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charlesandmartine · 1 month ago

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Wednesday 23th October 2024

It sometimes takes us by surprise when something small can bring so much pleasure. One such example might be found with the pedestrian crossing set-up here on crossroads; and there are a lot of those due to the grid system. When the little green man light shows, and he is on a four road junction, it is permitted to cross DIAGONALLY! It's great, you can do that all day long I'd you want.

A trip into Coles (round the corner down Peel) this morning, you realise that the Aboriginal population is out in force. They are sensible enough to avoid the midday and afternoon sun.

Today we took a taxi to the airport to collect our rental car that will take us 2500kms across the outback to Townsville. Our first stop is in Kakadu National Park for seven nights, but our accommodation is, well, basically a tent with glass doors, king size bed so not really roughing it, but doesn't have cooking facilities. So we are stocking up with loads of water, wine and anything edible that does not require cooking or chilling. That rules out Tim Tams for obvious reasons in this heat. Thankfully, the next stop has all the kit and caboodle so we will be able to cook again. We booked the car on-line at home through a company called holidaycars.com. Now I know that sounds dodgy but they use Europcar to actually provide said vehicle. In our defence for such a rush of madness was that few rentals would be happy to take their expensive vehicle thousands of kilometres and dump it there far from home. They did, but what surprised me most was when we showed up at the Europcar stand at Darwin airport, they actually gave us a car. I say car but this is an enormous lump of tin. It's a Ford Ranger pickup. Huge it is but still petite compared with some of the 4x4 outback offroaders with cow bars on the front. Transaction complete, the little desk clerk suggested that we might seriously want to carry some weapon with us, you know, he said, just in case. Not necessarily a gun, perhaps a bat or a large spanner? I mean what is out there? Are we talking animal or human here I asked. He pursed his lips.

We shall be sad to leave Darwin. It's a great town. Small town, big community. We watched a man in high vis pressure washing 10 meters of pavement this morning. It took him 1.5 hrs. Pretty good, just a mile and a half left to do. It's almost like they find things for people to do! After sorting this admin, we went for a Guinness in Shenannigans. Irish pubs are all over the world! As the barmaid poured it I enquired if it were genuine Liffy water. A rather blank look came upon her as she said she could find out.

Our first visit here was on the cruise ship in 2016. I remember so well stepping ashore onto Australian soil for the very first time and feeling the thrill of achieving something that I'd wanted for so long. When we were back on board, I clearly remember the band playing by the ship's swimming pool and the lyrics:

I've been to cities that never close down

From New York to Rio and old London town

But no matter how far or how wide I roam

I still call Australia home.

Australians are so much more patriotic and home loving than any other nation on earth. This song was sung at the closing ceremony of the 1994 Sydney Olympics I believe. Right up there with Waltzing Matilda.

ps. I wanted to secure a Tee shirt with The Top End emblazoned across it. So I popped into an establishment in The Mall, and when asked if they had such a garment she kind of looked down her nose and said no, try the tourist shop across the road. Clearly I'm not in the snappy dresser category.

pps There is a sogn in tue kitchen that says 'When cooking always operate the extractor fan since there's a $1400 charge on calling the fire brigade out'! Wow, does it extract flames?

ppps Tomorrow we set off deeper into the Northern Territories to Kakadu National Park and the Ourback where Crocodile Dundee was filmed. We are not entirely sure what the WiFi or mobile reception will be, so further posts could be affected.

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thedupshadove · 4 years ago

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You know how we constantly loose our minds over the juxtaposition between the Mechanisms' deep, poetic lyrics and their silly lyrics? Ouatis is special because they spend the entire album straddling the line.

#the mechanisms #once upon a time (in space)#Look at the lyrics of 'Old King Cole' shall we?#on the one hand it's the glorious and chilling tale of a terrifying conquerer #on the other hand it's objectively ridiculous #'The dark appliance of infernal science' hsdfkgl a #and I think a big reason why the whole album has that underlying silliness?#Arthurian legend and greek and norse mythology are all things we're used to taking seriously #whereas doing this story with fairy tale characters gives it the air of a child making up an absurd story with their dolls

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keytextsfromkh · 6 years ago

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Dream Drop Distance: Hunchback

- Did Frollo just call Sora a weeb?

