#Cinder Well

[little-exhausted]

Cinder Well - Returning

[concerthopperblog]

10 Standout Roots and Americana Albums of 2023 So Far

“Best Of” lists have always been polarizing. Some people enjoy the roundup and some hate them for their reductive qualities. I personally love them because they give me a chance to catch up on some albums I missed during the year (or half-year as is the case here). The one thing I don't care for is the “best” label, at least for my list. Concerthopper's album review section is mostly a one-man operation on the Americana side and, being one person with two ears, I can't possibly listen to every album that comes my way, and some might have made a “best” list if I had. Instead, what you find below is a list of favorite Americana and roots albums of the year so far. Your list may differ and I look forward to your choices in the comments. Where we reviewed the album, I've linked it. Where we didn't, I've linked a Youtube video of one of my favorite album cuts.

10. Iris DeMent- Workin' on a World A new Iris DeMent album is an infrequent thing and to be celebrated anytime there is one. On Workin' on a World, she takes on the hate and divisiveness our political system has delivered of late and faces it with a mixture of defiance (“Warriors of Love”) and healing (“Workin' on a World”). Simply put, it's DeMent at her best and, at her best, she's as good as it gets. 9. Ben Folds- What Matters Most In his finest solo release to date, Ben Folds pens songs that are essentially short fiction, story songs that run the gamut from political dissatisfaction (“Wait There's More”) to a humorous encounter with a lady with too much stamina and some weird fetishes (“Exhausting Lover”) to a middle school crush who became a hate-filled meme sharer in adulthood (“Kristine From the 7th Grade”) with equal parts earnestness and humor. 8. Margo Price- Strays Margo Price always delivers and Strays is her best studio album since Midwest Farmer's Daughter. With some help from Sharon Van Etten and Sierra Ferrell she delivers an album that is equal parts classic country, America, and straight ahead driving rock and roll. It's a fun album, even when Price is offering raw autobiographical material (“Been to the Mountain”). 7. Dom Flemons- Traveling Wildfire Dom Flemons is roots music's most dedicated historian. He began (alongside Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson) his work of unearthing the almost forgotten history of black string band music with Carolina Chocolate Drops and has continued to do so with his solo records for Smithsonian Folkways. But Traveling Wildfire also shows off Flemons' love of traditional country, from the ambling waltz of “Slow Dance With You” to the Marty Robbins-esque western story song “It's Cold Inside” alongside his historical remembrances like “Nobody Wrote It Down.” 6. Joy Oladokun- Proof of Life While Proof of Life is Joy Oladokun's third album, it's her true coming out party, an album so good that it brought her a larger audience, and a well deserved one. From the slow burn of “Pride” to the hip-hop enhanced soul of “Revolution,” there's something for everyone on this album. The breadth of influences on this album is evident from her guests, ranging from Chris Stapleton to Manchester Orchestra to Maxo Kream to Noah Kahan. 5. The War & Treaty- Lover's Game I'll admit to being concerned when The War & Treaty signed a major label contract last year. Would the duo that so fiercely defended their place in Americana when they burst onto the scene become watered down by the mainstream? I needn't have. Lover's Game is another satisfying album of country-soul. There's a bit more emphasis on the country side this go around, but that only serves to give them the vibe of Ray Charles' forays into country music and that's not bad company to be in. 4. Parker Millsap- Wilderness Within You Parker Millsap has never been an artist afraid to experiment with new sounds, but on Wilderness Within You, using technological gadgets not usually found in roots music while condemning the technology that separates us even when we're feet apart. On the album, Millsap dabbles in New Wave (“So Far Apart”) and Krautrock (“Half a World Away”) while never leaving his core roots sound on songs like “Greetings and Thanks” and “Front Porchin.” 3. Doolin'- Circus Boy There's nothing that draws me like artists who embrace the strange. So when I ran across Doolin', a band billing themselves as “France's Best Celtic Supergroup,” I knew I had to give it a listen. I'm glad I did. Recorded in two sessions bookending the pandemic, the first in America and the second in France, the album finds Doolin' stretching beyond the bounds of their traditional Celtic sound into earnest folk-pop (“The Darkest Way”), Americana (“Circus Boy”), and even calypso with a cover of Harry Belafonte's “Man Smart, Woman Smarter.” Doolin' was the discovery of 2023 for me and a band I immediately went out and picked up the back catalog from. 2. Cinder Well- Cadence While it's not the #1 album of the year so far, it's a near thing. No album bowled me over like Cadence in the first half of 2023. I was familiar with Amelia Baker's “doom folk” project from her excellent previous album No Summer, but nothing prepared me for the dark explorations of the “thin places” in our reality where magic, not always positive, happens. Songs like “Two Heads, Grey Mare” and “Gone the Holding” practically drip with the Old Ways of Baker's home on Ireland's coast. 1. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit- Weathervanes Six albums into his Southeastern Records output I've pretty much just slotted Jason Isbell into the #1 slot unheard and I will until he proves to me that he doesn't deserve it. Weathervanes is another success, an album unafraid to tackle tough topics like racism (“Cast Iron Skillet”), school shootings (“Save the World”), and addiction (“King of Oklahoma”) without ever sounding preachy. As always, his band The 400 Unit proves that they're the next generation Heartbreakers, ably weaving instrumental greatness into Isbell's lyrics, notably on his Sadler Vaden guitar-driven tribute to Justin Townes Earle, “When We Were Close.”

