#and also run is like the ONLY appropriate song on that album for a first dance lmao | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

max13l · 2 months

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So, a Maxiel AU brainrot thing inspired by these specific versions of them from this and this, where Daniel is a rock singer who used to be very successful, but now he's 34 and his career has been dwindling. He's spiraling and can't write anything good anymore making his label desperate and having his long-time manager quit on him. His label decides to give him one more chance if he manages to put out an album by a specific deadline, and they also hire Max as Daniel's new manager who is tasked with getting him put together promising him a large amount of money in return. Oh, and Max needs the money badly because he is a struggling single dad.

Max is told Daniel has been struggling with drug use and that he sleeps around a lot and barely ever takes his job seriously anymore, so when Max meets him for the first time the last thing he expects is to instantly be crushing on him. I mean, Daniel is hot. His curls are messy and he looks like he hasn't shaved in months, but he's hot.

Daniel would realize Max is into him from the beginning because he's super bad at not being totally obvious about it. And, of course, he would be a bitch about it and try to use it to his advantage, being a massive tease and trying to get Max in trouble. Max tries his hardest to remain professional but his dick often betrays him, which Daniel loves to point out every single time. It never actually goes anywhere, but Max does take more cold showers than ever before.

For a while, Daniel would pretend he's only fucking with Max to get what he wants, but in reality, he's actually hardcore falling for him without even realizing it. And, suddenly he... starts having inspiration to write songs again?

They would get closer with time and banter a lot, with Max finding out Daniel likes country music and joking around that he should've just been a country singer, maybe he'd be less of a mess then.

Daniel also gets to meet Max's daughter, with Max being a single dad sometimes he doesn't have a choice but to ask to bring her along with him when he runs out of people to leave her with, much to his dismay as he would much rather do anything else, his daughter tending to not like new people much (and Daniel having maybe mentioned he doesn't like kids before). When she meets Daniel though, she ends up warming up to him much quicker than Max expects because she thinks he's funny. Daniel subconsciously fools around more and says ridiculous (kid-appropriate, mostly) stuff just to make her laugh. And getting to see Max being a dad is what makes Daniel realize he might really, really like him.

One time, something urgent comes up for Max and no one is available to look after his daughter, so he ends up having to leave her alone with Daniel. Daniel is pretty much scared shitless because he doesn't want to fuck up, but he has no clue what he's doing. Max reassures him it will be okay (as always Max makes Daniel braver) and this experience ends up being what ultimately shows Daniel just how much he actually wants to be with Max, and in a sense become a dad even though he's terrified. It also makes him want to get his shit together to show Max he could be a good dad too.

The first time Daniel looks after Max's daughter goes well enough somehow, so when something comes up again Daniel offers to help again. While they play, she falls and gets a little scratch on one of her knees and even though it's not actually a big deal and she gets over it quickly, Daniel totally freaks out. He calls Max the moment he sees a little blood, shaking and thinking he fucked everything up. Max thinks something serious happened so he rushes back only to find his daughter, with a barely noticeable knee scrape and a look of confusion on her face ("I just fell, why is he crying?"), trying to comfort a shaken up Daniel. Max puts her to bed and tells her everything is alright, before going to take care of Daniel. He ends up crying in Max's arms, telling him about his fears that he can't do anything right anymore and he only makes anything he touches worse, thinking he messed up real bad once again. Max soothes him by telling him how wonderful he is and that being scared isn't a bad thing, and that even trying to make the effort to change is already a show of Daniel's actual character. Max also tries to cheer him up by joking, "I asked you to take care of her but maybe I was wrong and she should be the one taking care of you." To which Daniel promises he will do better next time and Max reassures that he already did more than well enough.

When the next time actually comes around, Max finds Daniel asleep with his daughter in his arms and a bunch of papers filled with enough lyrics to fill an album next to them. His heart swells and he kisses both their foreheads before putting them all to bed. He also whispers to Daniel that he did so good and that he loves him.

#i'm not a writer by any means but i keep having brainrots so why not post them ig hope this is enjoyable #tw drug abuse #its only mentioned once but just in case #maxiel #my writing

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5h-epilogue · 22 days

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“ . . . and as you’ve grown up, I continued with running my companies, starring in movies, making music, and I produced my play. Everyone else eventually found happiness in one way or another, thank goodness.”

Nia had wondered how her parents were so rich, how she was able to enjoy such comfortable seating out on the patio she glanced around at now that overlooked an enormous pool — the big, outdoor flower and vegetable garden to the right of it — and the patio also had two flat-screen televisions, a gourmet outdoor cooking area with a grill, and, appropriately, ceiling fans and a fire pit.

“Wow, mom. That’s . . . wow.” The young girl was in a bit of shock. She understood why a filmmaker wanted to make a movie about you. A countless amount of questions ran through her mind about you, her mother, who was considered to be a living legend.

Your beloved chef came outdoors and served you and your daughter a bowl of strawberry chicken salad, your favorite summer meal, which she now knew reminded you of your old, deceased lover, Armin Arlert.

“Thank you,” you said to the chef. “Would you mind bringing me my photo album?”

The photo album.

You mentioned it in your story.

Several minutes later, your chef returned with a brown, hardcover book that Nia had seen a countless amount of times in a reserved spot in the library, but never had she touched it. She couldn’t anyway, as it was on a pedestal display underneath protective glass.

Opening the pages, you showed her several photographs of your younger self.

“These were taken by Levi Ackerman,” you said softly.

“You look really pretty,” Nia mumbled, taking the photo album from you, as you were flipping through it too fast for her liking.

She glanced down at a selfie of you and a dark-haired man at the beach, the decades-old date catching her attention.

“Is that Levi?” She asked.

“Yes,” you replied.

Then, she saw the letter Levi had written to you. She only skimmed across it, having already known its contents from your story, and then, she explored the other pages: where Levi told you to continue filling the photo album with pictures from your past, present, and future.

There was a picture of you with a kind-looking, blonde-haired man, standing side by side in a bakery, hands covered in flour.

There was another picture of that same man in a selfie with her father, who seemed so young.

It was clearly Armin. Not only could she gather that from the details your story provided, but he was one of three people in every photo she stared at who she hadn’t seen in her entire life.

There was a photo of you and Jean in a studio together, you writing something down on a notepad as he studiously adjusted something on the soundboard mixer.

“Wait, was this CS Records or Arlert Records?”

You leaned over, looking at the photo.

“CS Records. See the date? Jean and I were more than likely working on my first few songs during the Eldian Devils tour. I can’t remember who took the picture, though.”

Nia hummed in response.

Next, there was a picture of you and Eren getting married for the first time as young artists in Las Vegas. Underneath it, there was a picture of you and Eren getting remarried in Europe.

The other photos consisted of you, Reiner, and his family the night he proposed, you and Mikasa having lunch near a bridge, a group of friends playing cards around a table, a few pictures of you on stage, on film sets, and at awards shows, Eren’s family, and other pictures of you and your friends who she lovingly recognized.

It was odd to know that, as she looked at all of the photographs of people who she had just seen last week, there were two people in some pictures who would never, ever age. The photos of Levi and Armin existed as a permanent reminder of how they will always be known.

Towards the back of the photo album, there was a picture of you with another man she didn’t recognize, but it wasn’t Levi. It wasn’t Armin.

“Is that Connie Springer?” Your daughter leaned over to show you a photograph of you and Connie dressed in suits and gowns for some sort of event.

“Yes,” you said. “That was my album release party. It was the first night Connie let me out of my bedroom after locking me away.”

“Uh,” Nia frowned. “That’s really-”

Nia interrupted her own sentence, distracted by the very last photo in the photo album.

It was a picture that was much older than the other ones. Not only did the date give it away, but the horrible camera quality as well.

It was a photo that couldn’t be found online. A photograph that was worth more than diamonds and gold.

Four young teenagers, standing in front of beautiful trees and bushes, smiling brightly, were photographed by her grandmother, Carla Yeager.

Nia read the little description below the childhood photo of Eren, Jean, Connie, and Marco: The original Eldian Devils. So long & farewell.

Below that, there was a photo of two young children trying to catch fireflies in a patch of high grass underneath a streetlight, photographed by her other grandmother, whom she had never known.

The little description below that childhood photo read: First loves. So long & farewell.

Nia closed the photo album.

“I think I’m gonna cry, Mom,” Nia started to bury her head in her hands. But then, she suddenly perked up and pushed herself out of her seat. “I gotta go see Dad!”

The young girl speed-walked through the enormous home. At this hour, she was certain where to find him.

Opening the door to the family room, there he was, strumming his guitar.

“Hi angel,” Eren smiled, soft wrinkles by his emerald eyes appeared as he greeted his beloved daughter with her favorite nickname, but upon seeing her eyes glistening with sadness, he immediately put down his guitar. “What’s wrong?”

He motioned the girl over, who quickly ran to him and sat down, wrapping her arms around him.

While he didn’t know why she was so upset, he had years of experience soothing her cries.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here,” he repeated.

Nia was a touch more sensitive and incredibly empathetic compared to the average person, that much was true, and right now, she could only think about all the pain her father experienced. The abuse. Almost dying. Losing friends.

And it hurt terribly, especially because she had only known him as the kind-hearted man who was a phenomenal father.

“I’m glad mom picked you,” Nia mumbled. “Thank you for always watching The Parent Trap with me . . . showing up to all of my shows and stuff . . . reading my papers . . . and just . . . you’re a great dad. I love you.”

“Aw, I love you too.” Eren hugged his girl even tighter. “Of course, sweetheart. Always.”

When you stepped into the room, smiling softly, Eren gave you a confused look that silently asked: What’s going on?

You held up the photo album, and he immediately understood.

Eren then motioned you over. Once you sat beside him, he kissed your forehead and wrapped his arm around you as well, holding on to the two people he cherished more than anyone or anything else in the world.

“I love you, mom. You’re so strong, and pretty amazing, too.” Nia reached out, touching your arm. “I hope I can be like you when I’m your age. Older you. Not younger you. You used to be a mess.”

For a while, the three of you sat there, hugging one another, experiencing nothing but pure love and joy.

—

A few months later, it was Thanksgiving.

The heartwarming event was hosted at your house, as it was every year, and familiar faces were gathered around the enormous dining room table covered with warm plates of food.

This year, Nia approached everyone and asked them more specific questions about their lives, wanting more details about the story she heard.

Aunt Hange was more than happy to answer just about everything after having too much wine.

Everyone was lovingly questioned by the teenager, and she shared what you had told her with their children as well.

After having dinner, Jean and his wife were sitting in the living room, playing cards with Erwin and Hange.

Reiner and his wife, who had flown in from Tennessee, were socializing with Annie, her girlfriend, and Sasha — who brought her husband, Niccolo, and their son.

Nia hung out in the recreation room with Reiner’s three children, who both had hair as blonde as his and were slightly younger than she was.

Mikasa, who had settled down in Washington after seeing the world, wanting to be closer to her friends and family, was telling you and Eren about one Thanksgiving year that she had spent lost in the middle of a forest.

A little while afterward, once dinner, laughter, and board games came to an end, Eren found you outside on the patio, staring at the glowing fireplace.

“Hi, baby. Everyone’s gone,” Eren sat down beside you. “Nia’s asleep, or she’s pretending to be, I’m not sure.”

“She’s probably tired, so I’m guessing she's actually asleep,” you said with a grin. “Today was fun. I miss everyone already.”

“Me too,” Eren smiled softly. “I’m glad everyone’s doing well. I hope it stays that way.”

“It will,” you suddenly yawned.

“Come on,” Eren stood up and reached his hand out, and you took it. “Let’s get ready for bed.”

“Someone’s excited to cuddle, huh?” You teased, expecting him to deny it, but proudly, he grinned wider and said, “Of course I am, so hurry up.”

After having a shower together, you and Eren both cuddled up in bed, falling asleep in each other’s arms.

That night, you dreamt of your past — making cinnamon rolls in a bakery and staring at stars from a rooftop.

It was a dream that you often had, but not out of regret. Not out of pain. But out of reflection of just how much you healed. How much your life had changed.

There were some people you wished you could bring back — Armin and Levi.

Some questions went unanswered — who your stalker was all those years ago, and whether it was a stranger or a lover.

But, even so, after having five husbands, and after every beautiful experience and painful memory, you could finally say that you had found contentment, and your one true love was the happiness you experienced as you grew old with your friends and family by your side.

— ONE MONTH LATER —

Five years.

That’s how long Eren had been trying his hardest to visit Connie in prison.

And a month after having Thanksgiving dinner with his family and friends, Connie allowed him to come.

What a stubborn man Connie was, but Eren’s persistence had won.

