#lyrics from songs on my Spotify playlists once again coming through to provide me with fic titles

[softguarnere]

hey, your soft!boys are just incredible, I enjoy reading each of your fics with them 😳

the last one with babe is just uhhh 😫❤️

never paid much attention to him and now he's deffo one of my top ten favorite.

I would like to request something soft as well. you know my fave, but the pairing choice is yours :)

prompts:

' does it hurt? ' from here (said by reader)

'  i don’t have perfect words.  i’m not the kind of person who knows how to sound poetic and shit.  so all i know what to tell you is that i belong to you.  i don’t know if you want me.  but i’m yours.  and at this point however it is you need me,  i’m here.  ' from here (said by an easy guy)

Hoping That There's Something Coming (It's Not the Same)

Bill Guarnere x reader

A/N: Hi love! I'm so glad you like them, because I really enjoy working on those requests :) I had originally planned to write this for Joe, but once I got going with it, it just kinda ended up going in a completely different direction -- I hope you don't mind! Thank you for another great request, and I hope you enjoy this (As always, this is written for the fictional depiction from the show -- no disrespect to the real life veterans!) 💕🕊️

Warnings: Hospitals, mentions of war, language, injury

Back home in the States, a clean, sterile smell would greet you whenever you walked into a doctor's office or hospital; a potpourri of bleach and gauze and medicine. Looking back, you're not sure what you expected, but the field hospital is nothing like that.

You knew that you were one of the lucky ones -- how could you not, when it seems like all anyone talks about is their various scrapes and wounds and purple hearts -- but even with all the horror stories your friends had relayed to you, you didn't think the aid stations and hospitals would be so dismal.

"You've really never been in one of these before?" Doc Roe shoots you a sideways glance when you stop near the doorway, the sights and smells of the place freezing you in your tracks as you take it all in. When you don't move, he steps back towards you and gently touches your elbow, trying to ground you. "Hey, we can go back to the line if you need to. Not everyone can stomach this type of thing; there's no shame in it."

The misery and pain that fills the place isn't what's stopped you in your tracks. You've seen plenty of that in combat, and it's really nothing new.

No, what makes you stop is the cold that runs down your spine when the realization hits you: Bill is staying in this awful place.

"No." You push your shoulders back, determined. "No, I need to see him. To know that he's okay."

Doc searches your face. Whatever he's looking for, he must find it, because a second later the crease between his brows smooths out and he nods, leading you further into the hospital.

Your stomach is a stormy sea of nerves the further you go. You hadn't heard from or seen Bill since they rushed him and Toye away from Bastogne, and every day with no update made you fear the worst. It had been kind for Doc to offer to bring you to him, but now that you're here, some kind of worry washes over you. What if there's a reason that you haven't heard anything yet?

All at once, Doc stops in front of a bed. The man lying in it -- Joe, it takes you a minute to realize -- glances up, but then his eyes catch on you, and one of his reserved but playful smiles lights up his face.

"Well, if it isn't the fiercest lil' paratrooper in the PIR. You finally get hit, (Y/N)?"

Relief starts to poke its way through the worry you had been feeling, slowly, and then it rushes over you, like ink spilling onto a piece of paper. Toye and Guarnere had been some of your best friends since Toccoa. Watching them get hit was hard, and half of your worry was admittedly from wondering what had happened to them when they were taken off the line. But if Joe is back to teasing you, then maybe . . .

"Hey, Joe. How they treating you?"

At the sound of your voice, the man in the next bed over looks up from a piece of paper he had been mulling over. Disbelief clouds Bill's face, briefly, and then he smiles, wading up the paper like it hadn't been bothering him just a moment before.

"Well, at least it's not cold here," Toye says, forever putting up a tough front.

"Yeah, whole lot warmer with you here now, Sunshine," Bill adds.

You laugh at the teasing, if only to chase away the lump that starts to build in your throat at the sight of your friends. They're injured, but they're alive, and you're together again. There are so many things that you want to tell them, but where to start? All you really want to do is magically reverse things back to the way they used to be, before that awful shelling that --

"You wanna sit down and visit with us?" Joe asks. His brow is furrowed; he's always been better at reading his friends than most people give him credit for. He shifts his remaining leg so that you can sit on the edge of the bed, seated between him and Bill so that you can talk to them both.

The good thing about strong friendships is that they can almost always pick up where they left off. Even after everything that has happened, soon the three of you are joking around and exchanging gossip as if it's any other day. It only ends when Joe grunts, his face screwing up in pain as he takes in a sharp breath.

Doc Roe is in Medic Mode in a second. "What do you need, Joe? You want me to get a nurse?"

Things are different now, the cloud that falls over the mood after that seems to say. A nurse administers something for the pain, and then Joe can't keep his eyes open very well -- he drifts off into the kind of sleep that he hadn't been able to afford while on the line, though he wears a pensive expression on his face, even in sleep. It's similar to the expression that Doc Roe has been making lately -- the one he makes when the nurse leads him off and has him start helping with other patients.

Bill pats his own bed. "You can sit over here so that we don't wake him up." Something on his face changes, like he's said something that he shouldn't have. "I mean, if you wanna stay, that is."

"Of course I do." You change seats, trying to ignore the jittery feeling that replaces your heartbeat when you sit next to him. Wild Bill Guarnere has always had that effect on you, but for the sake of the war and your friendship, you've never acted on those feelings.

Well, there was the time back in England where you both had a little too much to drink and kissed each other, but neither of you ever talked about what that meant.

And now you won't; Bill will be shipped back home to Philly, and you back to the line.

You try to chase the thought from your head. All you can do now is enjoy the present moment while it lasts. It was so much easier when you had Toye and Roe as part of that moment, though.

"Does it hurt?" As soon as the words are out of your mouth, you regret them, even though Bill doesn't seem to mind.

"Yeah, sometimes. I think some of it is just the getting used to it."

"I worried about you, you know," you admit. "I don't really remember it, but apparently I tried to chase after you and Toye when they hauled you off. Somebody had to hold me back while the Jeeps drove away."

Bill chuckles. "We just can't stop being a package deal, huh?"

The sound of crinkling paper draws your attention as Guarnere moves the piece of paper he had waded up when you came in.

"Bad news from the homefront?"

"What? Oh, no. Just . . . trying to get it right. It's hard to put thoughts on paper in this place. I'm no Webster."

"Thank God for that." You want something else to say, but it's like grasping at straws. God, why was it so much easier before? Bill is your friend and you should be able to talk to him. Something about knowing that he's leaving though, and that you'll still be in Europe, without him, without many of your other friends, causes a rising since of panic that's so heavy it could crush your chest. "You'd be a good writer, though. You always have something witty to say. I miss having that back at the line."

He snorts. "Being quick and being able to write something coherent aren't the same. If it were I --"

The way he stops himself catches you off guard. It's like someone slamming on the breaks in a car before you can figure out why you've stopped. For a second it looks like maybe he'll stay quiet, but Bill Guarnere has never been able to stop himself from speaking his mind.

"Ah, fuck it." He smooths out the waded up paper and sighs. "You remember the night we kissed?"

Now you feel like you've been hit by the metaphorical car. "Yes."

"I've been thinkin' about it a lot." You have, too -- you haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened, if you're being honest -- but you let him continue. "Because it's kind of hit me, ya know? I thought that I would have more time. But now the war is over for me. And you've got to keep fighting. Anything could happen when we're an ocean apart."

It would be so easy to get your hopes up. You brace yourself, waiting to see which direction he will take.

"I tried to write you a letter, but . . ." He frowns at the wrinkled paper like it's personally offended him. "I don’t have perfect words.  I’m not the kind of person who knows how to sound poetic and shit. So all I know what to tell you is that I belong to you.  I don’t know if you want me. But I’m yours. And at this point however it is you need me, I’m here." He sighs, not meeting your eyes. "I just needed to get that off my chest before I have to go home."

"Oh my God," you whisper for lack of any other reaction that would be appropriate for a hospital. Anywhere else, you would have grabbed him and kissed him even harder and longer than the night back in England. Instead, you take his hand and bring it up to your mouth so you can kiss his knuckles. "You may be wild, Bill, but if I would trust anyone with my heart, it's you."

He finally meets your eyes, and they light up with his smile. A real, genuine smile that could chase away the gloom of the hospital around you. He leans back on his bed pillows, his smile so bright and real and reminiscent of a time before you were separated. "God, I wish that you could come back to Philly with me."

"Everything is different now," you agree. Your chest feels warm, and it easily gives way to hope, which brings an idea. "After the war, then. And we'll write to each other every day before then."

He nods. On the bed, your hands are still intertwined. He brings them up to kiss the back of yours, but he's still smiling so hard that his teeth bump your knuckles. "If I can read your handwriting," he teases, just like he usually would.

Bastogne changed everything, you realize. But some things remain the same. Either way, it feels good, in the end.

#lyrics from songs on my Spotify playlists once again coming through to provide me with fic titles #bill guarnere #bill guarnere x reader #band of brothers #band of brothers x reader #band of brothers fanfic #band of brothers imagine #my writing #joe toye #eugene roe

[safety-frog]

Your Weekly Tunes: Stealthy

It’s a week of fast paced, pounding songs for everyone’s favorite sister Kayo! Lots of excitement and fun, lots of songs that make you think you’re the main character of an action story while listening, because let’s be real- Kayo has that kind of personality! 🖤 (Just as a heads up: a few of these songs are explicit and have some swearing in them. Also, kpop 😉)

YouTube

Spotify

Kayo’s top five are going to surprise probably no one once you take a look at the playlist:

Queendom: AURORA- “ The women will be my soldiers/ With the weight of life on their shoulders“ and “ I hunt the grounds for empathy/ And hate the way it hides from me/ With care and thirst I have become/ You have a home in my queendom”

AURORA has such a unique sound and way of writing songs that are both empowering while still holding an ethereal feel: perfect for our Kayo! Personally, this song shows the dichotomy of the strength Kayo holds while still providing love for her family.

Après Moi: Regina Spektor- “I must go on standing/ You can't break that which isn't yours/ I must go on standing/ I'm not my own, it's not my choice” and “Après moi le deluge/ After me comes the flood”

Okay but Kayo (especially at the start of TAG) while knowing her uncle is The Hood knowing that she can’t give in and that his chain of ruthlessness not only stops with her, but she’s the one that tries to reverse it. The flood certainly does come once Kayo’s through.

‘Til I Collapse: Eminem- “ 'Till the roof comes off, 'till the lights go out/ 'Till my legs give out, can't shut my mouth/ 'Till the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps/ I'ma rip this s**t, 'till my bone collapse” and “This is your moment, and every single minute you spend/ Tryna hold on to it 'cause you may never get it again”

While the lyrics, except for the chorus, don’t necessarily scream Thunderbirds (as they are about rapping, lol!), that chorus certainly makes up for it. You don’t even need to pay much attention to the lyrics, just the musicality is enough for Kayo!

Yellow Flicker Beat: Lorde- “ I'm a princess cut from marble, smoother than a storm/ And the scars that mark my body, they're silver and gold/ My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones/ It keeps my veins hot, the fires find a home in me” and “I never watch the stars there's so much down here/ So I just try to keep up with them/ Red, orange, yellow flicker beat sparking up my heart”

This song is originally from one of the The Hunger Games movies, and it works for Kayo just as well as Katniss! Kayo’s a strong soul under her rough-and-tumble exterior, and the fire inside keeps her warm to those she loves.

Gladiator: Zayde Wolf- “Gladiator, gladiator, gladiator/ Picked a fight with the gods I'm the giant slayer/ Bone shaker, dominator/ Freight train, wrecking ball, I'm the gladiator” and “I've got every reason to fight/ Have you ever shaken hands with the devil in the night?”

Gladiator is not that deep of a song. It’s about being badass and getting up for the thrill of the fight every time. Enough said.

#thunderbirds #thunderbirds 2015 #thunderbirds are go #thunderfam #kayo kyrano #playlists #music

[mcmactictac]

Pt. 4, final part of songs that remind me of DreamSMP characters! I’ve included a link to a Spotify playlist below that has all of the songs that I’ve mentioned in the previous parts so you have them all in one place! I also have a few more below that I didn’t get to include in the other parts!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0D7Ubbq5FHZmFnxBqzk1S6?si=RqfSlxU-RU27Qn-niXh-wQ&dl_branch=1

Tommy: Can you feel my heart by Bring me the Horizon

Tommy angst enjoyers this one is for you !The drop in this song feels like falling, and I love it for the end of Tommys exile. For the fanfic enjoyers out here it really has the energy of Tommy in the nether, talking to someone as he is struggling. I’ve seen some wonderful art done to this song, and read some great fics that remind me of it!

“I’m scared to get close, and I hate being alone. I long for that feeling to not feel at all. The higher I get, the lower I’ll sink. I cant drown my demons they know how to swim”

Sweet Hibiscus Tea by Penelope Scott

I know this is a basic Tommy choice but it just fits so well for him. The desperation and raw emotion within the song reminds me so much of his character. The build up, the voice cracks, it’s the song of someone who lost everything and is tired of being what everyone else needs.

“And I’m not your protagonist, I’m not even my own. I don’t know anything, I don’t even know what I don’t know. And If you look outside you’ll see, disintegrating trees. The artificial way the sunlight bounces off the waxy leaves. My heart catches on every thorn, you’re already halfway out the door. And I’ve never looked so old, and I have never been so cold. And it is 85 degrees, I don’t know what I need”

Wilbur: Eight by Sleeping at Last

Wilbur said that he inspired his character after this song, and I find it really interesting to look at his character through the lense of this song. It provides a different perspective that adds more depth to his character, which I love. All of the lyrics in this song fit him perfectly, which is really rare when finding songs.

“But I can’t let you see all that I have to lose, and all I’ve lost in the fight to protect it. I won’t let you in, I swore never again. I cant afford to let myself be blindsided.”

Icarus by Bastille

Honestly this song could apply for many different characters. I’ve seen Icarus compared to many different characters, and all of the explanations are very interesting. I prefer it for Wilbur or Tommy, but it’s very flexible for everyone. The message of flying too high and working yourself until you break, which can cause everything to come crumbling down.

“Icarus is flying too close to the sun, and Icarus’s life it has only just begun. This is how it feels to take a fall. Icarus is flying towards an early grave. You put up your defences when you leave, you leave because you’re certain of who you want to be.”

Fairytale by Alexander Rybak

I love looking at this song with the perspective of Wilbur singing it to L’manberg. Something that he knows he can never have again, but can’t get the idea out of his head.

“I’m in love with a fairytale, even though it hurts. Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind, I’m already cursed”

Fundy: Rät by Penelope Scott

This is another choice that fits a lot of people, but after being used, forgotten, and let down by everyone in his life no one really recognizes how much of a broken kid he is. Thinking of him singing this song to Wilbur, realizing that he’s been used, and that his father was not the great person he wanted him to be.

“I loved you, I loved you, I loved you it’s true. I wanted to be you and do what you do. I lived here I loved here I thought it was true. I feel so stupid. I feel so used”

Niki: I’d rather Drown by Set it Off

Honestly? Niki deserves to be genuinely pissed off and mad at Wilbur. He hurt her really badly, and she is entitled to be properly mad about the fact she trusted him and he left her alone. This song does a great job expressing the frustration and anger you have when someone genuinely hurts you.

“Burn the bitch down, I never will cross that bridge again. I can not trust you easily or think that I’m the only one. I never let people in, and up have you to remind me why. So baby burn the bitch down, I never will cross that bridge again, I’d rather drown.”

Techno: I Gave you All by Mumford & Sons

When Techno is committed to a person, he dedicates all he has to helping them reach their common goal. This could be in relation to Pogtopia or to Tommy, but he feels like no one cares about him despite all he gives to them. He is used only for what he can give for others, and people will inevitably leave him once they get what they need. This song captures that frustration with being used, and wanting to be appreciated.

“And you rip it from my hands and you swear it’s all gone. And you rip out all I had just to say that you’ve won. Well now you’ve won. But I gave you all. I gave you all. I gave you all.”

Dream: Big Shot by Billy Joel

What’s a Dream song without a little gaslighting and manipulation? I love this song, and when you think of it like Dream talking to Tommy and convincing him this is all his fault for wanting to be a “Big man” it makes it WAY more interesting.

“Yes, yes you had to be a big shot, didn’t you? You had to open up your mouth. You had to be a big shot didn’t you? All your friends were so knocked out. You had to have the last word, last night. You know what everything’s about. You had to have the white hot spotlight, you had to be a big shot, last night.”

Early L’manberg crew: Believer by Imagine Dragons

I just really love this song and think that it fits the energy of all the suffering and pain L’manberg went through and it doesn’t fit one specific character, but fits everyone generally.

“Pain! You make me a, you make me a believer, believer. Pain! You break me down and build me up believer, believer. Pain, oh let the bullets fly oh let them rain. My life, my love my drive it came from. Pain, you make me a you make me a believer, believer”

(On a totally unrelated note if any of you are IT fans I highly suggest watching Rockwell IT’s parody of the movies. They do a cover of this song and the harmonies are amazing!)

And that’s it! I might update the playlist, but I think I’m done writing out the explanations for the songs. If this is the first part you’re seeing, I have three other ones posted that include some of the characters I missed in here! If you liked this, go check them out!

#dream smp #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #fundylive #niki nihachu #technoblade #dream mcyt #lmanberg #dsmp dream #dsmp techno #dsmp nihachu #dsmp niki #dsmp fundy #dsmp wilbur #dsmp tommy #tommy and wilbur #wilbur and fundy #tommy and dream #dsmp songs #dsmp playlist #Wilbur and Niki #dsmp #Spotify

[troop52]

do u !!! have any character theme songs for the troop boys? Like any songs you think really fits them (and why u think it fits)?

THATS A GREAT QUESTION!!

Before I get into it Im going to plug this collaborative Troop Playlist on Spotify, feel free to add onto it!! Continuing with my picks

I think a lot of the songs I associate with The Troop in general are just because I happened to listen to them around the same time I got into the book in the first place (So they could only be tangentially related BUT only if you squint hard) Example: Drunk by The Living Tombstone, cant really tie it into the story but in my mind its linked Some better, more fitting songs under the cut (Side note its LONGGG IM SORRY... Also its all YouTube links because some of these arent on Spotify :'^()

Disclaimer -Like 95% of my choices arent really a "These lyrics match up exactly 1 to 1" but more of an overall "the vibe/general idea its trying to capture lines up" type thing. If that makes sense.

Its Alright by Jack Stauber: Kind of self explanatory, I think its a perfect song for these guys. From "It's alright, I'm here, Everything's alright, Feels weird but calm, I wanna hear It's alright" to the whole sound of it- its all great. Equal parts distressing and sad with an almost eerie calmness to it. Despite it all theyre gonna be alright, right?

The Second Little Piggy by Worthikids: Another one that I think is sort of self explanatory- at least with the chorus. "If my brain turns to mush, If the shit hits the fan, Will you be my friend?" Kind of the falling apart of everything, specifically their relationships, in light of the incident.

Poor George by James Supercave: Another case of "listened to at the same time I read the book" BUT I was actually making a Troop PMV script with that song. I never finished it but maybe Ill revisit it... just for you

Cold Summer by Le Matos ft Computer Magic: I dont even think this takes place in the summer but the VIBES and also it came from Summer of 84, which is another good piece of murder boy media.

Treehouse by Alex G ft Emily Yacina: This is a Eef and Max type of song because they are bffs and thats final. Basic song because Im not creative, but I think its a nice heart to heart theyd have (with Eef doing the talking)

Fifteen Minuets by Nick Krol: On the flipside heres a song that goes with Eef and Maxs friendship fracturing, once again more from Eefs side than Maxs. THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTINGGG

As far as songs for the boys as individuals hmmm thats a good one that I havent thought about as much...