[s0ull3ss-p3rs0n]

I'm blaming @nyaskitten for this.

[howi99]

Follow up to this post

Kid Cinder: *slowly waking up, looking around her* I will never be free, will i? If only he was real...

The sound of something rusted creak near her

RK: Hm, so that's what your childhood was like. *Looking around* almost no heat, you look like you haven't eaten in days and that collar... Well, the scars on your neck are telling me enough.

Cinder: *looking at the rusted knight, the hero from her favorite book, talking in front of her* Wuh? Wha?

RK: So, you accepted my offer. To have a second chance. *Smile* My name is Jaune Arc, but you must know me better as the Rusted Knight, right?

Cinder: ... I'm dreaming, this can't be real. *She slap herself* OUTCH!

RK: Uh... Cinder? This is not a dream-

Cinder: But you can't be real! Unless... Oh god, the isolation turned me into a madwoman!? Oh no, oh nononono-

RK: *put his hand on her head* Hey, calm down kid, i'm real. No trick. And you certainly didn't turn mad. (At least not yet)

Cinder: B-but then... You are here to save me, right?

RK: Well, yes? Why would i be here if it isn't for that?

Cinder: T-then, you will kill the mistress, right!?

RK: *shaking his head* No. I know how hard it must be to hear this, but we can't kill her.

Cinder: But why!?

RK: It's against the laws

Cinder: ...

RK: ...

Cinder: ... Not even beating her almost to death?

RK: Cinder, i'm removing your collar and we are out of here.

Cinder: Aw....

[iloveacronix]

SUPER SMALL ROBY AND CINDER DOODLEEEES (spoiler!!)

[carouselunique]

Yeah, sure why not! Here's a snippet of them I did a few days ago!

[howlingday]

Cinder: With our own Ruby, we can sneak in and steal the relic from everyone's noses!

Emerald: I already tried something like that.

--------------------------------------------------

Mercury: (Dressed like Ruby, High-pitched) OOH~! LOOK AT ME~! I'M RUBY~!

Jaune: ...I disagree.

--------------------------------------------------

Emerald: Personally, I thought he nailed it, but everyone's a critic, I guess.

[hyperfixate-on-ninjas]

Fuck it.

I’m making like my own rendition of Seabound Nya meets Amnesiac Jay/ DR Jay, where basically Crystallized never happened. (So Nya is still the Sea, and she’s got so much ocean to work with now…)

And one of my little tidbits about Jay is that he STILL has the habit of making a room full of water cups and lighting up candles so when he ends up joining Ras this kinda shit happens.

So like- Cinder be wondering if their new member is really an old Ninja or has been thoroughly messed up by the Administration.

Or maybe he’s taking the cult thing a little too seriously.

[iheartmothz]

"why is there so much knightfall" um... sorry...

