#(well sung by ado but)

[fuji-iri]

me and you, if we could become shimmering stars or something of the sort

also alternative color grading:

[felagund-fiollaigean]

Would love to hear your shanty and traditional folk song recommendations! I’m a huge fan of the less polished and produced recordings, and I feel like I always get my best music recommendations from those who are pretentious about the genre!

Oh neat! Happy to show you some of my favorites. It should be noted that while there was a time I was academically pretentious about sea shanties, I am now merely pretentious about sea shanties in a way that is very subjective, so if these shanties don't really fit your style, please enjoy the covers that do.

I also wasn't really trying to dunk on the Johns too hard, TLJ are good I like their music a lot, they just sound far too pretty for what I believe a shanty should feel like.

So without further ado.

TLDR: I MADE A PLAYLIST WITH MY RECOMMENDATIONS YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT HERE

I can't rightfully recommend shanties without recommending the recordings by David Coffin. He's a household name (in cool households) but his voice is just so good. His famous recording of Roll The Old Chariot Along is classic and has made me cry multiple times, but some of his live albums have a good selection of shanties and folk songs, and they have that lovely resonant chorus revel feel to them.

Storm Weather Shanty Choir has some of my favorite shanty recordings of all time. Especially Haul Away Joe and South Australia. The rest of their stuff is really good though so listen to some of that too.

Bully In The Alley by Morrigan is my favorite track from Classic Maritime Music From Smithsonian Folkways, and that's a pretty good compilation of shanties.

Blood Red Roses by Sting is my favorite recording of that shanty. I especially love the stomping as accompaniment (even though it isn't really a capstan shanty but oh well). fun fact: the original lyrics seem to be "come down you bunch of roses" and was changed to "blood red roses" when A. L. Loyd recorded it, and everyone else copied him. This text also references lyrics to Sally Brown

The Lost Quays also have some nice live performances on youtube which sound really nice

While not strictly sea shanties, music by the Georgia Sea Island Singers will probably appeal to you. They record traditional African American/Gullah spirituals and work songs which are really beautiful. They do a Pay Me My Money Down which is a song created by black dockworkers in Georgia later adopted as a sea chantey.

These also really aren't sea shanties, but I thought you might like them. These are Faroese Dancing Ballads and they rule. Got that nice resonant, chantey quality with a lead singer and then everyone joining in on the chorus. It's a great time. I love them.

Back to the shanties. You've probably (definitely) listened to these already, but the Assassins Creed Black Flag soundtrack is full of solid shanty recordings. That are both cleanly produced and earnestly sung. Lowlands Away is my favorite.

I could go on tbh but I'm running out of time. congrats if you read to the end, it got very rambly there didn't it.

[heirloomgem]

August One-shot voting poll

Hello everyone, its Heirloomgem here! I hope everyone is doing well.

As everyone knows, we did a voting poll for a monthly one-shot and the result was a landslide victory for YES!😁

Thank you so much for taking the time to vote! It means a lot to me.🥰

Anyways, since the final decision is a definitive YES.

The monthly one-shot voting poll will be with 3 different animes/mangas with each character. You can pick and choose whoever you want and whoever character wins, I'll release a one-shot fic of them.

You can also send me some suggestions/requests regarding the characters that are picked for the month only. However, I won't be able to do all the requests as I'm only picking some to write about.

With that said, I'll be only writing and posting a one-shot on the character who wins.😘

And so without further ado, we'll start now!

Here are the characters for August One-shot series to pick from:

Once 1 week is up and the result is out, I will be posting a one shot series on the winner right after.

[flower-boi16]

Let's Analyze and Rank Every Song in Hazbin Hotel (From a Narrative Perspective) From Worst to Best

Hazbin Hotel has a pretty good soundtrack. The songs are definitely one of the better parts of the show, they are well-sung, well-composed, and just incredibly catchy. As songs completely divorced from the context and narrative of the main show...they are really good...

...however, Hazbin Hotel is also a musical, meaning that the songs also have to play into the narrative of the show. I want to try something different in this post; here, I'm going to rank each song in Hazbin Hotel not as songs, but rather, analyzing them from a purely narrative point of view, what they do for the show's characters, plot, as well as what happens in them, factoring in the outside context and narrative of the show as well as looking directly at the lyrics.

Because, when you judge Hazbin's songs from a purely narrative standpoint & factor in the outside context of a lot of the show's writing...many of the songs begin to completely fall apart. without further ado...let's get into this ranking.

16. Hell is Forever (2/10)

A major issue with Hazbin that I've talked about a lot on this blog is how heavily black and white the show's themes are in spite of the show preaching about being against black-and-white moralities.

Charlie is always portrayed as completely in the right and anyone who remotely opposes her is portrayed as automatically in the wrong despite the fact that, her "everyone can be redeemed" mentality is just as simplistic and black-and-white as Adam's "no one can be redeemed" mentality. But the show never calls that out and only tears down Adam's ideology while portraying Charlie's mentality as completely right despite it also being just as extreme as Adam's, but the show never chooses to call that out.

Adam is also nothing but a pure straw character who only exists to be torn down by the narrative and thus can't have much real depth or nuance as a character beyond "asshole who swears a lot" (which I talked about before).

The reason why Hell is Forever is at the very bottom of the list is because the song puts those issues on full display. It exposes how black-and-white the show's theming is and how much of a strawman Adam is.

Lines like "the rules are black and white there's no use in trying to fight it" or "are they winners? are they sinners? cuz it's cut and dry" not only sound awkward from a song perspective but also sound very forced from a narrative perspective; it's shoving down the "Heaven bad" message down your through and simply shows how one-dimensional Adam is as a character, very explicitly saying "HEY LOOK HOW BAD HEAVEN IS AND HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE ADAM IS!!!"

Those lyrics show Adam being a pure straw character at his worst since they no-so subtly communicate the idea of "Heaven bad" in a way that's forced and awkward. Those aren't the only lyrics that show this, as there is the verse where Adam says "There's the question of fun (fun) and for those of us with divine ordainment...extermination is entertainment!".

It insinuates that the exterminations are purely a game to Adam and the exorcists and they do it because it's fun, which does no favors in further cementing Adam as a one-dimensional pure straw character.

Ultimately, while Hell is Forever exposes how black-and-white Heaven's way of thinking is, the song also exposes how black-and-white and simplistic the show's own themes and messages are, making it the worst the song in the entire show from a narrative point of view.

15. Out for Love (3/10)

Out for Love, like Hell is Forever, puts one of the show's major writing issues on full display and ends up even validating it in-universe. Out for Love’s entire premise as a song is that Vaggie needs to fight for her loved ones (specifically Charlie) rather than just for vengeance. This works fine enough until you start factoring in outside context within in the narrative.

First of all, Carmilla says that Vaggie is "driven by her detestation" and is fighting for pure vengeance….but she isn’t. Vaggie was never thirsting for vengeance at all, she always thought for Charlie, one of the lines in Whatever It Takes literally says that Vaggie will be Charlie’s armour, as in, she’ll try and protect her no matter what.

So Vaggie was never driven by vengeance in the first place so this song’s message doesn’t make much sense. Oh, but I haven’t even gotten to what this song means for Vaggie as a character.

The main issue with Vaggie as a character throughout the show is how she is heavily defined by Charlie, not just that "she doesn't get developed beyond being Charlie's girlfriend", no, I mean EVERY SINGLE major character moment Vaggie has is tied to Charlie in some way.

Out for Love accentuates that issue, being Vaggie's second big character moment where she has to fuel herself with the desire to protect Charlie, to fight for Charlie and ONLY Charlie. The song even confirms that Vaggie is defined by Charlie in-universe with the line "Fuel yourself with the fear of losing that somebody who's you reason to live".

Vaggie can't exist without Charlie. She can only be Charlie's partner and girlfriend. She is only defined by Charlie. She is just "Charlie's girlfriend". All of her character moments revolve being a good girlfriend to Charlie and defending her.

Out for Love while having a good message on paper ends up putting of the show's major issues on full display like Hell is Forever and the message flat out validates an issue with the show.

14. Whatever it Takes (3/10)

Whatever it Takes has a similar problem to Out for Love in terms of what it does for Vaggie as a character. It, like the former song, it keeps on pushing the idea of Vaggie being solely defined by Charlie, as Vaggie's verse in this song is purely about her singing about how much she wants to protect Charlie and the best girlfriend to her.

Again, it has a solid enough message on paper (singing about how you'll do anything to protect your loved ones) but in the context of the rest of the series this only further damages Vaggie as a character and further cements Vaggie as just "Charlie's girlfriend".

This song is intended to be a major character moment for Vaggie, but the problem is that character is tied directly to Charlie. Again, Vaggie's big character moments revolve around Charlie in some way, making her whole character tied to Charlie.

The song also has other problems with Vaggie directly tied to the lyrics. The lyric "It felt so good to be understood" is pretty weird to me, because how did Charlie make Vaggie feel understood? How did Charlie understand Vaggie in anyway? Since when was Vaggie being misunderstood apart of her character? Because it never was.

The song is also supposed to be a big emotional ballad for Carmilla, where she sings about her motivations for why she killed the angel, that being she wanted to protect her family and do whatever it took....

....which would've been impactful if Carmilla wasn't a character introduced in this same episode that the show barely does much of anything to get you to care about. We haven't gotten to know Carmilla much as a character so this whole moment feels unearned and unimpactful.

Whatever It Takes, like Out for Love has a sweet enough message on paper, but factoring the outside context of the show's writing damages the song significantly.

13. Finale (3/10)

Finale has a similar problem to You Didn't Know (which I'll cover later) in how despite being this grand, big musical number, it feels empty and hollow.

The first verse has Charlie mourning over Pentious' death which would've been fine if his death wasn't played as a joke in the same episode right before the episode then instantly treated it like a big moment. Then the verse further shows how hollow this song feels when Lucifer says that Charlie was the "first one to change this town" and how she helped everyone grow into better people and "touched their hearts"

....except she didn't. Lucifer, please tell me, how did Charlie remotely change Hell in the slightest? Sure, she proved that sinners can become better people, but this line implies that Charlie made a difference in Hell and changed it to be a better place in some way...when she didn't. She never "changed" Hell as a whole. And the part where Lucifer sings about how Charlie "helped the sinners become better people & grow" doesn't feel impactful because we never saw that growth happen.

Characters singing about how much they've grown doesn't work when we never saw that growth actually happen. The song wants to be this grand number about how Charlie helped souls improve as people but it falls flat within the context of the story because we never saw this process of Charlie helping Pentious and Angel to become better people, rather the show just completely skips over that.

Then the characters start singing about how they'll rebuild the hotel and make it even better than before to cheer Charlie up...

...why are they still trying the hotel after Heaven REJECTED it? Seriously, Charlie's plan to convince Heaven FAILED, there isn't much of a point to still continuing the hotel at this point since they KNOW that Heaven isn't going to accept it. They know they can't get sinners in Heaven because Heaven's rules are bullshit.

Oh, and this is not the only part of the song that doesn't make any sense in the context of the story, as then there's the V's singing about a power gap in Hell...that didn't happen, yet they act as if the extermination happened all across Hell when it was only toward the hotel and everything else was completely unaffected. How are overlords "hanging by a thread" exactly???

The final verse is then this grand final chorus about how they'll "be better" and redeem themselves and all I can feel is just...nothing. Because the show never earned this grand big final moment to make it feel impactful.

Finale is intended to be this grand final song about how much the characters have grown but it all feels empty and hollow because the show didn't do anything to actually earn this moment at all. I feel nothing when I listen to this song. Absolutely, nothing.

12. You Didn't Know (4/10)

I already made a full analysis of You Didn't Know so this section won't be nearly as long as the others, but like the other songs, from a story perspective You Didn't Know feels unearned and hollow. The main issue with the song is that although it clearly TRIES and gets you to feel something...it doesn't, which is entirely because of the show's outside writing.

Though again, I've already talked about this song before in a previous post where I analyzed each verse so go read that if you want my full opinion on why the song fails from a story perspective.

You Didn't Know just feels hollow, it's this grand, big musical number that's meant to be the climax of episode 6, a song that's BEGGING you to feel something...but it doesn't.

11. Happy Day In Hell (4/10)

Happy Day in Hell serves as the very first song in the show and Charlie’s I Want song.

For older fans, it doesn't really tell you anything new about Charlie as a character and is kind of redundant as a song, it just says that Charlie is optimistic and believes anyone can be redeemed, which is something Inside of Every Demon is A Rainbow already did.

However, to newer fans who haven't seen the pilot or any supplementary material, Happy Day in Hell could serve as a good introduction to Charlie as a character can tell you a lot about her...except that the rest of Hazbin doesn't seem to be made with newer fans in mind. Overture is written as a direct continuation of the pilot, and that would be fine if the episode reintroduced the characters for newer audiences...but it doesn't. It seemingly expects you to have already watched the pilot or any other supplementary material before seeing the show, meaning that it's catering to Viv's past audience.

With that in mind, Happy Day in Hell becomes a lot more confusing. If this is supposed to be an introduction to Charlie for newer fans...why wasn't the rest of the episode written like this? And if the show is expecting you to have seen the pilot, then Happy Day in Hell becomes completely redundant since again, Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow tells you everything this song does about Charlie as a character, and that song did it with infinitely better visuals. Sure, there's Charlie singing about how she wants to change Heaven's mind and prove them wrong etc but anyone who watched the pilot would already know that, so a song isn't really necessary.

Happy Day in Hell would have been better if the rest of the episode it was in wasn't written the way it was. With the context of how the rest of Overture is written, Happy Day in Hell just comes across as Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow except...worse.

10. Hell's Greatest Dad (4/10)

Hell's Greatest Dad doesn't make much sense. Alastor seemingly dislikes Lucifer for some reason and starts playing up a fatherly role to Charlie purely to piss her dad off...for some reason??? I've seen Cartoonshi try to make an explanation with this:

"This is an instance of Alastor just being petty because, underneath his smile and the persona he's crafted for himself, he cares a lot about his own reputation and doesn't take it well when people don't seem to respect it or have any interest in him"

However, as Cartoonshi later points out, Alastor's first reaction to Lucifer is twitching his eyes in rage, which is BEFORE Lucifer "disrespects" Alastor's reputation, so it still seems like Alastor has some unknown beef with Lucifer for...some reason? We don't know. The song also suddenly builds a father-daughter bond with Charlie and Alastor out of nowhere...? Again, this could be Alastor just purposefully trying to piss Lucifer off but like. Why???

Hell's Greatest Dad just suffers from Lucifer and Alastor's rivalry just kinda not making much sense and rushing in a found family dynamic at the last minute.

9. More Than Anything (Reprise) (4.5/10)

More than Anything Reprise has a similar problem to Finale and You Didn’t Know where the characters sing about how much they've grown and how much Charlie helped them grow when we never see that actually happen, all of that growth happened off-screen.

A big reason why this gets annoying is because it ends up feeling a form of telling rather than showing; we're TOLD that Charlie helped the characters grow and become better, we're TOLD that Charlie changed Hell as a place, we're TOLD that she "changed the lives" and "did so much" but we NEVER SAW that. We never saw Charlie slowly help Angel and Pentious become better people, again, a majority of their arcs happen off-screen and they end up feeling rushed.

Aside from that I just care very little about this relationship. Chaggie is a pretty boring relationship with little chemistry between them so I can't really feel much from this song. It's a cute enough moment I guess but again, I don't feel very invested in this relationship.

More Than Anything Reprise while a cute moment suffers from the same issue as the past songs and I can't really feel much for it since I don't care much about this romance.

8. Ready for This (6/10)

This is where we start getting to the pretty decent songs story-wise. There isn't exactly that much wrong with Ready For This aside from how some of lyrics are...weird for Charlie as a character.

A lot of the lyrics are about Charlie "coming to her own" and "ascending to her throne" when that was never something that was apart of her character...? Aside from that most of the song is fine. It's Charlie singing about how she’s accomplishing her destiny, which is consistent with Charlie since she was also singing about her destiny in Happy Day in Hell, so there isn’t too much "characters having grand musical numbers that don’t feel earned" here, aside from the previous problem I just mentioned.

So overall, ready for this is a fine song in terms of what it does for the narrative. It has problems, but its better than the previous few songs.

7. More Than Anything (6.5/10)

More Than Anything suffers from one big issue that harms the song, mainly the final verse. Basically, Charlie just says "I need 2 save mah people" and Lucifer is just like "ok". The reconciliation is kinda rushed here, and, since this song is meant to be Charlie and Lucifer reconciling, this tanks the song quite a bit. That being said, there is stuff I like about the song.

For one, it provides decent development for Lucifer and Charlie as characters, with Lucifer singing about how he didn't want Charlie to be faced with the same crushing feeling that he faced when Heaven rejected him, showing that in spite of his flaws, he does deeply care about Charlie as her daughter. For Charlie, the song gives the information that Lucifer inspired Charlie as a child, inspiring Charlie to fight for her dreams to become a reality.

Also, while it's still rushed, the song is still a cute moment between the two, with them reconciling and Charlie being able to bring back a spark within Lucifer, with him promising that he'll support Charlie's dreams, and how he's grateful for being her father, and that Charlie is grateful for being his daughter.

While More Than Anything does still feel a bit rushed, it's still a cute moment between two characters.

6. Welcome to Heaven (7/10)

Welcome to Heaven also doesn't have much wrong with it narrative wise. It basically just serves as world-building Heaven, which is fine, and the world-building it does provide does really have any major holes in it.

Don't really have much to say here.

5. It Starts With Sorry (7/10)

It Starts With Sorry is pretty good. The song is basically about Charlie deciding that Pentious deserves a second chance, singing about how she'll take his redemption one simple step at a time, beginning with him simply saying "Sorry". She believes that any soul can be redeemed though it may take some time.

She recognizes that, Pentious isn't all bad, seeing a decent person deep down. The message of the song is sweet and there aren't any real narrative issues with it. It's actually pretty good narratively and sets up Pentious arc decently well (though that arc is rushed but hey).

4. Stayed Gone (7/10)

Stayed Gone is a pretty fun rivalry song. It's a duet between Alastor and Vox, two visceral rivals, one TV and the other radio. The song does do a good job of showing Vox's pettiness in their rivalry, with his whole cool and levelheaded facade completely shattering at the mere mention of Alastor. His whole verse is spent on how Alastor's medium is "outdated", insulting him, calling Al a "coward" and among other things. Alastor meanwhile, spends his whole verse poking fun at Vox, right before he pisses of Vox so much that he starts buffering and he ends the song on a menacing note.

Again, not much to say here, Stayed Gone is just a pretty fun song that does a good job at showing the rivalry between Vox and Alastor.

3. Poison (8/10)

Poison is a song that does its job pretty well. The song is meant to show Angel Dust's struggles at the hands of Valentino, who now owns his soul. The lyrics emphasize the direness of Angel's situation; how he's trapped at the hands of Val, slowly dying from poison he's being forced to drink, being trapped in the claws of a cruel rapist sexually abusing him for his own pleasure, constantly being tortured every single night.

He believes it's his fault for his situation, that he can only blame himself for falling to Val's lies and his deal, that he should have seen what would have happened when he made the deal with Val. And now, he's just...accepted it, believing that this is just his life now and he'll be all for Val in any way he wants him to be.

And the song ends somberly as Angel falls to the ground after the night. It defiantly does capture the struggles of someone being SA'd, and does a good job of showing the horrendous mental state Angel is in.

I know a lot of people REALLY hate the Poison sequence for apparently fetishizing SA, but I'm analyzing the song, not the stuff shown in it, and to me, I think Poison does a great job of showing Angel's horrendous mental state and struggles, and does add a lot to Angel as a character.

2. Respectless (9/10)

I used to criticize Respectless for feeling more like a conversation that the characters are singing rather than a song, and it does still kinda feel that way. However, I don't think the song is unnecessary anymore because it establishes a lot about Vellvette as a character.

The song shows Velvette being overly smug, arrogant, confident and bratty, not having any respect for the authorities higher than her, doing whatever the fuck she wants and not giving a damn about the higher authorities think, having no respect for them. But the song also demonstrates Velvette being cunning and smart, being able to tell that Carmilla is hiding something based simply on the expression of her face when she first brought the angel's head.

She instantly knows that, Carmilla might know what happened to the angel. The song displays a more developed personality for Velvette as a character in just one-minute than characters like Adam or Crimson or whoever the fuck did in multiple episodes, making Velvette one of the best antagonists in all of Hellaverse (which I talked about here). Respectless also continues this theme with Carmilla demanding that Velvette check her attitude, calling her and the Vee's "Smug wannabees who don't head when they've been warned", giving off an impression of an authority being made at the disrespect being thrown at her, which Velvette just responds by smugly saying "oops".

The song also does do a good job of furthering the plot along while doing a great job of showing off Velvette's personality. Respectless overall is a great song that furthers the plot along while telling us a lot about Velvette as a character.

1. Loser Babey (10/10)

I'm assuming y'all did not expect this song to be number one, huh? Loser Baby seems to be fairly divisive amongst viewers, a lot of people love it, others despise it. Personally, I think the song is pretty great.

A common critique that Loser Babey gets is supposedly making fun of Angel for being SA'd, and, I can see why some people may see the song that way considering the first chorus. However, it's best to factor in the verse that comes before that chorus (holy shit I'm defending HH. I am just as surprised as you are).

The first verse is Husk singing to Angel about how he's at rock bottom, the lowest point anyone can be, his life being wrecked from his deal by Val, it all looks dire and hopeless as Angel is trapped in a dark situation with no way out, believing his life to be a trash fire at this point...and Husk says that he's right! His life IS a trash fire, he IS in a dark situation, he IS at absolute rock bottom, he's a "loser", if you will. Admittedly saying he's a loser might be a bit iffy but you can still see the point; Husk is saying that Angel is completely correct, that his life is a dumpster fire where he can't try and fight back, but he says that he isn't alone in this.

Husk had a similar experience with Alastor, where, like Angel, made a deal with an overlord and lost everything, regretting that decision for the rest of his afterlife as he's trapped at the hands of Alastor, with every day of his life being torture for him now, like with Angel. Granted, Husk's situation isn't 1 to 1 the same as Angel's, but there is still a parallel with how they made bad deals with overlords that they lived to regret, how they became trapped in these deals that seemed appealing at first but worn down when the overlords showed their true colors.

And so, Husk tells Angel that, it's better to set down the walls he's built for himself, letting hope back into his life and finally having someone he can bond and relate to due to having similar experiences. He's no longer alone. His situation is still bad, but at least now, he has someone who he can bond with and help push him through his situation, and that person ended up being Husk, the last person who he thought would have gotten him to open up.

I know I'm going to get a lot of people who'll disagree with me and that's fine, but personally...Loser Baby is the best song in the whole show in terms of its narrative. It provides great character growth for Angel & Husk, does a good job of furthering their relationship, and (in my opinion), has a really sweet and beautiful message of how you aren't alone in a dire situation, and that's best to let others help you rather than sulking by yourself in the dark. You aren't alone. There are people who may have had similar experiences to you, and it's best to let them in rather than shun them away.

And the thing is; Loser Baby is not only the best song narratively, but musically, making it overall the best song in the whole show. It's one of the only songs in the show that manages it be great in both categories, like a musical show should, which is what makes this song truly stand out compared to the rest of Hazbin's soundtrack.

It's the best song in the whole show, hands down.

Conclusion

Well, that was long. In all honesty, the songs lower on the list might have been better if the writing around them was better, since that's a problem a majority of them suffer from. If Vaggie wasn't defined by Charlie, Whatever it Takes and Out for Love wouldn't be so low, and if we got to know Carmilla and Emily better, Whatever it Takes and You Didn't Know would've been more impactful.

Really a lot of the songs just suffer from being in a very mediocre and flawed show, and the reason why songs like Loser Baby and Poison were high was because the writing around them was actually good, but hey, the good ones were still able to pull through in the end. So ya, that's my ranking...bye.

[exit-path]

Hey, remember this video? This is how tumblr made the Undertale “Stronger than You” parody.

Hi guys! Before we start, some of you on tumblr may have been in the Undertale fandom in 2015 when this was taking place, but I wasn't. So if you were at the devil's sacrament, then reblog with what you remember! I'd love to hear primary source perspectives of events.

