#(goodness. you know it's bad when I'm going 'this artist's discography is the only thing that accurately reflects my emotional state')

[musical-chick-13]

...Well. The relief at Getting Through My Birthday (and thus having only One Major Event Day left to get through) has worn off, and I am thinking too hard about the nature of human connection again.

[maanvinderpilania]

1989 tv (my version)

a year ago, i woke up in the morning with a notification that said "your pre-saved album 1989 (Taylor's Version) is available for listen now" and that really made my day. Just like every other fan i was so excited to listen the production on some of my favorite songs and obviously from the vault tracks. I still can't believe, it's been a year already. I remember i was preparing for a big goal and after a year that goal had lost in time like a ship lost in the fog. it's excruciating but writing isn't. writing is my biggest power and so this post is result of it because i wanted to share my views and ofcourse my playlist!!

If i talk about my favorite tracks off the album then I certainly doesn't wanna talk about bank space and shake it off because it only makes you feel old. they're 10 years old songs and one of the biggest hit of this century. everyone knows about them and judge her entire discography saying "all her songs sounds like shake it and off and blank space" when they barely knows her 10 songs. Plus the scenario she only writes about her exes. this is some old age shit. every other artists write about them but they don't have any problem with them as they seem "authentic" wtf. okay two of my favorite songs from this album are This Love and All You Had to Do Was Stay. Let’s start with This Love. The best part of the song that I believe in my opinion is its intro. And the part from “in silence screams, in wildest dreams, I never dreamed of this” always makes me emotional. The second song from this album that is always stuck in my head is AYHTDWS and I believe the best part of the song is also in the intro, “all I know is that you drove us off the road” and then the “stay, hey all you had to do was stay…..”. And how can I forget about the style and its intro plus the out of the woods bridge. this whole album is flawless.

If you ask me about the other songs, then I would say Clean and You are In Love. It’s not I don’t like the remaining songs, I like them but these are the ones that are stuck inside my head and I keep hearing them. I love the idea of Clean and YAIL because one is about getting over someone and moving on and another one is about falling for someone’s charm. And the best part of Taylor’s Version is that we get to re-live those eras and for those of you thinking that they are the same albums so they must sound same but no they don’t. You can clearly tell which is Taylor’s Version(TV) and which is original. And make sure you stream Taylor’s Version only because these are the albums that mother has masters of, in simple terms right over her work. I can write a whole research paper on her songwriting but I'm limiting my words here.

Moving forward, another good thing about Taylor's Version is that you get to listen never heard before songs because they didn’t made the final cut at the time of the production of original album. I don’t know why they didn’t let her release those songs. I’m happy she has signed to a label which believes in her and now mother is the CHAIRMAN. She gets to decide what she wanna release and what she doesn’t. So yeah, those unreleased songs are called “From The Vault” tracks because they are deep in the vault waiting for her to unlock. So far, she has released 26 of these tracks on different re-records of like Fearless TV, Red TV, Speak Now TV and now the 1989 TV. 1989 TV has a total of 5 “From The Vault” tracks and they are:- Is It Over Now?, Now That We Don’t Talk, Slut, Suburban Legends, Say Don’t Go. And to be honest none of these Vault tracks are so called “bad, worst, too much songs,” as the haters would describe.. They are so addictive thanks to the bridge of these songs. You just cannot compare these tracks with each other. So yeah, that week was pretty amazing, the excitement that comes from the release of new music by your favorite artist is different and also the happiness of someone getting right over their own work is just amazing. What made the release week more interesting and amazing was not just the feeling and excitement you get from thinking about the release of the 1989 tv but also that Taylor dropping the Cruel Summer [Live From The Eras Tour] version. It was all what i needed at a time when I couldn't go to the eras tour as she is neither coming to India and also you are not rich enough to buy her concert's ticket. So you don’t feel left out and can scream the cruel summer bridge all you want. I also love the feature that Taylor did to generate your own 1989 covers and i enjoyed playing the puzzle she released in collaboration with the Google. One more thing about this Album & Taylor that i love is how Taylor never let anyone look down on her. Life is not easy for me. She gives me the confidence to be who i want to be because 'Haters gonna hate hate hate, baby i'm just gonna shake shake shake!' I cannot wait for debutation 🐍💚 happy 1y of 1989 tv 🩵

[sergeifyodorov]

I just reread strange trails and I'd love to know your inspirations for it! Your ideas behind the worldbuilding, the genesis of the plot, all that good stuff if you'd like to share!

the backstory

im a college student and was unemployed all summer. in order to pass the time while waiting for local jobs to reject me i started a crochet project. throughout pretty much the entire month of june. and possibly also may. i would make my squares and listen to the strange trails album. straight through. every day. i may have gone a little bit insane.

but it's okay. i'm already insane.

lord huron (the band who made the album) has like. lore. am i familiar with this lore? no i am not. am i aware nonetheless that there is lore? yes absolutely. if you listen to their discography there's definitely lore -- recurring themes (resurrection, adventuring, magical seductive women, etc), motifs (depends on the album but strange trails is big on flowers, trees, snow, although there is one song that's set in the desert), characters (they keep mentioning a guy called the world ender.) anyHway the point of all of this is that the music is [solid 7.5 out of 10 but it scratches my exact brain itches] and very evocative of the imagery and idea of a deeper world. my favourite off the album (and one of my favourites in the discography) is la belle fleur sauvage, which tells the listener about a long perilous quest for some mythical thing (a flower. also a woman. metaphor), although one of the ones whose imagery i enjoyed the most is frozen pines, which is a little less concrete but invokes images of cold, the side of a mountain, strange happenings, etc.

the idea

those songs are definitely the most direct inspiration for it but unfortunately my process for developing ideas is kind of terrible because it involves less "sitting down and coming up with stuff" and more "wait for a 60% formed idea to smack you upside the head like rapunzel in tangled and her cast-iron frying pan." which quinn and his sad little corpse did.

if you go back far enough in the quinnfic tag on my blog u can see the post right after it Happened. the idea was literally "quinn hughes carries a corpse up a mountain, and horror."

so i take this little piece of grit from which my pearl of questionable moral integrity will be built and i ask it questions. first off: quinn, why are you on that mountain? who is the corpse? is anyone else with you? soon enough petey decided to join him (although quinn is and was always the protagonist/pov character). the body was The Ghost Of Vancouver before it was brock over top of that.

another inspiration, which i realize i'm leaving out, is this

this is artist grayson perry's work "hold your beliefs lightly" from tomb of the unknown craftsman, and this image of a long perilous upward journey towards some sacred place really combined together with la belle fleur sauvage to form the base idea of the world for the work.

and of course why would you carry a corpse up a mountain to some sacred place if you couldn't resurrect it at the end?

quinn

im big on metaphor. if i'm writing something long it has to have a Point to it, some larger theme than romance and stuff (this is mostly because i'm bad at writing romance)(and also big on curses and the like.) and also because quinn hughes asexual barb i never fucked/i never fucked/all my life man, fucks sake. this was also being written right before the peak of Canucks Captaincy Debate, and in our hearts didn't we all know quinn was going to be the one to wear the c?

so it became pretty clear pretty quick that as well as my attempt at writing horror that this was going to be a quinn character study -- and this is where i should talk about my other fic scheherazade.

in scheherazade, auston actually doesn't make a lot of choices -- he tags along, arguing with the narrator/bill, and only starts to take an active role in the way the story is going near the end, when he finally gets sick of it all. quinn, however, is not at all the same kind of person as auston. he's less artistic and more practical; an older brother instead of a younger one; jewish; not nearly so squeamish. he takes an active role in the story from the very beginning, showing up to the base of the mountain with his pack full, both prepared and not for what lies ahead.

the mountain

vancouver is smack in the middle of the north shore mountains, so there's a million hiking trails about, but the one i can most easily think of (as someone who hasn't been to vancouver in several years) is the grouse grind trail, a popular and fairly short trail that the canucks prospects actually do every year, so i knew quinn and petey (both vancouver draftees) would be familiar. i've never actually done the grouse grind, which was part of the reason i decided to kind of. toy with reality. you can't call me out on inaccuracy when it's Not Real On Purpose (although the sign at the 1/4 mark is copied directly from photos i've seen.)