MAX + The Ghosts by The Real Tuesday Weld: That survivors guilt... lyrics arent like a perfect match but I think it gets that sort of hollow feeling across. Hes haunted man... + Final Girl by Electric Youth: Ok its a little funny because har har Final Girl Trope but I mean HE IS ONE. ANd dont look at me its a nice song- "Others were gone, and you kept going on, You know they never really noticed, you were always different, One by one, They're all done, And you're the last one standing" + Going Grazy by Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks: HONESTLY this could go for all the characters but Im tagging it onto Max because hes the one who has to deal with the aftermath of losing everyone (sorry survivors guilt Max again </3) "Everyone's saying my mind is unsound, 'Cause I always see you when you aren't around" "They're gonna wrap me in a jacket of white, And lock me away in a room without light" is what cements it as a Max song for me

EEF + The Existential Threat by Sparks: Once again starting sad, I link this one specifically to his paranoia about the worms- especially with lines like "Can't they see the existential threat is on its way". Kind of exasperated no one else can see the danger (he thinks) hes in. + Wrecking Ball by Mother Mother: I know I know its basic but I cant help it!!! Eef anger issues arc we are shaking hands me too + Haunted by Laura Les: Eef struggles with people seeing him as "just like his father" and I think we can get some good angst out of this track if we keep that in mind. Especially the back half of the song with lyrics like "Do you think I'm frightening?" and "Mirrors shatter when I'm passing, broken glass and crashing" since he is just a reflection of his dad (to others at least). Also song good.

KENT + Goodbye Mr A by The Hoosiers: Mfw the disillusionment with authority sets in. I think the vibe fits when he had that little epiphany about how adults are fucked- not perfect but it gets the idea across me thinks. + I'm Gonna Win by Rob Cantor: Ties into his need to "win" aka be the best at everything, be in charge, all that jazz! Hell do whatever it takes to be successful, even if it hurts. That was a little emo + Toba the Tura by Forgive Durden ft Chris Conley: Not to be emo again but "They say you're gifted, well I just see a scared kid. They must have flipped it, your skills are latent. O, you snuffed the glow. Replaced it with coals. Threw away the throne... This mess that you've made, it's a six-foot grave. It's a home for your lonesome bones that remain. We'll disappear, but you'll stay here to rot" AND SO ON AND SO FOURTH representing his fall after it was revealed he was sick. He was referred to as "the uncrowned king" and was on top of the world but then POOF that all crumbled and it was made out that he basically deserved what happened to him. It would be fun to make a pmv of him with this song (Simplifying my thoughts a bit because Ive already written a LOT)

NEWT + I Earn My Life by Lemon Demon: Ok a little Kentcore but Im actually having a hard time coming up with songs for Newton so here we are, they can share. Newt existential crisis moment time I guess + Know How by The Crane Wives: POV Newt struggles with going through with the plans he makes to keep everyone safe (stopping Max from touching Kent, going back into the cabin, etc) "I am not brave, I am not brave, I keep my focus on what is safe, You drew a line, made up your mind, And now I'm struggling to realize" And also maybe struggling with his place in the group and as a person in general- all that living through his cousin thing. "I gotta wrap my head around, What my heart is telling me, I've been trying to drown it out, Just because I know what I am, I am supposed to do now, Doesn't mean I know, Doesn't mean I know how" + On The Outside by Oingo Boingo: Idk man. Hes on the outside lookin in!! Loner nerd!! Its ok though, we still love him

SHEL + Bad Blood by Creature Feature: The lyrics speak for themselves: "I can guarantee I will do evil things, The only way that you can stop me now, Is if you put me in the ground, Somewhere I'll never be found" + Frontier Psychologist by The Avalanches: Hinges on the fact that the principal or whoever was like "Your sons a freak" and Shels mom was like "HES PERFECTLY FINE" while Shelley was like dismembering an animal or something + Johnny by American Murder Song: The songs good but theres this ONE LYRIC that sucks so the link provided is an edited version and also a lovely Warriors oc video I think you should all enjoy and support <3 Anyway Shel would be Johnny I could see this song being a scene in the book. Field trip to Shels house and they find his murder garden

If anyone wants more for Im not opposed to making another post :^)

#SORRY THIS TOOK A BIT #I had to use my brainpower and I am very easily distracted #max kirkwood #ephraim elliot #kent jenks #newton thornton #shelley longpre #the troop #the troop nick cutter

[anarcho-mom-unist]

A survey of my ‘spotify wrapped’ from 2020

So, I listen to music between a lot of platforms, I hate how spotify operates as a company (and like in a way that’s pretty comparable to my loathing of the publishing/distribution sides of creative industries,) and I fucking refuse to ever pay for spotify askjdhd

However based on the aggregate of my 100 most-listened-to songs from a year of mostly hitting shuffle on an artist, album, or playlist on mobile, I do have some reflections and highlights. From that I made something of a survey of that list which includes my #1 and #100 song in addition to 1 song from each set of ten, for a total of 12 songs. These represent artists and genres I really got into this year, as well as longtime favorites that are worth talking about:

1. “Bad Trip” - Bad Trip (single) - Xena Elshazlii & Fady Haroun: "Bad Trip” is probably my favorite 2020 release, like if I had to pick one. The track has incredible energy, from the soft piano and vocalization intro to the verse with it’s sparse drums, subtle bass line, and slight strings to an absolute banger of a chorus with punchy staccato synths, reinforcement of the drum groove, and addition of an electric guitar. Elshazlii & Haroun pack a lot into 2-and-a-half minutes of music, and the variations in texture, mix, & music in each iteration of the song’s discrete sections are *chef’s kiss* ---verse 1 and chorus 1 are not identical to verse 2 and chorus 2, to say nothing of the short instrumental transition b/n the first chorus and second verse. Whenever I listen to “Bad Trip” I’m compelled to hit ‘repeat’ ---which is not a normal occurrence for me---and experience the builds and releases that this track brings once again. I don’t know much Arabic beyond the slang terms and exclamations that peppered my grandparents’ & parents’ speech when they spoke to each other in Armenian, but I’d be a liar if I didn’t tell y’all that “Bad Trip” is among the songs that make me want to learn the language so I can better sing along w/ them.

3. “City Lights” - Sailorwave II - Macross 82-99 ft. Kamei:  "City Lights” is the opener to Macross 82-99′s 2018 EP Sailorwave II, and it does that job immaculately. While I recommend the entire EP and an exploration of the Future Funk genre as a whole, you can’t go wrong with getting a taste of either through “City Lights.” The track bursts to life w/ synth brass chords and fast drums, quickly finding its way into punchy up-tempo horn line w/ light rhythm guitar and an active & bouncy bass line joining the mix. “City Lights” more or less goes from A to B to C and after the instrumental opening, the track shifts to a more under-voice horn line offering a countermelody to a mid-to-low register vocal line which is soon after joined by high voices punctuating the beginning of each phrase. The horns, guitars, and singers are cut from the track as the song enters its final section, a rap verse from featured artist Kamei accompanied with a slower-moving bass and light synth chords & wash in the middle register. Taken all together, “City Lights” ---like “Bad Trip” before it---packs a lot of music into a short duration & leaves me wanting more, which I especially long for when listening to the track outside of the context of the EP (which is what I usually do.)

12. “Turn to Hate” - Pony - Orville Peck: There’s a lot I could have done better in 2019, and “check out Orville Peck” is pretty high up there. “Turn to Hate” is a song that is at once heartrending, sincere, & catchy as all get out. Peck does one of my favorite possible things a musician can do on this track, and that’s make me Feel Things at a quick tempo. The vulnerable lyrics sung in outlaw country bass are supported by a fairly simple chord progression that acts as a solid foundation for a lot of texture ---moving guitar lines in the accompaniment part and middle-ground lines that move in and out of the melodic foreground. My moment of pure delight on the track is Peck’s laconic “yeehaw” that leads into a guitar solo that does so much work w/ its relative simplicity. “Turn to Hate” is an excellent song to get you into Orville Peck’s music if you aren’t already, if any of this piques your interest then I strongly recommend exploring his output of classic country meets 2010s indie meets camp gay sensibilities meets emotional realness. (This is as good a place as any to advise you to check out Yola and her album Walk Through Fire.)

27. “Water No Get Enemy” - Expensive Shit - Fela Kuti & Africa 70: I’m a newcomer to Afrobeat which is a fuckin’ shame because it contains a lot of the things I love most in music: rhythmic density and variety, jazz and “folk” idioms working together, a sense joy in the music-making with righteous anger at injustice in the music’s purpose, and a kick-ass horn section. "Water No Get Enemy” by Fela Kuti & Africa 70 is as good an intro as any to Afrobeat as it’s a delightful & excellent piece of music by the genre’s pioneer. It’s worth mentioning that in addition to its musical quality, Afrobeat is also deeply connected with Pan-Africanism and the resistance to the presence of European colonizers in Sub-Saharan Africa. To be frank, whatever I write can’t really do justice to this song or the musical movement from which it comes, go listen to it... a jam you can dance to while hating the British!? Immaculate. 

31. “Vardavar” - EP No. 1 - Tigran Hamasyan: The first of two songs from Armenian Jazz-fusion pianist/keyboardist and composer, Tigran Hamasyan, is a fast moving rhythmically dense piece of music named after the Armenian holiday of the same name ---Vardavar is a holiday of pre-Christian origin that Armenians celebrate in July in observance of the transfiguration of Christ, it involves throwing buckets of water on each other! Appropriate to its namesake, the running piano line through much of the track and the melodic lines are both exceptionally fluid and reminiscent of water. The rhythm of the tune follows a highly irregular subdivision of the bar that it’s best to feel along w/ as a listener ---seriously, unless you’re transcribing the tune or practicing/rehearsing it, don’t worry about counting---and get lost in with the flow of the music. Notable features of the track are the dense layering of instrumental/vocal lines on the melodic and countermelodic material, breakdowns & entire sections where the music takes to longer notes, “slower” feel & division of the bar, and a slower harmonic rhythm, unexpected unisons b/n instruments, and the transformation of Armenian folk melodies & texts between vocalized material and statements of the original material. There is no living musician whose work I love more than Tigran’s and if you’re not familiar with it “Vardavar” is an excellent place to start.

46. “Boyish” - Tropical Jinx - Little Big League:  "Boyish” is better known as one of the singles from Japanese Breakfast’s sophomore album Soft Sounds from Another Planet where Michelle Zauner presents the tune at a slow tempo with an unassuming instrumental accompaniment, wash of synths in the chorus, and low-register closing guitar solo which leaves the audience with a sense of melancholy & vulnerability. The original version from the 2014 LP of Zauner’s former band, Little Big League, offers a different take on the text: noisy guitars, driving rhythm, aggressive drumming on a rock groove, and a vocal delivery offering more of the rage of heartbreak than its sadness. Zauner refers to “Boyish” as an ‘ugly girl anthem’ and that intention is very apparent on this version of the track ---whereas the Japanese Breakfast take on it gave me a sense of being in the gender hinterlands b/n acceptable presentations of masculine and feminine. Both versions of the song are really worth seeking out for different reasons, and I chose to highlight Little Big League on this list because they’re a solid guitar-driven emo band that deserves appreciation in its own right.

50. “Dreaming” - Eat to the Beat - Blondie: What do I need to say about Blondie!? A CBGB act from the late-70′s that straddled the worlds of Punk and New Wave at their peak with a mix of an exceptional rhythm section (that bass!) diverse and compelling guitar work, and the captivating and ever-iconic vocals and presence of Debbie Harry. “Dreaming” might be my favorite song from Blondie and has had a special place in my heart since I first listened to them with my mom. It’s one of those songs that I’m tempted to call a perfect pop song: a joyful performance, lyrics that are at once simple and relatable ---whom amongst is unfamiliar with longing!?---music full of hooks & containing the kind of energy that just goes and takes you with it!

65. “Holy” - Shadow Theater - Tigran Hamasyan: The second entry from Tigran Hamasyan comes from his 2013 album Shadow Theater ---an excellent work as a whole---and is one of the slower, more spacious, and simpler tracks from it. “Holy” is a setting of the Armenian liturgical piece “Soorp Soorp” which is frequently used in the celebration of the Eucharist (even in the Armenian Protestant church I grew up in) and it’s achingly beautiful. There’s always something to be said about a musician capable of complex and virtuosic feats on their instrument doing something very simply and very well, and that’s what the entire ensemble brings ---including frequent collaborator Areni Agbabian who provides the vocals. Even as the texture thickens in the middle of the song, the middle ground & harmonic support coming from strings and bassoon (Ben Wendel) is simple, under-voice, and reverent. “Holy” is the kind of piece of music that offers an encounter with God ---even if one would never otherwise believe in something beyond the material; even just for a moment.

77. “The Day the World Turn Day-Glo” - Germ Free Adolescents - X-Ray Spex: X-Ray Spex is one of those bands I’ve listened to before on a recommendation I received ages ago but never really followed up on beyond the one song sent my way. “...Day-Glo” is a fuckin’ banger of song that just bursts with this wonderful energy from the jump & showcases the best qualities of X-Ray Spex’s sound: driving guitars, wild saxophone lines, and chaotically charismatic lead vocals from singer Poly Styrene. X-Ray Spex have an output that is wild and fun as hell to explore, and “...Day-Glo” is an excellent place to start ---you’d also do well to check out their more notable song “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!” 

84. “Marquee Moon” - Marquee Moon - Television: Listen, you don’t need to read some internet lesbian with a music degree go off about Television ---one of the most musically interesting acts to come out of CBGB and one of many definitive proofs that Punk is not a label that people should fucking fight about having a true definition of. Clear 11 minutes in your day, find a pair of headphones so you can experience the use of stereo in the recording and enjoy each element of the song, especially with regards to Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s interlocking guitar lines.

96. “Leylum” - Kokorec - Collectif Medz Bazaar & Sevana Tchak: Armenian folk music, baby!! Collectif Medz Bazaar offer a lively and joyful rendition of the classic folk song “Leylum” which has been burned in my mind from church and community gatherings ---the fun ones with music and all of your aunties dancing in a circle and such. Listen to this song and DM me if you aren’t dancing along of joining in on the response parts as best you can. I think this particular recording offers a nice entry point into an exploration of Armenian music, the instrumentation hits a lot of the staples of Armenian folk ensembles ---duduks, dohl, dumbek, clarinet, shvi, etc.---and the song itself is an up tempo dance tune which I find to be easier to start with than ballads or liturgical music.

100. “Electrastar” - Paradize - Indochine: Back in the hazy past of 2017, one of my friends from undergrad and I were hanging out and playing music for each other. In a departure from his usual library of French Baroque music, he played a song by French New Wave band, Indochine. That song was “Electrastar” which is a consistent favorite of mine, my favorite song from its album ---Paradize, which is already a solid record---and a great entry point into the musical output of a band which has been active for about 40 years. "Electrastar” features driving rhythm guitar, pulsing synth under the texture, eminently catchy chorus and post-chorus, and a very care-full and effective approach to the mix. Also, not for nothing but that album cover is 👀

Survey of 2020 Listening

#magatha.txt #long post #music recommendations #Xena Elshazlii #Fady Haroun #macross 82-99 #kamei #orville peck #fela kuti #tigran hamasyan #little big league #blondie #x-ray spex #Television #collectif medz bazaar #sevena tchak #Indochine #french mention

[keroujack]

ask me if i do this every day

Steve’s not surprised. Not really. It’s 10 PM on a cool March Thursday. He’s locked in his room writing a paper he should have finished three weeks ago instead of waiting until the night before to do it. But he’s an idiot and he always waits until the night before. Suffers immensely because of it.

So no, he’s not really surprised when his phone lights up with a text from Billy, who had finished the paper days ago and wanted to see a movie, rolled his eyes when Steve told him why he couldn’t at his locker earlier that afternoon.

He’s not surprised either that the text doesn’t say anything, it’s just a link to a playlist on Spotify. It’s called “i’m sick of steve harrington listening to shitty music” and the icon is a truly awful picture of Steve that Billy had taken at the diner a few weeks ago. His hair’s flying in about 400 different directions and he’s got no less than 17 French fries shoved in his mouth.

Which, you know, Billy had dared him to do.

“Bet you can’t fit 15 at once.”

“Watch me, dickhead,” Steve had said, pulled the plate of fries they’d been sharing closer to his side of the booth. “And you’re paying for my food if I can.”

“You’re on.”

15 kept his wallet full, two extra proved a point.

It’s a bad picture. Steve laughs anyway.

For the most part, the playlist is pretty typical. Predictable. A lot of loud shit, the kind that makes Steve’s ears hurt a little bit, though, not exactly in a bad way. There’s also a lot of indie nonsense Steve doesn’t entirely recognize, thinks maybe he’s heard the songs once or twice when Billy’s had control over the aux, but not so many times that he knows what the songs or the bands are called. 

There’s only one song that’s any different. One. Sticks out like a sore thumb. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_gxp28AgLA)

Steve’s pretty quick to look and see who it is. Laughs when he does. Gets halfway to texting Billy, “the weeknd is mainstream asshole”, because Billy says it all the time.

“You’re too mainstream, Harrington. Way too mainstream, I mean, Christ. Don’t you ever listen to anything that’s not Top 100?”

And Steve can hear it. Can hear the exasperation, the annoyance. The way Billy goes a little huffy when he thinks he’s right, when he thinks Steve is being ridiculous. 

His thumbs hover over the letters, over send, ready to be right and rag on Billy for the rest of the night, but then the lyrics start. And he stops.

Because suddenly the song’s got his full attention and he’s listening now.

Like. Really listening.   

And the whole thing-the music, the beat, the words-well, it paints a picture. A vivid picture. One that sends a warm flush up his neck, makes his eyes go a little wide, his mouth a little dry.

It’s dirty. The song. And it’s not that Billy doesn’t listen to songs that are dirty. Steve knows he does. Has balked more than once at the lyrics Billy hums under his breath, low and lazy and way too downright obscene for something like lounging next to Steve’s pool on a calm Sunday morning.

It’s more that Steve’s not expecting a song like this at, now, 11 PM on a Thursday on a playlist made for him by his best friend.

What makes it worse is that it’s easy, almost too easy, the way Steve can see it. See him.

Billy.

Often.

The short mess of blond curls that fall across his forehead after practice every day. The bright blue eyes that cut across a classroom where the teacher no longer allows them to sit next to one another. The sharp curl of his lips around a white-hot smile when he thinks Steve’s said something funny.

The broad line of his shoulders, bare, hard, like the muscles that stretch across his chest, his arms, his back. Stretches endlessly for miles and miles and sometimes Steve wonders, quietly, and only to himself, what it would be like to trace along them all with the tip of his finger.

Often.

The image evolves before he can help it.

He can see Billy’s lips, but now they’re pressed to smooth skin, dark stubble rough against it, rougher against the moan that comes from above him, long, high, breathy. The fan of his eyelashes is thick against his cheeks, eyes closed, focused, devoted. The hand in his hair is slender, thin, twists, tightens as he presses slow kisses down a soft, delicate stomach, lower, lower, lower.

Often.

Steve closes his eyes, tries to wipe the thought away with it, wants to wipe the slate clean. But Billy’s still there. Steve still sees him. Sees his head between a pair of pale thighs, kissing the inside of one, the inside of the other, dragging his lips, trailing his tongue. Working up the long, warm line of tense muscle, inching, closer, closer, closer.

Do it how I want it.

By the time the song’s over, Steve’s laptop has gone black, paper long forgotten. His breathing’s gone heavy, pulse quick, jeans way too tight.

He pushes at his eyes with the heels of his hands because what the fuck-what the fuck?

Since when do those thoughts wear Billy’s face?

The next song, back to loud and abrasive, does a good job of wiping the music from his mind, but the image sticks. Makes it hard to focus. Hard to write about The Iliad and the inherent tragedy of a fate you can’t avoid.