Eren couldn’t lie. He was nervous. The last time he laid eyes on the CS Records owner, he was testifying against him in court, both of them as young men. Both of them wishing that the other person would simply fall over and die.

But now, as the man in his forties sat in an uncomfortable chair in a private room, waiting for Connie to arrive on the other side of the thick glass, he couldn’t help but wonder what made Connie finally allow him to visit.

But he wouldn’t have to wonder much longer.

His leg, which shook with anticipation, halted its movement when a door opened and a prisoner was escorted out in chains, two correctional officers standing at his side.

It was him. Connie Springer.

Eren’s brows unintentionally furrowed, his face twitching as he fought the urge to both smile and frown.

It was Connie — the same man that tried to take his life. A murderer. Torturer. And yet, it was Connie, his old childhood friend who had aged just as he did, and despite being behind bars, he looked rather well.

If Connie was as shocked to see Eren after years upon years, Eren couldn’t tell, as the prisoner simply blinked at him as he was escorted to his seat on the other side of the glass, his face expressionless. Intimidating.

And he just stared at Eren.

The former musician was the first one to pick up the phone hanging on the wall to communicate. Connie did so as well a few moments later.

Pressing the phone to his ear, Eren’s emotional, shiny eyes darted away from Connie’s, down at the new tattoo on Connie’s left arm, and back up at him.

“Hey,” Eren spoke first.

Connie didn’t respond.

He just stared at Eren.

“I’m here because I wanted to see how you were doing,” Eren spoke yet again.

Connie’s chains rattled as he shifted in his seat.

He just stared at Eren.

With a frown, Eren questioned, “Why did you let me come visit you if you weren’t going to talk to me?”

“You didn’t give me a choice. I thought you’d give up . . . after five fucking years.”

Finally.

Eren couldn’t help but smile a bit. Hearing his voice again after forgetting what it sounded like was rather startling.

“You only said yes so I’d leave you alone?” Eren asked.

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I’ll take what I can get,” Eren softly sighed. “I never thought that I’d ever want to see you again, but here I am.”

“You really did all this to check on me?” Connie’s question was fired rather abruptly, nearly cutting off Eren’s sentence. “I put a bullet through your chest. I’m the reason you only have eight fingers left. I killed your friends, and I could keep naming shit I’ve done. Why are you here?”

Eren glanced away, adjusting the dark green phone in his hand.

“Time heals all wounds.”

“That something your therapist came up with?”

“Yeah.”

The corner of Connie’s mouth twitched as, this time, he was the one fighting the urge to smile.

“What I’m trying to say is that I can’t forgive you for what you did to Armin and Levi, and it’s not my place to or not to. But I forgive you for what you did to me.” Eren’s eyes glistened with subtle sadness. “I guess I’m just hoping that after all this time . . . after all we’ve been through . . . I can talk to my friend again. Not CS Records owner, Connie Springer, but my friend. I haven’t spoken to him since I was fifteen, and I woke up with two new gray hairs today.”

It was a soft noise, one that was very brief and vanished as soon as it had arrived, but Connie chuckled.

“You’re saying some corny stuff, man.”

Eren’s smile brightened. “That’s what happens when you have a kid. All I do now is think of dad jokes, and try to-”

“You have a kid?”

Eren’s face faltered in utter confusion, but as he stared at Connie’s slightly shocked face, he could tell that the man wasn’t messing around.

Nia’s birth was worldwide news. It was a steady hot topic for an entire year — one would have thought that a new member of the royal family had been born.

But then, Eren realized that for the most part, behind bars, the outside world ceased to exist. Especially in maximum security facilities.

“Yeah,” Eren said. “I have a daughter. She turned fourteen a month ago.”

“Is her mom around? Who’s she?”

“Her mom is Y/N. And, yeah, she’s around. We’ve been married for years.”

“Seriously?” Connie couldn’t hide the shock and surprise. A look of amusement appeared upon his face as he raised his eyebrows. “Well, uh . . . congratulations. How’s Y/N?”

Eren couldn’t help but smile as he thought about you, his beautiful wife. “She’s good. She’s great. Her companies are still going strong, and she’s finally happy.”

“Didn’t wanna come see me?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Connie nodded.

Then, his face fell into a small frown, hazel eyes darting down to the corner of the glass, staring at nothing in particular.

“How’s Jean doing?”

“Jean’s fine. He’s retired from music. He married a pianist.” Eren paused. “Everyone else is doing fine too. Reiner has kids and a wife, and they all have Southern accents — it’s funny to hear. Mikasa finally . . .”

For a while, Connie listened to Eren ramble on about the progressive lives of the people he once knew.

As his old friend spoke, he couldn’t help but wonder how his life would have turned out if he had made different choices.

Sadness pricked at his heart, sending a small ache throughout his body.

If only he wasn’t such an idiot back then.

No. He was worse than an idiot.

He was a monster.

“What about you, Connie? I know you’re locked up, but how are they treating you here? Knowing you, you probably run this place, huh?”

Truth be told, Connie was rather surprised to know Eren cared. It was just as touching as it was shocking.

“Damn right,” Connie said.

And it was true, but not in the way one would imagine.

He intimated who he needed to. Ruined lives when he needed to. But, over the nearly two decades he had been behind bars, he had done it solely to stick up for the defenseless prisoners, both young and old, who didn’t deserve to be treated as he once was when he was locked up the first time.

It wasn’t some change of heart that had occurred over the last several years, either.

From the very first day he entered as a younger man, he was both starting fights and finishing them to protect others.

He couldn’t explain why he did such things. It was no secret that he didn’t mind letting other people get hurt, considering he excelled at harming others, but this was different.

Somehow, it just was.

“Can I ask you something? And be honest with me,” Eren paused, carefully thinking over his words before he dared to utter them. “Do you regret it? Any of it?”

Connie ran his hand down his lower face.

It was a difficult question, and not because he didn’t know the answer, because he did, but rather, he wasn’t sure if the truth was an acceptable response.

Telling the truth meant showing weakness. Losing power.

Letting go of that mentality was rather difficult, especially behind bars where weakness was preyed on.

But he didn’t care about those former beliefs anymore. He was getting too old for such stupidity.

“Telling you I regret it will give you closure, right?”

“Surely you want closure too.”

“I regret everything.” The prisoner looked into his old friend’s eyes as he spoke. “I wish I . . .” He clenched his jaw. He couldn’t speak anymore — but there were, perhaps, no words in the English language that could properly express what he felt in his heart.

“Well, uh, how about this,” The other man sniffled softly as spoke. “You’ll have to be under constant supervision, but, in a few years, how about we work on getting you out of here . . . letting you see the sun again? What do you say?”

Fighting the urge to cry was an incredibly difficult battle. The prisoner nodded, his teary eyes shining with guilt and hope, and the other man nodded along with him.

“Okay, well,” the former musician smiled sadly, “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Okay.”

The visit ended with goodbyes and promises that they both intended to keep. Your dear husband couldn’t be certain what the future held, but as he did the day he first met you all those years ago, approaching you backstage with great curiosity, he’d trust his gut.

For it had led him to his one true love, and he’d listen to it — always.

Thanks for reading! What did you think? Please let me know by like, reblogging, and/or commenting on the last chapter, or in my inbox!

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ughhwhyyyyyy · 1 year

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I took notes on the main character songs in rtc and I need to share them or I’ll rtscream

What the World Needs

Social Darwinism: The Song; they said it

The song is very superficial melodically (they took general pop music like Taylor Swift as reference for building it [when I say Taylor swift I mean something Shake It Off adjacent, I’m aware she has a diverse discography])

Repetitive melody

The lyrics don’t tell a story, it’s just her describing an idea

Structured as if she’s giving a speech about why she’s the best candidate to live again

She also has a lot of speaking parts in this song further pushing my point of this being a preconstructed speech instead of it being a song like the others

Noel’s Lament

This whole song is Noel creating a story of tragedy and he succeeds in that. Tragedy is defined as a singular disastrous event and when a character moves through a narrative while an omnipotent force is pushing for a disastrous and sorrowful conclusion. (See Webster)

(That point kind of contradicts my other look at this song but pay that no mind I did this one first)

This whole story is one ongoing disastrous event with Monique and everyone else being puppeted around to give Monique the most tragic and miserable time

Lowkey giving We Both Reached For the Gun

This Song Is Awesome

Techno rap song

Giving T-Pain; that was on purpose, ik

The piano part kinda reminds me of Eminem

Giving Blame It

Mischa expresses his anger through this style of music

I love Ricky and Constance singing the extra vocals it’s so good I love the idea of them being buddies

Also he said this song would be filled with curse words and I don’t think there’s a single curse word in this song

There is actually, I just checked

Well there aren’t any in the chorus and he said the chorus would only have profanity so 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

Talia

He has a very traditional view of romantic relationships

^Reflected in the traditional Ukrainian style the song is in

“Кохаю, Я тебе кохаю” blaaaghhegehblalalalla

“Let rivers run wild, or let them be damned” AAAAAAA SHUTTTT UPPP AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Talia seems very distant the whole song; like she’s just an idea that Mischa loves, not an actual person

^That could definitely be because Mischa never got to meet her in person which really shows how superficial of a foundation this love is set on; it’s just puppy love

^He doesn’t actually describe her as a person and describes her as more of an idea

^She’s literally projected onto Jane Doe[‘s skirt] because Jane doesn’t have an identity similar to how Talia isn’t really given one either

Mischa only describes Talia in relation to his relationship with her and how much he loves [the idea of] her, nothing outside of that

But although his love for her has a superficial foundation, it’s very real and his feelings are very real and you can really feel it with how gingerly this song is expressed

The two genres (techno rap and traditional Ukrainian folk) mix at the end representing how angry Mischa is about never getting to meet his love

The “lalala” interlude part feels like if this musical were a dvd movie, this part would play at the menu screen

He uses this style to express his passion (love)

The melody when he sings Talia always reaches before falling. He never ends on a high note while singing “Talia”. Even in the end he finishes the song on a high note while singing “love”, not “Talia”.

He has love for her but might not ever know her. He never got to meet her when he was alive

I LOVE THIS SONG SMMM AARGEHVRVR HE. SHHSHENEM

Space-Age Bachelor Man

The peak of the album

Like since the songs follow the cadence of a roller coaster, this would be the tippy top before the plummet into The Ballad of Jane Doe

Over the course of this song, he gains more narrative control (primarily because the cat guys are giving him more govt power) and I think that makes it comparable to Noel’s Lament

Gives 80s cartoon, like He-Man but less appropriate for children

Feels very self contained, very separate from reality

The singer’s voice is very warm I love it I love it

Reminds me of nyan cat lowkey

When he makes a super high note, his voice falls after he hits it (B3 on “Tell us Ricky should we pull the switch”)(G#4 on “Let me be”)(A4 on “B-b-b-b-bachelor maaaaan” [kind of sounds like he says meow there which makes since cause cat ppl and what not]) which I think foreshadows the emotional drop from this song to The Ballad of Jane Doe

^Could also be referencing the fall to their deaths on the Cyclone roller coaster perhaps idk

Also he says he hits a G# five octaves above middle C which would be the highest note also showing that this is the emotional peak of the musical

Ballad of Jane Doe

The first part of the song, the melody ascends as reference to her death and also her reaching for an answer

She does an ascending minor harmonic scale, falls back down in chromatic and lands on thra (if you know solfège instead of numbers lol sucks to be you ig), then goes down a half step and comes back up to thra not actually concluding the melody because she’s still searching

The second part is more grounded representing her [head] hitting the ground

The third movement is Jane expressing anger for not being able to remember who she once was or the life she lived

The key changes from F minor to G minor (whole step change), but it changes halfway through her emotional change

Skeleton dance number

At the end of the song, she starts “Doe” on a high one (conclusive) then continues moving up a minor third, I think that represents her still reaching for help from anyone to remind her who she once was, though it’s inconclusive and she’d probably be searching indefinitely since this is the end of the song

What’s interesting tho is in the rtc slime tutorial, she doesn’t continue ascending at the end, she concludes the melody and does a curt inhale instead

Sugar Cloud

I think if Space Age Bachelor Man was the highest point of this roller coaster, this song is the fun loopy part before coming to an end

^Which would make sense given that Constance’s last moments before her death was her upside down relishing reality

This song moves around a lot, like note wise, Lillian Castillo really moves through her registers in this song

^And that makes sense considering after What The World Needs, Constance says she’s more of a melody person

^This is also consistent with her lyrics being pretty repetitive compared to other songs and some parts being grammatically incorrect

“It breaks ‘till you can’t break no more” (double negative)

And the lyric “I see the world with all its backwards upside down” really doesn’t make sense to me, but it doesn’t have to, it really just adds to the pure joy she feels that only melodies could describe

The song starts slow and builds gradually giving us a good tone transition from the last song and helps a lot with the emotional whiplash from the jump between Space Age Bachelor Man to The Ballad of Jane Doe

It kind of has a gospel vibe to it, especially at the end during the break down

Half step key change from D major to D# major

I love the chorus after the bridge aaaaaa

Ok I think that was it thank you for reading if you did I think I really outdid myself with this, christ

#rtc #ride the cyclone #mischa rtc #noel rtc #constance ride the cyclone #ocean o'connell rosenberg #ocean rtc #ricky potts #jane doe #jane doe rtc

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hairklipz · 2 months

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Review 01: LTJ Bukem - Producer 01

Released: 0?/01/00AV

Genre: Electronic / Subgenre: Jungle DnB a/o Intelligent DnB & Downtempo

Watford native LTJ Bukem had heavy influence on what would become known as "Intelligent DnB". Intel. DnB is characterized by clear jazz influence alongside the break beats that make Jungle so addictive. Bukem navigates the sound with expertise, flaunting complex but catchy jazz loops into the mix from his classically trained background as well as hard hitting basslines that rock your ears. As the record runs, you lose track of time as the songs are paced very well despite being on the longer side by today's standards. If someone is looking for an introduction to the UK Jungle scene, Producer 01 is a gentle yet proper means to do so. It starts you off by getting you used to the sounds you will hear through the project and then eases you into the heavier aspects later on. Let's listen.