(EDIT, 5/6/23: SO @galxie JUST PROPOSED TO ADAPT THIS POST INTO A YOUTUBE VIDEO. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING)

(SO IF YOU'RE GOING TO SHARE YOUR STORIES THEN GET IT IN NOW)

But without further ado, let's begin, and watch as ordinary people made Internet history. (under the cut)

Part 1: gymleadercheren

It all started when @gymleadercheren drew a snippet of the Sans fight, with some Steven Universe lyrics underneath. This post caught the eye of @thepinkestpug, who had an idea.

Part 2: thepinkestpug

Later that same day—Oct 10, 2015—thepinkestpug sang a parody. Now, her Soundcloud link… how do I say it… doesn't sound very good? (He calls it "poor quality" herself.) But because he was in both the UT and SU fandoms, she was uniquely qualified to come up with these lyrics.

Upon seeing the "Stronger Than You" parody, gymleadercheren was ECSTATIC that she inspired someone with her post. The next day, she asked thepinkestpug for "permission to smoosh our lyrics together and make a comic?” If you've seen djsmell's video, you may recognize what she made next…

Part 3: The Comic

It took 3 weeks, but on Oct 29, 2015, gymleadercheren finally finished her comic. With 38 PANELS in total, the post was an instant success. She credits thepinkestpug for her lyrics, and links to an 8-bit "Stronger Than You" instrumental. Today, the post has over 20k notes.

Part 4: djsmell

Two days later, on Oct 31, 2015, @djsmell made a song cover of the comic. He NAILED the voice of Sans, and used the 8-bit song cover from gymleadercheren's post. He posted about it on his blog, while his YouTube video now has 11M views.

Part 5: alfa995

It wasn't until nearly 2 months later that on Dec 21, 2015, @alfa995 finally finished his animation. It used djsmell's audio, and filled in the gaps where the comic made you use your imagination. Today, the YouTube video has been viewed nearly 80 MILLION times.

These were alfa995's words about everything that had happened so far: "So basically someone… made lyrics for an Undertale version of [a song from Steven Universe] and a comic based off it, then someone else sung it, and now I animated it. I love the Internet."

Part 6: Reflections

And that’s the history of this video! This singular video has grown in popularity to such immense heights, it's a well-known piece of trivia that more people recognize the Undertale “Stronger Than You” parody than the actual Steven Universe song it’s based off of.

What I find interesting is how each person involved in this process had a tumblr blog. They saw each other’s posts and made more posts based off of them. By fandom standards this happened LIGHTNING FAST, the idea took 2 and a half months from conception to completion. It’s this connectivity that created the 4th most-viewed Undertale video.

The Undertale scene on tumblr spawned many more memorable fan creations, such as the “Underpants” series by SrPelo, which became the entry point for many into the wonder that is his animations.

It is this fandom that made Undertale a goliath of Internet culture. It is this fandom that made it so that Toby Fox will always have a loyal, rabid audience. Say what you want about it, whether you love it or hate it, the Undertale scene on tumblr may never happen again.

Thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed!

This was my first time thinking about the Undertale fandom in a LONG time, and it was a nice trip down memory lane. Also, here’s a few things I found while researching that I couldn’t list above:

First, what's with all these "Stronger Than You" versions? I had no idea until I started researching that there were so many spinoffs of this singular video. Like, there's a CHARA response? There's a FRISK RESPONSE? THERE'S A TRIO VERSION?

And speaking of spinoffs, I want to shout out the video "Richer Than You"—absolutely phenomenal YTPMV that had a lot of effort put into it.

Finally, I want to shout out Super Eyepatch Wolf’s video, as it was my inspiration while writing this, and explains: “why did these videos get so popular?”

[nomsfaultau]

It all makes so much sense now iejfksksjs

Hii I was the j-pop song anon a while back, this is me realizing there was a chance the original one I sent never was because I had the song link, please ignore this if you've gotten it before!

The song I had in mind was Aishite Aishite Aishite (Love me Love me Love me), specifically this live performance that Ado did, it's really cool!

https://youtu.be/HmkbBdD8044?si=QdA52hmofb4KhHBo

Interpretation can vary, but the song in a nutshell is about a young girl who is obsessed with gaining love and approval from others, getting more desperate as time goes on, to the point of insanity(?). There is a mention of a 'cursed collar' that causes her to act this way, which some see as a metaphor for her insecurities and lack of affection from childhood which is what possibly caused her to be this way.

I once thought that it connected to fault!crew on the sense of their struggle to be accepted or be able to be in a society or situation without the dangers that come with being deemed 'anomalies', but now I think it connects more with the Lambs Wolves Wear!sbi.

That yearning to be loved and want for affection, constantly doing things to get other's praise and attention on them, oblivious to the fact that their own love has become overwhelming and even harmful to the ones they care about...

Anyways this specific rendition was why I got so stoked about this because the singer sung 3-4 distinct vocal types!!! It's like watching her seamlessly switch between characters over the course of the song, and for some reason I thought each sbi member could be connected to a certain voice:

Even, normal tone - connects to Philza, symbolism to his former role of being the one his kids can depend on and the current prolonged facade of being a good and loving father with everything under control as much as he can, goodness compared to the others he seems mentally stable, no way he is undergoing any internal turmoil

Crazed, mad tone - connects to 'Tommy', their chaotic and vile nature with being a demon from hell, also how their first instinct and action ends up being hurtful, whether it be intentional or not, and the whole scene of trying to apologize in their own customs I mean dang—

Deep, grave tone - connects to 'Technoblade', the seriousness and practicality they exhibit and weariness that they carry on their shoulders due to their experience as a soldier, the constant distrust and fear of being caught due to past events

Light, dreamy tone - connects with 'Wilbur', alluding to his tendency to cast illusions on everything messed up so they seem picture-perfect, that desire to be the perfect 'Wilbur'/son and be loved by Philza, seeing their situation in rose-tinted glasses

Could be erroneously off in terms of themes but hey this was fun to write and definitely long! Thanks for reading, love your storytelling and hope you have a nice day! :D

You absolutely nailed the themes!! This is immediately going on the Lambs playlist. The different tones all connect so well with the different characters it almost seems made for them :0

And no Phil is definitely under not even slight turmoil lol what makes you think that?? /j

[viofficial]

[id: a digital illustration of mizuki akiyama and mafuyu asahina. they are standing in place, looking at the viewer, wearing a black dress. part of the dress is see through, specifically the sleeves, that are also decorated with black flowers. mizuki is smiling whilst mafuyu has a surprised look on her face. The background behind them is white with brown splotches and sticks with fruit on them. end id].

hello everyone !! this is prolly one of my first analysis posts, at least on this acc. I’ll be using screenshots from the game to illustrate my points, and separate the post into sections, as well as providing image descriptions and plain text for low vision ppl!! I will also be using she/they for mizuki and he/she for mafuyu, so if u dont like that then shoo. they r transfem (mizuki) and transmasc (mfy) respectively. Also spoilers for most of the events so uhh u shouldnt be reading this if u didnt read all of the mfy or mizu focused events. without furtho ado, let’s start!

Hiding One’s True Self

[plain text: hiding one’s true self. end plain text].

this is kind of an obvious observation, and it’s ofc for diff reasons, but both mafuyu and mizuki hide aspects of themselves to both niigo and the world. mafuyu’s is more subconscious, while mizuki is (for the most part) aware that she hides herself, esp from niigo. they’re both in a situation where it’s difficult to get out of, mfy with her abusive mother, and how her mother pressures her to conform and mold to how everyone, including her classmates, wants her to be. he’s seen as the perfect daughter, the perfect student, with no interests, opinions, anything of his own. mizuki, on the other hand, is very clearly transfem which i am not accepting critique on, and because she goes to great lengths to express her gender identity, even going so far as to change from the male school uniform to the female school uniform, ppl ridicule them, which causes them to not have many friends, esp not ones to freely talk abt their gender with. mizu’s relationship to ena mirrors mafuyu’s relationship with kanade, and they both serve as support to mfy and mizuki respectively. they specifically focus on wanting mfy and mizu to become their true selves, with kanade going so far to try to “save” mafuyu (which i have a Lot of opinions on but thats another analysis for another day). in the song samsa, from the event immiscible discord, there are lines sung by mizuki and mfy at the same time which further highlight these similarities, and go into what’s going on in the narrative.

[id: a screenshot of lyrics, several color coded text in front of a black background. Kaito’s lines are outlined in blue, mafuyu’s in purple, ena’s in beige, mizuki’s in pink, kanade’s in red. some colors are combined, such as mafuyu and mizuki, kanade and ena, and kaito, kanade and ena. The lyrics read: It throbs, throbs, throbs (I throb in pain)

It aches, aches, aches (it aches, aches)

It throbs, throbs, throbs (I throb in pain)

It throbs, throbs, it aches

Change...

Throbbing, throbbing, throbbing painfully

Everyone barely escapes with their souls

It throbs, throbs, throbs

Eaten away by all the pain and the wranglers–taratta

But even so, I wonder why it still

Throbs, throbs, throbs (throbbing painfully)

It's as if you're biting into the apple, Sa-sa-Samsa

end id].

as u can see, mizuki and mfy are the only ones who sing the lines “i throb in pain,” “it throbs, it throbs, it throbs,” and “but even so, i wonder why it still.” kaito also joins in with singing the line, “it’s as if you’re biting the apple, sa-sa-samsa.” kaito is a manifestation of someone who’s trying to tell mafuyu the truth of his mother’s intentions, which mirrors meiko’s role in the event my footprints, your destination. while this event was a kanade and mfy focus, i have every reason to believe the song also parallels mizuki’s issues. while mfy and mizuki have sought refuge in niigo, they still are unable to fully open up. mfy feels she’s unable to become her true self and stand up to her mother, while mizuki is unable to disclose her trans identity. which brings me to my next point. 

Refuge

[plain text: refuge. Plain text]. 

after a while of working with niigo, both mfy and mizu find a safe haven with kanade and ena, enough to be able to open up to them slightly. this is indicated in the videos of two events–and now, the ribbon is tied, and secret distance, two mizuki centric stories–that i’m about to share. it also shows how in a way, she relates to mfy’s struggle and feelings re: niigo. 

[ENG] And Now, the Ribbon is Tied - chapter 1 [Project Sekai event story]

when mfy mentions she feels at ease when working with niigo, mizuki takes note of it. she later says, near the end of the chapter, that they feel like they’re the same as mfy and think abt their past self. 

[Project Sekai] Event Story - Secret Distance [ENG Sub]

in this event, mizuki realizes that while they make music together, they don’t rlly know each other. so they set up an outing for the group to bond whilst stepping outside their comfort zone. after the outing, mizuki realizes how important they are to her, and how she finally feels like she’s found friends she feels comfortable with, enough to say she wants to do this next year. 

Relationship w/ School

[plain text: relationship with school. end plain text].

it’s said now and then that because of mizuki’s trauma, they consistently skip school. while mafuyu consistently goes to school unlike the rest of niigo, it’s clear he doesn’t like it and would rather make music with his friends and forge his own career path. when he had to go to cram school, he instead skipped school to be with her friends at fenilan. 

[ENG] Guiding a Lost Child to What Lies Beyond - chapter 5: The lost heart

Running From One’s Problems

[plain text: running from one’s problems. End plain text].

[video description: the music video for kitty by niigo. Mizuki is wearing a black hat as well as an entirely black outfit, her hair down. Her fingers are curled like a cat’s claws. The layout looks like a camera on one’s phone, the options being mizuki, mafuyu, ena, len, and kanade. The video switches to mizuki’s current self and middle school self. Mizuki’s past self wears a red male school uniform, a pink ribbon, and her hands are on her cheeks, staring in horror. Mafuyu wears a ponytail with her bangs swayed, wearing a blue and red sweatshirt. Her child self has longer hair and holds a stuffed bunny. The video ends with len, who wears a sweatshirt and makes the same pose as mizuki. end video description].

before i get into that… lets take a break to see THIS part in kitty bc???? Oh my god??? 

okay anyway lets get into the most recent-ish (bc saying goodbye to my masked self has recently come out) event, our escape for survival. in this event, niigo is trying to find a way to help mfy and reach her as her laptop and synthesizer has been confiscated. throughout the story, mizuki compares her situation to mafuyu’s, and while it’s not the same, they still have similar while also having opposite issues. when they have a conversation with luka, she comes up with an idea to help mafuyu, as she does smth similar. during the hangout with mafuyu the next day, she tells him that it’s okay to run away, which ends up happening in goodbye to my masked self. while mizuki says that it doesn’t solve problems, i do feel like it mirrors mizuki’s situation, albeit in a different way. mizuki skips school and refuses to tell niigo abt their transness, just like mafuyu who initially couldn’t accept her mother being abusive, and chose to live in denial until kaito and the rest call her out. mizuki can’t accept the fact that others are able to love her for who she is, and so hides that aspect of herself. 

[id: mizuki akiyama’s “the words i can only convey” untrained card, from the event our escape for survival. They look at the viewer, smiling whilst surrounded by lights and a crowd of people. End id].

Conclusion

[plain text: conclusion]. 

so yeah!! I feel like their dynamic is severely underappreciated and underwritten, and i’m so glad our escape for survival highlighted their parallels even more. i rlly hope that the game and the fandom thought abt them more, and not just in a ship sense, bc theyre a lot similar than u think. also purple and pink go so well together LMFAO also i love their area/side story convos. Like:

[id: screenshot of “a moment of jest” second side story that reads: 

Mafuyu – “Amia. Why do you care so much about me? K promised to compose a song that will save me. But neither you nor Enanan have any reason to care about me that much. So... why?”

Mizuki – “Why, huh...? Don't be such a stranger. We're friends, aren't we?”

Mafuyu – “Friends? I thought we were only members of the same songmaking group?”

Mizuki – “Don't worry about it. I'm doing this because I want to. So you don't have to think too deeply into it.”

Mafuyu – “I see. I'll take your word for it, then.”

— "A Moment of Jest" second side story

End id].

[id: screenshot of an area conversation in the empty sekai that reads: 

Mizuki – “Huh? What are you doing here in the afternoon? Don't you have school?”

Mafuyu – “We have tests all week, so we only have half days. What about you? Are you skipping class again?”

Mizuki – “No, I actually came to school today. Class was just super boring, so I decided to come here♪”

Mafuyu – “Hehe. In other words, you're skipping. Maybe I should let Miku know so she'll send you back.”

Mizuki – “Huh?! Oh, hey! How about we write some music together?! What do you think? Sounds fun, right?”

— Area Conversation in Empty SEKAI

 end id].

Yes i got this from the mizumafu shipping wiki don’t judge me fhdjkghfhj but yeah!! Lemme know what u think in the replies, i love discussion esp discussion of these characters. And if i missed anything pls let me know, i’m willing to correct/edit some things!! anyway byebye stan mafuyu and mizuki they r . transmasc transfem solidarity <3 (heart)

[pricechecktranslations]

I can't help but notice, in the newest song, Michaela (as a spirit, at least) uses 僕. I can't say the same about the rest of the evillious songs (I don't know them well enough to say so), but I know a lot of other vocaloid producers have been using 僕 for female singers in their songs (the main ones I can think of is 初音ミクの消失 and even, I believe, 新時代 by ado). Is there a reason for this? I assumed it was supposed to represent a tomboyish vibe, but I'm curious what someone who actually Knows What They're Doing would say.

The thing you're talking about--that a lot of female-sung songs will use "boku" in the lyrics--is not unique to VOCALOID, and even among native Japanese speakers it's been hard to find a consensus on why they do it. Reasons seem to range from "they want boys to be able to identify with the lyrics" to "boku has less syllables than watashi" to "they're trying to project a tomboyish air". It's not common (though not unheard of either) to hear women use "boku" in real life but it's extremely common in music.

In Michaela's case, she has always used "boku" as a spirit, actually. This has come up in other songs and the novel as well. As a spirit, she describes herself (and Gumillia) as being genderless, and supposedly she was male in the Second Period (or at the very least passed as such, regardless of what her actual identity was at the time). So, the change in pronouns is an easy way for the narrative to reference her change in identity/presentation in becoming human. There are a couple times she uses "boku" after becoming a tree as well, but she also frequently uses "watashi", especially when manifesting in her Michaela form.

[project-sekai-facts]

would you be able to compile a list of all the cover songs that weren't originally vocaloid songs if you havent already?

Hello,world! is an anime OP and is currently the only cover which has zero link to vocaloid, with the vsinger version in the game being created specifically for the songs implementation. ray was added in the same collab, and while coming from the same band, this one actually is at least partially a vocaloid song (the song features both Miku and the band's main vocalist).

Odo was originally an Ado song, but was made by vocaloid producers and did have a vocaloid version of the song released prior to it being added to Project SEKAI. Usseewa was also added to the game as part of the Ado collab, but unlike Odo this one didn't have a vocaloid version originally. However, since the song was made my syudou, he made a vocaloid version for the game when it was added.

And if you want to count it, the producer version of Donna Ketsumatsu ga Onozomi dai? is sung by TUYU's vocalist instead of a vocaloid. There is a Miku version in the game though. Kuyamu to Kaite Mirai and Keitai Renwa both have a human vocalist in the producer's version as well (that being mafumafu himself), but the former did eventually get a vsinger version added to the game. Keitai Renwa also has a Miku version but this is an alt vocal instead of the virtual singer version for some reason.

[adventuretolkienlover]

JEREMY JORDAN SONGS PART 4?!??!??!!????????!! WHAAAAAAAAA??!??

Alrighty. This is DEFINITELY, the last Varian playlist. I literally have run out of songs for him!🤣🤣🤣

(PLEASE READ!) Before we get to the music, you may notice I've hidden a section of the songs under the cut. The songs from his new movie Spinning Gold. And while the music is FLIPPING AMAZING, it unfortunately has a cover that's a bit explicit. (e.i. the middle finger.😬) For the safety of youngsters or anyone easily triggered, I have hidden them beneath the cut. Proceed with caution!

Now, without further ado, Jeremy Jordan!

While not a perfect recording, this is great version Caught in The Storm from SMASH. Sung by Jeremy! It's really good!

Admittedly, this is probably my least favorite song on here. But someone else may like it! And it's from Supergirl so that's cool! :)

I LOVE THIS ONE!!! You guys have no idea!!! It's so good!!! Definitely worth a listen!!!

This song is adorable. Gives me 1960s Bubblegum Pop vibes. So cute!

ANOTHER AWESOME ONE!!! This one is super fun! I love it!!! So exciting and thrilling sounding! It's just soooooooo good!!!

A gospel song! I'm not kidding! It's really good too!

Well, that's all for a LONG while. At least for Varian. Get ready to some stuff for Lance! That's coming up next!

[linernotesandseasons]

My 24 Favorite Albums of 2O24

Here we are! These are my 24 favorite albums of 2024! Well, there’s actually 32 haha! I added some bonus albums this year that are either EPs, live albums, or deluxe editions of albums I love. Here is a lot of super personal, rambling writing about my memories of these albums and why they are important to me. While 2023 was a more insular, “working on myself” year, 2024 had more outward facing highs & lows. A really fun & exhilarating Summer, followed by a fairly dark Winter. My writing this time around deals a lot with my inner thoughts, deep questions about life & death & time & magic, and how these songwriters & albums have made me think about it all. 2024 found me deeper in my thoughts than ever before. Still digging out, still figuring out who i’m gonna be, what I want to be, & where I want my life to go.

There is a deep thread of time running through these albums and my writing about them. I used these albums & songs as a way to “bend” time in my own life this year. To slow everything down. To appreciate songs & magic moments. Three minutes at a time. One walk at a time. One sunset at a time. Trying to make my 38th year last. I won’t belabor it here, I’m about to write some version of “magic” & “time” and “meaningful” in about 32+ different ways! If you’ve been following along over the years, I’ve been making this list every year since 2012, so this is my 13th annual! Every year I fall deeper in love with music and use it to guide my life in new & varied & exciting ways! I went to 141 live shows in 2024! I saw 13 (roughly 40%) of these artists live in 2024! As always, these are MY favorite albums and I use this blog as a way to introduce albums that I think are important (dare I say essential) for everyone to hear. Thanks to you for reading! And to all the artists listed below, thank you for creating these albums. Each one means so much to me, in ways I am still coming to understand, and they will all stay with me for the rest of my life. Without further ado, here they are!... My 24 favorite albums of 2024!

My 2024 Favorites Mixtape!

*

ADEEM THE ARTIST   /   Anniversary

“I came here with a strange & earnest feeling” 

This line is sung in the chorus of Adeem The Artist’s wistful “Part & Parcel” off their heartfelt third full length album Anniversary. A line that you could easily miss if you weren’t paying attention, a line so simple & so deep, a line that could stand as not only a mission statement for this album, but Adeem’s career. I feel that line. Like deep down, gut-punch feel it. Like it could be my mission statement. 

“I came here with a strange & earnest feeling” 

How do you explain a strange & earnest feeling? It’s the kind of iykyk moment that leaves me feeling understood by Adeem. Like the feelings go both ways. To be strange & earnest may be Adeem’s lifelong blessing & curse. The rest of the song rides along on a gorgeous lilt, a song of yearning, of trying to build a career in music “And the timelines interweave” Adeem croons mysteriously “creating patterns that I trace and fall asleep in my parents basement.” Verses about childhood & adulthood find Adeem chasing “all of these contradicting versions, childhood perversions, and dreams that never steer. Let them drive a little while so that I can disappear.” and then, like the late great Tom Petty they trail off and disappear back down south “Into the great unknown, I am nameless…”

Well, here we are, it’s 2024 and we’re starting this list in the exact same place we started 2021 AND 2022! Alphabetizing by first name has put Adeem on the top of this list 3 of the last 4 years, and I LOVE that! I love this album, I have loved following Adeem’s career, and I can’t wait to see what’s next! 

Anniversary is another absolutely, barnburning Adeem The Artist masterpiece. Dynamic, unpredictable, full of life & humor, a real real-life album full of glowing, autobiographical snippets and powerful political statements from Adeem’s colorful life. Adeem challenges the religious right (“Nightmare”),\ tackles personal relationship responsibility (“Wounded Astronaut”) fatherhood (“Rotations” is ummm… quite the tearjerker!) apocalyptic homesteading (“Plot of Land”) and of course, the Genocide in Palestine (“Night Sweats”) and the racist, murderous history of the south (“White Mule, Black Man”). Anniversary is the kind of album that attacks everyday problems with an “I don’t have all the answers, but singing & talking about it seems to be one of the only options we got” kind of way. But never fear, Adeem’s belly laugh humor is still present in these darkest of times. “Nancy” rides a perfect little twangy country riff and has my favorite laugh-out-loud opening line of the year “She’s got borderline personality disorder and in order to get off she’s gotta see me cry” Adeem contains multitudes! I have a feeling that opener “There We Are” is gonna be a deep favorite of mine for years to come. It wears its Josh Ritter vibes on its sleeve, a rumbling, rattling mystery, the kind of song you can listen to for years and still find meaning in it's strange & earnest darkness. All in all, Adeem has built a deep catalog of powerful folk & country songs; songwriting both immediate & timeless, songs that make me cry & laugh & dance along in the shower and the kitchen and on my late night walks!