- I'm going to make this young, supple boy squeal...did I say that out loud?

- "I mean look at him, he looks 14 but sounds 30, clearly witchcraft is afoot".

- I think Frollo is how a number of Americans view the police and authority figures in general.

- I guess the Dream Eaters are celebrating that they're having one hell of a feast tonight.

- (Quasimodo really deserves the title of King of Fools) Well, no one will debate you on that.

- There's a look that says "I want to torture the ever loving shit out of her but not before she chains me up and gives me another one of those scarf dances".

- "We won't use a door, we'll use some of that gypsy black magic the Master is always going on about".

- "He's insane, the isolation has gotten to him and now he thinks he can talk to stone statues...really makes you question /your/ mental state now doesn't it?"

- So is this Isolation George? Is there actually a George Costanza in every world?

- You have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. if Sora is allowed to infiltrate this world, then Haley Joel Osment as you know him CEASES to exist. You see, right now, we have Haley!Zephyr, but there is also Haley!Sora. That's the Haley you know, the Haley you grew up with, Haley!Cole, Haley!David, Haley!Teddy, Haley!Mowgli". If Haley!Zephyr walks through this world, he will KILL Haley!Sora. A Haley divided against itself CANNOT stand!"

- "He can't let his heart be a prison", dude, you're the last person who should ever be giving out advice on the heart.

- You know, when it's not being said in song, what Frollo says is kind of messed up.

- "..Good, now put on the school boy uniform and let me spank you until your name is Mozart.

- Hey! They're only barbarous if they're non-consensual.

- No, no, no, it's not a map, it's just a code in Arabic or maybe ancient Greek.

- I guess the slender, young body of a teen boy is no match for the raw power of an old-school Catholic.

- What a gyp, where's the awesome Latin choir music.

- I don't know, Arno could have scaled that place quicker.

- What? No Frollo fight? No Hellfire? What a fucking waste.

- After 20 years of being in the presence of a religious whack-a-doo, Quasimodo felt qualified to officiate Esmerelda and Phoebus' wedding. Sora felt a strange twinge inside as all sorts of paradoxes were on the cusp of taking place.

- You're not going to like it, I mean we are still talking about pre-renaissance Paris.

- See, Xehanort: The Wonder Years knows what's up.

- Vanitas?! This is not good. WORLDS ARE COLLIDING!

- Yes Riku, there was a point where you dressed up in leather and wore a skirt.

- Well yeah, I mean that hump would be pretty noticeable and people are kind of assholes that way.

- I like Riku, he tends to have the right attitude.

- Really? Because it looks like it's just heading for the city in general.

- Seriously, considering what's happened with a certain individual names Jones, it's a little easy to see Frollo in the modern day controlling things like Twitter, Patreon or Youtube. He will "take care" of the hate-filled vermin, one . by . one.

- (Quasimodo’s heart really doesn’t care) No, it just kept producing things like "Ask again later".

- I will start flame wars all over this world, I will argue over the pettiest of topics and everyone who disagrees with me is just ignorant and a hater and I shall purge them.

- Again we're screwed out of a Frollo fight, it's almost like the game is trolling us, just when we think we're going to start the fight, another stupid Dream Eater boss just interrupts.

- Because at this point, I'm contractually obligated to make an appearance in each of these games.

- I think thematically, Riku fighting Frollo would have been on-point. Listen to the lyrics of Hellfire and see it from the perspective of Riku dealing with his Darkness. Replace Esmeralda (and all reference to her) with either Ansem and Xehanort. This becomes more apparant during the "Mea Culpa" part of the song where you could pretty much have it be Riku wracked with guilt over the shit he's done and no matter how much he's done to fix the damage, in his eyes, it will always be his greatest fault. The entire battle could have been Riku's confession. Considering Nomura's fetish for Catholic imagery, this is probably one of his biggest missed opportunities (His mea maxima culpa if you will).