Track One is a seven minute interlude titled appropriately 'Cosmic Interlude'. As the song begins I can already feel myself enjoying it from the bass loop alone. This loop is reminiscent of the "Meep City Night Theme" from Roblox (obscure reference but that song is a 10/10 for me). The tone of this interlude is also set quickly with the accents heard echoing over the bass until the drums come knocking in. The structure of this song seems to focus it's attention on the tone switches. Moments of minor tension broken up with soft electric keys and more accenting. Just as the song is starting to become repetitive, Bukem (as if he is mixing this with you in mind) switches direction, giving us a break from the loop before heading into the final minute of the track. Although the loop has only been gone for less than a minute, when it makes it's return with new partners, you cease to remember the repetitive feeling from minutes before. An amazing start to the album.

Track Two instantly takes a dip in tone. Titled Constellation, this track is the sole song on the record that features vocals. The lyrics of this song seem to focus on music transporting you elsewhere. The style of the rap is consistent with the English Scene with flow influence from New York contemporaries of the same time and genre. I think this track is a great listen especially if you are listening intently. Noticing details like the whispers that DSR layers over his verse pulls the listener away from where they are grounded much like the song intended. As far as the production, a favorite for me is the strings within in the loops. I am an absolute sucker for strings especially the strings consistent with the late 90's and early 2000's. When the beat rides for the keys solo before the last verse, you get a chance to really hear those strings before the song fades off. I really enjoyed this song despite it being almost an outlier from the rest of the album.

Track Three is where we start to inch closer to the traditional jungle sound although I use 'inch' very literally. Unlike later tracks, this one remains subtle in its label. My first thought is downtempo but maybe not a specific sub-genre within it. The BPM sits at around 104 or 105 as opposed to the average BPM of 158 over the six songs that follow it. The chords feel very house-y which I love and I think suits the track immensely. While listening to the first two minutes of this song, the sub-bass will creep in for just moments at time preparing you for second-quarter of the track. The sub-bass hits hard and rounded, you can almost see the shape of it while listening. The echoing horns throughout the song are trance-like, it feels like I'm being hypnotized, snapped awake and instantly re-instated as the horns return. This cycle continues until you fully awaken only due to the volume lowering as the song fades out.

Track Four begins with what I can only describe as someone taking the term jungle literally. Partnered in the background with percussion are various chirps but closer to the foreground is what seems to be (in my opinion) a bit-crushed roar of some kind that starts anew every eight measures. I really love the idea of Bukem sitting down and deciding to center a jungle song around jungle sounds (even if I am not 100% on his intention or even that these sounds came from the jungle in the first place). The drums in this song are one of my favorite from the entire record despite this not being a favorite song as a whole. I think this song serves well as a transitionary track into the higher tempo theme of the rest of the album and prepares you for track five which I consider to be the second strongest, second most interesting and my overall second favorite on the album.

Track Five is titled 'Demon Theme'. As the track sets the tone for you, chirps are carried on from the previous track until the break begins. The drums are instantly weaker than the last song but this is not where 'Demon Theme' shines. Two minutes into the track, an echoing lead catches an unbelievable groove that immediately takes over. This section of the song is interrupted by a sampled singing voice that eases us into a new section of chaos. Many freshly introduced sounds start to swirl around your head at 145 BPM causing a hurricane circling your brain. Soon after, the 'calm' within this 'storm' appears in the form of flutes that end up blending the rest of the sounds into one. Once again, this off-key vocal sample serves as the start of the next section where we are met with warm synths and those familiar chirps from earlier. It feels like an off-color sun is breaking through the clouds of earlier. As the song enters it's final stretch, the chaos is gone and that catchy lead comes back to wrap everything up into a neat package. This new tone becomes the standard for the song, wiping your memory of the chaos the ensued minutes before. Switching between minute three and minute six feel like distant sonic cousins rather than two parts of the same track and I think this is absolutely a positive but also a theme of this album. It is dynamic and it shows track-to-track.

Track Six is our longest track on the records at just under nine minutes. The loop here has some sort of a filter which almost detunes it at times and I love that effect. The synths that work with this loop are slow and drone-like which leaves you wondering where this song will end up knowing that Bukem is both unpredictable and extremely talented at it too. 'Music' sits at the higher side with 155 BPM but somehow the song feels slow and paced. It is an amazing feeling. By minute four, I had found myself feeling like the song just began but we were already half way finished. The track is quick yet slow. It is heavy yet soft. It is both liquid and solid. Throughout this one, a sampled voice comes echoing both in and out like something out of Silent Hill until thick undistinguishable chords creep in to set the tone completely. 'Music' isn't one of my favorites as a song but the experience itself makes it. I think it is rare to find a track paced so perfectly.

Track Seven (my overall favorite) continues the long run time with the the last two songs totaling over seventeen minutes all by themselves. This song has a slow build but already starts to set the groove. The echo and melody used for this flute sample is one of the catchiest on the entire record. The bass on this track is definitely more subtle than the former songs but it is still rounded and impactful. As you hit the halfway point of 'Twilight Voyage' you get a closer listen to the sounds present in the song and this is one of my favorite sections. I don't have the proper words to describe the feeling they give me but it is like every sound is picked perfectly. Every soundwave is the exact one that I would specifically want. I find myself getting lost in this section just appreciating said sounds until the DnB returns for the final two minutes of the track. This song is one of the least dynamic of the record but somehow it doesn't feel repetitive, every second of those eight minutes is paced just as well as the previous track and that blows me away.

Track Eight begins unlike any of the other songs. 'Orchestral Jam' has an strong start as opposed to the soft build-ups we've been used to for the past seven tracks. The drums are glitchy and fast which the track gives us plenty of time in the first minute to appreciate until the melodies begin to slip in. Of course, this song is focused on strings but these strings aren't my favorite. I mentioned earlier in the review that the strings of this era are one of my biggest weaknesses but the ones present in this track just don't do it for me. Even when the bass is introduced about halfway through the song, I do not find myself getting the same feeling the record has produced so far. My favorite thing about this song are definitely the accenting done here and there. That being said, this song is on the weaker side for me and would be at best an 'okay' track. I do believe that this song is greater than 'okay' but might have the unfortunate task of following the almost perfect first seven tracks.

Track Nine is the where this amazing record comes to an end and from what I understand is Bukem's most popular track. Off-the-bat, this song has a chopped vocal sample (from which part of the title is taken) that is absolutely lovely. I think that the beginning of this song sets an amazing tone that gets me excited for the ending of this album. The keys, which are almost clav-like, are catchy and funky until they are cut-off. I think that I would've liked those keys to continue and carry the rest of the track with them in a different direction. They make their return alongside that vocal sample in the final minute of the record but without enough time to bring the song to a place I'd like to hear. I think this song reveals one of my worst habits which is gaining expectations in a track to only feel disappointed if it doesn't go where my head was thinking or somewhere better. This song set a tone that I got attached to and changed it. I believe that the song is still great but I am just a picky and pretentious brat who acts like he could've even made something this good.

Producer 01 is labeled by some as a compilation record rather than an actual album. I believe that without lyrics it can sometimes be difficult to keep an album coherent but Bukem did it masterfully. This project feel cohesive and paced beautifully. Sitting at 1hour and 13 minutes, each song works its runtime properly and keeps you engaged both mentally and physically. This record has plenty of moments where you cannot help but have a physical reaction to what is occurring even if you are not listening with full intent. This record is not abrasive but does have moments that wake you up and cause those reactions. With a slower, seemingly unsure start, the first three songs carry layers of influence that leave you guessing on the exact genre is would be considered. As you hit the middle four tracks, you feel entranced in the project unable to step out of it without effort. as you ease into the last two tracks which are the weakest in my opinion, you find yourself wondering what direction he will go and I love that feeling. Consistency is not bad but an artist who can leave you guessing is even better. As one of the first albums released in the new millennium I would say this record perfectly encapsulates the era and sets a great standard for the years to come.

8.3/10

-Hairklipz 28/02/24AV

#ltjbukem #jungle #dnb #downtempo #music #musichistory #musicreview #y2k #2000's #review #writing #blogging #blog #trance

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cartridgeconverter · 1 month

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(enabling you) show me what songs you’ve got for ottavio my friend

YESSSS < first reaction to seeing this

Give me a character or a ship (preferably not) and I will make you a 3-5 song playlist

So, I actually already have several playlists for Ottavio, the first one being the famed "no thoughts only tesoro" playlist, which is just 12 different recordings of Il mio tesoro. This one is not particularly interesting unless you are me and need to have it on in the background at all times.

The other full-length one is based on my (correct) headcanon that he would be a white guy who likes jazz (value-neutral). This is, of course, influenced by Ben Bliss's jazz stuff, which is very good and everyone here should listen to it. That playlist is basically just all of the standards I like, since the lyrics of the songs are generally focused around relationships anyway and that's very him.

That being said, since the prompt is asking for a shorter list of songs anyway, I'll try to compile a different selection, but there's nothing in the prompt stopping me from just listing all of the songs in the Chet Baker Sings album...

Hallelujah, I Love Her So, Ben Bliss's cover Just to hammer home that these are very fun and good. Look at how happy everyone is! Look at how much fun they're having! This was filmed in May 2023 which means this was in between runs of the Met 2023 Don G. To specify, Ottavio is the "her" in this context.

Look for the Silver Lining, Chet Baker Chet Baker is "the ultimate sadboy", according to an acquaintance of mine to whom I no longer speak. He is right though, and Baker's flat voice with no vibrato does give me that melancholy, dignified vibe. Considering that his way of dealing with things tends to be doing nothing, this one seems appropriate. I did think about using My Funny Valentine instead of this one, but it's just not as much of a bop and anyway Ottavio would be the funny valentine, if anyone.

Wave, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra's cover in English Had to add a bossa song. This one is just vibes, but I also really like that line "The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream together".

I'm Old Fashioned, Chet Baker No one gets to stop me from adding another Chet Baker song, and I feel like this one explains itself. Fundamentally, that's just what he is, especially in contrast to everyone else. He's the steadfast, traditional guy, and I do feel like he is confused and out of his element constantly.

So those are my four picks. They all did end up being jazz songs, but I suppose that's only natural.

Go listen to Ben Bliss's jazz gig it's really good.

#operaposting #don giovanni met 2023 #if you disagree with my interpretation you are WRONG

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girls-scenarios · 2 years

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Rookie Girl Groups to Watch in 2022

💕Twitter💕

CSR - CSR is a seven member girl group made up of girls born in 2015 under POPMUSIC entertainment that debuted in July of this year. Their concept is a breath of fresh air and reminiscent of Lovelyz and GFriend! Their debut song is "Pop? Pop!" and features a fresh, age-appropriate concept, which I know I can appreciate. I would recommend that anyone wishing to get into the group check out their video series on 1theK called "The First Judgement." It showcases their personalities and talents really well!

Lapillus - Lapillus is a six member girl group under MLD Entertainment that debuted in June of this year with "Hit Ya!" You might recognize member Shana from Girls Planet 999, and Chanty has become well-known for being the first Filipino-Argentinian Kpop idol! I would personally recommend this performance of "Queendom" for those who don't love their debut title track. Although I don't trust MLD as far as I can throw them, I'm really hoping for the best for these girls.