He wants to text Billy, wants to beg him for a copy of his paper-like he always does-so that he can rewrite Billy’s thoughts to sound like his own. Wants nothing more than to be done with this already and go to sleep. 

But he can’t. He really can’t.

Can’t even bring himself to answer when it’s Billy that texts him first. Just a simple, “wyd im bored” but it’s still got Steve’s hands shaking. He damn near puts the phone through the wall when he throws it onto his bed before he can respond.

Before he can say something stupid.

For all the distraction finishing his paper is able to provide, fitful, restless sleep brings the images back. Makes sweat drip at his temple, makes his hands curl into the sheets.

Gives him a reason to spend fifteen extra minutes in the shower before he goes downstairs for breakfast. 

Steve still feels like he’s flushed, like he’s exposed when Billy’s shoulder knocks into the locker next to his that morning. Backpack slung easy over one shoulder, Henley done low, collar spread wide over his chest.

“So?” he asks, rests his temple against the cool metal as he watches Steve struggle to shove a textbook in his bag. “Did you like it?”

“Like what?”

“Like what,” Billy repeats, a bit of a scoff, a laugh mixed in with the words. “The playlist, dumbass. What’d you think?”

Often.

Steve can feel the word sitting on his tongue.

“Loud,” he says instead, smiles when Billy narrows his eyes. “It wasn’t bad, but you still listen to too much of that metal garbage.”

“Oh get the fuck out of my face with that ‘metal garbage’ nonsense,” Billy spits, without venom.

Steve takes that as his chance to lean in close. “What was that? Sorry, you’ll have to say it again. My ears are still bleeding.”

Billy reaches out, flicks his ear at that. Steve smacks his hand away, closes his locker with a slam, a laugh that comes as naturally breathing.

They walk to class. The day goes on.

Steve can’t stop thinking about that song.

Often.

He can hear it.

Hears the echoes in the curl of Billy’s hand around the strap of his backpack. In the twist of his fingers when he leans down to tie his shoe. The sweat that glides along the plane of his back at practice. The strip of skin on his stomach that peeks out when he leans back in his desk and stretches.

It’s everywhere.

Often.

Three days of this and Steve feels like he’s beginning to lose his mind. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday pass in a blur of daydreams, a haze of images he shouldn’t still be ale to see this clearly.

Shouldn’t be so easy for the daydreams to shift, to evolve.

For the body beneath Billy’s to no longer belong to some nameless, pretty face. For it to belong to Steve. For it to be him Billy’s looking up at. His stomach Billy’s kissing down. His thighs Billy’s there between. 

Mornings wake him with a gasp, with ragged breaths and goose bumps that ripple up and down his arms, his spine. A flush that spreads along his neck like wildfire and a throb between his legs so strong that he can’t help but slip a hand below his waistband. 

Do it how I want it.

His heart climbs up into his throat on Thursday night. Billy’s sitting in the passenger seat, phone pillowed in his lap, aux cord firmly attached because, “I can’t deal with your mainstream shit today, pretty boy. Not a fuckin’ chance.”

They’re on their way to the diner for milkshakes after practice, both beyond starving and craving something a little sweet after two and a half hours of basketball and getting screamed at.

Often. 

Steve’s heart climbs into his throat and his stomach drops because, just like that, the song is on. The song is on and it’s started and Billy’s tapping his finger in time with it against the window. Steve feels the words wrap around him, hardly has time to even process how he’s going to exist in the same space as Billy for the next four minutes when he realizes Billy is humming.

He’s goddamn humming and Steve swears he can see Billy looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Feels his cheeks go a little pink, feels his hands tighten around the steering wheel with a grip that hurts.

They’re the longest four minutes of Steve’s natural born life.

He convinces himself that it’ll get better after that. That food and company and conversation will be more than an adequate amount of distractions, but he’s wrong. It’s almost like the diner makes it worse.

They’re sitting across from each other in a small, familiar booth along the windows. The place is fairly crowded, which isn’t weird considering the dinnertime rush here is known for that. Their legs are too long beneath the table and Billy’s knees nudge at his when they settle in, warm, snug. Sets Steve’s skin on fire. 

There’s already a shared plate of fries between them when the waitress comes back with their milkshakes. Chocolate for Steve. Strawberry for Billy.

When Billy’s lips wrap around the straw, Steve’s breath catches and suddenly he realizes he should have said no when Billy asked if he wanted to get food. He should have said no. This was a mistake.

Because now he’s trapped here, in this booth. With Billy’s knees knocking into his and his pretty pink lips around a straw and his cheeks hollowed in the exact same way Steve can see every time he closes his eyes. Hollow around him.

It’s too real now. Too real and too much. Way too much. 

He tries his best to hide his face in his glass. Tries to focus on his shake and hide the fact that he’s not breathing. Not looking as he listens to Billy talk between sips. Nods. Doesn’t really trust his voice at a time like this. When his heart’s racking behind his ribs like they’d only just finished sprints and his mind is cloudy like he’d walked through a wall of smoke.

He’s still not sure he’s breathing by the time they’re back in the car. Steve has to drive Billy back to pick up his car from the school and without the noise of the crowded diner to fill pauses, the silence becomes more noticeable. Thicker. Tenser. 

Especially because Billy doesn’t take the aux again. He doesn’t even turn on the radio. Just sits and drums on the window, jiggles his knee.

Steve is wound so tight he’s afraid he’s going to explode.

The silence doesn’t end when they get to the school, isn’t cut off by the loud slam of the passenger side door.

No. Billy doesn’t move to get out at all. In fact, he does the opposite, turns away from the door, turns towards Steve. Faces him. Steve keeps his body square to the wheel.

The sharp breath Billy lets out is harsh in his ears. “So are you gonna tell me what the fuck’s got you so weird or am I gonna have to ask?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Steve swallows hard when the words make Billy laugh. Doesn’t really understand why.

“Steve,” Billy says, and that’s when Steve knows he’s fucked. Well and truly fucked. “What’s the problem?”

And Billy knows something is wrong. Always knows it. Has known it since Steve got pushed off the swings by Tyler Boyd in the fourth grade. Billy had only been in school a week, had only just moved from California, but Steve had scrapes all over his legs, was fighting back tears when he said, “It doesn’t hurt that bad.” Had hardly even gotten the words out before Billy tackled Tyler Boyd and pinned him to the blacktop. He wasn’t allowed back outside for recess for two weeks, but Steve started sitting next to him at lunch and that was about as good as a blood pact in their young, adolescent minds.

Stuck together forever.

It’s then that Steve looks at him, realizes Billy is so much closer than his peripheral vision had led him to believe. He’s got one elbow on the center console, his other arm out long, hand on the dashboard, angled completely in Steve’s direction.

Steve still hasn’t said anything, can’t with Billy’s eyes on him like this. With Billy so close. The car so quiet.

Billy’s laugh is softer this time, comes when Steve worries his bottom lip between his teeth, feels the pinch that’s caught between his brows.

“What?” Billy asks, the word even softer than the laugh. Small. Encouraging.

Steve can’t help the way his eyes fall to greet it.

“You’re not allowed to hate me.” 

It’s the first thing he’s said in a while and it’s low, totally miss-able. But Billy never misses anything. Flinches a little when Steve says it.

“Hate you?” he asks, something like disbelief pulling at his tone. “Why would I-”

Steve leans over and presses his lips to Billy’s before he can finish the question, forgets the words in favor of a tiny hmmph of a noise somewhere in the back of his throat.

Which gives way to total silence.

And Steve’s going to pull away. It’s been at least ten seconds and Billy hasn’t moved and Steve’s going to pull away. Going to get out of the car, dig a large hole, fall into it, and die. 

But that thought only last as long as it takes Billy’s hand to find his jaw. It grounds him, holds him, keeps him there like Billy knows exactly what he’s thinking. It’s Billy that moves first, tips his head a little, brushes his lips over Steve’s and smoothes his thumb along his cheekbone.

Steve falls into it like they’ve been doing this forever, lets his hand go to the side of Billy’s neck, follows as Billy guides him. Moves with him. Breathes with him.

He tastes like strawberry when he opens his mouth and Steve can’t quite believe he ever thought milkshakes were a bad idea.

Steve’s pretty sure the soft smack that separates their lips, only barely, is going to be burned into his memory until the day he dies. That. The fan of Billy’s eyelashes, still flush with his cheeks, and the bow of his lips, still parted just slightly.

Billy’s slow to open his eyes, only gets them about halfway there when push comes to shove. Just like when he’s waking up. When they accidentally fall asleep on the couch during a movie and suddenly his breath catches. When he keeps his eyes half lidded and lets consciousness creep in like hunger.

Billy’s looking at his lips when he says, “Yeah?” Breathless. Maybe a little beautiful.

“Yeah,” Steve whispers, doesn’t want to say it. Doesn’t want the words to take this away.

But they don’t. He says it and Billy doesn’t move, hardly bats an eyelash.

Is actually kind of smiling.

Steve can’t help but kiss him again, laughs when Billy whispers, “Backseat’s probably a lot better for this,” against his lips. Lets Billy drag him into the back and feels that heat spread low when Billy climbs into his lap and ducks his head to pick up where they left off. Like they’ve been doing this forever.

Steve wants this to be forever. Wants Billy to be forever.

Always.

Often.

#harringrove #harringrove fic #steve harrington #billy hargrove #my fic #song's a lil unsafe and fic's rated T

[chaoticspacefam]

OC Music Meme

I was tagged for this by @actualanxiousswampwitch ! Thank you & sorry it took so long, didn’t have time to write this out before I left for holiday stuff so here we go! I shall tag: @actualanxiousswampwitch (go on give us another one XD), @a-muirehen​ , @kyber-heart​ , @thedinalixlegacy​ (no pressure as always, I know I’m kinda late now sksjkshskhs!) and anyone else who wants to do this, yes, I promise I mean you!

art is by @ ocellifera on deviantART! :D

Let’s do Aria this time, shall we! Since her playlist is the second-longest, and her and Vano’s ship playlist is the longest, we’ll have the most (probable options! Long post so goin’ under a cut. Additional TW’s for: drugs, alcohol, alcoholism, drug addiction and murder, in case I’ve forgotten to add it to the song-specific sections. If you click past this cut, know that this is what you may find there.

reminds you of them most: It was super hard to pick just three for hers, there were so many others I wanted to include here, but couldn’t, as I wanted to make sure I included songs that covered as much of her over-arching characterisation as I could. Honourable mentions to: Miss Jackson - Panic! At The Disco feat. LOLO, Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) - Fall Out Boy, Beekeeper - Keaton Henson, and Bones Of A Rabbit - Young Heretics, which can all be found (and more) on her Spotify Playlist - catch-all warning for: sex, drugs, violence and murdering of parents applies here, be aware her playlist is very dark, just as dark as Rai’s but with differing subject matter, proceed with caution if you find anything like that triggering!)

You’re Going Down - Sick Puppies :: This one is kinda self-explanatory. I heard it on a Spotify or Youtube shuffle at some point a year or so ago and immediately went “Oh, hey Aria!” so onto her playlist it went XD “Because I'm hyped up out of control If it's a fight, I'm ready to go I wouldn't put my money on the other guy If you know what I know that I know.”  don’t mess with the Tiny Sith, guys, she will put you in the medbay. She’ll do it, she’s done it before ask Vano what happened to the last guy *nods*

Liar - The Arcadian Wild :: This is a relatively “new” song in comparison, which was sent to me by a good rp/writer friend on Discord (who afaik doesn’t have other socials!) that I often discuss plot points etc. with among other things, saying “hey this reminded me of Aria thought you’d like it!”. I listened to it and yep, sure enough, it’s an Aria song. A big part of Aria’s character is that at the start, she really is quite a bad person. She’s nasty, and cantankerous and she really doesn’t care about anybody except for herself (and maybe her dad. A tiny bit.), as things progress, however, while she is still inherently quite rude and selfish, she DOES learn to value other people...provided they are people she cares about, like Vano, and her friends, and so on,  as well as (sometimes, she’s working on it still) taking the blame for her own actions and learning it’s not “weak” or bad to a) admit you care about people, b) make mistakes and c) admit those mistakes and take responsibility for them. "I sense there’s trouble ahead, it’s clear by the signs and warnings. That should tell where all blame is due, So why are they pointing at MY head? [...] I sense deception to come. Honestly, truth and I are never one. 'Cause I am the lying man and I have made you my next victim. I need you to see through my act, to tell me I'm wrong, to take off the mask, or else I'll be left in the lie. And I'll deceive my way straight to demise! Cause I’m not in the right state of mind, I just wish I had strength to admit it. My stubbornness will put up a fight! But I don’t deserve to win it... I’m left in the dark, pondering my mistakes But in the light I swear I will, deny it all...” 

I didn’t mean to post like half the song but woops it’s done so have it anyway lmao

Brutus - The Buttress :: TW: intense violent imagery in the lyrics. This one is very relevant but contains spoilers for upcoming and as of yet unposted/incomplete chapters (as in...like 3 ish chapters time at most) of Creeping Shadows, so I’ll post this quote as “explanation” and let you theorize who it’s about

“My name is Brutus and my name means “heavy” So with a heavy heart I'll guide this dagger into the heart of my Enemy! My whole life you were a teacher and friend to me Please know my actions are not motivated only by envy I too have a destiny! This death will be art! The people will speak of this day from near and afar This event will be history, And I'll be great too! I don't want what you have, I wanna be you!!“

reminds another character of them:

Where’s My Love? - SYML :: (Vano) I think the acoustic version is especially emotional : ))) Vano looked for her for years but couldn’t find her and genuinely thought Aria was dead. You can understand why she was so fucking angry when she found out that was a lie...but at the same time, she just wanted her love to come home :( “Did she run away? Did she run away? I don't know If she ran away, If she ran away, Come back home Just come home“

Mothers - Daughter :: (Myla, her mother) “Love all you need to love before it goes... When your face becomes a stranger’s that I don’t know. You will never remember who I was to you [...] I’m called “mother”, but they’re called “home”.”

Myla raised Aria for the first few years of her life, and really wanted to keep her away from both the Jedi and the Sith but as it became more and more clear that Aria’s Force affinity was as strong as her father’s, the situation rapidly spiralled out of Myla’s control. She tried to hide Aria, but in the end her father Noctis did find them and take Aria to train with the Sith. She didn’t see her daughter again until she was a teenager, suddenly turning up with the task to kill her for treason against the Empire (Myla is not the canon Imp Agent, but follows the general trajectory of the LS!Agent storyline i.e. an agent disillusioned with the Empire who eventually defects to the Republic with the help of the SIS.). Though she’s a Senator on Onderon now, Myla carried a blaster for personal protection and ofc knows how to use it, except...she couldn’t shoot her own daughter and that was all she wrote. I imagine her thought process during her final moments went something like in this song, especially the bit that I highlighted up there.

reminds you of a relationship of theirs, doesn’t have to be romantic, can be paternal, friendly, etc:

Tongues & Teeth - The Crane Wives :: Aria & Vano (Romantic). Aria’s relationship with Vano is incredibly messy and complicated. On one hand, she knows Vano deserves better, but at the same time she doesn’t want her to go anywhere else and it seems like no matter what she does to try and “warn her off” about what a “bad person” she is, Vano keeps coming back anyway. Ergo, this song. "Oh, I will ruin you. I will ruin you. It’s a habit...I can’t help it. I know that you mean so well, but I am not a vessel for your good intent. I will only break your pretty things, I will only wring you dry of everything! But if you’re fine with that, if you’re fine with that [...] You can be mine.”

Colours - Halsey :: Aria & Merak & Ziri (Friendship/Platonic Love) “You’re only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope, I hope you make it to the day you’re 28 years old...”

Aria “coped” (i.e. not very well but she did it) with the guilt of killing her mother and the stress brought on by the night terrors by self-medicating with glitterstims (spice) and alcohol, and this is how Merak in particular remembers her. Though she got clean from spice after they picked up Ziri, she still continued to drink (and still does) quite heavily, though at least it’s easier to manage that habit. Both of them supported her through this the best they could and it’s probably a big reason (other than Merak being Vano’s little brother) that they’re still Aria’s friends to this day, even if she doesn’t actively travel with them anymore.

(honourable mention to Agnes - Glass Animals which also falls under this “category” but I didn’t want this to get too crowded lmao, it is once again a super long post woops) You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring :: Aria & Roan/Darth Noctis (Familial/Familial Love) Listen, he may have taught her very bad emotional habits and turned her into a tiny attack dog, but her father did love & protect her the best way he possibly could. He was very proud of her and always envisioned her taking his place as a Darth one day (and it takes her a longass while, but eventually she does! Congrats dad!). That’s all I’ve got to say about this one 🤷‍♀️ Monster - Willyecho :: Aria & Satele Shan/The Jedi Order (Enemies to Begrudging Respect (eventually) “I can see the truth. No, you don’t have to lie to me. Don’t fill your head with things and think you’re free~ [...] You don’t believe in monsters, do you~?” ”Of course not!” ”Well, I do...” See me change...into something...darker....” My personal favourite from this “round”. It’s not until Ilum that Satele and the Jedi finally realise they have not “converted” Aria as they thought they did, but rather...they’ve had a Sith hiding under their noses, a Sith related to a Dark Councillor well-known for murdering Jedi no less, and that perhaps...the “deaths” she had convinced them were accidental, were in fact, not an accident at all. 😈 Aria, of course, gets her ass thrown in jail for a few years for this lmao When the schtick with the Revanites happens and Theron needs someone who can “negotiate in a civil manner with Sith”, he and his mother agree Aria is the best bet - if it works, the Sith will respond more positively to her than any other Jedi, if they kill her instead then they’re “rid of” her and don’t lose one of their own - when Lana’s point-of-contact happens to be Vano and the pair reunite after another several years apart, Aria refuses to return to the Republic after Yavin IV. By then, she’s developed enough of a begrudging respect for Satele (and vice versa) that the Grand Master lets her go (not that she was willing to try and fight Vano, Ni’kasi, Marr & Lana to try and take Aria prisoner again anyways). They haven’t seen each other since and though Aria is neutral to the Jedi who have joined the Alliance, she doesn’t care for those who are still loyal to the Republic and would rather have nothing to do with them if she can help it.

#swtor #star wars: the old republic #tagged meme #OC music meme #swtor oc: aria saal #jedi consular #ds! jedi consular #jedi consular (sith assassin) #subterfugeverse #swtor shipping #aria/vano #ariano #tw: drugs #tw: drug addiction #tw: alcohol #tw: alcoholism #tw: implied ptsd #tw: violence #lots of angst on this one i'm sorry #i didn't expect aria's to be more angsty than rai's but here we are LMAO #tumblr ate this post right as i was about to queue it when it committed die last night #so uhhh...it might not be as good as the first draft #but i tried to put back as much as i could remember #:'D

[fyfaenfrancesca-blog]

Remember: a Lucas x Eliott reunion

Inspired by the song “Remember” by Seinabo Sey, on a rainy Friday evening Lucas feels compelled to return to de Petite Ceinture, and finally face his fears. Or: Lucas No. 1 and Eliott No. 1 are pas peur anymore. Length: 3,288 words

Vendredi, 19H47

 “Show me a place… where I could ease my mind…” Lucas could distantly hear a soothing voice singing from the computer somewhere in the darkened living room. He was lying on his side on the couch-turned-bed, face buried so deep into the pillow that one of his ears was currently being deprived of hearing.

It was a step closer to what he wanted, however. To block out the constant noise in his head, to find some relief somehow. He’d been there for the better part of two hours, thankful for the rare treat that the emptiness of the flat he shared with Manon, Mika, and Lisa was. As well-meaning as they were, sometimes their constant presence was suffocating.

Especially now. A week had passed since that distressing night on the barge, and yet Eliott’s delighted face, smiling at him from across the table, was still at the forefront of his mind every waking moment. How blessed he’d felt, seeing that brilliant smile directed at himself…

Lucas turned onto his back, massaging the crick in his neck that had developed from the somewhat uncomfortable position. The ache felt strangely good. Sometimes, he felt like feeling too much made him feel completely desensitized, as counter-intuitive as that sounded.