[allaboutherock2011]

Following an announcement last week that heavy experimentalists Sumac will unite with contemporary orator Moor Mother on stage at the festival, Roadburn today confirms its final multi-band announcement for the 2025 edition. Among the new additions to the line up are a special performance from psychedelic titans Bo Ningen, ethereal soundscape artist Penelope Trappes, and a commissioned…

[bornetoblood]

if i think too hard about them i cry and throw up

[ruins-of-tragedy]

Concluded season five of RWBY. The band is back together! The world tour is on track once more!!!

- Adam. You were right. Someone needed to die that day. But it shouldn't have been Sienna. It was supposed to be you.

- The PR battle between Adam and the Belladonnas. WoWie... I want to tear that Taurus guy apart from limb to limb.

- So Ozpin is not just Ozpin but many, many, many people who merged their souls with a cursed person? Okie. This is a thing.

- Cursed because he couldn't stop Salem initially. What kind-of fucked Gods are these?!

- I want... No. I NEED Weiss, Blake and Yang to receive special training from cute small little Oscar boy Ozpin. Pwease.

- Love the idea of a semblance and what that can mean in our verse. Especially since we can unlock it too... In the words of one wise Nora Valkyrie, it's "...like your very own superpower! Everybody's got one. It's just a matter of finding it and mastering it."

- Raven may not be a great mother, but she seems like a badass. I can respect that. However, fucking nope. Yang deserves better. Am glad she at least had Summer for a while.

- It's the fact that Weiss has to stand up on her tippy-toes in order to hug Yang properly. 😆😭🥹

- Ruby is innocence. Weiss is defiance. Yang is strength. 🫶🏻

- Blake must miss them so much.

- Adam is spite. And his way of thinking is dangerously contagious. Gods... I LOVE this show.

- Who needs real tea when Raven's over here spilling the whole container worth of gossip?

- To the guy carving food like ramen out of wood pieces... Teach me your ways!!! Also, do better for Faunus. They should be allowed in the bar too.

- Yang and Weiss and Ruby hug!!!!

- Vomit Boy. Nickname throwbacks!!! AGHHHHH!!! Ice Queen didn't miss them at all. ✨

- That conversation between RWY and then Weiss and Yang... Gods. I really appreciated the variations in loneliness Weiss talks about.

- Unrelated note, but Jacques Schnee should come to our world. I will welcome him happily. Please. And thank you.

- Ruby was right. "Nice Weiss strikes again."

- Also, love how Yang does not want to care. At all. But she does. So much.

- Abandonment issues are the worst.

- Ilia liked Blake? Awwww! I didn't know she was cool like that! The betrayal though. Fuckity fuck.

- WoWie. Ilia was able to form thoughts and speak them out coherently still, while having a lady on top. Straddling her, as she was being pinned down. Gods. I couldn't have done it if I was her age. Heck, can't do so even now... Debating morals and engaging in a big emotional confrontation this way... She is stronger than I am.

- Ilia could have died the same death her parents probably did. Fuck. Thank Gods for people like Ghira.

- The audacity of this biatch. The Belladonnas ruined everything?!??? Corsair. Catch these hands!!!

- Welcome to the good side Ilia. Here we have friends, support and Blake!

- So Weiss gets stabbed. I know she is not going to die. But FUCKKKKKKK. They are really coming after her this season...

- My emotions are being played with.

- Jaune's semblance heals?! Awwwwww! So fitting!!!

- Hazel is so overcome by his own rage, he can't see it was his sister's choice. And instead of respecting that, he is out here trying to bring down other children. I don't think she will be impressed.

- Raven is the spring maiden. Did NOT see that coming.

- I need a show revolving around Team STRQ.

- Jaune's aura amplifies others. He won't run out. Pyrrha believed he has a lot of it. 🌟😭

- Blake coming in with back-up and reinforcements had me screaming with joy!!! Really needed that.

- Cinder's now Grimm too?!

- That look between Blake and Yang. Xiao Long cannot anymore. She has fallen HARD. I think she knows it too. At least somewhat. Gods. I love them.

- Yang not letting her emotions get the best of her when it easily could have before... Especially when it's Mercury coming for her. Top tier character glow up!!! Even more so because it didn't happen all at once. There were times she failed to do it too. I like how they kept it realistic.

