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ts1989fanatic · 2 years

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Taylor Swift’s 50 Best Songs, Ranked

By Chris Willman

Taylor Swift

“I’m doing good, I’m on some new shit,” Taylor Swift softly declared at the outset of “Folklore,” and truer sentiments are never constantly spoken than in the case of the woman who somehow manages to the best and most prolific songwriter in pop. Consider that, just since the last time she went on tour, Swift has released six albums, four of which were all-new, two of which dug into her vaults and proved she’s even more of a constant song fount than we knew. New shit is her brand — maybe her compulsion, too — and definitely our pleasure.

So sometimes it takes a special occasion to tear yourself away from the chronic relistenability of a “Midnights” to ask yourself: What do “Speak Now,” “1989,” “Reputation,” et al. have to say to me today? Fortunately, we have such an occasion — Swift’s birthday, as the star turns 33 on Dec. 13. It’s a good, celebratory time to try to pull out a best songs list. Sure, it would have been appropriate and maybe even lucky to come up with a 13-song list, or even 33 songs, in honor of her spot on the mortal odometer. But given her catalog of 225-plus songs, even cutting a best list down to 50 is a tough task, so that ended up being where we drew the line.

If your favorite Swift song is missing from this highly subjective, critical 50-best list, rest assured that it’s probably in our unspoken 51st or 52nd slot. And know that on any given day, the winds might have blown differently and we might even have put “Shake It Off” or “Love Story” on the list. For now, there were just too many brilliant deep cuts to consider to let all the bigger hits hog the top ranks of the canon. And having just named “Midnights” the album of the year, I didn’t think it was too soon to push some cuts from that record onto this “Eras”-spanning list. Are you ready for it? (Boom, boom, boom.)

Tim McGraw

This introductory, career-establishing single certainly counts as a simple pleasure now, against all the more sophisticated writing she’s done since. But its winsomeness still speaks to how we experience music as not just a soundtrack to life events but a spiritual partnership with them. The genius of it was in a concept that hadn’t been tried much before — establishing that a couple might not just have “our song” but “our artist.” And in making Tim McGraw the guy, thank God she chose someone whose name and stature have aged well. We wouldn’t have quite the nostalgic affection that we do for this 2006 single if the teen lovers had bonded over Big & Rich.

You're on Your Own, Kid

In case there was any doubt that it’s unresolved childhood loneliness and rejection that make the greatest breeding ground for uber-driven superstars, Swift clears it all up for us by effectively conceding as much in this childhood origin story for her ambition and independence. It’s somehow more affecting for how matter-of-factly she presents these subdued moments of almost steely self-realization. (Later in the “Midnights” album, she revisited basically the same subject in a passing aside in the closing “Mastermind”; it almost felt like one of those moments in the theater where you get a quick reprise of an earlier key theme.)

Enchanted

Swift takes a backstage introduction to an indie-pop dude she had a crush on and turns it into something that feels like an epic moment at a royal ball. Even if you are a less than A-level romantic, you may still find something enduringly swoony about the way she frames something that feels like classic love at first sight (even if in practicality it’s check-his-socials-later-to-see-if-he’s-claimed at first sight). She probably forgot about the guy the next day, but she got a hell of a testament to the magic of instantaneous infatuation out of it. (And a fragrance.)

Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince

Swift has been surprisingly unafraid to boldly speak out about political matters in recent years, after being criticized for staying quiet in her early career. (Of course the blowback from going vocal has amounted to many times the crap she ever took for keeping her mouth shut.) She still hasn’t gotten topical too often in song itself, but a major exception came in the form of “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” which subsequently lent half its name to a documentary about her political coming-out. This “Lover” track is basically a play on the idea that all adult life is just like high school, but now she’s breaking up not with a boy but with the center-right assumptions that had her growing up assuming that America would always stay on the right track. As tends to be the case with lyrics that exist entirely on a metaphorical plane, this isn’t one of her most emotionally connecting tracks. But to hear America’s one-time princess worry that she and the direction of her country may never, ever get back together is affecting.

Lavender Haze

Listening to “Tim McGraw” or “Teardrops” back in the day, how little would anyone have imagined that Swift someday would be decrying “the 1950s shit they want from me” while extolling the sensual benefits of a relationship that just cozily is what it is. “Lavender Haze” kicks off “Midnights” with a groove that’s almost a little too laid back to quite call R&B… although you could probably say that of a lot of the best subtle R&B. It’s Swift locked into a good groove in every possible regard.

'Tis the Damn Season

This list needs a Christmas song, and you know it’s not going to be “Christmas Must Mean Something More,” at least not without a lot more spiked nog. Lucky for everyone’s personalized holiday mixes that Swift did eventually follow up her early Christmas EP many years later with a sentimental one-off (“Christmas Tree Farm”) but also, more significantly, this fairly unsentimental ode to hometown ex sex during the holidays. Like much of the “Evermore”/”Folklore” cycle, we can take this as an act of imagination (i.e., there is no mention of where the paparazzi are going to go while she and her old classmate briefly reignite some embers just for the hell of it). But all the mixed, pragmatic feelings that come up over the course of the song sure feel lived-in. Ho ho sigh.

Teardrops on My Guitar

This is the one that began it all, not on the country side of things, where she was already well-established before her sophomore album came out, but on the MTV side, where many “pop mixes” were to come before she finally “picked a lane,” as she put it. It sounds almost primitive now, but an honestly felt teardrop on an honest instrument never goes out of style. (Many years later, on “My Tears Ricochet,” she would subtly do a kind of sequel to this ballad, with record company executives understood to be replacing the far more benign Drew as the villains of the piece.)

Mad Woman

It’s easy to see a lot of the darker material on “Folklore” through two lenses — that they’re breakup songs, or they’re breakup-with-Big-Machine songs. Either interpretation of “Mad Woman” works, but if this is one of her personal tunes on the album and not one of the character songs, the unusual intensity with which she writes and sings it sure makes it seem like it’s more about a recent business split than some long-ago bad romance she’s dredging up for song fodder. Of course, this interpretation is furthered by just how openly angry she allowed herself to be in her public messages about what went wrong, to the extent she has to know some observers were asking, “Why can’t she just move on?” However you feel about the situation with the sale of the masters, you have to take note of her refusal to take it any less seriously over time. “Every time you call me crazy, it makes me more crazy,” she warns. A scorpion fighting back “strike(s) to kill, and you know I will.” Geez, we’re a long way from slamming screen doors and first or last kisses here — and it’s riveting.

False God

A song about why a relationship that’s escalated for some of the wrong reasons can’t help but feel right when you throw that slinky a groove on it — and throw in something Swift has never employed from her arsenal before: a solo saxophone. When she pulled this out for an especially sexy-sounding second number on an “SNL” appearance, it made fans wish this was a direction she’d explore more in the future. Listen, she’s got time.

Haunted

Every female singer with a little bit of lung power and a big taste for drama should write their own version of an Evanescence song at least once in their career. This heavily orchestrated Goth-rocker from her third album, “Speak Now,” came at the tail end of the era when she still had a touch of girlish shrillness in her voice. She is 100% — no, maybe 1000% — a better singer now than she was then, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel a twinge of quaint nostalgia for the less trained, barely post-adolescent, I-mean-it tones pushing this anguished lament over the top.

...Ready for It?

Yes, we are, or were, as a matter of fact. This “Reputation” opener made for a great introductory number on the 2018 tour of the same name, too. It gets knocked, in some quarters, for Swift having sung the verses in a kind of hip-hop cadence. But that does set up the constantly changing dynamics of the tune, which goes from that into a featherweight-sweet and sexy pre-chorus, before Max Martin and Shellback bring the hammer down again with a recurring synth riff that feels like heavy metal. That cathartic rush is worth the wait of the ellipses.

Soon You'll Get Better

When Swift revealed that she’d enlisted the Dixie Chicks for a collaboration, nearly everyone assumed it’d be a fun lark, like the murder ballad she eventually did with Haim. Instead she murdered everyone’s hearts with “Soon You’ll Get Better,” a song about coming to terms with her mother’s cancer that hit upon many of the stages of grieving… not a death, but an illness that ends the carefree life a family once knew, anyway. This was most people’s “skip” track on the “Lover” album — but surely Swift, most of all, would know that’s no knock against it. Even if you’re blessed not to currently have any loved ones with chronic or incurable illnesses, this is one to necessarily be employed in private.

Daylight (Live From Paris)

As the closing track on the 2019 “Lover” album, “Daylight” didn’t make that much of an impression; it seemed like maybe just one in a series of hopeful denouements to otherwise more dramatic collections, in a tradition with “New Year’s Day” and “Clean” but not as memorable. But the song turned out to be slightly the victim of a rare instance of overly busy balladic production that didn’t do the tune many favors. Stripped of that for a mostly acoustic version that appeared on a live album just before the pandemic, her of-the-moment love song became something more touching, like her one-night-only “Lover” show in the City of Lights really did bring it into the sunshine.

The Last Great American Dynasty

Swift really, really likes women who are viewed as insane. Hard to imagine why, after a few solid years of vilification in the previous decade, right? And so, after she bought a Rhode Island mansion in the mid-2010s, she formed an identification with a famous former owner, wealthy socialite Rebekah Harkness, and decided to tell her story of how she became willfully self-ostracized from her community. There’s a theme running there between that tracks like “Mad Woman,” but also with the older Swift song “The Lucky One,” a portrait of a star who threw it all away and went into happy seclusion. This is a terrific piece of character writing, and though it’s hardly diaristic in the manner of so many other Swift songs, it is possibly telling us that what she aspires to become late in life is a “crazy,” rich and powerful old spinster lady trading dirty looks and derogatory laughs across the fence with the townspeople. (Maybe let’s not mention this to Joe.)

Peace

What do you get from the girl who has everything? Everything but placidity, Swift tells her man in one of the more obviously true-to-life songs from 2020’s “Folklore.” In other words, for as long as she and her beloved are together, putting the phrase “You need to calm down” into action may not be possible. It’s less of a red flag than it might otherwise be, given that we understand it to be about an active celebrity couple. But probably lots of other couples where at least one partner is in a high-stress or high-visibility situation have been able to find themselves in this song, too. It’s a sweet, and just slightly foreboding, acknowledgement from one lover to another that there is some sacrifice involved sometimes in being with someone whose lifestyle, circumstances or even just natural personality type is… a lot.

All You Had to Do Was Stay

Another of her “I asked just one thing of you: to not leave” songs. Having forbidden that one command, like Adam of the garden, he of course banished when he realized his mistake, too late. This could have been a much more conventional song, melodically. But Swift had a dream where all she could utter was the word “stay!,” in an unnaturally high voice — and she worked that effect into the chorus instead of keeping the vocal in a natural register. it’s just another example of a Swift move that feels risky when you first hear it within a song and seems perfectly natural, even inevitable by the third listen. As fun a trick as that is, I’m still struck most of all by the ballsiness of the song… that however desperately she wanted the relationship to continue, once a fellow calls it, there are no takebacks. (That happens a lot in the Swift ouevre.) That’s actually some pretty good role-modeling going on, for her still emotionally impressionable younger fans.

I Knew You Were Trouble

We knew they were trouble, good trouble, when they walked in — Max Martin and Shellback that is, who were charged with updating Swift’s sound for just a handful of tracks on her fourth album, “Red.” Nathan Chapman was still the bigger part of the production picture, doing his part in expertly helming sensitive, wounded classics-to-be like “All Too Well” and “Sad Beautiful Tragic.” But the introduction of the Swedish overlords was a sign that we weren’t in Kansas anymore, or anywhere else where country music is going to rule forever. “I Knew You Were Trouble” was the most radical of the steps forward, throwing something like actual dubstep in for an artist who might have safely stuck closer to dobros. It’s slightly dated but still holds up — there’s almost a kind of musical violence to the electronic chorus, something that sounds like it really should be the soundtrack for a woman throwing herself onto the tile over a bad call with a good looker.

Karma

I’m going to out on a limb and boldly posit this as by far the funniest song Swift has ever written — and yes, despite her reputation for earnestness, there is some competition for that. When “Midnights” came out, there were some humorless scolds who laid into this song’s exaggerated statements of self-satisfaction and cosmic comeuppance as if they were to be taken completely seriously… as if “Karma is a cat / Purring in my lap ’cause it loves me / Flexing like a goddamn acrobat” isn’t some of the best comedy that anybody has written in any recent year. But acknowledging the levity of the writing doesn’t mean that Swift probably isn’t also completely serious, in some ways: The song is a victory lap, or maybe a vindication lap, of sorts when it comes to how mutual fortunes have swung around in certain circumstances. And no doubt she does believe that the arc of history bends toward justice for those with a moral center. Still, the awesomely clever co-production touches of Antonoff on this tune establish it as a soft banger. And it make for a great sequel to “I Forgot You Existed,” in which she contends that fate itself did not forget.

Should've Said No

So many of Swift’s best post-breakup songs, especially in the early parts of her songwriting career, are her just reiterating the obvious to her exes, post-mortem. Like: All you had to do was… stay! All you had to say was… no! Dudes: You had one job.

I Did Something Bad

This is a kind of sequel, in spirit, to “Blank Space.” In that one, she was still playing at being the bad girl, for satire. By the time of “Reputation,” she was doing it not so much for laughs — this is an “I could eff you up, seriously” song. No wonder it was such a highlight of her 2018 tour; the song rocks, and could manhandle a stadium with it as well as handled a single man.

Champagne Problems

A dire but weirdly satisfying fantasy of disruption. On the “Lover” album, with “Paper Rings,” Swift had also engaged — so to speak — in an engagement-ring scenario, but there, it was a joyful exploration of what it would feel like to make promises like paupers who couldn’t afford real rings. This song is the opposite in every conceivable way: The protagonist in her song says no to a proposal that was meant to lead to a big public pronouncement her would-be fiance had already promised his well-to-do family. Ruining everything is terrible and great and terrible again, as the singer imagines everyone saying, “She would’ve made such a lovely bride / What a shame she’s fucked in the head.” Once she would have played this for high musical melodrama, if she’d even have ventured to write a song so much not about herself before. Here, it’s all brilliant detail and delicacy on the way to that effed-up-ever-after ending.

