concentrating on the content as much. This allows you to get a better understanding of the lecture material because you’re concentrating much harder.

If writing lecture notes seems strange at first, don’t worry about it. Try a few different methods, from typing or writing to printing out the slides, and see what works the best. After a while, taking notes seems like second nature. Just make sure to stay organised and clearly label folders (online or in the flesh) so that none of your notes go missing.

What does Hollywood’s new diversity trend mean for the industry?

Becky Cook
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What does Hollywood’s new diversity trend mean for the industry?

Hollywood in 1930 saw the historic implementation of the Hays Code: an inventory of cinematic restrictions that aimed to ensure the moral integrity of film. This ramshackle list of demands was a mixture of the laughable and the unsettling, featuring restrictions against instances such as relationships between “the white and black races”.  While such an anxiety surrounding miscegenation has since been delineated in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and the horror hit Get Out, the repercussions of these moral guidelines are still felt despite the lapse of its enforcement.

While the dust seems to be settling on the Harvey Weinstein scandal of last year, it prompted a quake in the form of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements that disturbed the ground beneath the firm feet of the men at the top of the food chain. Now the question remains whether this was a lot of noise, or has resulted in any palpable change in the business, a question that expands beyond the marginalisation of women alone, and strives for a veritable balancing of representation.

A recent UCLA report found that minority groups have a paltry 13.9% representation in film leads, while women hold a mere 31.2% stake. The figures are indisputably low, but the trends in recent film and TV output seems to indicate the industry has decided to inch its skull out from the sand. 

The whispered assertion that ‘black films don’t travel’ between show business heavyweights was hushed by Black Panther earlier this year. It was instantly heralded as a crunch in pop culture for the representation of black identity. The superhero blockbuster was lathered with hype, expectations and interracial optimism. Wakanda became the wistful idyll where audiences could take refuge from the realities of the post-Obama era for a few hours. 

The risk of trumpeting diversity only became apparent months later when A Wrinkle in Time was released. At the time, Mindy Kaling described how the film was a “movement” and Time magazine similarly garnered it with dizzying political expectations. By all accounts, the film is really quite lousy. It currently has a 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Black Panther was a superb Marvel film with a hypnotic sound, mood and villain. While both tried to boost representation in Hollywood, only the latter legitimately succeeded, as it maintained artistic value independent of its status as a cause.

A similar phenomenon at the meeting point of the movement and merit occurred with the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters with an all-female cast. The decision was met with venom from fans and the film flopped at the box office. It seemed to audiences that the gender-bending of the iconic original was a gratuitous part of a diversity initiative and this both dominated the narrative and ramped up the expectations for what was a limp project to begin with. 

However, this year’s popular Ocean’s 8, another gender-flipped franchise addition, proved such films are not discounted by audiences simply for being female reboots: quality counts. According to the FBI, male thieves operate in groups, while women are more likely to operate with a boyfriend or alone. Yet, this questionable factual accuracy does not hinder the gang of feisty females that band together to carry out a heist, making larceny look sleek and sexy.  

The gender flipping trend has stirred a substantial amount of conversation, most recently when it was announced Doctor Who would next regenerate in the guise of Jodie Whittaker. Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor, bemoaned the decision as the “loss of a role model for boys”. This blinkered opinion does not seem to merit comment, only serving to distinguish Davison himself as a rather feeble role model for boys or girls.

As Ocean’s 8 showed, the choice not only challenges viewers’ perceptions, but allows women the chance to wrestle with roles typically written for men and make attempts to level the distribution of stories among actors. The recent buzz surrounding the potential casting of Idris Elba as James Bond proved to be a lot of hot air. However, the mere possibility of such a seismic change to the role demonstrates the choices that could be made in order to further relieve greedy white male film stars of the taxing task of choosing from a throng of prime roles while others are left without. 

Fuzzy Ducks moves to Emporium

Aditi Arora
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Fuzzy Ducks moves to Emporium

Oxford’s longest-running club night will be moving from Atik to Emporium, making way for Park End, Atik’s new Wednesday event.

The move came about due to a new partnership between Encore Events, the company responsible for Fuzzy Ducks, and the company that owns Emporium, The Bridge, and TVC.

