#(this album might not be my top fave just yet but | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

elkkiel · 9 days

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okay so i listened to the summoning and take me back to eden (it autoplayed so i figured i might as well listen it to it) and. wow. not what i expected at all! i'm a big fan of songs shifting genres and it looks like they do that for all of their songs so thats really cool!!

i would love to listen to any more reccomendations you have, since typically i enjoy music that's faster paced. i really really liked the summoning though, and the lyrics for take me back to eden. wow. like. WOW. i did research into their lore and it bangs so damn hard

thanks for the rec :)

(also, sorry about the a/b/o stuff with other fandoms :( i love talking about it for pwp reasons and socioeconomic theorizing reasons so my blog is a safe place for that stuff if you want :))

I am absolutely elated that you like what you've heard so far!!!! And also so so sorry for the rabbit hole you're going to fall down with these guys

I would honestly recommend the whole Take Me Back to Eden album as a new listener—I looped it for practically a month straight when I first found them haha. It's a great sampler of their range and by far the most refined, cohesive release of their main 3 LPs.

Beyond just getting you to listen to a whole album in one sitting, here's some of their popular songs/singles:

(Btw, there's a TON of good live recordings for some of these as well; they sound just as good, if not better, on stage as they do in-studio)

Alkaline

This is the one with the sexy banner/mic stand stroking lol. It's a sensual, synth-y intro leading into a hell of a headbanger with chuggy guitars

The Summoning

Mentioning this for the live performances in particular. Vessel goes CRAZY with his live vocals, there's a huge drum solo in that atmospheric part, and a LOT of on-stage shenanigans to be had. It's the song that made them blow up HARD, and for a good reason.

Rain (ty @tonguetyd for the rec lol, here's a last-minute addition)

This is another great sample of Vessel's vocals, especially in the intro. It starts slower with the solo piano but gets really powerful in the second half. A personal and fan-favourite for sure!

Hypnosis

If you vibe with Alkaline, you'll vibe with Hypnosis. It's like ultra-concentrated, pathetic sopping wet paper towel levels of yearning with groovy, heavy breakdowns

The Offering

A setlist staple that'll make you want to dive headfirst into the nearest mosh pit. This is a good example of the music tying into the lore/story behind the band as well, if you're interested in that kind of lore analysis

Jaws

An oldie but a fan favourite! It might just be me but it kinda gives me Bring Me the Horizon vibes, so if you like them then you'll probably like Jaws as well

Vore

Yes, it's called Vore. Welcome to Sleep Token lol. It's one of their heaviest songs with lots of harsh vocals (Vessel really shows off his higher range here) and super groovy, dynamic instrumentals. Personal fave tbh, it's at the top of my Spotify repeats playlist

And finally, the lore 🥰🥰 I've only been here a short time and still have yet to discover a lot of their story, but here's an overview of the band history and lore, as well as an in-depth interview with Vessel from 2017. They like to add a lot of Easter eggs to their releases (they created a whole ass alphabet/cypher to go along with Take Me Back to Eden), and the fans go WILD with theories and analysis!

Anyways I'm gonna cut off the infodump there haha. Please let me know what you think and if you run across anything else (songs, lore, etc.) that you liked!!

(Also ty for the omega solidarity 😌 the sleep token fandom is so much fun and still exists in the same weirdo-freak realm as dtblr omegaverse-enthusiasts lol. There's just far less *actual* omegaverse here.

I've been spoiled by the sheer amount of a/b/o content and normalization in the dteam fandom that normal amounts of fandom a/b/o feel like total deprivation. If you ever feel like sharing I'm always down for theories and headcanons too btw. It's such a fun, complex trope and I love to see what others think)

#ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US #and thus begins your cult indoctrination mwahahaha!!!#sorry for the length lol this is the first time ive been able to properly share them with someone new so i just got excited #sleep token #sleep token band #askkiel #dreastmilk.ask

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psycho-lizard9 · 9 months

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Hello

I wanted to make a little introduction post as my first post here since I know that there was quite a bit of a bot issue in the past, and possibly still is to this day, so I do want to say that I am not a bot XD

I will soon add photos to my profile, but I wanted to do this post first.

I used to be here before, I had several blogs but the most known one was probably my J-Rock blog posting mostly BUCK-TICK and Der Zibet. That old account was nyacchan-3. I also used to have a dream diary on here for those who remember. Some of you might also know me from AO3 as Nyacchan, but I have changed my name there to Nameless_Me. I might change this name again in the future and I might also change my Tumblr name cause I couldn’t really come up with anything so I picked a song title and added my fave number to it. For this new account I will be posting J-Rock again, but maybe also some random things now and then, like reblogging things I come across and like.

Also, since I left social media I left my Discord name on my AO3 profile, yet I forgot about that after a while. I recently got 3 friend invites on Discord from strangers, and since I had forgotten my name was out there I assumed they were bots and denied the requests. If it was you, I am sorry and feel free to now message me here instead.

As I said earlier, I deleted all my social media earlier this year as the constant fandom wars really got on my nerves. The Internet is not a fun place when all you see is people constantly bitching at each other. I wasn’t planning to come back until at least September 2025, but since Issay’s recent passing I have decided to come back early as the memories of him are most easily found on social media. I want to just scroll through places, come across random photos, gifs and videos of him and enjoy the amazing work he has left us with, to remember the amazing person he used to be.

I know I have been complaining a lot about fandoms and fans in the past but I want to let that go now. I left social media to calm down and to… try to become a better person. I don’t want to have anything to do with any drama, I am just here to have a good time and to share the love for my favorite artists.

Feel free to talk to me tho, especially if your interests are the following artists:

BUCK-TICK

Der Zibet

DEAD END

Creature Creature

The Yellow Monkey

Vaniru

Sakurai Atsushi’s solo/side works

ISSAY’s solo/side works

MORRIE’s solo work

and/or Kazuya Yoshii’s solo works

Also feel free to contact me if you play any of the following games and would want to play online cause I don’t like randoms in online games XD:

Payday the Heist

Payday 2

(Also Payday 3 when it comes out cause I know I will be binging that)

Phasmophobia

Demonologist

Ghost Exile

Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan 2

Anyway, since I don’t want to immediately become inactive with posting, I will be posting faves lists from albums. Per album from my favorite artists I will be doing a top 5, top 3, fave song and least fave song. I plan to post these opinions of 1 album per day starting with Der Zibet, as I have been listening to Issay’s work almost non stop since he passed away. Listening to his voice isn’t as easy as it used to be, but I just want to enjoy his amazing voice and remember how much I loved him and always will love him. I don’t want to avoid his work.

Well, I’ll be right back with my opinions. It’s nice to be back and I hope we can all behave and get along now. I guarantee I won’t be causing any trouble :)

Extra: Feel free to message me here if you have any band related questions (of bands mentioned above)

#jrock #buck tick #der zibet #dead end #creature creature #the yellow monkey #vaniru #sakurai atsushi #issay #morrie #kazuya yoshii #yemon #payday #phasmophobia #demonologist #attack on titan #games #music #introduction

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schrodingersgirlboss · 2 months

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this might be just the euphoria of the moment but i think this might be my top favorite album. or AT LEAST second fave idk if it took folklore's crown yet

#evermore darling i'm so sorry #legit never thought this day would come #ttpd posting

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reddoll123 · 11 months

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Hey, so here’s my lil’ mini review of SHINee's 8th album Hard after listening to the whole thing twice:

Hard: First time I listened to it was from the mv, and I wasn't sure about it. And so after listening to it twice more via the album, I'm set in just not caring for it. Like, there are parts of the song that I love, like when they harmonize while singing Ohh~, the Hard like a criminal part, the bridge and classic high note at the end of it--but still not the full song. Like some parts felt too disjointed but not even in a good way. So, yeah this might be the first title track from them that I don't care for. Oh well, I know the b-sides will be amazing tho 'cause it's them~

Juice: Ooh the beat for this! 'Kay, I'mma have to disagree with my faves in that I think that this should've been the title track instead of Hard. Like it has Kenzie and Dem Jointz and Adrian Mckinnon as the writers? It was destined to be fire! So I can safely say, so far this is my top song lol. (This does feel like the sister song of DCM though, so I do kinda get it not being the title track at the same time since title tracks shouldn't be too similar.)