The Man

Swift’s most outright feminist statement could read as polemical, and maybe it counts. But agitprop doesn’t get too much more fun, or too much more indisputably true. “When everyone believes ya —

what’s that like?” asks the woman whose word was automatically assumed to be suspect, as opposed to that of a guy who subsequently proved to be the least reliable narrator the entertainment world has ever seen. But we digress. This one is really an I’m-every-woman anthem, not personal memoir, and she serves her gender well with one you-know-it’s-fact zinger after another. There’s hardly any line she’s ever written that has better wordplay than one of the simplest lines she’s ever written: “If I was a man, then I’d be the man.”

The 1

If there’s any track on “Folklore” that’s been a little bit too slept-on, it might be “The 1,” a humble little masterpiece hiding in plain sight right there as the opening track. Why does this not get more love? Maybe it’s because of its very unassuming nature, which is actually makes it great and an essential part of the Swift canon. Lord knows she has given fans dozens of songs in which love is understood as an urgent matter of life and death. Here, it’s like, “Eh — would have been nice to have seen that one through to the end to see how it turned out, but no biggie.” That might be one of the ultimate signs of maturity in her writing, that the woman who made wuthering heights her lyrical brand can also sweetly say “c’est la vie” and make that work for a terrific song, too. Except, maybe the woman doth not protest enough — there��s a touch of melancholy in the unusual chord changes that she or Aaron Dessner built into the track that let you know the wistfulness runs deeper than the acceptance. Meanwhile, I suspect there’s a musical joke embedded in the title, which is written as a numeral, the way a musician would render it, versus “the one.” At the end of the chorus, the word “one” begins on the last note of one bar and slides over to the next, where it lands on… you know it, the 1. It’s like an additional subliminal tip-off that the guy that got away both wasn’t and was the one.

Invisible String

The greatest of all of Swift’s blatantly autobiographical and adoring love songs — admittedly a small subset of her overall work, given her penchant for drama, but there is some strong competition there. Not always one to look for the supernatural in things, Swift does use this exquisitely plucked acoustic track to wonder if there might be some serendipity in the air, tying things together with a divine smile. The lyrics here felt so baldly true to life that you knew even before you Googled it that her significant other of many years will turn out to have toiled in a blue shirt in a yogurt shop, or that one of her celebrity exes did in fact have a newborn infant that would have precipitated a gift from her. So much specificity for one sweet ditty, but again, with a chorus easily adapted by any young lovers who also see their paths as intwined by something spookier than chance.

This Is Me Trying

Swift has never sounded so exhausted as she does on this track… which is part of its novel appeal, and sense of a different kind of honesty, since tiredness is not her natural state. Normally, “depleted-sounding” would not be the highest compliment we could pay a song, but this one is different. It’s the sound of someone standing in a doorway, maybe for the rest of time, asking for one more chance with a last bit of willpower they can’t quite physically manifest. As down-tempo as it is, it’s also kind of an anthem of hope… and, in its anti-assuming fashion, a total, flat-out earworm.

Out of the Woods

How many stitches did he get, Taylor? Twenty, was it? One reason her more autobiographical songs hold such power is her constant inclination to provide small details — eye color, necklace shapes, astrological signs, clothing items street names or, yes, numbers of stitches — while leaving fans to do guesswork, be it educated or fanciful, over just what kind of bigger picture these brushstrokes enhance. With “Out of the Woods,” one of the most talked-about tracks from “1989,” it’s really enough to know what the emotional tenor of the scenario is, and not who she spent a night in the emergency room with. If you can set some of those precise details on the back burner, you can experience it as a song about a relationship that’s come to some sort of reasonable plateau but isn’t really out of the woods yet. The telling way in the choruses that she keeps answering “good!” to every repetition of the “Are we in the clear yet?” question lets you know that this is a protagonist who constantly has to talk herself into believing that everything’s fine. The snowmobile emerged but she’s spending the whole lyric back in the trees.

Illicit Affairs

This reads like one of the many works of fiction that Swift embarked upon with the “Folklore” album. At least, it’s hard to imagine that, even if she wanted to, a superstar is probably able to have the guilt-wracked “clandestine meetings” described in this deep dive into the morality and petty details of adultery. Yet Swift sure must have done some research with friends — or just has that vivid a literary imagination — to come up with absorbing details like “Leave the perfume on the shelf

that you picked out just for him / So you leave no trace behind” and “Tell your friends you’re out for a run / You’ll be flushed when you return.” Like, damn, girl. But this brilliantly written song isn’t just a list of 50 ways to meet your lover. There’s a real sense of panic, desire and self-loathing in verses describing an affair as “a dwindling, mercurial high — a drug that only worked the first few hundred times” and despairing: “You taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else.” In just a few minutes, Swift has written a whole movie’s worth of insight about cheating. It certainly ought to give you faith in what she could pull off as an actual screenwriter.

Cowboy Like Me

Swift used to count as a country star in her early days, but never really indulged in what we’d call “country-rock.” She did a little bit, though, in dribs and drabs on the “Folklore” and “Evermore” albums, where the laconic quality of a few of Aaron Dessner’s in particular lent itself to something that felt a little like the laid-back early ’70s style. One of the more obviously fictional narratives she was trying out, “Cowboy Like Me” has her as an unsentimental grifter in some unnamed resort area — I’m picturing Montana — who meets and falls for someone in the same shady line of non-work. It’s good that Taylor doesn’t really believe that “forever is the sweetest con,” and good that she’s stretched out to the kind of writing where she can create a character to say it.

Back to December

After her second album, “Fearless,” Swift had an album of the year Grammy but also a reputation as someone who only wrote vindictive songs about ex-boyfriends. (There are people who still believe this, to this day. You should not have these people as your friends.) So it was the beginning of a correction in the popular mindset when, for her third album, “Speak Now,” she made a point of writing a song for an ex-boyfriend in which she took credit for what went wrong and expressed apologies and regrets — normal human actions, in other words, for someone who was not the narcissistic teen wraith some of the culture had set out to make her. All image adjustment concerns aside… damn, this is still just a lovely song, isn’t it?

Marjorie

If your tear ducts can withstand this bold line of attack from a song about Swift’s late grandmother, you’re made of more stoic stuff than most of the rest of us. (Maybe you’re a good candidate to go join the grifters in that other “Evermore” track, “Cowboy Like Me.”) For me, it was the receipts that finally got me — that is, the part where she’s singing, “I should’ve asked you how to be / Asked you to write it down for me / Should’ve kept every grocery store receipt / ‘Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me.” Any kid who ever took for granted that a cherished elder would always be around has been there, but the specificity of just how tiny a remnant she’d settle for is heart-rending. And it’s hard to imagine anything to melt your already-rended heart more than Swift pulling out the stops to actually include an audio excerpt of her grandmother’s operatic singing for a ghostly coda. This has been your pool (as in, puddle on the floor) reporter.

Cruel Summer

No amazing amount of depth to this one — it’s just pure cotton candy, with a little emotional fiber sprinkled around the edges. Her fandom is in near-universal agreement that this should have been a single to accompany her planned “LoverFest” tour of 2019, but that summer turned out to be crueler than anyone imagined, so it was a smash only in an alternate reality. The kind of Vocoder part in the call-and-response verses suggests this bop has an origin point somewhere in the ELO era, and of course it’s hard not to think of Banamarama, who were also cruelty-tested once upon a time. But this was all late-2010s in all its glory, before that glory got masked up.

Mastermind

The premise of the closing song of “Midnights” sounds almost megalomaniacal, when you read it on paper, and maybe even when you’re first hearing the brashness of the lyric. Swift sings that, as a not-so-evil genius, she pre-engineered every aspect of coming together with the partner with whom she now shares a deep, fulfilling relationship. It’s a statement of near-omnipotence you usually only find in pop songs with darker leanings. To an extent, we have to understand that she’s exaggerating, for effect, about these apparent superpowers of hers. And yet the end intent of the song is deeply serious: She’s explaining that women historically have to go to extreme lengths to be the steerer in relationships that controlling men typically screw up. There’s also a whole backstory about the childhood slights that led her to develop these powers to manipulate for good. This leads to one of the greatest lines in all of Swift-dom: “I swear, I’m only cryptic and Machiavellian ’cause I care.” Is she kidding with that lyric? At least a little, I’m sure. Is she dead-serious, too? Undoubtedly. Suffice it to say that entire thesis papers will be written just about this one audacious track.

The Way I Loved You

Back in the “Fearless” days, we occasionally got Taylor Swift, the rock singer. (Arguably, we still have her, just without the rock arrangements.) The prime example was this track that pitted the polite guy who does everything right, who inspires no passion at all, versus the apparent scoundrel she was forced to leave behind, who made her want to stand in monsoons. Rock ‘n’ roll was played as a character trait for Mr. Passion, versus the string quartet on the verses that represented Mr. Right. Hearing those slamming guitars kind of fade in, the way they occasionally do on hits like “I Touch Myself,” was a nice way to alert the listener there’s a storm coming. However exaggerated the differences in this triangle might have been, it was only album 2 and Swift was already wanting to signal she wasn’t completely the Nice Girl portrayed on album 1.

Cardigan

It got a little confusing, for non-hardcore Swifties, trying to figure out which characters in which “Folklore” songs were which, after she revealed some of them recurred and had payoffs from one tune to another. Does the couple that shares a sweter together stay together? Did they come back together years later, as the pining outro strongly suggests? What we can say for sure is that Taylor Swift firmly cemented what Mister Rogers first promised: the cardigan as a signifier that everything is going to be all right.

Fearless

So much of the “Fearless” album came to be about the bracingly candid breakup songs, or embracing the fairy tale, in “Love Story,” and rejecting it, in “White Horse” (and “Fifteen,” for that matter). That was more than enough grist to get Swift the first of her three album of the year Grammy wins, while she was still a teenager. But amid all that high romance and higher drama, there’s something at least as enduring about the simpler ambitions of the title song, which just speaks — via a typically great melodic line — to being unafraid. It was followed by a career that’s embraced what the song promised at pretty much every moment.

Lover

One thing that Swift didn’t have a lot of in her catalog: 6/8 waltzes. Situation rectified! It’s a wedding song for people who don’t intend, right away at least, to get married — there’s even a fakeout wedding scene in the middle of the song that ends with them vowing in front of God and onlookers to be, well, lovers — but anyone who wants to use it for actual nuptials probably gets a pass. It’s just universal enough to get that kind of usage in American customs and rituals, but you have to savor the bits that are pure Swift, whether it’s the guitar-string scars on her fingers or her custom-made vow: “Swear to be overdramatic and true.” Wait, is it her entire public she’s pretend-marrying, as well as this guy?

Dear John

At 6 minutes and 44 seconds, it’s still the longest song she’s released that doesn’t actually announce its running time in the title. And as a slow burn, it ends every second of the anger, sorrow, shame, lashing out and self-reclamation it unleashes. “Dear John,” about a character that the title does not leave too much cryptic mystery about, details the worst night she ever had that involved someone showing up for her party instead of missing it. At the time, it felt jolting well beyond expectation, that after the kiss-off experiences detailed in her previous album, she’d moved on to unabashedly detail what she considered a far more damaging experience. In retrospect, it doesn’t play as quite as musically furious a ballad as it seemed at the time, but it still packs a hell of a punch. And she still means it: One of the bonus tracks on the “Midnights” album, “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” is clearly intended as a 12-years-later sequel, with certain numerological connotations that give her meaning away even if the lyrics didn’t. In Swift land, there are certain things you never get over — a curse, but for the purposes of art, also a blessing.

Blank Space

This is not necessarily the song you want to go back to constantly for pleasure now, but what a pleasure it was in 2016 when Swift used it to explode her own mythos, in one of the great power moves of modern pop. Her goal, she said, was to take every terrible trope that was being spread about her (hey, didja hear she was a serial dater?) and own it in a prideful anthem of ill will. And she did it magnificently, playing her public like a violin, including the ones who mostly got it and even the smaller portion that was left puzzled by her pop variant on country music’s classic “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad.” The satire was broad, but effective. Unfortunately, looking at the generation of influencers that’s arisen since, it’s not clear that some of them didn’t just take this spoof as a how-to manual.

Our Song

The finest song from Swift’s first album is an idyllic vision of an America where screen doors slam behind happy families and innocent teen lovers, who keep their late-night phone calls on the down-low “’cause it’s late, and your mama don’t know.” Imagine such a wonderful place exists — it’s easy if you try. Yes, it’s a song of puppy love, but maybe more importantly, it’s a Taylor Swift origin story. The premise of the lyric is that the developing couple, who are working up the courage to kiss, does not have “their song” yet. (They may have their artist, Tim McGraw, but that’s different, right?) So the tune ends with her sitting down to put pen to paper to write one, instead of passively waiting for something suitable to come up on the radio they can adopt. Mostly, you’ve probably thought of this as a frilly crush song — and it’s a great one of those, too — but what it really is first and foremost, right under our noses, is a declaration of young female artistic agency.

Mean

Surely you know the story behind this, among the greatest of all “answer” songs. Girl meets industry blogger boy; industry blogger professes admiration until her somewhat off-key performance at the Grammys causes him to spontaneously declare girl’s career completely over; girl writes song pushing back on that, landing a triple-platinum single with her response. And she does it with a pointed return to country music, something she had already effectively moved past in everything but name by the “Speak Now” album, singing in a childlike tone that made her sound like a little hillbilly David, taking on an influencer Goliath. Probably not many of those millions of fans paid close attention to the exact background to the lyrics. But apart from the “I can’t sing” bridge, this song was applicable to anyone who’s ever felt bullied in life, by a classmate, boss, family member, etc. It’s too bad it predated the social media explosion, by a little: “Mean” is really the Twitter National Anthem.