I have this dream where we live in a music world where Adeem can headline Red Rocks. It’s sometime in the Summer, hot & sweaty, with dry lightning threatening in the distance, a show for the ages. Because this is my dream, I build the setlist and I describe the crowd. A sea of queer colors, cowboy hats and extravagant outfits, think Orville Peck & Kacey Musgraves meet Jason Isbell & Tyler Childers meet Chappell Roan & the swifties. Adeem comes out with a deep cut opener, I’m gonna choose “Carolina” (the slow burn opener from 2022’s White Trash Revelry, I mean “I started out as a light in my father’s eyes” is a fucking baller Red Rocks opening line!) although as a diehard I’d also like to hear "Chicken Scratch Love" get the same re-record treatment that “Carolina” got (Adeem?! LP4?!) So yeah, that 2019 raucous, sunset strummer about kissing, hiking, cigarettes, west coast road trips, summer rain, gin, more kissing, yeah, that one comes second! The sun is going down now and I like a slow burn start, but the Red Rocks crowd needs some energy, so I vote “Plot of Land” Adeem’s 50’s blues rocking, Johnny B. Goode ode to homesteading next! Rife with blueberry bushes & pecan trees (you better pronounce it PEE-can) and against the throes of the economic crisis, Adeem belts an inspiring, uplifting anthem that looks to hope “the world’s all wrong and we don’t belong, but baby we’re making us a better one, and it ain’t just us with a heart full of justice, it’s tough, but it’s catching on!” They jam this one out a few minutes, settling into the Red Rocks stage, the band is hot and Adeem is laughing & dancing; before launching into back to back face-punch protest songs, Anniversary’s “Nightmare” and 2022’s “Heritage of Arrogance.” “Nightmare” embodies the same “put yourself in someone else’s shoes” supposedly christian ideal that Tyler Childers referenced so powerfully back in 2020 when he released Long Violent History. At the root of my growth & change over the last 10 years of my life is putting myself in someone else’s shoes. Taking them at their word. Making their problems my problems. After that, it’s time to have some good old fashioned country fun. The crowd participation singalong “Going To Hell” backs perfectly into “One Night Stand” the greatest country love song written in the last five years. If you like late 90’s, early 2000’s classic (and maybe kinda shitty) country music (think Garth, Toby, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt etc…) don’t sleep on Adeem’s classic country bangers! It’s almost dark now, a perfect Summer night and the moon will be rising soon, and hey I got an idea! Maybe Nathaniel Rateliff wants to surprise-guest-come-out and sing & dance a little (I’m thinking “Fast Cars” or “Socialite Blues”) cuz Adeem’s got big band rock & blues & soul bangers too! There’s space in here for a few deep cuts, I’ll let Adeem play whatever they're feeling, my only request is that they hop on the grand piano and play my 2022 fav “For Judas.” I’d also like a little, in-the-crowd-banjo-medley moment with Cast Iron Pansexual favs “I Never Came Out” “Honeysuckle Hipbily Homo-Erotica” “Going to Heaven” and the silly random fav “Asheville Blues” (which I think Adeem could turn into a Boulder joke probably). I could see Adeem throwing one big cover song in, but I definitely want a full band version of “Fervent for the Hunger” for my closer. A strange & earnest feeling song, an “I’m still figuring out who I am & why I feel this way” song. A barnburner, a whooper, a lifelong favorite, trafficking wonder, "sutured with lip gloss & hot sauce & Indian summers" I'm dancing & singing & cry laughing "just a kid with a mixed up head... fervent for the hunger..."

For the encore, I’d love if we could welcome another VIP local guest, Gregory Alan Isakov out to play a duet, and in thinking about the threads between Adeem & Gregory, I’d love if they could do John Prine. I’d pick “Far From Me” since it’s late Summer, but take your pick Adeem and Gregory! After that Adeem plays their most streamed sp*tify song “Middle of a Heart” a trigger warning, tearjerker about America’s gun crisis, veteran suicide, and sobering small town truths. Finally, Adeem closes with their lifer tune “Live Forever” a reverb drenched showstopper about life & death. As Adeem’s guitar echoes out across the rocks, everyone sings along “I’m a daughter of feminine wisdom, son of the American dream” Adeem is singing for all of us now, this isn’t just for them to carry on, this is for us. What will be remembered about you when you’re gone “Sing one of my songs from time to time” Adeem asks, and I promise through my tears that I will. As the last notes drone out, I realize that Adeem is years into building a catalog. A collection of songs that mean a whole lot to a few of us. The kind of grassroots career that takes a lot of time and a lot of work. Adeem is in the middle of it now, Collections of songs that have marked time & space for me since 2019. Songs & albums that mean the world to me. Anniversary is a special album, An album about cycles, an album about timelines. Adeem came here with a strange & earnest feeling, and I’m leaving with that same feeling. Walking down the steps under a full moon, singing quietly to myself, daydreaming about my own personal cycles & timelines and how they interweave. Thanks Adeem, I'll hold onto these songs & feelings forever.

"Now Isley’s in the backyard with fists of Dandelion / mixing potions up in mason jars with mint & wild violet / were that I could trap that laughter in a vial around my neck / save it for the hard times so that I could open it / 'cause I know it goes fast, everybody says that / it’s on every fellow parents lips / but it’s true and it’s coming fast for you / that sweet & beautiful eclipse..."

*

ADRIANNE LENKER   /   Bright Future

In 2024 I talked & wrote & thought a lot about the power of music to bend time. How a song can stretch 3 minutes out for eternity, freezing & melting & twisting time. Forcing me to let go, giving me the space I need to slow down, to mark things, to feel the sobering, eternal passing of time, to live in the moment. Perhaps no other record on this list practices that magic as deeply as Adrianne Lenker does on Bright Future. Recorded straight to tape, 3 minute moments memorialized for eternity; Adrianne sings about time like she knows a secret I haven’t found yet. A secret that she wants to tell me. Whispering in my ear under the cover of a blanket fort. Since we’re bending time a little, let’s start at the end. “So much coming through” Lenker sings longingly on pleading closer “Ruined.” Over hushed, sustained piano, she sings about a missed connection, a secret, faraway love. “So much coming through, every hour too, can’t get enough of you, you come around I’m ruined.” Every hour is how I marked the passing of time with Bright Future this year. Every song another chance to bend, to focus on just an hour. When I listened to this album, I sometimes listened to it as a whole, transfixed the entire way through. Sometimes, I would loop one song for an hour. 3 minutes turning into 9 minutes, turning into 33 minutes and on & on… When “Ruined” loops over into “Real House” Lenker sings plainly about her childhood, telling us a story of growing up. “Do you remember running?” she asks innocently “the purity of the air around. Braiding willow branches into a crown.” In that question, I am hers. I too want to talk childhood, I too am obsessed with the same youthful magic & teenage love that we’ve been seeking since those early days. The power in Lenker’s writing is how it feels like a conversation. When I listen to Bright Future we are staying up late together, maybe walking through my beloved Cheesman Park, pointing out trees that look like monsters, pointing out the clouds & stars & city lights, noticing the late night magic. Maybe we’re drinking wine out of paper to-go cups, she is sharing her teenage trauma, she is sharing her 31 year old trauma, she is sharing, sharing, oversharing. The kind of convos that might scare off less serious friends, but are really the most important thing we have. 

Bright Future marks another chapter in what is becoming quite the songwriting streak for Big Thief’s primary songwriter Adrianne Lenker. Between her solo work & Big Thief, she has released 8 albums in the last 8 years (I might be missing some actually, but it's well over 100 songs in total!) all full of her now trademarked magical, mystical, down-to-earth songwriting style. She is critically acclaimed & widely celebrated at 31 years old. Perhaps my favorite album title of the year, Bright Future marks the year that Lenker returns to my favorite albums list. When I talk about my favorite songwriters, I often tell people how a new album from them feels like an overdue, deep friend check in. How have they’ve been? Where’s their head at? What are they up to and what deep questions have they been pondering? Lenker’s writing makes good on those check-in convos, Bright Future touches on the apocalyptic horrorscape that is the rise of capitalism & the fall of civilization all around us. But despite that darkness, she is spinning tales of love, deep deep love, and how happy she is to play in this world. Personal favorites include “Fool” a vibey indie bop that my littlest sister showed me before I landed in Arkansas last June. “We could be friends” Adrianne asks sweetly as only she can “You could love me through & through” before sharing what could be the best relationship/life advice on this whole list “Just say what it is that you want.” From there “Fool” (and the rest of the record) tell tales of all her real life friends (Tommy, Kenny, Lu-y, Zoe, B, Jamie, Max, John, Lucky, Jerry, the list goes on). Album centerpiece, and all-time love song “Free Treasure” invites a lover to a secret river spot, to dance, to sing, to cook together, leading to a chorus that speaks deeper of love than any song I can remember from the last 15 years. “You show me understanding, patience & pleasure, time & attention, love without measure.” This is a “Landslide” level all-time great song, put it up there with “Fast Car, “Tangled Up In Blue,” and “Hallelujah.” Lenker is swinging for the fences, shooting for the moon, leaving a blazing comet trail of songwriting greatness. 

Through it all, Lenker’s songs consistently saw me through another challenging year. They look past our current darkness, they see… idk… a Bright Future. They are rooted in the everyday, mundane conversations, the kind of magic that comes from being completely and absolutely yourself. The kind of relationships that can only be built on meeting people where they are, where you are. Telling the truth, leaning into love, looking for a future, somewhere deeper, somewhere brighter. On an album full of lifelong love songs, Lenker asks the kind of questions I like to ask. She experiences love the same way I seem to experience it. When she sings to a lover on the oooof-inducing  “Sadness As A Gift” it feels like she is singing to me and no one else “You & I could see into the same eternity” she states sweetly “every second brimming with a majesty. Oh kiss so sweet, so fine, you could hear the music inside my mind, and you showed me a place I’ll find even when I’m old.” Is that place the secret river spot you were telling us about in “Free Treasure“? A place “so deep & green, with wild raspberries & apple trees & rocks to climb between, with water like a washing machine.” I have a feeling Adrianne has a few places like this, and honestly, they can be found (or created) right in your home, in your own mind, just “Leaning on the windowsill.” Finally as “Sadness” finishes, she throws out a question. A random deep thought, an idea about the passing of time that sometimes seems to occupy 100% of my mind. “The seasons go so fast, thinking that this one was gonna last...” Maybe we talk about it for hours together. Maybe this one is gonna last. Or maybe, just maybe… idk, Lenker shakes her head and laughs it off, a laugh like the washing machine river water at the secret free treasure river spot  “Maybe the question was too much to ask…”

"We moved into a real house, a wild field behind it / I wanted to be an inventor, collected scraps to make a portal / I wanted so much for magic to be real..."

*

ANGÉLICA GARCIA  /  Gemelo

It has been four long years since Angélica Garcia topped my 2020 favs list with her breakout sophomore album Cha Cha Palace, a record that I called “a rhythmic, bombastic masterpiece.”  In those four years I feel like everything has changed for me. I’m now single & living alone, working towards an entirely different career; older, wiser, but I still feel mostly the same. Similarly, Garcia has been busy in the four years since Cha Cha. Musically, she has mostly moved away from the aggressive, blues inflected electric guitar from her first two albums and leaned more heavily into vocal looping. Her voice is a showstopper and when I finally saw her live last February opening for Blonde Redhead at the Gothic, I was blown away by how much power she could generate on a stage by herself! Gemelo practically burns with cascading, evocative vocals, slithering & pirouetting over dark, moody electronic beats. Personally, Garcia has also lived a lifetime since Cha Cha, ending an engagement and moving back to her LA home to be closer to her family. In press for Gemelo, Garcia talked plainly about the grief & pain that came with the ending of that relationship, about not feeling like a “good person,” and the weight & freedom of choosing yourself, even if that means hurting someone else. Gemelo is sung almost entirely in Spanish (a first for Garcia), so I haven’t been able to pick up or translate many of the lyrics. In fact, my goal from this album is to finally put some effort into starting to learn Spanish in 2025! Will update you next year! In the swirling, dreamy “Color De Dolor” she references the pain & grief of her last four years singing “even though I will never sever the ties with my pains, I paint them full of colors.”

A loose, concept album about processing personal grief, Gemelo means “Twin” in Spanish. Garcia says it refers more to the “twin self,” the unseen version of you that exists deep inside, like she cleverly sings on the aptly named “Gemini” “I see double, I see double, everywhere I go.” Garcia says that the writing for Gemelo really began when she had a mini epiphany about trusting yourself. She said she felt like she could trust her body more than her brain. With that in mind, Gemelo started to take shape around the musicality, both Garcia’s commanding vocals, and the dynamic electronic backing rhythms. Produced by Chicano Batman’s Carlos Arrevalo, Garcia says she wanted the beats to sound “elemental,” like dirt & rocks, water &  lava. This is a dance record, but not in the same way that BRAT is. These songs are sensual & slinky, moving loosely & languidly, sometimes sneaking up with sparks and stutter steps, but all living in a constantly moving body. When Garcia really does cut loose (ok, “Y Grito” & “El Que” could both totally live on Cha Cha Palace, and never fear, she has not lost one ounce of her in-your-face bombast!) the results are explosive & demonstrative. Garcia belting over pounding drums, her voice swirling to the ceiling, dreamy, sweaty, sexy, strong.

As Garcia started to trust her body to Gemelo, she encourages us to do the same. I’ve taken to dancing in my kitchen in the dark more often. It helps if I’m a little tipsy, but I’m not usually much of a dancer, especially not in public. If we’ve gone to shows together that I’m really into, you’ve probably seen me bop around, but it’s not really dancing. At the encouragement of Angélica & Gemelo and others on this list (get ready, I’m definitely leaning more into electronic music these last couple of years!) I’ve been tried to move my body more. Slowly at first, feeling the music in my arms and legs, loosening my neck, loosening my heart. I’m always a lyric-listener, so it’s nice to take my mind off the words and think about how the music feels. How it seeps & traces & moves through my body. To let it take me over, from my head to my toes, through my chest and out my arms to my fingers. A surrendering process, a healing process. Thank you Angélica & Gemelo for teaching me and moving me this year. I hope to keep learning, keep moving, keep living, keep loving. This album is special.

"Llegas a decirme 'esto también pasará, entre las reflexiones dentro amores, ya sanará...'"

"You come to tell me 'this too shall pass, among the reflections within loves, it will heal...'"

*

*ANGIE McMAHON   /   Light Sides*

If you read this list last year, you know that Angie McMahon’s earth-shatteringly magical sophomore album Light, Dark, Light Again was my favorite album of the year. The songs on Light, Dark, Light Again were healing, essential, & life changing when I needed them most. Years & years from now, when I’m in my 40s, I hope to look back and remember what it felt like to hear those songs for the first time. The soft, summery opening swell of “Saturn Returning” (a call to dance, a call to love your body & mind, a call to be “wide awake when I’m 40!”) to the measured, dedicated drive of “Letting Go” (a call to be proud of yourself, a call to let go, surrender, & move on. A call to not only love, but celebrate the mistakes you make) to the final seance; the captivating, illuminating, life changing “Making It Through” (a call to grow, a call to survive, a call for routine & cycles, a whole life in one song). A mantra I’ve repeated desperately, quietly, & finally peacefully “light, dark, light again…” Safe to say, Angie’s writing means the world to me. Since the album came out in late Fall, my listening carried over into 2024, making her my most streamed sp*tify artist of the year. Last March I planned a trip to San Francisco to see my friend Steph (& her fiance Sarah!) and we saw Angie for the first time at the Chapel. It was powerful, emotional & spiritual in ways that I’m still fully understanding. One of my favorite concerts I’ve ever been in a room for. Most of that show is on youtube if you’re interested! One of my favorite nights of 2024. I felt so so so lucky to be there.

In late July, Angie announced that she had a few more “light” songs that hadn’t made the album, and that she’d be releasing them as singles for this EP. Light Sides. I knew from the first moments of first single “Just Like North” that these songs were just as special. Like catching up with an old, close friend after some big life changing experiences, Angie’s voice sounds familiar & comforting, singing about more change... more light & dark! “This season is for going back to the sea” she states majestically, still trying to shake some of the pain & mistakes that were littered throughout Light. If you ask me years from now, I’ll probably believe that these songs exist as part of the full album, a swirling, building masterpiece. They come from the same place, feel the same emotion… Sooooo... most nights in August I could be found roaming Cheesman Park, making mistakes like Angie encouraged, believing from the bottom of my heart that (as “Just Like North” concludes) “If you get everything right… then there’s nothing else left.” So cheers to making mistakes & not getting everything right! Personal favorite “Untangling” hones in on the change Angie keeps referencing, she is growing, she is changing, she is ��untangling you from my center.” Finally, the root of many of my lessons over the last 2+ years, the kind of truth that cuts deep & hurts to hear, Angie states firmly “my least favorite feeling is hurting someone cuz I was slow at healing.” OOOF Angie. Fuck. I think so many of the lessons I’m learning, so much of why I sometimes feel insular, removed, & distant, circles around this idea. At its core, it means to love others you must first love yourself, Must do your own healing. It doesn’t mean you have to heal right away. It doesn’t mean you have to abandon friends & loved ones. But everytime I doubt my process, everytime I question why I’m still single & alone, I sing that line back to myself. I work on my own healing. I try to be good to others, I try to be good to myself. Light Sides stands as a sister to Light, Dark, Light Again, a really special little EP to me. But wait! There is one more song! On December 12, English superstar DJ Fred again.. (wayyyyy more on him if you keep scrolling!) released his remixed version of “Making It Through” simply called “light dark light.” A perfectly simply closing. A magnificent celebration of the power of a song. When I recognized Angie in my yearly spot*fy wrapped post, the message she recorded for her top fans said that she was excited to “keep writing the next thing” and then she said “I hope you’re excited for the next year and the next thing!” I am Angie. I fucking am. Thank you for every single one of these songs. They will be with me for the rest of my life.

"Pain will be on every map just like north is / pain will be in every year just like august / & if you get everything right... then there's nothing else left..."

*

BRITTANY HOWARD   /   What Now

I don’t really know where to start or what to write about Brittany Howard’s second solo album What Now. This is an incredible, legendary album made by a superstar. I’m hesitant to hurl hyperbole but What Now conjures visions of Prince, Curtis Mayfield, Daft Punk, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone & Alice Coltrane. These songs are ALIVE and they contain multitudes. Never has an album this varied, this galactically genre-jumping, sounded this cohesive. Brittany’s heart & brain, hands & voice all work together to make What Now an absolute masterpiece. This list has always been a very “Matt’s-favorites-not best” list, but if I had to pick an objectively best album on this list, it is hands down What Now.  

First off, Brittany has pushed the boundaries outward in all directions, tackling wildly varying soundscapes, genres, & feelings. From the fiery, flowing funk of the title track, to the vocal acrobatics and lush 60’s-meets-modern-pop production of “I Don’t” (if “Sound & Color” is your favorite Alabama Shakes song, start here!) to the dance-y (cuz OF COURSE Brittany can do dark, chill house vibes better than all yall) groove of “Prove It To You.” How Howard turned these intimate, delicate songs into stadium level anthems is a masterclass. I don’t usually put chart-topping, grammy winners on this list; because my blog is more to introduce people to new music, to find the undiscovered songwriters, but it’s clear that Brittany Howard is a superstar for a reason. When I wrote about Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN in 2017 I said “This is the kind of album you make from the top of the mountain, huddled in the cave, searching for enlightenment.” When I wrote about Florence Welch’s Dance Fever in 2022, I asked if she had "some demon or angel inside of her, something that all great artists have that forces them to create.” Brittany Howard has entered a rare stratosphere on What Now, having conquered the world with her rocking, retro-soul band Alabama Shakes, and won grammys for her solo debut album Jaime. She truly is creating from the top of the mountain, embodying the "What Now?" idea that the album title suggests. What she has given us is nothing short of a career-defining, future looking, alien spaceship, time capsule, all-time-instant-classic sophomore solo album.

I guess, what I love the most about What Now, is just how freakin GOOD the songs sound. The instrumentation is absolutely phenomenal (read some gear interviews with Howard, she is a true music nerd!) Brittany’s voice is earth shattering, and EVERY SINGLE SONG is like its own little universe to explore. Favorite moments include: The first piano chord on the album, 23 seconds into “Earth Sign” surrounded by swirling crystal singing bowls (Howard uses them between songs to set the vibe) the keys paired with her airy, harmonic layered vocals sounds like something from 2050. Or the sweet jazz trumpet outro in the last 2.5 minutes of “Samson” one of my favorite musical interludes of the year. Or the slinky guitar riff that slides in with the groovy soul vocals 20 seconds into “Power To Undo” before the song absolutely fucking lifts off in full Prince fashion 45 seconds in. Through it all, Howard’s voice is the flashlight, the lighthouse, & the beacon; shining through everything, steering the songs upwards & outwards, navigating through dizzying, tangled webs of intertwining bass & keys & guitars & synths & drums, always in search of truth. When Brittany was asked about her creative voice on What Now, she answered simply & deeply... “I turned 35 this year and something happened, just snapped. I don’t really care what anyone thinks about my expression, because it’s so divinely mine.” What Now indeed. 

“Out there, there's a love waiting for me / I can feel, I can’t see, but will I know? / will I know when I feel it? / the first moment I see it / the first moment that I hear you say my name / will you say my name?... / in the wet of my eyes / in the wind of my chest / it’s nearly there…”

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*CHARLI XCX / Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat*

You didn’t think I was gonna leave BRAT off this list did you?! I’m choosing the deluxe edition for a couple of specific reasons, although tbh, the original BRAT is just  “disc 2” of the deluxe edition and it fucks as hard as everyone says it does and you can totally just listen to that all next Summer and have yourself a Brat Summer Vol. 2. I don’t need to go super in depth on the BRAT hits of here, I mean, the first 10 seconds of banging club-ready opener “360” will forever take me back to early Summer 2024. The soaring, bumping chorus of personal fav “Sympathy is a Knife” (which always reminded me of peak mid-2010’s CHVRCHES) is enough to get my adrenaline pumping, and the thumping 80’s groove of “Apple” is nostalgic in the best kind of way. It’s hard to believe these songs have only been in the world for less than a year. There were hot Summer days where I walked across Cheesman and heard BRAT songs blasting from multiple speakers on multiple blankets, soundtracking multiple boozy picnics, shirtless volleyball games, and dog hangs. I can’t remember a better example of INSTANT CLASSIC. Charli is a superstar and BRAT is career defining.

I’m choosing the deluxe edition for a couple of different, very specific & meaningful reasons. Reason number one is for the power a song or an album can have to morph & grow & change. Everyone's favorite BRAT songs have taken on new forms here, and they’re glowing with the power to influence your life in different ways and at different times. Examples of that power are littered throughout this list and throughout my life as a music fan. Songs that you fell in love with one season, can come back to you in a different way in another season. Songs that you weren’t ready for one year, can find you exactly when you need them. An old song sung in a new way can change the world. Reason number two is to memorialize the night that the deluxe edition came out on sp*tify. My siblings & I were in Durham, North Carolina for my cousin’s wedding and my brother Willie & were en route to RDU to pick up our youngest sister Bethy at midnight. We parked in the satellite lot under the moon to wait for her to land and played the 1975’s version of “I might say something stupid.” as loud as our rental car speakers would allow. The 1975 is Willie’s favorite band, and Bethy, Will & I have bonded over them and the Japanese House over the years, and The 1975 actually made this list back in 2020. We sit silent in the car as Matty Healy coos over whisper sweet piano, and it could be any year. It’s 2015 and Willie is moving to Portland, Oregon. We’re racing across bridges over the Willamette River, city lights dancing behind us, playing each other Angels & Airwaves, Frightened Rabbit, Typhoon, Macklemore, The Boxer Rebellion, LANY, The National, and the 75. We’re talking about new girls we like. About coffee & baseball, figuring out religion, figuring out life. The rain blurs the window and the wipers whip us forward another year. We’re winging our way to the coast, sweeping through gloriously green coastal pines with glimpses of ocean blue peeking between rocky cliffs. Then I’m crying on the plane, headed back home. Fast forwarding years and I’m in Arkansas now with Bethy. We’re getting a nightcap beer in some little hipster spot in Fayetteville. Talking about her life there. About growing up. About some deep, existential shit, bending time or whatever. I’m zoning out, looking out the window, listening to Matty Healy’s voice melt with Charli’s, flashing back to 2015, to 2020, to last month, to sunset. Time flings us all forward and now we’re in some unrecognizable state. There are trees yes, and a coastline, and I don’t know exactly what year it is, but I feel much older. We’re talking about Brat Summer and how “those were the days...” Willie’s daughter (my perfect niece Coco) is in college and crushing it, Bethy is married and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been… We’re all laughing about something. We can hear our other brothers & sisters laughing somewhere down the shore, walking back at dusk. I snap back and it’s now. Here. This year. We pick Bethy up at midnight and blast Charli (and honestly probably The Japanese House and The ‘75!) together on the drive home to the airbnb. BRAT sounds just as fucking fantastic in the Fall. Brat Summer is a feeling. Brat Summer is a state of mind. Brat Summer is for all of us. Brat Summer is for now. Brat Summer is forever...

"Fall... fallin'... fall in love... fall in love again... fall in love again & again... / (it's like you're living the dream, but you're not living your life...) / church bells in the distance / free bleeding in the autumn rain / fall in love again & again..."