- I will say that that's one of the cooler ways to do these boss fights, Riku fights it on top of the cathedral and then it loses its wings and falls to the ground, where it is then fought by Sora.

- I guess Sora did jack-shit when it came to helping you.

- (Regarding the Organization becoming human again) "Now we can walk in direct sunlight, listen to happier music and people won't keep writing us as emo punks".

#Kingdom Hearts #Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance #Mock Liveblog

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chpkns · 6 years ago

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BEST ALBUMS 2018

Ok here we go again for 2018, shall we?

Hon. Mentions: Negro Swan - Blood Orange; Singularity - Jon Hopkins; Elsewhere - Ryan Hemsworth; Scorpion - Drake; Diplomatic Ties - The Diplomats; Some Rap Songs - Earl Sweatshirt; FM! - Vince Staples; Rally Cry - Arkells; I’m All Ears - Let’s Eat Grandma; Be The Cowboy - Mitski; Kamikaze - Eminem; Ye - Kanye West; KIDS SEE GHOSTS - Kanye West and Kid Cudi; Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino - Arctic Monkeys; Black Panther: The Album - Kendrick Lamar, et al; KOD - J. Cole; Culture II - Migos; Hive Mind - The Internet; God’s Favorite Customer - Father John Misty; Blood - Rhye; Both Ways - Donovan Woods; Songs of the Plains - Colter Wall

10) Swimming - Mac Miller

This one was tough. Malcolm James McCormick’s fifth studio album was barely out three months before he left us. It’s hard to evaluate Swimming in isolation of Miller’s untimely death at age 26. Especially since, in my mind, the album represents something of a turning point for the former frat rapper. Recorded in the wake of Miller’s high profile breakup with Ariana Grande and in the midst of public struggles with addiction, Swimming is full of heartache and soul bearing self-reflection. Sonically, Mac’s airy raps and crooning vocals float over jazzy beats and orchestral accompaniments, with help from Thundercat and Dev Hynes. There’s room for fun as well amid the melancholy - the more upbeat Ladders and What’s the Use? are sure enough to keep a dance floor moving. The worst thing about Swimming is really how good it is, and how it felt like Mac Miller was on the cusp on something great we’ll now never see.

Highlights: Self Care, What’s The Use?, 2009, Ladders

9) QUARTERTHING - Joey Purp

Chance the Rapper’s Savemoney compatriot Joey Purp is like a breath of fresh air. QUARTERTHING’s 14 tracks, most clocking in at under 3 minutes, come fast and furious like Purp’s (mostly) un-autotuned flow. Joey’s full throated, almost Meek-Mill-esque, delivery gives the album a mixtape-like authenticity - notwithstanding the varied and expert production from the likes of RZA, Knox Fortune and frequent Chance collaborator Nate Fox. The opening 24k Gold/Sanctified, and Hallelujah just two tracks later, feel downright celebratory pairing Purp’s flow behind a blaring big band sound. Others, like Look At My Wrist and Paint Thinner, are Chicago Drill and house inspired, feeling like they’d be right at home in a sweaty club basement. Lyrically, Purp is a classic hip-hop storyteller and street documentarian, drawing from experiences in a former life selling drugs and the violence of his home city. This impressive studio album debut is more than enough to solidify Joey Purp’s place among an exciting new generation of Chicago rappers.