Gold Rush

Listening to the “Folklore” album, you could jump to assume that “Gold Rush,” like some of the other songs, is character writing. Otherwise, why would Swift be coming up with a song about someone who’s even prettier than she is, whose sheer charm takes up all the oxygen in a room — something that can’t be happening a lot to one of the most sought-after pop superstars in the world? Unless there was a romantic partner in her past who actually fit that bill… someone whose “hair (was) falling into place like dominos”… It all starts to make sense. But even if you don’t read that far into it, it’s a phenomenal song about the price being paid for being around that kind of charisma being too high to pay, whoever the charmer might be.

Anti Hero

When “Midnights” first came out, with none of the songs pre-issued to the public, if you weren’t paying attention to video premieres or that sort of splash, you might have taken “Anti Hero” as one of the odder songs on the album, not a sure out-of-the-box hit. But in Swift land, slightly weird works. Even the initial minor controversy over the “sexy baby” line — is it cribbed from “50 Rock,” or is it infantilization — abated, as almost everyone took it for as funny as it was, in the course of a verse where Swift is imagining herself as a feared and hated monster who’s going to be taken down. It’s a song about self-loathing, as she described it, and imposter syndrome, and clinical or unclinical depression… and wouldn’t you know, it’s also a deeply funny bop. That we can have such a bizarre amalgam at the top of the Hot 100 for weeks on end proves that, thanks to Swift being able to sell something this idiosyncratic, these are strange and wonderful times.

Right Where You Left Me

This is not the first time Swift relegated one of an album’s better numbers to bonus-track status, although she usually makes the right editing decisions. But “Right Where You Left Me” is another case entirely from, say, even “New Romantics”: The “Evermore” deluxe-edition also-ran is flatly one of her best and most dramatic songs, period. As a song about not being able to let go of an obsession with a deceased relationship, it’s pretty close to being up there with “All Too Well,” even if the fact that it’s written mostly in metaphor lands it in slightly more intellectualized territory than that other favorite.

Playing the role of someone presumably other than herself for this one, Swift describes in calm, cool, clipped sentences how she was dumped by a beau at a dinner meeting, and then simply never got up from the table, herself; she’s been frozen in place there, a ghost, for years. (Lucky or unlucky for her, not a high table turnover rate at this place.) If you are obsessive enough by nature to have become obsessed with the obsession in “All Too Well” — show of hands? — then you’ll probably have lived “Right Where You Left Me” at some point in your life. Swift’s talky verses suggest the cadences of somebody who really has been only talking to herself for too long, and collaborator Aaron Dessner is a perfect foil in creating a tense, slow build toward a big chill. A bit of sad, distorted guitar at the end sounds like it might be being piped in from the alternate dimension the protagonist is slowly sinking into.

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Swift has plenty of superior instances across her many records of breakups that sound like the end of the world. But she doesn’t have many of them that sound like a party. “We Are Never…” is the best bacchanal in her catalog. I’m not sure I want to join the exact celebration that is happening in her music video for the song, because furries are scary. But the way Max Martin and Shellback stacked her vocals on this fizzy delight of a song clearly aurally indicate that Swift is capable of having a freedom soiree all by herself. Everything here clicks into place for a start-to-finish perfect pop song, from the peculiar stop-and-start opening guitar riff to the cheerleader-style chant that makes the chorus one of the great modern pop sing-alongs. Even all the indie bands whose records her ex thought were much cooler than her love this song. And, of course, embedding a voice memo late in the track, one in which Swift seems to be spontaneously describing a recent split with language that will make its way into the song title, is just a hilarious power move.

Clean

A sense of recovery from trauma figures into a number of Swift’s songs, most of all this “1989” closer that represented a one-time co-write with indie artist Imogene Heap. The word “clean” is used with two different meanings here, although pretty much toward a common end. It’s clean as in the feeling of taking a prolonged shower after the accumulated grime of a sucky relationship… or as in getting clean, kicking an addition to toxic love. Either way, there’s been some bad juju at play, and somebody — Nurse Heap, maybe? — is helping take the curse off. What prompted Swift to co-write this calming, cathartic ballad is probably nobody’s business, but a lot of listeners have brought their own ugly experiences or addictive experiences to bear in appreciating this bath-salt ballad.

Mirrorball

“I’ll be your mirror,” the Velvet Underground once sang; this is Swift following up with: “Let me count the ways.” The Antonoff-cowritten “Folklore” track really does qualify as “shimmering,” for lack of a less obvious word. But deceptively so — Swift obviously doesn’t mean to suggest that serving as a pure reflector to the world’s varying wants and needs is a healthy thing, even though she sounds awfully darn pliant about the prospect within the confines of the magical music. This one has been compared to the Sundays and other prettily guitar-based indie-pop groups of yore, with a lulling electric guitar and a missing drumbeat you keep expecting to kick the song further into gear at any moment, in vain. It’s all so lovely — the funny thing is, in coming up with a song about being a people-pleaser, she came up with one of her most legitimately ear-pleasing tunes.

Style

Swift’s partner in this deeply sexy track is cosplaying as James Dean, at least in her mind, and she’s cosplaying as… Taylor Swift? Thee’s no duet part to let his hear point of view, but she does attest that he likes her “good girl faith and a tight little skirt,” and there’s no reason to believe she’s misreporting what turns the guy on. Honestly, Swift has never written a less deep song, and depth has never mattered so little, either. Max Martin and Shellback put some of their computer programming instincts aside to start this off with an R&B electric guitar riff that immediately sucks you in. And once the kind of light-disco-martial beat kicks in, the track feels like taking an open-top drive around Miami with Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, only they’re a horny hetero cis couple.

Getaway Car

Swift was playing with a lot of fresh tricks on her “Reputation” album, and well, from some hip-hop styled phrasing on her part to some harsher electronic sounds being brought in by Max Martin and Shellback, making their final appearance to date on a Swift album. But with her other go-to collaborator of the time, Jack Antonoff, Swift crafted the song that is the most conventional-sounding track on the album, and also ultimately the best: “Getaway Car.” While much of the rest of the album flits back and forth between a defensive posture against public perceptions and an embrace of secret love, “Getaway Car” is something else altogether: an open letter of intent to move on, sung by a Bonnie who’s about to ditch her Clyde, with no particular shame or guilt attached to her leavin’ feelings.

In some ways this might be the most hard-ass song Swift ever wrote — it’s pretty close to a taunt, to a soon-to-be ex. She’s describing the dynamic of how sometimes you need a fresh flirtation to pull you out of a failing relationship, and how that can take on serial form: “Don’t pretend it’s such a mystery / Think about the place where you first met me / Ridin’ in a getaway car,” she tells the possibly uncomprehending fellow. This is an uptempo track with a lot of fun to how it plays, but the haunting quality of the chorus melody makes it feel profoundly sad, too, like she’s not as tough as she sounds, describing an escape pattern that’s just destined to be repeated by her and others over and over. Anyway, if you were to read this as literally about her past, it’s something that the public record shows she’s clearly moved on from. The happy ending is inherent, leaving us this strangely wonderful combination of arena-rock and hardboiled, fatalist noir to enjoy as one of her most fascinating tracks.

All Too Well (10-Minute Version)

In its original, truncated form on the “Red” album, “All Too Well” already felt a fluid narrative, but stretched out to more than twice its length for a “Taylor’s Version” remake, its details and remembrances transcend any sense of linear narrative. The song’s story feels almost like a “Groundhog Day” of meditative pain in which the story will never end because the couple will just never stop breaking up, in her mind. (Well, it might end if the sister ever returned the damn scarf, but by this point she don’t need their closure.) It becomes almost like a chant, even more soothing than it is bitter.

Having effectively talked Swift into recording a 10-minute draft of the song with their longstanding, cult-like devotion to the tune, Swifties need to take it to the next level. You know there have got to be another 10 minutes’ worth of rough verses to “All Too Well” in a drawer somewhere. We need the full-on Gregorian experience of this song, right? It’s time to petition for “All Too Well (20-Minute Version).” (Could you even imagine the explosion of joy?)

You Belong With Me

It’s as eternally teenaged as anything Swift ever wrote, but that’s no reason to have to grow out of it. Adult life is full of nothing if not many equivalents to high-school friend-zoning. Who among us eer stops wishing we’d be seen for our true selves by the guy who can’t take his eyes off the cheer captain, whether for us that’s the boss, peers, a distracted spouse or a seemingly indifferent deity? To the end, we beat on — boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the bleachers!

But seriously, has there been anything more monstrously hooky than this in the succeeding decade and a half? Even the parts of the song that seem like they shouldn’t work — like the way that Swift adds extra, melodically odd lines to the second verse (“What you doing with a girl like that?” What you doing singing in a key like that?) — only masterfully set up the return to the chorus to end all 21st century anthemic choruses. It is all of human yearning and striving packed into a song about remembering to take your specs off so the kid next door realizes you’re a cutie.

ts1989fanatic don’t necessarily agree with the order of his top 50 especially his numbers 1 and 2 they should really be reversed in my opinion. I can agree with his write ups on his track list.

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loving-all-for-loki · 3 years

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i really love your writing sm. could I maybe request something with Loki and reader being slow to realize that the feeling is mutual? if you dont mind <3

A/N: Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoy my writing, that makes me very happy to hear. I tried my best with this, I wasn’t really sure how to go about it, but I think I did a fun little twist to it. The italics are flashbacks. ALSO, you don’t need to know the song “Stuck In The Middle” to read this, but it will make this fic a little bit cuter if you do, so go stream it! It’s by Tai Verdes (actually just go listen to his whole album TV). I hope you enjoy this, nonnie.

Stuck In The Middle

Loki x reader

Word count: 2255

Warnings: fluff, maybe swearing I don't remember lol

Tony decided to throw another one of his giant parties, but no one is really sure why. There’s no holiday, no accomplishment to celebrate. All you know is that the tower is filled to the brim with high named people and well rounded faces. Music is blaring as people lounge around drinking or casually dancing. The Avengers are all around, scattered among the faces.

You on the other hand are leaning against a wall drinking some pop and trying to ignore the creepy men that hit on you. Parties are fine, you don’t mind them, but you don't go around gloating about your business or accomplishments. You watch Tony walk around getting praised by millionaires and celebrities with a smirk on your face. Shaking your head, you look down and give your glass of water more attention than the people.

“You really should get out there.”

Steve stands next to you with his little suit on that makes you laugh. You’re not used to seeing him all dressed up.

“I’m not a boaster. I’ll dance here and there, but conversation isn’t my forte.”

“You're having a conversation with me, so what does that say?” He laughs.

“I don’t need your technicalities, Cap,” you laugh as well.

“You don’t even have to talk to people you don’t know. We’re all here.”

“Fair enough.”

“Do you want me to stay here with you?”

“No, Steve. Go have fun.”

He smiles at you before returning to his seat at the bar by Bucky and Sam. You smile at the three of them. You do truly love your friends, even if they bother you during alone time.

“Why would you enjoy them if they bother you?”

“Loki, stop reading my mind.”

“I can’t. You’re quite loud,” he jokes.

You roll your eyes as you take another sip of your water.

“Do you not like these grand parties?” He asks.

“Eh, I don’t mind them. Just not a bragger.”

“Ah, yes. One night dedicated to gloating about your own accomplishments while putting down others.”

“No, that’s the Oscars,” you joke.

“Who is Oscar?”

“Never mind. Why you go out and dance? I bet you have some moves.”

“Not without a partner. I’m more of a partner dancer.”

“Well, there’s plenty of pretty girls around you to ask to dance.”

“Why dance with a pretty girl when I have the most beautiful one right here leaning against a wall and ignoring everyone? That’s more my style.”

“Loki, I’m flatter,” you laugh, “is this your way of asking me to dance?”

“Possibly. Thor has been bugging me to ‘get out there’ and I don’t like anyone here beside you.”

“Such a gentleman.”

Loki rolls his eyes as he takes your hand in his and leads you to the dance floor. The song changes into a fun chill song you recognize as “Stuck In The Middle”. You and Loki dance together as the two of you laugh. At some point, he pulls you into him, holding him at your chest.

“Remember when we first met?” He asks.

“Yeah, I do. You were arguing with Tony and Thor.”

“I want to return to Asgard and I will no matter what you say.”

“You’re a war criminal serving time here for your attacks. If you even attempted to go back, the American army would shoot you down.”

“And good luck to them.”

“My brother is a god, Man of Iron, do not forget.”

“Shut it, point break. You can try to leave if you want to die.”

Loki scoffs at Tony’s threat. As he goes to open his mouth, he sees a girl wander into the living area and scour the kitchen. The three watch her in silent and she opens every cabinet. Loki is curious by the girl with her long black hair and sweats on, clearing not caring about the argument happening. She finally turns around with her mouth filled with pretzels from shoving them in. She looks at the two gods and Tony with a wide eyed look, clearly asking “what” in her face and shrugging.

“Am I interrupting something?” She asks after swallowing.

Tony laughs and shakes his head, walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

“You’re fine, sweetheart. We’re just having a disagreement. Go enjoy your pretzels,” Tony chuckles.

Loki watches the way she submits to Tony and follows his lead, wondering who she is and why she listens to Tony without hesitation.

“I was so intrigued by you, this small little thing who looked so full of life. What happened to her?”

You laugh hard, “You got to know me, that’s what.”

Loki hadn’t seen the innocent girl in two weeks, wondering if she was even real. There had been some kind of glow to her so had he known better, he’d say she’s an angel.

Loki decided to coop himself up in the library while he was stuck on Midgard. Since he was stuck here, he thought he’d at least spend time doing something enjoyable. He’d spend hours in there until he had read every book and started to reread them. Then, as if the universe had heard him, the innocent girl had returned, putting a book away and getting a new one. She immediately walked out of the room and down to the tower’s elevator. Without hesitation, Loki got up and followed her at a quick pace, wanting to get in the elevator at the same time. As he walked in, they stood in silence next to each other and Loki realized he had no plan.

“I’m Loki. I don’t think we properly met.”

“Y/N.”