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CINDY LEE   /   Diamond Jubilee

Like a ghostly transcript from an alien radio station, Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee slipped into my life in April and refused to leave. It was like one day I had never heard of Cindy Lee, and a week later, all of my music feeds were raving about this mysterious album from long tenured Canadian indie musician Patrick Flegel, who performs in their drag persona as Cindy Lee. Flegel spent a chunk of the late 2000’s fronting influential Canadian post-punk band Women, but they clearly have more up their sleeve; and have spent the last five years dreaming up the mythically massive scope of Diamond Jubilee. A masterpiece, a magnum opus. 2+ hours & 30+ songs! Music lovers unite! Of course I first heard about it word-of-mouth from a much cooler co-worker (love you Ike!) He told me it was only available to listen to through a youtube link on Cindy’s geocities website (as of writing, it’s still not available on streaming, but the youtube video has 1.6 MILLION views!) but that they were playing Hi-Dive here in Denver in a couple weeks! I should have bought tickets right then, but I waited and subsequently got shut out of their hella sold out Hi-Dive show, a couple days before they cancelled the rest of their tour. But honestly, I didn’t mind. I like having some things that are a little inaccessible, that make you work to earn it. You could call Cindy’s approach hipster allegiance to DIY & underground culture, or just a groundbreaking artist refusing to play by the rules. Diamond Jubilee feels like a calculated, artistic choice to practice some scarcity. As much as I love a good album rollout, it can get a little exhausting. To be honest, it was refreshing to wake up on a blue Saturday morning in April & May and simply click on that 2 hour-straight-through youtube and listen while I made coffee & breakfast with the windows open. Transported to another time, another planet, another life. WIthout knowing the name of a single song, or being able to sing one lyric, Cindy Lee stole my heart. 

It's hard for me to explain what exactly makes this album so special musically. To me, it plays as a whole. I can’t tell you which song is which; a fact I primarily attribute to playing that unbroken youtube link, starting at different points, never certain if I was at the end or the beginning. Or both? Or neither? Dreamy, moody, hard to place, like that mixtape your friend’s much cooler older sister showed you in High School. Mystical & magical, but warm & tangible, like you could make these songs yours too. I hear The Beatles, I hear Fruit Bats, I hear classic soul & 50s & 60s girl groups. I also hear modern folk & indie rock, sung gorgeously throughout in Cindy’s timelessly retro falsetto. This is how Lord Huron WISHES they sounded! Songs painted with western vistas of plains & canyons, distant city lights, UFOs & headlights over the dunes. I turn the dial and scan the AM radio waves, past minor league baseball & late night talk shows, until a warped acoustic guitar makes me stop in my tracks. I fiddle but it still doesn’t sound quite right. I hold my breath, Cindy sweeps in like an angel, the music pulses & sways and you just feel it. I bop along in the driver’s seat, smiling at just how good it sounds. I’m reminded of the power of music to transport me. I could be anyone, on any planet, in any lifetime. I’m happy to be me. I’m happy to love anything as much as I love this exact song at this exact moment. I roll down the window. The air is warm & light and feels like real Spring. The night stretches on, but it doesn’t matter. I could listen to this album till the end of time. Till the aliens come. Thank you Cindy. You deserve every single accolade. This is why I love MUSIC. Long Live Cindy Lee. Long Live Diamond Jubilee.

"Through my window, a silver moon / an open suitcase in an empty room / all I've got is the truth / all I want is you..."

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CLEMENTINE WAS RIGHT   /   Tell Yourself You’re Going Home

There is a scene in one of my secret favorite “random-life” movies, the soul searching “Away We Go” where 30-something couple Burt & Verona (played sweetly by long time favs John Krasinski & Maya Rudolph) lay in bed together and she asks him honestly “Burt, are we fuckups” Burt answers emphatically “NO! What do you mean?!” She replies “we’re 34 and we don’t even have this basic life stuff figured out. Basic like how to live. I mean, we have a cardboard window!” They argue briefly about whether or not they’re “fuckups” (an internal argument that I’ve had with myself more than I care to admit over the last 8+ years of being a 30-something, a battle of positive/negative self-talk) before the scene launches into Alexi Murdoch’s haunting “Blue MInd” (I highly recommend both the movie and Alexi’s gorgeous soundtrack!) and Burt & Verona spend the rest of the movie searching for a place where they fit. A place where they are free to be fuckups AND be happy. I think of this scene everytime I listen to the seagull-soundtracked, aptly titled, mournfully silly  “It’s Ketchup (We’re Fuckups)” on Clementine Was Right’s majestic third (Junior?!) album Tell Yourself You’re Going Home. Clementine Was Right sings songs for all us fuckups. For the 30-40 somethings who care so much about the world. About feeling things and experiencing things, about celebrating the tiny, wonderful, magical things all around us. Maybe we have a cardboard window & a broken faucet, maybe we struggle with health insurance & car insurance & finding where we fit. But when the light pours out like syrup or ketchup (or a concrete wall loves the color of the sky at dusk!) sometimes, with the right song, it feels ok to be a fuckup. 

The songs on Tell Yourself You’re Going Home have wedged their way into my life in essential pieces over the last year and a half. After putting their 2022 album Can’t Get Right With The Darkness on my favorite albums list (I called it “a postcard of American rock & roll, with silly drawings on the back in gel pen from all your queer friends”)  I finally met Clementine’s captain & lead storyteller Mike Young & his partner (and Clem’s resident poet & narrator) Gion Davis at shows and became friends. In that way, I’ve had many of these lyrics memorized from live performances long before the recorded versions were released. This is a secret, special way to learn favorite songs, a deep, deep connection. Believe me when I say, the Tell Yourself You’re Going Home release show in May at The Roxy on Broadway was one of the most special live shows of my music going career. When people ask me about my all time favorite “local” bands, Clementine Was Right always makes my list. 

The songs on TYYGH are special. Mike writes from the heart and he wears his heart on his sleeve. Painfully heartfelt, with little silly bits, streaked with Mike’s passion to tell everybody’s stories. To recount the dumb little details. To notice as much as possible. There is a theory I’ve built that started buzzing in my brain around a Mountain Goats lyric about “nameless bodies in unremembered rooms” and to be honest it goes deeper than songwriting. At its core it’s the idea that we need to care about people that we don’t know, in places we’ve never been. It’s the type of thinking that leads us to feel deeply for the Palestinian genocide, to mourn the murders of trans women in the US, and the countless Native Americans gone missing without a trace. We don’t just care that Paris Hilton’s house burned down in the LA wildfire because we know her name, you get it right? In a lighter sense, songwriters tell us stories and give names to those people (and since songwriting is my portal) it serves to change my views, and therefore my life. Mike names everyone, from Travis, Jesse, Hunter & Charlene in “There Are No More Almond Trees” (the unfortunately way-too prescient apocalyptic punch to the gut opener that sounds like the kind of scream-y indie rock I would’ve blasted in high school & college) to Christine & her late husband Paul in the tear-soaked “Coca-Cola Vigil.” He tells stories, he remembers your story, he makes each & every person he comes in contact with feel like their story is essential & important, worth singing about, worth remembering. 

In June of 2023 (a month before it’s actual release!) Mike texted me a wav file of “River Boys” (a new song they’d been playing live) and I played it on repeat for all my Summer creek adventures over the next two Summers! Imagine Tom Petty (or idk Matchbox 20?!) wrote a gay love song to a river, to the passing of time, to life & death, to the end of the world. It’s like it was meant for me! My other personal favorite “Takes Tall Walks” was the lead single (suicide trigger warning here) and it’s hard to think of a better opening line on this list than...

“Well I love the kitchens of all my friends / Every mug for whiskey, every regal pet.”

Clementine’s entire discography (dare I say life philosophy) can be wrapped up in that one line; songs for hanging in kitchens with friends, songs for mugs of whiskey, songs for regal pets. Songs about life & love & the passing of time. Finally, TYYGH arrives at its penultimate track “Goddamn Universe,” an earth-shattering poem from Mike’s partner Gion, the critically acclaimed New Mexican poet. When I wrote about their 2022 album, I talked about how Mike & Gion’s writing is all tangled up in the story of Clementine. Their lives, their voices, their writing, their words echoing off each other, reverberating against reverb drenched electric guitar strums, careening down hallways like summer thunderstorms, lightning & wind, time going on forever in a never ending flat circle. Songs & poems for lovers & friends & fuckups, Summer looming over the ocean, hard blue linoleum, another year passing, love platonic & romantic, the little things, the massive things, everything… I would have crossed state lines for less.

"You told the world 'I feel lost' / you told the world 'let me off' / you watched the lightning take tall walks... / & I want to tell you I see everything / two redwood trees at the edge of the beach..."

*

DEERLADY   /   Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits is the debut album from Deerlady, the brand new indie, shoegaze, slowcore supergroup duo of Mali Obomsawin & Magdalena Abrego. The songs on Greatest Hits are moody, dark & mesmerizing, led by Abrego's rhythmic, explosive guitar and Obomsawin's dreamy, floating vocals. This album fucking rocks. Deerlady was started by classically trained bassist, composer & songwriter Mali Obomsawin (whose gorgeous solo album nearly made this list in 2022). As she was writing more rock inspired songs a side project, she reached out to fellow Berklee alum, free jazz, punk guitarist Magdalena Abrego to form Deerlady. The result is nothing short of incredible. More supergroups please people! More collaborative writing projects! Deerlady is a force. “Honestly, it just feels fucking great to be in a rock band” Obomsawin said with a laugh in press for Greatest Hits. “I feel like that’s my natural state, but then I have to put on my suit jacket and pretend to be a respectable grownup when I play in my jazz band.” (Obomsawin has fronted the Mali Obomsawin Sextet for years on the jazz festival circuit). Abrego adds “I feel like clarinet-playing, childhood goth girl Magdalena would be so psyched right now! The thing I’m most excited about is the opportunity to be in a rock band!” That excitement, that “fucking great” feeling can be felt throughout Deerlady’s songs. Abrego’s unhinged, raging, spiraling guitar swells in and eviscerates Obomsawin’s vocals like a crashing wave. Obomsawin wails, her bass throbs, Deerlady is the fully realized result of two world class musicians cutting loose together, making rock & roll for the fun & anger & fire of it all. 

While recording Greatest Hits, Obomsawin was reached out to by Reservation Dogs (best soundtracks ever!) to provide a song. She is a citizen of the Odanak First Nation and the blending of her & Abrego’s indigenous & immigrant cultures is an essential part of Deerlady’s music. Do a little googling & reading about Native American genocide and the "Save The Man" idea found in the lyrics of the gentle droning “Masterpieces.” When Rez Dogs reached out, Obomsawin sent them the at-that-point unreleased version of the sweet, hushed “There There” that was featured in the show. As someone who is always shazamming songs from TV shows, movie trailers, in coffee shops & bars, I know the feeling of trying desperately to figure out “who plays this song?!” only to be denied. The hype around “There There” helped convince Deerlady that Greatest Hits was… gonna be a thing. I’m sharing the full lyrics of “There There” at the end of this review, it is a powerfully tender love song, one of my favorites of the year. RIYL: Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers, indigenous songwriters, & crying in your car lol. If you keep reading this list, you’ll find two other albums that pair so perfectly with Deerlady, that they make a sort of triangle. The PNW shoegaze of Somesurprises & the New Mexican indigenous rock of Lindy Vision are both powerful touchstones that Deerlady sits between. At their core, their songs most remind me of one of my all time favorite bands, Black Belt Eagle Scout. Deerlady is definitely a new favorite, please don’t miss their ferocious KEXP session from last month, Greatest Hits is exactly what it claims to be… a debut record for the ages. 

“What you want, what you need, what you love, who you really are / if you dare, if you don’t, if you try and you wanna cry / there there… / seeing you, being two, facing one, lost in motion / barricades going up, coming down, your arm around my bony shoulders / feeling young, buying time and bumming one from you / there there… / cracking up, freaking out, staying in and losing every inch I’ve gained / angry tears, getting free, letting you see my ugly side that wants to come out / throwing hands and fighting the world with you / there there… / unexplored, ignored particles of brain & heart / resuscitate, CPR, care & patience, rage and making space for who we really are / despite this world it led me to you / there there… / what you want, what you need, what you love, who you really are / if you dare, if you don’t, if you try and you wanna cry / I’m there…” 

*

DOECHII   /   Alligator Bites Never Heal

“Let’s start the story backwards” begins Doechii’s captivating third album Alligator Bites Never Heal. Over a late night humid groove, Doechii cuts loose right from the start on “STANKA POOH” “I’m just shootin’ the shit over some pretty production” Doechii raps loosely, rhyming production with muffins, before taking off into an anxiously frenzied outro about her deepest fears, over the same pretty production. At this point, what can I say about Doechii that you haven’t seen all over your social media and the news in the last couple of months?! 26 years old, born Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon in Tampa, Florida, Doechii is having her moment. From her wildly infectious NPR Tiny Desk (this one is gonna give Mac Miller a run for my new favorite!) to her show-stopping performance and huge win at the Grammys, Alligator Bites Never Heal is one of the best rap albums of the last few years. Chock full of sleek, jaw-dropping, head-turning, swampy trip rap that reeks of Doechii’s hometown of Tampa, Florida. I wish this album woulda been around for True Detective season 1, I can picture Rust Cohle and Marty driving through decrepit Yellow King land, with the throbbing “BULLFROG” bumping sweetly from their ‘95 Chevy Caprice. From the classic, light retro swing of “BOILED PEANUTS” (“it’s a sunny day! The gang’s all here!”) to the staccato back & forth character study and undeniable bounce of “DENIAL IS A RIVER” (“I mean fuck, I like pills, I like drugs, I like day-drinkin’ & day parties & Hollywood!”) Personal favorite “CATFISH” finds Doechii shape shifting through all her different voices, one second she’s laugh out loud funny, smiling her million dollar smile, the next second she amps up the aggressive energy, calling out haters, before closing with “Doechii the don, Doechii the dean, Doechii supreme, the swamp ruler.” 

Even though I had heard her name, my real introduction to Doechii came one night late last year, riding with my coworker and best friend Danielle, she was driving me from Lost Lake to the Squire Lounge in a late Fall snowstorm and she put on “Balloon” from Tyler The Creator’s majestic CHROMAKOPIA. Halfway through Tyler’s infectious groove, Doechii comes out guns blazing “I don’t need a Range when I got an airboat / I don’t need a plane cuz the airboat float / I don’t need a passport I’m a SWAMP BITCH oh!” I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard Nicki Minaj’s verse in Kanye’s “Monster” It gave me chills. In the same way, Doechii’s verse shook me, windows down, heater on, snowflakes blowing, swamp bitch Doechii making a statement. My rap knowledge & background are probably not deep enough to go in depth here, but I hear Nicki, Missy Elliot, Azealia Banks, Biggie Smalls, MF Doom, Lauryn HIll, Doja Cat, Trick Daddy, and of course Doechii’s TDE labelmates Kendrick & SZA. Bottom line, this is a superstar level rap album, Doechii is the real deal. Alligator Bites Never Heal is here to stay.

"Say it's real and it's rap. and it boom and it bap / and it bounce and it clap / and it's house and it's trap / it's everything! / I'm everything!"

*

DREAMER BOY   /   LONESTAR

Back almost a year ago, in Spring 2024, one of the venues I work at (Lost Lake) announced a touring show for early Summer, a band called Dreamer Boy playing on June 21st. As I do when I begin marketing a show, I gave it a cursory listen, and maybe judged it a little bit. Texas born, LA raised, Nashville based, indie pop blended with americana and r&b, a white boy named Zach Taylor with a flair for the dramatic (he lists David Bowie & Tyler The Creator as inspirations for this album) press pics shirtless or in rodeo clown makeup, a concept album about the American west, blah blah blah blah blah, you know you know haha. I wrote it off as just one more Nashville knock off, a young up-and-comer, trying to make a name for himself. Oh well, the kids love that shit, it’ll probably sell out I thought. It wasn’t until maybe May that Dreamer Boy started to seep into my veins. I read his bio and it began…

“It’s humid and you’re going to baseball practice. You’re ‘listening to Big Star, lying in your car.’ You’re ‘cutting into the country-fried / Got a lawnchair, open into the fall air.’ You’re a kid under the Texas sky: ‘Friends come through the side door / Mail is in a pile...’”

Sooooo I actually listened to the full album and first noticed personal fav (and linernotesandseasons alumni!) Miya Folick lending her dreamy guest vocals to the woozy, summer swoon of “Big Sky.” And then… I fell HARD for the perfectly named opening track “Summer In America.” Sliding in sweetly on a synth-y swell, lurching into an electronic drum beat, rhythmically tracking my teen years. “The sun’s on my back and it’s Summer in America” Dreamer Boy chants softly, and the song rattles to life with a big heartland piano pulse. Part Tom Petty, part War on Drugs, part your favorite shitty dive bar cover band, this is the kind of song I can loop on repeat for a lot of Summer mornings. As luck would have it, it was June and I had just started a new part time job for Westword, a job that required me to spend a lot warm dawns working on coffee shop patios. So I would start most mornings with an iced coffee and a couple rounds of Dreamer Boy. Needless to say, I played “Summer In America” often enough that it ended up my #1 most streamed sp*tify song of 2024, and by the time it chimed out and the groovy, punchy “Heartbreaker” kicks in, I decided that I actually LOVE this album! “Heartbreaker” mirrors my other personal fav “If You’re Not In Love” (#10 on my most streamed sp*tify songs) with some genuine 80’s swagger, galloping, driving, danceable pop-rock bops, the kind of songs that are fun to sing in the kitchen or in the shower or on sweaty, Summer night walks, when it feels like the season will never end. So that was that, I was hooked. Dreamer Boy’s tour rolled on across the West, I did my best with marketing, but the show only sold about 80 tickets. By all accounts, it was a good one though. In a way, that only made me love Dreamer Boy more. This is not a sure shot, easy win, rocket to the top, this is a little bit of an underdog story. Fuck I can’t wait for it to be Summer in America again. See ya then Dreamer Boy!

"On a new train going uptown / this is how it feels to be unbound...."

*

*Drinking Boys & Girls Choir   /   DBGC Live in Busan*

드링킹소년소녀합창단 

One of my absolute favorite live shows of 2024 (and of the last five years honestly!) was the Drinking Boys & Girls Choir show at Lost Lake Lounge back in November. Drinking Boys & GIrls Choir is a punk trio from Daegu, South Korea and they are one of my new favorite bands! I was first introduced to DB&GC when they opened for 2022 favs Otoboke Beaver at the Gothic about a year ago. Their set was absolutely electric and hosting them at Lost Lake (where I work!) was like a dream come true. Since they haven’t released a new album since 2019, I’m choosing to add their live album to this list, and hoping for some new music in 2025. Ok, let’s dig in!

DB&GC began when bassist and lead vocalist Meena Bae met drummer Myeong-jin Kim in the Korean punk scene in 2007. They first started a band called Chicken and Mayo ABC (!) but have been playing as DB&GC since 2013. They have a strong commitment to the local scene in Daegu, touring extensively in South Korea and speaking out for LGBTQ & human rights. They have played with a few other different members, but while searching for a new guitarist in 2023, Scottish guitarist Megan Nisbet reached out via a heartfelt email. She already spoke Korean and said joining the band has been a life’s dream come true. When the trio hit Lost Lake last Fall, the camaraderie of the band shone through both personally & musically. A punk band through & through, most of the songs on Live in Busan are 1.5-2.5 minutes long, breakneck blasts of energy, wall of sound, relentless drumming, angular shredding guitar, and Bae & Kim’s shouted vocals, both melodic & abrasive, sometimes singing in unison, sometimes bouncing off each other, hyperactive & unrelenting for 45 minutes. Standing in the crowd at Lost Lake (ok maybe jumping around a little, maybe getting bounced into the pit and swirling around a little) I teared up a few times thinking about how lucky I was to be in that space. How lucky I was to witness Drinking Boys & Girls Choir. One of my goals for my 40’s is to travel internationally more. To see faraway places & new countries (and of course see live music everywhere I go!) But for now, what a gift to get to see a punk band from South Korea live at little old Lost Lake Lounge on east Colfax. Go listen to Drinking Boys & Girls Choir, see you at the next punk show!

"There is no spring / do you have something special? / nothing is enough to live... / run it today / don't miss today / you can be today.... / before I knew it the flowers would bloom / before I knew it the flowers would fall..."

*

DU BLONDE / Sniff More Gritty

“I am a solitary individual! I know exactly who I am!” screams the middle-fingers-up chorus on Du Blonde’s Laura Jane Grace assisted punk blast single “Solitary Individual.” That should be the first clue that we’ve wandered into the world of a superstar. Du Blonde has been releasing music in the UK for 15+ years under both their birth name Beth Jeans Houghton and as Du Blonde, and Sniff More Gritty is the jaw dropping work of a mad genius. Houghton engineers, produces, and plays every instrument (besides for some of the live drums) on Sniff More Gritty, and the entire record oozes with a snarling, sneering, screeching self confidence. This was one of the last albums I added to this list, it was recommended to me by Du Blonde collaborator (and linernotes&seasons alumni) Ezra Furman (can’t wait to see what you have coming for us in 2025 Ezra!) and when I heard these songs, I was shocked that I’d never heard of Du Blonde before. But, in a way, it came into my life exactly when I needed it. I was feeling down, feeling like I wouldn't be able to finish this year’s list, but most of all, feeling despondent about my own personal future. I’m lucky enough to not have had to deal with too much depression in my personal life, but sometimes in the Winter, the blah, helpless feeling overtakes me. In getting excited about this album, I read a lot about Du Blonde, and stumbled across this interview from 2019. Houghton speaks candidly about feeling suicidal (TW) saying...

“I guess I’d thought about it in the past, but not in a way that I would do it. I finally got to a place where I was like ‘Shit. I’ve got to go to the GP round the corner right now because I’m going to do it’; I’d been looking up the most painless way to kill myself. I was going to go through with it, and I had this moment of clarity. I can only describe it as something outside of myself blowing a hole through a cloud, and I could see the good weather on the other side just for a moment, and I thought ‘on the off chance that three days down the road I would have regretted this, I need to seek help and I owe myself that.’”

Reading this, I let the power of Houghton’s words move through me. Like “something outside of myself blowing a hole through a cloud so I could see the good weather on the other side just for a moment.” What a fucking powerful image. Whether you’re feeling truly suicidal, or just, as I was, unable to see that good weather on the other side of the clouds, just hang on a couple days longer. Houghton goes on to talk about medication saying…

“My doctor prescribed me Citalopram, and I woke up three days later feeling more emotionally stable, productive and engaged than I had in ten years. I realised a huge part of my depression was simply a chemical imbalance. I cannot adequately impress upon anybody struggling with depression how common this is, how important and okay it is to seek help, and that genuinely life can and will get better. I have been in the place of no hope; the place where even your loved ones become peripheral to your need to cease existing. I understand how very real the benefit of death can feel in that moment, and I made it out, and so can you.”

Lots of those feelings relate more to Du Blonde’s first two albums, and it’s clear that Sniff More Gritty finds Houghton at a much different place in life, but finding this album when I did, and reading those stories & words when I did, felt meaningful in a deep way. In the way that I use artists & songs & albums to lift me up when I need it, Sniff More Gritty was like a lightning bolt across a dense gray sky. Like one shoot of brilliant, electric green grass, popping up in between snow drifts, way way way before it was supposed to! Personal favorite “Blame” has some of my favorite singalong chorus harmonies of the year, a soaring, anthemic 2+ minute blast with a rip-roaring guitar solo. The Broadway glam of heart-breaker “Out of a Million” lets Houghton’s breathtaking voice shine through, and everywhere else that you turn on the album there are huge catchy, Weezer-y, early 2000’s alt rock choruses to belt along to. Thanks to the music gods for delivering this album when I needed it, go turn it up to 11, roll down your windows, and scream along!

"What does that mean? / & can I bring all my friends? / it's such a shame to miss the end... / I'll carry the beers in / while you light the barbecue / cuz no one stokes a fire like you... / the road is long girl / it'll meet you where you're at / sorry I've been so damn bad..."

*

DUNUMS   /   I wasn’t that thought

One of my most favorite records of the year is DUNUMS massively monstrous third record I wasn’t that thought. A powerful album teeming with new life, bursting at the seams with love & grief & rage. Self-described as “Arty, noisey, post-rock, bedroom fake-jazz for a free Palestine” DUNUMS is the collaborative project of Durham, North Carolina Palestinian songwriter Sijal Nasralla. “The improvisations & churnings of Sijal Nasralla. Blending memory & homeland heartache into feelingsfull sonic moments on family, love, rage, and how ‘God’ will always be greater.” It’s hard to think of another album on this list (or in the last 5-10 years) that so tenderly holds feelings of love & rage simultaneously.