petey and the plot

once i added petey, i knew i'd have to get rid of him -- a lot of the scene ideas were quinn-only, and petey's way too sarcastic and useless (AFFECTIONATE) to engage seriously with the ideas presented to him like quinn would and did. so i needed to divide them up.

the original plot idea from the outline is actually pretty similar up until the end of chapter 6 (the conversation w the ghost), but it differs in a few crucial ways -- one, quinn breaks down again, crying and everything, and two, he actually does go through with the resurrection instead of using his wish to get petey down the mountain safely. i realized around then that this wouldn't work with the quinn i'd created, especially after his argument with the ghost: he's far less focused on glory than stability, less interested in the cup or his contract and more interested in the safe long bet than high rolling. in a cold, wet environment like the mountain it's a lot easier to get hypothermia without noticing than it is in a dry environment, even if the dry environment is several degrees colder than the wet one. and quinn would know that, having seen petey's thin little sweater and knowing his stubborn ass is going to freeze.

so after that it became about hypothermia. i actually had a bit of a writing pause after this because i knew i was going off-outline, so i had to kind of inch ahead until i knew where i was going. but i'm happy with how it turned out!

[wrongcaitlyn]

hellooo! ok this is quite a long message so i completely understand if it takes you a while to get to it / if you don't listen to all the songs - no pressure at all!!

i have given you song recs before but i cannot stop obsessively thinking about your fic and so i wanted to share more ✨nico di angelo songs ✨ (or at least ones i think would fit interestingly)

firstly!! 'everything to help you sleep' by julien baker (i reccomended one of her songs last time to but they're all so nda coded) and this one fits esp with the recent chapter where nico had a nightmare. it has quite religious themes but feels a lot like it could be him talking to bianca 'thought i made out your reply / the seconds between sound and light' and 'if i scream a little louder, i know you would have heard it'. her song 'turn out the lights' also has a similar idea of not being able to keep away nightmares (that one is a bit more self-deprecating though - but also one id highly recommend!!)

and more by her!! 'good news' is from her first album and i love it a lot - it doesn't fit perfectly but some lyrics really do - 'your long hair, a short walk / my biggest fear and a slow watch' and then straight after 'always scared that every situation ends the same' only for the song to end with 'i ruin everything i think could be good news'

and then 'repeat' (still jb) is also very nico to me and maybe aimed more at will? 'say i miss you like a mantra til i forget what it means / doesn't matter what you tell me i just need to hear you speak' - i feel like it kind of has that same of theme of how nico feels like bad things will just keep happening to him over and over again.

also!! this might not fit super well as a nico song but 'cartwheel' by lucy dacus is so so so solangelo to me (my goal in life is to write a will solace-centric fic called 'skin scarred and sun-kissed lol) especially in your universe with nico's father - not so much the second verse though.

okay then 'dream state...' by lucy dacus could potentially be a devestating nico song about bianca. i mean it literally begins with 'we woke up to the thunder' 'and then the water came / and washed it all away' and then she says 'without you i am surely the last of our kind' (this song also has a sequel in '...familiar place')

then (final song lol) 'keep the rain' by searows (he even has a song called haunted which is also kind of nico and i thought was a funny parallel) feels very much like nico + therapy + talking to will: 'i don't know what steps to take / i do the easy ones until it helps' and then THE RAIN MOTIF comes through again 'when you keep the rain from coming'

and i would just overall highly recommend listening to lucy dacus and julien baker!! i love them both so much as artists + they both have some of the best lyricism i have seen + their work is just very masterful

ok thank you for letting me take up your time and babble on so much!! <333

I THINK YOURE THE ANON WHO GAVE ME THE RECS OF ITLL ALL WORK OUT AND FAVOR AND JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I'VE EXTENDED NDA3 FOR THOSE SONGS. THANK YOU FOR THE RECSKDSF AHH

okay now onto these!!

everything to help you sleep is SO nico oh my god 😭 can never have enough religious imagery and the "if you scream a little louder, i know you would have heard" is making me think specifically of smth in nda3 and AHGLSKDF this is so perfect omg😭 i NEED to listen to julien baker's discography istg i will at some point

turn out the lights is also. so. oh my goddksjf "is it real or a dream? which is worse?" and "i just wanted to go to sleep" is so😭 i wanna cry ik i put this angst on nico so really i'm the only one to blame but like this is so so perfect and fitting :((

and honestly i think those lyrics you quoted from good news was able to convince me on it's own but then i listened and looked at the lyrics and "when i stay up and throw my voice about you or less about you and more about how i ruin" is just SO him like going to the studio late at night all the time and justGOD THIS SONG IS SO PERFECT😭 it's literally just him constantly getting his hopes up that that's the last time and then these things keep happening to him and ahgskdf :((

(sorry i'm so incoherent i'm having a hard time conveying how much i love these in ways other than keysmashes)

anon. you recommended repeat. and then i searched it up and looked at the lyrics and listened to the song. and then i saw "ALL MY GREATEST FEARS TURN OUT TO BE THE GIFT OF PROPHECY". WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCKJSKGJASKLJTLAWE

sorry i need to find a way to include that somewhere ANON YOU'VE GIVEN ME TOO MANY GOOD SONGSJSDFDS i love this one so much😭😭

honestly cartwheel to me seems so will pov but also both of them like "and i remember when you used to call holed up in the closet in the hall scared you wouldn't live to 45 the same age as your father when he died" is so😭😭 i love this </33

(also i would 100% read a fic called skin scarred and sun-kissed)

dream state IS THE BIANCA AND NICO SONG WTFSKJDFD the lyrics you quoted are literally so so fitting and HEARTBREAKING but that's just the way it is with bianca tbh (also i'm a sucker for repeat lyrics so i love that ending with the slow build and the production and ahhh)

RAIN MOTIFS. WHENEVER RAIN IS MENTIONED IN A SONG I IMMEDIATELY THINK NICO AND THIS ONE IS SOOO AHGSDHF

you're so right with the "i don't know what steps to take i do the easy ones until it helps" it's literally him :// this is perfect😭

and i most DEFINITELY HAVE TO listen to julien and lucy bc like. those songs hit so hard. i swear i'll get around to it at some point i have so many artists i've been meaning to listen to and then i just go and listen to ttpd for the 35023809328th time😭

thank you so so much for the recs!! now to once again rearrange nda3

[stfrancisprayer]

hello again parm, tis I, your secret santa! I've returned to ask another question of you so without further ado...🥁🥁🥁🥁

I would love to know who your favorite/top however many you choose musical artists are your favorite and if you have a specific song by them, what is it and why?

I hope you're having a wonderful November!

-secret Santa gifter ✨

secret santa oh my goodness...your message comes to me like a soft breeze on a summer day.... 🫶

i love you because you always ask the kind of questions i could sit and run my mouth about for HOURS in real life. i'm blowing you a virtual kiss right now i hope you recieve it...here are some of my faves in no particular order <3

💙luis miguel - 80s/90s latin pop el rey luismi. MY rey luismi. a staple in mexican music. i saw him live just this past year and that is like my ULTIMATE bragging right. he's been putting out hits FOREVER but his golden run was during the 80s and 90s. my absolute favorite album of his is 20 años!! i have the physical CD and i've been trying to get my hands on a vinyl. banger after banger on that album but i think my favorite would be a tie between oro de ley and hoy el aire huele a ti. my favorite album to perform in the shower.

❤️ red velvet - kpop/krnb i WISH i WISH i WISH i can see them live sometime soon but unfortunatley that does not seem likely :( they came to a city near me back in like 2019 for the redmare tour and my ultimate mistake was not going. my favorite album of theirs is perfect velvet. dont get me wrong i love the "bad boy" repackage but this was a GENERATIONAL album. like their discography is so freaking impressive but they will never ever top this album it's that good. my favorite song from that album (and probably in my top 3 red velvet songs ever!!) is kingdom come.