IRRIS - Anyone who knows me knows that I love IRRIS and I'm doing my best to make everyone else love them too. IRRIS is a four member girl group under JUSTICE RECORDS that debuted with "Wanna Know" in July of this year. Most recently they released a music video for their b-side (and my favorite song of theirs) "Stay With Me" and it seems like they'll be releasing a photo book as well. If you want to know more about them, you can check out my spotlight post. Their Broken Karaoke video is also a great way to see their fun personalities!

H1-KEY - H1-KEY is a four member girl group under Grandline Group that debuted with their song "Athletic Girl" in January of this year. They have a girl crush concept and their debut song is everything sassy that I've been wanting to get from BlackPink but just haven't. Most recently, they came back with their summer track "Run" with a more bright and summery concept that still kept some of the sass and style of their debut. You might recognize member Riina from Produce 48. I would highly recommend following their YouTube channel, where they post content (mostly with English subs!) like their LA Vlog that made me absolutely fall in love with them!

mimiirose - mimiirose is a five member girl group under Yes Im Entertainment that just debuted with their title track "Rose." Currently only the half mv is out, the full mv will be released later but they gave a full performance of "Rose" during their debut showcase, as well as performing their two b-sides "LuLuLu" and "Kill Me More." Member Yoon Jia was a contestant on Girls Planet 999, and maknae Seo Yunju was part of the predebut line-up for bugAboo. I love their debut mini album and I'm looking forward to seeing even more from this group!

ILY:1 - ILY:1 is a six member girl group under FCENM Entertainment that debuted with their title track "Love In Bloom" in April of this year. If you like Oh My Girl, WJSN, fromis_9, or GFriend, then you'll definitely love this group! Most recently, they came back with their song "Que Sera Sera" in July, a perfectly bright and cute summer song. You might recognize members Hana, Ara, Rona, and Ririka from Girls Planet 999. Ririka was also part of Nizi Project season 1. I would recommend that anyone wanting to fall in love with this group watch their interview with ReacttotheK and their pre-debut reality show ILY:0.

CLASS:y - CLASS:y is a seven member girl group that was made and debuted through the show My Teenage Girl. They made their official debut in May of this year with their title track "Shut Down" and then immediately released another mini album with the title track "Classy" a few weeks later. It looks like they have a fun teen crush concept, as their debut music video features them fighting zombies and their music videos feature bright colors. It's pretty easy to learn more about this group since you can watch My Teenage Girl, and they've also appeared on some variety shows like Weekly Idol. Their songs are all really enjoyable, give them a listen!

BeautyBox - BeautyBox is a six member girl group under BY-U Entertainment that made their debut with the song "Rat A Tat" in September of 2021. They are a multi-national group with members from Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. Most recently they made a comeback with the absolute bop "Boggle Boggle" and they released an English version of their debut song "Rat A Tat." They have a ton of content about the members on their YouTube channel, so it's not hard to learn about and fall in love with the members! I really hope everyone will join me in stanning!

ICHILLIN' - ICHILLIN' is a six member girl group under KM Entertainment that debuted in September of 2021 with their title track "GOT'YA." Since then, they have had comebacks with "Play Hide & Seek" and "Fresh," and they are rapidly improving with every comeback. They were originally seven members, but unfortunately, member Sohee recently left the group due to personal reasons. If you would like to learn more about them, they release a lot of covers and content on their YouTube channel. Their music is very fun and full of energy, if you enjoy groups like Weekly, Pristin, or Woo!Ah! I think you'll love this group!

Rocking Doll - Rocking Doll is a four member girl group under SRP Entertainment that debuted with their self titled single "Rocking Doll" in December of 2021. Since then, they've been uploading and releasing music and content nonstop. Most recently, they had a comeback with "Survive." As someone who has been keeping an eye on their journey, it's definitely their best produced song yet. Coming from a small, brand new company, it seems like their CEO is doing her best to promote the girls and I can really appreciate that! They post a lot of different content on their YouTube channel, so that's the best way to get to know the girls. If you like Alexa's concept, you'll definitely like Rocking Doll!

We;Na - We;Na is a four member girl group under SHINE E&M that just debuted with their song "Like Psycho." Unlike the title suggests, the song is actually super fun and upbeat, the chorus is catchy, and the dance is so much fun that I'm surprised they haven't gone viral with it yet. Seriously, if you're one of the people who misses fun and silly girl group concepts, you won't regret giving them a listen!

SKYLE - SKYLE is a four member girl group under Good Luck Entertainment that debuted with “Fly Up High” in August of 2021. They received some attention during their debut despite being from a small company, but unfortunately it was all because of fans claiming they were copying BlackPink and Everglow with their girl crush concept. Shortly after their debut, they made a music video for their b-side “Da Da Da” which I personally love (and think they should have made the title track to avoid plagiarism claims). They also released an adorable Christmas song called “Our Christmas” before not making any music for a while and releasing some covers and videos on their YouTube channel. Finally, they recently they came back with “Bye Bye Bye” and I absolutely ADORE this song. Also, their company is great at making low-budget music videos look great and work well with the song. Honestly, this group has a lot of potential and I’m really hoping they begin to get more recognition!

bugAboo - bugAboo is a six member girl group under A Team Entertainment that debuted in October of 2021 with their self-titled track “bugAboo” that featured a fun twist on the girl crush concept and featured the girls as ghost busters! Some of the members might look familiar, as Choyeon and Eunchae were both on Produce 48. Recently they had a comeback with “Pop,” another bright teen crush concept kind of like Weki Meki’s early concept. If you want to learn more about the members, they have a series they release called “Discover the Members’ Chemistry” on their YouTube channel that I would recommend, it’s super well edited!

Of course, I can’t leave out the rookies that we all know about this year. I don’t need to introduce them, you all know them, but these groups are KILLING the game and they deserve a mention!

NewJeans - If you haven’t heard “Hype Boy” or “Attention” by now, you’re definitely not on TikTok. NewJeans is a five member girl group under ADOR, a subsidiary of HYBE, and they went super viral before they even debuted. Then, we got their debut with “Cookie” and well.... Considering the members ages, it’s uncomfortable. Personally, since I’m an adult, I won’t be comfortable stanning them with the current circumstances, but it’s undeniable that they have taken the internet by storm and they will be HUGE in the future.

NMIXX - NMIXX is a seven member girl group under JYPE that debuted in February with “o.o” which was... Something, for sure. I feel like there’s a few good songs in there somewhere, but they were all shoved together and in doing so the members’ talents were buried. However! They have done some incredible covers AND they’ll be having a comeback soon with “Dice” so I’m hoping the members will be able to shine!

VIVIZ - Former GFriend members SinB, Eunha, and Umji made their debut again this year as the three member girl group VIVIZ with their title track “Bop Bop” and recently went on Queendom and came back with “Loveade.”

Kep1er - Kep1er is a temporary group formed through the survival show Girls Planet 999. They made their debut with “WA DA DA” and the girls don’t seem to have gotten any rest since then, as they participated in Queendom, came back with “Up,” and have been travelling around to multiple international Kpop concerts, such as KCON. They even made a Japanese debut with “Wing Wing.” Please let them rest, WakeOne.

LE SSERAFIM - We all know LE SSERAFIM, it’s impossible not to know them with everything that has happened and how viral their debut song “Fearless” went. With former IZ*ONE members Sakura and Chaewon and popular Produce 48 contestant Yunjin, it would be very hard for them not to succeed. They are a now five member girl group under HYBE, if you somehow didn’t know. There’s no denying that they’re going to play a huge roll in Kpop from here on out.

Billlie - I honestly think most international fans know Billlie by now, with Tsuki going viral every time she blinks and their songs going viral on TikTok, but for anyone who doesn’t know, Billlie is a seven member girl group under Mystic Entertainment that debuted in November of 2021 with “GingaMingaYo (the strange world)” and dragged me right back into being in love with Kpop by reminding me what I love about it. This is to say that they are incredible. Most recently, they had a comeback with “Ring My Bell (what a wonderful world)” and introduced us to a whole new rock concept from them!

LIGHTSUM - Technically, LIGHTSUM is a year old now, but I don’t think they get as much attention as they deserve so I’m including them. LIGHTSUM is an eight member girl group under CUBE (unfortunately) that debuted in June of 2021 with “Vanilla.” They have an incredible line-up, with Chowon, Nayoung, and Yujeong from Produce 48 and Juhyeon from The Unit as part of the group. While you’ve probably heard of them, I hope you’ll actually give them a good listen and watch their stages: they’re incredibly talented and unfortunately seem to get brushed to the side. They’ve had comebacks with “Vivace” and “Alive” as of late, and if there’s one song you’ll listen to by them, check out “Alive” I promise you’ll enjoy it!

XG - So XG is technically a global Japanese girl group, since all of the members are Japanese. However, since they've been promoting in Korea and I love their songs, I decided to include them. XG is a seven member girl group that debuted with their song "Tippy-Toes" in March and recently went viral with their song "Mascara" blowing up on social media. They upload behind the scenes videos and covers on their YouTube channel if you'd like to learn more about them!

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siena-sevenwits · 9 months

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@lady-merian tagged me to put my "on repeat" playlist on shuffle and share the first ten. Thanks, Meri!

"Back Home" - Andy Grammer This song has taken on more associations and shades of meaning in my mind than it has any right to - and it just makes me grin.

"Valentina" - The Hunts I didn't realize this song was in my frequent listening. I like it well enough, but not majorly. I think Spotify brings it up a lot because it does intersect a lot of my musical tastes, and I enjoy it enough that I don't skip it when it comes on.

"Ride On" - The Darkeyed Musician Such a wistful sung so beautifully sung. And the artist herself is lovely - plays so many cool instruments and picks wonderful folk songs to perform, as well as write her own. I sometimes like to work on things with her live stream on Youtube in the background. She usually only has half a dozen listeners at a time, so she's very personable with everyone.

"We'll Meet Again" - Laura Brehm This was my song of determination and comfort during a difficult time a couple of years ago. I chose it as the curtain call music for The Tempest because it matched the emotional note we ended on, and some of the lyrics seemed appropriate. I suppose it's on repeat because we used it so many times during run-throughs and performances. :-)

"Cakewalk" - Nigel Hess and the Royal Shakespeare Company This instrumental version of "Come Live With Me and Be My Love" features in a production of "Much Ado About Nothing" which is very dear to my heart. I love the jaunty early thirties sound and would love to foxtrot to it at a dance. I don't know if I've mentioned my love of ballroom dancing to my tumblr friends much? I'm afraid I'm rather out of practice since covid, but it's a love of mine.

"Chasing the Sun" - Sara Bareilles @thebirdandhersong, you did this to me! Only went and made this my theme song of the year!

"Bird Song" - Juniper Vale This one is on the playlist I made for a certain book series. I picked it initially because it worked for a couple of the characters but have since started enjoying the song more for its own sake.

"Neck of the Woods" - Maisie Peters I am really only the most casual of Maisie listeners, but @imissthembutitwasntadisaster posted about this one a couple of times a while back, and I grew very fond of it after a couple of listens.

"King of the World" - Young Rising Sons It's just so joyous and optimistic! I think I started out loving this because of @telthor's King's Quest Chapter One playlist, and there's still a little essence of Daventry in it for me, but also it's just a fun song in its own right!

"No Excuse" - Psallos I put on their Romans album when I'm having trouble getting in the head space to do my study of Romans - usually gets me to sit down and start reading.

I nominate everyone who drank out of a water bottle in the last twenty-four hours. Do it!

#music #tag game

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upalldown · 7 months

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Wilco - Cousin

Studio album number thirteen from pioneering folk rock band produced by Cate Le Bon

7/13

I was quite wary of Wilco’s direction nearly a decade ago - not only was Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s brilliance far in the rearview mirror by that point, but the releases of Star Wars and Schmilco didn’t inspire great confidence. On their own merits, I’ll defend both of those records as pretty great, but the former’s half-baked jam session feel and the latter’s laconic vibe (not helped by a throwaway album title) both gave the sense that Wilco was settling into a late-career phase of simply resting on laurels. Since that time, I’ve been happy to be proven wrong.

The band’s resurgence began with 2019’s Ode to Joy - one of Wilco’s most mellow records, but its delicate nature doesn’t obscure the catchiness, beauty, and emotion present in spades. This was followed by 2022’s Cruel Country, a sprawling double album advertised as the group’s long-awaited return to country, the genre that spawned them long ago. While it did add a steady touch of roots and twang, most of the expansive tracklist fit rather well alongside the mild fare of recent Wilco and solo Jeff Tweedy efforts, but if the marketing felt a touch overblown, the record still delivered, a rock-solid eighty-or-so minutes anchored by multiple career highlights. And now, only a year and change later, we have Cousin, the third installment of a perhaps overlooked but undeniably impressive run by one of contemporary indie’s iconic groups.