Conceptually, I wasn’t that thought is a record of songs for & from the perspective of Nasralla’s child Tasneem. “Most of the album is from the perspective and voice of Tasneem -- her wonder, earliest impressions of our world, her first hurts, her big messes, our traumas, and what life feels like when change is overwhelming.” Interspersed with recordings of Tasneem experiencing her world & telling stories, using her voice gives Nasralla’s writing a precious innocence, stream of consciousness lyrical ideas that bloom like a gloriously gorgeous garden. Although I don't have kids of my own, I now have three beloved nieces & two beloved nephews growing up faster & faster, and I am leaning into the magic, the struggles, and the importance & sacredness of those learning years. How to show love, how to teach, how to shape lives while allowing freedom. I don’t often think about childlike innocence when writing about music, but I wasn’t that thought glows with it like a magical lullaby. A late night bedtime story, a nightlight against monsters (while still acknowledging their existence), and most importantly, deep, essential truths of what is right in the world. Human rights. A Free Palestine. How to stand up for what is right. Things you can (& should) learn when you are very small. We would all do well to listen. 

Musically, the sprawling scope of I wasn’t that thought recalls one of my favorite records of all time, Portland, Oregon collective Typhoon’s 2012 mini-orchestra masterpiece White Lighter. Similar to Typhoon, DUNUMS is the work of a primary writer, supported by a cast of friends & loved ones (Nasralla calls his band members & collaborators “deep, deep, close people”). Everywhere you listen there are collaborative group parts. Background vocals, both soothing & screamy, instruments howling & crashing together, a lo-fi collision of passionate musicians, making their heartbreaking wails louder and more valuable than any production can capture. I fell in love with DUNUMS in 2023 at Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, NC (if you’ve paid attention to this list over the years, you know all about my love for North Carolina bands!) when they played a 1pm set at Ruby Deluxe with heavy rain outside, and I feel so lucky to have been able to be in the audience for a few of their magically LOUD sets. For their 2024 Hopscotch set, I forced my friend Dylan to come with me, saying DUNUMS was the best band at the festival. We crowded in close downstairs at Neptunes and the band raged. It’s always special seeing Kym Register on horns! When we left Dylan exclaimed “you didn’t tell me it was gonna be so MATH-Y!”

I keep trying to think of deep words to describe this album. Monstrous, essential, pure, childlike (Nasralla refers to DUNUMS as "toddler-core") adventurous, immense, intense, magical. But somehow all those words don't quite describe the secrets hidden in these songs. I feel like a baby so I just babble & coo & gurgle & smile & laugh & learn learn learn. i wasn't that thought sweeps me away with tempo changes, midwest emo mixed with math rock, indie-folk sweetness, youthful punk angst & ragged jazz, all helmed by Nasralla’s singular voice. Equal parts tender & gentle, fiery & roaring, directing these songs, raging when needed, immediately breaking back into sweet despair, emotional depth & maturity, songs about how to survive. It’s not hyperbolic to say his words and music are required reading & listening in these, the darkest of our times. To put it another way, this is the most important record on this list.

In these songs, I can hear Sijal’s true, deep artistic self. I can hear the pain & rage he feels. I can feel how much he loves his child, his homeland. I am listening, I am learning. Music is the most powerful teacher. As the emo energy of Side A slowly bleeds into the noisy, free jazz of closing couplets “usa ain’t shit” & “the portal” Nasralla closes the album with the tender a capella lullaby “habibi bear.” To hear him describe the creation of these songs is purely magical. 

“In the mornings after Tasneem was born I would scoop her from the bed and take her downstairs to mingle with the early light and the cat while my partner slept a few extra hours. We would sense each other, talk and try to hold our heads up. Most mornings I would play her these songs, work them out while she stared at me from her pillow or practiced her ‘tummy-time.’ Making this record reminded me of how I got into playing music as a young person – moving sound and air made it feel safer to feel the bigness inside and outside of me. I wanted to write music that felt like a memory of the emo songs that made me cry as a kid. I wanted to capture the angst of being so small in a big enveloping vortex of things and more things. And the near-painful sensation of glee about life, friends, and being a kid.” 

When I listen to I wasn’t that thought, I can feel all of that. It reminds me of how I felt as a kid, falling in love with music, falling in love with people, falling in love with life. I wasn’t that thought makes me want to be better, try harder, fight evil, do my part for the world. I can feel it pushing me to grow up into who I want to be. When Nasralla’s songs make me cry, it is a good cry. This is a powerful album. These songs hold the magic spells to change the world. I am listening. I am learning.

"Before I thought

There was a thought about me

But I wasn't that thought

It was just me..."

*

FRED AGAIN..   /   ten days

Interspersed between every song on Fred Again..’s glowing new album ten days, are numbered snippets of mostly ambient noise or background conversations. Voicemail messages, seemingly insignificant placeholders, like the chime sound effects in childrens’ read along audiobooks (“when you hear this sound, turn the page”) that I remember from my childhood. Hidden in these little chapters, lie the secrets to what makes Fred so special to me. You know the kind of people that make you feel special? Like when you’re with them, everything that you say is important. Your memories together matter, your lore, your funny backstories, your inside jokes. All of it adds up to something super special. Fred is the kind of person that’s always appreciating and noticing those moments. Celebrating them and memorializing them, making you feel special. Take “.one” for starters. The album opens with infectious laughter, a little backyard group singalong, voices in different languages, a birthday wish from a friend. In fact, many of the snippets contain laughter and group singalongs (delightfully common themes for Fred) and they serve not only to freeze & bend time a little, but to create the kind of cohesive, “one big jam” album feel that makes ten days such a memorable listen. Fred is a superstar, but he's also a friend. Buckle up, ten days is one of my favorite fucking albums of 2025!

I don’t remember exactly where or when I first heard about the groundbreaking English DJ & singer-songwriter Frederick Gibson, who goes by Fred again.. but I fell in love with his Angie McMahon collaboration “Angie (i’ve been lost)" back in 2021, and his absolutely endearing social media presence over the last couple years won me over completely. Wherever he goes he brings laughter & joy; dancing, involving everyone, throwing any kind of little pop-up party/show that he can. A budding superstar DJ, but a man of the people, someone I want to talk to and hang out with. When ten days dropped at the end of last Summer, I fell hard. Emotional, trance-inducing, rhythmically repetitive, chill electronica; this album might just be a blip in Fred’s burgeoning superstar catalog, but to me, it’s essential. From the “love song of the summer” bop “Adore U,” (I beg you send this song to your best friend or your lover or your mom! I can’t listen to “Adore U” without breaking out in a huge smile!) to the Sampha assisted soulful “fear less” to the Four Tet & Joy Anonymous instant raver classic “glow.” All the way to personal deep deep favs “just stand there” and “where will i be.” Fred is like the friend who knows just what I need to hear. He manages to team up with artists & songs that I already love, or introduce me to songs & artists that I need to hear. 

Flashback to September 2024 and I’m having the time of my life in Raleigh, North Carolina at Hopscotch Music Festival with all my music friends. My friend Dylan from MIshawaka (an incredible venue by a river in the mountains of Colorado outside of Fort Collins) is stressing about this “biggest show of his life” that “the Mish” is throwing in a week or two. He says he can’t tell me who it is, but turns his computer to me and the name on the show says Fred again.. To be clear, Fred is about to headline two nights at BALL ARENA, but as he loves to do, he’s sought out a super cool little spot off the beaten path in the state that he’s playing, to host some cool, weird, intimate little show. Most huge artists don’t do this. It’s a lot of extra work and it's not usually worth the production hassle or the smaller financial return. Fred loves it because it keeps him connected to his people. He gets to celebrate with his real fans & friends & fam up close. It memorializes not just his songs, but his moments, his places, his people. Not just what you’re singing, but who you’re singing with. There’s a reason most of my favorite concert memories involve singing & dancing together with people that I love. Hold onto those moments. Spoiler alert, I did not go to Fred’s Mish show (although I bought a nosebleed resale ticket for the second night at Ball Arena!) I got in the digital ticket line like everybody else, but it sold out so fast. Dylan said that he had no idea if Fred would hang before the show, most big name DJ’s would probably bus straight in and out of the Mish as quickly as possible. If you’ve never been, it’s pretty remote. Cell service is spotty. A true mountain venue. Well, I’ve been following Fred on IG and I watched his stories laughing as not only did Fred hang at the MIsh preshow, he joked with fans and took a dip in the Poudre RIver, drifting down behind the stage he was about to headline. Hey Clementine Was Right, we got another River Boy!

There are so many songs that I deeply, deeply love on ten days, but I want to wax poetic about a couple. In the same way that Fred won me over with his Angie collab, he pairs with Lucinda WIlliams for the magically haunting “where will i be” (a song that I was unfamiliar with before Fred. Thanks Fred!) and then long time fav Amber Bain of The Japanese House for her sunny pop closer “backseat.” Here, the fleetingness & continuation of Fred’s work is most evident, this album might be a blip, but a blip that will be worked into the fabric of the rest of my life. In the same way that Charli’s Brat was/is everywhere and in everyone's Summer stories (I'm talking IG or otherwise!) these songs will last, get remade, get resung. In the end it always does… Fred turns Amber’s sunny classic indie-pop bop into a glitchy 80’s montage (so hold onto this feeling kids, cuz you won’t feel it for long…) I’m riding a bike through the green trees in Arkansas (with my sunshine baby…) I’m running through the streets of Raleigh, North Carolina (well I’ve gone a little crazy) dreaming of a different, new life (in the end it always does…) I’m swimming in cold Colorado river water with Fred (this isn’t happening…) I’m in my little brother & sister in law’s kitchen in the apartment where they used to live in Portland, Oregon (i wanna be a part of it, I wanna sing along…)  my nieces laughing in the next room with their aunts (my sisters) (hold on to this feeling…) I’m walking on a sunny evening in Denver with someone who wants to listen to my stories and tell me theirs. Feeling young & new (cuz you won’t feel it for long…) I’m texting my sisters essays of texts at 1am from the warm grass at Cheesman wondering where this all goes, cuz in the end… it always does...

Finally, I want to close with all-time fav “just stand there.” Fred’s beats duet with SOAK’s spoken word piece in a powerful way, telling a story of a night, an empty apartment (“I sit with the night in anticipation”) The rush that comes with living by yourself (“I”m alive and I can feel it”) Self confidence dueling with self doubt (“I feel pretty… but in a handsome way”) Half way through, the song fucking lifts off on a jittery piano riff, pure Fred, with SOAK (Irish singer-songwriter Bridie Monds-Watson) still laughing & talking. The music, like my bedroom “feels like the coliseum.”  The piano skittering across high school feelings, merging with steady drums, layering vocals, picking up speed, running now, telling a story like only Fred can. “It felt like all four seasons happened in one day, and I just stand there” the song bleeps & bloops & cacophonies. I can see Fred grinning from ear to ear, hugging his new friends, hugging his old friends, welcoming us all into the circle, laughing & laughing, dancing & dancing, and then it’s gone… “she loves me” SOAK deadpans… like it’s the deepest truth anyone has ever said.

One of my favorite Mary Oliver poems is called “Snowy Night” and with your permission I want to close with it here.

“Last night, an owl in the blue dark tossed an indeterminate number of carefully shaped sounds into the world, in which, a quarter of a mile away, I happened to be standing. I couldn’t tell which one it was – the barred or the great-horned ship of the air – it was that distant. But, anyway, aren’t there moments that are better than knowing something, and sweeter? Snow was falling, so much like stars filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine its reason for being was nothing more than prettiness. I suppose if this were someone else’s story they would have insisted on knowing whatever is knowable – would have hurried over the fields to name it – the owl, I mean. But it’s mine, this poem of the night, and I just stood there, listening and holding out my hands to the soft glitter falling through the air. I love this world, but not for its answers. And I wish good luck to the owl, whatever its name – and I wish great welcome to the snow, whatever its severe and comfortless and beautiful meaning…”

I read that poem aloud with my friend Sarah under my tree in Cheesman Park in the dead of Winter, right before the end of last year. Throwing an indeterminate number of carefully shaped sounds out into the world. Just like Mary. Just like Fred. Just humans, always wanting so badly to be heard & understood. Feeling deep deep down how rare it is to connect with someone in that kind of way. An artist, a friend, a lover, a sister, an owl, a tree. So I just stood there. Like I stand there now. All over again. Over & over. Loving this world. Claiming these poems of the night. Singing these songs of the night. Loving all of it for its unknownness & its beautiful meaning. Singing along with Fred. Dancing along with Fred's friends. Laughing along with Fred & Fred's friends & my friends. Feeling heard & understood. Feeling like a friend. Feeling like this is forever. Feeling like ten days is forever. Long live ten days.

"I been halfway under, I been halfway out / I been learning what I can't do without / you're further away now than you used to be / but darling, I saw you & you saw me... / Still, I can't let go of this version of you / that calmed me down as you held me through / you're further away now than you used to be / but darling, I saw you & you saw me..."

*

*HORSE BITCH   /   UVA*

For the last five years, Horse Bitch has been the Denver band you just have to go see. Their live show is the stuff of legends. Full contact reckless on stage antics, a sea of dancing, jumping, moshing diehard fans, lots of screamy lyrics about silly stuff (silly serious stuff! Silly sex stuff! Silly silly stuff!), and a wild cacophony of guitars, violins, keys, & banging tambourine. If you’ve seen them live, well… you know. When people ask me to list my favorite “local” bands, Horse Bitch is always close to the top. I love asking music people in different states about their bands (the ones that are legendary in their hometowns), the kind of bands that you wouldn’t know unless you lived there. Ask my best coworker friend Danielle about Tempe, Arizona’s T.O.S.O, or western slope Colorado folks about the glory days of Stephan Piker and Bully! Bands like this are essential to the scene. Bands that aren't obsessed with chasing career greatness, but instead, chasing local legend status. Like the high school quarterback who won state, destined to get free Subway sandwiches in their hometown for life. Believe me when I tell you, Horse Bitch are Denver legends. Listen to these songs and you might understand, but come with me to a Horse Bitch show... and you definitely will. Genre touchstones are mostly irrelevant here, but along with riding the western bootgaze/emo-cana revolution, Horse Bitch mixes in punk, classic country, 50's doo-wop, shitty mid-2000's pop punk, mournful midwest emo, jam band irreverence, Irish punk, & Weird Al literary great(silly)ness. Since releasing albums in 2020 & 2021, Horse Bitch has mostly focused on playing countless legendary shows around Denver and the front range, building a reputation as one of the greatest live bands I’ve honestly ever seen. At this point I feel like I’ve seen them in pretty much every small to mid-size room in Denver (that includes living rooms & backyards) and every time is different, important, a sweaty fucking blast, & absolutely, ballistically magical.  

UVA opens with long time live fav “Pirate Ride” burning up a ripped off Allman-Brothers-on-speed guitar riff, whining country steel, sad-boi pop-punk & emo vocals, lots of yelling, and lyrics about Disneyland, black mold, fast food, & tenant’s rights. Launching right into “Mountain Climbing” (most of the songs on UVA are long time live favs by now!) a scattershot, word vomit rocker with Irish jig fiddle, a shout along nonsense chorus, more background yelling, and lyrics about Harry Potter (a Horse Bitch favorite topic), Harry Styles, Taco Bell, PBR and yep, more tenant’s rights! Horse Bitch has never taken themselves too seriously, but hidden in the ever changing, shouted along nonsense spewing from stage like Nickelodeon slime are the secret codes to Denver dive bars & sacred spaces. We need Horse Bitch just as much as they need us. This is Lonesome-Crowded-era Modest Mouse meets 12 Golden Country Greats-era Ween, real iykyk shit. This is my favorite long forgotten Cali band Weatherbox singing in the hills above San Francisco, this is my lifelong best friend Stephen Piker (yeah, the one from Bully mentioned above) making up silly, shitty John Mayer rip-off songs (remember “Smooth Sailing” Stephen?!) under bridges, in back alleys, on riverbanks. Little silly starry dreamsongs that exist just make your friends smile. Mountain climbing in my backyard kind of shit. Donald Duck shit. Pterosaur with a broken wing shit. These are the kind of laugh out loud songs that take guts to turn into anthems. Brought to life by a silly goose troupe of friends, brought to majesty by the passionate playing of some seriously brilliant Denver musicians. Horse Bitch is a supergroup masquerading as a bar band. Horse Bitch will tell you to tell your friends you love them. Horse Bitch will make you scream “fuck” as loud as you can over & over. I’m eternally grateful to be alive at the same time as Horse Bitch. I’m glad I’ve been able to sing & dance & sweat along. This is one of my all time favorite bands. Long live Horse Bitch.

"I'm a pterosaur with a broken wing / ticked off about everything / holdin' onto all life's memories / & I feel so fucking guilty about everything... / I'm a pterosaur trying to catch a plane / I've sucked & fucked my way through TSA / holding onto unheard memories / & I feel so fucking guilty about everything..."

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HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF   /   The Past Is Still Alive

Perhaps no other album on this list shares my obsession with the passing of time & holding onto memories in the same way that Hurray For The Riff Raff does on The Past Is Still Alive. It's all right there in the title. Songwriter Alynda Segarra makes it a mission statement to share magic ways to bend & freeze & stretch & celebrate the passing of time, in fact the first words on the album are “You don’t have to die if you don’t wanna die / you can take it all back in the nick of time…” While Segarra cheats death in their own personal life, they also share stories that serve to rejoice in all the intricacies of time, both the aching sadness and the adrenaline adventure of it all. I"m looking forward to listening to this album for years & years and to come, and digging deep with these songs as they work their way into my own timelines. Like Segarra sings with a smile in her voice on the bittersweet "Hawkmoon "I coulda ridden shotgun forever!"

The Past Is Still Alive was the first record I fell in love with last year (way back in February 2024) and Segarra’s words have been helping me mark the passing of time over the course of my year. It’s hard to believe that this is Hurray For The Riff Raff's 9th record, but they have been steadily building a career in the Indie scene since 2007. Way back in 2017 I put Segarra’s The Navigator on my favorite albums list (calling it magical & transporting, uplifting & personal in the face of a political hellscape. Sound familiar?) Honestly that feels like a lifetime ago. I was a different person, but yet.. Still me. Like Segarra sings sweetly in the prairie-exploring “Buffalo” “Some things take time yeah I know they do…” The Past Is Still Alive explores not only Segarra’s very real, autobiographical past, but the hauntingly magical feeling when the present becomes the past all too fast. Segarra name-checks all their friends on the journey (Miss Jonathan, Eileen, Sister Sadie, Lorena) and they hold onto very specific places (the East River park, the FDR, a cousin’s farm in Minnesota, the Castro, Garbage Island, the back of a pickup, Ogallala, Nebraska, a San Francisco bookstore). Musically, my deep favorite secret weapon producer Brad Cook gives The Past a lived-in, rollicking folk rock feel, call it Waxahatchee-core, but like all my favorite Cook records, it’s the vocals & writing that take center stage. Segarra’s voice is the engine here, a flag flying through all these stories, rough & ragged & beautiful & real. I could listen to them sing about time forever. 

I want to close with a little time (& magic & grief & bending) detour courtesy of my dear, new friend Sarah. She is a writer & a painter and before we met, Sarah wrote something on IG that moved me in a way that not many songs or other writing have. I want to share pieces of it here, because I think it relates to this album as much as any other on this list (although to be honest, they are all related). Like Segarra says (directly to me I think) “I yelled and I didn't know the reason, but I knew that you’d understand” Reading Sarah’s writing for the first time (like listening to my favorite songwriters) was a deep moment of understanding & feeling understood. 

“Both love & grief can bend time”

goes the piece that Sarah wrote as a eulogy/elegy to her dog Princess that had passed away.

“One million distractions fight for our attention every day, pulling us towards numbness, away from everyone we love, and everyone and everything we grieve. But when we opt out of all that noise, and focus our gaze, our touch, and our heart on our truest loves, (which are, of course, also our deepest griefs), we… can… bend time. We can hold a lifetime in three minutes.”

It’s that same idea that I've been hunting all these years. Like a secret you can only learn through grief. But both love AND grief can bend time. Like Segarra coos lovingly on their mighty love song “Colossus of Roads” (itself a eulogy for the great American train graffiti artist buZ blurr) “I must be living twice, wrap you up in the bomb shelter of my feather bed… No one will remember us, like I will remember us. Children forever… In the end.” And how does one tap into this time bending magic? Both Sarah & Alynda seem to agree that it takes work...

“If a dog is sleeping on your chest, or if you need to dig a grave” Sarah offers “make the time, linger longer, use both hands. I promise. I promise. Whatever you are loving today, love it with wonder and intention. Love it for all of us, who will never get the chance to know that love as deeply as you. Whatever you are grieving today, grieve it with wonder and intention. We are all grieving with you. I promise. I promise…”

So I try my best to make good on those promises, To love & grieve & bend time in the way that Sarah does. To love & grieve & celebrate the passing of time with Alynda, and just like that… we’ve time-traveled all the way to The Past’s aching closer “Ogallala.” A lifetime of sadness pinpointed into very specific places & moments. Segarra is retracing steps and asking themselves the same repeating questions “What do I do with this terrible feeling? Been all these years and I’m driving the same highway stretch.” They’re lonely & broken, dreaming of meeting an old lover, rekindling a flame “Meet me back in a San Francisco bookstore” before Segarra lets me in on our bonding secret, the reason I feel this deep, heartbreaking connection to their writing. “We’ll get lost in a city forgotten” Segarra promises “Cuz I don’t like change and I hate goodbyes.” I feel that line deep as any on this album and it’s clear that Segarra lets it cut, lets it out. As the music swells to a close behind them, they let out years of pent up anger & sorrow for the time that we live in. “I used to think I was born into the wrong generation” questions Segarra (a fair ask for someone who's lived so much strife) but as the horns swell and time practically stands still, Segarra reveals the answer “But now I know, I made it right on time. To watch the world burn with a tear in my eye.” and then, one last ask... Segarra practically sobs “Meet me in the autumn, in the garden…”  I feel time bending. I feel Segarra using their grief & love to fit a lifetime into three minutes. I feel it all. Slowly, methodically, time starts up again. Everything has changed. The future feels real & exciting. And the past?... The Past Is Still Alive.

"I don't want us to be like that / running wild & running free / this year tried to kill us baby / well good luck trying, you can't catch me / and I'll jump off this cliff with you / if that means we will survive / 'cause we drove out to the desert / just to leave the past behind... / and our footsteps fall in shadows / treading light down the canyon trail / and the sun is barely rising / and the stars like a wedding veil / and I cannot lie to you / "cause you can read my mind / so I think I'll try with you / some things just take more time..."

*

JOHN-ALLISON WEISS   /   The Long Way

Full disclosure, John-Allison Weiss’ powerful fifth album The Long Way actually came out in 2023. I have a pretty strict personal rule that I stick to only current year releases for this list (I mean, it’s my blog, I can do whatever I want!) but every year, I discover countless albums released from 2012-2023 that I love and missed on previous lists, and I love that! Long story short (we’re taking The Long Way I guess!) when I found this album at the end of 2023 (I honestly can’t remember from where, the music internet community is a wonderful place!) it was too late to sneak it onto my list last year. So when John finally released an official physical release last Summer (check out this sick yellow cassette tape!) I vowed to include The Long Way on this year’s list! Ok, let’s get into the songs!

If you know me, you know I sometimes struggle to describe what exactly my favorite kind of music is. It comes from a good place, I truly do LOVE EVERYTHING! I listen to everything, and I try to make this list represent that as best as possible. But when pressed (or drinking at home on my own time!) I tend to lean into the straightforward, driving, early 2000’s indie rock & roll sound that John absolutely NAILS on The Long Way. It helps if the lyrics are thoughtful, challenging, and speak to me in deep deep ways (also nailed!) I mean, deep down it’s the same reason Angie McMahon & Middle Kids are on this list. It’s the same reason I love The Killers, Kings of Leon, and Andrew McMahon so much. It’s the same reason I’ll see Augustana EVERY SINGLE time they come to Denver (get me tipsy and ask me about how much I love their 2011 self titled album -spoiler alert, this is wayyyy after “Boston” and way after most real music fans stopped paying attention to Augustana!) From the first strums of burning opener “Dust Storm” I knew this album was special. “Pulled off the highway in a dust storm” Weiss begins, his voice the perfect blend of emo crack & desert bloom. “Headed home to change the future. Headed home to turn & run.” Weiss continues, a lifer song from a musician who’s committed their life to the road & the songs, a true rock & roller. Weiss, who grew up in Georgia, put out their first album in 2007, having since cultivated somewhat of an indie cult following working & playing with Hellogoodbye, The Front Bottoms, State Champs, Laura Jane Grace, Lou Reed, Tegan & Sara, Reggie & The Full Effect, The Wonder Years, Now, Now & Reliant K! It hasn’t been easy of course and we jump back in with Weiss lamenting “So tired of singing all these old songs, so tired of trying to be someone.” In fact, track 2 begins “there’s a song I've been singing for 29 years.” “Different Now” is a steady heartland pop-rocker that envisions Keane or The Fray, with a western, desert-y flair, Weiss cutting loose confidently over blue jean guitars and pounding drums, a road-trip escape anthem, windows down, open air, worries gone. “Tell Me To Go” gives a Jack Mannequin’s indie edge to a monstrous Tom Petty riff, huge guitars & emo lyrics.