🩵 hall and oates - rock if there is one thing i am it is a HALL AND OATES GIRL!!! oh my goodness. my favorite 80s band ever no question no contest. again such a giant list of great great albums and great great songs so when i have to pick a favorite i tell people my favorite is the very best of dary hall and john oates album. i like that album but if i could add two songs to it it would definitely be "every time you go away" and "she's gone". my favorite hall and oates pick would have to be say it isn't so.

🤍newjeans - k-pop i cannot believe i almost posted this WITHOUT newjeans thank god i remembered!!!! i think there's only one or two newjeans songs i'm not partial to and even then, objectively, they are good as hell. my favorite favorite newjeans ep would be the ditto/omg ep but SPECIFICALLY ditto. oh my god. like how do i even describe this song. the feeling that i get while listening? hooooold on. hold on. i need to lay down for a second. and it's winter so it's DITTO SEASON!!! NO I WILL NOT SHUT UP!!!!

i am sending you my vibes during this lovely extended holiday season secret santa bestie slay, and wherever you are i hope you are doing well!!!!

[crguang]

Oh my- say less lmao

Just to preface tho, DPR is more of a collective of artists instead of it just being one person, there's a lot of people working there and it includes camera crew, video editors, etc etc.. The artists are DPR IAN, DPR LIVE (he's on hiatus tho, rn he's posting music under his actual name and letting it all out), DPR CREAM and recently DPR ARTIC. I lowkey stan all of them but they all have very different and unique styles !

I do have a DPR Spotify playlist (i call it a playlist but it's just all of their music as a collective that I like lmao) but it might be a tad overwhelming since it includes basically everyone... I could send it to you but lmk anyway haha

Instead I'll recommend one song from each that I love and you can check them out that way, they also have INCREDIBLE music videos (more often than not directed by DPR IAN cause that man just left no talent for anyone else in this world) so here goes :

DPR IAN - So beautiful (nightmare to pick only one cause I love his entire discography but this is his debut song and probably my favorite if I was held at gunpoint and had to choose)

https://youtu.be/7QQzDQceGgU?si=nTgQpNQGam2i8FFG

DPR LIVE - Summer tights (this man is more of a rapper and I love love love his style)

https://youtu.be/00uzprkOeJQ?si=FX7ozTBn5EnIsJ6t

DPR CREAM - Color drive (no fucking clue how to describe this but yes please, more of this haha)

https://youtu.be/5atLlEdvjV0?si=ZNOxzLWQCThdlA3h

DPR ARTIC - Do or die (He's lowkey a DJ, I don't think he ever sings himself but he's kinda new so I don't know much about him yet)

https://youtu.be/fg_VkkPlPzk?si=wVB1-raGl8B15xom

God I yapped so fucking much I'm sorry lmfao I'm just very passionate about them and I get excited when people show interest dont' feel forced to listen to these lmao

-🔥

omg thats such a fun concept though. i was confused as to how there were so many DPR artists and whether or not it was the same person doing different things so im happy to know! i wanna get into DPR IAN because hes coming to my city and my cousins want me to go see him with them so i wanna know at least some of his discography if i end up going.

i listened to ‘so beautiful’ it’s really good😭 i dont think theres been one song from him that ive listened to that ive disliked so far. i’ll definitely listen to the other recs, i asked for them so don’t feel bad about yapping this is a safe space for yappers‼️ and you included the links too, this is SERIOUS! if you wanna share your playlist id be very happy hehehe

[rlvaille]

O get what you're saying about ateez's music changing because, while I absolutely adore the world ep 1 and 2 (i think i had an epiphany listening to dune for the first time but i know that the very reasons I love it is why others don't like it that much), ep fin and golden hour are the albums that I enjoy the least in their discography, by far. I see everyone cheering about blind and how it's arriba's sister and how much they love the latin influence and I was just hoping for something different I guess. It's kind of funny because I'm spanish, I should be more excited that they are incorporating bits of spanish in their songs but, in general I don't like latin music, it becomes very repetitive very fast. That's just my taste, I don't think the songs are bad, in fact I enjoy the humor?? i guess?? of work. But, for example, while siren is my favourite song in the album (together with empty box) when I saw the name I thought it was the other siren you know, like the mythical kind, and that it would be more of a halazia type of song. I know I sound so pessimistic but I promise overall I liked the album, it's just that I got into ateez because of songs like answer, good lil boy and treasure and this is very different. But I understand that they are not going to always keep the same sound, and that's just the thing about following an artist's career, they are going to experiment with sounds and sometimes you enjoy the change and other times you wish they had kept their old sound.

All you said is very valid, i can't really express myself on latin music i don't know it all that well but you're making good points, and i'm still excited and curious about what they will do next, they always manage to keep me interested bc they're so endearing to me personality wise and they're the only kpop group i've followed almost from the beginning without falling out of love with them at some point so i'm thankful for that

[itsstraykids]

hello! hope ur doing well! i love reading ur answers and getting to know more abt u sm! its just amazing how days go by so quickly and busily like u blink and suddenly its 4 of them passed already! apologies! unlike u, im still infant-level fan to kpop (got pulled by skz) and being as hyperfocused on skz as i was, dont know any other kpop groups like i do skz sadly, but i do love music! i love shinee's stuff sm!!! and my best friend really likes xdinary heroes so im getting into them too! and txt just have some of the funnest bsides so their discography gets scoured too lmao. i just dont know any grps members or anything well, but yeah! like u said, lots of good music raining down. i will never understand ppl's bias against non native language songs-esp when they like english stuff and its not their mother tongue!-bcs kpop has such a range. so many interesting sounds, artists and genres!! from past year ive really found myself drawn to soft-ish(?) k-indie/rock a lot! u asked for newer artists (ik so less abt bands. this is a personal failure</3) some of my favorites i think are: lee go do, mingginyu, nerd connection! akmu, heo hoy kyung, se seo neon, etc etc just lots of solo lowkey artists and songs lmao. there's smth abt the lapping continuity of soft sounds and forming of language like that which enthralls me a lot. i really adore loud and wonderful girl group songs as well!! i listen to girl groups a whole lot more than bgs which is surprising bcs i love skz, but their immaculate energy and style! really love aespa, rv, loona! stayc, twice, billie, izone and others! do u listen to lucy the band? their stuff's really fun as well! i rambled sm lmao but yeah. music is so exciting in so many aspects its amazing. i love listening to a lot of languages and genres too! mostly bcs my brain's engagement is a pinball game and i am keeping it amused with fifty different things at the same time. which is why i just have a lot of recs for songs but none for artists bcs i collect and find interesting stuff but get obsessed easily, which makes it difficult to get into every artist particularly. would love to trade playlists or songs once this secret santa is over if ud be comfortable with that! (no pressure genuinely!) thank u for reading and indulging me! its funny how everything is still so busy even tho we here dont celebrate christmas that extensively like the west at all (asian!) holidays are holidays tho i guess lmao. hope u have lots of fun sweets and gifts well wishes and rest and reprieve!! stay safe!!

ps- top 3 artists?? that i found and fell in love with so bad this year?? would be youra! yukika and ahn ye eun! and now i dont know how much any of the artists song would be up your alley but im vibrating to recommend them to everybody so bad but id recommend mimi, raww from youra; neon 1989, soul lady, pit-a-pet (or any! she's amazing) from yukika; and burn like a star, full bloom, night flower, moon during the day or any! (im just. obsessed with her voice and how she likes doing her music smm) from ahn ye eun! u dont even have to listen to these if u dont want to, i just wanted to share lmao. do u have some particular artists whose sound u adore to unseeming degrees? also! fav japanese artists(if any)? ! im always on lookout for new music!! have a good day!!!

hi!! sorry again for answering this so late, like you said, the days go by in a flash lmao. thank you so much for those recommendations, i'm excited to check them out!! once i have the time 😅 i think after christmas i’ll be doing a lot of chilling and art + new music will be perfect. i totally feel you on collecting songs over artists usually, i do the same because i find good songs randomly from cafes, movies, spotify recommended, etc. and just put them all into a playlist, lol. i would LOVE to trade playlists with you. anything you recommend will be much appreciated. i really need more indie recs and good gg songs, i only really know mamamoo but i think they’re great. i’ve heard some singles from the other groups you mentioned that i like a lot too but i don’t know any of their b-sides.

oh wow you’re located in asia? that’s very cool, is it hot there right now or are you more in the north? i’m in california so we don’t get very “wintery” vibes even in december, but it has been raining a bit which is really nice and refreshing. also, today is my birthday! so we had a really great banana cake my family made, and they also made an incredible brunch. we’re going ice skating in a little bit and then having a bonfire on the beach in the evening. hope you’re having a good day as well! merry christmas if you celebrate 🎅🎄✨💝

[terrainofheartfelt]

FOR THE BIG MUSIC ASK GAME LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸

Artists: Joni Mitchell, Taylor Swift, Queen, Frank Turner

Albums: Pretty. Odd, evermore, Nebraska, Blonde on Blonde

this ask feels like a homework essay question but like, in a subject I'm passionate about. so it's okay. daunting, but.