Highlights: 24k Gold/Sanctified (ft. Ravyn Lenae & Jack Red), Godbody (ft. RZA) [Pt. 2], Hallelujah, Look At My Wrist (ft. Cdot Honcho), Karl Malone

8) Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves is clearly in the pantheon of artists that can’t release an album without it making this list (I rated Pageant Material #8 in 2015 and Same Trailer, Different Park #9 in 2013... both criminally underrated in retrospect). Musgraves continued to be a revelation with her third album. There was a great Ezra Koenig quote last year, where he talked about seeing Musgraves’ concert and being inspired by the clarity of her music: “from the first verse, you knew who was singing, who they were singing to, what kind of situation they were in”. On Golden Hour, she maintains that clarity, stretching a little more outside the traditional country sound into pop and disco-inspired melodies. I do miss the dry humour and rebellious spirit of the previous two Musgraves outings, I’ll admit. You won’t find any overt weed references here, but Kacey finds plenty of ways to remind us how few fucks she gives about the Nashville country establishment. Golden Hour also shows off some of Musgraves’ strongest songwriting to date - the sprawling Space Cowboy stands out as one of the best singles of the year in any genre. I’m probably in the minority in thinking Golden Hour is not my favourite Kacey Musgraves album, but it’s still one of my favourite albums of 2018.

Highlights: Slow Burn, Space Cowboy, High Horse, Love is a Wild Thing

7) Lush - Snail Mail

It’s about to become clear that there is a “women in indie rock” movement happening on this year’s list. The debut album from 18 year old singer-songwriter Lindsey Jordan is one of the most aptly titled records of 2018. Lush’s indie rock soundscapes are just that. Loud, full and richly textured. Jordan’s crystal clear vocals soar and float above her ringing guitar chords and riffs. The songwriting is perhaps what you’d expect from an 18 year old, full of heartbreak, confusion and teen angst. She does it well though. As the first chorus builds on Heat Wave, Jordan’s voice builds: “And I hope whoever it is Holds their breath around you, 'Cause I know I did”. The album’s standout track for me is Full Control which crescendos to a refrain of: “I'm in full control, I'm not lost, Even when it's love, Even when it's not.” At the same time, Lush exudes a maturity and a nostalgia that hearkens back to Snail Mail’s spiritual predecessors like Cat Power or Fiona Apple. Snail Mail was one of many reasons that 2018 gave me hope that there’s a future for indie rock and “guitar music” generally. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what’s next.

Highlights: Pristine, Full Control, Deep Sea, Heat Wave

6) boygenius EP - boygenius

The only thing that ever held me back from including boygenius on this list was my long held view that “an EP is not an album”. Well, since Kanye decided that 7 songs can be an “album” why not 6? Any album that has 6 songs as good as the 6 on boygenius EP would make this list! boygenius is the indie “supergroup” made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and the holder of last year’s #3 album on this list, Julien Baker - all accomplished solo acts in their own right. Predictably, the whole is something greater than the sum of its parts. boygenius EP’s six songs are a tour de force amalgam of indie, country and folk (owing to the band’s cross-genre Nashville and Viriginia roots) full of raw emotion and grit. Dacus, Bridgers and Baker seem made to perform, and sing, together. The harmonies on this record make boygenius sound like an indie rock iteration of Destiny’s Child or an edgier, less twangy version of the Dixie Chicks. The songs do not hold back, with high highs and low lows. On Me & My Dog, the soaring chorus evokes an escapist dream: “I wish I was on a spaceship, Just me and my dog and an impossible view”. The emotional highpoint of the record might be Baker and Bridgers’ chorus on Salt in the Wound apexing with: “I’m gnashing my teeth, Like a child of Cain, If this is a prison I’m willing to buy my own chain”. I can’t stop watching live videos of these three - they seem so at home onstage together. As excited as I’d be to see boygenius become more than a side project, I’m equally excited to see what’s next for Bridgers, Dacus and Baker on their own.