John-Allison is a treasure of a social media IG follow, the kind of parasocial relationship that encourages me to be a better person. The kind of energy that I want in my friends and my life. They wear their emo-punk-indie influences on their sleeve, but tempered with a hippie, self care attitude, vanlife for the freedom, anti-capitalist, anti-facist, we need more musicians like this. In fact, part of me has this dream, that some of my current favorite songwriters (specifically the ones that seem disenchanted with the corporate music success ladder) will abandon the rat race and follow Weiss on vanlife adventures. I have dreams of some sort of traveling music festival/troupe/circus thing, forgoing aeg & live nation ticket fees, playing sick shows in weird wherever/whatever venues, DIY for life, a community where that kind of life isn’t so damn hard. Some of my favorite musicians from this list and beyond, Caroline Rose, Indigo De Souza, Tre Burt, Medium Build, Quinn Christopherson, Bartees Strange, Adeem The Artist, Clementine Was Right, Tomberlin, Fiona Moonchild, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings, Ezra Furman, American Trappist, Samantha Crain, Big Thief, Justin Peter Kinkel Schuster, Lady Lamb, Miya Folick, Field Report, Sun June, the list goes on. I want to live in a world where they can tour and have success, and not have to play by the dumb, bullshit corporate rules. All that to say, support your favorite independent artists (if you have the means) by buying their merch, giving to their patreon/fan club/whatever you can, and help them have a steady flow of income to keep the lights on while they write these life changing albums!

Johnny closes The Long Way with the moody, driving “Young Love.” His memorably aching voice echos out in an empty hall and he sings over & over on loop “baby we were young love…” The music rises behind him, swirling synths, a dusty electric guitar, and traintrack drums kicking behind him across the desert. His motorhome rumbles to life and Johnny smiles goodbye out the window, a pirate of the road, headed out to his next adventure. Headed home to change the future.

"And I see you now like I did back then / with a love so loud / let it bleed back in / to the headlights, to the big fights, to the sundown, to the end... / to the shoreline, to the old times, to those lovers, to those friends... / to the backyard, to the big stars, to the freeway, to the coast... / every new day wakes an old ghost..."

*

LEIF VOLLEBEKK / Revelation

“Stood up too fast…” begins “Surfer’s Journal,” the glowing centerpiece at the heart of Leif Vollebekk’s magnificent fifth album Revelation. Like many of Leif’s understated ballads, this one starts small & specific, a very real moment frozen in time. An aerial view of a shaggy haired, determined novice surfer, taking to the waves, before opening up gloriously into an entire alternate universe. “Surfer’s Journal” is a “how-to” song Leif fashioned about surfing and modeled after Bruce Springsteen’s epic car lover’s ballad “Racing In The Street,” but we all know it’s really just about life right? The curtain opens and he’s taking to the water to discover “what was on my mind.” But the water at the beginning of the song is unforgiving. The lip of the wave hits him and he’s down & he’s under & he’s caught inside. “It’s not my time to ride” Leif laments softly, before steadying himself and circling back. Feeling out the song over a repeated piano riff and the softest, sweetest, salt air acoustic guitar fills. He’s determined (“no sense in changing my reasons, I leave 'em all behind”) and on fire about something… or somebody (“you & me we were something. Then we were something else…”) The way the song builds itself behind Leif feels like years passing. A wave growing & bending, time & water, rising up to lift him to victory or swallow him whole. Like a classic Rocky training montage, Leif stretches a lifetime into a couple verses and 5+ minutes. He is practicing, he is learning, he is growing “every revolution is also a return.” He is back on the board. He puts his hand in the water… and waves goodbye. This time he stands up slowly, feeling out the song, feeling out his timing & balance. The music swells, a mythic wave standing with “green light through it” and Leif himself stands & laughs & shakes his head, throwing salt water droplets through the surf, catching evening sun rays, crossing the green-blue wall and taking off. When the strings sweep in, he pauses to wonder about fate & destiny “If I was a mystic, I”d say our lives were bound together in this life & the next.” Maybe he’s referring to a long lost lover, maybe he’s referring to this one very real wave, frozen in gorgeous turquoise time.  “Energy downwards” he reminds himself, returning to the present, focusing on technique, focusing on good habits, focusing on success. As the drums & the orchestra rumble behind him, the cascading wave carries him higher, effortlessly now, flying, not even trying, an aerial view of everything, caught forever at sunset, a moment so magical you can feel it in your bones. And then… as soon as it begins, the wave drops him back with a sweet, salty goodbye kiss, and Leif chuckles “stood up too fast…”

Leif Vollebekk is a singer songwriter from Ottawa, Canada, and over the last seven years, he has become one of my lifelong favorite musicians. When I first added Leif to my favorites list way back in 2017, I wrote about not fighting when an artist pulls you in. I wrote about how he tracked years (a lifetime as it were) into his Twin Solitude opening masterpiece (and one of my all-time fav songs) “Vancouver Time.” This year, Leif’s magical fifth album Revelation became not only an all-time favorite, but marked my Summer & Fall deeper than probably any other album on this list. A special collection of songs from a special, emotional songwriter. 

Revelation’s first single “Moondog” dropped in late May (meticulously planned on the night of a full moon mind you) and I was ready. I took my trusty lil blue squishy headphones to my beloved Cheesman Park, and beelined for my favorite table/bench. Situated on the eastern half of the park bordering the Botanic Gardens, just south of the columns, I’ve danced on that table in the dark more than a few times. I’ve facetimed my siblings from that table, I’ve made plans and thought about my future pacing around that table, I’ve stood on that table for hours, watching the moon rise, listening to the night sounds of the park and the city, marking the magical passing of time. It was there that I heard the first notes of the new Leif Vollebekk album. “Moondog” (like most of Leif’s catalog) is a deceptively slinky tune, an open, throbbing guitar beat sets the stage for a lifer tune “When I was young and I was barely free…” Leif begins, telling a story of a new love (or is it an old love?) back & forth across timelines, in bathtubs, under full moons, in Galena, Illinois! “Moondog” would go on to be my #2 most streamed song of 2024 and I knew that night that this new album was gonna be special. So of course, when the second single “Southern Star” (a song he says he inadvertently stole the title from his good friend Gregory Alan Isakov!) dropped a month later in June, I recreated the Cheesman table dancing, full-moon routine. I was in it by then. Figuring out my Summer, figuring out my future, figuring out my past, figuring out my brain & heart, figuring out the rest of my life. "Southern Star’s" Don Henley-wild horses-open prairies-wandering vibes was another mini Summer soundtrack. “Are you my friend or lover?” Leif asks knowingly in the second verse “I know I can’t take you with me” he bemoans, “you’re a map with no folding lines.” Most of this summer I felt like I was the map with no folding lines. Like those big crazily folding ones that are actually really hard to re-fold back to their original shape, and if you get one part wrong the whole thing looks all fucked up. Ok, maybe not that wild, but you get it... no one was taking me with them. No one was folding me up neatly. 

Throughout my wandering late Summer & early Fall, Revelation was a soundtrack. From the majestic rolling strings of ocean adventure part one “Rock & Roll” to the southern brooding rainy countdown of “Mississippi,” to the breathtaking, heartcatch stillness and late night saxophone of “Till I See You Again.” He sings of fleeting yet monumentally deep interactions & connections, people remembered forever. When I finally saw Leif live again (on back to back nights in Boulder & Denver last November) he talked about how parts of Revelation were written at Gregory Alan Isakov’s Starling Farm outside of Boulder, and how the mountains in the songs (specifically “Peace of Mind”) are our mountains, are MY mountains. Oh yeah, his buddy Gregory also surprise joined him in Boulder to sing one of my all time favorite Springsteen deep cuts “Dry Lightning” together. One of my favorite musical memories of 2024. Most of Revelation’s songs feel longer than they are (I could’ve sworn “Surfer’s Journal” was 10 minutes long!) a trick that Leif plays loosely, letting the songs breathe, letting time bend; no end, no beginning, one great swirling masterpiece of sometimes seemingly improvised music. In the magical, smoky city lights closer “Sunset Boulevard Expedition,” Leif acknowledges that time bend, recognizing it in a way that doesn’t break the spell. To point it out is to celebrate it, to embrace it, to revel in it and dance with it. “Sometimes I go down to the ocean” Leif purrs in the second verse “sometimes it comes to me.” It’s sunset in Sydney Harbor. Or is it LA? Or somewhere in Canada? “There’s no difference between me & you now” Leif confides sweetly “sun ceded to the moon now, it’s October & September soon now…” And then, while walking along the sand at the edge of the ocean, Leif turns, and with his impish grin lets us in on the big secret of all of this “See… time moves in both directions” he sings, barely above a whisper “with its ageless imperfections. It circles round our shoulders.” It’s a mystical thing time, something we cannot ever really know. Something the best writers spend lifetimes tracking down. But then, Leif grounds it, brings it back. “Big blue butterflies come over” he hums, rhyming “over” with “shoulders.” And then, in the same way he did when he stood up too fast on the surfboard, he lands us in a very specific place & time “A dirt road in Costa Rica.” and just like that, time is moving again. A different direction this time. Maybe back where it came from. Maybe onward in a whole new direction. Leif follows, slipping behind the great green-blue wall… and disappears. 

“Honey, it smells like rain / the sea is coming back again / sun's descending and the moon's lit up in half / so is every blade of grass / and the mystery makes me laugh at all my guessing… / I've got everything I need / Mississippi is in the seed / in the stars & you & me & the dogwood / those constellations climb / and me, I'm not far behind / your little heart beating next to mine / keep it going baby, keep the time / it's going 1… 2… 3… Mississippi…”

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LINDY VISION / 1947

Lindy Vision is a family band formed by sisters Dorothy (DD) & Natasha (NA) Cuylear in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2014. They are black & indigenous songwriters (from the Jicarilla Apache nation) and their sophomore album 1947 is a force to be reckoned with. Blending bouncy electro-pop with sweeping, cinematic indie rock and dark & droning synth-drenched new wave. Their family ties are immediately present on 1947 as their Auntie Doreen Martinez is the first voice you hear, giving thoughtful life lessons on blooming opener “Part-Time Lover.” “You cannot force people to love you” Doreen shares in the opening, and she also closes the album speaking on family, friendship, & love. The album takes off on the driving second track “Airplane.” Riding incessantly pounding drums, the sisters trade swirling vocals powerfully, building the song to an epic singalong chorus. Personal favorite “Balloons” is fierce & dark, with more steady drumming (rhythms are a constant theme throughout 1947) and growling guitar stabs, the kind of dizzyingly mesmerizing song that I tend to play on loop for hours at a time, letting the ending seep into the beginning and over again. 

I don’t quite remember where or when I first heard about Lindy Vision, but I remember watching their powerful short film doc "Stay on the Path" and immediately streaming 1947 on loop. In the doc, they talk a lot about familial struggles, losing their mother five years ago (she was clearly a deep & meaningful influence on both sisters lives) and working together as sisters & bandmates. They aren’t shy about the struggles of being sisters & business partners, but their love for music and their creative drive shines through brightly on 1947. With inspirations & touchstones as varied as Motown, Country (they talk about their mother’s love for Clint Black and classic country) David Bowie, Nina Simone, Radiohead, The Strokes, ESG, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Joy Division, Interpol, Tame Impala, & Buffy Sainte-Marie. When I listen to Lindy Vision, it feels like a super personal glimpse into their lives. When I close my eyes and listen, I’m in the room with them. I can feel the power & struggle, the grief & love that comes with strong family ties. It makes me want to love my family better. These songs make me want to create, they make me want to do better in the world. They inspire me. They are more important now than ever. Thanks Lindy Vision! 1947 is special, I already can’t wait for the next one! 

"Chem lines across the sky / the soil is dry / the Rio is gone... / can I be pretty just like you? / can I be pretty forever? / don't let me grow old..."

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*LITTLE SIMZ / Drop 7*

Way back in 2017, when I put Little Simz’ dreamy, captivating sophomore album Stillness In Wonderland on my favs list, I called it “a hallucinogenic monster; hard hitting, unhinged, and one of the year’s most ambitious albums” Since then, Simz (30 year old English-Nigerian rapper Simbiatu "Simbi" Abisola Abiola Ajikawo) has been building an empire. She has released three of the most critically acclaimed hip-hop albums of the 2020s, guest starred with some of the biggest names in the scene, and honed her craft as one of the top rappers in the game. With an increasingly prolific output (this is volume 7 of Simz’ long running EP drop series!) she is showing no signs of slowing down. Drop 7 rattles with sparkling, driving electronic beats courtesy of producer Jakwob; and at a breakneck 14 minutes, Simz’ races to cram as much energy into the span of an average morning commute as she can. Fiercely confident, sneakily smooth, and with a flow that is instantly recognizable, Little Simz is solidifying her legacy. Plus it’s just so damn fun! Plug in Drop 7 and turn it up!

"Got the power in my hands now I can feel it / if you're lookin' for the truth then motherfucker I'm the realest... / I've been buildin' a new mansion up on Venus / long time comin' for this shit, now we lit..."

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MAGGIE ROGERS   /   Don’t Forget Me

2024 was the year that I officially fell back in love with Maggie Rogers. Way back in 2017 I put her debut EP on my 17 favorite albums of 2017 list, and saw her at my very own Larimer Lounge (still looking for a youtube vid from that show of her Harvest Moon cover!) From there, I loved her official debut album Heard It In A Past Life, and almost put her sophomore effort Surrender on my list, but somehow, it wasn’t until last Spring that Maggie & I truly found each other again. To be honest, you can probably track that back to my 37th birthday in 2023, when Maggie played “Don’t Forget Me”  for the first time at Red Rocks, and I knew that her next album was gonna be special. When it dropped as the first single last February, I played it nonstop during my Northern California adventures. I fell for Maggie’s more grown up songwriting. The way that she balances her headlong, youthful exuberance, with a more measured (maybe even rare for her) thoughtful decision making. Rogers turned 30 last April and one of my first steps into rekindling my ‘friendship’ with Maggie, into understanding her deeper, was a long form interview piece that one of my favorite music writers Amanda Petrusich wrote for The New Yorker. Petrusich is one of my favorite writers and interviewers, and Maggie practically comes alive in this piece. I kept sending screenshots to everyone! Petrusich referenced Rogers' process “she often works: urgently and with deep focus, as though she were channeling a faint signal” her onstage persona “can be a little wild. Her movement is spontaneous, erratic; she can appear almost possessed.” and when she asked Maggie to try and put words to the process Rogers said 

“When I’m writing, the first thing I do is take my shoes off. My hands get hot. It’s so fucking physical. It’s like a puzzle, if you can keep your focus on it for long enough, it appears. It’s right there—but the second your brain moves it’s gone. When I’m onstage, or when I’m making something, I’m not thinking about who I am or what I’m trying to do. Time gets really sinewy. It’s spidery and slow. There’s wonder. And it’s just special, and I’m in it, and my hands are up, and I’m figuring it out. And then I come out of it, and it doesn’t even ever feel like it was mine to begin with.”

Musically & lyrically Don’t Forget Me glows with a timeless energy, this could be a classic 70’s folk rock record. Maggie sounds effortlessly herself, living her life, name-checking her friends, being silly, being serious, being sad, being herself. Personal favorites happen to be the quietest, sad ones this time around of course :) The piano ballad “I Still Do” talks about the lasting love in the aftermath of a breakup (maybe a “Leave The Light On” Sequel?) and the gorgeously hushed “All The Same” talks deeply about the passage of time and the timelines of love. But the big hits burn with energy. “On & On & On” could be a late 90s/early 2000s girl group huge bop, and “Drunk” rages with that Surrender energy, you can feel the urgency in the writing, Maggie says she wrote most of Don’t Forget Me in only five days!

I think the thing that made me so excited to fall back in love with Maggie’s work this year, now, at this time in my life… is the anticipation of what’s next. What songs is she writing now? What life experiences will we share that she’ll put to paper and sound and release into the world next? In the deepest way, that’s why most of my music obsession over the last 15 years, has been centered around young songwriters doing it now. I want to be part of the process. I want to go on the journey together. I want my experiences to be sung about, I want my heart & brain out there in their songs. So, to mark another chapter with Maggie, I saw her not once, but twice, in 2024! First, at my beloved Red Rocks, because how could I not?! And then, a week later, I flew to Arkansas and was lucky enough to see her again with my youngest sister! We spent a weekend swimming & biking & camping & talking & eating & singing & laughing, making friends and seeing new places, talking about our futures and our pasts, building our stories. And then, on the last night of my trip, we saw Maggie and (my sister’s favorite!) The Japanese House! I felt like the songs of Don’t Forget Me were seared into the late Spring & early Summer of my 2024. I can't wait to come back and revisit these songs when the snow melts this year! As I grow, and my sister grows! And Maggie grows! We grow together. We face what’s next and we take risks for love. We use songs to mark time & space. We look forward to the next one. Thanks Maggie, this one is special. I won't forget you.

"So it goes / time moves slow / until one day you wake up and you realize / that what you see is what you know / and still you wish for one more kiss / a moment's bliss from a lover you've always known / so it goes..."

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MANNEQUIN PUSSY   /   I Got Heaven

I Got Heaven is the fourth full length album from Philadelphia punk rockers Mannequin Pussy, and it fucking rocks in every way possible. It’s heavy & raucous, it’s sweet & sexy, it’s ugly & jarring & gritty. Every song exploding with vibrant, violent, virile life, a true rock&roll masterpiece. This record is meant to be shared with people, it’s full of camaraderie, sex & lust, the good & bad & sweaty parts of what it means to be friends & lovers. Powerhouse front woman Marisa Dabice writes these in your face, gut-punch songs about the nature of desire, and the band rages so hard behind her that the want in her words is echoed in the crash of the instruments. These songs are meant to be shared in the pit, meant to take communion together at the sacred church of Mannequin Pussy. 

Technically, Mannequin Pussy was my last pre-Covid concert, opening for Best Coast at the Ogden, March 7, 2020, mere days before lockdown. I fell hard for one song specifically, the gleaming, teen movie indie rocker “In Love Again.” When I got into running a month later to fight the Covid blues, that song soundtracked every running playlist I made. Nearly five years later, Mannequin Pussy is back in my life, at the perfect time, in a break-down-the-doors kind of way. I Got Heaven was critically acclaimed upon its release for a reason. In the same ways that Brittany Howard made her tender “space-funk-rock” songs big enough to fill stadiums (and galaxies tbh!), Mannequin Pussy has made a collection of songs that feel absolutely monstrous. From the thrashing opening title track (“I got heaven inside of me” is such a fucking cool line) that takes on the weaponized hypocrisy of the church, to the arena shaking growl and throbbing guitar stabs of “Loud Bark” (perhaps the most powerful writing Dabice has penned to date) to personal fav (why do I always love the quieter, sad ones?!) “I Don’t Know You” After the pounding angst of the first few tracks, “I Don’t Know You” dials the energy back into a moody repetitive groove, Over a hypnotizing synth riff, Dabice counts numbers into the lyrics, before Maxine Steen’s rumbling guitar threatens to take the song straight to heaven. The punkier songs fill up the back half of the album, Dabice voice ripping through dual screams, matching jarring tempo shifts and full on drum & guitar breakdowns. Finally, sugar sweet closer “Split Me Open” is a song about new love. But it’s deeper than just the butterflies you get when you’re falling for someone new. It’s digging into a heart that doesn’t know if it’s ready for new love yet. It’s asking the kind of questions I’ve been asking myself all year. It’s figuring its own shit out, doing the hard work, but wondering when its time will come. It’s a song about the next chapter. It’s a song about the new. It’s a song about the unknown. 

Mannequin Pussy is my favorite kind of rock band. They’re best friends (their camaraderie is apparent on stage & in interviews and it’s clear they love hanging out together and making each other laugh). They’re unashamedly queer & outspoken & angry, challenging the hatred of fascist America and creating safe spaces at their shows. Most of all, artistically, they are absolutely swinging for the fences. I Got Heaven is such a badass album. These songs have so much life, they sound SO good, they rock so hard, they feel so much. I’m tempted to call this album career defining, but for Mannequin Pussy, it’s just another chapter (a new & exciting & life changing chapter mind you!) on their journey to be the greatest rock&roll band that we’ve got.

“I’m a waste of a woman but I taste like success / I keep all of my sugar where I know you like it best / I am a loud bark, deep bite / I got a loud bark… deep bite…”

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*MAX GARCIA CONOVER   /   toddy pond 7/29/24*

In the depths of what has turned into a harder winter than expected, I’ve found myself walking even more than usual. Maybe it’s my imagination, but Denver has felt colder this season, an icy wonderland waiting for Spring to come. In my Winter wonderings & wanderings, I re-stumbled upon an old friend & favorite songwriter Max Garcia Conover. Max’s songs have been companions for nearly 15 years now (!), and his new EP is no different; an insistent, gorgeous, tender little six song love letter from the great northeast, all sparkling with Max’s  heartfelt, gut punch songwriting.

“Sometimes the night comes crashing down over us”

goes the wavering moon anthem (another moon anthem!) “coming up low.” and I wonder how Max knows exactly how I’m feeling again this time. I’m listening to this in my little bedroom, the moonbeams slanting in from the window above my bed, wondering who else’s windows that same moon might be slanting through.

“I was desperate & I was hopeless, except for hoping that you wouldn’t notice”

Max confides, and I listen and confide back. Turns out maybe more than a few of us are desperate & hopeless, maybe hiding it from loved ones that we hope might not notice, or just ignore it long enough to let us get back on our feet. Just when I think that this is just a question song, and Max (like me) doesn’t really have any answers for this Winter where “I get quiet and I get cold and sometimes you ask for me and sometimes you don’t” there is another verse… 

“if there’s a cure I think it’s out there in the dark…”

Max sings uncertainly. But with enough questioning in his voice to make me cock my head. What if the cure really is out there in the dark? I grab my headphones, put on my jacket & boots, and head for Cheesman in the dark. If there’s a cure, I’m gonna find it. When I hit the west border of the park, I can see that same moon that Max can see “all month the moon comin’ up low…” I walk & I think. I cry & I hum to myself. I don’t have the answers this time I guess, but I feel a little better. I find my bench and stand on top of it and find the moon. I can see my breath in the spiky Winter air and I do a quick little dance, more of a slow shake than anything. I hop down, beeline across the frosty grass through the center of the park and walk through the alleys home. I make myself a hot cup of tea before bed. I guess a cure can be all kinds of things. 

Max Garcia Conover is a songwriter from Portland, Maine, the kind of artist that this list (and originally my whole music blog) exists to spotlight. I think I found Max through bandcamp recommended artists (the music internet was a different, wild place in the early 2010’s!) but after putting his lovely album Burrow on my 2013 list, I reached out to Max and asked if I could create physical art for a couple of his patreon-only albums. We collaborated on a couple of projects where he let me hand make art for his patreon releases in 2015 and 2016. Back then I thought that maybe Max would fall in with the right musician crowd and his well deserving songs would finally make him a famous songwriter. Maybe Big Thief or Wilco would take him on tour. Maybe this current indie-folk-singer-songwriter-guy third wave would sweep him up and his songs would glow on tik-tok. But truthfully, I like it better this way. I hope you’re surviving ok up in Maine Max (I’m not wishing NOT fame on you haha!) but his songs have always found me like secret little letters sent from secret lovers, delivered to me EXACTLY always when I need them. Little satellites from space, arrows made of ponderosas, splitting my heart with truths too wonderful to be believed from anyone else but a deep old friend like Max..