- Cinder Fall falls. Vernal is the MVP. And dead.

- Every time RWBY has a half an hour episode now, I get scared. And that's the case still with the finale of this season.

- Sun Wukong is an honorary Belladonna for me.

- Weiss remembers Blake being more quiet. 😂

- Yang vs Raven. Love this battle of wills.

- So much for being "Lionheart." Giving Leos a bad name. At least he dead now.

- Fuck. Could never have imagined Raven killing the initial Spring Maiden. But I guess it makes sense.

- Yang Xiao Long is my favourite character. Period.

- Team RWBY is back together. They are hugging. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

- Bumbleby is out of the trenches, but heading into an emotional one perhaps?

- Next stop: Atlas. I feel Qrow's long suffering sigh. 😤. Ironwood was turning into a bit of a dictator, the last time we saw him. Wonder what's going on with him now.

- Raven wants to talk to Tai... Not your typical parents teachers meeting. 😆

- This is out of order, but I laughed so hard when Raven clocks the bad folks for being ego-maniacs. Then calls out Cinder's last name and how it's too appropriate. Doctor Watts confirming it was the cherry on top!

- This season was something. In the best possible way. Holy hell... Anywho, onto the next one!!!

(No spoilers! Or I use you for Jacques and Adam target practice. Adiós!)

[bestworstcase]

Anything from Volumes 1-3 that is setup that you don't think is given enough attention or respect for good setup?

Sidenote to this:

Open seat with no person in it + Salem having someone looking for the Choice Relic was hinting at Summer Rose. Did we have anything hinting at her pre Beacon's Fall or just things that she fits given additional context?

regarding summer specifically, while i wouldn’t call them hints per se, there are a handful of beats in v1-3 that smell like foreshadowing to me:

the first is “she was right about you; such arrogance.” – cinder might well be referring to salem here, of course. however. what strikes me about this remark is that arrogance is not a characteristic that salem seems to perceive in ozma; rather she describes him, in her soliloquies and songs, as a self-destructive, deceitful, manipulative fool blinded and trapped by his faith in the old gods. cowardly. fallen from grace. think of what she says to oz in 8.9—look how you’ve diminished, how you’ve lessened yourself—she sees him groveling at the feet of tyrannical monsters and sees debasement.

does it follow for salem to characterize ozpin to cinder as, primarily, arrogant? i’m not convinced it does. but summer rose? well… hm. consider, also, that the full line is “this whole time, right beneath our feet… she was right about you; such arrogance…” <- i think it is more likely than not that “she” is someone inside the brackets of “our,” and in context “our” is either [cinder + ozpin] or [cinder + her associates physically present at beacon].

in the event that “she” is not part of “our” the more naturalistic phrasing is “beneath our feet… salem was right about you” – because “she” otherwise has no antecedent. of course, some allowance here for this to be a narrative choice not to name salem yet, but we’re one (1) episode off from revealing her face and by this point we’ve known for a while that cinder works for someone else, so the choice to drop the name here or in the volume credits is of fairly trivial importance. unless of course cinder isn’t talking about salem.

second: “Oh! We've also stopped some bad guys, too! I guess it's like they say: "like mother, like daughter"! I still wonder why Ozpin let me into the school early…” [laugh track] – obv this part of ruby’s address to summer’s memorial headstone foreshadows ozpin’s conspiracy and team strq’s involvement therein. but it also foreshadows this exchange:

RUBY: We don’t have to kill you to stop you, and we will stop you. SALEM: Your mother said those words to me… she was wrong, too.

and i think it bears pointing out that ruby is wrong here, and later in the volume qrow specifically calls attention to this and lays out why she’s wrong. team rwby didn’t stop the bad guys; they cut off one avenue of attack and cinder circled around from a new direction that took advantage of torchwick’s imprisonment, and this also resulted in the public break between ozpin and ironwood which eroded the cohesion of the inner circle. ergo, ruby thinks she stopped the bad guys but in the long run the consequences of the breach all benefited salem.

looks into the camera like im on the office.

like mother, like daughter!!!