Without his permission, memories of their intimate moments together, the shared dreams and secrets, light teasing, and loving touches washed over him, as he lay there looking up at the crack in the ceiling. The crack had been slowly growing for weeks now. He wondered when it would finally give. Why couldn’t it make up its mind? Why string yourself along endlessly? It wasn’t something that could just be painted over and forgotten. Once it had started to grow, there was no turning back.

Soon enough the pleasant memories began to mix with feelings of betrayal for being kept in the dark, with disbelief at Eliott’s sudden change in demeanor, with quiet acceptance at just not being good enough for someone to stay, to truly love him. It hadn’t helped to hear his biggest insecurities being reaffirmed by Lucille, who knew Eliott much better than he did, who could surely tell when his feelings were genuine or an expression of mania…

Lucas pursed his lips in thought, absentmindedly noting how horribly dry they felt after all the silent crying he’d been doing.  Basile’s unintentional words of wisdom on Monday had changed his perspective somewhat. Apparently, being bipolar did not mean Eliott’s feelings were not genuine, that he couldn’t love, as Lucille had said that night. Was it possible Eliott was feeling everything Lucas was feeling?

An overpowering force within him pushed away this ray of hope, however. Perhaps he was being self-absorbed, but he just couldn’t imagine anyone else feeling things to the same intensity that he himself was at the moment. There was an overwhelming sense of helplessness, of loss. If brokenness is a work of art, surely this must be my masterpiece…

He’d taken Mika’s advice, let himself wallow in the pain by hitting shuffle play on a random Sad Song playlist on Spotify, and just lying there, unmoving. What he wouldn’t do to stop this endless stream of consciousness… Even alcohol hadn’t helped on Sunday; Eliott had still been there, haunting him. At the same time, he knew deep within that it was better to just let the emotions flow through him. It didn’t mean he was ready for it, however.

“Take me to a space… Show me a place...Where I could ease my mind...I will remember you…” the lyrics drew Lucas’ attention all of a sudden. Bizarrely, they seemed to reflect his inner state – the need for some peace, someplace to really quiet his thoughts, to forget the person he always seemed to remember.

‘It’s a haven here. This is where I come when I want to be alone,’ he recalled Eliott saying, as he shared his favourite place in Paris with him. De Petite Ceinture. Lucas was reminded of his past self, a more naïve and hopelessly romantic Lucas, but for once he welcomed the memory. It had just provided him with a potential solution to his internal dilemma, after all.  

With some reluctance Lucas got up from his well slept-in place on the couch. How was it that lying around just made him more tired? Through the semi-darkness in the room he carefully padded over to the window. Pressing his hot cheek to the cool glass, he saw that it was night-time in Paris, the street lanterns were on, and rain was softly drizzling outside the living room window. It was a shame, since something inside was calling him to go to the secret spot now, to face his fears and his longing, to free himself of these incessant thoughts and feelings. But apparently it was not to be; he didn’t feel like going out in the rain.

“When the morning comes,” a male voice had joined the woman’s in the background, and with that Lucas resolved to visit the bridge the next day, when the sun was out. It was better that way, he didn’t particularly feel like going there by himself at night anyway. It was a different thing being with there with Eliott; the pure adrenaline of exploring together with someone he wanted to know more about had been enough to quell any fear. But Eliott wasn’t here this time…

A single ding penetrated the quiet of the room, a pause between songs making his own shuffling feet audible as he returned to his resting place to look at his notifications. It was a dark image of some sort, framed by the white of sketchbook paper in a way he’d come to recognise as Eliott’s signature style. Intrigued, as he had not received any contact from Eliott in days (not since kindly asking to be left alone), Lucas turned the brightness of his screen up, in order to better decipher the content of the drawing.

Zooming in, he first noticed an arching structure at the top of the image. The surrounding tree branches, illuminated by far off lights, made it appear the lightest part of the picture, and almost immediately it became recognisable as the place he’d been thinking of moments ago. Scrolling down, he took in a black mass of space underneath the bridge, until, upon further inspection he could make out the faint outline of a racoon sitting underneath it. It looked alone, swallowed by the darkness surrounding it, with no source of light in sight.

Underneath in small, almost unnoticeable handwriting it said, “Eliott No. 1 is afraid.”

As he took in the sad scene, trying desperately to feel indifferent to it, Lucas’ screen lit up again. Another message. It was a drawing of the same scene, and yet now the racoon appeared to be joined by a hedgehog who had his back to the painter. The hedgehog was obviously holding a flashlight, as it fully illuminated the now hopeful-looking racoon sitting a few paces ahead, its ears perked up. The comment underneath read simply, “Lucas No. 1 is not afraid.”

Letting his phone screen grow dark, Lucas fell onto the couch with a heavy sigh. Several songs passed until the same woman’s voice sounded again, this time singing, “Surely, I did not go through all of this for nothing.” For some reason, the following words “Nothing can be loved into something” sounded so monumental, that Lucas suddenly felt compelled to act. It was like he’d just had an energy drink, so renewed was his motivation to visit de Petite Ceinture.

A sense of excitement and trepidation mixed inside his stomach, his heartbeat felt erratic, and before he knew it, he’d texted Manon asking if they had a flashlight somewhere in the flat. He simply needed to return to the place where it had all started, where the secret fascination had blossomed into something tangible and so, so real under the cleansing rivulets of rain.

Lucas waited impatiently, his right foot tapping the wooden floor, running his hands through his hair until it stuck up in all directions. After what felt like forever (but was really two minutes later), Manon replied.

‘Kitchen. Cupboard underneath the sink. Do I want to know?’

 Now we moving forward ever, backwards never… And when the going gets rough and life gets tough… Don’t forget to breathe...

 Vendredi, 20H27

 Some time later Lucas arrived at the gate. His hair was a mess from the rain, and he was out of breath, having ran there, guided by some unknown force. Eliott had given no real indication he was at the Little Belt, and yet Lucas was confident in his intuition. He had to be, otherwise why would all the signs in the universe have aligned to lead him to this moment?

Perhaps a bit too late Lucas realised he had no idea how to get past the gate and onto the path. It had been locked last time, hadn’t it? Had Eliott picked the lock or did he have keys? Either way, Lucas was helpless.

Had he really come this far just to be stopped by a gate? Frustrated with himself he leant back against the entrance gate, only to find himself sprawled on his back. It was open! That had to mean Eliott had been here earlier, and was most probably there now, sitting where the racoon had been in his drawing!

Encouraged by his luck, Lucas let the flashlight illuminate the path, which would otherwise be obscured by the trees. The crescent moon overhead wasn’t providing much illumination either.

As soon as the gate closed behind him, a strange serenity overtook his person. It truly was as though he’d left all the nagging thoughts, the worries that had plagued him for days on end, if not weeks, behind him. Under the safe haven of the trees the rest of the world seemed to slip away. There were no traffic sounds, no nagging voices, only the soft squelch of his footsteps and the gentle breeze rustling the leaves. It may have been eerily quiet for some, but for Lucas these were welcome sensations.

Just meters ahead of him, he could see the bridge illuminated by his flashlight. As he entered the clearing, it felt as though he’d never left, even though it had been five weeks since his first and last visit to the little sanctuary. Taking a moment to breathe in the fresh air, he smiled to himself, recalling with amusement the way he’d thrown himself into their first kiss with all of the restraint of a starved animal.

After his brief moment of peaceful recollection, he quickly scanned his surroundings. A glance towards the spot where he’d expected to see Eliott showed no signs of him. Disappointed but undeterred, Lucas moved towards the bridge knowing that, Eliott or no Eliott, he would face his demons in the dark tonight. Braving himself, he was ready to step into the world of his fears, his unknown future with Eliott being part of that.

Once underneath the bridge he tentatively called out, ‘Eliott?’

Receiving no response he let the yellow tunnel of light rest first upon his right, then his left, seeing nothing but haphazard graffiti. Moments later, having looked at every nook and cranny of the place, with no sign of Eliott, Lucas simply stood still. He took it all in, perhaps for the first time in a really long time. The breeze, the silence where moments before there had been rainfall, the crisp March air, and, finally, the darkness, as he intentionally turned off his flashlight.

For a moment, the darkness was frightening, as his eyes played tricks on him, adjusting to the change in lighting. In the dark on his own, he was taken back to a significant night from his childhood, the moment he’d become truly fearful.  

He’d been in his room playing, when the electricity had cut. Alone and frightened of the creatures hiding in the dark, as any child would be, Lucas sought out his mother. Slowly feeling his way towards the living room, where he expected to find his mum, he could feel his heart racing, palms sweating. He’d never had to be this brave before. But it was okay, he’d told himself, soon he would be with mum, and she’d hold him close until the light came back.

But when he finally saw the hunched up form of his mother, and called out to her, she didn’t respond. Lucas was confused. Why was she muttering to herself so strangely? She would occasionally pray, yes, but she’d never ignored him in favour of talking to herself. Plus, wasn’t it weird for grown-ups to talk to themselves? Yann had said so, when their class had passed a homeless man on the street on their way to the museum that one time. The old man had been muttering under his breath, and the other boys had said he must be crazy. Because that’s what crazy people did.

But this was his mum. Surely, she just hadn’t heard him. Stepping closer, he whispered, ‘Mummy, I’m scared. Can you make the dark go away?’ But she had just stared through him with lifeless eyes, as if he wasn’t even there. And so Lucas had had to sit there, afraid, alone, unloved and unprotected in the dark until his father returned from the business dinner he’d been at.

He would later overhear his father shouting at Lucas’ mother about how irresponsible she’d been, how she didn’t care about Lucas. And when his mother replied, saying the Lord had sent her a dream about how darkness would help her see the light, Lucas felt angry. Darkness had only turned out to be a lonely, cruel, scary place and his mother didn’t even love him enough to recognise that. And years later, when he learned she was attending therapy, Lucas had begun associating mental illness with selfishness, with a darkness that would consume the person and everyone around them. A darkness that was resistant to light.

But now Lucas didn’t feel afraid anymore. In fact, the more his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, the better his overall vision was; the more attentive he was forced to be, the more grateful he felt. Images of his mother, who despite the challenges she faced with her mental health, had always tried her best to nurture him… Her being the only person to take him seriously when he’d insisted on wanting to learn piano after hearing “Let It Be” by the Beatles… Her patiently teaching him and crying when he’d performed it for the family…

A lump formed in his throat. After months of avoiding his mother, rejecting her communications, believing her incapable of genuinely caring for him, Lucas felt a tear of relief slide off his cheek. She did love him. How could she not, if she had taken such care with him? She could love him, and so could Eliott, if Lucas would only let him. The light of day and the dark of night were natural parts of life. They were opposites, but neither was intrinsically good or bad. Fear is. Love is. Dark is. Light is. If they went into each other’s world, Eliott and Lucas could brave them together.

“And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me…Shine on till tomorrow, let it be…” he hummed, letting a smile grace his features. He had no idea how long he stood in the darkness underneath that bridge for, but feeling his resentment disappear left Lucas feeling light. He had faced his fears, and tomorrow he would call Eliott. He was not afraid anymore.

Turning back towards the clearing he turned the flashlight on, but let it hang by his side. He had to make it out of the tunnel on his own. Just as he passed the threshold into the clearing, however, he tripped over something. Or rather: somebody.

‘Sorry, I didn’t see you there,’ he apologised instinctively. Weirdly, he wasn’t spooked coming across somebody else by the bridge at night-time. Casting his light towards the side allowed him to view the hunched up form of a boy, a boy he knew intimately. That explained his irrational feeling of calmness.

Eliott had come after all, and consciously or not, sat down in the exact spot he’d drawn his spirit animal in. Despite his sudden courage, at the sight of Eliott’s cheeks wet with silent tears, Lucas felt weak again. They just had so much to say to each other; Lucas had so much to say, and yet, standing before the boy he’d fallen in love with so quickly and unexpectedly, words escaped him. After all they’d been through, what could possibly be good enough?

Sitting there on the wet grass, his knees pulled towards himself, with arms hanging over them, fingers intertwined and nervously shaking, Eliott almost appeared unaware of Lucas’ presence. But that couldn’t be true, since there was a flashlight being shined upon him.  

Dropping the flashlight to the ground, Lucas squatted down in front of Eliott. After a moment of stillness, Lucas tentatively reached forward to cup the sides of Eliott’s face, and started tenderly brushing away the tears that marked his skin.

‘You don’t have to be afraid anymore,’ he whispered, resting his forehead against Eliott’s. The other boy remained silent, but Lucas could tell that he was taking in every word.

So he continued, ‘Because as different as the Lucases in all the parallel universes may be, there is not a single one that did not fall completely in love with their Eliott…’ he trailed off. ‘That’s what I believe, anyway.’

At length, Eliott tugged him forward to pull him into an embrace. ‘Je t’aime,’ he heard whispered in his ear. For a moment he almost convinced himself he’d imagined it. But when he pulled back, the brightness in Eliott’s eyes was all the confirmation he needed.

They sat there looking at each other for a moment or two until Lucas let himself drop backwards onto the wet grass, groaning as he did so. ‘My knees,’ he moaned, breaking the silence again. It couldn’t all be like the movies.

Eliott seemed to find this amusing, which secretly pleased Lucas. ‘When you find the man of your dreams, and it turns out he’s secretly an old lady,’ Eliott muttered under his breath, but Lucas could hear him clearly in the silence around them.

‘Excuse me, did you just say I was the man of your dreams?’ Lucas teased, relieved to have revealed the depth of his feelings for Eliott. ‘Was it me you were talking about?’ he asked, shining the flashlight upon his own face.  

Eliott was silently watching him, the affection in his eyes undeniable. Lucas couldn’t resist leaning forward, the flashlight still shining upon him from underneath. He closed the distance between them slowly, teasingly, a mirror of what Eliott had done to him in the build-up to their first kiss. Only this time, as the light went off and their lips met lovingly, neither boy had reason to be scared anymore.

 Vendredi, 21H27

 ‘Say it again,’ Lucas whispered into Eliott’s side as they walked back home.

‘What?’

‘Say I’m the man of your dreams.’

‘I’m the man of your dreams,’ Eliott repeated simply.

Lucas sent him a no-nonsense look. ‘True,’ he shrugged, ‘but you know what I meant.’

Eliott stopped walking, and pulled Lucas to stand in front of him. Lucas thought it was fair to say that under the warm street lights his boyfriend looked like an angel.  

Letting their noses brush, and foreheads touch, Eliott whispered, ‘You are the man of my dreams, mon petit hérisson.’

#this is the result of a sleepless night #skam france #lucas x eliott #elu #the vendredi reunion #lucas is not afraid of the dark anymore #not poetic cinema #wish it was tho #fanfiction #o helga natt

[you-say-fudo]

Day 3 - Easy Listening for the Busy Duelist @ygo5dsmonth2019​

For playlist day this year, I decided to do some musical tunes for characters, ships, etc. I thought it would be a nice change considering I am already doing playlist for every character day throughout the month without musical songs, but for today I want to share the magic of musicals with all the other 5Ds fans. Musicals are made to tell stories about a character or characters through music and that is what I am trying to convey for each character or ship here today, a story. So for each character/ship, I picked a musical song I thought was fitting and I put a few lyrics that help show how each song fits the character/ship. 

Canon Characters:

Yusei

A Million Dreams (The Greatest Showman)

I think of what the world could be / A vision of the one I see / A million dreams is all it's gonna take / A million dreams for the world we're gonna make

Jack

Fortune Favors the Brave (Aida)

We seized the day / We turned the tide / We touched the stars / We mocked the grave / We moved into uncharted lands / Fortune favors the brave

Crow

Hard Knock Life (Annie) My Petersburg (Anastasia)

I've bartered for a blanket / Stolen for my bread / Learned to take my chances / And use my head / A Russian rat is clever / Clever or he ends up dead

Aki

I Know It’s Today (Shrek)

There's a princess! / Any princess! / Take your pick, they're all like me! / Not exactly, I'm still waiting! / They're out living happily / Ever after better get here / I want love in seconds flat!

Kiryu

I Am Damaged (Heathers) 

I am damaged, far too damaged / But you’re not beyond repair / Stick around here / Make things better / ‘Cause you beat me fair and square

Rua

My Shot (Hamilton)

Oh, am I talkin’ too loud? / Sometimes I get over excited, shoot off at the mouth / I never had a group of friends before / I promise that I’ll make y’all proud

Ruka

I Know Things Now (Into the Woods)

Even flowers have their dangers / And though scary is exciting / Nice is different than good

Bruno

Crossing a Bridge (Anastasia)

Halfway between where I've been / And where I'm going / In between wondering why / And finally knowing

Ships:

Squabbleshipping

What is This Feeling? (Wicked)

Let's just say—I loathe it all! / Every little trait however small / Makes my very flesh begin to crawl / With simple utter loathing!

Toolshipping

I’ll Cover You (Rent)

I think they meant it / When they said you can't buy love / Now I know you can rent it / A new lease, you are my love / On life, be my life

Roseknightshipping

Helpless (Hamilton)

Then you walked in and my heart went “Boom!”

Firebirdshipping

A Million Miles Away (Aladdin)

Cause we'll be a million miles away / Leave everything behind / When you choose to lose yourself / Who knows what you might find

Treasonshipping

Our Love is God (Heathers)

You are the only thing that's right / About this broken world / Go on and cry / But when the morning comes / We'll burn it down and then / We'll build the world again… / Our love is God

Teams 5ds:

No One is Alone (Into the Woods)

Things will come out right now / We can make it so / Someone is on your side / No one is alone

La Vie Boheme (Rent)

To being an us, for once / Instead of a them / La vie Bohème

The Story of Tonight (Hamilton)

Raise a glass to freedom / Something they can never take away / No matter what they tell you

OCs (Team Stupid Ho):

Kyoko by Me! (From The Road Home & To Hell and Back Again [coming soon])

The Dark I Know Well (Spring Awakening)

I don't scream, though I know it's wrong / I just play along / I lie there and breathe / Lie there and breathe / I wanna be strong / I want the world to find out / That you're dreamin' on me / Me and my "beauty"

Yuuka by Gillian @cosmictrishula (From A Step Too Far [coming soon])

All That’s Known (Spring Awakening)

But I know there's so much more to find / Just in looking through myself, and not at them / Still, I know to trust my own true mind / And to say, "There's a way through this..."

Rei by Kara @crystalbeastruby (From The Road to Hell)

Wait for Me II (Hadestown)

I'm coming wait for me / I hear the walls repeating / The falling off our feet and / It sounds like drumming / And we are not alone / I hear the rocks and stones / Echoing our song / I'm coming

Silvan by Cait @synchro-my-ass (From To Be Human)

Dangerous to Dream (Frozen)

Here on the edge of the abyss / Knowing everything in my whole life has lead to this / And so I pull inside myself / Close the walls put up my guard

Team Stupid Ho by The 5Ds Gays

The Schuyler Sisters (Hamilton)

Silvan! Kyoko! (and Rei!)

Starring:

Yuuka as Aaron Burr

Silvan as Angelica Schuyler

Kyoko as Eliza Schuyler

Rei as Peggy Schuyler

OC ships:

Eminenceshipping (Kyoko/Jack)

All I Ask of You (Phantom of the Opera)

No more talk of darkness / Forget these wide-eyed fears / I'm here, nothing can harm you / My words will warm and calm you

Cosmicshipping (Yuuka/Yusei)

What You Mean To Me (Finding Neverland)

Every star that's ever fallen / Knows the way to where we're going/ Now I really know just what you mean to me

Tomorrowshipping (Rei/Yusei)

Goodbye Until Tomorrow (The Last Five Years)

Goodbye until the next time you call / And I will be waiting / I will be waiting / Goodbye until tomorrow

Compasshipping (Silvan/Yusei)

Suddenly Seymour (Little Shop of Horrors)

Suddenly Seymour is standing beside you / You don't need no makeup, don't have to pretend / Suddenly Seymour, is here to provide you / Sweet understanding, Seymour's your friend

#ygo5dsmonth2019 #yugioh5ds #yusei fudo #yugioh #jack atlas #5ds #personal trademark #musicals

[en-temerant-voistra]

Auri has a special place in my heart.