According to Encore CEO, Toby Beers-Baker, Atik was no longer a suitable venue for Fuzzy Ducks due to the decrease in the number of students going out on Wednesday nights.

Last week, the initial new name of the ATIK Wednesday night, Shark End, was changed to ‘Park End’. Cherwell understands that this switch came after objections from university sports teams.

Beers-Baker told Cherwell: “Emporium is a much better size for the amount of students that go out on a Wednesday night nowadays, as over the last few years Atik would quite regularly have closed/empty rooms.”

He also said that Encore’s lineup for the week will be “much stronger” now their events are being exclusively hosted at venues owned by the same company.

He added: “Fuzzys will remain Fuzzys, as it has in its long history at Atik, Wahoo, The O2, Bath SU, The Carling Academy, and the Zodiac.

“It’s the only brand in Oxford that has always moved venues successfully, and we’ll be taking the mentality, the crowd, the music, the DJs and THE DUCK [sic] with us to Emporium.

“The layout of Emporium allows us to continue to provide different music on the different floors, and Emporium’s VIP area works perfectly as the new captains VIP.”

An all-night reduction in the price of VKs, to £1.50, is the main difference to expect at Fuzzys in the coming term.

A new club night at Atik, Shark End Wednesdays, will replace Fuzzy Ducks from Wednesday of freshers’ week (3 October). Shark End organisers Freddie Goodall and Sam Zappi promise to “shake up Oxford nightlife” with the new event.

The pair told The Tab: “We want Oxford University students to get more back from their night with better content, more exciting acts and an overall better experience than what they are getting currently.

“Change is good, and there will be a great amount of energy being put into the night.

“We like working closely with the students, with sports clubs, societies and entz reps being integral part of our event planning.”

However, reactions to the new event have been mixed, with one Oxfess suggesting a “first week boycott of ‘Shark End’”. The student added: “Wtf is that name is this a joke… #bringbackfuzzies.”

#Oxfess22431Anyone for a 1st week boycott of 'shark end'?Wtf is that name is this a joke…#bringbackfuzzies

Posted by Oxfess on Monday, September 3, 2018

 

Another Oxfess called the name “the least funny joke [they’d] heard all year.”

Sophie Kilminster, a regular attendant of Fuzzy Ducks, said the news had “hit [her] hard”.

She told Cherwell: “The news that Fuzzy Ducks, the shining star of my midweeks, has moved to Emporium, the site of the saddest Valentines-evening I have ever had, has hit me hard. 

“Emporium is a fundamentally flawed club, the circular stage blocking off the tiny amount of fun that could happen in a club that seems to purposely play songs that have never been popular. 

“The replacement of something as wholesome as a Fuzzy Duck with a predator demonstrates how the Oxford club scene is literally being eaten alive by such a terrible change.”

BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee’s return to form?

Jonnie Barrow
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BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee’s return to form?

From the opening proclamation that “Dis joint is based on some fo’ real, fo’ real sh*t,” Spike Lee’s latest incendiary comedy-drama, BlacKkKlansman, promises to provoke – and succeeds in the most profound fashion.

It follows the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black cop in the Colorado Springs police department, who decides to infiltrate the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. He telephones them to establish contact, but for obvious reasons must be impersonated by a white colleague, Flip Zimmerman (played with typical quiet intensity by Adam Driver), who in turn must hide that he is Jewish as he operates undercover.

It’s a story that is rendered by turns comic and horrifying, as Ron and Flip respond to the manifold intolerances necessary to navigate their mission. Plenty of fun is poked at white supremacists: from a scathing, hilariously inept opening monologue on “white genocide” delivered in a deliciously repulsive cameo by Alec Baldwin to the Tarentino-esque comic mundanities of Ron and Flip’s attempt to gain their KKK membership.

While Ron phones up David Duke himself (played with pitch-perfect polite bigotry by Topher Grace), who ironically claims he can tell Ron is white by the sound of his voice, Flip finds that “ropes and hoods [cost] extra” on top of his membership fees, to which a fellow KKK member interjects: “Fucking inflation.”

Perhaps one of the most surprising elements of BlacKkKlansman is how cineliterate it is, and how Lee uses the history of cinema to inform the film’s thematic poignancy. Lee has transplanted the events of the film from 1979 to 1972 partly in order to capitalise on the imagery and themes of Blaxploitation films from the 60s and 70s, spiking the film with rallying cries for black empowerment.