Loki feels his heart pound as she speaks to him with her heavenly tone. She sounds exactly like he thought she’d sound. It fits her so perfectly and he wants nothing more than to listen to her talk all day.

“I apologize for anything you heard the other day. Stark and I don’t see eye to eye.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she laughs, “He can strike a nerve sometimes.”

“That is an understatement,” Loki says, losing himself in his anger towards the billionaire.

You laugh at his comment which eases his anger. Loki is filled with joy knowing you find humor in his words, learning you’re not as stuck up as the other Midgardians.

“You read?”

“Yes, I love to.”

“What’s your favorite book?”

“Sense and Sensibility.”

“I don’t think I know that one.”

“It’s a Midgardian classic,” you say with some snark.

“I’ll have to read it. May I ask what you are doing for the rest of the day?”

The elevator opens and the two of you walk off, Loki still following you with awe.

“I’m going to spar with Steve for a little bit. You can join if you want.”

“I will not participate, but will not refuse to be of company.”

You smile at him as you walk towards the training room. Steve stands there getting ready and is surprised to see the stoic god behind you.

“Is he joining?”

“Just to watch.”

Loki sits down on the bench and leaves you to get changed and stretch. He can’t comprehend how something as sweet as you can be so willing to fight one of the super soldiers. He can’t even lie that he’s scared for you, but he’s soon proven wrong in seconds as you knock Steve down to the ground in a sweet kick. You and the super soldier go at it and you prove to be a worthy match for Steve. Loki is shocked by your swiftness and strength, clearly underestimating you.

“Well, I’m impressed.”

“I didn’t expect you to be as tough as you are.” “Wow, you underestimated me. I’m hurt, Loki,” you tease.

“I’ve learned to expect the unexpected with you.”

“How so?”

“I think we all remember your silly holiday ‘April fools’.”

April fools is one of your favorite holidays and now that the trickster god is living with you, all of the avengers are on high alert all day. No one realized he didn’t know about the special day, so Loki wondered why everyone seemed to ignore him more than usual. He walked into the living space to see you sitting on the couch with another book.

“Did I do something?” He asks.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m aware I’m not well liked, but it seems that I haven’t seen anyone all day except for you right now.”

“It’s because its’ April fools and they’re scared of you.”

A little ping of pride hits Loki.

“They’re scared of me? And what is April fools?”

“It’s a dumb holiday here where you prank people and they’re worried you’re going to pull something. After all, you are you.”

“You have a whole day dedicated to messing with people?”

“Yeah, usually it’s something simple like telling people you’re pregnant when you’re not or tying the spray nozzle on the sink together so everyone gets wet when they use it. Other people go big which is what they expected from you.”

“That doesn’t shock me,” he laughs.

“Yeah, I wanted to prank them, but I think they’ve left the building entirely.”

“You say we have the tower to the two of us?” Loki can think of a couple ways he’d spend alone time with you, but the idea of messing with the Avengers with your help is too tempting. He’ll have to put his other ideas to the side for the moment. “We can still do something.”

“Like what?”

“I’m not sure, but you could think of something, I’m sure.”

“We could glue everything down so you can use anything?”

“Like stick the together?”

“Exactly, but we could use your magic so we could reverse it later.”

“I like how you think.”

About two hours later, the Avengers return from wherever they had been throughout the day and run to their rooms to avoid Loki. As soon as they noticed the two of you relaxing on the couch, they tensed up and sprinted. You pretended to not have told Loki about anything and watched them get nervous, trying to hide your amusement.

It’s only minutes later when they all run back in yelling at you about how they can’t pick anything up or open drawers. Loki looks over to you among the chaos and smiles, seeing the wide proud smile across your face.

“That was a lot of fun. You surprised me in the past though, too.”

“Whatever do you mean?” He laughs.

You had gotten hurt on a mission and found yourself with a broken arm. Every day activities became 10x harder because you have to do it with your non-dominant hand and it’s started to get annoying. You’ve been attempting to make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for about 25 minutes now. Loki walked in to see you struggling with peanut butter all over your hand and a glob on the bread. There’s a giant tear in the middle of the piece you’re spreading it on and a frown on your face.

“You look like you’re struggling.”

“Thank you, captain obvious!” You exclaim in an angry tone, glaring daggers at the god.

“Do you need some help?”

“I would love some because clearly, I’m having some difficulty.”

Loki comes over and helps you finish making your sandwich. You sit down to eat but because of your bad mood, you don’t even want it now. Loki notices your distress and shakes it head, waving his hand by.

“You’re healed, now eat your sandwich.”

You look at him in confusion until you realize your arm doesn’t hurt as much when you move it. You rip off your cast and feel around to feel how your arm is completely healed.

“Thank you!”

“You can be very sweet sometimes.”

“Don’t let Stark hear that, he’ll think I have mind controlled you.”

The Avengers all sit around the bar and watch you and Loki dance. They have a big smile on their face as they see you two have fun, laughing and talking. Thor has never seen his brother look so relaxed and joyful before, it’s refreshing to see him happy. Steve and Tony don’t miss the way you look at Loki, it’s filled with more love than any friends would look at each with.

“You think there’s more there?” Thor asks.

Steve and Tony turn to look at him with confused yet amused faces. “Thor, you really are an idiot,” Tony laughs.

The song comes up to the last chorus and you and Loki have stopped talking. He swings you around and holds his body next to yours. The music get’s both of your attention.

Cause we’re stuck in the middle of lover and friends

And we’re losing every part of the benefits

You’ve hurt me more than I ever knew

But it’s shitty because I’m doing the same to you

As the lyrics set in, you remember all the things Loki has done for you. Making your PB&J, recommending books, keeping you company when the Avengers are away, dancing with you at New Years parties, giving you a hug when you return from missions, and not leaving your side when you’re hurt. Loki thinks of all the things that made you bearable. Your sense of humor, the smile on your face when you see him, the way you’ll reread books you love, the way you make fun of others with him, and how you defend him when they make fun of him.

“I think I like you,” you both say.

#loki fluff #loki fanfic #loki fan fiction #loki x reader #loki laufeyson #loki #loki x reader fluff #loki layfeyson x reader #loki oneshot #marvel x reader

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fa-by · 3 years

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Hi, Faby I'm finally free of homework. I loved your theory on all these years. I laughed at the memes. many CS say we have a version of Camila with all these years, but we don't have a similar version of Lauren but at the time that Camila and Lauren weren't together (after Camila left the group) Lauren kept thinking about Camila because she kept writing songs based on her relationship with Camila like all night. Can you make a song analysis of all night?

Hello to you, dear @camilalauren0327 👋🏼😄 I'm glad you're free from your homework 💪🏼 I'm also glad that you loved my interpretation and that you laughed at the GIFs.

So. About All Night, I can tell you it's track n° 11 of Steve Aoki's Neon Future IIIalbum. Both Laur and Steve loved the time spent together in the studio, and Steve totally loved working with her: “She’s got so many ideas and the problem is, they’re all good. She’s very meticulous. The attention to detail Lauren has is something I don’t find in many people. She’s very attentive to the detail. She’s got those ears, she’s got the sensibility and the vision, and I’m just totally inspired to be in the studio with her”.

As for the lyrics, were already there, but Laur rewrote them and wrote the bridge from scratch. Vocally speaking, she did all the backgrounds and vocally self-produced. So the vocal production? It's hers. It was her. Yeah. She's thattalented, and people still sleep on her. But anyway. Let's move on to my interpretation now, shall we?

Verse 1:

“My heart beats a little faster

When our eyes meet, in the middle of a crowded room”

Typical reaction of when we meet someone we like. You know? Heart beating fast as Laur says, along with butterflies in the stomach, cheeks blushing, palms sweating, adrenaline, dry mouth, palpitations, hot flashes, etc., etc.

“In knee deep, testing waters”

What does ‘in knee deep’ make us understand? That it wasn't an ordinary person that she just liked, but that it was a person that she really liked very much. *cough Mila*

“I've got a feeling, and I don't know what to do”

Why? Because she knew it was different and contrary to the past, she didn't know how to act.

Chorus:

“You got me paralyzed, and I think I like it”

As I think you know, ‘paralyzed’ in this case is intended as being blocked by a strong emotion (such as amazement). Mila got her paralyzed. Their situation and feelings were so strong, so deep/in knee-deep, that Laur was petrified by it. But despite this, as I said before, this was different. Unlike anything she'd ever felt before. And she liked it.

“Caught me by surprise, I'm not usually like this, no”

It caught her by surprise because she didn't expect it. And we know why she wasn't usually like that. Because she'd been in denial all her life. Because she'd always fought against these feelings.

“Got me paralyzed, don't think I can help it”

She couldn't. Even if she tried, she couldn't. She couldn't help herself.

“Why's it feel so right?”

Why did what she was taught to be wrong made her feel so good/right? Because it was. It was in general, but it was even more so with her. With Mila.

Post-Chorus:

“Let's keep this going all night

Going all night

Going all night”

Freedom. Without thinking of tomorrow. Tomorrow's tomorrow.

Verse 2:

“The crowd fades, tunnel vision

In a daze, and the only thing I feel is you”

Because she was the only important thing. The only thing that mattered. All the rest? They were just surroundings.

“In perfect, syncopation”

Syncopation can be a rhythm, a passage, or a dance step. Syncopation in music occurs when a rhythm is unexpected and is played off-beat. It's like, an oscillation in a soft and not stiff way. It's an imbalance and prolongation of a note in the middle that creates an effect of, precisely, oscillation. Flamenco is the simplest first example that comes to mind for both musical rhythm and danced rhythm, but syncopation is used in many music styles. From the classical music of Mozart and Beethoven, to the ragtime ancestor of jazz, jazz itself, rock, metal, reggae, hip-hop, pop, house, salsa, etc.

To give you a practical example to help you understand better, count 5, 6, 7, 8 out loud three times in a row. From the fourth time, keep counting out loud and, at the same time, use the palm of your hand or the clenched fist on a surface to hear the rhythm yourself and understand how stable it is. Do this three times or even more until it’s natural for you to keep up the pace without having to keep counting 5, 6, 7, 8 out loud. Once you've done that, keep counting mentally and hit/tap 5 a little bit harder with a little pause, and then just 7, 8. It would be like: 5, no hit/tap, 7, 8.

FIIIVE, seven, eight - FIIIVE, seven, eight - FIIIVE, seven, eight.

You can slow down or speed up as you like, and this, dear @camilalauren0327 and babies, is an example of syncopation. If you guys want, to listen and understand better, I also found this for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-H6oXpF-tw.

But anyway. What's my point? Why explain all this to you? Because for many composers and producers, syncopation is a vital element because it helps them tie the rhythm and the melody of a song together. The use of syncopation in music in general, but more precisely in a song, makes the track different and even unique at times.

And now that you know this, Lauren did or didn't use a beautiful metaphor with a simple one-word to describe her and Mila? *she was so phenomenal and romantic 😍*

“Face to face, tell me do you feel it too?”

Sounds weird that Laur was wondering, right? Well, it actually isn't because this song is about the moment in the timeline they were in the Like Friends Dosituation. Laur was still in denial and therefore they didn't speak. She didn't know if Mila still wanted her or not, and most likely, it was just before Mila started her relationship with the mystery girl because it coincides with Lauren finally accepting herself and her feelings for her.

Chorus:

“You got me paralyzed, and I think I like it

Caught me by surprise, I'm not usually like this, no

Got me paralyzed, don't think I can fight this

Why's it feel so right?”

The difference between the first chorus and this, is the ‘don't think I can fight this’ here. As I said before and as we know, Laur had been in denial all her life and she’d always fought against these feelings, but this time it was different. Thiswas different because Camila was different. Hell, Lauren herself was different. The environment she was in was different. Different especially from home and from what she was used to there. Her feelings were different. More powerful. Nothing like the crushes she'd had on other girls in the past, and she knew, because she knew, that she was going to lose this fight. Here, or rather at the time at that moment, she was simply admitting it to herself.

Bridge:

“But maybe I should wait

Let it fall into place

'Cause I keep going over

The things that could come from me feeling this way (Way)”

She was having second thoughts here. Her fear took over. Fear is the most powerful tool in the world. It makes you do unimaginable things and it makes you not do what you really want.

“And I don't wanna play (I don't wanna play)

This emotional game (This emotional game)

But when you pull me closer

I cannot deny that I want you to stay”

BUT, she finally gave in. She overcame her fear by finally admitting to herself that she wanted her, and not just physically. The ‘stay’ is tricky because if it's read just like that, it only means a physical action, but for Camren? It means so much more. An example that comes to mind now is the ‘It's almost 2AM and I can't ask you to stay’ that we find in Feel It Twice. For them, the ‘stay’ is not just a physical action. It's deeper. It means staying with each other. It means staying/being together.

After the bridge, we have the post-bridge and then the chorus again (in which that raspy, mature high-note occurs on the “I cannot deny this love”, which honestly leaves me dead every time) which I've already explained, so that's it, dear @camilalauren0327. All Night is a song about Laur's acceptance of her feelings for Mila.

I hope you liked it, and, I don't know where you live, but I hope you're having a wonderful summer or a beginning of winter. Sending you a hug 🤗

For you guys, on the other hand, I hope you too are having a wonderful summer or a beginning of winter wherever you live 😊 I'll try to keep answering your asks whenever possible until I get home in September (damn places with no connection and only one wi-fi).

Always remember to be kind, to others and to yourselves. Be a good example. Be patient. Be safe and take care of yourselves. Don't let our ship sink. Keep shipping them, but please respectfully 🙏🏼 Sending you virtual love and hugs 🤗🤗🤗 I love you, babies. Always with love, F ❤️

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slipping-through-my-fingertips · 3 years

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If Glee did a Taylor Swift Tribute Episode...

Just my opinions, feel free to add on to them. I know I have some fellow gleek swifties following me. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Obviously they have to do some of the hits but I think some people would have some out of the box picks.