Joni:

Do I know them already?: yes | no

Favourite Song: A Case of You, it has to be!!!!

(okay but also there's a recording of her playing Chelsea Morning live at Carnegie Hall and it is ~magical~)

Least Favourite Song: I mean there isn't a song by her that I dislike, but maybe one I know that I listen to the least....Big Yellow Taxi. because it makes me sad. she warned us about paving paradise and we didn't listen!!!!!!

Favourite Album: Blue 💙💙💙💙💙

Least Favourite Album: idk a lot of her discography (Blue the album of my heart) but uhhhhh the orchestral funky Both Sides Now (I just like her better when it's just her and her dulcimer <3)

Song that got me into them: oh geez my mother's always loved her. so maybe...my mom singing Both Sides Now in the car?

Seen Live?: i WISH (gimme a time machine and I will just take it to the '70s to see bands & artists play in their prime)

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Taylor:

Do I know them already?: yes | no 

Favourite Song: legally I am required to say "ivy"

Least Favourite Song: Dancing with Our Hands Tied (because it was popular when I worked retail so I heard it wayyyyyyyyy too much and now I can't stand it. is it a good song? idk. because I have too much retail trauma to determine that.)

Favourite Album: right now, it's Reputation

Least Favourite Album: Speak Now, probably? It missed me, and I haven't sought it out on streaming bc Girl's pre-1989 singing voice just...doesn't do it for me.

Song that got me into them: pfffft probably "Our Song" in the year of our lord 2006. I remember logging onto the Yahoo music website in Internet Explorer to look up her music videos, because that's the only way I could listen to her music (without buying the cds, my allowance was designated to higher musical priorities back then.) but I didn't really consider myself a Fan until the Bad Blood music video.

Seen Live?: nope. I don't really want to either. I like her best in studio. or, ideal scenario, hearing her live in Long Pond Studio, but that seems a bit of a long shot

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 her songwriting is a ten her vocals are a 5

Queen:

Do I know them already?: yes | no 

Favourite Song: Somebody to Love!

Least Favourite Song: thee ummm. the bicycle one. ah damn, now it's in my head.

Favourite Album: okay so the thing about many of these bands that I grew up listening to is that I have like, a very limited concept of which albums are which, because I just absorbed them riding in the car with my dad or my mom. I'll say A Night at the Opera bc it's a great title :)

Least Favourite Album: uhhhhh anything they released after Freddie?

Song that got me into them: probably The Muppets music video of Bohemian Rhapsody?

Seen Live?: no, alas, but I have seen P!ATD cover Bohemian Rhapsody live

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 

Frank Turner:

Do I know them already?: yes | no 

Favourite Song: not a fair question. uhm mmmmmm...The Way I Tend to Be, Broken Piano, Isabel, Poetry of the Deed, To Take You Home, Josephine....I could go on

Least Favourite Song: motherfucker truly has soooo many songs and I know a lot of them but there are many I've haven't heard. maybe Common Ground. or Little Changes.

Favourite Album: England Keep My Bones

Least Favourite Album: Be More Kind

Song that got me into them: my big brother put Nashville Tennessee on a mix cd he made for my birthday when I was...13? and I've only become more and more obsessed.

Seen Live?: HELL YES. in college my brother and my x-tian sorority big (we're both atheists now lmao) and me roadtripped 3 hours to Dallas to see him on his tour for Tape Deck Heart. One of the best live shows I've seen. He just...comes ALIVE onstage. and we met him at stage door and I took a picture with him <3 I think (hope) I still have it somewhere. I was a music major and wanted to tell him how much his music meant to me but I think I was too starstruck to say anything other than "hiiiii" and "thank you!" also thee zaniest opening act I have ever seen I'll never forget it

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 

Pretty. Odd. it isn't my favorite album of theirs, but it is a masterpiece.

Opinion on cover design: LOVE. I really enjoy the old-timey circus van vibe, evocative of Magical Mystery Tour, which seems a heavy inspiration.

Favourite song: That Green Gentleman

Least favourite song: narrowwww question because I have a pretty equal fondness for all the songs. maybe, The Piano Knows Something I Don't

Underrated track: When the Day Met the Night & Folkin' Around

Overrated track: Nine in the Afternoon (even though I adore it but it gets much more hype than any other track)

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 

evermore undoubtedly her magnum opus. the best music she's ever written

Opinion on cover design: simple, effective, lovely, sets the mood and the tone of the album. and she has such a habit of...overdoing visuals? her last half dozen music videos or so have been like, baroque in how over the top their visual design. like, willow the video does not match how the song or the rest of the album feels. idk. the simplicity here works for me, but I think sometimes she can't let something Be.

Favourite song: I already said ivy above so....no body no crime

Least favourite song: cowboy like me (it's otherwise a great song, but i so dislike the opening stanza 'dancing is a dangerous game' mam. you can do better than that. you've a whole album of evidence.)

Underrated track: closure (a Banger)

Overrated track: champagne problems (not that it's not a good song but the way it's gotten so much love as the best song on the album when happiness is like literally right there) (happiness.mp3 & peace.mp3 supremacy)

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Nebraska

Opinion on cover design: as someone who's driven through nebraska, it's very accurate. it looks how nebraska feels. like, you're only there when you're on your way to someplace else. if liminal space was a US state it'd be Nebraska

Favourite song: oh fuck Reason to Believe

Least favourite song: Highway Patrolman

Underrated track: I mean the whole thing is underrated tbh.

Overrated track: see above. <3

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 

Blonde on Blonde

Opinion on cover design: those pursed lips....so Serious. I love a scarf moment. that look really is my aesthetic

Favourite song: RAINY DAY WOMEN but I also have a soft spot for OH. MAMA. can this really be the end? to be Stuck? inside? a Mobile? with the MEMPHIS BLUES again??? and Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat <3

Least favourite song: Visions of johanna. he can go ON about a bitch. I love him tho

Underrated track: I Want You, & You Go Your Way I Go Mine

Overrated track: is it possible to overrated a track on this album???

Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 

[seokwoosmole]

KAMP LA Day 1 Pros&Cons

This'll be a long one...

Cons (Let’s get those outta the way first)

-$50 parking?????

-Lines. For awhile there were like 6 of them cause no one knew where they were going or what they were supposed to do. I spent like half an hour w/ another fan just wandering around in different lines tryna find the right one until we did a full circle and went back to the line we were told to move from in the first place. Like why were there no signs whatsoever?? No workers stationed throughout the grounds to give instructions. Just eww.

-Maybe I was expecting too much from a company that couldn’t even get all of their booked artists to fly over but I was kinda hoping there’d be artist-specific merch or freebies. I would have even been happy with cheaply printed fake photocards :/

-P1Harmony & iKON should have had longer sets. I was a casual Piwon fan before KAMP but now I am srsly considering committing full-on. Their energy was soooo good, they have great live vocals & dancing, and every song they performed had me so hyped I totally would have wanted more. iKON. I practiced the Killing Me fanchant over and over only for them to not perform it?? I get opening with Sinosijak is basically tradition, Love Scenario is a must as the national anthem, Bling Bling was amazing, obviously gotta promote But You since it’s the newest, and I am a BDAY enthusiast but would I have preferred Killing Me, Freedom, or even Dragon? Absolutely. The set times were weird in general. T1419 was on stage for a very long time for a new group. I like them a lot but they performed like half of their discography. And Momoland seemed surprised that they were supposed to do another song. I don’t remember but I think it was Nancy that was like “oh we have another song?!” after they were ready to leave the stage. Then when iKON was on, they were tryna prolong their stage time by talking in between songs. Idk if SUJU got the amount of time they deserved but I really hope so since so many of their fans were there.