Highlights: Me & My Dog, Stay Down, Salt In the Wound, Ketchum ID

5) DAYTONA - Pusha T

YUGH! Amid Kanye’s unhinged tweets, messy, disorganized projects, and Oval Office visits, DAYTONA, the 7 track album he entirely produced for G.O.O.D. Music veteran Pusha T, was one thing that gave us hope that Kanye hadn’t completely lost his touch (or his mind) in 2018. DAYTONA showcases both producer Kanye and King Push at the absolute peak of their talents. It’s amazing, in this era of Xanax-fuelled mumblerap, to think how long we’ve been listening to Kanye and Push do their thing. Lord Willin’ introduced the world to Pusha T in 2002 (alongside his brother Malice, as he then was, as the iconic rap duo Clipse). The College Dropout came out two years later. I still remember buying the CDs and wearing out my discman with both of them. It’s easy to forget that Kanye and Terrence “King Push” Thornton are both 41 years old! There’s something refreshing about two guys in their forties still being able to make a banging rap record about selling drugs and buying expensive shit. Push said DAYTONA was made “for my family...high taste level, luxury, drug raps fans.” Those fans are well served by DAYTONA. After the beat comes in on album opener If You Know You Know, Push sounds like he’s speaking directly to his day one fans, raising a styrofoam cup to: “This thing of ours, oh, this thing of ours”. The album exudes the bravado of an MC on top of his game confident in the knowledge that he’s spitting bars on a classic. And we can’t forget the incendiary Infrared, the song that touched off a vicious beef between Pusha T and rap’s biggest star, Drake, ending after Push revealed in a diss track that Drake was hiding his son from the world. Almost 20 years on, Pusha T is still ready to go war, still “clickin’ like Golden State” and still wearing the crown as King Push. Long may he reign.

Highlights: If You Know You Know, The Games We Play, Hard Piano (ft. Rick Ross), Infrared

4) Honey - Robyn

I found myself slightly disappointed in Honey at first, largely because my expectations for Robyn’s first album in eight years were based on the high energy electro-pop brilliance of 2010′s Body Talk. What I should have realized is that, if Robyn were going to make another Body Talk, she wouldn’t have kept us waiting this long. Honey is not Body Talk - you won’t find another Call Your Girlfriend or Dancing on My Own among its nine silky smooth tracks. But it is no less brilliant. If I can forget that Beach2k20 exists for a second, it feels pretty darn close to a perfect album. Honey betrays a lighter touch for Robyn, perhaps more in tune with the sound of the moment. A little more euro house and disco tinged, Honey furthers the Swedish songstress’s long evolution away from the pop idol of her late 90′s past. Honey still embodies Robyn’s signature juxtaposition of electronic dance rhythms alongside themes of sadness, loneliness and heartbreak. And songs like Honey and Missing U can still light up any dancefloor. The highlight for me is the slow-building Send to Robin Immediately, which just swells over its Lil Louis sample as Robyn urges the listener into action: “If you got something to say, say it right away. If you got something to do, do what's right for you. If you got somebody to love, give that love today. Know you got nothing to lose, there's no time to waste”. In between albums, and while writing Honey, Robyn lived through the death of a longtime collaborator and a breakup and reunion with a romantic partner. The emotional toll of these experiences seem to shine through. Robyn told the BBC’s Annie Mac earlier this year: “When I wrote this album I think I was quite tired of myself writing sad love songs, but I did anyway and looking back on that now, I think it's OK for things to be sad. Combining it with something that's bright and strong and powerful is a way of finding your way out of the sadness.”