Cousin is an incredible-sounding album. By that, I don’t mean that the ten songs here are reliably great (but they are!), or that the musicians on the LP play their instruments well (they do!), or that the record is arranged perfectly into a nicely-flowing forty-three minute listen (it is!). Rather, it’s the standout production job which proves particularly notable, courtesy of Welsh musician Cate Le Bon. Le Bon’s involvement itself is a relevant departure, as she is the first outside producer on a Wilco album since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky. As someone without any expertise in production at all, but who is in possession of two working ears, I’d say the band hit a home run. Not only do the songs sound lovely, but the colorful, glossy, shimmery-ness which results gives the music of Cousin a distinct identity in its own right.

More on that last note - I single out the production so heavily not just because it’s wonderful, but also because in most other respects Cousin feels like more-or-less a “standard Wilco effort”. There are some “different” songs like the exceptional opener “Infinite Surprise” or the future classic “Pittsburgh”, both of which have an artsy tinge that the band have often wielded at their finest, and mark a transition from the more rustic feel of last year’s record, but a good chunk of the tracklist could’ve been pulled from various other Wilco albums - “Evicted” seems like a perfect Ode to Joy cut, for example, and the noisier title track wouldn’t be out-of-place on Star Wars. However, they all work together nicely, buoyed by the kind of drifting and ethereal vibe which the production style furthers.

All in all, the vibrancy of the cover art couldn’t feel more appropriate, with Cousin coming across as drenched in warmth - if still rather melancholy, it seems notably bright following the oft-grim Cruel Country. There may only be a few songs here which will take a place among Wilco’s finest, but this is a consistently strong album, and the band has never sounded better, at least from a studio recording perspective. And Tweedy’s songwriting remains in top form - the apathetic delivery of mass shooting-pondering “Ten Dead” hits harder than the more obvious enraged approach likely would’ve, while closer “Meant to Be” captures a sense of yearning beautifully - “our love is meant to be”, he sings, expressing the thought more as an aspiration than a fact. I won’t try to assess where Cousin fits within the panoply of Wilco albums, but it’s another worthy addition to a burgeoning discography. It’s a wonderful feeling when an old favorite is still in a groove and pumping out quality music after so many years. Here’s hoping that there’s decades more in the tank.

youtube

#wilco #cousin #music #Youtube

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cmrosens · 1 year

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AMA Character Edition ~ Answers Part 1

Here are the first few questions! You can still ask your own :)

Q1: What are everyone’s favorite comfort meals?

A1: This one is weirdly the same for all of them: beef casserole.

The reason it’s the same is because it was Beverley’s speciality (and not *always* beef), and she’d make it for her favourite family members. So if Gran made you casserole, or you came over to find there was casserole for dinner/tea, you knew she was pleased with you, or you were in favour somehow. It was also mind-bendingly delicious.

Carrie has casserole when she goes over for tea, and that’s her first proper home-cooked hot meal in months. She later learns how to cook it, and the others then get it from her on request, so it is then un-weaponised as a meal and becomes one with positive associations, that they can just have whenever they want it. Since they all know the context of the original meal, which is unspoken between them but just a Thing they understand from their family dynamic, it’s The Meal that they sort of re-appropriate/reclaim for their own.

Q2: Give me a fact about ricky that you’ve always wanted to give me but haven’t told me yet? feed me specifically

A2: Originally – and I don’t know if this is canon or not – Ricky actually lost his virginity to Sasha Shaw who collected all the cousins born in 1990 (same year as she was). They were 15, he was wasted and doesn’t really remember. It lasted less than 2mins. It happened the day he caught Wes and Layla at Aunty Em’s house, and was probably in response to that on some level, and a total waste of time for him, which is another reason why he doesn’t ever think about it or have any feelings about it whatsoever.

Q3a: Tell us about songs that various characters would not listen to most of the time except for when they are feeling a certain kind of masochistic.

A3a: Carrie wouldn’t listen to Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell unless she was feeling like she really needed to cry.

Ricky wouldn’t put the radio on at all unless he was exceptionally lonely and needed some sound.

Wes only listens to angry emo rock when he’s incredibly pissed off/certain kind of depressed and needs to sike himself up for something: then it’s usually Fall Out Boy, MCR etc.

Katy is pretty easy about what she listens to, but she hates Summertime Sadness and Boys of Summer equally, and wouldn’t listen to them unless she wanted to torture her soul.

Q3b: If they could, what instruments would everyone play?

A3b: Carrie would play piano (always wanted to, never learned, but the house had a music room with a piano forte, and it remembers). Ricky – not sure. He whistles bird calls canonically so maybe the flute, but I think he’d like to play something with strings that requires dexterity, maybe the violin. Wes – electric guitar. Katy: drums.

Q3c: And to keep running with the music theme, if everyone were to be in a band, who would do what and what would the band name be?

A3c: Something along the lines of Gods & Monsters, or Young Gods & Old Monsters?? It would be alt/emo/glam rock, ironically for Wes in canon. Something like that. Maybe a cross between The Struts and My Chemical Romance.

In this AU, Wes would be the frontman, lead singer/guitarist. Katy on drums, Ricky would be versatile and be the band member who can pick up any instrument and play it really well. If he’s musical in this AU, then instruments would be his hyperfixation. I think Carrie would actually be a roadie, a PA, or part of the team in a backstage way, and that’s how she and Ricky would meet and get together. They may have another band member, but unsure!

This would be a very “Rock Star Romance” type narrative but potentially told through interviews and memoir extracts, with the band on tour promoting a new album, with episodic dramas like Carrie rescuing Ricky from various self-destructive behaviours and situations, keeping Wes from going totally off the rails, and making sure Katy doesn’t get arrested and attends her anger management therapy sessions. She would definitely have slept with Wes multiple times in this AU but it wouldn’t be anything serious – FWB I think – but her and Ricky would be the solid partnership by the end.

The AU novel would be the same name as their band, I’m leaning to YGOM, and I think it would read a lot like a rock star autobiography or a bio compiled by a superfan in the industry/someone writing about their father and his life for Reasons. Ricky would still be ace, but I think would feel a lot of pressure to “overcome” his sex aversion which would lead to him being very self-destructive until he learned to be comfortable in himself, and possibly with a kid he didn’t know he had until later. I think, though, it would turn out to be Wes’s kid, not his, and that would be a fairly dramatic but typical episode that underlines the narrative arc peppered with a lot of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Everything, ironically, that Ricky says he doesn’t do in THE CROWS.

Gerald’s place in the narrative would be taken by his guitar, which would be a character in the story. I think that Ricky writes the songs, and Wes has a lot of input, but Ricky’s got that creative spark and is a gifted lyricist in particular. Some of his scenes alone with his guitar would have a Ricky/Gerald dynamic, I think, in terms of it being a mask to his deep loneliness and dissatisfaction with the lifestyle he’s got, but he doesn’t know how to change it.

I’m not sure what Fairwood would be in this narrative, but leaning towards the guitar merging Gerald/Fairwood for narrative purposes, but it would be more metaphorical. I think Ricky would definitely have a “dream home” he wants to buy and live in with Carrie, and that’s a ruined manor in the countryside that he wants to do up and have as his project outside of the studio life.

ADD YOUR QUESTIONS BELOW

#AMA #ask me and i'll tell you #ask me everything #ask my ocs #character questions #accidentally came up with a new novel #writeblr #writerscorner #writerscommunity #writers on tumblr #books books books #oc #original character

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struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor · 2 years

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Just listened to We Need Love. I didn’t know it was an EP, a very short one.

Beautiful Monster is pretty. I liked their vocals in the song, but in the chorus they sound a bit strained. However, I was surprised by hearing them live on Station Z. The song is too high and all of the members struggled a lot. In the studio version Sieun sounds a bit shrill, but in the live version, it’s Yoon who sounds off. I wish they let Seeun sing in a falsetto more often, because her voice is quite distinct and lovely like that, so is Isa’s when they let her sing in her range - she’s been getting parts that make her sound bad. They should probably take more advantage of Sumin’s singing because she’s very stable, but the way she sings is very limiting. It’s the same with J, but she’s more versatile, which is probably why they gave her singing parts even though she’s a weaker singer. She sounds good when she sings softly though, and her falsetto is okay. Regardless, Stayc need to improve their vocals. They sound good when dancing because they sound very similar to the studio version, but they’re still weak singers. They also have a very specific way of singing that is characteristic of them and makes them memorable, but it stills limits them and might limit them a lot in the long run. Their singing sounds too meme-ish, instead of like proper singing. So Bad is literally so bad that it’s good because of that. Most of their songs are like that for me - kinda bad yet catchy and good, because their singing is hard to take seriously.

Anyway, Beautiful Monster is pretty and I appreciate that they switched things up, but it’s not very memorable and the girls will struggle to sing it live.

I was surprised by I Like It. I wasn’t feeling it in the beginning, but then I enjoyed it. Yoon’s voice is my least favorite, probably. It’s too nasal and she started off the song. I didn’t like the first verse, but I liked the chorus and the rap parts. The second verse is good. They’re pretty good rappers, which surprised me. They sounded better than I expected. The outro was cool too.

Love is pretty. It’s surprising that their rap in these bsides is much better than their rap in the tts so far. Love is a very summery song, reminds me of the beach - ocean wave samples aside. Sieun’s high note was nice (was it Yoon’s?). I like the song, but it’s bit nostalgic and too specific. It could play in a summer ad.

Beautiful Monster is the most tt worthy song. It’s summery but not too summery. It’s a bit more timeless. It’s my favorite in the EP. I Like It is better than Love to me, but they’re both too summery. I don’t like it when a song limits your imagination or interpretation of it by forcing feelings on you (such as nostalgia) or painting a very specific picture for you. Also, these kinds of summer songs only feel appropriate in the summer and I like to listen to a song any time of the year. Plus, I don’t love summer that much, or stuff like reggaeton.

The Run2U remix was quite unnecessary though it fit the album. They probably didn’t want the album to be too short, and wanted to promote their hit song too? Dunno. I will admit the remix took a lot of unexpected twists and turns. It wasn’t a generic remix at least.

#stayc #we need love

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lizzygrantarchives · 5 years

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Billboard, August 22, 2019

With her new album, 'Norman Fucking Rockwell,' the singer makes her most adventurous and candid music yet -- and leads Billboard's list of the 38 most-anticipated things about music this fall.

YOU’VE GOT TO CLIMB THE HILL BEHIND the Chateau Marmont to get to the office where I’m meeting Lana Del Rey, which feels appropriately on the nose on this early-August day: The hotel is Hollywood’s ultimate nexus of glamour and doom, the keeper of 90 years of celebrity secrets that touch everyone from Bette Davis to Britney Spears. It shows up in the homemade visuals for Del Rey’s breakout single “Video Games” and in the lyrics of songs like “Off to the Races.” She lived here while writing her Paradise EP in 2012. Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski lived here, too, in Room 54, before moving to Cielo Drive where — exactly 50 years ago, as of midnight tonight — the Manson Family arrived.

But these kinds of connections are standard in the Lana Del Rey multiverse, where nods to Bob Dylan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Elton John and Henry Miller can coexist in a single chorus and not feel overdone. (No, seriously: Play her 2017 duet with Sean Ono Lennon, “Tomorrow Never Came.”) And if the Lana of five years ago radiated significant Sharon Tate circa Valley of the Dolls energy, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter has more of a Summer of Love thing going on now. The songs she has previewed from her fifth album, the exquisitely titled Norman Fucking Rockwell, are far more Newport Folk Festival than femme fatale — meandering psych-rock jam sessions and slippery piano ballads that shout out Sylvia Plath. The narrative thread throughout all of this can lead listeners down an endless rabbit hole of references, but you can sum it up like so: The music Lana Del Rey makes could only be made by Lana Del Rey.

That means songs like the nearly 10-minute-long “Venice Bitch,” the most psychedelic tune in her catalog, or the title track, a ballad rich with one-liner gems like, “Your poetry’s bad, and you blame the news” — songs that represent the best writing in her career yet have almost zero chance of radio play. Norman Fucking Rockwell, out Aug. 30, is a “mood record,” as Del Rey describes it while perched barefoot on a velvet couch in the new office of her longtime management company, an airy pad way up in the Hollywood Hills with platinum plaques scattered about that no one has gotten around to hanging up yet. There are no big bangers, just songs you can jam out to during beach walks and long drives. This is not exactly a surprise: Del Rey’s only top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 was a raving Cedric Gervais remix of her song “Summertime Sadness.” But in the streaming era, when success often means getting easily digestible singles on the right playlists, making an album that’s meant to be wallowed in for 70 minutes isn’t just inspired — it’s defiant.