-That translator?? First of all, not 100% of my frustration goes to her since it seems like she’s not an actual translator but just a staff member of KAMP that was suddenly forced to be translator cause they probably didn’t have one. However, that still doesn't change the fact that she was...not the best. I don't speak Korean and I could still tell that she was not doing her job fully. There were moments when an artist would say like 5 sentences in Korean and the translator would be like "I'm so happy to be here, thank you". Like uhhhh I know for a fact that they said more than that and gave adequate pauses in between speaking to give room for the translator to talk. Also, asking T1419 who the best BTS impersonator is? What kind of question?? My memory is hazy, but I could have sworn there was a moment when the translator either dipped or just stopped talking, and T1419 were just trying to tough it through with their limited amount of English. I felt so bad for them, as this was their American debut and this is what they had to deal with. I noticed that besides Bobby, Jinhwan and from my memory, even Donghyuk a little bit, tried speaking more English, not relying on the translator too much as she wasn't translating everything they were saying, especially things in relation to the many mishaps going on. I also heard that one of the Super Junior members called out the translator for mistranslating what he said. I don't know if this was KAMP's weird attempt at censoring the artists' critiquing the organization, or if she just wasn't well-versed in translating – her grammar was off at times, making me wonder if she's just proficient in English and isn't actually fluent, which I am not blaming her for. But if that is the case, and the predominantly Korean-speaking artists can point out when there are flaws in the translation, then maybe KAMP should have actually had a professional translator prepared.

-I'm not elaborating on the obvious screwups of idk...half the artists not even being there and the lack of a sufficient apology and such cause idk what else I can say about that. I ended up requesting a refund for Day 2 because the artist I wanted to see most was MONSTA X, and even without them, T1419, MOMOLAND, and EPIK HIGH were up there, but I already saw T1419 and MOMOLAND on Day 1 so at that point, it just wasn't in my best interest financially to go. I think about how I at least got to see one of my ults, iKON, but a lot of people didn't even get that. I met someone in Koreatown who flew in from another state in the midwest JUST to see Kai. Like yeah, a refund is great (deserved tbh) but what about people's hotel expenses, gas costs, airfare, etc. Obviously KAMP isn't legally responsible for covering those, but on a moral front – all that money wasted because of a mistake KAMP made.

ANYWAY

Pros (Cause KAMP sucked but there people that showed up didn't)

-P1H's set was sooooooo good

-"When I say 'Kee', you say 'Ho'" and that bilingual joke. We love Keeho, bilingual king

-Oh yeah, P1H was great btw I may or may not be on my way to becoming a P1ece

-T1419 did amazing & congrats on their American debut! They seemed super nervous but for being so young they were great live performers. I'm definitely gonna keep supporting them.

-Also the collective 'ohhhhhh' from the crowd when they explained the meaning of their group name💀

-MOMOLAND has gained a new fan. Their type of music is usually not my cup of tea at all, but there's such an aesthetic appeal to the way they dance and their songs are so catchy I just loved every bit of their performance. Their stage presence is just AHH Exquisite. Also I could tell at parts they were being real sarcastic about the whole situation. The passive aggressive behavior was suuuuuper relatable and I adored it.

-iKON!!!!!!!!!! I can't even speak about it coherently yet. They were amazing. I love them. I loved them before. I love them even more now. Seeing them live is everything I imagined and more so. They didn't live up to the hype but exceeded it.

-Jinhwan shading the translator. Also him jumping as if to say "can y'all see me?" I love all 65 inches of him.

-Bobby live ���– seeing one of my ult biases live –– he's (no pun intended but well deserved) iconic. Also he made us bark. I was too in awe to even process it but if my delayed processing hadn't kicked in I would have barked and chased my own ass in circles if he asked me to😩✋ Mrs. Bobby tell ur husband to leave his kinks at home

-Also Donghyuk bias-wrecked me harder than he ever has that night he was looking fine af🥵

-Met @aqua-bebe ☺️ See you at the next show <3

-There was a trio of dudes that sat in my area that were just the definition of the greatest fans on the planet. They cheered so loud waving their EXO lightstick like a lasso and dancing and singing for EVERY. SINGLE. ARTIST. What class-A supporters. When Keeho said "When I say Kee, you say Ho," they said HO with their whole chest. When MOMOLAND was on, one of them screamed "I LOVE YOU NANCY" louder than I thought was humanely possible. When iKON left the stage before their encore, they started the iKON chant in my section for them to come back. The were incredibly loud and obnoxious and looked like they had a blast. I aspire to be them.

[spushii]

Anne's top 9 first-time album listens* of 2022! (In no particular order)

The end of this year really crept up on me! I definitely didn't get to listen to everything I wanted to, but I still heard a lot of good music. I'll be putting most of this under a cut because it got pretty wordy.

Exploding Head - A Place To Bury Strangers (2009) I guess this is my first real introduction to shoegaze? It's fucking good. To me it sounds kinda darkwave-y? But like all post punk sounds a little goth to me so my opinion is maybe unrefined. Really good album. Top Track: Ego Death

STOMACH BOOK - STOMACH BOOK (2021) God I love this album. God I love Stomach Book. This sound is like emo meets noise pop meets experimental rock, it's intoxicating. Top Track: Our Story

Dead Bodies in the Lake - Ho99o9 (2015) This is a mixtape, not an album, so I'm definitely bending the rules a little to squeeze it in here. This shit just goes so hard. Really hardcore, really industrial, phenomenal fucking sound. Top Track: DeathKult Disciples (999 Anthem)

No Control - Bad Religion (1989) I considered putting either this or Recipe for Hate on this list, but this one won out just barely only for having a couple songs that are very stuck in my head right now. I'd never heard Bad Religion before this year but they very quickly climbed the ranks among my favorite punk artists and artists in general. There's a sort of heart-on-it's-sleeve kind of earnesty to the music that really clicks with me. Love it. Top Track: Anxiety

Frankenchrist - Dead Kennedys (1985) Holy fucking shit. Holy fucking shit? This is literally one of the best punk rock records to ever be recorded. It just doesn't get better than this. Fucking essential. Fucking quintessential. I can't even pick a favorite song here (though I will try,) it's just hit after hit after hit. What an extraordinary album. Life fucking altering. Top Track: This Could Be Anywhere

The Cure - The Cure (2004) God, this might be my favorite The Cure album? Is that insane? There's a lack of the sort of whimsy and elegance that so thoroughly permeates releases like Disintegration or Wish, but in it's place comes this thoroughly disarming intensity that you can't really get from any other release. For The Cure? this is hardcore. I can't get enough of it. Top Track: alt.end

1000 Hurts - Shellac (2000) Yeah I get why this is cult rock now. I get why it's so lauded. Easily one of the best rock albums of all time. Top Track: Prayer to God

Beelzebubba - The Dead Milkmen (1988) Dead Milkmen's really trashy in the bad way a lot of the time and this album isn't an exception. A lot of people will say it 'aged poorly' but I honestly think it was poor for the time as well. This music definitely falls victim to the mentality that plagues a lot of punk of this era where they just say indiscriminate objectionable shit in an explicit attempt to make themselves unpalatable to the broader audience of music fans, but I think that sort of thing only really works when you're punching up. It's not really challenging or subversive otherwise, it's just bigoted. But I think ultimately this album is a lot of fun, and the parts that don't land are few and far between compared to some other releases. Definitely worth a go if you know what you're getting into. Top Tack: Sri Lanka Sex Hotel

AJJ - Live At Third Man Records (2019) *Definitely cheating by including this release here, because I've been listening to this live album since it was released in early May of 2019, but it was this year I realized that this is probably actually my favorite AJJ album of all. I'm a sucker for live renditions of AJJ songs and all of these really hit for me. So worth a listen especially if you're already familiar with their discography. Top Track: Linda Ronstadt