When contrasted against sparing but powerful invocations of Gone with the Wind and horrifying footage from D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, Lee weaves a complex tapestry that keeps the viewer alert, demonstrating the agency and complicity of cinema and, by extension, the viewing audience, in perpetuating harmful stereotypes of African-Americans through history.

Lee has a lot of fun with the period setting – particularly during a hilarious conversation where three lead characters profess their undying admiration for OJ Simpson – but the setting serves more serious ideas too. Another effect of the film’s slight time shift from the true story’s setting is the concurrent re-election of Nixon, which was widely considered to be aided by support from the Klan.

Subtly placed posters of Nixon throughout the film remind the viewer that tactics such as the Southern Strategy and dog-whistle politics only work if there are swathes of intolerant voters to draw on. This fact is not-so-subtly underscored by reminders that David Duke had serious designs on public office, and on dialogue exchanges that tragi-comically underline how little has changed between Lee’s portrait of 1972 and today.

The film is dedicated to Heather Heyer, a counter-protestor who died during the Charlottesville “Unite The Right” rally last summer. Lee seems to have taken her final Facebook post and made it the mantra around which the whole film is based: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” David Duke in the film talks about what needs to be done “for America to achieve its greatness again”; Ron almost turns to the camera at one point as he says, “America would never elect someone like David Duke President of America.”

Lee’s righteous anger hasn’t diminished over the 30 years he’s been making films; it has simmered in the crucible of systemic injustice long enough for Lee to refine it into a form as seething as it is measured. As in Malcolm X, he ends BlacKkKlansman with a wrecking ball of righteous anger which smashes through the fourth wall and demands that the audience not be lulled into complacency by the film’s period setting.

Drawing a clear line between the white supremacy evident throughout BlacKkKlansman and the neo-Nazi protests we saw a year ago, Lee closes the film with shocking footage from the protest itself, and Trump’s limp condemnation of the violence “on all sides.”

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.

UK universities issue new suicide prevention guidance

Angus Brown
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UK universities issue new suicide prevention guidance

This article contains reference to suicide.

A new set of suicide-prevention guidelines has been issued to universities at the annual Universities UK (UUK) conference.

The renewed effort to reduce student suicides comes after 95 students at British universities died by suicide in the last academic year.

The conference also laid out new guidelines on the disclosure of confidential data by universities, partly in an effort to increase information sharing between universities and families.

These changes come amidst controversy surrounding restrictions on how universities are allowed to contact families of students at potential risk of suicide.

James Murray, whose son, Ben, died by suicide at Bristol University earlier this year, told the conference that there was “too little sharing” between universities and families. He also argued that universities are “too fixated” on privacy and need to “start giving more priority on information sharing to save lives.”

He said: “If we had had more information maybe we could have intervened, maybe things would have been different.”

Together with the charity Papyrus, UUK has published the new Suicide Safer Universities guide, which includes advice on developing a strategy focused specifically on suicide prevention, covering difficulties, best practice for responding to student suicides and case studies on suicide prevention.

Chief Executive of Papyrus, Nina Clarke, said: “When lives are at risk, normal confidentiality rules can, and should be bypassed.”

Chair of the UUK’s Mental Health Advisory Group, Steve West, added: “When students take their own lives, it has a profound impact on family, friends, staff and students.

“This new guide offers practical advice on understanding and preventing suicide, as well as guidance on how best to support those most affected.

“We urge university leaders to work with their student support services to develop a strategy which focuses on preventing, intervening, and responding to suicide as part of an overall mental health strategy.”

UUK’s new guide also contains steps which university leaders can take to make their communities safer as part of a wider bid to prevent further suicides.

Suicide is one of the most common causes of death for people under 35, with more than 1,600 cases in the UK every year.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article you can ring or make an appointment with the University counselling service:  https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/welfare/counselling – 01865 270300 – [email protected].

Anonymous support services:
Nightline – http://oxfordnightline.org – 8pm to 8am in term time at 01865 270 270;
The Samaritans – http://www.samaritans.org – 01865 722122.