Yet it’s an approach that has worked for Del Rey: Her songs, even the long, weird ones, easily rack up tens of millions of streams, and overall they have amassed a solid 3.9 billion on-demand streams in the United States, according to Nielsen Music. Collectively, her catalog of albums has sold 3.2 million copies in the United States, and all of her full-length major-label studio albums have debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 1 or No. 2. The first of those, 2012’s Born to Die, is one of only three titles by a woman to spend over 300 weeks on the Billboard 200. (The other two: Adele’s 21 and Carole King’s Tapestry.) Born to Die also has spent 142 weeks on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart — more than Prince’s Purple Rain, tied with Michael Jackson’s Thriller and just behind Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. It’s an indication that, as broad as her fan base is, it also runs deep, with a ratio of hardcore devotees to casual ones that even stars with inescapable radio hits might envy.

Credit Del Rey’s strong aesthetic and singular throwback sound that, as it has moved away from its initial pop and hip-hop influences, has kept young fans interested and allowed them to grow up with her. “When we sign [an artist], it’s not necessarily what everyone was listening to, but they had real vision,” says Interscope chairman/CEO John Janick. “Lana’s at ground zero of that. There have been so many other people who’ve been inspired by Lana. She’s massive, she has sold millions of albums, but it always has been on her terms.”

This has been Del Rey’s deal from the jump. “Some people really are trying to get in the mix of the zeitgeist, and that is just not my MO — never cared,” says Del Rey, cradling a coffee with sky blue-painted fingertips. “My little heart’s path has such a distinct road that it’s almost taking me along for the ride. Like, ‘I guess we’re following this muse, and it wants to be in the woods. OK, I guess we’re packing up the truck!’ It’s truly ethereal, and it’s a huge pain in the ass.”

Del Rey’s instincts are what led Interscope to sign her to an international joint-venture deal with U.K. label Polydor in 2011 and what compelled her managers Ed Millett and Ben Mawson to create their company, TaP Music, with Del Rey as their first client in 2009. “It was at that moment of peak piracy when no one in the music business was making money, so labels just weren’t taking risks,” recalls Millett. “You’d play one of her songs at an A&R meeting, and they’d be like, ‘You know what’s selling at the moment? Kesha.’ But we were lucky with Lana because she knew exactly who she was. Our job was about making sure everybody understood that.”

That battle for understanding has followed Del Rey for much of her career. “People just couldn’t believe she could be so impactful without some svengalis behind her. I still think there’s a tinge of misogyny behind all that,” says Millett, referencing the endless debates about Del Rey’s creative autonomy. “She realized very quickly, being at the center of that storm, you’re not going to win.” So she went deeper into her own weird world, and somewhere between her third and fourth records — the haunted jazz of 2015’s Honeymoon and the new-age folk of 2017’s Lust for Life — it felt like people finally got it. Or, at least, the people who were meant to get it got it. After all, Del Rey never had intended to make popular music, even if she now headlines festivals. It just kind of happened that way: a poet disguised as a pop star.

In many ways, Norman Fucking Rockwell feels like a fulfillment of the groundwork she has spent nearly a decade laying: She is now free to be Lana, no questions asked. “People want to embrace her lack of formula,” says Millett. “And now she can do whatever the hell she wants because people have accepted that, well, she’s brilliant.” Though she has sold out arenas in the past, the North American leg of her upcoming fall tour has her playing amphitheaters and outdoor venues that feel especially suited to the style of her music. And if her songs feel lighter, it’s because Del Rey does, too.

“I mean, God, I have never taken a shortcut — and I think that’s going to stop now,” she says, feet kicked up on the coffee table. “It hasn’t really served me well to go by every instinct. It’s the longer, more arduous road. But it does get you to the point where, when everyone is just copying each other, you’re like, ‘I know myself well enough that I don’t want to go to that foam rave in a crop top.’ ”

Although that does sound kind of dope, now that she’s thinking about it. “Yeah, never mind,” she says, laughing. “Google ‘nearest foam rave.’ ”

IN PERSON, DEL REY’S VIBE isn’t noir heroine or folk troubadour so much as friend from college who now lives in the suburbs. Her jean shorts, white T-shirt and gray cardigan could’ve easily been snatched off a mannequin at the nearest American Eagle Outfitters. A couple of times in our conversation, she lets out a “Gee whiz!” like a side character in a Popeye cartoon. Between the tour announcements and Gucci campaign shoots, her Instagram consists mostly of screenshot poetry and Easter brunch pics with her girlfriends. For the most distinctive popular songwriter of the past decade, she appears disarmingly basic.

“Oh, I am! I’m actually only that,” agrees Del Rey, eyes gleaming. “I’ve got a more eccentric side when it comes to the muse of writing, but I feel very much that writing is not my thing: I’m writing’s thing. When the writing has got me, I’m on its schedule. But when it leaves me alone, I’m just at Starbucks, talking shit all day.” Starting in 2011, when her nearly drumless, practically hookless breakthrough single “Video Games” blew up, the suddenly polarizing singer found it hard to move through the real world unbothered. But something changed a few years back; she’s not sure if she chilled out or if everyone else did. In any case, she’s happiest among the people, whether that’s lingering in Silverlake coffee shops or dipping out to Newport to rollerblade. “I’ve got my ear to the ground,” she says with a conspiratorial wink. “Actually, that’s my main goal.”

Somehow this only makes Del Rey weirder and cooler: the high priestess of sad pop who now smiles on album covers and posts Instagram stories inviting you to check out her homegirl’s fitness event in Hermosa Beach. You could feel the shift on Lust for Life, which enlisted everyone from A$AP Rocky to Stevie Nicks and traded the interiority of her early songwriting for anthems about women’s rights and the state of the world. She even seemed down to play the pop game a bit, though by her own rules: She worked with superproducer Max Martin on the title track, even as it quoted ’60s girl groups and cast R&B juggernaut The Weeknd as the long-lost Beach Boy.

Among those entering Del Rey’s creative fold on Norman Fucking Rockwell is Jack Antonoff, the four-time Grammy Award-winning producer who has become a go-to collaborator on synth-pop heavy hitters for the likes of Lorde and Taylor Swift. Enlisting Big Pop’s most in-demand producer doesn’t seem like a very Lana Del Rey move, and she knows it.

“I wasn’t in the mood to write,” she admits. “He wanted me to meet him in some random diner, and I was like, ‘You already worked with everyone else; I don’t know where there’s room for me.’ ” But when Antonoff played her 10 minutes of weird, atmospheric riffs, Del Rey could immediately picture her new album: “A folk record with a little surf twist.” In the end, Antonoff wound up co-producing almost the whole project, alongside longtime collaborator Rick Nowels and Del Rey herself.

Most of Norman Fucking Rockwell follows similar whims — or, as Del Rey puts it, “Divine timing.” Though artists like Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande have taken the creation of pop music to a more informal and impulsive place — Eilish recorded her debut album with her producer brother Finneas O’Connell in his childhood bedroom, while Grande wrote most of Thank U, Next in a weeklong blitz — Del Rey’s approach seems even more casual. “She doesn’t follow any kind of plan beyond what she feels is right, and it works every time,” says Millett.

That includes the cover of Sublime’s sleazy 1996 hit “Doin’ Time” — essentially the “Summertime Sadness” of the Long Beach, Calif., ska band’s discography — recorded out of pure fandom, yet somehow a perfect complement to the album’s beach bum vibe. “We were involved in executive-producing the [recent] Sublime documentary because their catalog is through Interscope, and Lana was talking about how big a fan she was,” says Janick. As it happened, her earliest producer was David Kahne, who had worked with Sublime in the ’90s. “So she ended up doing that cover, which turned out amazing. But then she felt like it fit the aesthetic of the album.”

The album title was just something she came up with when she randomly harmonized the name of the American illustrator while recording “Venice Bitch,” though she recognizes that she and Rockwell — an idealist whose cozy depictions of Boy Scouts and Thanksgiving turkeys graced magazine covers for half the 20th century — have both explored big questions about the American dream in their work. And then there’s the artwork she has been using for the record’s singles: bizarrely casual iPhone photos that feel a bit tossed-off because, well, they are.

“Every time my managers write me, ‘Album art?,’ I’m just like, send!” she cackles, pantomiming taking a selfie. “And they just send the middle-finger emoji back to me.”

THE WEEK OF OUR INTERVIEW, JUST a few days after two consecutive mass shootings took place in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Del Rey recorded a song called “Looking for America.” She hadn’t planned to write it, but the shootings affected her on a “cellular level,” as she phrased it in an Instagram preview, which also included a sharp disclaimer: “Now I know I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to be so excuse me for having an opinion.” Over Antonoff’s acoustic guitar, she sings softly, “I’m still looking for my own version of America/One without the gun, where the flag can freely fly.”

The quiet protest song is a move you can hardly imagine her making five years ago. It wasn’t until Lust for Life, she acknowledges, that she felt brave enough to have an overt political opinion. “It is quite a critical world, where people are like, ‘Stick to singing!’ ” she says. “They don’t say that to everyone, but I heard that a lot.”

With that sense of permission has come a kind of peace and an acceptance that evaded Del Rey in her early career; she has never indulged her critics, but it’s nice to be understood. “Sometimes with women, there was so much criticism if you weren’t just one way that was easily metabolized and decipherable — you were a crazy person,” she marvels, noting a shift in the perception of female pop stars that happened only recently (one catalyzed in large part by her own career arc). She recently recorded a song for the soundtrack to the upcoming Charlie’s Angels reboot with Grande and Miley Cyrus — stars who also have faced criticism for the ways in which they don’t conform to the expectations of women in the spotlight.

Her newest songs are some of her most personal, particularly the album closer, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have — but i have it” (a title only Del Rey could pull off). It also hovers anxiously on the margins of the #MeToo movement, though never in such broad strokes. “It was staggered with references from living in Hollywood and seeing so many things that didn’t look right to me, things that I never thought I’d have permission to talk about, because everyone knew and no one ever said anything,” she says in a tangle of sentences as knotty as the lyrics themselves. “The culture only changed in the last two years as to whether people would believe you. And I’ve been in this business now for 15 years!

“So I was writing a song to myself.” She exhales deeply, sinking back into the sofa. “Hope truly is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have, because I know so much.” Del Rey pauses. “But I have it.”

Del Rey has been thinking a lot about hope and faith lately. She has been going to church every Wednesday and Sunday with a group of her girlfriends; they get coffee beforehand, and it has become something to look forward to. She likes the idea of a network of people you can talk to about wanting something bigger — just another extension of her fondness for pondering the mysteries of the universe. (Fittingly, she studied metaphysics and philosophy at Fordham University in New York.) “I genuinely think the thing that has transformed my life the most is knowing that there’s magic in the concept of two heads are better than one,” she says.

That has crept into her music, too. Del Rey says she hadn’t realized until recently how isolating her creative process had been for so long. These days, studio sessions feel more like cozy jam sessions, according to Laura Sisk, the Grammy-winning engineer who worked closely on the record with Del Rey and Antonoff. “Something I love about Norman is how much of the energy of the room we’re able to record,” says Sisk. “We often don’t use a vocal booth, so we’re sitting in a room together recording, usually right after the song was written and the feeling is still heavy in the room.”

Even the cover of Norman Fucking Rockwell, Del Rey says, was designed to cultivate a sense of community. For the first time in her discography, she’s not pictured by herself. She’s on a boat at sea, one arm wrapped around actor Duke Nicholson (a family friend and grandson of Jack), the other reaching out to pull the viewer aboard. As she explains the idea, Del Rey rifles through her sizable mental rolodex of quotations and offers this one from Humphrey Bogart by way of Ernest Hemingway: “ ‘The sea is the last free place on earth.’ ” A place, in other words, where you can finally just be you.

Del Rey says her album covers tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies — whatever energy she puts out tends to shape the next chapter of her life. She’s eager to see how this one, with its open arms and sense of adventure, manifests itself. “We’re going somewhere,” she says with a mysterious grin. “I don’t know where we’re going. But wherever it is, my feet are going to be on the ground.”

Originally published on billboard.com with the headline Lana Del Rey on Finding Her Voice and Following Her Muse: ‘I Have Never Taken a Shortcut’, and in the August 24, 2019 issue of Billboard with the headline Lana Del Rey Speaks Her Mind.

