#i will say again mr. morale album of the year? experience of the year actually

[fyv-media-noise]

Four Ways to Listen to Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers (2/x)

The FAMILY FIRST (FF) playthrough is a simple swap. Instead of playing The Big Steppers half first, start your listen with the Mr. Morale half instead. For clarity’s sake, start listening at Count Me Out and then finish with Purple Hearts as the last song. This method represents the “first step” in a healing journey that Kendrick must take; put his family first. Kendrick must not choose himself first, not choose his legacy first, and not choose the fame and the applause that comes with them. “Mr. Morale” must live up to his own hype and give a moral story to his children.

Why? This deep meaning method is uncovered when we start to appreciate the motif of mirrors that runs throughout the whole masterpiece. Instead of starting with Disc 1, flip it, and start with Disc 2; simple as.

Clues to Confirm: This playthrough starts with the voiceover “We may not know which way to go on this dark road” and with the therapist referring to Kendrick as “Mr. Duckworth.” Stripped of his epithets, monikers, and accouterments that have collected over the years of Kendrick’s dominance, he is just “Mr. Duckworth,” trying to make sense of this person he is for his children who will one day grow up to see Kung Fu Kenny, K.dot, and oklama for themselves.

Secrets to Uncover: This masterpiece is not actually divided in half. Let me say it again: Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is not a two-part album. MMBS is actually divided into THREE sections. Each of the playthroughs beyond the STANDARD all follow a similar pattern of THREE SEGMENTS with 6 songs represented in each segment. This style of art is a “Triptych.” (More on that later…) I am of the opinion that consuming the album with three divisions reflects Kendrick’s use of three verses in each of the songs. The complex storytelling is in full effect once we break the double album into a triptych.

By re-ordering the album according to the major themes, we can start to appreciate the attention to detail that Kendrick has achieved here. In the FF playthrough, the three arcs of the story refer to lessons that Kendrick needs to pass on to his kids. These same such lessons to his children are referenced directly in multiple songs like Father Time, Mr. Morale, and Worldwide Steppers. Kendrick is talking to his children.

In dealing with issues like self-image, tenacity, and protecting your family even when it’s difficult, Kendrick is laying the foundation for the next generation. He has learned these lessons through hardship and failing and, sometimes, through no fault of his own.

Breakdown:

The FAMILY FIRST theme flows from Count Me Out to Auntie Diaries where Kendrick directly challenges the Preacherman on behalf of the family he loves, essentially questioning God in favor of his own family, into an even deeper dive regarding family issues, family pains that you can’t heal alone, and a world literally drenched in pain and painful experience. The FF playthrough “second verse” is another six tracks [Mr. Morale flowing into Worldwide Steppers] literally the mirror of the standard order, referencing the title of the album, and encapsulating the mission that Kendrick recognizes he must begin. 

This “verse” starts with a direct criticism, “one of the worst performances…,” addresses the generational hurt in his own family history, asks for forgiveness for his selfishness, and critiques the worldwide culture that every person (Kendrick included) has become enthralled by; “I hope you find some peace of mind,” and then “Take off the foo-foo, take off the clout chase…” and then “I’m a killer, he’s a killer, she’s a killer…”.

The FF playthrough concludes with a third verse [Die Hard to Purple Hearts] that begins with Kendrick telling the family/kids that he would die for them and that he would risk it all for a stranger, has direct lessons that he learned from his own father, and a reminder that even after the worst fighting their parents go through, there is healing at the end. We are all wounded, but you still need to take heed of the lesson you were taught by the pain.

#oklama #kendrick lamar #kendrick #mmbs #word of god #eckhart tolle #music #hiphop #2022 rap #family #transformation #healing #spiritutality #love #relationships

[patton-croc-agenda]

LAMP AU Where They’re in a Band

Okay just think about it

It’s Roman’s idea (of course). He gets the idea junior year of college and knows his friends Virgil, Patton, and Logan all like music too so he asks them to join

Virgil and Logan are hesitant, but Patton is super on board. Puppy eyes from Roman and Patton convince them

Roman is the only one who actually knows how to play an instrument (guitar), but he wants to be the lead singer so he helps teach Logan guitar. Patton learns the drums from his cousin (who also lets them practice in their garage) and Virgil self-teaches himself how to play bass

They’re pretty bad at first and they start out super small, just doing cover songs for fun. It’s actually super fun and they all look forward to it on days they practice

They end up writing some of their own songs later, headed by Roman and assisted by Logan after some convincing from Patton (it’s like poetry, but set to music!)