I made a playlist for her with songs, that remind me of her.

If you want to know more about the reasons why I chose those specific songs and pieces of music, you can read the explanations under the cut.

Enjoy.

In the following parts I will talk about the pieces I chose and the reasons why I think they fit. Sources are most often provided. Obviously this part contains spoilers about the character Auri from the king killer chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss and I will quote from the 2014 edition of the slow regard of silent things (tsrost) as well as from the tenth anniversary edition of 2017 of the name of the wind (tnotw).

Precious joy:

The piece of music “precious joy” was heavily inspired by a piece of bach called “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” (translation from the german: Jesus remain my joy). It was played by the band “the modern jazz quartet” and can be put into the genre of jazz.

In this piece elements of jazz and bachs style of playing mix in an unique way.

This fits Auris character in many ways.

Bachs style, built on a rigorous system of rules (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Four-part_harmony, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Structure,_lyrics) clashes and mixes with the style of modern jazz, which in many ways represent a detachment from the current rules of music.

This is similar to Auri, who is detached from society at large and still acts according to rigorous rules.

The melody also fits to Auri. It is written in G-major and while pieces of music written in major often only sound happy, this piece does not. The melody sounds not just happy, but also has parts where it sounds melancholic and sad/somber. The mix results in a often bittersweet sounding melody.

The feelings that are conveyed fit quite well to Auri, who seems happy at many points, but has also her sad and melancholic moments (page 77 of tsrost, “On the third day, Auri wept.”).

Concerto RV 156 in G minor: I Allegro:

I picked this piece mainly because of the sweetness of the melody.

It is written in G minor and while “precious joy” had notes of sadness even though it was mainly happy, this piece has notes of happiness even though it is mainly melancholic.

It symbolizes the aspects of Auris character that are often hidden from Kvothe, who sees her mainly as happy (page 370 of tnotw, Auri was scrupulously clean and full of joy.).

Prophecies:

The piece of music “prophecies” was written by Phillip Glass. It is an example for minimalistic music. The music was written for the Movie “koyaanisqatsi”.

The movie Koyaanisqatsi, whose title means life out of balance in the Uto-aztecan language Hopi, is an experimental film, that shows footage of nature next to footage of human made technology and structures. The directeur of the movie stated, that the interpretation of the movie should and can only be done by the viewer itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi#Meaning).

Leo Hickman from the guardian stated how many people interpret the movie. His statement is that the movie is “a transformative meditation on the current imbalance between humans and the wider world that supports them”.

This fits nearly perfectly to Auri, who is obsessed with finding balance and who sees other humans as a big factor, which destroys balance (page 47 of tsrost “they would be coming, all hard boots and arrogance and not one bit of proper knowledge of this place”, page 51 of tsrost “it led to the same thing. Upset. Folk finding keys. Folk opening doors. Strangers in her underthing, shining their unseemly lights about. Their smoke. The braying of their voices. Tromping everywhere with hard, uncaring boots. Looking at everything without a single thought of what a look entails. Poking things and messing them about without the slightest sense of what was proper.”)

This interpretation holds true even if we ignore the background of the movie and only listen to the one piece of music, because Koyaanisqatsi which again means life out of balance is sang in the second part of the song.

The minimalistic style that is used also has elements, that fit Auri, who lives a simple life full of repetition, which fits to the style of minimalistic music.

I chose this piece and not another from this movie, because the first part of the piece has a bright melody, which fits Auri more than just the darker parts of the music.

Particles, Island songs VI:

This song represents the melancholy of Auri. While “precious joy” and “concerto in G minor” had elements of sadness, this song represents that aspect fully.

The melody is very melancholic in a soft way, which fits to Auri.

In this song the lyrics have also an important role, that makes the song fit very well to Auri s character.

As example the lines “And i try to keep the balance right. And I try but it feels like wasted time” represent both Auris struggle with the chaotic world around her and with her own chaotic emotions.

All the rowboats:

I chose “all the rowboats” mainly because the lyrics fit very well to Auri.

In this song the artifacts in a museum are depicted as having a will on their own.

The whole song sings from the injustice of the imprisonment of the “masterpieces” in this museum, which the singer once calls a public mausoleum, which is filled with the living dead.

In the refrain the singer sings how she feels pity for the violins, who forgot how to sing.

This general sentiment fits very well to Auri, who also thinks of artifacts as having a will on their own. It is not absurd to think, that Auri would also think, that the display of things only for the sake of being seen by humans, was deeply wrong.

The melody of this song is not only sad, but also angry. Anger and Auri is not often connected, but there are some instances, when the text depicts her as angry (page 51 of tsrost “Auri realized her fists were knots of knuckle white.”, page 84 of tsrost “then her mouth grew furious. Her eyes went hard. […] Hot from bakery, and all asweat with rage and the unrightness of it all, Auri turned and stormed away…”, page 92 of tsrost “…and stuffed the blanket angrily into the wine rack.”). It is only fair to have a piece of music, that symbolizes that side of Auri in this playlist.

Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka (translated from german: variations for the healing of Arinuschka):

This piece of music was made by the estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who invented the Tintinabuli style, which is a minimalistic approach of and to music.

His music, even though it sounds simple and is often not difficult to play, is the result of rigorous rules through which the piece of music gets constructed.

“I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me.”

This is a direct quote from Arvo Pärt and it shows, that his relationship with music is different than the one other artists have.

His music lives through silence and careful slow playing of perfect notes.

A lot of the pieces, that Arvo Pärt wrote, remind me of Auri. I chose this specific piece, because it not only has bright and not only dark parts, but parts, where the two mix.

Its bright parts also include parts, where the music sounds light and amused and childlike.

All of those parts are important to Auris Character.

Auri is seen as light and childlike by Kvothe, but gets heavily influenced by feelings of sadness and anxiety.

The style of the music is also very important. Like the Tintinabuli style Auri also acts according to rigorous rules.

Like the Tintinabuli style her life is simple and has a lot of routine and repeating parts.

Like the music of the Tintinabuli style, she also lives and acts on her environment through silence and careful slow perfect actions.

Year of the dragon:

Year of the dragon is from the album “enjoy your rabbit” by Sufjan Stevens and was released in 2001. It fits the genres glitch, electronica and IDM.

Year of the dragon is different from the other pieces of music on this playlist. It is fast, seems chaotic, loud and is shockingly electric.

I was unsure at first, if i should put it on this playlist, but i think it fits Auri.

For many the piece is a lot in the first hear through. It seems very chaotic and at some times it does not even sound like music.

At a second or third hear through, some of the chaos of the tones start to vanish. monuments of sound bloom out of the chaos.

For me this piece of music does not sound like chaos anymore.

Every moment is wanted. Every tone masterfully placed.

A thick tapestry of sound is made and the more you listen the more patterns can be seen.

I think Auris life is similar. To the outside observer her actions seem weird and chaotic. But they are not.

I also think, that Auri sees the world in that way. Everything seems chaotic at first, but there are ways the world should be. Patterns that should be followed.

I also chose this song because of the power of some of the melodic patterns.

The main example for this is the part in the middle, where the background base starts to descend in heavy pulses.

This is also symbolic for Auri.

Many see Auri only as the sweet childlike figure that Kvothe also oftentimes only sees.

This is not the big picture.

For people that have read the slow regard of silent things it is obvious, that she is more than just a childlike figure.

She probably endured terrible things and something changed her drastically, but she is still more than just a child.

She knows secrets that few know. Not just about the underthing, which she discovered. Not just about alchemy which she studied under master Mandrag. No. She knows about the world and how the world works in a way, that we only really know about Elodin and maybe Magwyn.

She is Auri and under her will all things bend to please her.

#the name of the wind #The Wise Man's Fear #the slow regard of silent things #Auri #Kvothe

[alexisbundy1-blog]

[this post is just for kicks]

ok so i have a playlist called junior (go follow it) that contains almost all the songs i have discovered this year. here are some of my favourites:

“Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” - Kate Bush I first discovered Kate Bush the summer before freshman year. I don’t remember how, but it most definitely links back to having the knowledge that she had a song entitled “Wuthering Heights.” (Sound familiar?) Afterwards, the words “Kate Bush” became a part of my music vocabulary. Did you know she wrote “Wuthering Heights” at 18 years old, became the first woman to ever have a number-one hit in the UK, AND was only 19 when the song hit the charts? When I’m 19, my biggest accomplishment will be doing my own laundry. ANYWAY - so after two years of being a Kate Bush fan, I noticed that her acclaimed album Hounds of Love was finally on Spotify and decided to give it a listen. Her artist page showed that this one song was one of her most popular, so I gave it a go. Not to be hyperbolic, but this song rocked my world. I mean, I knew Kate Bush was one of the coolest people ever, but this song just took her radness to a new level. The synths, the power of her vocals, the lyrics, the video(!!!). Kate Bush is just a tour de force. I love her, and so should you. And also she should have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. Just saying.

“Personal Jesus” - Depeche Mode So technically I first heard this song over the summer but...who cares...I was technically a junior. First of all, this song goes HARD. Between the bassline and the sporadic interjections of synth, “Personal Jesus” is just simply a tune. It makes you feel badass, even if the lyrics don’t really align with that feeling, and I wish I could provide some more persuasive evidence as to why it’s so good, but you have to listen to it yourself. It’s just...a tune. That’s all.

“Edge of Seventeen” - Stevie Nicks Okay so I’m relatively embarrassed to say that I only heard this song in July...and it initially struck me because it shared the same bassline as a Destiny’s Child song...sorry, Stevie. But it’s such a good song!!!! Fun fact: the title comes from a discussion Stevie had with the late, great Tom Petty’s wife, who said she had been in love with Tom since she was the age of seventeen; however, she had a southern drawl, so it sounded as though she was saying “edge of seventeen.” And the rest is history. And you should listen to this song if you haven’t already. Another badass song with a wobbling bassline and cool female vocals.

“Praying” - Kesha No offense to Madison, but I’ve been the Kesha fan from day one. Don’t even @ me. Like, Kesha posters everywhere in my room, buying Kesha albums in secret (my mother wasn’t a fan), knowing all the words to her songs - the works. So when Kesha released this TUNE in late July/August, not only was the world shook - I was so shaken. I was like, “Is this Miss Ke-dollar sign-ha???? Is this Kesha Rose Sebert???” First of all, I was literally in pieces when Kesha’s court case ruling came out, and then she dropped this song and I was like “Adios.” I always knew Kesha was a ~talented songstress~ but her vocals on this song...I cry every time. WHY DIDN’T IT WIN A GRAMMY.

“God Bless America - and All the Beautiful Women In It” - Lana Del Rey No offense....but Lana Del Rey dropped the best album of the year (tied w/ DAMN. again don’t @ me) and it is also the best album of her career. There are a lot of fabulous songs on this album but this is my favourite. It’s so subtly political yet so ethereal. The vocals and guitar on this song just soar. I love Lana so much <3

basically Dua Lipa’s whole debut album - Dua Lipa I’ve been a Dua fan since summer 2016 and when she dropped this album she also drop-kicked me to another planet. Prior to the album’s release, she released hit after hit and I was over here like “Thank u Dua for blessing us with ur killer vocals and ur mega tunes” and THEN she had the AUDACITY to just rock my world with this album. Is it Dark Side of the Moon? No. Is it still a great pop album?? Yes. And do the songs go hard?? They go hard. No offense but every song on this album - even the bad ones (*cough* “Room for 2″) - are better than “Shape of You” and YET who won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance?? Not Dua Lipa the true winner. Anyway if you have a chance just listen to the whole album. My favourite songs are-jk I love them all. Except for “Room for 2″ just ignore that one.

“Bodak Yellow” - Cardi B ....do i really need to speak on this one...

“Go Gina” - SZA I am still so offended that the Recording Academy snubbed SZA’s debut album but WHATEVER IT’S FINE. This song is about halfway through the album, and it serves as a slight interlude. But it’s my favourite. It’s succinct, it’s gorgeous, it references Martin. SZA is so talented and deserves the world.

“Raspberry Beret” - Prince I first heard this song on the last episode of She’s Gotta Have It, the TV reincarnation of the Spike Lee film. I was a Prince fan, but this song just gave me a new respect for him. It’s not necessarily in the lyrics, but the music is just insane. There’s a combination of Prince’s signature guitar-and-synth combo, but then there’s a harmonica-type instrument as well that ties into Prince’s ventures to an abandoned farm/barn. This is a good memory of Prince. 

“Best Friend” - Sofi Tukker Can I just say...this song deserves better. I know a lot of people have heard it in iPhone ads and whatnot, but Sofi Tukker is just such an amazing group and this was the first song I heard by them and they are so talented. This song just truly goes hard. I’m upset I don’t hear it more often. The wobble of such a strong bassline adds so much energy to an already enthusiastic song. It’s a great mainstream introduction to Sofi Tukker.

the entire Black Panther soundtrack again...do i really need to speak on this....

every song on the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack but especially the Sufjan Stevens songs ok so it’s common knowledge that this movie has damaged me forever, but you know what else damaged me? the soundtrack. who else gets away with intertwining classical piano music and euro eighties hits and sufjan stevens songs? no one except for luca guadagnino. so let’s briefly discuss,,,,first of all i had actually never listened to a psychedelic furs song before and i feel like that’s embarrassing especially for me so “love my way” was just such a wow moment for me. great pop song with great lyrics that truly pertain to the movie. excellent choice. also my new favourite song “paris latino” by bandolero is just so campy and european and eighties. what a tune. and the opening song, “hallelujah junction” by john adams, is just so gorgeous. it’s such a fabulous opener. now lets talk about sufjan stevens....we’re first introduced to his music in the movie with a remix of his song “futile devices.” this remix is so ethereal and stunning; it fits so perfectly within the movie. then there’s the happy little ditty “mystery of love” that basically should have won the oscar but then i saw coco and “remember me” made me cry so i wasn’t too mad. not much to say about this one because it speaks for itself. great song. now,,..,.,.,.”visions of gideon”.....,.,.,this song is so offensive. every time i listen to it i want to sit in front of a fire place for the whole duration of the song and CRY over my lover who is getting married and teaches at columbia. it’s so delicate and haunting. it just makes me cry.

“Lemon” - N.E.R.D & Rihanna idk about you guys but i heard this on the radio like once and i was so offended by how little airplay it received because this song is just so amazing. like pharrell + rihanna = modern musical genius. this was all the world needed. 

“This is America” - Childish Gambino I know literally the entire population of Earth is talking about this song but I think the visuals are the more intriguing part (obviously). Like on its own, the song is great, but the music video adds way more to it, in my opinion. As it has been said numerous times, you really have to watch the video multiple times to catch everything, but it’s such a stunning video that really forces you to think and comprehend everything going on. Props to you, Donald Glover. Even though you have been slightly problematic in the past.

so obviously i could have like a gazillion songs listed here but a) some of them are hard to explain b) i don’t want to offend anyone and c) i tried to make it seem like my taste in music is both good and slightly mainstream so people can #relate. i also discovered a lot of bruce springsteen within this period and i am proud of myself for doing so. okay, well i hope it’s noted that i did this just for fun and would obviously not like to be graded on it i just kind of wanted to have something to reflect on the year! unlike my actual blog post for this month. and i just wanted to have a platform to talk about music and get people to listen to my playlist. ok see you!! go read my real blog post!!

[airadam]

Episode 145 : Setting Levels

"Appetite for construction..."

- Swigga

We celebrate another birthday for the podcast this month, marking twelve full years since that inaugural experimental episode! This month's mix includes new tracks from artists who are setting themselves new standards, as well as some deep album cuts, B-sides, and unreleased gems. Sadly, we also mark the passing of Gift of Gab of Blackalicious, who left us just a few days ago. We include just one of his tracks this month, but he's an MC who left a deep body of work behind for us to continue to celebrate.

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Children of Zeus : I Need You

Manchester's finest are back with their brand new album "Balance" and this was an early favourite of mine. Not uptempo, but much more so than "I Want You", with lots of bump, Tyler and Konny gave themselves a perfect canvas to get busy on the vocals. Go get that album!

Ilajide : Please Set Me At Ease

If Ilajide punches as hard as his beats are, a lot of heavyweights could be in trouble. Always bringing the heat, he shows his literal chops right here on this beat from the "Latex" LP.

Cocoa Brovaz : Get Up

For those that never knew or had forgotten, there was a period of almost ten years when due to the threat of legal action from the firearm manufacturer of similar name, Smif-N-Wessun had to change their name to Cocoa Brovaz. During this time you could hear the Brooklyn legends popping up on all kinds of quality records, and this was no exception - the B-side to the Mos Def/Pharoahe/Nate Dogg "Oh No" single, and a worthy inclusion on the "Lyricist Lounge 2" collection. Hi-Tek's beat on this was unconventional back in 2000 and still stands out as unusual today.

Special Teamz ft. Sean Price : Boston To Bucktown

Special Teamz was a Boston supergroup made up of Edo G, Jaysaun, and Slaine, who dropped the "Stereotypez" album in 2007. As signees to Duck Down Records, it was a natural move to tap them up for a guest appearance - and here, the late great Sean Price joins them on this Pete Rock-produced cut.

LL Cool J : Summer Luv

The B-Side to "Loungin'" and an inclusion on the deluxe edition of "Mr. Smith", this is a track I just don't hear enough! LL isn't showing love to the weak MCs he takes out on this one, and Rashad Smith's beat is a punchy and relatively sparse bit of 90s boom-bap crispiness.

Rakim : Last Resort

I think this one may have slipped past a lot of listeners - I got it on one of those random bootleg 12"s - entitled "Unreleased Jewels", released in 2003. According to Discogs, Da Beatminerz provided the beat, and it's an overall solid track. The hook is borrowed from a line from one of my favourite Rakim records, "Teach The Children" from the "Don't Sweat The Technique" LP.

Moods, Yasper : Vibe Vibe

From the "Endless Sunday Vol.1" album, these two Dutch producers on the Chillhop label do indeed bring the vibe. This would do the job for cruising with the top down, BBQing in the backyard, relaxing in the park - it's a pure summery feel-good track!

Swigga : Pendulum

1/3 of the great Natural Elements crew here, from his brand new LP "Sunset Mindset (Swigga SZN)". I can't quite describe the sound - it's dramatic, with a little rock edge to it - almost like a stadium track. Swigga (who some of you will have known as L-Swift) matches the vibe without going head-to-head in loudness, and keeps the flow accessible on the surface - but check the multisyllabic rhymes.

Blackalicious ft. Lyrics Born : Do This My Way

RIP Gift of Gab. He may have been in less than ideal health for some time, but his passing still hit the community hard. On this track from the Blackalicious debut LP "Nia", Lyrics Born of Latryx produces as well as supplying his half-sung, half-rapped vocals as the special guest, but without Gab, it wouldn't have been the tune that it is. He holds down his side of the lyrics with the skill and insight that made him a favourite for those that knew throughout his whole career.

The Mouse Outfit : Sunrise (Shift Ops Remix)

We switch into a little D&B mode here with a remix of a fairly recent track by The Mouse Outfit - in fact, I played it here on episode 132 when it came out! You still get the vocals of One Only, but Chini and Metrodome's production has to move over a little for the work of fellow Mancunian Shift Ops, with sharp drums and plenty of low end.

Lenzman & Konny Kon : Food

Staying with the vibe for one more track, the Metalheadz veteran combines with Manchester's own Konny Kon - no stranger to D&B by a long shot - who flows at half time over this extra-clean track from the 2019 "Bobby" LP.