Highlights: Missing U, Human Being (ft. Zhala), Send to Robin Immediately, Honey

3) Clean - Soccer Mommy

Clean, the impressive debut album from 20 year old Nashville singer-songwriter Sophie Allison, was the first album I heard this year that I 100% knew would be on this list. By the time Your Dog hits at the third track, I was completely enthralled. That song is so goddamn rock and roll with Allison sparing no mercy for the subject shitty boyfriend of the opening verse: “I don't wanna be your fucking dog, That you drag around, A collar on my neck tied to a pole, Leave me in the freezing cold”. Elsewhere, on Still Clean, Allison plays with gruesome animalistic imagery singing of an ex-lover picking her “out your bloody teeth”. There is a warmer side to Clean as well. Scorpio Rising, with it’s “bubbly and sweet like Coca-Cola” softness and lyrics about meeting up after dark and missed calls from your mother definitely remind you that Allison is a self-professed devotee of Taylor Swift’s early work (which should give you another idea of why I love this album). Speaking of T-Swift, the rollicking Last Girl almost mirrors You Belong With Me in describing the crushing insecurity of comparing oneself to a new partner’s ex, somehow pulling off lyrics like “I want to be like your last girl, She's the sun in your cold world and, I am just a dying flower, I don't hold the summer in my eyes” as if that were a totally normal thing to say. Beneath the upbeat riff of Cool, where Allison idolizes the cool girl “with a heart of coal, She’ll break you down and eat you whole” is the understanding that being that person won’t bring her the happiness she seeks. Acceptance of one’s emotions and insecurities is the core theme of Clean - that “You gon’ be like that” (as Allison put it to the Fader) and you’ll be happier once you accept you for you. In many ways, Clean evokes a similar vibe to the Snail Mail and boygenius entries further up this year’s list, as a scrappy “girl with a guitar” indie record and a tongue-in-cheek stage name. That sense of charming honesty is what, I think, makes Clean stand above the other entries on this list.

Highlights: Cool, Your Dog, Last Girl, Scorpio Rising

2) Lamp Lit Prose - Dirty Projectors

The first of our top two is another repeat offender on this list (a previous incarnation of the Projectors’ Swing Lo Magellan had #7 back in 2012 and last year’s eponymous Dirty Projectors was my 2017 #8). I loved every minute of Lamp Lit Prose - it’s almost a 1B for me on this list and was pencilled in at 1 for a time in the drafting process. This album has everything that was good about last year’s DPs record but is, ultimately, tighter, more fun, less weird and less sad. Dave Longstreth appears to have moved on (at least musically) from the emotions he was working through on Dirty Projectors, which was essentially an extended meditation on the breakup of his relationship with Amber Coffman and the band’s upheaval. With Lamp Lit Prose, his “new look” Dirty Projectors (with help from friends like Syd, Rostam and HAIM) have put together something a little more traditional (by Dirty Projectors standards) and a lot more listenable. Longstreth told Exclaim that this album, compared its morose predecessor, “is really about feeling hope again, finding the things that give us hope, that make us feel optimistic and joyful.” Lamp Lit Prose falls somewhere between the twangly, jam band atmosphere of the Projector’s Swing Lo Magellan and Bitte Orca heyday and the more experimental, electronic-infused vibe of the Dirty Projectors released 18 months prior. Longstreth’s guitar riffs are again front and centre, but the voice modulation and distorted electronic sounds are still there, albeit in a more subtle way. Four part harmonies bounce over the jazzy melodies and hopeful lyrics. Where he was mourning a lost love on the last record, here we see Longstreth “in love for the first time ever” on I Found It In U (a salvaged beat from his work on Solange’s last album). On Break Thru, the un-named romantic subject is held up as “an epiphany” with comparisons in quick succession to Archimedes, Fellini and Julian Casablancas. The horn-backed chorus on What Is The Time is the high point of the record for me - the kind of song that makes you want to raise your voice and join in on the hook. All in all, it’s just great to hear this band making fun music again. Lamp Lit Prose is upbeat, creative and simply a joy to listen to. I absolutely loved this album... but just not quite enough to edge out our number 1.