10X: Oooooh, such a smooth song already just from the start. Makes me feel expensive like I'm sauntering through a romantically lit downtown era with shopping bags in my hand lol. A nice finger snapping, foot tapping song aka it's really really nice!! SHINee never disappoints with their vocals and harmonies bruh <3. Another top fave!

Satellite: Gave me a nostalgic feeling right away, and kinda reminded me of an older song of theirs. This is such a pretty song, especially the chorus when they go all Ahhh~, really helps make the song feel lifted and light <3. Taemin being at the front as they sing really helps with that as well ^^.

Identity: Immediately thought this was a Key song 'cause it's sumn he would choose for his album (which is a great thing) with the retro yet futuristic vibe the song gives. Anyways, this is a nice bop!

The Feeling: I've already heard this one a few times from the pre-released mv, and it's still real nice. Love the brass, and drumkicks in the beat plus their vocals ofc :3.

Like It: That chorus is real nice! Song is like the definition of quintessential poppy SHINee--just feel good and bright~ I def like this one a lot hehe.

Sweet Misery: Song's okay, like I love the beat and melody but the chorus is a bit of a let down.

Insomnia: Song's also okay though once it got to the 2nd chorus, I started really vibing with this one lol, paying attention to the swing feeling, the piano etc.

Gravity: This is the closest to a ballad in this album, and they once again sound so beautiful together. And I really dig the punchy beat when they sing "Gravity, gravity, yeah" during the chorus. A really nice end to the album imo!

And so my favs from this album in order are: 10X, Like It, Satellite, Gravity, Identity, The Feeling, Juice, Insomnia, Sweet Misery >>>>>>>[a wall], Hard.

TL;DR: Another solid full album from 5HINee <3. It's not the type of album with like a whole new sound for them, bells and whistles, theatrics or whatever but not every album has to be like that. This one's a nice vibe with the bright, punchy side at the start leading towards the wistful yet beautiful latter end of the album. I'd def recommend listening to it, just for their vocals that always shine through and how they blend with each other so well. And as always, I look forward to hearing what they'll do next <333.

#shinee #5hinee #shinee hard #album review

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quaranmine · 2 years

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time to give you some of my reccs

okay, i got SO many more of those reccs than i anticipated, and it was so much fun! thank you for sending them in. in return, here's a few of my own (no LH edition) (hardmode)

this is like actually in my top songs ever and it has been making me lose my mind since...2014? like i think this song has been in my top 100 almost every year i've had spotify lol just listen to it <333

this entire album is amazing but this one's my fave

yass

idk why this song causes me to go insane i cant explain it it just does

i can't explain why this is a desert duo song. it might not even fit. it just IS and i cant listen to this song and be normal

this is my favorite 80s song. mandatory listening

ANOTHER SONG I LOSE MY MIND OVER

i found this song while making my last life playlist and. yeah

catfish and the bottlemen my beloved i was totally obsessed with them the entire year of 2019. this and Fluctuate

look deep into my psyche and this will be playing (a fun fact about me is that onerepublic used to be my favorite band i still like. have a very deep connection with them)

NOOO I RAN OUT OF ROOM

honorable mentions before i ran out room:

Blame - Bastille

Bear Claws - The Academic

HONEYCOMB - KUNZITE god it's been so long since i heard this i just found it again just now

What Am I Becoming? - POP ETC (i used to have a watcher grian comic wip for this song. it is forever a watcher grian song lol)

15 Dreams - New Politics (somewehre in 2017 i listened to this on repeat incessantly)

Next In Line, Avalanche, and Up 2 U by Walk the Moon. I loved WTM.

Dancing With Your Ghost - Sasha Sloan (this songs makes me cry)

Don't Take the Money and I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers

In Your Heart - The Franklin Electric

Australia - The Shins

Wired - Ivan & Aloysha

Help Me Down - Wilderado

Two Weeks - The East Pointers

We're Not In Orbit Yet, Good Luck, and The High Road by Broken Bells

#music reccs #OK I NEED TO STOP ADDING TO THIS #Spotify

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idontwanttospoiltheparty · 2 years

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Now YOU: best album? Song you most like playing (assuming you’ve tried to learn any TS songs)? Or if not, what you’d like to be able to play? Best lyric? Favourite era look-wise? Favourite music video?

folklore is her best album. It just is. It has SUCH interesting things to say about like the NATURE of storytelling itself, how and why it happens. It does not, in fact, contain a single skip. The production is excuisite. Everything FITS. ALSO, I love how it was created??? This epistolary album almost, produced primarily by three people who were never in the same room for the entire process. It reflects the loneliness of the album so well and also how folklore is typically created! By hearing what someone made and adding something new to it. She was deeply insane for that album and I'll NEVER get over how she spent years clawing her way back to the universal belovedness she'd had in 2014 foe years only for it all to come back to her within 24 hours when no one expected it.

(also, evermore is a close second; it has higher highs than folklore but it's slightly less tied together and — while not really having skips either, it comes closer to it)

I really like playing mirrorball on the piano, doing the chords with my left hand and the melody with my right hand. There's some sooooo soothing about it. On the guitar, I've actually been neglecting her catalogue a little, though I should go through it a bit to practice some of her picking techniques, which are actually fairly underrated and more sophisticated than they might seem!! I think I'd love to be able to do Death By A Thousand Cuts like she did for her Tiny Desk Concert, it's a really lovely accompaniment!

Best lyric is an IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION but "And the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up" is literally like... I'm speechless. She WROTE THAT. Also honorable mention to my oldest fave "I took your matches before fire could catch me". ALSO, I could write essays on "I can't decide if it's a choice, getting swept away" because that line dealt me psychic damage 8 years ago and I've never recovered.

My favourite era lookwise was probably rep, especially the early period, when she was just so cozy in her sweaters. It was so heartwarming to see tbh! Plus, she looked hot af on tour (though I am also one of Those who is still not over the white crop top outfit from the 1989 tour that Yes was objectively tacky and yet is her most sexy look on earth????)

Favourite music video is difficult, probably Look What You Made Me Do, because, when I watched it the first time, I had an out of body experience and literally LOST my MIND when I noticed her past selves (her releasing the MV a week AFTER the song was out is lowkey one of her BEST publicity moves to date). But also Blank Space, Wildest Dreams and I Bet You Think About Me are GORGEOUS and fun top tier music videos!!!

#ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh #ask #agarlandoffreshlycuttears #taylor

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angelllcakes · 2 years

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ahhh yuri is such a sweetheart, I am a wizone so hearing that makes me so happy 🥰 now I know this question might be hard to answer, so make the response how ever long you need it to be, but I gotta know your fave SVT + kpop in general songs!! Im so curious!!