[Charlemagne] Natural Elements : Paper Chase (Instrumental)

A dope 80s sample for those in the know, with the added bass and slow-walking boom-bap drums on the top make this a personal favourite. 100% check the vocal version of this track by the incredibly underappreciated Natural Elements - I played it a while back, pick up a copy if you can!

Mobb Deep : All Mines

"...where the people do murder for money" is a hell of a half-bar at the kick-off of the second verse, the kind of classic Prodigy line that would have been scratched and sampled in the late 90s for sure. Not much info on this track, which was on a 2005 bootleg release, so I don't know if Havoc produced it or not, but that menacing beat with that muted trumpet accent running through it is dopeness for sure.

Skyzoo & Aaria : St. James Liquors

Brooklyn bars from Skyzoo, from his new "All The Brilliant Things" album, which is themed around the gentrification of his home borough. Kenny Keys' beat is a bass-heavy gem, and Detroit vocalist Aaria adds a little sparkle on the hook.

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth : What's Next On The Menu?

Classic Pete Rock and C.L! This was banging heavy on the pirates and mixtapes when it dropped back in 1993 - it was on the soundtrack to the Hip-Hop cameo-packed "Who's The Man?" as well as the apparently unofficial "Never Coming Out" EP (banned from Discogs). Pete Rock blends three huge staple samples on this one but still has ir sounding fresh, and C.L. glides on the jeep-rocking beat. Straight winner.

Platinum Pied Pipers ft. Jay Dee : Act Like You Know

Heavy, nasty, grinding. Perfect. The late great Jay Dee/J Dilla features on this track produced by Waajeed, one of his protoges. Waajeed and Saadiq made up PPP, whose debut "Triple P" definitely worth having in your collection - a mix of Hip-Hop and soul with a kind of jazzy sensibility in places. 

Marco Polo : Ps and Qs (Remix Instrumental)

Just a nice instrumental from Marco's "Baker's Dozen" compilation. I had to loop this up a little bit to stretch it out, as he kept it very short and sweet. MP on the MP strikes once again! 

Nipsey Hussle and Jay-Z : What It Feels Like

A cross-continental meeting of the lyrics, if not the minds, as the late Nipsey Hussle combines with Jay on this selection from the "Judas and the Black Messiah : The Inspired Album", taking its spark from the film about the assassination of Black Panther Fred Hampton. Nipsey recorded this verse eight years ago, and didn't like the song at the time. It was developed in stages over years, with more and more instrumentation and arrangement, plus Jay's verse rougly a year ago. The final product is bombastic and epic-sounding, with the production headed up by Mike & Keys, and there are a stack of guests in the background - for me, highlighted by the distinctive vocals of James Fauntleroy. It was clearly worth the wait,

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[music-by-an-english-major]

“Voicenotes” by Charlie Puth Album Review

Overall: 7/10

Voicenotes, the highly anticipated second album by 26-year-old Charlie Puth, is a 2018 gem that demonstrates huge growth in Puth’s direction as a musician. It has a much more mature sound than its predecessor, Nine Track Mind, and it shines in its detail-orientated production (the groove in “Done For Me”, the gorgeous retro sounds of “BOY”). 

This album, aptly titled Voicenotes because each song stems from Puth’s personal voice notes to himself, peaks during the moments when it feels most like Charlie himself. Songs like “If You Leave Me Now” and “The Way I Am” are much more personal than Puth’s well-known hits “Marvin Gaye” and “One Call Away”. Voicenotes also has strong collaborations with Kehlani, Boyz II Men, and James Taylor that are well-chosen and delivered. Tracks like “How Long” and “BOY” are undeniable bops, equally suitable for either bedroom jam sessions or for your Spotify party playlist. There are plenty of fantastic moments in this album, and the record is easily likable.

However, as close as Voicenotes is to being an outstanding record, it falls short because of the inability to shake a “to be killed by radio” syndrome -- songs like “Attention” are catchy earworms, but they tire out quickly and come off as repetitive. Also, while lyrics have improved from Puth’s earlier work, some songwriting comes across as shallow at times (“Done For Me”). This album is definitely more in-touch with Puth’s musical identity and authenticity than Nine Track Mind, but there is still room for growth.

Best Moments:

Anytime Charlie’s piano work is featured (2:25 in “BOY”)

First (“The Way I Am”) and last (“Through It All)”  tracks are deftly chosen

Fantastic grooves and bass lines all around (”Done For Me”, “How Long”)

Charlie showing off his vocal range (“LA Girls”, feminine imitation in “How Long”)

Sampling of N’Sync’s “I Thought She Knew” 

Great collab choices

Worst Moments:

Some tracks are too repetitive or predictable -- this is fitting for radio, but it depletes the long-term value of a song

Unoriginal/average lyrics

Replay Value: Moderate

Continue reading for individual track reviews!

1. The Way I Am (6/10)

Really good selection of a first track

Lyrics establish trying a new direction of genuine, “more real” songwriting

Guitar ostinato is simple yet cool

Solidifies new production sound and sets it worlds apart from Nine Track Mind

2. Attention (6/10)

Slow build intro is fitting and satisfying

Verses get very repetitive

Personally, radio killed this song for me but I really liked it intially

Simplistic melody is heavily reliant on rhythmic interest, which is okay

Bass line is a jam and probably the seed of the entire song

Bridge of “What are you doing to me” is good and probably the best part of the song

3. LA Girls (7/10)

Using the timbre of a steel-string bass guitar (that’s what I think it is?) for the intro is extremely cool

"I miss my baby” line shows off higher end of Charlie’s vocal range and is just a fun, flirty touch

Layering of voices - production is great

Lyrical subject of celebrity homesickness is similar to Bazzi’s 3:15

4. How Long (8/10)

Bass line, played by Puth, is kicking it

Imitation of the female voice shows off vocal range

Funky guitar / beatboxing sounds creates a nice groove

Call-and-response between Charlie and the hypothetical girl is addicting

Snaps!

At 2:21, the amazing bass part disappears, leaving the vocals exposed as it escalates to a satisfying climax

5. Done For Me (7/10)

Once again, a fantastic groove

R&B and pop worlds collide -- in the best way possible

The tone feels less genuine, as if Charlie is singing as a character

Kehlani has great delivery and she contributes a ton to the song despite only having one solo verse

Chord progressions/synth work is easy on the ears

I am head over heels obsessed with Charlie’s jazz rendition of this track (which definitely has “Oye Como Va” vibes)

6. Patient (7.5/10)

Beautiful, sensitive instrumental intro

One of the more honest and lyrically revealing songs

In contrast to the two groove-heavy songs that precede this track, the instrumentation is extremely intimate

0:57 Charlie’s “chicka-boo” beatboxing is adorable

Vocal sequences are smooth, catchy, and flow off the tongue

Entire song is composed of moving melodic line -- no sense of dragging or growing stagnant despite being a slower song

Bridge (1:54) seems like a missed opportunity; it provides contrast against the rest of the song, but it is altogether forgettable/predictable in comparison to the other excellent moments in the song

Moment of stripped voice adds a sense of honesty like the one found in “The Way I Am”

Piano work is gorgeous; some church-like harmonies finish out the song in a very mature way

7. If You Leave Me Now (8/10)

Acapella - how often do you get such gorgeous acapella harmonies in contemporary pop music?

The harmonies are just insane

This is the true ballad of the entire album; “Patient” may be slower, but here, “If You Leave Me Now” demonstrates an entire new level of vulnerability (supported by the minimalist instrumentation)

Snaps are the only percussive element

Is it a key change at 2:30? Either way, the harmonic content in this song is just fantastic

I would love to see this performed live

This song is definitely not a radio banger, but that doesn’t mean it’s less of a song; in fact, it’s probably one of the best tracks of the album

This is one of Charlie’s “favorite songs [he’s] ever written”

The fact that this is a N’Sync sample only makes it better

8. BOY (9/10)

This is my personally favorite song of the album

Backgrounds/synth/chord progressions are vital to creating a retro vibe that almost reminds me of Owl City

Word painting of 90s sounds and being “born in the 90s”

Fantastic production / mixing

Melismatic “boy” line is to die for

Some of the strongest lyrics of the entire record

The playful vocables and spoken insertions -- “why / oh” ; “unh” -- add a fun, youthful element to the song

Piano at 2:25 is worth going mad for

Chorus is anthemic and rewarding

Voice does sound a little too edited/ overproduced at times, but perhaps that is fitting given the setting of the song

9. Slow it Down (6/10)

Charlie exits the most experimental part of his album to return to the radio banger domain

The sultry vibe creates a really stark contrast to the playful mood of “BOY” -- this is the definition of two contrasting narratives, but I’m okay with it

This is a good song, but honestly, it’s not unique; this could have come from anyone and it doesn’t have anything distinctly Charlie Puth

Bonus points for being a cool sample of “I Can’t Go For That”

The most interesting part of the song is 2:11 when the main vocal line drops out and there is only a muted layer of charlie saying “girl, you’ve got to slow it down” -  this is interesting because it distorts the song time, making it feel like a blurry night at the club

10. Change (7/10)

The message of the song has to be appreciated; there are definite John Lennon “Imagine” feels and Shawn Mendes “Youth” vibes

The last of the fantastic collabs of the album in which James Taylor does not disappoint

Strong lyrics

Acoustic guitar is worth appreciating

Bridge is strong - shows off Puth’s vocal control

There is not only dialogue between the two singers, but there is a bit of dialogue between the piano and guitar

11. Somebody Told Me (7/10)

Addresses a genuine insecurity, similar to the real anxieties discussed in “LA Girls” and “The Way I Am”

Am I the only one who thinks this could be a 5SOS track?

Strong melody, but less interesting work in the backgrounds

Interesting that it is a happy-sounding song addressing a sad situation… the major tonality is the complete opposite of what is expected of a song addressing adultery

Perhaps it sounds happy because Charlie is satirizing flippant celebrity romances in general -- any heartbreak is overtly produced and not as impactful as you may imagine

Melismatic vocal runs are truly underappreciated

12. Empty Cups (6/10)

Another true groove

The sonic ambience actually makes you feel like you are at a party

An extremely interesting moment of silence at 0:50 -- punctuating the lyric “and these empty cups”

Feels like early Puth

2:05 Do you hear the party?

A cute, playful song to precede the heart-wrenching "Through It All”

13. Through it All (8/10)

This is the Charlie Puth I came for

The most intimate song of the album

Beautiful piano playing -- can’t you just imagine this song just sobering you up after a long night at a jazz club?

Reminds me of “My Way” by Frank Sinatra

The wind-down feelings are similar to Taylor’s “New Year’s Day” that ended Reputation

It’s a ballad, but it’s not sad… it’s triumphant

This is the perfect song to end the album because it concludes a really self-reflective journey. It is emotional, grateful, and real all at once. A great curtain call to round out the journey “The Way I Am” began

Album Credits (sourced by Wikipedia):

Released: May 11, 2018 

Performers: Puth, Kehlani, James Taylor, Boys II Men, Ozveren, Gorodetsky, Falk, Carlsson

Producers: Puth, Goransson, Evigan, Carlsson

#Charlie Puth #New Music #Album Review #Music Journalism #Music Studies #Pop Music #Music Blog #Music #Voicenotes #Album #Music Critic #Musician #iTunes #Review #Album release #New Album #my post

[voodoochili]

My Favorite Songs of 2020

With nowhere to go and nothing to do in 2020, I had plenty of time to listen to as much music as I could stand. Luckily for me and for everyone else, 2020 supplied an embarrassment of musical riches; the endless creativity of our artists providing necessary emotional support during the Worst Year Ever™.

I’ve compiled my favorite 100 songs of 2020. Again, I limited my selections to only one song per artist, but as you’ll see, I couldn’t quite stick to it this year. Narrowing the list down to 100 was a painful process, with many excellent songs left on the cutting room floor. 

Check below for Spotify playlists

Top 100 Songs of 2020: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ySKk19paBFgO698vw7HTs?si=-al-SyEsTqWzqKfmEraNFw Best Songs of 2020 (Refined):  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ET0aA5TPj5JDsUtosaCVv?si=MyDxjcXKQpy3SNs7dV0wIQ Best Songs of 2020 (Catch-All):  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0XxtEo0PrNSyZDWBCjJtuR?si=pBZWRoNGSGWBCaqxJrHoyw

Without further ado, my favorite songs of 2020.:

25. Yg Teck - “What You Know”: Yg Teck has one of the more prominent Baltimore accents in rap music, elongating “ooh” sounds and shortening “er” sounds with reckless abandon. “What You Know” is buried towards the end of his excellent mixtape Eyes Won’t Close 2, but it stands out as one of Teck’s strongest songs. The buoyant piano-led beat offers Teck an opportunity to reflect on his struggle with heart-breaking directness: “So what if they hate me, sometimes I hate myself.”

24. Brian Brown - “Runnin” ft. Reaux Marquez:  Filtering the conventions of southern rap through his easy-going drawl and omnivorous musical appetite, Brian Brown is the brightest light in Nashville’s burgeoning hip-hop scene. Built around producer Black Metaphor’s circuitous jazz piano, “Runnin” is a soulful and poetic meditation on breaking out of the staid existence that can creep up on you if you stay still for long enough. Brown serves up the song’s irresistible hook and provides a grounding presence on his second verse, evoking the styles of two Tennessee rap titans: Chattanooga’s Isaiah Rashad and Cashville’s own Starlito.

23. 42 Dugg - “One Of One” ft. Babyface Ray: Detroit producer Helluva’s beats provide the tissue that connects the Motor City with the West Coast, creating anthems that mix D-Town propulsion with soundscapes perfect for a top-down drive down PCH. The Helluva-produced “One Of One” is an electric duet between two of the D’s most distinct voices: low-talking, whistle-happy guest verse god 42 Dugg and nonchalantly fly Babyface Ray. They trade bars throughout the track, weaving between squelches of bass to talk about the ways women have done them wrong.

22. PG Ra & jetsonmade - “Keeping Time”: The phrase “young OG” was invented for guys like PG Ra, who is somehow only 20-years-old. On “Keeping Time,” the South Carolina rapper spits sage-like wisdom about street life over Jetsonmade’s signature trampoline 808s, decrying nihilism and emphasizing the importance of holding strong convictions in a deliberate, raspy drawl: “Oh, you don't give a fuck 'bout nothing, then you damn wrong/Cause every soldier stand for something if he stand strong.”

21. Empty Country - “Marian”: After spending a decade as the main songwriter for Cymbals Eat Guitars, Joseph D'Agostino is an expert at crafting widescreen indie anthems. CEG is no more, but D’Agostino is still doing his thing, opening the self-titled album of his new entity Empty Country with “Marian,” a chiming and heartfelt power ballad with sunny vocal harmonies and a fist-pumping riff. It’s hard to make out the lyrics on the first few spins, but a closer listen reveals some striking imagery (“In a sea of Virginia pines/A burnt bus”), as the narrator imagines the life that lies ahead for his newborn daughter.

20. Raveena - “Headaches”: Raveena’s music is a soothing balm, capable of transforming any negative emotion into peaceful reverie. “Headaches” starts as a sensual, woozy, reverbed-out slow jam–typical Raveena territory, perfect for emphasizing the enlightened sensuality that she exudes in her vocals. The song mutates in its second half into an invigorating bit of dream pop, picking up a ringing guitar riff and a prominent backbeat as Raveena struggles to stay close to the one she loves (“There's no sunset, without you”).

19. Los & Nutty - “I’m Jus Fuckin Around” ft. WB Cash: In which three Detroit emcees receive an instrumental funky enough for ‘90s DJ Quik and proceed to not only not ride the beat but to fight so hard against it you’d think they’re training to get in the ring with Mayweather. I love Michigan rap.

18. Sufjan Stevens - “My Rajneesh”: I’ve never seen Wild Wild Country, or read about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his cult, so I don’t know too much about the subject matter of “My Rajneesh.” I do know, however, that it’s a story that involves crises of faith and the state of Oregon, which means it fits perfectly into Sufjan’s milieu. “My Rajneesh” does an excellent job of relaying the ecstasy of a devout believer, layering celebratory chants, South Asian traditional percussion, and glitchy electronics into a 10-minute epic. As the song progresses, the sonic tapestry grows distorted, mimicking the emptiness that lies beneath Rajneesh’s surface and the darkness and confusion faced by his followers when the illusion fades.

17. Koffee - “Lockdown”: Leave it to rising dancehall superstar Koffee to find ebullient joy in a situation as bleak as quarantine. Weaving around piercing guitar licks and euphoric vocal samples, Koffee schemes to turn her lockdown romance (”quarantine ting”) into a long-term deal, fantasizing about travel with her love even as she’s content to just spend time in her apartment. Everything is dandy as long as they're in the same room.

16. Rio Da Yung OG & Louie Ray - “Movie”: Flint’s answer to Detroit’s “Bloxk Party,” one of the best rap songs of the past decade. Rio and Louie trade verses throughout the song, competing with one another to see who can be the most disrespectful.

Rio’s best line: “Ma don't drink that pop in there, I got purple in it/I know it look like Alka-Seltzer, it's a perky in it”

Louie’s best line: “Let me cut my arms off before I ball, make it fair”

15. Ratboys - “My Hands Grow”: “My Hands Grow” shines like an early-morning sunbeam, hitting that circa-2001 Saddle Creek* sweet spot with aplomb. But “My Hands Grow” is more than just a throwback–it’s an oasis, populated by sweeping acoustic guitars, electric leads with just the right amount of distortion, and especially Julia Steiner’s affectionate vocal, which blooms into gorgeous self-harmonies during the bridge.

*Obligated to add that this song came out before Azure Ray signed to Saddle Creek, but the point stands.

14. J Hus - “Triumph”: J Hus and Jae5 have the kind of telepathic artistic connection and song-elevating chemistry only present in the best rapper-producer pairs. A great example of how their alchemy blurs the lines between genres, “Triumph” is the J Hus/Jae5 version of a boom-bap rap track. Hus rides Jae5’s woodblock-and-horn-accented beat with unassailable confidence, gradually elevating his intensity level as he sprays his unflappable threats. Like most of Hus’s best songs, “Triumph” is home to an irresistible hook, which I can’t help but recite whenever I hear the words “violence,” “silence,” or “alliance” (more often than you think!).

13. Sada Baby - “Aktivated”: Every post-disco classic from the early ‘80s could use a little bit of Sada Baby’s wild-eyed intensity and dextrous flow. On “Aktivated,” Sada runs roughshod atop Kool & The Gang’s ‘81 classic “Get Down On It,” turning it into an irresistible and danceable anthem about going dumb off a Percocet. Sada is a master of controlled chaos, modulating his voice from a simmer to a full-throated yell within the space of a single bar. It really makes lines like “Coochie made me cry like Herb in the turtleneck” pop.

12. Yves Tumor - “Kerosene!”: Prince is one of the most-imitated artists on the planet, but while most artists can only grasp at his heels, Yves Tumor’s “Kerosene!” reaches a level of burning passion and sexual literacy that would make The Purple One proud. A duet with Diana Gordon, “Kerosene!” is a desperate plea for connection, each duet partner thinking that a passionate dalliance might cure the emptiness inside. The song vamps for five minutes, filled with guitar pyrotechnics and moaning vocals, its extended runtime and gradual comedown consigning the partners to a futile search for a self-sustaining love that won’t burn itself out when the passion fades.

11. Special Interest - “Street Pulse Beat”: “Street Pulse Beat” sounds like “Seven Nation Army,” as performed by post-punk legends Killing Joke. It’s a strutting, wild, propulsive anthem–part come-on, part self-actualization, all-powerful. Dominated by an insistent industrial beat and the fiery vocals of frontperson Alli Logout, whose performance more than lives up to the song’s grandiose lyrics (““I go by many names such as Mistress, Goddess, Allah, Jah, and Jesus Christ”), “Street Pulse Beat” was the song released this year that made me miss live music the most. 