Toddy Pond was recorded one night in a barn in Maine with Max’s long time friend & collaborator Ben Cosgrove. The piano that Ben adds to the album is gorgeous, stately, fun & dramatic & moving. Max says the barn recording session was joined by barn cats, dogs, swallows & chickens, and like always, his songs are teeming with life & light. By my count we’ve got barn owls, walleye, geese, porcupines, whales, cats & dogs & birds, “bugs of all kinds,” & assorted “critters.” When Max finally lets the evening go quiet on the heartache closer “when all of this was heaven sent” he sings “you held to me awhile and showed me how to listen to the hills” He gets still as he looks out over the hills & the water and sings sweetly to whoever’s holding to him awhile “now everyone I’ve ever known is under their own spells, and me… I hear the singer singing still.” I’m listening Max… I’m under my own spell and I can hear the singer singing still...

“Hold my monocular I’m going swimming / goddamn universe / I’m gonna get in / the quiet of the autumn / the coolness of the bottom / the billion little particles floating through the water / and I come back up heaving darkness / full of critters / starkissed / starlit / starving at the edge of appalachia…”

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MEDIUM BUILD   /   Country

Medium Build is the indie folk, alt-country, pop-rock songwriting project of Alaska’s Nick Carpenter. With relatably personal, autobiographical lyrics, impassioned emo folk vocals, and a sassy dash of silliness, Carpenter has been building a cult following in the indie world for almost 10 years. Country marks a big level up for him (his first full length since 2019!) and I fell in love with his songs back in October 2023 when he played Globe Hall (where I work!), and again last Spring when he made the big jump to two nights at the Bluebird Theater on Colfax. Something about the way Nick sings about his youth, helps me remember the glory days of my own. Memories of High School, small town nowhere western slope Colorado, Apple Tree Trailer Park, my best friends Joseph & Stephen, my first love Andrea, burned mix CDs, baseball, dumb movies, new haircuts & hoodies, converse all-stars, Jesus, punk rock, and girls. I was 16 years old when I first started realizing that music was my thing. I remember how we would drive just so we could listen to each other’s music, just to roll down the windows and sing songs. The songs on Country remind me of that feeling again. Real & youthful, raw & immediate, bursting at the seams. 

Country opens with the sweet, punchy self-love song “Beach Chair.” I’ve thought and worked on positive vs negative self talk a lot over the last couple of years, and it’s all too familiar to hear how Carpenter talks to himself. “You ain’t shit” Carpenter laughs in the mirror “but I love you!” There's an honesty in his voice as he continues “you need work, but I reckon it can be done” then he knocks it home with a sweet, impossibly endearing sly smile “I promise I won’t put no one above you, death do us part, beach chairs in the sun.” As someone coming to grips with loving myself, and loving my own space & time, this one hits home. But if you’re looking for a cutesy, loverboy song to sing to someone else besides yourself, check out “Knowing U Exist” when Nick chuckles quietly “Fuck I just love snacking with you... Seeing what you get!” For anyone who’s every shared secret favorite gas station snacks (for the record my road trip go-to’s are ranch corn nuts, sour haribo bears, hot dogs with all the fixings and fountain Dr. Pepper in the biggest cup they have!) Carpenter knows how to pen a love song. Personal fav “Hey Sandra” may be the deepest love song of the bunch, a song Carpenter says is loosely based on his dad. It’s the kind of post-fight, long time lovers, sad song that has me rooting for this couple so fucking hard. Like so many relationships, this guy is probably a little bit of a piece of shit who needs to go to therapy, but by the end of the song (maybe thanks to the daiquiris & Tammy Wynette covers) he is owning up to his shortcomings. They can make it work, they can make up. In press for Country, Nick talked about how his older albums raged with a youthful angst, angry & resentful. He talked about making this one feel “homey, lovey & lived in.” There is a real warmth throughout the album, you feel like you’re getting to know a deeper, more present version of Medium Build. Indeed, while Carpenter mines memories of his youth and tells stories, you can feel him coming to a deeper peace with the person he is in the public eye. 

Finally, title track “Cutting Thru The Country” showcases what NIck does best. Impassioned vocals straining against light 80’s power pop chords, screaming about life, hollering about his journey. He’s smoking cigarettes in the midwest, hooking up with strangers, thinking about someone special. In the midst of all this, he tells us universal truths in a new way… “Yeah, nothing lasts forever and everybody dies” Nick laments, but after taking a drink and waiting for a morning text, he resignedly mutters “Call me when you’re up, nothing lasts forever.. But I’m not in a rush!” In the swirl of all this "nothing lasting forever" talk I catch myself dreaming I’m back at Garden School, my cute little private christian school at the base of the Rocky Mountains along the mighty Colorado River. It’s where I had my first kiss, it’s where I started learned how to be who I was gonna be. I still have best friends from Garden School. Sometimes I feel like the way I loved music then was the exact same way I love music now. My best friends were Joseph & Stephen Piker. We would hang out after school, the purest pure joy I’ve ever known. We would sit in the car just listening to music. We reveled in our inside jokes, made plans for sleepovers, told stories about our mini adventures, watched cheesy movies and traded mixtapes & baseball cards. In high school I still loved straight-up christian indie rock (Switchfoot, Relient K, Bleach, Sanctus Real, The Newsboys, Delirious!) but Joseph taught me about heavier music, he ordered cds online from punk mailers, west coast shit (90 Mute, Pennywise) and old school shit (Black Flag, GBH, MInor Threat, Clash, Ramones etc…) and then later, classic metal. Stephen taught me about showtunes & broadway (Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis, Tick Tick Boom!) We met in the middle on late 90s/early 2000s alt rock, Third Eye Blind was our all time fav (way better than Nirvana) but we loved Blink 182 (and Angels & Airwaves!) The Killers, U2, Linkin Park etc… I have such fond memories of those days, sometimes I wish I could go back, even just for a week or a night, but “nothing lasts forever” as Nick yells, and I think I always knew that, even way back in those garden school days with Joseph & Stephen. We would drive to the Rifle Wal-Mart for no reason, simply to  drive the great stretch of I-70 west along the Colorado River with the windows down. To hear Joseph’s current favorite punk song, to sing silly harmonies with Stephen, to kick off a running joke about some dumb shit. To revel in the deep deep knowing that nothing really does last forever. To sing songs so loud out into the Summer night air that it didn't really matter if nothing lasted. So tonight, I do the same fucking thing. The way I love music now is the way I loved music then. So I roll the windows down and scream real loud. I'm cutting through the country. I'm on my way to you! I feel like a kid again. It feels good even though I know it won't last. The last light of Summer fades on the horizon out West. The last light of youth. I hit the great western highway curve doing 90 “Nothing lasts forever! But I’m not in a rush.”

"In my room check out this poster of the entire Simpsons cast / in my room I got this Weird Al tape, man, if you just wanna laugh / in my room maybe you could sleepover, hey, I just gotta ask / and then we could spend the night talkin' 'bout life... / In my room, I am sacred, I am safe, I am free / In my room I get to dream up who I really wanna be...."

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*MIDDLE KIDS   /   triple J Live At The Wireless - Enmore Theatre, Sydney 2024*

Truthfully, I could’ve put Middle Kids fantastic, early 2024, third full length album Faith Crisis Pt 1 here, but a funny thing happened when I was working on this list and decided to open up some extra spots for EPs, live albums, deluxe editions etc… I noticed some seemingly random connections to my 2017 Favorite Albums list. Five artists that debuted on my 2017 list (Middle Kids, Maggie Rogers, Leif Vollebekk, Little Simz & Hurray For The Riff Raff) returned seven years later in 2024! Make no mistake, all of these artists have released great albums in the years between, but for some reason, none of those albums made my lists, until they all returned in the same year. Something about songs always being there for you whenever you need them. So, long story short (a sentence I never say on this blog, because obviously, if music is involved, I loooove the loooong story!) putting the live Middle Kids album here allows me to celebrate a few of those “gap” songs that were there right when I needed them. 

There are tons of highlights that make listening to the live album worth it. The crowd energy is fantastic (check out the “Stacking Chairs” singalong!) frontwoman Hannah Cameron is an absolutely electric bandleader, and Middle Kids’ stage presence is delightful. They joke about smoking before playing a phenomenal version of the Lost Friends (their 2018 debut album) standout  “Mistake,” saying “this song is about… that” and when Hannah gets to the chorus, you can hear the laughter in her voice when she starts singing the line “It must be catching up my… smoking” and she blurts out “It IS about smoking!” Or when she jokes about the progression from Today We’re The Greatest (their underrated 2021 sophomore album) to Faith Crisis Pt 1 saying “we were like yess,,, Noooooooo” The live energy is palpable, Middle Kids seem to be having a blast “being in a room with people, sweaty & everything, down to connect, DTC baby!” and the band sounds incredible. The kind of catchy, anthemic Aussie, indie rock that I’ve loved so much over the years. Listening to the live album, I’m reminded how Middle Kids have been steadily building a career, right under my nose, and how I came back to them, exactly when I needed to.

There are three songs on the live album that cemented how much Middle Kids have been waiting for me, quietly writing songs that I needed, because they needed them too. The most obvious is the TWTG track “Stacking Chairs” a singalong rocker that finds Hannah belting one of my favorite declarations of true love on this list “When the wheels come off, I’ll be your spare. When the party’s over I’ll be stacking the chairs!” When Hannah introduces Faith Crisis' brooding “Bend” she says “I wrote this song in a hotel room when I was feeling quite alone. But this song is really about how you’ve gotta let some things crush you, and then the new life and the new strength can come out” before chuckling “so let’s get crushed!” I heard this song for the first time ever live at Red Rocks in the Summer of 2023 when Middle Kids opened for Manchester Orchestra & Jimmy Eat World. When the chorus hit, a soaring “I am one bend away from a break” I cried like a baby. 

Finally, the National-esque measured & declarative (and personal favorite Faith Crisis track) “Your Side, Forever” treads familiar Middle Kids ground. Hannah bemoaning tongue-in-cheekily “I know I’m doing it the hard way” before stubbornly insisting “But I kinda believe in the hard way.” But then, in all the hardness “Hannah goes down the rabbit hole” and ends up getting away from the party and talking about hard shit at the Hyde Park fountain. When she reaches the chorus (another soaring, emotional singalong) she sings a simple, universal idea that I have built playlists, conversations & whole friendships around these last few years “It’s a great, great sadness that never goes away” Hannah sings knowingly. Her acknowledgement of this great, great sadness serves to both celebrate and do battle against it. And if you know Hannah & Middle Kids, she believes in fighting. So she follows that acknowledgement with a heartfelt, brazen, dedicated encouragement “but it’s alright, I’m on your side… I’m on your side forever.” She is not denying the sadness (in fact the second part of the chorus says “IN the great, great sadness that never goes away, I’m on your side”) but she’s there. She’s not leaving. We’re fighting against it together. So many lyrics on this list mean so much to me, words to scrawl in notebooks, to burn into my brain, to tattoo on your skin, to share with friends & lovers in the dark, on the long walk home. Hannah’s words, simple & definitive, give a glimpse into what I’m searching for in all this music shit. It is feeling understood. It is someone thousands of miles away feeling the exact same way you do, knowing how you feel, and writing it down with words & music, melodies & lyrics, in a way that cuts right through you. Like it was written just for you. Like the song is yours. A secret magic power that you can use to transform your life. I love you Middle Kids. I’m on your side forever.

"Wherever you are / we're just getting started / out of the dark & into the highlands / give me your heart / I wanna hide it / and I can't keep waiting for things to change..."

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PREVIOUS INDUSTRIES / Service Merchandise

Doechii’s album may have been the best rap album of 2024, but supergroup Previous Industries’ debut album Service Merchandise is my favorite rap album of 2024. A laid back, retro grooving, classic rap album, Chicago legends Open Mike Eagle, Video Dave & STILL RIFT team up to form a superstar trio, heavy on the light hearted wordplay. Their debut is a delightfully smart, woozily, lo-fi boombox mixtape straight out of Chicago's golden days. Back in 2022 I put Open Mike Eagle’s powerful eighth album on my fav albums list. He was headlining Larimer Lounge (where I work!) and my coworker best friend Danielle had been telling me about him since I met her. It was a perfect collision, the show was incredible, and that album still means a lot to me. My secret favorite thing about the show was Open Mike’s opener Video Dave. Long time friends & collaborators, Mike & Dave feature, guest, & tour together, and I can’t remember exactly why I didn’t put Dave’s glowing ArticulatedTexTiles on my favorites list in 2023. Luckily for me, David & Michael share duties with another one of their old friends STILL RIFT, trading laugh out loud funny raps, slick tongued references, and generally warm, familial vibes on Service Merchandise. They kick it off introducing themselves on opening track “Showbiz.” STILL RIFT (“pronounced with the napalm”) Open MIke (“My name is Open Michael, and it’s pronounced like it was fired from a broken rifle”) and Dave (“My name is David, pronounced with the video”). From there their references are deeply fun & googleable. From Celozzi-Ettleson (a car dealership in Illinois) to ShowBiz Pizza, Herve Villechaize, Shel Silverstein, “Glycerine” by Bush, comic books, movies, video games, sports, and of course the dusty nostalgia of 90’s shopping malls. In fact the whole album is loosely conceptualized around forgotten catalogs & department stores; flipping through pages & peering in windows, ruminating hazily on how the passing of time can make you appreciate what’s gone. Silly advertisements with deeper meanings on how to mine the past for future lessons on aging & growing. 

My favorite thing about Previous Industries is the warm camaraderie you can feel between these three friends. Most of Service Merchandise feels like joining a chill hang, the three rappers taking turns, jumping in & out, hanging out in a hot Summer night parking lot after the show, laughing at each other’s rhymes & references, clapping at especially deft & dazzling verses. When I saw Previous Industries live at 1pm at the same Hopscotch Music Fest where I saw DUNUMS, the friendship between them was obvious & infectious. A perfectly sweaty afternoon festival set (complete with a Hannibal Burress/Eshu Tune cameo) full of shared smiles, inside jokes, and the kind of vibey, lyrical pirouetting that only comes with years spent practicing at the same turn-taking parking lot hangs. These three have a clear appreciation for their craft, Service Merchandise is a hidden gem of an album, and boy is it a trip hanging out in the parking lot with these dudes, listening to three aging superstars having the time of their lives.

"Grip on all my vices cuz they hold me back / my vices love it when I grip them and I know because they hold me back..."

*

RACHEL CHINOURIRI   /   What A Devastating Turn of Events

About 30 seconds into the dramatic, drumming, world-building intro to Rachel Chinouriri’s jaw dropping debut album, the music kicks out and Rachel says flatly, almost matter of factly “ummm… I think we should record that.” Her voice is immediately swallowed by a swirling electric guitar riff and the album sinks in and lifts off. Traversing deep emotional trauma, relationship strife, familial differences, and the challenges of growing up, the 26 year old Chinouriri drives her debut album with surprising confidence and a singular voice. Born in London to Zimbabwean parents, Chinouriri has been amassing a growing collection of songs online since 2018. It makes sense then that What A Devastating Turn of Events is a highly dynamic debut. Chinouriri lists British music legends Lily Allen and Daughter as influences, and musically, Events glows with energy, both grungy & poppy, a completely modern album that also wouldn’t be out of place in the mid-late 90s.

Album opener “Garden of Eden” is a pounding kiss off to the fragility (and stupidity! “The kids are throwing up in the garden”) of youth. When it finally climaxes, Chinouriri interrupts herself with a cassette player click off, and in the same flat, careless tone states, “well… maybe I’m just trying to stay young.” Personal fav “The Hills” traipses similar lyrical content, Chinouriri bemoans familiarity in physical spaces (“your house don’t feel like a home, in a room you’ve outgrown / everybody’s been there, so you try your best to leave”) and the song careens on a massively grungy guitar riff to a huge, anthemic chorus. “Never Need Me” is more of a bop, an indie pop-rock earworm that I totally would’ve belted windows down in high school or college. Last September, my friend Paige texted me asking if I had heard of Rachel Chinouriri. She said she had just started listening and “I love love her!” I was familiar with her name, had maybe heard a song or two in passing on a playlist, but I love taking recs, so I did what I usually do when I don’t feel like I have time to give it a good listen right away. I threw her album on a massive playlist that I build throughout the year called “albums i may have missed in 2024!” Well, when I started finalizing this list, I put it on and was absolutely BLOWN AWAY! A sharp, inspiring debut album from an awe-inducing talented young songwriter, go listen to Rachel Chinouriri!

"We were perfect strangers / one life torn in two / you were robbed of summer / I was robbed of you / nothing lasts forever / but you were gone too soon..."

*

R A R E B Y R D $   /   PA$$-A-FI$T

If you’ve been around the Denver music scene and paid attention for long enough, you’ve certainly heard of RAREBYRD$. Denver’s own legendary hip hop duo is Kheya Lenay Yeager & KoKo LA (Korryne Da'nell Coleman) with the help of Michael Blomquist on instrumentation. Their jaw dropping new album PA$$-A-FI$T (I'll say PAF from here on out to $ave on dollar $ign$) was released a couple of months ago, at the very end of 2024 on Denver’s own (also legendary) Unit E Records. My all-time favorite music writer in Denver, Tom Murphy of Queen CIty Sounds, calls PAF “Super experimental yet incredibly accessible. Dreamlike, sensual, & immersive.” I always read everything Tom writes and recommends, and he has a way of describing music that makes me want to listen to whatever he’s recommending. “There’s some gangsta rap sensibility here” Tom goes on to say “and the lyrics are diverse, not short on songs about female sexuality and some social commentary mixed in. But it’s a deep vibe.” Indeed PAF is an instant classic rap and r&b album, a delightful listen, powerful, powerful music from some true Denver legends. 

The first thing that grabbed me about PAF, is the steady groove of the dreamy, woozy production. Instrumentally, there is so much to dig into in the production here. From the emphatically brooding synth riff that thunders late night vibes through the pounding opener “Antidote,” to the soothing vocal wash and layers that build “Living4It” into a meditative groove, to the magnetic drum machines and video game synth blurps that push “ILikeIt” into some seriously sexy territory. Lyrically, Tom was not joking when he said “not short on songs about female sexuality” from the breathy moans of "ILikeIt." to the naked yoga in “GirlYouNasty,” and the face-sitting in “BiGG FiGGa.” I particularly love “I am not a snack bitch, I’m a buffet.” Bottom line, PAF plays like a classic rap album, the production is incredible, the rhymes hard hitting, smile inducing, head turning, aggressively confident, bombastic, sexy & smart. PAF has everything you want in a rap album, By the time the dramatic pump-up closer "HotLikeDaBlock" rolls in over the ringing chimes of early 2000's indie production (think Twin Shadow meets CHVRCHES meets Phantogram meets The XX!) it's clear that RAREBYRD$ are shooting for the stars on this one. Denver is proud to call RAREBYRD$’ ours and this may be the best album to come out of the Mile High City in 2024.

*

REYNA TROPICAL   /   Malegria

Reyna Tropical was started as a duo project between guitarist & songwriter Fabi Reyna and the late producer & DJ Nectali “Sumohair” Diaz in 2016 in LA. Both Fabi & Sumo had been born in Mexico and raised in the states. When Sumo passed unexpectedly in 2022, Fabi took on the weight of releasing Reyna Tropical’s debut album in memory of him. The result is a powerfully meditative exploration of grief & emotion titled Malegria. A word smash (portmanteau if you’re fancy) of the Spanish words “mal” (meaning bad) and “alegria” (meaning happiness) basically “bittersweet.” Reyna took the album title from a song by the legendary Spanish/French songwriter Manu Chao. Effortlessly blending Central & South American rhythms with Reyna’s fluid guitar work, Malegra slinks through sensual late night club bops, and bright sunrise, bird chirp morning pop ballads. 

Upon its release, Reyna spoke openly saying...

“Malegria is dedicated to my brother, my ancestor, my guide, my protector, my soulmate in music and my partner in revolution, Sumohair. This vision is dedicated to our bloodline that runs like a river back to our roots, limpiando y sanando los que vienen del medio—beings of the diaspora. This prayer is for our own acceptance and liberation. May this music serve as a warm blanket when the time comes to let go.”

Sprinkled throughout the album are recordings of Diaz & Reyna’s conversations about the recordings, adding not only a light uplifting addition, but giving a sacredness and a deepness to these songs of grief & celebration. Reminiscent in a way of Tre Burt’s recordings of his dad from last year’s magnificent Traffic Fiction. A lot of my reading & listening in 2024 was centered around the idea of the passing of time, how it bends, how it moves, and how it relates to grief. One of my all time favorite writers Hanif Abdurraqib wrote about time & grief for the New Yorker, in a piece centered around the work of the great poets Nikki Giovanni & Octavia Butler called "Lessons For The End of the World." Abdurraqib says

“I will say that I was thinking about time—how it peels away from us in fractions that don’t always feel like fractions. The slowness of time’s passage, for me, has often depended on what story I can extract from the time spent. What can be told to someone else, which might then be told to someone else. If you are lucky, sometimes minutes feel like entire generations fit within them.”

Throughout Malegria, Sumo’s presence is felt, not just as a cheesy, AI montage, meant to induce tears at the passing of someone great. No, his presence is felt like a generation alive in a three minute song, told by someone who knows how important it is to remember. The fractions of time made important by who lives in them. Sumo’s life given meaning by how he lives on through Fabi’s life. These songs glow & dance with energy, Fabi’s singing & guitar transcendentally transporting, uplifting and magical.

"Un movimiento ritual / como las olas del mar / por un momento de paz..."

"A ritual movement / like the waves of the sea / for a moment of peace..."

*

SOMESURPRISES   /  Perseids

I’d like to start with some info about the Perseids meteor shower, after which Somesurprises magnificent sophomore album is named. 

“The Perseids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift–Tuttle that are usually visible from mid-July to late-August. The meteors are called the Perseids because they appear from the general direction of the constellation Perseus. The name is derived from the word Perseidai (Greek: Περσείδαι), the sons of Perseus in Greek mythology.

The stream of debris is called the Perseid cloud and stretches along the orbit of the comet Swift–Tuttle. The cloud consists of particles ejected by the comet as it travels on its 133-year orbit. Most of the particles have been part of the cloud for around a thousand years. However, there is also a relatively young filament of dust in the stream that was pulled off the comet in 1865. 

The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the peak in activity between August 9 (my birthday!) and 14. The Perseids are primarily visible in the Northern Hemisphere.”

Somesurprises’ shimmering sophomore album Perseids, shooting starred (I know, I knowwww!) its way into my life way back in May. Their swirling, mesmerizing, psychedelic shoegaze soundscapes seemed to soundtrack my Spring perfectly, all sparkly, starry, & uplifting. From the twinkling synth and big, impassioned dream-pop vocals of opener “Be Reasonable” to the absolutely monstrous, 8+ minute crushing closing title track, Perseids is a musical masterpiece, meant to be listened to as a whole, and in order, from start to finish.

Somesurprises is the musical project of Natasha El-Sergany. Natasha is Egyptian/English American, born in Ireland to immigrant parents (her day job is as an immigration lawyer in Seattle!) Growing up Sergany bounced between England, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia & Seattle, and those reference points constellate across Perseids to create her singular voice. Her ethereal melodies seem to connect the dots between eastern mysticism & PNW grunge; floating somewhere between the vastness of space, the ferocity of the desert, & the unknowable deep, dark ocean. Over the majestic drone cacophony of the closing title-track, PNW experimental vocal master Jessika Kenney reads an interpretation of a poem from the legendary Persian poet Hafez. Sergany’s attention to detail pays off throughout Perseids, she is world building, she surrounds you with these songs, this album is intoxicating. 

Perseids had just been released when Somesurprises played the long-standing DIY venue Glob here in Denver, CO. Glob is one of our last remaining sacred DIY spaces, housed in a nondescript warehouse building, long & narrow, with couches lining the walls. Surviving in what was once a barren industrial district on the outskirts of Five Points, Glob holds on miraculously against the increasingly horrific squall of breweries, hip restaurants, and lifeless blocked squares of AI-created luxury apartments. Somesurprises performance at Glob felt sacred, legendary & fleeting. A favorite show of the year for me for sure. I brought two cans of good beer from home and drank them with my friend Casey (cuz who else would come with me to a DIY venue?!) and I remember walking out into the sparkling Spring night air saying to myself, “Perseids is a lock for my end of the year favorites list.”

A secret thing I’m trying to do with all of the albums on this list this year, is to pick a goal or a learning or a lesson, something tangible that I can work on to cement the albums' importance in my life. The goal I’m picking for Perseids should come as no surprise (some surprise?!) Come with me this August to somewhere outside of Denver, far enough from the city lights, and let’s watch the Perseid cloud ejecting from the comet, abandoning its 133 year journey, hurtling to earth as fireballs of electric light, visible for seconds, streaking across the sky, one after another, before they fade into the epic, black vastness of space. I want to close with the heartfelt words Sergany shared upon Perseids release into the world.