Let’s Talk About: The Year Abroad

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Let’s Talk About: The Year Abroad

I have a confession. This piece is completely different to the one I initially wrote. You see, when it comes to the year abroad, I feel like most articles are either startlingly anxious or very impersonal. Not that there’s anything wrong with being out about the year abroad (it would be untrue to say I’m not), but, equally, fear isn’t my overriding emotion.

Nearly two years ago, when I was asked in my Russian interview how I’d view spending eight months in a country where it’s “very cold, gets dark at three o’clock, and you’re hundred of miles from your family,” I said I thought it would be an adventure. This is still what I think about the year abroad. So when I started writing this, I got two paragraphs in, and then realised I wasn’t writing what I actually thought about the year abroad. I was writing what other people wrote about it.

It’s now less than a month to go until I leave to spend eight months in a town called Yaroslavl’, north of Moscow, in Russia. This means that while my Oxford friends are only really halfway through the vac, I’m nearing the end of mine – frantically doing admin, making packing lists, and buying those last few things I’ll need. Somehow, I’ve got to get everything I need for eight months in Russia into a 23kg suitcase and hand luggage, and I’ve got a frankly silly number of packing lists.

So why am I going to Yaroslavl’? I’m on the ab initio Russian course (my other language is German), and our year abroad is in second year rather than the normal third year, which means by the time we get back we are, in theory, caught up to the post A-Level students. We go to Yaroslavl’ to study a course designed especially for Oxford students, which is pretty similar to the first year post A-Level course.

This will involve literature, translation, grammar, vocab, and, of course, we will be speaking Russian 24/7. We will have to deal with things like paying rent, taking public transport, and talking to our host families in this still unfamiliar language. Hopefully this will improve my Russian beyond what I’ve managed to plough through in first year. My conversational skills are still limited to fairytales and biographies of composers and writers, thanks to the slightly odd Oxford syllabus, but soon I will be able to have a proper conversation.

I feel like so often, the year abroad is seen as a big, scary hurdle in a degree; something to be overcome, especially since people normally go in third year, when their friends are graduating. For me, this image is significantly lessened by it being in second year. I’ve always enjoyed speaking different languages in other countries, and the year abroad was part of my motivation for doing my degree anyway. Whilst that means that this hasn’t made for a particularly sensational read, it feels kind of refreshing to write about the opposite side of what I’ve always read about the year abroad, and what I believe a good chunk of students about to take flight are really thinking.

First Auditions: Getting Involved in Performing Arts at Oxford

Alice Blinkhorn
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First Auditions: Getting Involved in Performing Arts at Oxford

Like many freshers, I was eager to try something new at Oxford. I had always been interested in drama, but never quite had the confidence to actively get involved. The opportunity to try acting came in Michaelmas, in the form of Drama Cuppers. If there’s any chance you might be interested in theatre at Oxford, I would really recommend taking part in your college’s performance. There are lots of roles available, including directing, sound and lighting, promotion, and acting. It was my first experience of working on a proper, collaborative production and, from then on, I knew that I wanted to stay involved with the Oxford drama scene.

I signed up for the official OUDS newsletter at the Freshers’ Fair, where most auditions are advertised. Every week, an email is published which gives a brief overview of all the productions that are casting, and how to arrange an audition. Usually, the director requests that you prepare something for the audition; often, you will have a choice of extracts from the play (if it’s a musical production, you might have to prepare a song). These are generally about two minutes long. It’s worth thinking about what kind of piece will best demonstrate your skills, especially if the director offers you a choice of audition pieces. Choose wisely!

My first audition came later in Michaelmas. It was at a huge college, in a tiny room, across the quad, past the gardens, though a couple of archways, up the stairs, and tucked away on the right. Unsurprisingly, I ended up getting horribly lost and arriving very, very late. Not a good start (although the director was very understanding). As a result, by the time I arrived, I felt pretty tense. Make sure you know where your audition is before you set out for it, and don’t be afraid to ask the porters for directions once you get to the college!

Generally, in an audition, you’ll perform your monologue or the extract you’ve prepared (somebody else will read the other part if it’s a dialogue). After you’ve performed your chosen piece, you might be asked to do it again, but with directions. The director wants to see how you respond to their guidance. For example, in my first audition, I was asked to perform the monologue second time ‘as if I was saying it to my younger sister’. On another occasion I had to try and use as much of the space in the room as possible. In every audition I’ve been to, there’s also been a ‘cold read’. You are given a piece of the script, a brief overview of where it fits into the play, and then asked to perform it. You usually have time to read it through a few times first. Again, you might be asked to perform it a second or third time with prompts from the director. At the end of the audition, you’ll have the chance to ask any burning questions.