further, that sequence of events ultimately leads to the final confrontation between her and torchwick – wherein he declares “if you can’t beat them, join ’em,” and shortly gets eaten by a grimm right after making it clear that he intends to kill her. torchwick’s death is thematically motivated – a narrative rejection of his cynical every-man-for-himself, dog-eats-dog outlook – but consider that:

summer rose, if she is indeed salem’s willing agent, is certainly at beacon tonight – because she’d be the one who stayed behind to hold the fort.

summer is thus the one salem instructs to “reinforce our numbers at beacon,” meaning the grimm; that instruction only makes sense if the person receiving it can communicate with or command grimm. ergo, summer must have some degree of control over grimm.

ruby is disarmed and on the ground getting beaten by a man who fully intends to kill her, and a grimm swoops down out of nowhere to eliminate him faster than he can blinks. and then… the grimm rears up, roaring at her, and comes down with a sweep of its wings that creates a blast of air that pushes her away. that isn’t aggression!! that’s a defensive threat display!! (the feilong in v4 does the exact same thing – trying to push the boat away). it’s ruby who charges the gryphon, and while it lunges forward in reaction to her charge, all that happens is she gets her feet on its head and pushes off to leap over it, and the grimm goes fucking flying so hard it crashes into the ship’s interior and never emerges. the point being,

math.

it’s plausible that the grimm was drawn to torchwick’s murderous rage. but the way it behaves immediately after it swallows him – that very clear “get away from me please” body language, and ruby -apparently- kicking a grimm the size of a goddamned clydesdale dozens of feet and then through the hull of a literal warship? ruby is strong, but she’s not… that strong. but if the grimm didn’t want to engage her and propelled itself under and past her at the same time as she vaulted off its head? that would explain what happens perfectly – ruby’s kick altered its launch trajectory just enough that it crashed.

minutes later, someone loyal to salem scraped a very badly injured cinder off the top of beacon tower and left ruby alive where qrow would find her. salem’s vested interest in keeping ruby alive is VISIBLE throughout the battle for beacon, and notably include a perfect opportunity to capture her while she’s in a coma atop beacon tower that isn’t taken – suggesting that salem makes her singular attempt to capture ruby solely to reassure cinder that Something is being Done.

and if summer rose has command over grimm and was at beacon that night… the gryphon’s behavior is exactly what i’d expect if all the grimm had marching orders to insure this one girl in particular – the spitting image of their commander – doesn’t come to serious harm. there’s a nonzero chance that gryphon did in fact save ruby On Purpose!

…and that happens in the context of a fight between ruby and the bad guy she thought she stopped (but she was wrong), who joined salem because “if you can’t beat em, join em.” (salem voice) she was wrong, too…

also

<- like mother like daughter. summer had a nevermore’s eye view of the battle for beacon, in this essay i will –

third: this one is something i didn’t really Think About until v9 and specifically the v9 ost dropping, but some of the things cinder says in v2-3 strike me as like – she got that from summer im sure of it. for example, in midnight, cinder’s view of huntsmen is that they’re free, they have power, they can go anywhere and do whatever they want, and rhodes never contradicts this. where did she get “huntsmen and huntresses should conduct themselves with honor and mercy”? who taught her the aspirational moral ideal?

summer rose, maybe.

but in the deeper sense,

where did cinder get the ‘destiny’ conceit? her underlying beliefs about how the world is are a product of her childhood, but the overt framing of fate/destiny isn’t present in midnight; nor has salem ever spoken of destiny and her philosophical views are in many ways a rejection of destiny – salem does not believe in fate, she is the woman who dedicated her life to toppling the gods.

and on close examination this looks like yet another suspiciously summer rose shaped hole!! “you’re special, ruby […] special the way your mom was special […] it was said that those born with silver eyes were destined to lead the life of a warrior.” – in after the fall, ozpin gives coco an entire pep talk whose central conceit is embracing and submitting to the turns of fate – sacrifice “show them gods and deities/blind and keep the people on their knees” & guide my way “you were born to hypnotize them all/they all said their prayers/can you hear me up there?”

cinder, of pyrrha: “people assume she’s fated for victory, when she's really taking fate into her own hands. interesting. add her to the list.” & “it’s not about overpowering the enemy; it’s about taking away what power they have.”