Tagging some friends I'd love to hear more music stuff from, but no pressure! Anyone else who wants to do this is free to also :) @reddd-robin @motordyk @bwooom @kissingthebeehive @beeapocalypse

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Is it weird if i say that I don't consider myself an army? Maybe few years ago, when I looked into them, i used to think I'm an army maybe but then i realised I can't consider myself an army ever. I stan another group and it's only that fandom that I'll always be able to say that I'm a part of. Maybe it's because i have it in my mind that i shouldn't get into other groups so deep cuz k-pop sucks and i need to prioritise my mental health. Or it could also be due to the many bad experiences with other toxic armys. It's weird that how much ever content of theirs that i consume, i just can't seem to make myself say that I'm a fan? But i adore them but it's difficult to actually say that I'm one, cuz idk how you feel but there's this strange thing that it's seriously hard to be their fan? Ok new armys can't relate. People literally fall into the rabbit hole. But like, usually i see something that strikes me and i go into the group and watch their content and all and find songs that I vibe with. But with BTS it's like, i remember earlier whenever I tried to stan them, it just hurt too much?? Ignoring their fandom toxic part. I just felt so much pain?? Does that make sense? I would feel so weird idk how to explain and i don't wanna go further into it without knowing your opinion haha

First of all, your opinion and feelings are perfectly okay and valid. Secondly, I'm not sure I understand where you're coming from, but I'll try to understand!

Why is it hard to be their fan? I can't be anyone else's fan, tbh, because other groups' content doesn't entertain me, and I don't love anyone else's music like I love BTS's discography or respect other artists like I respect BTS. To me, other groups don't seem to be as funny, interesting, and genuine as BTS, and they don't have the kind of friendships BTS have with each other either. I wanna like other groups too, but I can't. I like other groups' music and them in general, but it's not love haha.

So I really can't understand why you can't get into their content, because it's the only content I can get into... I don't get the comment about new Army not being able to relate either. Any Army was new Army once, that's how they became Army... We all go down the rabbit hole once. I've gone down it already and I'm still here...

Can you explain why you feel pain watching their content? That's the part I really don't understand. Honestly, it can be frustrating to be their fan when they're so pro-capitalism and consumerism, look up to assholes, try so hard to fit into an industry I hate, etc. But then I watch them live, and see how they love us and how good they are at heart... And I fall for them again. They're not different from anyone else, really...

Also, Army can be toxic, and I don't relate to a lot of Armys - I'm actually scared of talking to Armys because I think they'll hate me for the way I am, and I also judge most Armys hard for their choices - but I'm Army because the way I love BTS makes me Army, even if I express that love differently. I'm Army because I want to be Army, because I want to be Army to BTS, even if I don't relate to Army sometimes.

It's okay that you don't like their content, everyone's different. But could you explain why it's hard to be their fan? Apart from the Army thing. Why did you feel pain?

Thanks for sharing your feelings with me! Sorry I can't relate to you, but I wanna understand!

[ineloqueent]

i'll have to admit, i'm curious about which classic rock stars your mutuals are...

anon darling, you’re a star!

fair warning though, i’m referring to all of these people in the present tense. i don’t care. they’re still here, to me.

@archaicmusings — roger taylor

hear me out. cal and rog would get on like a house on fire. it’s very simple; they share opinions on so many things, and cal swears about as much as roger does. but that aside, like roger, cal knows good music when she hears it, tells the best stories, and is loyal to her friends until the last. 

@drivenbybri — brian may

if i had to describe brian in three words, i’d say “extraordinary but humble,” and you know, i’d describe sofie exactly the same way. sofie’s got such an artistic eye, and has the ability to turn anything into a masterpiece. but she’ll never admit it; she’ll do it quietly and watch the amazement on people’s faces, and then not believe them when they express their admiration. like i said, humble. also, sof and brian have basically the same hair, so...

@brianmays-hair — paul mccartney

paul mccartney has always given me vibes of sheer and absolute chaos. jess is about the same. paul and jess have this energy in common, and also, similar smiles?? don’t @ me, but they definitely do. and similar writing styles! bet you paul macca would let jess write lyrics for his songs if she offered.

@joemazzmatazz — jimi hendrix

jimi is chill. regan is chill. i honestly feel like they’d get along very well, two creative souls, with a similar sense of humour (if you listen to some of hendrix’s live recordings, he’s honestly incredibly funny, and charming, like regan).

@deacyblues — david bowie

first of all, david bowie and pearl would gush over each other’s wardrobes. and makeup. definitely. both have such a distinct style, and that’s part of the reason why i liken pearl to bowie. but also, bowie was known for his kindness, his optimism, and his stubbornness. pearl is indefinitely kind, and stands up for what she believes in, just like bowie.

@aprilaady — john deacon

john richard deacon is a sweetheart!! just like dor. but he’s also wildly unpredictable, and has the ability to shock you with a single sentence (brian’s words on the subject were not quite this, but i’m trying to be nice here). sometimes dor will message me something, and i will burst out laughing. she’s got a wicked sense of humour, just like our beloved deacy, and if anything happened to her, i’d throw everything out the window and then jump out of it myself.

@imcompletelylost — freddie mercury

if anyone’s freddie, it’s libby. libby’s got this charisma, exactly like freddie’s. and then i ask her to tell me her secret and she insists that there isn’t one. if that’s not a freddie mercury move, then i don’t know what is. not to mention, libby is so musically talented, it’s ridiculous. she’s iconic, and kind, and funny, and freddie would definitely take her shopping, because they’re just that alike.

@speciallyred — george harrison

oh, c’mon. have you ever seen george harrison smile? it’s like the sun. anna has the ability to brighten anyone’s day with a few words, and this is a quality which george harrison also has. anna’s a wonderful poet, and i’ve always thought of george as a wonderful lyricist. anna’s got style, too, and she’d fit right in during the height of the beatles’ career, in the 1960s.

@mistiermistshazierdays — marc bolan

now, i may be a bit biased here, because phoebe posts a lot of marc, and i reblog all of it. but also, marc’s got this lovely, bright, bubbliness about him, and if phoebe is anything, it’s bubbly (i love that word!!). with her warmth and her humour, phoebe is the perfect marc bolan, and marc the perfect phoebe.

@doing-albri — elton john

vi makes clothes, and elton john, as we all know, is the ultimate fashionista. then there’s elton john’s charitability, which translates to vi’s kindness. and of course, both are musically talented, and love their friends to no end.

@im-an-adult-ish — robert plant

okay. so i don’t really know how to explain this one. but when i was brainstorming all of these, this was the third one i wrote down. i guess meredith and robert plant just have the same sort of… energy? i honestly do not know. but i think the connection is robert plant’s overall charisma, and meredith’s wonderful ability to make anyone feel welcome.

@sixbloodyminutes — suzi quatro

listen, i love suzi quatro. so much. not only did she inspire bands like the runaways, joan jett in particular, with her revolutionary talent and pioneering as a woman in the music industry, but she’s also fucking awesome. back in the ‘70s, she was a symbol of girl power, and if morgan’s got anything, it’s girl power. also, if you’ve seen that one episode of pop quiz, you’ll know she and roger taylor got along well. and i know morgan likes roger taylor ;)

@hijackmy-heart — joan jett

another queen of the 1970s rock scene was joan jett! also a pioneer in the male-dominated music industry, joan jett is known for not only for her music, but her hard-heartedness. the latter is not at all a bad thing, particularly in this world we live in; joan knew what she wanted, and she went out and got it. nat has that same spirit, and the same occasional savageness, which i can only admire.

@dancingdiscofloof — jimmy page

considered one of the best guitarists in the world, even to this day, jimmy page is one hell of a creative soul, and was responsible for (or at least in part) a great deal of led zeppelin’s discography. a dedicated session musician, jimmy determined that there was a certain science to making music. rove strikes me as someone with this same dedication, so there you go!