10. Megan Thee Stallion - “Savage” (Remix) ft. Beyonce: The first-ever collaboration between these two H-Town royals was the most quotable song of the year, firing off hot lines and memorable moments with an effortless majesty. Megan does her thing, bringing classy, bougie, and ratchet punchlines about the men who grovel at her feet, but it’s who Beyoncé elevates the track to transcendence. She prances around the outskirts of Megan’s verses, applying the full force of her lower register to her ad-libs (“THEM JEANS”), and during her verses, the Queen proves once again that you can count the number of rappers better than her on your fingers.

9. DJ Tunez - “Cool Me Down” ft. Wizkid: WizKid is almost alarmingly prolific, releasing enough amazing songs per year that he would be a worthy subject of his own “best-of” list. My favorite WizKid song of 2020 didn’t come from his excellent album Made In Lagos–instead it was this team-up with Brooklyn-based DJ Tunez. A favored collaborator of WizKid (Tunez is partially responsible for career highlights like 2019’s “Cover Me” and 2020’s “PAMI”), Tunez’s organic and textured approach to Afrobeats is an excellent fit for his voice, mixing swelling organs, 808 blocks, and the occasional stab of saxophone into a percolating concoction. The “Starboy” rises to the occasion, hypnotically repeating phrases in English and Yoruba, making octave-sized leaps in his vocal register, and stretching syllables like taffy as he sings the praises of his lady love.

8. Sorry - “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”: Part swaggering indie anthem and part skronking no wave, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” struts with the woozy confidence of someone who’s had just the right amount to drink. It’s the ideal throwback to late L.E.S. (or Shoreditch) nights, sung with irresistible gang vocals on the chorus and a detached sneer on the verse that jibes with the sinister undertones of the deliberately off-key backing track.

7. Destroyer - “Cue Synthesizer”: As Dan Bejar ages, he becomes less like a singer and more like a shaman, his incantatory near-spoken word verses grounding his band’s instrumental heroics. On “Cue Synthesizer,” Bejar plays the role of conjurer, summoning synthesizers and electric guitars in celebration of music’s ability to breathe life into modern mundanity.

6. Chloe x Halle - “Do It”: Pillow-soft R&B that walks the fine line between retro and futuristic, powered by the Bailey Sisters’ playfully twisty melodies and sumptuous production from a somewhat unexpected source. That’s right, piano man Scott Storch took a break from smoking blunts with Berner to deliver his smoothest beat since he teamed with Chloe x Halle mentor Beyoncé for “Me Myself & I” in 2003.

5. Fireboy DML - “ELI”: Nigeria singer Fireboy DML is an unabashed fan of ‘90s adult contemporary, worshipping idols (‘90s Elton John, Celine Dion) that even some devout poptimists wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. A modern-day retelling of the Biblical fable of Samson and Delilah, “ELI” seems to take inspiration from Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants,” its rocksteady beat, wobbling bassline, snake-charming flute, and “lonely girl, lonely world” lyrics recalling the 1994 Swedish pop smash. It’s a testament to Fireboy’s charisma and melodic mastery that “ELI” is as invigorating as “All That She Wants” is annoying. He switches from playful flirtation on the verse, to hopeless devotion on the chorus, to lascivious swagger on the bridge, gently ratcheting up the intensity in his vocals until the song’s climactic guitar solo* grants glorious release. *The build-up on “ELI” is so great that it makes it easy to ignore that the guitar solo itself is a mess. It sounds like the producers couldn’t get Carlos Santana, so they settled for Andre 3000 instead. 

4. The Beths - “Dying To Believe”: If you’ve ever audibly cringed while thinking about something you’ve said or done in the past, The Beths have the song for you. Carried by its driving backbeat, “Dying To Believe” chronicles singer Liz Stokes’s rumination on a crumbling friendship, her fear of confrontation preventing her from removing her toxic friend from her life. Though the lyric is pained and uncertain, there’s no such lack of confidence in the music. An adrenaline rush of muscular, sugary power pop, “Dying To Believe” is an immaculate construction, each fuzzy guitar riff arriving with mathematical precision and each “whoa-oh” chorus hitting like a ton of bricks. Jump Rope Gazers might not have been as consistent as the Auckland, NZ band’s self-titled debut, but “Dying To Believe” is as good as anything on that album and helps solidify The Beths’ deserved reputation as some of the best songwriters and tightest performers on either side of the International Date Line. 

3. The 1975 - “What Should I Say”/“If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”: I know, I know. I was supposed to only pick one song per artist, but sue me, this is my list and I just could not decide between these two. The 1975 have always balanced their affinity for ‘80s-style pop anthems with an interest in experimental electronic music. In 2020, they released the two very best songs of their career, each seemingly fitting into one of those two boxes. On its face, “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” is the band’s transparent attempt at recording their own “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”–it’s in D Major, it has a chugging backbeat, an echoing two-chord riff in the verse, and an ascending E Minor progression in the pre-chorus. Where the Tears For Fears classic takes a birds-eye look at the yuppie generation, Matty Healy uses his song’s swelling bombast and gleefully cheesy sax solo to explore the awkward intimacy of cyber sex. The burbling Eno-style synth that opens up “If You’re Too Shy” evokes a dial-up connection, simulating the thrill of discovery felt by those whose only connection to the outside world comes through their screens.

“What Should I Say,” meanwhile, combines Boards Of Canada-esque bloops with bassline that strongly resembles Mr. Fingers’ oft-sampled “Mystery Of Love”, over which Healy sings in a heavily-manipulated voice that sounds like the lovechild of Travis Scott and Sam Smith. Fittingly for a song about loss for words, the best moments of  “What Should I Say” spring from vocal manipulations, imparting more emotional resonance than mere words could ever hope to provide. The final minute of “What Should I Say” is almost tear-jerkingly beautiful, as a single computerized voice cuts through cacophony, determined to let the world know how it feels, language be damned.

2. King Von - “Took Her To The O”: His career was far too short, but King Von had plenty of chances to demonstrate his god-given storytelling ability before he passed away in November. Accompanied by regular collaborator Chopsquad DJ’s chaotic, circular pianos, Von recounts an eventful night in his home neighborhood of O’Block. Von’s gripping narrative is packed with writerly detail (“Nine missed calls, three of them from ‘Mom,’ other six say ‘Duck’”), peeking into his justifiably paranoid state-of-mind (“My Glock on my lap, I'm just thinkin' smart”) and ending with a smirk on a bit of gallows humor that recalls prime Ghostface. Long Live Von.

1.  Bob Dylan - “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself to You”: It’s impossible to escape that 2020 was a year of mass devastation, on a scale not seen in American life since the second World War. In the midst of the cascading chaos of this year, I married my best friend. So it’s fitting that the song that resonated most with me this year was “Throat Baby (Go Baby)” by BRS Kash.

*Ahem* Excuse me. It was a love song, and not just any love song: the finest love song of Bob Dylan’s six-decade, Nobel Prize-winning career. 

Bob Dylan spent much of the 2010s trying his hand at the Great American Songbook, applying his craggy croon to standards made famous by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. It felt like a weird turn for such an iconoclastic figure, one known for his massive (and valuable) library of originals. “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You” proves that Bob’s covers and Christmas albums weren’t larks or cash grabs, but an old dog’s attempt to learn new tricks by digging into the past.

“IMUMMTGMTY” shares a lot of DNA with “The Way You Look Tonight” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” bringing florid metaphors and touching pledges of devotion, but it also inherently understands that love is a decision–a weighty decision that imparts great responsibility–as much as it’s a feeling. What really makes “IMUMM” sing is the tastefully folksy arrangement, which ties into the old weird America explored by Dylan’s compadres in The Band, filled with bright Telecaster leads and easily-hummed choruses. And the lyrics are excellent even by Bob’s elevated standards. It turns me into a puddle every time I listen. I’ll let Bob take it from here:

Well, my heart's like a river, a river that sings Just takes me a while to realize things I've seen the sunrise, I've seen the dawn I'll lay down beside you when everyone's gone

Here’s the rest of the list. Check back later this week for my albums list!

26. Katie Gately - “Waltz” 27. Bonny Light Horseman - “Bonny Light Horseman” 28. Bullion - “Hula” 29. Omah Lay - “Lo Lo” 30. Greg Dulli - “Sempre” 31. Fiona Apple - “Shameika” 32. Anjimilie - “Your Tree” 33. Key Glock - “Look At They Face” 34. Lido Pimienta - “Te Queria” 35. Morray - “Quicksand” 36. Obongjayar - “10K” 37. Xenia Rubinos - “Who Shot Ya?” 38. Kiana Lede - “Protection” 39. Flo Milli - “Weak” 40. G.T. - “What You Gon Do” 41. Chris Crack - “Hoes At Trader Joe’s” 42. Lil Baby - “The Bigger Picture” 43. The Orielles - “Memoirs of Miso” 44. Shoreline Mafia - “Change Ya Life” 45. Masego - “Mystery Lady” ft. Don Toliver 46. Junglepussy - “Out My Window” ft. Ian Isiah 47. Siete Gang Yabbie - “Gift Of Gab” 48. Rosalía - “Juro Que” 49. Black Noi$e - “Mutha Magick” ft. BbyMutha 50. BFB Da Packman - “Free Joe Exotic” ft. Sada Baby 51. Andras - “Poppy” 52. Lianne La Havas - “Weird Fishes” 53. Crack Cloud - “Tunnel Vision” 54. Lil Uzi Vert - “No Auto” ft. Lil Durk 55. Fred again… - “Kyle (I Found You)” 56. Burna Boy - “Wonderful” 57. Lonnie Holliday - “Crystal Doorknob” 58. Mozzy - “Bulletproofly” 59. Tiwa Savage - “Koroba” 60. Frances Quinlan - “Your Reply” 61. Ariana Grande - “my hair” 62. Bad Bunny - “Safaera” ft. Jowell & Randy & Ñengo Flow 63. Yhung T.O. & DaBoii - “Forever Ballin” 64. Katie Pruitt - “Out Of The Blue” 65. Sleepy Hallow - “Molly” ft. Sheff G 66. Niniola - “Addicted” 67. Prado - “STEPHEN” 68. Drakeo The Ruler - “GTA VI” 69. Boldy James - “Monte Cristo” 70. Caribou - “Like I Loved You” 71. Andy Shauf - “Living Room” 72. Hailu Mergia - “Yene Mircha” 73. Kabza de Small & DJ Maphorisa - “eMcimbini” ft Aymos, Samthing Soweto, Mas Musiq 74. Gunna - “Dollaz On My Head” ft. Young Thug 75. Roddy Ricch - “The Box” 76. The Lemon Twigs - “Hell On Wheels” 77. Sun-El Musician - “Emoyeni” ft. Simmy & Khuzani 78. Madeline Kenney - “Sucker” 79. Natanael Cano - “Que Benedicion” 80. ShooterGang Kony - “Jungle” 81. Don Toliver - “After Party” 82. Chicano Batman - “Color my life” 83. Pa Salieu - “Betty” 84. Chubby & The Gang - “Trouble (You Were Always On My Mind)” 85. Dua Lipa - “Love Again” 86. Rucci - “Understand” ft. Blxst 87. Skilla Baby - “Carmelo Bryant” ft. Sada Baby 88. Bartees Strange - “Boomer” 89. Jessie Ware - “Read My Lips” 90. The Hernandez Bros. & LUSTBASS - “At The End Of Time” 91. Brokeasf - “How” ft. 42 Dugg 92. Mulatto - “No Hook” 93. Eddie Chacon - “Outside” 94. Veeze - “Law N Order” 95. Polo G - “33” 96. Bktherula - “Summer” 97. Jessy Lanza - “Anyone Around” 98. Perfume Genius - “On The Floor” 99. ComptonAssTg - “I’m Thuggin’” 100. Mario Judah - “Die Very Rough”

Honorable Mentions: Jamila Woods - “SULA (Paperback)” Demae - “Stuck In A Daze” ft. Ego Ella May Good Sad Happy Bad - “Bubble” Guerilla Toss - “Human Girl” Kaash Paige - “Grammy Week” ft. Don Toliver Kre8 & CJ Santana - “Slide!” Laura Veirs - “Another Space & Time” Angelica Garcia - “Jicama” Malome Vector - “Dumelang” ft. Blaq Diamond OMB Bloodbath - “Dropout” ft. Maxo Kream SahBabii - “Soulja Slim” Shabason, Krgovich & Harris - “Friday Afternoon” Skillibeng - “Mr. Universe” Waxahatchee - “Fire” Westerman - “Float Over”

[therainshow]

I made a Taylor Swift Music Education Lesson that covers each album, in order, and my favorite songs from said album. I included bits of each album’s prologue and background information on each album, plus my personal opinions on each. I made this for some coworkers that want to learn more about Taylor, feel free to look it over and pass it on to anyone you’re trying to convert someone into a Swiftie :) There is a Spotify link for a playlist I made that has all these songs. You can find that at the bottom :)

Welcome to your Taylor Swift Music Education Lesson. Please read carefully.

 For your education and enjoyment (hopefully), I have included a detailed track-list of all the songs on your Spotify playlist. These songs appear in order of album, beginning with Fearless and ending with reputation. I did not include Taylor’s debut album in this lesson. It’s a great album, but has a heavy country influence and was written when she was 14, so it is difficult to relate to and/or isolating to those who do not appreciate country music. Within each album, there is no specific order. As I introduce a new album, I provide you with a bit of background information to give you a more thorough understanding. This background information begins with a blurb taken directly from the prologue that Taylor wrote for said album. With each track title I have included my favorite lyric from that song. You may also see some asterisks with notes scattered throughout. I couldn’t resist. The songs I chose are either a) my favorite, b) a fan favorite, c) generally iconic in nature, or c) songs I think, or hope, you will like. My favorite song off each album is indicated with multiple exclamation points. Let’s begin.

 FEARLESS: “To me, “FEARLESS” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.”  Fearless is Taylor’s second album and was released in the fall of 2008 when Taylor was 18. It is actually the most highly-awarded country album of all time. Fearless won Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammy’s when Taylor was 20 years old. Taylor is the youngest person to ever win that award. There are 13 tracks on this album, and 8 were written solely by Taylor. This album cemented me as a stan, and the songs saved my life in high school. I have Fearless tattooed on my back, and I truly believe that I wouldn’t be who I am today without this album. I’d probably be dead in a gutter somewhere. Joking, but seriously, high school was rough. Thank God for Tswift.

1.      Forever & Always!!!!!!!!!!!: “It rains in your bedroom when everything’s wrong. It rains when you’re here and it rains when you’re gone.”

2.      Fifteen: “Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday, but I realized some bigger dreams of mine. And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind, and we both cried. ‘Cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you’re gonna believe them.” *Abigail was Taylor’s best friend in high school, and they’re still friends today.*

3.      Love Story: “This love is difficult, but it’s real. Don’t be afraid, we’ll make it out of this mess.” *This is Taylor’s first #1 song. It went #1 on both country and pop radio. She attributes her career to this song. She wrote the song in 20 minutes solo on her bedroom floor after an argument with her parents over a boy.*

4.      The Best Day: “I’m thirteen now and don’t know how my friends could be so mean. I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys. And we drive and drive until we find a town far enough away, and we talk and window shop ‘til I’ve forgotten all their names. I don’t know who I’m gonna talk to now at school, but I know I’m laughing on the car ride home with you. Don’t know how long it’s gonna take to feel okay, but I know I had the best day with you today. *Taylor wrote this song for her mom.*

5.      Breathe: “People are people, and sometimes it doesn’t work out. Nothing we say is gonna save us from the fall-out.”

6.      Fearless: “We’re drivin’ down the road, I wonder if you know I’m tryin’ so hard not to get caught up now. But you’re just so cool running your hands through your hair, absent mindedly making me want you.”

7.      Tell Me Why: “Why do you have to make me feel small so you can feel whole inside? Why do you have to put down my dreams so you’re the only thing on my mind?”

 SPEAK NOW: “What you say might be too much for some people. Maybe it will come out all wrong and you'll stutter and you'll walk away embarrassed, wincing as you play it all back in your head. But I think the words you stop yourself from saying are the ones that will haunt you the longest. So say it to them. Or say it to yourself in the mirror. Say it in a letter you'll never send or in a book millions might read someday. I think you deserve to look back on your life without a chorus of resounding voices saying 'I could've, but it's too late now.' There is a time for silence. There is a time for waiting your turn. But if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say, you'll know it. I don't think you should wait. I think you should speak now.” Speak Now is Taylor’s third album and was released in the fall of 2010 when Taylor was 20. There are 14 tracks, all written solely by Taylor. There are no co-writers on this record. After Taylor won AOTY for Fearless, many of her critics said that it was impossible that she carried her weight in those writing sessions. Basically, the songs on Fearless were so good that a lot of people didn’t believe that she actually wrote them. To prove them wrong, she decided to write the album entirely by herself. This album is the fan favorite, and is my second favorite. I feel like this album was way ahead of its time. Speak Now is the kind of album I’d expect a musician to write towards the end of his/her career once they stop caring about crafting the perfect song, and start making great music for the hell of it. Most of the songs on Speak Now are over 5 minutes in length with many clocking in over 6 minutes. Definitely not suited for radio. Taylor is known for painting stories in her lyrics, and I’d say Speak Now does that the best. I met Taylor during the Speak Now Era, the most lauded of eras amongst fans. To have seen the Speak Now concert is a huge deal in the Swiftie fandom. The concert was absolutely magical. If you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to come over and watch the live DVD. Most of the general public knows next to nothing about Speak Now because none of the songs really charted on radio. However, Speak Now is the first of her albums to sell a million or more copies in the first week (a pattern not broken thus far. #blessed). Speak Now Era was sort of the golden age because she had proved herself to be incredibly talented and cemented her place in the music industry, and yet her PR stunts were at a minimum. Nobody hated her yet, and she kind of went back under the radar despite being at her prime. It was downhill from there, but we were all oblivious to that fact. We were just so blissed out, we couldn’t see the impending doom on the horizon. I could honestly write an entire thesis on Speak Now. Anyway, it was a strange time, indeed.

8.      Mean: “You have pointed out my flaws again, as if I don’t already see them.” *Like I said above, the songs on Speak Now were not widely popular and didn’t chart on radio, with the exception of this one. ‘Mean’ won Country Song of the Year at the Grammy’s in 2012. Taylor wrote this song as a way to cope with relentless and over the top, mean-spirited criticism from a specific music critic named Bob Lefetsz. Suck it, Bob.

9.      Mine: “But we’ve got bills to pay, we’ve got nothin’ figured out. When it was hard to take, this is what I thought about.”

10.  Last Kiss: “How you’d kiss me when I was in the middle of sayin’ something, there’s not a day I don’t miss those rude interruptions.”

11.  Haunted: “Come on, don’t leave me like this. I thought I had you figured out.”

12.  Never Grow Up: “You’re in the car on the way to the movies, and you’re mortified your mom’s droppin’ you off. At fourteen there’s just so much you can’t do, and you can’t wait to move out someday and call your own shots. But don’t make her drop you off around the block, remember that she’s getting older too.” *Taylor wrote this the night she moved out of her parent’s house and into her first apartment in Nashville.*

13.  Sparks Fly: “You’re the kind of reckless that should send me runnin’, but I kinda know that I won’t get far.” *Taylor first performed this song back in 2006 at a random live show when she first started out. Fans recorded it and it went viral. For years fans begged her to record it for an album. She did! Thank you, Taylor! We are #blessed.*

14.  Enchanted!!!!!!!!!!!!: “The playful conversation starts, counter all your quick remarks like passing notes in secrecy.”