Patton walks in one day to see Virgil threatening his cousin. Apparently they secretly filmed one of their practices and put it on Facebook. All their families seemed to really enjoy their music, so Virgil lets it slide

He doesn’t let it slide as easily when he finds Roman setting up a video camera at their next practice. Roman decided they should start uploading their music to YouTube. Virgil doesn’t like it, but the others think it’s a good idea so Virgil hesitantly agrees

“We need a name for sure, now” Roman informs them. They’re all going for a walk and talking about the band. “What about-” Logan starts before Patton screams “LAMP!” and shoves Virgil out of the way as someone throws a lamp out of their window. They walk faster, Roman wheezing with laughter, Logan looking over Virgil for any damage, and Patton grinning sheepishly

They take that as destiny and name their band LAMP (in all caps)

They occasionally play at fundraisers and bars around their town, now that Virgil’s comfortable enough with others hearing him play. Everyone loves them.

Their audience, surprisingly, grows quite rapidly. Roman starts out as just the lead singer, but ends up doing some guitar too when Patton asks if he can sing with Roman for one song

After that, songs would vary between just Roman singing, Roman and Patton singing, and very rarely Virgil would shyly join in

Roman sets up a joint twitter for them once they hit 2,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel

“What’re your names, by the way?”, one of their very first fans asks on twitter. Virgil replies “Well, I’m just a big ball of Anxiety” -bassist

The fans start calling Virgil Anxiety. Roman decides this is a great idea and makes them all have codenames. Logan thinks it’s illogical? Boom, you’re Logic now. Patton makes a lot of group decisions based on what he thinks would be best for them? Boom, Morality. Roman does all the effects and most of the songwriting? Creativity bAby.

In their first video QnA Virgil snorts and jokingly calls Roman Princey after he starts listing all his favorite disney movies. The fans start calling him Princey after that instead of Creativity, though he doesn’t mind much

In the QnA they’re asked if they like anyone. Patton turns bright red and babbles, something about ‘they might feel the same…’. Virgil hunches down and grumbles “of course not”, despite his expression saying otherwise. Roman admits he’s always crushing on someone. Logan says nothing, expression blank

Eventually, during the summer after they all graduated college, they somehow get a record deal and weLP now their music is on the radio? Virgil totally doesn’t scream the first time he turns on the radio and hears his own voice

They end up deciding to move in together. They make more money than they expected off their music. Along with that, their YouTube channel had over 2 million subscribers now. They move into a pretty big house and that’s when Princey starts vlogging.

When he first starts it’s pretty bad, just like the band. Virgil and Logan feel like their privacy is being invaded, so they hide in their rooms, and Patton just waves excitedly whenever he sees the camera

Eventually Logan stops hiding in his room all day, and even later Virgil does too. Logan starts talking in the vlogs, Virgil mostly grunts and hides in his hoodie.

“Why doesn’t Logic ever sing?” they’re asking in one of their now bi-monthly QnAs. Logan looks away from the camera for the first time ever in a QnA and says “I do not like to sing.” Which is a complete lie. Patton sometimes will hear Logan singing in the shower. Recently he had been humming something Patton had never heard before, but it was beautiful. He would sometimes sit against the bathroom door and listen. Sometimes, Roman and Virgil would join him

Roman and Patton do a baking vlog one time. It’s a mess, but they don’t mind. They’re laughing and singing and every comment is saying stuff like ‘2 pure’ and ‘highkey ship them’

Patton knew he’d had a crush on Logan for a while, but after reading those comments starts to realize he likes Roman too??? And Virgil had always been his best friend and oh god could he like all of them??? Was that a thing he could do???