-🧸

ahhh a fellow yuri stan!! i think she’s the coolest and i’m so glad you like her too!

oh boy, i’ll try my best to answer but there are just so many good songs!! i’m gonna start with svt’s latest albums and work my way down to beginning 😭

face the sun/sector 17: march and ‘bout you just speak to me like no other song, i have no clue why! i think i appreciate how intricate the intros are as well as the general flow of the songs. i can’t wait to see them live!!

attaca: yk i pronounce this at ATacca and can’t fix it lmao but CRUSH CRUSH 1000%. it’s probably one of my favorite seventeen songs ever! To you and PANG! are also songs that are super close to my heart >_<

your choice: literally a masterpiece, i think there was one song that didn’t catch my ear immediately i love them ALL. i’d have to say heaven’s cloud, wave, and same 3x make me the happiest to listen to and can really bring my mood up whenever i’m down:)

semicolon: THIS ALBUM CHANGED MY LIFE BRO. home;run is and will continue to be my most watched, supported, and drooled over comeback yet. I’m a whore for vintage/historical concepts and lemme tell you it surpassed ALL my expectations 😩 and AH!LOVE? AH!LOVE? my most favorite song of seventeens to date ugh i can’t even explain how nostalgic it makes me feel! and the hyungs?! WHEW. hey buddy? the underdog and suchhh an underrated piece of art! don’t even get me started on light a flame because we all know it’s affect on the universe 🥴 and all my love makes my heart ache, it’s so incredibly beautiful, and do re mi gives the cutest vibes i hold back squeals listening to it <3

heng:garæ is simply a masterpiece, there’s no other way to put it. I wish and My My have to be my babies on this album 🥺 listening to them simply makes me smile. i’m just gonna add fallin’ flower to this one too bc WOW that song is nothing short of perfection i love it so much.

an ode: holy crap this album is just so captivating i couldn’t pick a fav if i tried. hit, fear, second life, lucky, snap shoot, and happy ending are what i listen to most from this album but network love will always have the biggest place for itself in my heart. i’ve even choreographed to it because i just think it was constructed magnificently!

you made my dawn: is just a masterpiece, can’t put it any other way. good to me is definitely my favorite off this album. it’s the kinda song you play in front of your mirror and pretend youre badass… which i may or may not do from time to time:3 home is the most memorable all time favorite, and hug makes me sob, simple.

you make my day: tied for my favorite of their albums along with semicolon, i cannot get enough of it!! oh my! is just about the purest, cutest song i’ve ever heard, and holiday brings such a reminiscent feel of all your good memories. WHATS GOOD SLAPS, and moonwalker in my opinion t the coolest tribute song ever 😆 i’m adding call call call to this group because THAT SONG MAKES ME SO HYPE AHHHH

directors cut: is so special to me, i’m honestly so so thankful they produced it. falling for you is also one of my most favorite tracks! with thanks and thinking bout you falling right behind it!

teen, age was LEGENDARY. change up stays one of my all time favs, clap, bring it, flower and trauma? life changing!! from this album, my favorites are hello, rocket, and lilili yabbay!

A|1: stays popular no matter how long ago it might have been. crazy in love is definitely one of my all time favorites, i play that song at least once a day 😩 swimming fool and check in are close seconds!!

going seventeen is sooo iconic, fast pace, don’t listen in secret and i don’t know are MY LOVES, MY BABIES

love & letter/ very nice repackage: TOP TIER IN EVERY WAY. pretty u, hit song, healing, and aju nice… aju nice man, i’m getting emotional. that’s the song that got me into seventeen! 😪

boys be: AN ABSOLUTE ICON AHHH. mansae and when i grow up take the list. they mean so much to me and i keep them so close to my heart <3

17 carat: the baby of the group, the first mini album 🥺 adore u has to be my absolute fav from this one!!

my phone will explode if i write anymore, but here are my absolute favorites from svt’s albums!

for their solo tracks, my all time favs are purple rose (bc DAYUM jeonghan made me feel some type of way) spider, and ruby!

#sofi chats <3 #sofi’s 🧸 anon #seventeen #woozi seventeen #svt jeonghan #seventeen lee chan #seventeen smut #seventeen soft hours #seventeen songs #yoon jeonghan x reader #seventeen x reader

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jiminsproof · 2 years

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◡̈⋆🄷🄴🅈(●’◡’●)ﾉ

how bout you start with SUZY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ᵐᵃʸᵇᵉ she'll have a new album/cb before the end of the year!! 🙌🙇‍♀️

BAE's discography (including her osts) isn't that large YET!!! but it's gold and its a no skips

these are my top 10 most played songs by her:

satellite very quickly became my favorite song by her and my 2022 SOTY .... the mv!!! gaaaad monika is an amazing dancer.....

yes? no? maybe? special clip is a must see but caution ⚠ it's a little too hot make sure you watch with air conditioner on lol 🔥

she's seriously so damn pretty like... how??? all her MVS are so good... this MV tho by psy !!!! it was the best surprise 🎁 i got this year!!! MV of the year lol (im not at all completely and utterly in love with her)

take your time ⌚ and tell me what you think of THE BAE

HI AMAL 🌸 Thank you so much for giving me such a great rec my lovely 🥺💗 I CAN'T BELIEVE HER SURNAME REALLY IS BAE HOW FITTING NGMKGMG

I've listened to your top 10 songs and to some EPs here and there and my favourites so far are: Yes No Maybe (OMG WHAT A BOP AND SPECIAL CLIP IS INSANE IS LOOKING THIS GOOD EVEN LEGAL?? GAY PANIC), Satellite (wtf this is an indie pop song??? this sounds SO ALTERNATIVE and the mv is crazy good, expressive and touching), Question Mark (what a jazz-y feel??? CAN SHE JUST DO ANYTHING? ANY VIBE??) and SObeR (this one actually might be my favourite of all, it's such a great song omg!!!). AND HER VOICE IS LITERALLY HONEY. Like one time Hobi said that JK's voice has this soothing quality about it and I think Suzy's voice also immediately can put ANYONE at ease!! (My autocorrect said 'out anyone' and that's also.... strangely fitting........) But her voice is also so expressive, I'm in love with someone else absolutely made me teary-eyed OMG. No wonder she's your fave mentioning again that she's also like extremely beautiful it's insane and I'm extremely gay about it

Tl;dr I LOVE THIS AND WOW. SHE WAS IN CELEB? I've been living under the rock I've seen this mv before and had no clue who that was 😳 Just a second need to put my make-up on 🙂 -> 🤡

Okay I will shut up now but THANK YOU. I will continue my explorations of the Bae and I'm very grateful for your recommendation!! 🧐🔎👀🧭🤔

#asks #moots 💗#amal ⭐️#do you like the star emoji??? idk it just fits for me #you contain multitudes of cosmic dust <3 #and don't think i haven't yelped a little @emoji choice i am always enamoured by them #are you well??#hydrate pls i love you <3

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jackalsinthekitchen · 4 months

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pop report #6 (billboard 200, week of 2/3/2024)

on dicks, or things that sound like them

I’ve mentioned it before, but my late buddy and I had a different relationship with the pop charts. I was raised – digesting the star-ratings in my dad’s giant album guides like gospel – to distrust the pop cultural world around me. I always felt out of step (like that girl in the Onion article) with the trends of my time; I was always making heroes out of bygone artists out of step with theirs. My bestie similarly distrusted new culture – it being the early 2000s, what was popular was often mean-spirited and overly prefab. But an odd affection for numbers (innate) and a higher tolerance for boomer-sanctioned fluff (instilled) made him pleased as peaches to ride around to the local oldies station. We doubled down on our anachronisms in a bunker of a band, but when we broke up and stepped separately into daylight, we each had new pop epiphanies. Because somewhere between ‘07 and ‘13, radio music got juicy.

Strong melodies are rarely in short supply, but other things had been adjusted. Hip-hop and pop production became indiscernible, the hook emphasis and contrapuntal construction of the latter absorbing the atmospheric and rhythmic virtues of the former. Spearheaded by artists like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, women (many non-white) took pop over, tamping down indie tumors like Mumford and Sons and keeping the bros at bay. The most conventional such superstar, Taylor Swift, opened her music and mind to the new sonic fashions, while maintaining her foundation of catchy, emotionally inhabitable songs. A vision of a braver, more equitable world felt represented on the radio, and it was a trip to listen to. With digital production outgrowing its ungainly hallmarks, everything started to sound a little like a dream, and by six or seven years ago, what most people wanted to listen to was wonderful.