15.  Back to December: “It turns out freedom ain’t nothin’ but missin’ you.”

 RED: “My experiences in love have taught me difficult lessons, especially my experiences with crazy love. The red relationships. The ones that went from zero to a hundred miles per hour and then hit a wall and exploded. And it was awful. And ridiculous. And desperate. And thrilling. And when the dust settled, it was something I’d never take back. Because there is something to be said for being young and needing someone so badly, you jump in head first without looking. And there’s something to be learned from waiting all day for a train that’s never coming. And there’s something to be proud of about moving on and realizing that real love shines golden like starlight, and doesn’t fade or spontaneously combust. Maybe I’ll write a whole album about that kind of love if I ever find it. But this album is about the other kinds of love that I’ve recently fallen in and out of. Love that was treacherous, sad, beautiful, and tragic. But most of all, this record is about love that was red.” Oh, Red. I have so many thoughts about you. For starters, Red is Taylor’s fourth album and was released in the fall of 2012. Red is comprised of 16 tracks. Like I said previously, the Speak Now Era was such an incredible time, and Swifties didn’t want to let it go. We didn’t want things to change. I think the Red Era is the only era that Swifties didn’t welcome with open arms. We just didn’t know how to feel, and were afraid of things changing. But Taylor was headed in a more pop direction, and we could all sense it. Of course, Taylor had always been pop, or country pop, but that’s neither here nor there… And so, Red was Taylor’s “pop” debut, because she wrote three songs with pop hitmakers Max Martin and Yohan Shellback. But, it was also her rock debut if you ask me. Red was like a patchwork quilt of music: differently styles, production types, collaborators, producers. Taylor was trying new things and flapping her wings. And it worked. At first, I was hesitant to leave Speak Now behind, but Red quickly became my favorite album and still is. Taylor’s best songs are on Red. That is unanimously agreed upon in the fandom and throughout. Red is Taylor’s crown jewel, her zenith. Unfortunately, Taylor suffered a lot of hate and backlash for her dating life during 2012 and 2013, and that really clouded the success of Red. Like Taylor has said before, she was promoting a massively successful album and touring the world, and all people wanted to talk about was her personal life and it broke her heart. Well, Taylor, it broke mine too. Next to Fearless, Red is the album that helped me most in life. Red chronicles a disastrous heartbreak from beginning to end. The anger, the frustration, the sadness, the regret, the hopelessness, the pining away. You name it, she wrote about it. If you’re ever heartbroken, put on this album. (Except I hope that never happens to you!!) It’s interesting to me that she wrote the songs for Red while she was touring Speak Now, because we thought she was really happy at that time. But, what do we know? We never really know. Well, Red was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2014 Grammy’s and lost to Daft Punk. Whoever announced the winner that night really dragged out the R when he said “Random Access Memories Daft Punk”. So naturally, Taylor thought she had the award and her face lit up. Only to see that she did not, in fact, win. So, she stood up and clapped, although still looking a little miffed/embarrassed. Well, what do you know, the next day the internet is tearing her apart and making fun of the face she made when she thought she had it and then realized she didn’t. She became a gif, a meme, everything. I have seen the waves of irrational, baseless and crude hatred and bullying of her on the internet over the years and that, to me, was the worst. UNFORGIVABLE! So, anyway, it didn’t win the award, but fans and music critics unanimously agree that it should have. Speak Now might be the fan favorite album, due to the attachment to the Speak Now Era, but we all agree that Red is her best work. Alrighty, let’s dive in! Finally, right?!

 16.  I Knew You Were Trouble: “Flew me to places I’d never been,  ‘til you put me down.”

17.  Everything Has Changed ft. Ed Sheeran: “All I feel in my stomach is butterflies, the beautiful kind, makin’ up for lost time, taking flight making me feel like I just wanna know you better.” *Taylor and Ed are best friends in real life. They claim they wrote this song whilst having In n Out burgers on her trampoline in the backyard. I believe them.*

18.   Treacherous: “Nothing safe is worth the drive and I will follow you home.” *This song is cowritten and produced by Dan Wilson from Semisonic.*

19.  Sad Beautiful Tragic: “Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting, silence… the train runs off its tracks.”

20.  Red!!!!!!!!!: “Moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head, in burning red.”

21.  Holy Ground: “We took off faster than a green light go, yeah you skip the conversation when you already know.”

22.  All Too Well: “I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it.” *The original version of this song is over ten minutes long. This is, unanimously, Taylor’s best song of all time. Check any list by any critic and this song will be at the #1 spot. I think, for me, Red and All Too Well are tied for favorites.*

23.  Begin Again: “You throw your head back laughin’ like a little kid. I think it’s strange that you think I’m funny, ‘cause he never did.”

24.  The Last Time ft. Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol: “You wear your best apology, but I was there to watch you leave.”

 1989: “I wrote about moving to the loudest and brightest city in the world, the city I had always been overwhelmed by… until now. I think you have to know who you are and what you want in order to take on New York and all its blaring truth. I wrote about the thrill I got when I finally learned that love, to some extent, is just a game of cat and mouse. I wrote about looking back on a lost love and understanding that nothing good comes without loss and hardship and constant struggle. There is no ‘riding off into the sunset’, like I used to imagine. We are never out of the woods, because we are always going to be fighting for something. I wrote about love that comes back to you just when you thought it was lost forever, and some feelings never go out of style. I wrote about an important lesson I learned recently… that people can say whatever they want about me, but they can’t make me lose my mind. I’ve learned how to shake things off. I’ve told you my stories for years now. Some have been about coming of age, some have been about coming undone. This is a story about coming into your own, and as a result… coming alive.” Oh man. I have a lot of feelings about this one, too. And not the good kind. Let’s start with facts. 1989 is Taylor’s fifth album and was released in the fall of 2014. There are 13 songs. And that’s it for the facts, because now I’m going to dive into my feelings and opinions about this one. Which are basically facts, but anyway... So, like I said previously, Taylor did not win AOTY for Red and that bothered her. She went home to her hotel room, gorged herself on In n Out burgers, and cried (Dramatic much?!? It’s okay though ‘cause it was a rough night. And I’m not making this up, she really told us that’s how the night went down. POOR TAY!). Next thing you know, she wakes up in the middle of the night with an epiphany that she is going to make a sonically cohesive pop album. She said the problem with Red was that it wasn’t “sonically cohesive”. Swifties hate the word sonically cohesive. It hurts me that I am even typing it. If you are in my presence do not say the word sonically cohesive, okay? Moving on. In a way, she was right. Red WASN’T sonically cohesive, but that’s kind of what we loved about it. Every song on Red sounds exactly like the feeling the lyrics portray. We didn’t think it was an issue. But Taylor wanted to hone in on a specific sound and perfect that and keep things neat and clean. And, of course, that sound was going to be pop. EXCEPT SHE’S ALWAYS BEEN POP BUT SURE. So, Taylor decides to try 80s synth pop (I guess?) and go with that. And so 1989 is born. Look, I love the narrative and inspiration behind 1989. I am really inspired by the prologue I shared up there. It was all about independence and friendships and not needing a man because she had stopped dating. But she also said she had to stop dating because the hate got so bad. So, the whole single life thing was kind of forced on her, but whatever, she embraced it. Except we all know she wasn’t *really* single (Hello Karlie Kloss!!). When the first single from 1989, Shake It Off, came out, I cried incessantly. I was inconsolable, and my friend’s dad had to make us grilled cheeses to cope. Shake It Off never grew on me, and to this day it’s my least favorite Taylor song EVER (it’s borderline unbearable), but the rest of the album did grow on me. To a degree. The problem with 1989 is that a handful of the songs are incredible, and the rest feel incomplete/watered down/like filler. I feel like she really worked to perfect a few of the songs and geared them in a way to be popular on radio, and the rest were afterthoughts. 1989 is the only Taylor album where the best songs were chosen as singles (except for Shake It Off). With Taylor’s albums, usually the best songs feel like hidden gems because they’re never chosen for radio, and so the public doesn’t know about them. I’m happy that everyone got to enjoy her songs from 1989, but it also felt like there was nothing left over for the fans that felt special. The best songs on 1989 ended up overplayed and overdone. 1989 is the first tour I did not attend. I can be honest with you and say I regret that. 1989 isn’t a bad album, it’s a good album, but as far as Taylor’s work goes, it’s just not the best. But it did win Album of the Year in 2016, making her the first woman to win that award TWICE.  To go a little deeper, it wasn’t even so much the 1989 album that I disliked, I think it was more the Era/Taylor in general during 1989 that didn’t jive with me. She got obsessed with appearance, and status, and there were some strange business dealings that left fans feeling used and abused. Before 1989, Taylor felt like the “girl next door” (I do realize she’s a celebrity and not the girl next door at all, but her perfected relatability factor became part of her marketing image), but during 1989 Taylor threw that all away to be #squadgoals with the Victoria’s secret models. Whatever, it was a strange time. Glad that is over. ALSO, listen to Ryan Adams cover of this album. It’s better than the OG at times. Aight aight, let’s dig into these sick beats (ugh).

25.  Welcome to New York: “When we first dropped our bags on apartment floors, took our broken hearts, put them in a drawer. Everybody here was someone else before, and you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls.” *Taylor moved to NYC the summer gay marriage was legalized in New York. Thanks for the shoutout Tay.*

26.  I Know Places: “Just grab my hand and don’t ever drop it, my love. They are the hunters, we are the foxes, and we run.”

27.  Clean!!!!!!: “It was months and months of back and forth, you’re still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore.” *Despite 1989 being my least favorite album, this song is one of my all-time favorites. It’s brilliant how she compares a relationship to an addiction. And Imogen Heap comes through for some dope ass background vocals.*

28.   Out of the Woods: “The monsters turned out to be just trees, when the sun came up you were looking at me.” *Ryan Adams cover is amazing, and so is an acoustic piano version Taylor did for the Grammy museum. Check youtube.*

29.  You Are In Love: “You keep his shirt, he keeps his word.”

30.  Style: “I say ‘I’ve heard that you’ve been out and about with some other girl. He said ‘What you heard is true, but I can’t stop thinkin’ ‘bout you.” I said ‘I’ve been there too, a few times.’”

31.  Wildest Dreams: “You see me in hindsight, tangled up with you all night, burning it down. Someday when you leave me I hope these memories follow you around.”

32.  This Love: “Tossing, turning, struggled through the night with someone knew… Lantern burning, flickered in my mind for only you, but you were still gone and gone, gone and gone.”

 Reputation: “We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them they have chosen to show us. We know our friend in a certain light, but we don't know them the way their lover does. Just the way their lover will never know them the same way that you do as their friend. Their mother knows them differently than their roommate, who knows them differently than their colleague. Their secret admirer looks at them and sees an elaborate sunset of brilliant color and dimension and spirit and pricelessness. And yet, a stranger will pass that person and see a faceless member of the crowd, nothing more. We may hear rumors about a person and believe those things to be true. We may one day meet that person and feel foolish for believing baseless gossip. This is the first generation that will be able to look back on their entire life story documented in pictures on the internet, and together we will all discover the after-effects of that. Ultimately, we post photos online to curate what strangers think of us. But then we wake up, look in the mirror at our faces and see the cracks and scars and blemishes, and cringe. We hope someday we'll meet someone who will see that same morning face and instead see their future, their partner, their forever. Someone who will still choose us even when they see all of the sides of the story, all the angles of the kaleidoscope that is you.” Last album?!? I can’t believe we’re here already! Reputation, Taylor’s 6th album, was released in the fall of 2017 and consists of 15 tracks. At the start, reputation was a wild ride. During the 1989 Era, Taylor managed to crawl out of the pit of hate and despair that the Red Era brought, and she soared to popularity. I’ve noticed this happens with Taylor, the love/hate comes in waves. One day everyone loves her again, and then the next they hate her. During 1989 Taylor was flying high. Highest grossing tour, AOTY, “dating” (I have to put that in quotes, but that’s a whole other can of worms) Calvin Harris… but, nothing good can last forever, and so literally everything fell apart. Messy break up with Calvin, even messier drama with Kimye (can’t even get into that). Things weren’t going so well. Taylor had reached overexposure and she went into hiding for almost a year. No performances, no candid shots, no interviews, no mags, nothing. She usually releases a new album like clockwork every two years, but she skipped her typical release season and tacked on another year to the wait. Well, while she was hiding, Taylor was doing what she does best.. making music. At some point during the summer Taylor put all of her music back on streaming accounts, and so I knew then that something was brewing. She finally announced the name of the album and released the first single, “Look What You Made Me Do”. The day she dropped “Look What You Made Me Do” was one of the craziest days for just about everyone, let alone Swifties. It felt like the world was literally collapsing over this song. The internet was breaking. A few people loved it right away, some people thought she had cracked and was finally losing her damn mind, and I was just confused and depressed. The day it was released I spent a large portion of the day crying. I cried and clutched onto my 1989 CD (but I never even liked 1989 that much… which shows how much I was worried….) But, before I knew it, I was bopping along to the song and loved it like the rest. And once the music video came out, I realized that everything was going to be okay. If you haven’t seen the music video, you need to. It’s iconic. It broke Youtube’s record for most views in 24 hrs. A few more songs came out before album release and I wasn’t *that* crazy about most of them. Turns out that reputation is like all of Taylor’s albums before 1989, the best songs were not released as singles. Back 2 Basics, guys. The fans get everything, and everyone else gets the scraps. When the album finally did come out I was overjoyed. Now let’s see why!

33.  Delicate: “Is it cool that I said all that? Is it chill that you’re in my head? ‘Cause I know that it’s delicate.”

34.  Getaway Car: “I wanted to leave him, I need a reason.” *Jack Antonoff produced this song and many others on reputation. We are #blessed. I recently read somebody say that Jack has a stranglehold on pop music. I WISH!!*

35.  Dancing With Our Hands Tied: “I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us.” *Beginning at some point in 2014, Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift entered a torrid love affair. It’s possible they are still together today. That’s a discussion for a later date. Anyway, this song is definitely about her. Funny how some people think Taylor hates gay people (why?) when really she writes songs for them. Thanks Tay.

36.  Dress: “I woke up just in time, now I wake up by your side.” *Also for Karlie.*

37.  Call It What You Want!!!!: “I brought a knife to a gun fight, they took the crown but it’s alright.”

38.  I Did Something Bad: “They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one, so light me up.”

39.  Don’t Blame Me: “For you I would fall from grace just to touch your face. If you walk away, I’d beg you on my knees to stay.”

40.  King of My Heart: “I’m perfectly fine, I live on my own. I made up my mind, I’m betting off being alone. We met a few weeks ago, now you try on calling me baby like trying on clothes.”

41.  New Year’s Day: “You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi. I can tell that it’s gonna be a long road. I’ll be there if you’re the toast of the town babe, or if you strike out and you’re crawling home.”

Spotify link:  https://open.spotify.com/user/22xaifvaciqklwgcnidnxuuhq/playlist/7ssFqGusg3Sf1sPe5cS7hR

#taylor swift #fearless #reputation #1989 #speak now #red #taylor

[galadrieljones]

Music Shuffle

Thanks for the tag, @fatale-distraction ^.^

Put a playlist on shuffle and list 10 songs that come up. I’ll use my playlist for The Dead Season since it’s pretty long at this point, and also follow in fatale’s footsteps and provide a small bit of explanation for each. Here’s a link to the whole playlist on Spotify. 

1. Missing the War by Ben Folds Five

I was listening to this song a lot while writing and contemplating Solas’s initial sort of “break” from repression. It has a lot of beauty and pain and resignation about it. It’s a man at the end of his rope, and he knows it, but he may feel he’s doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Yet it is not bereft of hope, re: the final chord, which is in a sort of surprising major key.

2. The One Who Stayed and the One Who Left by Regina Spektor

This song represents really just...me, and my characterization of Solas. The Dead Season went through a major shift, planning-wise, somewhere right around the Crestwood chapters. This is when I realized that Solas would never leave, that this was a story about some version of Solas who stays, who sort of just...gives in to happiness? He allows himself to become both a loyal friend and like, a sort of tirelessly earnest lover, and he finally accepts that it’s okay for him to want these sorts of things, and that they are enough.

3. South Tacoma Way by Neko Case

This song is for Ghilan’nain. Much of what it refers to in my mind happens off-stage in TDS and is only alluded to in passing or via implication. I view it as her sort of backwards mind during the middle of the Great War, mourning Solas as she once knew him, and their old life together. The death of a country childhood, the death of home and safety. I won't go into any more detail so as to avoid spoilers.

4. 20 Years of Snow by Regina Spektor

This song is for Sene. Sene is always sort of halfway out the door, in a lot of ways, and with everything but Solas. He’s kind of the only thing she’s ever been sure about. This is a song about a girl who seems innocent to the failings of the world but who is actually being eaten up inside, who wants to escape. It also just sort of sounds like how I feel the inside of Sene’s mind sounds: somehow both sad and frenetic. 

5. The Swiss Army Romance by Dashboard Confessional

This song just captures the theme of wasted youth that I go after quite a lot in TDS. I view and sort of write about Inquisition as this dark times summer camp, in which all of these damaged children are coming together to save each other’s souls. I capture most of these characters as very young: Sene is only 20, Solas is 30, Abelas is 25, Morrigan is 32, Cullen is 32, Sera is 22, Bull is 28, Dorian is 30. While the lyrics of this song have very little to do with anything the theme and the rush of it just got into my head in this perfect way. Grow up fast is repeated multiple times in the end, and the song makes a huge emphasis on young people who sort of play with fire in ways they should not.

6. Middle Cyclone by Neko Case

This song just reminded me of Solas. There is a lot of relevant imagery, including bells and foundries and wells. I feel like, by the end, however, this song applies less. The key lyric is: So I choke it back, how much I need love. I’m not sure Solas is choking back much of anything anymore. Certainly not this.

7. Vengeance is Sleeping by Neko Case

This is a song for Solas as a younger man. It sort of tells the story of him and Mythal, though a lot of it is just me internalizing the themes and applying them impressionistically in my brain. This song is sort of written as a conversation, in which neither person seems to understand the other in ways that ultimately doom their relationship. The opening verse also just reminds me so much of Solas as a teenager, the first time I stumbled upon it I sort of lost my breath.

8. Cologne by Ben Folds

I really like this song because it sounds very blue, and like all of Ben Folds’s songs, it captures this willful resignation and mundane self-loathing that I feel applies to Solas quite often, especially in the latter half of the work. At some point, Sene observes that Solas lives in a natural state of “losing.” He expects anyone he loves to either leave him or die, so he can be fast to dramatics, and to give up on himself. This song is an ode to the moment he thinks Sene is leaving him. But like, once he fucks up enough times, he starts to actually look around and realize that like, people are sort of staying? And not dying? For once? This is the thing that changes him in the end, it just takes a...while to crack the shell.

9. Don’t Forget Me by Neko Case

This song is just about the great big expansive blue nothing of time. Don’t forget me. People come and go, they’re born, they die. It’s all going on forever and there’s nothing we can do about it so just like...live. And love. Don’t forget the past, but don’t let it rule you either. This is all like a huge running theme in TDS that is finally now starting to, at least in my brain, take shape.

10. Star Witness by Neko Case

This song is for Solas and Mythal and very much captures the violence and fucked-up nature of the Great War and the unruly lawlessness of Arlathan. This song is full of drugs and car crashes and murder, and at its center is a young woman both morning her lover and also begging for his life. Don’t let him die, she says. I won’t go into the specifics of this song and how it fits in my mind, so as to avoid spoilers. If you want more, you can let me know. :-) Objectively, this is also one of my favorite songs in the entire world. @wrenbee can attest to its greatness.

tagging @wrenbee @ladydracarysao3 @bearlytolerable @tel-abelas-mofo @kaoruyogi @fadedforyou @elfsplaining @the-emerald-halla @littleblue-eyedbird @priderising @thevikingwoman and anyone who sees this and wants to do it!! Also you don’t have to do a playlist that pertains to any writing or anything in particular I would just be interested in the kind of music you like as well and what it means to you <3

#music shuffle #the dead season #the dead season playlist #playlist