Roman has a similar crisis across the house as he screams into a pillow. Virgil walks in and awkwardly rubs his back in an attempt to comfort him, despite not knowing what was wrong. It was kind of nice. Virgil liked Roman a lot. He liked all of his friends a lot…Whoops time for him to go, he was turning bright red at the realization

The three of them are all dancing around each other after that. Not in videos obviously, but when Roman isn’t filming sometimes the silence gets tense. Roman starts to film more just to fill it.

They all like hanging out in town, but they’re starting to get recognized more. They can’t risk using their names when ordering coffee anymore (Logan still thinks this whole thing is stupid)

They go on their first tour and BOY ARE THEY TERRIFIED. It’s super weird having fans come to see them perform on stage. Patton keeps checking on Virgil to keep himself busy, Roman frantically types out possible lyrics for new songs, Logan tells Roman they don’t need to write songs right now that’s not a tour was for.

They almost cancel when Virgil has a panic attack right before their first show, but they soothe him enough and he assures them he wants to go on. They do, it goes fantastically.

During their tour, after their ‘last song’, Roman suddenly talks into the mic, saying they have one more song. Logan is confused and steps back as his friends play him happy birthday, and then an original song about him and…uh oh, feelings.

Logan almost cries as Patton gets up from where he’s sitting behind his drums and opens his arms. He launches himself into the hug and poor Patton, who’s mic is still on, says “Alright then, Logan?”

Roman is furious that their cover is blown, Patton is sheepish and just shrugs pathetically, Virgil tries to defend him, and Logan doesn’t give a shit

Roman ends up revealing his name next at a concert. Probably through some hilarious shenanigans

At another concert, they’re all signing autographs after the fact and a little girl tugs his pant leg and whispers. “Could I be as cool as you one day Mr. Morality, sir?” Patton smiles and ruffles her hair. “Of course you can kiddo! And call me Patton.”

Virgil’s name still hadn’t been revealed. A lot about him was a mystery to the fans. They loved it, and Virgil was slightly afraid that if they found out his name they wouldn’t have any reason to like him anymore.

Eventually, Virgil posts a solo vlog about his experiences with Anxiety for their channel and tell them his name. The video goes viral pretty much overnight.

After their tour, everything feels calm again. They’re all at home and not running around like crazy every morning. They need to work on their new album, but Roman’s got creative block, so they’re not really doing much.

All this pesky nothingness is bringing feelings up again. Roman gets back into vlogging daily, as he couldn’t do as much filming while on tour. Virgil is a lot more open after his personal vlog and talks more when Roman films

One day, Roman, Patton, and Virgil wake up and check Twitter to see a bunch of people @ing them both on their joint account and their personal accounts

Apparently Logan had uploaded a video the night before and deleted it, but it had been too late. People had downloaded it and were sending it to everyone

In it Logan sang. He sang a love song, one he’d written. Patton recognized it as the song Logan had been humming in the shower for months now.

Fans start theorizing about who Logan meant in the song. Ship wars break out, it’s madness.

The vlogging goes dead for about a week before they’re back on. All four seem a lot more cheerful than usual. Apparently something happened that helped Roman out of his creative block and their new album would be out soon

When it came out, listeners were shocked to find that they were all love songs???? With duets from Roman and Patton, ones where all four (yes, even Logan) sang, and solos from every single one of them

Audiences were split on what this could possibly mean. Were they singing to each other? If so, who was together with who?

They end up going on tour again before their fans are given answers. It’s Roman’s birthday and they all sing an original song again before Patton walks up to him, smiling softly. “Thanks to you…we get to have all this. Thank you” and he kisses him

Fans are screaming in joy and shock…then Virgil walks over and kisses Roman too, and Logan does as well. Everyone is confused

Roman faces the audience and screams “THAT’S RIGHT! WE’RE ALL DATING EACH OTHER!” then grabs Virgil and Logan (who’re the closest) and slings them over his shoulders before dashing off stage. Patton laughs and runs after him

It’s big news. They’re the first really popular band that happens to be in a poly relationship. The interviews are a little awkward, but they’re all too in love to care