@almightygwil — stevie nicks

rolling stone has called stevie nicks one of the greatest solo artists of all time, and while they may have written a shit and completely untrue review about queen, they were certainly right about stevie nicks. stevie nick’s lyrics, both on fleetwood mac records and on her own, have always been poetic, and lyrical, even without music. ellie absolutely writes just like this, and so that alone is enough to liken her to stevie nicks. stevie nicks was and is iconic, and in interviews, she was always very genuine, just like ellie.

@mazzell-ro — janis joplin

emblematic of the glam rock era, janis joplin’s voice is one-of-a-kind, and her presence one of unmatchable warmth. genuine, thoughtful, intelligent, and revolutionary in terms of her rebelling against gender norms, janis joplin is perhaps one of my absolute favourite people of the glam rock generation. ro has the same genuineness, the same intelligence, and the same thoughtfulness, going out of her way for her friends, and thus, she reminds me very much of janis joplin. 

[anyways-wonderwall]

The Eurovision Special!!

Starting in 2017, I've listened to all the songs in Eurovision every year and anxiously awaited the winner. It started from my desire to listen to more and more foreign music, although I found that maybe this wasn't the best avenue for that as most of the songs are just pop music in English. Even though I only really like 2 songs every year I still keep coming back for more, and was actually really sad when there was no contest last year, which led me to go all in for this one.

I am a sucker for grading things via a spreadsheet, and for this I graded each song on a scale from 1-10 on the singer, song, catchiness, and performance. There was also a bonus category which is where I gave points if I actually liked the song or if it wasn't in English. This means that while generally the songs with a higher score I like more, that's not always the case (oh and the notes were my way of remembering what each song sounded like since there were so many). Well, without further ado, here are my top 5 songs of Eurovision 2021.

5) Belgium- The Wrong Place by Hooverphonic

Score: 25/40

Notes: “I actually really like this one, and the singer hit low notes really well”

Final ranking: 19th

Hooverphonic are among the oldest artists in the competition and you can hear that they know what they're doing. A lot of Eurovision songs are just in your face trying to make something memorable. This song is very low key and clear that they set out to make something that was good above anything else. The vocals are very very smooth and give the song a haunting feeling, and I'm a sucker for a good guitar part.

Most of the songs have both a performance video and a music video, so I just went with whatever was linked on the Eurovision website to give everyone a fair shot. For this song it was the music video, which I also really liked. Like the song it didn't try to be in your face, it told a story, and had some nice shock value to it that wasn't heavy handed.

4) The Netherlands- Birth of a New Age by Jeangu Macrooy

Score: 32/40

Notes: “people hurt and children dying people dying”

Final Ranking: 23rd

Okay the fact that this song didn't place that high is a federal crime because it is so freaking good. What I wrote in the notes is a reference to that one Black Eyed Peas song that I can never remember the lyrics to but this song has the same vibe as that. It's uplifting with a chorus that makes you feel like you belong, something that I didn't know I missed hearing in music.

What I think is especially interesting about this song is the clear African influence you can hear it in. The artist is from South America though, so it is fascinating to see all these cultures mix and then be presented in a European song competition. I think a LOT of focus was put this year on immigrants, with many of the contests having grown up in another country or being first generation. I really hope that trend continues because it led to a huge variety of songs this year and I liked them more than ever before.

3) Portugal- Love is on My Side by The Black Mamba

Score: 33/40

Notes: “Perfect score until he picked up the guitar”

Final Ranking: 12th

Okay this song is so so so good. The singer has a really unique voice and his live performance sounded just as good as a recording. It's wonderfully low key with some nice acoustic guitars and even a French horn solo. A French Horn! This song sounds timeless and I absolutely love it for that.

Now here is the only bad thing I have to say about it. In the performance video right at the end the singer picks up the electric guitar next to him to play the solo at the end. Fine right? Well he didn't have a strap on the guitar. My first thought was “is this mad lad actually about to play a solo like that?” but I was wrong because he totally just pretended to play the solo. It was so obvious that he wasn't actually playing it that it hurt. Just why would you do that. Why.

2) Iceland- 10 Years by Daði Freyr

Score: 38/40

Notes: “Dude it keeps getting better”

Final Ranking: 4th

Okay there is not a single bad thing I can possibly say about this song. It's infectious, it has a killer synth part, a keytar solo, it makes you want to groove, there's a choir, it's Scandinavian, and they even made their own dance for it. Everyone performing this song seems like they are just genuinely having a good time and watching both the performance and the music video makes anyone smile. I keep finding myself listening to this song over and over again and if you listen to anything on this list I really hope it is this one.

1)Italy- Zitti E Buoni by Måneskin

Score: 36/40

Notes: “Mi favorito”

Final Ranking: First!!

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in Eurovision history my favorite band won the whole thing. I don't think you understand how crazy this is. Usually the song that wins is unlistenable or at least very annoying. For the first time in a while actual talent won and I am beyond shocked. Maybe they needed a year off to think about what good music is. Whatever it took I am so glad that this song is getting the recognition it deserves.

So this one really doesn't fit the description of an average Eurovision song. It's hard rock with the whole song in Italian. The music video is gritty and all of the people in the band are the kids that would be deemed a “bad influence". I have no idea how this even made the cut for Eurovision truthfully. But I'm so glad it did.

The musicianship? Amazing. The vocals? Incredible. The lyrics? Well I know just enough Italian to know that they are about society seeing them as crazy and different. I love this song so much I think I'm going to listen to this entire group's discography, so you may see them in future reviews.

While Eurovision took a year off and devastated the world, I think this year definitely makes up for it. There was a much greater variety of genres this year and I don't think a rock song like this has ever won. I think now they're finally living up to their motto of “celebrating diversity".

(In case you're wondering, my least favorite songs were from Cyprus, Ukraine, and Ireland. All of them are completely unlistenable imo)

[loplainlointhemorning]

Omg your tags... Can you talk more about your songwriting pls? I'm at that point now where I'm just trying to finish as many songs as I can, not caring so much abt the quality bc otherwise I will never finish one. I still only have a few, I'm trying to learn the process and what works for me. But it's so encouraging to hear someone else talk abt this like I keep comparing myself to famous ppl I listen to and it feels like they just have a gift and I don't

dude, I have been comparing myself to artists I look up to constantly, ever since I got into music at fourteen, wondering why I’m not good enough. I think it’s normal. The truth is, when you stop listening so much to beginner’s self doubt, perfectionism, and in my case, chronic anxiety, everybody is the same. The people who are really good are really good because they sat down and fucked around with instruments long enough to understand them, the people who are really good are really good because they love what they do, and all of them wrote shitty songs in their late teens/early 20s/whenever they started out. I have(and still do) beat myself up for everything from writing too fast to writing too slow, for taking months long breaks because of mental health issues, for lyrics that my band laughed at, for only knowing how to play one instrument, the list goes on...But I comfort myself with facts like these:

PJ Harvey was asked about her first ever song in an interview from 1995 and that’s the closest I’ve seen her come to blushing; She said it was about a girl going on an adventure and that it was awful. She reiterated in a magazine that most of her earliest work was ‘terrible’ and heavily influenced by Irish folk music, meaning, apparently, that it was full of tin whistles. It took her years before she was comfortable playing her orginal music in front of other people(and if you watch her early Dry performances, she’s not even all that comfortable in the first place.) The important thing is, PJ Harvey hated her early songs.

Nick Cave said that he was ashamed of the Birthday Party’s discography up until Junkyard and that he didn’t like to think about those albums. Nick Cave hated his early songs- And Nick Cave is partially famous DUE to these early songs, go figure.

Courtney Love bashes Hole’s first album Pretty On The Inside nearly constantly, calling it ‘unlistenable’ and saying it was more about her persona being established than making good music. Courtney Love hated her early songs- and, once again, her band was given its name and image because of them.

I BEG you to listen to five seconds of David Bowie’s first album, which he doesn’t discuss.

If these people, who mean the world to me and have saved hoards of others from personal destruction, had given up bc they were Bad at a young and inexperienced age we wouldn’t have their music and it’s not an exaggeration to say that that would have ended in suicide for a big number of people. If you can get your ego in place, you can believe the same about your music, and the thing that’s going to keep you motivated more than anything else is Ego.