I have a contemporary monologue and a Shakespearean one that I know really thoroughly, and one of those normally serves me well if the director doesn’t ask for anything more specific. Performing a monologue I’m really comfortable with immediately boosts my confidence, so it’s worth working hard on a couple of different pieces and keeping them in your arsenal. It goes without saying that it’s best to know your audition piece by heart: not only does it help you to act more naturally, but it also shows suggests that you’re prepared to dedicate your time to their production. That said, it’s fine to bring a paper copy with you just to peek at if necessary – I always feel a bit more relaxed if I have it with me, even if I don’t need it. It’s handy to take a paper copy to your audition anyway, because often the director will want to take a look at it before they give you some prompting.

Lastly, don’t be disappointed if you don’t hear back. There are loads of plays, musicals and concerts put on in Oxford, and it might be a while before you find something you’re suited to. I’ve been involved in a wide variety of productions – from an ancient Greek comedy to a modern dystopia – and I’ve made lots of new friends through drama. Don’t give up!

The life-saving power of a hashtag

Eleanor Harris
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The life-saving power of a hashtag

This summer, the #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay campaign raising awareness about male suicide has spread like wildfire across the internet. The initiative encourages men to post a selfie of themselves making the ‘okay’ sign and publicise the uncomfortable truth that suicide is the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45. Through these posts, the campaign seeks to raise awareness of the thousands of men who struggle with suicidal thoughts whilst feeling unable to seek help.

Does this campaign merely amount to virtue signalling? Critics argue that participants repost the #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay hashtag to show off how enlightened, progressive and open-minded they are without doing anything practical to support men suffering from mental health issues. In comparison, other anti-suicide initiatives encourage people to take a proactive role in suicide prevention for both friends and strangers. For instance, the Samaritans are running a campaign to encourage people to make small-talk with strangers who display worrying behaviour. As part of this campaign, the charity has published conversation starters suggestions in posters, train tickets and the like.

The impact of the #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay campaign is less obvious than other suicide prevention initiatives, but this should not diminish its importance. Granted, posting a selfie will not directly save many lives. Yet such criticism overlooks the unique power this campaign and others like it have to influence attitudes. Whilst charities such as the Samaritans and ItMatters empower people to reach out to individuals who are already battling with suicidal thoughts, the #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay campaign helps to build a culture in which men are less likely to develop such thoughts in the first place.

The pervasive perception that men should be stoical, encapsulated by the toxic saying “boys don’t cry”, contributes to an environment in which 41% of men who have contemplated suicide have felt unable to talk about their feelings, and thus unable to seek help. The #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay campaign reflects acceptance and openness between men and their friends, and thereby tackles the unhealthy pressure to keep quiet about mental health issues. Every selfie posted is a contribution to this shift in attitudes. By normalising discussion of mental illness, more men and boys can see that they are not alone. The campaign counteracts the unhealthy expectations placed on many, and via the viral campaign reaches a mass audience and can have a genuine impact on attitudes towards men and mental health.

Due to the extent of its reach and the simplicity of its message, the #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay campaign can play an important role in reducing the rates of male suicide. The hashtag is memorable, the selfies are a striking symbol of the campaign, and the tagging of friends allows the message to become widespread. The result has been a wide-ranging uptake involving men young and old across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The fight to reduce male suicide needs to take several different avenues. Many charities recognise the importance of teaching people how to help others they suspect are struggling. Yet for these campaigns to be as effective as possible, attitudes towards mental illness amongst men need to be altered.

The #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay campaign contributes to the slow erosion of outdated attitudes by showing men that they are not alone and can find a sympathetic ear amongst their friends, knowledge which could certainly save lives. If a minority of the campaign’s participants are motivated by appearing open-minded to their friends and followers, that should in no way detract from the key success of this campaign; putting an important yet neglected issue on the agenda.