But pendulums have a way of swinging back, and while I can’t put my finger on what’s changing, I’m at least equipped to note a few data points and go hmmm. For instance: the top five albums currently perching atop Billboard’s 200 chart are by male artists. I’m a lot less savvy when it comes to analyzing the album charts, in some part because my friend talked about them less than the song charts. It’s often a mixed bag of rap platters, country platters, pop platters, soundtrack platters and evergreen old faves (Thriller; Rumours; Queen’s greatest hits; Elton John’s greatest hits; these days every Taylor Swift album). But with the influx of country bros up said charts – who as far as I’m concerned are always named Luke or Zach, even when they’re named Blake or Chris – you wonder why the Eagles’ Greatest Hits isn’t the hotcake it once was.

It bears mentioning that none of country-pop (much less country)’s women – Taylor Swift hasn’t counted for a while – are selling like the dudes are. I mused a few blogs ago that MAGA might partially account for the whitest genre’s ascendence, but if I’m being cynical I could go bigger. The resistance #metoo engendered (as progress does) obviously includes more than just the red hats. Not that I figure All Men are bulk-buying Morgan Wallen CDs solely out of spite, but it’s hard to imagine any mild-mannered or self-reflective men even streaming him. “Last Night” is one of many smashes he’s racked up to date. His country-rock is inflected with a steely pop sheen, and beefed up with rap-adjacent beats, not to mention a looser and less laconic vernacular than Southern-drawl singers are usually armed with. But that cocky song and its album were each the #1 sellers of 2023, which seems a shame when the best stuff (“Anti-Hero”, “Kill Bill”, “Flowers”, any Barbie single) came, yet again, from the better side of the battle of the sexes.

Unrefined as he may be, Wallen isn’t a menace – if grassroots red meat like “Rich Men North of Richmond” was always on top, things would be less nice. But he does seem likea dick, and it’s a shame when dicks win. Wallen’s album isn’t at #1 anymore, and I’m not super familiar with superseder 21 Savage’s work – though he was half of Drake’s sus Her Loss, which definitely had an indulgent-resentment-of-women vibe. And although from the opening monologue, his album American Dream codes sincere (sincere almost never being preferable), it’s nice in theory to have an album called American Dream at #1 when that album is by a Black hip-hop artist making no overt pop concessions. Anyway, like I said, I haven’t given it sufficient attention, and maybe it’s great. But it’s not revolutionary I’ll betcha, and a scan of the reviews solidifies this enough for me to write all this on my blog without worrying about doing 21 Savage too dirty.

Wallen’s album is at #2 – on the charts for the 47th week. I wonder, without caring to do the work to find out, if its preeminence is comparable to that of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, enduring bestseller Elton John’s half-century-old blockbuster. That was a 2-LP set with 17 songs, and because Elton was the biggest artist in the pop music galaxy at that time, it listed for $5 more than a normal LP ($6.98). Wallen’s albums always contain something like 200 songs, so in theory, that spiffs up his sales. Also, his occasional loose tongue (“take care of this n*****”) and the “I’m a jerk but you love me” aura hallmarking his biggest hits almost definitely guarantees a dose of racists and douchebags in his audience share. But you don’t get to #1 without a portion of your constituency being honest-to-goodness Very Fine People. Then again, a lot of people sit out elections – just like Ariana says, “in case you haven’t noticed/everybody’s tired”.

Drake’s latest is #3, and while the title and imagery of For All the Dogs is less self-celebratorily male than Her Loss, it’s still a bad look from a distance. Drake really is the Elton John of his generation – every one of his albums and mixtapes and “playlists” has gone #1 on the Billboard 200, except the very early So Far Gone (#5 pop, #1 elsewhere) and something called Dark Lane Demo Tapes (#2 pop, #1 elsewhere). His reign has just about tripled John’s heyday (though the double-disc compilation Diamonds wouldn’t be a perpetual top 40 staple if John didn’t have decades’ worth of hits to his name). Though when his streak began, it was the Degrassi alum’s sheer niceness that set him apart – to where, when he came on strong to nominal work friends Nicki Minaj and Rihanna, you had to stifle a smirk – he’s been on something of a Dark Aubrey kick for a while. His flow remains a highly agreeable sound, but the charm’s been low (which is never Jay-Z’s problem), and his invention has never been strong enough to counterbalance it.

Next is Green Day. Green Day! A band, with guitars! At this point Green Day are an American institution, at a level above many of their diverse bands-with-guitars ‘90s peers – it doesn’t seem likely Billy Corgan, for instance, will be asked to turn one of his concept albums into a Broadway musical anytime soon. The band’s staying power, although they capitalized on fashionable liberal resistance and indie-derived pretentiousness with American Idiot, can be chalked up to the fact that they’ve always been more of a pop band than a punk band. But coming on like a punk band still helps. “The American Dream* is Killing Me”, Saviors’ opener, couches its good old-fashioned generalized protest in generic, Beatley melodics, and couches that in hard-within-reason guitars. The Tik Tok time-warping that tosses aging acts up the charts is heartening. Whether or not Saviors is good, Green Day feel like old-guard underdogs now, or at least old friends.

Rounding out our Penis Quintet is Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, the indie-boy fluke du jour. Every once in a while, people want to open the window of the pop palace we’re living in to more organic styles, e.g. the Green Day pop-punk model. When indie started really selling in this country, it wasn’t the soundscaping experimentalists or mordant wordsmiths – it was the real teary-eyed and sincere (wuh oh)-sounding people, leading up to people like the Lumineers, who lived at the crossroads between Arcade Fire and Mumford & Sons, and had about as much depth as the Archies but pretended otherwise. You can hear why Kahan is setting himself apart – the unconventional tinge in his voice helps lend a unique air to his lyrics, which are also unconventionally tinged. This isn’t the same as “clear-eyed” or “incisive”, though (much less mordant); the trick is to make you think you’re hearing something more outside the box than you are, which on the pop charts is sometimes just outside the box enough to be compelling. Nevertheless, he doesn’t seem like a dick – his music is as nice as it sounds, and his words’ heart is in the right place despite the weakness of the sauce. They aren’t very funny, but Kahan certainly is, at least when he’s talking about sunflower seed shells.

The rest of the top ten discontinues the pattern. Taylor bookends – #6 is her latest, which happens to be the long-awaited, marginally-differentiated re-recording of the album that launched her into pop super-stardom. Nothing she says isn’t calculated, but she’s right to tout her own prescience in the liner notes. There was liberation as well as mercenary benefit in roping pop into her music, in all its Nashville-bucking, cybernetic glory – and using the tradition of sexualized pop stars as a vehicle to amplify her rich-young-woman-about-town themes. But if 1989 wasn’t a money move (it was, at least a little), 1989 (Taylor’s Version) begins in that category. I note that “Is it Over Now”, her 9000th hit, has more of a self-repetitive vibe than usual. Then there’s Lover at #10 – on the wings of “Cruel Summer”, surely. The notoriously sunny album, brimming with shrewder pop gestures than her more consciously “artistic” last three, increasingly hits like a pre-COVID time capsule if not balm.