*This post assumes all Taylor songs are available to choose from as of May 14th 2021 but focuses on Taylor’s first 6 albums (if you want more glee and Taylor I have fics with that; LOVER and FOLKLORE) and takes liberties with where this episode’s placement is in terms of canon. But since it’s all made up anyway who cares (but Blaine’s involved so I guess season 3 idk).*

Okay, trying to do a full plot here (completely inspired by @kurtdeservesbetter head canon posts. I hope this lives up to her fabulous posts). This will be my version of glee so everyone gets solos and Rachel can’t hog the spotlight. Also, this is about to be super long (both post wise and episode wise).

Let’s open the first episode with

...Ready For It because the New Directions are in their reputation era. Santana does the opening cough centerstage. Everyone in black and/or camo green outfits (can you just see Kurt in a dark green bedazzled snake jacket, Santana in a black leather dress, and Tina digging out some goth clothes for people to borrow?), snakes everywhere, but probably no Karyn (she just wouldn’t fit on the auditorium stage). Santana takes the first verse but we have Blaine step up for verse 2. (I just love their friendship in the Michael tribute, cute little badasses are BACK. Also him singing “Burton to this Taylor” is such a Klaine thing to do).

Everyone is still dressed in their rep outfits but we’re in the choir room now. Mr. Schue is talking about why Taylor had to disappear and clap back with rep, how rough the industry is for women and tries to uplift the ladies in the room and encourage them to not silence their voices (cue snarky comment from Santana about Rachel needing to be silent).

Then, Mr. Schue goes on about how you can only understand how Taylor got to her rep era by studying her earlier music. So we have a performance of Tim McGraw. Simple, front of the choir room performance, maybe Puck does guitar, and sitting on stools.

Everyone is surprised to find out how pumped Sam is for this assignment but he is all over it. “It's about time we did some country in this room.” Cue Sam and Quinn at her locker talking about their ‘date’ last night, Sam’s all cute and teasing and Quinn is not into it. She tells him it was fun but she was wrong, they shouldn’t do this again. In turn, he does a wonderful performance of Bye Bye Baby. He thought it was more but clearly he’s “a part of her past.”

Then, we’re in the empty choir room. Tina and Mike are there. (I love their cutesy duets) They sing Everything Has Changed and it’s utterly adorable. Can’t you hear Mike asking Tina if she’s “good to go” like Ed does? And while we’re on the subject of cute duets and RED, we flash to the courtyard to see Santana and Brittany. They turn Stay Stay Stay into a duet. “I’ve been loving you for quite some time,” “before you I only dated self-indulgent takers who took all their problems out on me,” “no one else is gonna love me when I’m mad, mad, mad,” and “it’s occurring to me that I’d like to hang out with you for my whole life” it’s perfect for them. Adorable ladies kisses are had.

Let’s toss in some boy drama for fun. Idk shit about football but somehow Puck is praised by their coach over Finn, which gets him all pissy, and Puck’s upset and jealous because Finn is back with Quinn now (this is why Quinn shut Sam now earlier, she changed her mind). Can we say duet of Bad Blood? “So if you’re coming my way...just don’t.”

After their dramatics, we have a Brittany solo in the choir room. It’s after school at this point (or whenever glee club is). Brittany does You’ll Always Find You Way Back Home.

When she finishes Mr. Schue tries to explain that it’s a Hannah Montana song. Britt injects that it’s confusing how she’s really Miley Cryus “like how can you be two people at once?”. Before Mr. Schue can continue, Kurt pipes up “you never specified that the songs had to be sung by Taylor Swift, just that they were her songs.” Mercedes adds, “yeah, Mr. Schue, Taylor wrote that song.” Mr. Schue concedes that he has once again been outwitted by Kurtcedes. The friends do their little hand shake thing.

With a sigh, Mr. Schue asks Mike if he’s ready to go and Mike asks to take things to the auditorium for some dancing room. Everyone’s on stage with him and it’s kind of a group number but Mike is the focus. It’s Shake It Off. All inspired by the music video. He’s tried to fit in elsewhere (i.e. football, with the smart kids, etc..) but he’s really himself in glee when he’s dancing.

Part 2 of Taylor Tribute Episodes

We begin with an ALL GIRL NUMBER of A Place In This World. Just because.

Glee is dismissed and we zoom in on Artie. He’s watching Tina with Mike and Brittany with Santana. Both Tina and Britt have broken his heart by this point. So, he’s rolling down the halls singing A Perfectly Good Heart. While Artie’s soloing, we cut to Rachel watching Finn and Quinn chatting. Artie’s song playing over this scene. Rachel is feeling similar to him at the moment.

She’s pretty sure Finn dumped her to be with Quinn again even though Kurt and Blaine told her they saw Quinn and Sam at the movies last night together making out in the back row. Fine, if that’s how he’s going to be, she doesn’t need him anyway. Cue Mr. Perfectly Fine. Uber dramatic solo performance walking around McKinley’s halls watching Finn and Quinn together ending in the auditorium alone. (see what I did there, both broken hearted peeps singing a song with Perfectly in it (this was not at all planned, actually, happy accident))

After some good old heartbreak, we have Kurt and Blaine on screen. Blaine walks into the auditorium to see Kurt sitting on the edge of the stage. “What’s all the fuss?” he asks from the door. Kurt had texted him “EMERGENCY.” The band starts to play and Kurt just starts singing, Enchanted. It’s time to profess their love for each other, just like they sing Perfect together in the car, this duet needs no audience. Blaine catches up and sings while walking towards his boyfriend. It’s very reminiscent of past New Directions competitions where they come in from the back and make their way to the stage. “Wondering if you knew I was enchanted to meet you?” Kurt and Blaine both know the answer to that question now but just a few months ago they were both wondering that exact thing.

They kiss before we cut to Kurt and Blaine walking hand in hand into the choir room where everyone else is already. Mr. Schue is praising the performances thus far and of course asks Rachel if she’s ready to solo (some practice for her completion solo). This causes an uproar from Mercedes and Santana. Another classic argument of how she gets too many solos. Mr. Schue tries to shut them both down but Santana tells Rachel to watch her back, and we get three very different reactions to this.

All three girls storm out.

First, we visit Mercedes alone in the courtyard. This solo is all about being hurt over this great thing in her life (glee) and her being denied happiness within that club. Thus, Cold As You. (mostly to indulge myself because she’d blow us away with this song).

Next, Rachel in the auditorium. A huge bridge on stage (very Speak Now Tour of her), belting out Better Than Revenge. Santana’s dropped the last straw (the humiliation, name calling, Finn at one point and now solos,) it’s too much this time.

And finally, Santana walking around McKinley, showing us flashes of Rachel ‘outshining’ her and the rest of glee and Mr. Schue being unfair, while singing Look What You Made Me Do.

Tina walks out at the same time as Rachel, Mercedes, and Santana but no one seems to put two and two together. She feels just as underutilized as the latter two do. She ends up in an empty classroom and sings The Outside. “Nobody ever lets me in” and “on the outside looking in.”

Once the 3, err 4, divas have left the room, Finn sticks up for Rachel. Quinn, of course, has something to say about this along the lines of “you always defend her.” Finn, intimated by her ‘scary Quinn’ fumbles and blurts “because she’s my girlfriend” WHICH IS NOT TRUE AT THIS POINT. Quinn dumps him on the spot, cuts quickly to Blaine and Kurt sharing some ‘oh my god, can you believe this’ expressions, and vanishes from the room.

By this point, Rachel is long gone from the auditorium but the bridge is still there.

Here’s where we go way off script but imagine, Quinn has decided to just quit boys. They’ve all failed her anyway, she’s better off being alone. She walks up the bridge and thinks to herself “god Rachel’s so dramatic, where did this thing even come from” before it hits her “fuck, I’m as bad as Finn. I want her.” Then, she starts singing Clean to herself in the auditorium, likely tearing up throughout and ending with a good cry. (Because Dianna would DELIVER with Clean.)

While Quinn is having a sexuality crisis, the rest of glee is still happening. They’re discussing upcoming competition and debating solos and songs.

Kurt’s all: “Mr. Schue, if I may” and performs a lovely rendition of Call It What You Want. Those opening lines are too good. “My castle (ie McKinley) crumbled overnight, brought a knife to a gun fight (ie couldn’t fight off Dave Karofsky), “I’m doing better than I ever was ‘cause my baby’s fit like a daydream,” and “at least I did one thing right.” When he’s done, Blaine’s a mess in the back of the choir room, and Mr. Schue says: “not really what we’re looking for but very nice, Kurt” however, Kurt’s too busy sitting beside Blaine teasing him about blushing.

Then, the missing girls return to the room having sung out their emotions. Quinn, having realized her feelings for Rachel, ends up soloing You Belong With Me to the New Directions in the choir room. Odd looks all around, no one knows what’s up with her and why does she keep glancing at Rachel? (Faberry just fit so well I had to add it, don’t know if I’m a shipper or not but it’s here now) (also thanks to @spicygemini for pointing out the obvious “Quinn would have ate YBWY”).

Mr. Schue wants to move the group to the audition to perform their final number of the Taylor Swift tribute well but Tina asks to sing first. He’s surprised but allows it, taking a seat with the rest of the New Directions.

Tina sings Beautiful Ghosts. “Watch from the dark, wait for my life to start” because New Directions is refusing to use her talents AGAIN. She’s singing this to Rachel and the girls who were in the Treble Tones. Because she absolutely SMASHES this number, the glee kids agree she gets solo for their next competition (and they deliver on that promise).

To conclude Part 2 of the Taylor tribute episode, we have a group performance of Long Live. “One day we will be remembered”, “all the years we stood there on the sidelines wishing for right now”, “for a moment a band of thrives in ripped up jeans got to rule the world” ie wining completions, “when they look at the pictures please tell them my name...”

#this took so long please enjoy it #Taylor tribute glee episode #glee head canon #gleek swifie #glee #taylor swift

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coldcocoamilk · 2 years

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Ch 09 | I Went to College and All I Got Was This Lousy Degree

I'm alive, bitches ♥

new chapter of my fic is up on Ao3 - click this link to view there.

chappie under the cut

As per usual, Rally’s burgers are kind of shitty, but their French fries save the entire meal. Hange makes sure to get a shake to dip her fries in – an act that makes Levi frown in disgust at first, but once he tried it, he ended up going back in to grab a second milkshake for himself.

“Favorite music,” He asks her as she flips through the channels on the radio.

“Not this shit,” she announces, changing the setting to Bluetooth. “Oh, this is better.”

“You listen to The Strokes?” He asks, popping a fry in his mouth. “A woman of culture, I see.”

“A little bit of The Strokes. A little bit of metal. Reggae, sometimes. I just find a song I like and then shuffle my entire Spotify library most days,” Hange admits. “Yours?”

He looks embarrassed for a second. “It’s either classical orchestral type stuff, or emo. I’m a really big fan of My Chemical Romance.”

“No shit,” Hange laughs. “I wouldn’t have placed you as a black guyliner type of guy.”

“Well, the band’s been dead for awhile now, so no guyliner for me. Their early stuff is pretty gothic though, and it’s got some harder feeling music than their later albums. But they still hit,” Levi explains. “Oh, speaking of goth though – remember that ranch party? Same guy’s hosting a Halloween party. You can bring your friend too, if you want.”

“That’s in like,” she frowns. “A couple days. Is it with costumes and stuff or does it matter?”

He snorts. “You won’t catch me dead in a costume.”

“Alright, I’ll run it by Nanaba, then. Though I’m sure she’ll want to go – she’s always loved that dude’s parties. I’ll see you there?”

He hesitates. “Probably.”

She glances at him, crumpling up the empty carton of fries between her hands. “What, you’re going to invite me but not actually go?”

He plays with his drink straw in his hands absentmindedly. “Listen, the guys from the team already give me enough shit that you’re tutoring me. I don’t wanna give them any ammo against me for going to a party with the – shit, you’ll probably be valedictorian or something. They’ll make it into something it’s not, you know?”

Hange sighs. “I thought you were the type who didn’t really give a shit about his image.”

“No, I’m not, but the guys from the team are different. They’re like brothers to me.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll just find a way to,” she raises her fingers in mock quotation marks. “Accidentally run into you.”

“Works for me. You wanna head back?”

Hange cranks her seat back into a driveable position and re-clips her seatbelt. “Yeah, I should probably be going. I’m driving Nanaba home today.”

------

“You got Rally’s without me!” Is the first thing that comes out of Nanaba’s mouth when she enters the car. She throws her backpack into the back seat and gets in, adjusting the passenger seat out of it’s laid-back position. “And you guys actually hung out!”

Hange laughs, turning the A/C up a notch. “Sorry, we’ll get some fries later. It just felt appropriate.”

Nanaba continues rooting around the car, coming up with a speck of green on her finger from the carpet. “And you guys smoked without me?!”

“Correction – he smoked, I just watched.”

“Good,” Nanaba smirks. “He can’t take your weed virginity – only I can.”

“I told you,” Hange sighs, putting the car into drive and pulling out of the school parking lot. “I don’t even want to try it. Like, I get it, but it’s just not something I want to try.”

Her friend pushes her silver hair behind her ear and fiddles with something on her phone. “I know, Hange. I’m just giving you shit. But really, tell me about him – he’s so quiet and… stoic,” she pauses to consider her verbiage before continuing, “and to learn he smokes… there’s more to him than I thought!”

“Well,” Hange starts, flicking her blinker on at a light. “He likes a lot of the same music as me, and he’s super into his baseball thing. He’s only got his dad around, so he’s trying really hard in school to impress him. He wants to play for the Red Sox so that they don’t ever have to worry about money and stuff ever again.”

“Sounds noble,” Nanaba snorts. “You two actually sound like you’re pretty similar.”

The light finally changes and Hange merges onto the highway, even though they get off in two exits. She sticks to the right lane just in case, not trusting herself to merge any further on lest she miss the exit. “Kinda. Our stories sound the same, but we’re pretty different.”

“Do you think he’s cute?” Nanaba has fully stopped looking at her phone and is trying to catch Hange’s eyes in spite of their mobility.