Highlights: Break-Thru, That’s a Lifestyle, I Found It In U, What Is The Time

1) ASTROWORLD - Travis Scott

IT’S LIT!!! I would have never predicted that a Travis Scott album would land here at number 1, but here we are. And I feel good about it. ASTROWORLD dominated my listening from its mid-summer release onward and, with each spin, I became increasingly convinced of its greatness. Travis is an artist that I’ve long found perplexing. Insanely popular among his legions of young fans, he embodies so much of the “new rap” ethos, the first genre of music where I’ve started to feel like I might be ‘too old’ to enjoy it. It was clear on his prior outings, Rodeo and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, that the talent and creativity was there, but the overall product always seemed messy, disorganized, unpolished. With ASTROWORLD, Scott finally has made his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The album is named for a former Six Flags theme park in Scott’s hometown of Houston that was torn down a decade ago and still sits vacant. Previewing the title of the album, Scott told GQ last year: "They tore down AstroWorld to build more apartment space. That's what it's going to sound like, like taking an amusement park away from kids. We want it back. We want the building back. That's why I'm doing it. It took the fun out of the city." True to his word, the album’s 17 tracks are tied together by an overarching creepy, grimy sound. Listening to ASTROWORLD feels like walking through an abandoned theme park. Even more impressive is how Travis, as curator of the album’s varied guest list, bends the star studded guest appearances to his will, fitting them in perfectly to his dank sonic menagerie. The likes of Frank Ocean, the Weeknd, Swae Lee, Tame Impala and James Blake don’t overpower Scott’s vision but blend into the scenery, their talents employed perfectly by Travis in the role of ringmaster. Newcomers get some shine too, like Scott’s Cactus Jack labelmate Sheck Wes who gets a guest verse on NO BYSTANDERS and a shoutout to his ubiquitous single from Travis on 5% TINT: “We did some things out on the ways that we can't speak, All I know it was "Mo Bamba" on repeat”. And then, there’s SICKO MODE. Why is it that the best Drake song each year invariably comes from someone else’s album, even in a year where Drizzy himself releases a double album? The ASTROWORLD track list, at least initially, left out the featured artists, so hearing Drake’s voice over the opening notes of the album’s third track was the first time most listeners had any indication that the 6ixgod himself would be making an appearance. What a wonderful surprise it turns out to be. SICKO MODE, the album’s best track, feels like three or four different songs as the beat changes form and Travis and Drake pass the mic back and forth. The song’s Tay Keith produced final act (the “out like a light” part) is for my money the best two minutes of hip hop music made in 2018. ASTROWORLD succeeds on its grandeur, vision and consistency. Travis Scott set out to build something big and from the moment the bass kicks in on STARGAZING through to the mellow, string backed denouement of COFFEE BEAN, he succeeds at every turn. ASTROWORLD was 2018′s biggest, most creative, most sonically consistent and most fun album in hip-hop. In my estimation, it’s the best album of the year.

Highlights: STARGAZING, CAROUSEL (ft. Frank Ocean), SICKO MODE (ft. Drake, Swae Lee and Big Hawk), WAKE UP (ft. The Weeknd), CAN’T SAY (ft. Don Toliver)

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading and see ya in 2019.

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trendingnewsb · 8 years ago

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This is what protest sounds like

(CNN)Black Lives Matter activist Zellie Imani remembers the moment civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson came to Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of Michael Brown’s 2014 death.

Crowds had gathered to protest the fatal shooting of unarmed, 18-year-old Brown by a white police officer, and Imani remembers Jackson joining the demonstrators as they marched toward a church.

But Jackson, it seems, had missed a crucial memo.

“I think he tried to have us sing ‘We Shall Overcome,'” Imani recalls in the CNN original series “Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History,” referring to the popular hymn that has been sung as a protest anthem around the world. The song has its roots in an African-American spiritual from the early 1900s, and became a call for resistance and freedom during the African-American struggle for civil rights.

“(But) the song doesn’t tell us when we shall overcome,” Imani continues. “It is saying that we will overcome someday — and what we in the streets wanted, we wanted justice now.”

Wanting justice now doesn’t mean the newest generation of protesters failed to see the value in having some sort of battle cry; a song that could unify their movement, express their yearnings and provide a balm all at the same time.

At this protest, Imani says, “people started to chant Kendrick Lamar’s ‘(We Gon’ Be) Alright.'”

This shift from church-ready protest anthems to something less gentle and more explicit has rubbed at least one civil rights activist the wrong way.

But it also shows that the long-held American tradition of protest music didn’t fade away with the social revolutions of the 1960s and ’70s. Artists using songs as resistance, or protesters adopting their work as de facto anthems, never went away — with each generation, and with each protest, there’s been a new voice.