In between are two girls and a guy. #7 is last year’s from SZA, an always thoughtful, rarely compromising album auteur whose music rides that line between art and commerce better than most. #9 is country’s best example of same – the self-titled from Zach Bryan, foremost among the Luke and Blake crop as a singer and writer even if he’s no Tyler Childers in either department. Sandwiched between at #8 is Pink Friday 2, sequel to an album that back in 2010 felt like the shape of things to come. Well before huffers and puffers tread on the toes Taylor was dipping into pop waters, Nicki was getting slammed for loving pop and showing it. Now Pink Friday is regarded as the kind of classic none of her subsequent albums, which are always overlong and (how do I safely say this) temperamentally disagreeable, can hope to measure up to. Back around PF1, her verbal invention and shapeshifting ubiquity had me thinking, rockistly, “new Dylan”. Well: she wasn’t. But I’m glad she’s still selling some records.

I never turned my observation of the top five’s all-sausage status into a hypothesis; I’m not really good at hypotheses. But I wonder if there’s also a connection to the #1 song in the country right now, which is by Jack Harlow and is called “Lovin’ On Me”. On sight, Harlow is like a post-Post Malone, a beardy, dirtbaggy-looking white guy who’s sort of hip-hop and sort of not, and he’s been a big star for a minute. (My editor: “he doesn’t look like he has a stylist… or a shower, maybe.”) Like Drake, his flow has a downtempo, low-effort-seductive quality, and he’s possibly hotter than Post Malone – you can sort of see why Dua Lipa dated him, even if it took him putting out a million-selling mash note called “Dua Lipa” and it doesn’t look like it worked out. But I have to admit, I just don’t understand why “Lovin’ on Me” is number one. It’s one of those club-style songs so totally unmelodic it almost feels like an insult, and though “I’m vanilla baby/I’ll choke you but I ain’t a killer baby” is more on the gentlemanly side than is common for this playa-hype stuff, the attitude and verbiage are mostly not mold-breaking.

That line does give me pause; if your partner wants to be choked, and consent is properly brokered, then obliging is not only nice, but, lovin’, even. And while the chorus is a rejection, not an embrace, of BDSM predilections, it still hinges on “you can’t tie me down”, an age-old I’m-a-man-and-I-can-do-what-I-want trope. If American elections have proven anything, it’s that Americans don’t always pay careful attention to what they’re giving power to. The single’s lyric is all over the place (“I keep it short with a bitch, Lord Farquaad”), but one thing it is not is self-effacing. So maybe “Lovin’ on Me” is the druggy-hangout or night-at-the-strip-club soundtrack staple of the moment – for the kind of white bro who likes to pretend he’s (his idea of) a Black bro, or for Black bros united with them via sexism and taste for a certain sound. It’s also worth entertaining that, given its current primacy, a number of women like the song too.

I know it’s dumb and dangerous to speculate along dichotomous demographics (he says, right after doing just that). I remember quizzing my Black Lyft driver about his passion for Luke Combs’ “Fast Car”, which he did not know was a Tracy Chapman song and did not listen closely to enough to hear Combs refer to himself as a “checkout girl”. Instead, he felt drawn to it because of the nature of the narrator’s care, the I’ll-do-whatever-it-takes-for-us of it all. The reasons people love the music they love are often more visceral than complex. It’s not only conceivable but inevitable that “Lovin’ on Me”, by a white rapper who’s on record as a BLM supporter and has been praised for his self-interrogation, appeals to otherwise irreconcilable categories of listeners. But not the category I’m in, which is something like “well-intentioned, open-hearted, bi-vibes older millennial who loves music more than anything.”

Men are people too; I’m one, albeit a self-hating one. And lest I slip into misandry, let me concede that some forms of male aggro do relate to necessary strength, rather than the typical insecurity/emotional avoidance/urge to violence. Hip-hop’s strivers are economic cousins to Nashville’s nouveau riche, because some class disadvantages necessitate hardness to thrive and provide. Inherited toxicities can enflame this already combustible component something awful, but DJ Khaled (for example) insisting he deserves oral sex but his wife doesn’t because he puts food on the table (“ya gotta understand, I’m the king, I’m the don”, he actually said, not in a song but an interview) is an especially low bar. But men sometimes do live up to their projected strength – and there are times when what they’ve got is just what somebody needs. Looking askance at any consensus, like what song or album the biggest number of people are listening to, is a slippery slope if you don’t try to understand it first. Still, I’m playing American Dream right now, and still not sure how it’s won over this many people.

Maybe there's another key to what’s going on here. Many of today’s top hits are het-up and horny, just like “Lovin On Me” – Tate McRae’s “Greedy” (#3) which is plenty feminist, or Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” (#4), a different twist on America’s main racial binary (country-looking white dude belts out barn-burning gospel/soul), or Tyla’s blissfully lubricious “Water” (#11). So maybe that’s why people keep banging “Lovin’ On Me”, which is also the first hit single since Rihanna’s “S&M” a bajillion years ago to turn on the phrase “whips and chains”. The cold is keeping people indoors, and Harlow’s hit is giving them ideas, so they’re jamming to it. Not here to knock your love, America: you fuck to what you wanna fuck to. But maybe being a straight man (ugh) is why I just can’t get it up, be it on a dancefloor or behind closed doors, to anyone who comes on like a dick.

*not the 21 Savage album

#jack harlow #21 savage #morgan wallen #drake #green day #noah kahan #taylor swift #sza #zach bryan #nicki minaj

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theladyinwhite13 · 6 months

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Hi Sky, (waves)

It's your Grishaverse Secret Santa again. Hope you're doing well babes.

Firstly, I absolutely love Nina and Wylan so I totally understand that it's so hard to choose.

Is there anything specific you like about each character ? I know this is a really hard question to answer so I'm sorry in advance.

And tbh Wesper is my fave ship too (if I was forced to choose)

But I'd be happy to make something Wytthias related especially for you.

Again, anything specific you like about the beautiful crack ship of Wytthias ?

But I think my main question right now is do you mind if there are spoilers from the show ?

Final question, I promise, I'm so sorry, I feel like I'm interrogating you.

What's your favourite artist, album and song ?

You can give me your top 3 for each of that's easier.

Have a great day/night babes.

Again, so sorry for interrogating you.

Your Grishaverse Secret Santa 🥰

omg hiiii babe!!!

hmm okay so I’m actually gonna give some random backstory that you didn’t really ask for first cause this might make my answer make more sense. SO one of my best online friends val (@firebrand-witch) was the one who got me into soc!! first she had told my sister to read it and then I was just an innocent bystander who was making lots of comments without any real context HOWEVER I had seen a photo of wylan once with googles and I thought he was adorable and I decided he was my favorite character but I didn’t know his name yet so I just referred to him as “the one with the googles” to everyone!! then I remembered that at one point my favorite mutual had put a photo of wylan as her pfp and that MAYBE that was part of the reason I loved him? like subconsciously I associated them with each other? idk but aside from all of those reasons I’m always big on the characters that are kinda overlooked or underestimated (like I don’t mean by the fandom but by the other characters in the story) and as someone with a Complicated relationship with a lot of family members, I just really like his story line!!

BUT NINA!!! OMG NINA!!! I honestly don’t even know if I have a coherent reason why I love her BUT SHE’S AMAZING SHE’S HOT SHE’S SMART SHE’S POWERFUL SHE’S SHAIHSKQNSJQHDOQISKEJDJIWIEJDNEQOSM ALSO SHE IS BISEXUAL!!! AND I AM BISEXUAL!!! I LOVE HER!!!