Review: Floating Features by La Luz

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Review: Floating Features by La Luz

Rating: 7/10

Favourite tracks: ‘California Finally’, ‘The Creature’, ‘Floating Features’, ‘Lonely Dozer’

Despite its roots in the 60s, psych-rock is still very much alive: La Luz’s third studio album Floating Features is firm proof of this. The all-female quartet’s sound is a dark, warped take on classic surf-rock. The usual languid, jangly guitars, and summer melodies are twisted and more intense; rich harmonic textures are tinged with unnerving dissonance. If Tim Burton had been the artistic director of The Beach Boys it might have sounded like this.

La Luz are not alone in this Gothic take on the surf sound: their music forms part of a genre that has sprung up mostly on the USA’s west coast over the last decade. Bands like Oh Sees (ghoulish creatures feature regularly on their album covers) and Shannon and the Clams accompany them in this particular musical space. Indeed, this year La Luz played the Beach Goth festival in LA, whose ‘Danse Macabre’ aesthetic is an ideal setting for this album. Beach Goth is hosted by The Growlers, who are themselves pioneers of the 21st century surf-noir sound. Floating Features is defiant in the way it carves out an original niche in a genre that is as saturated as the reverb-heavy soundscapes that have come to define it.

The opening song, also called ‘Floating Features’, is a confident, dramatic instrumental: lead and bass guitars align in a spiraling riff that descends into the depths of its own sonic landscape. It makes you feel like you’ve been whisked away on a Mad Max convoy across the desert, and heralds the doom-laden music that is to come. This song embodies the cliché of a stadium-filler (but pick your cavernous space: it wouldn’t sound small in the Grand Canyon), and it would work well as a set-opener. This album smacks you in the face and tells you to keep listening.

Thematically, as might be expected from the Dali-inspired cover – where the band are framed by Triffid-like plants, a floating pair of red lips, and a pile of tentacles – this album frequently explores the realm of dreams. Songwriter Shena Cleveland often negotiates the unsettling space between sleep and consciousness, singing of the “metallic shimmering of invisible things” (‘Cicada’), “eyes rising out of the cream” (‘Loose Teeth’), and of sleep paralysis monsters (‘The Creature’). This focus on the surreal is supported by subtly unnerving chord progressions: for instance, the verse on ‘Cicada’ alternates between the major and minor of the same chord, resulting in an unsettling lack of tonal clarity.

Cleveland’s lyrics are usually uncomplicated, which often complements the urgency of the music; but she sometimes risks sounding simplistic (“Will we ever have our own house? / Will we ever be in one place long?”). She is at her descriptive best when she paints the surreal images found in her dreams; but writing about dreams, while this sounds appropriately psychedelic, occasionally ends up seeming directionless. ‘California Finally’ is one of the strongest tracks because it combines imaginative lyricism (“Sun eye swollen across the ocean”) with direction and purpose: it’s a song of defiance, an answer to Cleveland’s critics about moving from Seattle to California, the natural home of the surf sound (“I made up my mind some time ago, / No one’s gonna tell me where I can go”).

This defiance may derive from an anxiety that some will lament La Luz’s new foray into a glossier production style. The band’s first two albums have all the lo-fi grit and charm of a band who could only record with whatever amalgamation of equipment they could find in their garages. Now, in the shining studios of Hollywood, and with the know-how of the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach (who has helped produce glittery pop songs like Lana Del Rey’s ‘West Coast’), La Luz’s sound shimmers with hi-fi polish. It’s true that such a severe change in style risks damaging the identity of a band. But the gleaming production of Floating Features works well because La Luz haven’t lost sight of their DNA by trying to over-produce and add studio gimmicks: they’ve merely let their own sound breathe.

La Luz’s arrangements are deceptively – and satisfyingly – complex: their songs offer a richness that belies the simplicity usually associated with this genre. Even so, many of the musical elements are strikingly nostalgic. The organ solos often sound like The Doors’ Ray Manzarek has suddenly arrived in the studio, and Shena Cleveland happily admits that her twangy guitar tone is lifted from 50s surf-rock pioneers like Link Wray or The Shadows. But collectively they manage to avoid sounding derivative. This is partly due to their keen ear for a good melody – ‘Lonely Dozer’, for example, is wonderfully catchy – but also because of the sublime vocal harmonies that wash over the album. Lena Simon’s bass playing is also worth mentioning for the driving urgency it provides beneath the woozy psych sounds.