Is he cute? The thought hadn’t occurred to Hange yet, but now that she was asked, of course it was in her mind. I mean, he’s short, but it’s endearing. And very clean cut. Strong, too…

“Exit, Hange,” Nanaba reminds her. She nearly misses it and earns a honk from another car, but they make it off.

“He is cute,” Hange says cautiously. “But I haven’t really thought about it, you know? I was too busy talking to him.” Her best friend is grinning wide, and Hange knows better than to egg her on. “But hey, I dunno. I’d have to hang out with him more to really notice anything.”

“I thought the keg stand was cute, in a weird way,” Nanaba hazards.

“Oh!” She was grateful for the comment, as it allowed a segue away from the topic at hand. “He invited us to a Halloween party out at that ranch later this week. Doesn’t matter about costumes, I think.”

“Is Levi going to be there?” Nanaba teases.

She sighs. “Yeah, but… we’re not going with him. He’s being weird about us. He doesn’t want his baseball friends to know we’re friends ‘cause I guess they’ll like… speculate about it, I think.”

“So he wants to be friends in private, but not in public? What an asshole,” Nanaba throws herself back against the seat. “Like, I get it, but it’s really not that deep.”

Hange pulled up next to the curb of Nanaba’s house, putting the car into park. “I dunno. I’m trying not to think of it one way or another.”

They’re quiet for a moment before Nanaba speaks up. “You said that rich kid’s ranch house, right? Damn, I wonder if those kid’s parents are ever in town.”

“Do you even know who he is?” Hange laughs.

“Do you?”

“Fuck no!”

The girls cackled into the setting sun.

#levihan #levi x hange #levi x hanji #college au #snk #aot #my writing

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holycow99 · 3 years

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石田お寿司 29/7/21 stream translation Part 1

T/n: This is not the full translation of the stream. I only translated the parts I could understand & interpret or parts I found interesting/important. I’m still a beginner in Japanese, so the translations may not be accurate. If you want to repost, please repost at your own risk. I’ve changed the format as this format seems better. I’ll be writing in this format from now on.

*Someone asked him about his throat.

I: My throat? It’s normal. (t/n: He had a sore throat a few weeks ago)

I: I was asleep when chp 5 was released. It was already dark when I woke up.

*People in the comment praised chp 5.

I: Thank you, thank you. I’m glad you liked it.

C: I’m waiting for the translation!

I: It coming soon. (t/n: He’s speaking in eng.) It sounds like a wrong eng.

C: Are you right handed?

I: Yes, I am.

I: For chapter 6, I’ll probably finish drawing it if I work until the day after tomorrow, even though I haven’t made any progress at all. After that, I’ll add in the typesetting and then it’ll probably finished around 2nd or 3rd August. I’d be bad if I couldn’t get it done after I’ve said this.

C: Fumi (Jack Jeanne’s character) plays erhu? (t/n: OP’s referring to JJ OST album’s illustration.)

I: Yeah. Kosemura Akira (composer for Jack Jeanne) wanted to use erhu when composing Fumi’s theme song. So, he asked a famous person to play it. It’s really rare to have erhu in songs. Not many people in Japan play it. Why did he choose erhu? Then, when imagining what kind of instruments suit each character, for Kai, he has that deep, bass feeling. So, his instrument is double bass. Piano is Kisa. Suzu is, of course, all about hitting the beat. Drum is an important instrument in rhythm creation. For yonaga, it’s a wind instrument. I want him to play a pipe. You won’t understand even if I talk about it. Should I leave the picture here? Wait a min, let me show you.

*Someone commented about Tokyo revengers’ illustration.

I: Oh yes, I did an illustration of Tokyo Revengers’ Mikey. I want to draw Draken as well.

*He showed the illustration of JJ’s characters with instruments.

I: I drew Shirota playing guitar. For some reason, I imagined he could play guitar. And then, instruments like viola (referring to Neji). Otori plays maracas.

I: That’s how it is. And then, we have the Sui exhibition in Nagoya. I’ve been writing report on the event. Isn’t it amazing? Probably not. It’s for myself after all. Rather than for myself, I’d get mixed up if the exhibition is held in a lot of places.

*He started Playing Ghosts n’ Goblins.

C: I really want to play Ghosts n’ Goblins, but it seems so stressful.

I: It’s not stressful, rather you’d feel angry.

*Giant monsters appeared.

I: Just now on discord, Goubaru texted me saying he wanted to call me, but I rejected. He’s expressing his anger right now. (t/n: He referred the monsters stomping the ground as angry Goubaru.)

C: Sensei, there’s no love counselling session today?

I: It seems like some of you were happy when I gave love advice. There’s someone who became a couple with her childhood friend. She said she’s gonna talk to her bf once again. What was the problem again? Something like she had trouble chatting with her bf through mail. I advised her not to then. Hahaha.

C: Do you remember people who always watch your livestream?

I: Not at all. I do remember you *****-san. (t/n: He mentioned OP’s name)

I: I tried listening to my own stream while working. When I listened to it, I realised I have a tendency to pick comments from specific people. There’re people who know to comment at the right timing, like Y****. (t/n: He mentioned the fan he always chats with) It seems like I pick them based on the colour (?), name length, and comments that are easy to pick. Weirdly enough, I always end up reading the comments from the same people.

*He’s fighting another angry and aggressive Goubaru.

C: Is Goubaru usually like this?

I: I wonder… I think so. But, he often wore this kind of down jacket, like for a year. A purple one. Even though the fabric wasn’t that thick, wearing a down jacket must be hot, right? He didn’t take it off when he’s in the workplace. He even wore it during summer. I asked him why, and he said it’s because he wanted to hide his body line. Sounds like a problem an attractive woman would’ve. I do kinda understand that. It’s probably the same reason as women who wears loose clothing as to not have their chest shown too much. He always wore purple down jackets due to reasons like that.

C: My dad also always wears down jackets in every season to hide his body line.

I: I’d tell those kind of people to lose weight.

C: Wearing down jacket and sweating is probably their way of losing weight.

I: No, but even if you sweat, you won’t lose weight. Those who’re dieting probably know this already, but sweating only reduce the water percentage in your body. Just because you sweat a lot doesn’t mean you’d lose weight. In the end, it all depends on the amount of fat you lose and the amount of muscle mass you gain.

I: With sauna, I don’t think you can lose weight. If you drink water, you gain back the amount of water you lost. However, if you don’t drink water for 2 days, you’d probably lose 2-3kg. Human bodies are made up of 70% of water after all.

C: Sauna only makes you feel refreshing.

I: Sauna makes you feel good. I think that, in itself, is nice too. It’s just that only fat people think that they can lose weight wearing down jacket.

(t/n: I might’ve translated it a bit harsh, but I don’t think he meant it in a bad way. Please don’t be offended.)

C: Did you tell that to him?

I: I told him a lot of things. Something like “you’re gonna die” or “you’re gonna have your limbs amputated”. I have a younger friend who’s slightly diabetic, I think. He had always been fat, though he sometimes went on diet. His family knew a lot of people in the medical field, so they kept telling him to go to hospital. When he did the examination, he was told that he had a chance of getting diabetes. But Goubaru is a slob, so he wouldn’t visit hospital by his own volition, though I’m not qualified to say that since I also don’t really visit hospitals. He might be in a worse condition since he wouldn’t get checked up, so I think it’s best for him to lose weight.

I: Why being fat is not good for your health is because when the fat dissolves in your blood, the blood vessels will get clogged. That’s why I think it’s not good.

C: How much is your body fat percentage (BFP)?

I: How much is it…I’m not aiming to be ridiculously skinny or whatever. The average would be around 16-17%? It’d be great if I can get there. When I was on a rigorous diet, my BFP was as low as 13%. Some people are able to get to 10%. I wonder how they do that?

I: I’ve heard from someone about Goubaru’s body fat percentage. I’ve been talking about him, but his BFP is scary. It seems like he has 45% of fat in his body. He is nothing but a lump of fats already. The mother in Atashinchi (a classic manga) is also the same. Do you guys know Atashinchi? The mother is kinda fat. She’s also has around 45% BFP I think.

C: How much does Goubaru weigh?

I: I think he already surpassed 100kg, but I don’t know about now.

C: To be able to surpass 100kg is a talent.

I: Right. I’ve heard about that in Bananaman’s (Japanese comedy duo) radio or something. Mr. Himura (a member of Bananaman) was around 90kg at that time, though I don’t know his weight now. It’s probably around 10 years ago. He said he’s weighed more than 100kg, and that weighing 105 kg is a talent. 100kg was like the threshold for your body and you surpassed that limit.

C: There’s someone like Goubaru in my class.

I: But you don’t know him. Do you mean him having the same weight?

C: My classmate who weighs over 100kg broke the school chair just by sitting on it.

I: The weight is one thing, but even though chairs could withstand heavy amount of load, they’re not durable. Goubaru’s chair made a few scary noises whenever he sat down. It sounded similar to the sound effect of the door being opened in Inagawa Junji’s (an actor & ghost storyteller) ghost stories. I thought Mr. Junji was there.

Part 2

#ishida sui #tokyou ghoul #chojin x #choujin x #jack jeanne #ishida sushi channel

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willowistic22 · 4 years

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Famous!newsies

Ok so here are my famous!newsies headcanons from an a modern au i thought of if newsies were celebrities/famous yknow bcs I couldn’t get this idea out of my head and idk what to do with it other than making a headcanon list nabsnzbsvsnsbz anyways hope yall validate me after not posting any original content for like…. awhile now hehe

btw it got longer than expected. And I mean r e a l l y long. So if yall wanna read this better sit down and buckle up!

Jack

He’s an artist on youtube

Like a modern day bob ross ig??

If yall know zhc on youtube just imagine that but not so rich (I don’t watch zhc btw but i do know that he does custom art on iphones and stuff and that is definitely not jack kelly)

Anyways Jack simply goes by Jack Kelly.

So jack does art challenges. Like does the weirdest requests from his fans left in his comment section and stuff

Or maybe challenging himself to make art from a specific theme or a specific media

Sometimes he vlogs too but his art videos are what his fans like the most

His merch is amazing because he designed the pattern/drawing/whatever yknow. It’s printed/sewed/whatever on the clothing and it’s good quality. It’s pretty lowkey for a youtuber’s merch bcs jack doesn’t like those merch that just smacks his logo on a hoodie

Davey

He’s a fantasy, YA, romance writer (he mixes it wisely ok?)

And goes by David Jacobs

Listen he’s a hopeless romantic and i’m pretty sure yall agree too

He wanted to stick to YA romance. The classic high school lovers yknow

But he wanted to challenge himself since he’s been writing about high school lovers since he was in high school

Thus the fantasy genre came in mind

So yeah he likes creating love in his own universe

Whether it’d be different worlds, universe, species, time periods, whatever.

He wanted to direct the movies based on his books, but he’s actually lowkey terrible at leading on his own. But he did stick to being the script writer and co-director (look idk how it works in the film industry i’m just making shit up)

Crutchie

He’s a solo jazz singer

Crutchie gives off Michael Buble and Jason Mraz vibes tho

And maybe a bit of frank sinatra? Yknow ‘cause he sings jazz

Also he riffs thank you very much :)

He goes by Crutchie Morris to everyone

He usually plays the acoustic guitar or piano on stage

Ok but he’s like really good with the piano

Makes the best jokes on stage too. Some are just sarcastic comments.

Crutchie asking through the microphone : “Oh, straight?”

A fan he’s talking to from the crowd : “Uhh… no, gay”

Crutchie : “no not you, the vodka”

Everyone at the concert : *laughs*

Crutchie, jokingly : “Oh, you’re drinking vodka! Straight? No gay”

(yes that was indeed inspired by that one video of Harry Styles and a fan in one of his concerts yall can’t stop me)

Kathrine

She’s a crime mystery writer

Think like the modern day Agatha Christie

Okok but she goes by Kathrine Plumber on her books :D

She chooses that genre bcs she’s a huge fan of Agatha Christie

Her favorite book from Agatha is Murder on the Orient Express

Oh and her books are sometime very gruesome alkjsfhakjsfb

Nobody check her browsing history, she’ll look like a murderer

Ok but I feel like she also has a youtube channel about books and stuff and sometimes like to vlog

She also has a writing tips series on her channel where she shares tips on some of the frequently asked questions about writing or her fans leave a specific question in the comment section and thought she could expand more to it in a full length video

Also she likes to vlog while she’s in a book convention

Her books are also turned into movies and she has done a great job directing it

Race

Yall would be lying to me if you don’t think this kid would end up being a twitch streamer and youtuber (like vlogging yknow. I feel like his gaming stuff would strictly be on twitch)

And ik it’s widely agreed by everyone in the fandom that he’s a dancer of some sort so yeah he’s also simultaneously a dancer

I don’t think I need to explain any further bcs it’s just so in character

He goes by Racetrack Higgins

Ok so he likes to vlog on his youtube channel

Sometimes does stupid challenges

Maybe he’d drag Albert to do a challenge which he always says no

“I’ll just be your cameraman dude, dw”

Race : *angery*

Since Al and Smalls are the skateboard peeps™ race is the rollerblade dude™ bcs I say so

He has three cats named Racecat Higgins, Spot Clawlon, and Romeow (i’ve mentioned it before and I will mention it again hehe) and his fans loves them endlessly

Albert

You don’t think this kid would also end up being a twitch streamer and youtuber like his bestie up there?? Lmao you thought wrong (again, gaming is strictly on his twitch)

He just goes by Albert DaSilva on the internet

And yes he’s also a dancer because I say so

On his Youtube channel he also vlogs

Half of his vlogs starts with him riding his skateboard

“Hey, guys! Welcome back to another vlog-” *falls off his skateboard for not paying attention to a curb*

It happens way more often than he’d like to admit let’s be real. His fans make a compilation of it and memes on reddit

Always wear a snapback

Snapbacks are an important element to him so his merch store is really boosting his snapbacks

And just for the wormsie discord server he has one with the word ranga on it after it being born from a stupid inside joke he, race, and both of their fanbases combined share (@ my wormsie fam thank me later)

Oh yeah, his youtube besties are Race and Smalls just so we’re clear here :) (I’ll get to Smalls in a bit)

So I always headcanon Albert having two big dobermans. So his fans always want to see a doggy update because Zara and Zoey are everything to them.