We live in a world right now where popular music lacks human hands and clumsiness and rawness and so the fact that both of us are, against the odds, composing music that still reflects those things is a rebellion. It’s important that we keep writing, not just because we deserve to be good songwriters because we care about it, but because for music to evolve there needs to be a constant underground of young people with limited skills trying their best. Plus, if we’re both lucky, we’ll end up saving people the same way we were saved and if it takes a few notebooks of three note trauma songs to get there then fine(besides, who doesn’t love a good three-note trauma song?).

But beyond the ‘glory’ of it(and I think to do anything artistic you have to romanticize it to a certain degree), I started songwriting seriously at the end of a bad relationship when I was sixteen, nearly seventeen. When that relationship ended, I wrote constantly. I wrote about everything. My main influences were Bikini Kill and The Runaways and I hadn’t developed my seriousness towards lyrics yet so anything went. I’d write three songs in a week, realize that two were bad and play the third one for my band only to get laughed at for writing something like “I swallow Clorox” which was a confessional thing about suicidal thoughts that hurt my feelings, but wasn’t articulated well.

I wrote Nirvana knock-off songs and I wrote Hole knock-off songs and I half finished at least one hundred different things and I have three notebooks filled with them, the latter half being the worst fake-Nick Cave writing I have ever read. From all of 2018, during which I probably wrote 30-35 songs, I have two that I would actually put on an album and three that I can remember/still like. Once I got my mental health under control, I did the same thing for the bulk of 2019. This stage you’re at is NOTHING TO FEEL BAD ABOUT. It’s like making stuff out of Play-Doh or fingerpainting. It’s FUN and you’re learning, Extremely Quickly, a million different skills that you’re going to need over the course of your life. Lyric writing, the classic verse/chorus/verse, how to invert that, experimental tactics, particular playing styles that you like, playing styles that you HATE, etc.

And the best part about it is that some of your songs are good! Some of them have good parts that you’ll take out later to put into better songs! You’re probably sitting on two or three good songs at the moment, maybe even more, maybe you’ve got a whole album of brilliant material and you just don’t know it. In thirty years your demos could work like Vashti Bunyan’s and be the proto-whatever of a new genre. I really don’t want to make you think that all your material right now is bad, because that idea has actually been super detrimental to me and is a shitty narrative pushed to push beginners. I’m saying that it’s OKAY for you to be bad, that even experienced people write bad shit, but that if you think you’ve written some bangers they deserve to be recognized as such.

To close, new phase that I was talking about, the quality over quantity phase, is definitely something I had to work up to. 90% of it is taking in enough new music to understand what you really want from yourself, and the rest of it is gaining enough confidence to willingly let other people hear what you do. I only started taking my shit this seriously in late December of last year because I knew people would be hearing it, and that has its set backs too: My perfectionism is crazy right now and I have to kick back against it all the time. The perks of getting to the point where you can hone yourself are that you build real relationships with your songs, and that you have some idea of what you want. But I also think that it’s healthy to go through the quantity over quality phase over and over again throughout the course of your career, because there’s no way to really write in a new style unless you keep going back to frenzied experimentation. If we both end up pursuing this long term, we’ll probably have to work on Finishing over Perfecting a million times over, and its best to make peace with it now.

I am so sorry that this is like. A million paragraphs but another important aspect of songwriting is procrastinating by being on tumblr so!!! You’re doing just fine. Keep up the good work, and feel free to talk to me or share music with me anytime. I hope this helps, or at least isn’t a boring read.

[bandluvr97]

mbb 🎅

My job is boring, most of it is invoicing bullshit. What I saw of the party was pretty cool I guess, it was a 2000-person event so they could go crazy, and kind of Lichtenstein themed -- there were a lot of dancers in big wigs and big dresses and their faces painted to look like his drawings. I don't work in the parties themselves, though, and I Got Into It with a couple temps that didn't realize they were wait listed, and for some reason were very mad that I was sending them home with pay... so yeah watching movies sounds like more fun than fighting line cooks in a garage. What did you end up watching?

I love Changkyun's weirdness, like, he's unsupervised for two months and releases a music video about drug abuse and promiscuity. And then gets on some app and says "Wait, is God Damn a bad word? I didn't know!" like okay king we all believe you. And you don't know what eating someone like a main dish means. But that outfit was SO good, I'm obsessed with his belt, and I can't blame him cause if I had abs like that I would never wear a real shirt.

Kihyun gets a couple points knocked off for playing the stocks, but otherwise I totally agree haha. And yes I'd seen the "Shoot Out" stage but this made me go back and watch it again and do NOT get me started on Shownu in that performance. Like what the fuck. He needs to come back now it's not funny anymore. Honestly the whole era, he's always stupid hot when he performs, but there's something special about Shoot Out Shownu.

🗣️LET 🗣️ MY 🗣️ MAN 🗣️ SMOKE 🗣️ WEED 🗣️ honestly he deserves it after all of that. But that is SO sweet, I'm glad he noticed and appreciated it, cause everyone was cheering for him! I love "Eye On You", I like his big layered songs like those. (But "Lose" had the best outfits, even if they made him put mesh in the cut outs of his Tom of Finland outfit)

Oh we love multi stans! Literally what fun is it to only like or support one artist and not even look at other artists? I like most of those groups, clearly we have excellent taste. For me, I tend to sample different groups, check out a title track here and there, rather than deep dive into their discography unless they REALLY come for my neck, which is the same outside kpop. At this point every artist has to earn my attention again with every song, I used to be devoted to my favorite rap groups but now I don't have the time or energy to follow releases. Outside of kpop, I mostly listen to rap or punk music -- I act, and just got cast as the Final Girl in a skate punk horror video and I won't nerd out too much about it but the music sounds good and just know that if it doesn't happen I'm killing the entire band.

Hey love ❤️ how did your shift go last night? Oh cool!! What kind of songs did they play? Yeah I could see how the chill evening would be better lol still sounds like a fun job though!! Do you do a lot of clubs or concert things? Lol now when you say fight did you mean verbal or with fisticuffs? 😂😂😂 I ended up watching ghost with my mom and some hallmark movies about the joys of family and Christmas and we were judging them so hard for how cringy it is lmao what movies or genres do you like to watch?

Right??? His weirdness is a little confusing but yet somehow makes sense lol like it might look dark but it works in his own way 😂😂lmao!! I genuinely think he’s lying to us about eating someone like a main dish to be honest I think he’s done it quite a few times in his life like there’s no way lol yeah he knows how to pick outfits out and it’s so choice 👌👌 they all know how to dress well in music videos and it’s stunning lol oh yeah if I had abs too I would wear nothing but crop tops everywhere 😂😂

Lol! Yeah I can see that but kihyun is an investor so I wouldn’t be surprised if he earns more money later in life lol right?!?! Shootout era for shownu was an eye opener like I already knew that he was stunning but the second he starts the tiddie shake and get the mood going for the song it was like OHHH HELLO STUNNING MAN!! And that just confirmed my bias wrecker then and there lol it was dark and it was lovely to see him just kick ass and take names lol and don’t get me started on the other members cus they all did such an amazing job!! Like whooo boy!!

Right?!?! Yeah it was a sweet thing to witness ❤️❤️ meanwhile people are freaking out about him going off for 18 months and I’m thinking “we’re not going anywhere we’ve waited some time and what’s with waiting some more time until he comes back” lol plus nothing wrong with a little smoke of devils lettuce 😂👌👌agreed eye on you and crazy are amazing songs and eras lol his crop tops and outfits are amazing 👌👌

Hell yeah! We love and trust the multi Stan’s lol exactly!! Great minds think alike love ❤️ we can always listen to more than one artist but there will always be ulti groups that will forever remain in our lives lol I’m the same way!! It’s a smart move to start off small and work the way up to listening to more of them ❤️👍oh really? Which rappers did/do you listen to? No way!!!! That’s so cool!!!! What will your role be? Lol fair enough unleash the hell 😂😂

Hope your day is going well love ❤️ no need to apologize it’s all good 😊 I enjoy the chats and the spams