Although there is no overtly political message in sight, Floating Features manages to tap into the neuroses of how it feels to be emerging as an adult in these times. Aside from the general impression of impending doom which saturates the album (their music has aptly been described as “doom-wop”), there is in particular a sense of mental suffocation in some of the songs, especially the ones inspired by dreams. ‘The Creature’, one of the album’s three singles, has been part of their live sets since 2016, when the most recent US election happened. The line, “The creature let me know that it would be walking with me”, and the physicality of Cleveland’s description of her nightmare’s monster, could just as aptly be attributed to bogeymen like Trump – similarly an oppressive presence that harasses in more ways than merely psychological. The last song on the album, ‘Don’t Leave Me on the Earth’, is a touchingly honest expression of anxiety at the world’s current state.

This album is a reflection of a band reaching maturity. The songs are better structured and less chaotic than those in their earlier albums, and they haven’t lost any of their original intensity in the process of cleaning up their sound. With Floating Features, La Luz have annexed an end-of-the-world vibe to the mellow sounds of surf-rock: an ideal combination to provide the soundtrack to this summer’s worryingly apocalyptic heatwaves!

Things to do in September

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Things to do in September

One of Oxford’s more likeable features is its start date.  You’ve come back from your trips of self-discovery around Thailand, your friends are nervously disappearing off to their respective freshers’ weeks around the country but you’ve got a month left. How are you going to survive the time, battling off both feelings of excitement and nerves?

Fear not, we’ve got a list.

The Work

I’m afraid this one is somewhat inevitable. No doubt by now you’ve been sent at least one hastily written, informal email by a tutor suggesting a distressingly large reading list. There’s no need to tire yourself out too early at this point – don’t waste late nights and early mornings reading everything you’ve ever heard of before you even get here. Even so, crucially, Oxford term-time is about staying above water. They’ll be essays, partying, heart-ache, working out how the bloody washing-machine works. You won’t have infinite time to study all the things you might want (or indeed need) in a very compact 8 week term. So get a base of knowledge down while you’ve got the time – you never know, you might even end up enjoying some of it.

Hit the shops

Nothing cures the soul like retail therapy. Grab yourself the perfect interior design features for your room. Worried about your cooking abilities for the year? Boom, get yourself a kettle and you’re set for instant ramen all year.  Want to spice up your room with minimal effort and knowledge, and express your distressingly vanilla personality? Famous movie posters are for you (extra points if you haven’t even seen the movie). Concerned you won’t come across as keen enough in your first lecture? Get yourself some of those sweet binders, file dividers, notepads and a full set of coloured pens. It’s like year 7 all over again.

The possibilities are endless.

Get some parental knowledge

The thought of doing the dishes and making your own bed making you queasy?

You’ve proved yourself in the exam hall, now it’s time to prove yourself in the real world. Time for some proper learning. The best source of this? Parents. After all, they’ll probably miss you while you’re away, so they’ll appreciate the time you spend with them before you head off (even if it’s only long enough to ask about whether it’s safe to reheat takeaway rice or how insurance actually works).

Facebook investigation 

In just a month’s time, you’ll be meeting people who will become your life-long friends.

Don’t. Come. Unprepared.

Rebecca is into slam-poetry and rosé? If that’s your thing, solid friend material right there. Alex runs an Instagram account for his dog? Cool, I guess? Maybe you’ll bond over a lifelong passion for Chihuahuas? Harry posts inspirational quotes and pictures of his workout routine? Probably best to avoid…

It’s only a bit of fun, but may offer some vital talking points when Freshers’ Week hits.

Prepare your Freshers’ Week spiel

You’re going to be meeting a lot of people in the immediate future, and that means an endless number of introductions. Want to nonchalantly drop your super sweet banking internship or springboard into conversation? You’d better practise that until it’s needle-sharp and effortless (also, maybe, don’t do that).

Not to mention the dreaded group introductions/ speed friending your college might be unlucky enough to host. What is your surprising fact about yourself? What fruit would you be if you had to pick? Worth having a think about.

In all seriousness, though, ‘reinventing yourself’ for university is almost always a bad plan. Fill your September with packing, excitement, and as little panic as possible. Turn up being yourself, nothing more or less, and you’ll fit right in.

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