I just realized that all my answers are gonna be SO LONG omg this post will be very long, this is me apologizing in advance <3

hmm well first off I love that my gf DOES NOT like wytthias!! that makes it very fun to me!! but also idk it’s just really cute and it’s fun to have crackships that don’t make a ton of sense and like matthias DOES kinda treat wylan adorably, i just CANNOT ignore that fact!!

honestly I definitely haven’t been doing as great at avoiding spoilers as I should have, I know a few things that are spoilers, but I honestly don’t mind!! I definitely plan to watch the show, but the list of things to watch and read grows each day, so you really don’t have to worry too much about spoilers <3

oooh okay so my top three favorite artists (in no particular order) are maisie peters, 5 seconds of summer, and taylor swift!! I also LOVE harry styles and sabrina carpenter and olivia rodrigo and conan gray!!

top three albums are (also in no particular order) speak now (taylor’s version), harry styles (2017) and 5sos5!!

favorite songs ever is a little harder, cause I think favorite songs have to have emotional value to me so top three songs ever are falling by harry styles, mirrorball by taylor swift, and only a lifetime by finneas!!

alright hopefully this isn’t the most obnoxiously long and random answer ever, but thank youuuu (also I would never feel like you were interrogating me!! I love your questions!!

#grishaverse xmas

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chococookiez · 6 months

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nightly ptv posting in random places until i see them live (123 days left!!) - not in the greatest place rn as this cold covid continues to fuck with me both physically and mentally so im gonna get really sappy and talk about how significant each album is to me cause i could write a whole essay on this. under cut cause this is gonna be long

collide with the sky was the album that got me into this band. one of my irl friends was reposting tiktoks about them, i heard the hell above transition and instantly ran to them for recommendations cause i was HOOKED. that night i think i listened to them for around 3 and a half hours straight, i think i went through the entirety of collide, selfish machines and afftd (im not sure if i finished afftd or if i looked at misadventures yet) and the only thing that stopped me from continuing the binge was a massive headache that came over me. hold on till may inspired two of my ocs as i imagined them taking the roles of both people in the song, their personalities and how that'd fit into an existing universe we (me and my friends) had. they're still the two ocs i think about the most since i connect them with ptv very often and - yknow, hyperfixation. fun fact: i timed the "im sorry but ive made up my mind" in bulls in the bronx to happen when it hit midnight on my birthday. no clue why, just thought it was cool ig

the jaws of life was the first album i owned physically, accidentally managing to acquire both the cd and the vinyl on my birthday (cd was spotted in hmv, vinyl was my grandma's gift. there's a certain cashier at that hmv that i think happened to be working that day who shares my music taste, they recommended my dad listen to them since he said he got the cd for me lmaoo) the songs on that album were the first ones my parents heard, as my dad's car has a cd player so i popped it in on the way back home. much later on due to some shenanigans involving a shitbox car thats best music source was cds and oh look ptv is the one band my mum didn't mind listening to and i had 2 of their cds (i'll talk about that later), it ended up becoming her favourite album of theirs so we'd very often listen to it on journeys even when she got her car back as it was one of the few things we shared taste wise after i took a dive bomb into rock/metal, so while its my least favourite in terms of songs as im writing this (i don't dislike them!! some of my faves are on there!!), im incredibly sentimental towards it regardless.

misadventures was the second album i owned physically, finding the cd buried in a local record shop (it has the acoustic bonuses on it!!), and i think i can sorta call it my favourite album of all time. almost every single song in that album has been put on loop at least once (i mean that very literally. every single one. except sambuka? idk, just wasn't in my head as much...) it was also involved in the shitbox car shenanigans which might have influenced my love for it too. the divine zero in particular had (and still has tbh) a strong chokehold on me, being a little too relatable for me as i was going through a very dark patch in life that im not sure is entirely over yet actually, though it at least feels like it might be. i still can't listen to that song only one time whenever it comes on, i have to replay it at least once. it was my top song on spotify and i barely even fucking use spotify. can you tell im normal about the divine zero?

tl;dr - ptv are cool. im normal about them. thumbs up emoji.

a flair for the dramatic and selfish machines, while not having a big long story behind them, have been incredibly important to me during The Cold Covid as their songs are the main ones im obsessed with currently. some noteworthy songs off them are she sings in the morning/yeah boy and doll face (ok this one's kinda silly: i found out people found the first song through osu which i hadn't played in ages and these two was some of the first plays i got in a very long time so i currently hold them very close. fun fact: i like rhythm games!), wonderless/chemical kids and mechanical brides (INCREDIBLY calming to me, go tos when i need to lower my energy levels), million dollar houses (very closely connected to one of the two hold on till may connected ocs) and fast times at clairemont high (ok it's just a banger to me. the high notes make me fucking feral and i listened to the song 10 times in a row once. oops)

#and today on cookie's ramblings #this one's truly a ramble #yea sure i'll tag this #pierce the veil #ptv #im in like 3 different kinds of pain rn #still feeling kinda miserable #but writing this out and putting on my 2 ptv vinyls is helping #oh yea i didnt even mention i have collide as a vinyl too!#its on as im writing the tags! tangled in the great escape is playing :3 #i wanna make more fun nightly posts but ive been in an absolute state lately so you get ramblings again #at least its coherent this time... shudders at the last nightly i posted here #nightly ptv posting

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legobatjoker · 1 year

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BTW BTW LIST OF GOOD LEAKED TAYLOR SONGSS funfact i has a unreleased taylor songs playlist but i j put all the songs in their so to get together a list i made another playlist called top tier unreleased taylor along with the one thats just called unreleased taylor. real daniel vs the cooler daniel vibes DFHDFHD anyway !! okay first of all battles and drama queen are on there idk if uv listened to them yet but they are SO GOOD so listen to those and also okay the thing abt all these other songs (at least the ones im listing here bc idk abt the others on tht google drive that i didnt listen to) is theyre all from the . around the time of the songs from her debut album so theyre all v debutcore by which i mean theyre all very country (which im 90% sure ur v much good with so 👍🏽) and also like bc she wrote her debut album when she was very young (and some of these songs she wrote when she was even younger apparently? idk most of my info is coming from the little information thing tht genuis lyrics has for the song at the end and most of them arent v descriptive for unreleased songs lol) they songs have like a v like. earnest teenaged vibe to me the same way tht debut does (mean tht in a /pos way btw its one of the things i love abt tht album and these songs) anyway WOW this ask has been going on fora while without me actually giving you any songs anyway BASICS i'd Lie, Sweet Tea And God's Graces, The Diary Of Me i feel like those ones are like prettyyy basic leaked songs like. u can find them rly easily online i had heard them all before this even tho i didnt always seek out unreleased songs bc i feel like theyre rly common to find but also dont take this as me shaming u if u havent already heard them im j saying tht since i had already heard them in my mind they were the Basics but who knows maybe the other ones are also rly easy to find i just hadnet before today ANYWAY those three are all rly good imo id lie is the BEST !! so fucking good one of my fave unreleased taylor songs but the other two are also rly good sweet tea and gods graces is a bit christian-y but to like. the same extent as our song about so like not a hugee deal DFHDFHD anyway also OMG some songs that stand out as rly good to me are Firefly, Better Off, Drive All Night (Just South Of Knowing Why), Thirteen Blocks (Cant Call It Love), and Tell Me theyre all SO GOOD my most faves are firefly better off and just south of knowing why but theyre all so good !!! also not as good imo but i also rly like Live For The Little Things j bc i i enjoy thee vibes nd think its rly cute, R-E-V-E-N-G-E bc its so petty in such a fun way, For You bc i think its rly sweet and Lucky You just beucase i think its really fun and cute !!!! so i wld say listen to all of those ones :3 thts my recommendation at least its not comprehensive i didnt listen to every song on tht drive and i might be missing a few rly good ones) if u wish to pls tell me what u think of those songs >:> !!! ALSO idk if its in that google drive bc already had it downloaded (regardless i know it was on youtube at least at some point + i cld always send u the file) so i didnt bother looking but Me And Britiney is also really good so if its on there download tht to ALSO ALSO i recomened looking u the lyrics to the songs but maybe thts bc thts something i need listening to most songs the first time? but cld also be bc its leaked its not badd and some have it better but the audio quality isnt as good as an official song wld be (at least i think lol) but Live For The Little Things all the lyrics iv found are REALLYY badly transcribed for some lines like there a line thats very obviouslly listening to it saying "that love as first sight" but the lyrics say "that love and person" which is . not what is being sung?? kinda obviously imo but whatever do tht for the songs tht arent that one FDHDFHDF anyway YA !!!!