<- that second statement is salem’s strategic doctrine, through and through. but the ‘power’ cinder is talking about here is derived through manipulating the perception of destiny; the self-fulfilling prophecy. the invincible girl cannot be touched because she makes subtle adjustments to insure that no one is able to try. it is pyrrha’s belief in destiny that destroys her, as it destroys ozma. ozpin invokes fate to justify and explain his choices. those born with silver eyes are destined to lead the lives of warriors.

summer rose was destined to live and die fighting the grimm – so the world promised her. maybe she believed, maybe she felt like she had no choice but to accept her prescribed fate. until she met salem, and took fate into her own hands. made a choice. broke the chains. it’s about taking away what power they have, like salem did when she tore the scales from summer’s eyes, like summer did when she refused her destiny and joined hands with the grimm instead.

what does summer rose look like through cinder’s eyes? she was a huntress. she was literally destined to be one of the greatest huntresses in history, a hero, the shining pillar upholding the world order that chose the enslavement of children as a fair price for peace. fate dictated that she be the icon, the idol, the embodiment of the system that brutalized and subjugated cinder – she had every privilege cinder could ever dream of, freedom and security and a home, a loving family – and she chose to walk away.

and if they talked about that like, ever, and specifically if summer talked about that warrior’s destiny as a cage, a curse she had to escape – is it any wonder that cinder would adopt that framing to make sense of what happened to her? if summer rose was fated to stand at the pinnacle, then does it not follow that cinder fall was fated to be ground into the foundations? and likewise, if summer rose can shatter her pedestal and fall from grace, then cinder fall can shatter her chains and rise. summer proves that the idea of destiny is powerful but not inviolate. and it is hollow, it is a lie, a fiction, and that means it can be taken away. revealed as a deception. destroyed.

anyway

to the broader question

i think people really, really do not give the jaundice arc enough credit for the long-term set up it’s doing.

(or the very overt textual statement from THE HISTORY PROFESSOR! placing the blame for the violent radicalization of the white fang squarely on human bigotry and persecution of faunus in general; the white fang arc is clunky and hamstrung by the inadequacy of its vocabulary, but the fandom talking point that the narrative perspective on this subject has “evolved” or “improved” is just. not true. v1 is very emphatically clear that 1. terroristic violence is not activism, 2. ascribing the terroristic violence of a few to an entire minority group to rationalize bigotry is bigoted in and of itself and completely unacceptable, and 3. violent radicalization is created through relentless discrimination and hate, which creates a self-reinforcing circle wherein the justifiable outrage of the persecuted outgroup and the extreme violent reactions provoked by the persecution are distorted into a justification for further persecution by those of the in-group who materially benefit from perpetuating this cycle!!! all of this is explained in an almost afterschool special manner by the main character faunus rights activist and the history professor!!! in volume one!!! what changed is that the writers developed the skill and vocabulary necessary to weave these ideas into their storytelling in a more effective and more cogent way!!! literally begging the rwby fandom to start listening to the actual words the characters say)

ahem. the jaundice arc lays so much of the groundwork for jaune’s and ruby’s character arcs reaching all the way to v9 and undoubtedly beyond; it sets up the first pieces of the ozlem fractal; it foreshadows the white fang arc and sets up blake’s character arc of self-reclamation and figuring out how she wants to use her voice as an activist; it draws attention to the misogynistic cultural norms that define and are defined by the history between ozma and salem; it lays the foundation for the scene in v2 where ozpin questions blake, which hits the way it does because we have the context of anti-faunus harassment occurring openly at ozpin’s school and nobody doing anything about it, and by extension is the first stroke of the salem-faunus connection that is almost certainly the keystone holding the entire narrative together because it is her relation to the faunus that provides the key to decipher the lost fable.

the jaundice arc is a crucial load-bearing pillar that supports the entire narrative and people revile it because nobody in this fandom can be fucking normal about jaune. lmao

[massivementalitynut]

My Ever After comm of Adam from @zestivivi

[cinderflower]

Impromptu MalMiq Week Day 1 - Warmth 🦋

[aardcinder-dragons]

Happy Mistral Jamboree! I decided to draw one of my spirals, Asterope (https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/96778250).