“These songs have kept me company for years in many layered stages and it feels so good & right to finally share them with all of you! I experienced deep joy & profound loss during the making of this record and beyond (like most humans) and rediscovered some of the things that make life worth living. I am grateful that I got to share some of these songs from my phone with my grandmother before she passed away, and that one of the songs made her feel like she was in ‘another world.’ I hope a sense of the possibility of renewal is transmitted through these songs, personally & collectively.”

*

YASMIN WILLIAMS   /   Acadia

Way back in 2021, I put Yasmin Williams’ instrumental guitar album Urban Driftwood on my end of the year Favorites list calling it “delicate & uplifting” a true “morning record” full of “rainbows of warm light.” Indeed, I spent many mornings in 2021 with Yasmin, easing into days & months & years. For her third album Acadia, Williams has upped the energy big time, and she pushes her boundaries as an artist in a really exciting way. For starters, while Driftwood featured mostly Williams alone, Acadia features 19 (!) guest artists, all handpicked by Yasmin. They weave in & out, sharing the stage with Williams’ generous playing, creating a warm, cohesive familial energy; elevating the album with an almost sunset, campfire, “sing” along magic vibe. Check out the boisterous strumming on the adventurous opener “Cliffwalk” courtesy of Piedmont folk-blues legend Dom Flemons, or the dreamy vocals (vocals?!) from Darlingside & Aoife O’Donovan on the gorgeous “Virga” and the sunrise wonder of “Dawning.” Banjo & fiddle dance in on the bluegrass inflected, wild romp of “Hummingbird” courtesy of Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves, and it sounds Spring-y in all the ways I need right now. Finally, it should come as no surprise that when Williams picks up an electric (electric?!) guitar on “Dream Lake” and “Malamu,” she absolutely shreds!

Yasmin is a world class guitarist, not just in the classical “jazz” sense, but she is exploratory & inventive, flipping her guitar horizontally, hammering and pulling away, making it come alive. This album especially, opens up her career in a big way, and it’s exciting to think about where she could go next. There is no better example of that potential than on the breathtakingly euphoric closer “Malamu.” Teaming up with jazz legends Marcus Gilmore (drums) and Immanuel Wilkins (saxophone) she trips along merrily through an ecstatic jam (are my jam band friends paying attention here?!) building & layering, sweetly swapping her guitar and Wilkins’ sax, spinning round & round each other to a showstopping conclusion. At a little over 4 minutes “Malamu” feels much longer, and the catharsis to be found in Williams (and her co-stars!) exuberant playing is joyful & jubilant. Maybe an 18 minute full band live version is in the works?! Williams has created a masterpiece with Acadia. The kind of album that has the power to both lift my spirits and calm my mind. The kind of album that I’ll be listening to for the rest of my life. While I let her last album be a morning companion, Acadia has already joined me on outdoor adventures. From snowy Cheesman park evening walks, to windows-down car rides in the Western Spring air; to late Summer creek dips, surrounded by hummingbirds & hawks, wildflowers & water bugs. Thanks for making Acadia Yasmin, I’ll treasure these songs always.

[jabbage]

What are the top 5 most middle class things that have ever happened to you?

Ooooooh good question... now I'm going to do the most British thing ever and preface it with a short essay providing half my life story, out of a sense of denial.

Both sides of my family are staunchly working class, as far back as I can find records. They were farm labourers and dock workers and hopped in and out of workhouses. My mum worked housekeeping and cleaning jobs, and my Dad managed to snag a white collar job in a factory out of school (because he's really clever).

But then two complications -

My Dad became a clergyman. This meant that we got to live in nice houses owned by the church he worked for, sometimes in quite affluent areas. We didn't have much money, but still.

2. I managed to get into Oxford University with a gazillion bursaries tied to my parent's low income. I then used the bursary money to fund doing a master's degree, and now I work in academia.

So, am I middle class? I'm begrudgingly realising that I might be? Except if I am I feel like middle class people shouldn't be constantly worrying that their now-retired parents can't afford to switch the heating on, or whether they'll ever live in their own home. And it's alienated me from my extended family, who have jumped to the conclusion that I think I'm better than them.

Anyway, the top 5 most middle class things that have ever happened to me.

One

Last year I got invited to an anniversary meal at my Oxford college, called a gaudy. I nearly didn't go because my time at uni was not very happy and I don't remember some of my contemporaries fondly, but then I figured that if I go, next time I read Dorthy L Sayers excellent book "Gaudy Night," I will have better brain-pictures. So, the setting, for your own brain-pictures:

Latin grace was sung before the meal, which comprised of salmon confit, followed by venison, followed by black forest gateau, followed by fruit and chocolates and port.

I was sat next to a nice middle aged man with an OBE. When he asked me "So, what do you do?" I decided not to say the job which *actually* pays my bills, but to reply with my evening job: that I make comics. I felt like this was a fun thing to say in a room full of people who Work In The City etc etc.

Except it turned out that he runs one of the UK's biggest comic arts festivals. He offered me free tickets. He offered to put me in touch with publishers. He offered to introduce me to significant people.

And I was like.... oh. Is this how it happens? Like, you're in an Oxford college and you just RUN INTO a posh bloke who Knows People and that's how you finally get a book deal???

Anyway I went to the festival. They had a panel on a yacht. And talked to people, or rather had people talk over me. So many times they'd ask me a question, and then interrupt before I'd given my answer. And I dislike schmoozing SO MUCH.

So uh, yeah, no book deal ;D YET

Two

One time I was wearing my college scarf while I was walking around Durham, and I ended up meeting a very cute elderly couple who went to the same college forty-five years earlier (well, the husband did, the wife wouldn't have been allowed.) They invited my to a dinner party at their house, which turned out to be a very cute little town-house by the river with five stories.

At the time I was doing my Master's degree, and they became kind of surrogate parents who I could call in on for a free hot meal and good conversation. But it was entirely sparked by "going to the same college at Oxford" which is very ew.

Three

Idk there was just this one time I was coming home on the train from having seen the Royal Shakespeare Company's latest production of Much Ado About Nothing and I stopped off somewhere to get sushi and I spent the whole time staring at a wall thinking "What have I become?"

Getting tickets to the ballet from a colleague slots into this catagory, I think.

Four

One time I was asked to open a village fete because the local lady of the manor couldn't make it.

Why me? Apparently "local clergyman's daughter" and "went to Oxford" and "draws silly pictures sometimes" was enough to make me a local celebrity.

I got to give a little speech and judge some cakes and everything.

Five

One time I got invited to a dinner party at CS Lewis' house, the Kilns, and I met his lovely secretary Walter Hooper. I remember being shown around and having a deep impulse to check the backs of all the wardrobes.

When I first went in it was through a door that led straight into his bedroom, and I was told that I could take my coat off and just toss it on the bed. No sooner had I done so than my guide mused, "CS Lewis died in that bed."

So I guess I own a coat that has been on the bed where CS Lewis died, is that middle class?!! Idk

[a-trick-or-two-with-lepers]

I finally watched Swedish Christ Superstar

Remember how I did a whole deep dive into the 2018 one? Yeah well, I was gonna try to do that with this version, but it is so unbelievably, completely, utterly, insanely unhinged that I just had to have my post about it match the energy. So without further ado, here are my literal first reaction notes to Jesus Christ Superstar (2014 Swedish Arena Tour).

Overture-

• Ooh the stuttering guitar is so metal

• Love the outfits, give me more apocalyptic leather headbanging nonsense

• Love how the choreo goes with the music rather than pure immediate chaos

• Admittedly the orchestra could be a bit better, but not terrible

• The shopping cart is my favorite character

• This feels almost interpretive

• Ok. Jesus is hot

• Draculacore

• Is he orgasming?

• I think that's an appropriate tone to be set

• I will say, I like productions with more color, but I see the style they're going for and I don't dislike it

Heaven on their minds-

• I like how they translated the lyrics to sound good in Swedish

• Also gives extra context and connotation to the words

• Love judas' mesh top!

• Really good singer wow

• This is how the song is supposed to be sung!!!

• I like boys with long hair hehehehe

• Symbolic that jesus is sleeping while judas is trying to get him to listen. Shows how closed off and resigned to his fate he was

• And also how no matter how hard judas tried he would never really be heard

• Painted nails!

• The subtitles said fuck? Lol

• I seriously love this guy's voice

• Oh my god they're so boyfriends

What's the buzz/Strange thing mystifying-

• Jesus is serving so much cunt

• So. Much. Touching.

• AHAHAHAHAGSVSBAZHDVWH THEYRE SO BOYFRIENDS HWWGGA

• Yes Maria feed him that orange

• "A man like him" you mean... 💅?

Everythings alright-

• I really like Mary's voice and look

• Mommy vibes fs

• He's in the shopping cart hhahahaha

• The masculine urge to sleep in a shopping cart while wearing shades

This jesus must die-

• Caiaphas sounds like a toad LMAO

• "It's seduction! It's blasphemy!" -Christians watching this 😭

• Caiaphas saying "STOP" such a jumpscare

• They kept the jesus is cool line and for that this is now one of my favorite productions

• AND THEY SAID IT TWICE AM I IN HEAVEN??

• Well I won't be after watching this 😌

• Caiaphas has a pretty cool voice ngl, my timbers are shivered

• HELIKOPTER 🚁 HELIKOPTER 🚁

Hosanna-

• A bit faster rendition that's neat

• Interesting how judas is participating in the fray

• It's so nice to see his character happy for once though

• The jesus balloons are killing me

Simon zealotes/poor jerusalem-

• Ooh it's a fight

• The ladies are sangin and dancin 💃

• THEY SAID FUCK AGAIN

• Well okay I'm just gonna give up on the notion that this play will be family appropriate in any manner, it's better that way anyway

• Pretty cool how the choreo is militaristic, as well as the costuming

• They way Simon is pronounced 😃

• I am unilingual my brain is incapable of not making a joke about that

• Jesus your nail polish is chipping baby fix that

Pilates dream-

• Love pilates robe, very pretty

• Ok but the sparkly suit is better

The temple-

• Fuck counter: 3

• They have a bit more speaking in this version which I really don't mind

• The lyrics make it really clear how the crowds used their connection to God to justify their actions, an issue which is still prevalent today

• Annas shaking that tail go off

• Jesus jumpscare

• He called it "A whorehouse" 💀

• The beggars all have little hand lights, that creates a really cool effect

• Wow the music got really fast

I don't know how to love him-

• Yayy Mary hi Mary hi 😍🥰👋

• Da smoochy???

• Judas ain't gonna be happy bout this

• Her voice is so good!!

• Interesting how jesus is awake for this

• ITS JUDAS HE'S PEEKING

• Uh oh

Damned for all time/blood money-

• OH NO

• MY BOY GOT SLAPPED

• HE JUST WANTED A SMOOCH

• Ok now it just feels like he's betraying him cause he got rejected 😭

• Annas is such a little shit oh my god

• He's giving Draco Malfoy vibes somehow

The last supper-

• Act 2 baby here we go

• Okay so he's dragging them to absolute hell, love that for you jesus

• The girls are FIGHTING!

• "Tell us what happened to the good vibes" I'm loving this translation

• Judas actor once again killing it, he has a really lovely rock voice

• The apostles throwing shade at judas and planning to blame him in the gospels 😙🤌

• This shit crazy

Gethsemane-

• Ok I'm gonna try to be serious for this once

• So far pretty good

• The lyrics are hitting the important parts of the song I feel

• HE GOT THE NOTE!

• Pretty damn good

• My bias still lies with Neeley but that wasn't gonna change really

• I like how he made the g5 actually part of the song rather than separating it. This whole performance is actually very natural and easy to watch

• The last verse goes so incredibly hard

• *rips shirt open*

• 👌

The arrest-

• Here it is the kiss

• Here we go

• Literally the only part of this play I'd seen before

• Okay that's just. So romantic. JESUS kissed JUDAS! What a twist!

• "Why did you date a whore" goddamn

Peter's denial-

• Annas is basically the main character he's in so many songs

Pilate and christ-

• "Yeah we know you're 'hot'" I mean 😏

• Fuck counter: 4

• My notes are seriously lacking I apologize

King herods song-

• Herod is me I am Herod

• Me in my robe on a Monday morning imposing judgement onto others:

• Did they just use a slide whistle?

• Goofy ahh sound effects 💀

• "Fine I'll do it myself- look, no hands 😚"

• He's my favorite

• Herod being silly and goofy:🤪

• Jesus: 😐

• Loved that

Could we start again please-

• Fuck counter: 5

• Not the song I expected it to be in tbh

• Maybe it doesn't hold the same weight in Sweden

• "How are we going to explain it so it looks good on paper?" This is a new angle that is actually really interesting, and reminds me that the Bible is pretty much ancient RPF

• Yay they included the ensemble

Judas death-

• "For one measly kiss" I'd call that kiss a lot of things but measly does not come to mind

• He is talking to jesus instead of christ

• Something tells me this production is not very religious 🤔

• Which I am very ok with

• He's goin through it

• He's got the rock screams going on 🤘love it

• RIP Judas, too gay to live 😔

Trial before pilate-

• He called Jesus a clown, bitch this isn't Godspell

• Ouchie

• That's a lot of blood

• It's easy to overact in the role of pilate and this guy isn't doing that, which is good

Superstar-

• I prefer when Judas is wearing white in this song, but the glittery red robe kinda slays ngl

• And once again judas is a pretty boy

• They kept the "jesus christ, Jesus christ, who are you what have you sacrificed" line in English

• Oop the robe is off

• Get those dance moves judas damn

• This is insane

• What is happening

• Why am I turned on

John 19:41-

• Ooh this is rather scary

• The way its literally just him on stage suffering is pretty intense

• IT IS FINISHED

Hope you enjoyed sluts

[mllsfllt]

[for that song thing] hugry nicole and firelifly? :3

Answer!

I just relistened to both of these songs while writing: They're both amazing! Hungry Nicole: I will admit this, I prefer Ado's cover of this song but even with flower's voice its an amazing song! The overall messaging of the song and how its paced out makes it perfect to listen to while working and I won't lie i've looped it a lot! I adore the art work and how it captures the story being sung. Lastly! The cuts such as : "pig, pig" "fish, fish" are an amazing add and really ties up the songs sections very well! Overall I do love this song-cover or not. FireFly: Hadn't listened to it in a while! I really love the increase of it all! Flower is an amazing vocal for the songs beating and melody, having her voice being a little softer with a husk was nice to listen to! I don't have too much to say on this song but it's for sure one I want to listen to more!

[seamayweed]

omg jesus christ how the hell you can sharpen the gif that.. sharp 🥹🥹 im such a fannnn please let me know some tips thank you

Hello, sweet Anon! I’m beyond flattered and honored that you would ask me for giffing tips and tricks 💙 “is he/she mad” sdfghjkl sounds about right - thank you!! 😂

Okay, let’s delve into it without much further ado:

(more underneath the cut)

1. HQ Videos

The most important thing is to get high-quality video files. I usually work with 1080p and got mine from dr*maday.me - you can find other kdramas there as well. It’s the go-to source for most kdrama gifmakers.

2. Brightness/Contrast

Make sure to get some good contrast with a Brightness/Contrast layer. That’s how you get the vibrancy, brightness, and deep blacks to make everything look more dynamic and quite sharp already even before the actual sharpening, though usually the colors end up too saturated and vibrant, so you’ll have to tone those down.

For the first gif in this set I used these settings:

This is what the gif looks like without any Brightness/Contrast layers (but still with all the other adjustment + coloring layers) vs. what it looks like with them:

3. Basic Sharpening

I like to leave the sharpening for last since it fits better into my workflow. For the basic sharpening (two Smart Sharpens) I use these common settings:

This is what it looks like after the two Smart Sharpens:

4. Vivid Sharpen (VS)

a. Full VS

For big gifs that are 540x500px or larger, I do a Vivid Sharpen after the basic two Smart Sharpens, and that’s what I did for the gifs in this set as well since they are 540x600px. I follow this tutorial, keeping the same settings (3.0px for the Gaussian Blur, 30% opacity for the VS group): https://sidonidoneeey.tumblr.com/post/667301663059656704/a-really-nice-anon-requested-a-gif-sharpening

And voila, there you have your beautiful crisp gifs! You could let it stay at that, but personally I also like to add an extra step…

b. Masking (Partial VS)

Hope you are familiar with masking, Anon!

If you aren’t, that’s okay too. Basically, you click on the icon of a circle in a square and a masking layer will appear on your VS group layer (as indicated by the red circle and arrows in the screenshot below). You can use a soft brush on that masking layer to hide and show what you like. Black = hiding the layer effect; white = showing the layer effect. After making the whole masking layer black (by inverting the colors with Ctrl+I), I use a white brush on the spots where I want to apply the VS:

Narrowing down the area of the sharpening is quite useful since VS tends to make gifs REALLY big, and the Tumblr size limit for gifs is currently at 10 MB, so that's something to keep in mind.

I also do it for depth of field (i.e. when the object in the foreground is sharp and the background is soft/blurry). Masking is a good way to amplify that, play with the soft/sharp contrast, and direct the viewer’s gaze.

With Park Sung-woong I found that VS works well on the dips and grooves in his skin, so I just generously used it on his whole body and face; with Woo Do-hwan I feel like VS looks a bit too harsh on his face, so I tried to use it mostly on his body + his hair, eyes, and mouth, leaving out the rest of his face (as best as I could since there's some movement), the way I did in gif 4 with the masking layer looking like this:

Here you can compare the screenshots of a partial VS vs. a full VS:

IMO the second one with the full VS looks slightly too harsh on his skin and darkens his face a bit, which I don't want; the background ends up looking grainier as well.

To get back to the first gif, here are three versions with different levels of sharpening for better comparison:

No Sharpening:

Smart Sharpen x2:

Smart Sharpen x2 + Partial VS:

And here you have the original footage (after cropping and resizing) vs. the final colored and sharpened gif:

...and that's how I did the sharpening for this gifset. Hope you found this helpful, dear Anon!

[always-a-joyful-note]

So because I want to record my progression of where I am in the story, I'm posting my impressions of the units so far. (Disclaimer: I haven't read many of the stories, and about half the knowledge I have is from osmosis and spoilers. The other half is actually reading wiki entries and the actual stories. So if these takes are inaccurate, that is probably the point XD)

Without further ado....

fine - unit of 2 rich kids who are sort of trying to be slightly less evil but kind of still are evil, one (1) theatre kid who is just there for the ride and his crush, and a butler with the face of an angel and the threatening aura of a ezekiel-accurate angel in disguise. Also another impression I had of it was one chronically ill idol stan with three of his idol crushes. But they're solid, if slightly flowery; not exactly my style but their songs are good.

Trickstar - literally my sons. Traumatised idiots who choose to continue to see the bright side with a slice of anarchy. They're all so dumb. Their leader looks straight laced but is more insane than his co-leader who is perpetually wearing the ^u^ expression (except when trauma slapped). The other two members are a camera-phobic gamer boy who is also a model and a guy who exudes reliability and sanity but is also kind of an insane workaholic with inferiority issues. I'm adopting them all and their songs are like…both generic but SO sincere you can't hate it.

Ryuseitai - Me when first meeting them: Awww! A power ranger themed unit! So cute! Me, after hearing stuff about the two senior members' lore and how they recruited their youngsters: (clutching my heart, trying not to sob/lose my mind) Aww! A power ranger themed unit! S-so cute! I would die for literally all of them…WHY. Such silly happy sincere tunes sung by such silly, devastating characters??? Found family, to me

Alkaloid - everyone here believes they are holding everyone else back with their psychological problems (Mayoi), disability problems (Tatsumi), ability problems (Aira), or culture shock problems (Hiiro). And yet they're the unit whose songs have mostly all been ones I absolutely loved. Which means the assembly machine factory idols Eichi's got going on are working and idk how I feel about that

Eden - A bunch of guys with severe family issues who probably have never read the bible (well, maybe Nagisa has). So, like, tw inaccurate depictions of the bible? Anyway, deranged quartet of a softie obsessed with cool rocks but really he has sort of a god complex, a guy with a perpetual :D who is as smart as he thinks he is but is also kind of oblivious to all of his other skills and flaws (and thus is a combo of terrifying snake and kind of someone you're sort of humouring because he's funny), a spoiled princess who might have a bit of a savior complex, and a dude who kinda just got swept along for the ride but is actually really fond of them. And it shows in their music.

Valkyrie - Just….theatre kids, who put the drama in dramatic and the intense in intensity (that's definitely not how the expression is used). They also have a very strange thing going on even though they're trying to be healthier, but I'm too afraid to ask. Unfortunately, though, they have some killer compositions and so many references to Classics and Things, not to mention their songs are genuinely good for those who want that quick theatrical vibe

2wink - Adorable twins that I was lured into thinking were the normal mischief twin duo trope but what in the actual ensemble were the writers DOING? They deserve at least half the cw/tw tags. Also, one of them is kinda like Trickstar (just wants to make things brighter) while the other one has schemes and will not hesitate to destroy you while giggling, yes. All that angst but they have such cheery tunes. Like, boys please….

Crazy:B - I mean, with a name like that….listen. You think it's the guy with the metabolism-related medical condition who has a dad implied to be accused of cannibalism and his freeloader who is a literal prince but also constantly broke that would be the most insane. But, no, we also have a fifteen year old assassin who has definitely killed and a guy who is literally both committing identity theft AND helping in witness protection. But, yes, their songs are fun, as is their dynamic. Also…Amagi brothers. Ough.

Undead - This is just…four urban fantasy love interests thrown into a unit. I'm not exactly sure what urban fantasy race Adonis and Kaoru are (though sometimes I'm inclined to think adonis is the protagonist who just kinda got swept along for the ride except he does have the vibe sometimes (aka casually kidnapping HiMERU)) but a vampire and werewolf are very obviously there. Really do love their rock and roll style, like come on (though I sometimes do think it'd be cool if they let Rei's love for jazz into their songs)

Ra*bits - Look. I love them. It really is just a single dad with one of the most messed up backstories doing his best. But like, also, leave them alone please?? The writers really just made them the damsel in distress character that makes Subaru go "oh, I have to take this revolution stuff seriously" and that's not even mentioning all the other stuff they seem to go through??? Like they do not belong in whatever genre Enstars is going for but they make it work but….let them rest. Songs not my style but they fit their vibe of "smile and spread joy" which works cause I do feel joy. Like Trickstar without the revolutionary goals.

Akatsuki - TBH, I'm still kind of wondering why these three (a warrior, a mangaka, and a tailor who used to be a delinquent) are still idols. I mean, they do have talent and traditional aesthetic is fire, and they're definitely sort of found family, but why still idols guys? That said, again, songs not my style but they definitely capture their aesthetic and vibe and that's always cool to me. Also, one of the members was raised in a Buddhist temple and helped with funerals, and I do not know enough about Buddhism enough to say if they portray a Buddhist accurately but given how they portray everyone else's quirks, it probably still has a giant dose of deranged on it.

Knights - HAHAHAHAHA. They're all insane. But they have talent and earned their place in the big three. But that does not make them less insane. That's all because I will go a bit barmy if I think about them too much. Silly, insane knights who enjoy hobbies like kidnapping (affectionate) and dancing/singing (will kill you in a duel)

Switch - Look….at heart, I can't hate these fantasy game isekai themed group. I enjoy their music because I do like the electropop remix/edm thing they have going on. And it DOES kill me that the only two 3-people units (Akatsuki and Switch) both have the dynamic of "a couple of parents and their beloved and most treasured cinnamon roll of a chaotic son." But like Valkyrie, I don't know what's going on with the senior members and am too afraid to ask, especially since they seem fine with it while their son with synesthesia cheers them on.

MaM - He is literally a cowboy. I - is there a thing with Japan and cowboys? And did someone at the writer's table see that samurai, Victorian thief, cowboys, and pirates post? Because somehow, the only member of this unit is all of them. A very stark contrast against his weirdly cheerleader/mom friend songs. I know he has mommy issues (mafia thing, I think) but.....son, are you okay?

Double Face - Yeah, okay, I love them. They might be the murder unit and I still have no clue to their formation but I love it. Put the Victorian cowboy thief samurai pirate and the child assassin together and you get secret agent type music that sounds like it could be in an old spy flick? How can you not love it?