They still do some other songs, but now most of their music are love songs dedicated to each other. Fans tend to love the ones where they all sing together the most. Their voices all fit together perfectly, just like the members themselves.

tl;dr: They boys start a band and start dating so they sing cute love songs with each other about each other and it’s good and wholesome 

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #lamp/calm #polysanders #this was longer then i was expecting oops #og post

[the-dark-side-of-the-blog]

Appetite For Destruction 30 Years On:

The most perfect album by the most imperfect of bands. 1987 was the year Appetite came out and changed rock music forever and things looked very different back then for Axl and co. While they might be back together now and reforming some of the attitudes and tendencies that made them (and specifically Axl) the unofficial douche-bags of rock in 1987 what was ahead for GnR was seemingly endless conflict and controversy. Fights with just about every other major rock artist, as well as with each other would soon ensue. Accusations of racism, misogyny and homophobia would tarnish how many viewed the band’s work and of course their (again mostly Axl) attitude toward fans would garner huge criticism and in the case of the riots destruction. Yet for all of their many imperfections there is no getting away from the fact that Appetite for Destruction is the closest to perfection a rock album can be.

So let’s begin with it’s peerless opener. Like a few songs on this album you may have heard Welcome to the Jungle enough times for the rest of your life but that doesn’t take away from the mastery of this track. It is a hard rock anthem of the highest order and one that loses none of it’s power or energy 30 years on. If Appetite was a movie Welcome to the Jungle would be it’s opening establishing shots, but they’d be the most amazing establishing shots ever. It sets the tone for an album full of songs perfectly crafted by Axl and Slash. Their dynamic on this song and album really represents the height of a singer/guitarist duo. 

Welcome to the Jungle is a song with such a clear voice as well. There’s nothing generic about the lyrics what-so-ever, which distinguishes it in an era of bland ballads. That distinctive voice characterizes the whole album. So how do you follow up one of the greatest openers on an album ever, with another killer track that may best define, at least the first half of, the album.

On a surface level It’s So Easy is a celebration of the excesses of their rock n’roll lifestyle, with it’s horribly sexist lyrics and descriptions of destructive behavior but really like so much of this album it is pointing to the emptiness of it all. “It’s so easy but nothing seems to please me” demonstrates how GnR were not just the thoughtless epitome of sex, drugs and rock n’roll they presented themselves as. It shows that there was a prevailing sense of unfulfillment and awareness that this life wasn’t what it was all about, if the title of the album didn’t already indicate as much.

And just before you can catch your breathe here comes the Nightrain. While Axl may not be ranked among rock’s greatest lyricists generally and for good reason, his writing rarely aspired to any kind of poetic profundity,  every song on this album just has the most amazing lyrical hook. Here we have “I’m on the Nightrain/Ready to crash and burn/I never learn” which by itself is already amazing not to mention it is surround by just about the most bad-ass rock song ever written.

The next track Out Ta Get Me, would be the lead single on just about anyone else’s album but here it is the weakest track in the first half and feels like a slight detente, even though it is still full of that anger and energy. Coming after it though are another two unmissable classics. Even with it’s comical “Yowzaa” conclusion, Mr Brownstone is a great rock song with another unforgettable hook “We’ve been dancing with Mr Brownstone/Hey’s been knocking/He won’t leave me alone.”

Even for an album wall to wall with classics, there are three songs that do stand out. One is Jungle, another we have yet to get to but you can probably guess what it is, but the middle of this genre defining trifecta comes midway through the album in the form of Paradise City.

A song all about lost horizons “so far away”, perfectly placed in the middle of the album. The iconic chorus juxtaposes the rest of the verses. The simplicity and innocence of that central sentiment “take me down to the paradise city/where the grass is green and the girls are pretty” re-frames much of the debauchery of the album’s first half and bridges us into the the “roses” half of the proceedings. Axl would try again to present his experience as a naive hick in LA’s seedy underbelly with the regrettable One in a Million, but with Paradise City he captures it perfectly to deliver GnR’s most anthemic track. 