#2019 #Norman Fucking Rockwell!#Billboard #Meaghan Garvey

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volumehypeplay · 1 year

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Favorite Speechless songs of 2022

I know it's been a while and I apologise. After getting lost addicted to The Witcher 3 (I kinda hate that it finally happened), I also discovered a game called Len's Island that have been taking up any free time in my life. But I didn't forget my promise, so today, I will be dropping not one but a double-bill of my favorite songs of last year. We'll be starting with my speechless addiction (meaning OST's, classical etc) and then ending with traditional songs. Let the countdown begin. ↓

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Ganbatte

I still remember finding this song in between layers and layers of songs in the seemingly limitless archives of Spotify. Ganbatte by Pogo is one of those tracks that effortlessly get better with every listen. Pogo manages to keep me listening, even as he weaves multiple instruments and genres throughout the 5 ½ min runtime, without ever losing the songs thread. Ganbatte is a wonderful example of sonic storytelling; Pogo using instrumentation and key switches to forward the story and keep you guessing.

Will have this one in constant rotation for years to come.

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Aramid

Aramid has already cropped up on VHP so I won't waste my breath re-iterating why you MUST listen to this one. If your ever needing to outrun a pack of lions, just put this on and you'll be gucci.

Try telling me I'm wrong.

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FOUNDATION

One of my favorite movies of the last decade is Leigh Whannel's Upgrade. An amazingly clever and violent movie that has a just as impressive soundtrack (check A Better Place). FOUNDATION, to me is the perfect accompanying track to the movie. It continues the themes of Upgrade brilliantly with it's dank, neon singed soundscapes, fitting perfectly in any one of the city scenes. BRONSON (& Odesza) hopefully get a chance to work on a movie at some point, because if the coherence of this album taught me anything, is they have the knack to create something special together.

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Precipice

Me and my wife have a running joke in the house about this song. The first time we heard this, we immediately saw it being the backdrop of some modern monster feature. Discovering where Precipice was from, made us double-take 3 or 4 times — and it still didnt register correctly. What kind of scene, deserves the dark, ominous undertones of Precipice in something like Around the World in 80 Days??? Eventually, we'll have an answer to that mystery, but for now, turn the lights low, get under the covers and try not to get creeped out.

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Ballade in C# Minor: Coronation

Perfection. This is it. Of all the new songs I discovered last year I think the most suprising one was Ballade in C# Minor: Coronation. Composed by Nicholas Britell, this song does such a good job in conveying the emotions of a scene without me having ever even watched the movie.

From the downtrodden opening; followed by strings (adding anxiety) only for the volume to be raised, the strings to be layered and the tempo increased. Immersing you in a feeling of dread - while being bathed in a very beautiful ambience of the song itself.

Enjoy.

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Katana Zero

This one snuck in really late; right at the eleventh hour. It's probably the most gym appropriate song on this list, if your simply looking to go in: rep, after rep, after rep.

The monotone nature of the production makes it extremely easily to zone out, focus and follow the bass line as it grows. If your looking for a song to vibe out too, or simply have playing in the background as you get on with your day-to-day this is perfect.

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Impressions Lastly we have another track by Portico Quartet called Impressions. It's possibly the best introductary song to this London based group.

Impressions delivers on everything you'd want out of a Quartet song; it's diverse, groovy and melodic. Immediately your hit with a ridiculous drum-line that just doesn't stop. The amazing thing is how the drums are layered by both live instruments and electronic echoes - while also being abruptly stripped away when the track needs a breather.

If your loving Impressions, definetly check out Monument by Portico Quartet and the Nest remix.

#speechless #volume #portico quartet #katana zero #the king #around the world in 80 days #ost #gangbatte #aramid #bronson #foundation

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bigboxochristmas · 1 year

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Yuletidings 2001: Seasons of Love

01 Christmas in the Trenches - John McCutcheon 02 Seasons of Love - Cast of 'Rent' 03 Christmas Wish - NRBQ 04 Simple Gifts - Liz Story 05 Snowfall - The Manhattan Transfer 06 Coventry Carol / What Child is This - Tuck Andress 07 Wonderful Christmas Night - Dan Grissom 08 Carol of the Bells - Gregg Miner 09 I'll Be Home for Christmas - The Pilgrim Travelers 10 Stars - Anne Hills & Friends 11 I Wonder As I Wander - The Boys Choir of Harlem 12 Thanks for Christmas - Three Wise Men (XTC) 13 The First Noel - Al DiMeola 14 A Christmas Love Song - Ann Hampton Callaway 15 Little Road to Bethlehem - Judy Collins 16 Wash My Eyes - Greg Brown 17 God Bless Us All - NRBQ 18 Seasons of Love - Cast of 'Rent' with Stevie Wonder 19 Auld Lang Syne - The Beach Boys

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This one I definitely remember making in 2001. A couple of months after the events of 9/11, I made a holiday compilation as usual but then, as the international situation seemed to be going from bad to worse, I decided I wanted something more heartfelt and started over (I later cannibalized the rejected mix for other compilations).

“Seasons of Love”, from the cast album of Rent, isn’t a Christmas song at all, but it just seemed like the right message for that particular time. In fact, you’ll notice that I included both the original version and the remix, with Stevie Wonder singing lead and playing harmonica, to kind of bookend the collection.

And as the U.S. at that time appeared to be on the brink of war, it seemed appropriate to start with John McCutcheon’s “Christmas in the Trenches”. It tells the story of the 1914 Christmas Truce between the British and German lines on the Western Front during World War I from the perspective of a fictional British soldier. Although Francis Tolliver is a fictional character, the event depicted in the ballad is true. McCutcheon met some of the German soldiers involved in this Christmas story when he toured in Denmark.

“Christmas Wish”, by NRBQ, is still one of the all-time best contemporary holiday songs, in my opinion. It’s probably shown up on more of my collections than any other song. Lyrically, it talks about seeing toys under the tree and hearing Christmas music in the air, like so many other holiday songs, but each verse ends with the wish that “people all over the world” could have the same experience, and the middle passage, “If we open our hearts, our wishes would come true”, always tugs at the heartstrings. The instrumental arrangement is pure Brian Wilson, with chromatic harmonicas, toy pianos and kalimbas in addition to the usual instruments. They also contribute a live version of “God Bless Us All” - again, not an actual Christmas song (it was a minor hit in the 1950’s for several child singers, most notably a ‘Baby Pam’) but the right message for that particular year. Only NRBQ could take a song like this and make it both tongue-in-cheek and deeply moving at the same time.

Another non-holiday song is Greg Brown’s “Wash My Eyes”, a prayer for both an open heart and for peace in the world: Wash my eyes, that I may see / yellow return to the willow tree.

Open my ears, that I may hear / the river running swift and clear.

And please…wash my eyes.

And please…open my ears.

Wash this world that is one place / and wears a mad and fearful face.

Let the cruel raging cease / Let these children sleep in peace.

And please…wash this world

And please…let these children sleep in peace.

Other highlights include a lovely version of “Carol of the Bells”, arranged and performed by Gregg Miner, a collector and restorer of antique musical instruments. On his two Christmas albums Miner plays over a hundred different instruments, usually overdubbing numerous parts: harps, zithers, tiples, octophones, sitars, and ouds, assorted medieval, Latin American, and Eastern instruments, as well as various guitars, banjos, and mandolins. Quite amazing as well as beautiful. Also: the gorgeous a cappella harmonies on Ann Hills’ “Stars”; the stunning combination of the Boys Choir of Harlem with the jazz arrangements of the James Williams Trio on “I Wonder as I Wander”, and XTC’s (as Three Wise Men) classic, the Beatlesque “Thanks for Christmas”. The cover art was a repurposed Christmas card.

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sinceileftyoublog · 1 year

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Joseph Decosimo Interview: How Does It Make You Feel?

Photo by Libby Rodenbough

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Count multi-instrumentalist Joseph Decosimo as another in the great line of contemporary players making old music for modern times. Like his friend and collaborator Jake Xerxes Fussell, duo Anna & Elizabeth, or even James Yorkston, Decosimo constantly thinks about what traditional folk songs mean to him--and us--today. The fiddler, banjo player, pump organist, and phD-holding folklorist, like Fussell, has had the opportunity to study with legendary trad players. For Decosimo, that’s the likes of Clyde Davenport and others in areas of Tennessee and Kentucky where he grew up. At the same time, Decosimo has surrounded himself with some of yesterday and today’s most exciting players from the thriving scene in Durham, North Carolina, where he lives, from Fussell and Hiss Golden Messenger’s MC Taylor to legendary singer/multi-instrumentalist Alice Gerrard. These influences combine to find a bridge between the past and the present on his upcoming album While You Were Slumbering, out next Friday via Sleepy Cat Records.

To your average music listener (whatever that means these days), many of the songs on While You Were Slumbering do sound from another time. The album starts with recently released single “The Fox Chase”, based on a field recording of Dee Hicks calling up foxhounds, bolstered by the warmth of Decosimo’s nasally vocals and the fiddle, banjo, and strings. It ends with the instrumental “Bob Wills Stomp/Wild Goose Chase”, a two-part song of melancholy fiddle and, yes, a jaunty soundtrack for running amongst waterfowl. Throughout the record, Decosimo conjures Appalachia, with tunes of lost dogs, fruited alcohol, possums and racoons running amok. On the video for first single “Will Davenport’s Tune”, a 19th century banjo piece he learned from visits with Clyde, Decosimo's vivacious plucking is laid atop impressionistic images of nature, interspersed with rippling, yet grainy watercolor, a hazy mirror to a location only folks who have been there will be familiar with.

At the same time, on the album’s best songs, Decosimo’s interpretations offer newfound clarity to tunes etched in a former time. “Man of Constant Sorrow”, which most listeners will know for better or for worse due to its inclusion in Joel and Ethan Coen’s O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?, is presented not as a prickly, nonnative bounce, but as a solemn hymn appropriate for today. Just as prescient is “Trouble”, though the hopefulness inherent in the song’s beautiful harmonies is rooted in the idea that bad things, like everything, will inevitably cease to exist and be replaced by something else, perhaps something better. It’s a stunning song, the album’s emotional centerpiece.

Though Decosimo plays plenty of instruments on While You Were Slumbering, the album is certainly bolstered by his chosen collaborators: Joe and Matt O’Connell of Elephant Micah, fiddler and singer Stephanie Coleman, composer/fiddler/pump organist Cleek Schrey, bass clarinetist Alec Spiegelman (who also mixed the record), and Gerrard. He wouldn’t say this, but to my ears, While You Were Sleeping represents a sort of sharing of the torch moment from Gerrard to Decosimo. This isn’t to say that Gerrard is done--quite the opposite, actually--but that Decosimo’s record has the same connection to the traditional repertoire that so much of Gerrard’s music does, precisely why he wanted her to play and sing on the record. “She’s a national treasure, as far as I’m concerned,” Decosimo told me over the phone in September. “She’s a force of nature.”

During our conversation, Decosimo, somewhat sleep deprived as a result of his newborn baby, nonetheless thoughtfully contemplated where he fits in the music world as a result of his new record, from academia to traditional circles to Durham. Read our interview below, edited for length and clarity.

Cover Art by Gabe Anderson using watercolor assets by Larissa Wood

Since I Left You: Do you feel a kinship with other players, arrangers, and scholars who adapt to contemporary sounds the traditional tunes they’ve learned from various historical channels?

Joseph Decosimo: I think so. I’ve lived most of my musical life in this hardcore traditional world. There [were] opportunities along the way--especially living in Durham--to play with Mike Taylor on the early Hiss [Golden Messenger] stuff. In some way, what I’m doing is different from what Jake [Xerxes Fussell] does, but it’s coming from a similar place of tradition, and the question of, “How can I make this translate for people who are not folks who spend their time listening to field recordings?” This album is me asking that question and figuring out a way to do it. In some way, it probably registers to most ears as pretty traditional, but to me, it feels different. [laughs]

Because I’ve spent so much of my life in traditional places of music-making and artistry, what’s happening here is me trying to do right by that but also something that feels musical and approachable and accessible to normal people. It’s a tall order. We’ll see how it lands. Jake’s approach totally works and does right by those camps.

SILY: I don’t know if you’re referring to Greil Marcus, but when you talk in the liner notes about an “older, weirder America,” I feel like that quality has encapsulated the folk scene for some time. Over the past decade or so, though, there’s been a concentration on more of the expansive qualities of folk instruments--whether you want to call it cosmic Americana or not. I think this record touches on both worlds. Do you think those two worlds can exist in conjunction, or are they at odds?