OMG OMG I AM SOOO EXCITED TO LISTEN TO ALL OF THESE WHEN I GET THE CHANCE…… i will tell u what i think when i do but ahhh im excited tysmmmmmm for sharing the link w me and telling me ab it :333!!!! also yah some of them being p country is so so so not a problem for me like. i can b a country girl if its good LMAO

#mewtuals #castle.answers #honestly petty song r-e-v-e-n-g-e sounds so fun… ill listen to all ur main recs but might have to listen tk that one first

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missflurry · 2 years

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Making my way through Midnights!

This is just for me to look back at when all the songs are my favourite and I laugh at myself hahahah. Some in order... Lavender Haze, Maroon Taylor Swift is SUCH a good writer omg. But it's not really my style yet. Anti-Hero I LOVE THE CLIP, it's sooo fun, when she's too big for the room!! I cannot wait to learn the lyrics! (In first listens I sometimes don't really hear the lyrics) Snow On The Beach OMG I LOVE THIS CUTE VIBE <3 Is is a Banjo or something? I love the plucking! I love 'Aurora Borealis!' This will be one of my faves for certain. You're on Your Own Kid Oh I thought this would be a darker production! It has become clear to me that this album is REALLY lyrics driven and I love it but I have a headache right now so I can really only say more after a few times of listening :') "I starved my body like I would be saved by a perfect kiss" (or something) - dang, she's really writing more about her eating disorder and its so brave and really touching :( <3 I like the bridge of this one!!! Midnight Rain Yeah I really want to join in on the hype but I think these are just songs I have to listen to more often!!! Oops. I blame it on having a headache.

Question...? "I don't remember who I was before you" yeah good line! I feel like I just need to print them all out and get coloured markers and analyse the shit out of all the songs. Because I'm like more of the bubbly songs instead of the 'same-note' songs but I hear snippets of amazing lyrics!

Vigilante Shit Yeah this one is the same mood but I feel this one more! I don't know what it is! It feels really powerful. Bejeweled 'Putting someone first only works when you're in their top five' YES. I think this one will be in my list of favs, also because its a liiiiittle bit more bubbly! Labyrinth --- skip because I want to make a YT video about it. Karma Yeahhh Karma is a purring cat yeaaahhh. Before this I had already listened to a few songs to play them on the piano without knowing the melody (YouTube video coming). Sweet Nothing is amazing and it almost made me cry with how CUTE THE LYRICS IS. 'I spy with my little tired eye Tiny as a firefly A pebble that we picked up last July Down deep inside your pocket We almost forgot it Does it ever miss Wicklow sometimes?'

IM A FAN! Of the rhymes in the beginning and I always love sentences with 'firefly' because I'm a basic princess bitch. I also love it when people give emotions to inanimate things (like the pebble aaah). It also has a dark side, of the world being too much, too hateful, and running to your significant other just to create such a bubbly loving space is such a mood (and now I want iiiiiitt omg). Mastermind YES YES YES BOP I LIKE IT, THE POWER OF IT! THE IDEA OF PLANNING A PERFECT ROMANCE. Yeah def one of my favs!

________

I also already listened to Would've Could've Should've because I was trying to do improv covers on the piano and DANG THAT ONE. THAT ONE. It HURTS ME. But it might also be one of my favourites because it's so powerful. Because I tried to play it I read the lyrics and it touches me in my ex-christian heart. I HONESTLY CRIED. It was just too real, too close. Singing about a relationship at 19 and struggling with faith, like, that is something that happened to me sooooo idk if she read my dairy but that song is special to me.

Especially the sentence 'If you never touched me, I would've gone along with the righteous' really hit me, because I think there is a duality in that. I miss who I used to be too, but because I was broken by somebody, it made it easier to let go of my perfectionism because I was "already broken". Not the best way of course, and I'm not saying I'm grateful for it. I'm just saying that I'm glad I'm not on that """righteous path""" anymore, because I felt like I was tiptoeing the whole time. Ofcourse the 'girlhood' line also hit too hard.

_______

Paris I really like the rhyme between 'Paris' and 'Somewhere else'! And I'm happy this is kind of a happy song :) 'Drew a map on your bedroom ceiling' also really cool!

#Taylor Swift #Midnights #me

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otterandterrier · 6 years

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some dumb music reviewer: even though Florence Welch, from Florence + The Machine, promised us this new album would be less “Florence-y”, and for the most part it is, it’s still “Florence-y” enough that is a pain to listen to. even though being so “Florence-y” is a big part of the band’s success, Florence + The Machine clearly doesn’t know how to stop doing what they do best.

me: I guess you’re the kind of person who orders a grilled cheese sandwich every time and every time complains about how cheesy it is huh

#LET 👏HER 👏 SING 👏#fatm #listen;;; i'm literally here for the greek flowery metaphors #the conjuring of goddesses and demons #the primal war screams #i'm not here for a ballad #i'm here for the Florence-y #(this album might not be my top fave just yet but #it is very Florence-y #most of the songs are gorgeous #why would you expect any less??)#my posts #music

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essaysbyciara · 3 years

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It’s Been A Long Time | Nebraska Williams x Black!PlusSize Reader [Part 1/?]

Warnings: language, smut thoughts (my ministry!)

So this has been in my drafts for a *HOT MINUTE* but that photo of Trevante in high school triggered a release. If people dig where it could be going, I will add it to my list of stuff to finish and open up a taglist. I’ll try my best to do so, I promise! lol

“God, I played this album out…” Lil’ Wayne’s seminal album, The Carter, didn’t age at all. Back in 2004, Wayne was a secret about to bubble over to superstardom, just years shy of lollipops and Static Major (rest in peace). Wayne represented the teenage angst of your time, even though you toiled in the suburbs while he wrestled with the streets. But as “On My Own” damn near explodes your factory speakers, a high pitch ping from your phone pauses your trip down memory lane.

Message from Sheena: Let’s catch up before the babies wake up.

You hit the call button on your dash once you stop at a red light.

“Girl, hey. You on your way to work?”

“Ain’t I always, Shi Shi? Damn near almost overslept. Thought I missed my flight.”

Sheena, or Shi Shi, is the epitome of a best-friend-forever. You two met in Ms. Grayson’s civics class, 11th grade. On the first day of school, you rolled into third period wearing a Scream Tour II t-shirt and if you were to describe Sheena in that moment, jealous wasn’t even the word. She stanned hard for Lil’ Bow Wow but her mom wouldn’t let her go to the concert because she got caught with a boy in her room. That boy is now the husband half-way responsible for the twin girls she’s hoping will give her some grace by sleeping a little bit longer.

“Damn. You wanna gift some of that sleep to these twins, God mommy?”

“Only if you gift me some of those post-pregnancy boobs, Mommy Dearest,”

“Can’t do that. Jarell been having too much fun with those!”

“Girl, eww. I don’t need to know all that.”

You kinda did. Sheena’s stories were always live, wild and uncut. And the only fireworks you’ve been adjacent to in months since you broke up with that lame stockbroker, Keith. You curve around the airport parking lot as Sheena starts digging deep into her latest soft-core episode with her husband since the six weeks ain’t up yet. In between interjections of how nasty Jarrell could be and watching planes taxi in the distance, you cruise through Instagram to take inventory of what your day might be like.

Managing social media for the biggest sports publication in the country was not the fulfillment of a dream after high school because, shit, social media didn’t exist when you were in high school. But it’s what has you just hours away from a flight to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, sitting in a parking lot, listening to your BFF’s slow burn sexcapades. You break up the audio immersion experience once your timeline displays something else to ruminate over.