Doggo vlogs are fun. It’s usually Albert taking the two good girls to Central Park for playtime or teaching them new tricks

Spot

He’s a solo rock singer

Is an amazing singer like wow none of the newsies expected him to have that sort of pipes to reach high notes

And he does it amazingly with no sweat

Also his instrument is the electric guitar to go with his amazing singing ajsfhasjfhajhf

Anyways he goes by Spot Conlon still

And his songs are very lyrical. Like very.

A lot of metaphors. No one knows what most of his songs means.

So basically Taylor Swift songs if it switched genres to rock. And not even like songs from speak now or red. But like if evermore and folklore songs were to turn into rock songs with a little bit of reputation vibes sprinkled on top. And his concerts has the reputation era vibes but make it spot conlon (hey non swiftie fans reading this i’m so sorry i’m pretty sure yall don’t understand wtf i’m talking abt)

That is also the only way i know to describe his vibe i’m sorry but i don’t really listen to a lot of rock alkjhfasjk

Anyways it’s a known fact that he wears tank tops daily that it becomes his signature look. And also an inside joke among his fanbase

Now just picture the merch booth from one of his shows and there’s like endless tank top designs for his fans to pick and choose

He’s also crowned to be the King of Brooklyn bcs of obvious reasons

But the joke is he’s a pretty tough hardcore guy that’s a cat person

Sarah

She’s a badass female solo singer

Mostly does pop but the badass type of pop

Yes, she does go by Sarah Jacobs

Fans were really surprised Davey and Sarah are related

Because one is a hopeless romantic while the other is a total badass

Anyways she gives off Little mix, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Selena Gomez vibes

That is literally the only way I can describe it

She’s very lyrical, with a lot of metaphors

When she dances on stage, she d a n c e s

All while holding a mic to sing. And she hits all those high notes like it’s no ones business (a literal queen i tell you)

She and Spot are besties and has been known to have done a few collabs together

Their fans were hesitant about their collabs since their genre is pretty different from the other but they make it work and it slAPS

And among all her boppy songs with full choreography and backup singers, she always have a few songs she sings while only being accompanied by piano or guitar (Either electric or acoustic) which she plays on her own

Finch

He’s an indie pop artist with his trusted acoustic guitar by his side

Just think of music by Wallows and Lewis Capaldi were to be blended in together and Conan Gray for the cherry on top

But it has a little bit of Ed sheeran, Lorde, and Lauv vibes to it too

His concerts are simple but his songs are mostly very boppy so his fans still have fun either way

And it’s usually in small venues but there are times where he had a concert in a huge stadium

He goes by FINCH (yeah all caps btw)

Finches are a very on brand thing for him obviously

Has been known to collab with Crutchie and they actually make a very good team

Somehow was able to combined both genres to produce a few boppy songs

Ok ok but Finch and Crutchie have made a collaborative album (and maybe they went on tour????)

Specs

He’s a history fiction writer

Yes this is inspired by the fact that he’s 100% a history nerd (no one change my mind i love this headcanon aight)

And he explores a lot of different histories from different parts of the world

He actually helps a lot of students understand history even further for school through his novels

Anyways he goes by Specs because I say so

No one knows why that’s his pseudonym and Specs isn’t interested in explaining either. No one other than the newsies need to know it was born from a stupid nickname the newsies gave him :)

His research mostly comes from history books because of his genre which wouldn’t be a problem since he has loads and will voluntarily buy more if needed

Also yeah he makes a great director for the movies taken from his books

Mush

He’s a chef on youtube

Goes by Mush Meyers

So think if Gordon Ramsey and his youtube channel but make it mush

Yeah that’s it really

Ok but Mush is a jolly and friendly person

Other than just food vlogging he does cooking challenges and cooking tips too

Sometimes he does the cooking challenges with a friend (mostly henry but i’ll get to him later on in the list)

But he also vlogs his life

Which isn’t really often but he likes to sometimes

He’s that big of a foodie he has a food blog too

And also a seafood restaurant so that’s cool :D

Henry

Like Mush, he’s a chef on youtube

Goes by Henry on the internet and in general

Ajkfhajfjska I’m thinking about how ppl would address him as Chef Henry kajhfkjlashfjklasfjklsf

He mostly does the same thing like Mush actually

Food vlogging and cooking challenges (they do it together so) sometimes cooking tips

But Henry vlogs his life a lot

And instead of a food instagram he has a food blog

He has a sandwich restaurant

Yeah it is inspired by his pastrami on rye with a sour pickle line from KONY get mad about it why don’t ya (well if i’m not mistaken henry was the one that said it but idk i have horrible memory)

Blink

He’s a youtuber

Ok so I have a specific headcanon that Blink majored in psychology but didn’t end up being a psychologist

So instead he becomes a psychologist on youtube

Who often vlogs jhgasjlfhs

The guy looks like he could cut you but his sense of humor once you get him talking is just *chef’s kiss* amazing

Which is why he also has a podcast because he’s also secretly great at talking

He just thinks mental health is very important, okay?

Romeo

He’s an actor

Mostly on Broadway but has worked with Hollywood before

He’s usually a supporting character but has been known to understudy for main characters

Ok ik these bullet points are getting shorter and shorter but these are mostly bcs some of these stuff are pretty self explanatory since it’s very in character

Like are you telling me a kid named Romeo isn’t gonna be in some way very dramatic and end up turning that personality trait into his career?? Plus he’s very good at that?

Yeah you’re lying to me

Also he’s a pretty frequent vlogger on youtube

Look he’s a fun guy, what did you expect?

Just goes by Romeo on youtube

Elmer

He’s an actor

Has done his fair share in Broadway and Hollywood but started in Broadway

He can dance but thinks he’s pretty average in it yknow

Which his fans has no idea what he’s talking about because on stage he can do flips and turns like it’s no ones business yknow

But he can sing really good and takes pride in it

Elmer would play characters that is really far off from his own personality that fans couldn’t believe that Elmer played that character

He has done his fair share in main characters and supporting characters on Broadway

In Hollywood he usually does indie and rom-com movies

Buttons

He’s a fashion youtuber and basically an influencer

Let’s be real this boy is a fashion icon

He’s not really a model but more like a fashion influencer and also kind of a fashion designer

His clothing line is very *chefs kiss* amazing

He designed it all and sometimes likes to design for his friends as well

He also does fashion tips on his youtube channel

His instagram game is god tier level (along with Tommy Boy and Sniper I’ll get to them in a bit)

But yeah he also vlogs

And goes by Buttons Davenport

Jojo

He’s an actor

Mostly on Broadway but has done a few movies in Hollywood

He radiates main character energy and he does become the main character most of the time (on hollywood at least)

On Broadway he mostly enjoys being apart of the ensemble because this boy loves dancing

But he does play a few supporting characters

He has released one or two albums too because his singing is top tier

But isn’t interested in doing a lot of live concerts with his albums

Since no one has the time to say Josephino Jorgelino De La Guerra he turned it into Jojo De La Guerra (so much for ‘a special nickname only for friends and family’)

Mike and Ike

They’re a pop boy band and bcs of my lack of creativity it’s called Mike and Ike

At the start of their career :

“My name goes first because I’m older than you!” - Mike

“You’re only older than me by 13 minutes, holy shit!” - Ike

But Ike slowly accepts the fact that it’ll be like this yknow

Anyways they’re pretty great singers

They have one direction and new hope club vibes

Tho unlike one direction they can dance (i love the boys alright but i really think it’s funny that they can’t dancelkhjjlh)

They like to switch from the guitar (electric and/or acoustic) to the piano

The amount of times their name is confused by the candy is too many

But they like it like that lol

Anyways i’ve mentioned a headcanon where Mike has tattoos (not like from head to toe but it’s fairly noticeable to everyone) and Ike has piercings

So the only way their fans tell them apart is by that

But there are times where Mike has his tattoos covered or Ike took his piercings off in public alone. A fan mistakens them for the other twin but they still respond to the other name because they don’t feel like there’s a need to correct them since they’re mostly known by Mike and Ike anyways. When the fan posts it on instagram and tags the twin they thought it was the twin that was tagged would comment “wrong twin but nice pic you two”

Happens wayyyyy too many times. Their fans are officially scared to approach one of the two in public alone without their differentiating indicators on which is which

And yes it is widely known that they argue a lot when it comes to writing songs

Nothing out of the ordinary sibling squabble yknow but it’s a lot

But they do end up finding a solution to the topic of their argument and make a good team at the end of the day

Hotshot

He’s an actor

On Broadway, he’s one of those actor’s that is mostly good in just the acting and singing

He can’t dance to save his life sjdfghaf

So Jeremy Jordan yknow asj;oghajshf

No not really. He can dance a little bit

So he’s mostly the main character

But he’s widely known for his works in Hollywood

He does a lot of drama. Think stuff like Elite and Designated Survivor. Yeah those kinds of heavy drama (well idk i think those two are pretty heavy)

He wants to release his own music because he’s a pretty good singer but he can’t write songs to save his life either jgnjafjasf

And all the demo songs he was suggested by producers isn’t his cup of tea

So he’s no singer ladies and gents ://

The name Hotshot is used to name his social media platforms. He always adds a description in his bio’s that Hotshot is a nickname his friends and family use so his fans and the media refer to him with his name

I headcanon Hotshot’s real name is Tyler or some sort. No don’t ask me what’s his last name is because idk either lol

Sniper

She’s a model, beauty and fashion youtuber (I’m pretty sure those are two different things tho idk i don’t watch youtube religiously anymore), and just an influencer in general

Instagram game on p o i n t

I know most beauty youtubers go by their names but uhh… i don’t think i’ve ever thought of a first name for Sniper but I really think she really would just go by Sniper Wah on the internet (Idk she seems like an Ashley in my head but feel free to recommend headcanon names to me)

Anyways she’s very fashionable

Tommy Boy (i’ll get to him just wait aight?) and Buttons are her fashion besties

The three of them pretty much appear in each other’s Youtube video not Tommy’s tho bcs he doesn’t have one lol

Sniper’s brand are huge sun hats

I have no idea how or why but that girl has sun hats vibes I can’t explain any further I’m sorry

Doesn’t have a clothing line but does have a make up brand of her own. She calls it Sniper. Yeah that’s it akjfhjf

Smalls

She’s a twitch streamer and youtuber like race and albert

They’re a youtube trio everyone loves it

And yes she does go by Smalls

Oh and she also dances like her two stupid besties thanks for asking

Bubblegum is her brand (idk how to explain she just has the vibe)

She is skateboard chick

I’m imagining a video collab of her and Al on a skatepark doing stupid challenges

It’s her most viewed video

Tommy Boy

Ok ok he’s a model, influencer, and dancer

So think a male version of Gigi Hadid that dances

No he doesn’t have a youtube channel but frequently has made an appearance on Buttons’ and Sniper’s videos

Yes his instagram feed is also very amazing

He goes by Tommy Boy

People genuinely thinking ‘Boy’ is actually his last name and kinda think it’s strange but doesn’t complain

Tommy literally didn’t think people would think it was his last name. But they did anyways

Les

Let’s just get straight to the point : he’s a famous tiktoker

And yes, ppl are surprised at the fact that him, Davey, and Sarah are related to each other

To the people that made it through this entire list. Congratulations and thank you for your validation. Have a wonderful evening and stay hydrated

i will write at least one oneshot out of this au i promise!!

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sarahlevys · 3 years

Note

which do you think are taylor’s strongest songs lyrically?

This is the original post; the full post with all my answers is here!

Thank you for your patience, anon – I was waiting until i had a chance to fully nerd out, and now that tropefest is over, here's my chance! I'm gonna do at least one from each album. Note that these don't necessarily equate to my favorite songs from each album; they're just the ones I think are really lyrically fun.

Taylor Swift: Tim McGraw

This has always been one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for assonant rhyming (similar vowel sounds) instead of exact rhyming, and the first three lines deliver:

The verses follow an uneven AABCCBDD scheme, although verse 1 is a little less sophisticated – shined, night, lie make it more of an AAA, and she's using night twice. Compare the above to verse 2, which is more complex:

We have more assonant rhyming (tears, here / bed, read [depending on how you say 'read,' you could consider it a perfect rhyme] / that, back / bittersweet, believe).

But honestly, the reason why I'm going with this one is because I love the sucker punch of "I said, 'That's a lie.'" It just does something to me.

okay, before I get into Fearless, I just want to go on record and say that I love the song "Fearless," but I find its lyrics a little bit of a clunky tongue-twister. I still love it!! But I just had to get that out.

Fearless - Hey, Stephen

I think this song is so bubbly and fun 😅 We have a loose ABABCCAC form for the verses, with lots of imperfect and/or assonant rhyming. Check out verse 1 –

– and then verse 2 crams a ton of words into the fourth phrase. At first glance it looks like we're not following the rhyme scheme, but 'seen' is an assonant rhyme with 'feeling,' which I love.

And then in the chorus, I love the way the 'so' at the end of the second phrase not only serves to create a pseudo-feminine assonant rhyme (angel / rain, so) but also leads into the third phrase.

Plus "would they write a song for you?" is peak trolly Taylor. I love it.

Fearless - White Horse

This one's here because I love the classic final chorus turnaround of the story, where we go from "I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairytale" to "I'm not your princess, this ain't our fairytale" and the confidence of the rest of the changes.

versus

The power! The agency! Saying all this to the ex-lover while they're on their knees begging for forgiveness!

Fearless - Forever & Always

I really really love the imagery of "it rains in your bedroom; everything is wrong; it rains whenyou're here and it rains when you're gone." That's it. I just love it.

Speak Now is where I start having more emotional connections with the music, FYI.

Speak Now - Sparks Fly

Taylor, wtf are you doing?!