Scroll through the guide below to hear the evolution of American protest anthems:

The year: 1930s – 1950s

The protest: Lynchings of African-Americans

The anthem: “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 4,000 African-Americans were lynched across 12 Southern states between 1877 and 1950. An image of one of these public lynchings so haunted Abel Meeropol, a Jewish teacher living in the Bronx, that he wrote the protest poem that eventually became Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”

Using the popular jazz of the era, Holiday bore witness to the atrocities happening in the American South and turned protesting into art.

The year: 1940

The protest: Economic opportunity

The anthem: “This Land is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie

Today a favorite in kindergarten classrooms, “This Land is Your Land” started out as an annoyed response to the blinding optimism of late ’30s hit “God Bless America.”

American folk legend Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land” in 1940 as an alternative, standing in opposition of “Depression-enhanced economic disparity” and the “greed he witnessed in so many pockets of the country,” says American Songwriter.

The year: 1962

The protest: Civil rights

The anthem: “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round”

There’s no way to separate the US civil rights movement from its music. The song was so integral to its existence and purpose that in 1962 it spawned the Freedom Singers, a quartet that sang songs steeped in African-American gospel traditions.

“We sang everywhere. We sang at house parties, at Carnegie Hall — to take the message of this movement to the North,” Freedom Singer Charles Neblett recalls in CNN’s “Soundtracks.” “Mass meetings, picket lines, in jails — music was the glue that held everything together.”

Songs like “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round” may sound like another performance of a traditional spiritual, but listen closely and you’ll hear lyrics that spoke to the time: “Ain’t gonna let no jailhouse turn me round. Keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’, marching up to freedom land.”

The year: 1963

The protest: The March on Washington

The anthem: “If I Had a Hammer,” Peter, Paul and Mary

Originally written by socially conscious folk icon Pete Seeger, it’s the Peter, Paul and Mary recording of “If I Had a Hammer” that took off in the early ’60s.

It was popular folk music, but it also keenly reflected the times as an anthem of resistance and fighting for justice: Peter, Paul and Mary sang “Hammer” at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington to “express in song what (the) great meeting is all about.”

The year: 1968

The protest: Black Power movement

The anthem: “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud),” James Brown

The assassination of MLK in 1968 not only altered the African-American fight for equal rights — it altered the music about the struggle, as well.

Before MLK’s death, “you had the hymns of unity and change,” music and culture journalist Richard Goldstein explains. But with the rise of the Black Power Movement in the aftermath of King’s death, “the hymns fade and are replaced by much more militant sentiments in the music.”

The year: 1970s

The protest: Women’s rights

The anthem: “I Am Woman,” Helen Reddy

Australian artist Helen Reddy didn’t set out to become the voice of the women’s liberation movement, but that’s what she became with this 1972 women’s empowerment single.

“I was looking for songs that reflected the positive sense of self that I felt I’d gained from the women’s movement,” she told Billboard magazine, “[but] I couldn’t find any. I realized that the song I was looking for didn’t exist, and I was going to have to write it myself.” The song went all the way to No. 1, making Reddy the first Australian solo artist to accomplish that feat in the US.

The year: 1970

The protest: Anti-Vietnam War

The anthem: “Ohio,” Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Between the civil rights movement and outrage over the Vietnam War, there were more than enough social issues happening in the ’60s and ’70s to create a new standard for protest music.

One of the songs that emerged was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s response to the police-led shootings during an anti-war protest at Kent State University in 1970.

The Guardian, which calls “Ohio” the “greatest protest record” ever, notes that the song was born out of the now iconic images of what happened at Kent State. “Neil Young was hanging out … when his bandmate, David Crosby, handed him the latest issue of Life magazine,” the Guardian recalled. “It contained a vivid account and shocking photographs of the killing of four students by the Ohio national guard during a demonstration against the Vietnam war. … Young took a guitar proffered by Crosby and, in short order, wrote a song about the killings.”

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