Welcome to EarnThis.net. We write articles and reviews about music, movies, and other forms of art and entertainment.

Listed here are some of our favorite and most popular articles, retrospectives, and reviews.

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The (Incomplete) Wonder Years Retrospective

“Growing up is loss: Of innocence, of old friendships, of cherished memories — sometimes, of hope.”

• See also: Dan’s retrospectives on Pixar and Disney’s Golden Age
  

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Joy Division retrospective – Don’t walk away in silence…

“Ian Curtis and his three band mates—Bernard Sumner on guitar, Peter Hook on bass, and Stephen Morris on drums—created the most exquisite, heartbreakingly beautiful music in rock history, all with just two albums and a few singles.”

• See also: Grant’s retrospectives of The Raveonettes, Fugazi, Radiohead, The Arcade Fire, The All-American Rejects, Slowdive, Placebo, Boys Like Girls, Green Day, Bloc Party, and The Kills
  

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Decade in Review: Ten Artists Who Have Dominated the Last 10 Years

“Just in time for the Chinese New Year (shout out to all my fellow Rabbits!), I offer you a recap of those stars who have defined the past ten years in American music, those who are quantifiably the best and the brightest.”

• See also: Colton’s unique takes on his favorite albums, The Grammy Awards, music recommendations for the formerly deaf, using math to predict which songs will be hits, genre bias, and the boundaries of music as a medium.
  

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Reflection on The West Wing and Studio 60

“Part of Sorkin’s gift was the way he infiltrated his episodes with deeper philosophical questions about governance. He was particularly intrigued at concepts of muddled authority; who would be in charge if the president was suddenly incapacitated for any reason? This notion informed the beginning of season two, Toby’s multiple sclerosis episode, and the brilliant end of the fourth season.”

• See also: Grant’s other Aaron Sorkin-related articles, including his reviews of The Social Network, The Newsroom’s pilot script, The American President, Charlie Wilson’s War, Moneyball and A Few Good Men

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The Top 100 Billy Joel Songs

“I am convinced that nobody since 1970 has written more melodic pop than Joel . Most of his many albums are stacked with great tunes, and they provide a compelling portrait of a man in search of meaningful human connections.”

• See also: The rest of Dan’s ongoing Billy Joel retrospective
  

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Spock’s Beard – X (2010): Riding High on a Second Wind

“Americans today don’t give a hoot about progressive rock… That makes it hard for Spock’s Beard, the international superstars from L.A. now in their eighteenth year, left standing as the proverbial prophets not accepted in their homeland.  Things seemed even bleaker in 2002 when frontman and brainfather Neal Morse departed from the group after six albums.  But now, with the release of X, the stalwart boys look to reclaim their crown as kings of the formerly-and-elsewhere-beloved genre.”

• See also: Colton’s reviews of Rabbits on the Run by Vanessa Carlton, Ursa Major by Third Eye Blind, Sun We Rise by Elessar, The Whole Shebang by Audiostrobelight, My Forever by He Is We, and the semi-mythical May the Box Burn Down Around You by Jupiter Sunrise
  

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James Bond: Dying another day, film after film

“If you think it’s cool that Bond continually escapes from perilous positions thanks to gimmicky, made-up devices, I’m happy for you. If you like the painful dialogue and plots, great. But even the mediocre-to-decent Bond films (like Die Another Day) are bad movies overall.”

• See also: Grant’s look at some high- and lowlights of growing up-themed films and sports movies

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Eve 6’s Legacy: A Discourse by Correspondance

“But what really separated Eve 6 from the litany of Mighty Joe Plums, Fastballs, and Cowboy Mouths who flickered and faded from late-90′s alternative radio was their knack for building memorable songs.”

• See also: Earn This staff’s roundtable on pop culture wishes, Dan and Grant‘s point-counterpoint on Pinkerton by Weezer, Dan and Colton‘s dueling reviews of Speak In Code by Eve 6, and Dan’s discussion of the writing that influenced his work on Earn This

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Shutter Island: Live as a monster or die as a good man?

““And when you leave Shutter Island, you’ll wrestle with your inability to state exactly what ‘happened’—both because that question can’t really be answered without reference to specific characters’ perspectives and because Laeta Kalogridis’s script doesn’t have any interest in giving you a simple resolution.”

• See also: Grant’s reviews of Inception, The Social Network, (500) Days of Summer, Brothers, The Town, The Breakfast Club, The Descendants, 2011 Films, The Town, Children of Men, The Taking of Pelham 123, Memento, Garden State, Bull Durham, Up in the Air, Michael Clayton, Green Zone, The Book of Eli, and Friday Night Lights

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Green Day, Live and Under Review

“Green Day’s contradiction can be summed up as such: they give a shit—about the world around them, with or without Bush in office—and don’t give a shit—about people’s expectations for them, about their genre’s constraints, about their history.”

• See also: Grant’s reviews of Uno/Dos/Tre, 21st Century Breakdown, and Dan’s review of American Idiot
  

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Relient K retrospective – Watch the glint in the eye shine of the spring in my step

“One of the best arguments in favor of nurture over nature, Relient K transformed themselves from completely insignificant to one of pop’s most underrated bands not through luck or by accident, but hard work and steady improvement.”

• See also: Dan’s thoughts on his five favorite albums, books, the live version of Rosalita, influential animated movies, Bruce’s first three albums, LeBron, Taylor Swift’s love life, 2010, The Office (UK), The Annie Awards, animation by decade, Yo Gabba Gabba, Eva Cassidy, gutless TV plotting, The Beatles, Veronica Mars, and Oasis. Also, here’s that stupid article about Community’s “streets ahead” catch phrase he wrote in 20 minutes that is the site’s highest traffic article every damn week, not that he’s bitter.
  

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U2 – War (1983): Welcome to the big leagues

“If the latter six songs of War were as good as the first four, we’d be talking about one of the eight or ten best albums ever made, but they’re nevertheless able to change the tone while still maintaining the feel of the entire album.”

• See also: Grant’s reviews of No Line on the Horizon by U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2, Suck it and See by The Arctic Monkeys, The Suburbs by The Arcade Fire, Habits by Neon Trees, Narrow Stairs by Death Cab for Cutie, The Ugly Organ by Cursive, Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol, Absolution by Muse, and Make Believe by Weezer 

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Jay Mathews writes, logic cries

“I very much believe that intelligent discussion of one of the country’s most prominent high schools is warranted. This is not that.”

See also: Grant’s deconstruction of Jay Mathews’ awful TJHHST coverage, parts two and three