JD: That term “old weird America” is convenient, but it goes a little overboard and [exoticizes folk]. I grew up in Appalachia, and talking to people around the region, there’s a little bit of cringiness around it. It’s just another form of vernacular music. What I was interested in was working with a traditional repertoire. The way I play is a departure from other folk artists at the moment. A lot of stuff is coming out of the Berklee School of Music’s American Roots Music Program. People who go through there have incredible chops, but a lot of the time there’s a similarity of sound that has to do with bigger trends in traditional string music. I was lucky enough to be able to encounter it, brush against it, and see it firsthand. The weirdness, to me, can be with the texture of how the older players sounded. If you go through a conservatory program, you’re going to be learning different techniques. The funkiness, [on the other hand,] there’s so much depth and beauty there.

I don’t know that I’m pushing towards the cosmic thing. I think it has more to do with Enya or something. [laughs] Using traditional instruments to create something layered and lush. The pump organ’s been around for a while. People used it in vernacular Southern music for a century, creating new sounds with it. I don’t know what the relationship between those two things is, but it feels like a lot of times maybe the way the old weird stuff gets treated is [that] it’s stuck on a 78, and that’s the performance mode. That can be amazing. I’ve seen incredible performances of people lifting material out of 78s and interpreting it beautifully and in a very faithful way to the old recordings. I think there’s something pretty wild in that, too, that’s pretty expansive, the creative uses and tunings of instruments that could register in that cosmic space.

SILY: Speaking of the cringe-inducing nature of the term “old, weird America,” a very Hollywood-ized manifestation of that idea is O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, which obviously made “Man of Constant Sorrow” well-known.

JD: Oh. Oh.

SILY: I can hear you cringing.

JD: A lot of people rode that wave. [laughs] Norman Blake, who is a phenomenal musician, probably made a lot of money from being involved in that movie, and certainly deserved to. The version on [the record] is learned from a field recording. It was kind of fun to dive into that, to be like, “This is not like this other thing.” It feels like it hits in a completely different way.

SILY: To me, the song on the album that’s most timeless because of its sentiment is “Trouble”. Can you talk about that track and why you included it?

JD: One of my favorite banjo players of all time is Virgil Anderson, who lived on the Tennessee-Kentucky line of the Cumberland Plateau, which is the Western edge of what we’d call Appalachia. I grew up on the Southern end, near Chattanooga, TN, but I’d been obsessed with Virgil Anderson forever. There’s a beautiful LP release by County Records in the early 80s, [On The Tennessee Line]. I never got to meet the guy. I love his playing. [“Trouble” is something he learned as a young man in his 20s when he played with two African-American musicians, the Bertrams. They would play in these little camps and communities in that area. [So] it’s a piece that a white player learned from the Black repertoire of Appalachia. He sings it in a chipper way, which is cool and works, but during July 2020, I had been playing it for a while, and it started to resonate in a very different way. I think we were all dealing with things in different ways in that moment. That song started feeling less like a chipper banjo piece. It’s incredibly simple, but it has a kind of power. It was a time when you couldn’t hang out with people who weren’t in your house. I sent it to Joe O’Connell, who is in Elephant Micah and writes great songs and has a great way of arranging stuff. He added this pump organ and harmony part and sent it back to me. My friend Stephanie Coleman added the fiddle part and vocal part. It went from this old field recording of Virgil Anderson and became something that felt way more powerful. My friend Alec Spiegelman said it was making him cry as he was wrapping it up, which was unexpected, to end up with something so direct.

Part of this project was me turning 40 and wanting to expand, wanting my music to connect with more people. [“Trouble”] a piece I was sharing with family members who know nothing about the type of music I make. They were connecting with it.

SILY: For some of the songs on the album that are instrumentals, if somebody doesn’t take the time to learn about the song’s context--and not everyone does--and just looks at the title, and there are no lyrics to go by, they’re interacting with the quality of the arrangements and the instruments themselves. Can you talk about how you treated the instrumentals in context of the whole record?

JD: One thing Jake and I have had several conversations about is that at times, it feels like if you’ve really studied these traditions and have dedicated energy to learn your instrument and play it well, people will reduce you: “Oh, he’s just a fiddler or banjo player.” People will be glad to have you play on their album, but you can’t contribute back out [with your own varied material]. The way I was thinking about a lot of these tunes was, “How does a person in the 21st century listen to a fiddle tune or banjo tune? How does it matter to you? How does it make you feel something?” I know that when I listen to the fiddle, I can feel it. [But] how do you create a connection? One of the [challenges] is trying to find melodies that are just beautiful and stick with you even if you’re not accustomed to listening to a fiddle. A lot of these pieces were played solo for a long time and nourished people, doing the work that art does. How do you make them continue to do that work?

SILY: Take a song like “Clear Fork”. There’s that droney background hum that people like for the same reason they like to look at a Mark Rothko painting. It’s still, but it’s shimmering and rippling at the same time. Contrast that with the tangible sound of a banjo, there’s a lot to take in. People are free to interpret it the way they can, even more than the song that comes before it on the album that references 19th century European politics [“Young Rapoleon”].

JD: [laughs] So much of my musical social life is going to fiddler’s conventions and playing tunes after tunes with people. My relationship with an instrumental piece, I have no concept of how others might hear that kind of thing. I know them in a certain way. There’s a sociality to them because of where they’re played, but to imagine that it’s kind of an expanse for people to imagine their own interpretation or experience is a fun thought. I like the beginning of the “Clear Fork” piece because Stephanie has a shimmery harmonic that at first sounds like it could be a flute. One of the other things we were working with was a little bit of the ambiguity of the sound. The percussion in one spot on “Will Davenport’s Tune” tune is Matt O’Connell knocking on something. He can’t even remember what it was he was knocking on. I had sent him a field recording of a guy from Eastern North Carolina who would wrap his knuckles on a table and create these incredible rhythms that mimic percussive dance. People who know this music might think it’s somebody’s feet, but it’s sort of unclear what it is.

SILY: Can you talk about the relationship between the visuals and the music on the video for “Will Davenport’s Tune”?

JD: My friend Gabe Anderson who runs the label helping put this out, his friend Larissa [Wood] combined to work on the visuals there. There are a couple things at play; Gabe can explain more of the concept. I have a friend who is a folklorist named Sarah Bryan who has been documenting tombstones all over the South, especially North and South Carolina, for the last couple of years. She shared a picture of a tombstone from Stanly County, North Carolina. It’s a weird tombstone without a single word, but there are circles that are imperfect with weird triangles. It looks weirdly contemporary, the way people are into shapes these days. This tombstone stuck with me when I saw it. It started coming to mind when I listened to Clyde Davenport’s piece of music. Larissa made paintings built off of the crude shapes of the tombstones, and those are at play in the video in this really beautiful way over the top of nature scenes. The thing that Gabe came up with in the end feels right for the music in a way. He was hearing the different elements of the reedy, breathy pump organ, and the clackiness of it, and the woody knocking sounds of the banjo. In some of the videos, he was imagining the sound of those images. I’m really curious if I were to show the video to Clyde Davenport what he would have made of it. [laughs]

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the record title?

JD: The 90′s romcom While You Were Sleeping.

SILY: Is that really true?!?

JD: No, that’s not true. But the ballad “Man of Constant Sorrow”...ends with this line, “While you were sleeping, while you were slumbering / I am sleeping in the ground.” I pulled it out of that. I thought it was a beautiful idea. In some moment, I thought I had clarity on what the project was about: I felt like the project as a whole was emerging during this time of collective slumber. We’re all sort of checked out in our own little dazed worlds. It felt right. The music here is more dream world than real world. I liked the line in the ballad, and I liked the experience of what happens in the space of being asleep.

SILY: I’m sure you’ve played these tunes throughout your life, but are you going to change how you play them in the future based on these specific arrangements?

JD: Having a baby at home is a moment is not the most conducive to get out too much, but I’m definitely hoping to get some shows together, perhaps a little tour. I worked out a little band to perform this stuff, which has been kind of fun. Most of my public performance has been in a string band context, which is fun but has its own logic. [laughs] One of the fun pieces of this has been collaborating with people with little background in traditional music. They might listen to it but aren’t traditional musicians. Joe and Matt O’Connell have become a little bit of a local band. Joe can play pump organ, and Matt can play guitar and percussion. The arrangements are pretty straightforward, so it’s been fun to figure out how to make it work on a stage for an audience. I think it works pretty well; I’m enjoying it. I’ve slipped a little bit out of the usual string band form and context, so it feels a little more open-ended and inclusive. I can bring in sounds or people that feel pretty fresh that I haven’t worked with before. It’s open-ended enough that somebody can bring bass clarinet, and it will work with these settings. I’ve had a couple fun opportunities to play it with different people. My friend Andy Stack from Wye Oak, who can be plugged into anything, played percussion for a festival in Durham back in the summer with me. It’s very different from what Matt does.

SILY: Is there anything you’re working on in the short or long term?

JD: I have a project with my friend Cleek [Schrey], who plays on this album, and a long-time collaborator, Luke Richardson, which is more fiddles, banjos, and pump organ, which feels like very fresh interpretations of tunes. It feels a little more tune-ish, if that makes sense. I’m excited to get it out in the world.

I played a duo show with Jake Fussell back in July, which was a lot of fun. I think people enjoyed it. He was playing acoustic Spanish guitar and an old Gibson I have, and I was playing banjo and fiddle pieces. Maybe there’s more opportunity there. His approach to guitar playing, he knows the old ways of doing stuff but also has his own way. It felt good.

SILY: What material were you playing?

JD: Just a lot of traditional tunes. He occasionally writes instrumental pieces, but we were playing old folk songs from the South, and he had a song that Art Rosenbaum, the great artist and field recorder, recorded that we played. It was pretty listenable and musical. He and I have had similar paths and opportunities to spend time with older players. He’s created his own sound, and I’ve lived a little more in the traditional world, but we mesh nicely.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading that’s caught your attention?

JD: I don’t know if I’m enjoying this: I’m not a big Stephen King reader, but I’m reading The Dark Tower series. I’m kind of stuck in it, and I think I want a break. There are like 8 books, and they’re super long. Maybe it’s not worth mentioning.

SILY: It’s okay. I don’t think he’ll see this.

JD: Most of my waking time has been spent with my little baby. You can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like before [he’s born], and we’re in this phase now where there’s lots of smiling, and he’s making these gurgly noises. It’s very cute. I’m more interested in watching that than a lot of things.

SILY: Do you play for your child?

JD: Mmhmm. He’s gotten a good bit of exposure to the banjo already. He gets regular doses. The fiddle is a little intense. It’s loud, but it really draws his attention. You’re supposed to give babies tummy time, where you put them on their stomach and let them look at stuff. Someone gave us this book of totally psychedelic [images], like a bear with a swirl and blue eyes, pretty trippy stuff. There was a little phase where I had him listening to the Dead and looking at those images.

SILY: You’re raising him to be a Deadhead!

JD: Yeah, from the get-go. He went to his first show Friday night. Our neighbor had a poetry and music thing, and Joe O’Connell played an Elephant Micah set. It’s the perfect show for a 4-month-old. It was super chill. From all accounts, he was pretty into it.

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notespoherbabas · 2 years

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Watch snow on tha bluff 2 online

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Live performances of songs from albums or collections on the Overposted/Favorites List may be posted when they are new, but they may not be reposted. Do not post songs from an album or collection on the Overposted/Favorites List. Do not post a song or a live performance of a song that has received more than 45 upvotes in the last 365 Days.No Reposts or Overposted/Favorites List Songs "Where is the line between biting and paying homage drawn?") If you are seeking the answer to a question about the name of a song, the source of a sample, the status of a project, the meaning of a line/song, the appeal of an artist, etc., ask in one of the recurring threads. The only exceptions are for appropriate threads (e.g. Do not post questions or requests outside of the Daily Discussion, Music Recommendations or Sunday General Discussion threads.Users who are found to regularly start/engage in flame wars or harass other users may be banned at moderator discretion. will be removed and may result in a permanent ban at the moderator's discretion. Additionally, comments deemed overtly racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. Unwelcome content and prohibited behavior as defined by Reddit is never allowed.No Unwelcome Content or Prohibited Behavior Please read the Guidelines/FAQ before posting! Favorites/Do Not Post Listĭo not post songs from projects or collections listed on the Overposted/Favorites/Do Not Post List. The latest music, videos & news relating to your favorite hip-hop, R&B & future beats artists. had to get out the city for the weekend it was getting to hot yurooo wazzam laluv n.a cashapp:$neguslomane i truly shot by bmoe staring:: queen and curtis snow also staring: kamora symonelee davis : tay monea.Welcome to /r/HipHopHeads! /r/Hiphopheads COVID-19 Donations Thread

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