“Sheena! Shi -- shut up! I can’t believe - you remember Lisa from high school? She got married ...and it ain’t to Brasco.”

“Whaaaa… you can finally stop making u-turns in the hallway and snag your man!”

You didn’t appreciate the lowly dig from your friend about Nebraska “Brasco” Williams, star running back, track champion and boy so fine he made both Omarion and J-Boog look like ogres. Your high school crush had you shook to your pubescent core; pretty teeth, deep skin tone and two tattoos before the age of eighteen. You’d see him in the student parking lot with the rest of the football team and you’d rush to your car as if it would go home without you. He was too hot to handle. You were beyond envious that Lisa could.

“Lisa ain’t do too bad. Her man is crazy fine. I mean, not Brasco fine but still…”

“Man, he had high school going crazy. I wonder what happened to him after that fight? I should stalk him on Facebook while I pump.” You laugh so hard, the couple walking past your car stops their argument to stare at you.

Your laughs break once you realize you might actually miss that flight. You relegate Shi Shi to kiss the twins for you and to send his Facebook profile if she can actually find it. You tried years ago and failed.

“Aight, fave. I will. Love you. Text me when you touch down in Indy.”

As you weave through the terminal, your mind thinks back to the days at New Birth High School. While it brought you joy in a forever friend and the launching point for your forever career in sports journalism, it did bring you one of the most hurtful days of your life that took years to shake.

It was the summer going into your senior year. Lisa’s sweet sixteen pool party. No way in Hell you thought you’d be there but your Mom and Lisa’s stepmom sat on the same deacon board at church and somehow thought you two were friends; Lisa paid you dust in those hallways. You fretted over every part of your outfit, especially the swim shoes you didn’t want but your Dad picked up at Sports Authority. But you were fretting the most over your swimsuit, a red one-piece with a deep open back. It was sexy for a 16-year-old, to be honest, but you secretly tried it on at the mall and fell in love with it -- especially how it made you feel.

You fell in deep love with your body that day. The way the swimsuit clenched your waist, giving your almost-pear shape some definition you’d never seen before. Your hips sat wide, your breast placed taunt, just peeking through the sides, showing off a crescent shaped birthmark right below your collarbone. It was Jet Beauty of the Week-esque and it made you feel on top of the world. Something that society kept telling you a plus-size teenage girl was not to feel. You used the last of your paper route money to buy it and hid your secret weapon in the back of your closet until the day arrived. You were hoping to get some boy’s attention -- especially Brasco. But you’d take anybody’s glare if you could get it.

You were in the clear once your Mom dropped you and Sheena both off at Lisa’s back gate. As you walked into the party, the sounds of the local hip-hop and R&B radio station blasted throughout her huge backyard. So much fun was had -- so much splash and dash -- that the faint sounds of “Knuck If You Buck” failed to erupt a party full of teenagers it was made for. The pool seemed tempting in 90-plus heat but most of the temptation came from the jacuzzi next to it. There inside sat Brasco, his lanky on-field wide receiver sidekick Kenny and Jarell, Sheena’s partner-in-bedroom-bust crime looking delicious in their highlighter-color swim trunks. You were still figuring out your body and the reactions conjured up from the sight of water droplets chasing down their backs confused you even more. But the heat of the sun -- and the heat from your body -- got too much to bear. That pool called your name.

You stripped off your t-shirt and denim shorts, leaving your swim shoes back by the picnic table. They clashed. Your nerves splashed together like the water you couldn’t wait to feel, battering against your heart. Were you ready for all this attention? Amongst the rest of the classmates, you disappeared. You weren’t popular. People knew of you but didn’t know you, only associating you with Sheena by proxy of Jarell. “My Goodies” came on the radio, providing you a soundtrack and a sign from God. Before you could answer the call, Sheena jumped into the pool. You tossed your glasses on top of your clothes and did the same.

The water felt golden. Sheena smacked your face with sheets of chlorinated goodness. Too much fun was had by all, even Lisa joined in the fun. Suddenly the entire football team did too except Brasco and Jarell, languishing on the edge of the jacuzzi because like most boys from their side of town, they didn’t know how to swim. Lisa saw her boo in isolation and tapped Sheena on the shoulder.

“Hey, Shi Shi. Let’s get in the jacuzzi.” Sheena grabbed your hand to guide you out of the pool. You weren’t expecting to see your Mom at the other end. Sheena didn’t grab you to join her in the warm bubbles, she got you out at the angry-faced-behest of your mother. You both were going home. The party silenced and stares followed as everyone watched your walk-of-shame to grab your clothes. You got what you wanted in the worst way possible.

Your unholy exodus commenced when Lisa’s mom called yours to report what she saw: this red bathing suit too revealing for a little girl to wear. It wasn’t the green ruffled mess-of-a-bathing-suit from last year. She claimed to witness stares and whispers and “boobs hanging out, butt all out.” Your mom got over there quicker than a church shout. She waited to scold you after she dropped off Sheena.

It was a Sunday School scolding like no other. Tears pooled deep like the one you were just having fun in. You tossed the bathing suit into the trash bin. You were never going to see it again.

The announcement of your flight breaks you out of your day nightmare. Grabbing the handle on your suitcase, you see a text with an attachment from Sheena.

Girllllllllllll. I found Brasco and babyyyyyyyyyyy…

You gasp. Time did a wonder on him in all the right ways. He packed on even more muscle, chiseling out the navy thermal dressing his upper body. Teeth still bright, Moonlight-bright. His Omarion-Pandemonium-era braids were gone, now donning a clean fade with perfect waves. His stance meant business, a lot of it risky. You bite your lower lip to mask the “damn!” urging a release from you, staring at his picture so intensely that you damn near walk into the stewardess checking your boarding pass.

You couldn’t wait to get to your first-class seat. You needed a safe space to drown in your own splash waterfalls. You beg Sheena to send you his profile, looking to make some more of that mess and she obliges. Scrolling through his Facebook, you see nothing. You needed him to match your uncleanliness. Another text from Sheena breaks you out of your spell.

Ain’t shit on here though. I can’t find an Instagram or anything. That’s where the dirt is at lol

You put your social media skills to work. Ain’t an Instagram profile that you can’t find. Nebraska Williams brings up nothing. Such a unique name and nothing to show for it.

Maybe Jarell can follow him, Shi.

Jarell ain’t on this thing. He hates all this stuff. You want me to follow him?

Girl, yes! I need more pictures! I’m trying to find his ‘gram and no diceeeeeee. Ughhhh.

Damn the “no cell phone until after lift off” announcement. You then try “Brasco”, too many names -- rappers, really-- and a dog company to boot. “Brasco Williams” yields no results. You couldn’t wait what could be hours, days, weeks, maybe never, for a response from Brasco to Sheena’s friend request.

You pull up Google as a last ditch effort. The results bring up what only seems to be archives from your now-defunct city newspaper covering one of Nebraska’s record-setting games from 2005. You know to quit while you’re ahead until you see a Youtube video: “Nebraska Williams (RB) New Birth High School (MD). uploaded by Donyell Williams. You remember Donyell as this boy who played too damn much in Geometry class but right now, he’s Brasco’s cousin who's Instagram profile came up on the first search. Thank God his profile wasn’t private. You scroll back far enough to hit the jackpot.

I found it! @donniebrascowill is his Instagram.

Sheena was right about the dirt. His posts were bare but his stories carried enough. Enough shirtless, weightlifting, fresh-out-the-barbershop-got-to-show-you-the-fade dirt. You hit the follow button before the stewardess asked for your drink selection.

End of Part I

#trevante rhodes x reader #trevante rhodes x fanfiction #nebraska williams

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