The chaos of rainstorm against running is so good. One might say it's reckless. (Okay, maybe not. Maybe yes?) Taylor loves her imperfect rhymes, and I love them for her and for me, too.

Verse 2, if you're wondering, is more neat and tidy – and something does rhyme with the running from Verse 1. Maybe that was her plan all along.

And then I lose my mind every time the chorus hits with its simple, quarter note-driven rhythm at first, and then as soon as we hit the first instance of "'cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile," suddenly we're barreling into these faster eighth notes and cramming all these feelings and excitement and adrenaline in. It's so good.

Okay, I forgot there's a 10 image limit to posts so I'm going to have to do this as a rebloggable series. 😅 Stay tuned...

#taylor swift #anon answers #music #music analysis #i'm a nerd

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audio-luddite · 8 months

Text

I have succumbed.

Today I should be getting an audiophile issue of Super Tramp's Breakfast in America. I hope it sounds good. Fingers crossed. It is coming from Nova Scotia.

I also have on order three albums from Acoustic Sounds. I have mentioned each one over the last few months.

One is Willie Nelson "Stardust." Fancy pressing fingers crossed. It is a classic of the Great American Songbook Genre and I think won him his first Grammy.

Also Lori Lieberman "Truly" which is supposed to be good enough to have earned praise from Mr Fremer. (A digital recording GASP) The back story here is she wrote the lyrics to the song "Killing me Softly" and got denied credit by the two men who "helped". She now has it and reclaims provenance. Roberta Flack heard her sing it and did her version and had a huge hit. So this album has that song and a few others in an intimate and nice recording that sound very good on Itunes. Lets hope the vinyl is that much better.

Finally yes "Jazz at the pawnshop". I could not resist once that damn shopping cart started to fill up. It was right there on the list teasing me.

This was not cheap, but it is the fuel for the sound system. Otherwise it just makes heat. I will of course report if I made a good decision or not. Care to guess what I decide?

Getting down to the foundation of this hobby it is not the hardware. A six figure system is just an extractor of information too, and may only be superior for bragging rights. It is the music and the care that was taken making and recording the music. You can have far from a high end system and still enjoy the music. A good turntable and cartridge does protect it and keep it in good shape. That and cleaning the disc before you play it. My 50 year old albums still sound fine.

Oh and you have to admit that some records you loved were not that great sounding, but you do not love them less. Back in College.....

Speaking of hardware there is yet another Audio Research amplifier listed in the Local Craigslist. It is a VT100 mk2 for just shy of 3 grand. It is probably worth it with $1700 worth of new Russian tubes in it. Actually it is a deal for that if the Capacitors are fresh. It is 2 db stronger than my Cl 60, and a half generation newer. Better...? Hey I am happy with what I got really. I am keeping eyes open in case my son-in-law decides to jump in this pond.

#audiophile #high end audio #audioblr #vinyl #cheap audiophile #audio research amplifier #tube amplifiers

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ladyonfire28 · 5 years

Text

My French music Masterpost

So since half of the population is in quarantine right now I thought I could make a list of some french/ french speaking artists and songs that I listen to and that you could also discover since we all have time to kill.

Obviously I cannot put every single artist and song I know and listen to so it’ll be a bit of mix of my favorite albums/ artists of the past few years but also what i’m listening at the moment !

Pop/ R&B

Angèle

She’s a 23 year old Belgian singer. Her first album was a HUGE hit last year and she got 5 news songs out in November too. She’s also been dating a woman for a few months.

I would recommend to listen to her whole album Brol , it’s quite a bop. Also there are two songs about wlw relationship called « Ta Reine » and « Tu me regardes ». That last song was a kind of coming out song btw, we were all freaking out when we listened to it the first time lmao.

Favorite songs: Les matins, Flemme, Flou, Nombreux, Ta reine, Tu me regardes, J’entends

Clara Luciani

She’s a 27 year old French artist. 2019 was truly her year. She’s has an incredible voice and I just love her energy. She’s an amazing songwriter too. Her first album is called Sainte Victoire.

Favorite songs: La grenade, Les fleurs, On ne meurt pas d’amour, Drôle d’époque, Nue, Dors, Ma Soeur, Bovary.

Christine and the Queens

I think a lot of you know her already. She’s also a queer and pansexual artist. I have to say I really LOVED her first album Chaleur Humaine, one of the best albums of the past decade, but I didn’t love as much her second album (Chris) or her new EP (La vita nuova). I mean they’re good, but her first album was really something else. And it’s also just my opinion !

Favorite songs : iT (it’s in English though), Saint Claude, Science Fiction, Half Ladies, Paradis Perdus, Chaleur Humaine, Nuit 17 à 52, Intranquilité, Amazoniaque, Jonathan, La marcheuse, L’étranger

Therapie TAXI

This is a pretty fun band, their first album has been quite popular. They’re pretty unique and sometimes their songs and lyrics are let’s say... bold lmao. I haven’t listen to all their songs though, there’s like 25 songs in their first album and 15 in their second aha. But they also have so many bops.

Favorite songs: Hit Sale, J’en ai marre, Salop(e), Avec ta zouz

Aya Nakamura

Aya is now a r&b/pop superstar here in France and even in other countries in Europe. She’s 25 and you can hear her songs in every night club and party here. Can’t say her lyrics are very elaborated but her songs are real bops and the best to dance to in your room lmao

Favorite songs: Djadja, La dot, Pompom, Copines, Pookie, Sucette, 40%, Comportement

Lous and the Yakuza

She’s a 23 year old belgian artist. She only has 3 songs out for now, but i’ve been pretty obsessed with them. Her lyrics are pretty great too (and she’s SO beautiful omg).

Favorite songs : Dilemme, Tout est gore, Solo

Yseult

Yseult is a 24 year old french singer/songwriter. She’s has a beautiful voice and the beats are also great. I haven’t listened to all her songs though, I only heard her new EP Noir which is great.

Favorite songs: Corps, Nos souvenirs, Noir, 5H

Indie/electro rock/folk :

Pomme

Pomme is very famous in the LGBTQ community in France, but i haven’t listened much to her songs (yet). She’s a 24 year old french and lesbian singer songwriter. Her songs talk about love, anxiety, and even death. She has a such beautiful voice too.

Favorite songs: On brûlera, A peu près, Anxiété, Je sais pas danser

The Dø

The Dø are a finnish/french duo and also one of my favorite band (they sing in english though). They made of of my favorite albums of the last decade, Shake Shook Shaken, which came out in 2014. Their first albums sounded more folk/indie rock, but their third album is much more electro. And the album is about the break up of the lead singer, Olivia Merilahti, and the musician, Dan Levy. One of my favorite song of all time is in their second album Both Ways Open Jaws and is called Too Insistent.

Favorite songs: On my shoulders, Too Insistent, Sparks, Despair Hangover & Ecstasy, Opposite Ways, Anita No!, Nature Will Remain.

Izia

Izia is a singer but also an actress, you may know her from La Belle Saison, Samba, or Un peuple et son roi. I listened a lot to her third album La vague, that was released in 2015. it’s much more electro that what she used to do before. Her two first albums were much more rock albums. She’s got a new album out but i haven’t listen to it yet.

Favorite songs: Hey, La vague, You, Les ennuis, Bridges, Tomber

Mansfield.YTA

The band is composed of 2 women, Julia Lanoë et Carla Pallone. Julia is in other bands/ projects such as Sexy Sushi and Kompromat. Unlike those two last bands that are very electro, Mansfield is something more nuanced. It sounds more like indie folk and mixes different style. You can hear electric instruments but also violin, harmonium, piano etc. And it’s pretty melodramatic. They sing in french and english.

Favorite songs: Et demain déja, Pour oublier je dors, Mon amoureuse, Gilbert De Clerc

Electro :

Stromae

You might have heard of that Belgian guy. His album Racine Carré (released in 2013) is too me the best of the decade and his song “Papaoutai” was a huge hit in Europe. He’s a pure genius. His lyrics are super deep and usually quite dark but he makes incredible beats that are very electro. If his second album is definitely his most popular album, his first one Cheese, was also so so great and his first single “Alors on Danse” was a huge hit (Kanye West did a remix of it). He also directed Billie Eilish’s “Hostage” music video. That dude is just incredible. But after his huge success his did a burn out and his mental health got very bad. He stopped making music since then.

Favorite songs: Peace or Violence, Alors on danse, Dodo, Je Cours, House’llelujah, papaoutai, bâtard, ave cesaria, tous les mêmes, formidable humain à l’eau, sommeil

Rap :

I have to say i’ve been listening to a lot of french rap this past couple of years so i won’t list all the rappers i listen to, especially since i’m pretty sure most of you aren’t interested in rap. But I still have to list some of them that have been very popular recently. France has a huge and very diverse rap culture.

Fauve

Actually that collective is actually not a rap band at all. They do more like spoken word songs but didn’t where also to put them lol. The band broke up 5 years but I still listen to them a lot today. It’s one of my fav band too. Their lyrics are really well written and beautiful. It usually talks about the “youth malaise” and their frustrations, heartbreaks and anger etc. They made 1 EP et 2 LP.

Favorite songs: Blizzard, Cock Music Smart Music, Nuits Fauves, Haut les Coeurs, Rub a Dub, Voyous, Infirmière, Vieux frères, Lettre à Zoé, Paraffine, Tallulah, T.R.W, Les Hautes Lumières

Meryl

Meryl is a 24 year old french martinican rapper. Before making her own music she used to write and compose melodies for other famous french rappers. She’s very influenced by her roots and and she also sings some of her songs in creole. I love how different and diverse her music is.

Favorite songs: Coucou, AH LALA, Béni, Désolé, La brume

Aloïse Sauvage

Aloïse is a multi talented french singer/ actress/ dancer. She released her first EP in 2019 called Jimy and her very first album Dévorantes was released in February 2020. She’s definitely a queer artist (99% sure she’s lesbian but she’s never confirmed it so anyway + her little sister is 100% a lesbian aha) and she talks about lgbtq issues in some of her songs, but also about her own issues and all. Her lyrics are beautifully written. And she’s also a ray of sunshine so there’s nothing to dislike about her haha.

Favorite songs: Dévorantes, Si on s’aime, A l’horizontale, Et cette tristesse, Jimy, Présentement, L’orage

Roméo Elvis

Roméo isn’t french but belgian. He’s the big brother of Angèle. I actually knew about her because of him. He’s less known than her now obviously but he’s still quite popular. His rap is pretty soft and chill. I preferred his collaborations with Le Motel (who was his producer) more than his “solo” album but he still got some good songs on his last album.

Favorite songs: Morale, Nappeux, Drôle de question, Bébé aime la drogue, J’ai vu (feat. Angèle), Lenita, Chocolat, Normal, Dis-moi

Lomepal

Lomepal is a french rapper. He’s known for writing songs that are pretty elaborated with chill and melodic beats. I also call is rap “soft”. He usually talks about his loneliness and insecurities

Favorite songs: 70, Yeux disent, Club, Trop beaux, 1000°C, X-Men, Plus de larmes

PNL

PNL is the most popular cloud rap band of the past few of years. They’re two brothers NOS and Ademo and they’re famous for using vocoder when they rap. Like a lot of vocoder lol. But they’re also very known for working with some of the best beat makers in the industry. If the way they rap is sometimes pretty hard, their beats are very chill and cool. In their songs they talk a lot of their life as dealers in the french banlieue, their struggles, how tough their lives were but also how their lives today isn’t set and how they’re not necessarily happier today. Their third album “Dans la légende” was a huuuuge hit in France, and their latest album “Deux frères” just as much if not more.

Favorite songs: Recherche du bonheur, DA, Dans la légende, Luz de Luna, Humain, Bené, Jusqu’au dernier gramme, Blanka, A l’ammoniaque, Shenmue, Menace, Déconnecté, La misère est si belle

Other songs that I listen to at the moment :

“Le temps est bon” - Bon Entendeur (electro)

“De mon âme à ton âme” - Kompromat (electro)

“Reste” - Maitre Gims feat Sting (pop)

“Les méchants” - Heuss l’enfoiré (rap)

“C’est plus l’heure” - Franglish feat Dadju, Vegeta (r&b)

“De l’autre côté”- Ninho feat Nekfeu (rap)

“Blanche” - Maes (rap)

“La complainte du soleil” - Laura Cahen (from I Lost My Body OST)

Some french speaking “classic” songs that I listen to and that you probably don’t know (from the 50′s to 00′s) :

“Une valse à mille temps” - Jacques Brel

“La foule” - Edith Piaf

“Chanson pour l’auvergnat” - Georges Brassens

“Je t’aimais, je t’aime et je t’aimerai” - Francis Cabrel

“Ma préférence” - Julien Clerc

“La nuit je mens” - Alain Bashung

“Foule sentimentale” - Alain Souchon

“Mistral gagnant” - Renaud

“Sensualité” - Axelle Red

“Manhattan Kaboul” - Renaud feat. Axelle Red

“Onde sensuelle” - M

“Et dans 150 ans” - Raphaël

“A la faveur de l’automne” - Tété

“L’aventurier” - Indochine

French LGBTQ+ artists

This past few years a few lgbtq artists have blown up here and like 4 lesbian artists have been nominated for best new artist this year at the french grammy award called Victoire de la musique (and one of them one the award, Pomme). Unfortunately i’m not very good at discovering new artists so i’m quite late and i haven’t been able to listen to a lot of them. But if you want to discover them yourself here are few lgbtq artists:

Already mentioned: Angèle, Pomme, Julia Lanoë/ Rebekka Warrior (Sexy Sushi, Kompromat, Mansfield.YTA), Christine and the Queens, Aloïse Sauvage

More : Hoshi, Suzane, Eddy de Pretto, Safia Nolin (she’s from Quebec)

#this is a big ass post i'm so sorry omg #but you should have enough artists to discover for the next 45 days lmao #be aware : some songs on here are very bad lmao #but i love listening to bad music sometimes #aimee listens to music #up the baguette #french music #music #music masterpost

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