As Paradise City comes to a crescendo we end the first half of the album and move from the Guns to the Roses. The dichotomy of the album’s two halves is not as simple as first half is all, violence, drugs and debauchery and the second half is all love and flowers, the second half is plenty seedy to at times but there is a shift. 

The track-listing of this album is again perfect as we go from Paradise City into My Michelle. While there is this shift from the first half to the second half, My Michelle eases this transition with it’s daddies who work in porno and mommies six feet under ground, it covered in enough dirt to fit nicely in the first half but it’s verse about everyone needing love hints at a tonal shift.

Then comes Think About You a good song that can get lost on an album of great ones. Following Think About You though is a song that would stand-out on any album. A distillation of rock-pop perfection. A song that takes a great album and makes it one of the greatest ever. Quite simply one of the best songs ever recorded. Sweet Child O’Mine.

If you can somehow think back to the first time you listened to it, initially it can almost present itself as just a well crafted ballad but it is so much more than that. The sound of guitar at the beginning is heavenly and the lyrics are subtly brilliant. When you read about Axl’s tragic upbringing and then hear him sing about “childhood memories” it adds a level complication and melancholy to what could seem a straightforward love song. Axl’s talk of the “thunder and rain”, often thought of as a reference to his mother’s mental health problems underlines this sense of melancholy and the final repeated “where do we go now” has an almost existential quality to, once again muddying the seeming idealism of the track. Yet there is no ignoring the sugary optimism inherent in the song and that is part of what makes it so perfect as the 9th track and virtual climax of this album, as all the darkness of the rest of the album is offset and made palatable by the undiluted love of this song. I could write another few thousand words on Sweet Child, it means that much to me. It belong on a very short shortlist of my favorite songs ever. Put simply music has the power to affect you in profound ways and to use the song’s words Sweet Child O’Mine is a track “that takes me away to that special place” and for that I’ll never get sick of hearing it no matter how overplayed it is and for all of their sins part of me will never not love Axl and co, because they gave me this. 

Where do we go now? becomes a pretty good question after a song of that power but the album continues strongly with You’re Crazy. After a song as loving and idealized as Sweet Child O’Mine it makes sense that GnR revert back to their more aggressive, cynical side, keeping the balance of the album just right. Again not the most PC song ever and part of a series of crazy-ex-girlfriend songs written by Axl but at least this one is not explicitly misogynistic and has great energy.

Anything Goes is not a bad song but it is the closest thing to a filler track on an album famous for having none. The album would not necessarily benefit from Anything Goes being cut, but it also would not necessarily be detrimental to the album’s legacy either. 

And onto the final track we go.Rocket Queen is a great closer but a song maybe remembered for the wrong reasons. It is a song famous for having a recording of Axl and Steve Adler’s girlfriend, having sex. Now while admittedly morally questionable and artistically dubious, it does nonetheless add something of an edge to an album that admittedly already had plenty. More than anything though it distracts from the fact that Rocket Queen is actually a great song and an amazing closer. It perfectly captures so much of what the album as whole is about. It is dripping in grime and seediness but there is also just hints of light amidst the dark. While Axl may literally be screwing his friend’s girlfriend in the song, it is ultimately a song about friendship, at least the second half is. It manages to get take some of that Sweet Child O’Mine positivity and mix it with the sex and drugs of the jungle and for that it makes a great closer to one of rock’s defining albums.

So there you have it, 30 years on and Appetite is still every bit the undeniable masterpiece it was in 1987. Some may say that GnR might have squandered their potential to be one of the greatest rock bands ever in the vein of a Zeppelin or an Aerosmith, but that’s not true because with Appetite for Destruction Slash and Axl secured a legacy befitting of any great rock band. GnR did great work after but they didn’t have to. Appetite for Destruction is a rock album of such near unparalleled perfection, if Axl had never picked up the mic and Slash the guitar, everything still would have been okay because they gave us this and you could never ask for more.

#guns n roses #appetite for destruction #axl rose #slash #not in this lifetime #sweet child o' mine #paradise city #welcome to the jungle #Aerosmith #led zeppelin